If you have a Bible, turn to Joshua chapter 3.
If you don't have a Bible, take the one that's on the view in
front of you and Merry Christmas.
So as you're turning to Joshua chapter 3, I'd like to pray for
us. Father in Heaven, we ask you to
come take up Your word and teach your people that You would
establish us and build us up in the faith and that the name of
your Son that you would continue to exalt the name of your Son in
our hearts, in our minds, in our bodies, in our church, in our
families, and yes Lord, in our county, in our state, in our
nation, and in our world. We pray that you would speak a
word to us this morning from Your word.
By your Spirit we ask it in Jesus name, Amen.
So before we dig into Joshua chapter 3, I want to remind you
of something Jesus said when he rose from the dead and was on a
road talking to two disciples. They say they're they're
recounting the deeds of the crucifixion of Christ. 2 Christ
who has been raised from the dead.
And they end this way. They say yes.
And beside all of this, it is now the third day since these
things happened. Moreover, some of the women of
our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in
the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came
back saying that they had even seen visions of angels who said
that he was alive. And some of those who were with
us went to the tomb and found it, just as the women had said.
But him they did not see. And he said to them, oh foolish
ones and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets
have spoken. So let me ask you something,
Christian. Does Jesus have a point when all
they have is the Old Testament? Does he have a point to be able
to look at them and say, what are you doing?
Didn't you understand that this was supposed to happen to
Messiah when he came? He was supposed to be crucified
and then three days later risen from the dead.
Why are you so slow of hard to believe?
It sounds kind of harsh because everybody missed it, but the
text goes on verse 27. It says, and beginning with
Moses, that's Genesis and all the prophets.
That's all the way to the Italian prophet Malachi at the
end of the Old Testament. He interpreted to them in all
the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
We have in front of us one of the high points of the
redemptive history of God's dealing with His people in the
crossing of the Jordans. 1,000,000 songs are written
about this. A million prayers are prayed
about this. We talked about crossing Jordan,
right? One of my favorite authors had
brain surgery, lost his hearing and he described it as my
hearing has crossed over Jordan early.
It's gone ahead. There's this, there's this
massive weight to to this story when Israel, when God leads them
to cross into the Jordan. And I'm here to tell you this
morning that this story is all about the exaltation of the Son
of God, whose name is Jesus Christ, the real, true and
better Joshua. So one of the things that can
help us is anytime you read in the book of Joshua, as in verse
1, chapter 3, verse one, then Joshua, you just need to read
Jesus. If you were a Jewish believer,
you're reading about a man named Yeshua.
And then when you get to the New Testament, you read about a guy
who's named Yeshua for he will save his people from their sins.
This is same same name. And so there's all these clues
in the text that are telling us that this is a true story, but
it's a more deeply true story than what's actually on the page
and on the history. It's signing something for us.
And so verses one through 7, I want to show you that this is
this. This part of the story is about
the exaltation of a man named Yeshua by baptism in the Jordan
River. Does that sound familiar to
anybody? Well, let me show you this.
OK, so chapter 3, verse one, then Joshua rose early in the
morning and they said set out from Shiten.
You have to be careful saying that word.
Let's just get it out of the way.
Got to be careful. And they came to the Jordan and
he and all the people of Israel lodged there before they passed
over at the end of hey presto, three days.
At the end of three days. By the way, we're in Joshua
chapter 3-4 times so far in the book of Joshua, something has
happened on the third day. Do you think that's important?
Maybe that there's this constant mega theme of all the time
stamps and Joshua have to do with three days, this story
about a man named Yeshua. At the end of three days, the
officers went through the camp and they commanded the people.
Watch this, as soon as you see the Ark of the Covenant of the
Lord your God being carried by the Levitical priest, then you
shall set out from your place and follow it.
So a couple of things here. First of all, Passover.
You're going to have a Passover on the third day continually
throughout this text. They're going to call crossing
the Jordan. They're going to call it passing
over the Jordan. They are commanded to wait until
you see something. So they're not, they don't know
exactly how this is going to take place.
They just know they're waiting for for two things, for the ark
of the covenant of the Lord your God carried by the Levitical
priest. Then you shall set out.
So they're just waiting for something to follow.
So this is, by the way, a great metaphor, a great help in the
Christian life, that a lot of times what God gives us is a
whole lot of clarity mixed with twice as much mystery.
Like this is what I want you to do.
And we might say, how do you want me to do that?
To which God would say, just trust me, just go for it, just
do what I'm asking you to do. And the means by which it will
happen, you'll get there. So all that the children of
Israel are told is that they're going to walk like they're
waiting for the the ark and the Levitical priest to go and
they're just going to follow it so that they can cross the
Jordan. They have no idea how this is
going to happen. They just are expected to
believe that God is going to miraculously get them across a
river that we're told later on is in flood stage, a thing that
cannot happen. So they're told to wait, and
they're told to wait for something really important.
I wonder if something signals in your mind when you read these
words. As soon as you see the Ark of
the Covenant of Yahweh, you're gone.
The ark. It would be easy for the author
of this book to say, hey, as soon as you see the Ark,
everybody knows what we're talking about.
So why is it called the Ark of the Lord?
You're God. There's this gravity, this
weight here. And I would just point out
something out to you about these two.
Lord, capital Lord, and then you're God.
God. Lord is always God's covenant
name. It's it's, it's, it's Yahweh.
And it the aspect that is highlighted when his covenant
name is used is his nearness, his imminency with his people.
That God is a God who is near to his people.
He's not a God far off. He is there too, but he dwells
with the lowly and the broken hearted.
He dwells with those who fear the Lord.
And so it's the ark of the Lord, your covenant God.
The ark is the is the manifest, the sign of the manifest
presence of God among his people.
But this is also the covenant of the Lord your God, highlighting
the transcendence of God. Our God, the one who draws near
to us, is the God who rules and reigns in the heavens.
He is God over all things. And so that God that is that the
the heavens are his throne, the earth is his footstool, that God
comes to his people in the in in his imminency, in his covenant,
keeping relationship with them. And so when they see when they
see the ark carried by the Levitical priests, OK, what is
this? What is this looking at?
You have the Levitical priests are the mediators between God
and man. And So what Israel is watching
for, they've got to get across the river into their
inheritance. And what Joshua and the elders
tell them to to look for is he says, wait for the ark of the
covenant. That is the manifest presence of
God and the mediator that's going to be carrying that the
mediator between God and men, the Levitical priests.
And they're going to go before you.
And when you see that you set out and you follow them.
It's not accidental. It's very interesting.
And I want to show you this is this is there's something
strange that happens because this is pre Emmanuel times.
Look in verse 4 he says, yet there should be a distance
between you and it, about 2000 cubits in length.
Do not come near. Think about that.
You have the manifest presence of God.
You have the mediators that are bearing His presence and they're
going to go before and you follow.
But don't get too near because this God is a holy God and His
Holiness is dangerous for you. This is a pre Emmanuel, a pre
God with us in the flesh text. Do not come near it in order
that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not
passed this way before. Then Joshua said to the people,
consecrate yourself for tomorrow, the Lord will do
wonders among you. Joshua said to the priest, take
up the ark of the covenant, pass on before the people, and they
took up the ark of the covenant and went before.
So God is assuredly with them in this text and guiding them,
guiding them in this text, but they can't get too close.
Brothers and sisters, you and I have to see this text.
Well, we have to see this text well before Christ dealt once
and for all with our sin, being close to a holy God was
dangerous. Not just dangerous, it was
deadly. It was a thing that you could
not do. You couldn't just stroll into
the presence of God. Before Christ dealt once and for
all with our sin, but now that Christ has dealt with our sin
once and for all, He takes up His abode.
Not in an ark, not just close to us, 2000 cubits away.
Get close, but not too close. Where does God reside among men
today? Christ has made an end of all of
our sin, and therefore at Pentecost He pours His Holy
Spirit not to his people, but into His people, that we have
become the very temple of God. He is not just near to us, He is
in US. He has taken up His abode in US.
And then in verse 7 He says something phenomenal.
The Lord said to Joshua, notice not to all Israel, but just to
Joshua, Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all
Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will
be with you. I believe this is the key and
most important verse in this whole text.
Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that
they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.
Let me dwell with you on a moment on some of these, for a
moment on some of these words. First of all, it's today there's
something about the crossing of the Jordan that is going to
signal to all Israel that Joshua is the man.
Just as God was with Moses, so he will be with Joshua.
It's today. It's the crossing of the Jordan.
Secondly, God says I will begin to exalt you.
Well, what would that mean? When you begin something, what
does that mean? It means you're going to
continue to do it and you're going to finish doing it.
This is not the only thing. This is just the the start of
it. I will begin to watch this to
exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that God is going to
take this guy named Yeshua, and when he goes into the Jordan
River, that's God is going to exalt him in the sight of all
Israel. Does it sound familiar to
anybody? Are there any bells going off?
And God does this so that they may know that Joshua is the new
man of God, the new leader. So I will be with you.
So how is God going to begin to exalt the name of Joshua in the
sight of all Israel? What is the means by which God
is going to signify to Israel that Joshua is his leader?
Well, we're going to find it in verses 7 through 13.
So watch what happens. The Lord said to Joshua, today I
will begin to exalt you in the side of all Israel that you may
know, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be
with you verse 8. And As for you command the
priests who bear the ark of the covenant, when you come to the
brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in
the Jordan. So picture this ark borne by
priests, ark that is the presence of the transcendent and
eminent God, borne by the priests that are the mediators
between God and men there to there to step down into the
Jordan River. You shall stand still in the
Jordan. And Joshua said to the people of
Israel, come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God.
Joshua said here is how you shall know.
This is wild. God is about to do something to
prove something to Israel. God wants Israel to know two
things in this text. Here's how you shall know.
First of all, that the living God is among you, OK, that that
God is with you. And secondly, that he will
without fail drive out from before the Canaanites, before
you, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hittites, the
Pirazites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites.
So stand still in the Jordan priests and ark God and his go
betweens God and the men that represent him as mediators going
down into the waters of Jordan. And that should ring some bells
with all of us. These are Old Testament shadows
and they find their substance in the man Christ Jesus.
We're told in the New Testament there is one God and one
mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who is
called Emmanuel, God with us. So in Christ God is with us and
in Christ we also have the new and better mediator.
And that that man Christ Jesus, our mediator, God's presence
with us. He also Once Upon a time stood
still in the Jordan River and interestingly, the heavens were
torn asunder. Mark uses the word.
The same word to tear the heavens is the word that is used
when the temple curtain is torn at the death of Christ.
That is irreparable damage. We're never putting this back
together. Something foundational has
changed. Heaven has been torn asunder
because God is with men. Emmanuel, his mediator, is in
the Jordan, and as he's baptized, the heavens are torn
open. The Spirit of God descends upon
Christ, and he is declared to be the Son of God with whom God is
well pleased. And in that act Jesus is
revealed to Israel. John the Baptist says, I came
baptizing with water so that he would be made known to Israel
that this is their Messiah. So these things are clearly
given as signs to Israel. And because they are signs, they
teach Israel two things. And we need to reckon with these
two things. First of all, that the living
God is among you. What a treasure to know, brother
and sister, that we're not just doing a hobby here.
A great author, 1A great teacher once said if if church to you is
a hobby, go find a better one. This the church is a super lame
hobby. This is just something we do on
Sunday 'cause it's what we do. Go fishing.
Go do something different if the church is only a hobby.
What's going on here today is that God, the Almighty Creator
and Redeemer of the universe, has constituted us to himself so
that he can be our God and so that he can live and dwell in US
and among us. We want the living and the true
God and the and, and Joshua crossing the Jordan and Jesus
being baptized in the Jordan is proof to all of us that the
living God really is among us. It is also proof, Joshua says,
you shall know that the living God is among you, and secondly,
that he will without fail. What does it mean to be without
fail? It means you don't fail, right?
It's in the Hebrew. God without fail will drive out
from before you. Canaanites, Hittites, Hibites,
Pirozites, Girgishites, Amorites, Jebusites, the seven
Canaanite nations in the land. So, So not only is God among
you, but he is among you so that He can bestow victory on and
through you. It's not going to be all you sit
back and watch God clear out. Some of that will be that way,
but a lot of it is going to be you're going in the power of God
to accomplish the work that He wants you to accomplish.
Now look, in verse 11, Joshua is going to describe a little bit
more about this, this picture, this sign to Israel that God is
among them and that he's going to give them victory.
In verse 12 he says verse 11, Behold, the ark of the covenant
of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the
Jordan. Now therefore take 12 men from
the tribes of Israel, from each tribe a man.
Now that's significant. Where in Scripture have we seen
a Joshua that surrounds himself with 12 men after a baptism, 12
men from the tribes of Israel, from each tribe a man.
And when the souls watch these words, when the soles of the
feet of the priest bearing the ark of Yahweh, the Lord of all
the earth shall rest in the waters of the Jordan.
Rest there is not is not the word that we where we get
Sabbath rest is the word that we get in Noah the name of Noah,
right. Remember Noah's dad named him
Noah because he says this one will give us rest from all the
toil of our hands on the earth. And so when you see if if if we
read Hebrew and we could read the Lord of all the earth shall
when the soles of their feet shall Noah in the waters.
What do the waters mean to us? When you have think about this,
you have an ark, you have a reminder of Noah of rest, and
then you have waters. What do the waters represent?
They represent judgment, their judgment that that is coming,
that God is going to help his people pass through.
So you have resting in the waters with an ark, with Noah,
with waters. They represent judgment.
And so he says, when they rest in the waters of the Jordan, the
waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing, and the
waters coming down from above shall stand in one heat.
So when God himself and the mediator, just as Cliff notes of
this text, when God himself and the mediator between God and man
had his feet resting in the waters of judgement, those
waters would be cut off from flowing over the people of God.
And there are 12 guys with him. Does this sound familiar if we
were reading the Gospels in this light and saw Christ, Emmanuel,
God with us the the great High Priest?
Of our faith coming and standing in the Jordan River.
We we would if we knew this text well, it would take on a whole
new depth of meaning when we come to the Gospels.
Priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant, resting the soles of
their feet in the Jordan with one man from each tribe in
Israel ready to bear memorial stones.
This is how Israel is to know that God is with them, that he's
going to give them victory, and that Joshua is his man.
That's extremely important. So the question is, they said,
he says prepare yourself for glory.
God is surely going to do wonders.
Now we got to look now at not just the preparation and all
that, but what does God actually do?
What wonder does God perform? And it's in verses 14 through
17, and it is phenomenal. In verse 14, the text says so
when the people set out from their tents.
If you write in your Bible, circle the word tense.
And I would just invite you to think about this most pregnant
text where the people of God are about to come into their
inheritance, They're about to come into the promised land, and
they leave their tents to cross the Jordan.
The idea of tents reminds us, does it not, of words like
sojourning, of exile, of pilgrimage, right?
500 years, 600 years before this moment, God called a man out of
her, and he said, I'm going to give you land, seed and
blessing, and through you all the nations of the earth will be
blessed. And that man never had a house.
He dwelt in tents all of his life.
Abraham was a tent dweller. Isaac was a tent dweller.
Jacob was a tent dweller. Joseph and his brothers were
tent dwellers until Joseph was sold into slavery.
They went down into Egypt and sojourned there, not in tents,
but certainly not permanently. They they stayed there for a
season awaiting the time when God would redeem them and bring
them to the promised land. By the way, Joshua has the bones
of Joseph from 400 and some odd years ago.
Because Joseph said when God delivers you and when he gives
you the land and victory in the land, take my bones with you and
bury me there. So the people of God, please
hear me out here. The people of God have been
sojourners for, for at least 500 years, waiting for the time that
they would receive their inheritance.
And so this idea that they leave their tents, that's a, that is a
really WAVY thing to say that they leave their tents for the
very last time before they step into the promise.
And it's a beautiful picture when the people set out from
their tents to Passover, the Jordan with the priests bearing
the ark of the covenant before the people.
And as soon as those bearing the ark had come as far as the
Jordan and the feet of those priests bearing the ark were
dipped in the brink of the water.
We're giving this parenthetical statement now.
The Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of the
harvest. And again, that the biblical
theme, if we knew our Bibles, we're told Noah, we're told ark,
we're told waters, the waters are the waters of judgment.
And now we're told those waters have jumped their banks.
They're flowing hot and heavy. But as soon as God's presence,
God's priests come in and their feet are dipped in the in the
brink, watch what happens. Verse 16, the waters coming down
from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away at Adam.
And I would just counsel you to circle that at Adam, the city
that is beside Zarethan. I can't think I, I know that
there are other texts in Scripture that mention a city
called Adama. This is the only time to my
knowledge that the city of Adam is mentioned.
What's going on here? There's something very
significant. So he says not just that that
they God made a patch of dry ground, but that the water stood
in a heap, and they went as far away as Adam.
Upstream they were cut off. And the city that is beside
Zarathan, and that those flowing down towards the sea of the
Ereba, we call that the Dead Sea, the Salt sea, were
completely cut off. And the people passed over
opposite Jericho. Now the priest bearing the ark
of the covenant of the Lord stood firmly on dry ground in
the middle of the Jordan, in the midst of the Jordan, and all
Israel was passing over on dry ground until all nations
finished passing over the Jordan.
So when Joshua, the king and commander, with the priest to
our mediators and the ark, which is the presence of God and 12
representatives from all Israel, when they stand in the Jordan,
the floodwaters of judgment recede to a city called Adam.
Does that mean anything to anybody?
Let me ask you something, Christian.
What? Who is Adam and what does his
name mean? Adam was taken from the earth
and so he's named Earth. Adam, it just means land or
earth. Adam is the original father of
mankind and the source of our inherited sin nature, our
sentence of death. See if you can pick up what I'm
throwing down here. Our sentence of death for sin
flows down to us from Adam, and this continues until a new and
better Adam, whose name, by the way, is Joshua, prefigured in
the person of the Old Testament. Joshua comes to the Jordan River
to unite with his people through baptism so that their sin can
become his problem and his righteousness can become their
possession. All of these things point to and
prepare us to recognize Christ and recognize why he came to do
what he did. Remember, when Jesus comes for
his baptism in the Jordan, John is baptizing a baptism of
repentance, and people are to confess their sins.
And Jesus comes for baptism and John says, no, I need to be
baptized by you. You have no sin here.
And Jesus says, nevertheless, let it be so for now.
For thus it is fitting that we should fulfill all righteousness
When Christ is baptized like us in a baptism of repentance, He
takes our sin upon himself so that our righteousness could
become his. So let me point something out to
you that I think is being signalled here, signed here, and
then I'll give you a New Testament reference.
This is, I believe, a picture of what is called retroactive
grace, grace that covers past all the way past when the new
and better Joshua steps into the Jordan opposite Jericho with the
manifest presence of the substance of the ark of God
right the the the real ark of God, not a not a earthly copy of
the heavenly realities. But when Christ comes, he has
the real presence of God with him.
He is God in the flesh. The heavens are ripped open, the
Spirit, the sins, He is there with 12 men who stand for the 12
tribes of Israel. The waters of judgement recede
all the way back to Adam. Jesus comes as a new and better
Joshua and as a new and better Adam.
You might say that's you're reading too much into the text,
to which I would say, let me show you something.
Romans 3, listen to these words. It's a very famous text.
We're told in Romans 3. All have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
All of this we know and we love, but watch this Christ Jesus whom
God put forward as a propitiation by his blood.
Propitiation means a satisfaction of wrath.
Christ dying on the cross is not just penal.
It's not just a you did the crime.
You've got to do the time. So somebody's going to pay that
penalty for you. That is the the centerpiece of
the atonement, but there's also the wrath of God that has to be
dealt with. We're told in the in the Psalms
that God is angry at the wicked every day.
And so Christ is put forward as a satisfaction of wrath, as a
propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.
Now watch this. He says this was to show Christ
did this to show God's righteousness because in his
divine for parents he had passed over former sins.
So yes, it is true that Christ died because he loves you, but
it is also true and maybe more immediately true that Christ
died to vindicate the righteousness of God because he
had passed over sins previously committed.
Think about this with me in the beginning.
You have a, you have a word of God that says comes to Adam and
he says do not eat of that tree because the day you eat of it
dying, you will die. And then Satan comes and says,
no dying, you will not die. You'll be fine.
You'll be like God. It'll be great.
It'll work out great. And so as we're reading, if we
didn't know anything about the New Testament, if we didn't have
any category of spiritual death or any of those things, we're
just reading the text. God says you eat it, you died
that day. Satan says you eat it, you don't
die that day. You become like God.
They eat it and they don't die. And God says they have become
like one of us. And so as careful readers, we
should read and we should say who told the truth?
Who told the truth? God said eat it and die that
day. Satan said eat it, you won't die
and they don't die. It seems like Satan told the
truth and God did not, which we obviously know is not the case.
What you see there is you do see the first picture of
substitutionary atonement, that something dies in your place
that they try and cover themselves with fig leaves.
God comes and he covers them with the skin of an animal and
you don't get that without killing an animal.
So something dies on the day that they that they came, but
again on the day that they sin. But again, as careful readers
were looking at that saying God, how can your how can that mercy
that you bestowed upon them 'cause it's very clear that it's
mercy. How can that be?
Just didn't you just break your standard?
This is, this is the command, this is the law.
This is what will happen and it doesn't happen.
They get mercy instead. And so there's this accusation
from that point forward against God and against His Holiness and
against his righteousness to say, look, we know that you're,
you're merciful, but is your mercy just?
And to that, Paul says that Christ died in order to
demonstrate God's righteousness because in divine forbearance he
had passed over former sins. He didn't ZAP them on on the day
that they said he passed over. Verse 26.
It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that God
might be both just and the justifier of the one who has
faith in Jesus. Think about this.
God could be just and incinerate everybody.
It's totally just. It's what we deserve.
Or He can have mercy on everybody and have the
accusation of being unjust. The only way that God can be
just and the justifier of sinners is when he puts forward
his Son and his death. So I just want you to see this
picture here. When Christ, when Christ comes,
when he's baptized, when he lives perfectly, when he dies on
the cross to pay for sin, His death is retroactively
meritorious. I don't even know if that I'm
saying that the right word, his death covers all of those all
the way back to Adam. You see this in Hebrews Chapter
9. I'm going to read this to you as
well and and then we'll I'll apply it to you, to us.
Hebrews Chapter 9. Listen to, listen to these
words. Thus it was necessary for the
copies of the heavenly things to be purified with sacrifices, but
the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices.
For Christ entered not into the holy places made with hands.
That's not the Tabernacle, not the temple, which are copies of
the true things in heaven. But Christ entered into heaven
itself now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest
enters the holy place every year with blood not his own.
Every year the high priest has to atone for his sin, for the
sins of the people. It's repeated.
There's a reminder of sin every single year.
Christ is different, but he says he didn't come to to offer
himself repeatedly for listen to these words anytime you're
reading the Scripture, brother, sister, anytime you're reading
the scripture and a sentence is completed in a way that you
would never complete it or even imagine it would be completed.
That's usually a a red flag. You need to think about this the
way I would complete this sentence that that he didn't
come to offer himself repeatedly as those priests for his death
is sufficient once for all, but that's not what he says.
He says for them. If he was going to offer himself
repeatedly for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly
since the foundation of the world.
If God ever gives mercy, which He did with Adam, He did with
Eve, He did with all of the Old Testament Saints prior to
Christ. Every one of the every time God
forgave, a question arises as to His justice, and Jesus Christ on
the cross and in His resurrection is the answer to
all of those accusations. He is the only way God can
justly give mercy. So the death of Christ
sufficiently and effectually covers sins of His people passed
back to Adam and present to our day and on into the future until
He unmakes the world. That's the sufficiency of the
death. Death of Christ once for all,
brothers and sisters. That's the majesty of the person
of our Savior Jesus Christ. Think about this.
A few hours on the cross gave sufficient answer to the just
demands of God for the entirety of human history.
Such is the worth of our Savior Jesus Christ.
For Him to take our sin upon Himself and suffer for a number
of hours is sufficient to cover every murder, to cover every
rape, to cover every abuse, to cover everything for those who
repent. What a savior we have.
OK, so So what? What do we do with these things?
Three things and I'm done. First thing is an exhortation to
read the gospels in light of their biblical precedent and the
entire biblical context. So let me ask you something.
If you didn't know anything about Israel entering into their
inheritance under a guy named Joshua carrying the the presence
of God with the mediators, mediators of God going down into
into the Jordan and the waters are cut off and they enter into
their inheritance on dry land by a miraculous parting of the
waters. If you didn't know anything
about that, how could you possibly fully understand what
Jesus does when the new and better Joshua comes and is and,
and the beginning of his exaltation to Israel starts at
his baptism? How could you possibly
understand that? And so we need to start reading
the Gospels in the full light of their biblical context.
So when the Son of David was born in Bethlehem, he come.
When he comes to the Jordan to be baptized, the heavens are
torn irreparably open. The Holy Spirit of God descends
and rests upon him, remains upon him.
He is declared to be the Son of God by a voice from heaven, so
that all Israel might know that as God was with Moses, so he is
now with a new and better Joshua who has come to take dominion of
the promised land. You remember in the book of
Joshua when when he takes over and God says, I want you to rise
up. The men say to Joshua, as we
obeyed Moses in all things, we will obey you in all things, and
whoever rebels will be put to death.
You are the word that matters. It's a picture of Christ who
comes to say, blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.
We catch Christ. We we watch Christ.
Rather, let's think about this. What does Joshua do immediately
after his baptism? He goes down to the Jordan.
He comes up and what does he do immediately?
He goes to war. What does Jesus do after his
baptism? The new and better Joshua who
has come to take dominion of the promised land.
We watch him go up out of the waters of baptism and
immediately enter the land and battle his enemy, the devil.
We should be thinking about the entire gospel narrative in terms
of Joshua issuing a new and better command to conquest.
So are you, are you following that?
Are you seeing that the touch points of how this fulfills this
right? Think about this.
Answer this question. You have a knight who enters A
forsaken castle. He battles a dragon to the
death, or it looks like a death, but he ends up rising like all
good Knights do. He ascends the stair and what
does he find in the uppermost tower room?
What does he find? This is not a trick question.
What does he find? He finds a Princess.
Of course he finds a Princess. And in what state is that
Princess? Well, she's obviously sleeping.
Picture of death. Of course she is.
How does he raise her from death?
Well, of course, you don't even need to ask.
He goes and kisses her on the lips like a real man, and she
rises from the dead. And then they ride off their
separate ways into the sunset. What happens?
They always get married. It it can't happen any other
way. It has to happen this way.
Now follow this too. If Jesus is the new Joshua and
He is, He is accomplishing a new and better conquest.
Think about this. Who are the Canaanites that he's
that he's battling? He goes through the Jordan and
he enters in to take dominion and the very first message that
he preaches is the Kingdom of God is at hand.
It is upon you. Who does he battle?
Who are the Canaanites living in the land?
Who are the people dwelling in the land that stand against
Christ and the message of His Kingdom?
Authority. Who continually demands signs as
to His authority for doing the things that he's doing?
Who does Christ conquer? Who in the Book of Revelation is
Christ talking about when he says those who say they are Jews
but are not, but are a synagogue of Satan, who is it?
What is the great city in the Book of Revelation symbolically
called Sodom and Egypt where the Lord was crucified?
Revelation 11/8 Who are we talking about?
What city is called Babylon the Great, which in her was found
the blood of all the prophets and the Saints, and of all who
have been slain upon the earth? The city that Christ said in
Luke's gospel. It cannot be that a prophet
should perish away from Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is the place where prophets go to die.
Who is he talking about? Who?
Who is Christ coming to conquer? Who does Christ say?
These are red letters, not Pastor Will's letters, O
Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the city that kills
the prophets and stones, those who are sent to it, the city
about which Christ said, I will send them prophets and apostles.
Some of them they will kill and persecute.
Listen to these words, so that the blood of all the prophets
shed from the foundation of the world may be charged against
this generation. So again, retroactive grace and
now retroactive judgment because that grace is refused.
When you reject mercy that is retroactive and proactive, then
you get to reap wrath that is retroactive.
Jesus said to the men of his generation, I will require the
blood all the way from Abel to Zechariah.
I think it was Zechariah that he said, Who does Christ come to
conquer? Who does the new and better
Joshua come to conquer? The answer is unbelieving
Israel. So I want to make an assertion
here. I'm not going to defend it.
I'll defend it when Joshua conquers Jericho, but I'll just
state it here so you're ready for it when it comes in the time
of Christ, unbelieving Israel are the New Canaanites, and
Jerusalem is the new Jericho, the most significant city to to
fall to the power of King Joshua.
So again, the the exhortation is to read the Gospels in the light
of their full biblical context. Secondly, it's just a reminder
that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Christ brought Israel out of Egypt to Jude 5.
So if you have this notion that like the Old Testament God is a
vengeful, wrathful God, the New Testament God is God of grace
and the God of mercy and, and, and, and kindness and comfort,
you need to reckon with the fact that Jude in the New Testament
says Christ brought Israel out of Egypt.
It was Christ himself that did it.
Christ was the rock that followed them in the wilderness.
First Corinthians 10/4 Christ cut the waters off and gave them
their battle plan against Jericho.
Joshua 5. Joshua is the story of Jesus
with His people taking dominion upon the earth.
This is the theme of scripture and so we need to live like it,
or so Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
This is what He does. Therefore, when we seek to obey
Christ, we can count on His ability and willingness to do
that which is impossible for us. And this is the third thing, and
I'm done with this, that God, the facts are these, God always
leads his people into impossible situations so that his presence
and his power through Christ can make a way.
And I know because you're probably like me, I hate that
God does this like just make it easy on me, right, right.
If, if I, if I need this much time, give me 10 times that much
time. If I need this much money, give
me 10 times this much money. So I know I can rest in the
fact. If I need this much power, give
me 10 times more. I want to know before I watch
anything, I want to know that you're able to do this.
But that's not why God, that's not what God does.
He always brings us to the end of ourselves so that we can know
his power. And he does this this way
because he by doing this, he gets more glory, we get more joy
and his enemies either get drawn into love and relationship with
him or they get their courage wrong.
So God loves to do these types of things and he does them again
and again and again. So I would just ask you in your
life, what, what has God called you to do?
What's in front of you that you're looking at it saying that
my friend is impossible, I can't do it, it cannot happen.
Well, I've got good news. It can happen with the Lord
suppress into him. So as we think about the table,
God has called us to at least two seemingly impossible things
as Christians. First of all, a seemingly
impossible thing that he has called us to be holy as he is
holy. That's what Christ said.
Just be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.
No big deal. To which we all say it's
impossible. I can't.
I can't do that Lord. But with God all things are
possible. It was Christ himself who
descended into the waters of the Jordan in a baptism that
identified Him with His people and fulfilled all righteousness
on our behalf. And then after he descending
into baptism, he ascended to a Roman cross, where he took the
floodwaters of our sin flowing from the foundation of the world
to the unfounding of the cosmos, whenever that may be.
And he put all of that water, all of that wrath, all of that
judgment in a cup, and he drank it dry.
Brothers and sisters, no wrath remains for the people of God.
We cross the Jordan on dry ground in the name of Christ.
And so in Christ the impossibility of being holy is
now progressively accomplished in US and through us by faith
and by the agency of the Holy Spirit. 1 Impossibility.
The second impossibility. Christ also commands his people
not just to be holy, but to take dominion upon the earth in his
name. And I know you're tired of
hearing me quote the Great Commission.
I continually quote it because I don't think we've reckoned with
what he actually says there. I know you're tired of hearing
me quote Matthew 16 where where Christ says I'll build my church
and the gates of hell will not prevail.
It's a victorious word. So I'm going to go Old Testament
and give you another word about the the coming Messiah in the
Old Testament. This is what was prophesied
about him. It's one of our favorite texts
quoted of Christ in the New Testament that you won't hear
his voice in the street. He's not going to be be lifted
up. He's a faintly burning Wick.
He will not quench. He won't.
He won't break a bruised Reed. And that text ends with this
man. Whenever he comes, he will not
grow weary or discouraged until he has established justice upon
the earth and the coastlands wait for his law.
Christ, when he comes, will not grow weary.
He will not grow discouraged until he has established his
lordship on the earth. We may grow weary and we may
grow discouraged when we look without faith upon a world that
is going man. It's real easy if we just look
at the newspapers to say we're losing this fight.
But when we look at the promises of God, we cannot conclude that
we cannot. According to Holy Scripture,
Christ does not share our hand wringing despair nor our
councils of defeat. So to quote a Psalm, our
unbelieving question, when the foundations are destroyed, what
can the righteous do? Have you have you thought that
when you see our nation turn its back on its Lord, our nation
turn its back on the on the glorious constitution that God
gave us in the way that we do things as a culture and you you
watch the foundations are being destroyed.
And so it's it's common for Christians to look and say, if
the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?
What can we do? What can be done?
Well, the answer, Christ's response in the Psalms and to us
today, the answer to that, what can the righteous do?
The answer is, the Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord's
throne is in heaven. His eyes see, His eyelids test
the children of men. He does not share our defeatism,
and therefore we should repent of it.
Christ will have the price for which he died, and God be
praised that prizes the inheritance of nations.
He has asked his father, Psalm 2, who has given him the nations
as his inheritance, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron.
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to this
Christ as assuredly. Listen to me as assuredly as
Rahab the prostitute says the land in her day had already been
given to Joshua the the first Joshua.
She says I know that the land has been given to you Now if
Rahab looked out on the land you might ask her, hey Rahab point
to the point to the cities that are in loyalty to God and to his
Kingdom. She wouldn't be able to point to
a square inch of the land and that that's been disciple but
she says I know that the Lord has given you the land.
Her faith was right. Our eyes are wrong.
And so when we come to this table, we are coming to two
impossibilities, looking in faith to Christ who accomplishes
them both in US and through us. This bread is his body which is
broken for us. This wine is his blood poured
out for the forgiveness of our sins.
Coming to Christ means embracing what Christ has saved you from
and what Christ has saved you for.
Saved from sin, from Satan, death, hell, alienation from
God. Yes and Amen.
Those are all yours in Christ. You are also saved for eternal
life, intimacy with God, participation in the one body of
Christ, and participation in His work in the world to make His
blessings flow far as the curse is found.
You are saved from and for. So come join Him in the Jordan.
The water is fine because it's all dry.
Come and welcome to the mercy and the mission of Jesus Christ.
Let me pray for us. Father, we thank you for the
stories that are ours, the stories of your faithfulness to
your people, and the stories that you not just accomplish,
but you invite us to dwell richly upon those things, the
way in which you did them and the purposes for which you did
them. And the more we think and the
more we dwell richly upon those things, the more we see that
Christ has always been the centerpiece of your plans to
exalt the name of your Son, to unite all things in heaven and
on earth in him at the proper time.
And so, Lord, we thank you. We thank you for sending us
Christ who condescended to be united with his people.
So now as we come to this table and we take up the bread and we
take up the wine, Lord, we remember.
We remember Christ Jesus crucified and raised for
sinners. We remember Christ the
vindication of your righteousness, because in your
mercy people asked, is he just? We look to the broken body in
the shed blood of Christ, and we say, praise God and Hallelujah.
God is mercy and He is justice, and the two kiss upon the cross.
Oh Lord, would you meet us at the table?
Would you shepherd us at the table?
Would you empower us at the table and give us joy in it?
Lord, we ask it in Christ's name, Amen.