The Insurgence Begins!

Join us for this enlightening exploration into Colossians chapter 5 (not 15!) led by our Pastor, where we contemplate the powerful meaning and symbolism of the cross. As we delve deeply into the significance of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, we come to understand the profound concept of debt cancellation, and how it parallels our need for forgiveness and reconciliation with one another and with God.

In a moving narrative, we relate to the Easter celebration and its deeper significance of sanctification and redemption. This episode challenges us to meet at the foot of the cross, the great equalizer, and accept Jesus's divine plan to conquer sin and death. Through this journey we understand that we are all equal before the cross, and therefore, it serves as an invitation for us to reconcile with one another.

Our Pastor encourages us to release our burdens, forgive, and cancel the debts we hold against others. This call for forgiveness is a key part of the Easter message—given that Jesus forgave us unconditionally and canceled our heavenly debts, shouldn't we do the same for those around us? Using the example of fasting during Lent, we are urged to surrender our grudges and resentment along with our physical sacrifices.

Additionally, we reflect on the essence of God's covenant with us, established through Jesus at the cross, which calls for one simple yet profound command: to love one another. With a captivating interpretation of Paul’s message in Colossians, we comprehend the importance of Jesus's sacrifice and His infinite love for each one of us.

Ultimately, this Easter celebration is a call for inner peace, for forgiveness, and for a loving commitment to one another, just as Jesus has shown us through His death and resurrection. It’s a vibrant reminder that at the core of Christianity is love, and to truly embody the spirit of Easter, we must forgive and cancel the debts of those around us, paving the way for a blissful resurrection of our own.

Through prayer, music, scripture reading, and a powerful Easter message, this episode captures the essence of Jesus's transformative love and forgiveness—a theme that resonates throughout the Christian faith and encourages us to reflect, forgive, and love unconditionally.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Music.

(00:08):
To turn in your Bibles with me as we do some scripture reading.
I'm going to turn to Colossians chapter 15, starting in verse 1.
In your Pew Bible, you'll find that on page 1168, Colossians 15.
And as you find that, let me just remind you that we've been,

(00:32):
since the first of the year, talking about being an insurgency,
that we are a revolutionary force that's taking over our community and our world,
and we're doing random acts of grace, mercy,
and kindness as our chief.

(00:53):
Methodology.
It's been quite a series, and I think a lot of people have been blessed by it.
And this is, for those of you who followed it very faithfully,
this would be a bonus, sort of an appendix message to that.
Colossians 15, starting in verse 1, says, He is the image of the invisible God,

(01:15):
the firstborn of all creation.
For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.
All things were created through him and for him.
And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

(01:40):
And he is the head of the body, the church.
He is the beginning, firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
For in him all the fullness of God
was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things.

(02:02):
Whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds,
he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death,
in order to present you holy and blameless above reproach before him.

(02:25):
If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from
the hope of the gospel that you heard,
which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I,
Paul, became a minister.
The word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

(02:48):
I have to admit that in all the years that I have preached in Easter Sunday
Sunday mornings and never use that scripture.
What do we usually read? The one I asked Emily to read to you.
And yet, to really fully appreciate what you are experiencing each year as you

(03:10):
continue your sanctification through this Easter celebration.
You are celebrating that the man, the Son of God, who was all of that,
that we just read, submitted himself to a cross for you.
See, the thing we've been talking about a lot lately around here in the office

(03:34):
and in our leadership meetings and things like that is how we need to meet at the foot of the cross.
We need to meet at the foot of the cross because it is the great equalizer.
The cross is the centerpiece today to remind us that even Jesus' mother had
to submit before the cross of Jesus.

(03:54):
We talked this week about Peter's denial and considered the possibility that
the biggest reason that Peter denied Jesus was because he wasn't on board with Jesus' plan.
Plan and that we have to recognize that we meet at the foot of the cross to
agree that we are on board with Jesus's plan because it all came together and

(04:21):
made sense the day of his resurrection.
Then we could all understand what we could not understand before,
that Jesus has the power over sin and death that we've never had and never will have.
And therefore, submitting at the foot of his cross makes us all the same because

(04:42):
there is no one I know on this planet who is any better before Jesus's cross
than I am or any worse before Jesus's cross than I am.
We're all equal at the the foot of the cross.
And so his reconciliation is a reminder to us to be reconciled with one another.

(05:04):
We carry grudges against each other. We hold open debts of offenses against
us and our hurt feelings and our wounds and things.
And we hold all of that against other people, even while the Jesus we celebrate
together, even while the man on the cross whose feet we gather together by has forgiven us.

(05:28):
How can we rightly hold anything against another person when Jesus has forgiven
us for everything that the Father in heaven holds against us?
He has unconditionally forgiven you.
He's canceled any debt that you owe in heaven. And so today,

(05:50):
I want you, after fasting for these 40 days and preparing yourselves spiritually
for this occasion, to release not only your fast,
but release the debts you're holding against others.
Let this be a day when you cancel the debt that you are holding against another. other?

(06:14):
Do you realize if you're mad at somebody, holding a grudge against them,
waiting for them to do something that you think they owe you,
that you may be waiting for the rest of your life?
And if you can get them cornered long enough to ask them to give you what they
owe you, they might look at you in all innocence and say, I didn't know you

(06:38):
were holding that against me.
I didn't know that that was a problem.
And then you feel kind of silly, don't you? Or you get even more angry.
What's the cure? There's only one cure.
Cancel the debt. If you're holding
the books open because someone owes you something, cancel the debt.

(07:00):
And if they never know that you canceled this debt that you held against them,
so what? But I've talked to you a lot about fasting over the last several weeks
because we've been praying together for fast.
We've been praying that our congregation's members would take more seriously
than they ever have before this idea of fasting.

(07:23):
Because throughout the Bible, from the very beginning to the very end, people fast.
And you might think that that means that they give up certain things.
Boys and girls, you know why we get candy on Easter Sunday morning?
Because a lot of people gave it up on Ash Wednesday.
That's the truth. Now, people will tell you, you know, the Easter Bunny brought

(07:46):
that. Well, you know, here's the good news.
The reason that you've got candy waiting for you at home is because many,
many people gave it up for Lent, and they're celebrating the resurrection of
Jesus by breaking their fast.
You know, that meal you eat in the morning after you've slept for several hours

(08:07):
without eating is called breakfast because it's break fast.
You broke your fast in the morning because you've been fasting since the day
before, whether you planned on it or not.
Fasting is part of our culture. It's part of who we are as Christians and people

(08:27):
of the biblical tradition.
And we took it especially high in our esteem this last 40 days because we wanted
to ask God to do a work here in the Shiloh Church family.
We wanted to invite God to be more present and more visible than ever before.
And we knew that the only way we could tell God how really serious serious we

(08:52):
were about that was through fasting.
And so we decided on Ash Wednesday that we would fast in whatever way seemed
most efficient for our own spiritual growth.
And the promise that I asked all of you to keep was that you wouldn't tell anybody
what you were doing, that you wouldn't publicize your fasting.

(09:17):
And so you kept quiet and you didn't tell anybody what you were up to.
And some of you gave up food and candy and stuff like that,
but others gave up certain other indulgences that had maybe perhaps distracted
them from their prayer and their Bible reading or their spiritual life.

(09:37):
Perhaps they took up a fast of reading the Bible faithfully in a way they hadn't before.
And the ones who really got serious about fasting, I want to hear from you.
I would like for you to write me an email or take a time today maybe and just
take your paper and pencil and write me a note.

(09:57):
You can email me at pastor at ShilohJasper.org. It's pretty easy to remember. It's in your bulletin.
It's on your app for the Shiloh Church app. It's on the church's webpage, ShilohJasper.org.
Send me an email or write me a note and put it in the mail or drop Pop it in my box in the office.
I want to know what your fast was like.

(10:21):
And I'm not going to tell anybody else. I just want you all to reach out and
share with me what you did and what that was like for you.
And then together, let's watch to see what the Lord does, because we put a little
bit of our faith in his hands, and he always returns exponentially.

(10:43):
He always does. us. So now that we say that and we talk about that,
what do we do with this message from the Apostle Paul?
Well, Paul just wants you to understand who it is that you're in covenant with.
It's really not that complicated. You see, a fast is a way of certifying or

(11:03):
validating your commitment to a covenant.
And the covenant that I would hope you have given yourselves to is the the covenant
with Jesus that he established at the cross, that through his body and blood,
you would be redeemed before the eyes of God.
And the only thing Jesus asks of you in exchange, the only thing he asks you

(11:28):
to do is love one another.
He says, this is my new commandment. Derek asked the children what Thursday
was called, and one of them said Maundy Thursday.
But you know what? Even a lot of the grownups don't know what Maundy means.
Why do we call it that? Well, the word is mandate.
It's the Latin version of the word mandate. We call it Maundy Thursday because

(11:52):
it's the day Jesus gave us a new commandment.
He said, I'm going to give you a new covenant, which we celebrate in what we call the Last Supper.
And then after accepting the new covenant, which he exchanges right there in
front of our eyes from the old covenant under Moses and the Passover to the
new covenant in Jesus's blood and body.

(12:13):
And then after giving us this new covenant, he says, now here is your new command.
Instead of the 613 rules and regulations they have to follow according to the
Jewish tradition, he gives you one command, love one another.
He says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul,

(12:33):
and love each other, which essentially is love.
And so we're back to what I started with. Are you canceling debts today?
As a response to his incalculable love, this amazing person that we just read
about in Scripture, this one of a kind, no one else.
If he lets go of the wheel, the whole universe goes crazy. That's what this says.

(13:00):
We're talking about the one who holds everything together, and he has redeemed
you whether you accept the gift or not.
Accepting the gift is opening yourself to everything he has in store for you,
but he did it before you said yes.
And in the same way, he challenges you to do simply this one thing in return, love one another.

(13:28):
And all I can say is, is if you're holding a grudge against anybody today, let it go.
Cancel the debt. Let this be the day of peace.
God made peace with you through Jesus on the cross, and he invites you to make
peace with each other for the sake of the cross.

(13:49):
Let us pray. Almighty God, I thank you and I praise you this day for your word.
I pray that for those who are still in pain because of uncanceled debt,
help them to let it go and truly be reborn,
resurrected from death like you. Amen.

(14:11):
Music.