Jesus: God's Blessing for All People

I like good stories. I like the stories that are complex and intricate. I like the stories that impact people in a variety of ways. I like the stories that allow you to dive deep into the detail and nuance of a character and their situation, and then zoom out to see the grand scheme.

I think this is one of the things I love about the Bible. We could dive deep into every paragraph and page of scripture in order to understand how God is working in people’s lives. We can examine and wrestle with the text and reflect on how that affects our lives. Then we can zoom out and see the grand story of how God is at work across all humanity.

Normally we focus each week on a chapter or a few verses. Today, as we reflect on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, we’re going to take a broader view in order to see part of the grand plan that God is working.

We’re going to begin with a man named Abraham And something that God did with him; a covenant that God initiated…

no notes,

no scripture on the screen, open your Bible.

God’s Covenant Initiated

When God called Abraham - he promised to bless him

When Abraham demonstrated his faith, God reiterated that promise.

But there is a passage that we’ve missed so far this morning. I know we’ve already read a lot of scripture but I want you to see something.

Genesis 15:1–21 (NLT)

Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.”

But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.”

Then the Lord said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.” Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”

And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.

Then the Lord told him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession.”

But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?”

The Lord told him, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” So Abram presented all these to him and killed them. Then he cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side; he did not, however, cut the birds in half. Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses, but Abram chased them away.

As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a terrifying darkness came down over him. Then the Lord said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth. (As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.) After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.”

After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses. So the Lord made a covenant with Abram that day and said, “I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River—the land now occupied by the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”

Covenant -typically - when a covenant would happen - animals would be divided and the people entering into the covenant would walk between the two parts of the sacrifice.

In our wedding, my former youth pastor talked about the couple walking down the aisle together represented that sort of covenant - except without all of the blood.

The implication is that the parties in the covenant are saying - “may I be like these animals if I fail to fulfill my part of the covenant.”

But notice, in God’s covenant with Abraham - who passes between the parts of the sacrifice?

It wasn’t Abraham - he was asleep - and yet could see this vision

It was a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch - representations of God. Often God is described as a fire or smoke

Since Abraham didn’t pass through the sacrifice - the implication is that God will fulfill it. There is also an implication that God did not require Abraham to fulfill something that he could not fulfill. God knew that Abraham and His descendents could not live up to the standards of the covenant. The completion of the covenant was on God and God alone!

God promised four things in his covenants and conversations with Abraham…

an heir- Abraham and his wife were well passed the age of having kids - that child - Isaac did not come for another decade or so, but he did come.

land - the land would come through a circuitous route, but they would eventually get there - after 400 years (God has a long view)

descendents as numerous as the stars - basically - Abraham would not be able to count his descendants.

blessing all nations through Abraham - it’s this last on that I want to focus on today. How will all nations be blessed through Abraham?

So - then let’s fast forward to the end of the story where we get to see...

God’s Covenant Realized

In the passage that we read in the book of Galatians, we got to see how believers in Jesus Christ are considered as descendants of Abraham. Even as Gentiles, for those who trust in Jesus - it’s as though we’ve been grafted into Abraham’s family tree. (Gal. 3:7-9; Gal. 3:26-29)

We also read earlier from the book of Revelation where John saw a vision of the future. In that vision, He pictured a multitude of people - an innumerable group of people.

Revelation 7:9-10 “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!””

But notice, they were not just middle easterners.

every nation - geographic/political groups

every tribe - by implication - a subset - people group. We may think of tribes as in Native American tribes. In other words - a subset of the national whole - we could think of this like counties.

every people - we might think of this as clans or family groups - or subsets of tribes -

According to Finishing the Task - there are currently 144 people groups with absolutely no gospel witness.

Other sites suggest the number is well over 7000 - it really all depends on how you define a people group.

every language

recently some missions agencies have been stating that language group might be the best way for us to think about groups of people and unreached populations

according to the Lingua Language Center - there are 7106 languages in the world.

According to CNE - Christian Network Europe - the Bible is available in 3495 languages - roughly half of the languages of the world. In short, there is still work to be done, though it’s possible that people from one language group may speak multiple language and may be able to access the God’s word in a trade language or in a dialect and yet still believe.

For example - Papua New Guinea has the largest variety of dialects - in other words - each tribe might have their own language. Their national language is English - but the common trade langue is Pigeon. When I was in New Guinea in 1987 - I picked up a bible in Pigeon - There are people who may not have the scripture in their language, but would speak Pigeon.

If this picture that John saw is going to be a reality then it means that there will be spiritual descendants of Abraham in every nation.

So, on one end of scripture, we’ve seen God’s Covenant Initiated - all nations would be blessed and Abrahams descendents would be numerous - even innumerable.

On the other end of scripture, we see that covenant fulfilled - with a countless multitude of people from every people/language group who are identified as God’s people.

So how do we get from one picture to the other?

I’m glad you asked

It’s at the cross of Jesus Christ where we get to see…

God’s Covenant Accomplished

On Friday night we talked a little bit about covenant. The night before he was crucified, Jesus said that the cup represented the new covenant in his blood.

Instead of passing between parts of a sacrifice - Jesus was the sacrifice.

His broken body, represented by the bread of the Lord’s Supper, became the sacrifice. His spilled blood became the seal of the covenant.

Passion week

Sunday triumphal entry

teaching and growing conflict Monday to Thursday

Thursday night, Passover meal/ Lords supper arrest

Friday - tried, beaten, crucified…

Turn in your Bibles to the book of Mark. As we read part of Mark 15, I want you to notice who is there. Who is present? Who is mentioned?

So, at this point, Jesus has been on the cross for several hours. We pick up in verse 37...

Mark 15:37–47 ESV

And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.

Have you ever noticed that in some really well produced TV show, you’ll get a picture or glimpse of something profound?

I think that here in the book of Mark at the death of Jesus, we get a bit of that picture of the end.

Roman Centurion Gentile

Did you notice who said “Truly this man was the Son of God”? - it was a Roman Centurion. He was a soldier. This man was likely a pagan - in that he worshiped a whole pantheon of gods - and yet this Gentile acknowledged that Jesus was the Son of God.

Women

There is another group of people that we need to see. Did you notice who Mark said was standing close by? Mary, Mary and Salome - women. And who was it that saw where Jesus was laid in the grave? Again - Mary and Mary. Now, to us, we may not think much about this. But, to the first century believers, noting that women were witnesses was kind of a big deal - because a woman’s testimony was not accepted in a court of law. Yet it was the women (not the disciples - at least in Mark’s account) who were there. Most of the disciples had scattered. It was the women who stayed. It was the women who saw. It was even the women who were first commissioned.

Mark 16:1–7 NLT

Saturday evening, when the Sabbath ended, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went out and purchased burial spices so they could anoint Jesus’ body. Very early on Sunday morning, just at sunrise, they went to the tomb. On the way they were asking each other, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” But as they arrived, they looked up and saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled aside. When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a white robe sitting on the right side. The women were shocked, but the angel said, “Don’t be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Look, this is where they laid his body. Now go and tell his disciples, including Peter, that Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there, just as he told you before he died.”

Now, looking back in the passage about Jesus’ death, who else did you notice? Sure, there’s Pilate. But the other would be follower of Jesus...

Religious Leader (Secret Follower) Joseph

Joseph, who was part of the Jewish ruling council and seemed to be a secret believer, got a bit of boldness to ask for the body of Jesus.

Why do I point these out?

At the cross of Jesus, we see the powerful, the religious, and the marginalized. We see a powerful soldier acknowledge Jesus deity. We see several women faithfully remain to take care of Jesus’ body. We see a Jewish believer risking his position and reputation in order to put Jesus body in his own tomb.

In many ways, we get to see a micro-chasm of what John saw in Revelation.

So What!

The covenant that God initiated with Abraham - was God promising something.

The picture that John saw in revelation - of an innumerable people from all backgrounds is the fulfillment of that covenant.

Jesus death, burial and resurrection is God accomplishing that covenant. Jesus, truly human and truly God, became both the broken body which was sacrificed. Jesus became the one who fulfilled it. Just as God knew that Abraham’s descendents would fail (just read the rest of the OT and you’ll see how often the people fail God), He knew that He (God) had to be the one to accomplish whatever was needed to fulfill his promise to Abraham.

With Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection - he alone accomplished what we would fail to accomplish.

It’s not our performance - cause we will fail.

It’s not our obedience - because we will disobey.

It’s not our religious activity

It’s not our social standing

It’s not our political preference

It’s not your parents

It’s not your career

It’s Jesus.

Acts 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.””

And the means by which we get to be a part of the innumerable throng of people is to believe.

John 3:16–17 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Romans 10:9–10 ESV

because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Do you believe? Will you believe?

The message of salvation in Jesus Christ is a message for people of every nation.

https://finishingthetask.com/about-finishing-the-task/people-group-list/

https://cne.news/article/1255-bible-available-in-3495-languages-worldwide

https://lingua.edu/how-many-languages-are-there-in-the-world/

Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene Albert Nida. Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains 1996: 129. Print.