Discipleship: The Dogma and the Dugma

Transcript from Part 1 of the Sermon Discipleship: The Dogma and the Dugma

We have a lot of people on the road today.

If you're visiting with us, will you just wave at me?

Thank you.

Are you guys the eight we knew were coming?

Nice to have you with us.

We have a lot who are on the road, including Pastor Chris and April.

And so we're glad that everybody who could be here is here today and we want to welcome everybody that's joining us this morning online because you matter to us as well.

and every blessing that we hope and pray will manifest in this place, will also manifest in the place where you are joining us, whether that's on the road or at home, a hotel room, bedroom, kitchen, living room, wherever it is that you get to join us.

What an age that we live in, huh?

This morning, we are going to begin a four week series on discipleship that I have named discipleship, the dogma and the dogma.

Is anybody wondering what the dogma is?

Well, we're gonna get there.

So let's begin by defining some terms.

The first one is the definition of discipleship that we're going to kind of wrap our hearts and minds around for the next few weeks is simply this, that discipleship is the pursuit of his presence and his power manifesting in my life for his purpose.

All right, I wanna say that again.

I hope maybe you'll even write it down or we'll try to post it so that you can think about this.

But discipleship, what it really means to follow Yeshua is the pursuit of his presence and his power manifesting in my life for his purpose.

Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.

This is discipleship as we're going to define it because a disciple has one pursuit and this is it to follow after Yeshua in such a way that his presence becomes the most dynamic reality in our life and when that is true, only then will his power also become a reality that we experience, that we encounter, that we flow in, not just something that we sing about and get excited about and wish would happen to us instead of the guy that's always standing up there telling us his wonderful stories, right?

Amen?

I mean, we want to experience and encounter what it means to be a kingdom citizen, to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And when that really happens, we're gonna press into his presence and in pressing into his presence, we're gonna experience his power, But the ultimate reason for that, the only reason for that, and this is the kicker, is so that his purpose will become manifest in my life.

His, not mine.

So where does a journey like that begin, or where a journey like that begins, may actually surprise you.

Now when I was growing up, I heard the word dogmatic.

And it's almost hard to even say that word without adding a negative twinge to it.

Oh, he's so dogmatic.

So normally when we hear that word dogmatic, it's in a negative context.

But it comes from the word dogma.

What is dogma?

Dogma is simply doctrine.

Doctrine is the acceptance, or dogma is the acceptance of a divinely revealed truth as shown to us by God in his word.

Our doctrine is what God has revealed.

Our doctrine, our dogma, is what the Lord has told us through his word.

Amen, are you with me, are you following me on this?

That's our dogma.

And quite honestly, I'm a bit dogmatic about that.

Because if he said it, I'm not just supposed to believe it.

That's the easy part.

Oh, I believe he said it.

Yes, I do.

Amen.

He said that, pastor.

I'm also supposed to live it.

So is it really my dogma?

If I'm only believing it, but not really living it?

Being dogmatic is an unwillingness to budge on what God has revealed.

That's not a bad thing.

Now there are people who are dogmatic about things that aren't true and will explore that as well.

But for now dogma is doctrinal truth that we as believers in Jesus hold to examples for me from the word that are dogma, that are the virgin birth of Jesus.

We talked about this in a message I shared a few weeks ago.

The bodily resurrection of Jesus after three days in the tomb, the ascension to the right hand of the majesty in heaven, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

These are dogmas, this is what the scripture reveals.

But there is one dogma that is so vital that without it in truth, I really would be missing an essential ingredient in how to live my life as a disciple.

Meaning there is a dogma that is essential To me being the disciple, the Lord wants me to be.

Someone who wants to live in the reality of His presence, who wants to experience the power of His Spirit, not just ministering to me, but ministering through me for His glory.

You see, biblical discipleship begins with a dogma that must be clung to as dogmatically as it can be, or we will never learn to be a disciple.

So wow, that's kind of a big price tag, isn't it?

So what in the world is the dogma that is so essential for me to learn how to be a disciple?

It is in fact the deity of Jesus.

It is that Jesus is the Word of God, that Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, that Jesus is God, and without this dogma, and I'm gonna prove this to you, without that dogma about his deity, you and I will never become the disciple that experiences his presence, encounters his power, and gives our lives over to His purpose.

Have I put a big enough price tag on this for you?

It's pretty important.

Let's pray.

Oh, Abba, thank you for being with us today.

Thank you for encompassing about us with your angels.

We know they're here.

They're always here.

We're two or three or gathered in your name.

We're thankful for your Holy Spirit for He is present within us.

And we thank you for His ministry to us and through us this day and Father just now as we open your word, I ask that you would speak truth to the deepest recesses of our hearts and minds.

Let the dogma of who Jesus is become the reality of who we become.

I pray this in his name, amen.

So, As I said, that's a pretty intense thing to say.

I mean, let me just transition now from dogma to dogma.

Anybody wanna know what that word means?

Let me tell you my first experience with the word dogma.

Everybody say dogma.

You got the dogma and you got the dogma, all right?

Now, that's just a cheesy way the preacher wants you to remember it.

So, back in '06 and, or '07 and '08, Tanya and I had the privilege of living in Tel Aviv for about seven months, and we were going to a Hebrew language school called an Ulpan.

And the first day of Ulpan, where we were going to learn to speak, we're going to learn to speak modern Hebrew.

(mimics introduces Sarah in English and from that, and then as soon as she walks out the door, she took English with her.

English disappeared from the room.

And from that moment on, it was Rock Ivrit, only Hebrew.

And I mean, it was an amazing process just to watch how Sarah would just start off with Shalom and how she said her name, which meant she could only teach us using the words she had already taught us that we had to learn conversationally with her.

It was, early on it was easy.

But then it started getting a little complicated because as we got further on, and it was time to learn new verbs, and it was really a revelation to me 'cause all of the Israeli kids and people I would talk to, they were always telling me, "Brant, you must come, branch, you must sit, "branch, you must go, branch, you must eat, "brant, you must do something.

" Every time they said something to me, the verb was in an infinitive form, to do, to sit, to eat, to leave, to fly, whatever.

And then I went to Hebrew upon, and guess what?

That's how the first form of every verb they would teach you is the infinitive form, to sit, to fly, to eat, whatever.

But here's the thing.

with every new word that she was teaching us.

The only way she could help us know the definition of that word was to give us examples with words she had already told us, and to give us an example of how that word would be used.

And sometimes it was a mind-numbing guessing game.

I think the class collectively had an aneurysm trying to figure out the meaning of the Hebrew word to explain.

Now think about that.

The day she was giving us the verb to explain, none of us had a clue what she was talking about.

She finally broke down and gave us one English word we thought it was our birthday.

But this is how we always knew she was about to help us understand the definition of word.

Sarah would turn to us and she would say, "Dugma.

" And then she would give a sentence, an example.

If we didn't get it, she'd say, "Dugma.

" And she would give us another example.

You see, that's what "Dugma" means.

It means an example.

So how does the doctrine of the deity of Jesus Teach me how to live out this definition of discipleship we're employing.

It teaches me the dogma of Jesus.

It uses Jesus as the example in relationship to his deity.

And if there's anybody that doesn't understand what that word means, it means that Jesus is divine, that Jesus is God.

I want to read a passage to you, and I'm going to open the scripture to do it because I memorized it as a kid in a different translation, and now I'm using a different translation.

And we're going to be using this passage over the course of the next four weeks, and I encourage you with your family to spend some time each day reading this passage.

Now the context is the book of Philippians, and Paul is explaining how he's been in jail, but God's doing all these great things.

He comes to verse 21 of chapter one, he says, "For to me, to live is Christ.

" Well, that's discipleship.

That's what it means.

For me to live is to live as Christ lived as he would want me to live.

And then he goes through some things about, he's trying to call them to complete his joy to be like-minded and all these things.

And then he comes to chapter two, verse five, and he says this, and I want you to pay careful attention to the dogma and the dogma in this sentence, in this passage.

Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Messiah Yeshua, Christ Jesus, who although he existed in the form of God, other translations, being in very nature God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped or seized, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bond servant, and being made in the likeness of a man, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, for this reason also God highly exalted him, and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Did you hear the dogma?

This is amazing.

Please notice that it is the deity of Jesus that Paul cites as the example of how you and I are supposed to live with each other as disciples.

Did you see that?

I mean, let's be honest.

Every time we start talking, most of the times we start talking about the deity of Jesus, we're doing it in an apologetic form.

We're debating with somebody.

We're trying to prove that he is the son of God.

And just like that, Paul takes that topic out of the theological war zone that it usually exists in and says, you know what, this is relevant to who you are and how you live your life.

Why?

Because the dogma of how we learn to be a disciple is all taught to us in how Jesus identified with his own deity.

and his relationship with the Father.

Your head should have just exploded.

A topic that Satan loves to have us waste time.

Do you understand now why Satan spends so much time trying to undermine the deity of Jesus?

Because if he undermines the deity of Jesus, he undermines the example for how you and I can relate to him and find the path to having his purpose fulfilled in our lives.

Is that making some sense?

If he can keep us from focusing or believing in the reality of the deity of Jesus, we no longer have the example that Paul is trying to use to help us become who we're called to be.

That's amazing.

Notice how this verse extols.

that dogma.

And notice this, for people who say, well, you know, Jesus never really claimed to be God, and that was just made up later and blah, blah, blah.

My friends, if Jesus isn't God, Paul doesn't have an example to use.

Do you understand that?

If Jesus isn't humbling himself in relationship to his own nature as God, and that's going to be the example of what we do to become the disciple, there's no example.

There's no comparison.

There's no illus, there's no dugma.

Kinda dumb, isn't it?

When people come along and say, oh, that's not an important topic.

It's actually a critical topic.

So let's dive in.

Because we need to spend some time looking at how this dogma determined who would and could become disciples of Jesus Christ.

answer the first question of discipleship which is this, where does discipleship begin?

How does it begin?

Now much of our study is gonna come from the Gospel of John which highlights Jesus' relationship with the Father as the Son of God.

In fact, the Gospel of John more than any other Gospel is almost exclusively related to that topic.

So I'm gonna read a couple passages that you're very familiar with, John chapter one.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things came into being through him and apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being.

In him was life and that life was the life of men.

You're all familiar with that.

The word became flesh and dwelt among us and we saw his glory, the glory as the only begotten from the Father full of grace and truth.

We don't need to belabor the dogma that John begins the gospel with.

It's quite clear, Jesus is the word of God, he therefore is God.

Amen?

That's the dogma.

If you don't like that, if you think that's something that Paul invented, well, you're gonna have trouble with John.

And the rest of the Gospel of John is watching how Jesus' identity with and as God is revealed, not just by what he says, but by what the Father does through him.

Remember a few weeks ago, I made the point from Isaiah 7:14, "It is the Father who gave the sign of the virgin birth.

" It is the Father's testimony.

If you reject Yeshua, you are rejecting the testimony given by the Father about his son.

Why?

Because Jesus, and you'll read this over and over and over again, we're gonna see this as we go through the Gospel of John, over and over and over again, Jesus is gonna say one thing repeatedly.

I only do what I see my Father doing.

I only say what I hear my Father saying.

Every single time he performs, he's not demeaning himself.

He's not saying I'm not God.

He's saying I am in submission to the purpose of my heavenly father.

That's what he's saying.

Remember the meeting with a leading Pharisee named Nicodemus?

Nicodemus admits, Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

So here's what we know.

The Pharisees are talking.

Some of them are willing to admit that the things that Jesus is doing, definitively shows a direct relationship with God.

Because no one could do the signs he was doing unless they were from God.

I want you to hear that.

For no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with them.

Do you hear what Nicodemus is saying?

You are doing things only God can do.

Do you hear that?

And Nicodemus is a Pharisee.

One of the original few that were able to see and hear what was happening in front of them.

So this morning I want to look at the rest of the Pharisees because Nicodemus admits what they've already discussed.

So why does Jesus respond by telling Nicodemus that unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God?

Well, first of all, please take note of this, and I don't have time to go into a great historical, you know, citing of sources and documents to prove this.

You'll just have to trust me and do your own research.

But please notice that the whole terminology of being born again was and is the terminology of repentance, and it was known already at that time to Israel.

This was not new terminology.

This was not a new concept.

was it a new concept to connect repentance and going to the mikvah to be immersed in water because that was considered the doing of repentance and is directly linked in Judaism to this very same terminology, you must be born again.

This is why Jesus is kind of stunned when Nicodemus doesn't get that because he's one of Israel's teachers.

Jesus says you cannot see the kingdom of God if you do not repent.

He is not in that moment talking about the future kingdom.

He's speaking about the present manifestation of the kingdom of God, the Malkut Hashemim, that Jesus is demonstrating right then.

And he's saying, if you don't repent, you will not be able to see the kingdom of God.

Now let me just add some words that, even when it's right in front of you.

Have you ever had a relative that you just wanted to bonk upside the head?

because you could see all the ways that God was moving, you could see all the things that God was trying to do to get their attention, and they were just utterly oblivious to it.

I've heard of people that have relatives like that.

It's irritating and infuriating all at the same time, but it is possible to have the kingdom of God manifesting right in front of your face.

How do I know that?

There goes Lazarus.

Well, that's weird.

Four days ago he was dead.

I wonder what that means.

Yeah, nothing.

Isn't that the same guy that used to drive us crazy every time we walked into the temple door?

Money, money, money, money, money?

And now he's walking beside me into the temple court.

What's happening here?

You see, you can have the kingdom of God right in front of your face and not be able to see it and not be able to hear it.

Something has to happen to change that and that something is repentance.

Jesus then speaks about the future kingdom and says, "Unless someone is born of the water and the spirit, they will not enter the kingdom of God.

" and I think that means the future kingdom.

So where does our journey into the kingdom begin?

The manifestation of God's presence and power now and the ultimate definition of his kingdom that's coming.

It starts with repentance demonstrated in the waters of immersion.

Why are so many Pharisees unable to see and enter the kingdom of God?

Luke chapter seven, verse 30 tells us plainly and I want you to hear this.

But the Pharisees and lawyers, I'm quoting Luke 7.

30, but the Pharisees and lawyers rejected God's purpose for themselves.

Notice what it says, they rejected.

They rejected God's purpose for themselves not having been baptized by John.

That's a mind-blowing verse.

That somehow when John came preaching with all of the signs of who he was and where he was and what he was saying, they should have been able to discern this is the forerunner of the Mashiach, and yet when he called them to a baptism of repentance, what did they say?

Not necessary.

Not for me.

And Luke tells us that because of that, in rejecting this baptism that John was calling Israel back to relationship with God, the result of that was they rejected the purpose of God for their own lives.

My friends, if a journey towards being a disciple, someone who daily experiences the presence and power of Jesus in their lives in order for God's purpose to be fulfilled in us, begins with repentance, and someone chooses not to repent, then that journey never really begins.

Because that's where it starts with repentance.

But remember, we're talking about the dogma the deity of Jesus and the dogma, the example he set.

So what example did Jesus give us?

Jesus submitted to the baptism of John.

I mean, if you really want to read some of the worst commentary on any topic of the Bible, go study the baptism of Jesus.

I'm not trying to bash people, but it is grasping at straws.

And the reason that most commentators grasp at straws for a definition of what it means to fulfill our righteousness is because they don't listen to Jesus and use the definition of righteousness that he uses.

So what's going on with the baptism of Jesus?

Did Jesus need to repent?

Yes.

No.

Yes.

Now the problem is not the word repent.

The problem is our definition of what that means.

So before you run out and stone me, let me make sure you understand, did Jesus need to repent of sin?

Absolutely not.

But repentance, turning to God, isn't always just about turning away from something bad.

It's turning to the purpose of God for your life.

You know, there's a lot of good things that we have going on in our lives, isn't there?

A lot of things that we can avail ourselves, a lot of things that we can participate in, that in and of themselves are not evil.

they're not inherently evil.

And yet some of us need to repent of them.

What do I mean?

We need to turn to God for a greater purpose.

So why did Jesus submit to a baptism of repentance?

You see, in that act, you are expressing your soul desire to fulfill the will and the purpose of the Father.

Jesus says to fulfill all righteousness.

What is righteousness?

Everything that God gives.

Turning to God, as I said, doesn't just mean turning away from something evil.

It means turning to God to declare a desire to fulfill the will of God.

Jesus entered the waters of immersion in humility to declare that he was submitting himself to fulfill the will of the Father, who being in very nature, God did not consider equality with God, something to be grasped, but emptied himself and took them in the form of a servant.

submitted in this declaration, the spiritual declaration act to say, "Not my will, but yours be done.

" Not my purpose, but yours be done.

What does a bond do.

He does the will of someone else.

And Jesus emptying himself of the prerogative of his own divine nature to become a bondservant is to submit to do the will of the Father.

Are you with me?

And that's what is being declared.

He's not repenting of sin.

He is submitting even his own righteousness, his own deity.

He is submitting all of himself to the purpose of God.

When you and I come to repent, don't you wish it was so noble?

But most of the time that we need to repent, it's because we do need to turn away from that which is evil to let God fulfill his purpose in us.

But Yeshua didn't turn away from sin, but he had to empty himself of his own divine prerogative.

My friends, please hear this.

This is the dogma of discipleship.

It begins with the emptying of ourselves, not just of our sin, but even of our own righteousness.

Ouch.

It begins when who we think we are is not as important as letting God fulfill who he created us to be.

That is repentance.

And that's where discipleship begins.

That is humility.

And that is where repentance or discipleship begins.

You see, that's where all righteousness can begin to have its way even in our lives.

You see, the Pharisees provide a stark portrait, a contrast, the exact opposite of this.

They didn't need to repent in their eyes.

They thought they were already fulfilling God's purpose in their lives.

They were the worst definition of dogmatic.

But here's where the contrast between them and Jesus becomes quite vivid and quite helpful.

Their dogma was about their own righteousness.

And they wouldn't submit to immersion because of their own righteousness.

But look what Jesus did, who being in the very nature, God did not consider equality with God, something to be seized but humbled himself and became a bond servant.

And submitted even his own identity, his own deity, his own will, his own righteousness to God.

because that's what discipleship is supposed to look like.

Is this blowing your mind as much as it blew mine?

He wasn't baptized because he had violated righteousness.

He was baptized because of righteousness.

Wow.

And because of their arrogance, because they would not in humility begin that process, the Bible makes it clear that though the kingdom of God was seen and heard in their presence, they could not see it and they could not receive it.

their journey never began.

We began our journey humbling ourselves because of the lack of righteousness, and Jesus began his ministry humbling in spelf in spite of his perfect righteousness.

So let's move on.

Because there's some more incredible ironies between the Pharisees and Jesus that I want to point out.

The first one is this.

It was their accusation of arrogance against Jesus.

Isn't that interesting?

When everything we know about Jesus was that he did everything in humility, what was their accusation against him?

Arrogance.

When in fact it was their own narcissism, according to the word of God, that made them incapable of receiving the word of God, as we read in Luke 730.

Church, I wanna just, I've said this before from this stage, and I wanna say it again, narcissism is a cancer that kills discipleship.

Discipleship cannot move forward in narcissism.

Narcissism breeds selfishness, which is the exact opposite of righteousness, which is selflessness, and you cannot be a selfless disciple allowing the purposes of God to be fulfilled in your life when all you want is your will to be done.

Pride, arrogance, self-absorption, all of the above.

Jesus said if you are a disciple you are by definition a follower of Jesus, but how can you follow one that you cannot hear?

Jesus said my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me, but narcissism and arrogance and pride and conceit stop you from being able to hear that.

And if you can't hear that, then the journey never begins.

Their accusation is that they recognize Jesus' claim to be equal with God in term.

.

.

Their accusation is that they recognize Jesus' claim to be equal with God in the terminology he uses to describe himself in relationship to God, which is very interesting because Jesus has very few statements where he runs around and says, "I am God.

" It would have been very easy for him to do.

Why didn't he do that?

Because as we've said before, he wants the father to be the one making that testimony.

It's the father's testimony about, he says, if I say it about myself, my testimony isn't valid.

So why is he only saying what the father says and doing what the father does so that it is the father's testimony?

But the Pharisees aren't just responding to that one statement where Jesus says, "I and the Father are one.

" They're responding to the frequent terminology about his relationship between him and the Father.

And my friends, what is discipleship if it is not a relationship?

We are walking with Jesus.

And it is how he describes his relationship with the Father that his identity is best revealed.

And church, please hear this.

It is not the fact that you call yourself a believer or you call yourself a disciple or that you call yourself a Christian that really is the testimony to the world, is it?

'Cause there's a whole lot of people using that terminology.

What is the testimony of a disciple that his presence and his power would become so manifest in my life that people would see his purpose being fulfilled in me.

Why?

So that in the same way, the testimony of the father was seen in the son, the testimony of the son will be seen in me.

It's not what I say about myself, it's what he says about me, what he is doing in me and through me.

Man, I just thought this deity of Jesus stuff something to argue about.

And it's actually the way I'm supposed to be living.

Their accusation is that they recognize that in these relational statements that Jesus makes, He's making himself equal with God, and they want everybody to know how utterly offended they are by that.

But in fact, it's the religious leaders who are representing themselves to be the humble guardians of God's greatness by attacking and accusing Jesus of gross arrogance and idolatry, but in truth it is their arrogance that is keeping them from seeing and hearing.

because Jesus always gives glory to God.

Their second accusation is the accusation of idolatry, making himself equal with God.

Now, that sounds like they're really offended by anybody who would make the claim that anything or anyone would dare to make themselves equal or greater than God.

I mean, how blasphemous and idolatrous can you get, amen?

I mean, that's pretty much the line.

There's really not much past that.

Except that the very ones who are pretending to be so offended by Jesus' claim of equality with God are actually the ones elevating someone or something else over and above God.

And they're the ones committing blasphemy and idolatry.

How do I know that?

John chapter 10, Jesus tells them repeatedly that he's only doing and he only says and does what he sees the Father doing.

So how does their rejection of Jesus make them idolatrous and idolaters and blasphemers?

Well, there's two ways that they respond to Jesus' claim of divinity.

The first one is to declare that Jesus is doing all these mighty works by the power of Satan.

Now, do you remember the conversation with Nicodemus?

Master, we know, we know, that no one could do these things unless God was with them.

Why?

These are things only God can do.

And now the Pharisees have just said, "Oh yeah, Satan can do those things too.

" And he's doing them through you.

Come on church.

Do you just realize how blasphemous that is?

The very ones who are so offended that Jesus would make himself equal with God just made Satan equal with God.

So who's committing idolatry and blasphemy?

Can you say that Satan can empower a man to do the things that only God can do that is idolatry and that is blasphemy?

Ouch.

But they don't stop there.

And that's what the ancient Jewish religious leaders did.

So what do their descendants do?

Well there are descendants who wrote the Mishnah and the Gamara and the Talmud, and I'm not bagging on those, I'm not saying that everything in them is bad.

But they had to come up with an explanation for how Jesus did the miracles that He did.

And there's a couple things you need to know.

The first one is simply this.

Judaism by and large does not deny that Jesus did these things.

I just read a book not long ago written 2002, 2012 by a Jewish scholar who looked at the four gospels and the narrative of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and came to the conclusion that was an absolute historical fact.

And he's not a Messianic Jew.

When you read in the Talmud, They don't go through, hey, these things never happened.

They don't deny that Jesus healed the sick and raised the dead.

Their forefathers decided that it must have been done by the power of Satan, but they have to have a different answer, and so their answer is not that Jesus did these things by the power of Satan, but even worse, that this is the most common answer, that Jesus performed these miracles by the misappropriation of the sacred name of God, that Jesus learned the exact pronunciation of the Yudhe Vavhe and invoked it to perform miracles.

Thus rendering God incapable of controlling the outflow of his own power.

Thus declaring God is not omniscient, he's incompetent.

Come on, church.

That's a nuclear bomb.

If you're gonna reject Jesus, you have to have a lucid reason for how come he could do the things only God can do.

The ancient Pharisees said, blasphemy and idolatrous wise, Satan did him.

He just made Satan greater than God.

And now their descendants are saying, well, Jesus as a mere man learned how to trick God out of his own power.

Literally what they're saying is, Jesus learned how to grab and seize the power of God for himself.

Isn't that interesting?

Isn't that ironic?

Because it's the exact opposite of what he actually did.

He emptied himself of his divine prerogative.

He didn't seize onto the fact that he was God.

was God.

If Jesus is just a man and can confiscate the power of God for his own selfish use, then so can any man alive.

Thus God is not greater than men but must constantly be on the lookout to make sure that man doesn't steal the essence of his power.

Folks, do you understand how idolatrous and blasphemous this is?

Their ancient forefathers made Satan equal to her greater than God and their descendants without thinking about what they're saying are willing to suggest that men can be more wise, more powerful and steal the power of God.

So tell me again who's committing blasphemy and idolatry?

Now folks, my point is not just to beat them up here but to make it very clear for you for anybody else who's watching, especially those from the Hebraic roots background who have started doubting the deity of Jesus who have started moving away from him.

You better have a better answer.

You have to have an answer for how Jesus did these things because to deny that he did them, you might as well just say Abraham Lincoln never lived.

You might as well say the Holocaust never happened.

You might as well just be one of those people that shows intellectual ignorance by denying things that are factually, historically, and scientifically proven, because you better have a better answer than, well, Satan did it, or a mere man did it, or he just didn't do it.

Because this whole thing called Christianity, whole movement, the early church of the Jewish people that formed the early church didn't, this didn't happen because of a rumor about a man who was doing things.

Amen?

Movements based on rumor die.

And this one didn't.

It's kind of ironic that they would accuse him of somehow seizing the power of God.

I just have to sidebar.

It's funny how history repeats itself.

Have you noticed that the people who got most engrossed in the sacred name movement were the first to abandon the deity of Jesus?

Let that simmer for a second.

Well, if I just can figure out how to pronounce the sacred name, then I'm really going to have this connection with God.

Then I'm really going to have this powerful encounter and experience with God.

Does that sound familiar?

That's the Telmuzi accusation against Jesus misusing the name of God for his own selfish purpose.

I just have to throw that out there.

So how does all this really help us?

If Jesus' desire to fulfill the will of the Father begins in this water declaration of submitting his will to the greater purpose of God in this act of humility That's where our journey has to begin as well.

Not with seizing or clinging to our own sin or our own righteousness and my friends, people do both.

In a moment I'm gonna be calling the worship team to come forward and there's some things I want you to begin considering, in fact I'll just invite them to come now.

You see there are people whose journey in discipleship is dead in the water for two reasons, one of two reasons or both.

One is, this journey has to begin in repentance where you let go of sin.

And I know because I've used this paradigm in my own life, oh sin is just so powerful, sin has seized me.

We like that paradigm, don't we?

because if I can just say that sin has seized me, then what, I'm a victim, not a sinner.

Yeah, that hurt just to say it.

But the truth of the matter is, most of the time, it's me seizing my sin.

Because it's my identity.

I'm this because of how I was wounded.

I have a right to do this because of how I was hurt.

I wouldn't know how to cope with that.

Hey, we don't want, you know, shut up, Brent.

Get out of my business.

We don't, you don't want that, do you?

No, no, sin seized me.

Or, or, let's just run this up the flagpole.

Maybe your journey in discipleship is stagnant because you're seizing sin.

Or your journey in discipleship is stagnant because you're seizing your own righteousness.

I'll get to that.

Just as soon as I'm done with this study of the temple and the tabernacle, man, once "I know all that, then I'm gonna know what I need to.

.

.

" Well, I'm gonna learn Hebrew, and then I'm gonna be able to find and mine the mysteries, and then.

.

.

God said, "This is my son, listen to him.

" Jesus, listen, don't misunderstand.

I love the tabernacle.

I love the temple.

I love the times of the Lord.

I even love the Hebrew language, even though it makes spaghetti out of my brain sometimes.

I love all of that context.

But the Father said, "Listen to Him.

" You know, if we'd done that, all of our crazy definitions for why Jesus got baptized probably wouldn't have been so dumb.

Because He told us what righteousness was, and then he told us he did it to fulfill righteousness.

Oh, if we just listened to him, because that's where discipleship begins.

Not just in letting go of my sin, but letting go of my righteousness.

All that I know, all that I've done, everything that I think makes me me so that I can find in His presence, His purpose, and His definition all that He has made me to become.

But it all begins with emptying ourselves and letting go.

And when we do that, and I promise if you're here today and you feel stuck, it's not that you have to go back and get baptized again because you weren't really.

.

.

sometimes, you know, sometimes we just come out of the womb like Esau.

Remember how Esau came out of the womb?

Clutching his brother's heel?

Let it go.

You gotta let it go.

So we're gonna have a song, we're gonna worship now, and we call this a time of response, and I'm gonna invite you to stand.

And as we share this song together, what does the response mean.

It's just a time for you to think these things through and you can sing, you can pray, you need to come down and kneel at the steps and just have some one-on-one with God, that's fine.

If you just kind of come to that place where you realize, you know what, I'm holding on to some things, Lord, and I realize I'm not moving forward.

Some of you need to release some sin, some of you need to release some of this righteousness.

Some of you just need to decide it's time to empty, just kind of sick of me and ready for more of you.

In a couple weeks we're gonna do a baptismal service again, I think the third Saturday of this month.

And some of you may have never called on the name of the Lord Jesus.

You've never invited him into your life to become Lord and Savior and submitted to him.

Some of you have never had that covenant baptism where Acts 2 38 where you lay down your life and say, "Dead to me, alive to you.

" Some of you need to be thinking about maybe signing up for that.

But until that day comes, Empty yourself and you will be filled with all that he is and all that he has for you.

Let's worship.