Reading the Bible Existentially

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the last few weeks we have been studying existential theology and I said that this week we were going to go go on to the next thing and I lied not not on purpose but I did I did say we were going to move on but I have I've decided before we move on that there's something I must deal with because as a person who is given to the use of certain phrases that tend to become somewhat part of the vernacular of my life I find that sometimes I say things that I understand completely because it's normal for me but when I say that say these things people will give me the eye of confusion you know that you know sort of what do you mean when you say that and it tends to be more often than not I'll be preaching and I'll say something and I'll get a room full of eyebrows I'll go hmm you know and then I'll have to stop and say okay this is what I meant this is what you know because I'm used to certain language you know theological language and stuff that I think in and sometimes I'll say things that are just a little odd just not normal and one of the things that I say a lot is that when we read the Bible we need to read the Bible existentially and well I've spent the last two weeks going over the dangers of existential theology and so having spent two whole sessions going over the dangers of existential theology if you were to hear me in a message or in a Sunday school class or Wednesday night say we should read existentially then you might think that I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth you might think that I'm introducing some form of exercise and confusion and I don't want to do that and so this morning I thought the best thing to do was to actually read existentially and then to tell you what I mean when I say that so we're gonna we're gonna kind of suspend looking at the book because we did get through all of the parts of the of the existential lesson and if you are hearing this by audio if you didn't already I would go back and listen to the last two parts and I know like Miss Marianna you weren't here for the last two so let me just very quickly sum up as briefly as possible existential theology as a system existential theology begins with the idea of existence the term existential is comes from the root to exist and an existentialist like Friedrich Nietzsche believed that all that we have is existence and we came from nothing we didn't have any purpose before we came into existence we simply came into existence and when we go back into non-existence then all the purposes that we lived for are meaningless in a sense because we're just going we came from nothing we're going to nothing and the only thing that really matters is the now because that's all we have for certain we don't have a certain anything else we we never were before and we never will be again all we have is the now and thus it's led to that one phrase that we talked about last week that's very popular among existentialists and that is that man is a useless passion because he's passionate about everything in life he's passionate about his love he's passionate about his hate he's passionate about his convictions he's passionate about his property he's passionate about everything and it's useless because in the end it's all nothing so that's the existential ism atheistic existentialism, but there is a Christianized version of existentialism which we call existential theology which tends to demythologize, and that's the phrase that they use, demythologize scripture.
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Everything still boils down to the existence of the individual and we kind of throw out all of the supernatural aspects of scripture.
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It still gets boiled down to almost a very atheistic situation because the view is that, yes, God does exist but he's not interactive and all of the times in the Bible where we see God interacting wasn't real, it was simply how the person was experiencing what they were dealing with, it was how they were understanding their existence kind of thing, you know, it all comes back to the whole idea of existing.
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But existentialism needs to be separated, an existential theology, from what I mean when I say that we're going to read the Bible existentially, all right? I'm going to add the ly on the end because now what I'm talking about is vastly different than this, even though it uses a similar term, because when I talk about reading the Bible existentially, what I mean is that when we read the Bible, we need to read the Bible with an eye toward the existence of the individuals that we are reading about.
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And I do think that this is absolutely one of the things that we miss in our Bible reading and in our study because so many people get so lost in the characterization of the Bible people that it becomes more like Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet or some other story where there's always this search for a moral, there's always this search for a story arc, you know, the story arc is, you know, if you watch a movie has a first act, a second act, and a third act, the first act, uh-huh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, there's always pushing towards a, there's a protagonist and there's an antagonist and it's always pushing towards the climax.
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That's why we like movies, because story structure, it helps us to enjoy something, even if the story is terrible, you know, Schindler's List is about a terrible thing, but it's a terrific film because it's about the terrors of Nazism and all that stuff, but what, you know, why is it a good film even though it's about a terrible subject? Because the story structure, there's a hero and there's a villain and there's a point, right? But you know in your life there's not always a point to every single thing that you do.
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Some things you, sometimes you just sit and watch TV all day and eat Cheerios, you know, some days there's no point, you know, and you might say, well I'm doing that to the glory of God.
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What I mean is, some days you're just existing, right? And you say, well no, I'm always there, I'm always, I'm always doing what's right.
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Now where's, my point is this, when we read about David, we tend to think of David almost sort of like the ancient world's version of the, of the hero and, you know, we see his situation with Saul, the king, and Saul becomes the antagonist, David is the protagonist, and we read it like a story, we read it like a narrative of any type of film or book, we read it like it's nonfiction.
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I'm sorry, like it's fiction, I always get this mixed up.
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We read it like it's fiction and that's how we tend to relate to these people, is we tend to relate as if they didn't exist, and that's a problem.
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So when I say I want you to read the Bible existentially, I want you to understand that what it helps you do is it helps you to get into the mind of the individual and experience the way God moved or worked in their life.
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The first place I want to take you to is Leviticus chapter 10, a very short passage.
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Leviticus chapter 10 tells us about the death of the sons of Aaron.
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Some of you've heard me talk about this before, you've heard me preach on this, so some of you, this won't be a surprise what I'm gonna say, but maybe it'll remind you of some things.
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There are three verses here, not a lot.
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It says in Leviticus chapter 10 and verse 1, Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them.
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And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them and they died before the Lord.
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Then Moses said to Aaron, this is what the Lord has said, among those who are near me I will be sanctified and before all the people I will be glorified.
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And Aaron held his peace.
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Now, just three verses, but I want you to, for a moment, try to imagine how this story, which is not a story in the sense of a fictional narrative, but how this event, this actual event, would have looked and sounded like, and even the odor that would have accompanied this moment.
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These two men have now been roasted to ash before the temple of God, the tent of meeting, as you will.
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Nadab and Abihu are Aaron's sons.
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If you have a child, today's Mother's Day, so it's interesting to consider this, if you have a child, you raise that child with certain expectations.
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One of the great expectations of life is the expectation that you will pass before your child passes, that your child will stand and speak at your funeral, you won't have to stand and speak at theirs.
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That's not always the case, and we know even in Scripture there were many people who lost their children.
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David, of course, lost his son after the sin with Bathsheba and several others died, their children died before them, but it is the general rule of life is that the generation that proceeds passes before the generation that follows, right? We understand that.
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So there's a very unnatural feeling that accompanies the death of a child.
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There's a movie years ago, my mother used to love this movie, and I haven't seen it in a long time, but I watched it as a child with my mom.
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It's called Steel Magnolias.
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You ever seen the movie Steel Magnolias? I figured most people had.
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But in the movie Steel Magnolias, the character, and I feel like this isn't a spoiler, the movie's older than I am, so I'm gonna say what happens.
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In the movie, one of the ladies has a daughter who has an illness and she dies, and at the funeral or after the funeral, she totally loses her faculties and just goes angry and starts saying, I was supposed to go first and I've always been prepared to go first, and as a child I remember hearing that.
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It stuck to me to this day.
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It was the lady who played Forrest Gump's mom, Sally Field.
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She was, yeah, yeah, Julia Roberts was the daughter, and she just said, I was prepared to go first and I've always been prepared to go first, and I've always thought about that phrase.
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That's good writing, whoever wrote that line in the film, because that's really how a parent feels.
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Parents expect to not have to stand over the grave of their dead child.
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Aaron has devoted his life to the ministry of God's people.
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He is the high priest, he is second only to Moses in the realm of authority over God's people.
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He's demonstrated great care in following after Moses.
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He has made foolish mistakes, certainly, but we know Aaron loves the Lord even though he's made mistakes as we all have, and so in the service of God, he raises his sons, Nadab and Abihu, who too, because at this time in history, the priestly line is through the biology, it's through the familial heritage, and so when a child is raised up in a Levitical family, he too will take over as priest, and so Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, are fit, are being fitted to take his position, to take his job, and I'm sure, you know, I have two sons, and if one of them were to be called into the ministry, I would thank God profusely.
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I would also be fearful for them, because I know how difficult life can be for a minister, but I would be thankful.
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If God called them to the mission field to go and plant the flag of the cross in some land that it's never been planted, I would be just as, I'd be more grateful even if God would do something like that.
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I'd be fearful to watch them go, but I would be excited.
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But here's a man, his sons are fulfilling the call that God has placed on his family line, which is that to be the priest, and so here these two boys are, and they're impetuous young men.
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We don't know how they were.
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I call them boys, and don't think for a second that they're children.
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They're not children.
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They're young men.
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They're in the position to do a job, so it's not as if they're ten-year-old little boys.
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These are young men, and they choose to do something that God had not commanded them.
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The text says it's strange fire or unauthorized fire.
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We don't know what they did.
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We know they did what God had not commanded them, which is important for a theological principle called the regulative principle.
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The regulative principle is actually a reformed term.
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Regulative principle is that we do not introduce anything into worship that God has not commanded us to introduce into worship, whereas the normative principle is the opposite, is we can introduce anything that God has not forbidden.
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See how they did? See, they're similar but different.
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The regulative principle says God must regulate worship, and thus we don't do anything that he's not commanded.
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The normative principle says that we simply do what we want as long as God has not actually told us we can't.
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He's not forbidden it, and so I've always gone to the regulative principle and say, no, we should do what God commands, not just hope that he's not upset with it, and what do we see? We see the regular principle because this is what God says.
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He did what they had not commanded them.
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So here these two young men, the prime of their lives, the apple of their father's eye, stand before God and before the throne, and they offer up something that we don't understand what it was.
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And out of that moment, the fire that they kindled, whatever strange fire it was, the fire that they kindled burst forth in a glorious eruption of anger.
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God's wrath burned and scorched them to ash.
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Now for a moment, consider the heart of Aaron.
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My sons, my lineage, my hopes for the future are dead.
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They're burned to nothing.
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They're burned to death, and so what? What do you think Aaron felt? Everything.
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Everything he's ever hurt, every pain he's ever felt is now erupting within him.
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This is where I mean by existential, because normally we read through these three passages, we go over it like it's nothing.
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Yeah, these two guys died.
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They did wrong.
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They deserved it.
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We move on.
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But from the mind of Aaron, the story, the narrative takes on a new understanding.
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And yet this is what the text, yeah, and this is what the text, this is why verse 3 means so much to me, because all this, I'm not just simply trying to make the story more interesting.
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What I'm trying to help you understand is why verse 3 is there.
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Because in verse 3, then Moses said to Aaron, this is what the Lord has said, among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I'll be glorified.
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Why would Moses say anything to Aaron? Why even add that part? Because these were Aaron's sons, and he has now experienced a loss that is going to make him die inside.
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So Moses looks at him and says, look, God has said, whoever comes near me, I must be considered holy.
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That's what sanctified means.
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He says, I must be holy for whoever comes before me.
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I must be considered holy.
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And in that moment, Aaron held his peace.
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You have to understand that short phrase, and Aaron held his peace, is the opposite of what he wanted to do in his emotional heart.
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Because in our heart of hearts, we experience great trauma and we want to cry out.
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We want to say, not them, not me.
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But instead of that, he held his peace.
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And to me, as a father, as a husband, as a man who I'm sure will watch my son through many years, my sons make many mistakes, as I've made many mistakes that my fathers had to watch me make.
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And yet I have not been consumed by fire as a result of those mistakes, though I certainly have been worthy of it on several occasions.
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I have not yet been consumed by fire.
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Aaron watched that out of his sons, and this really happened.
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That's the key.
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This actually happened.
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I'm not saying it wasn't justified in any way.
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No, no, no, don't get me wrong.
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I'm not saying it's not justified.
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No, and that's the point.
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My only point in all of this is to simply say, when we read the text, you know, I know people who read 12, 13 chapters of the Bible a day, sometimes more.
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Sometimes people read 15 chapters a day, 20 chapters.
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I mean, guys, some guys even become sort of braggadocious about it.
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Oh yes, I read a whole book a day or whatever.
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I read the Bible 20, 25 times a year or something, you know.
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And they're always reading, reading, reading, reading, reading.
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And yeah, and my question is, but do you understand what you've read? Have you, in a moment, stopped and considered the existence of the person you're reading about? Or is it to you, like Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer or any other character from some grand narrative that you've read? This actually happened.
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And you think about Aaron, and you think about what he went through, you know, at that point.
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When you take it as a history, not an actual thing that happened, rather than a story with a moral behind it, you know, and that's what some people look at it.
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Well, that's just a story.
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It's got a moral to it.
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Well, it is, but it's a story with a moral to it that actually happened.
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I think a lot of the non-existential reading comes from, well, I've got to find an application.
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Yes.
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So it really cheapens everything.
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It does, and that's a good point, Tiffany, because that's kind of what I was getting around to.
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We don't always have to be trying to find some personalized version of the story.
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We can read it for what it is.
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It's what happened to this person at this time in history.
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Now, do I learn things from it? Absolutely.
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But we over-tempt our application, you know, and that's absolutely good.
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Now, I want one more, if you all will indulge me, one more place.
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Matthew 4 is another place I think is a good place to turn.
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What time is it? 10 on that end.
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We have time for one more.
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I mean, when you read stories like this, what I get out of it, the application for me is that I learn about God.
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I learn the personality of God.
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I learn what God's all about.
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You know, that's the main application for me.
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Not how does it apply to my life, but the actual personality of the Lord of Hosts.
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This is the temptation of Jesus.
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The Bible says he was tempted in every way as we are and yet without sin.
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And of course, from a theological perspective, when you talk about the temptation of Jesus, the question of peccability versus impeccability comes up.
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And I don't know if you guys are familiar with that argument, but the question is not whether or not Jesus did sin because all conservative Christians would say he did not sin because the Bible says he was without sin.
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There was no reason for him to be put on the cross guilty or anything, but he took our sin, not his own.
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But the question is, could he have sinned? That's the peccability versus impeccability argument.
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And I tend to fall under the impeccable view.
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I don't believe he could have sinned and I don't believe his temptations were to cause him to sin, but to simply demonstrate his inability to sin because he is the very nature of God and in him the fullness of God dwells bodily.
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But that's, as I said, that's sort of the theological underpinning of this.
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But to read it existentially, it says, then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
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And after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry.
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And the tempter came and said to him, if you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.
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But he answered, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
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Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you.
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And on the hands, on their hands, they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone.
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Jesus said to him again, it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.
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Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
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And he said to them, he said to him, all these I will give you if you fall down and worship me.
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Then Jesus said to him, be gone, Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.
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Then the devil left him and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
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So when we say read it existentially, what do we mean? Well, in this particular portion of Jesus' life, we know this is right after probably the most powerful spiritual event that had occurred up until this point.
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You know, we have the birth narrative of Jesus, then we have the time when he was 12 years old in the temple, but outside of that we don't know a lot.
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And then comes his baptism with John.
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And when he was baptized, a miracle occurred because there was an audible voice from heaven that said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
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The spirit descended on him as it were a dove.
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And so there the blessed Trinity is seen God, the voice, the spirit, the dove and Christ, the man standing in the water as this moment of moments has occurred.
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And Christ is at the very, the very high point of this, his early ministry where he is receiving the anointing of God to go forth and to complete the task that he had been called to.
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And this great moment is then followed by 40 days of seclusion, 40 days of being alone, 40 days of fasting in the wilderness, wherein he was tempted by the devil himself.
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Now, I've said this on several occasions, and hopefully you won't think that I'm too off the reservation on this one.
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And I've jokingly said, I don't think the devil knows my name.
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And what I mean by that is Satan is not omniscient and he's not omnipresent.
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Satan is limited, unlike God.
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And I think that Satan is involved with influencing the world system much more than he is involved in influencing individuals.
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Now, I do think that there are demonic beings that can attach themselves or deal with individual persons.
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But I don't know that I've ever been tempted directly by Satan.
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Now, I would say satanic things have occurred, but satanic and Satan himself are two different things.
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You know, you've heard my expression of the world, the flesh and the devil, right? The three great enemies of the Christian are their flesh, the world and the devil.
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But that's not three different things.
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See, the flesh is what we live in.
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The world is what the flesh lives in.
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And the devil is the one who influences the world that influences the flesh.
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So it's not as if it's the world here, the flesh here, the devil over there.
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It's the flesh we're in is influenced by the world we're in, which is influenced by the devil who's in it.
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You see, so when we say satanic influence, I'm talking about the world around us, which is being governed by satanic influence.
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It's being led astray in every area by satanic influence.
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But I don't think I've ever had the devil, Satan himself, that great serpent, come and put something in my way.
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But Christ did.
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Christ had a direct intervention with Satan himself.
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Three times.
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At the weakest physically, he had been up until this point that we know of.
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Eat this.
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Turn it to bread.
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You can eat it.
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It's all right.
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Throw yourself off this temple.
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You'll be all right.
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God will catch you.
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Look out at everything and I'll give it to you.
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I own everything.
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I'm the devil.
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Everybody worships me.
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All I got to do is tell them to and they'll worship you too.
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If all you want is worship, here's a way to get it.
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Just do what I tell you to do and I'll tell everybody to listen to you.
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Now I know for not a second did my Savior acquiesce to a thought of listening to Satan.
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But I do know that he had the most intense push that anyone has ever had to listen to that devil.
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And anything I've ever faced has not been an inkling to what Christ was being exposed to in that moment.
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And this is just another way of thinking extensionally.
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Yes, it happened.
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Yes, it really happened.
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But the intensity of the moment is often lost in the pages where all we see is ink on a page.
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You're right.
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Because the first, I mean the very first verse, did Jesus was led up by who? The devil? No, by the Spirit.
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His own Spirit leading him up to be tempted by the devil.
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So, I mean, that shows who's in complete control.
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Absolutely.
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And this moment in his life, it's just, every time I read it, I think about the power of the intensity of the temptation.
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And it is funny, John Piper said recently, he said, we know that riches and fortune and power cannot be the gift of following God.
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He said, because that's exactly what the devil promises to those who follow him.
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He says, you know, everybody who preaches that, you know, if you follow God, you're going to be rich and powerful.
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And he said, but that's what the devil promises.
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And you go to what the devil promises.
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He promises no pain, no hunger, no loss of power.
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You can have everything.
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But in that moment, Christ prevailed.
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With what? The Word of God.
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Everything he answered, by the way, is simply quoting scripture.
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He quotes scripture of the devil three times.
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And like I said, there's a lot more to the story.
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I know we're out of time, but you see now what I mean? So when I say, read the scripture existentially, I'm not saying read the scripture as an existentialist.
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I'm saying read it with an eye to the person as a person who existed at a point in time.
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And this event really happened.
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You can do this.
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Think about Jonah.
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Huh? Yeah, exactly.
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So these are these are moments in time that really happen.
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Exactly.
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You don't read it as myth.
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You read it.
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And this is the exact opposite of the existentialist who reads it as myth.
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We read it as true existence.
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And it is.
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So I hope that was helpful.
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And I hope in the future it'll help you with your Bible reading.
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Thank you.
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God bless.