Mary - Rejoice for the Lord is with you

A Sunday school teacher was speaking to a group of four-year-olds about Jesus, Joseph and Mary.
After the lesson the kids were to draw a picture depicting their favorite part of the story. The teacher shared the pictures the children drew with the entire class.
She got pictures of the Baby Jesus in the manger with animals, she got pictures of the three wise men and the like.
Then she got to a picture from little Jimmy, a picture of an airplane with four people on it. She called Jimmy up to explain his picture.
She told Jimmy that she could see Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus, obviously in their 'flight' to Egypt.
She didn't understand why there was another man on the plane. Jimmy quickly explained, 'That's Pontius, the pilot.'
Sometimes we think kids understand what we are teaching them in Sunday school class and what we say to them.
It is funny what we might think they understand and what they really think we are saying.
One subject that I want to talk about this morning that is muddled and sometimes never discussed is the role of Mary of Nazareth in salvation history.
Today I hope that we can leave here understanding how her role in God’s plan was important and some practical examples we can take from her life.
Most of us when we think of Mary we automatically think about the birth of Christ.
We conjure up images of the manger and Mary looking upon the infant Christ in love. This is all good and nothing is wrong with it.
But there is so much more to be learned from her role and her life.
In the earliest days of the Church Mary’s role in the history of God’s plan of salvation was hotly debated.
There were groups of people in the early church called Gnostics.
The Gnostics taught that Jesus did not come in the flesh. They taught that Jesus was really a ghost or apparition.
The reason they taught this was a mixing of Greek philosophy with Christianity. The Greeks saw flesh as evil and that nothing good came from flesh.
To the Gnostics it was unthinkable that God would take on flesh. The best one could do was to escape to pure spirit.
I will propose to you this morning that if Jesus Christ did not take on flesh and blood and become a human being you could not be saved.
Now, we may think that this is not important but to the earliest Christians the incarnation of Christ was foundational to everything.
IN other words the doctrine that God became a human being in Jesus of Nazareth was viewed as a foundational doctrine.
A non-negotiable- and even to the point that if God didn’t become human we could not be saved.
What that means to us is that baby in the manger that many people nostalgically think about this season is more important than you could ever imagine.
God becomes flesh – God comes to take on humanity.
Now this makes your head hurt when you think about it but God who is One God – true God – is Father, Son, and Spirit.
The Eternal Son – the Logos – who has always existed, who had a part in creating our world, took on humanity.
God became a man. So where did Jesus get His humanity. Jesus is fully 100% God but where does He get his fleshly body?
Lets go back in time. – Genesis chapter 3 we get what is called the Protoeuangelion – This word literally means the first Gospel
– PROTO – means first – this is where we get the world PROTOTYPE – Euangelion is the Greek word for Good News or Gospel – So literally –FIRST GOSPEL
In this account God is issuing a curse upon the Serpent and the Woman. The Serpent deceived the woman and God speaks of a war that will go on between the Woman’s Seed and the Serpent.
In other words the Woman will have a descendent that will one day be at War with the Serpent.
Genesis 3: 15
15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed ; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."
IN other words it will be a Woman’s seed that will fight the Serpent.
Isaiah 7:14 tells us that God will give a sign of deliverance and it will be that a Virgin will give birth.
Now when we think about it all of this comes together and makes sense.
It could only be the seed of the Woman that would wage war with Satan, so Jesus would only be born of a woman.
The Virgin birth of Jesus will be a fulfillment of this promise –
the only humanity that Jesus will receive will come fully from Mary.
The womb of Mary will give Jesus his humanity.
John 1:14 tells us in very stylized language that the Word became flesh – the eternal God –
The WORD which is another way of saying the Son, became flesh, and dwelt – literally Skene – tabernacle among us.
God will become human and his Temple will be the Temple of flesh – Immanuel God with us –
As Isaiah 9 tells us the child born will be called Mighty God.
God’s dwelling will no longer be in the Temple but in the Human body of Jesus of Nazareth.
With this let us turn to the account in Luke 1


Luke 1: 26-38
26Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David ; and the virgin's name was Mary. 28 And coming in, he said to her, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." 29 But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. 30 The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary ; for you have found favor with God. 31 "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. 32 "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High ; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David ; 33and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end." 34Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin ?" 35 The angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. 36 "And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age ; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. 37 "For nothing will be impossible with God." 38 And Mary said, "Behold, the bondslave of the Lord ; may it be done to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.
There are several things that we need to unpack from this famous passage this morning for us to learn from the life of Mary.
Luke packs this passage full of information that we tend to miss if we read too fast.
First of all Mary is a descendent of David- this is important because a famous promise made to David in 2 Samuel 7 was that God would raise up an eternal ruler from the House of David.
The flesh of Jesus had to be Davidic Flesh – this is important.
Verse 28 starts with some explosive information:
The angel greets here with Greetings in my translation but a literal translation of the Greek should read like this:
REJOICE!!, Full of Grace, The LORD is with you!
This word Rejoice is very important in the Greek of this passage because this exact word is used in the Greek translation of the OT on four different occasions. Those four occasions are all Messianic prophecies.
Zepehniah 3:14, Zechariah 9:9, Joel 2:21, and Lamentations 4:21
All the places this word is used the OT refers to God’s promise that he would raise up a Messiah – a time of rejoicing in a dark world.
This is a time that light will shine in the darkness – a time to truly rejoice – God is going to bring about His work that man had been waiting on.
We will see later in Luke 2:14 that the Angels are rejoicing because of the birth of Jesus


They sing out in joy:
14 "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."
As a matter of fact joy is the theme surrounding the coming of Jesus.
Joy is the announcement of John the Baptist in Luke 1:14- the one that will announce the coming Messiah will be a time filled with Joy at his birth.
In Luke 1:44 when Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth the baby John the Baptist leaped in the womb of Elizabeth at the coming of Mary and the announcement of the baby Jesus that will be born.
The time of the coming Messiah is a time of great joy – light is coming to this dark world.
Hope is coming for the hopeless.
So how do you get this Joy today that is talked about in this passage?
1) God is with her
Literally in this passage we see that God is with Mary – this is cause for Joy
When God is with us and walks with us then we have reason for great joy.
The question is, “This idea of God being with her, does this only apply to Mary?”
In other words, is God with you today? Do you have this same promise as made to Mary?
Jesus tells the disciples in Matthew 28:20 that he will be with them until the end of the age.
This promise is for us and all Christians that will come after them.
To the 2nd coming of Christ He will always be with His followers.
But what about when times seem tough? How can I have joy if it seems the world is falling down around me.
I think we can learn from Mary’s example –
She is chosen by God to bear His Son. In her womb will be the very creator of the universe.
Was her road easy?
Was the journey to Bethlehem a cake walk for her?
They travel while she is greatly with child about to give birth any day and this journey would be perilous.
This is not a jump in your SUV and go down the interstate –
this is a journey in the elements on rocky terrain, not an easy road.
They get there and there is no where to stay and she gives birth to the Savior in a stable that is fit for only animals.
How did she get through it? God was with her.
Paul the great apostle was in prison.
Some think he might have been a terrible prison at the writing of Philippians but what does Paul tell us:

Philippians 4: 12-13
12 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity ; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. 13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
No matter what the circumstance – Paul can say it is Christ who strengthens him. He doesn’t say Christ makes it easy but he does point out that Christ bears us through it.
2) She can be joyful because she is grace filled.
God has given her unmerited favor – God has chosen her.
It is interesting that Grace and Rejoice come from the same root word of Charis
So we can see from the language that Grace and Joy come from the same idea – in other words to experience true Joy we need to understand that we are in a state of Grace.
What we fail to realize is just as Mary was chosen to be a vessel of God’s grace we have also been chosen to be vessels of God’s grace.
Paul lays out his theology of being chosen in Christ in Ephesians 1
Ephesians 1: 4-7
4just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love5He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight
We have been chosen in Christ – God chose to pour out his grace on you if you are in Christ.
This is freely bestowed something that we could earn or do on our own.
Paul speaks of the riches of His Grace that he lavishes on us.
This free gift should bring joy – imagine wining a sweepstakes or something that you didn’t earn, you didn’t expect it to happen.
That is how Paul speaks of our salvation in Christ – we had no hope – who would have ever thought God would send His Son and just open up the flood gates of grace from Heaven?
This is awesome –joyful news.
3) You can rejoice like Mary and have this type of Joy if you take on the attitude that she had.
I love her response to the Angel Gabriel.
We forget that Mary was human with human desires- she probably had dreams of growing up like the rest of her kids in her village – Joseph would be her husband , she would be a normal person and live a normal life.
What the angel Gabriel proposed was a scary path – how would she explain to the townspeople that she was with child
Imagine those conversations around the well at Nazareth – How is
Mary with child if she is not married, O, I get it an angel told you the Holy Spirit would hover over you and bring about this miraculous birth.
Could you hear the sighs and the people saying Sure – Sure that makes sense.
She would be an outcast in her hometown, looked down upon and scorned, Just looking at Joseph’s first response shows the shame in her story.
But not just this but now you are going to carry the Messiah of Israel – God’s Son – God in flesh – do you think there might be a little pressure on her.
But look at her response to Gabriel.
Behold, the bondslave of the Lord ; may it be done to me according to your word.
She is emptied of any self-entitlement – she freely gives up her life for God.
But she continues with this attitude throughout the rest of her life.
At the wedding feast at Cana when Jesus works His first miracle – she says – Do as he says!
Do whatever Jesus tells you to do. What an awesome example – you want to be a true woman of God – here she is – here is your example – Do as God tells you. Do as Jesus tells you.
Simeon the old prophet in the Temple prophesies to Mary in Luke 2 that she will experience something like a sword piercing her heart.
She will be heart broken, she will pour her life into her Son and watch him march to the cross.
These words will resonate in her heart –
you know her entire life she probably wondered when these words of Simeon would come true.
When would her heart be pierced?
We see that she is there at the cross –
her son that she raised was now beaten beyond recognition, marred beyond belief and was experiencing the worse 6 hours any human could go through on the cross.
From the context we can believe that she was there through the entire ordeal.
And what is interesting is that she was there on Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles in Acts chapter 1
She is there from the announcement of the birth of Christ to the birth of the Church.
This is an amazing lady- there through the entire story of the Gospel – but what does her life tell us the entire time.
Do as Jesus tells you.
Today she would tell you the same thing. Do as Her Son tells you to do!
In Luke 13 Jesus tells us that we must Repent – we must all repent of our own selfish desires.
We must repent and tell God behold I am your bondservant and do to me as your word says.
That is what repentance is all about.
Jesus also tells us that whoever Believes in Him and is Baptized will be saved.
Is there anyone here this morning that needs his lavish grace and salvation,
Jesus calls you today and His mother would tell us to listen to what He says.

A Child will be born

Have you ever had a situation of good news and bad news:

Something like:
You women’s softball team finally won a church league softball game
The bad news is they beat your men’s team

Your boss asks you to write a job description of your job
They like it so much they decide to go out and hire someone that fits that description

The preacher is told that church attendance has risen drastically over the last 2 weeks but the bad news was that he was gone on vacation for those 2 weeks

Your youth group comes to visit your home
The bad news it is the middle of the night and they have toilet paper and shaving cream.

This is what life is like many times – good news and bad news. It never seems that good news is the only news.

Many people today in the holiday season suffer from depression because they have lost a loved one or they are in financial trouble.

While some people are merry with the spirit of Christmas others are suffering.

Do you have hope today or are you hopeless?

A man approached a little league baseball game one afternoon. He asked a boy in the dugout what the score was. The boy responded, "Eighteen to nothing--we're behind."

"Boy," said the spectator, "I'll bet you're discouraged."

"Why should I be discouraged?" replied the little boy. "We haven't even gotten up to bat yet!"

Charles Dickens started his book A Tale of Two Cities:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way. . . .”

In today’s Scripture passage we are going to experience the best and worst of times.

The time period we will look at to begin with is a bleak time in the history of God’s people.

It has been 200 years since Solomon reigned. The Kingdom was now divided between the North – Israel and the South – Judah

Ahaz was king of Judah.

Ahaz was evil and did evil in the sight of the Lord – his 16 year reign was marked with great evil and false worship.

He sacrificed his own children to the pagan god Molech. Things had gotten really bad for Israel.
Things were so low that a Davidic King was now sacrificing to the pagan gods.

But the bad news is that things will get worse. Just a few years after this Jeremiah will being his career as a prophet and in Jeremiah 16 God will tell Jeremiah not to have a wife and kids because things are going to get so bad.

It will not be long until the Babylonians come and destroy Judah and take the best and brightest into captivity.

It is into this situation that Isaiah the prophet takes up council against king Ahaz in Isaiah chapters 7 through 9.

In today’s passage Isaiah will paint for Judah a picture of hope in the bleakest time.
There will be a bright future and a hope for all.

Isaiah 9: 1-7

1 But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish ; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. 2 The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light ; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them. 3 You shall multiply the nation, You shall increase their gladness ; They will be glad in Your presence As with the gladness of harvest, As men rejoice when they divide the spoil. 4 For You shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders, The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian. 5 For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult, And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire. 6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders ; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore . The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.

Then he gets to the point that I want to focus on today.

He tells us a child will be born – future tense
There will be a day of liberation in which this child will be born into this world of pain and no hope.

Isaiah is painting a picture that is bleak for Judah

Darkness will dawn to day – Galilee will have light shine on it.
The region spoken of by Isaiah is the very place this Assyrian and Babylonian oppression will start.

This king that will come will bring about a victory like Gideon over the Midianites (Verse 4).
Just as Gideon overcame the odds and won the victory this child will.

Some things that Isaiah tells us about this child:

1) Wonderful Counselor – He will be a wise king- his guidance and direction will be like no other before

2) Mighty God – this child in some way will be called God.

Earlier in his lament against King Ahaz, Isaiah said the following:

Isaiah 7:14
14 "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign : Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.

There will be a great sign of this renewal of all things – this brining light and hope into the world- A virgin will give birth and He will be called Immanuel.

Literally – He will be called God with us.

John’s gospel in John 1:14 tells us that the Word became flesh – the very word that had been with the Father for all eternity became flesh.

Out of the womb of Mary came the very Son of God – God with Us- God in flesh as a human baby

3) Eternal Father

This is a perfect Father that will never abandon His people – think of the perfect human father and you don’t even have a slice of what this Savior will be like.

He will be like our Father forever – God the father shows us his true love by sending His Son.

4) He will be the Prince of Peace – this is an odd saying.

We know that Isaiah is speaking of a time some 700 years later when Jesus of Nazareth is born to the virgin Mary.

We have heard the story so many times that our ears are dulled to the message. We see the seasonal images of Christmas but we loose the Biblical radical nature of this story.

This story is explosive – this story will make kings shake in their boots.

Lets set the stage for this radical entrance into Human history.

Galatians 4:4 tells us that at the fullness of times God sent forth His Son – times had to be just right for Christ to come.

By the time Jesus was born, Augustus had already been monarch for a quarter of a century.
King of kings, he ruled from Gibraltar to Jerusalem and from Britain to the Black Sea.

He had done what no one had done for two hundred years before him: he had brought peace to the wider, Roman world—peace at a price.

What an irony – the Prince of Peace is born during the Pax Romano – the peace of Rome

A price paid in cash by subjects in far-off lands.

Augustus "gave peace, as long as it was consistent with the interests of the Empire and the myth of his own glory,"

There you have it in a nutshell: the whole ambiguous structure of human empire, a kingdom of absolute power, bringing glory to the man at the top, and peace to those on whom his favor rested.

Yes, says Luke, and watch what happens now.

This man, this king, this absolute monarch, lifts his little finger in Rome, and fifteen hundred miles away,

in an obscure province, a young couple undertakes a hazardous journey, resulting in the birth of a child in a little town that just happens to be the one mentioned in the ancient Hebrew prophecy about the coming of the Messiah.

And it is at this birth that the angels sing of glory and peace. Which is the reality, and which the parody?

Here we have to pause, because the passage from

Micah 5, which Luke intends to awaken in our minds, is so well known and so little attended to:
"But you, Bethlehem of Ephrathah, little among the clans of Judah—from you shall come forth the one who is to rule in Israel" (Micah 5:2).

The passage is regularly cut off a verse or two early when read in public.

Verse 4 launches a project that ought to make Augustus anxious:

"He [the coming King] shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of YHWH, in the majesty of the name of YHWH his God; and they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth." But the next verse goes on: "And he shall be the man of peace."

Here is the old king in Rome, turning 60 in the year Jesus was born: he represents perhaps the best that pagan kingdoms can do.

At least he knows that peace and stability are good things; unfortunately, he has had to kill a lot of people to bring them about,
and to kill a lot more, on a regular basis, to preserve them.

Unfortunately, too, his real interest is in his own glory. Already, before his death, many of his subjects have begun to regard him as divine.

Here, by contrast, is the young King in Bethlehem, born with a price on his head.

He represents the dangerous alternative, the possibility of a different empire, a different power, a different glory, a different peace. The two stand over against one another.

Augustus's empire is like a well-lit room at night: the lamps are arranged beautifully, they shed pretty patterns, but they have not conquered the darkness outside.

Jesus' kingdom is like the morning star rising, signaling that it is time to blow out the candles, to throw open the curtains, and to welcome the new day that is dawning.

Glory to God in the highest—and peace among those with whom he is pleased!

Who do you want to put your hope and trust in today?

Do you want to put your trust in human kings and human agencies?

Today are you hopeless?

Does this story of the coming of Christ – prophesied fall on deaf ears because you are so consumed with depression – lonliness?

Or does this story warm your heart with hope?

I think before this story can warm your heart- before you can appreciate the reason all of this happened I must challenge you to do something.
JUDGEMENT

Imagine if today I told you that you had to sit as judge.

So many times we question God and wonder why He lets bad things happen to good people.

We may shake our fist at God and say WHERE ARE YOU???? Why do I feel alone?

I think we all have had those moments of doubt.

Moments where this story of hope of this baby coming in the world may seem hopeless to us.

Let me put you in God’s shoes.

What if I told you today that you had to pass judgment.?

What if you have more than one child and I told you that one of your children can go to Heaven and one had to go to Hell and you had to pick which one went to Hell.

Could you do that?? Could you sentence your own child to Hell while letting the other go into Heaven?

Do you love all your kids the same? I have three wonderful daughters that God has blessed me with.

When we first had Carlin I thought there is no way I could love another like this, but then all the sudden we have another in Emmy and I have just as much love.

They are different – I have different experiences and different things I appreciate about them, but I love them the same.

If I were asked by God to make that type of call of trying to decide between which one of my kids went to Heaven I could not do it.

But what if you had to do it – what would you say to God?

I think I would fall down begging and ask that God send me to Hell instead.

I would beg that God send me to Hell and not send any of my kids.

How many of you hear could identify with that feeling?

Well that is exactly what God did for us!! We were estranged on a collision course with Hell – we are His children and he Loves us.

He loves us so much that Jesus chose to come and die for us. God doesn’t want anyone to go to Hell and he doesn’t so much so that He sent Jesus to die on our behalf.

Jesus literally experienced Hell so we don’t have to. Jesus took on what we deserve.

When we think of that baby in the manger – we must see some 33 years in the future. Those perfect hands – those little baby hands will grow one day and be pierced by nails for us.

When you think about that message of love and think that you are hopeless you better think again.

God loves you so much that he sent His only begotten Son.

Next,
God now sends us to tell others this message of hope.

Imagine If your child was in danger – imagine if you were hurt and incapacitated and you knew your child was in danger and you sent someone to warn your child.

What if your child was walking toward a cliff and you sent a friend to warn them to turn back?

How would you feel if that friend never warned your child? What if that loved one was hurt because that person never warned them?

That is exactly what God has called us to do.

God loves all His children and has called us to go out and warn them to tell them of the Hope they have.

We cant ignore them but are called to share this message of hope.

Conclusion: Hope

From Parade magazine comes the story of self-made millionaire Eugene Land, who greatly changed the lives of a sixth-grade class in East Harlem.

Mr. Land had been asked to speak to a class of 59 sixth-graders.

What could he say to inspire these students, most of whom would drop out of school?

He wondered how he could get these predominantly black and Puerto Rican children even to look at him.

Scrapping his notes, he decided to speak to them from his heart.
"Stay in school," he admonished, "and I'll help pay the college tuition for every one of you."

At that moment the lives of these students changed.

For the first time they had hope. Said one student, "I had something to look forward to, something waiting for me. It was a golden feeling."

Nearly 90 percent of that class went on to graduate from high school.

They had a goal in mind they had hope held out in front of them.

Today I want to encourage you and exhort you to hang on to hope.

Having Hope will show in how we live our lives:

One night at dinner a man, who had spent many summers in Maine, fascinated his companions by telling of his experiences in a little town named Flagstaff.

The town was to be flooded, as part of a large lake for which a dam was being built.

In the months before it was to be flooded, all improvements and repairs in the whole town were stopped.

What was the use of painting a house if it were to be covered with water in six months?

Why repair anything when the whole village was to be wiped out?

So, week by week, the whole town became more and more bedraggled, more gone to seed, more woebegone.

Then he added by way of explanation: "Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present."

When you think as many people will this season about the birth of Christ cut through all the noise of our culture and hear the voice of God in Scripture.

The story of Christ’s coming and birth all boil down to God’s love for you.

God loves you and wants you to spend eternity with Him.

God doesn’t want anyone in this room to perish but to have life everlasting.

Today how do you see your future? Are you just wrapped up in this life or do you see the eternal?

Do you see yourself living forever with Christ?

If you don’t we encourage you to do something before it is too late.

Resurrection the Task of the Church

Today we continue our series on the resurrection of Jesus.
Two weeks ago we looked at evidence of the resurrection, last week we looked at what the resurrection means to us personally, and today I want to look at what the resurrection means to the Church as a whole.
First of all – I want to propose that the Resurrection is not just a resuscitation of a dead corpse. It is not just the fact that God brought Jesus’ dead body back from the grave.
The Scripture paints a picture that when Jesus came out of the grave something far greater was achieved.
What God did in Christ was bring God’s future plan for this entire Creation into the past.
Once again God brought His future – the Grand future of what God has planned for the world and us into the past – He brought that future right into April of 30 AD.
We must start seeing the resurrection that way to truly grasp what it means to the Church
Secondly – the Resurrection is part of Christ’s Achievement. Christ achieved victory over death, and victory of the principalities and dark spiritual forces at work in this world.
Christ’s achievement opened up heaven to flesh and blood. Christ’s achievement made it possible for us to be saved.
Our second task as a Church is to implement the Achievement of Christ – we are to take that story and put it to work in this world. We are to become heralds of that Gospel that truth.
This morning I want to propose to you that if we are going to understand what the resurrection means for the Church we have to go back to the beginning of the Bible.
So today – I want us to walk out understanding that we have been sent into the world – we are sent knowing two things that Jesus resurrection was God’s future crashing into our fallen and corrupted world.
And Christ achieved something wonderful through His resurrection that is good news for the Entire World.
STARTING POINTS:
We must start in Genesis to get the proper perspective on how to implement the resurrection.
Jonathan Edwards was an American preacher in that lived right before the Revolutionary War. He was big and important player in the 1st Great Awakening in American Society.
Edwards claimed that the purpose for God’s Creation was to pour forth and proclaim His Glory – Part of the Great Awakening in America was a waking up to this reality – that everything we do should be about putting that back together.
In other words the Genesis account was about God making a Creation that proclaimed God’s Glory and Part of that was the creation of man.
The way man was to do that was that we are God’s Children.
Literally Luke’s account of the Genaeology tells us that Adam was the son of God.
When God created man we were to be His Children – part of God’s Family – literally.
Also that original purpose was for man to have Dominion. Another way to say Dominion is to say KINGSSHIP
Dominion and kingship go hand and hand in the ancient world.
Genesis 1: 26-27
26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness ; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them
God created man in His image – that doesn’t mean that we look like God or have some type of physical resemblance but the easiest way to say that we reflect God’s image is that we are part of His family
Later in Genesis 5 we will see that Adam’s children are made in his image – in other words being in the image of someone means that you are their child.
That means that being in God’s family carries with it the responsibility of reflecting God’s just rule and dominion.
In other words – we are God’s stewards- He made this earth to reflect His glory and put us in charge of making sure that it was cared for.
In that responsibility we are to bring God’s just rule and glory to every situation.
Now without getting into detail we know that Adam and Eve failed at that task. They chose to obey Satan instead and began a rebellion against God.
So to speak they were kicked out or estranged from God’s family.
In times past I have shared with you in great detail how God has enacted a great rescue plan in Scripture that begins with the Fall in Genesis 3 and ends up in Revelation.
I would propose that in Genesis God’s plan all along was that man would produce societies, cultures, and situations that would manifest God’s glory.
Many people including Jonathan Edwards caught fire to this idea and that is why they believed that this truth carried over to every aspect of society – even government.
Genesis 1:28
28 God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
God wanted man to advance – to grow – to multiply – have families, have culture – and always increasing in our dominion.
Science, Art, Law, architecture – all of these studies are not bad – they are good because they are part of this creation mandate – we are to grow in our Kingship and rule over this earth.
False Dichotomies:
Many preachers have wrongfully told people to hate this world and have not clarified what they mean.
God’s Creation Mandate to have dominion and be fruitful and multiply was not revoked. It continues to this day.
What has changed is that mandate has been twisted and corrupted by the Fall – by Sin and rebellion.
We are to love the part of this world that is God’s – there is nothing wrong to experience a beautiful ocean scene, a mountain vista, or hug your child and just glorify God because that is good.
I will say to you that you are getting a glimpse of what God has in store for us for eternity.
But there is a part of this world that we must hate.
It seems there is a contradiction in the Bible and many times we don’t clear this up and become sharp and concise about it.
First of all, John 3:16 says that For God So Loved the World.
God loves the world and sent Jesus for the sake of the world.
But then James in James 4 says:
James 4:4
4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God ? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
How can you reconcile that God loves this world but we must be enemies to the world.
Let me give you an illustration that might help.
Imagine if you lived during World War 2 in Nazi Germany and you were a good Christian German citizen.
You would love your homeland – you would love Germany.
At the same time you would hate the Nazi regime. You would despise what Hitler was doing to your country.
So at the same time you love your country but there is something about it that you hate.
The same is true for this world. We love the good part – the God inspired created part but we hate the fallen sinful part.
Do you think God would leave it like this? Do you think that God will just burn this world up and let it go away and just throw up His hands and say – Devil you win. You destroyed my good creation so I am just going to take my Christians to this far away space land called Heaven and destroy this earth.
Do you know a lot of Christians think that this is exactly what God is going to do? They have a muddled understanding of what God is really going to do.
They have no vision for God’s exciting future for all of us.
Most think there will be a judgment day – the earth completely obliterated and then we will go off to some Valhalla Viking type of disembodied Heaven playing harps and singing songs for eternity.
Do you want to know why young people are not excited about being Christians? Probably because they have no vision for what God truly intends. That is not the Biblical view of what God has in mind and will bring about. When Jesus came out of the grave that was the advanced sign – the gauntlet being thrown down saying that this project is underway. God will put things right – God will renew Creation and the resurrected body is that future flooding into our fallen space and time.
CURSE VS. RESCUE
So keeping this all in mind let me give you a paradigm or way to see the current situation: There is the world that is under the Curse – that is the sinful fallen bad parts of this creation.
Listen to the Language of the Curse:
Genesis 3: 14-19 14 The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field ; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life ; 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed ; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel." 16 To the woman He said, "I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children ; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you." 17 Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it'; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. 18 "Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field ; 19 By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken ; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return."
The curse was upon the Serpent, Upon Adam, Upon Eve and even upon the physical world. This curse would bring about pain in childbirth –
It would rupture the family dynamic – man would abuse his authority and this would be manifested when husbands lord it over their wives and will even play out in our political scenes.
How many men today in public office have abused their God given authority just like this curse says is going to happen.
Adam’s labor will become cursed- Realize Labor is not the curse – Work is good and God ordained but Labor under the curse will become fruitless labor.
How terrible does it feel to go to work all day and have fruitless labor – like you went to work and dug a hole and then had to cover it back up again.
When you have days like that just pick up and read Genesis 3 and you will see that it is part of the curse that sin brought to our world.
But an Invasion has happened. - The Curse and living under that way of life is no longer the only answer
REDEMPTION – God has redeemed part of this Creation before the end of time.
Paul says in Galatians 1:3-4
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father
When one becomes a Christian they have been rescued from this cursed or fallen state. We are setting up a new society – the rebellion against God is now being taken on by those that choose to be obedient to God.
1 Corinthians 7: 31 tells us
That the world in its present form is passing away
In the work of Christ the principalities and powers have been put on notice that the current hold that sin has on this world is coming to an end.
That is the message of the Book of Revelation. For so long people have focused on the book of Revelation as a message of an Antichrist or Tribulation but they are missing a main theme of that book.
One of the main themes in Revelation that is so overlooked is the idea of Throne or Dominion. God is going to reign completely.
God is now reigning over this present fallen state of affairs but in the future God’s reign is going to come crashing in and His Kingdom rule will be evident.
Revelation is moving toward the idea of God reigning over all – that brings about the explosions and convulsions that this present fallen world undergoes throughout that book of visions of John.
The Church is the beginning of that rule on Earth.
Maybe this may help us understand what I am saying – Just as Christ’s resurrection is an advanced sign of what is going to come in its fullness – the resurrection of all of us.
The Church is an advanced sign of God’s full Kingdom rule – God’s rule through the Church – his kingdom Lordship is evident in the local Church will one day be fully manifested to all.
That is when God will put together what has been broken.
When man has become fully what God intended for him to be –His Child part of his family.
SONS OF GOD again:
Galatians 3: 26
We are all Sons of God through Faith in Christ – When we put our faith in Jesus – we become sons again.
Welcomed back into God’s family – God’s original intent
Romans 8: 16-19
16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.
Even the Cursed Creation longs for us to be revealed- The creation longs for the image bearing sons of God to be revealed
There will be time when God puts it right – the curse will be overturned.
New Heavens and New Earth:
Isaiah the prophet speaks of a time of renewal. A time when God will renew the covenant.
Isaiah picks up the three themes of New Covenant, Suffering Servant that leads to New Creation.
For the longest the Jews could not figure out passages like Isaiah chapter 60
Isaiah speaks of a time of an end to violence, and a time when a city is built that’s gates are never closed.
In the ancient world that would be unheard of – a city whose gates were never closed.
No one understood what Isaiah was predicting until John wrote the book of Revelation.
In Revelation chapter 21 John quotes Isaiah 60 extensively to build a picture of a new city – a city called New Jerusalem.
Now what is John talking about what is this new city?
In John 20 we see two themes:
1) 1000 years of the binding of Satan
2) Satan freed after this period and then destroyed ultimately
3) Great throne and Judgment scene of the entire world.
People get so fluffed up about Revelation 20 they fail to read Revelation 21 which maybe the most beautiful passages of Scripture in the Bible.
Here is the magnum Opus – God will put is all right – the fall in Genesis is overturned.
Man is resurrected – we are given new bodies – glorified bodies like Christ’s but where will we inhabit with these new bodies?
We need to get a picture of what this is all about.
Revelation 21:1-6
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth ; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes ; and there will no longer be any death ; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain ; the first things have passed away." 5 And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." And He said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true." 6 Then He said to me, "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.
John tells us that the first earth and heaven have passed away – this heaven that has passed away may be better understood as the cosmos – not the Heaven where God dwells.
So the earth and cosmos as we know it have passed away – but they are not obliterated forever.
2 Peter 3 speaks of them burning up with fervent heat but they are not obliterated but transformed.
Now we have a New Heaven and New Earth. You see God is putting it right again.
Remember in Genesis God walked with man – face to face – now God’s presence – his tabernacle is among us again- no need for a Temple because God will be there in the New Earth with us again.
God will be so intimate with us that He will wipe away our tears and we will be in His presence for eternity.
Other places in Revelation liken it to a great banquet feast of the Lamb. A reunion of us and loved ones as well as us finally seeing God as He is in all of His glory.
God is making ALL things New. Satan does not win – the body is redeemed it doesn’t stay in the grave- the earth is renewed and the fallen curse is lifted.
Isaiah 65 predicted that God would create a new Heavens and New Earth and here it is in all its glory. Now look at the end of chapter 21 of Revelation:
Revelation 21: 22-27 22 I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 In the daytime (for there will be no night there ) its gates will never be closed ; 26 and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; 27 and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.
Think about this city – the grandeur – kings coming into – gates never closed –
These Kings of the Earth or us – those who Reign with Christ – we will be glorified in Christ and bring our glory into this new City.
Christ will be there and He will illuminate the city.
Only those that are Christ’s will be allowed to enter this city.
No sin – no lying no filth – no immorality – no R rated movies – no smutty TV shows will be in this city – I guess there will be no HBO in this city.
And in Chapter 22 verse 3 it all comes full Circle
God’s plan – original intent comes out.
Revelation 22: 1-3
Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, 2 in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month ; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 There will no longer be any curse ; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him;
Notice how this all ties back together – there is a river (think back to Eden), there is the tree of Life that has been missing since Genesis 3, and now the Curse is lifted.
The curse that was issued in Genesis 3 is now gone because of what Jesus did for us.
And what does that mean to us?
REIGN:
Revelation 22:3 we will serve Christ – we will see Him face to face and serve him.
2 Timothy 2:11-12
. 11 It is a trustworthy statement : For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; 12 If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us
If we live for Christ – we will reign with Christ.
What was Paul’s argument against Lawsuits with the Corinthian church?
1 Corinthians 6:1-5
1 Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints ? 2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world ? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts ? 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels ? How much more matters of this life ? 4 So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church ? 5 I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren,
They should be able to decide matters between brethren because they are going to judge the world even angels in some way will be judged by Christians.
Now I am not completely sure what Paul is talking about but I know for sure he is telling the Corinthian brethren that they will have some role to play in dominion and judgeship later so they better be able to be good judges and arbiters now.
Revelation 7:14-15 tells us that the reward of those that came through the tribulation that John speaks of will be rewarded with Service.
Service is a blessing – God will give us the ability to serve Him.
You see Heaven is not some retreat where we rest for eternity – it is a place where we will see God face to face and Serve Him.
Just like Service to God now means worship – that will be part of it – when we see Him we will not be able to do anything but just want to cry out Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty – but in that we will be given tasks.
I fully believe that comes from the Bible- we will have tasks to do in which we are in training for right now.
Part of that training is humility – we are to be humble and God will exalt us when the time is right.
1 Peter 5: 5-6
5 You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders ; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE. 6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,
Our humility in this life will end in God exalting us.
Jesus gave us this model in His life – he humbled Himself as the book of Philippians tells us in chapter 2 unto death – even a cross and he was exalted.
We too will be exalted with Christ.
IN some way it is a mystery but we are already exalted with Christ – Like I said earlier – two paradigms – fallen and redeemed –
We are already redeemed – raised up by the Achievement of Christ.
Paul talks about our former condition but now we are raised up – Paul says we were in sin – hopeless but Christ raised us up.
Ephesians 2: 5-6
5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved ), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
We have been RAISED up – past tense
When we became Christians – in some way that we cannot yet fully see or understand – we are already reigning with Christ.
So are you ready for that type of service and reigning with Christ.
That comes with a two-fold exhortation:
1)if you were put in charge of Fayetteville, TN by God today what would it look like. Could you reign over this city as God plans for it to be run?
You may think that is a bizarre question but that is exactly how you should look at your preparation in this life.
You are preparing to reign – you are practicing humility now so that you can understand how God rules.
God rules through humility and service.
2) Are you living a pure lifestyle that would be at home in the new Heavens and the New earth.
Remember there will be no uncleanness there.
If your filthy, violence ridden entertainment were taken away from you today would you be upset about it? Because its not going to be in this new place that God is making for us.
Lastly, can you say like John says at the end of Revelation – Come Lord Jesus
He is begging Christ to return – Do you want Him to return now? Are you ready?