From Shadows to Substance: Embracing Christ's Reality

1) "You know what we both didn't do in that moment? We didn't hug each other's shadows. We didn't kiss each other's shadows. We embraced each other because the shadow, it was only the beginning part of the joy and excitement and relief that we found. But the substance was what we really were after. I wanted to be with her. She wanted to be with me. And I remember her jumping into my arms and us weeping and sobbing and all the relief and all of that fear just melting away knowing that she now was safe. And the reason why I share that story is because this morning, we are gonna look at a bunch of shadows. But the cool part is, is as we take this journey together, is that we are gonna see these shadows. Shadows fulfilled." [43:57] (43 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "God, there's no wasted words in the Bible. You are so intentional with how you bring to us the good news of Jesus. So God, as we take this journey together and we look at Joshua chapter five, I pray that you would illuminate in our hearts and minds your word and give us a passion and an excitement about who you are and what you have done for us." [47:51] (25 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "So, once the people of Israel trusted God and passed over the Jordan, God required them to be circumcised. This was a reminder of the covenant that God made with them, and it affirmed their identity of belonging to him. But for us, circumcision, hear me on this, was just a shadow of God's covenant and identity of belonging to him. So for us, like a little lost child that first sees their parents for the first time, we're gonna look past the shadow with joy to find our identity and our hope in Jesus." [55:34] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "See, for them, Passover represented Yahweh's deliverance and salvation for people who felt lost and helpless. So I want you to think about this. Have you ever felt lost, helpless, hopeless? Theologians call this the dark night of the soul, the pit of despair. There's a movie that some of you have seen. It's called Castaway. One of the legends, Tom Hanks, gets deserted on a desert island all by himself. And he begins to go crazy because there's nobody around him. He's not alone. And he doesn't know when salvation's going to come. He doesn't know when someone's going to come rescue him. No one knew where he was. And so he makes friends with this little volleyball named Wilson, because it said Wilson. It was a Wilson volleyball. And so he becomes friends with him. And so this is the feeling that we have sometimes. We feel alone. We feel isolated. We feel like nobody understands us. Maybe we feel like we're under attack. And that's truly what the dark night of the soul is, where we feel like there is no hope. We feel like there's no hope. We feel like there's no hope for us. And that's how the Israelites would have felt while they were in Egypt. And so this Passover represents their deliverance and their salvation, waiting for hope." [58:46] (81 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "When we continue to put our faith and our hope in the things of this world, we will always be let down. But there is a shadow of hope that we can look for that is a true salvation, a true savior. And his name is Jesus. Now, why is this a shadow of who Jesus is? Well, look at what the Passover foreshadows, because John the Baptist in John 1, makes a proclamation. He sees Jesus walking towards him as he's baptizing people in the river. And what is John the Baptist saying? He says in John 1, 29, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Just like the Passover lamb that saved them from death, the Lamb of God has now come. The ultimate sacrifice has come. What else? Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 5, 7, for Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. See, Passover is a mere shadow of deliverance and salvation that we now find in Jesus. So like a lost child that is waiting their father or their mother's arms, we look past the shadow of Passover to Jesus, and we find our deliverance and salvation in him and him alone." [01:00:14] (81 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "So who is this being? A being? Merely an angel? No. This is what we call in theology and doctrine a Christophany, an appearance of God in the Old Testament before Jesus incarnate came down to earth. Now, why would I say that? Because often in the Old Testament, we see angels. There are certain angels that show up in different stories. Why is this different? Well, in Revelation 22, there's a passage where John is receiving a message from the Lord. And he's receiving the word of the Lord. and we see in Revelation 2 and 3 that Jesus appears to John and he gives him these commands and these letters to give to the seven churches and what does John do? He falls on his face as though dead and worships but in Revelation 22, an angel appears to John and what's John's response? He falls down on his face and begins to worship and the angel rebukes him and says, don't do that, get up, do not worship me and he points him back to the Messiah, Jesus because the only one worthy of our worship is God. So in this moment when this being is allowing Joshua to fall on his face to the earth and worship him, he doesn't get rebuked but what does the being say? The being says, you are standing on holy ground. A foreshadowing of Jesus who is to come, the ultimate Messiah and what is the question that he's asking? What is the question that he's really getting at? Joshua's going, are you for me or are you for our adversaries? He's saying, no and this is what we talked about in our teaching team this week. He said, are you for me? Are you with me? Because I am going to lead my people into the promised land." [01:02:55] (108 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "We as a people, we as followers of Jesus, we do not seek shadows. We do not put our faith and our hope and our trust in shadows. But we pursue a relationship with Jesus. That's what we're invited into. Because if we keep chasing shadows, we will forget that Jesus actually truly is real and he is for us and he is with us and his power and his presence and his deliverance and his salvation is with us. But if we're just chasing shadows, then we're gonna miss who Jesus is and what he's done. Because a hardened heart is gonna see something very different in this passage of scripture. A hardened heart is gonna see circumcision as meaningless religion that just hinders their life. Right, I can't do these things, the things that I wanna do, the things that make me happy. Right, it's just this meaningless thing, this religion that I have to follow. That's not what God has invited you into. He's not invited you into religion. He's invited you into a relationship with him." [01:05:59] (62 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8) "The entirety of the Bible is about one thing. It's about Jesus. The Old Testament points to Jesus. The New Testament points to Jesus. This isn't a story of fables. This is a biography of God. He wrote it about himself. So what is that, an autobiography? Right? So God, it's about him. It's about Jesus. And I think often we just think it's something that is going to help us get through the day or something that's just going to give us a couple of to -dos that we got to make ourselves better. No, no, no. This is about Jesus. The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And he wants you to know him. That's why when we talk about prayer, it's not just this abstract thing that you say a couple of Hail Marys and then you move on your way. No, no. It's about you having a personal, intimate conversation with God." [01:09:07] (53 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9) "The good news for us is that God invites us into this relationship through his word, through prayer. And he invites us into this through biblical community. Not community that are just going to fuel our fire, uh, that, that makes us feel like, oh, we're, we're, everybody's against us. No, a community that's going to point you back to Jesus. A community that's going to help you. I want you to understand the grace of the goodness and the love of a father who sent his son to die for you. That's the beauty of the gospel. That you are seen, that you are known, that you are loved. That God gave up his life for you so that you can live for eternity with him." [01:09:42] (42 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)