Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, March 18, 2025. Let Us Discover Christ in the Scriptures.
Good Morning, Good Morning my brothers and my sisters and welcome to Turning On the Lights for Tuesday, March 18, 2025.
We are back and better than ever as we continue our journey to and through the cross April 20.
Today, we look at the many ways that Christ, the Lion of Judah, the Sacrificial Lamb of God, is revealed to us in both the Old and New Testaments – even by what Jesus says about Himself!
I find this very interesting and inspiring, and I hope that you do as well.
May God bless and keep you and, as always, KEEP LOOKING UP!
This is a video recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, March 18, 2025. Watch here via the YouTube link!
This is an audio recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, March 18, 2025. Listen here or through your favorite podcast app!
This is a transcript from the audio of this episode of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Hey, good morning, good morning, my brothers and my sisters. You are looking live. At a side view of the altar of the church, of the Church Town Church of God, the sun is beaming in from the east through our beautiful stained glass window, Jesus at Gethsemane. What a beautiful stained glass windows, excuse me, our beautiful piano, our beautiful electric Yamaha Clavinova, very fancy, very fancy. We are back and we are better than ever, my brothers and sisters. We had a marvelous weekend here at the church. It has been a very up and down time here at church town, real bouncy with a lot of people stuff, a lot of physical stuff. You may hear construction work today as well. I have my coffee with me today, which I rarely do. Let me show you this here. Pastor, because hardcore devil stomping ninja isn’t an official job title. That’s me. Spiritual warfare is my game. Brian Warner is my name and I exist in it continually. You do as well. And we all have our different sorts of contexts about it. Always tells people, well, that’s a great question. You’ll see that in different gospels, Sandy. And there is a, the main train of thought is that, I mean, there are times like the woman at the well, he says, I am he, you know, and he proclaims himself as the Lord. But the main train of thought is that the revelation that he is the Christ of God will not come until the passion, right? Palm Sunday through Easter. And that then all will be made clear at that point in time. Until then he is walking around, dare I say, just, just like a prophet, a very special, powerful prophet healing and obviously exposed or filled with the power of God. But is he God? Can it be resurrected from the dead? Can he resurrect himself as he is resurrected others? He resurrects others, but they will die again. He will resurrect himself, but you know, the very power of God and be the first example of a resurrected body and soul. So like, again, the general train of thought, great question. And I’m going to answer it right away because you’re telling me somebody is reading the Bible and I’m all about that. You know that. But the general consensus on that is that it’s a progressive revelation of who he is, right? Fully man, fully God. He’s not like a super Isaiah that’s filled with the power of God or God has given him power to do things like the Holy Spirit will give us power to do things. He is God. So a lot of times he goes and when he performs amazing miracles, he’ll say, let’s tell no one. Now he knows that that’s not going to happen, right? More often than not, the person who was healed or the person who received whatever miracle runs and tells and then Jesus is swamped and he has to go off by himself. So you can see sort of how God is sort of playing the, the, I don’t say playing the game of, but he knows society and he knows that he can say, don’t tell anybody they’re going to tell anybody people and word will spread very quickly about this incredible miracle worker. So I hope that that makes a little bit of sense. Good morning. Oh yeah. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. So father, we pray that your word will come through whether you’re not, people are now reading it at home or we read it here and explore your word, how you have revealed yourself to us in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, and we were just talking about that in Mark three, dear Lord, you reveal yourself to your creation, who you are and you are the only person to ever walk the face of the planet who did not deserve death, willingly sacrificed himself for his creation, for us, for you in Jesus name. Amen. Good morning, Cheryl. Good morning, Mary. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. We’re taking a, we’ve been looking at different teaching points through Luke 13, 14, which was a strange week, 15 last week, which is all about you and say, well, you’re preaching can’t be all about you. No, it’s about how the Lord views each and every one of his unique creations as being very, very special because you are, you’re not a, you’re, he’s not out there saving cattle and turtles and so on and so forth. He is seeking to save the lost souls of the human race. And so when we talk about, for example, John three 16 for God’s love the world, that’s everybody and everything that’s big. Good morning, Barb, that he gave his only begotten son, the only person that didn’t, that did not deserve death, that whomsoever should believe in him, that’s singular. So you see that he has redeemed that the possibility of the redemption of creation, it has begun in Christ, not the possibility of the redemption of creation has begun in and through Christ and every human soul, every human soul has the opportunity to turn. It is nice, isn’t it? My son got that for me. It’s a super nice fabric. I really enjoy wearing it almost don’t want sweatshirt weather to be over. It won’t be over for a little while yet. It’s still springtime. Late winter is a liar. Boy, you go out and you think it’s over. And then last night I walked out because I froze to death. It was like 40 with wind. Now this morning it’s trying to trick me again. Look at the beautiful day. So what do we know about Jesus? All right, talk about progressive revelation. And that’s a great, great starting point. Mark three and the way Jesus reveals himself throughout the gospels. How does Jesus, how is Jesus revealed? And I guess we can say because our triune God is responsible for the inspiration of the scriptures. How does Jesus reveal himself through scripture? And you know me, if you know anything about me, you know, I love my lions and I, the lion of the tribe of Judah resonates with me. I’ve got two pictures on my body that show that I love my lions. I love that imagery. I love that sentiment. I love that fact. The lion of the tribe of Judah, the smallest tribe, the lion of the tribe of Judah. And we find that way back in Genesis. So the first scripture of the day is Genesis 49 eight through 12. Genesis 49 eight through 12. Let’s let’s hear the word of God and what the word of God says about the line of the tribe of Judah. We know that that is a reference to Jesus. Judah, your brothers will praise you. You will grasp your enemies by the neck. All your relatives will bow before you. Judah, my son is a young lion that has finished eating its prey. Like a lion, he crouches and lies down like a lioness who dares to rouse him. The scepter will not depart from Judah. Important phrase. The scepter will not depart from Judah. That is the place of power that is the symbol of power that is power everlasting power. Eternal the scepter will never, never means never depart from Judah. And we know why. Nor the rulers staff from his descendants until the coming of the one to whom it belongs. The one whom all nations will honor. Jesus Christ will carry that scepter. Jesus Christ will sit on the seat of power. Jesus Christ will sit on the throne of judgment. Jesus Christ of the tribe of Judah will exist in eternity for eternity. He is eternal. In power over his kingdom. Right? So we hear these references until the one, let me hear it again. The scepter will not depart from Judah nor the rulers staff from his descendants until the coming of the one to whom it belongs. The one whom all nations will honor. He ties his fold to a grapevine. The cult of his donkey to a choice vine. He washes his clothes and wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine and his teeth are whiter than milk. I added that because you see we’re going to go to Revelation next. And you see imagery and you see descriptions and you hear things in Revelation about white robes and stained robes and all of this different imagery. But the lion from the tribe of Judah is what we’re talking about here. The descendants of David, lion of the tribe of Judah. Revelation five, one through five, I believe is where we’re going to go next. And so you see the very beginning of the Bible and you hear the very end of the Bible and you, all of scripture is pointing to Christ. All of scripture is revealing to us who Christ is, who God is. We can use that interchangeably because even Christ himself, if you have seen me, you have seen the father as well, right? We are exposed to who God is. And what I mean by that is his consciousness, his behavior, his righteousness, right? His justice, his love. All of these things that we talk about God that are reflected in us. We have our own sense of right and wrong. We have our own sense of morality. We have our own sense of justice. We have our own sense of righteousness, which a lot of what we’ve been talking about in Luke, Jesus has been teaching against your own sense of righteousness. Ain’t going to save you. Only the righteousness of Christ, only the covering of Christ until the day comes when the final judgment is made and the new heaven and the new earth, which of which revelation speaks our glorified bodies and pure spirits as it was in the garden in the beginning, it will then and forever be. Everything about scripture is about God. And we know that as we are reflected in his, as an image bearer, learning about him empowers us to learn about ourselves, right? The Bible was written for you, not to you. The Bible was written about God, not about you. Then I saw a scroll, Revelation five. Then I saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who was sitting on the throne. There was writing on the inside and the outside of the scroll, and it was sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel who shouted with a loud voice, who is worthy to break the seals on this scroll and open it. But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll and read it. Then I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll and read it. But one of the 24 elders said to me, stop weeping. Look, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David’s throne has won the victory. He is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals. The imagery here is powerful. The lion of the tribe of Judah, the descendant of David, everything is in line for who Jesus is that’s telling us that from the beginning to the end, scripture points to Jesus. He alone is worthy. We sing that in church all the time. He alone is worthy. He alone is worthy of our worship. His name alone is worthy of worship. His name alone. He is the one who is worthy to open the scroll. He is the one who is worthy of true judgment and justice over humankind. All princes and principalities will fail. Christ’s eternal kingdom will exist forever. In pureness, pureness of those concepts that we throw around so haphazardly today. Love and justice and freedom. And we, we have just taken all of the, and they are basically either characteristics, attributes or behaviors of the Lord. And we’ve just, the human society around the world has just taken them and made nothing of them. Right? The God of this world has taken the language of scripture, the attributes of God and twisted and turned and overused and all of that to the point. Good morning, Catherine, that it seems almost useless. I want to read a little bit more in Revelation five because here’s the power, right? The lion, I want to read this and then you immediately switch to his sacrifice. You have the imagery of the one who will exist forever in the mercy seat, the seat of judgment, the seat of power, and then you have the imagery of the sacrifice he made. So let’s read this again. Stop weeping. Look, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David’s throne has won the victory. He is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals. Then I saw a lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered, but it was now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the 24 elders. See that it just switch. And it gives us this incredible picture of Christ, Christ, the almighty, right? As as you’re learning in Mark three, he is God. He is man. The only man who did not deserve the wrath of God. So anyway, this thing works and we did not kill him. We did not sacrifice him. That would be reminiscent, if you will, of the old sacrificial system. That’s that’s going to be dead and gone because Christ will look upon humanity with mercy and know that the only sacrifice worthy would be the perfect God man. The second Adam. Remember how we talked in the garden? Pure bodies, pure spirit before the fall, right before the invasion of sin. Here’s the second Adam, pure body, pure spirit. The only human being worthy and he goes willingly to sacrifice himself for you. Powerful picture. The lion of Judah and the slaughtered lamb. It really gets me. It really gets me. Where am I going now? I’m going to John five. I’m going to have a little bit of coffee here, if you don’t mind. I can hear the machine running out there. They had they excavated and more and they grated some yesterday and they began laying the several sub layers of stone before they pour the new concrete. So they’re going to lay each layer and then they compact it. That’s not as bad as a jackhammer, but it’s still like, oh, my goodness. Makes you insane. So I can hear him humming along. This guy who’s doing this is a master. He’s taking the smallest pieces of concrete that you would use a hammer on. He’s taking that big excavator and just nipping them off there, making the edges perfectly. He is like a Michelangelo of excavating. His name is Sean. He’s a good dude. John five, we’re going deep into it. 31. John five, 31. Now you hear in the gospel like we talked about in Mark three. Now we hear in the gospel. John five, verse 31. If I were to testify on my own behalf, this is Jesus speaking about himself, revealing himself. We talked about progressive revelation, the concept of progressive revelation throughout the scriptures, right? We talk about in John. Remember when in John two, right? The wedding banquet. And he says to his mother, woman, it’s not my time. It’s not my time. He says that several times throughout John and in other places, it’s not my time. And that indicates that there, he both has a sense of who he is, or knowledge of who he is and knowledge of the timeline of how things should go. It’s very intriguing and interesting. There’s absolutely nothing in there that is a deal breaker regarding what he did and why he did it. But it’s fascinating when we look at the synoptics and we look at John and we look at the concepts of who is Jesus, right? There are other, you know, non canonical scriptures that talk about his youth and different things that have been proven to be just made up stories. There’s nothing really until the time he goes to the wilderness and is anointed by God and comes out baptized and I should say baptized. And it’s hard when you’re using the language of God, try you and God, because Jesus is God. We’re talking about father, son, Holy spirit. And so there’s nothing really until he moves into his public ministry. How about if I just put it that way? And we see God’s Holy spirit resting upon him and we hear God, the father’s voice saying, this is my son with him. I’m well pleased. And Jesus that from that point on goes, goes around preaching, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. So let’s just use scripture. The human words are difficult, no matter how you’re trying to teach any aspect of Trinity in our triune God. If I were to testify on my own behalf, my testimony would not be valid, but someone else is also testifying about me. And I assure you that everything he says about me is true. In fact, you sent investigators to listen to John the Baptist and his testimony about me was true. Of course, I have no need of human witnesses, but I say these things. So you might be saved. I have no need of human witnesses. What would that mean if he’s not God, he has the triune nature of God itself bearing witness to who he is. John was like a burning and shining lamp. And you were excited for a while about his message, but I have a greater witness than John. In my teachings and my miracles, the father gave me these works to accomplish and they prove that he sent me. And the father who sent me has testified about me himself. You have never heard his voice or seen him face to face and you do not have his message in your hearts because you do not believe me. The one he sent to you. You search the scriptures because you think they give you eternal life, but the scriptures point to me, exclamation point. Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life. Your approval means nothing to me because I know you don’t have God’s love within you where I’ve come to you in my father’s name and you have rejected me. Yet if others come in their own name, you gladly welcome them. No wonder you can’t believe for you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the one who alone is God. There it is. There it is. There’s another statement. You gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the one who alone is God. Yet it is an I who will accuse you before the father. Moses will accuse you. Yes, Moses in whom you put your hopes. The old testament. You remain living under the old covenant. You refuse. Your hearts are hardened. You will not see God even though everything that is written under the old covenant points to him. He’s standing there and now he’s standing there telling you that it points to him and you’re still like, nope. You’re under the covenant that Moses wrote through God. God wrote through Moses. If you really believed Moses, you would believe me because it’s all about him. That’s what it says. If you really believe Moses, you would believe me because he wrote about me. But since you don’t believe what he wrote, how will you believe anything I say? Powerful, powerful stuff. And there you go. It’s interesting that you tied that in there with Mark three and revelation and how Jesus reveals who he is and the testimony that we have as new testament Christians living beyond the resurrection, guided by the power of God’s holy spirit as to who Jesus is. We as vessels, fragile as they may be. We as vessels live with Christ in us. What does NT Wright say? Every Holy Spirit filled Christian is a living, working, mini model of the new creation. I can go with that. I can go with that because it’s different now. We don’t walk around. Now here’s something that folks don’t catch readily when we talk about John the Baptist. Why is he baptizing for the forgiveness of sin? Be baptized and have your sins forgiven. Whoa, whoa. What are you talking about, John? That’s what the sacrificial system is for. We see the ushering in of the new covenant with John who is paving the way and teaching baptism instead of sacrifice. That’s something to really think about because oftentimes we just gloss over that. Wait a minute. Shouldn’t these people be sacrificing goats and sheeps and dogs and grain and olive oil? Yet they are coming to John to be baptized. Now they’re not baptized by the Holy Spirit. That’s going to be Jesus. But there is a shift happening and this again, this baptism and the act of baptism for the forgiveness of sins on the part of John the Baptist is paving the way for people to understand baptism of God’s Holy Spirit filling us as vessels, as living, working models of the new creation. Good stuff, huh? Scripture is awesome. You just kept boom, boom. I’m reading commentaries on Galatians right now. I’m reading an edifying book about being a pastor. I’ve taken a few shots as a pastor lately, spiritual and personal shots that come with the territory. It comes with the territory, but there are a lot of good writings out there that you can relate to and they can edify you as a pastor, a person who is involved in the lives of so many. A quote that I shared even this morning was for them, it might be the worst day of their lives for you. It is Tuesday afternoon. And that helps to put things into perspective when these things happen and you and then you, you read the scriptures like this. And even though there may be emotions bubbling up and you might be hurt or you might have feelings, you set your eyes back upon Jesus, set your eyes back upon your vocation, understanding that God will provide everybody who is supposed to be here will be here. Everybody who isn’t won’t. And the pieces of this puzzle called church town will be put together by God, not by me. And every need that we have spiritual and physical will be met by him. If we are faithful, you got to readjust every once in a while. How about it? Am I talking to my small church pastor friends? You’re not up there on a stage in front of 10,000 people that you don’t know you’re living the life with them. You’re in the spiritual battle. You are marrying their sons and daughters. You are burying their relatives and husbands and wives. You are deeply and intimately involved and as often as not, it matters a whole lot more to you as a pastor than it does to them as the recipient friendship can be easily tossed aside. Things happen. Do you think they may have done both baptism and sacrifice? Yes, I do. Yes, I do. I absolutely believe that both were happening at the same time. I think that most of the commentaries talk about how John the Baptist was doing this new thing. We talked about Jesus as a new thing, new creation, new kingdom, all that. John the Baptist. And that’s why he was an oddity. That’s why the Pharisees and the legalists, the scholars were keeping an eye on him. Like what are you doing? What are you doing, dude? And then Jesus comes along and is baptized by him. Even though there’s no sin to forgive as a representation, as a model of obedience and as a demonstration of the baptism of God’s Holy Spirit to come. Yes, absolutely. The sacrificial system was absolutely going on probably until Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD. And then the Jews sort of had to rethink everything, right? They had to rethink everything. Yeah. I know you know, Barb, it’s the life, man. It’s the life. And it’s a, you consider it a blessing. I always, always, always have to readjust my thinking when situations occur or when there’s intense drama, intensity. There’s whatever is going on in the lives of individuals. And you’re like, instead of saying, Oh my goodness, I can’t do this again. You say, Oh my goodness, the Lord believes I can do this again. He’s empowered me and he’s placed me in this spot and I have nothing to fear. And you have to, you literally must be intentional. And this goes for every Holy Spirit filled believer. You must be intentional in that faith because either you believe God’s got you or you don’t. That’s the way it works. It is, Oh, Amen. And Amen. Dale. Say pastors are some of the loneliest people on earth, even though we have such an amazing, you know, that’s difficult. That’s difficult. You know, it can be what you thought was honest and genuine friendship and then poof, it’s gone. It doesn’t mean anything. Or it can be sort of a fake type of friendship when the individuals are trying to get your ear. So yeah, it’s difficult. What is the Lord trying to teach me through this? How am I growing and what an honor it is to be placed in that position. So, Hey, there’s a little introduction. There’s a little Bible and here’s a little testimony. It’s a full day. I’ve got a full day ahead of me. I’ve got dinner with wonderful friends tonight. I’ve got a full day ahead of me in preparation for this weekend as well. I pray that you have a full day ahead of you. I pray that in the, I mean, I S I say glibly, good Lord willing in the river don’t rise. And you look at what’s going on around the country with this weather. And maybe I’m not even going to say that today. Maybe we just say that prayer for recovery and restoration of all of those who have been affected by such devastating weather patterns. Lord. Oh Lord, we can’t wait until this earth is redeemed and there is no such thing as this again. Come Lord Jesus come. You guys stay in the word and I’ll talk to you again Thursday morning.
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