We have been looking together at the nature
of Jesus, especially as revealed in his greatest
-in-the-kingdom teachings.
Now, in prior sessions, we have covered eight
of those, and I want to write them
up here.
If you can't see them from where you
are, well, I'll be verbalizing it and you
can come down afterward and look.
But the nature of Jesus, as contained in
his greatest-in-the-kingdom teachings, first of
all is that he was servant of all,
or slave was a better word, if you
recall.
Second, as we interpolated from his expression about
contrasting himself with the greatest-in-the-Gentile
or world kingdom, we discovered that he did
not lord it over others, so number two
is not lord it over others.
I'll just write not lord it over because
I need that other space down there later.
As he compared himself to the greatest-in
-the-religious kingdom, he said, in essence, he
that is greatest must lead by example.
He says that specifically in a certain passage,
which I will cover later in our series.
Then he that is greatest must be humble.
We discovered that that specifically means that he
was absolutely honest about himself.
Humility is a very accurate assessment of who
you are, which can be devastating, but it's
true.
Then he that is greatest must be as
a child.
We saw that a child was very humble,
a small child is who they are, not
very pretentious, we know that.
A child is unable to deceive, a very
significant thing, because one part of your body,
you see, these are the kinds of principles
that make your body work and the body
of Christ work, and a child cannot deceive,
and relationships cannot survive deception, you see.
Then another thing that we discovered is a
child is very unthreatening.
We're seldom afraid of a child.
Well, some of the recent ones I've seen,
maybe.
And no one was ever afraid of Jesus.
And then he that is greatest must be
as the younger, which we looked at in
terms of being always the disadvantaged ones in
this world, pilgrims passing through, having no enduring
city here, but looking for one whose foundations
and builder and maker is God.
And also it means traveling light, being as
the younger, carrying very little luggage through this
life, so that wherever God calls you, you
can go.
And you don't have to say, if you
recall, that we're guarding a lot of dung.
And he that is greatest must be as
the least, and number eight, as the last.
And that completed what he had to say
in the Gospels, now go with me to
Philippians chapter two.
You will discover that the first four verses
of Philippians tie into these eight points perfectly,
and then we hit an awesome, awesome section.
Listen to this.
Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ,
if any comfort of love, if any fellowship
of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy,
fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having
the same love, being of one accord, of
one mind.
Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or
conceit.
See, if you recall, if I may stop
here for just a moment, as we were
looking at the nature of Jesus, one of
the key descriptions was others-centered, as opposite
to my natural self-centered tendencies.
So it says, let nothing be done through
selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of
mind.
Let each esteem others better than himself.
Now, I just need to comment this one
thing about that statement, because often I will
see people who get that backward, and they
esteem themselves worse than others.
Now do you see what's going on there?
That turns it self-centered.
See, I'm just looking at myself as being
worse than others.
That's not what it says.
And others-centeredness says, I esteem you better.
You see the difference?
So, in lowliness of mind, let each esteem
others better than himself.
Let each of you look not only for
his own interests, but also for the interests
of others.
And then we come to this awesome passage.
Oh, maybe it was a song they sang
in the early church.
I don't know.
If it was, we really ought to put
it back to music.
Figure out every way we can to sing
this next passage.
It's a great song.
Maybe it was a creed they said.
If so, it's an excellent creed.
A creed doesn't have to express everything you
believe, as long as it gives you the
key so that everything else that you believe
is obvious, and this does.
Or maybe, just at that particular moment, the
Holy Spirit said, write this down, Paul.
And he says, let this mind be in
you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
Wow.
Does your mind ever fail you?
Can't remember?
If you ever have the opportunity to trade
minds with anyone, don't trade with me.
You'd be in trouble.
But here is the opportunity to trade with
Jesus.
This is awesome.
We can literally permit His mind to be
in us.
Not a bad deal.
Well, the question is, what was His mind?
What was this central core of motivating being?
What was this set of attitudes that were
in Christ Jesus?
Fortunately, He doesn't leave us alone.
He tells us.
The next verses reveal specifically what this means,
and He says, who being in the form
of God did not consider it robbery to
be equal with God.
I read that and I went, huh?
What does this mean?
It's rather obscure, isn't it?
Well, the NIV, the nearly inspired version, says,
who though He was in the form of
God did not consider equality with God something
to be grasped.
Well, that helps a little bit.
But what does it mean?
Well, let's dig in.
I discovered that there were two meanings to
this, and we're going to let this be
numbers 9 and 10 here.
Two meanings to this particular verse.
One, it means that He used no force
on us, no physical force, and that He
was not driven by blind ambition.
So, number 10 would be no blind ambition.
No force.
Let's talk about that.
He could have used force on us, you
know.
He could have.
He had power!
You know that!
He had all the power of the universe
coursing through His veins, man!
This incredible power that formed billions of galaxies
out in space, this incredible power that created
this earth!
Didn't know I could do that, did you?
And yet with all of this power, He
didn't use force on us.
It's amazing.
He could have.
He could have grabbed us by the throat
and put a sword there and said, wouldn't
you like to be a Christian?
We'd have said, oh yes, I've been thinking
about it for a long time.
But He didn't do that.
I'm amazed.
He had the power.
In fact, what amazes me is how much
the Scripture speaks of His gentleness.
Now, there's a good reason for this.
You see, when we feel that we have
been forced into something, we're going to do
everything we can to sabotage the situation.
I can recall, well, this year my wife
and I celebrate our 35th anniversary together, held
together by my animal magnetism.
If you believe that, I have a bridge
to sell you to.
But I can remember 36 years ago, I
was a scared boy.
I held a ring in my hand and
I said to Ada Brown, will you marry
me?
She said, yeah, might as well.
Not quite.
Now, I could have held a ring in
one hand and a pistol in the other.
And I could have said, you're going to
marry me for your own good.
Now, if she had married me under those
circumstances, every meal she fixed for me, I
would have fed some of it to the
dog first to make sure he stayed alive.
Because when we feel that we've been forced,
we're going to do everything we can to
sabotage the situation.
Have you ever heard anyone make this statement?
Or ask this question?
Can I do this and still be a
Christian?
Have you ever heard that question?
Now, that's coming from a heart that feels
forced, you see, and so it's trying to
press against the edges.
That would be as foolish as if my
wife were to say to me, well, honey,
you're going to be gone for about a
week.
Is it okay if I go out with
some of the other men in the neighborhood
and still be called your wife?
Now, when you love someone, you want to
enhance the relationship.
You want to improve it, you see.
But the thing is, the only way you
can make a genuine decision is if it
is a genuine decision, if you're not forced.
So Jesus comes in a way that frees
us to make a genuine decision about Him.
All the evidence in the world is there.
Revelations 320, you know it by heart.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
He's a gentleman.
He knocks.
If it were me, I would have said,
behold, I stand at the door and I'm
going to huff and puff and blow your
house.
But Jesus is a gentleman.
He knocks, and if any man hears His
voice and then opens the door, then he
will come in and sup with them.
He's a gentleman.
There was one place in His ministry, I'm
fascinated by this, it was in the third
year of His ministry, which is often called
the year of opposition, first year being year
of obscurity, second year of popularity, third year
of opposition, when everyone had abandoned Him.
It appears that the only ones hanging around
still were the apostles, and they must have
been a little bit discomfited.
There must have been some looking around on
their part.
See, they had been so busy arguing over
who was the greatest, they hadn't noticed that
the crowds were gone, and they look up
and say, uh-oh, I bet we're going
to have some apostolic layoffs now.
And so Jesus must have seen their dis
-ease, and He said something to them that
amazes me.
I wouldn't have said it.
I would have looked at them in their
discomfort and said, all right, you fellas, three
steps in the wrong direction and you're vapor.
See, that's what I would have said.
But you know what Jesus says to them?
Will you leave me also?
Isn't that amazing?
He never violated their ability to choose.
This is awesome.
And then in Matthew chapter 12, quoting from
Isaiah, we hear these words, a bruised reed
He would not break, and smoking flax He
wouldn't quench.
What does that mean?
We don't use those words today either.
Well, for a bruised reed He wouldn't break,
that's sort of like saying He wouldn't kick
a man when he was down.
Now, that's when we like to kick them.
Kick them when they're down, they can't kick
back.
And some of you, when Jesus found you,
you were down and the world was kicking
you like crazy.
And Jesus did not come along and say,
you've never been kicked until you've had a
divine kick.
No, He picks you up and He begins
to put you together.
I was just thinking about this yesterday, Chuck,
looking at the people who were here and
realizing how much of an incredible set of
stories there are here.
What would happen if we began at the
end of one of these rows and you
shared all the ways Jesus has put you
back together and healed and restored you, and
when you finished we went to the next
one of you and you shared all the
ways that He's healed and restored you, and
then we went on, and how long would
it take?
We don't have that much time, do we?
That's one reason I look forward to heaven.
We'll get to hear the whole story.
A bruised reed He wouldn't break, and smoking
flax He wouldn't quench.
What does that mean?
Well, in modern terms, that would be like
He'd take the slightest spark of hope in
someone and try to fan it into flame.
I was a boy scout once, until I
got old enough to be a girl scout,
but that's beside the point.
But we would sometimes have competition among other
troops with scouting skills, one of which was
starting fires without matches.
And I can remember 30 or 40 of
them lined up with a handful of what
they called tender, something that would burn readily,
cotton or something of that nature.
And when they would blow the whistle, the
flints would begin to strike against it, and
the sparks would fly, and soon there would
be a little wisp of smoke come up.
Never once did I see any one of
those fellows look at that and say, just
one wisp of smoke?
Is that the best you can do with
all the sparks I've thrown at you?
Just one wisp of smoke?
Oh no, that's all they wanted, and they'd
pick it up, hang in there, we're going
to make it, and it would burst into
flame.
Some of you, when Jesus found you, all
you were was one stinky little wisp of
smoke.
And the world was looking at you saying,
is that the best you can do with
all the opportunity you've had, all the potential
you've got, just one wisp of smoke?
But Jesus didn't do that.
He picked you up and began to blow
the great breath of God on you.
Hang in there, we're going to make it.
And here you are, you see.
A bruised reed he wouldn't break, smoking flax
he wouldn't quench.
He used no force on us, because he
wanted us to make a genuine decision about
him.
And he was not driven by blind ambition.
Now blind ambition, well you've heard the old
philosophical question, does the end justify the means?
You've heard that.
Blind ambition says, yes it does.
If the end is good enough, lie, cheat,
steal, do whatever you have to do to
achieve your goal.
But Jesus was not driven by blind ambition.
In fact, Satan tempted him on that very
point, took him up on a high mountain
and showed him all the kingdoms of the
world with their splendor.
Can you see it in your mind?
Can you see Satan?
Looks good, doesn't it, Jesus?
Yes, it does.
I thought so.
You really want it, don't you?
Yes, I do.
I thought so.
You came for this, didn't you?
Yes, I did.
I thought so.
Well, I can get it for you wholesale.
All you have to do is bow down
and worship me.
Come on, come on, you can do it,
you can have it.
Real easy, real cheap.
But at that point Jesus made an eternal
decision.
No, it is written, I shall worship the
Lord your God and him only shall you
serve.
He decided at that point that a heavenly
goal can only be achieved by heavenly means.
Now, we may think this doesn't really apply
to me, I don't have that kind of
problem, but you know, it happens so often,
it does.
Maybe you work in a place where your
employer has asked you to do something that
you know is unethical, and you feel, I
can't do this, and you realize your job's
on the line and good jobs are hard
to come by.
You have a mortgage to pay off, a
car to pay for, a family to feed,
and you end up caving in so often,
don't we?
It's really quite common.
God help us, it even happens in the
church.
Have you ever gotten a letter from some,
quote, ministry, unquote, that said, Dear Brother or
Sister so-and-so, God woke me up
at 3 a.m. the other night and
your name was on my mind, and God
gave me a word for you, and if
you'll send me an offering to help keep
me on the air, I'll be glad to
tell you what God said.
And you think, great, gee, they don't know
me, this is a computer letter, why would
they do this?
Well, it may have started well, and it
may have been an act of faith that
caused them to enlarge things, and then there
came a cash crunch, you ever heard of
that?
And then they decide, what are we going
to do, we're going to lose some of
our ministry, and someone says, well, I know
how to raise money.
Well, I'm not sure that's the right way
to do it.
Well, you want to lose your ministry?
No.
Well, then give me a chance.
Okay.
And then you start getting letters like that
saying, blind ambition.
Jesus was not driven by blind ambition.
There never seemed to be a panic in
his life.
Maybe he knew something.
Well, let's move on to the next verse.
This next one is a rather scary one
for me, it's not my favorite verse in
the scripture.
It says, he made himself of no reputation,
or no image, or emptied himself and made
himself nothing.
Hmm.
This is not my favorite verse, because I'm
kind of into reputation.
I like it.
I want people to know who I am,
to know my name, to know how to
spell it, to know that I'm a guy.
But Jesus made himself of no reputation, no
image.
Why would he do that?
The thing about reputation and image is that
it separates you from people.
It really does.
I live over in the desert, and there's
a town right near me where there seem
to be more Rolls Royces per square foot
than any place I've ever seen.
Now, why do you drive a Rolls Royce?
Because you're desperate for transportation.
Image.
But it separates you from people, it really
does.
You've heard of Johnny Cash, haven't you?
I thought so.
I interviewed him once.
I was editing a youth magazine.
He had made a public profession of faith.
His pastor was a friend of mine.
He said, I'll get you an interview.
I said, wonderful.
I'll never forget that day.
I was sitting in his plush office, waiting
for him to arrive.
I had memorized my questions.
For days, I had practiced being cool.
And then he walked in.
Hi, I'm Johnny Cash.
I didn't realize he was that big.
I lost it.
Hi, Johnny.
I'm going to have you autograph it for
my son.
When that was over, I thought, I don't
believe this.
He puts his shoes on one foot at
a time, just like I do.
Why was I so intimidated?
Fame.
Fortune.
Jesus makes himself of no reputation, so everyone
in the world, whosoever will, can come boldly
before him.
Be comfortable.
Wow.
In fact, he did such a good job
of it.
Let me show you this.
I want to show you some ways that
he made himself of no reputation here.
This is an awesome thing to me.
Imagine for a moment that you're God.
Just give me one day, huh?
And there's this ball of mud out in
the middle of space called Earth, and little
critters running around on it called people, and
you love them.
And you want to tell them that, but
they don't even speak your language.
And then you know, I know what I'll
do.
I'll send my son.
I'll make him just like them and just
like me.
Now you have a problem.
A premiere.
An introduction.
Now, if God would have checked with me,
since I've had some experience in public relations,
I could have helped him.
I would have said, I know how premieres
go.
I live near Hollywood.
Turn it over to me.
Every searchlight in the world will be there.
Everybody who is somebody will be there.
And God says, well, no, Erwin, I don't
think I'll do it that way.
I think I'll have my son born like
other people.
Oh, okay.
Not a bad idea, actually.
But what you need to do, God, is
you need to snap your fingers and create
a 5,000-story hospital gleaming bright on
the outside with a giant diamond on the
top that would catch the rays of the
sun and cast them over the countryside and
only have one person ever born there, your
son.
We organized tours to go see it.
He says, no, thanks, Erwin.
I've got a different idea.
I'm going to have him born in a
barn.
Born in a barn?
Do you realize how funny this is?
That's no place for a baby to be
born, you know.
I was born on a farm.
I'm an old farm boy.
I know what barns are like.
They're not places for babies to be born,
unless they go moo afterwards.
We have sanitized this manger, folks.
We really have.
We think that the angels are just waiting
and thinking, oh, no, they're going to have
to sleep out here.
Oh, my, quick, sweep, sweep, shovel, shovel, whatever
you have to do, get it clean.
It's hard for us to realize, because of
our traditions, that they probably had to watch
their step.
I love Christmas, and I especially love nativity
scenes, but they're not quite accurate most of
the time.
They don't smell right.
It looks like someone has said, everybody get
over here.
We're going to take a picture.
I've pondered this, because I'm fascinated by this
particular moment.
You realize, of course, that Bethlehem was sort
of the old hometown.
Why didn't they have a place to stay?
Have you ever thought about this?
Why didn't they have a place to stay?
When I go back to the farm area
where I was born, there are plenty of
places to sleep.
Family, friends, oh, come stay with us.
You stayed there last time.
Why didn't Mary and Joseph have a place
to stay?
Well, I have a couple of ideas.
Mary was pregnant, and this kind of happened
before they were married.
It wasn't Joseph.
That was a lot worse in that day
than it tends to be in ours.
I have an idea, just an idea, that
maybe the family said, look, we don't know
what's going on here, but we don't approve
of it.
If you stay with us, people will think
we do, so maybe you should stay somewhere
else.
If you've ever found yourself on the wrong
side of family approval, Jesus has been there.
He knows where you're at.
But there's another thing.
Have you ever heard the statement, money talks?
You heard that?
Talks to me.
It says, goodbye.
You know, you know that if Joseph had
had enough of the coins, the innkeeper would
have said, why don't you stay in my
apartment?
I'll sleep in the barn.
So obviously they didn't.
So if you've ever found yourself at the
wrong end of the financial ladder, Jesus has
been there, too.
He knows where you're at.
But if this wasn't enough, you see, he
could never brag about this.
You understand this?
He could never say, I was born in
a barn.
Where were you born, huh?
My mother used to say that to me.
Erwin, Gale Erwin, were you born in a
barn?
You know, and it was not a compliment
ever.
But if this was not enough, he had,
as I have indicated, questionable parents.
You see, we believe in the virgin birth
today.
They didn't necessarily believe in it as we
do back then, any more than if the
sweetest young lady of your youth group suddenly
showed up pregnant, and everyone's going, oh no,
where did we go wrong?
And finally someone gets the courage to ask
her, who did it?
And she smiles sweetly and says, the Holy
Spirit.
Sure.
Do you understand the stigma under which Jesus
grew up?
What they might have called him?
So far, this isn't helping his reputation, is
it?
But if this wasn't enough, he had a
very common name.
Now, by now you're aware that his name
was not actually Jesus.
That's the way we sort of push it
through the Greek to our language today.
His name was actually Joshua, or Yahshua more
accurately, which was a good name.
It means God is salvation.
But it was a very common name.
There were Yahshuas running all over the place.
If God would have just checked with me,
I would have recommended that he give his
son a name that stands out from all
other names so that everyone would know when
they heard it, that must be God.
But Yahshua?
But if that wasn't enough, he had what,
well, I'm going to make a judgment about
it, and I'm going to call it a
weak announcement.
Now, you may be saying, wait a minute,
Erwin.
They didn't have angels singing when I was
born.
How can you call that a weak announcement?
Well, think with me for a second.
First of all, if he had checked with
me, since I've had some experience in public
relations, I would have recommended that he get
up on the moon with about a $5
,000 microphone and hang two billion-watt speakers
out in spades, and walk up to the
microphone and say, hello, world, this is God.
And we say, yes, yes, what, what, what?
But he says, well, thanks, Erwin, but I've
got another idea.
I think I'm going to use a choir.
Okay, okay, choirs are all right.
But don't you think you should follow somebody's
chain of command and have them sing for
the Sanhedrin first?
No?
Well, at least have them sing in the
marketplace.
That way we get our best coverage for
singing angel.
You want them to sing where?
Have you ever thought about this?
Imagine that you're one of these angels, and
for 200 years you've been practicing.
Me, me, me.
Everything is in order.
For 100 years, they've been building risers in
the sky for the gig of the centuries,
man.
And the moment arises, and whoever is in
charge says, okay, fellas, he's been born.
Hit it.
And they pull the curtains, and you get
ready to sing, and then you see the
crowd.
Six shepherds?
All right, who was in charge of posters?
Folks, shepherds were the wrong bunch to bring
the message to.
Anyway, we have also sanitized shepherds.
We, we tend to believe that every Jewish
boy just grew up dreaming of being a
shepherd.
Really, in that day, shepherds were sort of
bad news.
They were kind of like your friendly local
burglars.
When they went through town, things tended to
disappear.
And all of this for them.
But if that wasn't enough, have you noticed
that the Lord always seems to be bringing
the message to the wrong people?
Like us?
I hate to tell you this, but I
think you're mature enough to handle this.
He was not handsome.
Now, you may be saying, that's it, Irwin.
I was with you till now.
But I've got his picture on my wall.
And he's the most beautiful redheaded Irishman I've
ever seen.
You know, Isaiah tells us the truth about
him, and I can't believe how we miss
this.
He had no form or comeliness.
Now, we don't use that word comeliness much,
but it means handsomeness, good looks, that we
should desire him.
Amazing.
But I like that, because I know how
I feel around ridiculously handsome men.
Jealous.
So Jesus doesn't even throw this into the
equation.
I've pondered this, you know.
I know there are some reasons why it
might not be true, but you realize the
Gospels are his biographies.
Have you ever wondered why they didn't actually
describe him physically?
Usually they do in a biography, and it's
possible that maybe they thought of it and
then said, no, give him a break.
But if that wasn't enough, he grew up
in a very bad neighborhood.
If you ever go to London, be sure
and go to the Tower of London.
It is history condensed.
But one thing they have at the Tower
of London that I know of no place
else in the world where anything of this
nature is on display, they have the crown
jewels of England.
You go deep beneath the earth in this
totally secure room, and as you walk around
the outside, you look in the middle, and
you've never seen jewelry like that.
You don't need one of these eyepieces to
see any of this.
Every time after you visit this, whenever you
walk by a jewelry store, you just go.
They have jewels there as big as your
fist.
And I looked at that, and I thought,
what would I do with one of those
if I owned it?
I don't have a place to keep it.
Would I carry it in my pocket around
here and say to my friends, look what
I have?
They would say, look what you have.
Now, I tell you this because I want
you to think for a moment.
Imagine that you are Mary or Joseph, and
born to you is the greatest jewel ever
to grace this earth.
What are you going to do with him?
You ever thought of that?
Where are you going to go live?
What neighborhood do you want to raise the
Son of God in?
They took him to Nazareth.
Now, if you ever go to Israel, what
a dumb question to ask here.
Chances are good you'll go to Nazareth.
And if you react to Nazareth like I
did, I couldn't wait to get out of
that town.
What are we doing?
It's a dirty, no good town.
They say it always has been, you know.
And I said, what are we doing here?
Well, Jesus grew up here.
Okay, fine, let's go.
Even Nathanael said, can anything good come out
of Nazareth?
But I like this, because it tells me
you don't have to grow up in Beverly
Hills to be somebody.
But if this wasn't enough, he owned nothing.
He said, birds have nests, foxes have holes,
I don't even have a place to lay
my head.
That's not very impressive in our day, not
impressive at all.
The problem with owning things is that, well,
there are a couple of problems.
One, when you purchase something, you have to
maintain it.
It takes time and energy.
You have to protect it.
It takes time and energy.
You can own just enough things that all
your time and energy goes into maintaining and
protecting your things.
And Jesus, who came to redeem people, was
not going to be fooled by things.
And there's another problem.
If you're rich, don't tell me, because if
I think you're rich, I get real friendly.
Isn't that amazing how that messes with our
minds?
And Jesus comes in a way that says,
if you follow me, it'll be for the
right reasons, not for greedy ones.
I'm amazed at the theologies that arise that
feed off of greed.
What can you get?
Jesus didn't found that.
But if that wasn't enough, he had what
I can only describe as a rather strange
advanced man.
See, if I were forming the Gale Irwin
evangelistic crusade today, I would want to send
someone ahead of me who had some dignity,
somebody like John Wickham, who could just really
kind of put things together and organize it.
But John the Baptist, the original hippie, out
in the desert wearing funny clothes, eating organic
food, yelling at people, repent, and when they
do, he dumps them in water.
But if that wasn't enough, he also had
what I can only describe as a motley
crew.
I could have helped God so much if
he'd let me advise him.
I would have recommended that he first go
to the theological seminaries and get three or
four professors who understand the ramifications of the
theological questions that arise.
And then I would recommend that he go
to Hollywood and get someone with charisma who
can command the attention of the people.
Explain to them what it was you meant
when you said such and such.
And then I would recommend that he go
to Wall Street and get three or four
millionaires.
They're nice to have on the team.
Then I'd recommend that you go to Muscle
Beach and get about six bodyguards because they'll
crucify you around here if you don't watch
out.
That's the way I would put it together.
But Jesus didn't do that.
He went to the streets and got the
strangest bunch.
If you'd been walking 50 feet behind him,
you'd have said, I smell fish.
He had a zealot and a tax collector.
What can I say?
It's kind of like having Saddam Hussein and
George Bush on the same crew.
And some of them fellas had the awfulest
accents you've ever heard in your whole life.
And with that crew, he proposes to turn
the world upside down.
Amazing.
But I like it.
Because if he can work with them, he
can work with me and you.
But if that wasn't enough, he died a
very bad death.
Now, we believe that, but we don't really
believe it.
I was reading in 1 Corinthians chapter 1
where Paul says the preaching of the cross
is, to them that perish, foolishness.
And I thought, no, no, no, no, no.
It's not foolishness, man.
I see it everywhere.
It's on lapels.
It's on necklaces.
It's on bracelets.
It's behind altars, beautifully polished wood or burnished
silver.
It's on the top of steeples everywhere.
Sometimes even neon lighted and revolving.
And the Lord spoke to my heart and
said, Erwin, you don't understand the cross because
people don't die on crosses today.
And I realized that if we were to
bring it into modern terminology, if Jesus were
to have come today for the first time.
Now, I know the Bible has prophecies about
this, but let's just think about it for
a moment.
If he were to have come today for
the first time, we'd treat him a lot
better.
We'd electrocute him or gas him or hang
him.
Now, that would change some things.
It would change some things.
It would change our evangelism.
Can you see me saying, friend, have I
got good news for you?
My best friend just died in the electric
chair for you.
And if you'll believe that and take up
your electric chair and follow him, you'll be
safe.
He'd be saying, take him away, take him
away.
Our songs would change at the electric chair,
at the electric chair where I first saw
the light.
There's room in the gas chamber for you.
Now, do you see, as we laugh at
this, who are of sort of Greek mental
descent, do you see now, as we laugh,
why it says to the Greek, foolishness to
the Jew, a stumbling block?
Ah, but the power of God unto salvation.
Well, you look at this, and can you
decide that Jesus did a pretty good job
of making himself of no reputation?
Pretty good job.
But I have a problem.
Jesus said something that disturbs me.
Really, he said a lot of things that
disturb me.
One thing he said is, as the Father
has sent me, even so send I you.
Uh-oh, we got a problem, don't we?
See, I can't go back and be born
in a barn.
I was born on a farm, but it
was a nice farmhouse.
I can't go back and have questionable parents.
They'd been married for two years before I
was born, so there.
Common name?
How many guys do you know named Gale?
Weak announcement?
I probably made my own announcement, and with
my voice, it wouldn't have been weak.
You can count on that.
Moving right along here, I happen to have
grown up in a bad neighborhood, but that
doesn't make any difference to you.
There was a time I owned nothing but
me and the banker cooperating on a house.
If I had an advanced man, he'd have
to be a little strange to accept the
job.
I'm a one-man motley crew.
If I died a bad death, you'd just
say he deserved it.
So I cannot necessarily repeat this, and it
wouldn't, if I did, be of much value
to you, but I do believe that I'll
have my own list of those ways that
God makes moves on me to make me
approachable by those he's chosen for me to
serve.
No reputation.
Let me get off your case for just
a second and talk about us preacher types.
Present company accepted.
We're into reputation, you know.
We are.
I can introduce myself and say, hello, I
am the Reverend Mr. Gail D.
Irwin, and I've got you.
I'm impressed you.
Dust of furniture.
The preacher's here.
Or if I don't get to do that,
I can wear a black suit and a
white shirt and a black tie, and immediately
you know I'm either an umpire, an undertaker,
or a preacher.
Or if I don't do that, I have
another method.
I can speak with a sanctuary tone, dearly
beloved.
So good to see you today.
It's the end of your search for a
friendly church.
And immediately know I must be a preacher
because people don't talk that way.
What this means came screaming home to me
one day.
I was flying from here to Dallas.
The plane was full.
I had to sit in the middle seat.
The man seated by the window, well-dressed,
distinguished-looking young man, just outstanding, and he
was reading a Bible.
Now, you don't often see people reading Bibles
on airplanes, and when you do, your first
thought is, he knows something about the plane
I don't know.
But after a few moments, I cleared my
throat and said, is that a Bible you're
reading, sir?
And he said, uh-huh.
I said, well, I do that too.
Why are you reading?
And he told me.
He said, well, to be honest with you,
sir, I'm a wealthy man.
I own a manufacturing company.
He said, I have a big house in
an exclusive neighborhood, beautiful wife, lovely children.
He says, everything I have ever dreamed of
in life, I've achieved it.
And I'm only 32, he said.
He said, to be honest with you, I'm
miserable.
He said, there are some other people in
my neighborhood just as miserable as me, but
he said, there are some others in my
neighborhood who are, well, happy, he said.
I said, I decided to see if I
could find out why, and I've done some
investigating, and I don't know all the reasons,
but I found out that they all read
the Bible, so I've bought one to see
if I can figure out what's going on.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
There he was right next to me.
I could see his scalp already hanging from
my belt.
Nearly had the man on his knees in
this plane until at one point he looked
at me and said, by the way, what
do you do?
I wanted to say, I represent the big
three, but I told him, I'm a preacher.
Now, you can finish this story, can't you?
I was the first preacher he'd ever talked
to in his life.
The wheels began to spin.
What have I said to this man of
the cloth?
And the conversation became very proper, and someone
seated on the other side of me, who
had been overhearing the whole conversation, says, oh,
you're a preacher.
Well, I've been wanting to talk to a
preacher for a long time.
I have some questions I want to ask.
They were great questions, like, how many angels
can stand on the head of a pen?
The answer is five, in case you want
to know.
And the Lord just spoke to my heart
and said, Gail, you loved your reputation, didn't
you?
You squeezed everything out of it you could,
didn't you, Gail?
You loved it.
Yes, yes.
Now, do you see all the stereotype that
you have helped build and how it separates?
Yes.
And Jesus made himself of no reputation, so
anyone could come.
And if you haven't come to him, there's
nothing that should hold you back.
He has come to you.
Now, you know, we've got three more to
go.
We'll have to finish those the next time
we get together.
But I look at the ones we've seen,
and I am so overwhelmed with this man,
Jesus, that again, my heart says, I will
follow you the rest of my days.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Amen.
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