In the Beginning
- Do you remember encyclopedia’s? Not wikipedia.
- For the younger crowd there was these things called encyclopedias. When you wanted to research an area, you had to actually find it, and read.
- Transparencies of the human anatomy. Start with the bones, and then the muscles. SHOW SLIDE
- The bible is similar, and our text this morning adds a layer to the anatomy of redemption.
- Gen 1:1, in the beginning God creates all things. Bones of our origin.
- Gen 3 the fall. Not only diluted the image of what we see our original purpose and design (imagine a cloudy transparency) but it revealed brokenness.
- As people were chosen by God’s grace to reveal God redemption, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and as Moses was given the law by the time the respiratory system was shown it revealed and it was bad news… we need a new heart. We see attempts to clean the diluted image and man has tried many a days to clean himself off, but nothing worked.
- As we saw in Ezra-Malachi, mans efforts always fall short BUT God still had a plan. One day I will give them a new heart. And there was a reminder throughout those books that a remnant of people actually believed that God would still provide a way.
- But how?
- Malachi finished his prophetic cry that the middle road of apathy does not exist in the final judgment, and to choose whom you will serve… 400 years of prophetic silence but then, out of the silence comes whispers… whispers of hope that the time of judgment was coming to an end. That the Messiah, the Christ would come and redeem his people, and restore the brokenness of creation. But how? A grand king? A humble servant?
- As we saw in Ezra-Malachi, mans efforts always fall short BUT God still had a plan. One day I will give them a new heart. And there was a reminder throughout those books that a remnant of people actually believed that God would still provide a way.
- Rumors of a child born in Bethlehem, wise men from the east had come, Had Simeon really seen the one to come? Did king Herod kill our hope of ever being redeemed?
- And then a voice… a voice crying in the wilderness. “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths”.
- Whipsers turn to rumors, rumors turn to testimonies and eye witnesses who say they have seen the Messiah, they heard from the heavens, God spoke, and the silence finally broke, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”
- No! No way did God speak… it had to be something else.
- Whipsers turn to rumors, rumors turn to testimonies and eye witnesses who say they have seen the Messiah, they heard from the heavens, God spoke, and the silence finally broke, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”
- But then John the baptist cries, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
- And as the silence breaks, a new transparency overlays the old and begins to bring clarity to the diluted brokenness of the past and this Jesus of Nazareth, every time he speaks, he seems to make the plan clearer and clearer. A new beginning? A new creation?
- People begin to believe the rumors, and follow this man Jesus. He makes new wine, clears the temple with a whip and with sweet on his brow and whip in hand, He says, “destroy this temple and is will be raised up in 3 days. He speaks of a new birth. “You must be born again.” He tells Nicodemus and another page of clarity shows up as Jesus speaks of God’s love through sacrifice and with it, eternal life.
- He is the living water, healer, miraculously feeds the people. He is the bread of life. The light of the world and freedom is offered. He is the Good Shepherd, he raises the dead, he is the resurrection and the life, rides a donkey and the people proclaim hosanna.
- For the younger crowd there was these things called encyclopedias. When you wanted to research an area, you had to actually find it, and read.
A new beginning, a new creation? This man says he came to save… Could this be me? A sinner?
- He washed his followers feet & told us to love. The way, the truth, the life? Could it be? The vine who provides, abide… the Spirit will come, he will help, and his prayers… Wow, like the high priest himself, yet selfless.
- And then, fallen humanity can’t take it. The light, too bright, his words, too true….
- Choices are made, they crucify the man who claimed to be God. Silence again.
- But the remnant pray, they hold on to hope, and this time they only have to wait a few days before hope becomes reality and they witness the risen savior. All the parables, all his crazy claims, they all finally begin to understand. And then he leaves.
- But wait, what now? The wind begins to blow, it’s not whispers and rumors but a strong mighty wind, The Spirit comes and it all makes since!
A new beginning! A new creation.
- And finally a new page is laid over the old. This time, clarity. A new heart is given.
- How? A new Adam has come, only this time he did not fall.
- He walked with God and never ate the forbidden fruit.
- A new Adam.
- Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. 1 Corinthians 15:45–49
- A new High Priest,
- Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:14–15
- A new created world
- For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Romans 8:19–21
- A new heart
- And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. Ezekiel 36:26–27
- A new humanity
- Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17
- A new way to live
- A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34–35
- A new beginning, a new creation…
- And it starts here- Read John 1:1, vs. 14.
- How? You may ask…
- And then John 20:30-31
- And it starts here- Read John 1:1, vs. 14.
- A new beginning, a new creation, do you believe?