Cited to introduce King Og and the race of giants who inhabited Bashan
1 Then we turned, and went up the way to Bashan. Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.
2 Yahweh said to me, “Don’t fear him; for I have delivered him, with all his people, and his land, into your hand. You shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.”
3 So Yahweh our God delivered into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people. We struck him until no one was left to him remaining.
4 We took all his cities at that time. There was not a city which we didn’t take from them; sixty cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
5 All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars; besides a great many villages without walls.
6 We utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones.
7 But all the livestock, and the plunder of the cities, we took for plunder for ourselves.
8 We took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon.
9 (The Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir.)
10 We took all the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, to Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
11 (For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron. Isn’t it in Rabbah of the children of Ammon? Nine cubits was its length, and four cubits its width, after the cubit of a man.)
Referenced for the principle that everyone who acknowledges Jesus publicly on earth he will acknowledge before the Father
1 He called to himself his twelve disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every sickness.
2 Now the names of the twelve apostles are these. The first, Simon, who is called Peter; Andrew, his brother; James the son of Zebedee; John, his brother;
3 Philip; Bartholomew; Thomas; Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus; Lebbaeus, who was also called Thaddaeus;
4 Simon the Canaanite; and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.
5 Jesus sent these twelve out, and commanded them, saying, “Don’t go among the Gentiles, and don’t enter into any city of the Samaritans.
6 Rather, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
7 As you go, preach, saying, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!’
8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons. Freely you received, so freely give.
9 Don’t take any gold, silver, or brass in your money belts.
10 Take no bag for your journey, neither two coats, nor shoes, nor staff: for the laborer is worthy of his food.
11 Into whatever city or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy; and stay there until you go on.
12 As you enter into the household, greet it.
13 If the household is worthy, let your peace come on it, but if it isn’t worthy, let your peace return to you.
14 Whoever doesn’t receive you, nor hear your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet.
15 Most certainly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.
16 “Behold, I send you out as sheep among wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
17 But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to councils, and in their synagogues they will scourge you.
18 Yes, and you will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony to them and to the nations.
19 But when they deliver you up, don’t be anxious how or what you will say, for it will be given you in that hour what you will say.
20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.
21 “Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child. Children will rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death.
22 You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved.
23 But when they persecute you in this city, flee into the next, for most certainly I tell you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel, until the Son of Man has come.
24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his lord.
25 It is enough for the disciple that he be like his teacher, and the servant like his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household!
26 Therefore don’t be afraid of them, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed; and hidden that will not be known.
27 What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in the ear, proclaim on the housetops.
28 Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
29 “Aren’t two sparrows sold for an assarion coin? Not one of them falls on the ground apart from your Father’s will,
30 but the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
31 Therefore don’t be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows.
32 Everyone therefore who confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven.
33 But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.
34 “Don’t think that I came to send peace on the earth. I didn’t come to send peace, but a sword.
35 For I came to set a man at odds against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
36 A man’s foes will be those of his own household.
37 He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me isn’t worthy of me.
38 He who doesn’t take his cross and follow after me, isn’t worthy of me.
39 He who seeks his life will lose it; and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.
40 He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me.
41 He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. He who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward.
42 Whoever gives one of these little ones just a cup of cold water to drink in the name of a disciple, most certainly I tell you he will in no way lose his reward.”
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Easter Sunday, Brian walked us through Psalm 22, a song David wrote a thousand years before Jesus was born, and showed how the suffering it describes maps onto what happened on the cross. The throughline was a single image from verse 12: fierce bulls of Bashan, and what that phrase would have meant to anyone reading it in the ancient world. The message was that Jesus faced those bulls so we don't have to, and that his victory is available to anyone willing to make an exchange.
What was said
David wrote Psalm 22 as a warrior poet describing an experience of being utterly surrounded, hemmed in with no way out and no help coming. Brian pointed out that the psalm opens with the exact words Jesus spoke from the cross, and that detail is not accidental. David was seeing something prophetically, a thousand years ahead of time, about a coming moment he did not fully understand.
The phrase "bulls of Bashan" was the key. To a contemporary reader, Bashan was not a neutral geographic label. It was the region tied to King Og, a giant descended from the Nephilim, a place with a supernatural reputation for darkness and judgment. Mount Hermon, which sits at the edge of that region, carried the meaning "place set aside for destruction" in Hebrew. By the time of Jesus, that same area was home to Caesarea Philippi, a pagan temple complex built over caves where child sacrifice had been practiced. When David wrote "bulls of Bashan," he was pointing at something more than physical danger.
Jesus walked deliberately into that region. Brian described the visit to Caesarea Philippi in the gospels as Jesus going to pick a fight, making himself known to the powers of hell on their own ground before heading south to Jerusalem. What happened in Jerusalem looked, to every human observer, like total defeat. His own people were confused and heartbroken. His mother was at the foot of the cross weeping.
But Brian argued that the cross was not the triumph of darkness. It was the judgment of it. The powers of hell, the fierce bulls, came out into the open because they thought they had won. What they took for their greatest moment of victory was actually the moment they locked horns with the one who would chip those horns. The resurrection on Sunday morning was the proof that they had lost.
Brian then made the turn toward anyone in the room who feels surrounded right now, not by physical animals but by financial pressure, loneliness, grief, addiction, or their own sin. He said Jesus knows exactly what that feels like, because he went through it. Every other religious system, Brian said, asks you to earn your way out. Jesus is the only one who says you cannot defeat these bulls on your own, so he did it instead.
The exchange he described is the heart of the invitation. To receive Jesus's victory, something has to die on our side. Pride, rebellion, the grip on sin, the habit of keeping one foot in and one foot out. Brian talked about his own moment as a sophomore in high school when he got tired of managing the bulls himself and laid his life down. He said dying to himself was the thing that let him actually live.
Touch points
Things you could actually do this week.
Read Psalm 22 this week and notice how David moves from feeling surrounded and abandoned to declaring that God has not ignored the suffering of the needy.
If you made a decision to follow Jesus on Easter Sunday but have not told anyone yet, tell one person this week what you did.
Fill out a prayer request card and drop it at the church so the staff can pray over your situation at their Monday meeting.
Come to the young adult gathering on Tuesday evening for a meal and time of worship with others who are figuring out what following Jesus looks like.
When you feel hemmed in by circumstances this week, remind yourself that the bulls of Bashan already locked horns with Jesus and lost.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Brian read Psalm 22, written by David a thousand years before Jesus was born, and pointed out details that lined up with the crucifixion. What stood out to you most about those connections, and did anything surprise you?
Brian described the bulls of Bashan as representing not just physical enemies but a supernatural component to the pressure David was facing. Have you ever sensed that what you were up against was bigger than just a circumstance or situation? What was that like?
Este domingo de Pascua, Pastor Brian compartió un mensaje centrado en el Salmo 22, un poema profético escrito por David mil años antes de que Jesús naciera. A través de la imagen de los "toros de Basán", Brian explicó que David no solo describía una presión física o circunstancial, sino también una amenaza de dimensión sobrenatural. Basán era una región asociada con el rey Og, un gigante de una raza híbrida, y más tarde con el lugar donde Jesús confrontó directamente a las fuerzas del mal antes de su muerte. Brian señaló que lo que parecía la victoria del enemigo en la cruz era en realidad su propia destrucción coordinada.
Brian conectó todo esto con la vida de cada persona presente. Así como David se sentía rodeado sin salida, muchos hoy enfrentan situaciones que los agobian, ya sea soledad, deudas, adicción, pecado o pérdida. Jesús pasó por todo eso en la cruz para poder identificarse con nosotros, y su victoria puede convertirse en nuestra victoria. Pero hay un intercambio: para recibir su vida, hay que entregar la propia, muriendo al orgullo, a la rebelión y al pecado, y hacerlo Señor de la vida.
Al final del mensaje, Brian hizo una invitación abierta: para quienes ya seguían a Jesús pero nunca lo habían confesado públicamente, y para quienes nunca lo habían recibido. Varias personas respondieron poniéndose de pie, y todos oraron juntos para confesar la fe, renunciar al enemigo e invitar al Espíritu Santo a guiar sus vidas.
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Pasajes bíblicos usados:
Salmos 22:1-24
Deuteronomio 3:1-11 (mencionado, no leído en voz alta)
Colosenses 2:14
1 Corintios 15:55-57
Romanos 10:9-10
Mateo 10:32
Read the full transcript8,326 words
Welcome to Tribe. Happy Easter. He is risen. He is risen indeed. Oh, let's try it again.
He is risen. He is risen indeed. Let's stand and worship together today. What a great day to be together. Amen.
Morning everybody. I just want a second Brian saying good morning and welcome to tribe and happy Easter. If this, if you come to tribe all the time, you you at home, just do your thing. If you don't come to tribe all the time, you at home, do your thing. Just like Olive Garden, when you're here, you are family.
And listen, if you come all the time and you're comfortable or you have not been to church ever or since last Easter, I mean it with all of our heart. You are so welcome here. We're gonna sing a few songs. Be whatever you need to be. There are so many expressions of worship.
You just do what you are comfortable with. We are here to honor our risen savior and lord. So whatever brings him glory, that's what we're down for today. We're gonna sing a few more songs. Brian's gonna have a message of hope.
We're gonna sing another song at the end, and then we're gonna have a wonderful lunch together. All in all, maybe about an hour fifteen minutes before we start lunch, but I just wanna say happy Easter. You are welcome here. You are family, and he is risen. He is risen indeed.
Hallelujah. Let's go.
Lord, we praise you in this place today. We thank you that these are not just words to songs, and this is not just hype, this is gratitude. This is us coming to you this morning with a thankful heart for what you've done for us. Lord, where would we be without you? Would you just take a minute and we're gonna sing just a little bit more, but would you just thank him this morning?
Thank you, Jesus. He is the creator. He is the king of kings. He made all of this and he made all the stars in the sky and the angels around the throne right now are worshiping with us singing holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And even though he's so huge and it's hard to grasp, he is at the same time the very God that knows every single hair on your head today.
The bible says that he can weigh out the oceans, all the oceans in the palm of his hand. What? Oh, and yet you care about me and you know exactly what I'm going through today. That's the God that we worship, that name. Yes, sir.
Yes, sir. Your name is the Yeah. Happy Easter. Turn around and say good morning to someone and say, He is risen.
Wow. Okay. I had Lyssa stay up here because we need Lyssa and I just need a proud parent moment. Okay? Look at all of these smartly dressed, handsome, beautiful people here for Easter.
Yeah. Look at this. Terminator Matt in the building. Okay. Okay.
Let's do this. Let's do this. All of the men in the room, would you stand up for just a second? Just stand up, all the men. Liss, look at them.
They are they are showered. They got some hair gel in. They're they're they're here. Look how handsome they are dressed. Ladies, give these men a round of applause.
For the kingdom.
Okay. Now, you sit down enough of you. Now, alright, girls. Stand up. Women.
Women. I know we see you. We see you all winter in gore tex and beanies and like, look at you now. Wow. Don't they just look awesome?
Give yourselves a hand. You're so pretty today. Proud parent moment. I am so glad that you are spending Easter with us. This year, you just look amazing.
My name is Brian Hunter. I'm the pastor of Tribe here and today, as Amanda said earlier, we are we've worshiped the Lord with song. We're gonna worship the Lord this morning by considering a message from God's word that I'm gonna present to you. And then there'll be one other way that we worship the Lord at the end of the service this morning and then, we're gonna have lunch together. And then, if you have any endurance left in you, because this is just how we are at Tribe, We clear out the chairs, we clear out the tables and out comes the spike ball, out comes the four square and who knows what other sort of reindeer games we may play.
But, I I once again, I'm so glad that you're here. There's a connect card in your seat. If you are new or visiting, we would love to have a record of your visit. There's also an opportunity for you to check if you're a young adult, you're looking to get plugged into a young adult ministry, they gather on Tuesdays and so you can fill that out. It's a great place to meet new friends and we also have a meal at that event as well.
And then also on the back of that connect card, there is an opportunity for you to fill in a prayer request. Every Monday at staff meeting, we go over those prayer requests. We take them very seriously. We lift those things up in prayer. And so, when you fill that out, you can either put it in the little box on that side of that black curtain or just leave it in your seat.
We will grab a hold of it one way or another. Sound good? Alright. Alright. Well, we're gonna read from the bible in just a moment and if you brought your paper bible, you can open it up to Psalms 22.
I'll tell you where we're gonna start in just a moment. If you don't have a paper bible with you, if you're if you don't have an acoustic bible, you can go electric and just pull out your phone and like just just Google it. Psalms 22, that's where we're gonna be today. And we're gonna start in verse one. We're gonna read Psalms chapter 22 verses one.
We're gonna go all the way through 24. It's a lot of verses to cover but I feel like it does the best job of giving you the whole context of where we're going and what we're going to talk about. So, Psalms chapter 22 verses one through four and I'm going to turn there in my bible as well. If I can find it, here it is. I'm gonna read verses one through 24.
So this is a song of David. And if you don't know about David, he was a warrior poet. And this song was written. These are actually lyrics to a song. This song was written a thousand years before Jesus was ever born.
Before he arrived on planet earth his first time. This these words were penned by David who saw an amazing prophetic picture into the future. And if you're familiar with the person of Jesus, if you're familiar with the story of Jesus, look for clues that David wrote about this future coming savior, messiah, a thousand years before Jesus was even born. I'm gonna pick up this story right here in verse one. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Why are you so far away when I groan for help? Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer. Every night, you hear my voice, but I find no relief. Yet, you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. Our ancestors trusted in you and you rescued them.
They cried out to you and were saved. They trusted in you and were never disgraced. But I am a worm and not a man. I am scorned and despised by all. Everyone who sees me mocks me.
They sneer and shake their heads saying, is this the one who relies on the lord? Then let the lord save him. If the lord loves him so much, let the lord rescue him. Yet, you brought me safely from my mother's womb. You led me to trust you at my mother's breast.
I was thrust into your arms at birth. You have been my God from the moment I was born. Do not stay so far from me, for trouble is near and no one else can help me. My enemies surround me like a herd of bulls. Fierce bulls of Bashan have hemmed me in like lions.
They open their jaws against me, roaring and tearing into their play into their prey. My life is poured out like water, and all of my bones are out of joint, and my heart is like wax melting within me. My strength has dried up like sun baked clay. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You've laid me in the dust and left me for dead.
My enemies surround me like a pack of dogs. An evil gang closes in on me. They have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all of my bones. My enemies stare stare and gloat at me.
They divide my garments among themselves and throw dice for my clothing. Oh lord, do not stay far away for you are my strength. Come quickly to my aid. Save me from the sword. Spare my precious life from these dogs.
Snatch me from the lion's jaws and from the horns of these wild oxen. And I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters. And I will praise you among the assembled people. Two more verses. Praise the Lord all of you who fear him, honor him, all of you descendants of Jacob.
Show him reverence, all of you descendants of Israel, for he has not ignored or belittled the suffering of the needy, and he has not turned his back on them, but listened to their cries for help. The Lord blessed the reading of his word this morning. So what I wanna do is after having given you a lot of those verses to give you some greater context of what David is saying and what David is experiencing, we don't know what situation he was immediately in that caused him to pin these words. We don't know what he was going through. We know a lot of details about David's life.
We don't know the exact moment of when this was written. But if we zoom in on verse 12, which is where I wanna spend our time this morning. If you zoom in on verse 12, we see that David feels like his back is up against the wall, like he's between a rock and a hard place, like he is surrounded by fierce bulls with with no way out, no possible resolution, nothing that he can do in his own strength and power to extricate himself from the situation or stick his head in the sand to pretend like there's not trouble surrounding him on all sides. He's at his wit's end, if you will. Verse 12 says this, my enemies surround me like a herd of bulls, fierce bulls of Bashan have hemmed me in.
Now, if you're familiar with biblical geography and all things related to this verse, then outstanding. Great for you. But when I first read that verse, a couple of questions immediately popped up. The the first question that I asked is why bulls? Like like, why why why bulls?
Well, we need to think, like David thought, in those day in those days and in that age. The bull was the biggest, gnarliest thing that was in his world. He didn't know about rhinoceroses or huge elephants or demigorgons. He didn't know about any of those things. The biggest, nastiest thing that he was facing up against in his day and age were bulls.
Alright. Kind of makes sense. Now, how about the next question? Why Bashan? What's up with Bashan?
Okay. Bulls, I can maybe understand, maybe, but Bashan, that just doesn't mean anything to me. Well, if you were reading in the bible and you were reading Psalms 22, you came across verse 12 and it says, mighty bulls have surrounded me like the bulls of Bashan, you would know instantly what kind of mental image that would create in in your mind's eye. Think, what if I had said it this way, fierce bulls from the Bermuda Triangle have surrounded me. You'd be like, fierce bulls of Area 51 have surrounded me.
Okay? I don't know, how about the fierce bulls from Transylvania have surrounded me. Okay? So you have bulls but then there's a geographical location associated with the bulls that in the contemporary readers mind would have triggered and made all of these connections in their mind. So, when you hear the bulls of Bermuda Triangle, what do you think?
Oh, yeah. Oh, like what's going on? The bulls of Transylvania. You'd be like, okay. So, would be some connections made.
So, there's some significance about this area of Bashan that is relevant to verse 12 that we're talking about. And believe it or not, it's relevant to you today even if you've never even heard of this place called Bashan. Let me just show you a quick map here. Bashan was a region in Far Northern Israel and it was at the base of Mount Hermon. This is the ancient name of this region.
If we fast forward in time to Jesus' day, there was a city there that you can still go and visit the ruins and it's called Caesarea Philippi. Everybody say, Caesarea Philippi.
Caesarea Philippi.
Boy, you are sharp. Coffee's good this morning. So, this is what the more or less the region looked like in David's time. But if we fast forward to Jesus' time, we have the region of Caesarea Philippi and I've got a picture of it here. And in Caesarea Philippi today, for us today, it is it's ruins.
But in Jesus' day, you can see that there was a huge temple complex there where the people of that region worshipped a pagan god named Pan. Now, Pan was a half man, half goat type critter. In the ancestry of Philippi, there were these grotto caves where people would commit child sacrifice as an offering to the gods by throwing their babies into this deep hole well. It was a pretty dark and nasty and awful place. And that's right where Jesus walks into.
In the story of the gospels, we can read about Jesus going to and and I have a couple more pictures here of what that region looks like today. Can see it today, it's it's just a bunch of ruins but there are some altars carved in there. In that background picture, can see part of the grotto there. And that's what's left of Caesarea Philippi today. So let's begin to start to put some of these things together.
What is the significance of Beshon? In order to do that, we'd have to go all the way back to Deuteronomy. You don't need to turn there. But in Deuteronomy chapter three verses one through 11, we read the story of this guy named King Og. Now, any of you bible nerds in there, what was unique about King Og?
He was there we go. He was a giant. Yeah, we're gonna go there, don't worry. The bible says that he had a bed of iron that was 13 feet long and king Og was from a race of giants. They were the Rephaim, they were descendants of the Nephilim and here we go.
The Nephilim were half human, half angelic beings. Now, you probably saw the Hollywood movie of the story of Noah. The bible tells us, gives us glimpse, doesn't spend a lot of time on it. But the bible tells us that there was a race of created beings that we would know of as angels but they made a choice to step out of the area where angels live, step into the area where we live and they took women as wives and they started families and those, the offspring of those two were what was known as, for us today, as the race of giants. So King Og is a Rephaim hybrid something that lived in the region of Bashan.
So, in Psalms 22, when you're reading along and it says fierce bulls, bulls of Bashan, Bashan would trigger all these bells in the mind of the reader. Uh-oh, Bashan, that was the land of king Og. King Og was a giant, he was this this weird hybrid, part human, part I don't know what, it's a bad place. So, those kind of bulls, some sort of supernatural component being swirled together. So, there's more at play than just physical circumstances that David found himself in.
But there was also a supernatural component combined to the pressures that he was facing. King Og of Bashan and Caesarea Philippi, those were in a region at the base of Mount Hermon, which we saw which you saw on the map a moment ago. And, if you are a Hebrew student, Hermon means place set aside for destruction. Mount Hermon was known as the No No Mountain because it was a place set aside for judgment and destruction. No no mountain.
Everybody say, no no mountain. No
no mountain.
There you go. So we have bulls, we have Bashan, Caesarea Philippi. Let's put these things together. Jesus goes to Caesarea Philippi to pick a fight with the principalities of hell. He intentionally leads his disciples up into Northern Israel.
You can read about this in the gospels. There's an incredible moment called the Mount Of Transfiguration where Jesus, in essence, peels back his earth suit to reveal his divinity to show the disciples and what I would suggest to you were all the powers of hell, here I am, nanny, nanny, boo boo. Jesus goes to Caesarea Philippi to pick a fight. Earlier in the gospels, you can pick this up in the book of Mark if you read through it. At the beginning of Mark, Jesus would perform these amazing miracles.
He would he would cast out demons. He would heal sick people. He would do these incredible miracles and he would tell the recipient of those miracles, hey, hey, hey, don't tell anybody about who I am. Just go to the temple, follow the steps and procedures. But news quickly got out.
Well, now at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus makes a bold stand. What had been prophesied about Jesus, not that he came to this earth only to just carry little lambs and bounce children on his knees and be a cute Sunday school felt board illustration. But Jesus came to confront the powers of hell and invite them to a showdown. Meet me in the parking lot after school today. Me outside, how about that?
Why didn't I put that in my notes? I make the jokes here. So he says, meet me in Jerusalem. Jesus travels down to Jerusalem and then an incredible event happens. We know of it as the betrayal in the garden.
If you were here for our Good Friday service, next year I'd love to invite each and every one of you to our Good Friday service. We walked through a couple of steps on a journey, but there's a cliffhanger because Sunday morning has not happened yet. So we walked through this journey leading up to the death and burial of Jesus. If you don't even have to be a Christian or go to church to know the story of Jesus. That while he was in Jerusalem, he was betrayed by one of the people on his ministry leadership team.
He was betrayed with a kiss. He was arrested. He was falsely accused. He was beaten. He was whipped.
All of his clothes were stripped off. He was mocked. There was a sham of a trial. The people cried out for his crucifixion. And then, he was crucified on Golgotha, the place of the skull.
And it was in those moments that Jesus was surrounded by fierce bulls of Bashan. All of his enemies came out to surround him, to face off with him, looking for a win to defeat Jesus, To finally put an end to the prophecy about a future coming messiah that happened all the way back in the garden. If you remember this, when Adam and Eve sinned, remember? God pronounced a future prophecy and he said it to the snake, to the serpent, that someday one will come who will crush your head. So, the enemy's plan was, well, how is he gonna crush my head if he's dead?
That showdown happened on the cross. Now, in the narrative, we see what's happening in the natural. But there was also something happening in the supernatural. Remember that book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, when Aslan lays down his life for Edmund? Edmund had committed treason and according to the laws of Narnia, it said that anyone who commits treason belongs to the white witch and the white witch can do with her what with that person whatever she wants.
She's like, I'm gonna take Edmund's life as a trap knowing that Aslan would step up. Aslan steps up and says, yes, but there is a deeper law at work that says, one may substitute their life willingly for another. The white witch is like, but then she gets a better prize, Aslan. And then Aslan is led to the stone table. You remember that that part in the in the book?
Maybe you saw the movie, The Chronicles of Narnia, where Aslan is bound and remember all of the gloating and the cheering of all of those sinister looking critters and creatures. That was a glimpse of the supernatural of what was playing out on the cross. Listen to this. I I I wrote this in my notes. The cross was not the triumph of darkness, but the judgment of it.
For in that hour, what appeared as victory to the enemy was in truth the enemy's undoing, luring out the powers of hell, the fierce bulls drawing them out of the shadows into open confrontation. And what the what we think of in the natural as incredible loss and and heartbreak. Here here he is, the hero, the champion, the teacher, this morally upright man. And now, he's hanging naked on a cross. Humans had a wide range of thoughts and emotions about this.
They felt confused, perplexed. His ministry team was confused. His ministry team was heartbroken. The bible records that his mother, Mary, was there at the cross weeping. And in the supernatural, all of the powers of hell, the fierce bulls of Bashan were on parade that day.
It was what they thought of was their greatest moment of triumph. Has anybody ever seen a loser's parade? I don't think there's ever been one. Now, maybe your mama gave you a cookie for coming in fourth place, which I don't know how much good that did for you now as an adult because the real world doesn't work that way. No parades are thrown for losers.
That day, the bulls marched on parade because they thought they had won. They thought that they had triumphed. Okay. PB. That's what a lot of young adults call me.
Pastor Brian, PB. You can call me PB. Helps keep me young. Okay, PB. So bulls, Bashan, Jesus on the cross, this is all cool.
But what does that have to do with me? What does that have to do with where I'm sitting today? With what I'm going through in my life? Well, maybe, just maybe, you would find yourself in here Sunday morning, I'm so glad that you were here, and in some way or another, you find yourself surrounded by fierce bulls of Bashan. Now I don't think there are any like rodeo clowns in here.
Oh, can we call them that anymore? I don't even know what you call them these days. Is that like politically insensitive rodeo clowns? We can still go with that? Okay, we we got clarification from a millennial, okay.
So maybe you don't find yourself physically your life threatened by some malevolent animal. But, find yourself in a difficult spot, you find yourself coming to church this morning feeling like you are hemmed in with no way out, Maybe maybe you're in a financial situation. Maybe you find yourself in an emotionally dark place. I feel all alone. Maybe you really resonate with the words of Psalms 22.
I'm all alone. I've been forsaken. I've cried out but yet I still feel abandoned and alone. Like Jesus on the cross saying, my god, my god, why have you forsaken me? That was the beginning of Psalms chapter 22.
Maybe no physical animal threatens your life. It's okay, it's just me. But maybe today you find yourself in the midst of some circumstances that you might as well, maybe I wish that I would be surrounded by actual bulls, then I could I could deal with it, I could navigate it, I could negotiate it on my own. But yet, where you are, there seems to be no way out. In that regard, maybe you can identify with Jesus on the cross.
And the truth and the reality is that he went through that so that he could identify with who? You. Us. Jesus went through that. He knows what it's like to feel alone.
He knows what it's like to feel helpless. He knows what it's like to feel abandoned. He knows what it's like to have to what it feels like to have your back up against the wall with no way out, no help, no hope, no rescue. He knows what that is like. He can identify with you.
Do a quick survey of every other god in the catalog of the pantheon of gods on this ball of dirt we call earth. And look at all of them. What do they say? They all have one thing in common. Here's what you need to do to earn right standing with me.
Shiva, Vishnu, the Buddha, Allah, fill your own name in that blank. It's man's attempt at religion is all about what you need to do to fix, to solve, to extricate yourself from your situation so that you can be a good enough person to earn right standing with me. Only, only, only Jesus says there ain't no way that you'll ever defeat these bulls on your own. So, I'll do it. Quick question.
In the history of conflict between unarmed man and bulls, has man ever prevailed? Not once. And, if you do, then you're probably in a weird place on the internet and you'll probably see a video of a loser's parade. It's just it just hasn't happened. When has a bull charged a man and ended up chipping his horns?
When has a bull ever tried to stomp on a man and broken his leg? It's never happened. That's why the bulls of the enemy were so confident. They met their match that day. Because what the bulls and the powers of hell thought was their greatest hour of victory was actually their coordinated and prearranged demise.
Jesus chipped the horns of the bull on the cross by laying his life down and defeating them and then triumphed over them in victory when he rose from the grave. So he knows what it is like for you when you feel surrounded by bulls. Maybe it's it's not abandonment or or loneliness. Maybe it's financial stress. Maybe it's emotional something, maybe you're grieving with loss and and death in a life of someone close to you, maybe you feel surrounded and pinned in by addiction, Maybe you feel surrounded by fierce bulls of what you know of as your own sin.
Jesus chipped the horns of the bulls, what they thought was their greatest day, and he triumphed over them in victory when he rose from the grave. Now, listen to this. Jesus' victory can become your victory. Jesus did that. He goes through all that he went through, but you get to be the recipient.
You get to be the beneficiary. Just look at a couple of these verses really quick. I'll put them up here on the screen. Colossians two verse 14, he canceled the record of the charges against us, that's our sin, and he took it away nailing it to the cross. He himself did not have sin but he took your sin on himself when he went to the cross.
First Corinthians fifteen fifty five through 57, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? For sin is the sting that results in death and the law gives power to that sin. Gives sin its power.
But thank God, he gives who the victory? Who? Us. Us. The victory over death through who?
Our Lord Jesus Christ. He faces those bulls so that you don't have to. The bulls that you are facing right now are either of your own making and or by your own choice. Jesus defeated those bulls. In his victory, he imparts to us.
I know, I know, here it comes. But, there's a catch. There's always a catch. In order for his victory and his life to become our victory and our life, his death must become our death. So, here's the idea.
There's an exchange offer that is open to each and every person. And, the exchange offer is this, if you find yourself today trapped by your own sin, by your own rebellion, and it feels as though you're surrounded by fierce bulls of Bashan, there's a way out. Jesus overcame those bulls, and his victory can become your victory, but there must be an exchange. In order for you to receive his victory, you must also partake in his death. Something's gotta die.
I mean, the the the the theme of one person laying down their life for another, I mean, come on. That theme is all over in literature and in movies. I mean, he was reluctant at first, but doctor Grace was eventually willing to lay down his life for his friend named Rocky. Okay. A few more recognitions.
And to save the entire planet. In order for you to receive Jesus's victory, the cost is your life. You have to lay down your life. Now does that mean like, okay, I need to like and like that's, you know, that's it. Lights out.
Tysons done and over with. I mean, a manner of speaking, we're not talking physical death. Remember, the bulls were of Bashan. There is a spiritual component to this. You must, in order to receive his life, his salvation, spiritually, which you can experience realistically, you must face a spiritual death.
You have to die to your pride. You have to die to your sin. You must die to your rebellion. You must die to holding on to the heartbreak and the pain that maybe you carry with you. Maybe somebody in here, I don't know, you're you're really weird and you like having your life constantly threatened and chased by fierce bulls of Bashan.
Ain't nothing I can do for you. Have fun with that. And I don't mean that callously, if I can be honest with you. I don't mean it callously like, no, I don't But there's really nothing I can do about that. And for many years of my life, I pretended that the bulls weren't there.
My rebellion, my waywardness, you know, I just like draw like a cartoon mustache I'm on and give him an eye patch and try to paint it as something that it wasn't. But the truth is those bulls were surrounded me, threatened my life. And it wasn't until I laid down my life and said, Jesus, I've broken your law. I've messed up. I am a sinner.
I am sick and tired of trying to keep this bull pushed away and keep this bull pushed away and keep this one pushed away and try to placate and and hide from this bull. I'm tired of it. I'm sick of it. I want your life, Jesus. And when I was a a sophomore in high school, I died to myself.
I died to my pride. I died to my rebellion. And I said, Jesus, come fill my heart. Give me a brand new life. And in the best way not that I know how from here on out, I'm going to follow you as my leader.
I died that day, but then I lived. Tragically, I died, but then I lived. I lived because I got a new life. I got his life. He filled my heart.
He became the leader of my life. And now, whenever those fierce bulls of Bashan try to encircle me, all I do is point them to him because they've already locked horns with the Messiah and lost. His blood covers my life. His life flows within me, and his life is now hidden. My life is now hidden in his life.
And that's what gives me the victory. So maybe, today, you are sick and tired of all the bull crap. Ear muffs. You're sick and tired of facing off with the bulls of Bashan. There's hope for you.
That's the that's the entire message of Easter. There's hope because Jesus rose from the grave. He stands ready to impart his life to you and all you have to do is lay down your life. So today, I I wanna I wanna give two invitations. Oh, I've worked myself out of my verses.
I gotta get back to my notes. Here it is. Romans chapter nine verse 10. Verse nine and ten says this, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Look at that verse closely.
Look in your bible. Look on your phone. There's no fine print. This is not like an Apple contract where you have to scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll and then finally click. It's simple and yet so profound.
And then Matthew chapter 10. Everyone who acknowledges me publicly on earth, I will also acknowledge before my father in heaven. So today, two invitations. The first invitation is for someone that I would call a Christian. You would consider yourself to be a Christian.
I have invited Jesus into my heart, made him the leader of my life and in the best way that I know how, he I I follow him. I've died to myself and I follow him. When no one else is looking. And you, you know that if a piano were to fall out of the sky, land on your head, squash you flat as a bug today, you know that you would go to heaven. However, you have never made a public public profession of your faith.
Not yet, but in a moment, I'm gonna give you an opportunity to respond. I know that Jesus is the leader of my life on the inside, but I have never taken a stand for him and publicly professed his name and his lordship over my life. Today, you have an opportunity to do that. And then there's another opportunity for a person who finds themselves surrounded by those full fierce bulls of Beshon. Your sin and your rebellion has distanced you from the life of God.
You don't have to make it up by being a good person. All you have to do is say, I'm sorry. Please forgive me. And you've never invited Jesus into your heart, but today you're sick of being your own rodeo clown. And you were you are willing to lay down your life to receive his life.
Invite Jesus into your heart and make him the leader of your life for the very first time. No matter how many Easter services you've been to. I actually do have more than just this message. You only hear it because you only come once a year. It's okay.
I'm glad you're here. But it's time to respond to what the Holy Spirit is doing in your heart. Now, here's how this is gonna play out. I'm not gonna invite we'll separate the two groups. I'm not gonna invite you right now, but I'd like you to just consider.
Take inventory of your life right now and listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit knocking, knocking, knocking at the door of your heart. Liz, will you turn the heat up on us?
Let's just close our eyes all around this room. And if this is you, just let him speak to you today
you. Holy Spirit, come and do what you do best. Minister to the human heart. This is a holy and reverent moment. Holy Spirit, move in the hearts of your people.
In the same way that I walk the aisles in between people during this service, Holy Spirit, you come and move through every row, through every aisle, and beyond just the natural. Move in the supernatural on every human heart in this room. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Thank you, lord. Thank you. I feel like the Holy Spirit would whisper to someone's heart in this room, today, are you done with both feet or one foot in the world and one foot in my kingdom following my leadership? I love that you have one foot following me. I gave all of myself.
I'm I'm ready and I'm calling you to put both feet into the kingdom. So, for those of you, you know that you're saved. Amazing. Amazing. But you've never made a public profession of faith.
Today, we would like to celebrate with you in a room full of Christians, teammates. We would like to celebrate with you. And if you have invited Jesus into your heart, but you've never made a public profession of faith, the invitation today is for you to stand up so that we can celebrate with you. And I don't know how many there would be, maybe just one or two, maybe none, I don't know. But if you've invited Jesus into your heart and you followed him personally or or privately, but today you would like to acknowledge your journey of faith in front of this room full of people that are gonna be so supportive of you.
The invitation is for you to stand up. Who would do that? You can stand up. Stay standing. That's amazing.
Yeah. Amazing. You you and he are good but you could feel the the the holy spirit knocking on the door of your heart. And you know that in the natural by, like, your heart is beating out of your chest. Terminator Matt's like, oh, I know that.
I know you. We know that. Who else? I'm just curious. He's the leader of your life.
You're good. You're good. Your name is written in the lamb's book of life but there's something about that public profession taking a stand essentially for the whole world to know. If you feel stuck in your relationship with the Lord, like trying to, like, do all the Christian I I feel stuck. It could be.
It could be. That this is your next step of faith to take is something happens spiritually when you take a stand in the natural by standing up. I'm just curious if there's anyone else. Stay standing. Awesome, dude.
You know that Jesus is the leader of your life. I want the whole world to know. Stay steady. That's amazing. That is amazing.
Okay. Now, rebels, time to come home. You didn't move to Jackson because you like the easy life. You didn't move to this area because you like things to make things simple and easy for yourself. I mean, of y'all were born here, but it's in your DNA that you are tough.
You don't we live in Wyoming. None of us take the easy road. You are made for this. And so, if you have if there's anyone in here that has never invited Jesus into their heart, but today would like to lay down their life, to receive his life, to become a Christian, not join a club, but enter into a relationship with Jesus. And you've never done that before with people that are already standing and in a room full of people that love and support you have been praying for weeks for you.
Would there be anybody in here that's never invited Jesus into their heart but you're ready today to stop being a rebel and running from him and submit and surrender to him. Invite Jesus into your heart for the first time. Would you stand to your feet? Come on. Tip your ski tips in high, yes.
Both feet on the pedals, commit to the line, tip your ski tips in, nod your head, swing open the gate. I don't know how many more analogies I can make. Anyone else? Oh, my heart. My heart.
Saints, pray. Stay standing if that's you. Is there anyone else? This moment won't last for long. And if you're like, I'll do it later.
I'll do it later. I'll do it later. I've seen your day timer. You don't write anything down. But you don't know what you're gonna do this afternoon.
You don't know what could happen before the day is out. If you're saying, I know that I need to make this decision but I'll do it later. You're not guaranteed later. Oh, my pastor's heart for you. Would there be anybody else?
The window's gonna close soon. Maybe somebody some I'm I'm getting I'm getting fed some intel. Somebody in the the middle back area. I I don't know. We never adventure in the mountains alone or at least you shouldn't.
So if you're like, oh, I'm this is for me. I know this is for me, but I need a buddy. Caleb's standing with his buddy right there. Grab the hand of the person next to you. They're going to supply you with courage and then you can both stand.
Just grab their hand. They're gonna help you. We'll do this together. Okay? Praise the Lord.
Stay standing, stay standing. I don't wanna make this manipulative at all. I love this, but I hate I hate this at the same time. Like travail, like like like no mother enjoys the actual act of labor. It's the joy on the other side that they're willing to go through with it.
There are new lives being born. Would there be anybody else? Jake, if you lean forward one more time, I am so on the edge of my seat to clap for you. Not that I don't think you're saved, but you keep psyching me out. Don't fake me out.
Is there anybody else? Is there anybody else? Today, today, today, today, Drop your rebellion, drop your pride, drop your selfishness, drop your fear, drop your pride, come to the cross. Oh, beloved, you don't have to be perfect. This doesn't mean that your life is gonna be fantastic after that.
It just means in this moment, I know that I need a savior from the fierce bulls of Beshon. Anyone else? Windows closed. Let's for those of you who are standing, we're going to join you in celebration by standing and then I'm gonna lead you in a quick prayer and then let's all party. So stand up.
Let's celebrate with these people who are making a public profession. We're inviting Jesus Jesus into the heart for the first time. If you live if you're standing there, then put a hand on their shoulder. And then let's all say this together so that we can give these people some some privacy in their words, whether you're saying this for the very first time or you're making a public profession, you say this. Jesus, I come to you today.
I'm sick of fighting bulls on my own. I'm bulls Bashan sick of privately. Today, I'm running into your arms. Forgive me of my sin.
Me of my sin.
Come into my heart. Give me a brand new life. And then say this, this is important in this day and age. Say, I renounce Satan. I renounce Satan.
And any doors I have opened in my life.
And any doors I have opened.
And with that door.
And with that door.
I invite you Holy Spirit, come fill me. Lead me. Guide
me.
Be my shepherd. And chase these bulls out of here.
Chase these bulls out of here.
Now you take a moment, make it personal, talk to them in your own words, and then I don't know, I think maybe we should sing a little more. We should. Make it personal. Just talk to them from your
God is good. God is good. Amen? Amen.
Gosh. What
a joy it is to get to celebrate with you guys today. An awesome honor it is. I just wanna sit in this moment as we transition to our final form of worship today. Just praying over the offerings and our tithes that we would give today, for those that call tribe home. If you're here visiting from out of town, like this is not for you.
Go go to your home church. Give to your home church. But we believe that God is gonna do amazing things when we surrender to him. Amen? Amen.
Bow your heads and pray with me. Father God, we we surrender all that we have to you God and specifically our finances right now God. May it be an offering to you, God, that you would use to further your kingdom here in this town, God. And the surrounding area and to the uttermost bounds of the earth, God. What a joy, what a blessing and honor it is that you would just ask us to partner with you.
You don't need us. You don't need our money, but you you invite us into this just as you invite us into relationship with you every day for our good so that we might be closer to you. We pray this all in Jesus name and everybody said, amen. We don't pass buckets here at tribe but we've got a little offering box at the door on the way out. You can give on our website at tribejh.com or you can go on your phone and send a little text.
Do we have that number? Yeah. To (833) 369-7847. Type the word give, the dollar sign and the dollar amount and from then on it's just as easy as texting a friend. Couple announcements, as Brian said, we're gonna be having lunch afterwards.
Instructions for that is when you are done, grab your chair and just take it back to a table so that we all have places to sit. We'll move the tables out as we start to move that way. If you are looking for prayer, whether you just got saved or whether you've got something else stirring in your heart that maybe didn't have to do with the invitation that Brian was sending, we're gonna have our whole prayer team in the front there. We're gonna open up the curtains so it looks nice and bright and inviting over there. Unless we've got anything else.
Oh yeah. And as Brian said at the beginning of service and as we had on the slide at the beginning, we've got services on Sundays nine and eleven. Just down the street from here. It's a small living room feel and it is awesome because we get to talk not just hear from Brian but we get to also bring our own inputs and what the Lord is speaking to each one of us. And then we have a young adult service 6PM on Tuesdays.
You can bring our we'll eat a meal altogether and then we get to worship together afterwards. Brian, you wanna come and pray us out?
Thank you guys so much for being a part of our family this weekend. And you can't get the family together without eating a meal together, so we're gonna do that in just a moment. I'll pray over the meal. And would that be alright if I prayed over you today? Alright.
So Lord Jesus, thank you for being good to us. Thank you for the food that was prepared. I ask that you would bless that food, knit our hearts together as we enjoy a meal together, as you knit our hearts together with you. And Lord Jesus, I command a blessing over each and every person here within the sound of my voice and all of our family that are watching the livestream. Bless them, Lord.
Give us a great day. Give us a great week. We pray these things in Jesus' name, the strong son of God. And everybody said Amen. I love you so very much.
I'm looking forward to having a meal together with you. Have a great week. And remember, Kevin, you got this.
