CATM Sermon for September 10, 2023
We’re in the middle of a month-long discussion about evangelism, or sharing our faith.
We decided to focus on this area for this month because we’re exploring for the whole year what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.
Sharing Jesus is an important aspect of being a follower of Jesus, being a disciple or student of Jesus Christ.
It’s important for us to learn and gain confidence in how we share the gospel, how we share our faith in Jesus.
And think for a moment, just in your own mind, about how you came to follow Jesus.
If you were like me and came to faith not as a child but as a teen or adult, you likely can think of someone who was influential in helping you become a Christian and/or starting to figure out what it means to be a disciple of Jesus
If you were raised in the church and you’re a teen or late teen or an adult, that means that you made the decision to continue to follow Jesus. Or you might still be in the process of making this decision, which is awesome.
So let’s pause for a moment while we think about who it is or was who had a significant impact on your decision to make following Jesus a part of your life. (Pause)
The truth is that the Christian faith was shared with us, and that’s why we are following Jesus.
Someone, maybe a pastor, much more likely a friend or acquaintance, shared Jesus with you.
God was in the sharing and the Holy Spirit was at work in you, and so eventually you responded yes.
Last week Pastor Jonathan had the daunting task of preaching on “What is the gospel?”, and he did an excellent job. Here’s his summary statement:
“The Gospel: The loving creator God is restoring his creation through the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah. And we can be part of it!”
I think it’s an excellent summary statement, but of course the gospel is actually too large and too impactful and too beautiful to be completely summarized by any human being in a paragraph. But kudos to Jonathan for giving us this very helpful definition.
Another thing that Pastor Jonathan highlighted is that Jesus is the Jewish messiah. That is an extremely important detail that Pastor Jan added to the conversation.
In order to understand the gospel, we need to understand the Jewishness of Jesus, and in particular how the coming of Jesus, the incarnation of Jesus is really all over the Old Testament.
So today we’re going be looking at the gospel in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.
In the Old Testament we get some seemingly gentle hints about the coming of the Messiah.
They are often in short statements that happen to be absolutely packed with meaning. But they are where we find the gospel in the Old Testament.
Here and Genesis chapter 3, after the creation of humankind, Adam and Eve sin by doing precisely what they are told not to do.
Of course it is not just God and Adam and Eve, but Satan is in the garden, in the form of a serpent, and it is in fact Satan who tempts and who capitalizes on Adam and Eve's willingness to be deceived. So Satan is a significant player in this narrative.
Gen 3:14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this: “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring[a] and hers; he will crush[b] your head, and you will strike his heel.”
We see Satan’s punishment in the manner in which he is to exist on the Earth, in a very lowly form, as a snake. This is creative and poetic language, but we need to take the point seriously.
And then we see the Gospel here in this passage in the Old Testament, when God makes the promise that there will be enmity, or active opposition, between Satan and the woman and in particular between Satan and the offspring of the woman.
Eve, being the mother of all humankind, also represents humanity, and her “offspring”, is ultimately the Messiah who is born of a woman.
And what do we see happening to Satan, and between Satan and the woman’s offspring, the Messiah?
Satan will strike the Messiah’s heal, while the Messiah will crush Satan’s head. So the Messiah will be injured, perhaps severely.
But Satan will be destroyed. This of course is fleshed out in the crucifixion, but then more importantly in the resurrection of Jesus, and in Jesus’ defeat of Satan on the cross, where Jesus defeats death.
This is very early on, near the beginning of God’s story in Genesis, but even here we see Jesus as the Victor. The good news here, the first good news here is spoken about Jesus to our first mother, Eve.
God promised that Jesus would be born of a woman and would grow to be a man who would battle with Satan and stomp his head, defeat him,
and so liberate people from their captivity to Satan, sin, death, and hell through Messiah’s substitutionary death.
So even in the midst of this dark moment, literally at the fall of human kind, where there is a breach in the relationship between God and his human creation,
where the beautiful fellowship between God and Adam and Eve in the garden is broken, we see this glimmer of light. We see Hope. We see good news. We see the gospel.
Nine chapters later, in Genesis chapter 12, from the passage that was read today, we have the statement: God says to Abraham: 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.”[b]
So early on here in the story of Genesis, at the calling of Abraham, known as Abram at the time,
we see the extent of the blessing that will come to and through Abraham.
Far from the later understanding that the Jewish people developed of their exclusive chosenness as the people of God, we see that God intends his blessing to be extended to all people on the Earth through Jesus.
How is this an expression of the Gospel in the old testament? Well the Hebrews considered themselves to be the main receivers of God’s blessing, so that they were the exclusive chosen people of God.
Meaning everyone who was not Jewish, the vast majority of humanity, was left out.
But we see here that God’s intention is to bless all of humanity. And that we find ultimately in the gospel, because as John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believe with him should not perish but have eternal life”.
So we see here that God is not just interested in a particular people group in a particular geographic area in a particular time of history. Although for sure he begins His saving plan with them.
He is interested in all people, he extends his blessing, his grace, his loving kindness, to all people. And so all people Have the opportunity to be enfolded into the love of God in Christ.
Every tribe, every tongue, every nation, without exception, is extended this invitation to salvation, to this restored relationship with the living God.
This is the gospel in the Old Testament. This is a good news that is embedded in these ancient texts, that we should pay very close attention to.
There are other instances in the book of Genesis and throughout the narrative of the Old Testament where the Gospel is found.
We have little time to go into this right now, although in the Bible study following today’s service and in the Thursday online Bible chat, we will be going into more depth.
Quickly, we see Jesus typified in the life of Moses - the deliverer and the law giver.
In Exodus chapter 12 we see the Passover Lamb introduced as the sign of God’s deliverance and salvation for the nation of Israel.
In John 1:29 we see this: 29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Jesus is the Lamb of God, the ultimate passover lamb - and His impact is to take away the sin of the world? The Passover Lamb (Ex 12, John 1:29,36)
In Exodus 16 we read about God sending manna from heaven to the people of Israel as they wandered in the desert after the people complained of hunger. God miraculously literally provides food that falls from the sky.
And then a bit later in John 6:32-35 we have this: Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world...“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
In Exodus, when the people complain of thirst, Moses strikes the rock and water flows forth.
In 1 Corinthians 10:3-4, the Apostle Paul writes: 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
I want to mention as well, that Jesus makes it very clear that the OT speaks of Him.
Look at John 5:39, “You search the Scriptures,” Jesus says, “because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.” The word Scriptures here refers to the Jewish Scriptures, what we call the Old Testament,
So Jesus is saying that the Old Testament, the Jewish Scriptures, our Scriptures, taken as a whole, witness to Jesus.
And verse 46 says it again a little differently: “If you believed Moses [the author of the first five books of the Old Testament] you would believe me; for he wrote of me.” So verse 46 says that Moses wrote about Jesus, and verse 39 says that the Scriptures witness about Jesus.
So when Jesus says about the Scriptures in 5:39, “It is they that bear witness about me,” he means that God knew Jesus perfectly and fully—as it were face to face—and that he inspired these Scriptures, and through the Scriptures revealed Jesus.
God said things and did things in the Scriptures which, if we had understood them, would have given us a glimpse of Jesus and would have prepared us to recognize him and receive him when he came.
When we jump ahead to the prophets in the Old Testament, we get some more startling and clear depictions of the gospel in the Old Testament.
Isaiah 9:2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.
Here we have the statement that those darkness, walking in darkness who’s experience of being alive is filled with darkness, those people see a great light.
Goodness, obscured, hidden by darkness, is revealed. A light has dawned.
And what is that light? Isaiah 9:6-7 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
The child born is the mighty God. This is the Incarnation, this is God coming to us in the flesh.
He is the wonderful Counselor, the everlasting father. He is the prince of peace. He is the Messiah, and this is another example of the gospel in the Old Testament.
All of these are examples of the Gospel in the Old Testament.
Those examples of the Gospel in the OT are sometimes short, pointed statements in partially poetic language as in Genesis 3.
They are sometimes longer, bold statements as in Isaiah 9:6-7.
They are sometimes lengthy paragraphs and chapters as in Isaiah 52 and 53, where there is an explicitly detailed prediction, prophecy, about the Messiah, the suffering servant.
The one who will take apart himself all of our iniquities, all of our sins, who will pay the punishment for our sin. Just a few verses from Isaiah 53:
Isaiah 53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
We will be looking at that passage in more detail in the Bible study after the service today.
So it is extremely important to understand that the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus, is all over the whole Bible.
The gospel is in the OT, it is in the NT. We must understand the Jewishness of Jesus, that he is the Jewish messiah who fulfilled all of the prophesies about the Messiah in the OT.
Through faith in Christ through believing in the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins, we are brought into a living relationship with the living God.
This is the gospel that makes true this statement: you are the beloved, adopted child of the most high king of the universe!
So we need to reclaim our understanding of the Jewishness of Jesus, and in fact it is really only possible to understand and deeply appreciate the gift that the gospel is to us,
when we place it within the context of the history of the people of God, which we find in the Old Testament.
When it comes to the New Testament, of course the gospel is all over the New Testament. In fact the first four books are called the...what?
The gospels of… Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These are the eyewitness accounts that emerged from Christian communities in the first century, in the decades after the life and death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus.
And each of those gospels, which I hope you are in some regular pattern of reading, gives a unique and yet harmonious description of Jesus
But we also have, in the letters a Paul, statements that link the gospel directly back to the old testament.
1 Cor 15:45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”[f]; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we[g] bear the image of the heavenly man.
So we have this: 1 Cor 15:45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”[f]; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.
The Adam that we find in early Genesis, the first man, became or was made a living being. The last Adam, the Messiah, Jesus, became a “life-giving spirit“.
So there is this correlation, the first Adam and the last Adam, the first man, and the Messiah, Jesus.
46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven.
And we have descriptions of the origins of both Adam and of Jesus. Adam was formed from the dust of the earth, Christ, the “second man”, the second Adam, came from heaven to earth in the incarnation.
48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we[g] bear the image of the heavenly man.
This is interesting. We have the earthly man, Adam, and then we have all those who are like him, which of course includes all of us who are in Christ through faith in Him.
And as Jesus is of heaven, we also are “of heaven“.
Philippians 3:20 makes this clear: But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I think we need to end there, and then for those who are interested we can pick up the discussion in our Bible study that will follow the service, in the room just down the hall.
We’ll also be discussing these matters in some depth at the Thursday Online Bible Study at 10:30 AM, which we hope you will consider joining.
So what do we do with all this? I admit it’s a lot, but the truth is I’ve barely scratched the surface of the topic.
Let’s go back to Pastor Jonathan’s definition of the gospel from last weeks’ message:
“The Gospel: The loving creator God is restoring his creation through the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah. And we can be part of it!”
The last 6 words here is how we can wrap up for now. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, the immense hope that God offers to humanity in bringing restoration to all things –
and salvation from sin for all people through faith in Jesus and His suffering, death and resurrection - that Gospel is something that we can personally be a part of sharing.
We can be a part of it. We are called by God to be a part of it. We are equipped by God with the Holy Spirit who dwells in us individually and collectively, to be part of it, and to share this amazing good news with those we come into contact with.
Our families. Our friends. Our acquaintances.
Next week we will look more into the topic of sharing your faith, of evangelism. The week after that we will be looking at how precisely we can share our faith.
If you join our Bible Studies after the service and online on Thursday mornings, you will learn in more detail and then have opportunities to develop your own approach to sharing your faith in different situations, and you’ll even have time to practice, if you wish, what you would share as you share your faith.
Hopefully we will grow together in our understanding of and our appreciation for the gospel.
You know before I became a Christian at the age of 17, I really believed that nothing mattered, that life had no real meaning or purpose.
I struggled deeply with a sense of the pointlessness of life and heard from others who shared my views at the time that, “Sure, life is meaningless, but life is what you make it”.
They were probably trying to help, but those words and that attitude left me cold.
I was shocked out of my unbelief as I discovered the Gospel, as I believed for the first time that Jesus died for my sins because he loves me.
I then began adjusting to the reality that far from life being pointless, purposeless and full of empty suffering - the truth is that life as God intends is quite the opposite. Entirely the opposite.
Life is fully loaded with meaning and purpose and joy, even in the midst of suffering - because the Gospel is true, the Gospel is the most beautiful expression of the heart of God - His love, His kindness, His active engagement and empathy with humanity in Jesus Christ.
So may we, along with all who love Jesus Christ, come to more fully and more personally embrace life’s deepest and fullest meaning as we seek to live out the gospel and as we seek to be available to God to share the truth of all that He has done in Christ. Amen.
