CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 40.6-10.

6.Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced; burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. 7.Then I said, “Here I am, I have come— it is written about me in the scroll. 8.I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” 9.I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; I do not seal my lips, as you know, O Lord. 10.I do not hide your righteousness in my heart; I speak of your faithfulness and salvation. I do not conceal your love and your truth from the great assembly.  

1st HYMN: I love to hear the story. [WORDS: Emily Huntington Miller, 1833 – 1913; MUSIC: “Angels’ Story”, Arthur Henry Mann, 1850 – 1930.]

 PRAYER:

 2nd HYMN: O for a thousand tongues to sing. [WORDS: Charles Wesley, 1707-88; MUSIC: “Lyngham”, T. Jarman, 1776 – 1861.]

 BIBLE READINGS: Romans 5.12-21;

12.Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13.for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14.Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. 15.But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16.Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17.For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.  18.Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19.For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. 20.The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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Jesus came to reveal, in His own life, God’s grace (v. 15). Adam sinned. And we who come from Adam share in his sin. But there is more. Not only do we share in original sin, but we add to it with sins of our own. Our first – and quite natural - reaction to the concept of original sin is that it is grossly unfair. Why should we share in Adam’s sin? How can this be just? Why should you suffer a penalty for a sin I commit? Why should we all have to suffer for Adam’s sin- a sin we had no say in; a sin we weren’t even around to see?

First of all, we must recognise a degree of arrogance in this attitude. The arrogance comes from thinking that, if we were Adam, we would have acted differently. This is rubbish. In its simplest terms, sin is disobedience to God’s laws. God says something, and we do as we like. Sin is the yielding to temptation. Now, everyday life shows that we are just as apt to give in to temptation as Adam was. We yield to temptation daily. How can we seriously think that we would not have yielded were we Adam. Our experience tells us otherwise.

But, again, there is more. The theological term used to describe our relationship to Adam is that he is our federal head. Adam represents us; he stands in our place and we stand (and, for that matter, fall) in him. When he sinned, we all sinned. Again, this seems unfair. But, let’s look at this situation from the other side. If we refuse to accept this as being God’s truth as revealed in Scripture; if we reject as being too unfair that we sinned when Adam sinned, then where does that leave us in relation to salvation? If we refuse to allow Adam – the sinner – to stand in our place as our representative, then we must reject the notion that Jesus – the Saviour - can stand in our place accepting the punishment that should have been meted out to us. If we refuse to accept that we sinned in Adam and suffer the consequences of that (i.e. death), then how can we logically accept Jesus as our Saviour and win the promise of God’s grace (i.e. eternal life)? We can’t hold to one whilst rejecting the other. Either both stand, or both fall.

The mission of Jesus was to live a life of obedience to God that Adam failed to live. The mission of Messiah was to live the life of obedience to God that we fail to live: thus reconciling us to God.

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Romans 8.1-4.

1.Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2.because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3.For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4.in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

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If you recall the words of Jeremiah when he speaks of the new covenant, you will recall, 31.“The time is coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32.It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. [Jer. 31.31f; NIV]                                      The problem with the first covenant was that there was a reciprocal responsibility for Israel to keep its side of the arrangement – to obey God’s laws. But, of course, this they failed to do – so the covenant broke down. Messiah’s mission was to inaugurate to new covenant (see, Lk. 22.20).                           1.Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2.because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3.For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

Do you see the import of Messiah’s mission? He was to reverse the effect of sin in the lives of God’s people by fulfilling in His own life the obedience that has been lacking in the life of every man, woman and child that has ever lived.

MEDITATION: Messiah ~ Mission

The promised Messiah has been born. He grew up in His parent’s home at Nazareth. Scripture tells us that He, “grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men.” [Lk. 2.52; NIV] This is the best-known description of the way Jesus grew up, but there is another one in Luke’s Gospel that is more overlooked yet, I would suggest, is more important. It comes a bit earlier in the Gospel, “And the child grew and became strong, he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.” [Lk. 2.40; NIV]

The first difference is that we are told that, not only did He grow in “stature”, but that He also “became strong”. It is possible to be physically big without being physically strong. But our Messiah was going to need strength if He was to fulfil His mission. To use His own words, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” [Matt. 8.20; NIV]

The mission of the Messiah was not to be one of comfort and plenty. It may be true that He did not cover a very wide area geographically, but He seems to be constantly on the move; and there were constant demands made on Him. His mission was one that would have to draw on great reserves of physical as well as spiritual and emotional strength.

The other difference is that we are told “and the grace of God was upon him.” John says, “17.For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18.No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” [Jn. 1.17f; NIV] And then, we read in Colossians,

15.He is the image of the invisible God… 19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. [Col 1.15a, 19, 20; NIV] So, here we have Messiah: bearing the image of God; engaged on a draining itinerant ministry for some three years; reconciling God to His people through self-sacrifice.

So, how can we sum up the mission of Messiah? Sadly, this is not as easy as it sounds. One of the problems is that Messiah’s wondrous miracles and divine (in all respects) words can get in the way. Now, I don’t want you to think that I in any way deny or denigrate the miracles or Jesus’ words, but I am saying that, sometimes, we can allow them to become so overemphasised that they seem to be His mission. But they aren’t. It is what lay behind the miracles and the words that is the true mission.

On the night of His betrayal, Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7.If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” [Jn. 14.6f; NIV]

This, I believe, is Messiah’s mission. Messiah came to reveal God to a world that had lost sight of Him. He came so that humanity could re-connect to God again. He came on a mission to reconcile a people to God – people who can in no other way be reconciled other than through the mission of Messiah.

The words and the miracles are guideposts to the mission – they are not, really, the mission itself. The words of Jesus tell us what the Kingdom of Heaven is like – a Kingdom we will inherit if we come on board with Him. He tells us the type of person God wants us to be. This is what lay behind the words of Jesus.

And, what about the miracles? They demonstrate in a dramatic way the benefits of being on board with Jesus. The gift of sight to the blind displays Jesus, the light of the world, breaking into human history. The giving of hearing to the deaf and speech to the dumb displays that we need to hear God’s Word and to proclaim it if we are to be disciples of Jesus. Gifts of healing – even of life after death – point to the perfection we will enjoy in Paradise. Again, the miracles are not the mission in and of themselves, they serve to validate and emphasise the mission.

The mission is to show:

1. the WAY into the Kingdom of God;
2. the TRUTH about God; and
3. the LIFE that becomes ours through the mission of Messiah.

The WAY to the Kingdom of God is getting on board with Jesus. It is in dying to the old way of life – the sinful way that has brought us into this mess we are in – and living to the new way – Messiah’s way. In such teachings as the Beatitudes and the parables of the Kingdom, we find Messiah fulfilling this part of the mission by informing us of the way to “glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”

The TRUTH about God is that He is holy and demands that we be holy too if we are to enter His presence. God does not wink at sin as we do. God does not treat sin lightly. The truth about God’s relationship with sin is that He cannot abide it. He hates sin so much that His own precious Son died for the sin of God’s people. “There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin.” This is true, and God hates sin so much that He would not let it go unpaid for. And so he paid the price – and what a price that was!

The LIFE we will inherit is one where all that Messiah spoke about on His mission will be evident and available to all His brothers and sisters. It is the life lived in Paradise – the new Eden – with God. There will be no flaming sword to keep us away from God. There will be free access to the Tree of Life.

Hear St. John, the Beloved Apostle, 1.Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2.I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3.And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4.He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 5.He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” [Rev. 21.1ff; NIV] And again, 1.Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2.down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3.No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4.They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5.There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. 6.The angel said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place.” [Rev. 22.1ff; NIV]  The mission of Messiah was to show us the WAY to attain this; the TRUTH about how God views the barrier that exists between His people and this; and the LIFE we can expect when we attain this.

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On the night of His betrayal, Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7.If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” [Jn. 14.6f; NIV]

Messiah’s mission was to reveal God to lost humanity. Paul writes, 15.He is the image of the invisible God… 19.For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20.and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. [Col 1.15a, 19, 20; NIV]

By revealing God to humanity, He showed the WAY to the Kingdom of God (i.e. identity with Jesus, with all that entails); the TRUTH about how seriously God views sin; and the LIFE that is full of joy and is destined to continue throughout eternity.

1. How attentive are you to the teaching of Jesus so that you can know the WAY to the Kingdom of God?
2. How diligent are you in Bible study and meditation upon God’s Word so that it becomes a living, vital part of your being?
3. How convinced are you by Scripture itself and by the witness of the Holy Spirit that the Bible is the Word of God – that it reveals God’s TRUTH?
4. How important do you feel it is to be conversant and intimate with God’s Word in order to lead others to a life lived in Jesus the Messiah? How conversant and intimate are you with God’s Word?
5. How convinced are you that, without Jesus, eternal LIFE will elude you?
6. How would you view the content and nature of Messiah’s mission?
7. Has that mission had a life-changing impact on you?

PRAYER:

CLOSING HYMN: Rock of Ages, cleft for me. [WORDS: Augustus Montague Toplady, 1740 -78; MUSIC: “Petra”, Richard Redhead, 1820 – 1901; “Toplady”, Thomas Hastings, 1784 – 1872.]

BENEDICTION:

Three-fold “AMEN”