Introduction:
Why do we exist as a church? What is the reason for
our existence?
Many people come to faith and have an incomplete view
of the plan of God for the church.
Ill.
Otherwise, we will be like the 3 men who were working
on a construction site
I am carrying bricks
I am placing the cement on the bricks
I am constructing a hospital that will save thousands
of lives
We need to have a vision for the church and a
biblical basis for why we exist and what is it we are called to be and do.
Or we can be like a family who came to church …
How was it today?
The music was too loud
The preaching was too long
Youngest – I don’t know what you are complaining about
– for the Rs. 10 we put in the offering we got cold drinks and chips for all of
us!
With an incomplete or faulty view of the plan of God,
we can become consumer Christians all the time asking the question – “What can
I get out of it”. “How does it suit me”.
Every church has a foundation. Eph 2:20 Eph 2:20
19 Consequently,
you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s
people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of
the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
This foundation needs to be laid in every church in
every generation.
This is what the church is going to be built upon.
Paul laid a clear foundation - knew what it was
and knew when he laid it.
1 Cor 3:10 10 By the grace God has given me, I
laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But
each one should build with care. 11 For no one can lay any foundation
other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Acts 14:22 strengthening the disciples and encouraging
them to remain true to the faith.
What is that foundation?
The narrative of God's plan throughout
scripture. The overall plan of God is revealed in Scripture. And
determines a biblical worldview.
The promises found in the Old Testament are
fulfilled in Christ and now worked out by those in Christ believers both Jews
and Gentiles
you cannot understand the New Testament fully
without understanding the Old Testament.
It was God's plan to renew the world to head up everything under Christ
We all have a worldview. What is a worldview? Every culture has a worldview. How the culture looks on the whole world. At the deepest level of culture often when we talk about culture we talk about external manifestations - what people wear, what they eat.
The deepest level of culture which you don't
know you have is how you look at the world. Worldview is essentially a story. World
view determines our beliefs and our behaviour
ill. food habits
some people don't eat pork
some people don't eat any meat - only
vegetables
some people don't even eat garlic potato and
onion
We all have a worldview shaped by our family,
school, religion, country
but it is not just food habits - all of life
is shaped by our worldview
What is the truth?
or rather - Who is the truth?
Jn 14:6 I am the way and the truth and the life ...
Jesus claims to be the ultimate truth
In the biblical worldview, we know the new story of what God wants to do in the whole earth - biblical worldview
A worldview is like wearing coloured glasses
wear blue glasses- see everything as blue
The narrative style of preaching generally
used by Jesus
he used parables and stories all the time our
worldview helps us interpret events
e.g. Luke 24:13 - The first Easter Sunday when Jesus was raised from the dead
Luke 24:27 And beginning with Moses and all
the prophets he explained to them all that was said in the Scriptures
concerning himself.
OT Scriptures
Jesus taught them the big story
Luke 24 Emmaus road
Jesus opened up from the Old Testament
Luke 24:77 And beginning with Moses and
all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures
concerning himself.
Going thru Genesis thru Revelation
Our task as church planters are to first get a
biblical worldview and then pass this on to the people we are reaching.
Another way to understand worldview is to understand the Grand Story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and
the earth created man and woman in his image the plan was to fill the earth -
with his glory
Gen 1:28 God blessed them and said to them, be
fruitful and increase in number. fill the earth and subdue it.
The Garden of Eden - the first temple where
God met with men and women
That is what a temple is - where God meets
with people - not a building
The idea was to spread that throughout the
earth
However, sin came into the world and instead
of it being filled with the glory of the Lord Gen 6:5 The Lord saw
how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and
that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the
time
the whole earth was filled with wickedness
But God started making promises as soon as sin
came into the world
God is a wonderful redemptive God who loves to
save
the first promise - promise Gen 3::15 And I
will put enmity
between you and the woman, and between your
offspring] and hers;
he will crush[b] your head, and you will strike his
heel.”
Notice the redemptive character of God – Adam and Eve sinned and God made a plan to rescue them.
The example of Noah. even when wickedness comes there will be a way to escape
Noah found grace/favour in the eyes of God
8 But Noah found favour in the eyes
of the Lord.
Noah
Not that he was not a godly man - but he found
favour/grace with God
After Noah came out of the ark the same
command was given - it was a missionary command Gen9:1
Adam and Eve had a missionary command to fill the earth
Noah and his sons had a missionary command to scatter
throughout the earth
Gen 9:1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons,
saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. so they started to do that then they
ran into a problem
Babel - was resistant to the plan of God to
scatter people
Gen 11:4 Then they said, “Come, let us
build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we
may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of
the whole earth.”
Babel is the first manifestation
of what keeps coming again and again and is opposed to the advance of the gospel
and the coming of the kingdom of God which is the Empire spirit. Right thru the
bible is where it is found.
So dominant that they
insisted that everyone speak the same language - which is what empires do
Daniel - spiritual conflict between
human empire and human domination and the working out of the kingdom of God.
God brings judgment on the empire of Babel
He then makes another promise brings promise
to Abraham
Gen 12:3 and all
peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
The people of god go to Egypt and become
slaves
the next promise like a dramatic demonstration
of what was going to come
A promise is not always words - can be a
drama :
rescued from slavery by the sacrifice of a
lamb and an act of great power
the lamb was sacrificed and the people of
Israel were saved and went through the red sea and enacted promise - a lamb and
an act of great power going thru the OT talking about the things concerning
Jesus' passover and acts of great power
and then the establishment of sacrifice
the glory of God coming down in the Tabernacle we get the book of
Leviticus which is all about sacrifice
get to Leviticus stumble through what do you
do with the fat around the kidneys
in the way the bible is developing it is very
important
it is saying sacrifice must be perfect God is
holy cant have access to his presence taking sin with you
Heb 9:22 Without the shedding of blood there
is no forgiveness of sin
it is very important and is referred to in the
NT
establishment of the Tabernacle and then the temple
what that was doing was referring back to the
original temple garden of Eden
Certain symbols within that
Tabernacle
Curtain - only high priest could
enter once a year
to remind them of the Garden of
Eden - cherubim to stop them from coming in.
In Exodus 25:18-22, God gives instructions
to Moses regarding the construction of the Ark of the Covenant, which was to be
placed in the innermost part of the Tabernacle. On top of the Ark, there were
to be two cherubim made of gold, facing each other with their wings spread out.
The cherubim were to be made as part of the cover of the Ark, which was known
as the "mercy seat." God said that He would meet with Moses there,
between the two cherubim, to speak with him about His commands for the
Israelites.
In Exodus 26:1, God instructs
Moses to make the Tabernacle, which was to be the place where God would dwell
among His people. The Tabernacle was to be covered with curtains, and on the
curtains were to be woven images of cherubim.
24 After he drove the man out, he
placed on the east side[e] of the Garden of
Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to
guard the way to the Tree of Life.
Read the details about the tabernacle -
cherubim on the curtains
Cherubin in the Garden of Eden guarding the
way to the Tree of Life
you can't come in
that is established the worship of God
Then the promise to David
a specific promise
from your seed, a king will come who will rule
the whole world forever
psalms came. They have a prophetic nature
Psalm 87: 3
Glorious things are said of you,
City of God:[a]
We need to ask ourselves how we fit in with God's plan rather than ask God what is your plan for us.
Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again), Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English-speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service. Word of Grace is part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.
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