Loading Content...
Share a Link to this Message
The link has been copied to your clipboard; paste it anywhere you would like to share it.
CloseRyan Sim - December 4, 2013
Wednesday - Change It - The Night That Changed The Religious
We saw yesterday how the religious experts who read prophecy day in day out, still got it wrong when it came to Jesus. They missed that one of the ancient prophecies about the Messiah was happening before their eyes. So what did they miss? They missed grace and hope. Religion at its worst can be about building a ladder to heaven, trying to make ourselves acceptable to God under our own power. But what Christmas means is that God has come to us. No ladder required. Two weeks ago, we contrasted grace and law as part of our Becoming Like Family series. Grace means we have hope. It’s not primarily about what we do for God, it’s about what God has done for us, and everything we do is a way to say thanks. The problem is if you’ve invested a great deal in self-help, you may not recognize or accept true help when it comes. You can be so sure of your hard work that you brush off help saying “I’ve got this!” when you really don’t. Who would have expected God to come as a baby, much less a homeless baby born in questionable circumstances, with the most common name at that time, Jesus? But people didn’t just call him Jesus, he called himself God, and others came to do this as well. Yes, Jesus claimed to be god. That is a claim that no other leader of a major world religion has made. Jesus didn’t go around standing on street corners shouting “I am God” in language that plain and simple, but when you look at what he taught and claimed, he was conscious of, and claiming to be God in some more subtle ways. And he was subtle for good reasons. In the culture of his day, saying he was God would have been considered blasphemy – a crime punishable by death. So he showed it in all sorts of interesting ways: He spoke of himself using “I AM” sayings – a deliberate hint to the Jewish name of God – Yahweh, which means “I am”. He also said, he was one with the Father he was the Son of God. he had the power to forgive sins he was greater than the temple – the most important place of worship for the Jews and God’s presence on earth In the gospel of Mark, Jesus is asked directly by some religious leaders “Are you the Christ (anointed one), the Son of the Blessed One ?” Jesus said “I am …” Jesus was making an incredible and dangerous claim to be God incarnate—which means God in the flesh One of the central truths of Jesus’ religious context was that there is only one God. When Jesus started to talk in this way, it was dangerous, but it was also life changing. He wasn’t claiming to be a new God, a second God, even a demigod. He was claiming to be the God, their God – the God who created, and then stayed with the Israelites through their history, there with them in an entirely new way. Question: Do you know people who change when their boss, or parents, or another authority figure enters the room? How would the world change when God entered the room?
From Series: The Night that Changed Everything | More Messages from Ryan Sim | Download Audio
More Messages Associated With "Incarnation"...
Tuesday - Study It - The Night That Changed The ReligiousDecember 3, 2013 |
||
Wednesday - Change It - The Night That Changed The ReligiousDecember 4, 2013 |
||
Thursday - Act On It - The Night That Changed The ReligiousDecember 5, 2013 |
||
Jesus: God in the Flesh - MondayDecember 15, 2014 |
||
Jesus: God in the Flesh - TuesdayDecember 16, 2014 |
||
Jesus: God in the Flesh - WednesdayDecember 17, 2014 |
||
Jesus: God in the Flesh - ThursdayDecember 18, 2014 |
||
Jesus: God in the Flesh - FridayDecember 19, 2014 |
||
EPIC: Moses & The Burning Bush - WednesdayMarch 18, 2015 |
||
EPIC: Moses & The Burning Bush - ThursdayMarch 19, 2015 |
||
EPIC: Moses & The Burning Bush - FridayMarch 20, 2015 |
||
Day 22 – Jesus Claimed to be God in Human FleshRyan Sim - June 8, 2015 |
||
Day 23 – Jesus Claimed to Forgive SinRyan Sim - June 9, 2015 |
||
Jesus is... God - MondayJanuary 18, 2016 |
||
Jesus is... God - TuesdayJanuary 19, 2016 |
||
Jesus is... God - WednesdayJanuary 20, 2016 |
||
Jesus is... God - ThursdayJanuary 21, 2016 |
||
Jesus is.. Perfect - MondayJanuary 25, 2016 |
||
Jesus is... Perfect - TuesdayJanuary 26, 2016 |
||
Jesus is... Perfect - WednesdayJanuary 27, 2016 |
||
Jesus is... Perfect - ThursdayJanuary 28, 2016 |
||
Jesus is... Help - MondayFebruary 1, 2016 |
||
Jesus is... Help - TuesdayFebruary 2, 2016 |
||
Jesus is... Help - WednesdayFebruary 3, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Worth Following - WednesdayFebruary 3, 2016 |
||
Jesus is... Help - ThursdayFebruary 4, 2016 |
||
Jesus is... Teacher - MondayFebruary 8, 2016 |
||
Jesus is... Teacher - MondayFebruary 9, 2016 |
||
Jesus is... Teacher- WednesdayFebruary 10, 2016 |
||
Jesus is.... Teacher - ThursdayFebruary 11, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Rejected - MondayFebruary 15, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Rejected - TuesdayFebruary 16, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Rejected - WednesdayFebruary 17, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Rejected - ThursdayFebruary 18, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Transfigured - MondayFebruary 22, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Transfigured - TuesdayFebruary 23, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Transfigured - WednesdayFebruary 24, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Transfigured - ThursdayFebruary 25, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Worth Following - MondayFebruary 29, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Worth Following - TuesdayMarch 1, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Worth Following - WednesdayMarch 2, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Worth Following - ThursdayMarch 3, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Love - MondayMarch 7, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Love - TuesdayMarch 8, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Love - WednesdayMarch 9, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Love - ThursdayMarch 10, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Forgiving - MondayMarch 14, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Forgiving - TuesdayMarch 15, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Forgiving - WednesdayMarch 16, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Forgiving - ThursdayMarch 17, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Crucified - MondayMarch 21, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Crucified - TuesdayMarch 22, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Crucified - WednesdayMarch 23, 2016 |
||
Jesus Is...Crucified - ThursdayMarch 24, 2016 |
||
We Are...Changed People - MondayApril 4, 2016 |
||
We Are...Changed People - TuesdayApril 5, 2016 |
||
We Are...Changed People - WednesdayApril 6, 2016 |
||
We Are...Changed People - ThursdayApril 7, 2016 |
||
We Are...Messengers - MondayApril 11, 2016 |
||
We Are...Messengers - TuesdayApril 12, 2016 |
||
We Are...Messengers - WednesdayApril 13, 2016 |
||
We Are...Messengers - ThursdayApril 14, 2016 |
||
We Are...Free - MondayApril 18, 2016 |
||
We Are...Free - TuesdayApril 19, 2016 |
||
We Are...Free - WednesdayApril 20, 2016 |
||
We Are...Free - ThursdayApril 21, 2016 |
||
We Are...Healers - MondayApril 25, 2016 |
||
We Are...Healers - TuesdayApril 26, 2016 |
||
We Are...Healers - WednesdayApril 27, 2016 |
||
We Are...Healers - ThursdayApril 28, 2016 |
||
We Are...Generous - MondayMay 2, 2016 |
||
We Are...Generous - TuesdayMay 3, 2016 |
||
We Are...Generous - WednesdayMay 4, 2016 |
||
We Are...Generous - ThursdayMay 5, 2016 |
||
We Are...Community - MondayMay 9, 2016 |
||
We Are...Community - TuesdayMay 10, 2016 |
||
We Are...Community - WednesdayMay 11, 2016 |
||
We Are...Community - WednesdayMay 12, 2016 |
||
We Are...Love - MondayMay 16, 2016 |
||
We Are...Love - TuesdayMay 17, 2016 |
||
We Are...Love – WednesdayMay 18, 2016 |
||
We Are...Love - ThursdayMay 19, 2016 |
||
We Are...Spirit Led - MondayMay 23, 2016 |
||
We Are...Spirit Led - TuesdayMay 24, 2016 |
||
We Are...Spirit Led – WednesdayMay 25, 2016 |
||
We Are...Spirit Led – ThursdayMay 26, 2016 |
||
We Are...Protected - MondayMay 30, 2016 |
||
We Are...Protected - TuesdayMay 31, 2016 |
||
We Are...Protected - WednesdayJune 1, 2016 |
||
We Are...Protected – ThursdayJune 2, 2016 |
||
We Are...At Peace - MondayJune 6, 2016 |
||
We Are...At Peace - TuesdayJune 7, 2016 |
||
We Are...At Peace - WednesdayJune 8, 2016 |
||
We Are...At Peace - ThursdayJune 9, 2016 |
||
We Are...Gifted - MondayJune 13, 2016 |
||
We Are...Gifted - TuesdayJune 14, 2016 |
||
We Are...Gifted - WednesdayJune 15, 2016 |
||
We Are...Gifted - ThursdayJune 16, 2016 |
||
We Are...One - TuesdayJune 21, 2016 |
||
We Are...One - WednesdayJune 22, 2016 |
||
We Are...One - ThursdayJune 23, 2016 |
||
We Are...Made New - MondayJune 27, 2016 |
||
We Are...Made New - TuesdayJune 28, 2016 |
||
We Are...Made New - WednesdayJune 29, 2016 |
||
We Are...Made New - ThursdayJune 30, 2016 |
||
We Are...Transformed - MondayJuly 4, 2016 |
||
We Are...Transformed - TuesdayJuly 5, 2016 |
||
We Are...Transformed – WednesdayJuly 6, 2016 |
||
We Are...Transformed - ThursdayJuly 7, 2016 |
||
Day 1 - What is the Bible? Part 1 - A LetterRyan Sim - September 6, 2016 |
||
Day 2 - What is the Bible? Part 2 - Light and Owners ManualRyan Sim - September 7, 2016 |
||
Day 3 - What is the Bible? Part 3 - AuthenticRyan Sim - September 8, 2016 |
||