When I grow up – I want to be like 5 Grace Emmanuel Church 1011/2020 ______When you were a kid you were all encouraged to dream about what you would like to become when you grew up…

Let’s do an informal poll here. (Seems like a good time to do some polling) How many adults here … had thoughts of who you’d like to become… and your life calling has actually fulfilled you child-hood dream?

As we grow up we begin to take a clearer look at what our aptitudes really are… and we try to match those up with a much wider range of possible futures… and many people’s immature dreams fade away. ______So as a Christian… (regardless of your earthly occupation…. or you younger people’s future earthly occupation) ….

➢ As a Christian… your goal, your challenge – the ’s stated purpose for your life… is that, at the very core of your existence on this earth…at the core of whatever it is that you do with your few years on this planet… that you/me/we would all become more and more like our Savior Jesus … in our actions, in our reactions, in our attitudes, in our ambitions.

Romans 8:29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son… (What’s that mean?)

Galatians 2:20 My old (sinful) self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, (Jesus) who loved me and gave himself for me. ______What is “Christ living in me”… and then out through me…supposed to look like? If we are not careful, we can end up with a child’s story-book view of Jesus in our minds and have no real idea what “being like Jesus” is supposed to look when I show up at work tomorrow.

• How are you supposed to act when your coworker yells out God-blaspheming curses? How would Jesus have responded? • When one of your coworkers openly promotes a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy right up until the day of birth….what do you think Jesus would have said? • If your coworker openly promotes the complete re-writing of the Biblical teachings on marriage as being the union of one man and one woman… If Jesus were at your job – how do you think he would respond?

1 Many people…many Christians…if they went through the four just reading all of Jesus 31,426 words would be absolutely shocked that “the real Jesus of the Bible” didn’t ever back away in fear of people. Every word he spoke was carefully calculated to bring about the most eternal good, whether it meant exposing the prostitutes sin and forgiving it or getting in the face of the hypocritical .

Jesus words, to us today seem life giving, and uplifting, and calming (and they are) …but in the days he spoke them…they were like an offensive, screeching noise against society. We’ve studied a lot of that already:

➢ In Jesus day society abused and disposed of children (sacrificed them to idols, sold them for money) but Jesus elevated innocent children – He blessed them.

➢ In Jesus day, society devalued woman often in horrific ways, Jesus pronounced women as having very great value in God’s eyes.

➢ In Jesus’ day society mocked fidelity in marriage – Jesus reset monogamous marriage as a centerpiece of God’s divine plan. (He was a revolutionary!) ______So even the disciples who spent every day listening to him speak, watching him heal thousands, watching him raised dead people back to life…even they were struggling to define him in their minds:(That bring us back our original series text –Let’s dig!)

Matthew 16:13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 “Well,” they replied, “some say , some say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the other .” 15 Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being.

Most sermons, focus on Peter’s really good answer (Given to him by God Jesus says) …but that not where we have gone this series….and we aren’t going there, today. ______Did you notice, that Jesus asked that question, of everybody present, and only Peter answered. What was going through the rest of their minds?

➢ If , or Matthew the Tax Collector, or Judas the betrayer… had spoken up…what would they have said?

2 ➢ Why in the world… 2 ½ years into Jesus ministry, isn’t every ’s hand in the air saying – Ooo, pick me, pick me! I know you are the long awaited Messiah, I know you are the virgin born baby, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father that Isaiah prophesied!

When I was younger… I would, often, hear people say that the disciples struggled because Jesus hadn’t, really, acknowledged his deity… that’s just hopelessly not true!

➢ Let me just pop in here one instance…out of dozens:

John 10:22 It was now winter, and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah, the Festival of Dedication… 24 The people surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus replied, “I have already told you, and you don’t believe me. The proof is the work I do in my Father’s name. 26 But you don’t believe me because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish… 30 The Father and I are one.” 31 Once again the people picked up stones to kill him. 32 Jesus said, “At my Father’s direction I have done many good works. For which one are you going to stone me?” 33 They replied, “We’re stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy! You, a mere man, claim to be God!!”

Is that unclear! Is Jesus, just, slipping in vague little clues, to his identity… or is he dropping an huge elephant into the room?...Huh? … That’s just one incident out of many!

Jesus never hid who he was or why he was here, Pastor Mitchell is finishing a term paper right now on the amazing confrontation between Jesus and the disciples in John 8 where he is declaring his divinity and they are calling him a liar and blasphemer. Jesus finishes with those profound words: Before Abraham was…I am!!

When I was in seminary I had to write a paper on every time in the of John where Jesus declared his divinity. I literally came back here and put it into a study booklet and passed it out… It wasn’t a thin booklet. Every time Jesus turned around, in John’s’ Gospel he is reinforcing that he is God in human form, here to pay the sin debt of the world. ______So why…why 2 ½ years into their shared ministry with Jesus did they all have such a problem answering his easy question? And when Peter did answer, why did Jesus say God had (perhaps) just then shown Peter the answer. (Let me fill in some missing pieces)

Did you know Jesus wasn’t the first guy to come along claiming to be the Messiah? Just during Jesus’ lifetime… there were ______eighteen!

3 The even tells us about some of them.

Acts 5:34 But a Pharisee named …. 35 … addressed the Sanhedrin: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. 36 Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing.

➢ According to , the historian… This guy was referred to as: Theudas Christ… He claimed he could split the Jordan River and was going to bring down the walls of Jerusalem. ➢ The Romans killed him!...cut off his head…mounted it…killed his followers.

Acts 5:37 After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.

This one is even more important… because Judas the Galilean lived and died, in Galilee at the time when Jesus and almost all of the disciples were young boys, growing up there.

They almost certainly would have heard Judas’ speeches…and would have been close by when he died. More importantly, when the Romans killed Judas they rounded up 2000 of Judas closest followers and crucified them along the roads into Galilee…and left them there until they rotted… as a lesson to others who might decide to declare themselves a Messiah.

➢ Jesus, and most of the disciples, would have, almost certainly, stood, as young boys and gawked at of those dead bodies…

All eighteen of those who rose up claiming to be a Messiah… were put to death by the Romans… and their followers were rounded up and killed!!

So when Jesus started to declaring himself to be the Messiah…(and he did without question) if you were a close disciple of this Jesus…one part of you would be excited, one part of you would be terrified. See that?

4 ______If Jesus was the Messiah and succeeded in defeating Rome… they would become some of the most powerful people in the world…If he didn’t succeed, they would become very, very dead!

• When Jesus was put on a cross, and his disciples all deserted him and fled… they weren’t just being traitors to the cause, they knew they were next. • When Peter denied Christ… this fear was, probably, what was motivating him… not some perverse I-really-hate-Jesus – desire to deny his Lord.

➢ So Gamaliel, the Pharisee finishes in Acts 5: (and this is after JESUS death, resurrection, ascension, )

Acts 5:38 Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” ______This is the kind of stuff the disciples were trying to sort out in their minds back before Jesus shocking crucifixion. If they completely embraced Jesus as Messiah… they could be signing their own death sentence!

• Freedom fighters, against Rome were part of everyday life. Jesus’ disciple, Simon the Zealot was a follower of Judas the Galilean… Judas started the . • One of the things they would do…besides sneaking up behind a Roman soldier and slitting their throat…was to steal from Roman arsenals. • These terrorist thieves were called “lestes”. The “thief on the cross” beside Jesus wasn’t there because he stole grandma’s purse at the Walmart… the Bible calls him a “lestes.” He was a freedom fighter. The loved these people –venerated them.

Barabbas… the guy who Pilate released instead of Jesus… at the final Passover celebration.

Did you ever wonder why the crowd would scream for a reprobate like to be released… who had already been sentenced to be crucified… and let a nice guy like Jesus be hoisted up on to the cross prepared for Barabbas. Because Barabbas crimes weren’t against the Jews, they were against the Romans…and the Jews loved it.

Jesus, on the other hand, would announce that his kingdom had arrived, display great power… show great authority over everything including even the weather… turn a handful of fish and bread into a feast for thousands:

5 John 6:14 When the people saw him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, “Surely, he is the we have been expecting!”15 When Jesus saw that they were ready to force him to be their king, he slipped away into the hills by himself…. 18 Soon a gale swept down upon them, and the sea grew very rough. 19 They had rowed three or four miles when suddenly they saw Jesus walking on the water toward the boat. They were terrified!

______The disciples had no idea what to do with this guy… He refused to meet their expectat- ions on one hand … and left them gasping in amazement on the other. Who was this Jesus?

We talked about the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday. The waving palm branches were not just a Psalm 118 messianic sybol of the arrival of the Messiah. They had become a symbol, to the Jews, of what they believed was the prophesied defeat the defeat of the Roman Empire. When they waved them over Jesus as he rode in on a donkey…they were a symbol of insurrection…a declaration of war on Rome. The Jews were escorting their new political King into town.

➢ Four days later he’s been arrested, beat to a bloody pulp… His disciples are running for their lives…His former fans are screaming for his crucifixion… demanding Barabbas be released instead. Governor Pilate presides… ______While we’re at it…Let me fill in some more elusive gaps:

Our picture of Pilate is often of a nice man washing his hands of Jesus death… because he didn’t want him crucified.

Pilate didn’t want Jesus crucified but it wasn’t because he was nice. Luke 13 says:

Luke 13:1 About this time Jesus was informed that Pilate had murdered some people from Galilee as they were offering sacrifices at the Temple.

➢ Pilate stole money right out of the temple to build an aqueduct, and when a group of Jews mounted a protest, he had them all rounded up and executed. Don’t bother with any warm feeling for Pilate. ➢ Philo the historian says he was a man with a hair trigger temper who rule was one of bribery, supreme cruelty, executions without a trial… etc.

6 ➢ Pilate was under enormous pressure from Rome because his subjects were so unruly… soon after Jesus died he is fired by the Caesar, (and in 70 AD the Roman army completely destroys all of Jerusalem)

➢ Needless to say…Pilate wasn’t big on protecting professed Messiahs, or Kings who say they are ushering in a heavenly kingdom on earth… ➢ There is far more going on here than just eliminating a political threat. ______The Jewish leaders had decided Jesus had to be eliminated weeks before… and the reason might not be exactly what we assume. Just like with many politicians today (which is exactly what the Pharisees really were)…

➢ Just like with some politicians today (excluding the ones in this room) What they said they were doing and why they were doing it…was often a smokescreen to keep you from seeing what they were really up to!

John 11:47-49 Then the leading priests and Pharisees called the high council together. “What are we going to do?” they asked each other. “This man certainly performs many miraculous signs. 48 If we allow him to go on like this, soon everyone will believe in him. Then the Roman army will come and destroy both our (position in the) Temple and our (control of the) nation.”

➢ The religious leaders aren’t really all concerned about Jesus the blasphemer. They are all consumed with the fact that this purported Messiah could dethrone them…and Pilate is wringing his hands in the palace thinking this brew-ha-ha over a Messiah could get him demoted… From an earthly viewpoint…Jesus is just a pawn in a huge power play between the Roman Governor and the Jewish leaders…

______So the religious leaders, literally, have a before-dawn meeting to figure out what to charge Jesus with:

Mark 14:55-56 Inside, the leading priests and the entire high council were trying to find evidence against Jesus, so they could put him to death. But they couldn’t find any. 56 Many false witnesses spoke against him, but they contradicted each other.

It wasn’t just that they couldn’t get their story straight. If the Jewish leaders accused him of blasphemy, the people would want him killed but Pilate would say, “I couldn’t care less.” If they accused him of being an enemy of Rome, Pilate would want him dead…but the people would all rally to his defense.

7 So, watch this: the Jewish leaders came up with two charges. One that they presented to the people and one that they presented to Pilate, in private. (Did we ever notice this?)

1) To the Jewish people…this charge:

Mark 14:61… Then the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” (all Jesus had to do was say nothing…He didn’t!)

62 Jesus said, “I AM. (Can anybody miss the connection to Yahweh in the OT?) And you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (Daniel 7: 13-14)

Q: Who was it that pushed the Sanhedrin into delivering a death sentence to Jesus? ______! Every move he made for three years – move him toward the cross!

➢ Every word out of his mouth, including all his tough treatment of the corrupt, hypocritical, Pharisees…was to lead them to kill him… to pay the price for your sins and mine.

John 10:17 The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. 18 No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again.

______But watch this:

2) Before Pilate they bring this charge:

Luke 23:1 Then the entire council took Jesus to Pilate, the Roman governor. 2 They began to state their case: “This man has been leading our people astray by telling them not to pay their taxes to the Roman government and by claiming he is the Messiah, a king.” (What…that’s not what you said a few hours ago) 3 So Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” (All Jesus had to do was say nothing…He didn’t!) Jesus replied, “It is as you say.”

When the movie; “The Passion of the Christ” first came out I flew to Chicago with a bunch of other pastors to preview it… and was then interviewed by some TV station here at home with the throbbing question. “Who does Gibson blame for the death of Jesus? Was he crucified by the Romans… or does Gibson blame the Jews?

Let me ask you…based on what we are seeing here.

Who was it that led Jesus to the point of crucifixion? JESUS!

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➢ He could have stopped it, or altered the course, anywhere along the way

➢ He could have called 10,000 to destroy the world and set him free!

➢ Those first century numbskulls thought he was just a pawn in their great political power play. The reality is they were pawns in his calculated journey to become the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.

______He died for you!.. and for me! He didn’t have to….He chose to. Every move he made…Every word out of his mouth was calculated to bring him to the cross. He took your sin punishment and my sin punishment

For those who embrace Jesus eternal gift… past sins are forgiven, the soul is cleansed, new life enters to begin transforming us from the inside out. The Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, begins to sanctify us into a whole new person.

Of course all that last part is possible because Jesus didn’t stay dead… he rose victorious over sin and , and death, and hell and offers each of us eternal life… We are going to get to all of that next week… I want to stay on Jesus’ death for the next 5 minutes… particularly our memorial of his death… ______The Apostle Paul would, eventually, write:

1 Corinthians 11:23-29 For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread 24 and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me.”

The Early Church took up this practice… very seriously. They observed communion every week… and in many cases they met and they took part in communion… every single day, as part of their shared meals. Seems odd to us…to do the same thing over and over.. Do it too often and it gets to be a ritual… right?

• We do rituals every day… like brushing our teeth… but those daily rituals are hopefully accomplishing something. The danger in doing exactly the same thing everyday is that it will get commonplace and you will mentally coast through it.

9 • You don't eagerly look forward to the big tooth-brushing event of your morning do you? ….lovingly take out your special engraved brush… handed down to you from your Grandfather… Yes?

Some of you come from backgrounds where a priest, or pastor, placed communion on your tongue every week, or even every-day, and you've indicated to me that you passed the time mentally reviewing your shopping list.

Holy Communion, in the Early Church, did not become a meaningless ritual…. Why not? This practice headed the list of what came to be known as Sacraments of the church.

“A sacrament is a rite, instituted by Jesus Christ, that delivers God's grace to the partaker, yet remains a sacred mystery. The root meaning of the Latin word sacramentum is to "make sacred". ______Part of the church took this thing so far into the "mystery" realm as to believe that the bread and wine, when blessed, actually becomes the body and blood of Jesus…

➢ Others said… that's ridiculous…the bread and wine are just a memorial of Jesus body and blood… They were so ticked off by the "big sacred mystery hype" that they stopped using the word "sacrament" altogether. (I grew up with that)

What if both sides may have missed something very important …altogether?

Illus: What would make generation after generation of Roman soldiers, thousands of miles removed, and weeks out of contact with their Emperor, remain a highly organized, loyal, world controlling force? Why didn't some part of the army stage a coup, like happens every few years in most dictator-run countries today?

I'll tell you why… Only the best of the best got into Caesar's Elite Forces. Each soldier in the Roman army swore a life or death oath of allegiance to the Emperor in Rome. (In fact, they had to declare him their God!) There was a special ceremony they went through, and then constantly renewed… where they swore to become the personal representatives of Caesar. Every one of them became like his very arm stretched out across the Empire.

Q: Guess what that "oath of allegiance" was called?

Sacramentum!

That's where the word sacrament comes from! The original word meant "a solemn oath of absolute, life or death, loyalty to one's leader."

So when the Early Church picked up Jesus/Paul's command to regularly celebrate this ordinance celebrating Jesus’ death… they quickly began referring to communion as their "sacramentum"

10 ______The Early Church's observances of the Lord's Supper wouldn't have been boring rituals.

➢ They were soldiers in the Lord's army and this was their chance to re-affirm their oath of loyalty to the Savior of their souls!… ➢ When our elite US Marines yell out their oath of allegiance…there is a ball of raw emotion filling their chest… that they have the privilege to serve in the greatest cause of all time.

➢ I'm telling you…that's what this celebration of Communion was meant to be to us as well!

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, loved the people in this world so much, that even after we rebelled against him and turned out backs on him… He came to this earth, took on the form of a human being so he could live life just like us… take all our sins on himself and die a death of agony crucified on a cross in our place, and take on the enemy of our soul who holds, us all bound in our sins. Jesus defeated satan and the power of sin. He tore us loose from the power of satan and defeated death itself by rising from the dead. He offers each one of us life… spiritual life… eternal life – if we will repent, believe and embrace his gift. ______That is something to get seriously excited about! The privilege of offering a sacramentum" to him…. in return is one of the highest honors in the universe!!

➢ There is a reason why the Early Church spread the Gospel the ends of the earth in just the first three hundred years…. There was an intensity to their faith… that was more important, to them, than anything else in the world!!

1 Corinthians 10:16 When we bless the cup (and break the bread) at the Lord’s Table, are we not sharing (κοινωνία) in the blood (body) of Christ?

This is the passage that some use to support the elements becoming Jesus' body and blood… they are (IMO) missing the point…

κοινωνία - Sharing in - participating in - communing with

We are being invited to participate in the ongoing unfolding of the greatest event in the universe… It is supposed to be to us a "sacramentum"… A life and death oath of total loyalty to our Loving Savior!

______INVITATION

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