And then so in Mark chapter six, of course, there's a lot going on in Mark six.
We've been going through the book verse by verse for the last couple of months now.
And obviously, you know, Mark five, we got through a little bit quicker, but I can
tell you right now, if you're paying attention during the reading, you probably
already know Mark six is going to, we're probably going to be in this for a while
because there's just so much in Mark six, so many great stories, so many famous,
well-known passages of scripture.
So brace yourself, okay?
But Mark six is a great chapter there.
I mean, there's so much action.
This is what I love about the book of Mark, especially there's just so much going on.
There's just a book of action, so many things taking place, so many great stories.
Now as we get into it, I'm just going to look at the first three verses this morning
where it says, and he went out from thence and came into his own country and his disciples
followed him.
And when the day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue and many hearing were astonished
saying, from whence hath these man's these sayings and what wisdom is this, which is
given unto him that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands is not this the carpenter,
the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and Judah and Simon and are not
his sisters here with us.
And they were offended in him.
So even right here, there's a few things that we can get out of this.
And the first thing I'd point out just briefly, this is really isn't the thrust of the
sermon at all this morning, but I would like to point out there in verse three that
we see Mary had more than one child.
And this is just debunks very easily.
This false notion that's out there off the top by the Catholic Church that Mary
was a perpetual virgin.
And look, I'm not here to teach a biology class.
Those of us that are adults know that you can't be a virgin and have this multitude
of children.
Christ was a miraculous birth.
The virgin birth happened that time.
But after that, it was by natural means.
These were all just normal kids after him, after him, his brothers, his sisters were
not children of they were not of the father.
Obviously, we understand that.
And you know, you're saying, duh, that's pretty obvious and duh, it is pretty obvious.
And yet we have people teach such erroneous things as Mary being a perpetual virgin say,
why is that?
Because it's something you have to understand about the Catholic Church is that the Bible
is not the final authority in the Catholic Church.
The Bible is not the final authority in a lot of churches.
Even in churches where they'd say the Bible's our final authority, a lot of times you'll
find it's not.
And that's something you have to strive to make happen in a church, say, hey, whatever
the Bible says, that's what we're going to believe, preach, and teach.
That's something you have to go, you have to make a priority in a church.
Catholic Church, amongst others, does not do this.
They'll believe the Bible in so much as it aligns with their papal decrees, whatever
the church writings are, the church fathers, they'll defer to that before the word of God.
And they'll say this explicitly in their own catechism, you'll hear it come out of
the mouth of Catholics, you know, and that's why they can read something that's
just so plain as day in verse three, something that's just as plain as the nose on your
face, and then just turn around and deny it.
Because they don't believe it, this isn't their authority, okay?
But that's not the thrust of the sermon at all this morning.
What I do want to go into a little bit is this idea of Jesus being a carpenter, Jesus
the carpenter.
And I believe it's not, it's very reasonable to assume that Jesus was a carpenter.
And some people will debate this, you know, was he a carpenter, was he not a carpenter?
And the reason why some people might debate this is because it says in Matthew 13, I'll
just read to you in verse 55, which is a parallel passage, they said, is not this
the carpenter's son, right?
And we're just getting a little bit more detail, it's being phrased a little bit differently
there.
But it's very clear in Mark 3 that it's saying is not this the carpenter, right?
So the carpenter, elsewhere he's referred to as the carpenter's son.
So it's not really unreasonable to assume that Jesus, you know, and when it's, again,
it's them saying he's the carpenter's son, right?
It's not Jesus saying that.
We understand that he is the son of God, right?
For instance, in Luke where he corrected his mother and said, I must be about my father's
business, right?
After she had said, your father and I sought the sorrowing, he said, I must be about
my father's business.
So people mistakenly assumed that Jesus was the natural born child of Joseph, okay?
We understand that, okay?
So we have to, when we read scripture understand, you have to decipher between the statement
and the story, okay?
The statements of scripture, that which is just, you know, the narrator, the Holy Spirit
telling us that's factual, and then often that narrator will tell us what other people
said.
Bible records people saying the wrong thing a lot.
It records the lives of the devil, okay?
So and when people misspeak or are misinformed, right?
Whereas people, where people are saying in Matthew is not this the carpenter's son.
They really said that, but that doesn't mean he was the carpenter's son, okay?
That's just another reminder about Bible study, about Bible reading, so you avoid confusion.
But I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that Jesus, that his earthly ministry
began at 30 years old.
So it wasn't like, it just stands to reason that Joseph being a carpenter, that would
have been the trade that he would have learned, yes, okay?
That's possible, but you know, I've strongly believed that he in fact was a carpenter because
of a verse like this, because his father was a carpenter, and it wasn't like today
where you have all these different options as far as a career, okay?
I mean, back then, it's pretty safe to assume it was pretty limited.
You know, you were probably either going to be a carpenter, work with cattle, maybe
be, you know, out in a field somewhere, maybe a little bit of everything.
Who knows, right?
You know, you weren't going to be applying to be a diversity officer at some university
somewhere, right?
These things didn't exist, okay?
Marine biologist was not an option, right?
They didn't get to follow their dreams or something like that.
But you know, so I believe, you know, because of the limited amount of opportunity that
there was, and the fact that his father was a carpenter, and the people here
in the story are calling him a carpenter, it kind of stands to reason, Jesus was
a carpenter, okay?
Which is not a big deal, but it does, you know, here's what I want to address this
morning is when people lag onto things like this, and romanticize them, and blow
them out of proportion to a place where it almost becomes irreverent and blasphemous
in my opinion.
Because they'll say, oh, Jesus was a carpenter, and then they'll just start saying things
about the fact that he was a carpenter, okay?
Now I think it's blasphemous to refer to Christ in that context, to bring him down
and say, oh, he was just a carpenter, right?
Because that's kind of what's going on in the story.
They're offended in him, and they're saying, you know, where does he get this knowledge?
How is he able to do his work?
Is this not the carpenter?
So they're kind of, you know, they're not saying it necessarily to deride him, but
they're kind of making a distinction in their mind.
He's just a simple carpenter, right?
He's not, where did he get all this learning?
Where does he get his understanding?
He's just a carpenter.
So when we today see people referring to Christ as a carpenter, you know, we have to understand
that you're referring to him not in the best light.
It's kind of an irreventual, it's kind of a blasphemous, let me just say it, way
to refer to Christ, because Christ is so much more than a carpenter.
We shouldn't bring Christ down and just try to put him into a little box, oh, he
was a carpenter.
You know, the Bible says, by him were all things created, right?
I mean, a carpenter's just a craftsman who makes things, but Christ, you know,
created all things, and by him all things consist and have their being, right?
Without him was not anything made that was made, and all things were made by him.
You want to call him a carpenter, you know, he's the creator of everything, okay?
He didn't just make a chair or a table, he created the universe, you know, he was
there in the creation, you know, he's the one who created all things, and by him
all things consist and have their being.
So he's so much more than a carpenter.
That's why we have to be careful when we figure out things like this, like, oh,
Jesus is probably a carpenter, to not latch onto that and blow that out of proportion,
because to me it seems kind of blasphemous to do that.
To me it's like you're bringing Christ down quite a few notches, to take him from
the creator of the universe and say, oh, he's a carpenter, okay?
And look, I'm not disparaging of carpenters, okay?
My dad was a carpenter, you know, it's an honest line of work, I've done some carpentry,
you know, and it's not something I'm endeavoring to go into.
We know other people, there's probably people in this church that are carpenters, builders,
things like that, it's, you know, it's a noble trait, it's honest work, right?
But let's, what I'm saying is, let's not, let's be careful to not take Christ,
the son of God, the creator of everything, and just put him in this little box, oh,
carpenter, he was just a carpenter, okay?
He's so much more than that.
You know, one example that came to my mind is this used to be a really popular bumper
sticker.
At least where I was from, I don't know if it made its way out here, but people,
I remember back in the day, people had this bumper sticker in their car, it said,
my boss is a Jewish carpenter, has anyone ever seen that one?
And for a while, I'm like, what are they talking about?
Like I mean, you know, it's like, are we supposed to like tell people what our
boss is like?
You know, my boss is an Anglo-Catholic, you know, or something like that, I was like,
like who cares what your, and then it dawned on me, like, oh, they're referring
to Jesus, right?
Like, because he's Jewish, and he was a carpenter.
But what they're doing is they're taking just these man-made terms, and look, there's
nothing wrong with those terms in and of themselves, okay?
They're not inherently evil, okay?
But to ascribe them, and to the son of God, and just say, oh, that's what he
is, to me, it's irreverent.
To me, it's probably even, I'd be so bold to say it's blasphemous, to just take
Christ and put him in this little box and say, well, my boss is a Jewish carpenter.
That's a dumb bumper sticker, okay?
Even to refer to God as your boss, right?
And I get it, you know, Lord is kind of a comment, is kind of a synonymous term
with boss, but it kind of has its own, it kind of carries its own meaning with
it, doesn't it?
It kind of has its own, you know, when we say Lord, we don't feel like we're saying
boss, right?
When we say Lord, that's kind of a term that we'd use in more, for somebody we held
in higher esteem, okay?
So my boss is a Jewish carpenter, this is something that's out there, and, you
know, to me, it just seems irreverent.
If you would, go over to Galatians chapter number three, Galatians chapter number three.
One, I don't refer to God as my boss, okay?
I don't think, you know, my boss is my boss.
You know, maybe I should get a bumper sticker that says my boss is Pastor Anderson, you
know?
And maybe I'll throw in something about his, you know, ethnicity in there, right?
I don't know.
Like, my boss is a, I don't even really know what his ethnicity is.
I remember that thing, like Ray said, he was Moroccan, right?
My boss is a Moroccan preacher, you know, because that's stupid.
Well, you know, it's not any dumber than saying my boss is a Jewish carpenter in my
book.
You know, we can't just ascribe these things to Christ and just use these little,
cute little terms and just say things like this.
It's blasphemous.
You know, I'm not going to call him my boss, and I don't think we should just,
you know, try to narrow Jesus down to an ethnicity.
Well, Jesus was Jewish.
Well, you know, technically, yeah, you could say Jesus was Jewish, but everyone wants
to claim Jesus for themselves, and they want to just say, no, he's like us.
He's, you know, he's a black Hebrew Israelite, right?
He's Jewish, you know, he was Anglo-Saxon, like, you know, the Chinese Jesus, the Japanese
Jesus.
Like, everyone wants to take their version of Jesus and paint them in their own image
out of, and you say, why?
It's just pride.
It's just pride over something as stupid as, you know, skin pigmentation, or, you know,
just the heredity, just genetics, it's dumb, okay?
I'm not going to refer him as my boss, and I'm not going to refer to Jesus as
Jewish, even though he was born, you know, to Jewish parents, okay?
Look at Galatians 3, verse 26, you are all the children of God by faith in Christ
Jesus, for as many as you have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there
is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female,
for you're all one in Christ Jesus.
So Galatians is telling us that even we that have believed in Christ should not make
these distinctions between Jew and Greek, bond and free, you know, skin thin, barbarian,
elsewhere it refers to that, you know, male, female, we're all one in Christ.
You know, these man-made terms are not to be applied within the house of God.
How much more so when we are referring to Christ himself?
You know, if we're not to see each other as that, if we're not to look at one another
and say bond, free, Jew, Gentile, whatever it is, if we're not supposed to do that
among ourselves, why then would we turn and refer to God that way?
Oh, Jewish, he's Jewish, he's a carpenter, he's my boss, it's wrong, you know,
we should not be referring to him as that, I believe.
Go to Colossians chapter number three, we say, well Jesus was Jewish though, you know,
he was born to Jewish parents, but, you know, where did the Jews come from, ultimately?
Abraham, right, Abraham kind of got it started, right, Abraham, then he had Isaac, Jacob,
he had the patriarchs, those patriarchs, then he had the 12 sons of Israel, right, that's
where that nation came from, it came from Abraham, but where did Abraham come from?
We just read it, Ur of the Chaldees, he's an Assyrian, and you know, in the Old Testament,
God takes the nation of Israel down a notch by reminding him that your father was an
Assyrian, don't be so proud about your ethnicity, about your heritage, your
genetic background, it's nothing, it's meaningless in the sight of God.
So why would we then just refer to Christ, oh, he's Jewish?
Because we're trying, people want to claim him as a source of pride, and look, it's
not just, people want to say that about, oh, he's Jewish, as I just mentioned, people
from all different kinds of ethnicities and backgrounds, they all want to paint Jesus
in their own likeness, they all, they want to make him out like them.
Jesus said, verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.
So yeah, you know, you could say Jesus, you know, would have been, would have been
identified as a Jew on his, during his earthly ministry, but let's not forget that you're
dealing with, you know, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, he that
was with the father at the beginning, right, the eternal son of God, you know, was he
Jewish back then?
You know that, before the earth even existed, before there was such a thing as nations,
when he, you know, breathed life into the first man, was he Jew then?
Okay, so why would we, why would we then just try to narrow Jesus down into one
single category?
To me, it's, it's demeaning to take the son of God and try to just put some man-made
term on it, it's, it's, it's blasphemous, okay?
Look at Colossians chapter number three, it says in verse 10, and have put on the
new man which is renewed in knowledge after him in the image of him that created him,
where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Jew or Gentile, right,
that's a reference to that again, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ in
all and in all.
So again, you know, we're not even to see one another in these terms, you know, we shouldn't
look at one another, and I get that, you know, we do, like, but we're not like making
these distinctions where we're trying to divide each other, right?
I get it, you know, we're Hispanic, we're white, you know, we're black, we're
these different ethnicities, and, you know, if we fill out a job application, that's
the box we're going to check, but you know, we shouldn't carry that mentality
in the church, and that's how we're going to treat people differently based upon
these type of things, these terms, okay, these, you know, and we certainly, that's
why I think it's dangerous when people start trying to make Jesus, you know, after
their own image, try to, like, paint Jesus in a certain light, okay?
You say, well, you know, what did Jesus look like?
You know, well, I, you know, it's funny that people get it wrong, right?
People get it wrong, people try to make depictions of Jesus and they get it completely
wrong.
You ever notice that?
Like every depiction of Christ is just, is just biblically wrong, and then, and then
when all probability, they've got it wrong in other ways too, right?
Because they always try to make him into a white guy, right?
And you know, you say, was he white?
I doubt it.
You know, he's probably brown.
Like if you, you know, if you want to, if you want to think about it, like if he's
from that region, you know, he probably had brown eyes, black hair, and brown
skin, right?
But what are all the modern depictions of Jesus?
I mean, the one that most people probably think of is a white Jesus.
He looks like he's from Santa Cruz in most places.
He looks like he's some guy who, you know, is riding a surfboard, you know, from the
West Coast.
He looks like a surfer.
That's how they make Jesus out to look, like some hippy, doofus surfer.
And I'm saying, and I get it, other people make him into other, you know, they pick,
you know, they'll make him black, they'll make him Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese,
you know, they'll do all their, they'll take their take and make it.
But the popular ones, the ones that are out there in the culture, right, whenever there's
a movie made or popular TV series, they make Jesus into a white guy and they put
long hair on him, which is completely unbiblical.
Now I can't prove to you that he wasn't white, but I can prove to you he didn't have
long hair.
That's unbiblical and people get it wrong.
You know, this always reminds me of a story, and I've probably told this, is the laughing
Jesus.
If you've ever seen a picture of the laughing Jesus, where it's like this, it's like a,
it's like a sketch of Jesus, it's just like, you know, a portrait of him kind of
throwing his head back and, you know, and he's got long hair, and he's just like
ha ha ha ha ha ha, right, he's like throwing his head back and laughing.
You know, it's like, but you don't see Jesus laughing in the Gospels, do you?
It's like, and they get it wrong.
I'm like, are you saying Jesus never laughed?
I don't know.
We have Jesus wept, right?
We have Jesus saying, you know, I'm heavy and sorrowful.
We see Jesus being very downtrodden, very sad, right?
I'm not saying he walked around like that all the time, but we don't see him laughing.
I mean, you want to refer to certain passages where God's laughing at the heathen in derision.
That's there, okay?
The Lord shall laugh at them, the Lord shall have them in derision, okay?
There's the Lord laughing, but in the Gospels, you don't see Jesus laughing.
He's not just this lighthearted, freewheeling, you know, footloose guy who's just down,
you know, like just cool with everybody, brah, you know?
But that's the kind of, you know, that's what I'm saying.
When people start saying things like, my boss is a Jewish carpenter, and they're trying
to bring Jesus down and just put him on this, you know, the same level with us, and
that's not right, okay?
I get it that Christ became flesh, that Christ came down and condescended to us,
right?
But he did that, you know, he did that of his own volition.
We don't need to help him with that, like bring him back down again.
This laughing Jesus, I actually met the guy that made that laughing Jesus portrait.
He lived where I'm from in Traverse City, Michigan.
I met him when I was on a UPS route.
I was a driver's helper on a UPS route, and when I was driving with this, riding
along with this driver during the busy season, because, you know, you have your
UPS drivers, and when it gets busy, they'll hire temporary help to run packages to doors
because they get so many packages over the holiday season.
So I was helping in this way, you know, I had this job, and it came out, you know, I
told the guy, you know, that I was a Christian, I go to church, he's like, oh, you're
really going to like meeting this guy.
He's the guy that drew the laughing Jesus, and I'd already been in church for a while,
and I already knew that that was a joke, like that, the only thing that's worth laughing
over is the idea that Jesus went around just chuckling and throwing his head back
and laughing, and I'll never forget, you say, you know, maybe I was being a little
rude, I don't know, but the guy was just like, oh, do you want to, when we met the
guy in his garage, he's like, oh, yeah, I've got, are you trying to give me like a T-shirt
or a copy of the portrait, and I was just like, no, thanks, and I remember them
just being like, why wouldn't you want this, you're a Christian, I'm like, I didn't
say anything, but I'm like, because that's not Jesus, and to me, it's blasphemous
to make an image of Christ, right, that's why you don't have a description of Jesus
in the Bible, you don't have him being described physically, this is what he looked like,
this is how tall he was, you know, he had a long beard, he had a short beard, we know
he had a beard, right, it was long enough that they could pull it out, because that's
what they did, they pulled his beard out, right, they spat in his face, right,
we know some things, but it doesn't go into detail about him, and look, it's
not like God just didn't forget that literary device to describe the main character, like,
whoops, right, because if you read literature, novels, books, I mean, that's what
they try to do, they'll describe people in detail, so you can get an image of what
they're like, right, the Bible doesn't do that, the Bible doesn't describe Jesus,
certainly not enough for us to actually get a realistic idea of what he actually looked like,
okay, you say, well, what about all the paintings, oh, the paintings that came
hundreds of years later that were painted by a bunch of homos, in fact, those ones,
yeah, probably, they probably didn't have it right either, okay, and look,
I'm sure there probably was somebody that tried to make a drawing of Jesus,
and it probably just like, God miraculously destroyed it, or just made sure it never saw
the light of day, right, so I told this guy, you know, very politely, I wasn't curt about it,
as I am being now, right, I just said, I'm not, no thank you, I don't want a picture
of your long-haired surfer dude, you know, who looks like he's stoned,
right, that's what he looked like to me, go to Isaiah chapter 53, Isaiah chapter 53,
let's get an idea of, you know, what Jesus was like, well, how do you know Jesus didn't laugh,
well, the Bible doesn't describe him as that, in fact, the Bible describes the opposite of him,
you know, that he was a sorrowful person, as it says in verse 1, who hath believed our
report, and to whom is the arm the Lord revealed, for he shall grow up before him as a tender
plant, as a root out of dry ground, he hath no form nor comeliness, and we shall see him,
there is no beauty that we should desire him, you know, he wasn't a stud, you know,
he wasn't, you know, some Jim bro or something, or, you know, some desirable person,
where we're going to look at him and be impressed with his physique or something,
there's no beauty, there's nothing, it doesn't say he's unattractive or ugly, but he doesn't,
he's not standing out, right, there's nothing unique about his appearance that's noteworthy,
okay, there's no beauty that we should desire him, verse 3, he has despised and rejected
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and maybe that's a Bible verse they should
reference on their laughing Jesus picture, you know, put Isaiah 53 3, just don't even
quote it, just put the reference there in the bottom corner of your portrait,
and then tell me how this portrait makes sense, it says he was a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief, and like you say, why are you making a big deal about this,
well, you know, we're leading up to Easter Sunday, you know, and we're celebrating the
resurrection, but let's not forget what happened prior to that, the crucifixion of Christ,
and it wasn't like Jesus was taken by surprise, he knew that this was what he was going to have
to go through and suffer that, he knew that he was going to have the Father's will be done,
right, and if you remember, he prayed, you know, if it be possible, let this cup pass for me,
referring to the crucifixion, nevertheless, thy will be done, Jesus literally prayed
while sweating drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane in the middle of the night,
three times that he would not have to go through with it, I mean, not go through the agony,
the humiliation, the shame, the reproach, the physical pain, everything that came along with
that, we can't even imagine what it's like, imagine, you know, going through just the public
humiliation of being hung naked on a cross, the agony of having Roman soldiers beat you with a
reed, putting a crown of thorns on your head and smashing it in your skull, whipping you,
and then putting, you know, a robe on you, and then tearing it off after that blood has begun
to congeal, you know, it's like peeling off a fresh scab, it's painful, you know, it's all
over your back, you say, why would you go into this, because this is what Christ suffered,
this is why the Bible calls him a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,
despised and rejected, it wasn't just some name calling, you know, and this is why I take
exception when people just want to paint Jesus as this light-hearted freewheeling guy without
a care in the world, just, you know, it's making light of the suffering that he went through,
you know, he had this in front of him, you know, Jesus understood when he started his ministry
how it was going to end, you know, that's why he said on the cross, it is finished,
he did the work, he accomplished the work that his father had sent him to do,
and it wasn't easy, you know, that's what we need to think about this week as we're going
into Easter Sunday, that's what makes the resurrection great, is the fact that he came
back from the dead, meaning he had to die, and he didn't pass away peacefully in his sleep,
you know, he died an agonizing, humiliating death, you know, even the other people being
crucified with him, you know, derided him, the Jews walked by wagging their head at him,
you know, saying come down from the cross, save thyself, if thou be the son of God,
and we will believe, he saved others, himself he cannot save, you know, Jesus went through all that,
this is what's how the Bible describes him,
so I take exception with this, when people portray Jesus other than the way the Bible does,
and it's a very somber thing, and you know, it's something, you know,
this week we should probably be thinking about, because why did Christ do all that,
why did Christ allow, why did he, as you say, lay down his life, he said no man taketh
my life from me, I lay it down that I might take it up again, he willingly did it,
he, when they came to arrest him, and Peter smote off the ear of the of the servant,
Jesus said I could call 10,000 legions of angels, and my father would presently give them,
he could have stopped it at any moment, and they said, you know, are you Jesus of Nazareth,
he said I am he, and they all fell on their back, remember that, you would think,
and you would think, like if you were in that crowd, and Jesus just said I am he,
and everyone just fell down around you, I'd be like yeah I'm good, I'm out, you know,
you guys do whatever you're going to do, but like for me that would have been like okay,
that would have been, that would have been a pretty big clue, right, pretty intimidating
experience, but they persist, and meaning, you know, my point is that Jesus let him do it,
he could have just snapped his fingers, and just stopped the entire thing,
but he went through it, you know, he suffered for our sakes, and it wasn't to show us,
you know, how to love your enemies, it wasn't to show us how to forgive,
although he did say father forgive them, for they know not what they do,
why did Jesus do it, he became sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him, that's why Jesus went through it, so you and I
could have the righteousness of Christ imputed unto us, something we don't deserve,
but it came at the price, as the price of a lamb without blemish, right,
right, so it's a big deal, it's a big deal to have a proper biblical perspective
of what Jesus was actually like on earth, and it's not how he's being depicted today,
and you know this is why I'm against portrayals of Christ in any form,
hand-drawn stupid sketches, or if it's in film or television, I'm against all of it,
that's why I never saw the passion of the Christ, and I never will,
and by the way, the guy that played him, you know, when you listen to an interview with him,
like that guy, there's something off there, not to mention the fact he's a rank catholic,
rank catholic, I mean he's handing out beads to people,
I mean he's a true believer, died in the wool catholic, and by the way, that movie,
a lot of that movie, the things that they got was not biblical narrative,
it was the visions of some nun somewhere in some monastery, they drew from that, you know,
Mel Gibson and everybody else, the guy admits that when he was making the movie,
he was struck by lightning, twice, out of his own mouth, I'm not making this up,
wasn't it at the crucifixion scene, yeah, he's on the cross being struck by lightning twice,
and he's like, well, in his mind, he's like, well to me, it was just, you know,
because I was trying to do this great thing for God, and he wanted me to experience the
suffering that Christ went through, okay, well, unless you spent three days and three nights in
hell, you know, you haven't even begun to experience the agony that Christ went through,
and by the way, Jim Caviezel, you rank catholic, you'll get a, you'll be in hell for a lot
longer, because there is no salvation inside the catholic church, right,
you know, I'm against it, I'm against people depicting Christ in any shape or form,
and that guy, that Jim Caviezel guy, he's a weirdo, you listen to him talk, and he's,
it's gone to his head, now that, what's this other one that's out there,
The Message, or you guys know what I'm talking about, The Chosen, right, have you watched
The Chosen, nope, are you gonna, nope, you know, I don't want the picture of some,
you know, dude, some man, some Hollywood actor, you know, emblazoned on my mind every time I read
the gospels, every time I read, you know, every time I'm reading the gospel, I'm envisioning Jim
Caviezel, every time I get to the crucifixion scene, I'm thinking about the passion of Christ,
some Hollywood produced blasphemous film, isn't like the, look, I don't want to out anybody,
right, I read, you say, how do you know so much about it, because it was a big deal
when it came out, and I read a lot of articles about it, I heard a lot of preaching against it,
and mistake, no one has to confirm this, I'm pretty sure this is the truth,
if I'm wrong, you can correct me later, but I'm pretty sure the last shot of that movie is
Jim Caviezel's bare butt, him walking out of the tomb, full, you know, nudity, and from
the back, it's like, hello, I mean, that's so blasphemous, to just sit there and show
nudity, and oh, we're depicting Christ's nudity, like, does the bible say he walked out like that,
where do you get this stuff, right, it's crazy, I'm glad that's not the image I have
on my mind, when I think about the resurrection, some Hollywood actors bare butt,
you know, I want that out, and look, if you saw it, and you have that problem,
you know, read the bible, you know, the regeneration of the washing by the water of the
word, the bible will scrub that stuff out and cleanse it, might stir up some things first,
right, but hey, you know, just get in the word of God, God will renew your mind,
I'm against these portrayals of Christ, go to 1 Corinthians 11, 1 Corinthians 11,
as I said earlier, they always get it wrong, they always put long hair on him,
say how long, how long is long hair, as a dude, like, and I'm glad the bible doesn't give us an
exact length, because then people would try to ride that line, well, I'm within a millimeter
of what the bible says, you know, and I get there's liberty here, people have different
standards, but to me, it's like, if you're a dude, and you're having to kind of do this,
if you're starting to have to do feminine gestures, your hair is too long,
if you're doing the same, if you have to like do this in the morning, it's too long, right,
you know, if you got to go to work, and you got to put it up in the ponytail,
you know, it's probably too long at that point, and look, I'm not saying that's a hard fast
rule, but to me, if it's coming down over the years, and it looks, it's like,
the bible, we'll just read it here, first Corinthians chapter 11, verse 14,
not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him,
it's like, that's a rhetorical question, because some people go, no, it doesn't, you know,
it's a rhetorical question, it's like, yes, it does, it's like, how long is long, you already know,
you can look at the mirror and go, yep, if I, you know, if this were the 60s or 70s,
I'd be called a long-haired hippie, right, someone would yell at me, get a haircut, you hippie,
right, we all know how long is too long, it's like, we don't have, and you say, well,
how short is too short, because it goes on and says, right, but if a woman have long hair,
it's a glory to her, if her hair is even given for recovering, I'm not gonna read the whole
thing, but it talks about, you know, if she be shorn, it is a shame unto her, you know,
if she has short hair, it's masculine, right, and ladies, you know, and it's just like,
we're already living in such an androgynous society already,
where the gender lines are just being blurred so much, it's like, it's not even like, you know,
it's hard to decipher sometimes, now people are just flat out telling you, I'm fluid, or I'm
non-this, I'm non-binary, you know, they're identifying as the opposite, it's like crazy,
the world we're living in, it's bizarre, folks, it's bizarre, and if you don't think it's
bizarre, you're brainwashed, and it's a good thing you're here, and there's someone to actually
try to shake you and wake you up, and say, it's bizarre, it's strange, to see the society we're
living in, where a dude, you know, can go get some cosmetic surgery, you know, and then go
compete in women's sports, or go into, you know, a woman's bathroom, or changing room, it's
bizarre that we're even here, you know, what it is, is the death throes of a failing society,
it's a strong inclination that we are well on the way of the downfall of the society,
when people just become obsessed with gender, and sexuality, it's bizarre,
I don't know how I ended up going off on that, boy, my voice feels so much better for some
reason, right, but what I'm saying is like, let's not try to split hairs over this, like,
what a pun, pun not intended, but it was a good one, you know, how long should your hair be,
ladies, as long as it takes for you to look feminine, that's how long it should be, where
someone would look at you and go, that's a woman, how do you know what a woman's haircut looks like,
stop it, just stop it, nature tells you, right, look, we've all seen the senior citizen,
you know, the seasoned gal out there, you know, in the blue jeans, and that short haircut,
and you see her next to her husband, and it's like, it's hard to tell,
right, we've all seen him, it's like, you look like a man, apparently that's
women's liberation today, that's feminism, look and act like a man,
you know, anyway, I don't want to get too political this morning,
but, you know, what's my point, why am I going to first Corinthians 11, because that's how they
portray Christ, isn't it, in all these films, laughing Jesus, long hair, and but, you know,
down over the ear, down to the shoulder, it's feminine, okay, you're brushing it away from your
eyes, you know, it's feminine, when you're putting it up in a top knot, right, unless you're
a samurai, and you're carrying a sword, and you're like, you know, back, you know, you're fighting
off the bar, you know, the Mongol hordes, or something like that, like, okay, you know,
I would probably at least give you a pass as not being feminine in that case, if you had a top
knot, and you carried a samurai sword, and you could like sever limbs from people,
I'd be like, you're a dude, okay, that's, I'd say that's, I'm not saying it's biblical,
but I'd say that at least makes sense, you know, a lot of people need to take a samurai
sword to their top knots today, because, you know, they got, they're walking around with
top knots, and it's like, you ain't, you ain't no samurai, you know, you're, you're riding a
bicycle to a coffee shop, you know, and whatever, reciting poetry or something,
you're miles away from being a samurai, right, but this is how they depict Jesus,
and it's so funny, anytime anyone tries to depict Jesus, they get it completely wrong,
right, and you can't put, you can't put a, you can't say what color skin he had, you just can't do
it, right, because the Bible doesn't describe him that way, go to Revelation chapter one,
let's go look at the one place where the Bible kind of describes his physical attributes
right now, okay, whatever Jesus looked like back then, I don't believe it's exactly how he looks
right now, look at verse 10, I'll start reading Revelation 1, I was in the spirit in the
Lord's day, and I heard behind me a great voice of a trumpet saying, I am alpha and omega,
I am a Jewish carpenter, I'm your boss, I'm alpha and omega, the beginning and the end,
and it was a great voice as of a trumpet, it wasn't this soft-spoken little, you know,
feminine Jesus, it was just depicted as a little shepherd carrying a little lamb over his shoulders
and his long hair in his dress, you know, through some green little valley, you know,
that's how they try to make him look, they feminize him, he had a voice like a trumpet,
you know, you try to get your attention, I am alpha and omega, what thou seest, writing a book,
verse 12, and I turned to see the voice that spake with me, and being turned I saw seven
golden candlesticks in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the son of man,
clothed the garment down to the foot and girt about the paths with a golden girdle,
his head and his hairs were white like wool, now the black Hebrew lizerites, they'll latch
on that, they'll say, see, it's like wool, like our hair, it's wooly, right, no, no,
that's not what it says though, it says it was white like wool, right, and that's not talking
about the tactile sensation, right, the way it looked as far as, you know, the makeup of it,
they're saying that it's the color of it, okay, so it doesn't even describe exactly what his hair
looked like other than in terms of the color, okay, so he had white hair,
which we're all headed for, I don't care what your ethnic background is,
what your genetics are like, right, unless you're going to have no hair, okay,
you know, we're all headed towards white hair, you know, and that's nothing wrong with that,
you know, the hoary head is something that should be honored, okay,
because it means you made it, right, you know, it's so funny when young guys make fun of the
old guys, it's like, let's see how far you get, like, you haven't even begun, you haven't
even gotten out of the out of the blocks, buddy, you start critiquing some older guy,
start picking that apart, it's like, let's, let's, let's give you another decade or two
and see how you turn out before we start criticizing, you know, our elders,
and be careful with that too, don't make fun of the gray head, all right,
at the very least, they managed to survive, okay,
his head, verse 14, and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow,
and his eyes were a flame of fire, oh what color eyes did Jesus have, were they blue,
were they brown, were they hazel, what, what color did Leonardo da Vinci,
I don't know if it was da Vinci, whoever, Michelangelo, you know, some famous painter,
some homo from back in the day, you know, what color eyes did he give Jesus,
I don't know, whatever the, the model that was posing naked in front of him probably,
that was probably what the, the eyes color that he gave him,
oh I can't believe you'd say that, well that's what they did, you know,
who made David, who carved David, Michelangelo, right, okay, little history lesson there,
how do you think he got that, right, some dude was standing there making that pose,
right, well you say why you bring that up, because that's the stuff people refer to
when they want to have a depiction of Jesus, oh this is what he looks like,
right, this is, you know, Michelangelo, however he depicted him, Leonardo da Vinci,
however they made him look, that's it, wrong, what color was eyes, as flames of fire,
why don't they paint a picture like that,
and his feet were like undefined brass, as if they burned in a furnace,
and his voice as the sound of many waters, what color skin did he have,
it was like glowing hot brass, at least his feet,
he was just radiant, when he was transfiguring him out, it was like his garment and his shining
was whiter than any whiteness any fuller could make, it shined brighter than the sun,
I mean that's the depiction of Christ, in his glorified form,
and yet people today want to take that, and they want to ignore that imagery,
and go, oh he was Jewish, he was a carpenter, he had rough hands,
oh he was, you know, they didn't have barbers back, they didn't, they hadn't invented scissors,
because this is so hard to take two blades and put a, you know, little pivot point in there,
you know, we made scissors, and then we landed a man on the moon, and he was like neck and neck,
right, scissors, and then the supercomputer came right after that, it's such an
advanced technological achievement, right, they never did that, they never did that,
that's why you have the priests in the Old Testament, you know,
the Bible tells them about not shaving their head, and not letting their hair grow long,
how do you think they did that,
your turn, you know, they just coated it something, let wild animals just tear their hair
out, oh they had scissors folks, they knew how to cut hair back then, so you're being silly,
it's silly to have Christ with long hair, say why are you making a big deal out of it,
because the Bible says it's a shame for a man to have long hair,
so why, you know, and it's a shame to take Christ and try to fit him into a little box,
so that we can, you know, relate to him more or something like that,
you know, look at verse 17, and when I saw him, I felt his feet is dead,
you know, people don't want to get a real picture of what Christ is like in their mind,
because it would probably scare them to death if you saw God, you know, but then they're,
you know, I'm thinking of another depiction I saw, long hair Jesus in heaven with long
brown hair and white skin, you know, hugging some guy that just got to heaven,
you know, you see Christ, this is, this is the reaction we're all going to have, just
right to the floor, what's up bro, what's up man, what's up JC, right, what's up buddy Jesus,
this is the attitude that's out there, even among Christians,
you're going to have a relationship, let me describe your relationship with Christ,
when you see him, it's going to be terrifying,
I mean, this is John, the apostle John, who leaned upon Jesus' breast at the last supper,
whom the disciple whom Jesus loved, the one, you know, from what appears in the scriptures,
you know, it was Jesus' favorite disciples, right, it seems like he played favorites a
little bit, some people were closer than others, Peter, James, and John got to see more than the
rest of them, and of those three, it seems like John, you know, who got to sit next to Jesus
at the last supper, kind of a significant event, don't you think, John, you sit there,
right, this is the same guy, who when he sees that same Jesus falls at his feet as dead,
because of what he hears, and what he sees, he didn't see some long-haired surfer,
he said, I am he that liveth, and was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore,
amen, and have the keys of hell and of death, that's who we're dealing with,
so, you know, think about that, this is Christ in his glorified form,
and Christ prayed on earth, you know, restore unto me the glory I had with you at the creation,
right, as we pray to father before, you know, before he's asking to have that same
glory, to be magnified like this, right, so meaning this is that when Christ came down to
earth, that was an extreme form of condescension on his behalf,
that was a real act of humility to clothe himself with flesh like this,
and to walk around as one of us, and for our sake, right, if you would go to Philippians
chapter number two, and look, I hesitate to use the word condescension, because it's
today has a negative connotation, you know, don't condescend to me, quit being so condescending,
right, but the Bible tells us to condescend to men of low state, okay, so I'm not saying Christ
was being arrogant or puffed up and just kind of talking down to us, but if he's coming down from
a higher plane, he is condescending, he's coming down, right, he's descending at the very
least, let's just call it that, right, he took a big step down from the right hand of the
father to come down here and be born of a virgin and live an earthly life without the glory that
he had. Look at Philippians 2 verse 5, let this mind be in you, which also was in Christ
Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of men, okay, so notice there how the condescension is described,
no reputation, right, that's why they're saying isn't this the carpenter's son,
isn't this the son of Mary, aren't his brothers and his sisters with us,
right, now isn't this the lamb of God slain from the foundation, isn't this the alpha and
omega, right, he took on himself no reputation, he didn't come down here say okay everybody,
son of God's here, just let everyone know who I am, like he didn't go around doing that,
in fact we've been reading in Mark when the devils have cried out, I know without Christ the son of
the living God, he forbade them from speaking, and he told others tell it to no man, he wasn't
trying to go around you know making a big deal out of that, he took on himself no reputation,
and okay so that's one thing, that's one form of the humility that he expressed,
the condescension that he displayed, that he took upon himself no reputation,
although he could have, and took upon him the form of a servant,
he didn't come to be ministered to, but to minister, right, he came to be a servant,
if the last supper he's literally girding himself and washing the feet of the disciples,
very humiliating, right, a very you know humbling thing to do,
and if you don't believe me let's let's get some, you know I'll fill up the mop bucket,
we'll grab some rags, and we can all take turns washing each other's feet,
I'm just kidding, okay we won't really do it, but if we did can you imagine that'd be
kind of a awkward situation, it'd be kind of humiliating to sit there and wash somebody
else's feet, that's what he did, he took on the form of a servant, that's pretty good,
but then notice the last one, it took upon himself the likeness of men,
he looked just like a man, and he's saying that him taking on himself the likeness of a man
was a form of condescension, when he came and started to just look like anybody else,
just became another face in the crowd, it means he left his glory behind him,
that was a form of him abasing himself on our behalf, so why would we then try to depict him
in that way, and try to hold that image in our mind, let's have the image of Christ in our
mind of him having humbled himself and taking upon the form of men wrong, I'd rather have the
image of Revelation 1 in mind, because that would cause us to revere Christ as we should,
so that's why I think it's wrong to depict Christ in any way shape or form,
especially when you're trying to depict him at a moment in time when he's condescending,
when he's taking upon himself no reputation, and being a servant and making himself in
a likeness of men, to depict that Christ, and I don't take this the wrong way, I'm just trying
to get this idea across at kind of a low point, you know, right, you get what I'm saying,
in terms of his glory, and that's, he's kind of taking a step down,
oh let's let me get an image of that, and get it wrong by the way, and then,
and show it wrong with him with long hair, it's like read your Bible, verse 8,
and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself,
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,
wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth,
and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. Look, this all just serves as our example,
you know, why did Christ do that? Yes, to atone for our sins, he had to do that,
to live a perfect life, to keep the law in flesh like ours, to fulfill the law, he had to do
that. It also does serve as our example, the Bible tells us in Romans 12, I'll just read to
you, be as the same mind one toward another, mind not high things, but condescend to men of
low estate, right? That's the mind that ought to be in us, that's why I said in Philippians 2,
let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ, who being in the form of God,
you know, became a servant, you know, humbled himself to, you know, became obedient, right?
That's the mind we're supposed to have, to condescend to men of low estate, meaning this,
Christ condescended to men of low estate, to what men? Us. We are of low estate,
so when he takes on the likeness of man, he's taking the likeness of low estate. Everyone
follow what I'm saying? So let's not depict Christ, you know, in low estate,
let's not, if we're going to, you know, I don't think you should depict Christ
at all, okay? But it's just ironic to me that that's what people want to do.
They don't want to go to Revelation, they want to depict that, they want to depict this.
You know, Jesus is to be exalted for who he has always been, who he has always been,
and who is he? The Alpha and the Omega, and not referred to in terms of man's choosing.
If we're going to refer to Christ, let's refer to him in terms that the Bible uses,
and not refer to him in cute little, you know, anecdotes. A Jewish carpenter.
Okay, technically, yeah, but so much more than that. You know, it's kind of, you're kind of
bringing him down a notch, to say the least, when you're just going to call, refer to him as
a carpenter, as Jewish. It's just some, just some term that we refer to other men as.
And again, there's nothing inherently wrong with those terms, but it's affecting, that's what
you're going to describe to Christ. It's like if you're, if you want to call Christ something,
why don't you call him the mediator between God and man?
Why don't you call him the mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus,
who gave himself a ransom for all? Why don't we refer to him as that?
Or how about, you know, how about the shepherd and bishop of your souls?
As it says in 1 Peter 2, you were a sheep going astray,
but now return unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls.
I mean, that's, you know, I'm, I'm not really a fan of any bumper stickers really,
other than the one that I, you know, that says don't feed the bums. It's another story,
right? I still haven't gotten that. Put that on the church fan.
But if I were in a bumper stickers, you know, and I was going to put one on there,
you know, about Jesus, I would put on Jesus, the shepherd and bishop of my soul.
Right? You know, what's interesting is that he's also referred to by John, in John one,
as the lamb of God. Christ is referred to as a lamb and as a shepherd, right? He's the lamb
of God. He became God's sacrifice for man. He condescended, but he's also the shepherd
and bishop of our souls. You know, why don't we use these terms to define Christ?
Terms that the Bible actually uses, terms that actually venerate Christ, that lift him up,
that exalt him. Because that, you know, the name of Christ, as we just read,
is a name at which every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that God,
that Jesus Christ is God, the glory of the father. God has highly exalted him
and given him name, which is above every name. Jesus Christ, the son of God.
You know, there's many other terms that the Bible uses to refer to him as,
and so I, excuse me if I just get a little upset when I see people just latch onto things
like the son of a carpenter and just want to glorify that.
Because it just, it's, you know, it's, in my book, you know, when it comes to Christ,
it's demeaning. Look, if you're a carpenter and someone walks up and calls you, you
carpenter, it's like, well, yeah. You know, that's what you are. There's nothing demeaning
about that. But when you're Christ, the son of God, and someone just wants to refer to
you as the carpenter, you can see how it's kind of demeaning, right?
So yeah, Jesus, I do believe was a carpenter, but let's not get carried away with that.
That was just some earthly job he had, right? That was just something that he did while he
was waiting to minister to us and give himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time.
That's what we should be testifying today. Not that he was a carpenter,
but that he gave himself a ransom for all. Let's go ahead and close in a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, again, thank you for the great mediator that we have between us and the
Father, the man Christ Jesus. And Lord, I pray you'd help us to always,
Lord, see you as you're depicted in the scriptures, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief,
and one that laid down his life, Lord, that we might live. And Lord, as we go into this
Easter weekend, throughout this rest of this week, and help us to be mindful of the great
price that was paid so that we could celebrate the resurrection. That it came at a cost, Lord,
to have you resurrect from the dead and that you had to die. And Lord, that there was a
purpose in that death beyond some moral teaching, Lord, that its purpose was to redeem us from our
sins and iniquities. Lord, help us to meditate on that throughout the week, that we might
give you glory for it. In Jesus' name. Amen. All right, we'll go ahead.