The Power of Connection
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 5 viewsa look at what Jesus, the 2nd Adam did for us
Notes
Transcript
Stated Purpose
Today I will show you how easy it is to be connected to God, an how amazing it is to be connected to God.
17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.
“For the sin of this ONE man, Adam, caused death to rule over MANY”
We know Eve ate the fruit first, but the Bible holds Adam responsible. He was the first one made, he was the leader. Adam caused death to rule over us.
Even as a child, I hated the fact that Adam messed it up for everyone . . . Adam brought death, sin, evil, and corruption into the world and now we ALL have live in this messed up situation because as humans we are ALL connected to our greatest of grandfathers, Adam
just by being born, just by being related to Adam, we suffer too, we die too . . . wow
Now we can talk all day about how is this fair?
why did God set it up this way?
and after discussing our theories and thoughts
the law, the rule would still stand . . ..
The sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many!
. . . and we don’t like that, even though we’ve done plenty of our own sins
even though if we are honest, we would have done the same thing . . . I can testify that I have been told something was wrong, told the consequences of doing wrong, and yet did it anyway
Full transparency: For many of you here, I am your pastor, but also you brother in Christ . . . there is a bond . . . I have supported you and you have supported me. You are family to me. There is strong relationship there. We are connected!
Yet (full transparency) if one of you robs a bank and is caught, I don’t want any part of your 20 year prison sentence. I would not volunteer to join you or take a few of the years for you. Even though we are family. Even though there is relationship. and even though we are connected. I would say, “I love you but that’s on you!”
But let me show you something curious: If you were to win $50 million in the lottery (after taxes), I’ll be honest, I will be looking for a check. Why? Because we’re family! There is relationship and we are connected! In fact I would be disappointed if at least 50K didn’t come my way . . . Full Transparency
isn’t it funny that we want to block our connection with people when it comes to bad stuff? Yet at the same time will celebrate our connections when it comes to the good stuff, but we
Just look at inheritances. We want the money, cars, homes, jewelry from that relative’s estate who passed away.
we don’t turn it down and say, “That was their money, not mine . . . Just turn it over to the city treasury.”
No sir! In fact, we will even go to court to get stuff we did not earn. We feel we deserve it because we were connected to them (that was my moma’s ring and it belongs to me)
but if that relative died penniless, we don’t want people whom our relative owed money to, coming to us and saying that since your Grandfather passed, I’m going to need to get that $5000 from you. No, we say, “That was their loan, their debt! That’s not my problem!”
we are so “some-timey”, inconsistent with our connections
But God doesn’t work that way, His ways are not our ways. He is consistent. In this Scripture and others we see a rule at work: If you are connected, you are connected, (good and bad, ups and downs, for better or for worse)
because Eve gave the fruit to Adam, she was cursed with pain in child bearing . . . and every other woman since then has had to deal with pain in child bearing
Even the ground was cursed because of Adam
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.
The ground is cursed because of you! It used to be super easy to reap and sow, but now it will be much more difficult to get food from the ground . . . What did the ground do?
The ground was connected. In fact, all of creation was affected by what Adam did because all of creation was connected
But don’t despair, this connection with our greatest of grandfathers is not the end of the story. We have not finished our verse . . . let’s go back to Romans 5:17 . . . .
17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.
the 2nd part of the Romans 5:17 starts off
with, “But even greater”
God does not match the evil that Adam caused with the same amount of good, God does a greater good
This scripture calls it God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness
in other words, what Jesus did for us caused more good, than the evil Adam caused
Jesus brought more blessings than Adam brought curses
Look at what God did:
God could have set creation up with no connections. Everyone human is allowed to have their own shot at being perfect, being righteous, being holy.
But I can already tell you the results. We all would have messed up just like Adam and we all would be stuck with sin and death, with no hope
But God in his mercy set up his creation with connections
By making us all be connected to Adam . . . it allows God to be just when gives us all an opportunity to be connected to Jesus, whom the Bible calls the 2nd Adam!
that’s why the next two verses say this:
18 Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone.
19 Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous.
Jesus was the one who obeyed God perfectly, and we can connect with him over Adam
connect with righteousness over condemnation
connect with life over death
we get all that!!! . . . IF WE ARE CONNECTED TO HIM!
you see with Adam, we were connected by just being born
If you want to be connected with Jesus, you must be born again . . . . a spiritual birth . . . .back to our main verse in Romans 5:17 . . .
17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.
the last part of this verse says that the connection is “for all who receive it” . . . those who are willing to be connected to Jesus, “will live in triumph over sin and death”
you have to be willing to join with Jesus, that’s why the verse says, “through this one man, Jesus Christ”
no body else, no other way, no other path
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life
the connection is there, the connection it’s available, but how you do you connect with Jesus?
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
saved by grace . . . you don’t deserve this saving connection, you cannot earn this saving connection . . . you get this connection because of God’s grace . . . and you access it through FAITH!
it’s easy to connect . . .have faith, believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior
believe in who he is and what he did (live, die, and rise again)
and comitt to following him has your Lord
and you will have a Resurrection Connection
can it be that easy? wasn’t it easy when you were born (for you, not your mom)
your mom did all the suffering and you were born into a sinful connection with Adam
Jesus did all of the suffering for us and we are born again into a righteous connection with Jesus
in fact, this connection is so easy and powerful, that Paul had to warn them in the very next chapter not to go crazy with this knowledge of God’s grace and being connected to the righteousness of Jesus. . .
1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?
Paul is saying, “Yes, this grace to be connected to God is crazy amazing! But don’t try to take advantage of this and live a life of sin, live for Jesus”
The Power of Connection
The Power of Connection
This connection with Jesus, opens up all kinds of things for us
Whatever Jesus had access to, then we have access to
No wonder Jesus said, I am the vine, you are the branches, remain in me and I in you and you will bear much fruit . . . there is power in being connected to Jesus
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.
See! Now we are connected to all the good stuff , every spiritual blessing because we are united with Christ, connected with Christ
so we have access love, joy, peace, patience, healing, wisdom, guidance, protection . . . there is power in this connection . . that’s the
The Power of Connection
The Power of Connection
Let me break it down again!
one man, Adam, brought an evil connection, but Jesus brought a greater connection of good!
so just like we inherited Adam’s sin, we now can inherit Jesus’ righteousness
just like we inherited Adams curse, we now inherit Jesus’ favor
Adam caused us to be banished from the garden, but Jesus allow us to come boldly to the throne of grace
Adam took us from life to death, Jesus takes us from death to eternal life
I like that type of connection! God, I will take that connection with the 2nd Adam . . . Jesus,
God’s begotten son, Mary’s baby, Immanuel, the Savior, Blessed Redeemer, with the one called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, Alpha and Omega, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the Word
Sin is erased and death is defeated!
someone is thinking, “Death is still around”
Yes it is, we still have to deal with the Adam connection, but the Jesus connection, the Resurrection Connection is stronger, is better, more powerful, last for eternity . . .
when Adam sinned he did not die immediately, actually he lived hundreds of years more . . . but death did catch up to him, like it catches up to all of us
And when we are connected to Jesus, we don’t live forever immediately, and we will pass from this life if Jesus does not come back first . . . but life will catch up to us and we will live forever more
Just like after Jesus died, life caught up to Jesus on the third day
Death HAS been defeated. Death is like a honey bee that stings you. When a honey bee stings you it cannot pull the barbed stinger back out. It leaves behind not only the stinger, but also part of its abdomen. This massive rupture eventually kills the honey bee.
so the sting hurts you , but kills the bee
so death still hurts and causes us pain, but it is already defeated
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Victory through our connection with Jesus
Knowing about this connection should give you increased faith in your prayer life
Concluson
Concluson
People don’t like the idea of hell, people don’t like to talk about hell, we complain about Hell being too hard and too harsh and unfair
but again, it’s funny that nobody complains about Heaven being too good or too beautiful for too nice, nobody lives good enough for heaven, but if we are connected to Christ we will go there!
as soon was we are born, we have jumped out of the plane, headed down to hell
Jesus offers us more than a parachute, he offers us a airplane!
Warning
Romans 8:17 tells us that we are joint heirs with Christ
there’s that connection again
the warning is that when we follow Christ, there will be some suffering because we are connected
we all must take up our cross and follow him
but the verse says that we will also glory with Him, be rewarded with Him
So God is not offering an easy life . . . but a rewarding one!
come on to Jesus now