Reverb Evangel

a jargon free approach to public events outreach.

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Government & Faith

Survey
How would you like to take part in a
“Government & Faith” survey?

o In your view, would it make sense

to mix County & State legislation
with religion & religious issues?
—one example would be passing
new laws mandating that churches
stress things like tolerance.

o What about Federal tax policy and

religion: Should churches keep their
tax exempt status?

o What about mixing art and religion:

Should artists be free to explore
religious themes?

o What about specific religious

ideas? How do you understand the
idea of God: Is God personal or is
God more impersonal?

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Request to Proceed
o Do you believe in a real afterlife?

o Do you believe in a final judgment?

o Do you believe it’s possible that a

real God may want to extricate you?

We’re here to walk folks through

a 10-minute presentation that
unpacks that idea of “extrication”
& what we mean by that.
Do you have a minute?

Good—and please feel free to interrupt

where you want to comment.

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Bad & Good

Jesus of Nazareth compared the afterlife
to a king…
sending his servants
to invite people
to a dinner event.
The servants went “into the highways”
and “gathered all whom they
found—both bad and good.”

(Matthew 22:10)

I like the idea that both

the bad and the good
get invited to the afterlife.

And it also sounds

like an open invitation:
that agnostics & skeptics are
welcome to hear out his message
—and judge for themselves.

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Curse & Judge

And His message…
is that He became a curse for humanity.
Jesus of Nazareth became a curse
to extricate those who are cursed.

Things that sound

strange at first hearing sometimes
turn out to be painfully accurate.
Like…
we’re all made up of particles
that are in motion!
And…
the God of the Heavens
is “pristine”—morally and spiritually.
And we are not pristine!
Despite our moral & spiritual efforts,
to be “pristine” is to be flawless.

There’s a terrible incompatibility—

between the God of the Heavens
and us—in effect, acting as a curse.

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Curse & Judge

And the afterlife is where
that curse—that incompatibility—
can no longer be avoided.

Jesus not only said

there would be a probing judgment
in the afterlife—where
our lack of flawlessness
becomes insurmountable—He
even said He would be the
Judge of that Judgment.

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The Cross
So… it is important to put together
what Jesus was claiming, so you can
gauge whether or not it’s persuasive.
Bottom line:
He became a curse
when He was hung on a tree.
But He personally demolished the curse
with His resurrection.

He now claims to be the One who can be

trusted—to transfer us out of danger
with His own personal immortality.

Eternal life… is Jesus’ resurrection—

somehow given as a gift.
It is a wash of new life
that cleans us from all our spiritual decay.
Eternal life extricates us from cursedness.
And it levels the moral playing-field:
Prostitutes & Chemists—no one is pristine
like God is pristine.
All equally need eternal life as a gift.

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The Son’s Claims

Jesus made many statements
about eternal life. He explained
it wasn’t just about a future afterlife,
saying: “He who believes in
the Son has eternal life…”
[meaning in the present]

(John 3:36)

He made eternal life specific to Him

—when He said:
“I am the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in me,
though he die,
yet shall he live.“

(John 11:25)

He made it categorical, saying:

“For this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who looks on the Son and
believes in Him should have eternal life,
and I will raise him up on the last day.”

(John 6:40)

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Transition
Odd! Jesus of Nazareth
is considered unique in His wisdom
and yet the crux of His teaching
is that all of humanity has an unavoidable
need for Him and His immortality. Odd.

And yet, according to the Bible,

believing in the One pristine Man,
who extricates us from cursedness
is crucial.

But it poses a question. Assuming it’s true,

what would motivate that type of strange
generosity?

One of the reasons God

may have been so
willing to send His Son
to be hung on a tree,
is that even before He made us,
He existed as 1 God in 3 Persons
—making him infinitely relational…

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Relationship
This means that
before time & space
there were relationships,
that loyalty and love
preceded the material world,

and suggests a possible motivation

for the Father’s generosity:
that is the love and loyalty that go
hand in hand with being infinitely
relational.

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Extrication
And that is what extricates some
of us from meaninglessness
in this life—our own
attempts at loyalty
and love—our own
attempt to glorify the Father.

In fact, if you read along on page 11

you can see that the Bible calls for
a total makeover of our attitudes.

It says…

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Augustine’s
repentance text
Let no debt remain outstanding,
except the continuing debt to love one
another, for he who loves his fellowman has
fulfilled the law.

The commandments,
"Do not commit adultery-Do not murder,"
"Do not steal-Do not covet,"
and whatever other
commandment there may be,
are summed up in this one rule:
"Love your neighbor as yourself."

… And do this—understanding the

present time.
…The night is nearly over;
the day is almost here.

So let us put aside the deeds of darkness

and put on the armor of light.
Let us behave decently, as in the daytime:
not in orgies and drunkenness,
not in sexual immorality and debauchery,
not in dissension and jealousy.

Rather, clothe yourselves

with the Lord Jesus Christ,
and do not think about how to
gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
(Ro 13:8-14)

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Summary
So the issues we began with:
legislation and tax policy
regarding religion

are pretty pale fare compared with

the stark undermining of personal
gratification and the reconstructing
of our personal lives on things like
loyalty and love.

The God of the Bible does extricate us.

But the “extrication” is
profound.

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Final Q&A
All this poses 3 questions
that by answering you’d help me plot
where you find yourself...

o Do you think the idea of a God who is

uniquely personal & loyal & relational
is appealing?

o Do the claims Jesus makes resonate

with you? Like: “I am the
resurrection and the life. Whoever
believes in me, though he die, yet
shall he live.”

o What do you feel you might say to an

infinitely relational God to convince
Him to let you into His afterlife?

…If you’re curious about or drawn to

any of this, we’d love for you to
visit us at our church!

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