#6 Our New Outlook

hi this is Professor Timothy Moore and I am your professor of Christian spirituality and this is unit six and we're calling this a new outlook and the reason uh I titled this a new outlook is because when we come to Christ and we are living and devotional life with Christ God's word starts um changing us and and and in fact the Apostle Paul um said it renews our mind it changes the way we perceive perceive the world the way we perceive God the way we perceive ourselves and so we're going to talk about the new

outlook that a Christ follower has and how that develops over time and so um aw toer who is a a very well-known Bible teacher Pastor Theologian said we what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us it's a very interesting statement what you believe about God really does shape your self perception when I think about the one who created me and if I believe what the Bible teaches that I am made in the image of God that truly shapes how I perceive myself there's there's one thing that

I believe Above All Things clears up any misconception that a person might have about God and and that is looking at the way Jesus interacted with people who were lost and broken people who were uh living in a hopeless situation and and the reason that that clears things up we're going to see that a little later on some scriptures that deal with that is because Christ came to this earth to reveal God in John chap 1 U verse one in the beginning was the word the word was with God and the Word was God Jesus

is the word and then verse 14 says and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth and so the the Trinity of is there in John chapter 1 verse one where you have God the Father you have Jesus as God the son called the word of the Lord and he becomes flesh and so Jesus Is God fleshed out to the world and so when we see how Jesus interacted with people we are really observing the character of

God in a way that we can uh that we can see touch feel with our five senses we can experience God through the interactions of Jesus with hopeless people and so um these scriptures dealing with with Jesus as God incarnate are very very important for us to know uh Jesus Christ was God incarnate the full revelation of God to man this is what the scripture teaches and here are a couple of scriptures that refer to that John chapter 14 8 and9 philli one of the disciples said Lord show us the father and we will be

satisfied and Jesus replied have I been with you all this time Phillip and yet you still don't know who I am anyone who has seen me has seen the father so why are you asking me to show him to you so Jesus was clarifying that he came to reveal the very nature of God and if philli and the other disciples observe how he's interacting with the world interacting with people in need broken hopeless people than they have actually seen God Jesus said if you've seen me you've seen the father and then Paul in the book

of uh Colossians in this letter to the colossian church said that Jesus um that Christ is the visible image of the invisible God he exist existed before anything was created and he is supreme over all creation so no one had seen God and then Christ came and uh in his interactions with people you're we literally the world was literally seeing the very character and nature of God God what may be known of God in this world is revealed through the person and the work and the interactions of Jesus Christ Jesus did not come to this

earth Christ did not come to this earth to change God's view of humanity uh when I hear some people talk about um about Christ and the gospel and his and his work here um it's as if God is uh the angry the angry judge who just cannot stand human beings and somehow the work of Jesus impacted God's view of human beings and changed how God saw human beings well um that's a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of God because one of the aspects of God's character is immutability which means God cannot change he's the same

yesterday today and forever the Bible says he does not change and so Jesus did not change God's view of humanity Jesus was God in human flesh and so he didn't come to change God's view of humanity he was God himself Jesus came to change human I's view of God because everyone had a concept of God people's concept of God was driven by uh their culture and their own life experiences and and so lots of perspectives of God um existed before Christ came to the Earth and um it actually wasn't a theologian it was the uh

the author Mark Twain that said that God created man in His image and then man fell and ever since he's been trying to create God In His Image and so we make uh our own concept of God and it kind of looks like us but Jesus came to clarify Jesus came to um to do away with all of the misperceptions of God so that if we really want to know what God is like we look at Jesus he's the full revelation of God so Christ did not came come to this earth to change God's view

of humanity he came to change Humanity's view of God now the picture that's painted in in the scriptures is that there are there are two kingdoms two domains and one domain is the domain of darkness and the domain of darkness is characterized by futility and Brokenness and death and then the other is the Kingdom of Light the kingdom of God and that is characterized by love and healing and hope and so um there's there's a myth of a third Kingdom where you you're not in the domain of Darkness you're not in the kingdom of God

but you're you're kind of riding the fence in the middle but that's a myth because everything in the Bible teaches that we're either in the domain of Darkness or we are in the Kingdom of Light the kingdom of God now with that framework in mind uh that's the framework in mind that that we have to have when we look at Christ's interaction with people because Jesus uh Jesus who is God incarnate comes into the lives of people who are in the domain of darkness and gives them every opportunity to walk out of that domain of

Darkness out of the futility out of the Brokenness out of the death into love and healing and hope in the kingdom of God so here's here's the question how does God view people who are broken who are sinning who are living in futility and are existing outside of his kingdom in the domain of Darkness now if if we we believe what some Churches and some groups teach God is is terribly angry he he um he rejects these people and and they are completely worthless and that's not what Jesus that's not not what Jesus embodied and

that's not what the scripture teaches in Ephesians 2:10 I've referred to this before it says we're God's Masterpiece created for special work that he marked out for us to do even even before he made the Earth and so people are described in God's word in the Bible Ephesians 2:10 as the poema that's the Greek word which means Masterpiece or Master craftsmanship and then in Genesis 1:26 it says says that uh God said let us make man in our image and so that's the Trinity God the Father God the son God the Holy Spirit saying let

us make man in our image and then in Colossians 3:10 it reiterates that and it says that we are created human beings are created in the image of God the Greek word for that is icon and so um this is not just talking about redeemed people it's talking about all Humanity so all humanity is the poema the Masterpiece of God all humanity is the icon the image of God and then the the last word that describes Humanity 1 John 31 is a gapon which means the Beloved of God and so when we see anyone in

any circumstance whether it is uh the president or a king of a country or an addict on the street these three things are true of them they're created as the poema the Masterpiece of God they're created as the icon the image of God they're created as the agapan the Beloved of God and if we see if we have that new outlook where we're looking at all people not based on their appearance not based on their achievement not B based on their performance but the fact that God says they're my masterpiece they're my icon they're my

beloved it it changes our heart toward people and that's why Paul could say in Ephesians chapter six that we don't have Flesh and Blood enemies our enemies are not human there are human beings that are in the domain of darkness and the way we should view those people is their prisoners of War they're people who need to be rescued out of that and brought into the Kingdom of Light the kingdom of God's dear son even if people are in the domain of Darkness there's still the Poetry of God they're still the icon the image of

God they're still the Beloved of God and Jesus proved that by the way he interacted with people when he was here on this Earth he went out of his way to get to the most broken the most demonized the the most rejected and marginalized people Jesus who is God incarnate made specific intentional effort to go to people that no one else would go to because the religious culture had cast them off Society had cast them off but to God in incarnate they were the Poetry of God they were the icon of God they were the

Beloved of God and we're going to see that in mark 2:16-17 it says but when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other Sinners they asked his disciples why does he this is Christ this is Jesus why does he eat with such scum this is the view of the religious leaders in verse 177 when Jesus heard this he told them healthy people don't need a doctor sick people do I've come to call not those who think they are righteous but those who know they are sinners we're going

to we're going to look uh in just a moment at the idea of the kingdom of God and Christ himself as hospital and healer um most people don't think about the kingdom of God that way but this is how Jesus talked this is this is how he spoke healthy people don't need a doctor and so Jesus saw himself as the great physician and so the Incarnate God is revealing himself to the world not as the judge in the courtroom raising uh a gavel to that takes Delight in sending people into outer Darkness or into hell

he's presenting himself as the great physician sent here to heal Sinners and sin in in the teaching of Christ is a sickness that needs to be healed and he says healthy people don't need a doctor sick people do Sin is Sin sickness and he said I've come not to call those who think they're righteous but those who know they're Sinners so not those who think they are well but those who know they're sick and so he went after the sick he went after the sinick unrighteous people because even those people and maybe especially those people

are the poema the Masterpiece of God they're the icon the image of God they they're the agapan the Beloved of God and so um in the west especially we have developed what what we refer to as the courtroom gospel so when we think about the gospel we think God as the uh the judge on the judge's bench and you know the CER is uh the criminal and Jesus is the lawyer and maybe we we think of Jesus as a lawyer because everybody naturally loves lawyers just kidding uh but that's the concept that we have and

and somehow uh the judge that's on the bench has decided that he's going to send this criminal to to a death sentence or life in prison and that lawyer Jesus somehow steps up and changes the judge's mind now remember Jesus didn't come to change God's view of humanity he came to change Humanity's view of God and so I think we miss the mark often with the Western legal courtroom gospel scenario because when we go back to the scriptures and when we go back to the early church the early church had uh what was called the

patristic go gospel which is also a healing and restoration gospel the focus was on sin as a a sickness a disease that must be healed and on God or or Christ God incarnate as the great physician and the only healer and so it if we start thinking that way and and looking at the teaching of Jesus that way it it gives us a new Outlook about God and he can give us a new outlook about ourselves and so right now what I would like for us to do is look at a um at a at

a clip from a message that I did uh here we're recording the these uh this lecture at Christ the King Hope Church and this is a message that I gave here on on a Sunday morning about a year ago where I explained the difference between the Western legal courtroom gospel and the patristic healing restoration gospel and how understanding how the early church taught that and the the healing uh aspects of the Gospel that Jesus referred to changed my outlook because I I grew up in a very legalistic courtroom idea of God where God is mad

we're bad and we've got to find a way to do better and not that uh Christ God incarnate made an effort to come into the lives of people who were broken and and needed healing and he came in as the great physician and he brought healing and restoration on the soul level and reunited us to God and put us in the kingdom of God and so let's watch this right now I'm free right now my God God loves me my Jesus loves me and I love him so last week we looked at uh these hope

encounters with hopeless people the gine demoniac that had a legion of demons and a legion is minimum of 3,000 soldiers between three and 6,000 soldiers completely hopeless we looked at zakus we l at onew we looked at um lepers we looked at different things last week and so what I want to do is revisit that this week with a white chair and a black chair and I want us to see the modern Western understanding the courtroom legal understanding of the gospel and then what actually happened in the gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John I'm going

to attempt to explain that using these chairs okay well the modern Western understanding of the Gospel is that God God made man in His image for fellowship and put him in a garden and man messed up it's okay to say Amen all right Adam and Eve messed up and because they messed up and God's too pure to look upon sin God turned his back on them all right but God's God's a faithful God and he he gives multiple chances so he he uh creates covenants Abraham Moses David all these different covenants and people keep breaking

the covenants and turning away from God and God's too holy to look at sinful people and so God keeps turning his back on people all right until Jesus comes and so back is turned Jesus comes and God's on the on the bench white hot angry wrath and and Jesus comes and he dies on the cross for our sins I'm just kind of going with this all right he dies on the cross for our sins and appeases the god that has a quiver full of arrows thirsty for your blood all right he appeases that God and

if you believe he did you can have a relationship with this God who previously hated your guts the problem with that is it pits God against Jesus and against you so I've been looking at the early church fathers because I have this other presupposition that the church was in its purest form in the book of Acts in the Bible the church was in its purest form right the apostles are carrying out the ministry they were given by Jesus Christ and the early church fathers the patristic period were men who were led to Jesus by the

Apostles of Jesus they were um Clement of Rome ignacius of Antioch polycarp of Smyrna papius of hieropolis these are just these men were living at the same time as the apostles just younger and what I found in the patristic period was not so much a legal understanding of the good news but a hospital healing restoration view like Jesus one of the first things that Jesus said would happen to him at the beginning of his ministry he said you will say to me physician heal yourself and what he's talking about is on the cross people said

he saved others let him save himself that Greek word is sotia which can also be translated heal save can also be translated heal ain't that something okay in Mark 2:39 the Pharisees said to his disciples why does your master eat with such scum because he kept going in the home of people that the Jewish law said not to and especially the teachings of the Pharisees because when you went into someone's home it was an approval of that person when you ate a meal with them you were stating they were worthy that's what it said in

that culture and Jesus is eating with the Bible says notorious Sinners and so the Pharisees said why does he eat with such scum and Jesus walks out and he says those who are well have no need of a position but those who are sick you see Jesus didn't call himself our lawyer he called himself our great physician and so this hospitalar gospel this healing restoring patristic understanding is never this here's what it is God starts out the same way God makes man in His image for Fellowship in that ancient garden and man turnes back on

God he does his own thing right he he takes the fruit he sends that's true but you notice that this chair never turns because what happens is God comes to the man and the woman and he said why do you have fig leaves on your genitals loose translation and they said because we are naked and he says who told you you were naked and so here's what God does he makes skins to cover them translated God made a sacrifice this is called the Proto evangelon the gospel before the gospel God covers them with sacrifice and

he he leads them out of the garden lest they eat of the tree of life and get stuck in that domain of Darkness orientation and the domain of there's only a domain of darkness in the kingdom of God that is the Bible and the domain of Darkness there is a devil there are demons and in that domain of darkness is nothing but futility meaninglessness Darkness disease Brokenness and death and that's where they were headed and so God put them out of the garden and people kept turning away from God and God in his faithfulness made

covenants he came to people and made the Covenant come out of the darkness come to my kingdom and made it with Abraham and his descendants they turn away he comes and makes another Covenant Moses they turn away God comes and makes another Covenant with David they turn away and God comes in the flesh as Jesus Christ and people encounter him so here you have a man full of allegion of demons and here's where we do this little exercise I say Jesus and you say God all right and so Jesus makes a special trip to gadara

the iion of the gisin to town of gadara to the tombs where the man is naked cutting himself and howling like a wolf this is exactly what the Bible says and Jesus cast those demons out and that man is healed and in his right mind and that man was in no position to call out to Jesus but Jesus went anyway but wait a second all that first understanding the gospel hinges on this this verse and I know it's got to be in there because I've heard it a thousand times God is too pure to look

upon evil that is the first half of one verse and it's completely taken out of context it's habach 1 verse 13A the second part of that verse habach says so why are you merciful to treacherous people see habach is struggling with his understanding of God and he says God I think you're too pure to look upon evil and so he says why are you merciful toward Sinners and treacherous evil people and it's as if if you understand the full context God says to habac you ain't seen nothing yet I'm going to send the Messiah I'm

going to come to broken and hurting and people who need mercy and healing and so really it's saying the opposite cuz habach was wrong God is merciful and you all by Nature this old cowboy by Nature sins against God we need a merciful god right that's not the core of who I am I've got another identity we'll maybe preach another sermon on that and so do you here we have a little dude a little man with little man syndrome who is in collusion with the Roman Empire and he's completely ostracized because he he colludes With

the Enemy and he steals from people he's nothing but a thief and no Jewish person would have this little Jewish man in their home because he could not be worthy and so Jesus says I got got to go by the sycamore tree and he looks at this little man zakus and he says I'm coming to your house for dinner and he goes to the house of zakus and when he walks into the house he's saying I approve of you when he sits down to the meal with zakus he's saying you're worthy and it affects zakus

so much because he's lost all relational connection it impacts him so much he calls him Lord and he said Lord I will repay fourfold everything that I've stolen and Jesus said salvation has come to your house today zakus proud of you zakus then you have a woman she's been divorced not once not twice not three times not four times five times this woman is divorced and she's living with a guy and this is at the outset of of of the the life and teaching of Jesus he said Jesus says I got to go to Samaria

I have to go to Samaria because he had to encounter this woman her name so much is written about this woman in the patristics in the early church fathers her name was ftin you can Google ftin because these early church fathers Clement of Rome ignatia of Antioch polycarp carp of Smyrna and papius of hieropolis said that ftin this woman divorced five times in living with a man after her Encounter With Jesus they said she is equal I'm quoting them fi some say for some say 14 it means the one who Bears the light the one

who Bears the light fi these early church fathers said is equal to the apostles they all four said she's equal to the apostles a woman that have been married five divorced five times living with a man fatini is equal to the apostles why because she was the first missionary and she was a really good one and the Church grew because she and her sons and her sisters evangelized the ancient near East they shared that they had been healed by the great physician and people said I need that Jesus that God in my life you gota

I mean we could go on forever I'm going to do one more here's a guy with Leprosy I could do the other you know Luke the um Matthew excuse me where there's 10 lepers but there's this guy with Leprosy who's lost everything the way people had to respond to him was to cover their mouth and hold their hand out and say unclean unclean and Jesus Jesus Jesus comes down the mountain on that trail where that guy is and when that guy sees Jesus he said Lord if you're willing you can heal me and Jesus Walks

over to him while the crowd is gasping because you're supposed to say unclean Jesus watch walked over and a man who had not been touched in about seven years Jesus touches him the Bible says Jesus touches this leper and he says I'm willing and things that had fallen off grew back out and the man was completely healed hospitalar great physician becomes a great witness of Jesus Jesus and then the final display of incredible love Jesus goes to the Cross there is a penalty for sin he goes to the cross and he [Music] dies we also

die but the Bible says the Bible has some strange things in it first Peter it says when he died he went down to Hell to Hades and he he preached to the spirits in prison I'm not lying it's in there ask Rabbi Google and it says he conquered death he's back and now there's nowhere we can go that he is not there if we Ascend to Heaven he is there if we descend into the depths of hell he is there if we make our bed in the ocean he is there I'm just quoting the Bible

to you and because he conquered death he said because I live you will live with me [Applause] so that's a little different than what I grew up with and so this shift has happened in my heart that I hope happens in your heart that you're not the object of a God who hates you Ephesians 2:10 says you are God's Masterpiece his poema his poetry his craftsmanship you're God's masterpiece the Bible says God so loved the world he gave his only son you're the Beloved of God and the Bible says in that we are His Image

we're his icon we're made in the image of God and that's what's most fundamentally true of you and Jesus is the answer for our terminal sin sickness that orients us toward the domain of Darkness I heard a testimony of This Woman This Week man it moved my heart I got to walk this way because I'm leaving you guys out y'all still here over there all right this woman was a heroin addict and she got clean she ended up marrying a Believer who follow truly followed Jesus and she had two little boys by this man and

in the fifth year of their marriage she took $10,000 out of their bank and fell off the wagon she ended up filing for divorce she moved in with a guy who is also addicted to heroin she filed for divorce and this just like Washington State it just took one person filing in 90 days and it's done and so she divorced her husband she's living with this guy and a couple of years into shooting up she kind of she comes to her senses she tells this guy that she's living with I got to get clean he

says I got to get clean we don't really they really didn't know how so she calls her former husband and says we need to get clean the former husband who follows Jesus here's the Holy Spirit say pay for it and so he pays for both of them to go this true story I heard this week he pays for both of them to go to rehab and they get out of rehab he goes to their graduation the holy spirit says invite them to move in your basement so that she can be near her kids and so

they move into the basement shortly after they get convicted about living together and they tell him we need to get married and his former wife said would you consider me consider walking me down the aisle and the Holy Spirit saidd do it and so he walked them down the aisle they got married this lady enrolled at a university and she got a master's degree in counseling and she is now a family therapist okay I I hope that presentation with the chairs uh helped clarify and differentiate the the courtroom gospel and the healing and restoration gospel

um I want to just uh in conclusion emphasize these these four broken hurting sinful unrighteous people marginalized Cast Away by religious people and society and how Christ who is God incarnate made special intentional effort to go to these people and to bring healing and restoration and the first one is the Gathering demoniac um the Bible teaches Mark chapter 5 that he was uh filled with an almost uh it's hard to believe how many demons the Bible says he was filled with a Le Legion of demons and a legion is a in in military terms is

a minimum of 3,000 soldiers and so I I just think it's an expression that no one could be more filled with evil spirits than this man he was completely controlled by the domain of darkness and Society had completely cast him off the religious leaders had completely cast him off and instead of Jesus Christ God incarnates saying this man is hopeless and he's worthless he made a special trip to that region to encounter that man why because instead of the instead of the courtroom gospel where this man is cast away and put in prison Jesus viewed

this man as as a prisoner of war this is the Masterpiece of God this is the Poetry of God this is the icon of God and he's a prisoner of war because these demons are controlling him he's cutting himself he's screaming he's Breaking Chains No One Is Safe around this man and so God goes to the region of the gines to this smaller place called uh the the Gathering area and he Encounters this man and when Jesus encounters him he's set free he's completely set free he's completely healed he is completely restored and and one

thing that you and I need to need to focus on and contemplate is that this man was not calling out for Jesus this man was not saying Jesus save me he he didn't say Jesus I know I'm a sinner and I need you to come into my life this man was weeping and wailing and cutting himself and out of his mind and Jesus Christ said I've got to go heal and restore that man because that's the image of God that's the Masterpiece that's my masterpiece that's my image and he's a prisoner of the enemy I'm

I'm going to go set him free that's God that's the heart of God and then in John chapter 4 there's a woman at the well and she's drawing water from a well in the middle of the day because she's a complete Outcast she she had been married several times and she was living with a man and even by today's standards people would look at that woman and say if she's been married that many times and she's living with the man she that that person I know I know church people that would say a woman like

that is just worthless she's unrighteous and the Bible teaches that Jesus made a special trip to Samaria to another town so that he could intersect and meet this woman at the well who was drawing water in the middle of the day because she was not allowed owed to come early in the morning when everyone else was there and and he reveals that he is the hope he's he's where she can get living water and never thirst again spiritually and she commits her she puts her faith and her trust in Jesus Christ and she becomes the

First Missionary the very first missionary and church history tells us that her name was fi and that fatini was responsible for starting more churches than any other individual in the first century and this is a woman that had been married I believe it says five times and was living with a man and I I'm a pastor I went to Bible College I've gone to three seminaries and I don't think any of the the the institutions of Higher Learning and theology would even accept that woman if she if she put on her application that she'd been

married that many times and was living with someone but she gave her life to Jesus and now things are different she I don't know I I I know a lot of churches wouldn't accept that woman and Jesus made a special trip to her because she was his Masterpiece she was his icon His Image she was the agapan she was the Beloved of God and then zakus who was a little man a tax collector he was a Jewish man collecting taxes for the enemy of of uh of the Jewish people the Roman Empire and no one

was hated more or marginalized more than zakus and Jesus saw him in the midst of the crowds and he said I'm coming to your house zakus and so after Jesus had a meal with zakus zakus life was transformed in the encounter and he says you know I I'm GNA I'm going to pay back everything I'm going to give back everything that I've taken I'm going to make restitution for for all of my wrong because the encounter with Jesus changed his heart and then the woman that's caught in adultery caught in the act of adultery the

religious leaders the Pharisees catch this woman in the act of adultery and they bring her and they throw her down at the feet of Jesus and they say our law says to kill this woman to Stone this woman to put her to death and they actually were holding stones and Jesus writes with his finger in the dirt the Bible says and just casually looks up and says if any of you is without sin uh let him cast the first stone and the stones drop and the men walk away and the woman is crying kneeling and

Jesus said woman where are your accusers and and she said they're gone and he said neither do I condemn you go your way and sin no more when the religious leaders saw just a dirty evil sinner Christ God incarnate saw a masterpiece His Image his ion and he and his agaton his beloved and an encounter with him brought healing and restoration every time a person had an encounter with Jesus Christ it brought healing and restoration so in your outlook look when you think of the world when you think about the people that you encounter in

the world when you see people who aren't living right when you see people who are broken and are living uh feudal lives when you see that person in addiction when you see that homeless person when you see that unrighteous person doing whatever is your first thought this person is captive to their sins this person needs to be set free this person needs an encounter with Jesus because this person is created in the image of God this person is a masterpiece of God this person is the Beloved of God and they need to be set free

and they can be set free through an encounter with Jesus and so uh is that how you see the world is that how you see people and when you wake up in the morning or when you feel the accusations of the enemy because you've done something that you know you shouldn't have done do you think at the core of who I am I'm the image of God I'm the Masterpiece of God I'm the Beloved of God is that how you see yourself because if you do and your outlook becomes those three things your self perception

your identity in Christ and your perception of God as the great physician the one who heals the one who restores the one who has compassion the one who forgives lives because that's all that Jesus did right and Jesus revealed God when you start thinking of God that way and yourself that way it would give you a completely new outlook on the world that you live in and the person that you look at in the mirror each day