The People of God for the Sake of the World
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Adoration Verse:
4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
Where are we going?
We’re forming a new membership.
We’re in a basics series.
We talked about scripture last week.
This week we’re talking about the people of God, who they are, and what they do.
Next week we’ll talk about baptism and it’s ongoing purpose in the life of the believer.
After that we will spend 2 weeks looking at the offices of the church.
Elders.
Deacons.
Then Rod Hugen will come and preach to us about membership in a body.
Also in the season of Lent.
Considering the wilderness journey of Christ.
He goes before us in wilderness.
For we are HIS people.
Who are the people of God?
Who are the people of God?
In our passage this morning we read about a promise made to a man named Abraham.
He was promised a nation.
As we read the bible we the people of God moving from nation, to church.
But there’s always a family undercurrent to the whole situation.
We’re a church.
What kind of church?
We say that we are Christians.
We say that the Bible is true.
We believe it is good to be in a church family with other people.
We believe it’s good to sing songs and hear God’s word preached.
That’s all well and good, but just saying you’re a christian doesn’t make you one.
We say that Jesus Christ is Lord and that he rose from the dead.
That’s what we call faith.
We could say that is “our” faith.
One of the greatest truths of scripture is that membership in God’s family is marked off by faith.
In Hebrews chapter 11 we see this amazing passage as the author of Hebrews walks through all of time, highlighting the faith of the people of God.
He starts with Abel, one of the first humans, and he ends with us.
In this list we see Jews, Gentiles, violent warriors, prostitutes, and just plain ordinary people.
It’s beautiful.
As we read the Bible, we learn that God has used different means throughout history to mark these people.
So as we dive into the word this evening, we are going to trace the people of God through the biblical story, paying careful attention to the “whys” and the “hows”.
Why were they the people of God?
Or better yet, “for what purpose?”
and also, “How were they the people of God”
or better yet, “What did they DO as the people of God?”
Why should we care about this?
Because God is a God of covenant.
Meaning he has made promises to people.
Promises that require things from Him,
but there are also requirements for us.
If we want to be God’s people we should have an understanding of who they are and what they do.
Not only 3000 years ago, but today, in the 21st century. In 85741.
We will examine the people of God because we are the people of God and we want to act like it.
Abraham:
Abraham
Abraham is the father of our faith.
An idol worshipper. (Talk about Mesopotamia)
Prone to failing. Example/Story
Yet the one God chose.
God chooses the foolish and the weak things of this world to display His glory all the more clearly.
What we see in Abraham, however, through all the foolishness, through all the failure, through all the loss of faith, is a constant return to faith.
He knew enough about Yahweh to trust him.
In Scripture, when we see people falling and failing, it is often because they don’t understand the heart of God.
This dude Abraham really blows me away.
He spent a huge chunk of his life worshiping idols.
the man was 75 years old when God said,
“Go from your country to the place that I will show you.”
When we fast forward 25 years in his life.,
he’s in the land that God told him to go to,
he’s been given a son against all odds.
Literally all odds. What are the odds of an 80 something year old woman who was barren her whole life having a child?
None.
The odds are none.
Abraham defining moment of faith was not even the mountaintop situation with his son Isaac that we’ll talk about in a moment.
It was when God showed him the stars and said “so shall the number of your offspring be.”
Abraham believed him and credited to him as righteousness.
Why did he believe him?
He had spent 7 and 1/2 decades worshipping idols.
He had faith because God was keeping his promises to him.
Abraham was told to go, and he went. God met him there to confirm his obedience.
Abraham was told he would be the father of a great nation and he gave him a son.
God is the waymaker through the impossible in order to highlight his ability to keep his promises.
Think of the kindness of this.
God’s created order shouldn’t require God condescending to draw out faith.
The way God made things involved mankind living in shalom with God.
Shalom meaning completeness.
Compare to the affectionate longsuffering care needed to take care of an Alzheimer's patient.
That’s the kind of care God extended to Abraham.
Someone who should have known him but spent 75 years in a state of forgetfulness.
Isn’t that how God cares for you?
When we finally get to the part of the story where Abraham is told by God to sacrifice his son, he’s ready to obey.
Why?
Because he believed this God who had provided for him every step of the way so far.
This God hasn’t lied to me yet, he’s kept all his promises so far he must be planning to raise my son from the dead.
And God says “I’m going to raise my son from the dead, so ALL the sons of Abraham can be raised from the dead.”
Abraham understood the heart of God.
And he got a grip on it pretty fast honestly.
He was an old codger when he started following God.
This is good news for us!
It means that no matter where we are in life, no matter the circumstances, no matter our upbringings:
We can know God.
I mean really know him.
Like, be his friend know him.
I know my wife.
I know what makes her tick.
I know what is dear to her heart.
I’ve spent time with her.
We’ve even made promises to each other.
It’s called getting married.
Did you know God has made promises to you?
We’re getting there...
Israel:
Think back to the promise made to Abraham.
1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Thinking about the time of Israel’s history from Moses all the way through to the time right before Jesus, did this promise of God come true?
Yes and no.
They became a great nation,
but were all the people’s on earth blessed through them?
Not yet.
They had what was required at times.
God dwelled with them.
Which brings us to the first question we wanted to ask: How were they the people of God?
They were a covenant people.
(What were they supposed to be?)
People of God as a destination.
A symbol.
Temple.
Mission flowed from identity.
Their identity was bound up in the fact that they were the people with whom God dwelled.
So their mission, to be a blessing to other nations was made possible by this identity.
This story is kind of a sad one.
We talked about it some last week.
This is the Act in the play where the King is unfolding his plan for redemption.
Redemption has been initiated.
But not yet accomplished.
You can see how devastating it was for the exiles to hear the prophet Ezekiel.
Talk about Spirit of God leaving the temple.
But remember the heart of God.
Hes a promise keeper.
Hes a covenantal God.
Even when we break our part of the covenant, God keeps His side.
That’s why, by the way, God swears by himself.
Talk about dry bones.
“indeed cut off”
“hope is lost”
BUT
“You shall know that I am the Lord when I open your graves.”
“I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live.”
What a promise.
Church:
We’re on the other side of Jesus life, death, burial and resurrection.
As the new testament story unfolds we see that the promise made to Abraham has it’s fulfilment in a spiritual nation. A spiritual family not bound by national borders.
Which brings us to this truth,
talk about embassies...
Church as embassy
the church is an embassy for kingdom without borders.
And the people from this embassy are ambassadors from the other kingdom.
Mission flows from identity
The people of God are still a “come and see” people.
But now there is no singular temple.
19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
Just as the Israelite people were to be a people who invite the nations to worship God in peace and blessing, so are we!
Put this peace and blessing is shown in our own bodies now.
The promise in Ezekiel that God’s Spirit would be put into the people of Israel has been fulfilled.
That’s us.
What does that mean for us?
Vision for future:
We are to be a people of God, marked by faith through baptism, worshipping God in Spirit and in truth, extending shalom to our neighbors by living the gospel.
Let’s unpack that:
People of God:
God has always been a God of covenant.
When Jesus was sitting down with his disciples and serving them the passover meal, he said that the wine was the New Covenant in His blood.
We are New Covenant christians.
Sons and daughters of Abraham by faith.
marked by faith through baptism:
Baptism is how we show our identity in God’s people, but it is also an identity that we remind ourselves of.
worshipping God in Spirit and Truth:
Woman at the well in a nutshell.
extending shalom to our neighbors by living the gospel:
When we treat each other like Christ treats us, it creates an environment of shalom.
That’s a lot.
Let me remind you.
God planted Abraham with a word.
God speaks to build nations and plants them.
God speaks to build and plant churches.
8 Who has ever heard of such things? Who has ever seen things like this? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children.
God speaks and nations are born.
God speaks and churches are planted.
I don’t want to sit here and say “If you have faith in Christ, he’ll take care of you. He’ll love you.”
I want to say, look at how kind he has been to you already.
Look at how kind he has been to his people.
Look at the way he washes them.
The Table Church will be a church populated by living stones.
A spiritual house where the nations experience the heart of God.
We have the exceedingly coveted position in history to have seen God’s plan of redemption unfold.
We know that the heart of God, is the heart of Christ.
What’s the in heart of Christ?
If you looked deeply into his eye what would you see reflected there?
Orphans.
Widows.
The poor.
Not just those materially poor, but the poor in spirit.
Broken ones.
People who need water.
We should pray as a community that God would allow streams of living water to flow in and among our community so that people can drink.
Consider the victory that Paul proclaims at the end of the book of Romans:
25 Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, 26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith—27 to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.
Communion:
13 They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover. 14 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” 17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
Benediction:
20 Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.