It's been a little while since I shared on a Sunday, so if we haven't met, like Alex said, my name's Ben, I'm one of our pastors here, one of our teachers here. And last week, and then in worship again today, it really seemed like the Holy Spirit was focusing us as a community on him as a lamb. So Josh's message last week was called, Behold the Lamb. And it was this invitation to see God, the way that he has presented himself through the Scriptures, right?
So Josh kind of walked us through all the way from Genesis to Revelation. God is wanting to be known as a lamb. And there's a lot of different things that we could talk about about God. He's multifaceted, and that's an understatement.
A lot of things we could say. But we felt this kind of pull towards looking at him as a lamb. And Josh pointed this out last week. There's kind of two main things that we looked at about God being a lamb.
The first one was the way that that whole picture ties in with the sacrificial system, right? Passover lamb. There's a sacrifice, and that actually brings freedom, and it's John the Baptist going, Behold the lamb who takes away this into the world, right? Very appropriate, good exegesis of the Scriptures, lamb equals sacrifice.
But the other thing that we looked at, and the thing that I'm going to hone in on tonight, is this the audacity of God, Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, to say, I'm kind of like this one year old sheep. And we talked about the almost ridiculousness of that, where of every creature, if God is going to compare himself to a creature, gosh, really anything except a lamb, right? Because we're seeing this, and it seems almost frail, and it seems weak. But what that highlights and what Josh kind of pointed out last week and what we're going to dive into today is that this picture of God being a lamb, yes, it's about him being a sacrifice, but it also exemplifies his meekness, the meekness of God.
And this falls right in line with something we've been carrying as a house for a while. And so about six months ago, we, like I said, God so multifaceted, and we're going, okay, Lord, where's our focus? Like of all the things we could look at, where are you calling us to focus on? And there was these core themes that he highlighted.
And so each of our prayer room sets, our corporate prayer room sets that happen in this room throughout the week, is kind of tied to one of those themes. And we said, yes, Lord, amen. We're going to take our meditation sets and our times together in the prayer room, and we're going to focus where you've kind of called us to focus. And one of the things that the Lord highlighted six months ago was this phrase, our meek Lord.
And that's like an oxymoron for a Lord to be meek. It's meant to be a little bit almost tongue-in-cheek to create some wonder in us, because that shouldn't be the case, right? That a Lord would be meek. But we've been taking Monday, noon until two, and I prayerly that set along with my wife, Candy, who's our worship leader, and there's a team of other worshipers, and we sit in a circle, and we've just said, hey, let's just continue to meditate on the meekness of our Lord.
Let's take time, and we're going to sing songs about it. We're going to read scriptures about it. We're going to meditate and fill our minds with this reality that we serve a meek Lord. And so today, I just want to bring us all in and scoop us on some things that we've been talking about on Mondays.
We've been praying about on Mondays. We've been meditating on the meekness of God, and I feel like it's right in line with what Josh led us into last week by him being a lamb. I just want to stare at his meekness today. I want to ask questions that we might not be able to answer, which is a great thing to do in biblical meditation.
It takes some sense way beyond you to just go, I'm going to try. You just stare at it with your mind blown. So I would love to, by the grace of God, lead us into that conversation today, and I would love to pray for us. We'll talk about this more later, but it takes an immense amount of grace and work of the Holy Spirit to look at God's meekness.
So we'd just pray with me, Holy Spirit, we ask you to open our hearts to receive you in your meekness today. We acknowledge our predisposition towards pride and towards self-promotion and self-protection. God save us from resisting the offense of the cross. We come to you today with humility and wonder as we approach the beautiful and eternal power of your meekness.
We love you. We accept your leadership. Amen. Amen.
Okay. Meekness, our meek Lord. I don't use the word meek in my text conversations with my friends. Right?
You're 2026. We're not dropping the word meek very often. And so unfortunately, we start talking about our meek Lord. We can have some misconceptions because when we think meek, many of us think week.
Right? When we think, oh, that person is meek, we picture someone who's timid or shy. When we say, well, this person really embodies meekness. We're picturing them being almost like a little bit distant, not in the middle, maybe a little like shy and insecure.
And that is not the biblical definition of meekness. And unfortunately, I think maybe it's because of that, because there was a bunch of songs and you know, Christmas song like Little Baby Jesus Meek and Mild and people didn't know what that meant. And they were like, okay, I think I got it. And then there's been this picture of Jesus, that is portrayed in culture of Jesus being a pushover.
And of Jesus, the meek one being like frail. And like not, oh gosh, he just wants to love so bad. But like, you know, sin. And like there's this weird picture that we've taken and we've made Jesus, again, culture has made Jesus almost even weak or frail.
And I think it's a misrepresentation of what meekness is. But friends, by definition, meekness requires strength because the definition of meekness is strength, restraint, power, restraint. So you can't be meek if you don't have any power. You're just weak.
Right? Like if, like if, like if, like a old school, like there's like a king and the peasant who walks into the throne room and starts making demands of the king and then the king says, get him out of here, silence him. Then he's silent. He's not silent because he's meek.
He's silent because he has no power. So that's not a virtue. Like we're not going to celebrate like, oh, the meekness of that peasant. It's like, nah, he was muzzled.
Like, you know, we can't do that, right? If there's a same imaginary kingdom that we're living in, okay, there's now there's a war and there's swords and shields and spears and there's going to be a charge from the army. And there's a one guy and it's his second day on the job and he does not want to be there. And to be honest, he's a coward.
He just hates it there. He's scared. He doesn't want to go. And so when they're about to blow the horn and charge, if that guy steps out and goes, hold on, hold on, hold on.
Let's take a minute. Do we really want to do this? The restraint of the army in that moment is not because of like meekness. He's just a coward.
Just really ripping on this fictitious guy. But like he's not, that's not a virtue. No one would say, oh man, that's just like God, right? Because it's meekness.
But if we flip those pictures and there's the king and the peasant comes storming in and starts running his mouth and all the guards are like, okay, and they move forward and the king who has all authority in that space and is the king says, hold on, hold on, let him talk. And he's silent and he lets this guy, who is a fool and it should not be there, start talking and then goes, interesting, tell me more. Suddenly everyone in the court is going, what's that? Because there's strength and power restrained and something about it feels like an invitation.
Something like what's going on there? If the army is about to charge and it's like the biggest, baddest army in the land and they know that the people they're going up against are not going to make it. They're assured of victory because they know who they are and they've got this strong army and they're about to blow the trumpet to charge and the general who's won a thousand battles and will win a thousand more and knows the strength of the army goes, hold. Even if you don't know what's going on, you're not going, what coward?
You're going, what? Because there's strength restrained. And so when we're talking about meekness, we're not talking about weakness or timidity, we have to actually anchor ourselves in the reality that God is all-powerful if we're going to look at his meekness. We have to remember that he's the God who humbles himself to behold the heavens and the earth, to behold, it takes God humility to look at a black hole.
He needs to lower himself, because he's the uncreated God who spoke and light exploded out of nowhere, who holds all power and all knowledge and all wisdom. That's the God that we're talking about. So what if, like what if God was everything that we know to be true about him, but he wasn't meek? What if he was just as strong and just as powerful and just as wise, but he wasn't meek?
He just makes sense like it changes your whole perspective of the Godhead, right? Yeah, he's all-powerful, but watch out. Because if I don't, oh shoot, I'm me. I don't know if we can be safe here, right?
It's like the meekness of God is in some ways what defines our picture of God, whether we name it or not, because if he wasn't meek, then suddenly changes the whole thing. And what's crazy is meekness in a deity is a completely foreign thing on the planet. There is no other religion. There's no other system of faith where the deity claims to be meek and lowly.
That is an anomaly, right? So I'm not going to say that I've studied this for years, but I've studied it enough to be very confident going, yeah, there are some gods that might express kindness. There are some religions that worship a God that might extend mercy, but I promise you, there is no other God that suffers. There is no other God that would define himself as long suffering.
He means he's going to suffer. He's God. There's not a framework in any other worldview, in any other tradition, for a God who suffers. One of the definitions of meekness, if you look it up, it says enduring harm or injury with patience and without resentment.
That's a completely foreign thing. And what's crazy is we've kind of normalized like, yeah, God's meek, that's not like news to anyone, but like back up, like this is, this is why it's an anomaly in all human history. Because if you look even way back like BC days, you're talking like the Greeks or the Romans, or these civilizations, who are the heroes of those civilizations? The biggest, baddest warrior who you don't want to mess with because he's on top.
Like that's who culture goes, now that guy, right? You can look, I remember for school, I read portions of the Iliad, you know, like these like mythic Greek warriors. And it's just like, and you wouldn't want to mess with this guy or this guy, because then there's these like graphic accounts in the Iliad of how they would just like slaughter people. And they're like, what a hero.
Like that was, that was what, that's what culture kind of goes, this is who we want. And then you look all throughout history and you're seeing a pattern, people actually love strength. People love strength expressed, not strength or strength. Our natural tendency, our carnal flesh goes, no, no, no, no, I'm going to win.
And the more that I can actually dominate, the better. That's our natural human tendency. Okay, I had a dream last night. And if you know me, you're like, really?
Because I'm not a dream guy. I have a couple dreams every decade or so that I remember. Most of them are nonsensical. Like I'm not your guy.
Like if I share this dream, then today you're like, oh, I got to send that dream. Please don't. I don't want to be very helpful. Not a dream guy.
I got to bring last night. And in this dream, I was driving with some friends. And you know how dreams are where it's like, time doesn't make a ton of sense. I don't know how long it was.
But I remember it's like, we were in the car for a while. And it felt like a normal conversation, me and some really close friends of mine. And we're driving, then it gets kind of quiet and we're almost to our spot. And then one of my friends goes, okay, then, we have to talk about it.
Talk about what? And they're like, this whole car ride. You've just been slandering people. You've been using vile language.
You've been, and they're like, whoa, what? Oh, I didn't. And then the person in the backseat's like, I'm going to, I've been so uncomfortable. How could you do this and this and this?
And I'm driving, I'm like, are you kidding? Like, I didn't do that. And in this dream, all of this accusation, I'm going, no, I didn't do it. That's not me.
I didn't do it. And what's crazy is in this dream, you know, it's like, it feels real when you're in it. And it's like, they're reacting as my friends would if I actually did all this stuff they're accusing me of. But I'm convinced going, I didn't, who do you think you are?
I think I am. Are you kidding me? And I'm getting elevated. And I'm starting to get emotional.
And I'm starting to get mad. Because I'm like, you're insane. I didn't do that. And then I wake up.
And I'm laying there in the dark, just, because dreams feel real, right? And I'm like, oh, I hate that. I hate that. And then the Lord reminded me that I was speaking on meekness today.
And he led me through this thing. And I was still feeling this dream and holding this dream. And then I'm like, remembering like, oh, the meekness of God. And there was this moment where I was like, I'm nothing like him.
All it takes is some friends, pukens and buttons. And I start rising up and going, well, you don't know who I am. And I defend myself. And I want to control the situation.
I want to make sure that you know what's true. I'm not going to stand for this. And it exposed something that I think is deeply true of how the human condition responds to meekness. Because friends, I actually think I actually think humanity hates meekness.
I know that sounds strong, but I'm like, I think we despise meekness. When we see someone with strength who doesn't use it, it irritates us. And that's actually part of us. Do something.
There's leaders with power. And then there's an offense. And it's like, sumpa. Like, get them.
That's what rises up in us. And at best, we'll pity it. At best, we'll be like, huh, aw. Like, maybe there's something going on.
But I think deep down, there's a part of us that actually is opposed to meekness in human nature. So I'm laying in bed, and I'm thinking about this. And I'm like, is that really true? Do people inherently despise meekness?
And I remembered the story where humanity was presented with the clearest picture of meekness possible. When Jesus is standing with Pilate behind him in the crowd in front of him, beaten, ripped up, bloodied, silent. Mock crown, mock robe, and he's standing there before them. The picture of strength restrained.
And what did the crowd do? What did they say? Give us baradis. Give us baradis.
This character baradis is in all four gospels. And from what we can piece together about him, he's called a thief, a murderer, and a riotist insurrectionist. He was involved in an insurrection. And when presented with the option of meek Jesus or baradis, they go, that's a guy who gets what he wants.
Yeah, Celie might not be right, but like, he's nobody's fool. Oh, you messed with the wrong guy. You messed with baradis with baradis got his. Man, there was this Roman Empire that was trying to keep us down.
At least he did something about it. Yeah, sure he got caught, but at least he did something about it, and we're exposed. And friends, I think that the reality is that we need to come into this conversation being real honest and going, we've grown used to the idea of meekness, but I think there's a part of us that's still going, I want baradis. And I just want us to come and humble today.
I want us to understand that when we look at the world, we start talking about the meekness of Jesus. If pride is the filter, and if self-defense is the filter, we will ask for baradis every time. And so God gives grace to the humble. And the only way that we're going to be able to look at the meekness of Jesus and actually let it transform us is if we go low, and if there's humility on our hearts.
So we're going to take the rest of our time today to talk about his meekness, but I want us to stay low. And if there's something in us that's like, we got to be strong too, right? I just want us to be aware of that. Because I don't want us crying for baradis when presented with our meek Lord.
Yeah? And we got a little strong there, but I think this is so important. It's so important for the church. And so what we're going to do, friends, is going real low, we're just going to start looking at what scriptures say about our meek Lord.
And my goal is not to give you guys a bunch of facts and a bunch of things you go, OK, you've convinced me. Well done. You know, like we go, some of us love going hiking, and you climb up a mountain all day. And what we're not doing is we're not going, I wonder what kind of rocks the mountains made out of.
And as a historian, well sure, there was two tectonic plates, and they went like this, and then they formed a mountain peak in over a long period of time. Nor are we cartographers with our maps out going, OK, well, where are the boundaries of this? Where does this start and stop? We're hiking up the mountain so we can get to the top, and sit down, and look at the view, and just go, wow, that is.
I can't contain this. I can't explain this. But it is beautiful. And something about it is actually more meaningful, because I can't fully wrap my mind around it.
I'm just gazing into something that's bigger than me, and it's healthy for my soul. And so I just want us to hike up the mountain of his meekness, and look over the edge, and catch our breath, and sit down, and have our little cliff bar, and then start walking down, and we're done. But I just want to look at him. And I want to let wonder and humility be the filter as we do that.
Yeah? OK. OK. Well, the Old Testament primarily lays the foundation of who he is.
And in that, we've got a lot of pictures from the Old Testament stories of his strength, right? Mighty hand outstretched arm. Deliver God who triumphed over the gods of Egypt. There's a lot of things that we can find in the Old Testament that talk about his strength.
And again, fully justified. It's a dangerous conversation to talk about it, because if you don't understand the foundations that they're laying here, real good for us to read the end of Job sometimes. Just get brr, brace yourself like a man, Job, where were you when I formed the deep? And that's healthy, and it's good, and it's right, and it's true.
And the majority of the Old Testament does present God in its strength, God Almighty. But even in that, there are some pictures. There are some things that if you were just trying to form a worldview about God, you'd reach certain passages and go, hey, what? Like the story where Elijah is talking with God and God, he'll go up on the mountain and go on the cave.
And then there's a fire. And then there's the rushing wind. And there's the earthquake, which God wasn't in those things. And then what's the last thing that comes?
The still small voice. And then Elijah puts up his hood and walks out, because he knows that's God, right? That's a moment where, as a reader, you'd pause and go, wait, but didn't he come in a pillar of fire? Like, didn't he send earthquakes?
But there's a picture going, yes, but. And there's this window, and there's this window, and there's something that's gentle and is at his core. So that exists. But primarily, we're talking about his strength.
I actually want us to turn to a Psalm together that I think does a great job of kind of exemplifying this. So you can turn to Psalm 29. Psalm 29. This is where the psalmist, you might know it when you turn to it, and start reading this is where the psalmist starts talking about the voice of the Lord.
Yeah? Psalm 29. His voice is like his expression. Like what you say, it's like, this is who I am.
This is what I do. And so I'm just going to read Psalm 29, because there's another verse that I want to overlay with it when we're done. But in Psalm 29, it says this, read with me. It says, ascribe to the Lord, oh, heavenly beings.
ascribe to the Lord, glory and strength. ascribe to the Lord, the glory that's due his name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. Here we go.
He starts talking about his voice. He says, the voice of the Lord is over the waters. The God of glory thunders. The Lord over many waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. The Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf and serion like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. The Lord shakes the wilderness of cadet.
The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forest bear and in his temple all cry glory. And everyone's like, God, making the deer give birth. I thought that was really funny. I'm like, ah, I was in a moment.
Let me start talking about deer giving birth. God, his voice gives life. That's the picture here in the Hebrew. He just makes the thing come alive.
If calling back to life, he's spoken like life was created. Right? You start going through this and there's all these pictures. The Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
These are like the biggest, most beautiful trees. It's the biggest thing in that part of the world that grows. And then it talks about Lebanon, particularly Sireon. That's the biggest tallest mountain in that region.
So he's saying like, picture the biggest thing. He can break it with his voice. This is the strength of God. It says the wilderness of Kedash.
That's where God met with Israel in the tabernacle. I'm like the cloud and the fire. Psalm 29, he strips the forest bear and in his temple all cry glory. And everyone's amped up and they're like, yeah, Yahweh.
So now, turned to Isaiah 42. Isaiah is obviously writing a much longer time after David. But the general principle is still absolutely true. God is just.
God is mighty. There's these wars and there's these exiles and Israel's going through it. And it's like, yep, and God is sovereign above it all. And the picture of God is still pretty consistent with what we saw in Psalm 29.
So we'll start in verse one. This is a messianic prophecy. This is Isaiah looking ahead and talking about the anointed one that's going to come. And the Lord says, behold my servants, whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights.
I've put my spirit upon him. He'll bring forth justice to the nations. And everyone's like, yeah, break in cedars. Mountains are skipping.
They've heard the story. And then there's spand on the universe too. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street. A bruised read, he will not break and a faintly burning wick.
He will not quench. He will faithfully bring forth justice. Everyone's like, what the heck? No, no, no, no, no.
I read the Psalms. The voice of the Lord thunders. The glory of the Lord over the water of God Almighty who's shaking the will that flames the fire. But you're getting a picture here where God fully validates.
This is my servant who's going to bring justice. But then he paints a picture of one who doesn't cry aloud or lift up his voice. I thought the voice of the Lord was powerful and full of majesty. Yeah, he's not going to raise his voice.
He's not going to make it heard in the streets. Everyone's like, what's the point? The same God who breaks cedars with his voice isn't going to break a bruised read. The same God who says from his voice flashes forth flames of fire.
He's not going to quench out a little smoldering wick. We get a picture of the restraint of God. And it's not weakness. And it's not just withholding.
It's how he brings justice. You catch that? Isaiah saying the way he's going to bring justice is actually his strength restrained. And this leads us to Jesus because Jesus is the image of the invisible God.
God has eternally been our meek Lord. But there's an expression of it that comes to fruition in Jesus that is distinct. Hebrews 1 says that long ago in many ways God spoke to us through prophets. But in these last days he spoke unto us through his Son.
He is the express image, the exact imprint of the nature of God. And this is where the meekness of God is revealed to the planet through God the Son. And what's crazy is from the first moment, well pause. Any time that God talks to anyone in scripture, we can meditate on his meekness.
Any time he interacts with humanity, we can pause and be like, oh, the strength restrained. They didn't just pith and evaporate when he spoke to him, all the kindness of God to withhold himself. That's who he is. He's unlimited in his power.
There is no limit to the amount of strength that he has. So when he talks to Moses face to face like a friend, it's like, what the heck? There's always invitations to his meekness. But in the life of Jesus, things go like supernova with his meekness.
You're going, wait, what's the first moment of Jesus's life? He's born in a barn. First of all, he's born. I'm not here to make anyone uncomfortable, but I was there when my wife gave birth.
And like that, I know that we're laughing, but like, pause for a second. God was born in a barn. Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool says the Lord. And he's born in a barn.
God Almighty making his entrance for the first time as one of the ones he created. God could have materialized. He didn't need to be born. God could have just showed up and done his ministry, wandered out of the wilderness and no one would have known the difference.
But he was born in a unthinkable display of meekness. No, I'm actually going to be one of them. And then what I know about 100% of humans that have been born and then get old is there's a process in the middle. He's growing up.
God Almighty who walked in the cool of the day in the Garden of Eden as a tipsy toddler learning to walk with legs that couldn't quite hold him up so he has to hold on to someone else. It's God. We are too used to this. This should be insane.
The meekness of God restrained and learning how to walk. So we don't get many pictures vividly. So we're left to have a feeling gap. So we do get is a picture of preteen Jesus.
There's only one story of Jesus as a young man. And this is the moment where his family goes to Jerusalem. You guys know the story? They go to Jerusalem.
They're in the temple. Mom and Dad leave and have the home alone moment. Kevin. Jesus.
And they come running back and they find Jesus in the temple. And a lot of us know this story and we go, oh, look at the profound wisdom of Jesus. He goes, didn't you know I'd be about my father's business? And everyone's like, oh, good answer, good answer, good answer, good answer.
We're all like, oh, look at Jesus. And even at a young age, look at his wisdom and his power. We stop them and look at the next verse. Okay.
This is Luke 2, verse 50. And they didn't understand what he was saying. He says the super profound thing that we appreciate. Mom and Dad didn't get it.
Didn't you know I'd be about my father's business? Okay, Kevin. We got to go. Like we're.
And then, and he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. You ever picture Jesus being parented? All the parents in them should be catching their breath going, thank God he's not my child, right? Because Jesus is perfect and his parents aren't.
Jesus is perfect and his parents aren't. So he's being raised in a home by imperfect people and he is the son of God. And he follows them and is submissive to them. Isaiah 40, with whom did the Lord take counsel?
Who has instructed him? Paul says in Romans 11, who has known the mind of our Lord? Who's been his counselor? And yet Christ is growing in wisdom and in stature under the submissiveness of his parents teaching.
This is crazy. So we don't get any other pictures until Jesus shows up. And it's the scene that Josh talked about last week with John the Baptist. He says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
And the inauguration of Jesus' ministry is being compared to a Lamb. Right? We talked about that last week. But Jesus doesn't find ways to get around this picture of him being gentle and meek.
He actually doubles down on it. And at a point where he had every reason to start really moving the people, getting some momentum. So in Matthew 11, this is after the Sermon on the Mount, people are like, this guy, he's got following now. The crowds are following him and there's momentum.
And now's the time where many of us would say, you know, for the sake of good leadership, I got to be strong. I've got to be, I've got to be strong. I don't want so insecurity into my people. I want to make sure they know who they're following.
I'm a trustworthy guy. And all of us say that inwardly. We're all like, I want him to like me. I want him to respect me.
But Jesus is standing up there and there's crowds all over the place. And this is where he drops that line that so many of us have heard where he says, come to me, all who are weary. And I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, for I am gentle and lowly in heart.
King James says, for I am meek and lowly, where God himself self-identifies with being meek and lowly. Why? Jesus, this is the moment. Rally the troops, bud.
Let's get some momentum here. Let's show them your wisdom. They're all listening. God himself is on the planet with a crowd all around him.
And that's the moment. To rally the troops. And he says, hey, if you're really tired, that makes sense. If you're bummed out and don't really know where you're going, come to me because I'm gentle and I'm lowly.
And all of Israel is just ticked off. Lead us. They're trying to make him king. You see all throughout the gospels.
They're trying to push him into political action or some sort of military power. And he stands up there with every eye watching and every ear tuned in. He says, I'm meek and lowly. Again, every miracle we could look at, where he stoops down and heals a body.
Every moment where he's hanging out with the tax collectors and the sinners. Almighty God who dwells in unapproachable life, don't come into the holy of holies you're going to get smoked. That God who's finding himself with every option leaning towards those who are low and he's with them. If we're used to this, we shouldn't be.
But let's get to the point where the meekness of God gets put on full display and this is in the last few days of his life because now the heat's turned up. Now it's not just like, oh, Jesus is teaching good values and he's really modeling something for people. He's a man. And this man, when he has a dream about people who don't like him, starts to get elevated.
This guy can't have a dream where his friends start calling him out on something without starting to fight for himself. And Jesus is now experiencing it. Ah, we can so use to this. I don't know how to do this because we're so used to it.
But it's like, he's a man who is now aware that he's in the last week of his life. What does that do physiologically? What does that do to your cortisol levels? Think about this from a human level.
Jesus is experiencing a crushing because he is a man. And the whole time we get this said later in the Garden of Gethsemane, but the whole time he reveals something that at any moment he could have called on his father and had a legion of angels, 12,000 angels. He is well aware that at any moment there's an easy button I can push as he's walking through the week knowing that he's going to die and every second he has the opt out. So with that in mind, and we get to the garden, we're zooming past and stuff, we're in the Garden of Gethsemane and he's reached his limit as a man.
Again, this is crazy, but he is in a body. God is in a body. And so now he's crying out before God. His friends fell asleep because they just couldn't take it.
They were too stressed out and too tired. So they're napping over there as he's in travail before God, sweating blood, carrying more weight and pressure than anyone could imagine. He exposes the reality of his heart to God and says, if it's possible, take this away from me. But in the moment of decision with the easy button right here and every justification because of his perfection, because of his divinity, he had every reason and the easy button right here and he takes his hand away and says, not my will, but yours be done.
And models the restraint to willingly walk in to betrayal and torture and death, willingly. So he gets up, wakes up his buddies who just couldn't stay awake, and then turns and here comes Judas, the one that he's been investing in and pouring into one of 12 people on the planet who got the privilege of walking alongside the Christ. And Judas backstabs him, goes to the guys we're trying to find him and leads them to his favorite place to pray to interrupt his quiet time to arrest him. Imagine yourself in that scenario.
And the whole time you have unlimited power. So the whole time you could end it. Guards walk up. Judas comes close and kisses him.
Y'all go restraint in that moment. I think I'm a fairly decent human. Man, I'd be tempted to just slug him. You know exactly what's happening.
It says that devil was entered into it and Jesus knew about it. And Judas leads these guys up and goes, Rabbi, he comes in for a hug. And the restraint of Jesus in that moment. He doesn't say a word.
And you might be thinking, well, he's probably just super ticked off the whole time. I'm just biting his tongue because I want to do what I see the Father doing. And the Father wouldn't chew him out or slug him. But in that moment where he's going, it's happening.
Rome's here. Peter does what most of us would do, who don't have the meekness of our Lord, takes out his sword and starts swinging, hacks off the guy's ear. Jesus has every right to go, hey, enough of that. And walk away.
But in the midst of his betrayal, in the midst of the agony, he's still probably got like blood stains on him from sweating blood in the place of prayer. And he leans down and heals the Roman. It's not just restraint because he really wants to let him have it. In the moments where he does step out and does something, he's expressing love.
So then we move forward and now we get to the real stuff where Jesus has been. He's been led before the Sanhedrin. And there's a bunch of nobodies that he's trounced in debates a hundred times. A bunch of jealous, petty, angry, conniving people who step up into the court and start yelling and making a bunch of lies about him.
And he could prove them wrong in a second. They're saying, well, he said this and this and this. And Jesus could go, no, I didn't. And he could calmly, he'd calmly correct them and tell them where they're wrong.
He could defend himself. And Jesus stands there silently. And man, we need to understand the strength that he's embodying in this moment. Because it's not just restraint of like, oh man, it's crazy.
Look at all these people and I should keep quiet so I don't stir the pot. John 13, he knows who he is. He knows where he came from. He knows where he's going.
And he's standing there as slander just gets chucked at him from every side silently. And they said, well, are you the Christ? He goes, you wouldn't believe me if I told you. It doesn't sound like a man who's intimidated and frail.
It sounds like he is supremely confident. In the midst of the mayhem that's happening, the accusation, he's not like me freaking out in my dream. My friends in the car trying to justify myself. You think he doesn't know what to do with accusation?
Again, this is the guy who had a showdown with the devil himself. The accuser of the brethren came at him and Jesus turned and faced him and said, it is written. It is written. And the devil left him licking his wounds.
That's the power of God. He knows what to do with accusation. He could silence it in a moment. And he's standing there.
And then Pilate goes, well, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus goes, you said so. And he's just, he is rock solid. The strength of God restrained at any moment.
Send in the squadron. I'll take a legion of angels. Give me out of here. Doesn't do it.
It stands there. He stands there as the crowd that was begging him to lead turns their back on him and says, he's the most verbous at any moment, easy button. But he is now at a point as we continue to move through the storyline of Jesus where he's been beaten beyond recognition. Physiologically, if there's ever time for your self-control to run out, that's the moment.
That's the moment where what's on the interior gets exposed. That's the moment where every defense is down. He knows what's going to happen if there was ever a moment for a crack in this armor that Jesus has. Look how unique he is.
But really underneath the surface, this is the moment. Jesus has lead to the cross and he's stretched out on the cross beam. And the moment where he's going, this is it. And the spike gets driven through his wrist.
What bursts out of him is, bother forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. And he's actually empathizing with his murderers. That's what comes out of the broken Jesus that doesn't have any self-control left.
What's on the inside is starting to come out. And what's coming out of Jesus is care for the people who are killing him. God Almighty getting killed with every justification. Having done nothing wrong.
Father forgive them. They don't even know what they're doing. And then they hoist him up. And if you don't know this, the way that crucifixion works, you don't die because you like bleed out through the wrist.
You die of suffocation because they pound in your wrists and your feet. So any pressure on those points is going to hit every nerve. They designed it to hit every nerve point. So it's the most painful thing in the world as you're laying or being stretched out to say anything.
You need to catch your breath, which means you need to push yourself up. That means you're either driving your feet into the spike in your, like in the front of your foot or you're pushing yourself up through the strength of raising yourself through the spikes in your own wrists. So the words of Jesus on the cross are pretty important. He didn't have much of them because he was slowly suffocating on the cross.
And as he's there, what does he say? There's this thief next to him who goes, I think you're innocent. Could you remember me in your kingdom? And Jesus goes and encourages the man.
It says today, you're going to be with me in paradise. Goes back down. And then he looks down and he sees his mom there and he goes, oh, arm's going to be alone. And pushes himself up and says, John, behold your mother, behold your son.
It's going to be okay. And the brokenness of Jesus actually reveals the interior of his heart. And what's coming out of him is care and affection and humility. There's people all around the cross saying, you saved others, save yourself.
And man, isn't that like us sometimes? Yeah, God's meek. But then when the crap hits the fan, like do something and we're unwilling to accept his meekness as his answer for how he's going to bring justice. I don't want to align myself with those folks at the foot of the cross mocking him.
I want to have eyes of humility and wonder going, what in the world am I looking at? I want to look out over the vista and just kind of shake a little bit and go, this is different than anything I've ever seen. He's God. He's pure.
He's holy. There is no one righteous, no one except him. And the same God that in Psalm 29 was described as the voice that breaks the cedars and the voice that makes mountains skip and the voice of the Lord that thunders and in his temple all cry glory raises himself up one last time and uses his voice to say, it's finished. This is the meekness of Jesus is so central to the gospel.
And we need to have it hit our hearts again. We need to be able to look with wonder and go, I think that the meekness of God is one of the clearest ways that we can see him in body, like the greatest virtues of our faith. Faith, hope and love. That's what Paul says, it all comes down to these three.
And you see Jesus, the God man, modeling meekness. And he says, I have faith in God. I only do it. I see my father doing not my will, but yours be done.
And his meekness is a window into this unshakable faith. You see his hope in his meekness, right? Says it's his kindness that leads to repentance. He doesn't want anyone to perish.
And he's going in my restraint. I'll give you time. You can still do it. You can repent.
You can turn. I believe in you. I'm going to hold off just a little more. I'm going to restrain myself just a little more because I'm filled with hope.
Redemption is possible. So he's restraining himself in great hope. And then love, the love of God on display through his meekness. You overlay what we know.
First John says God is love. And you overlay that with 1 Corinthians 13. You go, OK, so God is patient. God is kind.
He's not rude. He's not self-seeking. He's not easily angered. He keeps no record of wrongs.
How about this one? From 1 Corinthians 13, love doesn't demand its own way. All mighty righteous God, who's never made a mistake once in his life, perfectly wise, perfectly holy, not demanding his own way. And all of us go, why?
You should. You should demand your own way. The righteousness of God demands it. And God said, I'm not wavering in what I say about righteousness.
But I'm not going to demand my own way. I'm going to invite you. And it's going to be a window into a potential relationship of love, not of demanding. The meekness of God on display through his love.
We climbed up the mountain and we looked at his meekness. And I think there's only really two appropriate responses. And so I'd love to just give us time to do one of these two things. If as I've been sharing through the kindness of God, he's given you a window into something and you feel like you're seeing him and you're seeing a part of his meekness and his character and his heart and you just want to respond with worship and thank you and like a quiet, like sitting under his character, I think that's a very appropriate response.
So if that's where your heart's at, that's where you should go. And if you're listening to this and you're like, yeah, this is good. I think that's true. He did a pretty good job of walking through the scriptures.
I think this is true. But you're kind of left in like us. So what do I do? I think that's a great question and that's an appropriate question.
How should the meekness of God transform you? What does it look like if our meek Lord parented your kids this week? What would it look like if the Jesus that we just talked about stepped into your workplace and was on the phone with your clients and your vendors? What would it look like if our meek Lord was walking through Minneapolis and St.
Paul right now and letting yourself ask those questions and of course what we're doing in that, yes, we're honoring him. We're also going, wow, I'm nothing like that. God make me like him and we're giving him permission to transform us. I think it's incredibly appropriate for some of us to repent.
Repentance doesn't have to be a shame-based thing where you feel terrible. What it means is you're going, well, I'm nothing like him and I want to be like him. Father make me me like you. Lord, I can't even have a dream about getting insulted without feeling my offense rise up in my heart and somehow you hung on a cross, unoffended.
God make me like you. I think that's appropriate. So we're just going to leave some space and if you're the type of person that knows that you can't do this in authenticity without getting a little space, by all means you can get some space. You want to stay where you're at?
That's fine. This is often a moment where it's like, all right, the sermon's done. I'm going to go to the bathroom and grab my kids. Please don't.
Please stay and let the things that we've been looking at actually sink in a little more because the goal here is worship and transformation. We're just going to leave some space for that, okay? However the Lord leads you, let's just take some time. Make us like your son.
Father, we ask for Grace on our house to walk out the meekness of our Lord. We want to be those that stare into this mystery and come out different. We want to be a church that's known for looking at the meekness of our God and then modeling it everywhere that we go. Lord, we acknowledge our pride.
We acknowledge how quick we go to defend ourselves, how quick we go to make sure people know that we're smart enough and we're good enough and we're not anybody's chump. That's what we are God. We want to be like you. We want to be transformed into your image.
And so Lord, I'm asking that by your grace, you would take the things we've talked about tonight, the things we've been meditating on on Mondays, we want to be transformed by the renewing of our mind going, this is the way of the kingdom. This is the gospel. We could be standing strong and confident and full of the truth of our identity, but restrained, never looking to seek our own way, never looking to use our strength as an advantage or something to prove to somebody else. We want to be like Jesus.
We want to be like our meek Lord. Father, it would be an honor to represent you to the world. It would be an honor. If you could mark us with an interior strength and an exterior meekness.
We want to be anchored in who you are. I know I just was praying, but I want to just extend the blessing. I think that it's God's heart for you to be just like Him. I think that in the midst of your brokenness and the hearts of your soul that still sometimes cry out for Baravas, I think that you want Jesus with all your heart and you want to be like Him.
I want my friends to be filled up with the power of God to express the meekness of Jesus. God, I ask that as these feet walk all over our city this week that we be ambassadors of your ministry of reconciliation. As you call the world back to yourself with gentleness and humility, Lord, would you make us a people of the way, a people that live out the gospel of Jesus and the character of our Father. Lord, I bless that I ask that you would give them everything they need this week to model the meekness of our Lord.
I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.