Discipleship: The Dogma and the Dugma Part 5

Transcript from Part 5 of the sermon series on what is Discipleship: The Dogma and the Dugma

Thank you very very much for your prayers for us and for my father.

He's been in the hospital now for 21 days After much prayer and consultation with my older brother and sister as well as the doctor We've all kind of come to the same conclusion that he is not on a terminal path There's no evidence that his organs are shutting down if that was the case we wouldn't be going But he does have a compound fracture in one of his vertebrae in his neck and he has a neck brace Which is impeding his ability to eat so they've had to put a pegged to in defeat him But he is maintaining and so these things are we kind of waited till the last minute to find out What the doctor was gonna say and my sister came in from Indiana last night And so it having said all that it's still a little nerve-wracking leaving knowing your father is in that condition But knowing that even if the Lord called him home, it's just a temporary Separation that we would see him soon anyway.

So thank you so much for your prayers.

Thank you for your continued concern for Yusef We intend the little boy the four-year-old who had the brain surgery in Jerusalem We do intend as soon as we can get there and because of the delay we were gonna be able to do that this In the next couple days, but now we'll have to wait till the tour group actually comes up to Jerusalem But we most definitively are intending to go and pray over him and lay hands on him And so we covet your prayers for that.

We'll have a lot to share this morning and I just want to jump into it the apostle Paul is nothing if not consistent and focused on central truths of the gospel.

This morning I wanna begin with our theme verse, which from Philippians, which has been serving kind of as our launching pad, as we study the topic of discipleship, but we do it in the context of looking at the deity of Jesus.

And the premise that I've been sharing over and over again, and I think we've got a couple more messages in this before we wrap it up, is that when we look at Jesus' own relationship with who he is as divine.

And then we look at the relationship that he has with the heavenly Father.

Paul in Philippians says, "That's your model for discipleship.

"That's your model for how you walk things out.

" And so we're gonna see that again.

So I just wanna call your attention again to Philippians chapter two, beginning in verse five, where he says, "Have this attitude "or have this mind in yourselves," which was also in Messiah Yeshua.

Jesus the Christ, who although he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied himself taking the form of a bond servant and being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearances of man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.

For this reason also God hath highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name so that the name of Jesus every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth or under the earth and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Now as we continue our series on discipleship we're going to be focusing on the one of the things I've really enjoyed about this series and I don't know if you've enjoyed it but I've enjoyed it because you can't talk about the deity of Jesus and not do a little apologetic work in the prophets, right?

You kinda have to go back and see what they said and then you're looking at what Jesus, we get to look at what Jesus himself said as we're kinda going through the Gospel of John, that's kind of our lab work, and then seeing how Paul has kinda opened this subject to us that the deity of Jesus is not a topic just for theologians to argue about, It's actually the model for how you and I live our lives in him.

And Jesus said, "Seek first the kingdom of God.

" If that process involves me understanding his relationship with the Father and his relationship with who he is as God who relinquished his divine prerogative, I need to spend some time studying that.

And I hope that I've made that case well enough that you are excited about that subject as I am.

Today I want to return to Paul's passionate call that we would have the same attitude or the mind of Christ.

This was not a one and done topic for the apostle Paul.

It was a central recurring message in his writings.

In the second chapter of Paul's first letter to the Church of Corinth, Paul is stressing the role of the Rua Kakodesh, the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer.

And in doing so, he's calling into contrast the life of a person who is lived, who lives their life according to the carnality of their flesh, they're just listening to the flesh appetite, versus the disciple who is listening to the voice of the spirit as the guiding, teaching, instructing, revealing, discerning presence in his life.

He calls the person who is doing the former, he calls that a natural man or a carnal man.

He says that he makes a very critical point that the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God because they're foolishness to him and they can't even understand them because they're spiritually appraised.

I don't like that translation.

They are spiritually discerned.

And let me just throw in here that the word discernment is judgment.

The Greek word is krino.

It's the same thing, all right?

And so discernment is judging correctly and we're either gonna judge by our flesh or we're gonna judge by the spirit of God.

That's how we're gonna live our life.

So we contrast these two.

But listen to what he says in 1 Corinthians chapter two, verse 16, about us.

"For who has known the mind of the Lord "that we will instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ.

The first part of that sentence, Paul is quoting from Isaiah 40, which is very important because Isaiah 40 is gonna begin a series of prophetic passages that's gonna go all the way through to Isaiah 54, and these are what we call the servant of Yahweh or the servant of the Lord prophecies.

It's a very significant portion of scripture filled with much of the prophecies that get quoted in the New Testament are gonna come from Isaiah 40 all the way through to Isaiah 54.

And it's all about the servant of the Lord.

And so it begins, it quotes from Isaiah 40, and it asks this question, "Who has known the mind of the Lord and who will instruct him?

" It's a rhetorical question that basically means nobody.

There's no man that knows the mind of God who's gonna turn around and say, "Hey God, let me teach you something today.

"Let me explain it to you, Mr.

Almighty.

" I've never done that.

You realize every time we complain to the Lord, that's exactly what we're doing.

Let me explain how you can be a better God, God.

Let me just say sidebar, not a good idea.

Just, in the list of ideas, that's just not a good one.

But in a section exalting the greatness of God, Isaiah asked that question.

And this passage, as I said, is the beginning of a process of revealing that there is one who will know the mind of God, and that person is none other than the servant of the Lord.

But this is where it gets a little dicey and a little tricky as you work your way through these prophecies.

Because sometimes the prophecies are indicating that Israel is the servant of the Lord.

And then in other places, it is obviously talking about one that is greater than Israel that is the one that God chose.

And we'll read a passage about that here in a little bit.

But Paul says, follows those words with these five powerful words.

No, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven powerful words.

It's way more biblical.

But we have the mind of Christ.

I want you to think about that for a moment.

Because I don't know about you.

But the first knee jerk flesh reaction that happens in me when I hear that is, no I don't.

Did you hear me yesterday?

Did you see the way I drove?

Did you see my foot tapping in that line?

But Paul says we have the mind of Christ.

We have the the mind of the Messiah in us, because he pours out the Holy Spirit into our lives so that we can understand how he thinks.

And that's the critical thing that is gonna be shown between the son and the father is that they absolutely think and know the same things.

And so the goal then for my life, if I want to know the will of the father, I have to know the mind of Christ.

Let's pray.

To that end, Lord, will you give us a spirit of judgment, of sound mind and discernment to understand and see things in your scriptures that maybe we have overlooked, Maybe we haven't understood.

Help us.

Lord, I can talk, I can ramble, I can literate sentences, but it is your spirit that will be the teacher today.

So I call on him and give all the glory to you.

Let words that are not from you fall like chaff, and let only that which of you remain.

I pray this in Yeshua's name, amen.

So let's see if we can judge correctly today who has the mind of God in the healing of a really cool moment in John chapter five at the pools of Bethesda, at the pools of, at a place called the house of grace, or the house of mercy.

John chapter five is gonna be our playground today.

And so let's turn there.

After these things, there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Now there was in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, a pool which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, Bethesda, having five porticoes.

In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water.

Whoever then first after the stirring up of the water stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.

A man was there who had been ill for 38 years.

When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, he said to him, "Do you wish to get well?

" The sick man answered, "Sir, I have no man "to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up.

"But while I am coming," another steps down before me, "and Jesus said to him, 'Get up and pick up your pallet and walk.

Immediately the man became well and picked up his palette and began to walk.

Now it was the Sabbath on that day.

So Jesus is once again back in Jerusalem at one of the feast.

We're not exactly told which one it is and there are people that make all kinds of you know they try to figure out who you know when it is and that's fine.

You know we can argue and debate about that but you know the Holy Spirit doesn't tell John to identify it, you know, maybe so we can kind of figure it out.

I kind of get a little tickled at the ones who think it's Hanukkah because I mean, if that's the case, these people are really spiritual people.

You know, please throw me in a pool of water in the dead of winter.

Unless it's a hot tub, no.

Just no.

But I don't know which feast it is, but I do know that the Holy Spirit wants us to know that it's one of the divinely appointed times of the Lord, and that seems to be significant in the description of what happens there.

So here's what we know.

There is a pool or a complex, actually of five complexes there of pools, near the Sheet Gate that bears the name Bethesda, which means the House of Grace.

There are many people who are gathered there who are physically infirm in some way, sick, lame, blind, or withered, withered meaning some disability with their limbs.

But why Why are they there?

Well a quick dealing, we have to stop here and deal with a controversy that surrounds this verse.

The verse that in the second half of verse three after it says, "In these lay a multitude of those who are sick, blind, lame, and withered.

" Most of your translations there will be a parenthetical identifier that everything that comes after that in verse three into the end of verse four was not found in the original oldest manuscripts of the Gospel of John.

"Oh, then throw it out!

" Wait.

Because in this parenthetical statement, we get this information that at particular seasons of the year, probably divinely appointed times, the people believed that an angel would come down, stir the water, and if you got in there after that happened, you were made well.

But there are a lot of people who don't want to accept that, and they have, I didn't really realize this until I was teaching on it one day at the pools of Bethesda, and I have a good friend who's a pastor who was adamantly against whether or not that actually was a the historically true thing, but not only that, whether or not it was actually a God thing or a pagan thing.

He even went so far as to suggest that it might be a manifestation of the demonic.

And some are quite adamant about that.

And you know my policy.

If you disagree with me, you can take me out for a steak dinner and tell me all about it.

So let me quickly share with you why I personally have no problem with the addition of that passage and why I think it's actually very helpful.

The first is this, it's a totally Jewish thing to do.

The Jewish addition of notes for clarity in scripture is not at all uncommon.

By the time the Masoretic text was completed, which is the Hebrew Old Testament that your English Bibles are translated from, that doesn't get fully compiled until almost 500 years after Jesus.

And by the time they got done with it, they had added vowel markings so that you could pronounce it, but they had also added notations and explanations.

So a Jewish document with some added notes at some point isn't gonna cause me to freak out.

It's just kind of a common thing.

Though we have not read the rest of the story, once the healing of the man is discovered by the Pharisees, Not one mention of it having occurred at Bethesda is mentioned.

They make no accusations of idolatry against the man, nor do they raise issue with Jesus.

Because sometimes people will tell you, if you go in the commentaries, that this was an ancient pagan site.

That, and by the way guys, this is gonna become an important point.

That this was an ancient pagan site, and therefore because it was pagan in ancient origin, it must be pagan then, except for one thing.

Nobody seems to have a problem with them being there, and they're all Jews.

And they're there during the feast of the Lord.

And not once do the Pharisees have a problem with that.

And if it's a pagan site, what is Yeshua doing there in the first place?

This is gonna get real personal here in a little bit.

So they make no accusations of idolatry against the man, nor do they raise the issue with Jesus.

Thirdly, the Second Temple period had its own form of idolatry as we witness the narcissism in Pride of the Scribes and Pharisees, but it did not have the wanton outward idolatry of the era of the First Temple.

Remember in the era of the First Temple that Solomon built, they put up literal, literal physical idols in the house of God.

There is no history of that in the Second Temple.

In fact, the second temple is probably the most Torah observant generation in the history of Israel.

I mean, you really think the Pharisees would have allowed them to erect an idol in the temple?

No way.

And if this was a pagan site, they're already looking for an excuse to accuse Jesus, and he's hanging around pagan sites?

That's a gimme.

You just put the bullet in my gun for me, if it's a pagan sight.

Am I wrong?

I mean, you just handed your enemy a really good thing to attack you with, and they say nothing about it.

By the way, the gospel spend almost zero amount of time juxtaposing paganism and Judaism.

Wow, I wish we'd learned some lessons from that.

Because that wasn't the issue.

The idolatry of the Second Temple was the internal self idolatry of self righteousness.

It was the idolatry of self that Jesus had to confront.

Idolatry and paganism were not the issues.

Number four, if the Pharisees were so needing to find an accusation against Jesus, his very presence at a place considered pagan would have been a windfall for them.

We already talked about that.

number five, a couple points from logic and common sense.

If nothing ever actually happened where, there, why would people continue to gather there?

The text tells us that the man was lame for 38 years.

It does not say he had come all, they're all 38 years of his condition, but common sense tells us if no one ever actually got healed, people would stop coming.

Come on.

Isn't this amazing when you stop and start thinking a little bit about the story, the stuff that comes out?

Number six, though the man doesn't say why he needs to get in the water, the answer is implied because his comment about getting into the water comes after Jesus asked him if he wants to get well.

And his response is, "Sir, I have no one to put me in the pool when the water is stirred.

" I mean, he's not upset 'cause he's not getting a bubble bath.

Come on.

I mean, he thinks something, and he says it as if he has seen it.

So while verse is not questioned, that parenthetical explanation, I just think there's some time down the road, probably a Jewish believer who understood that the Gentiles weren't gonna fully understand The context added the information.

You can disagree, you can be wrong, it's okay.

Medium well, medium well, just not.

I mean really, it's not a hill to die on, but we need to think about it.

Now can we sidebar for just one more minute about what this man just told us?

This man is not just lame.

He isn't a guy who has a bum leg or a limp.

Someone in that condition could pull themselves along or asked to be placed near enough to the edge of the pool and they could throw themselves in by their own power.

He can't do any of that.

Have you ever thought about that?

I mean, this guy is 100% dependent on somebody else getting him in the water.

Of all those who were there, this guy is utterly helpless and immobile on his own.

And no one was there to assist him.

No one sees him and says, "Hey, that guy really ought to be next in line.

" It's every man for himself.

At a place called the house of grace, the house of loving kindness, this man can't find anyone to show him grace to put his needs above their own.

Amazing what we can learn if we stop and think about the story.

Number seven, finally, there are two other references to the timing of this miracle that matter.

It is a feast of the Lord.

Maybe the stirring of the waters was known to occur at a particular feast, who knows.

Some of those have suggested, as I said, it was Hanukkah, but I think if that's the case, then this would be the original polar bear club, okay?

Secondly, it is a Sabbath.

Now I want you to listen, I need you to hear this.

It's a Sabbath, yet that man still has the expectation that the waters might be stirred on the Sabbath, which means that all these people who were lying there and none of them, of all the people that were lying there, none of them thought it would be a sin to get in the water when it was stirred, even if it was the Sabbath, even if it meant somebody picking them up to get them in.

That sounds like work to me.

Nobody there had a problem with the possibility that on this Sabbath, that is in the context of one of the divinely appointed times, that them getting into the water and being healed on the Sabbath would contextually make them a Sabbath breaker.

I want to be honest with you.

When I ask you, have you ever thought about that?

Don't take that as arrogance, 'cause I never thought about that.

Until you stop and just say, hey, I need to think this through.

Given the people, the condition the people described, and their need, somebody was destined to break the Sabbath to get people into that water.

Yet those who gathered there had no problem expecting a miracle.

Hear me.

A work of God to happen on the Sabbath.

No one objected to the place being pagan.

No one objected to the possibility the water's being stirred on the Sabbath.

In fact, since they were still there on the Sabbath, there wasn't an expectation that it would occur on a Sabbath or a divinely appointed time.

So on that day, in that place, Jesus looks at this man and says, "Rise up, pick up your pallet and walk.

" The living water had been stirred and poured out on the man by the very source of living water himself, Jesus the Messiah.

The one who was from Hashemine, the heavens, where there is water.

And John by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit makes sure that we recognize now it was on the Sabbath on that day.

I always ask my tourists when we are at Bethesda, this question, did Jesus break the Sabbath by healing on the Sabbath?

Most by then, because it's later in the trip, are terrified to answer anything, any question I asked.

And so they just sit on their hands.

But in fairness to the text, the issue here, it is about, we are gonna see a verse that, it is part of it as healing on the Sabbath as breaking the law of God.

But to be honest, in other incidents, the Pharisees make more of that issue than they make it here.

Because in other places, the Sabbath's healing, Remember when Jesus said, "Which of you, if your son or your ox falls into a ditch, that you won't go get him and rescue him on the Sabbath.

" Right?

And so here we are at the pools of grace and Jesus is ready to heal somebody on the Sabbath.

And he doesn't see it as a violation, even though the Pharisees will make him doing the works of God on the Sabbath, a supposed violation of the Sabbath.

So there's two reasons healing on the Sabbath is not a violation of the Sabbath.

The first is that the Sabbath day is a picture of the completion of creation for man.

Sickness is the opposite of man's condition after God created him and placed him in the Garden of Eden.

So all of those infirmities are the result of sin's interest into the world and they're not a part of the original plan of God.

The Sabbath wasn't supposed to be a day when you laid around not being able to see, not being able to hear, not being able to walk, and have all kinds of diseases.

The Sabbath was the day that God created us to be in fellowship with him, in completeness, in fellowship with him.

Jesus said, "I have not come to nullify the law, "I have come to fulfill the law and the prophets.

" The Sabbath healings were intentional, not incidental.

They didn't just happen to occur on the Sabbath.

Jesus intentionally healed in the Sabbath.

in order to reveal and fulfill the actual meaning of the Sabbath.

Okay, it's about to get dicey.

Jesus used the Sabbath to restore people, not to condemn people.

I'm just gonna put that right there for right now.

I'll let you chew on that a little bit.

Number two, the doctrine of Pekouach-nephish, this is Hebrew word that means the preservation of life, that it's the highest moral code in the Torah, even though it doesn't have a specific verse, it was well known that life trumps everything, the preservation of life trumps even the Sabbath.

That's the illustration I was noting.

If your ox or your son falls in a ditch, you go get him.

When Jesus called the Pharisees out on that, He wasn't saying they shouldn't have done it and that's why they were hypocrites.

What he was saying is they're hypocrites because you know that and you do that for your own ox or your own son, but this daughter of Abraham or the son of Abraham who has a withered hand, who has been broken all their lives, you won't let me reach out and preserve their life.

Pekouak, Nefesh, Trump's everything.

Now remember the context of all of this.

We're seeking to understand the mind of Christ.

We're seeking to discern how the Messiah thinks as opposed to the way the carnal man thinks.

And one of the things that we see very, very clearly is that Jesus does not interpret the Torah the way the Pharisees are.

I mean, it's very clear.

Now, knowing that Jesus is fulfilling and not nullifying, let's return to Isaiah as he writes about servant of the Lord.

Behold, this is in chapter 42, "Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights, I have put my spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations, he will cry out, he will not cry out or raise his voice, nor make his voice heard in the street.

A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not extinguish, he will faithfully bring forth justice.

He will not be disheartened or crushed until he is established justice in the earth, until he is established justice in the earth, and the coastlands will wait for his law.

Did you hear that last line?

The coastlands speaking of the Gentiles, speaking of the nations, the Isaiah the prophet declares that those people in those places will wait expectantly, and this is talking about the Messiah, they will wait expectantly for the Torah of the Messiah.

One of the most abused verses in the Hebrew roots movement is, "If you love me, keep my commandments.

" And we don't even know what they are.

Because no one thinks to look at what Yeshua commanded, Please don't misunderstand.

I love the revelation of the Torah of Moses, but the prophets said when the Messiah would come, he would bring the Torah of the Messiah, and it would be so powerful that even the most distant lands would wait and hope for it.

Because in it would be the mind of the Messiah.

Now hear me.

When you find the mind of Messiah, guess what else you're gonna find?

The heart of God.

I have come to the conclusion that we have misnamed the Sermon on the Mount.

If you remember what happened at Mount Sinai when the Lord came down to give the Torah and he rested on the top of that mountain, he opened his mouth and he began to preach, he began to speak the Torah.

Church, that was not a nice sermon.

You know, sometimes I preach really good sermons.

I mean, every new blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while, okay?

Every once in a while, I'll connect.

And my best sermon, two weeks from now, I won't even remember what I said.

What happened at Sinai was not a nice sermon.

It was a transformational moment in the history of Israel and the world.

It was not just a nice sermon.

Well, did you notice how he alliterated all those points?

That was really clever.

The giving of the Torah at Sinai was a transformational moment.

It sanctified a people in true righteousness.

It established a people as the people of God.

It created a kingdom of righteousness seekers.

That's what happens when we seek his Torah.

You see, when Jesus went up and sat down on that mountain in the Galilee and opened his mouth, he didn't just give a nice sermon.

He gave the Torah of the Mashiach.

And he started that Torah right after he said, "Your righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees.

" And then he started teaching Torah, his Torah.

And I'm sorry, I woke up a little cranky today and praying God, don't let me come across as cranky.

But I love the Torah of Moses.

But if you only know the Torah of Moses and you don't know the Torah of Mashiach, you are in serious trouble.

Because we were supposed to wait hopefully, expectantly, for his Torah to come.

Now remember, we're thinking about the mind of Christ, seeking to discern how the Messiah thinks, so that we can think like him, not as the kernel.

So let's continue with this event.

So the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, it is the Sabbath, it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.

But he answered them, he who made me well was the one who said to me, pick up your pallet and walk.

And they asked him, who is the man who said to you, pick up your pallet and walk?

But the man who was healed did not know who it was for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in the place.

Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple.

I'm gonna read that line again.

Afterwards, Jesus found him in the temple.

You know that pagan who was hanging out that pagan place because it used to have an ancient origin of being pagan?

Sorry, I'm not buying it.

First thing this pagan guy did after he got up from the pagan pool was he did the thing he wasn't able to do for 38 years.

He ran to the house of God.

I'm sorry, that ain't no pagan.

I'm not that dumb.

I'm not buying that.

The chance to go in, maybe to a place he'd never even set foot.

So while the Jewish leaders stress, well, I stopped, didn't I?

So afterwards Jesus found him in the temple said, "Behold, you have become well.

"Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you.

" The man went away and told the Jews, meaning the Jewish leaders, that it was Jesus who had made him well.

For this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.

So while the Jewish leaders stressed that it was the Sabbath day, they are keying in on the fact that the man was carrying his mat on the Sabbath.

Later we'll read a verse that they're really upset by both the healing and the carrying of the mat.

And here's where the carnal mind versus the mind of Christ comes into clear view.

And this one may hurt.

You see, Jesus is more concerned about broken people than he is broken commandments.

I'll say it again.

Armashiach, who knows the mind of God because he is the servant of the Lord, is more interested restoring broken people than broken commandments.

That's the mind of Christ.

And I'm asking you, because I know where we've come from.

I've been there too.

Is Is that my heart?

Is that my passion?

Now don't misunderstand, I'm not saying that Jesus doesn't care that we walk in righteousness.

But just get this moment in your mind.

Here are these religious Jewish leaders in the temple of God with a man who is celebrating a moment that he hasn't had for at least 38 years and all they care about is that the guy's got his mat, which is probably his own earthly possessions, the only thing he even owned.

People who cannot walk, move, or do anything else don't own houses.

They own mats.

And rather than celebrating the restoration of life, who told you to do that?

That ain't right.

And just like that, they turned the Sabbath into a weapon.

Do you know what weapons do?

They kill people.

And the Sabbath was about restoring people.

They're so concerned about broken commandments, they don't even care about the miraculous restoration of this broken man.

And they think they are the servants of the Lord.

I come across this when I'm reading documents from anti-missionaries who wanna look at Isaiah 40 through 54 and say that, "Oh, these prophecies don't reflect, "they're not talking about the Messiah, "the servant of the Lord here is that it's actually Israel.

" And you know what, they're right.

Isaiah is going to use the servant of the Lord He's gonna juxtapose what Israel, the congregation of God was supposed to be with what they had become.

So they're not wrong.

There are sections of the servant of the Lord passages that are referring to Israel and who they were supposed to be, but they failed and so that's why God says, "Here's the servant of the Lord that I choose.

" And here's the juxtaposition.

In Isaiah 42, 18 through 20, I won't take time to read it.

Let me just summarize it for you.

God calls the servant of the Lord deaf and blind, accuses them of being led into darkness.

And by the way, when Isaiah prophesies this, they're getting ready to be led into captivity in Babylon.

Why?

Because they were interpreting the Torah so well.

God says, yeah, sure, you're the servant of the Lord.

You're deaf, you're blind, you're in darkness, and you're in captivity.

I don't think that's what God intended for the servant of the Lord.

Notice how that juxtaposes to what Yeshua does.

He opens deaf ears.

He opens blind eyes.

He leads people out of captivity and leads them out of darkness into His marvelous light.

That is the servant.

Who God has chosen?

Isaiah 9-2, the people walking in darkness have seen a great light.

Matthew quotes from Isaiah when he records his gospel, "The land of Zebulun, the land of Naftali, by way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations, the Gentiles, the people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light, and those who were sitting in the land of the shadow of death upon them a light has dawned.

" As I said before, most of these prophecies that are quoted in the Gospels come out of this servant of the Lord's section that we're talking about.

So what is revelation?

Revelation is Holy Spirit discernment and judgment.

It is the ability to receive what God has revealed.

That is light that has dawned, the eyes that have been opened, the mind that begins to understand the Torah of the Messiah.

And begins to understand the heart of the Father that his passion is the restoration of broken people.

And he never intended for his commandments to be weaponized.

You see, this is why I keep saying, and you need to, I'm gonna keep saying it 'cause I need to make sure we all are on the same page.

And if you're not on the same page, that's fine.

But my discussions with the leadership, this is where we're at.

This is a Sabbath congregation.

This is not a Saturday versus Sunday congregation.

The Seventh Day Adventists used to teach, I think they still do, that if you go to church on Sunday, you've taken the mark of the beast.

No, you haven't.

That is one of the worst case scenarios of weaponizing Bible prophecy and misrepresent literally nullifying the meaning of the very verses they're using to justify it.

I'm not beat, there's a lot, I've had friends in the seven day Adventist movement, they're good people.

But that doctrine, that ain't us.

Are you with me?

That ain't us.

The Torah of Yeshua is not that you can take the Sabbath and judge the people who are going to go, because let me tell you something.

I grew up in the Sunday church and I watched the Holy Spirit, When I started hearing about the Hebrew roots, suddenly Sunday was pagan.

Apparently the Holy Spirit didn't get your memo.

Because I have a lifetime of personally bearing witness watching the Holy Spirit restore lives, restore marriages, heal bodies, call people out of sin and darkness, redeem them, restore them, and tell them, "Take up your mat and walk.

" But the origins, it didn't seem to matter to Jesus at the house of grace did it.

So what do you love?

Trying to fix all the broken commandments in someone's life or caring about broken people?

Who are we going to be church?

We're in a series on discipleship.

We're, do I have the mind of Christ on this topic?

Or do I have the mind of the Pharisees?

'Cause the mind of the Pharisees condemns, weaponizes.

Mind of Christ is, yeah, this place isn't perfect, but man, I love you people.

Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and let me give you rest.

The Pharisees are agitated about two things.

He healed on the Sabbath and telling the man to take up his mat and walk.

Jesus knowing that they were irritated, decided to pray best to make an exit.

Nope.

He didn't decide to double down.

and he decided to triple down.

But he answered them.

My father is working.

He just gotta love Jesus.

I mean, if you're a friend, if you've ever been there watching a friend dig themselves in deeper, and you just wanna grab and say, dude, no, no, no, not now.

Listen to what Jesus says.

My father is working until now, and I myself am working.

And this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him.

They were just perching him.

Now they want to kill him because he was not only breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God his own father, making himself equal with God.

Why is that the only interpretation the Pharisees ever got right?

It amazes me when people come around and say, "Well, Jesus never claimed to be God.

" The Pharisees understood exactly what he was saying.

And it makes, do you understand what Jesus said?

You're right, busted.

You caught me dead to rights.

I am working on the Sabbath.

Oh, and by the way, so is my father in heaven.

So if I'm a Sabbath breaker, come on, now is it dawning?

Now is there some revelation?

If I am working on the Sabbath, and my father is working on the Sabbath, you just called God a commandment breaker.

So who really has the mind of God and of Christ?

The Torah of Messiah reveals the heart of the Father.

Does he want us to obey his righteous instructions, the revelation that we get from the Torah?

Of course.

But those who claimed that that is what they were doing were not fulfilling the commandments when they made the day more important than the person the day was created to serve.

As I said, some have claimed Bethesda was a pagan place.

The house of grace was a pagan place.

Jesus showed up anyway.

And tomorrow, in spite of what a lot of people think about people who gather together with their families to worship the Lord on the first day of the week, with all of the evidence they think they have of its pagan origins, the Holy Spirit is going to show up in this place tomorrow and minister to those people just like He's ministering to us today, because that is the mind of Christ and the heart of God.

Jesus goes on and says, "Therefore, Jesus said, 'Truly, truly I say to you, the Son of man can do nothing of himself unless it is something he sees the Father doing.

For whatever the Father does, these things the Son also doesn't like manner.

For the Father loves the son and shows him all things.

Remember, mind of God, mind of Christ.

Shows him all things that he himself is doing and the father will show him greater works than these so that you will marvel.

For just as the father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the son also gives life to whom he wishes.

For not even the father judges anyone, but he has given all judgment to the son so that all will honor the son, even as they honor the father, he who does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him.

Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my word, may I paraphrase, my Torah, and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

You know, verse 18, or verse 19, when Jesus says, I can do nothing of myself, there are many people who misinterpret this and they think that this is Jesus, that this is some kind of an admission of deficiency when in reality it is a declaration of his deity.

I like that sentence.

I liked it when I wrote it 'cause I knew it wasn't mine.

It's almost say it again.

This is not an admission of deficiency, it is a declaration of his deity.

Who can know the mind of God?

Who can do the things of God exactly as the Father does them?

Who has the authority over life and death?

Who can give life as the Father gives life?

Who is perfect in judgment and perfect in righteousness?

Only the one who does know the mind of God, the servant of Yahweh, Yeshua Hamashiach.

This is, of course he doesn't do anything of himself.

Why?

Because he and the Father are one.

This isn't deficiency, this is deity.

This is relationship.

And this is what you and I are called to as disciples.

To have and to know the mind of Christ.

How is that even possible?

Because Messiah ascended to the right hand of the Father and poured out the Ruachakotish, the spirit of His holiness into us so that He could teach us the Torah of Messiah.

That we could look at what Jesus said, we could watch what Jesus did, and we could learn to be one with Him as He is one with the Father.

The Pharisees knew exactly what he meant when he claimed God was his father.

They knew exactly what he meant when he said he and the father were working on the Sabbath to restore people.

They knew exactly what it meant for him to say that he had the power over life and death.

They knew exactly what he meant when he said that the one thing they got right is that he was equal with God.

Why is this so important?

because how can we be the servants of the Lord?

Do you remember our theme verse?

Have your attitude, have this mind in you that was in Christ who humbled himself.

And what did he do?

He took the form of a servant.

What is Paul telling us?

Jesus is the servant of Yahweh.

And He calls us to know Him so that we can live like Him.

Worship team, you can come back.

Looks like they're going to anyway.

That's when they bring the crook out to drag you off.

If we're ever gonna become the sanctified people who walk in the righteousness, the Father would choose.

If we're ever gonna become established the people of God and a light to the nations in Israel, if we're ever going to become the kingdom of God and His righteousness that He died to bring forth in life, then we must become the servant of the Lord that He would choose.

A generation that will see even greater things than these.

and we pursue Him as the congregation of God.

Later, Isaiah will refer to Israel as the witness of God.

And Jesus will tell his disciples as he sends them into the nations, "You shall be my witnesses.

" Do we have the mind of Christ?

If you've ever caught yourself weaponizing the Torah using the Sabbath to do something that was never intended to do.

God still loves you.

A lot of times on Sunday morning when I was growing up I heard people weaponize grace.

We all make mistakes.

What has to happen is for us to say You know what, Lord?

It's time for me to know the Torah of Yeshua, to think like Him, and how I see myself, how I see others, and collectively, churchward a crossroads.

We're growing.

God's doing good things.

Who are we gonna be as a Saturday church?

Will we fulfill its prophetic picture and be a place of restoration and life and healing to the glory of God the Father?

Transcript in Spanish