Sunday 14th July

Dr Chris Fawcett shared a message titled, 
'The Revolutionary & Subversive Message of Jesus' 

Tom Holland is a historian and expert in Persian and Greek history - he wrote a book called Dominion and that book brings perspective to just how revolutionary the message of Jesus was in His day and in ours! 

It begs the question, who was Jesus, and who are we?

The culture of ancient Persia and Greece was very different.

The gods were at the top of the pyramid and they were perceived as demanding and very cruel. 
Next was the King who was considered to be Divine
Then the priests and nobles
Rich merchants
Slaves - about 70% of the population who lived very short and brutal lives

The King was required to do whatever it took to protect the integrity of the gods which was often very brutal and cruel. Gods were strongly associated with the nations of the time. When nations were defeated often the religion was stamped out too.

The people at the bottom were slaves and were treated as animals with no legal rights.

The mind blowing thing is that Jesus came at the bottom of the pyramid and He said "I am God and I am with you."

Holy places could only be entered by priests at certain times but Jesus came and said that through Him anyone can enter any time! And not just enter a Temple to worship God, but they themselves ARE the Temple that God resides in!

Everyone was trying to get up the pyramid, but Jesus was saying no no come down here, I’ll meet you at this level. Jesus showed God as a servant and said we are to serve one another. He had totally open arms for everyone and put no limits on knowing God through Him.

Jesus’ message was revolutionary! People couldn’t get their head around the fact that this could be the nature of God. We can become so familiar with the message that we forget its subversive and revolutionary nature.

Sometimes we’re guilty of wanting a Zeus-like god… but that is not who Jesus showed us!

This can also challenge our view of ourselves. If people are treated as less than humans for long enough they’ll start to believe it, but once we see that God dwells in all of humanity we value them and indeed value all of creation.

We can have the God who created all things living with us - Emmanuel!

People at the bottom had no hope of getting close to God… but Jesus came and said that those people can have God living WITHIN them! They themselves can be the Temple!

This gives us confidence but it also makes us aware of who we are and what we are doing.

Jesus said we’d have the spirit of sonship - we are friends and sons of God. This is the level of relationship he desires with us

1 Corinthians 1:27-29
"But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him."

If people have God living in them, even if you call them slaves, they won’t believe it, they’ll still do what God has called them to.

Ecclesiastes 3:11
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end."

We carry God Himself within us. Whatever imperfection we find in ourselves we can know we still hold eternity in our hearts - God is in us and this is mind blowing!

If we see other people as being Temples of God it changes how we see and treat them. How we treat one another is our religion.

If Jesus didn’t make divisions, who are we to do so?

Galatians 3:28
"There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

Everyone carries the image of God and therefore everyone deserves respect.

We live in a world where we make pyramids... But wherever you are, Jesus is present at the bottom and that’s where the Kingdom of God is established.

Where are we putting ourselves at the top of pyramids?

James 1:27
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

The hope for the Church is the breaking down of boundaries through seeing God in all people and all of creation.

What pyramids am I building in my life?

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You can watch the full message below: