Here are the notes from yesterdays message. I am behind on uploading sermons, sorry about that. I will try to catch up this week. I will also be posting some thoughts on Exodus soon! There is an interesting discussion on the previous post, chime in!
Genesis:
Episode I: The Righteous Rule of the King
(Key NT Verse – Galatians 3:8)
Intro:
- The Genius of Star Wars – episodes 4,5,6 leave us waiting for episode 1,2,3 20 years later.
- Now think about God’s Word. If you were a devout Jew living during the time of Christ, you would live in a time where there was 400 years separating the last recorded Word from God. God had not spoken authoritatively for 400 years. There are 39 books of law, history, wisdom, poetry, and prophecy that are inspired by God, yet only a few anxiously awaited the story to continue. The ones who waited, who really understood the story of the Old Testament, recognized Jesus as the Messiah. The signs were all over the pages of the Old Testament, but very few were waiting in such anticipation. The most religious of the Jews saw Jesus as a threat to their own plans. Just as Sarah saw fit to fulfill the promise of God for a son by giving her servant to Abraham, the Pharisees had given up on a literal Messiah. By their own law-keeping and political maneuvering, they thought they could usher in a new messianic kingdom. What they didn’t realize, was that they were the ones being used by God to bring his covenant promises to their fulfillment by nailing Jesus to a cross.
- But a few, a remnant, saw Jesus for who he was….the Messiah, the savior of the world, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, The Alpha and Omega! Those who experienced the gospel events and all of us who look back on those events and accept the gospel by faith, we have the beautiful experience of seeing the Old Testament more clearly. We have the opportunity to see and understand the Old Testament through the gospel event, looking backwards as the Old Testament helps us understand more clearly what God accomplished through the cross, on our behalf. So in Star Wars terminology – Genesis is Episode I and we get to look back at Genesis and see this beautiful book in light of the Gospel.
Introductory/Background Information
· Genesis in an anthology or a highly unified collection of works. Moses is the author of Genesis, as well as Exodus, Leviticus, numbers and Dueteronomy.
· 50 Chapters and 1,533 verses…it will take you about 3 hours to read Genesis in one sitting.
· Within the book of Genesis there are all different types of literature, but the main type of literature is the hero story, which is used to tell the history of mankind and in particular the history of God’s covenant relationship with Abraham and his family line.
· 1-11 – Primeval History – Universal Experience of the Human Race
· 12-50 is Patriarchal History – The Story of God’s Chosen Line
· Epic Story – one of the most dramatic books in all of history.
o Grand Narratives – such as the creation narrative/Flood Narrative
o Intimate Details – Gen. 29:20 – “So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.”
o Everyone should take the time to read the book of Genesis in one sitting!
Episode 1: The Righteous Rule of the King
– Key NT verse to unlock the OT book of Genesis (Galatians 3:8-9)
- Proeuaggelizomai – to proclaim the good news beforehand
I. The Kingdom of God Established(God’s Sovereignty) – The Pattern of the Kingdom is Established in Eden
a. God’s People
i. Human Kind is God’s Special Creation – created in his image.
1. We have special dignity before God
2. We are next to God in the order of things
3. We are the special focus of his care
a. The rest of creation exists for our benefit
4. Only Man knows God and is created to live purposefully for God.
b. In God’s Place
i. Perfect Environment
ii. Perfect Boundaries
c. Under God’s Rule
i. Man is a special creature who is ruled by his creator. We are uniquely responsible to God. We must give an account.
ii. God’s words have authority…
1. They design reality
2. They define righteousness
3. They determine life and death
II. The Kingdom of God Rejected – The Fall
a. God’s Word is Rejected
b. God’s Rule is Rejected
c. God’s Righteous Judgment is Enacted – (DEATH)
i. The Curse of Death – Eternal Separation from Fellowship with the Creator
ii. The Flood
iii. The Tower of Babel
d. God’s Sovereign Grace is Revealed
i. God’s grace is his unceasing loving commitment to a race that has acted in a way that not only does not deserve such love, but actually deserves the very opposite.
ii. God’s grace is sovereign because it is only by his initiative, by its very nature, grace must originate from the heart and mind of God.
iii. How is this grace revealed in Gen. 3-11
1. Preservation of the human race – God does not wipe humanity off the map. He gives Adam and Eve Children.
2. The Beginning of Redemptive History
a. God places his favor on Abel’s Offering
b. God gives Adam and Eve Seth, who takes the place of his murdered brother Abel in the favored line…. (Show family tree in PowerPoint)
c. Enoch is in Seth’s Line
d. Noah is in Seth’s line – 10 generations from Adam.
e. Noah and his family are saved from the FLOOD!
i. Notice faith and obedience working side by side in the life of Noah. The Brother is building an ark- it’s like building a bass boat factory in the middle of the Sahara Desert – what is the point?
ii. Noah trusted God’s Word and Submitted to God’s Rule and Rested in God’s favor.
iii. The Salvation of Noah and his family is an act of God’s grace leading to a new beginning.
iv. God’s mercy once again extends to the entire human race as he promises never to destroy the earth again with a flood.
III. The Kingdom of God Promised – God’s Covenant with Abraham
a. The Rest of Genesis focuses on God’s Chosen People – Beginning with Abraham.
b. God continues his plan, that started with Seth, to reclaim a people for himself, that will live in his place, willingly submitting to his rule.
i. (Show chart again revealing Noah’s family tree to Abraham)
c. God establishes a covenant with Abraham
i. Abraham’s Descendants would become a great nation
ii. These descendants would possess the promised land
iii. These descendants would be God’s own people
iv. These descendants extend to those not physically related to Abraham (Gen 12:3, 17:4-8 and Romans 4:16-18….don’t forget our key verse)
d. God demonstrates his Sovereign Grace is Keeping His Covenant Promises
1. God establishes his kingdom in a way that can never be attributed to man’s own devices.
2. (Read paragraph from page 121 of according to plan)
ii. God Remembers Sarah and she bears a son, Isaac
iii. God Places his favor on Jacob, who steals his brothers birthright.
iv. God Remembers Rachel, Jacobs’ beloved wife, a son – Joseph
v. God displays his sovereign power in the life of Joseph
1. Genesis 45:1-15/50:15-21
IV. The Righteous Rule of the King
a. Characterized by Grace
i. In the Genesis account of God’s chosen line of blessing, it is clear that God’s blessing is not deserved. It is a work of God’s Grace.
ii. Just as Noah and Abraham did not deserve the blessing of God, neither do we. We can do nothing to earn our salvation, Only Christ could do that.
b. Characterized by Sovereign Choice
i. God chooses some and not others as the objects of Grace.
ii. God is working out His plan, for his purposes, for His Glory.
iii. God election is a demonstration of Mercy
1. As we read the Scriptures together we cannot ignore the reality that God is keeping for himself a remnant that willingly submits to His rule. If God leaves sinful humanity to our own devices, we would all be swept up in the flood of his righteous judgement.
2. The Cross – Plan A, Not PlanB
c. Our Response must be Characterized by Faith:
i. The Faith of Abraham was not perfect, not always strong and sometimes borders on disbelief. (gives Sarah to the King, Hagaar
ii. Yet, at crucial times he takes God at his word and believes his promises.
iii. The key is not the strength of Abraham’s faith, but the strength, reliability and perfection of the God he trusts!
iv. Our response to God is a response of Faith- taking God at his word. This is the opposite of what Adam and Eve did in the Garden.
1. Have you trusted in the promise of God that your sins are forgiven because of what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross!
a. Jesus is the second Adam – he obeyed God completely
b. Jesus is our Ark – only if we go into him, will we be safe from the righteous judgment of God.
c. Jesus is the sacrificial lamb provided by God in our place, just as he provided a ram in Isaac’s place.
d. Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, who like Joseph, has been exalted and given a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that JESUS Christ is Lord!
