Video Transcript: The Mark of the Lion and Your Relationship with the World
Welcome to Session 4 of the Mark of the Lion. In this session, we examine how being marked by Jesus Christ impacts your relationship with the world.
The Bible teaches us that before Jesus Christ came, God identified all of humankind as being dead in trespasses and sins, under His judgment, and deserving of His wrath. In Ephesians 2, we read: Once you were dead, because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil, the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the Spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature, we were subject to God's anger just like everyone else.
Jesus Christ came to earth to make peace between God and humankind through the cross and to save us from God's wrath. The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 5: But God demonstrates His own love for us in this; While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him?
Those who are marked by Jesus Christ turn from their old way of life. They're delivered from God's wrath, and they become ambassadors of reconciliation. In I Thessalonians 1, we read, You turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
In John 20, Jesus said to His disciples, Peace to you, as the Father has sent Me, I also send you. Just as the Father sent Jesus Christ to show the world His love and to make peace with humankind, Jesus sends those who identify with him to be His ambassadors. of love and peace to the world. In II Corinthians 5 we read, Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.
Those who are marked by Jesus Christ carry the aroma of his life into all of their relationships. In II Corinthians 2, we read, Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death and to the other the aroma of life leading to life.
The mark of Jesus Christ brings about a separation from the world's way of doing things in exchange for doing things Jesus’ way. Jesus said in Matthew 10, Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of me. And he
who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it. He who loses his life for my sake, will find it.
The division that Jesus references in Matthew 10 is the division between those who identify with him and those who reject Him. Those who are marked by Jesus Christ identify with His love for all people, regardless of how people treat us or respond to us.
Those who are marked by Jesus Christ, don't identify people as their foes or enemies. In Ephesians 6:12 we read, For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world and against evil spirits in heavenly places.
Those who are marked by Jesus Christ can identify with people from every intersectionality category, because Jesus loves people in every intersectionality category. He wants them to be saved from God's wrath and to know His peace. In I Timothy 2 we read, For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Intersectionality identifies, defines and divides people by their differences. Jesus Christ identifies with our differences and divisions, yet loves us and unites us through the cross and the Holy Spirit.
As your life and identity intersects with the philosophy of intersectionality, bring your color, bring your ethnicity, bring your gender, your sexual preferences, your age, your ability, status, and every other status that you might claim. Bring it to the foot of the cross and remember Jesus’ words: He who finds his life will lose it. He loses his life for my sake will find it.
Those who are marked by Jesus Christ, find their identity in Him and find that He takes the oppression, He takes the discrimination, the wounds, the scars, the suffering, the injustice, the disillusionment, the misunderstanding, the mischaracterizations, the persecutions, and He makes something beautiful out of it for His glory and for the blessing of people. In Romans 8 we read, And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril, or sword? Yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
In closing, I invite you to examine your relationship with Jesus Christ. Have you been marked by the lion of the tribe of Judah? Is your life so identified with him that you consider yourself His ambassador in all of your relationships? Is the aroma of his life present in those relationships? Do you identify with him as your first love? Or has your identity been marked by a love for self or someone else or something else? Do you have any identity idols that have pushed Jesus Christ to the periphery of your life? Maybe you're watching this and have never identified with Jesus Christ in the way that I've described in these sessions. Wherever you may be, today is the day you can humble yourself at the foot of the cross and say, “Father, I want to bear the mark of Jesus Christ. I want to identify with you.”
If you do that, receive His love. receive His grace, receive His mercy, receive His forgiveness. And thank him for making peace with you through the cross. Receive his life! He will fill you with the Holy Spirit if you ask him to do so. Become an ambassador of the Heavenly Kingdom and let his love mark every one of your relationships.
God bless you and thank you for watching this mini course. May you lay hold of that for which Jesus Christ has laid hold of you. Let me pray for you.
Father, thank You for my friends who are watching this mini course. I ask you to reveal yourself to them. I pray that you would mark them and that they would know the fullness of what it means to be marked by Jesus Christ, to identify with Jesus Christ. I pray that they would take all of their life and, by your grace, bring it to you at the foot of the cross and may you take it and make something beautiful out of it that brings glory to Jesus Christ, brings blessing to them and blessing to all those that they encounter day by day as you change them. Transform them from glory to glory, more and more into your marvelous, beautiful image. I praise you and thank you, for Jesus Christ and for your Holy Spirit. And I pray all these things in Jesus name, Amen.