Discipleship: The Dogma and the Dugma Part 3

Transcript from Part 2 of the Sermon Discipleship: The Dogma and the Dugma

Good morning church.

It's good to be with you this Sabbath morning, Shabbat Shalom to all of you, and I mean that genuinely.

I wish you Sabbath peace.

I pray that God has been moving in your life this week, and if this hasn't been a great week of peace for you, it hasn't been extremely peaceful for us.

My father fell Monday night, Monday night, Monday night and laid on the floor for 12 hours before they found him and he's been in the hospital all week and they're moving him today we appreciate your prayers for him so that doesn't exactly say I just kind of flip that in there for a prayer request that doesn't exactly make for a peaceful week but for whatever whatever it's been my hope and prayer is in this morning at this time it's a a season of peace for you.

Just being around the body of Christ, being in His presence and worship, I pray that this will be a significant moment in your life.

Well, we are gonna jump right in really quickly, continuing our study on discipleship, but doing it looking through two lenses.

The dogma of the deity of Jesus, meaning the doctrine.

What does the Bible reveal about who Jesus is as Emmanuel as God with us.

But then the dogma, which is just a Hebrew word, which means example, what do we learn from his example in the relationship that he has with his own identity as the son of God, but also in relationship to the father?

Now here's the irony of this.

The more Jesus revealed who he was and what was in him, the more it exposed what was in men, even among those who claim to be the disciples and followers of Jesus.

And I want you to know today as we dive in to explore how the deity of Christ teaches us to be disciples of Christ, this is a message, this is a series that can only actually fulfill itself in your life If you are willing to ask yourself some very tough and honest questions, does my walk with the master look like his walk with the father?

Will you pray with me?

I'm a father, we are so thankful for our little ones today, even though we didn't get a chance to welcome a new one into our fellowship and into this world, we are still grateful for them and grateful for those that are on their way, and we pray blessings on them today.

And Father, we come as children of yours and ask that you would give us a childlike faith to open our hearts and minds, and just as children learn from day to day, from week to week, Father, even those of us who have been on the planet for many years, would you treat us like children today and teach us your ways, and may we have the childlike faith to receive what your spirit has to say to those who will hear.

I pray this in Yeshua's name, amen.

So we're gonna jump right into our first point about the revelation of the deity of Jesus.

And I wanna talk to you this morning about that dogma as it's revealed in three incidents in the life of Jesus.

And so far I'm loving this study for me personally because it's forcing me to go back and look at some incidents, some moments in the life of Yeshua and kind of see them through a different lens.

The first one we've already talked about is of Jesus when he first meets Nathaniel.

You remember in John chapter one, the first four men to become the disciples of Jesus at the conclusion of John chapter one, that whole process begins and it's an amazing moment.

It kind of ends with Nathaniel.

And I simply cannot overstate how that moment, the significance of that moment is, in unveiling the story of Jesus and his identity as the Word made flesh.

This moment between Jesus and Nathaniel is not just a simple, hey, this is how Nathaniel met Jesus.

It's not a sidebar to the story.

It's actually a very significant part of the story because it's going to establish a precedent and a theme that John is going to carry out.

And I kinda wanna show you what that is.

This moment is gonna establish a storyline that of two things that are critical to the whole gospel.

One that we've been talking about, the revelation of Jesus as divine as God, and the revelation of men as one of two things, disciples or defectors.

This moment really establishes these plot lines for the gospel.

Now do you remember how it started?

Two of John the Baptist disciples were standing there and they took note of whom John pointed out to be the Messiah and they went and they asked if they could follow Jesus and one of them was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter.

And so after he follows him, Andrew goes and finds Peter or Simon and brings him to Jesus and then Jesus expands Simon's identity and calls him Peter.

Then the next day, Philip, who was from the same city as Peter and Andrew, Philip is probably the second of those two men that first heard John the Baptist speak about Jesus, Philip finds his brother, Nathaniel, and tells him, hey, we have found the one that was written about in the law and the prophets.

And so Nathaniel obviously is going to go see, and as soon as they tell him, yes, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus, Nathaniel says something.

He says, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

" Now, I don't know how you interpret this moment.

Maybe it's because I'm kind of snarky.

I assume that Nathaniel is also being kind of snarky.

Is that kind of how you've seen it?

I think we need to owe Nathaniel an apology.

Now, first of all, it is a snarky comment, but it may be more than that.

Is he really just being snarky?

Or is Andrew expressing a frustration about the spiritual condition of the people of Nazareth?

It makes me ask the question, what is Nathaniel, we'll just call him Nate, what does Nate know about the people and the spiritual condition of Nazareth that I don't know.

Andrew seems to be aware that there are problems in Nazareth, and I don't think it's just because it's a small village.

Remember, this is Jesus' hometown.

This is where he grows up.

This is a place where very shortly after that he will go to his home synagogue with people who knew him.

They will open the scriptures, he will read from the scroll of the prophet, he will say the good news that the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled in their midst, that's really good news, and what do they want to do?

They want to take him out to a cliff and throw him off.

Is Nathaniel being snarky or is Nathaniel being accurate?

Nate knows something about the spiritual condition of the people that we really haven't taken time to think about and It's really interesting how this all sets up because the whole story of Nathaniel starts by Nathaniel saying that he knows something Or expressing something about what's going on in Nazareth and the minute he meets Jesus the story shifts to Jesus telling him What he knows what's going on in him Interesting how that works.

Nathaniel approaches and Jesus says to him, "Before Philip called you, "when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.

" Now there's a whole lot of in-between information we don't have.

There's obviously been discussions between Andrew and Simon and all these people talking in root to Jesus.

Hey, this is what John the Baptist said And yet suddenly when Jesus says to him, "Hey, before Philip called you, "I saw you under the fig tree.

" And Nathaniel blurts out, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God.

"You are the King of Israel.

" And as I shared before, that's not a compliment.

That is a declaration of who Jesus is.

He doesn't say a compliment would be, "You are a Son of God.

" Ah, you're a mensch, you're a saddique, or righteous again.

No, he says you are the Son of God.

And he didn't say you are a king of Israel.

He said you are the king of Israel.

This is not just a compliment.

This is one of those heaven helped me understand something moments.

Jesus then tells him, because I said, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe?

You will see greater things than these.

And he goes on to tell him that he is going to see the heavens open and the angels ascending and descending, serving the Son of Man.

Disencounter establishes a prominent plot line or theme in the Gospel of John that John is going to use, not only to show us the deity of the Messiah, but to reveal who really are the disciples of the Messiah.

Jesus uses Nathaniel's comment about what's going on in Nazareth, as I said, to show that Jesus knows what's going on in Nazareth.

And thankfully, it's a lot better than what's going on in Nazareth.

Because Jesus sees him and says, "Behold, an Israelite indeed," excuse me, "in whom there is no deceit.

" Again, maybe we ordinate an apology for just assuming his comment was just snarky.

Because when Jesus sees him and decides to commentate on what's going on in him, if Nathaniel It was just filled with snarkiness and a condescending attitude.

A judgmental attitude.

Would Jesus have said, "Huh, this is what an Israelite is supposed to look like.

A man in whom there is no deceit.

" You see, my interpretation of Nate and Jesus' interpretation of Nate are not the same thing.

So how does all this happen?

How does he see him?

How does he know him?

My friends, this is God knowledge.

This is a knowledge of a human being that only God can have.

Because only God can see where every human being is on the planet.

Only God can know the reality of the truth of a man's character.

By revealing what was in Nathaniel and who he truly is, Jesus revealed the truth about his own identity because he did something in that moment.

He never met him.

This isn't the same thing as Nathaniel's interpretation of what's going on with the people in Nazareth because he knows the people in Nazareth.

Apparently Jesus hasn't met Nathaniel and yet he knows him.

And the Gospel of John is gonna use this paradigm of the God knowledge of Jesus throughout the Gospel.

So that's the first story.

The second story in John chapter two is the first miracle of Jesus, the wedding in Canaan.

And you know the story, Jesus goes to attend a wedding and his mother Mary, Miriam is there.

And so let's, I want you to kind of slow down and I want you to think through some of the back story of this.

Obviously, this is a close family friend because Mary and Jesus are taking time.

I mean, think about what's going on in Jesus' life.

He's the Messiah.

He's got a whole lot of supernatural and amazing things to do, but he takes time to join his mother and go to this wedding.

Guys, that just screams close family friends.

Mary comes to Jesus because they've run out of wine.

And stop again for a moment and think about what that means.

Do you remember what we learned about Joseph and Mary when they presented Yeshua on the eighth day after he was born in the temple?

Do you remember what we learned through the giving of the two Turtledove offerings?

Leviticus chapter 12 verse eight is the law that allows for the poor of the poor instead of bringing a normal animal like a lamb for sacrifice to bring two turtle doves.

That means even the extremely poor can bring an offering.

And that is the offering that Joseph and Mary bring when it's time to dedicate Jesus to the Lord and the temple.

Can I ask you a couple questions?

Who do rich people socialize with?

Rich people.

Who do poor people socialize with?

Me.

(audience laughs) No.

With other poor people.

You don't see poor people on the guest list at Trump Tower or wherever.

I'm trying to think of some rich guy.

Sorry if that one offends you.

Elon Musk, whoever.

It's kind of common knowledge, isn't it?

That rich people socialize with rich people and poor people socialize with poor people.

So what does that say about who these people are that Jesus and Mary have gone to their wedding?

Are they rich people?

If they were rich people, they wouldn't have run out of wine.

Come on.

It's amazing how much the story tells us when we think about it.

And if they weren't close family friends, Mary would just go to Jesus and say, "We're out of here, they are out of wine, "I don't know who these people are, "they do not know how to throw a shen dig.

" Mary takes this personally and goes to her son, says, "Jesus, do something.

" There's a whole lot of concern and compassion for this family.

They don't want them, she doesn't want them to be embarrassed.

And that's wonderful, but the problem is, this puts Jesus in a very awkward situation.

He was not apparently ready to fully reveal himself as being God in the flesh.

It was gonna be a progressive revelation.

But now his own mother was asking him to do something on behalf of someone else, on behalf of poor people who didn't want their wedding celebration to be an embarrassment.

And so what did the divine son of God, Emmanuel, the very one that Nathaniel said, "You are the son of God, the king of Israel, who had his own agenda.

" What did he do in that moment?

He put his agenda aside to serve.

Who did not consider equality with God, something to be grasped, but taking the very nature of a servant.

Is this making you rethink the story?

You understand?

I'm liking this because it's forcing me to rethink this.

And seeing this as an even more amazing moment than I've ever really realized.

Do you realize that the first miracle of Yeshua was putting the needs of the poor ahead of His own personal revelatory plan?

Saving a poor family from embarrassment was cause enough for Him to step outside of His own agenda for just a moment.

Now did he use that to fulfill his purpose?

Of course.

But the heart, the dogma, the example of Jesus, it's amazing.

It's amazing how Jesus is showing his deity, but he's also showing us how to be disciples.

Others come first.

Compassion, generosity, righteousness, overrule, personal agendas, and personal preferences.

Did everybody love the music and the worship in here today?

Don't answer that.

Because I can guarantee you there's at least one that didn't.

There's a sage preacher from the group of churches that Tanya and I grew up in, and when he was in his mid-80s, he made this statement.

He said, "You know, if I walk out of a worship service "and I loved everything about the worship, "that means someone else got left out.

" In fact, he tells the story of how he walked out.

It was too loud, it was too rock and roll, it was whatever.

And then the Lord kind of touched his heart and he turned around and went back in.

Because he realized what wasn't meeting his need was probably meeting somebody else's in that moment.

Do you know how many agendas have absolutely destroyed the unity of the body of Christ?

Come on.

But what did Jesus do?

I can take time from my agenda to meet someone's need.

Even if it's just to keep them from being embarrassed.

Look at that.

John records the end of this encounter by telling us how it affected the disciples.

In John chapter 2 verse 11, he said that this was the beginning of signs that Jesus did in Galilee and he manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him.

You could translate the disciples, put their faith in him.

The disciples entrusted themselves to him or in him.

And in this miracle, they saw exactly what Jesus had told Nate they were going to see greater things than these.

But what did they see?

They saw the glory of God.

They saw exactly what the prophets said they would see, Emmanuel, God with us.

This is maybe just a little bit of a sidebar, but in Haggai chapter 2, verse 9, it's one of the multiple prophecies that indicate that the Messiah had to come before the destruction of the first temple.

Because Haggai prophesies that the glory of the coming temple after Solomon's would be greater than the first.

But when Herod remodeled the second temple, it was bigger, it was more ornate.

It had more gold and more silver.

And some would say, especially in Judaism, that that qualifies as the fulfillment of the prophecy.

But since when does God give a rip about gold and silver?

When the disciples were standing on the Mount of Olives looking across at the temple, did How did Jesus, they were marveling at the great facade.

How did Jesus respond to that?

He's, oh, you're right.

It's the silver and the gold that makes that place holy.

If that temple was more glorious than the first one, how do we explain the fact that the Talmud teaches that there were five things that were not in that second temple?

The Ark of the Covenant, the priestly Urim and Thumen, the Shikhainid glory of God, the Holy Spirit, and miracles, five things that were in the first temple that were not in the temple during the days of Yeshua.

And you're gonna call that the greater temple?

So how was the prophecy fulfilled?

The glory of the Lord always speaks of the presence of the Lord.

And the glory of the Lord returned to his house in a greater manifestation of the presence of God, than Israel had ever experienced because the word became flesh and literally walked and dwelt among them, and his glory was greater than anything Israel had ever experienced.

The first miraculous sign occurred because Jesus chose to serve the poor, and yet in doing so he revealed who he truly is.

My friends, how we serve and why we serve will reveal who we really are.

And it will reveal whether or not we are a disciple or it will expose the fact that we are a potential defector.

The third deity revelation moment that I wanna speak to you about today from John is what I call the Passover Purge.

John chapter two, 13 and following.

Jesus entered the temple courts and finds them selling livestock for sacrifice and Jesus made a whip and drove out the animals, not the people.

Jesus never laid a whip to a man's back.

He drove out the animals and overturned the table to money changers.

And he tells them, get those things out of here for my father's house shall be a house of prayer.

Now the Jewish leadership is shocked by such a brazen act and demand that Jesus do a sign to validate his authority to do such a thing.

Now can we stop for just a moment?

If a crazy person comes into the temple and starts doing, do you think it was the normal protocol if someone were to come in and do that to just stand there and let them do that and then go to them and ask for a miraculous sign?

No.

You stop them.

Why didn't they stop him?

Backstory, they already knew who he was.

Okay, remember, the Gospels are kind of like a movie.

They condense a period of time.

The Jewish leaders knew who this guy was.

They knew he had disciples, they knew he was functioning as a rabbi, they knew that what he was doing was a zealous act of righteousness.

That's why no one stopped him.

But then they followed up, said, "Okay, you're gonna act like this, give us a sign.

prove your authority.

Now I want you to think about how huge this request is because they're literally asking him to do a sign while they are in the temple of God.

And Jesus says, "Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days.

" They retort it, took 46 years to build this temple.

And John clarifies that Jesus was speaking of the more glorious temple of his own body.

Now think this through with me.

What has Jesus just declared?

He has declared that he is the more glorious temple than the first or second.

He is the fulfillment of Haggai chapter two, verse nine, because he has brought the glory of the Lord back.

Remember John chapter one?

The word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we did what?

We saw his, say it with me, glory.

You didn't say it with me, but I love you anyway.

The temple is the house of the Lord.

It's the house of God.

And Jesus has also just referred to it as my father's house.

You know, he could walk into any little home in Capernaum or whatever, and he could make that, oh, this is my father's house.

No one would say a word.

He walked into the house of God, where the spirit of God, where the dwelling of God was supposed to be, and he says, this is my father's house.

What did he just say?

I'm the son of God.

He just affirmed exactly what Nathaniel had declared about him.

So why is all this important and why does Jesus act this way?

And how does it help us?

My friends, please hear this.

Men and women will always attempt to destroy the place where God's glory dwells.

I'm gonna read again.

Men and women of every generation, there will be those who attempt to destroy the place where God's glory dwells, and Jesus showed us his zeal and his passion for that.

But this story doesn't end with a Passover purge, it ends with a revival.

John chapter 2, verses 23 through 25.

Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in his name, observing the signs he was doing.

doing.

Yay!

Not so fast.

But Jesus on his part was not entrusting himself to them for he knew all men.

And because he did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for he himself knew what was in man.

Did.

.

.

Call me crazy, but that's God knowledge.

The section ends with another revelation and statement about the Messiah's divine knowledge.

The good news is, some were coming and believing in His name.

The bad news is Jesus knew that some of those who looked like disciples were soon to become defectors.

He knew all men and he knew what was in man.

We are just a few chapters away from John chapter six, verse 66, where we will read, and many turned and followed him no more.

If they followed him, if they were following, they were disciples.

They might have even defined themselves as disciples, but disciples became defectors when they were more interested about what was in them than what was in him.

Have you taken note how much emphasis John's gospel is placing on Yeshua's God knowledge?

I saw you, Phil or Nathaniel.

I knew where you were.

I know who you are.

All the crowds, oh, it could be so easy, get swept up.

Hey, this thing's really working out, I'm getting a big crowd.

And Jesus says, you know, I'm not throwing myself into that mosh pit just yet.

Because some of them are gonna drop me.

So let's go to our theme verse.

Paul writes in Philippians chapter two, having this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God, something to be grasped, but he 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 death, even death on a cross.

For this reason also God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name.

So the name of Jesus, Yeshua, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and under the earth, heaven on earth and even under the earth.

Notice that Paul calls us to have the same attitude that was in Messiah.

The word attitude is a bit of a challenge for us because in truth the word comes from a word that means to understand or to think.

It comes, that's the verb form.

The noun form friend means your heart, your mind or thought.

Attitude is not a bad translation.

It's just difficult for us in English to find one word that captures the totality of what we are being asked to do.

This is not just an attitude.

This is my heart.

This is my mind.

This is how I think.

Paul is saying, God knowledge changes your life.

It's not just an attitude.

Well, I'm gonna try to be nice today.

That's not what we're talking about here.

We're talking about a transformation of your heart, your passion, your mind, your entire thought process.

And so when Paul says that, it's kind of tough.

But you know, the truth of the matter is, even in the Torah, in the Vahavta, we're told to love the Lord, our God with all our heart, with our soul, with all our might and strength.

Even the Torah could not define the breadth of love that we're supposed to have for the Lord with one easy word.

I mean, it's the love that we're supposed to have is vast.

And before Paul gets to call, but before Paul gets that call though, he has already laid a groundwork for how that disciples life looked before he even says this.

because in Philippians chapter two verse one, he says, "Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Messiah, if there is any consolation of love, is there any fellowship of the Spirit, if there is any affection or compassion?

" This is a rhetorical question.

Do those things exist in Christ?

Yes.

Paul knows that.

And he follows up based on that.

If you already know that you have discovered in Christ encouragement, consolation of love, fellowship of the spirit and affection and compassion, then make his joy complete by doing what?

Being of the same mind, the same love, the same spirit, the same purpose.

Listen, this is a first century Jewish rabbi reading these things, and if you read that sentence and your brain doesn't kinda, the Vah Haftah doesn't kinda kick in your thinking, The cadence is very, very similar.

Does he have the right to ask this of us?

And if so, based on what?

And the answer is yes, because that is the pattern Yeshua lived out in relationship to the Father and in relationship to who He was.

Now think about the dugma of Jesus and His relationship with His Father.

Remember the point that I've been making that is one of the central themes of the Gospel of John is that repeatedly Jesus says, "I'm only doing what I see the Father doing.

"I'm only saying what I hear the Father saying.

" He has completely set any potential agenda he might have in human form aside to do the will of the Father.

Let me just simplify it with this.

Messiah has the mind of God.

By the time he gets to John chapter 10, he will phrase it this way, "I and the Father are one.

" He is one in deity, he is one in identity, He is one in purpose.

The one who was with God is God.

And that unity determined everything Jesus said and did.

So let me go back to my question.

Does Paul have the right to ask us to be one?

Having the same mind, same love, same spirit, same purpose.

And the answer is yes.

And where do I look to find the dukema of that?

Jesus and the Father.

Remember the very first message in this series?

I said, we're gonna take this dogma of the deity of Jesus that people like to fight about and show how relevant it is right now.

Right now to how you walk out those doors this day, this doctrine matters because of the example of Jesus.

We.

.

.

Paul writes in Philippians that we need to do the same thing.

How?

By having the mind, heart, and thoughts of Jesus.

And that is what reveals us, my friends, as a passionate disciple or exposes us as a potential defector.

Notice that Paul asked us to be passionate about the same thing Jesus was zealous for, the house of God, the place where his glory dwells.

Because as I said before, there will always be people who want to destroy the place where God's presence and glory dwells.

And that's why he's calling us to live out the example of Christ and the Father.

Because there is no collection, no body, no congregation that doesn't struggle with people running their own agendas.

Please, I'm not saying this because we have some secret issue in the background that we're wrestling with, if not today, someday.

Because we kind of know what's in a man now too.

The flesh rises up and wants to be seen, wants to be important.

You show up with your drum and say, no, no, this is the drum.

Sabbath, Sabbath, Sabbath.

Church, church, church.

Feast, feast, feast.

Hymns, hymns, hymns.

Hebrew, Hebrew, Hebrew, have I made the point?

And none of those things, any of them themselves are not worth discussing.

But when Yeshua had his agenda, what did he do?

The needs of a poor family who are about to be embarrassed was more important than his agenda and his preference.

Wow.

Let me wrap up.

So how does this happen?

tells us do nothing from selfish or empty conceit but with humility of mind regard one another is more important than yourselves do not literally merely look out for your own personal interest but also for the personal interest of others.

He has every right to say that because that's exactly what Jesus did for us.

So Let's just remember a few things we've learned as we wrap up.

I want you to remember those words.

I saw you under the fig tree.

Some people say that that's a euphemism or a figure of speech for, he saw Nathaniel studying the Torah or the word of God.

Okay.

But Jesus knew where he was, and I ask you to listen to me.

Some of you need to know that Jesus sees where you are.

And some of you are under fig trees studying the Word of God, and some of you are under the weeds.

Life gets overwhelming, relationships, finance, and you just need to know that Yeshua is God, and He has God knowledge, and He sees where you are.

And that means he actually knows what's really going on in your life.

Secondly, I want you to remember that phrase, "A true Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit.

" Jesus didn't just know where Nathaniel was physically, he knew where he was spiritually.

He just saw a man on the inside, and he knew what was truly there.

A man living his life with genuine integrity, seeking the things of God.

A man who didn't use deception and wasn't fooled by deception.

A man who wasn't doing things out of selfish envy or empty conceit.

A man who was pursuing, wanted to find the Messiah.

My friends, when Paul calls us to have the mind of Christ, He is calling us to what the Lord called Israel to be from the beginning, a true Israelite indeed.

A genuine disciple of this glorious God who is revealing himself.

Paul writes, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition "or vain conceit.

"Don't use deception to prop yourself up "because you may fool us.

" But you're not gonna fool him.

because he knows.

And for some of us that's really good news and for others it's caused to get a little nervous.

Yeshua was passionate about protecting the place where God's glory dwells and Paul calls us to do the same and I wanna ask you today, is that part of your passion?

As a preacher I have watched people come and go from different congregations I've been in And sometimes they leave gracefully and sometimes they don't.

But my dad taught me something that has stuck with me.

If you truly believe the body of Christ, the church is the bride of Christ, then you and I need to understand that how we treat one another is how we are treating the bride of Christ.

And I'll tell you, I will remain as spiritual a man as I can possibly be, but you cross my bride and you're gonna get a different brint.

My bride is my passion.

And how we treat one another.

Here.

I'm asking you, do you have that?

And, look, I'm full of big fluff, okay?

I'd probably tell him, you stop that.

But I'm preaching, so I'm making myself look good.

Anyway, I'm deceiving you.

But my passion for the bride is no deception.

And when we start doing things out of selfishness for us, he sees it, he knows it, and the question is do we?

So what makes us different?

Worship team, you can come back.

What makes us different?

The Torah taught us instructions in righteousness.

Our mind and our heart attached to it and we said, "That's truth and we need to change.

" But Messiah puts the spirit of His holiness within us and He changes our heart.

He transforms our mind.

Our thinking becomes His thinking because His Spirit of holiness, what the Torah cannot do is it cannot conform me to the image of Christ.

It cannot transform me by the renewing of my mind.

I need the Ruach Ha kodesh.

I need the Holy Spirit within me to do that.

And that's why Peter on the day of Pentecost said, "Repent and be baptized.

every one of you in the name of Jesus, why, for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Because in a covenant moment with Jesus, you set your agendas aside.

You set your preferences aside.

You set your purposes aside.

become one with Christ.

And when you become one with Christ, He puts His Holy Spirit within you to conform you and transform you and renew you in the image of His Son.

And then, as the Son had the mind of the Father.

Now we have the mind of Christ.

Amen.