Good Morning My Beloved,
Thank you all for joining us today.
How did we do with the task we were given last time?
Loving others, the way we ourselves have been loved..?
It really made me think... it changed something, I hope it did for all of you.
Heavenly Father,
Thank You.
Thank You for the high calling you’ve given us,
for choosing us out of the world, we’re so grateful, so grateful
we understand that we have died to the world and the world to us
that while we are in this world, we are not of this world, we know that, we feel it.
we know that we are citizens of heaven, and here, we are outcasts and strangers.
May the false run and the wicked flee in the sight of righteousness
Lord, we also realize we're Your ambassadors, given the task of the ministry of reconciliation
to preach the gospel of the substitutionary death and resurrection of Christ
may we be faithful and useful to You in that most lofty of all tasks in the world
the Great Commission
In Jesus' name we pray
Amen
"This I command you, that you love one another. If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause."
John 15:17-25
Today's Message: If The World Hates You - Part 5
We are again, in the 15th chapter of John, we concluded last time with verse 13, verse 13. This Thursday night, was a night like no other. Love dominated the night. A very unique kind of love. And there is a rather strange way in which this relationships is described here because in verse 14, we read, "You are My friends." But in verse 15, it says, "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you" He identifies the disciples as slaves then who are friends.
In some translations, "No longer do I merely call you, or only call you slaves,...."
Let's read that verse again, chapter 15, verse 15. "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you." Its like, "you are My slaves, who I love, so I also call you my friends. I tell you everything, everything My Father has revealed to Me, I've told to you, there isn't any secrets between, I trust you; no one who knows me better. You know Me most intimately."
Now, I know this might seem a little bizarre to some of you because since we don’t currently have any slaves in America; or in the modern world, and slavery is heinous kind of reality that we strongly reject. We’re not used to that type of a concept or that kind of social structure. We do however, know about friends and friendships and friends typically in our society are people who have some kind of, usually a somewhat silly and frivolous relationship. And if you're blessed, it sometimes deepens into something that exceeds far beyond that. But this is a new dynamic reality: slaves who are also friends.
Now, for the record here, the Bible that I've found, nowhere condemns slavery as a social structure not anywhere I've found. It does condemn every abuse of it as it condemns every abuse of every social structure. Every sin, every wrongdoing, every maltreatment is condemned. But slavery in itself, not only is it not condemned, it is elevated as a spiritual structure in which to understand our relationship to the Lord. We are all Christs' slaves who have become friends. Now, I see it, much like we do employees who work for a corporation. They have an immediate supervisor or boss, who in turn has a higher up boss. So essentially, we're Christs' work force who became His friends, that He loves and gave His life for. What a boss, right?
Now as far as slaves however, I know that some of you are saying, "Wait! What? How in the world can that be?" Well, allow me to help you out a bit here. In that day, in the Roman courts and in the Eastern courts as well in the ancient world, slavery was common. It didn’t have to be bad. For some people, slavery was the best of all possibilities because they were cared for along with their family for the whole of their life. Many of them were so loved and well cared for that they would go to their master and say, "I want to serve you for life." In the Old Testament pictures, they would put up their ear against a post and small pointed tool, called an awl, would poke a hole in the ear of a particular slave, and that would indicate that this was a willing slave for life.
Now, in the court of Roman emperors, let’s say for example, there were many, many slaves. There were as many as 10 million slaves in the ancient world and that may actually be a relatively low number because at that time, slaves did everything. They didn’t just do menial tasks, they did literally everything. Every profession, every skill, every craft, every everything could be done and was done by slaves. They were literally strewn throughout all the various levels of society in terms of function. They were unique in the fact that they were owned. But there were some slaves who had risen very high, in position and they had become friends of the king, friends of the emperor, friends of Caesar. That is how things were and everybody understood that.
Even kings needed slaves, so, there were slaves who had access to the king that many didn't because they were so trusted, because they were so faithful. They had so much fidelity; they were so dutiful. They were so concerned in doing what they were told to do, that they had risen through the social ranks so to speak, until they were trusted enough to be made an intimate friends of the king. We read about these slaves that they had the right to enter the king’s bed chamber. And as such, they were the last ones to see him at night and the first ones to see him in the morning. They cared for his most intimate needs at a very personal level. They were so well-acquainted with him that they literally were trusted with his life, with his life. They had even become protectors of his life. They would know his deepest fears because they were so intimately acquainted with him in all types of informal situations. They would know his secret thoughts. They would know his hopes, his dreams, his joys, his cares and concerns, even his ambitions. They essentially every aspect of them.
And its very likely, they would know his future plans. They basically would know far more about this king than anybody who met him on a formal level. More than any statesman, any politician, any noble, or any in general wouldn’t know what these intimate friends of the king knew. These slaves took his sandals off and put on his bedclothes, and were there with him in the morning to bring him out of bed, to help him get ready for the day. They knew more than his wives knew, because wives and marriage was a matter of convenience, and concubines were only for sexual pleasure, and children were not necessarily really given any significant attention of their important fathers.
One could easily say that these were the most intimate people in the life of a monarch. They were the closest, most personal, private people in his world; and they had to be trusted. They had to be able to be trusted with his life. They had to be trusted with his thoughts. They had to be trusted with his plans. They had to be trusted with his goals and objectives. And if you were a friend to the king, if you were a slave who was a friend, you were of all men most specially favored; and you can likely understand why.
The word "friend" in the Greek is the word philos. And it’s from the Greek verb phile which means "to love, to love, to have affection for." So when Jesus says, "You are My friends, - slaves who are loved. - You are slaves, My friends, who know Me most intimately."
This is actually a magnificent picture of the believer in Christ, who is a slave, but has been elevated to an intimate level of being uniquely and deeply loved and trusted. And to us, the Lord has given us everything that the Father has told Him. He holds no secrets from us. What an astonishing way for us to understand our Christian lives.
I know some of you are thinking, "Hold on, just you wait a minute: there are no secrets?" No! None!
Pay attention to this: You now have the mind of Christ; He’s revealed it all here; there is nothing, literally been held back. Everything He know, we know. We know everything, all that the Father has given unto Him. That's really pretty incredible, to be able to proclaim we know everything Jesus knows! If you stop and think about it. That's so rich.
How incredibly blessed am I, to be able to boldly proclaim to the worlds, "I’m a friend of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and He has no secrets that He’s kept from me. And He loves me and I love Him. All that His Father has revealed, all the important matters of the kingdom, He has given to Me."
Seriously how absolutely privileged am I: This is real friendship. This is truly an amazing friendship! This is true genuine relationship.
And are you? He done the same for you too! That is just mind blowing to me!
I apologize, I've gotten a bit sidetracked here...
OK, so when we're talking about Jesus' slaves, slaves who are friends, we’re entering into a strange arena, concept that is foreign to many people, even the evangelical world. Yes, you heard me correctly. Let me help you understand something, for many centuries they have attempted to hide this essential reality that we are indeed, as Christians, we are slaves of Christ. And to elaborate further, we are slaves who are very intimate friends of the King, Jesus Christ.
Somehow, that doesn't sound quite as appealing as, "I'm a Christian. Follower of Jesus!" Does it?
That is why they've have covered it up for centuries. That isn't going to bring masses of people in the church to fill the pew, is it? Not likely.
Regardless, of this incredible cover-up, it's true. And I for one and not ashamed!
Heck, I'm proud of it.
Now, let me help you try to understand.
I want to make two points. It’ll take me awhile, and I might not get all the way through them both today but I’m only going to eventually make two of them.
Ready?
Let's go!
Point 1: "Jesus is Lord."
Would all agree with that?
Say it with me, "Jesus Christ is Lord!"
Good, because you cannot even be a Christian, unless you confess that Jesus is Lord!
Oh really? Yes, really! Anyone here read, Romans chapter 10? All of it? Haha
Let's look at verses 9 and 10, Romans chapter 10, verses 9 and 10.. Everyone there yet?
"that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."
Point 2: "You’re His slave."
That’s all I want to say.
Let me explain point 1: Jesus is Lord. That is the substantial foundational confession of Christianity. If you say you’re a Christian, then immediately you would say, "Jesus is Lord." That’s what sets a Christian apart. Caesar is not Lord. And by the way, in the ancient world, everybody was confessing "Caesar is Lord, Caesar is Lord, Caesar is Lord." Along came these other people saying, "No, Caesar is not Lord. Jesus is Lord, and we are slaves of Jesus who are intimate friends of Him."
So, "that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus as Lord, AND believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead", - Are you guys still with me so far? Here is comes... wait for it...-"You will be saved;"
Okay question... "Which one of you, feel free to raise your hand, can do that on your own?"
Now turn with me for a moment to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 3. It says,
"Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is accursed”; and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit."
That my beloved, is an absolute reality. It is an essential required confession and belief, and it demands heart submission.
Now, many of you may not have understood that before, but let me also help you with that..
The true reality of Christ’s lordship has been all but obscured and eclipsed through the centuries by the translators of the New Testament, and even the Old, who have tampered with the word "slave."
It is actually, quite an amazing cover-up really! Amazing, really amazing. But let’s start with "Jesus is Lord." That is the Christian confession. It is the word kurios, kurios. That’s the word “lord.” It means "one who has power, ownership, and absolute authority; one who has power, ownership, and absolute authority.” That’s a lord. It’s used 750 times in the New Testament, and its meaning is not in question.
There is a synonym to kurios. The synonym is despots, despots, which means “absolute ruler,” from which you get the English word "despot." We use it as an adjective. When we say somebody’s a despotic ruler, we mean they are a unilateral dictator. That’s exactly what despotés means. Jesus, in the little book of Jude, is called "Master and Lord, despotés and kurios." That's verse 4, verse 4.
When the New Testament refers to Jesus, it primarily refers to Him as Kurios, Lord. For example, our Lord is referred to 94 times in the book of Acts; 92 of those 94 times, He is called Lord; and 2 of them, He is called Str, which is Savior. The lordship of Christ is clearly, very clearly declared throughout the entire New Testament. He is kurios, sovereign ruler. He is despotés, absolute ruler. So when you say, "Jesus is Lord," you’re not identifying Him merely as deity, although He is that. He certainly is that. And you’re not identifying Him in some sort of abstract way as the most important religious figure When you say "Lord," that’s slave talk, that’s slave talk. What you are actually saying, this is important, you're saying, "He is the Master with absolute power and absolute dominion." That word would be used to describe a slave owner: "He is Lord. Jesus is Lord."
That's pretty clear to me.
In Closing....
As I look back over much of my life in the church, it’s really quite bizarre to me, that as I began to realize that I have been trying convince many evangelical Christians of the concept that Jesus is Lord. And for a long time, several decades in fact actually, to get them to comprehend, it was something more than the theology of lordship; and while I was doing some reading, I do a lot of reading, I read a lot, an awful lot and studying one of the books was trying to show that both theologically and biblically, Jesus is Lord.
And now that the church, the modern church as a whole, is much more informal and even much less interested in theology than probably any generation I know of, at least in my lifetime and practically speaking, evangelicalism as a whole has a very weak sense of understanding, in why they confess Jesus as Lord. What they really mean is, it’s really about me. The church is an assembly of people who think they’re there to get blessed, tell God what He needs to do for them, how He needs to do it, what He needs to give to them and when they want it! It’s almost like, "I’m Lord and You’re the genie. When I rub the magic lamp, You pop out, you act. This is what I want you to do..."
Well, allow me to just interject something here, if I may, I don’t believe, as far as I can tell, and I have studied the Scripture for years, that indicates that Jesus Christ is any kind of magic genie!
I seriously want to just say to these people, "Who do you think you are? You serve Him, He doesn't serve you! You've gotten this whole thing backwards."
I haven't found that there’s been an effort to prove this scripturally, but in reality, there’s just such an indifference toward theology today. But it’s a kind of practical disownership of Christ as being absolute Sovereign Lord. I mean Jesus said it this way: "Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?"
Beloved, this is absurd, its just utterly ridiculous. Jesus is saying "you can’t just call Me Lord and then not do what I tell you to do."
We'll conclude here at that point for today, and we'll begin again where we left off next time.
I dislike that we're out of time, because I really feel this is an important section of Scripture.
Eh, it's probably a good idea anyway that we break here. I can get really worked up on this subject.
No, no, not in a bad way, just at the lack of respect given to our Lord, and Savior, Jesus Christ. Its just really, really disheartening to me..
So, we'll just break here..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Brian Monzon Ministries