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The message was given on December 8, 2013, at New City Church in Calgary by Pastor John Ferguson. For more info, go to www.NewCityChurch.ca.
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“The Mission of Christmas”
Genesis 12:1-4
God Gives Us His Words of Eternal Life
Found on pages 8-9 in our guest Bibles.
Today’s Scripture: Genesis 12:1-4
What is God’s Mission
Statement ?
1
The Background Story
The Creation: Gen 1
1The Rebellion: Gen 32
The Background Story
The Creation: Gen 1
1The Rebellion: Gen 32The Corruption: Gen 6
The Background Story
3
The Creation: Gen 1
1The Rebellion: Gen 32The Corruption: Gen 6
The Background Story
3The Scattering: Gen 114
The Creation: Gen 1
“Genesis 1-11 poses a cosmic question
to which God must provide a cosmic answer…
What can God do next?”
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go
Genesis 12:1
from your country and your kindredand your father’s house to the landthat I will show you….”
“And I will make of you a great
Genesis 12:2
great nation, and I will bless youand make your name great, so thatyou will be a blessing….”
“I will bless those who bless you,
Genesis 12:3
and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families ofthe earth will be blessed.”
“What can God do next? Something that only God
could have thought of. He sees an elderly, childless couple in the land of Babel and decides to make them
the fountainhead, the launch pad of his whole mission of cosmic redemption…
“The call of Abraham is the beginning of God’s
answer to the evil of human hearts, the strife of the
nations and the groaning brokenness of his whole creation. A new world,
ultimately a new creation, begins in this text.”
“…through your offspring all nations on earth
will be blessed.”
~ God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 22:18
Now the promises were made to
Abraham and to his offspring. It does not
say, “And to offsprings’ referring to many, but referring to one, “And
to your offspring,” who is Christ….
~ The Apostle Paul in Galatians 3:16
And the Scripture, foreseeing that God
would justify the nations by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to
Abraham saying, “In you shall all the nations be
blessed.”~ The Apostle Paul
in Galatians 3:8
“”
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’—so that in
Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the
nations….
~ The Apostle Paul in Galatians 3:13-14
image: Christopher Brown
You are the sons…of the covenant that God made with your fathers,
saying to Abraham, “And in you shall all the families of the earth be
blessed.” ~ The Apostle Peter
in Acts 3:25-26
God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your
wickedness.~ The Apostle Peter
in Acts 3:25-26
So Abram went, as the Lord had
Genesis 12:4
told him, and Lot with him. Abramwas seventy-five years old when hedeparted from Haran….
“Christians who commit themselves to the
mission of God in the world have to start with a
certain going out from the world….We need to recognize the idolatrous nature of the world and
all its claims and ideologies….
“There is a form of leaving and going that is
spiritual, mental, and attitudinal—even when it
is not physical….
“For it involves the abandonment of the
worldview through which the world tells its own
usurped story, adopting, in faith and hope, the
worldview of the story we are in—the biblical story
of God’s mission.”
!
Christmas is about God’s commitment to blessing
every nation on the planet in Jesus Christ
Main Idea
Rejoice over the worldwide scope of
God’s Christmas mission1
image: JD Hancock
And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy
are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by
your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe
and language and people and nation…”
~ The Apostle John in Revelation 5:9
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude
that no one could number, from every nation, from
all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before
the throne and before the Lamb…crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to
our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
~ The Apostle John in Revelation 7:9-10
Remember we have been blessed to be a blessing
2
image: asenat29
“And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the
promise.”~ The Apostle Paul in Galatians 3:29
We are called to be in the world
but not of the world yet for the world.
JD Hancock: http://www.flickr.com/photos/83346641@N00/5545810212/
asenet29: http://www.flickr.com/photos/72153088@N08/6510934443/
Christopher Brown: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7853490@N07/3531948937/
flickr images courtesy of:
other images:
photos.com: Bob Ainsworth / 96672813