#387 The Jesus Trip, He Pointed To Jesus

The Jesus Trip, He Pointed To Jesus
By: Zach Sloane

(See download links at the bottom of the page for the Sermon Notes, PowerPoint Slides & Group Discussion Questions)

Questions from Readings

Qst. 1
What’s the deal with Lot’s wife being turned into a pillar of salt?

What is God like? To answer that question, we need to look to Jesus.

Hebrews 1:1-3 “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high”…

John 14:8-9 (NKJV)
Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

Luke 9:62 “Jesus said to him, no one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Is Jesus saying I’m out of the kingdom if something from my past grabs my attention?

Fit = euthetos: well-placed, i.e. ready for use
Original Word: εὔθετος, ον

Definition: well-placed, ready for use

It is not saying you can’t be part of the kingdom but that are not well placed and ready for use in the kingdom.

in a very real sense, you are not useful in the purpose of God if you are constantly look back, because if like Lots wife, if you stay looking backwards at what you came from instead of moving aggressively into God’s blessing and future, you will not be able to serve because you will be too busy being a stationary pillar, a non-moving person who’s primary influence is to preserve, keep alive what you came out of rather than moving into the new.

Qst. 2.
Sodom and Gomorrah – Does God judge cities with destruction?

What do we see about Jesus and the destruction of cities? He weeps over them and tries to help them avoid it e.g. Jerusalem!

Luke 19:41-44 (ESV)
Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem
41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace…”

Sin, all and any type of sin, before and after the cross was dealt with at the cross.

John 12:31 (ESV)
Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.

Qst. 3.
“I never saw that before, the Trinity in (The Father) Abraham sending Eliezer (Holy Spirit) to get a bride (Church) for Isaac (Jesus).”

Why not? Sometimes its cause we are just not looking for him.

Other Good stuff
Genesis 38:7 “Er was a wicked man in the sight of the Lord and so the Lord killed him.” Wow!

Judah gets tricked by his daughter-in-law into believing she is a prostitute, sleeps with her, gets her pregnant. Then, when he finds out through the city gossip that his daughter in law was pregnant because she acted like a prostitute he says, burn her! Changes mind when he realizes it was him that she slept with…. Yet , “She’s more righteous than I.” What?

Whole story, the characters involved were used in the genealogy of Jesus. As Pastor Karl says, “God draws straight lines with crooked sticks.”

Sermon Pastor Karl preached on Dec. 30, looked at the disciples on the road to Emmaus. These guys had seen Jesus crucified and they were leaving, heading out of town, abandoning the whole thing, feeling down, distraught, and walking away from their place of destiny.

How did Jesus bring realignment to them?

Luke 24:27
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

Joseph’s life is full of inspiration, wisdom, life lessons etc. and I don’t want to diminish those in any way. but rather put these life lessons into proper perspective. What matters first and foremost about the story of Joseph, his life and times, trials and exaltation, is not that it shows us how we too can succeed in life and realize God’s destiny for our lives, but rather to point to and to help us to see Jesus.

When you see Jesus, that’s what brings alignment to your life and abiding in Him is what brings about your destiny. God has a plan, a purpose, a vision for you and your life, a preferred future like he did with Joseph, and it may look a lot like Joseph’s journey through hardship and adversity. Joseph’s story helps us to unpack all of these realities…

But … its starts with this simple, basic, yet incredibly profound revelation – Joseph and his life and not meant primarily, first and foremost, to teach us lessons about life, to make us a better person, or to lay down a template for us to follow into our own personal journey from prison to the palace.

Joseph is mentioned as hero of the faith in Hebrews 11:22. Why? What was so great in his life and for which of his achievements is he is remembered.
Was it because of he was loved so much by his father that he was given an amazing multi-colour dream coat?

Genesis 37:3-4
3 Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph—a beautiful robe. 4 But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them. They couldn’t say a kind word to him.

That is what we remember him for—-but that’s not what the Bible recognizes him for. In Hebrews, no mention of a coat.

What about this?

Joseph has dreams about his own exaltation and his family’s future subservience to him. Genesis 37:6-8.

Even in his slavery, God was with Him and blessed him, everything he did prospered (Genesis 39:3, 23). Potiphar is blessed because of Joseph, all he does prospers, puts him in charge of all he has.

Joseph, in his integrity, his desire to not wrong Potiphar, Potiphar’s wife, his desire to be pure and not commit sexual sin, he runs and gets falsely accused and put in jail – and this is not why he is listed as a hero of the faith.

Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dreams, impresses him with his wisdom, get promoted to highest in land next to Pharaoh himself. Is this why?

Egypt ends up not only surviving but prospering through the coming famine. All of this comes to pass as Joseph interpreted that it would. Is this why?

Joseph summarized his life, his persecutions, trials, and eventual exaltation and successes as follows: “how you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.” (Gen. 50:20). Is this why?

The Big Reveal:

Hebrews 11:22 “It was by faith that Joseph, when he was about to die, said confidently that the people of Israel would leave Egypt. He even commanded them to take his bones with them when they left.”

In his confident declaration that God would take them out of Egypt, he was speaking ahead, pointing to and declaring a future Exodus, and in pointing to a Exodus, a future deliverance by a deliverer to come who would lead the people of God into the fullness of their destiny and out of slavery. Joseph’s life was heroic because it pointed ahead to Jesus and our Exodus in Him.

What does reading about someone who points ahead do for us who are looking back on our own Exodus Event?

1. The fact that his life is so full of life lessons, good principles, and full of God’s activity yet that it is his role in pointing to Jesus that matters the most shows us that life is really found in Jesus and not in life principles. Jesus and His inner life by His Spirit is our source, not principles.

Colossians 2: 8-10
8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

Colossians 2:20
Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations.

This shows us looking back the supremacy of Christ over all other ways of life, and His Spirit over successfully applying principles for success. That’s the message of Joseph’s life.

2. What he pointed ahead to, we look back at! Our salvation and deliverance is not random. It is not found in a future random and subjective event that we all are waiting on God to perform. Joseph confidently said “you will leave,” he spoke to a coming event – the Exodus, it was an event. We look back at an event – the cross and our co-resurrection with Him.

3. Joseph’s other remark that he is known as a hero for was to make sure that they brought his bones out of Egypt too – in other words, he wanted to participate and experience it. He wasn’t content to know it was going down, his faith in the coming Exodus and the Deliverer was such that he said, “I’m in too. If God takes Israel out, I’m included tin hat too, so don’t you dare forget my bones!”

Lessons on Destiny from Joseph?

The revelation of Jesus will bring alignment to you and your destiny more so than any life principle.

Like Joseph, let your vision of Jesus and your place in His story be what defines you!

The Jesus Trip, He pointed to Jesus, Sermon Notes to Print, PDF

The Jesus Trip, He Pointed to Jesus!, PowerPoint Slides, PDF

The Jesus Trip, He Pointed To Jesus, Week# 2 – Group Discussion Questions, PDF