Advent Day 9 ~ Redemption

Today's word is redemption.

"Praise be to the Lord, 

the God of Israel,

because he has come and has 

redeemed his people."

Luke 1:68

"But when the time had fully come,

God sent his Son,

born of a woman,

born under the law,

to redeem those under the law,

that we might receive

the full rights of sons."

Galatians 4:4-5

I think Galatians has become one of my favorite books in the Bible. For Christ-followers, it is the story of our redemption - our freedom.

One of my favorite commentators, John Stott, sets up Galatians chapter 4, this way:

"In Galatians 3 the apostle Paul surveyed 2,000 years of Old Testament history. In particular, he showed the relation between three of the great figures of biblical history - Abraham, Moses and Jesus Christ. He explained how God gave Abraham a promise to bless all the families of the earth through his posterity; how he then gave Moses a law which, far from annulling the promise, actually made it more necessary and urgent; and how the promise was fulfilled in Christ, so that everyone whom the law drives to Christ inherits the promise which God made to Abraham."

In today's passage in Galatians 4, we come to that moment in history when God's plan of redemption through His incarnate Son ushers in our freedom.

God sent His Son.

This is our redemption. This is our freedom. This is our gift from heaven.

"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as as atoning sacrifice for our sins" 1 John 4:9-10

God promised to bless all the families of the earth; he fulfilled that promise in Christ. He sent His Son to redeem us from the bondage of sin. Rejoice! He has come and has redeemed his people!

Sovereign Grace Music paints a picture of this redemption in verse 2 of their version of the Christmas carol O Holy Night: O Holy Night (Hear the Gospel Story)

Humbly He lay, Creator come as creature,
Born on the floor of a hay-scattered stall.
True Son of God, yet bearing human feature,
He entered earth to reverse Adam’s fall.
In towering grace, He laid aside His glory,
And in our place, was sacrificed for sin.
Fall on your knees! O hear the gospel story!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night, O holy night when Christ was born!

You can listen to it as well on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p22kKXgKqnM

My journal pages for today:

The Advent Words 2017 prompts and Scripture reading calendar can be found in this post or in the Facebook group.

Art From Study Notes

One of the members of an online art journaling group I belong to posted a picture of how she was using art with her research proposal notes. She posted this picture on our community group page:

 

Thanks, Anna Tapp (Anna's blog: notknowingwhere.com), for the inspiration!

We have just started a series called "Images of the Incarnation" at church. So, while studying last week in prep for our Creative Team planning meeting, I was reading in Matthew about how Jesus tells John the Baptist's disciples who He is.

^"When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”

Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. ⁶ Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” (Matthew 11:2-6)

I got off on a rabbit trail as I started thinking about what Jesus says to them. Quoting from the prophet Isaiah, He says that His identity is evident by what they have SEEN and HEARD. So I started looking back through the first 11 chapters of Matthew to see exactly what it is that these men has seen and what they had heard.

First, what they HEARD:
Jesus' ministry begins in chapter 4 verse 17: "From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
4:23 says that, "Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people." (Also repeated in 9:35)
In 10:7, when Jesus sends out the 12 disciples, He tells them to "As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’"
In fact, in the book of Matthew, the word "kingdom" is used 53 times, 48 of those times referring to God's kingdom. 7 times Jesus mentions the kingdom in the Sermon on the Mount; 15 times Jesus mentions the kingdom in His parables, 10 of those times He starts the parable out saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like.."; 21 times outside of the Sermon on the Mount and parables the kingdom is the illustration or point of Jesus' teachings.

So, John's disciples heard from Jesus all about the kingdom of God (heaven). In the Lord's prayer He calls His followers to pray, "your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." (Matt. 5:10). They heard that the kingdom was now near to them...THIS is the incarnation - the Kingdom of God coming near to us in the person of Jesus Christ!

So, then, what did they SEE?
They saw the very things the prophet Isaiah had foretold:

• the blind receive sight (Matthew 9:27-31)
• the lame walk (Matthew 8:5-13, 14-17; 9:1-8)
• those who have leprosy are cured (Matthew 4:23-25; 8:1-4, 14-17; 9:20-21)
• the dead are raised (Matthew 9:18-26)

Jesus pointed to himself as the Messiah ~the Savior of the world~ and told them that they had already received the evidence of this through what He taught and preached and by what He did. The kingdom of God draws near to us and points us to the Savior. We see and hear evidence of His identity all around us. We too are called to declare who He Jesus is and then show those around us the evidence of Christ in us by what we say and do.

So, like I said at the beginning of this post, I was inspired by Anna Tapp's artistic notes and while I watched TV yesterday put my study notes on paper artistically.

I love rabbit trails when I'm in God's Word...and it's a bonus when art comes out of it!

One Picture

Through Pinterest this morning I ran across this picture:

{shaungroves.com}

 

It made my heart pause and then leap inside me. I love this verse. I dream about this verse. This verse gives passion and fuel to my life and ministry. I dream about the church here on earth reflecting this verse. As Jesus prayed, "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven". {Matthew 6:10}, I often pray that pictures I see in Scripture, such as this, may be realized in the here and now as they will be in heaven. This verse and pictures such as this make my heart long for racial reconciliation and for denominational lines to become blurry. It encourages me in working with families and children in low income situations. It gives me strength to push on in our ministry to public schools and their neighborhoods.

 

{classroomcollectivetumbler.com}

 

It also stirs in me to become more and more about promoting love of each other in the Body of Christ. Our unity and love for each other enables us to show the world the Incarnate Christ and helps draw people to HIM. "I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given then the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one; I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." {John 17:20-23}

 

Oh, how I need to grow in love for my brothers and sisters in Christ.

 

I love how art and Scripture come together for me and encourage me in my faith! All of this from viewing a picture on Pinterest! Let me leave you with one more:

 

{shaungroves.com}

 

And my favorite picture from camp last summer:

 

 

 



 



WIP: Missional

A few years ago, as our church began it's shift to an outwardly focused mindset, I began exploring what it means to be missional. But I got distracted by other things and slowly drifted away from my pursuit of understanding. I would occassionally dabble in it when I ran across a book, article or blog that pertained to the topic, but I didn't stick around and dig in. Lately I've been feeling the draw to return to digging into my pursuit of understanding this phrase and theology as it seems vital to where we find ourselves as a church right now...or at least where I find myself in my life and ministry.
So I thought peridoically I would write in WIP (work in progress): Missional to share what I am exploring as I explore it. It will be a way to help me formulate my thoughts and bring together all that I am reading. I'm not going to go back and start at the beginning of my studies from years past, but just dive into where I am right now.

At the root of studying missional is the question: What is our mission as God's people, as the Church? It's a question of purpose and identity. Yet is is also a question of mindset and lifestyle.

"Don't confuse missional with any methodology of "doing" church. Missional is about a way of "being" the church in the world. It's not about a what; it's about a who. The missional church is the people of God partnering in God's redemptive mission in the world...As the people of God we're to reflect God's heart to the world."

Reggie McNeal, Catching the Missional Wave, Rev Mag., March/April 2009

This past week I have been absorbed in looking at John's use of the word "sent" in his Gospel. John uses two Greek words (pempo and apostello) for sent/send in his Gospel and it is determined by many biblical scholars that their use is synonymous. An example of this is in John 20:21:

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

"Sent" is pempo and "sending" is apostello. John uses these words a total of 42 times in his Gospel, which is 27% of their combined usage in the New Testament.
 A.C. Winn writes in A Sense of Mission:

"A significant aspect of John the theologian's theological method is the repeated use of certain key words. He repeats ordinary words in such a fashion that they bear extraordinary theological freight. Such words include light, darkness, spirit, flesh, life, love, glory, witness, judgment, truth, Father, Son, world, work, sign, disciple, know, believe. It has not so often been noticed that there is a third great verb along with 'know' and 'believe', the verb 'send, sent'. This is the great missionary verb…" (Winn 1981:17 cf. Arias 1992:82).

So, from just this small amount of study on the frequency of John's use of the word "sent", I'm beginning to get a picture that not only is John's Gospel an evangelistic book and an edifying book, but it is also a missional book. 

"As the father has sent me, I am sending you." Jesus' mission is our mission. In many of the same passages where Jesus speaks of being sent by the Father, he also speaks of his own dependency on the Father.
"I tell you the truth, The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does....By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me." John 5:19, 30
"For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me." John 6:38
See also John 4:34; 7:16; 7:28; 8:28-29, 42; 12:49; 14:24.

Questions I'm pondering:

• What does it look like for us to be God's "sent" people in everyday life, both individually as Christ-followers and corporately as the church?
• If our identity as God's people is as those who are sent into the world as Jesus was sent into the world, how does that change the way we define the word mission and how we typically think of "missions" as simply a program of the church?
• What perspectives and mindsets do we need to change in the church to live and operate as God's sent people? To live missionally? To think missionally?
• Other words used for Christ-followers that have the feeling of being "sent" are ambassadors, messengers, apostles, missionaries. Does our view of how we live in everyday life change if we think of ourselves in these terms?
• If Jesus, the Son of God, was so dependent on God the Father, how much more must I/we be dependent on him to do the mission He has called us to?

The Fullness of Christ

" And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him, who fills everything in every way." Ephesians 1:22-23
I've been thinking about this verse for a few days now. Paul says the church is the fullness of Christ. How is the church the fullness of Christ? My thought is that it is incarnational. The church, Christ's body, is the physical form of His presence on earth. It is His fullness manifested. In its expression, the church is the fullness of Christ displayed, embodied. This morning I pondered other Scripture on how Jesus embodied God the Father.
Jesus is described as:
"He is the image of the invisible God." Colossians 1:15
"The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word." Hebrews 1:3
"the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." 2 Corinthians 4:4
"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth...No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known."  John 1:14, 18
"God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in the Son."  Colossians 1:19
"For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority." Colossians 2:9-10

We embody Christ through the words and deeds of His gospel. John the Baptist's disciples asked Jesus if he was the one who was to come, the promised Messiah. He replied: "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor." Luke 7:22

"As the Body of Christ, we are the community through which Christ is present in and reaching out to the world. The witnessing role of the church is the representation to the world (and to each other in the church) of the fact and opportunity of the gospel. To be the Body of Christ, then, means to be the channels through which the work of Christ continues to be done. Christ has committed to his church the proclamation of the great event of reconciliation that he accomplished on the cross, and, in that sense, the completion of the work he both began and did: the declaration of the "wonderful deed of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Pet. 2:9). As his Body, we are to incorporate ("embody") that message as we proclaim it."  Darrell Guder, Be My Witnesses, p28.

It is important that, as Christ-followers, we each embody Christ in us in word and in deed. But, I think it is more important, in light of Paul's description of the church as the fullness of Christ, to think about how the church corporately lives out our identity and role as the fullness of Christ. Together we embody Christ who embodied God the Father. We proclaim to the world in deed and in word the fullness of Christ. And one of those ways we embody this is through love. God always brings it back to that.
"No one has ever seen God: but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."  1 John 4:12
"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:35

Incarnational and missional. The fullness of Christ.