We Are The Church

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Sermon Notes

1. Creation

  1. Full, vibrant, community, love = God

  2. So then, why create?

    1. Because love expands (marriage/kids metaphor)

    2. The universe exist to be an expression of and venue for the love of God (do you think of yourself that way?).

  3. So, God created: “In the beginning…”

    1. A good world = inherent beauty and purpose

    2. The pinnacle of creation was humanity, created in the image of God

    3. And given the command, “Be fruitful and multiply” = fill the earth with the image, character of God.

  4. Fall

    1. Sin

      1. Doubt the goodness of God

      2. Doubt the goodness of self

      3. Settle for something less than God

    2. Separation

      1. From God: relationship with God is broken, and we have lost the knowledge of God.

      2. From self: not knowing God, we cannot possibly know ourselves (as we are made in the image of God).

      3. From others: separated from self, we use others to secure ourselves rather than valuing one another as the image of God.

      4. From creation: we have no hope of fulfilling our God-given vocation.

  5. But there’s hope.

    1. God is not done with us.

      1. We still carry His image, but that image is tainted because of sin.

      2. So God, at His own initiative, actively pursues the restoration of relationship.

        1. He promises a savior to crush the serpent.

        2. He reaches out and rescues us even when we don’t deserve it (Noah).

  1. The Plan

    1. Abraham

      1. Genesis 12

      2. Same strategy as Genesis 1

        1. Revelation of God to…

        2. …image of God for…

        3. …relationship with God so that…

        4. …we can reflect God

      3. Great nation = fill the earth

    2. So he did: Abraham had kids whose kids had kids and so on until Joseph

      1. Special kid but a bit of a turd (he knew he was special).

      2. Nevertheless, God kept His promise and used Joseph to rescues His people.

        1. God is sovereign

        2. God is Savior

    3. Egypt

      1. The family becomes a nation

      2. They move from welcomed guests to slaves

      3. They were delivered after 430 years through a man who had seen God, who knew God, and who was empowered by His Spirit to represent Him to the world (sound familiar?)

      4. Deliverance from Egypt was half of the miracle; the other half was the Law given at Sinai

        1. Made them a nation in fulfillment of the promise.

        2. Revealed the character of God to all of them.

        3. Invited them to participate in the character of God (a kingdom of priests).

    4. Promised Land: They were, however a nation without land.

      1. But God had them covered: “If you obey my commands…”

      2. This would turn out to be difficult from them.

      3. They failed to drive out the foreign powers, causing two related problems.

        1. Political and military problems.

        2. Heart problems (idolatry)

          1. As old as Adam and Eve

          2. Rendered them useless

      4. So God raised up deliverers (judges)

        1. Who won battles and…

        2. Reminded the people of the character and power of the one, true God.

      5. Until they forgot again and again and again.

  2. Kings

    1. But God is more stubborn than His people are faithless

      1. He raised up prophets to remind His people who He was and what He had done.

      2. But the people looked at the nations around and wanted to be the same (as opposed to holy, set apart). They wanted a king.

        1. God warned them

        2. They insisted

        3. God relented

        4. Israel became a monarchy

    2. Saul

      1. Things seemed doomed before they started.

      2. But God rescued and redeemed them.

        1. Though this was not His desire for them, He redeemed their stupidity.

        2. The left hand of God: when God makes beauty out of our dumb decisions.

    3. David

      1. Man after God’s heart

      2. Not perfect but sensitive, humble, God-oriented

      3. The next phase of redemption history is revealed through Him: a descendant who would fulfill the promised blessing to Israel and, through them, to the nations.

      4. David’s God-oriented leadership led to prosperity which continued under Solomon.

    4. Bad king, good king, bad king

      1. Bad = idols, oppression, inability to influence

      2. Split kingdom

      3. More prophets

      4. Ignored the prophets

      5. Destruction of the north

      6. Exile

    5. Exile in Babylon

      1. Most forgot and became Babylonian

      2. God wasn’t done; He preserved a remnant

      3. Through the Persians, He restored His people to the land, where they rebuilt and waited for the Messiah.

    6. 400 “silent years”

      1. Silent because the bat qol left the world

      2. Tumultuous in world history

        1. Persians

        2. Greeks (Alexander)

        3. Romans

  3. Jesus: God, Savior, King, Power

    1. God: the image of God

    2. Savior: restore us to relationship with God

    3. King: write the law on our hearts (enforce law through love), lead, and guide us.

    4. Power: He didn’t stay dead. He rose to give us not only salvation but power (power over sin, power over death, and power to do what we were made to do: see God, know God, reflect God.)

  4. Church

    1. Then, He sent His disciples (Church) out to do what they had been made to do. Be fruitful = make disciples, be witnesses

    2. They were ill-equipped, so He sent power from on high (Pentecost)

    3. And so we come to the Church age, an age we’re still living in.

  5. Why this story?

    1. Because this is the Gospel

      1. The Gospel is not the first four books of the New Testament. It is the whole story. It is the story of a God who…

        1. Loves

        2. Gives

        3. Entrusts

        4. Rescues

        5. Redeems

        6. Pursues

        7. Comes Himself

        8. Makes all things new

      2. The Gospel is not simply about getting to heaven when you die.

        1. It is about knowing God here and now

        2. It is about being reconciled to God

        3. It is about being reconciled to self, others, and creation.

        4. It is about seeing and participating in God’s kingdom here as in heaven

        5. It is about power.

    2. Because it is our story. We are them.

      1. We are Adam and Eve (image yet rebellious)

      2. We are Noah (unimpressive but righteous through faith)

      3. We are Abraham (blessed to be a blessing)

      4. We are Moses (called to lead captives out)

      5. We are Israel.

        1. Made to know God, to be a Kingdom of Priests

        2. Yet…

          1. Disobedient

          2. Distracted by the allure of other gods

          3. Forgetting what we’re here to do

          4. Longing for an earthly king, unable to see that that has never worked, unwilling to unmask that for the control mechanism that it is and to bow to our true King.

      6. But we need not be Israel. We are the Church.

        1. We have received what they had only been promised.

        2. If we would only repent and live like the Kingdom of God is available here and now.

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