Reconciliation

2 Cor 5:16-21

So from now on we don’t look at people like the world does (what they have or how they look). Though we once looked at Christ in this way, we do not any longer. Now we see that if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: Think of it! God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

So now we are Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

God is busy reconciling Everything to Himself. From the Macro to Micro. From the furthest reaches of the Universe… to our lives… to the tiniest hidden parts of inner-space God has been at work for quite some time bringing about this massive project we call “reconciliation”

What do you think of when you hear the word “reconcile”?
When we look at the story, where do we see this need to reconcile occur?
What is broken?
After this tragedy In the story, where do you see God first working reconciliation (Earliest to Latest)?
How? (Then What?)

He Uses PEOPLE!!! Paul Points out that God has begun His reconciliation THROUGH His people… Through The Church “If anyone is in Christ they are a NEW CREATION”

Interesting: who Jesus picked to be his band of world-changers… All pretty much Galilean (from the cities surrounding the Sea of Galilee) The basic Jewish mindset of the day was “Galilee is for losers!” When Jesus is talking to some Pharisees in John 7:52 – they say: ‘No great “Men of God” have ever come from Galilee’ - Kind of a mean thing to say… The 12 he chooses are Mostly Fisherman… - Everyday people, Blue-collar workers, Small business owners. Andrew, Phillip, Bartholomew, Thaddeus, James the Less, James and John, and Peter are just ordinary fishermen *And it’s goes downhill from there. Thomas: a compulsive-doubter. Matthew: The tax collector. They were Shunned by Jewish society for their mistreatment of their own people. Simon the Zealot- A Roman Killer/ Insurrectionist/ murderer. Judas Iscariot: The disciple who later betrayed Jesus. Was the group’s treasurer and helped himself to their funds when he thought others weren’t looking. (Mark 3:19) *Not the guys I would have picked to carry on my life’s work.

Jesus’ Inner Circle: - James and John are known as the sons of thunder because they were so self-righteous and proud they wanted to burn down the town of Samaria…just because - Peter the impetuous loudmouth who’s always screwing up and second-guessing himself…A Perpetual Failure!…And this is who Jesus gives the Keys of the Kingdom to and lead this band of ragamuffins after he passes off the scene.

So from the very beginning we see Jesus choosing ordinary-scarred people to be the people he passes the torch to. And he says, “You Too Can Be My Disciple…”

Most of us are no different today. We are ordinary. We are all scarred from sin. None of us is perfect. We all fall short. Yet He uses the imperfect to bring about His perfection… He uses those not fully-reconciled to bring about His Reconciliation. He calls us “The Righteousness of God.” That’s hard to wrap your mind around… That turns conventional wisdom on it’s head!

I Cor 1:20-30

“What happened to those wise people? What happened to those experts in the Scriptures? What happened to the ones who think they have all the answers? Didn't God show that the wisdom of this world is foolish? …God was wise and decided not to let the people of this world use their wisdom to learn about him. Even when God is foolish, he is wiser than everyone else, and even when God is weak, he is stronger than everyone else…My dear friends, remember what you were when God chose you. The people of this world didn't think that many of you were wise. Only a few of you were in places of power, and not many of you came from important families. But God chose the foolish things of this world to put the wise to shame. He chose the weak things of this world to put the powerful to shame. What the world thinks is worthless, useless, and nothing at all is what God has used to destroy what the world considers important…God did all this to keep anyone from bragging to him. You are God's children. He sent Christ Jesus to save us and to make us wise, acceptable, and holy. So if you want to brag, do what the Scriptures say and brag about the Lord.”

-Paul (I Cor 1:20-30)

This task of reconciliation is impossible for us For so many reasons…
1) It’s too big of a task! (Cure all diseases? Heal all relationships? Rearrange the cosmos? Love one person perfectly???)
2) We aren’t even fully-reconciled…etc.

How is that possible???

Because The Reconciliation begins with God… what Christ is doing within us… the resurrection applied BY His grace and through His Holy Spirit within our lives… As Peter says, “Once we were not a people, but now we are the people of God…” He called us! He chose us! He gave us our identity! He’s equipping us and enabling us for the task!

What’s amazing about all this is that the pressures off us!

"The blessing of mission is ours while the burden of mission is God’s." -Jonathon Dodson

What’s that mean??? We can rest in the work... God’s is at work doing it already...

But how does reconciliation occur with us? Salvation! “Salvation” is not a one time act but a life-long process! (unfortunately many Christians have relegated it to some prayer you pray one time, or some one-time act of conversion…) I think it’s amazing to have a moment of conversion, but salvation is a process…

Salvation begins with our justification, continues with our sanctification and ends with our glorification… What that means is that salvation Begins with my response to God’s irresistibly gracious call upon my life, continues transforming me throughout my life, and finally ends as He calls me home to the resurrection life…

I’ve been saved from the penalty of sin, I’m being saved from the power of sin, and one day I’ll be saved from the presence of sin…

So let’s not limit Salvation to a term that simply describes who’s in and who’s out… Salvation is the work of a Sovereign God calling me to himself and changing me to become more like Him And what’s crazy is, I don’t! I don’t look like him!!! The point is God is at work reconciling us and has given us the job of reconciling our world… While we are still imperfect…

We catch up to these same followers of Jesus 3 1/2 years later. 1 gave up! And gave out under a load of condemnation and ended his own life. Another betrayed Christ in a different way and pushed himself to the brink of insanity. (You could preach a whole sermon on that… They both –Peter & Judas- Betrayed Christ, but one gave up in His mess, and the other repented and fell at the feet of the savior) Many ran away and left their rabbi to suffer alone. They failed, questioned, doubted, wept, struggled, and fought. Eleven of them persevered. And when these disciples have gone through their maturing process for a while, and trials and temptations, they emerge as totally different people in the book of Acts… Still imperfect! Still Screwing things up, disagreeing, and walking in grace!

Paul confronts Peter because of his hypocrisy (stops eating “unkosher” food he knew he had liberty to eat and had been eating with the gentiles because some legalistic Judaisers came into town). Paul and Barnabas, the great missionary team, split because they argue over John Mark They get into huge arguments about whether or not they should make everyman who follows Christ get circumcised like the Jews!

Over and over again they fumble and screw up And over and over again they are forgiven and forgive one another and begin to see glimpses of God’s reconciliation and Kingdom Heroes ONLY because of Christ’s sacrifice And They’re turning their world upside down as a result!

This rag-tag, motley crew of losers becomes the force that brings to its knees the single-most powerful empire this world has ever known. They have: No Superpowers or Greatness on their own. Just a bunch of issues, insecurities and failures…changing history... Not on their Merit, but because they opened themselves up to God’s reconciling work in their lives.

Who are some imperfect people we see in The Story of God, that God uses inspite of their imperfections?
(How were they imperfect in the story and how did God use them?)
Adam & Eve: Ate of the tree, yet still received a promise from God -
Noah: Saved world then got drunk -
Abram: Stumbled at the promise of God -
Sarah: Laughed at God -
Moses: Doubted, struck the rock & couldn’t enter Promised Land -
Joshua: Didn’t drive out the idol worshippers of Promised Land -
Israel: Wavering & Worshipping False gods, Not following God’s commands for celebrations n Not taking care of those in need

Look @ the list of Heroes of the Faith (from the beginning of the story to the end…in Hebrews 11
- Adulterers
- Drunkards
- Murderers
- Liars
- Prostitutes
- Beggars
- Kings
- Prophets
- And other ordinary radicals…
And this passage refers to them as: “Of whom the world was not worthy.”

God wants to use you in your mess. To change the world around you. To be His hands and feet. To love that person who’s driving you crazy… To forgive that thing that was done to you so long ago… To begin to look beyond yourself and see the Kingdom in everyday life… To bring healing to a hurting friend… To see people and situations through the eyes of Jesus… To be sensitive to the leading of His voice… He’s not waiting for you to be perfect!

It’s not about having it all together, It’s about giving the broken pieces you have to God and letting Him do with it as He will. Because when the Love and Grace of Christ grip your heart, it will mold you and shape you into a new creation So when we look at the areas of life that are broken,
- Relationships
- Disease
- Wars
- Politics
- Starvation
- My sinful nature
- This idol factory I call my heart
- The problems without me and within me WHEN we look, we see that God is working through us and in us to bring about this incredible plan of reconciliation… Reconciling Creation Reconciling Humanity Reconciling Ourselves

Looks very similar to what we talk a lot about here…
Communion/ Community/ Commission Communion
- Reconciling ourselves Community
- Reconciling Humanity Commission
- Reconciling Creation

We call this living an ‘Incarnational Lifestyle.’ Taking this Gospel Word of reconciliation and Incarnating it… fleshing it out This is the work that God began, … that was continued through His chosen people, … that was made perfect in Christ … and is now declared through His church/body

WHY do we seek to reconcile these things to God?
Identity: This is who we are in Christ (we already are, so now we live out of that! We don’t “do” to attain our identity)

How do we “minister reconciliation” in each of these areas? What are some daily ideas?
Communion:
- Worship
- Word of God
- Prayer
- Sanctification
- Becoming like Christ
- Applying His Word to our lives
- Living grace-filled lives
- Growing in Maturity
- Living out our beliefs (faith in action)

Community:
- Serving/ Blessing
- Caring/ Meeting Needs
- Listening/ Counseling
- Exhorting
- Confessing/Accountability
- Forgiving
- Modeling Christ
- Discipling
- Living as family

Commission:
- Serving/ Blessing
- Caring/ Meeting Needs
- Engaging/ Transforming Culture
- Gospel Intentionality
- Caring for Nature/ Stewardship
- Loving our City
- Feeding/ Clothing/ Visiting
- Healing Sickness/ Brokenness

Identity Crisis (pt 1): The Gospel Identity

THE GOSPEL IDENTITY

Introduction:

Chicken Prince:
An old Rabbi told a story:

A long time ago a King & Queen became concerned when their son told them he had realized he was a chicken
He began acting like a chicken
He even began living in the chicken coup and living off chicken feed

One day a wise man came and told the concerned parents he could cure the boy.
He walked out to the chicken coup
The Boy asked why he was there
The man replied, “Why are you here?”
“I’m a Chicken,” said the boy…
“I am too!” said the wise man… and with that he began hopping around the chicken yard and eat chicken-feed with gusto!
The Prince was convinced… a few days passed on like this

One morning, the wise man approached the prince One morning, the wise man approached the prince. "I am from a faraway land," he revealed. "In my homeland, chickens don't actually hop. They walk around like regular people."

"Really!" exclaimed the prince. "That must be a great place to be a chicken."

"Let's try it here," suggested the wise man, "Let's walk around."

The chicken prince readily agreed to his new friend's suggestion.

After a few days had passed, the now-upright wise man suggested to the now-upright chicken prince that they move inside the house because in another great metropolis, chickens didn't live in coops, they lived in stately palaces fit for princes. Again, the chicken prince agreed.

So the process continued. Shortly thereafter the wise man convinced the chicken prince that in another great land, chickens ate people food. Then came sitting at the table and enjoying human conversation. Within a short time, the chicken prince, although still maintaining that he was a chicken, began conducting himself exactly like a regular person.

Fortunately, most of us don't suffer from chicken complexes.
But here's a question we can all ask of ourselves: Am I limiting my potential because of my self-perception?

Could it be that our world is full of people in a similar identity crisis?
They were made to stand up like people and eat like people, but instead they live below their potential because they see themselves as chickens?

I believe we live in a world where a majority of people are in a perpetual identity crisis…
They don’t know who they are…
They don’t know why they were created
They search for meaning or settle for chicken lives when they were created for so much more

The word of God is going to invade our chicken coups this morning and remind us of who we are and what it means to live life More Abundantly…

(-)
(1 Peter 2:9-10)
“You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Peter Sellers:
In The Mask Behind the Mask, biographer Peter Evans says that actor Peter Sellers played so many roles he sometimes was not sure of his own identity. Approached once by a fan who asked him, "Are you Peter Sellers?" Sellers answered briskly, "Not today," and walked away.
(-)
A lot of us do this…
We go through life and adapt to our environments…
We may not necessarily change our ideals, but we change how we present ourselves…
And sometimes we are even changed in the process…

(Exp: story of girl living in Ghetto going to nice school…2 different persona’s – survival mechanism – Who was she?)

“If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?” – Chuck Palahniuk (author of Fight Club)

What do you think? Some would say “Yes”… some would say “No Way”… “I YAM WHAT I YAM” (Popeye)… are you?

Are you who you were created to be?

Is it possible that you’ve been trying to blend in with the world around you… or even the opposite – trying to stand out (be original) from the rest of the crowd, that you don’t know who you are at a core level?
…That you are defined by what’s around you or by what you believe is inside you, instead of who God made you?
(-)
Exp: watch in sand on beach – never seen a watch… what would you think it was? You wouldn’t know unless you knew the watchmaker or someone who could tell you about the watchmaker…

You can’t find purpose, meaning or identity in life for anything, without knowing the creator

Gen 1 Records that God Created Everything that exists
(-)
He Spoke to the Ground and said “Let the earth bring forth all manner of trees and plants”
(-)
- Water “Bring forth living creatures, after their kind”
- Same with land creatures
- Same with birds

Everything was created in it’s proper environment, from it’s proper source.

So we find this basic truth in life that…(RECAP)
(-)
Everything must remain connected to it’s source, or else it dies

- You take a plant/ Tree out of the earth and see how long it lives
- Fish outta water?
- Try to make a horse live in the water or in the air… won’t work.
- Everything must remain connected to it’s source of life/ environment to survive

Everything else is made after “Their Kind,” but God makes man in His image

When He creates man, he shapes him out of the earth
(-)
But man is not alive until God breathes, then man becomes a living soul

So our Source of life/ Original environment was the Spirit of God

The moment that soul was Separated from God because of sin, it began to die.
(-)
You can’t experience true life until you come back in contact with the source

You can’t find your identity or your life’s meaning apart from the source

And if you want Real Life, You Gotta stay connected to the Source
(-)
As Paul said in Acts “For in him we live, move and have our being”

Introduction: the wonder of being human
(-)
Who are you? How did you get that identity? What are you here for?
We don’t see dogs or turtles or fish or squirrels or birds or dolphins or chimpanzees ever losing one night's sleep pondering those questions.
We ask these questions.
Only humans kill themselves and kill others when they don't get true and satisfying answers to these questions.

We don’t often find such resoundingly clear answers to all three questions in such a small space as we do in this text this morning. Who am I?
How did I get this identity?
What's it for -- Why am I here – What is my purpose?

So let's take a deep breath this morning
Let’s go back to the beginning as it were –
For the next 2 weeks, Let’s go down to the rock bottom foundational questions of life…
And listen to the Word of God and wonder and stand in awe of what He has to say about these three things.
(-)
Who are you?

Keep in mind that Peter is identifying Christ-followers.
This is who you are if you are a Christ-follower.
This is how you got your Gospel Identity.
This is what you are here for and your reason for living...
…a reason you will never find outside of God

First, in Verse 9, he gives 4 ways of describing your identity, answering the question of who you are.
These are not different Identities necessarily, but Different parts of your identity in Christ that make up the whole.
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These 4:
Family
Ambassadors
Servants
Apprentices
*Today we’ll cover 2 of these…
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In our text today, 1 Pet. 2:9,10, Peter tells the church…
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1. You are a chosen people. The “called out ones” (FAMILY)

We understand that this is a corporate identity.
He's talking about the church -- the true Israel.

Israel was often referred to as the chosen people.
There was no reason the people of Israel should be chosen.
Actually, they didn’t even exist when God chose them to be his people.
His choice began with one man: Abraham.
And through Abraham he began the process of creating a people who were to be his children.
They were family both because they had a common heritage and because God chose them to be family.

Here in this scripture, Peter is saying that the identity of family is no longer exclusive to the Israelites.
All those who have been given new life through Christ are born into the family of God.

This is a common theme throughout the New Testament…
(-)
“This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.”
Eph. 3:6

You are part of that chosen family!

The Church is a Chosen People/ Family –
We are a new family with God as Father.

Scripture says that Christ is our brother, and that we are co-heirs of the same Father.
We have the same status before God as does Christ.
Even though we do not share the same divine nature as Christ, we, like adopted children, have the same place in His family.
God loves us like he loves Christ and has given us everything we need, because we are His children. (Heb 2:11-17; Rom. 8:16-17)

How does a family act?
Consider all of the One Anothers…
All the New Testament writers refer often to what we are to do to or for ‘one another.’ This concept of ‘one anothering’ is a central feature of New Testament ecclesiology, yet one which receives little attention in contemporary academic discussions.
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* be at peace with one another, forgiving, agreeing, humble, accepting, forbearing, living in harmony and greeting with love
* do not judge, lie or grumble
* show hospitality to one another
* confess your sins to one another
* be kind to one another, concerned, devoted, serving and doing good
* instruct and teach one another
* admonish, exhort and stir up one another
* comfort and encourage one another

Reflection questions
1. Which do you think you (as a church and as an individual) are good at?
2. Which do you think you (as a church and as an individual) are not very good at?
3. What stops you (as a church and as an individual) doing more ‘one anothering’?

This isn’t stuff you need to strive and work toward…
If you struggle in any of these areas you don’t need to try & change behavior…
Like we talked about in our last series, we need to aim for our beliefs (About Who God Is & who We Are in Christ)
These are identity issues.
When you understand your identity from a Gospel perspective, behavior will come naturally!

Each of these is really just preaching our Gospel identity to each other in tangible expressions.

(Something we all need to understand: We don’t do things to gain an Identity, earn God’s favor, or feel better about ourselves or prove ourselves to others…

We live these things because we have our identity,
We have Already earned God’s favor,
And because of that we don’t need to prove ourselves to anyone else (because God is Glorious!)

Our words and actions do not lead to an identity, they flow from an identity…

(-)
EXP: Paul’s Correctives in scripture Who God Is – Who We Are – What We Should Do…

To be Children of God means we are His offspring – His Kids - who bear His image (John 8:31-47)

In this passage Jesus is saying that you know you are a child of God if we love Jesus and hear his Words.

See also: “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.” [John 1:11-13]
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Anchor’s Family Identity Statement:
Family – We are all children of God who care for each other as a family.
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God has always desired a people–an earthly family–who would live in such a way that the world would know what he is like. Jesus said that those who live in his ways and obey his Father are truly his family. Through Jesus we believe we are Children of God and brothers and sisters with each other. As family we see it as our obligation to personally care for the needs of one another (-) – both physically and spiritually. We disciple, nurture and hold each other accountable to this Covenant life together. We do this through regular celebration gatherings and consistent involvement in a DNA group.
(Genesis 12:1-3; John 1:12-13; Romans 12:10-16)
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So, what does it mean for the Church to be the Family of God?

This family is not based on race or gender, age or social standing!
The chosen family is not descended from racial lines here on the earth that we are familiar with…
The chosen family is a new people from all the peoples -- all the colors and cultures – all walks of life, who are now foreigners and strangers among in the world.

See verse 11, "Beloved, I urge you as foreigners and strangers . . ."

What gives us our identity is not color or culture… we aren’t Christians by name, or by social standing…
But by who we identify with….
(-)
{The Colts finally won a super-bowl a while back!!!!
I remember seeing a news report on the internet…
(T-shirts… “We Did It!”…
What did you do?
You didn’t catch a TD Pass from Peyton Manning.
Tony Dungie doesn’t even know your name.
What did you do?

But the problem was I didn’t see the beauty of that statement.
And the statement was:
“Hey, We Did It because of who We Identify with.”
You did it, but you didn’t do it!
You got victory, but it wasn’t something you earned, but something that was earned for you.
This is the heart of the Gospel.
We aren’t great on our own…
We did nothing to deserve being called God’s Children
That was something that was done for us…By Jesus Christ
Now we are God’s family because we’ve identified with him,
By giving our lives to Him in faith…
By being baptized in His name…
By receiving His Spirit into our lives

Out from all the cultures & walks of life, we have been chosen as a family…
We leave our old identities behind, and walk in our new Identity…
(-)
Paul in Philippians: I count it all but DUNG!
Philipians 3:4-11:
(-)
If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
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But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them dung, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, (-) not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

To me this is one of the single greatest exposes for finding your true gospel identity…
(-)
He essentially says “I lost myself to my self and my past-to be found in Christ!
When he says this– He’s talking about the good things in his past, but this goes for the BAD as well…
(-)
Those things in your past you’re holding onto…
Those things you can’t forgive yourself for…
Those things you can’t let go of…
They feel like they have a hold on you…
Other people may know about them…
They may judge you…
You may feel like they are an inseparable part of who you are…
You may see yourself through the lens of the past…
BUT when you come to Christ and give him your whole life and take on his name, the old realities don’t have any jurisdiction over you and your identity any more…
You are a new creation… all the bad of the past…all the good of the past is gone!
You are a new creation in Christ

What do we bring to the table when we sit down w/ the family of God?
Nothing!
(-)
The Bible Says in Isaiah, “All our righteousness is like filthy rags…” dirty diapers!

All our accomplishments

All our wealth

All our allegiances

All our family names

All our titles
(You might have more degrees than DR FAHRENHEIT…)
All of that is the old you… it means nothing…
(-)
*God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called

The past means nothing…

Because you’ve taken on a family name that is above all other names in the earth

Because you’ve taken on a new citizenship… Jesus is your King, not Obama

Because your wealth & status are not measured by materialistic gain or temporary happiness

Because it’s not about what you have ever done or will ever do, it’s ALL about what He did for you on the Cross and now you’re called worthy and given a new identity in Him
(-)
Paul says it this way (Old things have passed away, look, ALL things have become new)

Christ-followers are color-blind… when we see other Christians of different ethnic backgrounds, we shouldn’t see a White or Asian or Black…etc. Christian… we should see our brother & sister.

When we see Christians from different age brackets we shouldn’t see immature young Christians or useless old Christians, but young impressionable brothers and sisters who bear God’s image and share my same heritage, and honorable experienced & wise brothers & sisters/ mothers & fathers who can impart great insight to us and are deserving of great love and care because of their state and their own walk …etc.

When I see Poor or Homeless Christians… what do I see? A brother/ sister in need? Do I see God’s image in them?

What about Rich Christians? Do I despise them? Do I see my brother who God has prospered for His own purposes?

Whenever you run into an issue with other Christians, think about how you’re viewing them… Do you see them as family?
(-)
Maybe you didn’t have the best family growing up
Real family…the way it should be…real family forgives…
Real family doesn’t take each other to court…
Real family doesn’t eat each other for dinner
Real family doesn’t cut each other’s lives off when they get angry or hurt at one another…
Real family finds a way to reconcile!

If you get angry, forgive!
If you feel hatred rising up in you, choose love!
(*take a step of love and the feelings will follow)
If you want to cut someone off, reconcile
If you want to destroy, repair
If you want to wound, heal
If you want to walk away, walk toward them…

Live out of love and otherness, not temporary emotions and self-centeredness disguised as self-preservation…
Trust God to preserve you and defend you and avenge you…
Your job is to love without reserve and show grace & mercy as Christ has shown you…

This comes a lot more natural to a family than it does to a church because we haven’t realized our identity… the fact that we are a family.
(We may know it, but there’s a disconnect between our mind and our heart!)

That's why this amazing phrase is crucial for you; you are part of the "chosen family" because the family is made up of individuals who have been called out -- from all the races, families and walks of life.
So your first identity is that you are part of the Chosen Family of God.

You have been adopted by God!

Not because of your race -- or for any other qualification – Still you are His sons & daughters

Who am I? Say “I am a son/daughter of God.”

I do not know why.
It was nothing in me of value above other humans.
I did not earn it or merit it, or meet any conditions to get it.
It was God’s grace alone that allowed me access into this family
I stand in awe of it.
I tremble with joy at it.
I bow and accept it.
I long to be faithful to its purpose.
I am His.

If I act like someone who is not a son/ daughter of God…
If I fail to treat the church like my family…
If I fail to see those in my community as brothers and sisters in
Christ I’m acting out of Character…

You need to get that identity deep into your heart!
You need to let it soak in past your brain
You need to let it invade your heart…
You need to look in the mirror and see a child of God surrounded by a family who love you
You need to let that identity inform your actions and attitudes and decision-making process…

*Discussion Followed...

He Is Risen... Now What?

He is Risen...Now What

Resurrection sermon

Acts 10:34-43 (New International Version)

34Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. 36You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 37You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— 38how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

39"We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, 40but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."


Today is Resurrection Sunday.

Easter is often misunderstood:

A friend of mine told me his Sunday school teacher confused Easter with Groundhog Day, & Told the children that Easter is when Jesus comes out of his tomb . . . but that if he sees his shadow he has to go back inside for another six weeks…

It’s often even more misunderstood than that…

With Easter so often misunderstood, the central premise of Christianity, as a whole, is often misunderstood…

Easter is Resurrection Sunday

Resurrection is the heart of the Christian faith

(Exp: Story of Passion week-
- Triumphant Entry
- Teaching & Healing
- Temple Cleansing
- Conspiring
- Last Supper
- Garden & Betrayal
- Trial & scourging
- Crucifixion & Burial
- Resurrection

The Resurrection of Christ was not simply God in the flesh, conquering the power of Death.

Our reading from Acts made it quite clear that in the earliest apostolic proclamation about Jesus of Nazareth his death and resurrection were directly linked to two promises, one about the future, and one about the present.

These can be simply stated:
1) The resurrection shows that Jesus was ordained by God to judge the living & the dead
2) The resurrection shows that Jesus is the one in whose name, we can have forgiveness right now!

At first sight this may either seem irrelevant to you or like old news.

It may seem only loosely connected to Easter… but that shows how far we can be off the mark without even realizing it.

This resurrection day is the time all those great Psalms in the middle of the Bible talked about:

All about heaven and earth rejoicing,
-The sea thundering,
-The fields and the trees and the animals celebrating for joy,
-Because YHWH is coming to judge the earth,
-To judge it with true justice
- And the nations with faithfulness & equity.

In other words:
- Easter is about the whole world creation being set right at last,
- Put back on track with the way it was supposed to be,
- The way it had been longing to be…

According to Paul (echoing Genesis), God intended that the created order should be governed by wise human beings reflecting God’s stewardly love into it.

When Humanity rebelled, this purpose went off-track.

All the relationships were broken.
- Our communion with God
- Our sense of community with each other
Our drive towards our original commission, to be fruitful, multiply, replenish the world. To take care of it. Be good stewards…etc.

We see with the Genesis account that the earth gave birth to thorns; thistles…not on it’s own, but because it has been held ransom until the day when humanity would be restored.

Now in Jesus Christ, that restoration has happened!
Jesus Christ was perfectly obedient Man that opened the door for all of us to leave the old ways of death and walk into the new ways of life

Easter Sunday is the celebration of this incredible assurance that God has set the whole created order right at last!

But this has only physically happened in one person so far: Jesus.

But Jesus’ Resurrection is a picture of what God is trying to do for his people, and for All People, and for the whole created order world

This idea in scripture is that one man, Jesus, will come and begin setting all things right and reconciling the world to himself.

In this way, Easter – the resurrection – relates to the rest of the world.

It’s good news for the whole world

We already see that the resurrection sets Jesus up as the world’s true judge.

NOT so much that it qualifies him to sit behind a desk with a black robe and cast judgment from a position of moral superiority

But that He has come to set things right!

BUT that he Himself is the first part of creation to be set right
- After the corruption of evil and death had done its worst to him
- He conquered death & rose from the grave…
- He is now not only the one who can reflect God’s healing justice perfectly into the world, but he is also the one who actually embodies it in himself.

This message of future Judgment we anticipate in Christ is SO Urgently Relevant to several major issues before us right now

It speaks directly to the issues around the world…the social injustice and our role = how we’re supposed to bring change, of climate change and our responsibility for the future of the planet , our responsibility towards others…

(Especially since those most likely to suffer from rapid change are, as usual, the poorest of the poor)

Resurrection of the world

If in Jesus, God has begun to bring about his great renewal of all creation the world, then those who in faith and love embrace Jesus as the risen Lord have the wonderful joy of bringing that renewal to fruition

God was at work in Christ setting all things right, reconciling the world to himself.

Now he is at work through us, as we put out hands and feet and hearts and minds to work rebuilding our world, resurrecting the broken, reconciling the world to God

- So when you see others struggling around you, ask yourself what would Jesus be doing to help? Go & do it!
- When someone’s giving up on life
- People who gravitate toward self-destructive patterns
- When a family is falling apart
- When people you know are going through financial difficulty
- When you see an elderly person being neglected
Do we just sit by & hope for the best?
What would Jesus be doing in the face of these situations?
Would he intervene?
Would he bring healing?
Sometimes it’s as simple as sharing a smile and letting someone know you care…by listening to them and their struggles…

Four things.
First, Jesus really is alive again.
Second, therefore he really is the Messiah, the world’s true Lord.
Third, therefore God’s new creation has begun.
Fourth – and this is the sharp edge of it all – therefore you have an urgent and important job to do, and a new identity to do it with.

Jesus is raised, therefore the world is a different place, and we are called, as witnesses of the resurrection, to announce it, to make it happen, and to find ourselves remade in the process.

The second strand in the apostolic proclamation of Easter is equally powerful and equally urgent.

Jesus is the one, in whose name, ‘forgiveness of sins’ is available to all who believe.

This is closely linked to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15: if the Messiah is not raised, your faith is pointless and you are still in your sins.
Healthy; Abundant Christian living demands that we understand fully what is going on here.

Again, It isn’t just a matter of saying that because Jesus happens to have been raised from the dead, so now he possesses special quasi-magical powers that enable him to give out this strange thing called ‘forgiveness’.

Rather, it is that his resurrection demonstrates that on the cross he really did accomplish the defeat of the powers of corruption, evil and death that were at work in the world for us.

If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have been raised from the dead; it’s as simple as that.

And, in the middle of religion’s debate about whether there was in fact a literal bodily resurrection, many have begun to hold the view that says nothing is all that wrong;
- Sin is an outdated concept
- With little more enlightenment, democracy, psychiatry and general common sense we will see ourselves through.

Well, sorry: read the newspapers, think of Iraq or Iran or Darfur or a thousand other places, think of stabbings and shootings on our streets, not to mention corruption and folly in high places.

But, you say, what has forgiveness of sins got to do with all that?

Isn’t forgiveness is what happens when someone realizes that they’ve done something they shouldn’t, and repents to God and says ‘sorry’.

Well, yes, that is true, and it matters more than I can say.

But ‘forgiveness of sins’ was never simply a random individualistic concept.

For any first-century Jew, it was much bigger: it involved the whole notion of a people in exile because of their sins, so that when God forgave them at last this would mean the restoration of an entire nation.

And when the early church announced ‘forgiveness of sins’ in the name of Jesus Christ, this didn’t just mean that individual sinners could get right with God,


But it also meant forgiveness as:
- A whole new program
- A whole way of life,
- The new covenant way of life, in which the restoration - which God offered to all who believed in Jesus - was to characterize families and communities, worldviews and life-paths,
- A Jubilee movement that, whenever it came upon anything amiss in human relations or society, would move heaven and earth to put it right, to restore things to the way they should be.
- To Fix relationships, to restore brokenness, to set things right through love!

And now we begin to see, perhaps, that judgment and forgiveness are not two extremely different things, but two ways of saying the same thing.

Both of them following directly from the Easter victory of Jesus Christ, through whom all things are put right and in whom all who believe find themselves made right in advance of the final great day.

If God’s judgment is the form his mercy takes when faced with a world out of joint, God’s mercy is the form his judgment takes when faced with penitent sinners.

But we may well ask, what does all this large-scale, important but somewhat big, construction got to do with me, with us, with today?

Resurrection of God’s People
Think about this: God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself is at work reconciling the world to himself and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. (2 Cor 5:19)

God has always chosen to work alongside and through humanity.
Through people.
Continually throughout the narrative of Scripture, God is at work choosing people to show these ways of restoration, justice, and love to the world:
- Seth’s godly line down to Noah
- Abraham
- Moses
- Israel as a nation
- Now the church

God is at work through people, bringing about this reconciliation.

He calls us to be his hands and feet.
To feed the poor
To clothe the naked
To heal the sick…etc

He calls us to be a picture of heaven to the world
- a picture of the way life is supposed to be
- a picture of peace and love
- a living example of what heaven’s going to be like

This is why we don’t view church as what happens here on a Sunday.
Sadly, Westernized Christianity has represented heaven to the world as an eternal church service, with preaching; choirs …etc.

Church is you, and me, and us living gospel-centered life together in Community.
- Eating and drinking
- Enjoying Life and Art
- Creating culture
- Engaging in mission together
- Putting our hands to the making right of all things
- Living everyday with a gospel intentionality
- Counseling and gospelling one another (letting iron sharpen iron)
- Sharing the love of God in TANGIBLE ways with a hurting world
- This is the church!
- That is a picture of heaven

God is at work resurrecting the world

And He’s doing it through his church!

But it doesn’t stop there!

He’s at work resurrecting you
In order to change, we must be changed…
In order to transform, we must be transformed
In order to reconcile, we must be reconciled
In order to resurrect, we must be resurrected

When does this resurrection begin?

When we are filled with the spirit of God and identify with Him!

Romans 8:9-11 - But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!

He “lead captivity captive and give gifts to his people” –

In other words - he released the old ransom that had bound creation from the beginning and showed us how to begin setting things right – then he gave us the power/gifts to do so by his Holy Spirit

The resurrection of Jesus Christ was more than one man – God in the flesh – conquering death.

The resurrection was reversing the power of death in a world torn by Death’s reign, to give a new life to all things

The resurrection was our Messiah, paving a road to restoration for all of creation to follow.

The resurrection is the call of our savior to come and live this life more abundantly – to put our hands and feet to the work of resurrecting our word, reconciling people’s communion with God, their sense of community with one another, and our commission to the world to repair the brokenness within the systems of government, economy, environment…etc

This resurrection is the invitation to take our part in the repainting of the world by actually being a picture of what heaven looks like to a world rapidly losing hope.

Closing
So:
May you also experience this wonderful resurrection in a personal sense by the promise of being filled with the Spirit of God
May you enter into resurrection life – and as you do –
May you take the world with you,
- by putting your hands to restoration,
- by using the gifts God has given you to create a new world
And may we show this world a living picture of faith, hope, and love


Prayer
Jesus, My prayer today is that we may know you as a living reality in our lives, in our family’s life, in our participation within community, in our engaging the world around us with Gospel Intentionality and
That we would put our hands to healing and loving and resurrecting a broken and dying world…etc.