Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 You're listening to a live recording from Westside Church in Bend, Oregon. Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 1 00:03:37 Love deserve glory
Speaker 2 00:04:21 To the two of the throne of mercy. Where would I that at this cross of grace, how love a strong hand that holds us. Beautiful. So beautiful. So I am the
Speaker 1 00:06:37 Jesus. I have yours
Speaker 2 00:08:00 Too high.
Speaker 1 00:08:02 Jesus
Speaker 2 00:08:04 Jesus, big Lord. Let's just take a moment. Let's just take a moment in the presence of Jesus,
Speaker 3 00:09:24 Let's just take an extra moment together. As Deb said, we're just gonna sing that. We're gonna sing that bridge into the chorus again. And this is kind of the picture that I want you to have in your mind as we sing that I'm yours and forever yours. There's a,
Speaker 3 00:09:42 There's a, a gift that God has given us through his grace that allows us to rest in knowing that we are a child of God, that we belong, that there's nothing else to compete for, there's nothing else to strive for. We belong already right now, this version of us. And I think about it like this, my daughter, sometimes when she's real tired, there's a difference between when I pick her up and she wants to be active. And when I pick her up and she's tired, she does this exhale. And you feel her whole weight on my shoulders. I want us to put our whole weight on God this morning. Let's, as best we can in our mind, our souls wrap our arms around the Father and just exhale. And so let's sing this. Father God, we give this moment to you, Lord, we reattach our souls to you right now. We exhale, we give our weight, we put it all on you. Come on, let's sing this together.
Speaker 0 00:15:14 I am reminded in moments like this why we gather, I think, um, if we're not here to experience a tangible encounter with a living God, um, then why, why are we here? And so in these moments when we, I dunno about you, I feel the presence of Jesus here. Um, I think we would be wise to pay attention. Just take a moment, you know, and just sit in his presence and hear from him. And, um, because that's why we're here. That's why we're gathered as a community. Um, the earliest days of the church, you know, they didn't have hundreds of years of routine to fall back on. They just had memories, living active memories of what it was like to walk with Jesus. And so they'd, they'd get together and they'd meet up in rooms, and they'd begin to pray and, and they would draw back on those memories of what it was like to walk side by side with Jesus and hear from him and talk with him. The exhilaration they felt when he would open blind eyes, when he'd heal. And so they would meet, they would experience the presence of the Holy Spirit in real time.
Speaker 0 00:16:39 And that same, that same encounter that they had felt walking with Jesus, they felt it because the Holy Spirit was present. It was the same thing. And I would imagine these disciples talking to each other. They would, they would have these moments like we're having right now. And I'm sure afterwards, like that was just like when he walked with us, that was just like in the upper room after the resurrection, when, when he appeared and he said, now, receive the Holy Spirit. I felt the same way. And today, I want to tell you, church is as we're gathered here, the Holy Spirit is present. It's the presence of Jesus. It's not some other thing. It's the, the, the active presence of arisen Jesus. It's His Holy Spirit. And it's with us today. And so, Jesus, we just take these moments and, and, um, and we received the Holy Spirit. When we've been far from you, we are reminded in these moments of the great pursuit that you are after us. You're searching for us today. We, we encounter your presence. Thank you, holy Spirit, spirit of Jesus, rest heavy on us, your church today. Amen. You can have your seats. We're gonna continue in this moment. Maybe you guys, we can just keep playing a little bit. Um, this is out of our norm.
Speaker 0 00:18:28 Um, you know, we're, we're looking towards Easter and we're, um, taking these weeks last week, this week, next week as we, um, head through Lynn and into Easter to, to reflect and contemplate what the cross means. Um, and today we wanna do that as well.
Speaker 0 00:18:53 Um, I'm reminded as, as even in this moment, we just, we sense the power of the Holy Spirit. Um, that when Jesus was resurrected, and then he promised that he would send the Holy Spirit, he promised a very specific work of the Holy Spirit. Acts one, eight, it said, you're gonna receive this is Jesus talking to Jesus disciples. He said, you're gonna receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you to be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and to the ends of the earth. And, uh, the Greek word of that, that phrase power was, um, dynam. It's the same root as we get dynamite from. And it was this idea that Jesus would send something that would cause this explosive power to come upon us and, and work through us as the church.
Speaker 0 00:19:43 And so they didn't know what to expect, but I I imagine their, their thoughts were all over the map. You know, like Jesus, our friend, he, he goes away and he says, you're gonna, you're gonna receive like a stick of dynamite inside of you, <laugh>. Bye-bye <laugh>. They're like, what do we, what do we even pray for? And so they go in the supper room, they begin to pray, and the Holy Spirit comes and is from that place that the, the, the church is empowered. And what's so remarkable about that is that the church is made up with like the weakest of the week in society. You know, the, the whole, uh, Jewish nation is under the thumb of Rome. So they're already like not in a strength position, right? And then even within their own community, these Christians are seen as this side group, this, this break off sect of Judaism that they're kind of weird and they follow this man Jesus. And, and he was crucified by the Romans, but they still think he's awesome and what's going on. And so you have this very weak group of people who are promised power, and you might might know the story. The Holy Spirit comes in, in Acts chapter two. And from that moment, they begin to go out into all nations preaching about this man Jesus.
Speaker 0 00:20:58 And from that place, the church is born and it spreads. And, and here we are a couple thousand years later, still walking in that same power, that tuna miss power of the Holy Spirit. It's from weak beginnings that God uses power. It's from weakness that God expresses his perfect strength. In second Corinthians, uh, the Apostle Paul was lamenting this weakness he had, we don't know what it was, um, but it says that three times he went in prayer to the Lord and he said, please take this. He called it a thorn in his flesh. It was this weakness in him, physical, spiritual, moral. We don't know what it is, but he had this weakness. And so three times he goes, and he, he begs, God, please take away this weakness. And the Holy Spirit speaks back to him, and he says, my grace is sufficient for you. Power is made perfect in weakness. Isn't that beautiful? That God doesn't require us? First of all, this is cool. God doesn't require us to find our weakness. Zero in on it, fix it, solve it, and then come to him and say, Lord, I've done it. I'm now strong. Now let me get this power that you promised.
Speaker 0 00:22:16 Also, God doesn't say, oh, you're weak. Yuck gonna fix that. Okay, now you're strong. Now let's go do this thing in power. God comes to us in our weakness, and he says, in your lowly state, I'm gonna come meet you here. And he joins us in the weakness. And he says, this is where my power actually has its best work. This is the environment in which my power thrives. And we know this because we look back at the cross, and, and by the way, if you're starting a, uh, uh, a new world religion, like these disciples we're about to do in the ancient days, like the last thing you do is be like, okay, and, and who's gonna be our mascot for this new religion? Okay, we got this guy. Jesus. All right, let's tell the world that, um, his main deal was getting executed on a Roman cross in humiliation and shame. That's a terrible way to start a new religion for the ancients. I mean, shame was a huge deal. I mean, you, you wanna get as far away from shame as possible if you wanna really sell people on something new. And the disciples, they have this message that this Jesus, this Messiah was crucified in a position of weakness and humiliation and shame. And that's the start of everything that's ground zero for this great work of God, that God wants to redeem and restore humanity, starting with that.
Speaker 0 00:23:53 And the whispers of God come, my powers made perfect in weakness, the weakest point that Jesus could ever have been in, which would be crucified on a Roman cross. And there he is. So what? So that God's power could work through his weakness for all of us. Last week, we started talking about this idea of the cruciform life, how we model our lives after Jesus on the cross. And I want to tell you today that the power of God works when we embrace the posture of Jesus on the cross, and it doesn't look like power, man. It, it doesn't look like power. I want to, can we put up that scripture outta Mark? I wanted to read this portion of my, my message today out of Mark. And it's this passage where Jesus is walking to Jerusalem and he knows he's, he's going there to be betrayed and handed over and crucified.
Speaker 0 00:24:53 And the disciples have this idea that they're hanging out with Jesus the Messiah, who's gonna like conquer, right? He's gonna conquer her and conquer pilot Pontius, pilot and take over. And so they're going up to Jerusalem and there's all this tension because they know, um, you know, people are mad at Jesus. The religious rulers and leaders are mad at Jesus. And, and so they're expecting this conflict. And it says in Mark 10 32, it says, they were on their way up to Jerusalem with Jesus leading the way. And the disciples were astonished. While those who followed were afraid. And again, he took the 12 aside and he told them what was going to happen to him. Okay? So he sits his disciples down. He's like, guys, I think you're expecting something that I'm not offering.
Speaker 0 00:25:39 He says, we are going up to Jerusalem. He said, and the son of man will be delivered over to the chief priest and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over the Gentiles who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later, he will rise. So Jesus is saying, I'm gonna set aside the parables and the metaphors and the, the mysterious talk for a second and just tell you exactly what's gonna happen, guys. He doesn't in the third person. So maybe it's a little mysterious still, but he tells me exactly what's gonna happen and then check this out. Then James and John, the sons of ity came to him and they said, teacher, we want you to do whatever we ask. So he says, well, what do you want me to do for you? They replied, let one of us sit on your right and the other at your left in glory. And I loved you response. He says, you don't know what you're asking. See, James and John were where I'm at so often where I'm like, the way to follow Jesus is into weakness and suffering and solidarity with those who have, um, experienced great pain. Those who grieve, those who mourn. Remember the be attitudes who are blessed. It's the meek of the earth.
Speaker 0 00:26:52 And I say, yeah, yeah, that's great, that's great, but maybe Jesus coming to give me real bankable power, right? The stuff where people do what I ask, the stuff that gets me fame and fortune, the stuff that, that that gets me leverage over my perceived enemies, the stuff that gets, uh, those who disagree with me out of my way so I can get stuff done. And I fall into the same trap as James and John who say, yeah, but if that doesn't happen, Jesus, and you don't experience all that terrible stuff, and instead you just get all this glory, can I be your right hand guy? This will be great, Jesus. We can do this together. And Jesus says, you don't know what you're asking. And Matthew's telling of this story, and Jesus continues this phrase by saying this, are you willing to drink the cup? I'm about to drink? He said, are you willing to follow me all the way to the cross? And then he actually says, and by the way, you will do that. But that's a ways later. And I think sometimes that we, we, we want the power of God, that we, we think this is how it's gonna work. I'm gonna achieve this level of, of influence and power in my life with, with God helping me to a accomplish that. And we make the same mistake that James and John did in this passage where we see Jesus and we see his power, and we want that power, but we have no concept of the form that power takes.
Speaker 0 00:28:22 Because immediately after this, Jesus continues to walk into Jerusalem and he sits down at a table for the last Supper, and he breaks bread and he shares wine, and he says, this is my body broken for you. This is my blood spillt for you. And then he walks to the cross and he opens up his arms and he gives his life in what? In a position of weakness. And so the question for us is, if we want to walk in power, if we wanna walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, are we willing to take the posture of Jesus?
Speaker 0 00:28:57 That's what it comes down to. And all, all the other talk, all the, you know, uh, politics and, and how, how Christians should have or shouldn't have influence in society and, and all that, um, you know, we can, we can argue for days about different political issues and candidates and, and the future of, of countries and nations and sociopolitical issues and all this, it actually boils down to something much simpler. Are we willing to take a posture of weakness like Jesus on the cross so that the Holy Spirit can empower us like he did Jesus. That's it. That's it. You know. So yeah, let's talk about politics. Okay, Bubba? Yep. Yep. That issue. Okay, that well, and then what do you think about this? Those are all fine and good conversations to have. But when we come into this space, who we are called to be as followers of Jesus, it's really simple. Can you walk with him all the way to the cross? And when you find yourself in a place where you are now identified with the poor, where you have solidarity with those who have not experienced justice, when you allow yourself to mourn with those who mourn and weep with those who weep, when you enter into suffering like Jesus did,
Speaker 1 00:30:20 What
Speaker 0 00:30:21 Is waited on the other side, while it's the power of the Holy Spirit, the same power that raised him from the dead will raise you to life because you were willing. And James and John got there by the end, by the way, they figured it out, took him a while. And it takes us a while too willing to walk all the way with Jesus of the cross to take on his posture so that we can be raised with him. This is the story of our beginnings as a movement, the beginnings of the church. He is watching a crucified Messiah embrace weakness so that the power of God might be shown. And so today we're gonna take communion together. Um, do you have the elements? Do I have the elements I think I might need? It's a little different today. I know when Jesus, um, started his sermon on the Mount by talking about who was blessed. It wasn't so much instructions, you know, um, I'm gonna read it actually. These be attitudes, the blessed are used. These are less so instructions, like you have to be this and more an announcement about what God's kingdom was gonna be all about.
Speaker 0 00:31:58 And it sounded a lot like weakness. It sounded a lot like the people on the bottom rung of society were actually gonna be the first welcomed in to God's house. Matthew five, verse two. This is what Jesus taught them. God blesses those who realize their need for him, for the kingdom of heaven is given to them. God blesses those who mourn for they will be comforted. I'll read it off of this one actually. Blessed on blessings on the poor in, in spirit. The kingdom of heaven is yours. Blessings on the mourners. You're gonna be comforted. Blessings on the meek. You're gonna inherit the earth. Blessings on people who hunger and thirst for God's justice. You're gonna be satisfied. Blessings on the merciful, you'll receive mercy for yourself and blessings in the pure and heart. You will see God blessings on the peacemakers. You'll be called God's children. Blessings on people who are persecuted because of God's way. The kingdom of heaven belongs to you. See, Jesus was teaching this and he's reading off all these, these states of people. And, and for the, the astute among them, they must have been thinking like those people aren't blessed.
Speaker 0 00:33:12 Those who mourn aren't happy. I mean, does Jesus understand the poor are not the blessed ones. And so what Jesus is doing is he's saying, listen, in this new kingdom, there's some new ways of how society is gonna work. And I hear that and I'm like, well, I have opinions about the poor and what they need to do to fix that. Jesus just says, you're blessed when you're poor of spirit. You're blessed when you mourn. This kingdom is gonna look different, these power structures and, and how weakness is all gets flipped on its head. Why? Because Jesus is instituting a new community with his own blood. And so that's what we're about to do today, is we are stepping into that, um, what Jesus established, which was the kingdom of God. He brought through his sacrifice on the cross through the weakness that he embraced a new way, a new way where the, the weak becomes strong, where the poor become rich because Jesus has turned everything on its head. And so if you do this, let's take the bread together. We've been talking about modeling our lives after Jesus on the cross even. And so when we remember that Jesus body was broken for us, we are also doing in this season of Lent, is we are saying, Jesus, may I be a broken person, broken for the world just like you were, that others might experience the extravagant, scandalous love of God poured out in the world around me, even as I follow you
Speaker 0 00:34:58 Into self-sacrifice and weakness, that your power might work through me. And so we remember today the broken body of Jesus, and we commit ourselves to following him to the cross. Let's take the bread together. And after he broke the bread and gave it to his disciples, he took the cup, said, do this in remembrance of me as often as you gather. And we'd remember his blood poured out for us for the forgiveness of sins. Let's take the cup together. You know, we have this ongoing conversation about communion and how often we should take it cuz we don't want it to become overly routine or lose its beauty. Um, but I don't know guys, I fe I feel like we're kind of settling on the idea that we need to do this more, right? That we need to come around, uh, this moment of Christ's sacrifice for us to remind ourselves of why we gather, why we're here, to encounter the living Jesus, to, to take part and participate even in our bodies in what he's done for us. And so, if you would bow your heads with me today, I want to just lead us in a time of prayer.
Speaker 0 00:36:41 Um, that in these moments, uh, in these moments, what Jesus accomplished on the cross, uh, would be more than, um, a nice Sunday school lesson or inspirational speech on a Sunday morning. But what Christ did on the cross would be a grand invitation to all of us, to live a different way, to walk in a different kind of power, to embrace weakness so that God's great strength and power would work through us. But I know as, as we enter this time of prayer, I know, uh, for many of us, we feel the shame and the weight of our mistakes and our sin. And so it keeps us from feeling worthy enough to follow Jesus. And I wanna let you know this morning, with your head's bowed, your eyes closed, is that that shame and that guilt that would keep you from following Jesus is the very thing that he took and absorbed in himself on the cross for you and at great cost to himself. He broke down the barrier. He broke down the wall that kept you far from God. And so now because of the cross that barrier's gone. And he says, now come follow me. There's nothing standing in your way,
Speaker 0 00:38:25 No sin, no past, no shame, no guilt can stop you from accessing the living power of arisen Jesus. And so in this place, with your head's bow, your eyes closed, um, if you need to receive and accept that forgiveness of sins and that that doing away with shames that you can follow the way of Jesus, the barrier's gone, the obstacles are moved. And if you need to receive and accept that, um, I would love to pray with you this morning. Would you just raise your hand right now and say, yeah, I need to, I need to receive that for myself so I can follow after Jesus. Yeah. Hands going up all over. Anybody, anybody who needs that, just raise your hand between you and God, I'm just agreeing with you today. Yeah, thank you Jesus. Just give you one more moment. You can put your hands down Jesus. For, for all those today who are saying, um, that they need to receive, receive the breaking down of those barriers that have kept them from your presence today. Jesus, I pray that you would, uh, move, rush towards them, pursue them, take them by the hand,
Speaker 0 00:39:43 Welcome them in to the club club following Jesus, even as you called those disciples so long ago and said, come follow me. And for many of 'em, they weren't even ready, but he said, come follow me anyway. Come on. That's the call for you today who raised your hand. Come follow him. See what he's got. See what you might find out about who God is and how much he loves you and how much He's after you Receive the call of Jesus today. And for all of us, we pray God that she would, uh, work through us in the way that you always do, which is, is through weakness. And, and through this, this cruciform amity, this willingness to enter into the trouble all around us. We're not, we don't isolate ourselves. We don't cloister away far from the pain of the world, but Jesus like you, we want to follow you into the real stuff of life. And in doing so, bring about the power and the grace and the mystery of Jesus into every situation. So now we pray. Would you just rest on your church as I prayed earlier? Uh, right now just receive the Holy Spirit Church, receive the Holy Spirit. Just put your hands out like you're receiving today. Just receive the Holy Spirit, the power of God who meets us in our weakness
Speaker 0 00:41:11 To reveal himself, to restore, to redeem Jesus. We receive your work. We receive your work. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. Pray all this today. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
