Guest Teacher - Jacob Mayard - The Great Setup

The Great Setup

Intro - The Setup to the Setup 

Amen!

Alright, church, go ahead and open in your bibles to Romans 3 as this is where we’ll read together for tonight, though I will throw a few verses your way before we get there and after at which point, I’ll ask you to flip, so be ready!

I’ve titled this teaching, “The Great Setup”. I’ve actually had this title for a while and the principle that I’d like to examine has been something on my mind and heart for the last year or so. I’m excited to share with you what our Father has been showing me. This is for you. This will set you free.

In our culture to say someone has been “setup” usually carries a negative connotation. Similar to that of someone who’s been framed for a crime. They usually say something along the lines of, “I’ve been setup!” Or “I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids”….. bahaha that’s Scooby-Doo actually.

Even in conversations about the Bible, doubters and mockers cast a negative light on the story of Jesus and his death and resurrection, saying that’s it’s all a scam, that we’ve been setup to believe a lie. That it’s all a ploy for someone to guilt other people into lining their pockets, “as unto the Lord”.

Or what some would consider even worse is how some pastors use anecdotal stories to setup a really corny punchline.  

I was texting Matt something really important the other day and he read it. And then left me on read! Do you wanna know what they call it when an ordained Pastor leaves you on read?? A Holy Ghost!

Anyways, I’d like to view this idea of being “set up” through a different lens tonight. We’re going to talk about how we as Christ followers, the sons and daughters of the Most High King, have been Set Up. “Set up for what,” you may ask? Well, Because of the blood of Jesus, and the giving of the Holy Spirit, we have been set up for the work of the Kingdom; and in that, we have been set up for True Abundant Life.

Pause: in your mind, right now, define for yourself two things. 1, what is the work of the Kingdom? And 2, what is True Abundant Life?

Now, when we enter into a relationship with God, because of His grace delivered through faith (faith acting as the conduit by which God is able to deliver His saving grace), the bible says in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

And yet; in fact, what remains fully in tact, is all of who I am. I am my Father’s son. And so I can just be. Similarly, my wife and daughters, my family and friends, I long for them to know (and for my heart to change towards this) that they can just be. They can just be who they are in Christ. They can just be who they are as they relate to me. They can bring their full selves, open and honest, genuine, every bit to me, and I will strive to love them completely.  

You see in that verse in Galatians, “it is no longer I who live…and the life which I now live….” What is going on. There’s a duality in our walks. Much like other principles we find throughout scriptures, such as the reality of “free will” being a part of God’s sovereignty. And in fact, without God’s sovereign authoritative authorship over all of creation and existence, we couldn’t truly have free will. He is the Most High God, the Highest authority, and unless He decrees it, our “free will” would always be subject to someone else’s authority and their power to overrule any decision we make. Anyways, they are present at the same time.  

Here in Galatians, my life in Jesus’s hands, is my life to walk. It is Him, and it is also me. What we do and who we are is more in Jesus. We are more in Him.  

Think about how in the first Captain America, when Steve Rogers asks Dr Erskine, “Why me?”. “…The serum amplifies everything inside, so good becomes great; bad becomes worse.”

Now even better than the serum, is truth serum. Bahaha just another marvel reference for you.

Even better than a serum that makes heroes super or bad guys villains (depending on the man), even better is God’s redeeming love. Where in spite of our wicked fallen nature, when we come into contact with Him and His love, we change. We become more like him. The bible says in 1 John 3:2-3, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

So my life in Jesus, is more than my life on my own. (more on this later when we get to our scripture set in John; hold onto the idea of this partnership).

Now God says in the scriptures, “Be holy for I am holy”. We find this statement in 1 Peter 1:16 when he was discussing life before (in front of) God our Father and resting our hope fully upon the grace of Jesus Christ.  

Let’s get something clear. Though Peter is discussing the conduct of believers, he isn’t talking about righteousness and righteous living. Righteousness is not holiness. Neither can righteousness nor righteous conduct obtain for you a holy status. You cannot attain to holiness through righteousness. My righteousness is like “filthy rags” the bible says (Isaiah 64:6).

Since we’re here, let’s define “righteousness” then “holiness”.  

Romans 3:20-26 says, “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

The word of “righteousness” in the Greek is “dikaiosyne” and it means “the state of him who is as he ought to be, the condition acceptable to God.” This word can also can be used to describe “the doctrine concerning the way in which man may attain a state approved of God”.

In light of this and the point Paul is making in Romans 3, is that God is not using my righteous conduct as a gauge for whether or not I can be in His presence. That was the Law’s purpose, and actually, we know from this same verse set and other scriptures that the Law is a tutor, intended to reveal our sin and our need for a savior. 

Back to our verse in 1 Peter, what then does it mean to “be holy?” What is God asking when He says, “Be holy for I am Holy?”

In the Greek, “Be Holy” is “Hagios Ginomai” which is to say “exist as the most high”. You, who God calls “holy,” has called you to exist as He exists.

We find that Peter is actually quoting this from Leviticus 11:44 and again in Leviticus 20:26. Check this out in Leviticus 20:26, “And you shall be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine.”

The word for “holy” literally means “set apart”.

You shall be “set apart to Me because I, the I AM (the Most High Existing One), am set apart.” Which is to say “Separated from the peoples.” Specifically there in Leviticus, He is commanding the Israelites (governed by God) to do things differently than Egypt, who is a type or a picture of the world.  

God is completely other. He is not man, He is not like man. He is other. He is calling us to be like Him, separate from the world and its conduct. Because that is how Existence Himself exists.

He is outside of time, higher than this existence. From before and after, simultaneously. In the same vein of paradoxical thinking, He is separate from this existence and everything about this existence, consists of Him. Colossians 1:17, “He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.”

Something for you to consider: God from the very beginning has brought division within the present fallen existence. Day 1, in Genesis 1:4, God separated the light from the darkness. He made a distinction. Day 2, He separated the waters from the waters, creating the sky and the oceans. Day 3, He brought forth dry land and set it apart from the waters. God, in establishing His kingdom, set the precedence that the work of His Kingdom, even from the beginning, has been accomplished through making distinctions and creating separation! Do you have an updated answer yet to the question, “What is the work of the Kingdom?” Lol is it, “creating division?”  

I submit to you that the Work of the Kingdom is this: existing as God exists, which is separate and different from the world. *(ugh) I can’t say that without giving you scripture. Because there are two things in this context that are true simultaneously that don’t seem to align at first glance (the two things being a call to be separate and an undeniable truth that we are to remain within).  Remember, Jesus didn’t pray that we would be taken out of the world, rather that we (His disciples) would remain. Why? Okay, this is so good.

Turn to John 17:11-19, “Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

It is the Word that separates us, that makes a distinction, it is the truth that sets us apart. We are set apart by the reality of a life encountering Jesus.

Quick question: Why would Jesus pray that we would remain? Why don’t we just rapture immediately to His presence when we receive Him as Savior? I think an acceptable answer to that question is indeed so that others may be saved. AND it’s so much deeper. Verse 13 unlocks an answer for me, “that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.”

By remaining in the world, sanctified by the Word of truth, existing as God exists, in truth, in reality, in peace, in freedom from death. The onlooking world will indeed desire to be where we are. But only when we ourselves are there.  

Jesus’s primary desire is not that we would evangelize others. It is that we may experience the same joy he has experienced. More on this soon. Hold onto partnership (from earlier) and a new idea, inheritance.

Now when we hear, “Be Holy, for I am Holy,” we tend to think of the righteous living, commandment keeping, law abiding Christians and when we fall short of that, we are obviously unholy.  

I want to free you from thinking this way. Change your mind. To be holy is to be where God is.

Please, don’t get me wrong, righteous conduct is good. What we tend to slip into are the chains of a legalistic mindset, which really happens in any religious setting where men are teaching other men about God and the intended application of His Word. It’s easy to do. Because there is indeed wisdom in following other men who have been seeking God. But what can happen is that we find the way we personally encounter and connect with God and so we prescribe our way as the way so that others can experience Him the way we have.  

Or, we put way too much weight in the position and prestige of teachers and priests, and therefore blindly ritualistically do what they say. These two ways of Christianity start from the right place, but quickly become shackles.  Keeping man’s rules does not mean you are keeping God’s commands. And it certainly doesn’t mean that you are holy.

Simply, to be holy is to be where God is.  

Check this out, John 14:2-3, “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you maybe also.”

Yes, this is our blessed hope, as we await the sound of the trumpet, to be called up into His presence where we will see Him face to face. AND, this holy abundant life begins now. There is a finality to this call to holiness; more relevant however, more presently, is that by faith we remain in this world separate as unto God.

So how do we step into this? How do we find and live and walkout Holy living? How do we exist as God exists? (Answer: He exists separately and makes separations, bringing out the one’s who are within the fallen, to live in Truth).

There is a pattern in the Bible I’d like for you to see, in this idea of Setup.

If you want your Joy to be Jesus’s Joy fulfilled within yourself, this is it:

Section 1 - Joshua’s Posee 

In Exodus 17:8-13 - Joshua, Moses, Aaron and Hur defeat the Amalekites. How? Joshua finds and readies the brave and mighty men of Israel to fight the Amalekites, those who seek to destroy Israel. Moses sends Joshua out while he climbs onto the top of a hill with Aaron and Hur. Moses holds the rod of God in his hands and above his head. And when he lifts it, Joshua prevails. When he lets down his hand, Amalek prevails. This is a really interesting story, and what’s really cool is that this is how old man Moses can divinely fight with Joshua. What’s even cooler, Aaron and Hur are there with Moses to hold up Moses’s arms whenever he becomes weary. They’re not accountable for this task that Moses has on his shoulders (lol). And yet, they made sure that Moses would have his best chance at succeeding. They set him up for victory. Moses made sure to set up Joshua for victory. Aaron and Hur made sure to set up Moses for success as well. 

Section 2 - John’s Perspective

John the Baptist was considered by Jesus to be the greatest of all the prophets (Matthew 11:11). John was the fulfillment of Isaiah 40:3 which says, “The voice of the one crying the wilderness: Make straight the way of the LORD.” He was the forerunner, anointed and set apart to ready the hearts of the people for the coming Messiah, the Promised One, the Serpent Crusher.  

In John 1, John declares to the people that Jesus is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  

Now check this out in John 3:28-30, “‘You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.”

John’s greatest joy was hearing Jesus speak truth to His beloved, the bride of Christ, whose heart was ready to receive her bridegroom. He had set up Jesus with His bride.

There is much more here to expound upon in terms of truth, holiness and the work of the kingdom, as you read the rest of John 3. I’ll leave that to you to study on your time.

Section 3 - Jesus’s Promise

This heart, where John said, I must decrease and He must increase, this is the heart of Jesus for his disciples near the end of his ministry.

In John 14:12-14, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”

Greater works than Jesus?? How is this even possible? Shoot. Jesus being perfect, that’s overwhelming to grasp when we know ourselves to be fallen. And yet, Jesus said it. He promised this.  

In the next few verses there in John 14 (and reiterated in patterns of threes and fours throughout John 15 and 16), Jesus also promises to send a Helper. The Holy Spirit. Who will lead us into all TRUTH!

This next thought I have is challenging to convey.

There’s a duality to His existence. He is God and Man totally perfect. There is also a duality to our existence in Christ as well. We are fallen man redeemed by the life of Christ in us (the same Spirit). He became sin, but never sinned. He was never tainted by it. For us to live free of the weight of sin in the midst of an existence tainted by sin, that is a great and mighty work in and of itself. For us to bring the lot to our great redeemer, where true abundant life is found, that is greater still. To reach the lost and broken as believers who have never seen Jesus as the disciples saw Jesus, or even as Jesus Himself saw God, to bring them to a saving knowledge of the grace of God, this is what I believe to be the work that is greater than even the work that Jesus did in His ministry on earth. Something for you to chew.

Jesus, in going to the cross, accomplished much more than the payment for our sin. He delivered to us the right to be sons and daughters of the Most High God, that where He is, we may be also. And not only that, we get to be a part of the kingdom work. We get to be set apart to be a part of the work of bringing people to Jesus simply by existing where God is existing.  

Being a tent for the Holy Spirit, somehow, I am able to be where God is. Somehow I become more like Him as I get closer to Him. And with that I become more of who I am in Him. It is the Truth and the Reality of the Abundant life found in Him.  

And when that happens is legacy kind of stuff; what happens supernaturally is this desire to do what John did for Jesus, and what Jesus has done for us, and that is to setup my people for victory and abundant life in Jesus.  

Section 4 - Jacob’s Purpose 

How do I setup my wife? Children? Disciples?

Simply, because I am where God is, I make a way for my wife and daughters to be where God is also. And practically, it’s in serving them in their needs moment to moment. It’s in the watering of my wife with the Word. It’s in the building up of my daughters. It’s in the laying down of myself for their sakes that they may be where God is.

*this is the greatest calling; this is True abundant life.  - John 15:11-13, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy my remain in you and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”

Why would I lay down my life? Why would I decrease? 

Ultimately, man’s testimony is flawed and tainted. Jesus doesn’t even accept the testimony of man (John 5)

Psalm 145 - don’t put your trust in princes

Ultimately ultimately, the longing of my heart, the longing of a husband’s heart, the heart of a father, the heart of pastors and leaders, is that their spouse, children, friends, and disciples would hear and heed the voice of God for themselves.  That they would be where God is.

True abundant Life is this: my life poured out that others may have true abundant life in Jesus.

Outro - Juxtaposing Parables

Parables about two sons and the legacy of their fathers.

There once was a man whose father left him an inheritance. The sum of which included a custom-built home somewhere in the mountains with the most beautiful view, and was fully paid off. He left him two luxury cars as well as a fully restored, classic 1969 Chevy Camaro complete with racing stripes. His father left him a robust real-estate portfolio with properties in what can only be described as paradise, as well as several acres of land primed for development. He left him a corporation, of which he was CEO, that he had built from the ground up - he knew the ins and outs of that business. He entered into partnerships with the brightest and wealthiest entrepreneurs of their time. His father also knew how to not only survive any market-crash, but how to thrive in a rough economy. This man’s father left him the skills to be a great business man and taught him what it means to put in hard-work, even if that means working 60-70 hours a week. He left him the ability to work independently and the meaning of being disciplined in every aspect of one’s life such as in school, sports, exercise, and work. He left him the memories of going to church on Christmas and Easter because it was the right thing to do for mom and grandma. He left him other memories too, such as the yearly trips to Disneyland and when they were older, to Universal Studios. He left him everything he needs to be successful in this world……..He left him with the sinking feeling that he was alone and the realization that he’s always been alone. He left him.

There was once another man whose father also left him with well, not much of an inheritance. He did leave him with a small humble home in which he grew up. His father knew every inch of that home and would fix things that needed fixing himself, even if he didn’t know how to do it. He left him with an old chevy truck, a lifelong project that he would work on from time to time, but could never quite finish. He didn’t have a business although he always had great ideas that he would start to flesh out late at night after the kids had gone to bed. All the while staying with the same company as an employee for his whole career. His father also taught what it means to work hard and how to show up to every baseball game. Realistically, he knows it probably wasn’t every game but that’s what he remembers. He remembers his father’s support in school even when he didn’t get straight A’s. As long as he put in the effort, his father was proud of him, even with a “C” on his report card. Ice cream was always a treat even after those parent-teacher conferences (I mean, his father loved ice cream so it worked out). His father would serve at church every week and would pray with his kids every night. He remembers the one time his father took them to Disneyland, and the best part of it all was falling asleep while eating a churro on his father’s shoulders during the fireworks show. This man’s father would apologize every time he lost his temper. He never turned down a hug. His father would sit and hold his son when he cried or was hurt. His father showed him his own scars and shared about the times he was in pain. His father, when he was dying, held his son’s hand, and told him that he’s proud of him. This man, though in his heart and his mind had everything he needed, with tears in his eyes, he said with his lips, “I still need you.” 

He left him with what it means to love and to be loved.

Jesus has left us with everything pertaining to life and godliness. What will you leave?