25: The Life of Jesus: Gospel Values

[00:07] Stephanie: Welcome to Deeper Walk’s On the Trail Podcast. You are on the trail with father-daughter duo, Marcus and Stephanie Warner. I’m Stephanie, and I’ll be talking with my father, Dr. Marcus Warner, as we discuss topics that help you stay on the trail to a deeper walk with God.

Episode 25. We’re in our Life of Jesus series, and today we’re talking about his teachings on the Gospel and core values of the Kingdom of Heaven. Hello, Father.

[00:31] Marcus: Hello, Daughter.

[00:33] Stephanie: How are you today?

[00:34] Marcus: I’m doing all right. We’ve been traveling a lot and it’s nice to be home.

[00:39] Stephanie: Yes, I’m in Indiana with you today, so huzzah! We’re in a season of Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, and also your birthday.

[00:49] Marcus: Also my birthday, yes. And it’s weird to be in my sixties. It’s so strange, but there it is. Life goes on.

[00:59] Stephanie: I’m so used to how you are. Every now and then I’ll find a picture from, you know, all of our years of speaking. Oh, here’s a picture of dad speaking here. I’m like, oh, he’s a baby.

[01:09] Marcus: Yeah. It’s amazing how much you can age in 15 years.

[01:12] Stephanie: You’re still looking good. So, the last episode was an awesome fire hose of information about the five stages of Jesus’ earthly ministry using the acrostic, S.M.A.R.T. And during this ministry, Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom. If there is one core theme to his message, it’s probably repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near?

[01:37] Marcus: Yeah, I often say if you want a bumper sticker that encapsulates the message of Jesus, Matthew already gave it to us. And there’s three different times we read, repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near or something very close to that. And that’s the heart of it.

So I look at repent, and that means I’ve got to change something about the way I’m living, which usually starts with changing the way I’m thinking about the way that I’m living. And that is a whole different worldview, a whole different perspective, a different set of values. And what are the worldview and values I want to embrace? Those are the kingdom.

So, repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near. I take that as a call to order our lives around the worldview and values of the Kingdom of God. So that’s what we’re talking about today.

[02:20] Stephanie: Awesome. When you think about this Gospel, sometimes you anchor the message with three L’s, light, life and Logos.

[02:32] Marcus: Logos, yes.

[02:34] Stephanie: Tell me more.

[02:35] Marcus: So, John 1:1 says, the Word became flesh. “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that has been made.” Then it says, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

This is a fairly familiar passage to us, but there’s this debate in scholarly circles over Logos, and that is, does John here refer to Plato and to Greek philosophy and the idea that there is this almost non personal reason or rationality that can be found throughout the universe? And is he saying that Jesus is this philosophic rationality that we find in the universe?

Clearly, that is a discussion in Greek philosophy, but the odds that that’s what John’s talking about are remotely low I think. What he’s talking about here, you don’t have to go any further than Genesis, which John would have been intimately familiar with. And that is, how was the world created?

“In the beginning” gives us a clue. We read in Genesis 1:1 that in the beginning, God spoke.” Elohim spoke, and light came into the world. And then all of creation was accomplished by speaking, which is the Word. So what John is saying is this really remarkable idea that the Word that was spoken by God is Jesus, that he is the one speaking the words, that it is his voice calling life into existence, light into existence.

And he is now taking this symbolically and saying that Jesus is life, and he is light. So Jesus, as Logos, is the one who gives us eternal life, and he is the one who gives us truth — the light that gives light to our life. So I love this title, Logos, that Jesus came as one outside of this realm to bring life to us through what he did with death and resurrection, and to bring light to us through what he taught.

[04:49] Stephanie: I have one word for this, and it will shock no one. And that word is epic.

[04:54] Marcus: Yeah, epic.

[04:56] Stephanie: I know I overuse that word, but I truly find epic things everywhere. I was just thinking how in John 1, and I think also in Hebrews 1, in my Bible I have “epic” written right in the margins next to them. It’s so good. All right, so there’s Logos. Can you unpack light and life a little bit more in terms of the Gospel?

[05:20] Marcus: Yeah. So life is related to the idea that the Gospel gives us life. Jesus said, “I have come that they might have life and have it abundantly. I’ve come so that your joy might be complete. I’ve come to give them eternal life. Whoever believes has eternal life.”

So the idea of life in the Gospel is directly related to this idea that Jesus came that we might have life, that we might have life abundantly, joy-filled life and eternal life, and all of this is at the heart of the gospel.

And then the light, again, is this idea that out of this life that Jesus is living, there is light. And that’s how they put it in John. He says, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” And so this idea is that his life gives us a light for dark places, just like the Torah and Psalms light our path, “Thy word is a light unto my path.”

In this case, it’s Jesus himself. His life in us, his presence with us, his Spirit lights the way before us, so that even though we live in a dark world, we have somebody who’s there with us, and we have light.

[06:34] Stephanie: Excellent. So you took a break with the letter L. But, Father, you really like the letter S. I’m looking at our Kingdom of Heaven notes, and we once again have a list of words beginning with the letter S.

So when thinking about the core values of the Kingdom of Heaven, we think of salvation and stewardship and spirituality and servant love. Look at those lovely S’s. So, do you want to give an overview of how you determined those core values?

[07:08] Marcus: So, starting with this idea that you could summarize the life of Jesus as repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. This idea of kingdom living is at the heart of what Jesus taught. I don’t think too many people dispute that. So where do you find his core kingdom teachings? Well, you find it in his parables and in The Sermon on the Mount.

I was actually doing a sermon series back when I was pastoring, and this was the series: What is the worldview of the Kingdom of God? What are the values of the Kingdom of God? What did Jesus ask us to do? And this is where you get the worldview of sacred romance, sovereign lordship, spiritual warfare, and the values that grow out of that are salvation.

The idea here is that nothing is more important than salvation. First of all, nothing’s more important than obtaining salvation. Secondly, nothing’s more important than sharing this message with others.

I go to the parable in Matthew 13, which says the Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure buried in a field that a man found and reburied, then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field. So the idea here is that the Kingdom of Heaven is the treasure, and it’s worth everything. It is the highest value. The highest value is obtaining the kingdom.

Now, interestingly, there’s two completely different perspectives on this verse. One is the idea that we are the merchants. We’re out hunting, we find the treasure, and we’re like, oh, the Kingdom of Heaven is so valuable, I will go sell everything that I have to obtain this. That’s the way I was always taught. That was the interpretation I’m probably most familiar with.

But there’s another way to look at it, and that is Jesus is the merchant and he is saying that the Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure buried in a field, and he’s the man who found it and reburied it. And in his joy, he went and sold everything that he had. Because Jesus really did empty himself of everything. He really did lay down his life. Why? To obtain us as the treasure of his kingdom.

Either way, though, whether you take this as Jesus laying down his life for us, or this is us letting go of everything to obtain the kingdom, you’re talking about salvation being the core value. This is the highest value. You get the same idea in the parable about the merchant who found a fine pearl, and  it was worth everything.

So priority number one is salvation. Number two is stewardship. The idea behind stewardship is, again from The Sermon on the Mount, where it says to seek first God’s Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. He also says, don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, but lay up for yourself treasures in Heaven.

If I am focusing on laying up treasure in Heaven, then what I’m doing is I’m trying to be a good steward of what God has given to me. And the way that I am a good steward is by taking what I’ve been given to store treasures in heaven rather than treasures on earth. And so this is a core value of the kingdom. This is how we go about it.

Once I am saved, what do I do with my life? I am now storing up treasure in Heaven by investing my life, by seeking first God’s Kingdom and his righteousness in everything that I do. And so this is the stewardship idea that my whole life is an act of stewardship to God. I’m trying to manage what he has given me in a way that maximizes kingdom impact.

The third is, well, how do I do that? Because I can do that in the flesh, or I can do that in the Spirit. So the natural third S here is Spirit, and that is, I think, best embodied in John 15, in the vine and the branches.

I think about the Spirit as the sap that flows through the vine into the branches. And the idea that we can’t bear fruit — we can’t store up treasure in Heaven — if we’re doing it in the flesh.

In order to store up treasure in Heaven, we have to do this in the Spirit. John 15 lays this out for us that as we abide in Christ, and his life flows through us, we end up being good stewards. So there is salvation, stewardship, and then spirituality. And then the last one is servant love.

And this is the idea of what is this fruit that we’re supposed to be building? Well, the fruit is love. How do you know that you are walking in the Spirit? How do you know that you’re doing this? Well, Paul lays it out as love is the fruit of the Spirit. But Jesus also, in John 15, says that abiding in Christ produces love.

And so we understand that as disciples of Jesus, we’re supposed to love our enemies. We’re supposed to love those who persecute us. We’re supposed to love our brothers and sisters in Christ, those who are in the family and those who are outside the family. And all of these things kind of bring the core values of the kingdom together in a way that we can remember. So those are the four S’s.

[12:15] Stephanie: That’s great. My brain keeps going back to the stewardship idea, and I keep thinking that maybe there’s something to tie into Genesis or into creation, too. I’m totally coming up with this on the fly.

[12:32] Marcus: In some ways, this all ties back in, because God created a world for us to enjoy, and he wanted us to enjoy it with him. I think about food and that it is always better when you can enjoy it with somebody. And, in fact, food is a great excuse to connect with people. And Jesus talks about God always using food in his feasts when he wants to connect with his people so there’s joy in what’s going on.

I look at all of that, and I’m thinking of all the things that go into the creation and the preparation of food, all the things that go into the creation and preparation of whatever it is that you do in life. You have an opportunity to do it in a way that is joyful or a way that is not, in a way that is relational to God. If I’m doing what I’m doing in relation with God, then I’m doing it for his glory.

And so all this comes back to, let’s live for the glory of God. And in Genesis, I would go back to, again, this idea that life is a gift, and a gift is a trust that we are to steward. And so we find this idea of stewardship all through the Bible. Now, did you have something in mind when you brought up Genesis?

[13:48] Stephanie: I often think about God placing us in the garden, and there’s such a rich message, I suppose. It’s rich because there are many messages you can get through it. God placed us to be his image bearers here, and there’s a sense of stewardship in our being image bearers, I think, as well.

[14:19] Marcus: I see this in two places specifically. One is Genesis: 1:26-28, where he says, let us create man in our image, in our likeness, and give him dominion. And so this idea of us as humans being given dominion over created order implies in it being a good steward of what I’m giving to you. That’s implied in the mandate.

Secondly, when you go to Genesis 2, and Adam is actually installed in the garden. The Hebrew verbiage there is the same verbiage that’s used for installing a priest in the temple. And many people have noted this. One of my mentors, John Sailhamer, pointed this out, that Adam is presented as the priest, the garden is presented as the temple, and the priest is installed.

And he is given two commands — I want you to keep and to tend. This is how we tend to translate it, but they’re the same two Hebrew words that if it was a priest, would be translated as to serve and to keep. In other words, the way that a priest served was to light the candles and put out the bread and  offer prayers of incense.

[15:28] Stephanie: Wait, light the candles and give out the bread. That’s light and life.

[15:31] Marcus: There you go. The priests would perform these acts of service in the temple, whether it was lighting incense, or keeping the candles lit, saying prayers, doing the things that they were doing. That was part of their act of worship. Paul builds on this in Romans 12, where he says, this is our spiritual act of worship to make ourselves a living sacrifice.

In Genesis 2, Adam is seen as a priest who is installed in the garden. And the language that’s used there is the same that we find in Leviticus for the installation of a priest in the garden. The two commands that Adam was given actually use the same two Hebrew words that a priest would be given to describe his work.

One was avad, which is to serve, and the other is shemar, which is to keep. So the idea of serving is not just like any old service. The specific temple service was replacing the bread, lighting the candles, burning the incense, doing the offerings, all the tasks that went into the service of God. And then the shemar word, keep, is the word that we would translate to keep the law, to obey the law.

So you could translate this that Adam was placed in the garden to worship and obey, and all of a sudden, it means a whole lot more than he was put in the garden to do some gardening. He was put in the garden for a very high purpose.

And again, this is how he stewarded. He stewarded by making his life an act of worship to God. So there are all kinds of connections back to Genesis, and those are just a few.

[17:11] Stephanie: And then we bring it all the way back to Jesus, who was the second Adam. Do you want to talk about that?

[17:17] Marcus: Jesus is the second Adam. There’s a theological idea called the federal headship of Adam that says that as the only human, he represented the whole human race. And so when he fell, when he sinned, the whole human race sinned, and he was then sent into exile away from the garden.

And people ask if Adam died on the day that he ate the fruit. And they want to say he died spiritually, but the Bible never actually says that. What it does say is that he was sent into exile on the day that he ate the fruit. And exile and death are synonymous in Scripture. So the nation of Israel died when it was sent into exile. It was brought back to life when it returned from exile.

In the same way, Paul in Ephesians 2, when he talks about the Christian life, he talks about us being dead in our trespasses and sins. And then he goes on to explain that in terms about exile. What it means to be dead in your trespasses and sin is to be separated from God, alienated from him, in exile.

So the second Adam idea is that while the first Adam brought sin and death and exile, the second Adam, Jesus, embodies in himself a new humanity, so that all of those who are in Christ are righteous. They are alive, not dead. Their exile is over. They’ve been reconciled.

So you get reconciliation, you get new life, and everything is done over. Those who are in Adam share sin, death, and exile. Those in Christ share righteousness, life, and all the good things that come from being in Christ.

[19:26] Stephanie: So next week, we are going to move forward to look at the cross. But for now, I would love for you to share some final thoughts of bringing all this together maybe into a practical note for how this reflects on how we live our lives.

[19:41] Marcus: Well, hopefully nothing is more practical than the core values of the Kingdom of God. So, one, we want to make sure that we’re living our lives out of gratitude for our salvation. I think we talk a lot about appreciation and gratitude, but the fundamental thing for which our appreciation should never end is just the gratitude of what Christ did for us to make salvation possible, to give us life, to give us light, and we should meditate on those things.

We dwell on those things, and they anchor our lives in gratitude. It also reminds us that we live in a lost world, and there are people living in darkness, and the greatest thing we can do for them is to help them to find salvation. Sometimes people hear stewardship, and they think of giving, and that’s part of it, because one of the things we’ve been entrusted with is money.

But the idea is that life is a gift, and I am to steward my life. And that doesn’t mean that every last second of every day I need to be doing some kind of ministry. The idea here is that the overall thrust of my life is heading toward the kingdom.

The general direction of where I’m going is toward the kingdom. And because of that, I have a rhythm to life that is kingdom focused. I think that’s the essence of stewardship.

And so we go through these things and realize I can only do it if I’m walking in the Spirit, and I’ve got to make that a priority and recognize when I’m slipping into the flesh and get back on track. And then I’ve got to bring it all together.

The first sign that I’m walking in the flesh is that I don’t love the way that I ought to be loving. And so if I find that I’m having a hard time loving, I’ve got to go back to God and say, you’re going to have to love this person through me.

I really can’t do this on my own. So there is just no end to how all of this applies, but I think as we come back, sometimes it’s helpful just to see how they all connect together.

[21:52] Stephanie: And it’s so good and so simple. Keep Jesus and the kingdom the focus, and everything else will spin into place. That’s very good. Well, thank you, Father, and thank you all for joining us on the trail today.

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