The Roman Triumph and the Cross

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

All right. Baruch haba shalom everybody. Um, welcome to Found in Truth Fellowship. If this is your first time visiting with us or joining us online, we're glad you're here. Thank you for joining us today. Uh, so we're just going to dive right in. Uh, we're continuing of course the image bearer series and today we're going to speak on what it looks like when we try to dress up like God. Um, this has been something that mankind has been doing and attempting to do for their own selfish reasons for many generations throughout time. And we're going to focus in on Rome a little bit today and how they did it. Uh, but we're also going to discuss what it looks like when God comes down as a man.

Reading Eden the Way the Authors Did

and so we're going to start of course in the garden. It's a good place to start. Uh, in in Genesis 3, but I wanted to I wanted to kind of read it this morning the way that people who wrote the rest of the Bible would have understood it. because in the ancient world and the authors of the Bible they did not read the story of the Garden of Eden as a story that simply took place in a distant past. Uh, they read it also as a story that they were still living out. And um, yeah. God plants a garden on a mountain. There's a river that runs out of it.

Uh, and he takes the man, Adam, whom he made out of the ground, out of earth, adamah, right? So what he's named after. And he sets him down in the garden to work it and to keep it. We have those two verbs that take place there. We've talked about the work and to keep. And the next time those two words show up together in the Bible, it's it's attributed to the priests in the tabernacle. And so, we instantly have this evolving picture of the garden is a temple and the man inside of it is a priest that's working it in the presence of God. And and he has one tree that he's not allowed to touch, the tree of knowing good and evil.

Um not necessarily with the knowledge of good and evil. We think of knowledge like, "Oh, it's a vast library of all the good things and all the evil." Not like that. No, it's it's the tree of deciding for yourself, for your own advantage, what is good and what is evil. And the day that he takes that, he's sent out with Eve. He's sent east out of the garden. And of course, God posts the angelic beings, the cherubim, at the doorway with a flaming sword. What do we call it? Kind of cool, I guess. But then we see later in the story, uh Israel is in the land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

A land that the Psalms refers to as his rest, the rest of God. They were in the place of God's rest. God's house is standing in the middle of it, the temple with angelic beings, cherubim, carved on the doors of it. And there's a tree of light burning inside of it, the candelabra, the menorah. And God says the same phrase, the same words of Eden when he's there. He says, "I dwell among you. I will walk among you." And then of course, what does Israel do in the story? They choose to decide for themselves what is good and what is evil. They decide that they want their own king. They decide that they want their own gods.

They decide that they want their own rules on how things work. And the prophet Hosea with his critique on them even reaches for the same Eden type language. He says, "Like Adam, they broke the covenant." It's just an echo from the same pattern, the same story. And so in Ezekiel's vision, the glory of God gets up and it leaves his own house. It leaves out the doors. Why? Ezekiel sets the watches it go out the eastern gate. And of course, it's not long before the people are now following behind it as punishment. They're being ejected from their land. And what direction are they forced to go? East. The same direction that Adam and Eve were driven, the same direction that Cain walked.

And now they're in Babylon working the ground by the sweat of their brow, thorns and thistle thistles as exiles from the place where they rested with God. Adam's story is Israel's story. And Israel's story is Abram and Sarah's story who got tired of waiting on the promises of God. So they saw and they took Hagar. And their story is the same story as Achan's story who saw the treasures in the loot and took it. And Achan's story is the same as David's story sitting on a rooftop as he saw and he took. And if we're completely honest, if we're bold enough to have that level of honesty, David's story is just like our story.

The Serpent's Strange Offer

And so we find ourselves in this story and this is how it's designed. And in this story, in Genesis 3, we have the woman, Eve, and she's standing in the garden and she's near one specific tree and the serpent has infiltrated the garden and it comes up to her and she speaks to it. She tells it what God said. You can't eat or you can eat from any tree in the whole garden except that one. Don't eat from that one or you'll die. That's what God said. And and the serpent has a rebuttal already prepared. He says, "No, you will certainly not die." The serpent said to the woman, "In fact, God knows that you will eat and your eyes will be opened and then you will be like God knowing good and evil.

You will be like God." Now think about how strange of an offer that is. What a strange thing for this creature to try to sell. Because what were they already? They were the image of God. Uh they were made in his likeness. They were already like God. And so the serpent's trying to trying to give them a really a really backwards deal here. Except for he's just reframing it a little bit, selling it in a different way. You won't be like God the way a son is like his father through intimacy and closeness and relationship. You won't be like God in a way that is trustworthy and loyal. No, you'll you'll be like God by seeing and taking, by grabbing at it and taking it for yourself.

You'll be like God, but on your own terms. And you know what happens next? She saw and she took. And he Adam did also, right there standing beside her watching the whole thing go down. Saw and took. And so here's what we want to know this morning. What does that actually look like when a human being goes all in and accepts the offer from the serpent? When they actually do it and they pull it off well, when they have the support and all the people cheering for them and they're celebrities now, they're popular. When they finally get the crown to wear on their head and they have power, when they get to play God for real in the world in the way the world would expect you to, what does that look like?

I think that's a fair question. Um because let's be honest again, we're all we're all either accepting or rejecting that sales pitch from the serpent probably every day in little ways, little ways that may be advantageous to us, little ways that may be a little greedy, you know, I can just do this can sacrifice a little bit of honesty or a little bit of XYZ for this to take in. Little ways. Every day. And it turns out that there was an empire that did um that did just that. They would celebrate it. And if you were to be able to be selected if you had the status, if you did whatever was required to see and take um this empire would throw you the biggest party you'd ever seen.

Rome Throws a Triumph

And that empire was Rome. And the year is 167 BC. Uh so about 160 years before Yeshua was born. Uh and it was probably if you were able to achieve it and get this, it's the biggest day that a Roman could ever dream about having in the Roman Empire. Uh Ro- Rome had this ceremony. And uh they called it a triumph. It's your triumphant, you know, the triumph. And specifically if you were like a Roman general and you didn't just win battles cuz you get medals for that, but if you won like a war and it was a significant war then the Senate could come together and they could vote to give you a triumph.

And it was like a parade but it was like a big big big parade. Like the whole city would shut down. Uh everyone would close up, it'd be a sabbatical, right? And everyone would just stand on the streets cuz there's a route that they would lead you through. And everybody would get up on the rooftops cuz everyone wanted to see what was about to happen. Um and and people would sit beside the temples again to cheer you on because you're going to be passing through and the general would march his entire army along with every single thing that he took as spoils of war and march every single person that he captured through the middle of Rome and all the way up the hill to the Temple of Jupiter, the king of the gods in Rome.

And in 167, the man that was getting the triumph was a general named Aemilius Paulus. And he had just defeated uh Macedonia. And so at the time, Macedonia is a pretty big It's the old-school superpower. I mean, this is Alexander the Great's empire, right? And so he's defeated this superpower and he's having He's having uh this triumph handed to him uh and he crushed their army and he captured their king. The king was named Perseus. And Rome gave him a triumph so big that it lasted 3 whole days. And we actually kind of have an idea of what it looked like because of a later Greek writer named Plutarch. He wrote a couple hundred years later, but he wrote it based off eyewitnesses and thing notes that he had collected from it.

And And he says it was 3 days of it. And this is how he describes it. He says that there were wagons of looted statues and paintings and wagons of Macedonian armor just stacked loose so that the chariot would it would just crackle clink together as it as it walked through the city. 750 large bowls of silver coins, each one carried by four men. 120 oxen walking to the sacrifice with their horns covered in gold decorated. And the gold dishes straight off of the king's own table were presented and paraded around through the city. And after this, then the king that was captured, Perseus, king of Macedonian, walking behind it all.

In front of him, they rolled his own chariot with his armor piled up on it and his king sitting on top. And right in front of him, walking, were his kids. His kids, his little children, being walked through the streets of the city uh that had just conquered their own dad. Uh Plutarch says that uh even the even the Romans even the Romans had a bit of a conscious. They they didn't like that. Says that their their joy was buffered when they saw the children, and many people were crying because it was such a sad sight. Why would they put the children in the parade? So, it's just a little bit of humanity there.

Take I'll take what I can get with the Romans, you know? Right? Uh but of course, when the kids were the cheering keeps going, you know, when the kids are out of sight. Uh and then of course, Perseus himself in a dark cloak walking as defeated. Uh Plutarch describes him as one of the pieces of loot that were being offered into the city. Then, at the very end at the very end, the man that everybody came to see. Right? Ladies and gentlemen, here comes the general Pau- Pau- Paulus. Comes riding in, standing in a chariot wearing a purple robe decked with gold. Purple. With a branch of laurel in his right hand, and then behind him would have been his entire army marching in with laurels of victory in their hands.

Now, the vestment his apparel. Purple and gold, that wasn't just a really really really cool outfit that you would wear. It wasn't just the nicest and richest clothes. A Roman historian Livy has uh has a senator describe the man in triumph riding through the city in a gilded chariot, and I think we have a slide, do we? Yeah, this is this is how he he describes it. A triumphing general drives through the city in a gilded chariot apparelled in the splendid vestments of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. These are their gods clothes that he's wearing. Now, whether these clothes were literally borrowed from the statue of the god or whatnot or if they were just imitation, it's all the same.

Burying Sons on Either Side

He's he's dressed like their god. That's who he gets to be today. That's a pretty big deal. So, what happened to the man who dresses up in God's robe in Rome? Well, Paulus had two young sons still living at home. And one was 14 and one was 12 years old. And 5 days before his triumph, his 14-year-old passed away. We're not sure how, but it's very sad. And 3 days after the triumph, he he lost his 12-year-old as well. Again, we don't have any historical records of why or what caused it. Uh but a tragedy nonetheless. And so, you have a man who rode through Rome in the robe of Jupiter, and he buried a son on either side of his triumph parade.

Afterward, Paulus stood up in front of the people of Rome and said, more or less, he said, "Look at me. Look at me. And look at Perseus, the defeated king. Perseus, the man that I conquered, I defeated, I beat. The man I walked and paraded through the streets, he still has his children. And I'm the one who won, but I don't have mine." You can put a man in Jupiter's robe, and you can drive him up to Jupiter's temple, but he's still a man who could not keep his children alive. That's the costume. Right? And so we have two questions. What does it look like when a man tries to be God, and what does it look like when God becomes a human being?

And we've just witnessed the testimony of the first one. Man in purple robes. Jupiter's robes. And that whole attitude, that whole pursuit uh comes from the garden. That's the serpent's sales pitch, right? With a parade attached to it. That's empire. That's the sales pitch of empire that we've talked so much about. That's what empire looks like. Every time. It's what empire tries to sell you. That's the dream, the Roman dream is what it tries to sell you. Power and success. In every century. It's a man who takes the offer of the serpent and gets enough people to go along with him. Build me a statue, put my face on the money.

Paint me up like a god and march me up the hill, and everybody cheers. That's the trick. Egypt did it with bricks, Babylon did it with gold, and Rome did it with the triumph. And every empire since has done it, too, including the one we live in. We put our faces of the god-like ones on our money. We hold the parade every 4 years on Pennsylvania Avenue, and the only thing that changes is what color rides in the chariot, right? Red or blue? We paint our wars up like they belong to the Lord. And then we walk into church, and many times there's a flag standing on the altar right next to the cross.

A Flag on the Altar

Sometimes in front of it. And no one ever thinks that's weird for some reason. The altar is not a decoration, even if it is symbolic. It's not a decoration. An altar is the one spot in the building that tells you where your worship is oriented. What it's oriented toward. Whatever you set up there is what you're saying is holy in some regard. That's the whole job of it. That's what That's what it's there for. So when the empire's banner is standing on it, you don't have to wonder what the serpent sold that room. It's right there on the stage with the spotlight on it. You become what you worship, right?

A room that bows to a flag is going to start acting like a flag, no matter what that flag is. It'll get real loud about who their enemy is, and it'll forget it was ever told to love them. And here's what I'm convinced of. The longer that I read the Bible. The Bible is a protest against that in every story, front to back. It starts with a God who makes his image out of dirt and hands it to every single human being, the slave and the king, so nobody gets to be the only one. It gives you a Sabbath so the Pharaoh's brick quota doesn't get the last word on your life and your purpose.

It gives you prophets who walk into the palace and tell the king to his face that you are not God. And it ends with every empire on earth with all of its purple and all of its gold in a heap. And a little lamb is on a throne. This book, the Bible, has never once been impressed with imperial glory. Because that is always a costume. It never lasts because it never has real substance. And so, General Paulus buried his children. The man that was promoted to be God for a day. And so, that's the first question. What does it look like when a man dresses up like God? And the answer is a purple robe.

And now, the second is what does it look like when God becomes a human? And the answer, ironically, may be the same. A purple robe. Paul answers that question in a letter to a very small church community uh in the in the Roman city of uh Philippi. And Philippi was a Roman colony. Okay? So, Rome had settled in it and it had put its retired soldiers there, among others. Uh and so, it was a very proud, very patriotic little Roman community. And so, these people uh these people knew exactly what a triumph was when he writes to them. Very proud patriots of Rome. And here's what it says in uh Philippians 2:5 and 6.

Not Something to Be Exploited

It says, "Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited." Existing in the form of God. It's funny how Paul phrases that. He doesn't say Jesus became like God. Uh he doesn't say that he got promoted to it. he was already there. Equality with God. He had it. It wasn't a costume that he had to put on. The man in the triumph was wearing the look of a God for a day. And Paul is saying that this one didn't have to put any of that on. Then it says he did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited.

So, I love that phrase that CSB puts it. Um it comes out of the the context of the word of grabbing something. Right? You ever You ever you hm So, you ever go to the grocery store when you were a kid when they used to not guard the free cookie jar at the bakery? No? No one else was a little cookie thief when they were kids? Okay. So, when I was a child, we had the bakery in the back and they didn't give the before old Harris Teeter had the little sugar cookies, they had full-size cookies they baked. It was chocolate chip, double chocolate chip, you had an oatmeal, huh, and then you had the sugar.

Yeah, you know? And you could go up and you could take one. Or if the baker, if she had her back turned, you could take five. You know? It's just how many could you grab with your fingers if you When you got excited when I got excited as a kid and that baker wasn't looking, I exploited. I grabbed. Right? And I hope you guys understand that what Paul's saying here is Jesus did not grab. He didn't see and take. He didn't say this can be advantageous to me. I can get my way. I can do things the way that I want for selfish gain. I can exclude everybody else from this situation.

I don't know how many other kids might want these cookies. These are mine. He did not grab for it. It was something not to be exploited. And I love that. The image was like God. And he didn't treat it like loot. And look at what he did instead. Forget of verse 7. Instead, he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant. Taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as man, he he emptied himself. It's that word again, emptied. The form of God in verse 6, the form of a servant in verse 7, same word there. He was in the form of God and he took the form of a slave.

Cuz that's what servant means here, slave status. A slave, not a manager, uh not a nice job with a title, a slave. And Paul keeps going in verse 8. As he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even to death on the cross. Even to death on the cross. And that even, I believe, is in there for the people of Philippi. Because Roman citizens were not supposed to be crucified. The people he's writing to understood that that's something that's beneath them. No matter what they ever did, they can't that that's that's shameful. The cross the cross was for slaves and rebels only. Revolutionaries. That's what Yeshua was crucified as, a revolutionary that was trying to overthrow the empire.

It was the lowest, ugliest, most shameful way to die that Rome could conjure up. Cicero, a famous Roman speaker, said, uh the very word cross should be kept away from the Roman citizens' ears. That's how beneath them it is. So, in Paul's sentence, the one who was in the form of God goes down and he keeps going down and down and down past human status in Rome. Past slave status all the way down to the cross. It's a triumph. Except for it's inverted. It's backwards. Instead of going up up up up, it's Paul says, "Watch the one who had equality with God." And he goes down. Down the hill, all the way down to the bottom.

Down to where they keep the slaves. So, you're with me? And Rome's Rome's whole religion is about a man climbing up to be God for a day and this is the inversion of that that Paul is is laying down to Philippi. And this is this is where it gets pretty wild in a really fun way because the biblical authors are amazing. Right? Uh they weren't just randomly writing stuff down. They were master authors on how they presented and told the story of God and how you're a part of it. And the gospel writers tell us very in detail through this frame where Yeshua belongs in that. So, if we go to Mark chapter 15 uh Yeshua was arrested in the night in the evening.

A Mock Triumph in Mark 15

And the council has handed him over to Pilate, the Roman governor. And of course, Pilate had him flogged and handed him over to be crucified. And before they take him out, the soldiers they decide to have a little bit of fun with him. Um and here's what it says in Mark chapter 15 starting in verse 16. It says, "The soldiers led him away into the palace." That's the governor's residence. So, it was really nice. And called the whole company together. And they dressed him in a purple robe. And they twisted together a crown of thorns and they put it on his head and they began to salute him. Hail king of the Jews.

They were hitting him on the head with a stick and spitting on him. Getting down on their knees, they were paying him homage. After they had mocked him, they stripped him of his purple robe and put his clothes back on him and then they led him to crucify him. So just picture this. The governor's headquarters, all right? Early that morning and they called a whole company. This was not just two or three Roman soldiers. This was an entire company. I don't know, one, two, 300 soldiers. It was a lot. It was a whole company of Roman soldiers. And they knew what a triumph looks like. And so someone finds a purple cloak because purple meant kings, purple meant emperors.

It's the clothing of the gods. The real stuff costs a fortune, right? So they they throw it over his shoulders of this beaten Jewish construction worker. And then someone else goes and says he needs a crown of victory, but we don't have a laurel. Hey, we'll get some thorns and they they twist thorns together and they jam it down on his head. And then they do the ceremony. Hail king of the Jews. That's how you greet Caesar. Hail Caesar. Matthew says that they put a staff in his hand like a scepter. And then they take it back and they hit him with it and they spit on him. And then they get down on their knees and pay homage.

They bowed down to him like a king collectively, the whole group of them. Oh, look at the king. Look at the king. It's the same word Bible uses elsewhere for worship. They worshiped him. So there's a room full of Roman soldiers kneeling in front of this bleeding man in a purple cloak laughing at him, "Hail to the king. Somebody get the king a drink. Come on, guys. Bow to the king. Oh, bow Oh, I'm sorry, your majesty. Did that hurt?" And they hit him over with the Did that hurt? Are you hurting? We're so sorry. It was a mock coronation. The triumph done as a joke on a no-name from Galilee.

At least they they think they're mocking a nobody. They had no idea and they just knelt in front of the actual king of creation. And so, watch what Mark does because Mark is telling you the triumph, the parade, right? Watch the order. So, the whole the whole ceremony is called together. Uh they put a purple robe on him. They put a crown on his head. They hail him as king. And then they march him out They pull a man out of the crowd to carry the beam. And then they bring him to the place at the end of the route. And Mark gives it uh its name. It's Golgotha, the place of the skull.

They put a sign over his head that says what he's king of. And they put a man on his right and a man on his left. And at the end at the end, a Roman officer stands in front of him and says out loud he's he claims he'd recognize what they have done and who he is. But that's a triumph. Mark sets it up perfectly on how he illustrates it. Paulus was a man dressed up as God. This is the one in the form of God dressed up by men as a joke king when he's actually the king. And so, they lead him out and they crucify him at the place of the skull between the two criminals.

And they nail the sign up and everything. King of the Jews. Priests are making fun of him. Darkness comes over the land at noon. Uh and then at 3:00 in the afternoon, he cries out and he breathes his last. And Mark tells you uh who's standing there. Remember he Who was it? It was a Centurion. When the Centurion who was standing opposite of him saw the way he breathed his last, he said, "Wow. Truly, this man was the son of God." A Centurion, that's a Roman officer in charge of 100 soldiers. Um he is the empire. He may have even been in the room at the governor's palace that morning.

We don't know. But this is a soldier that stands at the foot of the Roman car cross looking at a man who just died the most shameful death Rome could conjure up in their imagination. And he says, "Truly, this man is the son of God." Now, hear hear the way a Roman would hear that. Son of God is the emperor's title. It's a big deal. That's what they called the emperor. It's It's what was stamped on the money uh that was in his pocket, right? Caesar, son of the divine Augustus, son That's what Rome did as their propaganda. They would put a face of someone famous on the coin and then they have a slogan that was associated with God somehow around it.

Every Knee Will Bow

But do you hear it? The empire's own soldier takes the title off the coin and he hangs it on this crucified man. This is what God looks like when he becomes a man. That's the answer to the second question. That's what it looks like when the one in the form of God becomes human. Now, back to Philippians cuz Paul wasn't done yet when he was writing to the Philippians. In verse 9, he continues. He says, "For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

For this reason. Because he went down, God lifted him up. He didn't grab for it. God handed it to him in front of all of creation. He didn't get promotion but promote the promotion. Paul already told us he had equality This is just everybody finding out, right? Highly exalted. And then the name that is above every name. Now, remember the soldiers getting down on their knees, worshipping him, paying homage as a joke. Paul says that one day every knee bows, in heaven and on earth and under the earth. Everybody. Every single one. But when it happens then nobody's going to be laughing. Nobody's laughing. Those soldiers in the governor's headquarters were rehearsing something they didn't understand.

I love the irony. I believe that's one of God's love languages. If you read the Bible it it loves it. If you live in a life of faith in this world, you've probably experienced it many times. It's Whenever I have irony show up in my life, God is God's with me. He loves to make an entrance at the end. That's ironic. They knelt in front of the real king and thought it was funny, but one day every knee in creation is going to do the same. And it's not going to be funny. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. Paul didn't make that up. That wasn't something he just made up.

Because he believed it's true. He's quoting a prophet. He's quoting Isaiah. Uh and Isaiah 45. Uh and in Isaiah 45, do you know who's talking? It's the Lord. It's God himself. It's Yahweh. And he's saying that there is no other God. There is no other savior. And then he says this in in Isaiah 45:23. He says, "By myself I have sworn. Truth is gone from my my mouth, a word that will not be revoked. Every knee will bow to me. Every tongue will swear allegiance. Every knee will bow." That's the God of Israel talking about himself. The one God, the one who will not share his glory with anyone, swearing an oath on his own name.

And Paul takes that verse, the Lord's own oath about himself, and he writes the name Jesus right through the middle of it. Which I love. At the name of Jesus every knee will bow. Paul's a Jewish man. He grew up praying the Shema, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And he puts Yeshua inside of Isaiah's sentence about the Lord. The one who went all the way down to the bottom gets the oath that belongs to the Lord. I don't know how to say it any bigger than that, but it's super cool that Paul has this confidence of what he's saying. And so what does that mean for us?

Remember where Paul started, before anything about crosses or purple robes. He He didn't write all of that so the Philippians could just sit back and be like, "Well, that's a really cool verse and it's really inspiring." Uh he wrote it because they were fighting with each other. There were some issues in the community. patriots. They were doing the thing of trying to climb to the top in their own circles of ministry and social circles. And this was his response to try to put an end to that. Here's what he said right before everything that we've read. Here's the preface. He says, "Hey, do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit.

Stop it. But in humility, consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not at his own interests, but rather to the interests of others. Adopt the same attitude of that of Christ Jesus. Do nothing out of selfish ambition. Consider others more important than yourselves." So, if we're going to go back to our example, take one cookie so that everybody can have a cookie, right? It's super simple and we laugh about it, but how hard is that on a day-to-day life as an adult? Because the older you get, the more opportunities you have to take cookies, don't you? You get to do things a little bit more selfish. You have more freedom to do that.

And that's where the serpent's voice gets a hold. And then, adopt the same attitude as Christ, as Yeshua. And then he tells you what that attitude And it's everything that we just read through. He had equality with God, and he didn't grab it. He went down as a slave. He went down to the cross. That's the attitude. That's the attitude. We love the verse where Yeshua says, "Yeah, pick up your cross and follow me." And we're like, "Yeah, I'm going to carry my cross." And we we forget where he's heading with the cross. It's all fun and games until you see the hill. Oh. Oh, I didn't sign up for Did I sign up for that?

Shedding the Costume

No one told me. I thought I was just going down to say a prayer. No, it's it's a whole life change. And that's where Yeshua says it's going to end. And the hope he gives us is that that is not the end. That's where the great reversal will take place. In other words, this is how image bearers are supposed to live and look in the world. This is what becoming what you are looks like as an image bearer of God. And so you are the image of God. You were made as the image of God. And now you know what God looks like. He looks like Yeshua. And Yeshua looks like the one who didn't grab and take.

So becoming what you are doesn't mean climbing up into a chariot. It means taking off the costume. It means not playing that game anymore. And that's a bigger form of protest than anyone could ever ask in any empire. That's actually what got Christians killed in the Roman Empire. It wasn't that they believed in Jesus. it wasn't necessarily that they didn't worship the other gods. Rome didn't care. They were very free. They were very universal. It was that they didn't willingly take part in the system. And then of course Rome, the empire, uses what to enforce its laws and its culture on people? Violence. And for Christians, they had already the cross.

They knew where they were heading, and it didn't work. It didn't work. No matter how hard Rome pushed, Christians would just say, "I'm not going to participate. I'm not going to say hail Caesar to your king. I'm not going to worship the empire as the religion of God. You had soldiers that refused to fight. I'm not going to go kill my enemies anymore. They were abandoning their posts in the army. That's a problem for an empire. The boldness to take off the costume and say I'm not going to participate in everything that society has told me I need to do. I'm not going to hate someone just because society puts them on the news and says I need to hate them and paints a story.

I'm going to forgive in a way that's annoying. I'm going to have mercy first. I'm going to have grace as the spear tip of all judgment. I'm going to have and adopt the same attitude of Yeshua. A costume is anything that you put on so people will look at you the way that you'd look like a god. It's our little way of reaching for the It's tiring. It's heavy. It'll make you sick for real. Literally. General Paulus found that out the same week as his parade. The triumph. And so this week I want you to try to find a place where you may have been grabbing at that status. That could be in your home, it could be in your job, it could be in your hobbies, it could be at the store.

You know. You know what needs to be refined. Where you've been hanging on to something like it's loot, like it's your right to have it. Your reputation. Maybe it's the attitude of being right all the time. That's a good one. That was a good one. You You want to measure your insecurity? You look at someone who has to be right They must have other people in the room endorse the identity in the costume that they've put on themselves. Yeah. And I want you to try to let go of it this week. Practice letting go of it. Practice adopting the attitude of Yeshua. Practice embodying the image bearer status like Yeshua did.

And it might be someone something that no one's going to see. It might be something you never get a thank you for and that's okay. Cuz you're not there to earn anything. You're just being who you were created to be. You're becoming more of what we were made to be which is like God. So with that, please stand with me as we conclude worship today. And don't know where you're at today uh but I'm glad you're here. Uh but during this time of worship, I invite you to worship with us. Uh you can pray, you can meditate. Um if you need prayer today, we're going to have a prayer partner on either side of the stage and um whether it's related to the message or not, if you have something going on in your life and you would like someone to stand with you and pray with you guys, this is what we're here to do.

Maybe you have something today that you've carried long for a long time. Maybe there's something that you've grasped onto. Maybe it's unforgiveness. Maybe it's fear. Maybe it is a costume that you're scared to take off. As we have a symbolic altar here place where things are set apart and you can come up, you can kneel down and you can symbolically place it here and stand back up and walk back to your seat knowing that you've taken the first step in leaving that thing behind. Now is an appropriate time to do that. Avinu Malkeinu, our Father and our King. Father, we thank you for the opportunity to dive into your word.

We thank you for the opportunity to see the great triumph of God displayed in Yeshua our king. And Father, we ask for mercy, and we ask for strength, and we ask for perseverance, and we ask for wisdom, and we ask for the Holy Spirit to do everything we know that it is empowered to do for us, to give us strength to adopt the same mindset and attitude of our king, that we would boldly not only pick up a cross, but we would carry it following him wherever that would take us. That we would disrupt the systems of the world, the systems of Hasatan. That we would agitate empires in a way that glorifies you.

Father, make us into the good soldiers of Christ as Paul says. And take away everything that would be limiting us and stopping us from moving into that position. We thank you, Father, in the name of Yeshua, our great king, we pray. Amen.