Redemption - God's Rescue Mission

Introduction

Play BibleProject Video “Covenants” (https://youtu.be/8ferLIsvlmI) [End at 5:11]

SAY: Last week, we looked at the major plot CONFLICT moment in the whole Bible—The Fall of mankind. We saw that humans throughout history have repeated the sins of Adam & Eve and as a result, all of us are in need of salvation. Only Jesus alone passed the “test” of the Tree in the Garden. And it’s through HIM that we have hope! Tonight, we are looking at that more directly. We are going to be looking at God’s promises for Redemption. Basically, we’re seeing God’s rescue mission for the world. It’s going to start with a man named Abram and it’s all going to come to fulfillment with JESUS!

Bottom Line: Jesus fulfills all of God’s promises to rescue the world.

Body

ASK: Have you ever made a promise to do something huge that you couldn’t keep? What happened?

God’s rescue mission is a promise.

Read Gen. 12:1-3

Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary Abram Follows the Call (12:1–9)

The history of redemption, like that of creation, begins with God speaking

God first makes a promise to rescue the world through one man - Abram (Abraham)

Abraham has just come out of the failed human experiment in Gen 11, “The Tower of Babel” (ancient Babylon).

God calls Abraham out of this chaos to create a new kind of people! This is the beginning of God’s promise of redemption

Redemption = the release of people (or things) from bondage by paying a price (see “Redemption in Lexham Bible Dictionary). Can also mean “ransom” or “re-create”. At its most basic, “Redemption relates to deliverance from a situation or from enemies,” (Lexham Theological Wordbook).

Like we saw last week, humanity has fallen into sin. The apostle Paul actually describes our sin as a form of slavery, or bondage (Rom 6:6). So, God’s rescue mission is all about getting us out of this bondage.

The first step in God’s rescue mission is to call one person out of this bondage that the world is in in Gen 11 and “re-create” a new kind of people! That’s where Abram (Abraham) comes in!

“Go from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you,” (Gen 12:1)

God is calling Abraham out. He is redeeming him!

“I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing,” (Gen. 12:2)

This is the start of God’s promise to rescue the world and it only gets better from here. One commentator describes God’s promise as “an avalanche of blessing cascading in wave after wave on the patriarch and his children yet to come,” (Matthews, New American Commentary: Gen 11:27-50:26, 105).

How is He going to do it?

1. Make Abraham into a new people

2. Bless this new people

a. Land

b. Offspring

3. Bless the world through this new people

ASK: How do you react when someone breaks a promise to you? How does it make you feel?

God keeps His promises.

Read Ex 20:1-2, 24

“I am the LORD your God...” — God’s relationship to his people (Abraham’s offspring)

“…who brought you...out of the place of slavery” — redemption

God has so far kept his promise to Abraham and is about to make another promise to these offspring of Abraham, the nation of Israel, and Ex 20:3-17 (commonly called the 10 Commandments) are the first set of rules to this new relationship God wants to establish with the people.

“I will come to you and bless you in every place where I cause my name to be remembered,” — remember God’s promise of blessing to Abraham? He’s continuing his promise here!

Remember what else God promised to Abraham? To use Abraham and his family to be a blessing to the whole world. That’s why these “covenants” are really all part of God’s plan of redemption, or as we’ve put it, God’s rescue plan for the world.

“Israel [was] not to…[enjoy] their special relationship with God and [pay] no attention to the rest of the world. Rather, they were to represent him to the rest of the world and attempt to bring the rest of the world to him,” (Douglas Stuart, Exodus, vol. 2, The New American Commentary, 423).

God is using these covenants to bring about his rescue plan for the world.

It started with Abraham, now it’s the whole nation of Israel (the family of Abraham), soon it will be through a specific line of kings in the family of Abraham, and this will go all the way to Jesus!

So far, God has made his promise to Abraham and kept it, despite Abraham’s many moments of failure. Now, he’s made his promise to Israel—Abraham’s family—and he’s going to keep it despite all of their failures. The next time we see God make a covenant, it is with King David! Let’s take a look:

Read 2 Sam 7:11b-16

“I will raise up your descendant [offspring],” — connecting to the promise to Abraham and his offspring!

“I will establish his kingdom…the throne of his kingdom forever,” — David is the king of Israel and God is promising to establish a future king to rule forever

But, spoiler alert. No son of David ever ruled Israel forever. Actually, after David, the united kingdom only lasted through the lifetime of his son Solomon. Then it fell apart. The people were disobedient to their commitments of the covenant and they eventually were exiled!

That doesn’t mean that God didn’t keep his promise. He never failed them once. The people received the consequences of their disobedience, but God had promised his faithful, never-ending love and commitment to these people. So, while the people are in exile, waiting on their future king, the prophet Jeremiah says this:

Read Jer 31:31

“I will make a new covenant” — God’s keeping his promises!!

“This one will not be like the covenant I made,” — it’s going to be different!

Why is it going to be different? Has God changed?

“my covenant that they broke even though I am their master,” — God is going to make a new covenant that completely makes up for all the failures of the previous generations. He has to fix the problem of the human heart

“I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people,” (Jer 31:33)

God is going to do something radically new with this covenant to fix the problem that has kept tripping up his covenant people so far—he’s going to give them a new heart so that they can obey the covenant

When he says “new covenant,” he is not invalidating or doing away with the previous covenants, they ALL build on each other. So, we are left at the end of the Old Testament, with a people longing for a new king that will have an eternal kingdom (David’s covenant) and who, in his coming, will somehow cause the knowledge of God to be on someone’s heart and this king will call all to obedience and faith in God...

Jesus is God’s promise in person

The New Testament enters with a new guy on the scene—Jesus!

Jesus is called the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Son of David, the authors of the gospel accounts (Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John) clearly show him to be the fulfillment of the covenant promises and hopes that Israel had been waiting for!

All throughout Jesus’ ministry, he says that he is bringing the kingdom of God (or kingdom of heaven) to earth! This is the centerpiece of his GOSPEL message—that the everlasting kingdom that God promised David (2 Sam 7:12-16) —has arrived, and Jesus is the king!

We don’t have time tonight to get into all of Jesus’ life and ministry, but that’s what the 4 gospel accounts are doing—they are showing that Jesus is the promised king! He is the long-awaited answer to all of Israel’s hopes! Tonight, we are focusing on the moments right before his death, when he tells his disciples that he is bringing the new covenant

Read Mark 14:22-26

The Lord’s Supper is a symbol for what Jesus is about to do

He invites the disciples to participate in a meal with him as a symbol for their eventual participation in his new covenant

“This is my body,” — his body will be broken on the cross

“This is my blood of the covenant,” — his blood poured out on the cross will be the seal of the new covenant!

Remember that the covenant made by God in Exodus involved lots of animal sacrifices and blood of the animals was used to stamp the covenant. It was sign that the covenant was legit.

Jesus is saying that HE IS THE ONE WHO MAKES THE NEW PROMISE LEGIT.

What’s more, Jesus is saying that HE HIMSELF is the new covenant

The reason Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection is so important, the reason we call it the gospel, the GOOD NEWS, is that through his death and resurrection, JESUS IS FULFILLING ALL OF GOD’S PROMISES

Conclusion

Jesus fulfills all of God’s promises to rescue the world.

Read John 19:28-30

“everything was now finished that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”

All of the promises of God have been kept.

All of the commitments of the covenant that no one could ever completely fulfill have been completed.

Jesus did it all.

“it is finished,” — the plan of God to rescue the world, to redeem humanity out of our bondage to sin and death, is finished! The plan worked!

Read 1 Cor 15:3-5

Jesus came to this earth to fulfill God’s promise, He died as a payment for our sins to fulfill the Scriptures, he was buried and RESURRECTED to fulfill the Scriptures, and then he appeared to many to verify his resurrection. Now he is seated on the throne in heaven and he is inviting YOU to be a part of his kingdom that will last forever.

The new covenant is open to you! Jesus fulfilled all of the requirements. He kept ALL of God’s promises and now you get to freely receive the blessings by FAITH IN JESUS.

Jesus fulfills all of God’s promises to rescue the world.

You are part of the world. God wants to rescue you through Jesus. How will you respond?