Brand New: Christ

Brand New • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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Introduction

This morning we’re going to do a good bit of moving through the Scriptures like we did last week, and we want to start our journey today where we left off last Sunday: Genesis 3

So, let’s start with Genesis 3, and as you turn there, I’ll try and give a little recap of where we’ve been for those of you who might not have been with us the last two weeks or for those of you who were with us but were sleep and not paying attention. You don’t have to confess. We know who you are…

Anyway, we are in a series called Brand New: The Story and Nature of our Salvation. In this series we are looking at some of the major themes that Scripture uses to tell the story of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We’ve broken those themes into two popular groups as articulated in the Explicit Gospel by Matt Chandler and Jared Wilson. The Gospel in the Ground and the Gospel in the Air.

The Gospel on the ground is more of what God is doing at an individual local level in our salvation. The Gospel in the Air is more about what God is doing COSMICALLY through the Good News of Jesus Christ. Both have been addressed in the past by theologians of all shades and stripes and BOTH OF THEM ARE IMPORTANT which is why we are taking several weeks to address both.

Right now we are looking at the Gospel on the Ground and the themes associated with it: GOD, MAN, CHRIST, RESPONSE.

The first two weeks our aim was to help you clearly see the very real and very enormous gap that exists between us and God.

God is HOLY. HE IS RIGHTEOUS. HE IS OTHER. HE POSSESSES ALL POWER AND ALL KNOWLEDGE.

Man on the other hand, although we are created in IMAGE and LIKENESS of God and although we were given the mandate to rule and reign, we fell devastatingly in the garden of Eden, choosing to rule ourselves rather than be ruled by God and taking the one thing the Lord outlawed. In so doing, Adam and Even announced to God that “We will not submit to your authority. We will establish our own.” And through their sin, SIN and DEATH entered the world. The Judgment of God was declared and Man was banished from the garden...

THIS IS THE STATE OF THE WORLD as declared in Romans 1

Romans 1:18 ESV

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

And in Romans 3

Romans 3:19–20 ESV

19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

So to sum it up we have this PERFECT and HOLY CREATOR that created us, gave us everything, and called us to worship him exclusively and instead of giving Him what He is due, we have taken our worship and turned it back on us. EARNING HIS JUDGMENT and ETERNAL WRATH in HELL.

We’ve commited the crime of HOLY BETRAYAL of the CREATOR and we are without excuse and deserving of DIVINE justice.

Our sermon series and more importantly, OUR LIVES and ETERNAL DESTINY would be unbelievably tragic had it ended there, but thanks be to God that is not where it ends. IN FACT the rest of the Bible from Genesis 3 forward is a story of REDEMPTION. It is story about man being rescued from judgment, man being redeemed from the shame and penalty of their disobedience.

The rest of the Bible is a story of how the curse of death is being reversed and removed through a particular plan of God.

That’s what I want to discuss this morning…what steps has God taken to remove this curse, why did He have to take those steps, and what do those steps teach us about God...

This leads up to my first point. THE PLAN OF RESCUE is a PURPOSEFUL and DEFINITIVE PLAN...

THE PLAN OF RESCUE is a PURPOSEFUL and DEFINITIVE PLAN

What’s always amazing about God’s story of redemption for MANKIND is how quickly God declared the rescue plan...

Looking back at Genesis 3 starting at verse 14, a passage we’ve read before...

This passage picks up RIGHT after Adam and Eve have turned away from God, inviting sin into the whole world and it captures God pronouncing his judgment on them for doing so.

Genesis 3:14–15 (ESV)

14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Right there…in the midst of his pronouncement of judgment on the serpent is hope for ADAM and hope for EVE, hope for their offspring...

Eve’s offspring will eventually crush the serpent but as He is doing so, the serpent will hurt him and where does this happen? At the Cross of Calvary

Now I won’t spend much time on this text this morning but I wanted to show you how even in the midst of judgment for our sin, it appears that God is saying from the very beginning of sin entering into the world. “I HAVE A PLAN!”

This is a plan that we hear about over and over again...

We hear echos of this plan in Abraham as God establishes His promises with him.

Genesis 12:1–3 (ESV)

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE WORLD will be blessed through Abraham because from Abraham’s lineage Christ will come

We hear echos of this plan in Moses as God establishes His promises with him.

Deuteronomy 18:15–19 (ESV)

15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— 16 just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ 17 And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.

The NT authors saw in this promise a pointing to Jesus. A NEW AND BETTER MOSES. One who would bring not just a natural and temporary deliverance but a SPIRITUAL and ETERNAL one.

We even hear the echos of this promise in God’s words to King David as He describes the day where one from David’s lineage is raised to reign over an everlasting kingdom

2 Samuel 7:12–17 (ESV)

12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, 15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ” 17 In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

In one sense, it appears that God has David’s immediate offspring in mind. Children like Solomon, but what the NT writers help us understand by referring to God’s promise to David is that He also has in mind one of His offspring that will rule and reign over an eternal KINGDOM and that child WOULD be named JESUS!

The NT authors understood that all of these OLD TESTAMENT promises found their fulfilment in Christ and so they pointed to them throughout their writings as evidence that God had a DEFINITE and PURPOSEFUL PLAN from the beginning.

While our sin and betrayal was DEVASTATING, it did not catch God the Father off guard or by surprise. Before the foundations of the world, God had established a plan from which He would receive MAXIMUM honor and MAXIMUM GLORY through the life, death, burial, and resurrection of His Son!

This plan was not only purposeful and definitive. This plan was NECESSARY...

THE PLAN OF RESCUE is NECESSARY

Here is really where the Gospel makes its distinction from all other religions. Here is where we answer the question:

WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE JESUS? Why can’t it be somebody or something else?

Pastor/Theologian Tim Keller makes a great observation that all other major faiths have founders who are teachers that show the way to salvation, but only Jesus claimed to actually BE the way of salvation himself. THERE is a HUGE DIFFERENCE between the two and the answer as to why it has to be Jesus lies in the difference between them.

One says do these things to find salvation. The other says “You can’t do enough of these things to be saved so embrace the one who did these things in your place.” to find salvation.

We've talked about the unbelievable Holy and Spectacular Nature of God and our sinfulness that earns God's judgment and creates separation...

What happens when these two collide...unbelievably Holy God and undeniably sinful man? Death!

We see it in Exodus. When the Lord shows Moses His glory and announces that I’m going to have to hide you in the cleft of the rock because if you see me in my full manifestation. YOU WILL DIE.

We see it in Leviticus…When Nadab and Abihu attempt to offer fire to God that he had not authorized and the Lord responds with a fire that consumes them...

We see it in Joshua…when Achan, takes spoils from Israel’s victory over Jericho EVEN after God explicitly declares that those things are devoted to Him and as a result He and His family lose their lives.

We see it in 2 Samuel. When Uzzah, gets a little too close to the Ark of the Covenant and reaches out and touches it to try and keep it from tilting over and is stricken dead that instance.

All of these instances of judgment remind us that their is no room for error when facing a HOLY and PERFECT God.

When standing before this God NO SIN GOES UNACCOUNTED FOR! In fact, that is what is being demonstrated in the Old Testament sacrificial system. The blood of the animals served as a sacrificial substitute for the sins of the nation. When a lamb was slaughtered, it was a demonstration of the weight of sin and what it was deserving of...death.

Hebrews 9:22 highlights this

Hebrews 9:22 ESV

22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Sin requires judgment.

Now think about this in light of of what we know about ourselves…WE ARE SINFUL! in fact, we are not just sinful. WE ARE INFINITELY SINFUL. We disregard God in ways that we don’t even realize and acknowledge.

And so because of that we can’t just stop sinning and say we’re going to do some good stuff now and justify ourselves by those good things we do. As we read on last Sunday, Romans 3:19 gives us the bottom line.

Romans 3:19–20 ESV

Psalm 143:2 ESV

2 Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.

NO ONE LIVING IS RIGHTEOUS BEFORE YOU ALL ARE GUILTY...

Well what if I just commit to live a better life going forward? Doesn’t work…for a number of reasons, I’ll give you two...

ILLUSTRATION: Say a man is commits a triple homicide…after which he goes to the police station, turns himself in, cooperates with the police in taking them to the bodies, hands them the weapon that he used, and pleads guilty for trial where he cooperates fully. At the end of the trial, the judge pronounces the man guilty on all charges and sentences him to life years in prison. The man rises from his seat appalled at the verdict.

“What a second, Judge? What are you doing? This isn’t fair! I’m not going to do this any more I’m a changed man!?

How would you expect a just judge to react? You would expect that just judge to punish the lawbreaker and you would be FURIOUS if HE or SHE did not!

WE ARE that GUILTY man? You can’t just turn around after committing Holy Treason against God and say…hold up, I’m not going to do that anymore…I’m going to be good from here on out...So you can let me off the hook...

LET’s take it one step further though...

WE ARE GUILTY for our past sin and thus are still held guilty and deserve a just penalty…BUT HERE IS THE THING…WE WILL NOT STOP SINNING!

We will sin again!

Let me see a show of hands: In the past week, has anybody sinned in word, thought, and/or deed? Anybody do anything or say something you shouldn’t have or possibly not do or say something you should have? I know very hard…

Let me try again: what about the last 3 days? 48 hours? 24 hours?

No! You absolutely have and you absolutely will…And that’s our dilemma.

Galatians 2:16 ESV

16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

No one will be justified because no one is without sin and no one will be without sin...

And this is why ANY RELIGION won’t do! If what is revealed in Scripture is true of God. THAT HE is HOLY and WITHOUT RIVAL and if what is revealed in Scripture is true of us, that on our best days we are still capable of ridiculous and egregious sin…THEN you can’t just walk away from that and say it doesn’t matter what religion you turn to…you’ll be good.

If the one who professes Christianity declares that, then what we are in fact saying is…this book really is just hogwash and if that is how we feel than we have other issues that are much bigger than maybe we’ve realized.

No, this plan that God orchestrated is VERY VERY NECESSARY…and what is that plan?

The plan is not based on what we do, the plan is based on a person...

Reading Galatians 2:16...

Galatians 2:16 ESV

We cannot be justified by the law…NO ONE will be justified by the LAW so Paul says we look to Christ!

All of the Gospel authors, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and June, very early on go through great effort to make it known that Jesus Christ is not simply like everybody else. He is different and NECESSARILY SO. HE HAS TO BE DIFFERENT. I love the way the Apostle John articulates this distinction in the first chapter of his Gospel account...

John 1:1–4 ESV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Jesus is God! Not like God, not close to God…Jesus is God!

And that’s what we need for justification…to be justified before a perfect God we need someone perfect to stand in our place...

But John doesn’t stop there in verse 14 we hear this!

John 1:14 ESV

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus is God. Jesus is perfect and therefore He fits the criteria as suitable substitute for us to stand behind for justification, but HE IS GOD IN THE FLESH!

Meaning that it is not just God in the distance overlooking Adam’s sins, but rather it is God the Father giving us in His Son a new Adam!

One who is like us in every way and there a true representation of us and yet because He is God, He is like us in every way except that He is WITHOUT SIN!

Put simply, the Bible tells us that Jesus is both completely human and completely God. This is a crucial point to understand about him, for it is only the fully human, fully divine Son of God who can save us. If Jesus were just another man—like us in every respect, including our fallenness and sin—he would no more be able to save us than one dead man can save another. But because he is the Son of God, without sin and equal in every divine perfection to God the Father, he is able to defeat death and save us from our sin. In the same way, it is also critical that Jesus be truly one of us—that is, fully human—so that he can rightly represent us before his Father. As Hebrews 4:15 explains, Jesus is able “to sympathize with our weaknesses” because he “in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

And so, upon Him is the weight of judgment poured out…upon Him is the full wrath of God unleashed, the wrath that we deserve...

It is for this reason that John the Baptist cries out upon seeing Jesus...

John 1:29 ESV

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

So this plan is definitive and purposeful…established since the beginning

This plan is necessary and required…But here is my final question why does he do it???? He certainly doesn’t NEED to! He certainly doesn’t have to! And we certainly aren’t deserving of this rescue…SO WHY DOES HE DO IT!!!!

THE PLAN OF RESCUE was MOTIVATED

Hebrews 2:9 ESV

9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Christ went to the Cross in order that He might be glorified…in the Heavens…amongst the Heavenly Host…amongst the principalities and rulers of darkness

But there is one more reason…the most widely known Scripture in the world but oftentimes the easiest one to forget for the struggling Christian...

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

God died for you knowing that you would come into this world shaped in iniquity…knowing that you would have sinned yesterday and knowing that you will sin tomorrow because HE LOVED YOU

ILLUSTRATION: Let’s go back to the courtroom for a moment and re-envision the triple homicide criminal…the judge has sentenced him to life...

I borrowed this illustration from one of the first Christian rap songs that brought me to tears...

Song released in 1999 called Off the Hook…the story ends with the guy now no longer guilty going home and finding a letter...

"I BLED, - ALL BECAUSE I LOVE YOU MY BLOOD WAS SHED, ALL BECAUSE I LOVE YOU THEY KILLED ME INSTEAD ALL BECAUSE I LOVE YOU I AROSE FROM THE DEAD, ALL BECAUSE I LOVE YOU."

God orchestrated this plan of rescue out of the abundance of love He has for us!