Mark Casto 0:00
Well, I want to welcome you to the first episode of the Mark Casto program. Yes, we're going to just call it the Mark Casto program, because I'm tired of giving names to things and changing this is just my life. This is me. It's a new season. We're in a new city. It's a whole new way of living, and we are officially settled into a new home here in Mobile, Alabama, and I'm filled with a lot of gratitude and have a ton of expectation for what's to come. And to be honest, I know that many of you are like Mark, where in the world have you been? Well, if you follow me on Instagram, I've been building a business, but for the rest of you that have followed my ministry, you know that I've not been teaching online like I originally planned, but that's because I've been preparing something deeper, something more aligned and more wholesome, more whole to who I am. So for a long time, I've tried to separate and compartmentalize things in my life. So there was my personal life, and then there's the ministry, and then there's the business, and then there's all the relationships and things that I'm connected to. And with all this compartmentalization, I've come to see that that's never been the way of Jesus, and that's not an authentic life. We were never called to live a divided life. Jesus actually calls us in Revelation, one, kings and priests, which means we can be business people and worshipers, builders and worshipers. And wholeness comes when we stop compartmentalizing and start showing up fully spirit, soul, body and even business strategy. So in this new season, I'm choosing to show up as my truest self, a follower of Jesus, an entrepreneur, a builder, a teacher, a father, a husband, a friend, and yes, I'm going to embrace 100% this entrepreneurial journey, because I believe that it is the fullness of who I am and who God has created me to Be. So I just want to say to everyone who's followed my journey up until this point, thank you, your encouragement, your prayers, your support. They have meant the world to me, whether it was in my early 20s, when I was a young evangelist, to my mid 20s, when I stepped into leading a very large ministry to me, walking away from everything in 2015 and not knowing what life was going to look like, and to even being a church planter the past five years in COVID 10, Georgia, all of you that have followed the journey, it's been a wild one, but I appreciate it means the world to me, and I've made a decision when I was 18 years old, I would follow wherever the wind blows, wherever Holy Spirit would take us. And to some that seems sporadic, to some that seems asinine, but for us, it's a way of life. It's a way of faith, and we believe that the Lord is positioning us for his ultimate intentions, for our lives and so again, thank you for the encouragement, the prayers, the support. It's meant the world to me and to those that I get to serve in this next season, I cannot wait to walk with you. So this podcast is to wholeness. Here's to alignment. Here's to building what matters most, and today, if you don't know where I'm going, I'm not going to actually talk about business. I'm actually going to begin this podcast talking about something that I think is really important. I want to talk about, what if we got the gospel wrong? So yes, we're going to talk about the reality is, I'm going to talk about whatever I want, but I'm going to talk about the things that matter to me. And so obviously, biggest part of my life, and the main part of my life, is my relationship with Jesus and how that my Christocentric worldview, it's what sets the tone for everything else. So before I going to talk business or any other thing, I'm going to talk about the kingdom. I'm going to talk about the gospel, because that's really what informs and shapes my world. And I think that many people, if this would be your first time hearing about the gospel, hearing about the Kingdom of God, Christianity, maybe you have an idea of what that looks like, or maybe you grew up in the church like me, and you have an idea of what it looks like. I want to pose the question today, what if we got the gospel wrong? Now, for those of you that follow me for. Business stuff. Follow me on Instagram. I'm constantly giving tips, constantly bringing value to that. So that's Mark Casto underscore. There on Instagram. You can follow me on YouTube. I have tons of content over there for business. But today I'm going to talk about what if we got the gospel wrong, and many Christians today have inherited a shrunken version of the gospel, one that focuses on personal sin, guilt, escaping hell, but when we look at the early church, we find a much bigger, more victorious message. Jesus didn't just forgive sins. He defeated sin itself. He didn't just die. He conquered death. He didn't just suffer. He disarmed Satan and broke his power over humanity. He didn't just come to take you to heaven. He came to bring heaven to earth and see friends. The gospel is not about fear failure or waiting to escape. It's about Christ's victory and your participation in it. So what I'm hoping to do by the end of this podcast today is give you the ability to walk away knowing a few things. Number one, the real reason Jesus came, secondly, to talk to you about how the cross was not just a legal exchange. Also why we are not waiting for victory. We live from victory today. And I want you to learn, of course, how to live in the finished work of Christ. So if you grew up knowing religion like I did, and you're ready for a good religious detox and to find the true heart of Jesus, then let's dive in. What did Jesus actually accomplish? Most Christians believe the gospel is Jesus took my place so I don't have to go to hell. Jesus paid my debt to an angry father. The Christian life is about struggling with sin until I die and go to heaven. But friends, what does the Bible actually say? Well, first it says that Jesus took my place. Let's deal with the Jesus took my place so I don't go to hell. What people think this means is Jesus's death was simply about rescuing individual sinners from hell, that the gospel is only about the afterlife or what happens when we die, that Christianity is primarily a get out of hell free card. The problem with this thinking, though, is while Jesus did take our place, this view shrinks the gospel down to personal salvation, rather than a cosmic victory. Hope, some of you are ready to go deep, and for some of you that came here for the business stuff, I hope you know you're a triune being of body, soul and spirit. So we're getting into the spirit things today. The Bible doesn't say that Jesus came just to keep people out of hell. It says he came to destroy the works of the devil and restore all things under God's rule. The Scripture says in First John three eight, the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. Colossians one verse 19 through 20 says, For in Him, Jesus, all the fullness of God, was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. Guys. Let me give you a simple illustration. Imagine if a doctor only focused on treating a patient's symptoms instead of curing the disease. Hello, our current medical field. If all Jesus did was rescue souls from hell, he would be treating the symptom of sin rather than curing the disease of sin and death itself. So that's a big mind shift that we've got to make. Jesus didn't just treat the symptoms. He cured humanity from the disease. Also for those who think, Well, Jesus paid my debt to an angry father, what people think this means is God was angry and wanted to punish sinners, but Jesus stepped in that Jesus's death was a payment to satisfy God's wrath, that the cross was about God punishing Jesus instead of us. And so, because God wanted to beat he wanted to punish us, he beat the hell out of his son to keep us from going to hell.
The problem with this thinking is this makes God the enemy that Jesus had to appease, instead of the loving Father who sent Jesus in the first place. I mean, guys, this is the verse that if you grew up in Christianity. You learned this as a child. This was the very first Bible verse you probably ever heard in your life. John 316, For God so loved the world that He gave His only son. Guys. The reality is, God was not looking to destroy us. He was looking to save us, to restore us Second Corinthians 519, talks about how God was in Christ on think about this on Good Friday. You know, if you grew up in religion like me on Good Friday, we were taught that on that day, that Christ was on the cross, that God the Father had to look away because God cannot look on sin. Well, first of all, that's a misquote of that scripture, because the Scripture actually says God cannot look on sin favorably if God cannot look on sin, though none of us could have been saved. So where was God the Father on that great day, on Good Friday, he was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself and not counting our sins against us. Notice that God was in Christ, not against him. The cross was not God punishing Jesus, it was God rescuing humanity through Jesus, and the real enemy wasn't God's wrath. The real enemy was sin, death and the powers of darkness. This is clear in Colossians two verses 14 through 15, having canceled the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. Jesus, he set aside all of these things, nailing it to the cross, and He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them through the cross. Guys, let me give you another simple illustration. Imagine a father whose child was kidnapped. The father doesn't stand back in anger. He goes after the enemy to rescue his child. That's what God did through Christ. God wasn't punishing Jesus to keep from punishing us. He was confronting sin, death and Satan himself on our behalf, it's a big mindset shift. And then I want to talk about, for those of you that believe, well, the Christian life's about struggling with sin until I die and then we get to go to heaven. What people think that this means is we'll always be defeated by sin, and we'll just have to endure this kind of stuff until we get to heaven, that victory over sin is not possible in this life, that the gospel is just about getting through life rather than living in victory. But guys, the problem with this thinking is, if this were true, then Jesus's victory was incomplete, as if sin still reigns over believers, and we just have to try our best until we die. But the Bible says something entirely different. It talks about, in Romans, 614 that sin shall no longer have dominion over you, that second Corinthians, 517, says, if anyone's in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has passed away, and behold, the new has come. And in John 1010, Jesus said, I've come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. Guys, the Christian life is not about waiting for heaven. It's about walking in victory. Now let me give you another little illustration here. Imagine a soldier who doesn't realize the war has already been won. He keeps fighting a battle that's over because no one told him his side already won. That's how many Christians live as if they're still in bondage, even though Jesus has set them completely free. I remind you of First John three eight, the reason that the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. Even if you look at Hebrews, chapter two, verse 14 through 15, it talks about, because of the death of Jesus, he destroyed the one who had the power of death that is the devil, and freed those who, all their lives, were held in slavery by the fear of death. Guys imagine, just imagine this for a second, being trapped in a prison cell. You've been conditioned to think that you have no way out. Then Jesus walks in, breaks the chains and throws open the door. But instead of running free, you sit there still believing you're trapped. Guys, this is what happens when Christians believe Jesus only forgave sins, but don't realize that he overthrew the kingdom of darkness, and that's why I want you to get very familiar with this language. Chris. Christus Victor. Christus Victor is Latin for Christ the victor. It means that Jesus's mission was to defeat the powers of sin, death and Satan, not just forgive personal sins. Guys, you've got quotes. I'm going to give you some quotes from some early church fathers on Christus Victor. So st Irenaeus said that the Son of God became what we are so that we might become what he is. Through His incarnation, death and resurrection, he triumphed over death and restored humanity. St Athanasius, early church father, he said Jesus conquered death by his resurrection and turned it into nothingness. St Gregory of nisi, he said the cross was the bait that tricked Satan, and in taking Christ's life, the enemy lost his own power forever. My point in saying all of this is Jesus didn't just pay for sins. He overthrew the entire dominion of darkness. Now I want to talk about a modern mistake here that many of us make, because I don't want you when, when you hear me talking about my faith, when you hear me talking about Jesus, I don't want you to think about it through the traditional lens of our western, modern Christianity. I want your roots to go much deeper into the ancient path, back to early Christianity and one of the greatest misunderstandings in modern Christianity is reducing Jesus's death to just a legal transaction, as if the cross was merely about paying a fine satisfying an angry god or covering a legal debt. And many have been taught that the gospel is only about individual forgiveness, as if Jesus's sole purpose was to take our punishment so we could go to heaven. But the Bible presents guys a much bigger picture, one of victory cosmic restoration and the complete overthrowing of the kingdom of darkness. So let me break this down for you, step by step. You ready? Where did this legal transaction thinking come from? Well, see,
the earliest Christians saw the cross as a battle, a cosmic War, where Jesus defeated Satan, sin and death. But over time, theology began to shift. And so early church fathers, which would be like first to fourth century, they saw Jesus as the victor over sin, death the devil. This is where we get the terminology, Chris' Victor. But in the Middle Ages, around the 11th century, they begin to introduce the idea that Jesus's death was about satisfying God's offended honor. This is where we get satisfaction theory. Now, again, I might be using some theological terms that you may not know about, but go check it out. And then when we get into the 16th century with Luther and Calvin and the Reformation, they begin to emphasize what we call penal substitution. And that penal substitution teaching, it teaches that Jesus took the punishment of God's wrath in our place. And so what's the result? The message of Christ's victory was replaced with a legal contract theology where God is a Divine Judge, we are criminals, and Jesus is the one who takes our punishment. But guys, there's so much more to be said about this. What does the Scripture actually say? Okay, well, the Scripture says that Jesus's death was not just a payment, it was a victory. Let me tell you what happened at the cross. Most people think of the cross as Jesus taking our place to satisfy God's justice. That would be legal substitution. Jesus was paying off a debt so God wouldn't punish us. Punish us. So that's the financial transaction, and that God's wrath being poured out on Jesus instead of us. That's penal substitution. But look at what Paul actually says about the cross in Colossians 215 he says that He disarmed principalities and powers, which is demonic forces, and put them to open shame by triumphing over them through the cross. The key word here is he triumphed over them. Paul is not saying Jesus was paying off a debt to the Father. What Paul was saying is Jesus disarmed the rulers and authorities, a reference to spiritual powers, Satan and demonic forces and the cross. Was not just Jesus. It was it was not Jesus being punished by God. It was Jesus defeating the forces. That enslaved us. Now, I know some of you are probably thinking, because there's tons of teaching on Spiritual Warfare out there, and matter of fact, I wrote a book called liar. You should go type it in. Liar. Mark Casto, interesting way to search my name, but if you look that up, I wrote a powerful book on spiritual warfare that I believe will revolutionize your life. I've talked to believers all over the literally, all over the United States and other nations, who have picked this book up and said, Mark, this revolutionized my life. So if you, if you do, go to Amazon today, and I'll put a link for this in the show description, but Go, go get my book a liar exposing myths in spiritual warfare. So let's go a little deeper in this. Who are the rulers and the authorities? Well, Paul's not talking about earthly rulers like the Romans. He's talking about spiritual beings, demonic forces, oppressive powers that held humanity in bondage. Even Paul, when he's teaching Ephesus in Ephesians, 612, he says, Guys, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against cosmic powers over this present darkness, against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Now let me give you, I love to give illustrations. Imagine a kingdom where people are enslaved by a brutal warlord. The people owe debts. They live in fear. They have no hope. Then a warrior king arrives, defeats the warlord and sets the people free, guys, that's what Jesus did at the cross. So the key takeaway from this is the cross is not just a legal event. It's a victory where Jesus completely overthrows Satan and he rescued you and I from his power. Now this is important for business too, because some of you are a victim to every circumstance that you've been, that you're in, and I'm just here to tell you, Jesus has completely eliminated your victim mentality, and he's rescued you to be just like him. Now let's get into this. Jesus is now reigning as king, not waiting to rule later. See, many people that grew up in religion, they still think Jesus wanted the cross, but is waiting to rule until he returns that the world still belongs to Satan and we're just waiting for heaven. But guys, that's that's not what the scripture says Paul. Paul says in First Corinthians, 15 verses, 24 through 26 he says the he talks about the incoming when He delivers the kingdom to God, the Father, after destroying every ruler and authority and power, For he must reign until he has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. So here's the key word here in those verses, Jesus must reign until so what Paul is saying is Jesus is already reigning right now. He's not waiting to become king. He already has, according to Matthew 28 verse 18, he already has all authority. And guys, the kingdom is expanding, and Jesus is progressively destroying the enemies of God until the final enemy, death itself is abolished. And when I say the enemies of God, I'm not talking about people, but the spirits that move behind people. Okay, now let me give you another illustration. Imagine a general who's already won the war but still has to take back territory from enemy forces. That is what Jesus is doing. His victory is complete, but his kingdom is still expanding on Earth. So here's the key takeaway from this thought, the gospel is not about waiting for heaven. It's about bringing heaven to earth under Jesus's rule. So let's kind of bring, start bringing this home at the cross. Jesus did three specific things that I that I want to cover in this episode at the cross. Jesus, number one, disarmed Satan's power over humanity. Secondly, he broke the curse of sin. That's Galatians 313, and thirdly, he destroyed death itself. Second Timothy, chapter one, verse 10. Now, I think this is super fascinating. Imagine a kingdom ruled by an evil tyrant. The people live in fear obeying every cruel law because they believe the Tyrant is all powerful. Then one day, a new king arrives, overthrows the tyrant and declares, you are free. But some still live in fear, not realizing the tyrant has no more power anymore. Guys, the good news of Matthew 28 verse 18, is all authority in heaven and on in and in the earth has been given to Jesus. Guys, the enemy is already defeated. He only has. Power over those who still believe they are slaves to sin. We've got to change the way that we think. So here's where we bring it home, how the finished work of Christ changes everything. Guys, what did Jesus say on the cross in John 19? Verse 33 words, It is finished. So the Greek word to telest, which means paid in full, accomplished, brought to completion. Now, what does that mean for you and I? Well, firstly, it means that we are no longer slaves to sin. You.
Okay. Romans, 614, says, sin shall no longer have dominion over you. Secondly, you don't have to fear death. First, Corinthians, 15, verse 55 where, oh, death is your victory. And then, thirdly, you have authority over the enemy. Luke, 1019, Jesus said, I've given you authority to tramp on sake snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy. So guys, in conclusion, when we're talking about living in the power of Christmas Victor, remember the gospel is not about waiting for heaven, about struggling in sin, about fearing the future. The gospel is Jesus has already won the victory that we are called to live from victory, not for victory, and we are not waiting to escape this world. We are bringing heaven to earth. Guys, Romans, 837, says that you and I are more than conquerors through Jesus, who loves us so. So here's my challenge to those of you that are listening, stop living as if sin has power over you. Stop fearing the enemy he's already disarmed, and start walking in the finished work of Christ and guys, that's the reality of the gospel. And so I wanted my very first episode of the Mark Casto program to be a rethinking of the gospel, because it has revolutionized my life, guys, I would not be able to say yes to entrepreneurship, to the life of freedom that I have found, except that I had to rethink the gospel. And many of you that whether you started listening to me because of business advice, you started listening to me for whatever reason, guys, this is an essential part of my life. Is because I have been able to rethink the gospel. I've been able to rethink my life, and many of you are under religious bondage, always a victim to circumstances, always feeling oppressed like you can never do anything great. And I want to give you the real secret behind why I'm able to make big leaps of faith, start a business, go after entrepreneurship. It's because I've been able to rethink the gospel. I no longer see God as the angry father who beat the hell out of Jesus so that he wouldn't do that to me. No, He sent Jesus because he so loves me and believes in me and the calling that's on my life, and because I am rooted in the foundation of God's love, I just believe that I can go for it. I can take the next step of faith. I can launch the business. I can start a new podcast. I can start over. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. This is the reality of knowing that you're loved. It impacts every area of your life. So every episode is going to be different. Sometimes I'm going to talk about the gospel, sometimes I'm just going to talk business. But I knew on this podcast had to talk about the gospel, and I got a feeling that a lot of these episodes are going to be about rethinking the gospel and what we've grown up with in the church, because I think a lot of you are actually interested to know the real gospel. You're tired of living in fantasy land. You're tired of a Christianity that doesn't find its roots in ancient Christianity and in the early church, and I think you're searching for answers, and hope my podcast can be a big blessing for you in that and guys, I wanted to say this, there's two ways you can connect with me. You can connect with me in the business we are. Teaching people every single day how to take their knowledge, wisdom, expertise and passion and monetize that through digital products. And secondly, you can always connect with us in our ministry, if you want to partner with us, if you want to give, if you want to support what we're doing for pastors, leaders, businesses, business owners, entrepreneurs. If you want to sow into what we're doing as a ministry, we're getting ready to launch pastoral retreats, creating resources for pastors, books, teachings, all these different things that we're doing through our ministry. If you want to help us with that, all the links, whether you want to work with me in business or support our ministry. All those links will be below in the show notes. Guys, I appreciate you so much for being a part of this first episode of the Mark Casto program. I look forward to speaking with you soon. Make sure to connect with me on Instagram. Drop a comment in the DMS and let me know that you listened. Means the world to me. I am a words of affirmation kind of guy. So if you go over there and say, Mark, you did a fantastic job, that's going to really give me a confidence boost for today. And also, if you love the podcast, go give us a five star review on Apple podcast or wherever you listen to your podcast, give us a great review that helps us out tremendously. I look forward to speaking with you soon. I'll catch you on the next episode of the Mark Casto program. You.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
