The Vault

From The Vault

Sermon By Jared Thompson/ Written By Amy Adams

(This was written to the best of my ability and paraphrased as needed to fit and make sense to what Jared was talking about)

What happens when you go build something? You have a plan and maybe lay a foundation. We don’t really think about the plan of what was written. We have to look into the blueprints of what we do. When you look at the Old and New Testament, the Old Testament is like the blueprint. When you look at the New Testament, the construction materials have arrived and the actual structure is being built. But, people have demolished it. People have decided to throw the Old Testament out and pick and choose what they want to hear. If you lose a piece of the plan, you might end up with something that looks really good but doesn’t work. It’s kind of like building a house but not putting the electrical circuits in it. It’s a shame that the actual construct of the Old Testament has been abandoned because the original construct is not all that convenient. We have decided to make it more comfortable.

Up until the 2nd
century, followers of Jesus weren’t known as Christians. We have relegated the spirit of God to be a kind person but that is not completely Christ-like. Jesus wasn’t always kind, especially with the Pharisees and those closest to Him. His conversations with the disciples weren’t all that kind either. He was aggressive and straight forward, yet kind. When we keep that in mind, we end up with a whole different God and a whole different Jesus. We have created Jesus to look more like us, because it’s easier to obtain instead of the other way around. Christianity is not a belief. Christianity is an action and a lifestyle. You cannot say that you are a believer and then not act like it. By definition, follow means to go behind or go after someone else. The Old Testament was looked at as the blueprint of what life should be and could be.

All 4 gospels begin differently. John is one of the most unique of the gospels. It’s more focused on a spiritual idea than the other 3 gospels. John asks: “how am I going to get everyone to understand what I’m talking about?” He goes back to the very beginning and gives a detailed description of what we see in Genesis, Exodus, and more of the Old Testament. The Gospel of Matthew starts off with the lineage of Christ. Something to note is that it’s important to know that Christ is a title instead of a name. Mark starts off his gospel a little differently by giving details of John the Baptist paving the way for Jesus. They all are trying to show the authenticity of Jesus as a person. Luke is the only one who gives details about Jesus’ life before John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan. Luke also talks about John the Baptist and his conception before Jesus was born. John the Baptist as a person is extremely important to fulfill the prophecy of Jesus. John was a forerunner to lay the foundation for Christ to start His ministry.

Matthew, Mark, and John talk about the baptism and each gospel says different phrases on the baptism at slightly different times in each account. Matthew 3:15 says: “And Jesus answering said unto him, ‘Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.’ Then he suffered Him.” Suffer doesn’t mean to be inflicted or harmed in this instance but rather to allow something to happen, talking about the baptism. It also talks about righteousness and the start of Jesus’ ministry, His journey to the cross and the Resurrection. It seems that John doesn’t know his full job, but Jesus knew. John was supposed to be the next high priest after his father Zechariah. He decided to leave that calling. It would have been the highest position in the land. He leaves to go do what he thinks he’s supposed to. Why did Jesus get baptized? Because it had to be done. There’s something a little more to baptism in the Old Testament than just cleansing. They washed every sacrifice before it was actually sacrificed. They would wash the animal, bath them, and then anoint them.

Jesus was baptized because He had to be set apart for something yet to come. He did not look at it as some grandiose calling, but a responsibility and his weight to carry. What would it have looked like to be Christ? Jesus really struggled with a lot of things, including having to fulfill the prophecy of Himself being a living sacrifice. The word fulfill means to be complete. Righteousness means to be in right-standing. All is the total, everything. When righteousness becomes only a behavior issue, we remove the need for Christ. Righteousness is a position, not a behavior. Jesus was set up to be a sacrifice and restore righteousness. The Day of Atonement in the Old Testament only worked for a year before another sacrifice had to be made the next year. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice that got rid of the need for the Day of Atonement.

It also didn’t say the Spirit of God was a dove, but came down like a dove. It had the grace and beauty of a dove. How could the entire Spirit of God be a dove? It’s impossible. It was merely a concept. You must read diligently and slowly to get the gospels right. The next thing that happens after the baptism is the wilderness experience. In Matthew, it starts in 4:1. Some versions use the word tempted but tested and proven would be better words to explain what Jesus went to do and ultimately prove that Jesus was who He said He was. “It’s written that man should not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God,” Matthew 4:4.

Being nice is not the only action when it comes to being like Christ. God creates, restores and speaks things into existence. His very spirit sustains us. It’s obvious that Jesus told the disciples about the wilderness experience and they wrote about it because they weren’t there for it and didn’t even know Jesus at the time. It shows Jesus coming back to make things in right-standing like it was in the garden in Genesis. Messiah means the chosen one. Christ is the spirit of the chosen one. You can’t name a single person in history besides Christ who had claimed they were the Messiah and there were about 600+ people who came before Jesus claiming to be the Messiah. It really means something that Jesus’ name was recorded in history. Not only did Jesus risk everything but the disciples were also risking everything to write about Jesus.

If it doesn’t fit and doesn’t come through the funnel, it gets lit and burned up. The goal is to become Christ-like. Think of it like a filter. Ultimately, we take everything that we are and start seeing what fits and what doesn’t. Jesus built the mold and now we’re supposed to live in it and like Him.