The Savior

Rev Phil Larson Sr

The Fourfold Gospel of Jesus • Sermon • Submitted 6 years ago

Luke 4:14–37

Christ

Savior

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Jesus Christ is the only hope for humanity

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Foursquare

What exactly does Foursquare mean? Over the past 2 months since I’ve been speaking here at this church, I’ve had the opportunity to speak at some length to people who have been attending services here for a very long time. Some of them, since the beginning of this church in the mid-1990’s even. I’ve been surprised at the number of people who didn’t realize or understand our tenants of belief as a movement, and at some who did not understand our structure of governance or principles of ministry that we as a movement believe and practice. Over the next 4 weeks, I’ll be speaking in this setting on the fourfold gospel of Jesus. It’s the source of the name for our movement, Foursquare.

Aimee Semple McPherson

Our founder, she preferred to be called, “Sister Aimee”, founded the Foursquare Church in 1927, but prior to that came a realization in 1922 of the fourfold gospel of Jesus Christ. She was teaching out of Ezekiel. Let’s read the passage she studying:

Ezekiel 1:4–10 NASB95

4 As I looked, behold, a storm wind was coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing forth continually and a bright light around it, and in its midst something like glowing metal in the midst of the fire. 5 Within it there were figures resembling four living beings. And this was their appearance: they had human form. 6 Each of them had four faces and four wings. 7 Their legs were straight and their feet were like a calf’s hoof, and they gleamed like burnished bronze. 8 Under their wings on their four sides were human hands. As for the faces and wings of the four of them, 9 their wings touched one another; their faces did not turn when they moved, each went straight forward. 10 As for the form of their faces, each had the face of a man; all four had the face of a lion on the right and the face of a bull on the left, and all four had the face of an eagle.

Ezekiel 1

Here’s what she said about that scripture: In the face of the man we beheld that of the man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, dying o the tree. In the face of the lion we behold that of the mighty baptizer with the Holy Ghost and fire. The face of the Ox typified the great burden-bearer, who himself took our infirmities and carried our sicknesses, who in his boundless love and divine provision had met our every need. In the face of the Eagle we saw reflected soul-enrapturing visions of the coming king, who would come to catch his beloved bride away. It is a Foursquare Gospel, of Jesus Christ.

Fourfold Gospel = Foursquare Gospel

Foursquare Gospel

Jesus Christ, The Savior

Jesus Christ, The Baptizer with the Holy Spirit

Jesus Christ, The Healer

Jesus Christ, The soon coming King

The Savior

We recognize that the path to eternal life, that is another life that follows the physical death as we know and recognize it here, can only come through a higher power that has the authority to grant such a privilege. We have learned through scriptural truths which have born witness to and confirmed our own experiences, that there is but one path to that second life. We hold onto the truth as it is found in , a testament of Jesus’s own words and the many people who heard Him say this statement,

John 6:37 NASB95

37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.

We recognize that Jesus is our only hope, as NONE of us are perfect enough to justify an afterlife without accountability for our failings.

Jesus’s Mission Statement

There’s another place in the accounting of Jesus’s life where we can hear again from his own lips, what His mission was here on this earth. In Luke, chapter 4 (verses 18 & 19), Jesus delivers His mission statement, having been invited to speak at a synagogue. He gave a perfect reading of the following old testament scripture out of Isaiah:

Isaiah 61:1–2 NASB95

1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners; 2 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,

Isaiah 61:

Context is helpful in understanding the “favorable year” part, you see in this culture, there was a year of jubilee every 49 years which lasted for an entire year in which all slaves were required to be set free and all debts were required to be forgiven. When Jesus gave this message, it was a year of Jubilee, making his statement even more powerful.

Let me read you the translation from the greek text as Luke recorded it, including the emphasis placed in the way it was delivered by Jesus:

Luke 4:18–19 NASB95

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, 19 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

Jesus came to Preach deliverance to the poor

Jesus came to heal the broken hearted

Jesus came to preach deliverance to those held captive

Jesus came to make those who were blind, able to see

Jesus came to save and heal those who are abused

Jesus came to speak boldly the truths of a forgiving God

Jesus is our Savior

Life is a journey, despite what a famous person said once, life isn’t made up of a series of soundbites, it is made up of relationships, of disappointments, and pain, of joy, and of love. We have a life time to get to know Jesus and to know the many depths of His character as a savior. You can probably tell that I’ve skimmed over a lot in this short message, because I want you to get to know the Jesus who saved me. I can share with you what Jesus has done for me, and how he has changed my life, knowing that He will do the same for you. So as we continue in this series over the next few weeks of learning about Jesus and a little bit of our Foursquare heritage, know that when I share scripture it isn’t that you would place all of your beliefs in words in a book. What I want you to understand is that my life is changed and drastically different because of what people saw Jesus do and heard Him say, and how Jesus changed their lives…and their accounting of their own changed lives in a collection of literature works, which have been compiled divinely (a whole series of preaching), into this work we have today. You have a life time to read and get to understand the fullness and miraculousness of these books. The proofs of the truths HERE in the book, is HERE in me, and in many of the people in this room who care for you also. If you want to hear about what God has done in our lives, we’d like to share it with you. Not because we have all the answers, but because we’ve been made better by the one who does. There is going to be an invitation to hear more in a little bit but first, we’re going to enter into a time of communion, which is the celebration of a number of God’s promises and a remembrance of what Jesus did for us.

The Lord’s Supper

Communion teams, please come forward and prepare to serve those who wish to share in this remembrance with us.

We often call The ceremonial observance of the Lord’s Supper, Communion, but the name is not important. What I want you to know are a few important things. What it is, and how we do it here.

What is Communion?

The passover feast was a celebration of the jewish people who remembered a very important event in their history. Just as we celebrate our independance from England on July 4th every year, this people remembered and celebrated when they were set free from decades of slavery and bondage by Egypt. Many of you know the story, or have at least seen a movie about it, and it was no small thing for this people. Jesus was Jewish, and he was celebrating this independence with his closest friends, at what would later prove to be his last evening and supper with them. During this celebration, He changed what this independence was about, in order to celebrate a new independence that was coming.

Here’s what He said, we’ll take this accounting out of Mark this time:

Mark 14:22–26 NASB95

22 While they were eating, He took some bread, and after a blessing He broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is My body.” 23 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. 24 And He said to them, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25 “Truly I say to you, I will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” 26 After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

That’s the short version this time! Because....I want to share with you one of the cool parts of this story....look at this last verse!

How do we observe communion here?

As you’ve heard me reference a few times today, we are part of a larger body of churches who belong to a movement we call Foursquare. We follow the foursquare gospel, and we believe that the Good News of Jesus is for everyone. As part of those beliefs, we believe that the celebration of communion is for everyone also. You do not need to be a member of this church, you do not have to be a part of the foursquare movement, you don’t even have to like us. We believe that the only requirement to partake in this remembrance, is that you believe in your heart that Jesus is your saviour, and that you’ve asked him to be first in your life over your own desires. If you aren’t sure what this means or if it is for you, I would welcome you to come up and pray with me or one of our team members here. We also believe, that your faith, is up to you…so no one is going to prevent you from coming forward and partaking either! This is a personal decision you make, between you and God, and we trust you, and want to make this available to you.

Please let me pray and bless these elements, and then you are free to come up here to the table and partake of the elements here, and then return to your seats while we sing together with Megan. Megan would you come up here and lead us in song following this prayer? Thank you Megan, we’re so glad you’ve blessed us with your singing this morning. T Thank you for being here.