Pastors Brian and Jacque Lother
Pastor Brian: I want to talk to you today. This title of my message is called The Beautiful Middle. That might not make any sense to you now, but hopefully in a few moments it will make some sense to you. But as I've been pondering the season we are about to enter into where we celebrate the incarnation of Christ, we celebrate God coming in person to this world. If we really want to encounter God's word. If we really want to feel God's heart, if we really want to know God's will, and if we really want to understand God's intentions, get what I'm going to say here, we must let the words of God imprint, lead us to the Word of God in person. Lemme say that again. If we really want to encounter God's heart, if we really want to encounter God's essence, we have to let the words of God that are in print lead us to the Word of God who's a person.
God has always made personal appearances. He started in the garden where he would come daily and walk with Adam and Eve. After man fell into sin and the world became very chaotic, especially how it was in the time of Noah, it was a real challenge for God to show up. Man had become very distorted in his image of God, but God still showed up. He showed up as a burning bush. He showed up as a pillar cloud by day, a pillar fire by night. He showed up even in incognito situations as well, where he showed up and people didn't even know it was God.
When God made his ultimate appearance with the birth of Christ in that Bethlehem manger, what God actually does is he directs his followers attention to, and don't get offended by me saying this, but he directs his follower's attention actually away from the book in general and toward the central character of the book. That's what God did. Here's another way of saying it. The word of God is infallible. The word of God is inherent. The Word of God is totally inspired. When he was about 18, he grew a beard. Get what I'm saying? I hope I didn't blindside your view with that.
In the beginning was the word. We like to refer to a book as infallible. We like to refer to a book as inerrant. We like to refer to a book as totally inspired. Why do you think so many people today are arguing over translations of that book? You know why? Because they missed the central figure of the book. They miss the central figure. Don't get me wrong here. Jesus valued the Bible of his day, which we know to be called the Torah. He valued the Torah. Jesus considered the Hebrew scriptures to be a gift of guidance from God to his people.
As we know, Jesus quoted from that day's Bible, again, the Torah, Jewish scriptures; he quoted from the Jewish scriptures often, and he even referred to them as the words of God. That's the term He used, the words of God. But there is only one word of God. We have to understand that there is only one word of God. And even though Jesus treasured the Hebrew scriptures, and I treasure the translation of those Hebrew and Greek and Aramaic scriptures to the English language, I treasure them. I've been reading them most of my life. I read them almost daily. I study them deeply.
But Jesus did something very interesting when he came on the scene. Jesus put his own teaching on a level that was even greater than anything God had previously said. And this really bugged the Bible scholars of that day, which we know to be called Pharisees, religious leaders, Sadducees. After Jesus's resurrection, he appeared to his disciples and explained to them what he said about himself in all of the scriptures. And we see this. This is post-resurrection, Luke 24, verses 25 to 27. What Jesus said this:
Pastor Jacque: From the Passion Translation- Jesus said to them, why are you so thick headed?
Pastor Brian: And I think he was being kind there.
Pastor Jacque: I tried to say it kindly. Why are you so thickheaded? Why do you find it so hard to believe every word the prophets have spoken? Wasn't it necessary for the Messiah to experience all these sufferings and afterward to enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he carefully unveiled to them the revelation of himself throughout the scriptures.
Pastor Brian: I think it's safe to say that most, the vast majority of the people that read the Torah, memorized the Torah, memorized, quoted, debated, discussed, missed the essence of what the Torah was about. The religious leaders certainly did. The disciples did. Because in this post-resurrection encounter with the disciples, Jesus said to them, "Why do you find it so hard to believe the things that the prophets have spoken about me?" Why do you find it so hard to believe the things that were written in the Pentateuch, which was the first five books of the Bible, oftentimes thought of as the law. But then later on the whole Torah became known as, in a sense, the law. But Jesus is saying the things that were said about me in the Psalms, the things that were said about me in all the prophets, the things that were said about me in the Pentateuch, why do you find them so hard to believe? He goes on to say in Matthew chapter 5:38, this:
Pastor Jacque: You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Pastor Brian: See, who, what was he quoting there?
Pastor Jacque: The Bible... the Torah...
Pastor Brian: The Torah. The Jewish scriptures. He was quoting the Jewish scriptures. But then he goes on to say,
Pastor Jacque: But I say, do not resist an evil person. If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also.
Pastor Brian: The only person that can elevate his word above the words of the Torah is God himself. That's what Jesus did. Jesus said, you have heard it said that when someone pokes your eye out, you get to poke their eye out. That's what we have going on in Israel right now with Hamas. That's what we have going on in Ukraine. That's what we have going on all around the world. And it doesn't work. No, it doesn't. It doesn't work. We need a new way of solving problems.
Jesus came on the scene and said, you have heard it said, and I for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist even an evil person if someone slaps you on the right cheek, let him slap you on the other as well. He's taking the teachings of the Torah and saying, I need you to set that aside because I have a higher way for you to live. Only God could actually undo what he said. Jesus knew that if his followers were going to transition well from an old covenant way of the letter of the law into a new covenant way of the Spirit, they were going to have to keep their eyes on him, fixed on him. That's why the writer of the Hebrews book of Hebrews says it this way. Hebrews 3:1.
Pastor Jacque: And so dear brothers and sisters, you are now made holy and each of you is invited to the feast of your heavenly calling. So fasten your thoughts fully onto Jesus.
Pastor Brian: How many have a struggle with that? I do. I do. I struggle with fastening my thoughts fully on Jesus.
Pastor Jacque: It's so easy to let the distractions, to look there.
Pastor Brian: Our emotions, our desire to be treated justly.
Pastor Jacque: Our desire to be right.
Pastor Brian: Yeah. Our desire to be right or treated rightly, fairly. And yet the writer Hebrews says, "Fasten your thoughts fully onto Jesus." Then he says it again this way in Hebrews 12, verse 2.
Pastor Jacque: We look away from the natural realm and we focus our attention and expectation onto Jesus, who birthed faith within us and who leads us forward into faith's perfection.
Pastor Brian: We need to focus our tension and our expectation on Jesus. Oftentimes I say, "Father, Jesus, I give everyone and everything to you" with an expectation that whatever is troubling me in my spirit, my heart, that he is going to encounter that circumstance and that situation and bring greater peace and resolution that will be for my best interest. But for us to focus our attention on Jesus to do this well, the followers of Christ had to pay attention and learn how the Old Testament scriptures actually pointed to Jesus all along. And that's why he quoted Luke chapter 24. Look at verses 44 to 49.
Pastor Jacque: Then he said to them, don't you remember the words that I spoke to you when I was still with you? I told you that I would fulfill everything written about me, including all the prophecies from the law of Moses through the Psalms and the writings of the prophets.
Pastor Brian: He had already told them that, but they had not understood.
Pastor Jacque: Jesus supernaturally unlocked their understanding to receive the revelation of the scriptures and said to them, everything that has happened fulfills what the scriptures prophesied of me. The Messiah was destined to suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. Now, you must go into all the nations and preach repentance and forgiveness of sins so that they will turn to me. Start right here in Jerusalem for you are my witnesses and have seen for yourselves all that has transpired. I will send the fulfillment of the father's promise to you. So stay here in the city until you are closed with the mighty power of heaven.
Pastor Brian: Believe it or not, in this relatively short portion of scripture, Jesus is actually telling all of us the ABCs of Bible reading. There's a way that we can read the Bible and really get what God wants us to, or there is a way that we can read the Bible and just miss the point altogether. And then we take that Bible and use it to beat people up with. The ABCs of the Bible are basically this A-- Just think of it this way. A stands for the authority of Jesus, the authority of the Word. And who is the word? Jesus. It's the authority of Jesus that we need to base things on. He even said, all authority has been given to me, hasn't he? All authority has been given to me.
The value of the Bible is that it leads us to Jesus. If our reading of the Bible doesn't lead us to Jesus, then the Bible hasn't actually had any real value to us. It really hasn't. The Bible leads us to Jesus, and in that leading us to Jesus, it teaches us how his death and how his resurrection are central to everything that matters, his birth, his life, his death, his resurrection. That is an essence to everything that matters. Look at Matthew 28:18 through 20.
Pastor Jacque: Can I just say one more thing about this first? Yes. I loved it when it said that Jesus supernaturally unlocked their understanding to receive and understand. That's a prayer we need to constantly pray as we are reading, Lord, to understand it. And we are with Jesus.
Pastor Brian: Yes. Help me to understand
Pastor Jacque: And unlock my understanding.
Pastor Brian: Matthew 28, 18 through 20.
Pastor Jacque: Then Jesus came close to them and said, all authority of the universe has been given to me. Now, wherever you go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to faithfully follow all that I've commanded you. And never forget that I am with you every day, even to the completion of this age.
Pastor Brian: That authority that Jesus had, he's said, I will share that authority with you, not so that you can build up personal kingdoms, but so we can establish His kingdom on this earth. There have been many people, religious, spiritual leaders, if we want to give them that title, who have been abusive, who've been manipulative, who've used all the wrong ways to build an earthly kingdom, that sings worship songs and praise songs and "mentors" people, I'll put that in quotes. But they are not doing the work of Jesus. And they're really not establishing his kingdom. They're establishing their kingdom.
And let me just simply say this, that the gospel, in order for it to be truly the gospel has to not just work in America. It has to work in Haiti. It has to work in the poorest of countries in Africa. It has to work in China. It has to work in Russia. It has to work every place in the world for it to truly be the gospel. And there are doctrinal teachings that have been proliferated here primarily in America because America has an economic system that could support it. But countries like Haiti and China and other countries who don't have the either economic system or the government to allow it to happen, they don't work there. And those gospels, those doctrines are false. Because the gospel of Jesus works every place. That's why Jesus said to not only do it in Jerusalem, which was the epicenter of, shall we say truth, but Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world.
So then the B of the ABCs stands for in my mind the Bible and Bible should equal benevolence. When you read our Bibles, the thing that should come out of our reading of the scriptures should be that we are more benevolent people, not less benevolent.
Pastor Jacque: Like more loving.
Pastor Brian: More loving. Yes. We should turn what we learned from the scriptures into a message of forgiveness, not a message of condemnation. If we turn the message of the Bible into a message of condemnation, we've missed the whole thing. Again, we've missed the whole thing.
And then C is of the ABCs is companionship. That's what God is after, companionship with us. And he's done that by giving us Holy Spirit. Let's not do it alone. Holy Spirit is here to help. Jesus now is encountering these Pharisees, these religious leaders, and these Pharisees, another description of them was, is this: they were the people of the book, weren't they? They were the people of the book. They spent their lives learning and studying and discussing and debating and memorizing large portions of the Torah. They consumed it. They memorized these large amounts to help guide their steps to keep them righteous before God. Another way of saying it is they were absolute experts in all of Israel concerning the Hebrew Bible. They were the experts in all of Israel concerning the Hebrew bible. And I want you to see what Jesus said to them. John chapter 5, verses 39 and 40.
Pastor Jacque: You search the scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the scriptures point to me, yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.
Pastor Brian: Wow. You search the scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. I wonder how many people today read the Bible that way thinking that the Bible will give them eternal life. But in the same way that the scriptures that they read didn't give the Pharisees eternal life, reading the Bible today doesn't give us eternal life either. It's coming to the person who the Bible is all about that gives us eternal life. That's good. It's coming to Jesus. It's coming to Jesus. Jesus is consistent in his message. If you don't use the Bible to lead you to Jesus, you are doing it wrong.
When you read the word, and I hope you read it regularly, a regular intake of the Word of God. When you read it, the first thing I would ask you to do when you sit down to read your scriptures, when you read your devotions, whatever you do, the first thing I would ask you to do is to pray a little prayer that says something like this: Jesus, show me more of you when I read this today. Show me more of you. Help me go deeper in my relationship with you as I read this today. The Pharisees quoted to Jesus, that Old Testament verse that most of us have probably memorized, which is: thy word, have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you. And Jesus said to them, no, you haven't.
You know why you haven't? Because you haven't hidden me in your heart. Thy word, who is the word Jesus. Jesus is whom we need to hide in our hearts. Jesus is the one that needs to come in here and occupy this space. According to Jesus, we can cherish and study and memorize and base our lives on following the Bible, but without Jesus-- And here's the reason for my title. Without Jesus in the middle of it all, we won't know the word. And we certainly will not have hidden the word in our hearts. The beautiful middle is Jesus. Jesus is in the middle of it all. He's the central character of everything in the scriptures. From Genesis all the way to Revelation. But we can become scholars of a book and not know the main character of that book. We call it legalism. We call it judgmentalism. We call it Pharisaism. Galatians chapter 3, verse 24. Paul says, it's so good in this regard when he says this:
Pastor Jacque: Therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.
Pastor Brian: Jesus in his dialogues with the religious leaders and then later on the Apostle Paul, the Pharisees would argue, we have the law, we have the book. And what Paul is basically saying here in this portion of scripture, what have you learned from the book? What have you learned from it? I've used this example before, but I think I should say it again because I think it's such a good way of explaining what I'm saying. I think many of you know that I got an undergraduate degree in piano performance at the University of Minnesota. And while I was there, I got a phone call from the Conductor of the Box Society, which is one of the top choral groups here in the Twin Cities. He asked me if I would consider becoming the accompanist of the box society.
Because they would have rehearsals and then they would play with the Minnesota Orchestra or St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. But they would need someone to rehearse with them in all their practices. And so they would take an orchestra score and reduce it to a piano score. And then I would come in and accompany them. But in this process, when he called me, when the conductor called me, what do you think he would have said if when he said, I need you to come in and do an addition for me, what do you think he would've said if I said to him an addition? I studied with Duncan McNabb, who studied with Rosina Levia Julliard, who studied with a man in Russia who studied with Beethoven.
I was a fifth generation Beethoven student. Why would I need to audition? Don't you know who I've studied with? And you know what he would've said to me if I'd have said that? I really don't care who you've studied with. I need to know what you learned from those people you studied with. And the Pharisees were saying, we studied with the law. And Jesus and the Apostle Paul and others basically said, but what did you learn from that teacher? Did you learn to come to Christ?
We're entering the season of the year where we celebrate the word becoming flesh. So please, let's not confuse this wonderful event with a book. They're not the same thing. I can only have a living vibrant relationship with another person. I can't have a relationship with a book. That book can inspire me. That book can teach me, but I can't have a relationship with it. I can only have a relationship with a person. Regardless of how miraculously a book may have been penned or how beautifully accurate its content is, I can't have a relationship with a book. That's why we need to take what the book is saying about the central character and who he's like and what he's like, and we have a response to that person by saying, I trust in you. It's an act and a walk of faith, isn't it?
Regarding the Bible. It's the leading character of that book that needs to capture our attention. It's the leading character of that book that needs to capture our hearts. There are people every day that read the Bible. They'll get out their concordances, they'll get out their lexicons, they'll get all sorts of study tools, and they study it arduously and never come to meet the person the book is all about. And then they say, but I have hidden God's word in my heart. No, you took a lot of the words of God and you learned them, but there is only one word of God. His name is Jesus. His name is Jesus.
When we say today thy word, have I hid in my heart? What we really need to be meaning is that I've put Jesus on the throne of my life. I put Jesus on the throne of my heart. He's the one I worship. He's the one I serve. He's the one I've yielded to. I heard a great testimony last night, and I want to finish with this. This gentleman was talking; he's in the music industry. He came to know the Lord back in the seventies, a very, very well-known writer and folk singer.
16 of his friends had died, many from drug overdoses. He had a picture that he was on death row with a number, and all of his friends, their number had already been called, and they were all gone. He had a number too, and was sitting on death row. And all of a sudden someone else came up and gave him another piece of paper. He opened it up, and there was writing on the paper that writing was actually in blood.
And the writing said, forgiven of all your trespasses, Jesus Christ. Now he had these two documents in his hand. He said, "I had a choice. Which one do I want to cash in? Which one do I want to believe?" And he threw the death row number down. He said, 'I'm taking this pardon," which was given freely to him because Jesus, the person, the Word of God came into this world so that all people everywhere, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of education, regardless of background, regardless of origins, regardless of anything could be forgiven. All they needed to do was to say yes to the person who signed their name on that pardon, whose name was, of course, Jesus Christ.
And so today, I'm not trying to discourage you from reading the Bible. Please don't leave here thinking that. It's the number one bestselling book in all of history and for good reason. Some of the principles contained therein are above and beyond the comprehension of mankind. But if all we do is learn the principles and learn the stories and get moved in our hearts by the uniqueness of this book, and we don't ever meet the central character, we've lost it all. We've missed the point. What we have to do is get to that beautiful middle. What's in the middle of the book? Jesus. What's in the beginning of the book? Jesus. What's at the end of the book? Jesus. Jesus. But when we start digging, let's not dig for anything but Jesus. That's what we should be digging for. Did you have a thought?
Pastor Jacque: Oh, I just had a thought because I appreciate how you keep bringing us back to the person of Jesus, to the person of the Father, to the person of the Holy Spirit. And that we just want to keep knowing each of them and growing in this intimate personal relationship. Just knowing that our lives are grounded in the love that comes from God, the Father, from Jesus, from the Holy Spirit. And that as we open our lives up, our minds, up to him, our hearts up to him, he actually fills us, and our life is filled with his presence. We walk each day with him, we make our decisions with him. We are strengthened through him. He is with us every day. It's a mystery.
Pastor Brian: Never leave us.
Pastor Jacque: Never leave us. But it's true. And it's an experience that we all can have.
Pastor Brian: This is why I've said over and over, Jesus didn't come to establish another or a new religion. He came to make a way for all of humanity to have a relationship with the living God. That's what he offers us. When we take the book and we begin judging others, hitting other people over the head with it, and I've actually literally seen that. When we do those kinds of things, it's because we've missed the essence, the central character of the book. It's Jesus. It always was about Jesus. It always has been about Jesus. And it always will be about Jesus. Let's pray.
Father, thank you for all the words you spoke to humanity through the centuries, all the painstaking efforts you went through, you went through to have people write down these wonderful words of instruction that came from your heart. You had prophet after prophet come. Then you had Jesus come as a fulfillment to all of those prophecies, all the things that were said in the Book of Psalms and in the Torah and in the Pentitude. And then you had the apostles, different apostles take that New Testament experience of encountering you and began to pen those records so that we could have a canonized scripture from Genesis to Revelation. And I'm so thankful for all of the words that you've spoken, many of which have been put into writing throughout history. But all of those words were to lead us to a person, that person of Jesus, a person of Jesus.
So as the song that Adrian's playing, if we could just turn our eyes upon Jesus and look full into his wonderful face, all of the stress, all the struggle, all the things of this world will grow strangely dim and the light of his glory and his grace. It's only Jesus that can make a problem become diminished. It's only Jesus that can take a life-threatening situation and allow you to have peace as you walk through it. It's only Jesus that can take a broken heart because of rejection and betrayal, and yet give you a purpose for wanting to live tomorrow. Only Jesus can do that. Jesus is real. We're not just going to remember a baby that was born 2000 years ago. In this upcoming season, we will celebrate the living Christ who is right now making intercession for all of us. And he is the one we are to encounter when we read the book.
It's not a duty to read the book, but reading the book is an opportunity to encounter the living Christ on a deeper level every time we read it. It's not a vehicle for us to enter into debates over. It's not a vehicle that we are to argue with people over. It is simply a gift from our heavenly Father to point us the way to instruct us to come to the person of Jesus. As we do, we will come into a whole new way of thinking, living. And he offers that to every single person in the world today, regardless of back behavior, past behavior, how many mistakes, how far you have fallen. All we have to do is say yes to that pardon that was written in blood signed by Jesus Christ. Help us to receive you today. We ask this in your name for your sake. Amen.
Let's stand together, shall we? I hope I didn't shock you too much today with this message. I really do believe the word of God is inherent. It's immutable; it's eternal. And yes, when he was 18, he grew a beard. When we think of the word of God, let's think of Jesus. When you want to refer to a book, let's refer to it as the words of God. Those are the words that he so generously gave to us to give us guidance to give us life. But most importantly to point us to the word of God. Let's hold up our hands and let me bless you.
Pastor Jacque: Can I say one thing? If anybody would like to talk to somebody about really entering it into a relationship with Jesus, we are right up here, and we'd love to share his love with you.
Pastor Brian: Amen. Sean will be here to serve communion for those of you who want communion after the service, and we will have people here to pray for you. If you have never really received Christ in a personal way, we will be glad to pray with you for that. He is a living Lord that wants to walk with you every moment of your life.
And now, may the Lord bless you. And now may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his faces shine upon you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. And may you hide Jesus the word in your heart so that we might not sin against him. This we pray in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. Have a wonderful, wonderful day. Thank you for being here.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 11-19-23. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.