INTRO:
Hey everybody. Thanks for listening to All Things. I'm Julius Obregon and I produce and co-host this show. We're gonna do something a little different for this episode. As we prepare for our next series today, we're excited to share a sermon from our very own Wil Ryland. Wil, as you may know, is one of the co-hosts of All Things and the director here at Shema Center for Christian Formation.
But on top of all that, he's a preacher. If you were to talk to him, you'd soon find out that he understands all of his roles as an extension of that vocation and calling as a preacher. The following is a recording from coastline church here in California. They've got the audio and video on their website as well, which will include a link to in the show notes.
But we thought it'd be helpful to share it all with you here. It's a sermon that will preached back in March as part of a series called why Jesus and I'm excited that you listeners get to hear will preach in a way that our podcast format doesn't always make possible. We hope this can be an encouragement to you because preaching is just one of the gifts that we're happy to give as a way of pouring into our local churches.
So if you think your church or organization could benefit from any of the topics we've talked about on this. We'd love to connect with you and figure something out. If you're interested in inviting either will or one of our other staff members at Shema as a guest speaker, please feel free to reach out to us at Shema sd.org/contact-us.
That's S H E M A S D.org/contact-us as always. Thank you for listening. Stay tuned in the coming weeks. As we give you more updates about the future of all things podcast and in the meantime, enjoy the sermon from our very own Wil Ryland.
SERMON TRANSCRIPT [Auto-Generated]
All right. Good morning. Hey question for you. Do you know why you don't remember the day that you were born? So you ask in neuroscientists, they're gonna be like, well, they're infant brain has yet to develop. Nope. The reasons grace
think about it, right? For your whole life, your entire existence, mom, hasn't just carried you. She's fed you, but she hasn't just carried you and fed. For nine months, your mom has breathed for you. And then instantly one day, bam, not bothering to give you a heads up. Nobody consulting you here. You are kid.
Hey, there's this thing. You need it to survive. You don't even know what it is. Good luck. Welcome to the world. And so of course we figure out this breathing thing, like we do, we figure it out. We get there by screaming, like from day one, your entrance into this world from day one, fear drives the development of our skills in our know.
and this dynamic between fear and the development of our skills and our know how it doesn't just stop with our breathing skills. Like pretty quickly you start to notice, there are certain things that intuitively I get, there are many things in this world that make no sense to me, but there are some things that I just, I understand I can see into the logic there.
I can, I can Intuit the principle there. And so some of you, you just get power dynamics, but you're afraid of not being in control. So you develop the skills that free you to command a room. Some of you get communication, you get how information travels and so you fear being misunderstood. And so you develop the skills to be able to talk your way through just about anything.
Some of you are people, people, people, people, what do you fear? people cause you know, 'em so what do you develop the ability to kind of sit back and read what's going on this, person's got this and this person and you can just subtly move all of that in a direction. That's good for you. And so I'm not saying though that because the development of our skills are tied to fear that it's a bad thing.
It's not a bad thing, nothing to be ashamed of. It's our world. It's, it's where we live. It's just who we are. It's not a bad thing, but it starts to go wrong. If you start to believe that at some point, your skills will get to a certain place where you will have enough power to fix enough things to make the world always feel safe,
especially if you want to feel safe and free from. because fear is often, it's the thing at our very core, developing those very skills. And so those skills are powerless to free us from the thing that develops them. Right. So sure. These skills give you power. Some it'll give you the power to pay your rent.
One more month. It'll give you the power to disappear into a crowd. The freedom to work a room, but as powerful. And they can become incredibly powerful, but as powerful as your skills and your abilities, your knowhow can become, it can never free you from fear and as long, so long as we're not free from fear, it will not fear.
Won't just drive the development of our skills. It will also shape how we use them and what we use them for. And if this is true on a personal level, Right. And you see, when we zoom out to a social level, to a communal level, then you'll notice other people who resist your power and they'll band together with other people to resist your power.
And so you'll do what you'll band with other people to resist them and community won't be a place of giving and receiving. It becomes a place of conflict warfare. It becomes the place where we leverage. to restrict the power of fearful individuals and to fight off the advances of other fearful tribes.
So like, look at it, watch for all the talk about our world being so divided and in so many ways it's so true. But for all that talk about our world being so divided, take any issue, whatever the issue is that we could divide ourselves up on right. And place on this side. I would go all the way to that end of the stage.
But there's a red line right here that I saw. I've seen it. Like, I don't know how many times I've met here. I didn't know what it's for. This is Aaron's border. He can't, it's like a video game when you reach the end of the code. Like, that's it. But if I could I go all the way to that far end and you, you put whatever extreme position you can on that end of the stage and stretch it all the way across the other side and whatever opposite extreme position there is there.
However you would divide. Right. Make it three dimensions and you don't just have from there to there, you've got it spread all across, up here. You have different tribes mixing it all up, right. For all the talk about how divided we are from this angle. It's actually pretty easy to see isn't it sounds weird, but it's obvious isn't it?
That there is something that has been uniting us for a very long time. And the thing that unites us is fear
guys. The problem isn't that we're not United the problem's what. Is uniting us. Right? And so in this series, we're asking why Jesus and what I want to present to you in this message is an opportunity to think. Well, maybe Jesus, because in this broken scared world, Jesus is the only thing that could offer me genuine freedom.
Hm. And in doing this, Jesus starts the way we do. He's born into the same world that we're born into and for all to talk about ancient people being so different. Yeah. And in so many ways they were very different. They ate things. You would never eat. They believe things that you find incredible. Right. But in so many other ways, our world's not that different.
He was born into world where they already had their tribes, they had their issues and they'd banded together into their camps. And they'd lob bombs at. he's born into this world. He develops his skills. He moves around, he starts gathering his own tribe, but he doesn't play by the same rules. He starts messing with the rules when he starts gathering a tribe.
You see, for us, we tend to band together with people that on some level, right. They're super annoying and they have different personalities. They irritate me, they talk weird. Right. But if the goal of this group is not just pleasure, right? If the goal of this group is survival. Then it's strategically advantageous to deal with these annoying people because on a deeper level, we agree on what the problem is and what to do about it.
And they have different skills than I do. And so we bind, we like gather up, we hunker down with our tribe. Jesus goes around to these tribes that are already forms and starts messing with them. Like he walks up to a Pharisee. Pharisees are the people that they had, all the rules, they knew all the rules.
They actually tried to follow all the rules and they made it their business to make sure everybody else followed all the rules too, walks up to a Pharisee and he says, follow me. Then he walks over here to a prostitute and he doesn't say, follow me over here. And then over here be like, why didn't you listen to those phar?
They're rules. There's something to that. Right? You understand this and that, right? He goes up to the Pharisee. He follow says, follow me. He goes to the prostitute and he says, what? Follow me. He goes to a zealot. These were the radical gorilla warriors of the Jewish world. That day. They hated the Romans.
They would kill the Romans and they would kill anyone who helped the Romans. He goes up to this freedom fighter Simon and he says, Simon, follow. and some of you're like, yeah, but wait, because then he goes over to a tax collector, somebody who helped the Romans, exactly the kind of person that a zealot would stick a dagger into and says, Matthew Levi, follow me too.
He brings them all together. He puts 'em in a boat and then he takes them directly into their fears. The first passage I wanna look at with you this morning comes from mark chapter. versus 35 to 41. He gathers this kinda like dysfunctional bear. Like I guarantee you for like the first two years they were together.
Every time they camped on the roadside, Jesus had to sleep between Simon, the zealot and the tax collector, just to make sure the zealot didn't roll over and stick a dagger in his gut, in the middle of the night. And then he puts 'em in a boat, takes 'em out on the middle of the sea. And this happens on that day when evening had come, he said to them, let's go across to the.
leaving the crowd behind. They took him with them in the boat just as he was other boats were with him and a great Gale arose and the waves beat into the boat so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. They woke him up and they said in teacher, do you not care?
They were perishing. He woke up and rebuked the wind in the seas and said, peace, be still. And the wind ceased. And there was a dead calm. He said to them, why are you. have you still no faith. And they were filled with great awe and they said to one another, who then is this, that even the wind and the seas obey him.
So here up here on the screen, we've got a map with that body of water that Jesus put the disciples out into on the boat. We were the top. You see where it says gate to Galilee that's, what's what mark calls the sea of Galilee right up there. They were over here on the west side of that body of water.
And so the left on this map, that was Galilee. That was where Jesus worked. That's where Jesus started doing his initial ministry. That was where these good Jewish people live. The other side, just on the other Eastern side of that body of water, what was, is what was, what was called the deist deist means 10 cities.
Those were 10 cities that Rome had founded with the specific intent of mounting, a cultural invasion against the Jewish people to infiltrate and overtake their. so already at the very be just by going saying, let's go to the other side, guys. Jesus is taking them right into a chaotic unclean place that they feared.
And then it's like reality itself tried to add to all this fear because the wind kicks up and the waves start rocking the boat with this. Like it's not just violence. It's like a, it's like a, almost malevolent, a twisted kind of intelligent violence, trying to swallow them down into the deep. And I guarantee you.
AB, absolutely like this isn't in the text. This would be in the white space between the letters. Right? So that's where you'd find it. Not in the actual words, but it's there cuz I guarantee you that in this moment, nobody in that boat is arguing over what to do with a woman, cotton, adultery, nothing, nobody in that boat is arguing over what kind of Jewish liturgy actually pleases God the most or what to do about the Roman.
in this moment, they are binding together and whatever skills they have, whatever talent and power they have, they are working together to do anything. They can. The fishermen are tying down the ropes and trying to read the wind, right? The, the people with the commanding presence. We're barking out orders.
The people people are helping like tie down this loose rope, bail, water, encourage those who are discouraged. And so look at for those of us that sit and we look at our fractured, fearful world, and we think guys, don't you see what all your fighting does? Like can't we just work together. Can't we, if we could just figure out how to work together, check it out here.
They are like, they're working together. It's happening, but also like check it out. So what, that's not gonna fix that problem.
many things that it could help with. It would be better. Sure. But there are also things that absolutely there is not even our best efforts, even our best community is powerless when it comes to this. And what if in this, what if scripture is not just showing us this problem, that those people faced way.
what if in this story, in this image with the sea kicking up and the disciples overcoming their differences to work together and still fearing that they're gonna be swallowed by that sea. What if in that problem, the scripture is showing us the problem
and it is, but it's not obvious to us right off the bat and, and to see why it wouldn't be it's like this. Like if I, if I in the middle of a sermon, just say, drop it in the middle of the line, the force be. Like suddenly the whole star wars world is in the sermon. Right? That's all it takes the force be with you.
Correct. Even, even if you've never seen a star wars movie, which if you've never seen a star wars movie, you've, you've had time and it's just spiritual sloth at this. Right. But even if you've never seen a star wars movie, you understand what I'm referencing and all that gets pulled in with just that simple word.
Right. But now look, if we had a time machine, I went back in time and I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to the 12. The 12 apostles or more than 12 disciples, 12 apostles. And I say the like, Peter, Hey Peter, the force be with you. Is Peter gonna get it? Nope. Is it cuz Peter's dumb? Nope. It's cuz it's not Peter's world.
What's he gonna, uh, force be with you too.
Right. But now you reverse that. And what we've got here in this text is something like that. But in our. To them, that word C would've brought in so much, so many other stories. So many other pieces of art that fast in the ancient world, the C was an image, not just for unfortunate circumstances. The C was an image for like the birthplace of chaos itself.
Self yet. Imagine back then. There's nobody getting on these big cruise liners and spending a whole week at C2, relax the sea. Isn't the place you go to relax. The sea is the place they went to try not to die. And a lot of them didn't pull it off. Imagine what it is back then. No, no like Marine biology, no submarines to sit on the shore and see a whale out there.
You're not like, oh, how majestic and beautiful. What they were like is like that's LA Leviathan. That's the chaos monster. And the ocean burst that kind of. and so in literature you see all, and it's in the old Testament, it's in Hebrew culture, but it's not just Hebrew culture. Very widespread in the ancient world thus see was the birthplace of chaos.
And so what the scriptures are trying to help us see at this point, right, is not just that Jesus is here to take care of this problem, although he is, he's taking care of that problem for them, not just that, but Jesus is here to enter into the heart of chaos. Not just this instance of tyranny, but tyranny itself, not just this instance of moral failure or rebellion against God, but sin itself.
He's after the root of all the rebellion, wherever you find it anywhere in God's creation. That's why mark calls this a sea look everywhere else. In ancient literature, they called this a. even the gospel of Luke uses a different word. Doesn't call it a sea, calls it a lake. Right. So why would everybody else call it a lake?
Well, here's the body of water. We've seen that over here on the left. You've got the Mediterranean sea, at least a little bit of it right now. The Mediterranean sea is a sea. If we zoom out to see a little bit of the Mediterranean sea, how big does that body of water that Jesus and his disciples were crossing become now is the Mediterranean sea, a big.
Yes.
compared to the Atlantic or the Pacific. Oh, that's like, that's like the Runk of the litter, right? Mediterranean C that's a cute little C, but if we zoom out to see all of that cute little C where does the sea of Galilee go? Like we don't have enough pixels, so why do they call it a lake? Cause this is a lake.
The real questions. Why did mark call it a sea? Cuz he wants you to see in this. The problem, the issue,
and when Jesus in the middle of this problem sleeps.
Right. As the disciples are running around, like they're responding to the chaos. Sure. They're responding in a positive way. They're trying to do something about it. They're giving their talent, they're giving their effort. They're banding together in community. They're responding to the problem. What is Jesus doing?
Taking a nap, showing us that in this, like he has some kind of inner peace that does not at all match the circumstances. is not at all hindered by the violence around him and the disciples. Wake him up. This is what gets his attention, not the chaos, the cry of his people saying, don't you care that we're drowning.
He gets up. And he gives something of that piece that he has within himself with a simple word, peace be still and the wind and the seas obey.
Okay. Now those of you that are like really good with words, Notice something about this, the wind in the seas obey what? Not just his words. It's not some magic incantation. This isn't like he doesn't like get on like, oh, I gotta grab my magic staff and put on my robe and flip my head up and pull out this like ancient incantation that was scribed in the first ages of Mor door.
Wave my wave, my staff, that's got this jewel set in that was mine from the heart of a dying. and once he speaks these magic words, the forces of chaos are going well. You said the magic words when everybody's gotta obey the magic. It's not an incantation. It's not just some universal principle. The disciples notice it.
They don't just obey the words. What do they obey him? Because they're his words they obey. And so the question they ask is exactly the right question. Who is this?
Now for those of you who weren't here last week. I don't this next bit. Like I wanna make some connections, but if you weren't here last week, I don't want you to feel like I felt in the eighties when I missed one week of my show and it was part one of a two part series and I started halfway through and I have no idea what's going on.
So Aaron introduces to some stuff last week that I'll just catch up briefly. So you can notice these connections if you weren't here. And if you were, here's a nice reminder because I mean, I know that like everything we preacher say, you remember every word. So the rest of you that remember every, you know, maybe this is just running over some things, but don't check all the way out.
But like last week, pastor Aaron introduced us to the concept of a log OS. That's a Greek word log OS. That's usually translated word, but showed us that the word log OS doesn't just mean word because it's tied to the ancient Greek search. For some pattern, some rational principle that governs all of life, their search for the thing that makes order and stability possible.
And this search right for this larger universal structural principle was the search for the log offs. This larger universal structure or principle of life, they called the logs. So if you look for this thing that, that allows life to happen, that can take stuff like dirt and water and air and bring it together.
Like this is the stuff we are made of. So when you're looking for the thing that what can take that stuff, put it together and allow it to breathe and live. You're looking for the log offs, the principle of life. And when you're carrying out that search, you call it biology. Bys means life. and then log offs, the log offs of biology, the structure, the pattern, the principle of life.
When you're looking for it in the earth. When you find the structure, the pattern, the principle that shapes the way our earth, what you call it, the search it's by it's no, it's not. It's geology geo the earth and log OS. When you look for it in the human mind, you don't find anything, but they still keep going for it.
And they call it psychology. The search for the log OS the reason, the principle of the human mind, but the Greeks didn't just look for this to build up individual knowhow or personal skills. This was also their soci. The Greeks believed if they could just come to understand this universal rational principle well enough that they would be able to band together with their understanding and their skills and know how, if they understood the Lagos well enough, they believed that they could build these perfect little city states.
They would be tiny. Islands of order in the midst of all the world's chaos, little vestiges of safety were the structure. The reason the patterns of our life together would allow life to flourish and be safe from the onslaught of the forces of death and destruction, the sociology, the logs of society. I watched this connection, this one, this one gave me chills.
When I found it. I liked it. There was this other guy named phlo, who was a Jewish. Philosopher a younger contemporary of Jesus, right? So their lives overlap. We probably never met him because FOH lived in Alexandria, which is a city down in Egypt, which at that time was like the center of culture and learning.
And so he doesn't meet Jesus, but he does encounter this Greek idea of the log OS. And when FOH hears about this Greek search for this universal structure, reason order pattern, he says, I think us Jewish people have something to offer to this convers. because look, we know something that it doesn't seem like, you know, it's not just some universal principle that calls light from darkness.
It's not just some universal principle that allows dust to breathe. It's the word of God? The log OS word is the word of God. And it's not just some mindless unbending principle. It comes from the heart of who God is. It's.
And then the gospel writer, John picks up on this and says, you want an introduction to the gospel, the law, the word of God became flesh and D longus in Jesus of Nazareth. And so when the wind and the seas obey, not just his words, but. The disciples ask exactly the right question, who is this? And there's only one answer.
And if it's not already blatantly obvious to us, Jesus being the Lagos means Jesus has a power beyond anything that any of our scap, any of our skills can bring about. Right? So you action people, look what Jesus' actions get done, right? He takes twisted legs, useless arms, and makes them. He turns a few loaves of bread and some fish into more than enough for this massive crowd that trusted him enough to follow him out into the desert.
For those of you who just know how to have a commanding presence, notice how much weight Jesus's presence has. He can scatter an angry and judgemental crowd with just a gesture. He puts a Roman ruler in his place with simple silence. He has God's power. He's the log OS, but he displays it through the same human strengths that we develop words, gestures, physical acts, gathering, and shaping communities.
And so for those of you who can talk those of you who get words, let's notice what happens, what, when this log OS decides to open his mouth, because as amazing as it is, it's not just piece B still that he says, he also goes up to Lazarus who was dead. And says Lazarus come out of the tomb. And he does, he goes to a little girl that was dead and says little girl rise up.
And she does. He walks into a synagogue on the Sabbath, gets up to preach, chooses Leviticus as his text and makes it interesting. this guy like he has the power. to be free to do anything he wants.
And so let's talk about freedom because in our world, when we start to talk about freedom, we often just tend to think about freedom from. we think and talk like freedom is the freedom from any structure, freedom from any rule freedom, from any principle that would impose itself on us and keep us from being free to make whatever choice we make.
So by default, our idea of freedom becomes infinite choice. Infinite choice is freedom, infinite choices, freedom, and I can say it over and over a thousand times, and you're not gonna believe it's true. If you Netflix. That should be true. somebody else has spent way more time scrolling that Felix, trying to choose than actually watching something.
I remember the week that I moved out of the house feeling so confident and ready, cuz I knew how I was gonna pay the bills. And at the end of the week I realized I've gotta do laundry. And I went to the grocery store to buy laundry detergent and I looked at all the choice and I didn't know what to. I was incompetent.
I was unable to make the choice, infinite freedom, infinite choice, without something more is just another form of being enslaved. It's another way to paralyze you. Just the freedom from any restrictions that would guard your choice does not mean freedom. Let's think about it this way. There's not just freedom from there has to be freedom.
So if I were just to stop, I'm not going to, I'm using all my time, but if thought experiment, if I were gonna stop and just say, Hey, no more expectations on this time. Right. You're free too. Do whatever you want. What would you be free to do? How many of you would be free? I, I don't know, like how many of you would be free to get up and start running and not stop till you'd run 10 miles?
There's no way I would. like, first of all, I don't want to. So even like, I don't have the want to, but even if I did have the want to, I wouldn't be free to, because why I haven't trained my body, what does it take to be free to do something like that? It takes training. It takes time. It takes sacrifice. It takes work.
It takes discipline. It takes submission. It probably also takes some kind of genetics that I'm not sure I have, which might just be an excuse, but it also might be true, cuz we're not all caught cut out for it. Right. Or. That was something that from a very early age, I had this strong desire to be able to play the guitar.
And I felt like I had this soul that wanted to express things and I, I love beauty and I wanna pick up that guitar. And every time I played it, I was not free to play anything that anybody wanted to listen to. So I did what I went to a guitar teacher. And what did the guitar teachers start to talk to me?
The logic of music, music theory, the structures of scales, the patterns and, and the way that those patterns map onto the guitar neck. And I was like, no, don't talk to me about that kind of stuff. I don't want that. I just wanna bend a note and make people cry. but, but, but if you wanna be free too run, you have to submit, you have to trust.
You have to trust your teacher. You have to trust the wisdom that's come before you have to trust the principal. You have to trust the process. You might say, you've gotta trust the log OS of running. If you want to be free too, play the guitar with other musicians and create something people would want to listen to.
You have to trust the log OS of guitar. And you're also gonna have to face fear time after time, day in and day out. You're gonna have to journey through the fear of trying and failing the fear of the. The fear of the effort and the pain that it takes. Right? So if freedom is not just freedom from, but it's also the freedom too.
And if Jesus is our example of freedom, then what is Jesus free to do? Jesus is free to be good.
And when we look at our response to his freedom, our reaction to his power, our fear. when he enacts his freedom, we'll see that Jesus was free to be good. Even when the circumstances were not,
he loves us when we mess up. And what do we do to him? We accuse him of being a drunk in a sinner in several episodes in the gospels. People try to run him outta town. And if you haven't read the things heads up, the cross is not the first time that people try to kill Jesus. but Jesus keeps giving his strength.
Even when people try to murder him, he keeps giving his strength and his energy to heal their broken bodies. He keeps giving himself to fill their empty bellies. He keeps presenting himself to welcome their lonely souls. He keeps teaching his wisdom, even when it's misunderstood and rejected and mocked why to free our minds that have been distorted by pain fear.
Broken by the injustice of the world that we inherited. He keeps giving himself to order our lives inside and out, according to the peace and the truth of God, because he's the Lagos and he's good. And when the church people, the very people that should be able to recognize God's power, when they see it, accuse them of having a.
Now the pastor pointed out last week, according to the gospel of John, there are two ways that John tells us we can reject the law OS. We can try to overcome it outright aggression and attack, or we can misunderstand it. And the more Jesus reveals himself as the law OS, the more we misunderstand and reject him and guys, look, this isn't just bad for us.
It's absolutely terrible for us. Yes, but it's not bad for us alone. It also makes it really, really hard for. to the point where we not only fail to recognize the dignity of his life, the worth of his work. We come to hate him so much. We can no longer stand to have him around. We don't want him working by our side.
We don't want him playing in our streets with our kids. We don't want him in our homes having dinner with us. So we start plotting to have him kill.
and here's a point in the gospel narratives where we find another instance of a very strange unity because the two groups that got together and really got things rolling to arrest Jesus were the Pharisees and the Herodians. These people did not get along about anything except. we both think the world would be better off without Jesus.
This would be like the liberals and conservatives going, Hey guys, differences aside. Let's do something together. Cool. That's exactly what happens towards the end of the gospel, because what, because of what unites them, God guys, the problem is not that we're not United. The problem is what unites us and what unites us, sets us against the log.
Us guys. This is our soci. , this is the logic of fearful human society fighting, resisting, misunderstanding the Lagos of creation. And so our response shows that it's not just the sea and the winds that kick up. There's something inside us, deep inside us. The root of who we are that is threatened by him, that is afraid of him.
And so that fear. Distorts our thinking, distorts our emotions, distorts our actions and turns us against him. And so we can see that this earlier story with the wind and the sea was showing us in external circumstances, a picture of what's true at the very heart of who we are. And it's true that the heart of who we are is this way, because we've been hurt.
We've been broken, we've been abandoned. We were born into this world and had to figure out breathing by scream. . And so this indicates that this rebellion against God goes down deep into reality itself. So now notice the Lagos has become flesh. One of the implications of it being the Lagos is incredible power.
What are the implications of the log? Us becoming flesh as a human Jesus embraced our limitations. If he wanted to get somewhere, he walk. if he wanted to communicate something, he didn't send like fire scribbling across the sky. He talked or he gestured, or he remained silent
in this scary world in this broken world. In this fractured world, God in Christ embraces our limitations. Even the ones that make us feel fear and pain, like in one episode, his friend dies. And he cries. He makes friends and betray him and they betray him by the end of the story. He is on his face in agony, crying out God.
Is there any other way? Like he doesn't just shoot around from body to body when he wants to move. He doesn't just like inhabit somebody, then shoot up and spend some time in the clouds and then manifest his fire. He spends his whole existence on earth in one body. And look what we do to that. after this strange twisted unity that we find in plotting against him, we tie his hands and the ropes hold.
We beat him. And the logs, flesh, bruises, we whip him. And the log us is flesh opens up and bleeds. He, he really is really is one of us. He's one of us, but he's not just like us and he's not, not just like us, just because he has more power than us notice. Jesus never uses his power for his own benefit. He never uses his power to find the easy way out.
He uses it over and over again. Yes. In astounding ways. Yes. For the good of other people. , but there's never any point. Like when he really gets into it with some knucklehead that thinks they know what God is all about. And this happens all the time. In one instance, in John chapter three, he gets back, back and forth with a Pharisee.
And at one point, Jesus says to him, dude, you're a teacher of Israel and it's not like we're two deep stuff. This is Judaism 1 0 1. And you don't understand what I'm talking about. How am I gonna in this moment of exasperation? He never resorts to like Jedi mind tricking his opponent. Like, no, I am right.
You're right. You are right. he sees it through.
Look with this kind of power facing the kind of terrifying reality Jesus faced. It becomes astoundingly important for us to notice that throughout all of the gospels Jesus explodes. Exactly. Zero heads. It's true. like I have read them all multiple times with a counter precise count. None, zero. Right in a scary world, it's understandable that we would want power, that we would want to control the structures that would give us some kind of safe space.
But just the fact, just the brute fact that there is some brute force out there that can overcome anything. Give us the freedom to fight whatever we find to be scary and oppressive doesn't necessarily solve a single.
we need more than that. Just like we need more than freedom from, we need more than just brute power, like to show you what I mean. Look at Luke's gospel. There's an episode in there. Chapter two, where Jesus at 12 years old goes through the temple. And at this point we know that he knows he has a very special relationship with God and he has access to divine wisdom and power, and he gets into it with some of the temple rulers.
I do not even want to begin. No, I guess I'm gonna, so let's be, it's scary. But if I even begin to imagine what 12 year old me would do with that kind of understanding, and to know that I had like Jesus level power, do you have any idea what would happen to the atheist on Reddit?
If there are all sorts of things that become incredibly clear. When I think of like 12 year old me with my fears, my desire, plus like Jesus level. Right. That would never, ever be appropriate to share in a, from a pulpit, what that would lead to. But there's one thing that's like abundantly clear on my March towards power and domination and pleasure.
I would not set the cross before me, even if it was good for you. Sorry. , I'll do what I can about this or that if I've got some time, but that no, you figure it out guys. now I could see if on my March to power and domination, that I did get some enemies that banded together and they got some kind of resistance together.
And I heard that they planned on crucifying me. I might let them put me on the cross. Right. If I knew I had that kind of power for real, I might let not because I loved them because I could imagine no better way to mess with them. Just let, let put up there and just wait, wait till they're sure that I'm done.
And I see it in their. Right. There's no more guesswork. There's smug. They are sure. They've beat me at that point. I would just like yawn, flex my muscles, rip the arms off the cross. Nah, I'm not even gonna pull the nails out. I'm just gonna start spinning the arms of the cross around on those nails, because how tough is that?
And I'm gonna walk down and I'm start cracking skulls with the arms of that broken cross. That's me, that's me in that kind of situation with divine power,
but not Jesus.
Jesus was powerful enough to be free, to do anything he wanted. And so it's a very, very good thing for us that what he really wanted is good. That's who he is. that is the log OS. That is the principle. That is the rationality that creates the structure of any real and true thing. And so even when we beat him and nail him to a cross, there's no moment.
There's no moment. Even though he's free to choose the good and go into it. Even at that place, he never gets bitter about it. He never gets uncertain about his choice. even when this is happening, he never like looks around and goes to his followers. Like you guys have seen. Right. I've been more than patient.
Can we agree? But I've tried everything possible. Right. And this, okay. So look, we're just gonna take a couple people out, explode, just the minimum number of heads necessary. So we can back up and try this again. No, instead, what do we read in Luke 23 versus 33 to 34. This guy? when they came to the place that's called the skull.
They crucified Jesus they're with the criminals one on his right. And one on his left. And Jesus said to them, father, forgive them for, they do not know what they're doing.
Even when fear and lust for power had led to twisted hearts and minds. And when those twisted hearts and minds had led to rumors and false. And when those twisted hearts and minds had led to rumors and false accusations that led to a rig trial and whips and nails and a broken desiccated body, even with the power to overcome that kind of chaos with a single word, what does the Lago say, father, forgive them.
Like, what do we make of this
one? Jesus shows us that he wasn't free just because he was powerful enough to do what he wanted. He was free because what he wanted was good and he was free to do it. He was free because he was free from anything that would hinder him from being good guys. This is God's freedom. Does God have unimaginable power?
Like God doesn't just have more or the most, or all of the same kind of power we have. God has a totally different kind of power. We can't, but just brute power. That's not it. If Jesus is our model of freedom, we see that it's not just power. It's his goodness. What makes God free is not just that God could do whatever God wants.
God is good and God is so good and so powerful that no matter what God will be.
that's freedom. And so when we're looking for instances of God's divine presence on display in Jesus of Nazareth, then right alongside the episode in the boat, when the chaotic and the demonic forces inhabit the wind in the season, they try to swallow him and he says, peace. Be still when we're looking for instances of God's divinity on display in Jesus.
We also look at that moment when he used that last lung full of breath, that the world was trying to steal from him to say, father, forgive.
the wind in the seas. They did what he said, what? And they, and they listened. We did what to him. And he said, what, who is this?
Who is this? He's the one whose words make things. He's the one who's let there be at the beginning, brought light out of darkness. He's the one who's let there be sent. Galaxy's spinning, initiated the dance of the seasons. And if his peace be still brought the wind and season to harmony, what did Jesus' father forgive them do to reality?
if he's the Lagos, the word of creation, what did those words do to our world? What do we make of this? Jesus is with those words, father, forgive them. He is calming chaos with a word, but not just the chaos of those nails, not just the chaos of that cross, but the chaos of our sin and our rebellion against God and that not just.
Some violence from 2000 years ago that our rebellion against God, that is the thing that makes your world so scary. And so why Jesus, because if the gospel's true and the logoff said that then the universe has suddenly in him become a very, very safe place.
And you safety, you find in him unlocks all sorts of freedom that you could never know on your own,
the universe, if it's true. And the logout said that the universe becomes in him a very safe place, and that's something that it has not been since the day that you were born, which is why trusting it is like being born.
And so there's freedom from fear offered in Christ, right. But if freedom's not just freedom from, but the freedom to live as we were created to live, how does Jesus bring freedom to how does Jesus bring us freedom to live the way he lived? Well, because when the log speaks, reality responds and Jesus, didn't just say as great as it was.
He didn't just say peace. Be still, he didn't just say father, forgive them. He also says. Follow me. And when the law speaks reality responds and he also says, follow me, and I will be with you. He says, follow me and remain in me. And so Jesus, doesn't just get up there and set an example of perfect freedom and then demand that we imitate him.
Cuz that would be the Greek idea of the log OS. That would be a heartless mindless, unending, universal Princip. But Jesus is a non oppressive, absolute because he doesn't just set an example of freedom and then demand. We imitate him. He's a person he promised to be with us. And so he said that the truest thing about your reality can be that he will lead you and he will be with you.
So he doesn't just invite you to imitation. He doesn't just demand imitation. He invites. To communion.
And so when you journey into your fear to journey through your fear in him, there are layers to your reality that you're powerless to do anything about. And it's okay because it's not your fight. He calms it. He absorbs it. He heals it. He says, follow me. I'll go first. Where are you going? What do we need to do?
I'm there. What do we need to face? I'll go first, come with me, follow me, remain in me. And I will remain with you and you will have life abundant.
And so communion on the corporate level, that is the social logic of the church. That's our sociology, not what we can do with our best efforts to build a great place. And to impress people and increased numbers. No, no, no. The logic of the church is we hear his call and we gather around him and we let him his piece, whatever that piece was that let him sleep in the middle of the storm, his piece, founds our piece, his call, founds our unity.
So if you heard this story, right, you understand guys that this isn't a story at all. It's not at all about our skills or what kind of community we can. It's not at all about what our skills plus community can make possible. This is a story that is 100% about Christ, continued presence and power, even in our scary world.
So when this like clicked for me, I was in a season where I was working through some of the things that had happened that made me terrified of the world, the kind of stuff that it doesn't just make you intellectually look at it and go, God, how is this your. If you're good. And if you're the creator, how does this kind of thing happen?
Not, not just on an intellectual level, but on that place that makes you go, where were you? If you're good, if this is yours, and if you're everywhere, where were you? The kind of thing that doesn't just hang you up, like in your head, right? The kind of thing that gets into your instincts, the, the thing that creates the fear that makes all that baggage that you.
I'm processing all of this. And I had worked to a place where I knew God was good. I knew God loved me. God hadn't abandoned me. And I knew there was some kind of hope. Right. And I got to this place where I was like, God, okay, look, I trusted. You're good. And I'm with you. Right. But I still, I, I want to know where were you like when that was happening?
Where were you? I asked that question for 10 years. About halfway through. I started asking about, I trust you enough that if you want me to stop, like if I don't need to. Just tell me and I'll stop asking, but you've gotta, you've gotta tell me if you don't tell me to stop, I'm not gonna stop. So where were you?
One day? I got an answer driving home and I had to pull the car over. Cause it was so overwhelming. And his answer was where were you?
Like you couldn't find me cuz you're looking for me off on the edges, looking in from a distance you're looking for me three weeks down the road, trying to pick up the pieces. I'm not the kind of God that would be far away when something like that is happening to one of my kids. You wanna know where I was?
Where were you?
I was even more present to that moment than you were.
Follow me, remain in. When I got that answer, everything shifted all the stuff in my life that just felt like sheer obedience. Like I do it cuz I have to cause I do it cuz the Bible says, so I do it cuz that's the principle. I do it. Cuz that's what good people do. All of that stuff that up to that point had felt that way immediately shifted.
And I now saw that what was good and true in all of that, wasn't just a demand for invitation. It wasn't just a demand for an obedience. It was an invitation to my healing.
And pastor Aaron's gonna come up and pray, and then we'll sing a song. Just invite you at this time to listen to the spirit as a spirit, awakens you to the logouts and discern how he's present to you saying exactly what you need to hear laying out for you, a path for your own communion and your own healing.
OUTRO:
Well, we hope you enjoyed that sermon from will Ryland as always. Thanks for listening to all things. Again, if you'd like to invite one of us to come speak at your church or your organization, please reach out to us at Shama sd.org/contact us. Come back in a couple weeks as we pick back up on another Saints As Mentors episode to introduce our upcoming series on Oscar Romero. Until then grace and peace to you all.