Christ Jesus- The Founder of Salvation
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
One of the most defining elements of each of our lives is our relationships. So much of our identity is built around who we are connected to. You cannot define who I am without reference to my parents (and other linage), my wife, my children.
Even as a pastor, I cannot be a pastor at large, in the ether with no reference to people, you can only define me as a pastor in relation to the people of Flooding Creek Community church.
Relationships define us, and shape us. Even our relationship to the material world, such as what i build or fix or where I live. The world is in keen to define us by our sexuality and victim status, but while these are important these should not be up the top of the list of defining relationships.
So whether we’re talking about relationships to the material, or our relationships to other people, these relationship define us and they have an effect on us. We are shaped by who or what we are related to.
But the most critical relationship of all is our relationship to God through Jesus Christ. That is the key relationship that changes everything, and the relationship that shapes how we relate to everyone and everything in the world.
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So far in this series we have covered
Work
Worship
Generosity
Rest
Lament, and
As we close our series of the Gospel Shaped Life we’re ending with Relationships.
We could go on talking about different facets of the Gospel shaped life for the rest of the year! But I hope one of the themes that has become apparent is that when we belong to Jesus our whole lives are shaped by him. Jesus changes everything.
We are no longer our own, for we were bought with a price! And we must serve Christ in our bodies, using our lives as living sacrifices for the glory of God!
In four parts lets trace a biblical overview of Gospel Shaped Repationships
Relational Humanity
Relational Humanity
Part 1, God made us as relational beings. We have to go back, to the beginning!
He made us in relation to himself, in the image of God.
He made us in relation to creation - the crowning glory of creation, and the rulers over the earth under God.
God made us to be in relationship to other humans, in community. The first community was the first marriage. In fact in creation God kept making things and saying it was good, it was good, it was very good, but when it comes to Adam, after God had made only Adam, God said that things were not good:
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
While marriage will not be for everyone, it is interesting that this is the starting place for humanity - the first human relationship and the one to make all that followed.
In God’s good creation he made marriage and human community. It was not-good to be alone, and that was resolved through human community.
God was also in close relationship with humanity - they lived in the garden with God, and met with God, and spoke with God.
But that was all to change
Strife & discord has entered into our relationships - between us & God and between each other.
Relational rebellion - selfishness and pride entered the chat.
God responds
He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
Relationships are covanental - there are sides to it. When someone does something egregious to the other party they are justified in ending the relationship.
God sent them out of the garden.
But now that sin was here, they was also internal strife between relationships - e.g. cain & abel
The other two “fall” stories are also tied to illicit relationships
Gen 6 Sons of God having inappropriate relationships
Tower of Babel - people banding together against God - God had to scatter them.
Relational Restoration
Relational Restoration
How can we undo the curse? Top-down approach: Israel
God gave them a rather comprehensive set of case law to manage the relationship between them and a holy God, and between one another.
It included provisions around how to handle matters of justice, how to worship God,
We could never say God’s law was not-good. It comes from God! But the Bible tells us the it was in some sense incomplete. It could not save us, and infact the OT law serves to reveal our deep need for Christ.
Restoration promised:
I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”
God sent Jesus to reconcile us to himself and to one another.
Naturally, we’re divided from God, and from one another. God wants to undo that, and has acted in history to make it happen.
Jesus came into the world to reconcile us to God and one another. The old divisions are taken away.
Our sin divides us, makes us unholy - Jesus makes us holy by imputing his righteousness and making atonement.
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
At Pentecost we see the undoing of Babel too!
Familial Relationships
Familial Relationships
No reconciled to God, and to our fellow man, what do our familial relationships look like?
Gospel shaped
Marriage - Husbands love your wives like Jesus loves his church, wives respect and submit to your husbands like the church does to Jesus
Parents/children - Children honor your parents and obey them like you need to honour and obey your heavenly father. Parents love your childrne like God loves his Children, disciplining them, being gracious to them and leading them to real life.
Singleness - Some of us will be single, either by choice or circumstance. Your life will be unencumbered by many practical considerations that others face, so you can be freer in some sense to serve the Lord.
Elderly-Youth
Authority-under authority
Gospel Shaped Relationships
Gospel Shaped Relationships
Be reconciled to God!
Love your neighbor as yourself
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
Brotherly Affection
Honour
Contribute to needs
Show hospitality
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Rejoice/weep
Harmony, peaceably
Not haughty/prejudicial
Repay debts
And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
Living with the weaker brother
No stumbling blocks
No causing others to cross their conscience
Be Understanding
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Forgive one another
Relationships lead to conflict
Do not take revenge
Seek restitution if you did wrong.
Forgive those who sin against you.
Forgive as Christ forgave you.
