God’s Uncommon Family: Part 2

God’s Uncommon Family: Getting in the Family Business

Introduction:  a truly Biblical Worldview must include a Supernatural Worldview.

God’s family is very uncommon…because it consists of a Human and Supernatural family…making up the family of God…Now just because we are family doesn’t make us equal…

Mankind is above the Supernatural family…

Yet the supernatural family assists and helps the Human family when God says so:

  • Paul said: “be careful how you treat strangers because you may be unaware that you are entertaining Angels”
  • Elisha is surrounded by the Armies of Syria…Elisha told his servant…there are more here with us than are against us. When his servant’s eyes were open…he was able to see Angels on Chariots of Fire…
  • 3 Hebrew Children…there is one in the fire with them that looks like the son of God…
  • All through the bible I could show you Angels carrying out the plan of Communication and rescuing people…

Yet in all of these different scenarios…Angels are serving humanity…man does not and is forbidden to serve angels.

In Genesis 11 as I briefly mentioned last week…we see where God divorced Himself from People and started over with Abram…in Chapter 12 of Genesis…

Deut 32:8-9, 8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. 9 But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage. ESV

  • This passage is specifically speaking about Genesis 11…when humanity finally stated we don’t want Yahweh, Jehovah God to be their God…
  • God turned humanity over to their own gods…fallen angels, idols…etc.
  • Behind every idol is a spirit…this is what the children of Israel in trouble all the stinking time…
    • They’d repent come back to God…then all of a sudden, they are back to worshipping other gods…
    • Thus, the entire book of Judges…
    • One of the Ten Commandments is….”Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” Yet they would do it…
  • Interestingly enough on the Mission Field…or in some foreign countries when you are leading people to Christ…they will say “but my gods will be mad at me…”
  • What is going on in the middle east…and honestly the world…is a supernatural war. The Antichrist spirit against the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob…the God of Christianity.

Yet we are promised that “We, as Humans will be like Christ and joint heirs with Christ…too rule and reign with him forever.”

It is also promised to us that we will Judge Angels…

So it makes it all a pretty Uncommon Family!!!

We are Called to the Family Business

Jesus said it, “I must be about my Father’s Business…” God said of Jesus, “This is my son in whom I am well pleased…”  This is the conferring of someone who is announced that now they can do business on behalf of the Father as if the Father was negotiating the Deal.

This is why Jesus is so impressed with the Centurion…”I’m a man who has authority yet I’m under authority and I still recognize authority…just speak the word and my servant will be healed…”  Jesus was impressed and said:  “No greater faith have I found in Israel.”

Jesus is stating you my friend are a Roman pagan and get how the Kingdom of God operates…on borrowed and recognized Authority.

Transition:  The gospel is intended to be transformative.

2 Cor. 5:17 when embraced “is a new creation in Christ Jesus and the old has passed away, behold the new has come.”

2 Peter 1:3-5, 3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. ESV

  1. Eastern Orthodoxy
    1. Over the years, if you have been in my office library, I have become an avid reader. There was a time, when I had more time, I would read a book a week…now it takes me two or three weeks to read a book because of time.  But one of the things that intrigue me, in my reading, is studying different sides of Christianity.  See I enjoy reading Theological books…Historical Books and Practical books.
    2. Now I know we relate primarily to the Western Side of Christianity, but there is another side of this Mountain.
    3. The Great Schism which happen in 1051. The west being the Catholic and eventually including the Protestants, the Eastern Orthodox is the other side of the Mountain.
    4. From reading and studying Eastern Orthodoxy I have learned to appreciate some aspects of Eastern Orthodoxy. I’m not going to grow a beard and begin chanting but I have just learned to value a few of their contributions to the Mountain of God
      1. Two areas that I believe they add great contribution is: Incarnation and Salvation
      2. For the Eastern Orthodox they teach that it is the entirety of Jesus’ life that saves us, not just what Happened on Easter Weekend.
        1. All of the Life of Jesus is part of God’s program of Saving Humanity
  • The other aspect is the view of Salvation…
    1. On the Western side no matter Catholic or Protestant, the issue of Salvation is centered on sin and its consequences…
    2. The Eastern perspective does not disagree with that, but its emphasis is not sin, but recovering the Divine Nature that we have lost by Adam eating of the forbidden fruit.
    3. On the Western Side of Christianity especially in Protestant Churches we have a key verse that we center all of the Salvation Message upon: (JOHN 3:16)
    4. Eastern Orthodoxy has a central verse as well:

2 Peter 1:4, 4 By means of these He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape from the moral decay that is in the world because of covetousness, lust and greed, and become (partakers) of the divine nature. (AMP)

  1. That Word Partakers comes from the Greek word: Koinonia which means to have authentic Fellowship and Participation with ….
  2. Divine Nature is the Theos of God…
  3. God’s desire is…the reason Jesus came to die on the cross is not simply so that we can go to heaven though that is paramount…but that we might become Partakers of the Divine Nature of God…that we might recover that which was lost in the Garden by the first Adam but recovered through the LAST Adam, Jesus.
  1. Becoming Like God Without God
    1. Genesis 1:1 & verse 26
    2. Genesis 3:1-7
      1. The subtly of the serpent was not that Adam and Eve were to be like God…that was and if you will allow me to say it so boldly, is the purpose of God…for Humanity to be in His Likeness and in His Image…
        1. But what does that mean or what does that include:
          1. It includes two aspects
            1. Righteousness – Character of God
            2. Immortality – God never dies
  • This was God’s original intent…for humanity to be both Righteous and Immortal…

Prov 12:28, 28 Life is in the way of righteousness, and in its pathway there is no death but immortality. AMP

  1. The subtly of the Lie of the Serpent is not to be like God…for that was and is the desire of God but to strive to be like God without God…Therein lies the whole problem with Humanity…we try to make God like decisions / choices without God…we try to be like God without God.
    1. So by humanity eating of the tree it drove man into an appetite for sin…what is sin… it is summed up as Lust of the Flesh, Lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life…
    2. Money, Sex, Power and Pride
      1. These things are not bad until they are used outside of the parameters of God’s character
    3. God’s Plan is to save us from all of that…
      1. That is the reason why Jesus joined the Human race to save us from all of that and recover what Adam gave up in the Garden
      2. Let me put it this way…Jesus joined the Human race so He might lift the entire Human race out of sin and death.
    4. For us To Participate in the Divine Nature as Peter said, is for us to participate in Righteousness and Immortality….
      1. Jesus joined the Human race to save us from sin and through him restore us to participate in Righteousness and Immortality.
      2. That’s one of the reasons why Jesus was baptized…
        1. John was offering a baptism of “Repentance.”
        2. Jesus didn’t need to repent…but He wanted to join with sinners in Solidarity…coming among sinners not as a sinner but identifying with the sinner so that He might lift us up out of sin…
        3. Same way with death…Jesus went into death that he might defeat death and bring forth immortality for Humanity…
  • Here is the Perfect Example…”Men In Black…”
    1. How Many Remember the Movie or Have Seen the Movie
    2. Remember when the Alien…the big Cock Roach…eats that little planet that was around the cat’s neck…Then Tommy Lee Jones provokes the Bug…Remember what he does…He yell’s at the bug and says “eat me.” All of a sudden the Huge Roach eats the Hero and things look hopeless…then you hear that photon gun fire up and from inside the creature “our Savior” fires that gun causing the creature to explode and Tommy Lee Jones comes out carrying the world the bug had eaten….
    3. My friend that is the Gospel message…the enemy of Sin and Death had eaten our world and our hero Jesus came and lived a sinless life…had death eat him…so he could come forth and deliver us Righteousness and Immortality…
    4. He has given us the Opportunity to be Partakers in the Divine Nature of God once again…

Transition:  but how do we do this…and what is the family business.

  • Discipleship
    1. Discipleship is something we do as a result of believing the gospel.
    2. We imitate Jesus to show our love for him and for God…not to get love from Jesus or God.
    3. Discipleship Cost Something
      1. Following Jesus isn’t often easy.
      2. Being a disciple means making choices to love and honor God, to treat other image bearers knowing God desires to bring them into His family.
  • Think about Jesus’ life…
    1. It sure wasn’t easy
    2. The bible says, “Christ also suffered for you, leaving you and example, so that you might follow in his steps” (1Peter 2:21)
    3. Matt 22:37-40, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. ESV
  1. Let’s be honest…we know this often isn’t easy…but it is what we are to do to be image bearers of God…to be disciples.

Transition:  I’m afraid we have deduced Discipleship down to the acquiring of more Bible knowledge…but honestly Discipleship is Displaying the Bible Knowledge we already know as we grow forward.

  1. Why Live Like Jesus / Why Be a Disciple
    1. Here is the first reason NOT TO… is to get more of God’s Love…He Already Loves You…
    2. First, Sin is destructive and harms not only us, but those around us.
      1. I’ve seen this in my life.
      2. I’ve seen it in the life of the people over the years I have had the opportunity to Pastor.
  • Sin has within it…No Higher Calling…No Eternal Perspective…it only lives for today.
  1. I think 1 John 2 15-17 really sums up sins destructive ways: 15 Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. 16 Practically everything that goes on in the world — wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important — has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. 17 The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out — but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.

(MSG)

  1. The secondly living a godly life blesses others. Truth is the way we live and think either blesses other people or curses them.
    1. Blessing people is one of the most selfish, self-gratifying thing we can do…because of the fulfillment it brings.
    2. Our lives take on a compound and multiplying effect when in service to others.
  2. Thirdly, a godly life allow us to be a consistent witness for the gospel.
    1. We are saying by the way we live…this Good New thing called the Gospel works and transforms.
    2. If people look at my life and do not see any distinction from the unbelieving world, and don’t see a life lived in service of others, they won’t find the gospel believable…or at the very best they’ll just be confused.
  3. Preparing for the Family Business
    1. What does a Disciple do? We are doing people…we want to do something and accomplish something…at heart, I am a performance, productivity person…
    2. So What Do Disciples Do – DISCIPLES LOVE GOD, THEIR NEIGHBOR, AND EACH OTHER
      1. 1 Cor.13 tells us what that Love Looks Like
    3. Disciples spend time with other disciples – “iron sharpening iron”
    4. Disciples Pray
    5. Disciples Fast
    6. Disciples Worship
    7. Disciples Confess Sin and Accept God’s Forgiveness
    8. Disciples Study the Bible
    9. Disciples Suffer
    10. Disciples Make Other Disciples…in other words we are inviting people into the family business…
  4. Closing
    1. All these things are we do after we receive Christ…we don’t do these things to receive Christ!

 

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