The Gospel is Part of the Story Line

Intro: We know that the Gospel is good for us and we are thankful that we are saved from our sins. We know that we are blessed to get to live as children of God. The purpose of the message today, is to help us see the larger story and how the gospel and our own experience fits into this. When we focus only, on our circumstances or our own experience too much we can miss that this is only a small part in the large story of what God is doing on the earth. It can be hard to tightly summarize the gospel. We may describe it differently depending on who we are talking to, but it should always be part of the story line of the Bible. It is not separate from the Hebrew scriptures.

Thesis: Sometimes words can lose some of their meaning when they become too familiar. They can become common and stretched to include or exclude meanings. I would like us to experience the word “gospel” in a fresh way.

The Role of Humans

Adam and Eve

Human and Life

Created in the image of God.

They were to represent God on the earth.

They were to rule, to work and keep the garden.

Gen. 1:28,29

This is not a ruling in the way we normally envision.

Instead it is in a flourishing generous way.

Placed in the Garden, in Eden.

This place of abundance and life.

The Garden was in Eden, the Tree of Life was in the Center of the Garden

See the parallel to the Tabernacle.

The garden was a place of Heaven on earth.

Where heaven met earth.

Think about this in relation to Emanuel. “God with us”

The Story of People

Life in the goodness of the Garden didn’t last very long.

Adam and Eve disobey and try to rule creation on their own terms.

They are banished from the Garden.

Cain and Abel.

Cain is further from God.

Cain’s descendants continue in the path of trouble.

Lamech is the first person on record of having more than 1 wife.

He boasts about killing a man.

You still see remnants of righteous people.

The line of Seth as opposed to Cain.

Enoch descendant of Seth. Enoch walked with God.

Noah

What was life like in this time?

God saved righteous Noah by using the ark. Gen. 6 and 7. (Saving Faith).

Noah a wonderful example of Salvation through faith. Noah believed and obeyed God. He was moved by godly fear. He believed and acted.

c. God also delivered Noah from the world by destroying it. Gen. 8 (Deliverance).

He was delivered from the filth of the world.

We also are delivered now and in the future.

God wants a restart with Noah.

It didn’t last long.

Noah get’s drunk, something sketchy happens with his son Ham.

Noah ends up cursing Ham’s son Canaan.

Tower of Babel

Instead of spreading out and filling the earth with God’s blessing the people congregate at one spot.

God scattered them, not because of fear, but kindness.

They were not going in a good direction.

Abraham

God separated him.

From his country.

From his family.

From his fathers house.

He was separated for a reason. (So many lessons for the Church).

To be a blessing Gen. 12.

We know the story of God promising all these descendants.

But Abraham and Sarah don’t have children for a long time.

Isaac and Jacob

Joseph ending up in Egypt.

Jacob’s family ends up in Egypt.

The Enslavement in Egypt.

Moses.

God calling Moses to lead the people to the promised land.

The journey is long to get there.

The time of the Judges.

all the horrible things that happen there.

You have Israel wanting a King.

God gives them a king.

David

He was supposed to rule the nation of Israel in a way that would be a blessing and hope to the world.

Things still went terribly wrong.

Israel breaks the covenant and allows all kinds of injustice to happen.

Israel’s prophets talked about a time when God would restore these covenants and everything would be made right.

The Gospel

It is the news that really changes everything.

News has to really be something that makes a difference to be news.

Quote from N.T. Wright. "News is something that has happened as a result of which a whole new set of possibilities opens up, which you may or may not like." N.T. Wright. News has to be announcing something that actually changes something. Example: the death of a monarch, or some new victory in battle.

Isaiah 40:1-11

Isaiah 52. The beautiful feet.

Our God reigns is the theme.

The royal arrival.

Then what happens when the arm of the Lord is revealed?

Isaiah 53: He is despised and rejected.

But after this:

Isaiah 54,55, and 56.

This good news is that God is restoring his kingship on the earth. What God intended all along was going to happen, through Jesus’s reign and his followers.

Ezekiel 36:25-27

The New King James Version Chapter 36

25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

Matthew 4:17 “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Matthew 5,6, and 7.

Jesus tells us what people in His kingdom are like.

This is how it will look.

I Cor. 15:45-49

It has come full circle. As in Adam, so in Christ.

Bear the image of the heavenly.

We have the privilege to live and talk about Jesus Reigning as true king.

God doesn’t come in with the tanks and guns. This isn’t how he rules.

Jesus went around healing and speaking words of life and healing to people.

God, through his followers come in with life.

Words of life and works of life.

Who often is bringing the medical care, the schools, the food to areas that are traumatized by violence? It is often the people of God.

We get the privilege of working with God in what he is doing.

God loves to change family trees.

You are not bound to redo what your parents did or the culture you were raised in. You can be reborn.

God through Jesus is enabling people to break free from sin that leads to destruction and experience life.