A Grain of Wheat
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 27 viewsNotes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
aa
I
Good morning! Happy Easter. :-)
A grain of wheat, says Jesus, remains simply a solitary grain, unless it falls to the ground and dies. But if it dies, it becomes a rich harvest.
According to John, as Jesus entered jerusalem for the passover celebration, he was approached by his disciples who said that some Greeks wanted to see him.
In the cryptic way he sometimes answered questions, he said this:
The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified… ( reference)
24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
The fruit yet to be born had to do with those greeks, those gentiles.
---
We’ve been studying in Matthew the past few months and following along as Matthew unwraps for us the true and full identity of Jesus.
In many ways he is shown to be the new Moses… a savior, redeemer, and deliverer… who is leading a new spiritual exodus from what Paul calls the law of sin and death. Jesus initiates a new covenant, which Paul calls the law of the Spirit of Life.
Jesus expounds on this new Spirit-of-God-led life of aliveness in his Sermon on the mount, and calls us to repentance; to begin again at the beginning, leading a new life as a citizen of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Heaven.
And in that kingdom call, we can see Jesus as the new David, our King. He is The Son of Man, who’s been given all authority (over word, and sickness, and weather, even over sin), and whose kingdom will never end.
The next passage in our study is:
10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
from above)
13 And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.
Matthew 9:10
I read that bit about Jesus approaching the hated tax collectors and the shunned public sinners and also his concern for those Greeks in and combine that with the specific worldwide celebration we have today of Christ’s resurrection following his crucifixtion, and an even broader and greater image of the true Jesus appears.
:!3
when the pharisees confronted his disciples about his dinner company, his he answered with this:
13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
That passage is from Hosea.
6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Sacrifices were for Israel, and it was temporary… Law was meant to teach what was Sin. The Law of Moses was and still is the great moral code of history. Thou shall not murder, commit adultery, bear false witness, covet...
God’s love desires mercy for all of us: Israelite, Gentile, tax collector, Sinners.
The morality is still valid. God is still God, unchanging.
But The old way of atonement by animal sacrifice for the nation of Israel was not sufficient for the fullness and greatness of God’s love. The exclusivity of the religious leaders within Israel was not sufficient for the fullness and greatness of God’s love
The old way of atonement by animal sacrifice for the nation of Israel was not sufficient for the greatness of God’s love. God’s love desires mercy for all of us: Israelite, Gentile, tax collector, Sinners.
God’s love desires mercy for all of us created in his image: Israelite, Gentile, tax collector, Sinner.
And into that desire steps Jesus to reveal himself also as the new Abraham; fulfilling the Promise God made to Abraham that, because of his Faith, he would be made a Great nation with sons and daughters as innumerable as grains of sand or stars in the sky.
Jesus does this By creating a new chosen people composed of Jews and gentiles:
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession
who will be holy as God is Holy and who will serve as His light in the world of darkness.
YOU are a new creation. Like Adam, but different from Adam; being fashioned into the spiritual image of Jesus.
YOU are a new creation.
Who can claim to create a new people, but the Creator God of the universe who hung the stars and knit each of us in our mother’s womb? The same God of .. In the beginning God created.
And now, in Christ, we are a new creation:
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Ultimately, then, we can say Matthew- first book in the new testament - is a book about creation, just as Genesis = first book in the old testament - is a book about creation.
1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
not “these are the generations of”
The book of the genesis of Jesus Christ. At least then we can consider a double meaning: Jesus, and also us, his creation.
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
---and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
I think this cannot be emphasized enough in Christianity. Jesus is God with Us… God Above all Gods... Creator God with us.
That’s Not claimed by any founder of any major world religion: not mosaic judaism, buddhism, not islam, not hinduism.
If you believe in Jesus, you believe that Only HE is Yahweh in human flesh.
It is He who is uniquely Son of God, God with Us, and who brings glory to many through his suffering;
He who is uniquely Son of God, God with Us, brings glory to many through his suffering;
10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
And his suffering unto his death,
[like a grain of wheat fallen to the ground;]
23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
and his resurrection the firstfruits of a great harvest.
19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”
In himself alone he was the new Israel of God; the true vine.
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.
, Paul gives an explaination about those being grafted into Christ:
23 And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.
22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. 23 And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.
14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
This grafting includes Gentiles who believe and Jews who believe; It includes tax collectors and sinners who place faith in Christ to make them a new creation, Holy for God.
Romans 11:
Paul describes that through one man came death and also through one man Christ came grace that abounds for many.
14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. 18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
Jesus is the new kind of man, and his creation is a new mankind.
Eph 2:2-
And with the risen Christ as the cornerstone and structure,
And with the risen Christ as the cornerstone and structure, we who are in Christ are are fashioned together by the Spirit as the dwelling place for God.
20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
we who are in Christ (the Church) are are fashioned together by the Spirit as the dwelling place for God.
22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
This is just as by the Spirit, God fashioned together all of creation
2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
By the Spirit, God began a new creation:
By the Spirit, God began a new creation:
16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him;
50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
John 19:30
In death, Jesus yielded up his spirit; returning to God what was given.
14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.
Those present for this death exclaimed with awe the Divinity the witnessed.
54 When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
This confession is verified, stamped, sealed as truth by the Ressurrection. Death cannot hold power over the God of the Living.
9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
And that same Spirit, once resurrected and seated with God in heaven, Christ poured out for us:
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
You are his new
In this passage Paul purposefully equates the Spirit of God = Spirit of Christ.
And in the next verse Paul defines that Spirit:
10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
...the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
As also in Proverbs8:
And in V 11, The same power that raised Jesus to life from the dead gives new life in righteousness to you.
11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
23 Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
And so here we are, back at the beginning.
24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
22 “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. 23 Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
The point is not the death. Death was the sacrifice. The point is the miracle of life through death; life despite death; life in the face of death. Life for us because of the righteousness of Jesus.
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
M 3:16 describes Jesus baptism.
Because of God’s Love for you he became flesh to redeem you, Because of God’s love for you he seeks you, he remains patient with you, never insistent, never irritable or resentful... full of compassion and mercy, enduring all things, suffering all things.
Matthew 3:16
16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him;
Let’s stand and worship Jesus Christ.
All Hail the Power...
2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark.
Genesis 8
10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth.
Genesis 8:10
Sunshine in my soul today
21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”