James Meehan - Responding in Obedience
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James Meehan: "Switch Uncut is here for you. What are we gonna do. Talk about the Bible and faith. And following Jesus. By looking at a passage of scripture. That is gonna be helpful." Kaitlyn.
Kaitlyn Caffery: I thought it was gonna rhyme there at the end.
James Meehan: No, couldn't come up with anything. I'm not clever enough.
Kaitlyn Caffery: Cool. Well thank you for that intro.
James Meehan: You're welcome.
Kaitlyn Caffery: Well, we are here on Switch Uncut, as we sang about, and...
James Meehan: Yes, we did.
Kaitlyn Caffery: We are gonna talk through a passage of scripture today that just highlights what it looks like to follow Jesus and understand a little bit more of the story that the Bible is telling.
James Meehan: Ooh. Would you say that the story of the Bible is a story about Jesus?
Kaitlyn Caffery: I would say that.
James Meehan: Huh, interesting.
Kaitlyn Caffery: I would. No, actually we're in a series called How to Read the Bible right now and...
James Meehan: Wait, what?
Kaitlyn Caffery: It's true, I promise. And you can check it out on Wednesday night.
James Meehan: Feel like my chair's kind of squeaky.
Kaitlyn Caffery: Here, it kinda is. Here on our YouTube channel. And what we've been talking about is reading the Bible through the lens of Jesus is King and context is everything.
James Meehan: It's good. It rhymes, so you know it's true.
Kaitlyn Caffery: I know. Right, that's how I know for sure. But what we mean by that is that the whole Bible is this unified story that leads us to Jesus and invites us to become more like Jesus.
James Meehan: Come on.
Kaitlyn Caffery: So there's not a passage in all of scripture where we can't find Jesus somewhere in there.
James Meehan: Right.
Kaitlyn Caffery: And that's kinda what I want to talk about today. Like a tricky part of the Old Testament that honestly could be tempting to just overlook because it kind of seems like God is being an evil rage monster.
James Meehan: Oh.
Kaitlyn Caffery: But actually what I think that he's doing is really powerful and that it points us to Jesus in a really neat way. James, would you go ahead and start reading in Genesis six.
James Meehan: Genesis chapter six, starting in verse 11. Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, "I'm going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood, make rooms in it and and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it. The ark is to be 300 qubits long, 50 qubits wide, and 30 qubits high. Make a roof for it, living below the roof and opening one qubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle, and upper decks".
Kaitlyn Caffery: Yeah, so something that stands out to me is the word corruption like three or four times right in the beginning of that passage. So what God does is he highlights the reason why this flood is coming. He is looking to undo the corruption and the damage of sin and a toll that it's taken on creation. And then the other thing that we read in that passage are instructions for this ark. And so what I love about how this comes together is we see God explaining, hey, here's why this bad thing is about to happen, and I actually have a plan to save you through it, and it's gonna be building this ark. Is there anything that is standing out to you in the passage?
— Yeah, how long is a qubit?
— I don't know. I honestly don't know.
— Somebody Google it and comment it down below, please and thank you.
— Perfect. Yeah, it's not a inch, or a yard, or a foot measurement, so I don't know what it is. I don't know the conversion rate. Cool, so we read in Genesis six, the reason for the flood and then instructions on building this ark. And then in Genesis seven, we actually get to see what Noah does with that.
— Okay, so starting in verse 13 reading through verse 16, we read that on that very day, Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons entered the ark. They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. The animals going in were male and female of every living thing as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.
— Yeah. So what I love here is how it highlights Noah's obedience. We didn't read it, but the whole next passage is Noah following instruction by instruction, detail by detail over the course of several years...
— Yeah.
— Of dedicated labor to doing exactly what God had asked him to do, and building this ark detail by detail. And then in the end, him and his family all get in, and God closes the door behind them, and then the flood comes. And so the question that I'm asking, the question that reading the Bible through the lens of Jesus is King and context is everything invites us to ask is, how does this story lead us to Jesus, and how does it invite us to become like Jesus?
— That's a great question.
— And a couple of things that, of ways that I am seeing Jesus in this passage is, one, it highlights the fact that sometimes to bring salvation, it actually has to start with destruction. And in first John 3:8, it talks about how Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. Like this disease of sin that had taken over the world, Jesus actually came to wage war on that.
— Right.
— And our salvation came through the fact that Jesus was willing to destroy the works of the devil.
— Yeah.
— And that's a little bit of how I see Jesus in the passage of the flood, because there was destruction that had to happen, but salvation came through that.
— That's great, yeah.
— And then another way that I'm seeing Jesus is in like the symbolism of the ark itself. Like even though this destruction was coming, God made a way for Noah and his family, who were righteous in his sight, to be saved from that destruction. And in the same way, Jesus is our way to be saved from the destruction and the damage of sin.
— Right.
— When we follow him. And there's this passage in John 10 that illustrates that pretty beautifully.
— Here in John chapter 10, starting in verse seven. Therefore Jesus says again, "Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out and find pasture".
— Yeah, so when God instructed Noah and his family to to build this ark, he told them that it was by entering. It was by obeying him, and by building this ark, and then entering into it that they would be saved.
— Right.
— And in the same way, what Jesus is saying is that if we wanna experience life, we actually have to enter and trust Jesus that he is the way to salvation.
— Come on.
— And the beautiful thing about that is it's, it doesn't come from my efforts, but I do have a part to play.
— Right.
— Like Noah had to obey and trust God enough to go through the process of building this ark.
— Right.
— And I have to trust God enough to believe that what Jesus did on the cross for me actually paid the price.
— Come on.
— Like it was actually enough to save me.
— Right.
— And that is what it looks like for salvation to come through faith in Jesus.
— Right.
— And that's the picture that he's painting in this passage.
— Right, I mean, that's why within the context of Switch, we define faith as trust based on evidence that leads to obedience.
— Yeah.
— So Noah trusted that what God said was going to happen would happen, that there would be a flood that wiped out all the corruption on the earth.
— Yeah.
— And the evidence was God speaking to Noah.
— Yeah.
— And the obedience was him taking on the instructions and actually doing the things to build the ark.
— Yeah.
— In the same way we've been invited to place our faith in Jesus, to trust that he is who he says he is.
— Yeah.
— Based on the evidence of what the Bible says.
— Yeah.
— What history tells us.
— Yeah.
— What philosophy can show us.
— Yeah.
— All of the different things that point to the truthfulness of Jesus' claims. And our response is obedience. It's repenting. It's turning from our sins.
— Right.
— And turning to him. And when we do that we enter into a relationship with Jesus.
— Right.
— We are now in Christ, just like Noah and his family were in the ark.
— Right. Yeah, I love that. And I think it's so cool that like all the way back in Genesis, like God is painting a picture of salvation through Jesus.
— Right, 100%.
— And like the earth was flooded with water, in this case, but when Jesus came and he died on the cross, one of my favorite things is he says, "It's finished," and the veil in the temple tears. And it's symbolic of the spirit of God just flooding the whole earth with the grace of Jesus and...
— So good.
— I absolutely love that. So for you, how is this passage leading you to Jesus? How is it inviting you to become more like Jesus? I know for me, the challenge that I'm presented with is, will I trust that Jesus is enough...
— Yeah.
— To save me?
— Right.
— What about you?
— So good. I mean, I think for me it's the recognition that we have a part to play.
— Yep.
— But we're not the ones that are in control.
— Yeah.
— It's God who invited Moses to build the ark. It's Moses who responded in obedience. And then like you mentioned in Genesis seven, that really interesting point, that it was God who shut him in the ark.
— Yeah.
— And so God who started it...
— Yep.
— Is the same one who finished it.
— Yeah.
— Jesus is the author.
— Yep.
— And the finisher of our faith.
— Yeah.
— And so we have a part to play, but ultimately that part means trusting and following him wherever he leads.
— Yep.
— And I think that is much easier said than it is done.
— Yeah, that's good. Well, if you guys have any other things that are sticking out to you, any other passages that you would want us to explore, we would love to do that because we kind of nerd out over getting to read and explain the Bible through the lens of Jesus is King, and context is everything.
— 100%.
— 'Cause you get to see beautiful stuff like this on every page and in every passage.
— Yeah, absolutely. So as you continue on your journey of following Jesus, and studying the scriptures, and seeing where it leads, just remember, that Jesus is King and context is everything.
— Yep.
— See you guys next time.
— See y'all.