Christ is for the World
Notes
Transcript
Christ is for the World: This is a message of hope. And right now, after such a tiring week as we have had politically and nationally, it is time for a reminder of the hope that God gives to us because, until Christ returns,
>>We live in,,,
A World That is Broken
A World That is Broken
Our world is broken because at the very beginning of humankind, a choice was made to ignore the Lord God Creator and listen to God’s creation instead. When the first couple chose to break the only commandment they were given, the perfection of God’s good creation marred forever.
Adam and Eve were tossed out of the Garden, and into a world where weeds had sprung up, where tending the land and finding food would be a constant struggle. They were put out into a now hostile world. Soon there was murder among their children. Soon there was challenge to God’s right to rule. Soon there was ignorance of God’s very existence, and the practice of sinful behaviors began to fill the minds of humanity with greed, envy, lust, and all manner of vices.
And Paul said, the earth is groaning as it awaits the final salvation of God, when all will see that the final victory is won and all the feeble competitors to the place of God in our hearts are at last destroyed.
The brokenness of the world is what we experience all the time as we face various illnesses and devastating diseases. As I shared some months ago, COVID-19 is not the first world-wide plague we have faced as humans. We have had deadly flues, botulism, plague, smallpox, famines, floods, storms, earthquakes, wars and back-alley horrors.
In our last year, in America, we have had to endure the divisive nature of two-party politics as the social fabric of our population was challenged time and again to side with one over another. And we are not very good at being gracious about it. Our sin shows in the denigration of our competitors, making friends into enemies, putting armed bands or gangs onto our streets, setting up divisions of class, of race, of color, and of styles. We march into our future, as of yesterday, with a president-elect who won the popular vote in the nation and by a fine line gained the majority of electoral college delegates. And we shall see how the American experiment of a constitutionally managed republic will once again try the patience of most, either foment or calm storms among the people of this land and the people of our world.
And the earth continues to groan under the weight of an apparent two-party spiritual world, as unseen forces either for God or for Satan continue to vie for prominence and power. When does it all end?
And the leftovers of the spiritual battles pour out onto our world in wars, atrocities, crusades, genocide, slavery, distrust, and occupying forces. This is not news, this is olds…and I’m not talking about the brand of car you drive, but the continuing evils in our world still working to destroy peace, wholeness, and even truth.
Four years ago, there was half of our country whose candidate was not elected, who protested for a couple months saying “He’s not my president.” Now, we have a repeat of that, but from the opposing party. For some, hopes are dashed, and for others, hopes are realized. All in all, it makes it a very messy time. But as we have heard during the last couple months, we only have one president at a time. As the votes are counted and recounted in our country, we await the certification of the results and the final vote of the electoral college. Emotions are high, some are taking to the streets, some even show up armed for battle. Is there really hope for all? This is why we need to stay focused on the reality that God has not abrogated his authority. Paul had already said to us in
1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
But is that any help to our hope?
God has always given us reason to hope when we study his promises, and when we start to recognize that in our broken world he has placed within the hearts of his people the ability to see through the smokescreens of our social structures. When we look for God instead of looking at our present problems, we can find the hope that we need.
>>In the times surrounding the earthly life of Jesus, 2000 years ago, Saul of Tarsus was part of a unique people known then as the Jews, who looked toward the purposes of Yahweh God as they were once again subjected to occupation and oppression. And as they searched the scriptures, they were...
People With Reason to Hope
People With Reason to Hope
Saul was student of the Jewish scriptures, starting with the laws of Moses recorded along with the cultural and religious histories of the clans of a chosen people, the offspring of Abraham and all the challenges of trying to be a nation that existed under Yahweh God’s rule, and doing it rather badly.
And, hope against hope, Saul was brought face to face with the risen Son of God, the Messiah of the Jewish scriptures, and as he became a believer in Jesus Christ, Saul became Paul. Instead of great among his peers, Paul became subject and servant of Christ for the World.
In these final passages of the letter Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, Paul spoke of how God never intended to keep his son, the Anointed One, for just the Jews, whom Paul calls “the circumcised” as the men bore on their bodies the mark of being set aside for God.
>>These are the people with a reason to hope, for they were now offered the reality of the Anointed Messiah Christ, Son of God, and the opportunity to see past the fog of social opinion into the clarity of the plans of God:
8 For I say that Christ became a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises to the fathers,
Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah, said to his disciples before he went to the cross to pay the penalty of sin for us, “I came not to be served, but to serve.” Paul here says he “became a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth.” Jesus was all about showing the truth of God to a world that has mostly lost its spiritual insight.
The truth of God is wrapped up in the promises of God, fulfilled and not yet fulfilled for his chosen people, to know the blessings of a loving Father God. Jesus came, showing them what life is like when our trust is in God. When our hope is in God instead of in ourselves, we discover the truth that God still sees a single humanity. God still knows all people as his creation. The truth of God is that God loves us all, enough to pay whatever it costs to remove the barriers of sin that keep us from seeing him.
Promises are the seed of hope. We hear and believe the promises made, whether in scripture, from a loved one, or from a politician, and a seed of hope is planted in our hearts and our consciousness. We become a people of hope based on the promises we believe. The Jews were people with a reason to hope because of the promises of scripture.
First to the Jews, Christ came as Messiah; the message of the Gospel of Christ was spread among them and then to the rest of the world. It was their prophets and scriptures that promised the chosen one of God would come to reestablish God’s presence and rule. Christ served those prophecies, but more importantly served their needs for salvation. Born a Jew, Lived as a Jew, died as a Jew. Jesus the Christ came as the one who could set them right with God once again.
When Jesus appeared, he fulfilled the promises that had been made for a Savior. The Jewish shepherds heard the news first and ran to see the babe while still in the manger-cradle as announced to them by angels. The prophetess Anna knew it was the promised one; Simeon saw the child and knew his eyes had beheld the hope of Israel. The promises that had been made were met in Christ. And those who met him as a baby already knew it would be true.
>>>The road for one who is the embodiment of hope to others is always a rocky one. There are always those who wish to stop the progress or fulfillment of hope, as even Paul tried when he still went by the name “Saul.” Then God had to stop him and teach him a few things, most notably that God’s Son is not unable to save the whole world. The Messiah of the Jews is still the embodiment of hope for all, for we are all...
People Under God’s Mercy
People Under God’s Mercy
People who need God because of our own penchant for sin; people who need a unifier, not a divider. And Jesus Christ came as the one and only savior for the whole world; a single person and power to bring us all back together so we might serve God.
Paul knew it was already in the scriptures, and when he spent a few days in Damascus staring at the reflection of darkness in his eyes, he found the scriptures he had learned long before; Now, as the apostle to the Gentiles, he was assured that he was an agent of hope...
9 and so that Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy. As it is written,
Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles,
and I will sing praise to your name.
When Christ is proclaimed to all, and when any of the all for whom Christ came believe, the purpose of Christ becomes the reason for celebration.
That celebration comes back to God: God is glorified for his mercy. God is glorified for his love, God is glorified for his forgiveness, God is glorified for his salvation.
So from Psalm 18:49 and 2 Samuel 22:50 Paul repeats the words of King David who in his own hope sang, “I will praise you among the Gentiles, sin praise to your name.”
>>>The Gentiles, which includes most of us, can now rejoice with the Jews that God loves us and has sent a savior. We sing the songs of victory together! We have so many ...
Reasons to Rejoice
Reasons to Rejoice
Paul goes on in his recollection of scripture as he shares with the Roman church and with us, this time from Moses in Deureronomy 32:43 then the words of Psalm 117:1 as he writes:
10 Again it says, Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people! 11 And again,
Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles;
let all the peoples praise him!
The reasons to rejoice are reasons for us to rejoice in our own salvation, to rejoice in the salvation of others, and to rejoice with the God who planned this all for us from the beginning. As the word of the Gospel spread, more and more of the world could now thank God for what he has done.
>>>The deeper we get into God the more we find that all of this is ...
In God’s Perfect Plan
In God’s Perfect Plan
Paul is not quite done with his prophecy quotes, for now he goes to Isaiah and quotes from chapter 11:
12 And again, Isaiah says,
The root of Jesse will appear,
the one who rises to rule the Gentiles;
the Gentiles will hope in him.
The Root of Jesse is a messianic title for Jesus that reminds us that the Christ, the Son of God, is not just a son of Mary, not simply the offspring of David’s line, but the originator of it. Jesse is the name of King David’s father; Jesus Christ as his root means that he came before, that he nourished the line. God through Christ is in all and for all.
So we too begin to know that Christ is our head; the one to rule the Gentiles, who may hope in him, which again makes sure we know Christ is for the World.
>>>Now we need a little help along the way. Especially now as the final issues of our recent election are sorted out and the final figureheads of political power are in place. For to be under God, under the salvation of Christ Jesus, and made new as we live in this world means we need God’s help. So here’s...
What Comes With The Spirit’s Power
What Comes With The Spirit’s Power
13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.