Fulfilled: The Chosen King: In Exile with Pastor Clayton Tyner

Welcome to the MetaCurch Podcast.

My name's Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at MetaCurch.

And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you.

I hope that you enjoy today's message.

I want to welcome you in.

If you're new with us, my name's Clayton.

I'm the lead pastor here at MetaCurch.

I'm so glad you joined us wherever you are joining us from.

Uh, MetaCurch is a multi-site movement.

And so if you're here at one of our physical locations here in Helotus or at Petrenko, I'm so glad you're here.

If you're joining us online, I'm so glad that you are tuning in.

I think God has something for every person that is here.

We are in an exciting season at MetaCurch.

I'll tell you about uh a couple things going on.

Uh number one, you guys hear me talk a lot about the movement academy.

I want everyone at Metachurch to go through the academy so that you can live life on purpose and with purpose.

Um, after this semester, we'll have graduated.

I think we're getting close to 200 people.

Right now, like today, uh, there are over 50 people in the academy who are out at retreat.

They are away, they are letting God speak to their stories in powerful ways.

We should be praying for them and for what is happening in their lives on retreat.

Also, we are one month away from baptism on October 26th.

Who's excited about baptism?

If you are a believer and you haven't gone public with your faith, that is your opportunity.

Um, Jesus commands us to get baptized, and that is planting a spiritual flag.

We are in a spiritual battle.

If you're new to metachurch, we don't come here to play religion or check a box.

Uh, we believe that the movement of Jesus is the hope of the world and that we are called to take ground.

Uh that's why we're expanding.

We're on the west side, we're out in Helotus.

I've been saying this, it's the first time I've been saying it.

I think it matters, though.

Um, if you are primarily attending Helotus, get baptized in Helotus.

Same for Petrenko, because it is planting spiritual flags in the battle, and we are taking ground, and that really does matter.

Now, uh, we are going through Luke's gospel in this big endeavor called Fulfilled.

Uh, we are in our first subseries of the Gospel of Luke.

We've called that the Chosen King, and we're quickly coming to the end of that first sub-series.

If you're joining us uh for the first time, we are in two of three weeks where we are looking at Luke's genealogy.

That's the family tree of the life of Christ.

Most people just breeze through the genealogy when they're reading scripture, don't really take time.

There's a reason for that.

A lot of the names we can't really trace, they're kind of lost to history, but man, God is speaking to us powerfully.

And today, this is gonna excite like 15% of you, which I know is a terrible percentage for me to start my sermon off.

Like 85% of you are gonna check out for the next 12 minutes, but I'm gonna get you back, I bet.

Um, we are going to put on our ancient historian hats, you know, and all the eyes roll, you know.

Um, I love this.

I think it matters.

Uh, as Christians in the church age, which starts in the New Testament, we typically know the New Testament a lot better than the Old Testament.

The Old Testament matters, and it is the setup to the prime story of Jesus entering the world and redeeming the world.

And uh so we're gonna go through that quickly so that we can have an intelligent conversation about what's happening in the genealogy today.

And then we'll set it up and we'll apply it to our actual life, and then all the people who hate history and slept through history class in school, you can like tune back in at that point.

But uh, before we get to that, I have told you we will go through every verse of Luke.

And because I have said that on the record, I now have to try to read all of these names I can't freaking pronounce.

And so uh the way you do it is you just move with confidence, all right?

So I'm gonna go quick, and then you can grade me on like an A through F and grade me on a curve while you read in your head and try to pronounce these with me, alright?

So we're in Luke chapter 3, verse 23.

Luke 3:23

It says, as he began his ministry, Jesus was about 30 years old and was thought to be the son of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Mathat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jani, the son of Joseph, the son of Matathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Nagaiah, the son of Math, the son of Matathias, the son of Simae, the son of Joseph, the son of Jodah, the son of Joannon, the son of Risa, the son of Zurebabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Kosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Air, the son of Joshua, the son of Eliasar, the son of Joram, the son of Mathat, the son of Levi, the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonah, the son of Eliakim, the son of Meliah, the son of Minnah, the son of Matatha, the son of Nathan.

We're gonna stop right there, the son of David.

Y'all didn't know I could speak in tongues like that, did you?

That was wild.

That was wild.

Uh man, I've never practiced anything so hard in my life, so worth it.

Uh, we are looking at the first half of the genealogy.

We're landing at a big name, King David.

This is like one of the archetypes of the Old Testament.

King David is one of the most important historical figures.

Other than David, Jesus, and Joseph, if you know even three of those names, you should probably be preaching today's sermon, okay?

These are names that are lost to history.

They don't show up anywhere else in the Bible.

They don't really show up in extra-biblical history.

They are like a symphony of lost names, lost narrative arcs, lost lives, lost experience that culminate in the crescendo of Jesus coming to earth.

And it's almost depressing to think about a list of 77 names, and we maybe know seven or eight of them.

All of the rest are just lost.

But it's also just the way the world works.

And so, unless you're like a genealogy nerd and you spend a lot of time on familytree.com or something like that, like I'm guessing you know the name of your parents, and you probably know the first names of your grandparents, though some of the teenagers in here are like Nana and Papa.

Like, is that their first?

I actually don't know the first.

Maybe you know the names, first names of your great-grandparents?

Maybe?

Great-great-grandparents?

Unlikely.

So, like the people four generations ago that are responsible for you being here, and we don't care enough to know their first names.

Like they were alive in the last century, and we don't know their names, and there are direct descendants lost to history.

It's actually quite humbling because it means your kids will know your names, and your grandkids will probably know your names, and your great grandkids might not, and your great-great-grandkids definitely will not.

Just get lost to history, and yet we can look back and go, Well, I couldn't name 77 generations to get to me like Luke does here, but I'm thankful for them because I'm here.

And we can look at all of these names leading to Jesus, and we know a lot of them.

We know Adam and Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David.

But the rest of them, they're just lost.

They don't show up anywhere else.

We don't know what obstacles they faced, we don't know what triumphs they had, what failures they had.

They are just the symphony of names leading to the crescendo of Jesus.

And so what I want to do is I want to look at some of these names that we do know, and I want to teach you a little bit about Israel's Old Testament history.

Uh, I want us to go to verse 31.

If you have a physical copy of the word in front of you, it is actually gonna be helpful today.

If you don't have a physical copy of Luke, go to the connect uh area afterwards at any of our venues.

We will give you a copy of Luke, and then please bring it back so that you can learn with us.

Um, but if you look at verse 31, it ends with David, and right before David, of course, is his son Nathan.

Now, Luke is telling the legal genealogy, he is not telling the royal genealogy.

So the royal genealogy goes from David to King Solomon.

And the reason I point these two guys out is because prior to these names, all the verses after this that go back in history, they lived in Israel.

Uh Abraham is called, eventually, God makes a nation out of out of Abraham.

They get stuck in Egypt for 400 years, they grow into this massive nation.

After 40 years, they are brought into the land, but they exist in the land for a very long time, not as a kingdom, but just as kind of a scattered nation, 12 tribes just kind of coexisting with one another, until King Saul.

King Saul is followed by King David and then his son, King Solomon.

And here's what you need to know, right?

This is the history lesson where I can literally I'm watching people check out right now.

So stay with me.

What happens is King Saul, King David, King Solomon, you have a united kingdom.

All twelve tribes living under the same king in the same kingdom.

But after King Solomon, King Saul, King David, King Solomon, after King Solomon, the nation of Israel is divided into a northern and a southern kingdom.

The northern kingdom is known as Israel, the southern kingdom is known as Judah.

Ten tribes in the north, two tribes in the south.

This is the time of the divided kingdom.

So if you're looking at a physical copy today, from verse 31, the name Matatha, all the way back to verse 27, the name Neri, N-E-R-I.

All of the names in between those exist in the divided kingdom of Israel in the north and Judah in the south.

10 tribes in the north, two tribes in the south.

Are you following me at least a little bit so far?

So we have no nation.

At David, we have a united kingdom, and then at Matath, all the way to Neri, we have a divided kingdom, Israel in the north, Judah in the south.

Now, in Israel in the north, there were only evil kings.

No good kings.

100% failure rate.

In Judah in the south, there were almost all evil kings, with a few exceptions, like King Hezekiah and King Josiah.

And if you know anything about the Old Testament Kingdom of Israel, you've heard me say this so many times.

They lived in a very specific cycle, and it is the same cycle that you can look inside your own heart and find right now.

It is a cycle of submitting in obedience to God and living under blessing, being tempted by the world, their temptation was idolatry and false gods, going after those temptations, living in sin, coming under the natural consequence of sin, and then repenting and coming back under the blessing of God.

And they went through that over and over and over again.

Now, what they didn't know is eventually they were going to walk themselves out from under God's hand of mercy and protection.

And we can do that as well.

And you might be here today at one of our venues or online, and you're living there right now where you are enduring the consequence of going astray of God.

Those are natural consequences and they're loving consequences meant to bring you back to the safety of God's provision.

And this is very interesting because we don't really know how to think about this a lot of times.

One thing you need to know about God is God doesn't change.

And because God doesn't change, sometimes we think, well, I've sinned too much, and so God has moved on me.

God has not moved on you, you have moved on God.

God will bless you, He has given you provision, He's given you His word, He's laid it out for you, He loves you so much, He gave His life for you, He asks you to live in a certain way that is in accordance with how He's created His universe.

And when you live that way, even when life is hard, even when you're suffering not because of your sin, but because of the brokenness around you, you can live in peace, you can live in hope, you can be whole, you can have faith.

But when you decide to fall into temptation and go after the things of the world, you will move yourself out from under God's hand of grace and protection.

And you will experience the natural consequence of sin.

This is why, as parents, we have to do our best to emulate our Father in heaven.

We have to let our kids know how it works, and then however they move, the consequence comes.

Because God's not gonna move on them.

God is not gonna chase them down and clean up all of their messes.

God doesn't move.

And so we set standards and then we stand still, and if consequence comes, it's love to bring them back.

God does the same for us because He's our Heavenly Father.

And here's what they don't know: God is sending prophets like Isaiah, prophets like Jeremiah, because Babylon is at the door.

It is a rising empire, and the people have been in this cycle for so long.

And Jeremiah is telling the people if you do not repent, we learn what that means.

It means to rip open your heart, to rip open your mind, to allow God to change you fundamentally, to come back to the Lord and surrender and submit your life to him, that you are going to leave his protection, and Babylon is waiting.

And so here's what's interesting: we learn a lot about the Babylonian Empire from scripture, but we also learn a lot about the Babylonian Empire from extra biblical historical, uh, historical sources, like Babylon, who is a very proud empire, kept their own chronicles.

We have most of those.

So we have very exact dates for how these things happen.

In 609 BC, Babylon defeats Assyria, which was one of the other main empires.

Shortly after Babylon goes to the Battle of Carchimish, they defeat Egypt.

All my people who hate history are falling asleep, stay with me.

And eventually, Babylon becomes the dominant empire.

So Assyria had been bothering Israel, Egypt had been bothering Israel, they're out of the picture.

Now Babylon takes over Israel.

Then we move to 605.

In 605, once Babylon has established its dominance, the first deportees come out of Israel and are taken into Babylon.

And you might be able to place this if you know some Old Testament stories.

This is where they brought the best and brightest young men, including Daniel, who ends up in a lion's den, and Daniel's friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Okay?

So that's how they get to Babylon.

Now, in 597 BC, Babylon besieges Jerusalem in order to deport a huge percentage of the Israelites.

But they leave some there to manage the land.

In 586 BC, Israel tries to stage a rebellion.

And so Babylon has handled them pretty gently so far, but when they try to rebel, Babylon comes in, surrounds the city, takes all of the people to Babylon, tears down their walls, tears down their gates, and burns their temple to the ground.

There is no temple, there is no altar, there is no holy of holies, there is no center of culture or religion.

Everyone is deported, and now everyone is living in Babylon.

Now, this is a period known as the Babylonian exile, and it is a mile marker in the history of Israel that is so essential to them.

The tearing down of their temple.

This is everything.

This is massive, massive Old Testament history.

Now, today we are gonna focus on three names in our genealogy.

And so as we look in Luke chapter 3 in verse 27, here's our three names that are gonna tell our story today.

Luke 3 · chapter mention

It is the name Zerubbabel, the name Sheal T L, and the name Neri.

Now, for all you pregnant mamas uh in our venues right now, those names are open, okay?

And I already said today, I've got$100 cash for the first birth certificate I see with She'al T L on there, all right?

$100 cash.

Okay?

Zarubbabel, that's tough.

That's that's tough.

You don't name him Zarubbabel, okay?

But She L T L, here's how these guys break down.

Neri is born in Judah, is raised in Judah.

Neri knows home.

He lives there.

Now they're in rebellion against God, but they're going to the temple, they're making their sacrifices.

He is an Israelite and he lives in the province of Israel.

Neri gives birth to Shealtiel.

Shealtiel is either born in Judah and then is moved into exile young, where he has some fleeting memories of home, or possibly is born in exile.

Shealtiel is the father of Zerubbabel.

Zerubbabel is born deep into Babylonian exile.

Which means Shialtiel is like a first generation exile, and Zerubbabel is like a second generation exile.

And we even know this because America is a land of immigration, that there is a real difference between first generation and second generation.

And some of you were raised second generation American, and you had to hear your parents talk about how you don't know the culture and you have forgotten and you've become Americanized because you've been in this land because you were born in this land and you don't really know home.

That's Zerubbabel.

He doesn't really know home.

He is Babylonian by culture, he is Babylonian by experience, he's only been around the gods of Babylon, he's only been around the worship of Babylon, he's only been under the governmental structures of Babylon, and yet he is not Babylonian.

He is an Israelite, he's one of God's chosen people in the Old Testament.

And so he's living, knowing he has an identity crisis.

Neri, he remembered home.

Shealtiel, probably born in Judah, has glimpses of home.

But Zerubbabel is second generation exile, which means he is left with a latent, unplaceable longing for a home that he does not know and has never seen.

This is the reality of the exile generations.

Okay, so what does all of that history have to do with us?

For those of you who are now gonna tune back in because I'm past my history professor portion, here's why this matters.

What was true for the Israelites geographically is true for every single one of us spiritually.

Let me say it how the Lord gave it to me while I was preparing this.

We are in exile.

And one of the reasons we don't even know how to contend with it is because we are not aware of it, and so we have a latent and unplaceable longing for a home that most of us are unaware of and have no idea how to get back to.

And so we try in our culture to fill the deepest longing of our soul with the options that Babylon gives us.

We're second generation exiles.

We were born into this world.

This world is all we know.

The standards of success in this world are the only standards that we think are available to us.

The way to success, the way to enlightenment, the way to peace, the way to relational bliss.

It is only what is marketed to us and programmed in us by the world around us.

We are exiles in Babylon trying to use Babylonian methods to fill a hole that is within us that Babylon cannot fill.

And so the culture tells us if you just get the money, if you just get enough money, bro, you will finally all that.

I know you're anxious, and I know you're kind of sad and you got a lot of fears, and you know what will fix that?

Money.

Well, let me tell you about a scholar I listened to.

He said, more money, more problems.

That's what he said, right?

And you will learn that, honestly.

I remember being in my 20s, and I would literally get my paychecks, and I would think this, I would think this, and some of you are here right now.

I go, bro, someday I'm gonna get a comma in this paycheck.

I'm gonna move to four digits on this bad boy.

Then you have to put a comma in there.

Bro, if I could get a comma in my paycheck, all my problems would be solved.

And then you get that comma and you expand your lifestyle, and all of a sudden you're like, do I need like another number in front of that comma?

Because I feel poorer than when I didn't have a comma because I've adjusted my lifestyle.

And you look in your one-bedroom apartment and you're like, if I could have three bedrooms, what would I be?

The king of the world, you know?

And and and you get it, and it satisfies for like six seconds until it doesn't.

And I'll tell you what the enemies of God are doing in your life all of the time.

They are taking this core, unplaceable longing inside of you at the depth of your soul, and exploiting it to take you down paths to be a consumer of the culture, knowing that once you consume you will not be filled, you'll actually be emptier.

It is playing on your appetites, and your appetites are a sad diversion from your destiny, and what happens when you fill an appetite is an appetite expands.

So, young people, every piece of content that is programming you is telling you that if you can just have enough sex with enough people, you will finally be fulfilled, you will finally feel beautiful, you will finally be happy, and then you go down that path foolishly against the words of the Lord, and you find out that you've just been run through and you are emptier and on the edge of suicide.

And so the world is lying to you and exploiting the fact that you are a second-generation exile.

And you are not exiled from money, and you are not exiled from fame, and you're not exiled from success, you are exiled from your father who is in heaven.

In Genesis chapter 3, it says, So the Lord God sent him away from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken, and he drove the man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming whirling sword east of the Garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

We are in exile.

And you need to know this the story of reality that is playing out around you, the story of history is a story that starts in a garden, and in that garden, God's design and desire for your life was made evident, and God set his children in this garden and he gave His children, what was necessary for love.

See, the greatest ontological gift, inbuilt gift that God made you with is a gift of freedom of choice.

And the reason God gave you freedom of choice is because without freedom you cannot have love.

And without love, you cannot have relationship.

And God made you for relationship, so we had to have love, and love does require freedom.

And so you had freedom, even the freedom to walk away from your relationship with Him.

Some of you have little kids.

I have big kids, 13, 16, almost 21.

Here's what you'll start realizing when your little kids grow into big kids is the countdown starts to where they hit an age where they can choose to walk out of the protection and grace that you have provided for them in your relationship with them.

And you have to allow that as they hit those ages, because if not, they do not have freedom, and freedom requires love.

That doesn't mean you let your 13-year-old move into their own apartment.

What it means is at appropriate ages, you give appropriate freedom because love requires freedom.

And this is what God did for us.

And so living in a perfect environment when they choose, chose to disobey God and to try to be their own gods and to try to go their own way, they walked themselves out of the protection of God.

And what did they do?

Immediately, they experienced shame.

That longing at the depth of who you are, because you are a second generation exile.

Immediately, shame.

And when they experienced shame, they went and they got some leaves.

They sewed them together.

They covered up with leaves.

That'll fix it.

I'll just cover it.

I'll just cope.

I'll just suppress.

I'll just deny.

I'll just self-medicate.

I will make my way through the pain and disappointment of this world and the longing that I can't seem to fill, and I'll keep going down fruitless paths, and then I will just keep covering up my pain.

And I will just live in hell on earth, even though heaven has been made accessible through the death of Jesus Christ.

We are in exile.

And so where Zerubbabel and Shealtiel and Neri lived in this short exile generation, it has something to say, not just about us, but it has something to say about Jesus.

And so I'm gonna go back where we started today at both of our venues, which is Jeremiah 29, verse 11.

Jeremiah 29:11

We love this verse.

It says, For I know the plans I have for you.

This is the Lord's declaration.

Plans for your well-being, not for disaster, plans to give you a future and a hope.

We love this.

We love this.

When you graduated high school, you got a hundred congratulation cards, and 78 of those cards had that verse written on it.

Because your abwela believes in you, bro, and she knows that God has something for you.

He's got a plan for your future and hope for your future.

The question is, is that what that verse means?

It's good and it's meant with really, really good intentions.

But we must be people of context.

And you don't need a theology degree, and you don't need 10 giant books laid out in front of you.

Sometimes you just gotta read the rest of the chapter.

Sometimes you just have to read the rest of the paragraph.

I want to go back one verse, Jeremiah 29, 10, for this is what the Lord says.

When 70 years, not for you at your graduation, for Babylon are complete, I will attend to you and will confirm my promise concerning you to restore you to your home.

So if you got Jeremiah 29.11 when you graduated high school, I've got bad news.

Blessings are coming, but not till you're 88 years old.

Okay, you gotta wait 70.

I'm gonna give you a little hint, and I don't know how well, how close we can get to this with my camera, guys, but let me let me just show you something.

This in blue is Jeremiah 29, 11.

It's in the middle of a paragraph.

That's called a contextual hint.

Just at least start at the beginning of the section.

Go to verse 10, and you're gonna go, I don't think this is about our marriage that we just had.

This is about something, it's written to someone.

See, Jeremiah was a prophet before the exile and during the exile.

Before the exile, he was saying, turn back to God.

Babylon is at the gate.

God is bigger than Babylon, but if you walk out from under his protection, they will take over.

And the people did not listen.

And so now here they are.

And what does he say?

Babylon gets 70 years.

You know what that is?

That's God starting a clock on Babylon.

Let me read the rest of this passage for you, verse 12.

You will call to me and come and pray to me.

I will listen to you, you will seek me and find me.

When you search for me with all your heart, I'll be found by you.

This is the Lord's declaration.

I'll restore your fortunes, I'll restore your fortunes.

Please remember that prophecy, I'll restore your fortunes.

He says, I will gather you from all the nations and places where I banished you.

This is the Lord's declaration.

I will restore you to Israel, to the place from which I deported you.

This is direct prophecy from God to Israel about the exile they are about to endure.

Let me show you one more thing.

Four chapters earlier, Jeremiah, now we're in chapter 25.

At homework, read all of 25, because it's everything I just told you.

Turn back, turn back, turn back.

But if you don't, here's what's coming.

Verse 11.

This whole land will become a desolate ruin.

These nations will serve the king of Babylon for 70 years.

Not just Israel, all those nations in that area will serve the king of Babylon for how long?

70 years.

God's starting a clock.

When the 70 years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation.

This is the Lord's declaration, the land of the Chaldeans for their iniquity, and I will make it a ruin forever.

We have direct prophecy from God.

Babylon's gonna take over, the clock is starting, it will be 70 years that they will run and rule not just Israel, but the surrounding nations.

After that, the king of Babylon will be deposed by a foreign enemy, and you will be returned with the riches of the nation.

I want us to really, really pay attention to what's happening here in the history of Israel because it actually does matter.

I want to show you in the book of Ezra this moment, this history.

It's written about in 1st and 2nd Chronicles, it's written in Nehemiah, it's written in Haggai, it is written succinctly for us in the Old Testament book of Ezra, Ezra chapter 1, verse 1.

Ezra 1:1

Seventy years later, let me show you something.

In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah, the Lord roused the spirit of King Cyrus to issue a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom and to put it in writing.

I wonder what the king of Persia is going to declare over all of the captives that were in the Babylonian Empire.

Verse 2 This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: The Lord, the God of the heavens, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build him a house at Jerusalem and Judah.

Any of his people among you, may his God be with him, and may he go to Jerusalem and Judah and build the house of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem.

Let every survivor wherever he resides be assisted by the men of that region with silver, gold, goods, and livestock, the wealth of the nations, along with a free will offering to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem.

King Cyrus is a pagan, unbelieving king who is brought in, Persia defeats Babylon, and then it's not just a defeat.

It's not just a defeat.

He then sends God's people back to where they came with the wealth of the nations and assistance in rebuilding what has been destroyed.

The prophecy wasn't you will be allowed back into Judah.

The prophecy was you will be brought back to Judah.

There's more because this is a place, meta church, across our venues and online, this is a place where you can belong before you believe, and I understand that some of you are skeptical of the claims of scripture.

So I want to go to extra biblical historical resources.

The Chronicles of Babylon tell us something.

In 609 BC, Babylon defeats the nations of the area.

They defeat Assyria in the battle at Nineveh.

They defeat Egypt at the battle of Karkamish.

Assyria and Egypt had taken turns holding power over Israel.

These are the dominant kingdoms.

They take over all of them, just as Jeremiah prophesied.

Then we also know extra biblical historical sources that Persia rises up.

They strengthen themselves.

They come into Babylon.

You guess, in 539 BC.

Let me take you back to third grade, 609 minus 539 is on the dot 70 years.

God starts a clock on a prophecy, and it comes true to the year.

God makes promises beyond those promises.

Not only will Babylon be defeated, you'll be rolled out a red carpet back to where you came with the wealth of the nations to rebuild what was lost.

And all of it comes to pass.

And this is why you have to understand if you're still on the fence, you're still skeptical, this is why I approach the word of God.

And I understand a Jewish guy 2,000 years ago hanging on a cross and walking out of his own grave.

It's a lot for us to ask for you to put your faith in.

I understand that, but there are too many times because so far the word of God has not failed.

So I believe he walked out of a grave.

He said he's coming back, I believe it.

That's where my hope is.

And I need hope.

Because I'm in exile.

And I lived a lot of my life trying to fill the deepest longings of my soul with what Babylon has on offer, and it would not do.

Let me show you something.

In Ezra chapter 2, it says, These now are the people of the province who came from those captive exiles.

Ezra 2 · chapter mention

King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had deported to Babylon.

They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town.

Look at the first leader, verse 2.

They came with Zerubbabel.

They came with Zerubbabel, second generation exile.

Now we learn from Haggai, which is another Old Testament book, that the reason Zerubbabel is mentioned first is because he was the leader of the exiles.

As a matter of fact, King Cyrus made Zerubbabel the governor of Judah.

He was the leader.

We learn in Ezra that not only does he lead the people back, but once he's back, it is Zerubbabel who leads them to rebuild the altar so they can offer the lambs after 70 years as sacrifice for their sins.

After he rebuilds the altar, it is Zerubbabel who leads them to rebuild the temple of God, to refashion the Holy of Holies, so the Spirit of God can once again dwell in the center of Jerusalem.

Now we're gonna get next week to the second half of Luke's genealogy.

And in the second half of Luke's genealogy, we have some big hitters, okay?

We've got David, we've got Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, we've got Noah, we've got Adam.

Big hitters, names that you know.

And if you've spent any time in church, you have probably heard a sermon about Jesus as the second Adam.

Jesus as the new Noah.

Jesus as the fulfillment of Abraham, Jesus as the new King David.

But my guess, and I hope I'm wrong, my guess is you haven't heard many sermons about Jesus as the new Zerubbabel.

And I'm gonna be honest, I'm the one preaching this today.

It's probably because every time I have to say his name again, it gets more and more awkward.

It's a tough name.

But there is so much in Zerubbabel as a foreshadow for Christ.

You see, it could have been Neri, but he knew home.

It could have been his father, Sheal Tiel, who was first generation exile, but it wasn't.

It had to be Zerubbabel, because in order to lead the people in exile back home, he had to be someone in exile.

You need to know this because it matters.

Because I stand up here all the time and I tell you how much God loves you, and we stand up here and sing all the time about how much God loves you.

But Jesus as the new Zerubbabel is the evidence of his love for you.

Because we do not have a God who stood on the sidelines of heaven coaxing and coaching you in.

He came into our exile to lead us out of it.

Hebrew says, We do not have a great high priest who is unable to sympathize and empathize with our weaknesses.

Jesus wept.

Jesus was tempted and he was tried and he was broken, he was sad, he was hungry, he was human, and yet he was God.

The connection is so close.

I know we've been in Jeremiah and Genesis and Ezra.

We're actually in Luke.

The connection is so close, you would have to try to miss it.

We're in Luke 3, we're reading about Zerubabel and the genealogy.

In Luke chapter 4, which we will be in in November, I know, but in Luke 4, Jesus actually starts his ministry.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

He's doing the preparatory work, baptism.

We're about to go to his temptations in the wilderness.

In November, we're gonna get into him actually stepping in.

And if you know the story, he walks into a local synagogue.

This is how he starts his ministry.

I just I've been praying this morning this would hit you like it hit me.

He walks into a local synagogue.

He opens the scroll of Isaiah, by the way, one of the prophets during the Babylonian exile.

He opens the prophet of Isaiah.

And here is a paraphrase of Jesus' message.

This is Jesus opening scripture and anointing his own ministry.

Here's what he says: he says, The Spirit of the Lord God is on me.

Here's why he sent me.

This is a mission statement.

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted.

Who needs that today?

Listen, he has sent me to proclaim liberty to the exiles and freedom to the prisoners.

Now, when Jeremiah said, I know the plans I have for you, 70 years, clock has started, they were actually in exile geographically in Babylon.

The people that day are actually gonna reject Jesus' message because they're like, bro, what are you talking about?

We're not in exile anymore.

That was Neri and Shealtiel and Zerobabel.

We we live here, we're in Israel.

And Jesus is looking at them and going, You have no idea we are all in exile.

You're not exiled from Israel, you're not exiled from America, you're not exiled from fame or wealth or sex.

You are exiled from Eden.

And the story of reality is a story from paradise to paradise, from garden to garden.

You might know that Jesus grew up, he lived a perfect life, that made him eligible to be the perfect sacrifice to cover the sins of the world.

And when he went to the cross, there was a criminal on either side of him.

Now, one of the criminals projected, trash talked him.

That's what we do because we are insecure, because we're in exile, and we don't know how to fix it, and so we project to try to make ourselves feel better.

But the prisoner on the other side said, Ah, I don't think so, man.

I actually think this might be the Son of God.

And he cries out to Jesus and he says, Jesus, we're dying today.

We're not getting out of this.

So will you remember me?

And Jesus responds, Truly I tell you, today you will be with me.

I'm gonna tell you in Greek in paradiso, it doesn't mean paradise.

The Greek word paradiso means in the garden.

The very thing that we are exiled from because of our sin, Jesus came back to lead us to.

He laid down his life and walked out of a grave to show you that there is hope.

See, Zerubbabel came and he rebuilt an altar of stone so they could offer lambs as sacrifice that would cover their sin just temporarily.

Jesus came as the new Zarubbabel.

And when he walked onto the scene, the great prophet John said, Behold, the Lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world.

Jesus did not go to the altar of stone, he made an altar out of an old wooden cross and he covered the sins of the world forever.

Zerubbabel came back and he rebuilt the temple so that God's presence could dwell among his people.

But you know, in 70 AD, even that second temple was destroyed.

Jesus came and he rent the garment of the Holy of Holies that kept the people away from the Spirit of God.

The New Testament tells you if you are a believer in Christ, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus didn't rebuild a location, he built a movement of people who would spread the entire world and take the message to those who are in exile.

We now proclaim as ambassadors of Christ, come back, be reconciled, go home.

Here's the most amazing part is um you're in exile, and I try to tell you every week, and sometimes I forget, I chastise myself all week.

Every week, my job is to tell you if you're a believer, you have to live with a pilgrim's perspective.

A pilgrim's perspective is every day realizing you're in exile, bro.

You are not home.

And if you want to live in a way where you start seeing pieces of heaven, evidence of the garden, evidence of paradise right here in the midst of exile, you must get your eyes on Jesus.

The spiritual disciplines that we try to teach you guys here, um, they are a statement.

No one likes to talk about this.

Um, you need to be giving your money to the kingdom of God through the local church.

There's a lot of reasons for that, but let me tell you one, because it is a statement that you know this is not your home.

You're gonna invest, you're gonna buy a house, you're gonna put your kids in school, you're gonna drive a car, you're probably gonna have a 401k.

You should have a 401k or something plan for your future.

You should do those things.

We're here.

Jeremiah actually told the people, you're in Babylon for 70 years, build homes, plant a garden, get comfortable.

But don't forget this is not your home.

You should give your talents back to the Lord because when you give your talents back to the Lord, it is a statement.

I realize this isn't my home.

My first investment, my first sacrifice is going to where I'm going.

You should give your time to the Lord because it is a statement that my time is prioritized for my destination, not for my exile.

And when people start experiencing a reality that you have a peace that they do not have because you know where your home is, that you have faith they do not have, you have hope, you have relational bliss that they do not have.

They think the relational bliss will fix the depth of their soul, and it will not, only home will.

And when you know home, you can build a great relationship because together your relationship is pointed at your destination.

Everything falls into order when we know where home is.

And Jesus came as the new and greater as a rebel bell.

Not just to make a way home, but to lead us there.

And he sent his spirit, he called it the helper.

What's that helping us do?

It's helping us walk like Jesus walked, so we can start seeing paradise on the earth.

Everywhere Jesus went, people experienced home.

They didn't even know how to place it.

But Jesus spoke to the deepest longing of people's hearts because he came into exile to point us out of it.

And so I don't know where you're at.

Many of you are already believers.

You need to know this because we are in exile, we can keep our eyes off of Jesus, and even though we have a promise of home, we can live trying to find our hope in exile.

And that might be the saddest reality of all is that we have everything we need to live with the hope and peace available to us, and yet we live just like an exile, hopeless.

For some of you, you haven't crossed that line of faith.

Jesus didn't come offering you a religion, he came offering relationship to your heavenly father, which is a path home.

And what he asks is that you put your hope that's currently in you, and currently in Babylon, and currently in culture, instead, you put your hope fully on him.

You trust that Jesus is your only way home.

And Jesus said that he loved the world so much he'd give his life for it, and anyone who would simply believe in him will be giving everlasting life in paradise.

It's available to you today, and all it takes is faith.

As we close our service across our venues, if you would pray with me, just bow your head, close your eyes, create a little bit of space.

Christians, uh, sons and daughters of God, do you realize daily you are in exile?

If not, the enemies of God will extort the deepest longing of your soul and instead of having that filled by God, you will begin to look to the things of this world.

How are you using your time and your treasure and your talent to make a daily statement that I am investing in eternity?

I know where my home is.

For those who've never had a moment in time where you have put your faith in Jesus, what is holding you back?

My guess is you have probably lived long enough to go down enough paths promising fulfillment that have just left you emptier, and maybe that is because nothing in this world can satisfy you.

Perhaps the Spirit of God has a hold of your heart and is calling you to surrender today, to put your faith in him.

What I want to do is with everyone's eyes closed, if you're at one of our venues and you have never had a moment in time where you have put your faith in Jesus, convinced in your mind, convicted in your heart of who Jesus is and what he has done, and you're ready to do that today, I want to ask you right now to just simply raise your hand.

Across our venues by raising your hand, this is a symbolic gesture that says, Today I choose to put my faith in Jesus.

Amen.

For those who raise a hand, we can say with confidence that Jesus sees and accepts your faith, forgives all of your sins, all of them, and has given you home, everlasting life with your Heavenly Father.

I want to help you acknowledge this moment.

So if you raise your hand, I want to ask you to repeat this prayer with me.

I'm gonna ask all the believers across our venues to pray out loud as well.

Let's pray like this.

Jesus, today I choose to put my faith in you.

I believe you are God that you died for my sins and rose from the grave.

I thank you for loving me and forgiving my sins.

Thanks so much for listening to the message today.

If this was helpful to you and you want to help us get the word out, you can subscribe to this podcast, you can rate and review or share it with your friends.

If you want to get connected further with what MetaCurch is doing, you can go online to metachurch.tv.

There you can learn how to take next steps, you can learn where our different venues are at if you ever wanted to visit, and you can also give financially to help push this movement forward.

Man, I love you guys and I hope you have a great rest of your day.