Expedition 44

The importance of land begins early in the biblical narrative in Eden. This is where heaven and earth overlap. Where God dwells and walks with his priests in the garden which is sacred space. Sacred space is the place were God and humanity dwell together. With Israel the promise land, the land of Israel, was sacred space. God’s temple was there, and he dwelt with his people. The temple was the new...

Law as Grace The Torah was Grace. God didn’t say get right and then I’ll free you from Egypt. Torah was Israel’s instructions on how to live in a wise way and how to properly represent God in the world. Not necessarily rules but a way of life. What is the Sermon on the Mount? The context is about the kingdom of God (Matt 4). So this is the kingdom ethos… the “law of the Kingdom” The Sermon on the...

The Ekklesia is a group of Christ Followers who come together to be the living body of Christ. We image him by living in love and unity and continually being a witness to the Kingdom Rule of Christ in the world. 4 Things the church is: a Bride, a House, a Body, and a Family Bride Rev 19:7; Eph 5 House Ephesians 2:11-22 ; 1 Peter 2:1-10; 1 Cor 6:19 Body 1 Cor 12:12-30; Eph1:20-23; Col 1:21-29 Famil...

We see that in the Biblical Narrative (and still true today) there are only 2 kingdoms: "The World" and the Kingdom of God. All the structures and systems of the world are influenced and run by Satan and the Powers. The Bible speaks of this often in the way it uses the word “kosmos” usually translated as World. It can mean a few things 1) the earth or creation, 2) The people of the earth, or 3) th...

When we talk about Kingdom, we need to have 5 ideas at play. All 5 are necessary ingredients to define the Kingdom of God King Rule or a reign A People A Law Land So, it’s a king who rules by rescuing and saving people. A People who live the way of Jesus reflecting and imaging the king in sacred space… we are sacred space but our home and churches are also this space and we take this Kingdom with...

Matt launches a series on Expedition 44 looking at the Kingdom of God and how to live as Kingdom citizens. Christoformity To be conformed/transformed into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29- the purpose of salvation) and reflect that in our daily life. The church has gotten off track when it comes to discipleship. We think that to create a disciple is to teach someone how to make a conversion or jus...

Where have we been and what conclusions have we come to with atonement?   Intro  • What is Atonement? We saw that the word atonement is an etymology (At- One- Ment) but the Bible speaks more of the words (KPR and hilasterion) translated as atonement as covering or purging. Expiation of sin not propitiation of wrath. God is not acted upon, sin is.   Sacrificial system  Sacrifices:  o Burnt offering...

PSA advocates claim that this theory was there from the beginning, and this is witnessed by the church fathers. Yet the Church Fathers don’t really have modern atonement theories when they speak about the cross. They use phrases like “Jesus died for us”, “Jesus shed his blood for us”, they connect the cross with forgiveness, Jesus freeing humanity from a curse, Jesus as a ransom, Jesus as the 2nd...

Major issues with the double imputation paradigm:     The assumption of perfection as the goal rather than what Genesis says: Imaging God (defined as relationship, vocation, and allegiance). If you are building on the wrong foundation, you’ll always get the wrong answers.    Punishment as a prerequisite to forgiveness. The bible states that God forgives and casts sin away. It neve...

observed on justification. 1.The question of justification is a matter of covenant membership . The underlying question in (for instance) Gal. 3 and 4 is: Who are the true children of Abraham?  Paul’s answer is that membership belongs to all who believe in the gospel of Jesus, whatever their racial or moral background. 2.The basis of this declaration is the representative death and resurrecti...

Today we get to the crucial question of what does it mean that "Jesus died for us?”, The Nicaean Creed says that Jesus died “for us and for our salvation” In evangelical and western theology, we make a lot of these phrases, and they are important theologically, but we put a lot of freight into the preposition “FOR” and assume an understanding that might not even be in the text.     ...

Doc Ryan and Matt Mouzakis Dive into atonement in the book of Hebrews.   By offering his own life and blood Jesus made purification (1:3) and atonement for sin ( 2:17 - 18). These are big picture summary statements. But where, how, and by what logic? For this, we need other passages to provide details.   • Jesus’ death obviously happened on the cross, but Hebrews is explicit that th...

What is Romans about?   Romans is a pastoral letter that does contain theology but the purpose is not to lay out systematic theology. The theology in the letter is to service Paul's purpose in the Roman church dealing with issues between the weak and the strong. The Gospel Romans 1:2-4 is Paul’s Gospel. Some think the gospel of which Paul is “not ashamed of” comes after Romans 1:16 -17 (begin...

Ransom for many Matt 10:28 /Mark 10:41 -45  • Ransom: Lutron in Greek. Means the price of release or manumission (release from slavery). In its primary usage, the lutron/kōpher referred to neither a sacrifice for sin nor a punishment for transgression, but a price of release or a price of return.  o Kopher (Hebrew of Greek Lutron) is used this way: God’s redemption of Israel from exile:...

3 views:  •   PSA view of bearing sin and wrath. Sees this as a direct prophecy about the Messiah  •  Historical view sees the servant as Israel as it is defined elsewhere in Isaiah.  • The context is about Israel, Christ is the fulfillment of Israel. We only use this text in the way the NT writers apply it and nothing further.    LXX (Septuagint)   •Wh...

Leviticus 16 The “Sin” offering goat Both goats are called a sin/purification/decontamination offering and the reason is that is that the lots have not been cast yet over these two. So, since we don't know yet which ones going to be the actual sin offering, they’re both referred to that way. We don't know which one’s going to be for the Lord, which one was to be for azazel. A better way to transla...

Doc Ryan and Matt continue a series on Atonement. We’re probably all familiar with the story of the Exodus where God calls Moses to stand up to Pharoah in order to set the Hebrews free. There were 10 plagues and each of these plagues was a judgement on an Egyptian god. Essentially, it’s a cosmic battle here. Here is what God says about the 10th plague… Exodus 12:1-13 12 “On that same night I will...

Doc Ryan and Matt continue their series on Biblical Atonement. Sacrifice: Burnt offering is about a gift and just wanting to spend time with God. Grain offering is about remembering the covenant The well-being (Peace) offering is simply a thank you to God The Purification (sin) offering is about cleansing sacred space The guilt or reparation offering is about restitution for an unintentional “sins...

Doc Ryan and Matt begin a series on Biblical Atonement. Today’s Episode covers What is Atonement? Atonement is a made-up word in English because we didn’t have a word to completely express what the action of sacrifice accomplished from a Hebrew perspective. Sin: In the OT we have a few terms for sins such as rebellion (pesha), infidelity (meshubah), disloyalty (beged), getting dirty or stained (tu...

Dr. Will Ryan and Pastor Matt continue the series on women in ministry. 1 Timothy 3:1-7 Titus 1:6-9 Can women be elders? Nearly all English versions use the masculine pronoun (he) and the possessive (his) in 1 Tim 3:1-7. For example, the NIV above uses “he” seven times and “his” four times. But in the Greek text all the verbs are generically expressed, capable of being either gender, and there are...

 Dr. Will Ryan and Pastor Matt continue the series on women in ministry.   Can Women Preach/Teach/Lead?   1 Cor 14:31 ​-39   1 Tim 2:11 ​-15  Textual Criticism  Are 1 Cor 14:34 ​-35 original to the text?   Manuscript evidence indicates that verses 34-35 may be a later addition and not original and should possibly be omitted or put in brackets or as a footnot...

 Dr. Will Ryan and Pastor Matt continue the series on women in ministry.     1 Corinthians 11:2-16  Ephesians 5    Head in 1 Cor 11:3  • Christ is the head of man- meaning Jesus is both the creator and the 2nd Adam. He is the source of the man’s life in the familial sense and as creator.  • Man is the head of the woman- meaning source. Woman came from m...

 Dr. Will Ryan and Pastor Matt look at the tough topic of women in ministry.    Complementarian: men and women have different but complementary roles and responsibilities in marriage, family life, and religious leadership. There is an important distinction between equality of worth and sameness of role. God has called men and women to different roles. They believe the Bible shows that men are call...

Doc Ryan and Matt Mouzakis with Expedition 44  look at the wrath of God.  We just finished a series on hell and sometimes when we think of Hell we think of divine wrath. We are also doing a series on Tough Topics in the Bible at our church and did an installment on divine violence and wrath came up in our conversation pertaining to that. When we think of God’s wrath it is sometime in the...

Dr. Will Ryan, Pastor Matt Mouzakis, and Jana Diaz finish up a great series on the different views on hell. In this episode we answer a few questions we've been asked and also revisit our framing questions from the intro episode.