On a title, it is, For the Joy Set Before Him. That's from Hebrews 12, For the Joy Set Before Him.
So if you had been at the cross day before yesterday, you would have probably thrown up,
you would have vomited, you would have screamed, you would have pounded the ground with your
hands, you would have just cried yourself into exhaustion. That would have been your
reaction. Your stomach wouldn't be able to handle what happened there. You would have
thrown up. It was that brutal. I mean, every year I force myself to watch the Passion of
the Christ. I force myself because it's difficult. But if I had been there as one of His disciples
or one of His friends or even a passerby or even a Roman soldier who perhaps had gotten
used to it, it would have been very difficult. And yet, why does He do this then? Why does
it say in Hebrews chapter 12 that, For the Joy Set Before Him, He endured the cross?
That's what we want to kind of find out. So even though you and I would not have been
able to handle it, the fascinating fact is that Jesus volunteered for this. He chose
it. Nobody forced Jesus. He chooses it. He chooses it. He volunteers for it. He chooses
it. It was not forced on Him by His Father. It was not forced on Him by any man. He chose
it. In fact, in John 10, 18, He says, No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down on
my own accord. No one takes my life from me. I lay it down on my own accord. It's in
Matthew 26, 53. And so literally what He was saying is, I will be crucified. It's my choice.
Even though I have the power to stop it, I won't. And that is God's definition of love.
The question though is, how did Jesus endure it? Because it says in Hebrews 12, 2, For
the joy that was set before Him, Jesus endured the cross. So the question is, what's this
joy that He was looking forward to? He was looking forward to. And in finding that out,
you and I also have to subscribe to that joy so that we endure till the end. And if you endure
till the end, there is a reward. It says, To him who endures to the end, I will give authority
over the nations. And they get to sit on my throne beside me. But how do you get to a place
where you begin to endure? You can't get to the place that you can endure till you have joy.
I was just talking to Subin and Shikha, and I just quickly did a count of their children just to make sure
that it's still three and not four. Jocelyn's little brother was running around, and Shikha says,
I'm feeling that baby thing again. And I'm saying to her, I don't understand. But it's odd how
mothers go through the pang of labor, and it is painful to watch. I've only watched it once for about
three minutes. At the beginning, I prayed and left because it was unbearable just to watch. And then
they have a child, but they have another child, and they have another child, and Subin and Shikha are
planning a fourth one. How? No? Okay. They've been talking about it, and they've been feeling the pangs.
I don't even know what that means. So the point being this, though, that why would a mother put herself
through the pain of labor, and then why after being completely exhausted after giving birth, is there the
kind of joy that comes even in the exhaustion? It's un-understandable. That's on a minor level. It is
impossible to endure anything unless there's a joy that's set before me. Otherwise, endurance will
fail. Very often, the reason faith is difficult is because faith does not look forward to something that
one can see as joy. That's when faith becomes striving, faith becomes holding on, faith becomes, oh my God,
I don't know why God isn't coming through. But whenever there's joy set before you, faith is something that
endures surprisingly restfully, even though it's painful. Keep that in mind, eh? That it is impossible to
endure without joy. That's why marathon runners, I mean, everything in them is burning up, eh, but they still
keep going. Why? Paul put it this way, for a wreath. So one of the things that we rarely attach to faith is
joy. We don't put joy as an end result of our faith. So what did Jesus, what was the joy that made his endurance
possible? Despite the horror of the cross, despite the sin of man, despite separation, what was the joy that made
this endurance possible? Here they are, and I'll list them down. One, he said, I'd destroy the temple in three days
and raise it up, and raise it up. That's in John 2.19. And in saying that, here was what he was saying, my joy is in the access
you will have. My joy is in that you will be family, as in my brothers and sisters. My joy is in the constant presence
of God in your midst, bringing to completion the name Emmanuel. And my joy is the end of any divide between Yahweh
and the sons of Adam. These are things that made him terribly joyfully, allows him to endure the cross. The first one is,
listen, my joy is in the access you will have. The very fact that the curtain tears and it tears from the top to the bottom, not from the bottom
to the top. People can tear a curtain from the bottom to the top. This is from top to the bottom. And the moment, and I've said this
before, the moment the curtain tore, God moved out of a building into a people. God moved out of a building into a people. And so access,
something he longed for. Why did he long for it? Because God has original intents. And one of his original intents with Adam and Eve
was, hey, I want to live with you. It's like something being restored that he so longed for. He made man so that man could have the pleasure
of his company. Like I often say, he could have made a walnut and been equally happy. He is not lonely. He didn't make us so that he can get worship.
He gives us the avenue of worship so that we can enjoy him. And so access was a big deal for him. The second one was family. We just say that everybody is
the children of God. Everybody aren't the children of God. You become the children of God only through Christ. To anyone who believed him,
he gave them the right to be the children of God. Otherwise it's just creation because of sin. His first words after he rose from the grave was what?
Go tell my brothers that I'm going to their father and my father. I actually, and this is so weird, this one who I call Lord and Savior, the Christ,
I actually am his younger brother. Jacob is Jesus' younger brother. Freaks you out, eh? Jane is Jesus' younger sister.
Almost sounds sacrilegious to put it that way. But exactly what he says. Those are his first words out of the tomb. This morning when he rose up, the first words after
Mary recognizes him and says, Rabbi, his response is, go tell my brothers and sisters. He doesn't even say my father first. Go tell my brothers and sisters that I'm going to
their father. He wants them to know without a shadow of a doubt that you are actual family. The third thing he says is the constant presence of God. Never to leave us.
Never to leave us. Never to leave us. Never to leave us. Never to leave us. Never to leave us. Access to the presence of God should be like drinking water for us.
And if it is still difficult, it is not because of his absence. And then the last one, the end of the divide between Yahweh and us. There's no divide. No condemnation.
Sin must make us run to him, not away from him. No condemnation. The end of any divide. Every time you think God is distant, feel the slipperiness of his blood stained path under your feet.
It says in Hebrews that we have a freshly slain blood pathway to the throne room. Freshly slain. As in it's not old blood. Freshly slain.
So that's one of the reasons he thought it was worth dying for. These are the things that made him joyful. Question is, are these things that make you joyful today? These are things to take joy in.
Second thing he was really happy about, the irreversible blood soaked purchase of a perfect bride.
The irreversible blood soaked purchase of a perfect bride. Ephesians 5, 26 and 27. Ephesians 5, 26 and 27.
Where's my phone? Ephesians 5, 26 and 27.
Christ's love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness.
Did you see Jocelyn today? Her dress looked a little silky and she wanted every child here to know that she was wearing something gowny and she was dancing up and down, making sure that everybody noticed.
The point being, that's how he wants a bride to look to the world. And it's his great joy. I remember, I mean I've written in my notes, I remember Derek and Dawn and how when first Kezia and Iris came into the church.
My God, you should have seen Dawn the first time I met him and he introduced me to Kezia in Bahrain. Or the first time Iris came and met me in Chennai and how Derek had set her up and how everything was set up.
Bridegrooms love showing off the brides they love. Means everything to them. For Christ, the bride, the church is everything. Guys, remember this. Please understand this.
If the bride is not your magnificent obsession, then there is a gap between the heart of God and my heart. The bride is the father's magnificent obsession. He says, son, go down. Leave your father's house and go down.
Genesis is being repeated. When a man marries his wife, he leaves his father's house and becomes one with her. The bride is the father's magnificent obsession.
The bride is Christ's absolute delight. He doesn't live without her. He's the head, she's the body. He's the bridegroom, he's the bride. He will never be separated from her. He laid his life down for her.
And the spirit of God is the one who forms the bride. At the heart of God is this magnificent thing called the church. And when I don't begin to love the bride as much as God loves the bride, there's a gap.
And if I don't rejoice over the bride, there's a gap.
You can't be British about the bride.
You'll have to rejoice. It'll have to be expressive.
Grunt. I do love you, but I don't say it too often. Doesn't work.
This was the joy that was said before him, eh?
Go to Revelation 21, Revelation 21, 9 to 11, Revelation 21, 9 to 11.
One of the seven angels who had carried the bowls filled with the seven final disasters spoke to me,
Come here, I'll show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. Just straight out, eh? I'll show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.
He took me away in the spirit to an enormous high mountain and showed me holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God.
Resplendent in bright glory of God, the city shimmered like a precious gem, light-filled, pulsing light.
Go to verse 3 and 4.
I saw heaven and earth, new created, gone the first heaven, gone the first earth, gone the sea.
I saw holy Jerusalem, new created, descending, resplendent out of heaven, as ready for God as a bride for a husband.
I heard a voice thunder from the throne. Look, look, God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women.
They are his people. He's their God. He'll wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death has gone for good. Tears gone. Crying gone. Pain gone. All the first order of things gone.
This was another reason that he thought it was worth enduring the cross.
Question is, how much will you endure for the bride?
Ask yourself this question, eh? How much are you in love with a bride, which is a church?
Is it even possible to function without her, without being part of her?
Don, is it possible to function without Kezia?
George, is it possible to function without Anne?
It'd be like an empty hole, right?
Mike, can you survive without her?
Don't even need to ask Matt.
If they can't survive without their bride, some that have known each other for 40 years, some that have known each other for 40 days or 40 months,
then how is it that you and I survive without the bride, without loving the bride as one should love?
It helps us endure, eh? Now serving or doing things for the bride comes easy because you're in love with her.
The third thing he really desired to do was give his children his risen life.
Give his children his risen life.
As in, I will now share with you the life of the bride and the bride.
As in, I will now share with you not the life of Jesus of Nazareth,
but the life of the risen Christ.
Indestructible, indissoluble,
indissoluble, present before God, private, personal, nothing less.
By whom? By the Spirit.
Just think of that, eh?
Paul put it this way, we no longer consider things after the flesh.
We no longer consider things after the flesh.
As in, we don't even think of the Jesus of Nazareth, we think of the risen Christ.
After he is risen, they rarely refer to him as Jesus of Nazareth.
They always refer to him as Christ Jesus, as in the anointed prince.
As in, the ruler of heaven and earth, as in, the Messiah, the anointed one, the prince.
That's how he's referred to us.
Jesus was a name that was given to convey to us that he saves us from our sins.
But now that he has saved us from our sins and he's risen, he is Christ, the anointed prince.
That is the life he's sharing with you.
It's indestructible.
The life that I presently have is indestructible.
It cannot be killed. It cannot be buried.
It does not die.
It does not die. Only my physical body dies.
The life I have does not die.
It's indissoluble, as in, it's mixed in with Christ.
My spirit and the spirit of God have become one.
1 Corinthians 6.
We've become one. It's indissoluble.
It's indissoluble. It's like tea and milk. It's like salt and sugar.
You can't separate it.
What I like most about it is it's Christ risen life.
It's always present before the Father.
I am always present before the Father.
The reason the Bible says, I will never leave you nor forsake you,
is God would have to forsake Christ before he can forsake me.
Because my life and his life are entwined. They are wrapped up.
And he's always present before the Father.
I'm always present before the Father.
Access is something we cannot frown upon, cannot dilute, cannot diminish,
cannot play around with, cannot misuse, cannot underuse.
It should be something that you should freely access always,
because it's a special privilege.
Learn to get in and out easily.
It's one of the most fabulous things you have.
Present before God, accessing the throne.
And it's his private life.
As in, you can't barge into someone's bedroom.
You can't barge into a room in someone's house,
just walk in and do what you want,
unless you have access to their private life.
You can't look at their private accounts. You can't look at their closet.
But here is a God who says, I'm sharing with you my own private personal life.
I'm not sharing with you some secondhand life, some special life prepared for you.
Before we became believers, we had a life that was given to us
that was not the same as the life we have right now.
The life that God breathed into Adam is not the life that I possess.
The life that God breathed into Adam made him a living creature.
The life that God breathed into me when I got born again
was the very life of Christ himself, Christ in me, the hope of glory.
It's different, man.
This is why we say, I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
This is a joy he looked forward to.
Why do parents spend the first three months of their life trying to figure out
whether the child looks like the mother or the child looks like the father?
Because it's important to them.
For the first three months, the child doesn't look like anybody, to tell you the truth.
We just play along and say, yeah, looks like you don't. It's got your nose.
And then when Kezia's around, Kezia, it's got your cheeks.
It's a guessing game till they're six, but just fake it because both parents get happy.
The point being that at the end of the day,
parents want their children to have their very DNA, their very looks, their very everything.
And God wanted me to have his private life.
I love the fact that I have got Jesus' private, Christ's private life
because now I have personal access to his thinking, to his ways of feeling, to the way he functions.
There's nothing that's limited from it, nothing held back.
What a joy he has. He loves giving this to Chava. He loves giving this to you.
He's infinite. It's a matrix you can swim in.
There's never an end to it.
Nothing like thinking like how God thinks, eh?
Some of the things that made him quite joyful.
Once he rose, he had the keys of death and Hades.
Revelation 1.18. He says, I'm alive forever and I have the keys of death and Hades.
No longer would death begin to affect man like it did.
No longer could people be tossed into Hades like they used to.
He now has the keys of death and Hades and he ultimately wins over death.
The final enemy to be destroyed is death.
In his triumph, one of the things he was looking forward to was to end the fear of death.
Ever since the apple or the fruit from the tree was eaten, the fear of death crept in.
Man was afraid to die.
One of the things Jesus looked forward to. Why would he look forward to it?
Because his very, what did he say he was? I am the way, the truth and the life.
I mean, can you imagine how much he hates death?
It's like white and black. He hates death.
One of the things he really loved about rising up that he said, I will endure the cross
because on the cross, death died.
Death died.
This he was looking forward to.
Now every person on the face of the earth has the opportunity to escape death.
And there is not a single person. There are people that may not hear of Jesus Christ being preached to them.
But it says in Psalm 19 and it says in Romans chapter 1
that there is not a person on the face of the earth that will not be given an opportunity to recognize God.
Either through his handiwork or through creation or through just a knowing.
There's not a person who will not be given that opportunity by God.
And that anyone who seeks once that opportunity is given will find forever in the life of any human being presently alive on planet earth.
Eight billion people. There's not one that has to be subject to eternal death.
Not one. Do you know what kind of a victory that is?
I was at Simon and Maria. Simon's mom died.
So that's the reason I came home, came back to Vancouver late. I went for the funeral.
But one of the stories I said there, and I may have shared it here, is this little boy and his dad traveling in a car.
A wasp comes into the car. The boy panics.
He has seen other boys stung by wasps and they begin to go into shock and they've got to get that injection and stuff like that.
The boy panics. The dad says, calm down. He puts out his hand and grabs the wasp.
The wasp stings him and the father releases the wasp.
And the boy can't understand why the father released the wasp.
And the father says, it doesn't matter. It stung me and it can never sting you again.
Because once a wasp stings you, that's it. Maybe it's a bee, not a wasp.
Once a bee stings you, it will not sting you again.
It only can sting you once. And then it's floating around inside the car.
The boy is panicking, but the dad wants the boy to know.
It doesn't matter that it is still around. It has lost its sting.
Death, where is your sting? That's the very idea.
It cannot sting. People may be dying around it, but they don't really die.
They join the cloud of witnesses if they're actually ones who walk the earth in faith.
This was a big thing for Jesus, eh? For the life giver, the end of death was huge.
Another thing he loved being was eternal priest. Eternal priest.
It talks about it in Hebrews 7, 15 onwards. If you go to Hebrews 7, 15,
I'm reading from the message. Hebrews 7, 15.
Hebrews 7, 15.
But the Melchizedek story provides a perfect analogy.
Jesus, a priest like Melchizedek, not by genealogical descent,
but by the sheer force of resurrection life, he lives.
He was a priest forever in the royal order of Melchizedek.
The formal way of doing things, a system of commandments that never worked,
never worked out the way it was supposed to, was set aside.
The law brought nothing to maturity. Another way, Jesus, a way that does work,
that brings us right into the presence of God, is put in its place.
The old priesthood of Aaron perpetuated itself automatically, father to son,
without explicit confirmation by God. But then God intervened
and called this new permanent priesthood into being with an added promise.
God gave his word. He won't take it back. You're the permanent priest.
This makes Jesus the guarantee of a far better way between us and God,
one that really works, a new covenant.
Beautifully. One of the things Jesus looked forward to undoing is legalism,
ritualism, and man-made traditions.
We don't realize that legalism was finally what drove Jesus to the cross,
that it was the legalists, the ones who refused to live by the spirit of the law,
but by the letter of the law.
You know that emoji which has little snot, smoke coming out of it? That's legalism.
Everything that happens, they go...
Children dancing.
I have a long list, but I don't want to offend anybody.
But the point is this, that at the end of the day,
one of the things Jesus looked forward to undoing was the traditions,
the rituals, and the religious laws that he wanted to undo.
He looked forward to doing that. You know why?
Because from the beginning of time, it is the wanting that has kept man away from God.
Listen, if right now our hearts have two things missing, love and joy,
then consider the possibility that perhaps you are legalistic.
Legalism will always banish love and joy from our relationship with God.
How do you identify legalism? Two things.
In our interaction with God, if love and joy are missing,
then there is only one way for a Christian.
It is to practice traditions that will make us feel approved.
Legalism will always rob you of your childlikeness.
You have homes where you have to call your dad, sir.
Sir, I love you is a little different from daddy, I love you.
But it's the way people have grown up.
Army homes? Oh my God, you have to salute them at times.
The point is Jesus looked forward to undoing religious laws,
rituals, legalism and man-made traditions.
He banishes these because if they don't get banished, they banish love and joy.
Any questions before we go on? Any questions? Any challenges to what I'm saying?
I said traditions of men. There are some traditions that are godly.
I'm talking about traditions of men. Any questions?
You would think really Jesus would be joyful enough to die on the cross to undo this?
Yes, because for years it has trapped man in bondage.
He's a bondage breaker. He loves doing this.
He looked forward to it.
Axis was just meant to destroy the bondage of the people.
Axis was just meant to destroy rituals.
No questions?
Another thing he loved establishing.
Why did he endure the cross? To establish the kingdom.
To establish the kingdom.
In Revelation 12, verse 10 to 12, it talks about how salvation, salvation and power,
salvation and power was established by him.
Salvation and power of the kingdom was established by him.
How did he establish it? By the blood of the Lamb.
I've said this before, we do not invite Jesus Christ into our lives.
That's the way we've been taught.
But Jesus never said, invite me into your life.
Jesus said, I have a kingdom. I invite you into the kingdom.
If you want to enter this kingdom, you have to be born again.
Unless you be born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.
And then he established this is the power and the salvation of this kingdom all across the earth.
And he does it by his blood, which is why it says in Revelation 12,
that they overcame the devil by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.
And that the dragon was cast out.
There was a kingdom that was established. Jesus looked forward to establishing the kingdom.
One of the reasons he endured the cross was so that, as it says in Revelation 11, 13 or 14,
it says, a day will come when all the kingdoms of the earth will become the kingdom of our Lord and Christ.
One of the reasons he looked forward to dying was so that he could bring back the kingdom that was lost in the Garden of Eden.
The cross becomes his throne.
The most kingly moment in Jesus' life was hanging like a naked criminal on a cross.
That was his most kingly moment.
Hey, there was not a loin cloth to hide anything like we see in the movies.
That's just to give Jesus dignity.
He was naked on the cross, mocked, spat on,
stick taken, hit on his head a few times, six inch, twelve inch nails.
And yet the most majestic kingly moment was when a naked man hung on a cross.
And in the process, a kingdom that he spoke about, that he continuously spoke about, begins to form, is established.
And he rises up. And as he rises up, his name changes.
He's no longer Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary.
He is now Christ Jesus, the anointed Messiah, the prince.
Every prince, every anointed king has a kingdom.
You read Psalm 2 and you realize that Psalm 2 is an installation psalm.
I have set my king on that holy hill.
Ask now for your inheritance, Jesus.
He has your inheritance.
All the nations of the earth are your inheritance.
Ask of me and I'll give it to you.
You think he won't endure to bring back his father's kingdom?
Another thing you look forward to was not just the return of his glory, but for us to see it.
Go to John 17. Sorry guys.
Go to John 17.
John 17.
You know, he looked forward to repossessing the glory that he had set aside.
Remember in Philippians 2 it says, he didn't grab on to the glory he had,
but he divested himself off it and became like a bond servant.
Philippians 2 talks about it.
One of the things Jesus knew he needed to do to die and rise again,
and that he looked forward to the joy was, Father, once again, the glory that I laid down, I will repossess.
And that's not it.
I want them to see it so they know what they are heading for too.
Go to John 17.
John 17.
Verse 4, 5 and 24.
John 17.
Verse 4, 5 and 24.
John 17.
Verse 4.
I glorified you on earth by completing down to the last detail what you assigned me to do.
And now, Father, glorify me with your own splendor,
the very splendor I had in your presence before there was a world.
You can't even imagine this, eh?
There was a glory he possessed before the world even existed.
That was brilliant.
That was resplendent.
That was magnificent.
That was one with a father like you and I cannot even imagine.
There were limitations to Jesus in his physical body.
He only starts moving through walls and appearing in rooms after he rose again.
Before that, he could not do it.
And look at his words there in verse 5.
And now, Father, glorify me with your very own splendor.
What kind of splendor are we talking about?
There are glimpses of it in the book of Revelation.
There are glimpses of it in Revelation 1 where it says his face is as bright as the midday sun.
And he's saying, can you once again glorify me with your very own splendor,
the very splendor I had in your presence before there was a world?
And he'll endure the cross.
You know why?
Not so he can wear it again.
Go to verse 24.
Father, I want those you gave me to be with me right where I am so they can see my glory,
the splendor you gave me, having loved me long before there ever was a world.
Beautiful, eh?
Look at the conversation between son and father.
You loved me long before there was a world.
And then we created.
And everything that was created was created through me.
And now, oh God, these ones that you've created and that have begun to follow me,
like the ones sitting here, could you bring about a day when they can see how you and I used to be,
where they can see resplendent glory, where they can see what it used to be like?
My God, for this!
My dad used to take me on the back of his scooter when we would go to his hometown in India.
He would take me to places where he had moments of victory.
He would sit me down before, besides ponds, besides trees, besides schools,
and he'd tell me, Jacob, this is what I did here.
Manek, this is what I did there.
Manek, this is what happened here.
He would tell me.
A time like that awaits us.
And he'd look forward to it.
Every time I'd return from Vancouver and go back to visit my dad,
he would look forward to it because he would repeat some of the stories.
He would look forward to it.
This is why Jesus says, hey, a day is coming when I will not drink of the wine of this cup till I sit with you.
And then when I sit with you, I'll begin to tell you.
And when I sit with you, you won't see me as the Jesus that you saw in Nazareth.
You will see me and my father in resplendent glory, something I've longed to share with you.
And for this joy, yes, it's worth enduring the cross, Jacob.
In verse 25, righteous father, the world has never known you, but I've known you.
And these disciples know that you sent me.
I've made you very being known to them, who you are, what you do.
Beautiful.
And God is never ashamed of his glory, eh?
What is his glory?
We defined this some weeks ago.
His glory is his holy gone public.
When his holy goes public, it's called his glory.
If he wasn't holy, he would not be glory.
If he wasn't holy, he would not be glorious.
And if he wasn't true, he wouldn't be holy.
Just remember that, eh?
If he wasn't holy, he would not be glorious.
And if he wasn't true, he would not be holy.
I didn't say if he didn't speak the truth.
I'm saying if he wasn't true, as in in everything he does, he's so straight.
His judgment is so perfect.
His wisdom is so kind and noble.
His love is so beautiful.
Everything is so true that it makes him holy.
And because he's holy, he's glorious.
And he's a transcendent being.
Nobody like him.
Holy is his otherness.
And it is into this otherness that he's calling us.
We have such a beautiful hope.
I'll end in two or three minutes.
He won't. He won't.
He hasn't been here for two weeks.
Let's touch on one more.
One of the things he knew would happen if he endured the cross was that all authority
in heaven and earth
would be his
for the church.
This is importantly the last bit.
We shouldn't think that Christ did not have authority till he died and rose again.
Obviously he did.
Eudicus to anybody who's sleeping.
There are a couple of eudicus that may fall off.
That's okay.
So,
all authority in heaven and earth would be his.
All authority in heaven and earth would be his for the church.
It was not as if Christ did not have authority before.
Because what was he then before?
He was the one who was the authority.
He had authority before.
Because what was he then before?
He was God.
So obviously he had authority.
But in dying something happens.
Go to Philippians 2, 69.
Philippians 2, 69.
And then Ephesians 1, 22 and 23.
Philippians 2, 69.
He had equal status with God.
But didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantage of that status no matter what.
Not at all.
When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave.
He became human.
Having become human, he stayed human.
It was an incredibly humbling process.
He didn't claim special privileges.
Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death.
And the worst kind of death was that, a crucifixion.
Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far above anyone or anything ever.
So that all created beings in heaven and on earth, even those long ago dead and buried, will bow in worship before Jesus Christ.
And call out and praise that he is the master of all to the glorious honor of God the Father.
Ephesians 1, verse 20 onwards.
All this energy issues from Christ.
God raised him from the dead and set him on a throne in deep heaven.
In charge of running the universe.
Everything from galaxies to governments.
No name and no power exempt from his rule.
And not just for the time being, but forever.
He is in charge of it all.
He has the final word on everything.
At the center of all this, Christ rules the church.
The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world.
The world is peripheral to the church.
The church is Christ's body in which he speaks and acts.
By which he fills everything with his presence.
And so one of the things Jesus, and we'll end with this point.
One of the things Jesus looked forward to was the ability to give to the church.
The realization that all authority in heaven and earth now belongs to him.
For the church.
This would not have been possible without his death as a man.
The son of man dies.
The son of God rises as the anointed prince.
And then he says, church, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.
I'm the ultimate.
Nothing moves without my permission.
And by the way, I give that authority to you because you are the body, I am the head.
This would not have been possible if Christ had not died and risen.
He gives us authority.
And now that he's given the authority to us, he says, go talk to the communists.
Go talk to the atheists.
Go talk to the democrat.
Go talk to the republican.
Go talk to the buddhist.
Go talk to the muslim.
Why? Because I have paid for every one of them.
They all belong to me.
I have purchased their lives and I have paid for their sins.
You go tell them because I have all authority.
When you go tell them and you have to tell them the gospel, not your testimony alone,
when you tell them the gospel, if they accept me, they have what I got for them.
If they do not accept me, they do not have what I got for them.
Because everything belongs to him.
Why? Because he reconciled everything back by his blood.
Everything that was separated, he reconciled it back.
Read the scripture.
Colossians 1, 15-23.
Beautiful, man.
Some of these scriptures are so rich.
We look at the sun and we see the god who cannot be seen.
We look at the sun and see god's original purpose in everything created.
For everything, absolutely everything, above, below, visible, invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels.
Everything got started in him, finds its purpose in him.
He was there before any of it came into existence.
He holds it together right up to this moment.
And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together like a head does a body.
He was supreme in the beginning, leading the resurrection parade.
He's supreme in the end.
From beginning to end, he's there, towering far above everything.
So spacious is he, so roomy that everything of god finds its proper place in him.
Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe.
People, things, animals, atoms get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies.
All because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.
As yourselves are a case study of what he does.
At one time, you had all your back turned to god, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him troubles every chance you got.
But now, by giving himself completely at the cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to god's side.
And put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence.
You don't walk away from a gift like that.
You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned into the message.
Careful not to be distracted or diverted.
There is no other message, just this one.
Every creature under heaven gets the same message.
And I, Paul, am a messenger of this message.
If you read it from the NIV or ESV or NIRV, it talks about how god reconciled everything through his blood.
Reconciled everything.
And because he is in all authority, he's going to come back as a judge.
He's going to come back as a judge.
And when he comes back as a judge, he will divide the sheep and the goat.
What gives him the right? Again, the cross.
What do you mean the cross gives him the right?
Because he was judged for the earth, he now has the right to judge the earth.
Tremendous, eh?
It's so mathematical. It's so logical.
Because he was judged for the earth, he now has the right to judge the earth.
And if you don't have Christ and you died today, having heard about him, then you will be judged.
And then the last thing he does is in 1 Corinthians 15, having defeated all powers, all principalities, and finally having defeated death.
What does Christ do?
And he's defeated powers, principalities, and death only because he died and rose again.
He looks forward to this.
And the ultimate scene, the ultimate scene after we are all dead, is the death of Jesus.
The ultimate scene after we are all gathered, we bowed before him.
We laid our crowns before him.
And then when death is defeated, when death no longer exists, when death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire, once that's done, the Bible says,
will take everything that he has reconciled and he will take himself and he will lay down before the father and says,
all this I now place before you.
That's the last scene.
You should read that.
1 Corinthians 15, 24-26.
But we have to wait our turn.
Christ is first and those with him and his coming.
Verse 24.
If you read from the NIV.
The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
So here's the question.
Do you take joy in any of the things that Jesus is taking joy?
So let's just pick on Diana.
So she doesn't have to answer, but it's questions.
Does Diana take joy in the bride like Jesus does?
Is she passionate about the bride?
Does the bride, is the bride her magnificent obsession?
Does Diana exercise authority that has been won for her?
Because she's part of the church.
Does she exercise that authority for the freedom of others?
Take another one.
Does Diana look forward every day and advantage the access that God has given her?
Does she see him as her elder brother?
Is that the relationship?
Is presence something she cannot live without?
Thirsty for it.
Her mouth dries up if presence is absent.
Does Diana look forward to here on earth,
catching glimpses of his glorious splendor in worship,
in the morning sun,
in the way he paints the skies, in babies,
in times of prayer, in speaking in tongues,
in discovering his mind?
Is this what she's consumed with?
And does hope arise in her heart when she thinks of a day
when she will see the glory he possessed with his father and will be part of it?
Does it encourage her? Does it make her burst into song?
Does Diana enjoy the mystery of God and revel in it?
Is her faith mixed with joy?
Can she endure difficult times without mourning, without complaining, like all of us do?
Does she share, does she recognize that she at present shares the private life of the King of the Universe,
the private personal life, the thinking, the emotions, the interests, the disinterest,
the indissoluble, indestructible life of Christ?
And is that how she lives from event to event, situation to situation, trouble to trouble, success to success?
Is that how she lives?
That's Hebrews 12.2, for the joy that is set before us will you endure?
And Hebrews 12.1, guess who's watching?
Abel, Enoch, Moses, Noah, Jacob, Joseph,
some of the pastors you've known who've died and gone.
My friend Bonnie, who brought me to the Lord, who died about 15 years ago, they're all watching.
And what are they watching for? Hey Jacob, let me see whether you can endure this walk of faith.
And what are they doing when they watch? They begin to clap, they begin to applaud.
They are more real in this room than most other things.
It says, therefore, since we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses.
Right now, listening to what we are saying, some of them did not know this message
because Abel and Noah and Enoch died before.
Every time you or I run a race that is worthy of endurance, for his glory, with faith,
we don't realize what happens to them because they know it is worth it.
That in a world that sneers at you, in a world that spites you, in a world that persecutes you,
in a world that makes it difficult for you to stand up and say, I belong to Christ.
Every time you and I begin to take a stand that is for the truth or that is Christ-like,
this cloud of witnesses that surrounds you that is more alive right now than you and I can imagine.
They begin to say, it is worth it, it is worth it, it is worth it, it is worth it.
And sometimes we need to be aware of them.
That I want to get to a place where like Enoch, my life will be such a pleasure to God.
But one day I was and then one day I'm not.
Let me pray.
Father, as I look around this church, I thank you for men and women that endure.
Men and women that have chosen to turn their back on legalism and tradition.
Men and women that have been through tough times, that have flaws, that have defects,
that have fallen, that have gotten up.
Father, I just thank you right now for you want us to know that there is a cloud of witnesses
that are cheering us on saying, we went through this, stand up and go through this,
because so much on the earth is at stake and if you stand, the earth will benefit.
Father, this is a strange way to say it, but you're saying,
listen to the voice of the Spirit who brings to you the cheer from the stand of the witnesses,
saying, take a stand, endure, stick with the mandate you have been given,
because if you do, the earth will benefit.
We endured it and you are the beneficiaries.
Will you stand so that the earth can benefit?
What May explained was just a taste of what awaits the earth.
Will you continue to stand?
Strangely enough though, it is the voice of the Spirit to us,
conveying to us the echo of the witnesses that surround us, even now.
So how do we end, O God?
Father, I'm going to ask Derek to come up and sing a song,
and choose a song that is right, and as he sings it, you sing with him.
Thank you.