F4F | Tavner Smith's Bogus Easter Misadventure

Fighting for the Faith

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Rosebro. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

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This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God. So Easter just concluded, and back when

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I was doing the podcast on a daily basis, which is like a task I'm not capable of doing anymore, but when

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I was doing the podcast on a weekly basis, every single Easter we would have this contest?

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I don't know what to call it, because basically we would have a contest and it was the worst

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Easter Sermon of the Year contest, and people from around the globe would send me links to bad

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Easter sermons for the purpose of, you know, basically enrolling them to be considered for being a contestant in the worst

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Easter Sermon of the Year contest, and year after year after year it was a parade of insanity, and it just,

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I was dumbstruck and then kind of got numb to it, but there's a reality, and that is that so many places that call themselves

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Christian churches, one of the ways you can tell, and I mean noticeably so, that you are under a false teacher who twists

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God's Word is based on what he does with the Easter account of Christ's bodily resurrection on the third day after he was crucified under Pontius Pilate.

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And so we're not going to be doing a contest this year, I just, I don't have the time or the mental fortitude to do it.

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I'm afraid that if I were to do what I did ten years ago it could kill me, and so instead we're gonna listen to a bad sermon, a portion of a bad sermon by Tavner Smith of Venue Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and this is a fellow who shouldn't even be preaching at all, and we're gonna use this as a model bad sermon of like what not to listen to, you know, what you should be listening for as far as like red flags are concerned.

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Tavner Smith is a man who is morally disqualified from being a pastor, he is theologically disqualified from being a pastor, he doesn't know how to rightly handle

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God's Word. I mean, would you go and have heart surgery performed on you by your local

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New Age medicine lady? You know, no, you wouldn't. You would never allow that.

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I would say that the chances of you having a bad outcome, you know, by a surgery by somebody who's not qualified, well they're high, high indeed, but I would note this, that if you had a heart surgery by somebody who's not qualified to be doing heart surgery, the worst thing they could do to you is kill you.

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The worst thing a pastor can do who's not rightly handling God's Word can do is send you to hell.

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Yeah, so keep that in mind. I don't know why people insist that when they get a medical diagnosis they need a good doctor, they need a second opinion, they need all these other kinds of things, and they want people who are qualified, licensed, that have to make sure that they're certified by the state to be able to do what they're doing, but when it comes to pastors, a guy in skinny jeans ripped at the knees who gives a feel -good message, well, that'll do.

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It actually doesn't. So, you get the idea. So, let's not whirl up the desktop and let's head over to Venue Church and we're going to listen to a portion of the sermon.

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The name of it is The Rhythm of Resurrection. Without even listening to it, without even listening to it,

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I knew exactly what this was about. In fact, you know, I'm not a prophet, I'm not the son of a prophet, but let me tell you how this works is that, oh, the rhythm of resurrection because Jesus is risen from the dead.

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He wants to raise some dead things in your life. That is a lie. God nowhere says that he wants to resurrect dead things in your life.

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That's not the point of Jesus's bodily resurrection from the grave. So, let me just kind of throw this into the mix here.

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We've done a couple of episodes on Tavner Smith's moral failing.

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It's called Sin, and the name of the sin is adultery. And we're going to note that this even made the news around the world.

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They even did news stories about him in the UK, in the United Kingdom. The Daily Mail did a story on him based upon what's reported in the

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Daily Beast, which I don't really consider to be that great of a news source.

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But all of that being said, you know, they did a whole story here, and the name of it was, let's roll on up, the name of it was

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Hipster Mega Church in Shambles Over Pastor's Alleged Affair. And they noted something here, and we noted that his apology when he gave it, that wasn't an apology, that here in this story, they actually, they did a little sleuthing, you know, a little investigative journalism.

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And it says this, Tavner Smith has yet to publicly admit to an affair. That's true.

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But the divorce documents make his ex -wife's position clear.

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On her side of the paperwork, she plainly lists the reasons for the split as, quote, adultery, unquote.

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So, according to the former Mrs. Tavner Smith, the reason why they are divorced, and the reason why she filed for divorce, well, it's in the court docs.

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It's adultery. So, you know, just want to point that out. So, he's not qualified to be doing what he's doing, and he shouldn't be doing it at all.

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And along the way, we'll do a little bit of work on the biblical text. What's a good way to handle, to tackle the topic of Christ's bodily resurrection from the grave?

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And yeah, it literally happened. That's history. It's not mythology. So, here's Tavner Smith, and here's where he's setting up his sermon illustration, which will be the main illustration for everything.

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And you're going to note, I'm going to do a couple of things. I'm going to hit the speed. I'm going to bring it up just a little bit, and I'm going to turn the closed captioning on, okay?

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So, you can follow along, but we have a little bit of a swath that we have to get through here.

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So, I wanted to make sure that we covered that properly by speeding it up just a little bit. But here we go.

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Can I just say this? My glory days are not back there. I hope you're with me. My glory days are still ahead of me. Can I get an amen?

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So, I'm not reminiscing on my glory days. I'm just telling you some facts. I was a baller, but I didn't really start playing organized basketball until I was, like, in the seventh grade.

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I played at home all the time in the neighborhood with my brothers and a couple of the neighbors. I didn't really play on a team team until I was, like, in the seventh grade.

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And I wasn't great at all when I first started. I was nervous. I was hyper. I was scared. Now, I would note something, just by virtue of the fact that Carl Lentz was removed from being pastor of Hillsong, New York City for adultery.

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And even Brian Houston was removed from being the global leader of Hillsong for inappropriate things as it relates to two women.

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So, they had accountability. This guy has zero accountability. He has no theological accountability.

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He has no theological training. He has no accountability whatsoever. If he had accountability, he wouldn't be preaching an

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Easter sermon this year. He'd be thinking hard about his life decisions and his need for continued repentance and bearing fruit in keeping with repentance.

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That's what Christ would call this because Christ died on the cross for our sins.

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You know, he was pierced for our transgressions, including Taverner's, and he was bruised for our iniquities.

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You know, the chastisement that was upon him. And so, there's forgiveness available for Taverner, but he's not repented, and he, by doing what he's doing, he is in direct defiance and disobedience to the clear word of God.

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So, keep that in mind, and it shows up in his theology. I was that guy that I'd barely get in, and then at the end, they'd put me in, and I'd foul like eight people in two minutes, and like, that was me.

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You know what I'm talking about? You know what I was scared of the most? I was scared the most of having to shoot a free throw because I felt like in that moment, you know, you can get away.

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There's 10 other people running around. Parents are watching their kids, but a free throw, nobody's running. You're the only one on the line, and everybody in the whole room's just staring at you, and they're like, here's their thought.

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Nobody's guarding this kid. Of course, he's going to make this, right? So, you feel this pressure, and I never could do it good.

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I'd get so nervous. I'd air ball. I'd bounce it off the rim. I wouldn't ever make it, and in the 10th grade, I remember my coach.

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He came up, Coach Ricky Roof. He said this. He said, Tabner, you've got great athleticism. You've got great potential. You've got speed.

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You're really good. You seem to know how to play defense and know the game. He said, do you know what your problem is? I was like, what? Tell me my problem.

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He's like, you just need to find your rhythm. Just need to find your rhythm. So, this becomes the base of his primary analogy for resurrection.

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You need to find your rhythm, and you're going to note here, he already did read the resurrection account from Matthew chapter 28.

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So, he's read the account, but Jesus' resurrection has nothing to do with you and I finding rhythm.

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And so, you can always tell you're dealing with a false teacher as it relates to Christ when they take

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Jesus' resurrection and then allegorize it for the saying,

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God wants to raise dead things in your life, or Christ's resurrection is a metaphor.

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Metaphor for how in the spring things come back to life after being dormant during the winter.

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Nonsense like this. Making promises for God he hasn't made. Now, Christ's resurrection has implications.

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Legitimate, bonafide promises in scripture for those who are truly in Christ, who are his penitent, forgiven, redeemed children.

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You get the idea. And so, there is a promise for Christians, and it's not that God's going to raise dead things in your life.

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The promise is that he's going to raise you. He's going to raise you from the dead to eternal life in an inheritance that will never fade in a world without end.

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That's one of the promises. And the fact that Christ being raised from the dead, that shows that his sacrifice on the cross was accepted by the

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Father, his once -for -all sacrifice for all sins, and that, you know, and you who are in Christ, you are forgiven, redeemed, and you have eternity to look forward to with your

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Savior. Look at some biblical texts along those lines. But Tavner doesn't know what he's doing, and Tavner shows no evidence, and I mean this, he shows no evidence that he's even a regenerate

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Christian. And that's the sad part of all of this, is that he is, well, he's not qualified at all to be a teacher in Christ's church.

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He twists up God's word. He's not morally qualified. He needs to step down, and he needs to repent, but instead he's doing this.

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Every single time you shoot a free throw, from now to the day you die, never change it, do it, and you'll become a great free throw shooter.

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So I tried a bunch of things, but you know what I landed on? I landed on this. Three dribbles, a spin, bounce twice, shoot.

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Three dribbles, a spin, bounce twice, shoot. Three dribbles, a spin, bounce twice, shoot.

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I've heard this sermon before, by the way. I swear this is a rehash.

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I found my rhythm. Did you know what I used to do before I would leave the gym my sophomore, junior, and senior year? Before I'd leave, everybody else was done before I'd leave,

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I'd shoot 300 free throws. I'd shoot 300 three -pointers, and then I'd leave the gym. I got to the point where after a while,

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I could shoot lights out anywhere in the gym. I can still shoot it like that if I get in my rhythm, but I'm telling you, when I was doing my free throw,

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I got to the point I could do 100 free throws in a row and not miss. Easy. I could do three. I remember one time

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I was shooting a bunch of three -pointers, and he's like, do it left -handed. I turned it left -handed and just started hitting three -pointers. I mean, I could shoot. I was a I found my rhythm.

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And finding my rhythm and finding my place made me desire to be a part of something I was afraid of.

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And I want to talk to you today about the rhythm of resurrection. The what?

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Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. This is just abysmal. And I'm not talking about just the resurrection of Jesus.

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He rose. He's alive. He lives in us. We're going to do great things. But you know what? He rose.

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He lives. And we're going to do great things. Where in Scripture does it say that being a

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Christian is all about doing great things? God wants to resurrect some things in you.

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Okay, now let me back this up. I want you to see this in context. He lives in us. We're going to do great things. But you know what?

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God wants to resurrect some things in you. No biblical text says this. There's no biblical text that says

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God wants to resurrect some things in you. That's not true.

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God wants to resurrect you. And he wants to resurrect you for eternal life in a world without end.

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Big difference. And so now he's making promises for God that God isn't making.

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And by doing this, he gives an honorable mention. Well, Jesus rose bodily from the grave.

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Yeah. But I'm not talking just about that. Yeah. And note, he's minimizing what

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Christ did. Let's kind of put this in perspective. Out of the billions of human beings who've lived and died, how many have risen from the grave after being a corpse for three days?

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One. Neat trick, right? The thing is, is that the resurrection is everything.

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If Christ isn't raised from the dead, Christianity is not true. The point is about Jesus and what he has done for us.

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It's not about making a promise for Jesus that he's not making. Let's keep going.

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And do you know, when we don't know the rhythm of resurrection, do you know what we do? We run from the rhythm that is trying to happen in our life.

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What? So are you running from the rhythm of resurrection that's trying to happen in your life?

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What does that sentence even mean? By saying this, he is showing he doesn't know the

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Bible at all. He does not understand the centrality of the bodily resurrection of Christ.

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And he's creating new doctrines that have never been found in the

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Bible. Doctrines about the rhythm that's trying to happen in your life. And back this up again.

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You know what? God wants to resurrect some things in you. And do you know, when we don't know the rhythm of resurrection, do you know what we do?

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We run from the rhythm that is trying to happen in our life. We're afraid of it. We don't want to be a part of it.

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We run from it and we don't let it have its way. The rhythm. We don't let the rhythm have its way.

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What are you talking about? When God's really trying to do something big in me and you.

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Where does it say God's trying to do something big in me or you? And here's what I wanted to do today. I just wanted to dive into the story.

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And I wanted to show you and help you understand where you're at in life. Because if you don't understand this rhythm of resurrection, you'll want to quit in a time that's supposed to be hard because you don't understand it's supposed to be hard.

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Quit what? Quit trying to do something great? You can make it.

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Make it where? Everything God created you to do. I am created in Christ Jesus for good works.

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Good works are done in love for neighbor to meet their needs. It can be as simple as changing a diaper, helping a child with their homework.

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It can be as simple as helping a neighbor, making a meal for somebody who is in need. What are you talking about?

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If you understand the rhythm, rhythm of resurrection. All right. Rhythm. Do you understand the rhythm? I just want to talk about that a little bit today. Will you go on that journey with me?

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Will you lean in? Because if you understand this, everything can change. Lean in, lean in. It'll change everything.

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I want to be very encouraging. I wanted the first one to just be something that you shouted and loved. And we're like, man, I'm coming back every week.

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This guy's the nicest guy. He told me the nicest thing. Always plugging, trying to get people to come back next week.

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You show up one week there. He's going to constantly say, you got to be here next week. You got to be here next week. When I heard number one, when I figured out what the rhythm of resurrection, the first part of the rhythm was,

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I was like, oh, I don't want to say this first, but it's necessary. Here's the rhythm of resurrection.

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Number one is this. Are you ready? The first part of the rhythm is this, the death. Okay. So what needs to die in your life so that God can raise it from the dead?

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In order for something to be resurrected, y 'all got to hear me, something's got to die. And somebody said amen to that.

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This is nonsense. This isn't what Christ's resurrection is about at all. In order for something to be resurrected, something has to die.

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And I know when I say the word death, we think negative. I know when I say the word death, we think fear. I know when I say the word death, we think afraid.

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But can I tell you, not just death in general, but this part of the rhythm of resurrection, the death is a good thing. It's a good thing.

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It's a good thing. And it's something that every one of us deal with. But if we don't understand.

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The wages of sin is death. You do understand we're all heading to a grave if Christ doesn't return soon.

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We're dealing with, we will run and we will hide from this process of the resurrection in our life. The process of the resurrection.

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No biblical text talks about this. He's invented it. And we will never see everything God has intended for us.

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See today's Easter. Today's a great day. Today's a fun day. Today is the day we all wear pink and we dress up and we do all of our stuff.

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And here we are to celebrate. You know what it is? We're here to celebrate the fact that Jesus Christ on the third day, rolled the stone back from the tomb, walked out and defeated death, 100 % resurrected.

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That's what Easter is all about, right? He's alive and now He lives in us. Listen, but He couldn't have gotten out of the tomb if He never went through a death that put

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Him in the tomb. You think?

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No kidding. All right. But no, He's not talking about your physical death.

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So let me, let me pause here. Let me, let me throw in a biblical text and we're going to take a look at first Corinthians 15 and just a portion of this.

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It's brilliant. It's, it's very comforting. Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?

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You'll note that at the church in Corinth, there were some people saying, no, Jesus didn't really rise from the dead.

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There's no resurrection, right? But Paul says, if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even

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Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is in vain.

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Your faith is in vain. If Christ hasn't been bodily raised from the dead, then

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Christianity is false. Full stop. You got better things to do on a

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Sunday, right? And he says this, we are even found to be misrepresenting

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God because we testified about God that he raised Christ whom he did not raise.

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If it is true that the dead are not raised, Christianity is falsifiable. Find the body of Christ for real.

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Find the body of Jesus. Christianity is, it's gone. It doesn't, it's not true.

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For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. You're still in your sins.

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All of this written by a man who is an eyewitness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ because Jesus knocked him off his high horse while he was on his way to Damascus to round up Christians and have them arrested and then drug back to Jerusalem, right?

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So, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. You're still in your sins. Those who fall asleep in Christ, they've perished.

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If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied, right?

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But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

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That means they've died, right? So, Christ is the first fruits. He is the first fruits of the new creation.

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He's the first fruits of those who've been raised from the dead, which means if you are in Christ, if you are forgiven, if you are redeemed, if you trust in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, you will not perish.

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You will be raised just like he has been raised. Death no longer has a sting, if you would.

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In fact, Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me, even though he died, yet shall he live, and anyone who believes in me will never die.

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That's what Jesus says in the Gospel of John chapter 11. For as by a man came death, and we're talking about real death, you know, the kind of death that causes people to like plan funerals and stuff.

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It's the real kind of death that fills up graveyards, right? For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

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For as in Adam all die, and we have, so also in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in his own owner.

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Christ the firstfruits, then it is coming, those who belong to Christ, then comes the end.

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When he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power, he must reign until he's put all of his enemies under his feet.

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And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. So, for God has put all things in subjection under his feet, but when it says all things are put in subjection, it's plain that he is accepted who put all things in subjection under him.

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So, when all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all.

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All right? So, you get the idea here. This is the fact that Christ rose from the dead.

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It's the headline. It's the big deal. Tavner, now he's talking about the rhythm of resurrection.

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So, are you experiencing, are you submitting yourself to the rhythm of resurrection that's trying to happen in your life?

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Yeah, it's, this is a mess. He couldn't have defeated the grave.

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He couldn't have defeated hell. He couldn't have defeated the authority of Satan. He couldn't have taken back the keys to the kingdom. He couldn't have created everything he's created for us to live a life that we can live in Christ if he had not gone through a death to put him in a place he could be resurrected.

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So, Jesus, the reason he died was to put himself in position for resurrection.

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Boy, that's missing some salt there. That soup's not done. And I know that we say, yeah, amen, that's good.

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We think about Jesus' death, but I don't think we comprehend his death. I'm clear you don't.

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I don't think that we can actually wrap our minds around Jesus' death. You know why? Because we're a generation, we live in a place and a time where we wear crosses around our neck as a celebration.

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But in Jesus' time, wearing a cross around your neck would have been like wearing an electric chair around your neck. It would have been like wearing a needle around your neck to represent lethal injection.

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It was not a thing of celebration. It was a thing of humiliation and punishment. Right. For the sins, your sins and mine.

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It was the actual worst way someone could be punished at that time is to be crucified.

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And I want you to think about Jesus. We're celebrating his resurrection, but he had to go through a death in order to get there.

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And it was a brutal one, y 'all. I don't know if you can even comprehend and imagine what he went through. But from the time he got falsely accused, standing in front of the judges, they didn't even wait to convict him and call him guilty.

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Before they even convicted him, they blindfolded him. And people would come in and start punching him in the face while he was blindfolded.

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He couldn't even see when and where it was coming from. And then they would mock him and say, if you're God, tell me who just punched you. They would spit their nasty spit in his face and his mouth and his eyes right there, one after another, lined up, coming by, spitting in his face.

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Right. And what's the reason for that? Because Christ is suffering for your sins and mine.

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It was my sin that punched Jesus in the face. And you're going to know then that what

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Christ went through shows us the absolute seriousness of sin.

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Sin is not your friend, like far from it. In fact, let me do this here. I'm going to duplicate this tab.

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And if we look at like Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 53 or 52 and 53.

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All right. Let's see. Coming salvation. It's near the end here where Isaiah starts to talk about what

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Christ has borne for us. And let's see here. There you go.

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All right. I'll start. Yeah. 13. Behold, my servant shall act wisely.

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He shall be high and lifted up. He shall be exalted. As many as were astonished at you, at his appearance was marred beyond human semblance, his form beyond that of the children of mankind.

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So shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him for that which has not been told them they will see and that which they have not heard they will understand.

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So who has believed what he's heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord of Yahweh been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground.

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He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.

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And as one from whom men hid their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not.

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Surely he has borne our griefs. He's carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken and smitten by God and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions.

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So a good way to think about this is that my sin, your sin, was the reason why

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Christ was pierced. And here we see the wrath of God against sin being poured out full strength on Jesus for you.

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He's dying so that you can live, right? He was crushed for our iniquities.

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Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds were healed.

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All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. And that's our problem.

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That's idolatry. And the Lord Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed.

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He was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, like a sheep that is before its shearers is silent.

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So he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And as for his generation who considered that he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people.

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And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man his death. Although he had done no violence, there was no deceit in his mouth.

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Yet it was the will of Yahweh to crush him. He had put him to grief.

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When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring and he shall prolong his days and the will of the

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Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied.

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By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous and he shall bear their iniquities.

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Now let me see if I have this here. I wonder if I do. Yeah, I do. Hang on a second here. A wonderful book, by the way.

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The name of it is called Meditations on Divine Mercy by Johann Gerhard. Meditations on Divine Mercy.

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And in chapter 10, chapter 10, Johann Gerhard, he meditates on, he's thinking on the severity of divine wrath against sin, considered in the passion and the death of Christ.

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And here's what Johann Gerhard says. He says, Oh holy God and just judge, I see your son hanging on the cross, streams of blood flowing freely.

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Yeah, let me close this up. There we go. Streams of blood flowing freely. I look on him and behold,

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I become weak with terror. Those cruel nails are my sins with which

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I have pierced his hands and his feet. Those horrible thorns are my sins with which

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I have crowned his holy head. The head worshiped and honored by the angelic powers. Those sharply pointed lashes are my sins with which

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I have scourged his faultless body in the permanent temple of divinity. A terrible beast has torn him to pieces, this heavenly

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Joseph, and stained his robe with his blood. I, a wretched sinner, am that terrible beast because my sins rushed in mass against your beloved son.

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You get the idea. In fact, I use that particular chapter on the meditations on my

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Good Friday sermon. And we'll put a link to the Good Friday sermon down in the description so that you can hear it in its entirety.

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But you'll note, Christ's suffering is not just a small thing, it's a big thing. And yes,

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Christ died a terrible death, a brutal death. And that's not a small thing, it's a big thing, because every single lash that Christ received, that was because of your sin, because of mine.

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So yeah, it's true, he died a terrible death, but we're talking about the rhythm of resurrection here.

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Grabbing his beard and ripping his beard out, and then in that moment, taking him while they decided his fate, and throw him in a dark, damp dungeon so he could wait to see what was going to happen.

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They brought him out of that, stripped all his clothes off of him naked, and took him into the front of everybody in the middle of the town, strapped him to a pole, and beat him 39 times with a whip that they called the cat of nine tails.

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It had nine straps on it with all types of sharp things, so when they hit him, it would like sink in like a fishhook and rip his skin out.

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They watched him bleed. They didn't just whip his back, they whipped his legs, his face, his chest, his stomach, his feet, his hands, his arms, his head, his neck, everything, whipped his entire body 39 times.

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Correct. Until it says, you can read that he was unrecognizable. Yeah, that's what we read in Isaiah.

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They took a crown of thorns, thorns so big that it would have pierced his eye sockets, and they beat it into his head with a staff, and made fun of him like he was a king.

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Then they took a robe, and they would let the robe be on his wounds and dry, and let it scab up, and then they would rip it off and open his wounds again, and then they put a rugged, heavy piece of wood on him that was the top part of the cross, and they made him, after almost bleeding to death, being spit on, beaten, and then beaten with the whips, they made him carry his own cross to the place they would lay him down, and put nails in his wrists and in his ankles, and then put him naked in front of everybody.

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Not like you picture it up on a hill, like, oh, there he is up on the hill. No, they crucified him two inches off the ground, right beside the road, so everybody on their way home could stop by and make fun of him and spit on him as they went home.

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They took a sponge, a sponge that the upper -class people used to wipe their rear ends after they went to the bathroom, dipped it in vinegar, and shoved it.

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Yeah, that little detail is not in the scriptures. Yeah, they took a sponge, for sure, but it doesn't say it was used for that particular reason.

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That's a driscal speculation. They did it in his mouth when he said he was thirsty. They took a spear and drove it through his ribs and his side and his lungs into his heart.

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Yeah, after he died. It was a brutal death. Indeed. It was not a fun death. It was not an easy death.

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It was not a death anybody even the Son of God, if you read about him before that came, listen, here's what you'll read. You'll read that before he even encountered all of that, he stopped in a place called the

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Garden of Gethsemane and he said this. We're talking about Jesus, perfect Jesus, the Son of God, went to God and said this.

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He said, please, if there's any other way, let me do something different.

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If there's any way, let this pass over me. I don't want to go there. I'm scared of that. I don't want that part of the process.

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I don't want death. That part of the process you just read, the resurrection process into the biblical text and Jesus's prayer in the

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Garden of Gethsemane, he didn't say that. Can it be easier? Can I not have to do it?

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Is there any other way? Because I don't want this part of the rhythm. You just gave

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Jesus words that he didn't say. You invented the rhythm of resurrection and now you have

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Jesus saying to God the Father, I don't want that part of the rhythm. This is blasphemy.

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He knew that he had to die. He knew that something had to happen because he understood why he was here.

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He knew the whole reason he was on earth, that he was the Son of God, was to replace something old with something new.

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I thought he came to seek and save the lost. I thought he came to die for our sins.

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You're saying that Jesus came so that he can replace something old with something new?

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Do you have a biblical text that says that? It's the whole reason he came. The whole reason, replace something old with something new.

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Do you even know what the gospel is? Because Adam and Eve came and they sinned and they messed it up. I mean, we were in the

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Garden, y 'all. We would live in heaven on earth. It was what it was all about. And then Adam and Eve sinned.

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Yes. And for generations after that, it was a struggle. Struggle. Yeah, we were all born dead in trespasses and sins.

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We just read 1 Corinthians 15. It was a struggle. There was death, there was sickness, there was pain, there was all of the stuff, and nobody knew where to turn, and nobody could do anything.

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They tried to do it all themselves. And God said, nah, we've had enough. We've got to do away with that old and we've got to make something new.

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I'm sending my son Jesus. Do you have a biblical text that says any of these things?

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I mean, we are off the biblical map at this point. And here's how we're going to resurrect the new.

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We're going to resurrect the new. The old's got to die. Because the old's got to die. It's going to be painful.

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It's going to hurt. You're going to be afraid of it. You're going to come to me and ask me not to do it. But we've got to allow the process to happen anyways, because the only way the new can live is if the old is put to rest.

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And people are clapping. This is nonsense. Now, real quick here, I'm going to, this wasn't part of my preparation, but we'll just throw this into the mix.

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Galatians chapter one, okay? And I'm going to need a Greek text here just in case.

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There we go. All right. So, we're going to note what Paul says here. He's writing to the churches in Galatians.

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He says, I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a heteron, a different gospel.

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Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

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But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel that is contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be anathema.

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Damned. Okay? That's how strong the cursed is. As we have said before, so I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel that is contrary to the one you received, let him be anathema.

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Damned. So, Tavner here is saying that the reason why Christ came is so that the old could die and the new can be resurrected and God can replace the old with the new.

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That meets the standard definition of a different gospel, a gospel that is contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Now, if you want to know what the actual gospel is, I would note, here's what

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Paul says in Galatians 1 .11, I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel.

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I didn't receive it from any man, nor was I taught it. I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. So, the gospel that Paul preached was given to him directly by Jesus.

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It also happens to be in 1 Corinthians 15, and I'll show you what it is.

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It says, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 .1, I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you.

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Ah, this is the one he received from Jesus, which you received and which you stand by, which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word

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I preach to you, unless you believe in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

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So, you'll note, the gospel is Christ died for our sins, he was buried, he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and then he appeared to Cephas and to the twelve.

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He appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

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Christ died for your sins. The reason why

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Christ came was to bleed and die so that you could be forgiven and redeemed.

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So, Tavner here is legitimately preaching a different gospel, a gospel that is contrary to the gospel that was given to the

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Apostle Paul by a direct revelation from Jesus Christ and is recorded for us in Scripture.

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And you'll note, in this nonsense, he hasn't talked about Christ's vicarious death on the cross, his penal substitutionary work for you or for me, and his claim that, well, the resurrection is a process that we all have to go through.

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What needs to die in your life? Jesus said, that's what he said. No, he didn't, he didn't say any of those words.

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He says this, he looks at God and he says, if there's any other way, don't let me have to go through this process.

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You keep adding the words process, you're adding to the scriptures, you're under a curse for doing that, by the way.

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Then he gets to this point, ready? Remember what he says? But it's not what I want, it's what you want.

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What are you even talking about, pastor? Yeah, that is the question. In order for something new to spring forth in your life, are you ready for this?

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Something old has to die. Wow. This is, this is reprehensible.

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Absolutely an abomination. Take a look at a couple of texts here.

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The assigned text in the one -year lectionary for the old Testament reading for the resurrection of Christ was

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Job chapter 19 verses 23 to 27. Job even understood the resurrection long before Christ ever was conceived in the womb of the

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Virgin Mary. Job writes, oh, that my words were written. Oh, that they were inscribed in a book.

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Oh, that an iron pen and lead, that they were engraved in rock forever. I would note that, well, they're written in the word of God and God's word will never, never perish.

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So, these words are for us for eternity. And then he writes this, Job, the man who suffered so horribly, he says,

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I know that my redeemer lives. Redeemer, an important word here, that's a redeemer is one who purchases somebody out of slavery, you know, to set them free.

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I know that my redeemer lives and that he will stand upon, at the last, he will stand upon the earth.

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Indeed, he will. On the last day, Christ will stand upon the earth, but Christ stood on the earth. And while he was crucified, he was suspended between heaven and earth on a cross, bleeding and dying in order to reconcile you and I to God.

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After my skin has thus been destroyed, yet in my flesh, I will see God. Job knew perfectly well that even though he was going to die, he was going to be raised from the dead and that his very eyes would see

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God. So will yours, if you are in Christ, you will see God after the resurrection and see him for eternity.

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Right? So, whom I myself, I shall see myself, my eyes shall behold and not another.

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My heart faints within me. Great text, right? That was one of the big texts for this past Sunday.

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The assigned psalm is even better. Oh, give thanks to Yahweh for he is good.

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His steadfast love endures forever. In fact, the reason why Christ was bore up under the punishment that he suffered and the lashes and the nails and the bleeding and the dying was because of God's steadfast love for you, for me.

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So glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous. The right hand of Yahweh does valiantly.

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The right hand of Yahweh exalts. The right hand of Yahweh does valiantly. I shall not die, but I shall live.

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It's true. That's what Christ said. Anyone who believes in him will never die. And I will recount the deeds of Yahweh.

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Yahweh has disciplined me severely, but he's not given me over to death. All of this we know is true because Christ rose from the dead, right?

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So open to me the gates of righteousness that I may enter through them and give thanks to Yahweh for this is the gate of Yahweh.

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The righteous shall enter through it. And we, because Christ bore our sins, we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, right?

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In the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. It's for those who believe.

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I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone the builders has rejected has become the cornerstone.

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And this is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it.

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Save us, we pray, O Yahweh. O Yahweh, we pray, give us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of Yahweh.

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We bless you from the house of Yahweh. Yahweh is God and he has made his light to shine upon us.

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Bind the festal sacrifice with cords up to the horns of the altar. You are my

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God. I will give you thanks. You are my God and I will extol you. O give thanks to Yahweh.

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He is good. His steadfast love endures forever in a world without end, right?

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And then just to kind of add to it, John chapter 20, John's account of the resurrection of Christ.

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On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

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So she ran and she went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved and said to them, they've taken the

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Lord out of the tomb. We don't know where they've laid him. So Peter went out with the other disciple and they were going toward the tomb.

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Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

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Was that absolutely necessary for you to put in there, John? Seriously, you beat the old man, Peter, come on. All right. So stooping and looking in, he saw the linen claws lying there, but he did not go in.

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Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb. He saw the linen claws lying there and the face cloth with which had been on Jesus's head, not lying with the linen claws, but folded up in a place by itself.

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Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in and he saw and he believed.

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As yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood weeping outside the tomb.

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And as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb and she saw two angels in white sitting there, where the body of Christ Jesus had been laying, one at the head and one at the feet.

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I'm going to show you something here. All right. So I like to read the sermons written by the early church fathers.

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And in one of the writings of the church fathers, one of the church fathers in his sermon for this text noted that this reminded him of a detail found in scripture regarding the

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Ark of the Covenant. Let me explain it to you. All right. So in Exodus 37, the making of the

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Ark of the Covenant, the fellow who made it is a fellow by the name of Bezalel. And Bezalel, he was instructed to make it a particular way, two cubits and a half its length, cubit and a half its breadth.

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And then listen to what this says. He made two cherubim of gold. He made them of hammered work on the two ends of the mercy seat, one cherub on one end, one cherub on the other.

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These are angels. Of one piece with the mercy seat, he made the cherubim on its two ends.

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The cherubim spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces one to another toward the mercy seat where their faces of the cherubim.

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And if you're familiar with the Raiders of the Lost Ark, the artwork that they put together for that particular movie, well, the

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Ark of the Covenant, this is one artistic depiction of it. So there's the mercy seat.

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The mercy seat is the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. And this is the place where the blood of the atonement sacrifice, the day of atonement sacrifice was poured.

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And this was a copy of the heavenly things. And here you've got two cherubim, an angel facing each other with their wings outstretched.

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And one of the church fathers in his sermon, he surmised that the

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Ark of the Covenant was a visual prophecy of two angels, one at the head, one at the feet, of where Christ's body lay.

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And so this is a depiction in the Ark of the Covenant of the angels guarding the dead body of Christ.

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Christ is the mercy seat. You get the idea. It's a beautiful picture. It's one of the best I've... It's just kind of mind -blowing when you put it together.

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But let me come back. Let me come back to the Gospel of John. So she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had laid, one at the head, one at the feet.

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And they said to her, woman, why are you weeping? And she said to them, well, they've taken away my Lord. I don't know where they've laid him.

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And having said this and turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know it was

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Jesus. Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?

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And supposing him to be the gardener? She said to him, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him.

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I'll take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary. And she turned and said to him in Aramaic, Rabboni, which means teacher.

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Jesus said to her, don't cling to me for I've not yet ascended to the Father. You go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my

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Father and to your Father, to my God and your God. And Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples,

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I have seen the Lord. And he had said these things to her. Christ has conquered death.

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He died so that you and I can live. And he is the first fruits of the resurrection from the dead.

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All who are in Christ, they will be raised on the last day to a world without end.

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And God himself will wipe away every tear from our eyes. What we intended for evil and murdering the son of God, God has worked for our salvation.

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And the sad part about listening to Tabner Smith and him bumbling on in this just nonsense that he's preaching is that this is supposed to be a

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Christian pastor. And he is not proclaiming any of the great news that we have because of Christ's death and resurrection.

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He's evacuated the real meaning and the real joy that we have. He's taken that out and he's replaced it with this, oh, well,

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Jesus submitted to the rhythm of resurrection so that God can raise dead some things in your life.

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It's tragic. Absolutely tragic. He's not qualified morally or theologically.

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This isn't a Christian church. This man needs to repent and he needs to be forgiven.

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And there is even mercy for him now if he'll turn. But alas, I don't see him doing that.

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So hopefully you found this helpful. If so, all the information on how you can share the video is down below in the description.

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And until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ, his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.