Sermon Tone Analysis

Insert “Why In the World Video”

Welcome to Beth Messiah for Yom Kippur 5778!

We are in part 4 of a 7 part of series.

The longest series so far at Beth Messiah extending over four years.

I just teach one message per year on this series.

Obviously, I am slow writer of sermons.

The theme of this whole series is basically this, that God became one of us.

We believe and it's hard to believe, but we believe that God showed up on the planet in the form of Yeshua and he was born as a baby.

He didn't show up as an angel.

He grew up like a normal person except he was the son of God.

And it's almost impossible for us to wrap our minds around that but that's what we believe.

And the reason we believe it isn't simply because we just ran out of normal things to believe.

It I better than that.

We believe it because Jewish eyewitnesses like Jacob, Matthew, Shimon Cepha, Mark, Miriam, Yochanan believed they encountered God in a bod.

There were eyewitness of these things actually said it this way.

John said (, ) and "The word," talking about God in sort of a big Greek idea of content and cosmos said "That the word became flesh and dwelt" or camped out or tabernacle or moved in to the condo next door "among us."

And that these people who actually spent time with Jesus believed that Jesus was God in a body and that God showed up and lived among them.

So the question we've been asking is, "Why?"

Why would God becomes on of us?

Why did Yeshua, God in a body, why did Yeshua come us one of us to live us one of us among us?

And we've said there's several reasons why.

Year 1:To bring us into the gravitational center of Israel’s hope.

Year 2: To usher in the beginning of a cosmic victory.

Year 3: To elevate the dignity of each one of us.

Yeshua didn't simply come to give an explanation about God.

Yeshua said, "I am the explanation of God.

The closer you get to me, the closer you get to understanding God.

Stop short of me and you'll miss something.

Move past me and you're moving away from something."

Yeshua actually claimed to be God in the flesh.

The week 1 of the series we said this.

We said the first reason was that to communicate and demonstrate what God is like.

And we discovered in those first two weeks that the closer you get to Yeshua, the closer you get to God.

That Yeshua didn't simply come as an explan... Have it with an explanation of God.

Yeshua said, "I am the explanation of God.

The closer you get to me, the closer you get to understanding God.

Stop short of me and you'll miss something.

Move past me and you're moving away from something."

Yeshua actually claimed to be God in the flesh.

Year 4: to put religion in its place.

But tonight, perhaps the most challenging idea of all, why did Yeshua come in to the world?

But today, perhaps the most challenging idea of all, why did Yeshua come in to the world?

Yeshua came in to the world to put religion in its place, to put religion in its place.

Now this is very important.

Religion has a place and religion actually plays a very important role in our culture and in our society.

Yeshua came in to the world to put religion in its place, to put religion in its place.

Now this is very important.

Religion has a place and religion actually plays a very important role in our culture and in our society.

And I'm not even talking about the The Messiahian religion, just all religion because all of us have questions we don't have answers for and religion gives us sort of a context for answering some of those questions.

What happens when we die?

Will I ever see my mother again?

Will I see my mother-in-law again?

How big is heaven?

How do we... Am I gonna look the same?

How old will I be?

Religion gives us answers to questions like, how am I suppose to treat people?

How am I suppose to conduct my marriage?

How am I suppose to raise my kids?

And religion is systematic.

In fact we love many of the systematic theology.

Systematic theology is basically a bunch of books where somebody tried to answer all the questions, reduce all the mystery to nothing and make it systematized.

We all need principles to live by and religion gives us principles and laws and rules to live by.

We have ethical questions, moral questions and religion provides as with some ethical and moral boundaries.

Religion is important because all of us have questions we don't have answers for and religion gives us sort of a context for answering some of those questions.

What happens when we die?

Will I ever see my mother again?

Will I see my mother-in-law again?

How big is heaven?

How do we... Am I gonna look the same?

How old will I be?

Religion gives us answers to questions like, how am I suppose to treat people?

How am I suppose to conduct my marriage?

How am I suppose to raise my kids?

And religion is systematic.

Guys in seminary love systematic theology.

Systematic theology is basically a bunch of books where somebody tried to answer all the questions, reduce all the mystery to nothing and make it systematized.

We all need principles to live by and religion gives us principles and laws and rules to live by.

We have ethical questions, moral questions and religion provides as with some ethical and moral boundaries.

And the other thing religion does, religion brings some certainty into an uncertain world.

So religious systems are important.

Religion has its place.

But Yeshua showed up to put religion in its place.

Let me explain why that's important.

Here's why.

When religion takes first place, it begins flexing its muscles at the expense of mercy.

Every religion when religion is on the top shelf, when religion is most important, when religion moves in to first place, mercy always, always, always suffers.

Just think about some of the phrases that we've heard associated with religion.

Child sacrifice, child sacrifice, honor killings, honor killings, holy wars, "crucify him, crucify him, crucify him", the religious people shouted related to Yeshua.

I love history like many of you love history.

I'll get fascinated with a period of history and I just read everything I can find about it.

So when I was living Chicago going to college I was all about crusader literature.

Largely due to my Jewish studies program.

So I was fascinated with crusader literature and so you can find this, none of this is hard to find, so I read several versions of the speeches that Pope Urban II gave in the year 1095 that launched the crusades.

And what happened is the pope and I'm not picking on Catholics because remember this time in history all there were were Catholics.

The pope was it, that was all of the largest organized religious system in the world.

And so they decided to launch the crusades and the pope was the one to do it so he created a speech and he gave the speech originally in France and then he moved around to different large cities and large populated areas of Europe primarily, and he gave different versions of the speech.

He said this, "On this account, I, or rather the Lord", speaking on behalf of God, "Beseech you as The Messiah's heralds to publish this everywhere and to persuade all people of whatever

Here is what He said:

He said this, "On this account, I, or rather the Lord", speaking on behalf of God, "Beseech you as The Messiah's heralds to publish this everywhere and to persuade all people of whatever

On this account I, or rather the Lord, beseech you as Christ's heralds to publish this everywhere and to persuade all people of whatever rank, foot-soldiers and knights, poor and rich, to carry aid promptly to those Christians and to destroy that vile race from the lands of our friends.