Jesus Is Greater | Enter Boldly

So some of you may know that every Thursday, every Thursday,

I pack up what I would consider a mobile studio.

I have a bag for microphone and speakers and a mic stand.

I pack it up and I bring it to the Correctional Facility in in

Dorchester. I bring it to a juvenile

Correctional Facility and there I help kids write and record hip

hop music. I really enjoy it for the music,

but also just for the conversations that I get to have

for the ways that I build friendships with these young

men. And as you can imagine, in a

juvenile facility, in fact, this particular facility, most of the

men there are facing some serious, serious charges.

And whether they are guilty or not, it's still a traumatic

thing. Even if they can mount an

incident, it's still a traumatic thing to go through that.

And one of the first things I got asked when I started going

into the facility, one of the first things I got asked was,

have you ever been locked up? Have you ever been incarcerated

or have you ever been in my situation?

And although, come on, cover your ears, although I've been

arrested, I've been handcuffed before being a little

transparent, I've been in a holding cell, I've even been on

probation. And I've experienced probably

some similar traumas and trials as some of these young men have

faced in lock up. I have never been in their exact

situation. I've never been faced in 1520

years as a young kid. I don't know what it's like to

have to deal with lawyers and judges for weeks and weeks on

end. And so while I have a good

heart, there's just a way that I can't relate.

And I understand why they ask me that question because we all

when, when, when somebody's working with us, ministering to

us, comforting us, supporting us, Part of the question we

often have is have you been through what I've been through?

Do you know my context? And so this is a lot of what

this section of Hebrews is about saying.

Jesus is not only who he is, he also understand who we are.

Let's pray. Thank you, God.

I pray that the next few minutes would fall on good soil, meaning

that this word would resonate not just today, but be

actualized to the lives of everyone listening.

I thank you for the opportunity to speak both to myself and to

your people in Jesus name, Name, Amen.

So we're in Hebrews, and unlike several of the New Testament,

the bigger New Testament books, the author and the audience of

Hebrews is not completely clear. Through extensive scholarly

research, I've hypothesized that they probably are Hebrews, but I

think I'm safe to say that part. They had knowledge of Israel's

history. They speak to have some

knowledge of Jesus and the resurrection.

They had knowledge of the law that was given to Israel through

Moses. That didn't save them, but

revealed then and revealed brokenness and kind of ushered

on a legacy toward Jesus. They had knowledge of the

priesthood system of sacrifices. They had knowledge of Israel's

oppression, both by oppression from within, from bad leaders,

and also occupation, colonization from Rome.

They had knowledge of losing and I want to just stop here to say

that the the cultural context of the Bible is always important.

The way that I read Hebrews is just not going to be fully the

way that the Hebrews of the day is going to grasp it.

It's what I think it's important to just realize as we wrestle

with Scripture that there's always a culture and context

that Scripture is speaking to. Sometimes I hear the term like

Christ over culture. And while I understand the

sentiment, I don't think that's an apples to apples comparison,

right? As the gospel was spread

throughout the world, they had to engage the culture of the

day. People had to wrestle with the

aspects of culture that were good.

And Christ was like, let's keep that.

Let's keep, let's keep these elements of celebration.

Let's keep these elements of culture and values and then the

ones that they had to drift away from if Jesus came today.

We have to wrestle with the parts of our culture, each one

of us, from our cultural context, those that we want to

keep or those that we feel like God is challenging.

And I just think that because I think it's important.

One of the reasons why we study the Old Testament is to know

about the culture of the day in which Jesus was coming, to know

about the historical context that we can make it real in our

lives, but also know that in some ways the Bible was written

before us, but not to us. And I think it just makes Jesus

even real. You know, all of us have an

ethnicity, all of us have a cultural background.

And I, as a black man, have to wrestle and reconcile with some

of the things in my culture. And the more I do that openly,

the more Jesus feels real to me. So culture and context.

So within that culture and context, I want to focused on

three areas or three identities that Jesus was expressed or that

was expressed about Jesus in this day.

I want to focus on king, high priest and human.

If I say King, say Jesus is high priest and Jesus was human.

So the king, right, there's a spray training and cultural

remembrance for kingships, right?

It wasn't just about the current king and the current occupation,

but they had a memory of what kings were and what kings

weren't. Just like it's not a it's not a

like for like, but just like we often think of presidents, we'll

think we'll have our opinions about the current president and

it'll also be along the backdrop of all the presidents Before

that. We'll know that some presidents

or leaders were decent and some were just lessons.

Amen. And so there was a history.

Also just like us, there was divided opinions upon what their

leadership legacy was based on generation.

But unlike American culture, the kingship had a lot to do with

family and ancestral lives. And also the lines of politics

and theology were pretty much wanted to say right.

I think it's unfortunately getting a little close to the

back in these days, but definitely closer than that back

then. But their, their context was

that prophecies over and over again had been not just talking

about a human king that would come, but an everlasting king, a

kick that would be above all the kings that they had, good and

bad, and not just the king of Israel, but the king of all the

nations. And so that's what they had been

waiting for. They, their culture had been

anticipation for this new king all throughout the storms, all

throughout the prophets. Let's talk about this king with

an everlasting throne. And so as we think about coming

to the throne boldly, we want to rightly relate to who Jesus is.

And so to rightly relate to him as king is to acknowledge his

ruleship, to acknowledge his power, to acknowledge his

guidance, to have confidence that he is the victorious one.

The term good news often was either when a king was born or

when a battle was won and a new era of peace would usher in.

So when we say good news, we're saying there's there might have

been other kings in your life or in the culture, but there's good

news is a new king. This is how we rightly relate to

Jesus as king. All right, So everybody say

Jesus is king. Jesus is also high priest and

there's a without trying to unpack the full system of

priests, the priest also held a very important role in Israel,

Israel's culture. They were from the tribe of Levi

and the later descendants of Aaron, Moses, his brother, and

the the the the priests were set apart after they refused to give

their allegiance to the golden calf.

And so God was like, you people are a holy people that I will

set apart for myself. The priests had a hand in

brokering the relationship between man's sinfulness and

God's holiness. Sin demands sacrifice.

Or the priest would take animals and sacrifice them in the

temple, and that would broker the relationship between man and

God. Also, priests would have to be

sympathetic to sin. They would have to understand

not only the people and the culture sin, but their own sin.

When they would go into the temple, they have to make

sacrifices for their own sin first.

They have to, in theory, get the plank out of their own eye

before they make sacrifices on behalf of the people.

And just like kings, priests were also prone to corruption

and humanity. Now also just the sidebars.

The the priests were supposed to be sympathetic to human

sinfulness. This was an emphasis.

Although I think we should be sympathetic to all humans, to

all sinfulness. This was an emphasis on those

that were ignorant and misguided.

Not as much, though, people just out there celebrating their

sinfulness, although I do think there's a way to engage

sympathy. But it was talking about folks

that were misguided, the ignorance, the fallenness of

humanity. And if we want to follow that

blueprint, just to just to pause, we don't always do that.

We're not always sympathetic, right?

How many times have you like overcome something or in a good

season and then somebody comes to you with a similar problem

and that judgment switch just just flicks on.

All of a sudden you forget where you came from.

You forget the sympathy and the compassion and the patience that

you needed to overcome. That was a qualification of

priests. Amen.

So we relate to Jesus. We relate to Jesus as high

priest by confession, by being honest with where we are, honest

with our sinfulness and also by finding joy in the relationship.

One of the first times where where the priest offered

sacrifices and God's fire consumed it, the people shouted

with joy because they were like our sacrifice is acceptable.

The relationship is popping now. So we relate to Jesus as a high

priest by finding joy in the relationship, by finding

intimacy in the relationship. So we have king and priest

kings, political, military authority, representation of

power, priests as spiritual authority, broken the

relationship with God, still with me.

OK, They came from different ancestral lines, right?

Kings were from the tribe of Judah, priests were from Levi.

But later it says Jesus is in the order of Melchizedek.

Melchizedek, as I like to call this, is Melchizedek, who is

Melchizedek. So Melchizedek is a mysterious

figure in the Bible. He showed up in Genesis.

His name means king of righteousness, or his name means

righteousness. He was also called the king of

Salem, and Salem means peace. Everybody says peace.

He's really the first actual priest mentioned in the Bible

that he's mentioned before. The priestly system is even set

up. So this is the mystery, this is

the wondering. Like some figures in the Bible,

his death is never really mentioned or emphasized.

Not saying he didn't die, but there was a level of mystery and

a level of kind of elevation of this.

This man was more than just a priest, and he was also a figure

in the Bible that was mentioned as a king and a priest, a king

and a priest. And so in that order, Jesus

brings these two roles together, king and priest.

Everybody say king and priest, He brings these two roles

together. He brings righteousness and

peace. He brings power and humility,

strength and sympathy. This is the God we serve, right

man. So we got king, we got priest,

we got human. The premise of the gospel is God

wrapping himself in human limitations to walk with us, to

sit with us, to be tempted with us, to suffer with us.

You know, some of the critique from other ideologies and other

especially ancient religions is that the Christian God was too

weak. God should never make himself

that vulnerable. Ibn I'm going to butcher the

name, so forgive me. Ibn Tim Miya, a Muslim.

Many of scholars say if the Messiah was God or the Son of

God, as they claim, then how could his enemy seize him, beat

him, spit on him, and crucify him if he was unable to prevent

him? That he is powerless if and if

he was able to prevent it and did not, and he is not fitting

to be God. That is a critique.

But I think the paradigm of Christian and biblical power is

different. The paradigm of Christian power

is different. It's not all about domineering

and having your way all the time.

It is about sacrifice. It is about servant leadership.

It is about humility. It's about servanthood, and I

understand if your paradigm of power is different, then Jesus

might look weak to you, and Christians following Jesus might

look weak to you. But if you subscribe to Jesus,

this is how we show our power through servant leadership.

Amen. And so it says God is not.

Jesus is not unable to sympathize with our weakness,

but tempted in every way. In every way.

And I was curious about like what the actual translation of

this word sympathize. It was from the Greek word

sympathy. O.

And I was just, I was really curious about it.

So when I looked it up, it's, I was like, is it sympathy?

Because sympathy is like feeling bad for somebody, right?

And, and, and research said it's not just sympathy.

It's not just sympathy. That's not enough.

I said, OK, it's an empathy. Empathy is entering emotionally

into the state of somebody else, right?

It's not just empathy. This word in Greek includes

sympathy, includes empathy, but it also means actually having

suffered, like physically suffered, either present or past

with the person. It's more than just emotionally

entering it. It's more than just feeling bad.

This word is tough, but I have suffered with you.

And so back to the story I said. I've ministered to brothers that

are incarcerated. I haven't.

I can't fully enter into that suffering.

I don't have a context for that. My friend can tell who was

incarcerated for 19 years as a kid.

He goes into the same prisons. He actually goes the day before

me and speaks to the same kids, same young men.

He can sympathize in that way. He can sympathize.

Oh, he can say, I know what it's like, exactly what it's like.

And there's ways in you in which you and your story and your

context can minister and sympathize to somebody to say, I

know exactly what it's like to be from your context, to suffer

in that way. You know, if you were, if you

were injured, whether it be through war or street violence,

or just just say you were injured in the abdomen and or

just at the wrong place in the wrong time, you would comfort,

you would accept comfort, you would accept support, you would

accept sympathy. But it's another thing if

somebody comforts you and then lifts up their shirt, since I

have the same scars. Amen.

And so this is the Jesus we follow.

This is the blueprint that that was tempted with us and

sympathizes with us and has suffered with us.

And so I want to share a quick piece that I did this.

This is a, a poem or a spoken word piece that is called

forsaken. It was done in the context of

Good Friday from Jesus perspective, what I imagine

Jesus might be saying, what Jesus might be saying about the

feelings and the emotions of abandonment and suffering.

And so the first part of it is my me speaking from the

perspective of Jesus. And then the next part of it is

Jesus making what Caleb might say about it.

And so it says God's still loved the world, but it hated me.

A sacrifice for sin is how this came to be.

And right now the suffering is overtaking me.

So my God, why has thou forstaken me?

I mean it hurts me to my core, I mean this pain is deep, but

still my love is pure. Go ahead, taste and see my body

broken. Half this bread, take and eat my

blood spilled. Hold this cup, take a drink.

So my disciples in the garden, please pray with me.

I checked back with them later and well may asleep.

And before a decision was made to stay or leave, Judas came

with a kiss. He was betraying me, the Son of

God, wholly on the throne, reduced to a beaten man, feeling

lonely and alone, suffocating on the cross, trying to take a

breath only to exhale and continue dying a painful death

that costing evils too much. I had to pay the debt, and that

price is pretty great, but greater is thy faithfulness.

Still. The closest friends I thought I

had came and when I tried to warn about the human hearts

deranged intent, I took the people's hands and fists and I

handled it. I felt the plant, the whips man,

it was scandalous because with physical pain there's

manuscripts to managing, but there ain't no manages for

abandonment. So God still loved the world,

but it hated me. A sacrifice with thinness.

How it just came to be. And right now the suffering's

overtaking me. So my God, why has thou fast

thanked me? I said God still loved the

world, but it hated me. A sacrifice with sin is how this

came to be. And if I'm really thinking about

how all this weighs on me, it reminds me of what my servant

Caleb prayed to me. He said, dear Lord to the holy

God above me. Sometimes I'm afraid to share

because I think that people will judge me.

And though I've got a bunch of friends and family that love me

as often, I can't deny that I'll be feeling like it's just me

when that loneliness seems unbearable and my own spin seems

unshareable. And the last time I felt OK was

1000 prayers ago. And the only thing I want to

know from God is where he go get me off this ride.

I'm screaming. I don't like this merry grow,

this merry go this troubles tangible inside my heart.

I'm feeling damn bit cold. I believe in the light, but this

darkness is just terrible feeling like no master strike.

I'm just looking for a flare of close, something to remind me of

that resurrection. Something.

Because right now I feel like I'm second guessing.

And even though I know how the story has amended, it doesn't

stop me from putting everything into question.

Jesus, please, Jesus says. These are the prayers that I

often hear, but right now it's me, the Son of God, fighting

thoughts and fear. See, I was sent to love as the

sinners judge, but I was also going through it in that dark

and straight sweat and blood. Without me, death would come and

be never done. I had to disconnect it at the

root to get the plug. And when I say I was tempted,

listen up. It means I've dealt with all

those private thoughts you're thinking of.

So join me as I pose the question.

When it seems like the omnipresent God is God missing,

go to God with it because he said He'll be God with us and a

relationship can't last if it's only long distance.

So listen, let me make it real for you.

If you feel stuck up in that space and feel forsaken, you can

tell the truth. I'll hover that tree in your

place so I can help you through. And if you're feeling far away

from God, just know I felt it too.

So God still loved the world, but it hated me.

A sacrifice was thin is how this came to be.

And right now the sufferings overtaking me.

So by God, why has thou forsaken me?

See Jesus know what it's like to be tempted.

He knows what it's like in that garden.

When he said let this cup pass, he was basically saying God God.

He was saying Father God before he had to go die, he said,

Father God, please let this cup pass and since your will.

But if it's not, I'm still going to be obedient in in in an

interesting way. Jesus knows what it's like to

want a shortcut, to desire a shortcut.

Jesus know what it's like to pray for that shortcut and your

prayer not be answered and still be obedient.

Amen. In Luke 18, so it says approach

boldly. What do we mean approach boldly?

In Luke 18 two men went up to the temple and prayed.

This is a parable. In Luke 18 two men went up to

the temple and prayed. 1A Pharisee and the other a tax

collector. The Pharisee stood by himself

and prayed. God, I thank you that I'm not

like other people, robbers, evil doers, adulterers, or even like

this tax collector. I hope the tax collector was out

of here shot because that's pretty shady.

Even at this tax collector, I fast twice a week and give a

tenth of all I get. But the tax collector stood at a

distance. He would not even look up to the

heaven, but he beat his breast. Is that God have mercy on me, a

thinner mercy on me, a thinner. I tell you that this man rather

than the other went home justified before God.

For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and

those who humbled himself will be exalted.

We ask for mercy and grace. Mercy to be OK with our lack and

not in a self depreciating way, not in a self penny kind of way,

but in a way that invites intimacy.

There is something beautiful that happens to a relationship

when you acknowledge your brokenness, when you acknowledge

your spinfulness. This is in part why we fast, we

put ourselves in a state of lack to remember our brokenness, to

remember the sorrow for sin. And a little cheat code is even

when we're feeling at our best, we're always at a lack compared

to the holy God. And so the more we can get in

touch with that and be comfortable with that, the more

boldly we can approach. Correction is part of the

process. I think we're in a day and age

where because of the Internet, everything lives forever.

We're all scared to be corrected.

This is part of the process. This is part of discipleship.

If you haven't got it corrected, then you're not close enough in

relationship. And as you you, you show your

sinfulness, you show it to God and ask for mercy.

It spills out into other relationships.

You get more confident showing your brokenness to other people.

It creates deeper intimacy in your community.

This is mercy, acknowledging that we need forgiveness, we

need restoration. We need somebody to look us in

the eyes and say, I know you're wrong and I'm still with you,

but we have to be able to admit that we're wrong.

On the way here, On the way here, my wife and I almost got

ran on. My wife and I almost got ran off

the road by a driver that probably just wasn't looking

where they were going. But they literally, quite

literally almost ran us off the highway.

And we pulled up next to them. And I was, I was confident to

like give them a look of compassion, but still look at

them. Now that person, she was

probably nervous, OK, did not look in our direction at all.

And then two, and you know, thank God, we're OK, but it was

harder to give compassion because there was no high

content. There was no like gesture of

apology, right? So mercy becomes harder to give

when nobody's asking you to be merciful.

And I know God has infinite mercy, but the posture he wants

from us is brokenness is honesty is saying I understand my

sinfulness, Lord, I need you with me and then grace.

We say mercy and grace. Everybody say mercy and grace.

We ask for grace, the natural or and or supernatural for what you

need to do and who you need to be to be a child of God.

Man, I think it's never goes under stated or never could be

overstated that we should be praying that we become mature

believers. That prayer alone scolds us in

different ways, praying that we become more and more mature and

close to Christ, praying to overcome temptation.

Danisha theologian Soren Kierkegaard said temptation is a

cheat and a liar. It is careful not to tell the

truth, for its power lies precisely in the lie.

If you want to get the truth from it regarding how great it

really is or not, then you have to be stronger than it.

Make sure that you prevail in temptation.

Then you will know the truth or you will get the truth from it.

That is why there is only One who truly and precisely knows

the size of every temptation. And he was completely able to

put himself in the situation of everyone who was being tempted,

He who was tempted and all thinks in the same way as we

tempted, but who prevailed in every temptation.

We're going to get ready to respond.

So I invite the worship team to come on up as we get ready to

respond to praying to God. God, give me the grace.

Give me the grace to resist temptation.

Give me the grace to overcome temptation trying to be more

mature in Christ. I think God loves when we pray

to God, scold me, mold me to be more mature.

God give us the grace to be generous in a world that's

filled with selfishness. God give us the grace to be self

controlled in a world that's always like I need my knees met

right now. God give us the grace to forgive

when somebody may have done something that was unforgivable.

God give us the grace to be peaceful when violence seems

like the even easy Easter. Help us.

God help us to strengthen our character to give us the grace

of who we need to be. One of the times, you know, one

of my first actual what I remember, like actually

repenting, I come into the altar and repenting.

One of the pastors, Pastor Val asked me, you know, she said,

repent for your sins. And then she said, will you

pray? Pray that God gives you a vision

of freedom to actually just see yourself, not in an idealistic

way, but in a way that says God, I know I'm not there, but this

is who I'm praying to be. When we lack something, we don't

even always have to know the solution right off.

We could come to God and just acknowledge that lack and

acknowledge that brokenness. Sometimes we think we have to

get it all figured out and categorize before we bring it to

God. But God gives mercy and grace

just for those who have a posture that's willing to

receive it. And so as we as I close and we

do this next song, I invite you to pray for his mercy and grace.

Where do you need mercy? Where do you need to overcome

shame? Where do you need to overcome an

insecurity or a way that you know you are his sinfulness that

you're maybe holding on to bitterness?

Where do you feel out of alignment with God?

And maybe you've already made it right, but you just need to feel

God's mercy. You need God's presence to say

I'm still with you. I invite us to pray for that

mercy. And it might not be a one and

done thing. There's some areas in our life

that we continually, continually feel inadequate about.

Can we pray for that mercy, Church and then grace God, give

us the vision of who you are making us become and pray for

that grace. Pray for that character

adjustment. Pray that God molds us and

shapes us and walks with us and strengthens us so that we can

approach the throne boldly. You know, part of the boldness

about approaching the throne was because back in the days when

they sacrificed animals, there was some kind of touch and go

about like if God would accept the sacrifice, it wasn't always

a guarantee based on how the nation was going.

And so with Jesus, we know that the perfect sacrifice has

already been made. The relationship has been made

right. There is an Ave. there as though

we don't have to be kind of standing in in fear and

anticipation, wondering if God's fire is going to consume our

sacrifice, the sacrifice that's been made.

And so we can approach boldly, knowing that if our posture is

out of humility in a contrite harp and a humble harp, that the

sacrifice will be expected and the relationship will be made

right.