THE DIVINE INVITATION
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SEND OFF KIDS!
SEND OFF KIDS!
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That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—
the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—
that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
Intro.
Intro.
Wedding invitation.
Giri would have sent wedding invitations to those he desired to be present.
1 John 1.1-
Before he left he would have sent wedding invitations to those he desired to be present.
Talking about weddings -A lady noticed her friend was wearing her wedding ring on the wrong finger so she asked, "Why are you wearing your wedding ring on the wrong finger?" Her friend replied, "Because I married the wrong man!"
A lady noticed her friend was wearing her wedding ring on the wrong finger so she asked, "Why are you wearing your wedding ring on the wrong finger?" Her friend replied, "Because I married the wrong man!"
Today we begin a new series “Walking with God - The Essentials”
I am speaking on an invitation, The divine invitation.
Sometimes you are delighted when you receive an invitation, other times you are not so keen, mixed emotions.
This is one you will need to RSVP.
Failure to do so can result in disastrous long-term consequences.
You can be facing a lot of heat!
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
This entire Bible is about God’s Invitation to us.
Main thought :
Prop: The God of the Bible invites you to have fellowship with Him.
Four truths about this invitation.
1. THIS INVITATION WAS DELIVERED PERSONALLY.
1. THIS INVITATION WAS DELIVERED PERSONALLY.
invitations
Come by email, snail mail, text, telephone call
wedding invitations are beautifully crafted
then there are some invitations that are done personally
so important
you are important
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—
Jesus didn’t merely bring the invitation. He was and is the invitation.
The invitation was personified.
Took on human form, bones and flesh, eyes, ears, face, hands, feet.
Come by email, snail mail, text, telephone call
wedding invitations are beautifully crafted
then there are some invitations that are done personally
so important
you are important
Jesus was incarnate. Took on human form, bones and flesh, eyes, ears, face, hands, feet.
John said: we have seen with our eyes, we looked upon Him, we touched Him, we heard Him.
He whom the prophets spoke of has finally come.
There are many today who deny Jesus Christ existed - they believe He did not exist or they don’t want Him to be real. If He is real and He is who He says He is, everything changes.
Guy I met on visitation - Jesus is not real. He never existed.
Jesus Christ was manifested on the earth 2000 years ago.
There is no academic historian today who deny the existence of Jesus Christ.
There are many non-Christian sources that confirm the basic historicity of Christ.
Tacitus
Tacitus
He is regarded as one of the finest Roman historians, known for his accuracy.
In the Annals passage (15.44), which has been subjected to much scholarly analysis, we have a description of the six-day Great Fire of Rome that burned much of Rome in July 64 AD.
Many suspected that Emperor Nero had started the fire but to divert attention from himself, he accused the Christians of starting it and persecuted them, making this the first documented confrontation between Christians and the authorities in Rome.
Another historian
Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.
Josephus
Josephus
Flavius Josephus born 37 AD was a Jewish revolutionary who changed allegiance to the Romans in the Jewish revolt to save his life. He became a historian working under the auspices of Emperor Vespasian.
In his Antiquities of the Jews, he writes:
About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Christ. And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who had first come to love him did not cease. He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life, for the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.
Also we have Thallus who wrote around AD 52 and gave a description of the crucifixion, Suetonius and Hadrian.
Professor F.F. Bruce writes:
“Some writers may toy with the fancy of a ‘Christ-myth,’ but they do not do so on the ground of historical evidence. The historicity of Christ is as axiomatic [self-evident or unquestionable] for an unbiased historian as the historicity of Julius Caesar. It is not historians who propagate the ‘Christ-myth’ theories.”
There’s more evidence to the historicity of Jesus than of Julius Caesar.
There’s more evidence to the historicity of Jesus than of Julius Caesar.
Jesus Christ came personally, in history, manifested in flesh and blood, 2000 years ago.
THIS INVITATION IS FROM GOD HIMSELF.
THIS INVITATION IS FROM GOD HIMSELF.
English Standard Version Chapter 1
That which was from the beginning
English Standard Version Chapter 1
2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us
This is also a divine invitation.
that which was from the beginning [v1]
word of life [v1]
eternal life [v2]
that which was with the Father and was made manifest to us
The historical Jesus was not just a man, a prophet, revolutionary, teacher, guru as many may try to make him to be. But He was and is God!
In another book the Apostle John wrote, his gospel account:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
He was in the beginning with God.
John
The Scriptures declare not only was Jesus manifested in history but Jesus is God!
John 1.
The gospels document the extraordio
The gospels document the extraordinary life of Jesus - life, miracles, words, death on a cross for our sins, resurrection from the dead. It is the incarnation that drives all of these other aspects of the life of Jesus.
He was born of a virgin. The Immaculate Conception. Joseph was not His biological father.
Dr. Luke documents the angel Gabriel appeared to the virgin Mary saying “Greetings, O favored one the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying.. . And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. ... And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.” ()
“In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.” ()
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.
And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”
But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,
and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.
And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”
And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,
and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
luke 1.30-3
Jesus left His throne in glory and took on human form.
And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,
and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
.
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.
And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”
But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,
and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
-335
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Phil. 2.5
The One they saw, heard and touched was God, very God, God in human form.
That’s why:
the woman with the issue of blood could have touched Him and be healed.
Zaccheus wanted just to see Him and after he met Jesus, his life was changed
The righteous and religious Nicodemus knew there was something more to Jesus.
That’s why the leaders wanted Him stoned - they understood His claims to deity.
He said “Before Abraham was, I am.”
John said - we saw His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.
-another fact about the divine invitation
THIS INVITATION HAS BEEN CERTIFIED.
THIS INVITATION HAS BEEN CERTIFIED.
sending money to a dealer, deposit on a house, need not a personal check but a certified check or bank draft.
Usually invitations are not certified but I’d like to say that this one was.
This is legit.
the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—
that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
We have seen it
that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
we testify to it
.
we proclaim it to you.
We saw, we heard, so we are proclaiming it to you.
John:
an early disciple
the brother of James
a member of Jesus inner circle
called the disciple Jesus loved.
would have spent much time with Jesus, to see and hear Him, observe His attitude, mannerisms. He knows Jesus well. Experienced His Presence so can say:
“Our fellowship is with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.”
He is actually experiencing the presence of God in His life.
This book was written about AD 85, over 50 years after he physically experienced Jesus, he still says we have fellowship with Him.
In fact, 10 years after this John wrote the book of Revelation around AD 95, from the isle of Patmos, a small island in the Aegean Sea to which Rome was exile its political prisoners.
Rev. 1.4-
no slides
“John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, … and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”” ()
John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,
and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood
and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
English Standard Version Chapter 1
10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day
He was still having fellowship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, despite being being imprisoned, exiled, isolated.
He ends the invitation with these words-
English Standard Version Chapter 1
And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
THIS INVITATION CAN BE YOURS TO EXPERIENCE.
THIS INVITATION CAN BE YOURS TO EXPERIENCE.
Some manuscripts have ‘your’ joy but it seems as if ‘our’ is preferred.
In any way - this fellowship can be experienced.
Here’s what I love about following Jesus - you can know Him for sure.
NO guess work. No “Just believe. Only believe.” It is only in your head, your mind.
God has revealed Himself to us:
World - creation. Nature
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
I love you, O Lord, my strength.
Word - the Bible
Word - the Bible
Heart - ; ; Rom. 8.14
He fills our heart with peace, joy, love, hope.
Our joy may be complete.
There is physical evidence in nature
There is specific verbal communication
There is experience of the heart
There is
This is no blind faith.
“O taste and see that the Lord if good, Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.”
Our joy may be complete.
In the presence of the Lord...
When you have Jesus, you have joy. Joy that is not dependent upon circumstances. A joy because of the hope we have in him.
We will grieve when we have a loss, death, setback. That’s OK.
But in spite of setbacks there is a deep inner peace, strength, hope that God has got me. He is holding me.
Conc
Conc
Have you responded to God’s Invitation to have fellowship with Him?
Are you having fellowship daily with Him?
Are you drawing closer to Him? experiencing His grace and power in your life?
Altar call
Here I am to worship.
I’m coming back to the heart of worship.