Sunday, September 23, 2012

Scripture Is fulfilled in Your Hearing Today.



Slide #1
Sermon Title: Scripture is Fulfilled Today
Bible Text: Genesis 15:1-7; 9-19 NIV
Background Scripture: Luke 4:14-21
Series: The Truth About Truth

Slide #2
Key things we will learn about today:

  • God’s Covenant with Abram
  • God’s faithfulness to the covenant
  • The centrality of God’s faithfulness to this covenant throughout scripture
  • Jesus’ fulfillment of the covenant promises
  • Scripture’s role in understanding our covenant with God via Jesus Christ

Geneses 15

  • God speaks to Abram in Genesis 12

  • Abram questions the goodness of God’s blessings without an heir

  • God revisits him again in Genesis 15 and asks for an offering/sacrifice

  • The animals are cut in two & The smolder pot moves in between the 2 halves 
    • This is an ancient covenant method (2 parties walk thru the carcasses as a promise that the same thing will happen to each other if they break the covenant)

  • God is already showing us that He MUST keep the covenant because we aren’t not able to. This is why God died for us...it was the promise He made to Himself, on our behalf, to show us His love.

  • The Messiah’s death is proof that God is so committed to His love for us that he’d uphold His own covenant (with us) that required His death---we didn’t ratify that first covenant ..He did.

  • God came to Moses (as a tool) to keep Him promise to Abraham...a promise that Abram didn’t ask for.

  • Sinai came to remind the people of their heritage and God’s call to them to be his people and He’d be their God.
Luke 4

  • After 40 day of fasting and prayer Jesus went to Nazareth, his hometown

  • Jesus returned in power and the people praised him

  • Nazareth was considered a place that was ignorant of the Law and to be filled with radicals and sinful people.
    • Jesus threatened to expose a reputation they no longer wanted to be known for.


  • It was his custom to go to synagogue, today he reads Isaiah 61

  • Freedom was preached:
    • Spirit is on me
    • Jubilee (freedom after 50 years)
    • Recovery of sight
    • Set prison free
    • Set the oppressed free & declare the year of the Lord’s favor
    • (Political, economic and social liberty)

  • Jesus presented a radical side of God

  • Jesus declared that he was the fulfillment of scripture and Isaiah’s prophecy

  • “Don’t we know him?”

This Scripture was fulfilled and all were amazed...


Isaiah 61

  • Ancient text that foretold of Messiah’s arrival to fulfill scriptural promised from God to his people and the world.

  • Let’s look at Jesus’ claims:
  • The Spirit in upon me...
  • ..In order to preach the gospel to the poor (poor often are open to God)
  • preach liberty from oppression which cause pressure, fear, dread (vis a vis control over demonic forces)


THEN>>>

  • Quote: Physician heal thyself & that Prophets are not accepted at home

  • Widows in Israel in elijah’s time...he was sent to Zarapheth in the region of Sidon 

  • Naaman the Syrian was healed.

  • They became furious and drove him out of the town to throw him off the cliff.

[Jesus references this period was a low time in Israel’s history and rejection of God was rampant. God moved his works of mercy outside the nation to the region of Gentile.]

The idea that Jesus is also reaching outside the people of israel was offensive! They rejected Jesus because of who He accepted.


Demons knew that he was Messiah! They had to be silenced.

They didn’t know truth:

  • The truth was that God made promises to Israel that it would be God’s chosen people SO AS TO bring the entire world to God. They were so caught up with being special that they forgot God’s purpose for calling them.


Jesus’ work in Capernaum reflects upon the Covenant of God so beautifully:
  • Messiah would come thru Jewish bloodlines
  • Messiah would trump demonic forces
  • Messiah would bring the entire world to God
  • Messiah would break oppression and bring good news to the poor and downtrodden
Jesus basically taught the Jews that they couldn’t grasp who He was because they didn’t understand the OT. It was the OT scripture that recorded God’s word re: the coming Messiah.


☞Where do I want to end up with this sermon?
We need to understand scripture in order to really take advantage of God’s gifts to us. Scripture speaks of Jesus as God’s fulfillment of His promise


☞Why?
By better understanding our covenant relationship with God we become better messengers and ministers of that covenant! We aren’t fully living if we don’t understand the faithfulness and lovingkindness of God.


Slide # 3 (End of sermon)

☞Challenges/Next Steps
  • Pray Ephesian 3:16-19 repeatedly over yourselves and your family this week.
  • Make a commitment this week to learning how to study the bible. (“I’m committed to learning more about how God sees me and my world through His message.”)
  • If you don’t understand the message of scripture you’re either making wrong decisions about faith or you’re making no decisions at all...which is bad.

Slide #4

Questions to ponder this week:

1. Who would you be if there was no interruption (due to trauma, mistakes, depression, pride, lack of confidence) of your purpose? Scripture helps you become that person.

2. What are you waiting for that is already accomplished?

Slide #5

Closing Prayer: Ephesians 3:16-19 NIV

16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 
Amen~

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