The Transformative Power of the Suffering Servant

1. "So we are in this fall series called Jesus Like You've Never Known Him Before. And what we're trying to do is discover the real Jesus. And I didn't make up that phrase, who is the real Jesus? That has been asked for hundreds of years because we all know that our perceptions of Jesus are really, you know, tainted from all kinds of directions. Could be our upbringing, the family that we were raised in, the religious background of our family. Could be school, youth groups, our own thinking about Jesus, our own time and prayer and the Bible, our own thoughts, our own life experiences shape our perception of Jesus." [26:16] (38 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "Jesus is the Son of Man, fully human, from man, Son of Man, fully human. Jesus is the Son of God, fully divine, from God, fully divine. Jesus came to bring in a new kingdom. He is the king of a brand new kingdom, a brand new way of thinking, a brand new way of believing, a brand new way of living that he called the kingdom of heaven on earth. And essentially, that means to live free and do good. So Jesus is freeing us in a new way of thinking, a new way of believing. And he says that new way of thinking, that new way of believing is so compelling and so profound that it's going to compel us to do good, to love our neighbor as ourselves, to make this world a better place." [29:01] (38 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "The cross has become the centerpiece of the Christian religion. It wasn't always like that. In fact, for the first 300 years of the Christian religion, we were people of resurrection. It was all about the resurrection. Now, the suffering of Jesus and the death of Jesus was the darkness before the light, but we were all about the light. It was the death before the life, right? So we were all about the light, but we were all about the light. So we were about the resurrection. First 300 years of Christianity, we were people of the resurrection. Then something shifted in the fourth century that put the cross, the crucifixion, more in the center of the Christian faith." [30:19] (32 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "Why was Jesus killed? And we're going to look at this purely from a, you know, human journey. Why did Jesus, the man, end up crucified? Well, again, we have these four books of the Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and we have these stories about Jesus, what he said, what he did, and what his priorities were. And we see very, very clearly that Jesus was not messing around. He had a very, very serious mission. And that mission was to bring a brand new kingdom on earth. So when you've got someone who is a, you know, peasant Hebrew telling the Romans, and telling religious leaders, hey, I'm bringing a brand new kingdom. How do you think that's going to go? How do you think it's going to go over when you're telling the Roman empire, I'm bringing in a new kingdom? How's it going to go when you're telling all the local authorities that have all the, you know, soldiers and weapons, oh, I'm here to bring in a brand new kingdom. How's that going to go over? Not well." [37:13] (60 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "Given the confrontational nature of the ministry of Jesus, tearing down these other kingdoms, threatening the power of everyone who was in power, this was going to end in one of two ways. Either Jesus had to quit or he was going to die. That's the only way this would end. Either he was going to quit or he was going to die. And Jesus never quit. He simply never quit. He never gave up on this idea of the kingdom of heaven on earth. He never gave up on the people who were oppressed and poor and sick and lonely and outcast. He never gave up on us. So he was not going to quit. So there's only one way this was going to end. He was going to die. That is why Jesus was killed." [41:16] (50 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "The death of Jesus is the sacrificial price he paid to free us all. What does the death of Jesus mean? It's the sacrificial price he paid to free us all. I'm bringing the kingdom of heaven to earth. That means this religious kingdom of oppression has got to go. We're done with you judging people and harassing people and manipulating people and robbing people's money in the name of God. You've got to go. And political oppressors, you are keeping people in poverty and you are perpetrating violence against innocent people, and you've got to go. I'm bringing in a brand new kingdom, and that cost him his life. The death of Jesus is the sacrificial price he paid to free us all." [54:29] (45 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "The death of Jesus is also his divine participation in the suffering of humankind. And this means so much to so many. We all suffer, and if we're not suffering now, there will be times of suffering. We face sickness and pain. We all face relationship problems. We all face issues in our heads and our hearts and our emotions. We all face the reality that we're mortal. I mean, we all struggle. And what the crucifixion of Jesus means to us is that he has struggled and suffered with us. God is not some distant sort of irrelevant idea. The divine took on human flesh and suffered immensely. In every single way we suffer, Jesus suffered." [56:07] (53 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "The death of Jesus is also the brokenness of this world on display. The death of Jesus is the brokenness or the sin of this world on display. The sin of this world was so, was so serious and deep and dark that it crushed the light of heaven. 1 Corinthians 15.3 says, Christ died for our sins, just as the scripture says. That preposition for means a lot of things, but it means kind of on behalf of, or, or as a representative of, or because of. Because of this world's brokenness, Jesus died. Because of this world's sin, Jesus died. The world is so corrupt, it snuffed out the light of heaven. The perfect, pure love of heaven, this world's sin killed." [57:39] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "The death of Jesus is also the love of God on display. Not just display of the sin of the world, but the display of the love of God. Romans 5, 8. If you haven't memorized this already, memorize it. Sear this in your heart. It's got to be a top three. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. So yes, the cross of Christ shows the corruption and sin of the world, but the cross of Christ shows the love of Jesus in this world, bearing the suffering of the world. Sacrificing himself in love for us all. It's showing off the love of the world." [59:07] (37 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "What the cross says is God took care of everything by love, by sacrifice, giving himself for us all. God took care of everything. So if we think we are right with God because we're good people, stop thinking that. God took care of it. If we think we can be right with God because of religious devotion. You know, I go to church, I pray, I do all these religious things. That is not how we get to God. If we think we get to God because we believe the right things, believe the right things about Jesus, then you'll get to God. Or if you have sincere faith and you believe without doubting, then you're going to make God happy. What the cross says is stop trying to please God and stop trying to work your way to God by any good work, by any religious devotion, by any right thinking or good doctrine or by any measure of faith. Stop trying to please God. Stop trying to work for God's favor. He took care of everything." [01:00:37] (62 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)