Archive for the ‘Hebrews 1-5’ Tag
“Humans Are The Glory in God’s Love Story!” Pt.2
Filed under: Bible, By Pastor Timothy, By Tim Brassell, By Timothy Brassell, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Discipleship, Epiphany, Evangelism, Faith, GCI Windsor Mill, Maryland, God, God Father Son and Spirit, God the Trinity, God's love, good news, Gospel, Grace Communion Baltimore, Grace Communion International, identity in Christ, Inclusion, Jesus Christ, Love, Ministry, New Life Fellowship Of Baltimore Maryland, New Life Fellowship Of Windsor Mill, MD., On Mission with Christ, Participation with Christ, Participation with Jesus, Perichoresis, Prayer, relationship with God, Relationships, Scripture Paraphrases, Sermons, The Church, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, The Gospel Project, The Holy Spirit, The Plan of Adoption, Timothy Brassell, Trinity, Uncategorized, union, Union In Christ, Union with Christ, Witness, Witnessing to God, Witnessing to Jesus, Worship, Worshiping God, Worshipping Jesus | Tags: Adoption, Basic Christian Doctrine, Being In God's Family, Chosen In christ, Christian Faith, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Faith, GCI Baltimore, Glorified Humanity, God's Faith, God's Grace, God's love, Gospel, Grace Communion International, Growing Up In Christ, Having The Peace Of God, Hebrews 1-5, How God Reveals Himself, Humanity Revealed, Humanity Revealed In Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Our Humanity, Knowing The Father's Love, Life's meaning and Significance, Love, New Life Fellowship Baltimore MD, New Life Fellowship Of Baltimore Maryland, Relationships, Revealing Your Life's Purpose, Sharing God More Accurately, Sharing In God's JOy, Sharing In God's Laughter, Sharing In His Suffering, Sharing In The Divine Nature, The Basic Christian Belief, The God Who Is Love, the reason for your existence, Timothy Brassell of New Life Fellowship, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Understanding God, Understanding Human Beings, Understanding Life's Calling, Who Is God?, Who Is Jesus?
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Audio Part 2A:
Audio Part 2B:
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Scripture: Hebrews 1-5 (CSB)
Summary:
This second message builds on Part 1 by pressing deeper into the truth that Jesus Christ reveals both who God is and who humanity truly is. Drawing from Hebrews 1–5, Pastor Timothy Brassell reminded us that human beings are not a problem God needed to solve, but the very place where God chose to reveal His glory. From before the foundation of the world, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit purposed to share divine life with humanity and Jesus is the fulfillment of that eternal plan. As George MacDonald so beautifully expressed:
“I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of; for to have been thought about, born in God’s thought, and then made by God, is the dearest, grandest and most precious thing in all thinking.”
In Christ, God did not merely forgive humanity from a distance; He took our humanity as His own, lived it fully, healed it completely, and secured it forever. Jesus lived the entire human journey: birth, growth, obedience, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension, because every stage of human life needed renewal. Hebrews reminds us that immaturity is not a lack of effort, but a failure to keep Christ at the center. True maturity begins when we learn to see everything through Jesus.
This is why the incarnation is not simply God becoming one human among many, but God becoming humanity’s faithful representative. As T. F. Torrance states:
“He did not come to be merely one man among others, but to be man for all men.”
Salvation, then, is restoration rather than replacement. God does not discard humanity because it is broken; He cleanses it. Jesus clothed Himself in our humanity, entered fully into its suffering, and through faithful obedience purified and renewed it by the Spirit in the love of the Father. This is why the Christian life involves real suffering, not as punishment, but as participation in Christ’s redemptive work.
Hebrews proclaims the good news that Jesus Himself is our eternal security. Our salvation does not rest in our consistency, but in His faithfulness as the true human before the Father. We are called not to achieve salvation, but to keep receiving it, resisting apathy and growing up into the life already ours in Christ.
Jesus’ ascension reveals humanity’s destiny: to be fully alive, fully healed, and forever united to God. In Him, human beings are the glory in God’s love story. As C. S. Lewis reminds us:
“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
Key Themes and Reflection Questions:
1. Humanity Chosen in Christ 👑
Theme: Humanity was God’s intention from the beginning, fulfilled and secured in Jesus Christ.
Discipleship Question: How does knowing your humanity is chosen in Christ reshape how you see yourself?
#ChosenInChrist
2. Maturity Begins with Christ 🌱
Theme: Spiritual maturity is learning to see all things through Jesus rather than through self.
Discipleship Question: Where might Christ need to return to the center of your thinking and living?
#GrowingUpInChrist
3. Jesus Lived the Whole Human Life 🤍
Theme: Every stage of Jesus’ life mattered because every stage of our humanity needed healing.
Discipleship Question: Which part of Jesus’ human life gives you hope right now?
#JesusOurHumanity
4. Suffering as Participation 🔥
Theme: Suffering is not punishment, but participation in Christ’s work of restoring humanity.
Discipleship Question: How might your suffering be forming you rather than failing you?
#SharingInHisSuffering
5. Glorified Humanity and Living Hope ✨
Theme: In Jesus’ ascension, humanity is glorified and destined for eternal communion with God.
Discipleship Question: How does Christ’s ascension shape your hope for the future?
#GlorifiedHumanity
Reflective Moment:
Pause and remember: in Jesus Christ, your humanity has already been taken up, healed, and secured in God’s love. You are not striving to become acceptable, you are learning to receive who you already are in Him. Where you feel weak or unfinished, Christ remains faithful for you. Let gratitude rise, let your focus return to Jesus, and trust that God is gently growing you up into the life He has already given.
“Humans Are The Glory In God’s Love Story!” Part 1
Filed under: Bible, By Pastor Timothy, By Tim Brassell, By Timothy Brassell, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Discipleship, Epiphany, Evangelism, Faith, GCI Windsor Mill, Maryland, God, God Father Son and Spirit, God the Trinity, God's love, good news, Gospel, Grace Communion Baltimore, Grace Communion International, identity in Christ, Inclusion, Jesus Christ, Love, Ministry, New Life Fellowship Of Baltimore Maryland, New Life Fellowship Of Windsor Mill, MD., On Mission with Christ, Participation with Christ, Participation with Jesus, Prayer, relationship with God, Relationships, Resurrection, Sermons, The Church, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, The Gospel Project, The Holy Spirit, The Plan of Adoption, Timothy Brassell, Trinity, Uncategorized, union, Union In Christ, Union with Christ, Witness, Witnessing to God, Witnessing to Jesus, Worship, Worshiping God, Worshipping Jesus | Tags: Adoption, Authentic Humanity, Basic Christian Doctrine, Being In God's Family, Christian Faith, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Conversation Not Resolution, Faith, GCI Baltimore, God's Faith, God's Grace, God's love, Gods Love Story, Gospel, Grace Communion International, Growing in Grace, Having The Peace Of God, Hebrews 1-5, How God Reveals Himself, Humanity In Christ, Humanity Revealed, Humanity Revealed In Jesus, Jesus, Knowing The Father's Love, Life's meaning and Significance, Love, New Life Fellowship Baltimore MD, New Life Fellowship Of Baltimore Maryland, Participating With Christ, Relationships, Revealing Your Life's Purpose, Sharing God More Accurately, Sharing In God's JOy, Sharing In God's Laughter, Sharing In The Divine Nature, The Basic Christian Belief, The God Who Is Love, the reason for your existence, Timothy Brassell of New Life Fellowship, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Understanding God, Understanding Human Beings, Understanding Life's Calling, Who Is God?, Who Is Jesus?
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Part 1A Audio:
Part 1B Audio:
Full Audio Message:
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Scripture: Hebrews 1-5
Summary:
On the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany, the church received a powerful unveiling of God’s eternal purpose: Human beings are the glory in God’s love story. Epiphany is the season of revelation, and this sermon revealed that God’s plan has always been to share His life and love with humanity in Jesus Christ. This divine love story is Trinitarian from beginning to end, initiated by the Father, embodied in the Son, and shared with us by the Holy Spirit.
Drawing from Hebrews 1–5, Pastor Timothy Brassell emphasized that the Christian life is not about personal resolutions or self-improvement, but about conversion. God’s gracious work accomplished by the Father, through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit. True change does not begin with what we resolve to do, but with what God has already done for us in Christ and now lives out in us by participation.
At the center of this divine love story stands Jesus Christ, the authentic Human Being. Before creation, the Triune God determined to glorify Himself by becoming human in Jesus. The world was created so that Christ could be born, live as one of us, and bring humanity into union with God. As the book of Hebrews declares, Jesus is “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature,” the perfect image of what humanity was always meant to be.
This vision of humanity echoes the early church’s conviction that glory is not escape from being human, but fulfillment of it. As Irenaeus of Lyons famously wrote, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive; and human life consists in beholding God.” In Jesus Christ, humanity is restored, healed, and brought to life as it truly should be.
The sermon also made clear that Christ did not assume humanity temporarily. Jesus remains human forever, exalted above angels, seated at the right hand of the Father as a human being for us and on our behalf. As Athanasius of Alexandria testified, “He became what we are that he might make us what he is.” sharing His life with us by grace, not by nature. Our future as human beings has already been secured in Him.
A pastoral illustration drawn from a discarded diary page in the surrounding neighborhood revealed the limits of resolution-driven living and the deep hunger for clarity, identity, and belonging that marks life apart from the gospel. The church was reminded that the world is full of quiet cries for good news and that believers are called not to consume the gospel, but to share it.
Hebrews 5 issued a loving but serious warning: spiritual immaturity keeps believers from living fully into their calling. God invites His people to grow from milk to solid food, from passive consumers to active participants, trained by the Spirit to discern, teach, and live out Christ’s life in the world.
The sermon concluded with hope: Jesus still mediates authentic humanity to us by the Holy Spirit. Even now, by faith, we begin to reflect His life as sons and daughters of God. Creation itself is groaning for this Epiphany, the unveiling of humanity made whole in Jesus Christ.
Key Themes and Reflection Questions:
1. Humanity as God’s Glory ✨
Theme: Humanity exists to reflect and shine forth God’s glory, fully revealed in the Man Jesus Christ, the true image of God and the fulfillment of human destiny.
Discipleship Question: How does seeing Jesus as the true Human reshape the way you understand your own worth, purpose, and calling?
#GodsLoveStory #HumanityInChrist ✨
2. Conversion, Not Resolution 🔄
Theme: True transformation is not achieved through personal resolutions but through conversion, God’s gracious work of making us new in Christ by the Holy Spirit.
Discipleship Question: Where might you be relying on self-effort rather than trusting God’s work of conversion in your life?
#ConversionNotResolution 🔄
3. Jesus: The Authentic Human 👑
Theme: Jesus Christ is the radiance of God’s glory and the perfect expression of authentic humanity, exalted above angels and crowned with honor on our behalf.
Discipleship Question: In what ways are you learning to follow Jesus not only as Savior, but as the pattern of true human living?
#AuthenticHumanity 👑
4. From Consumers to Participants 🤝
Theme: The Christian life is not about consuming religious content but participating in Christ’s life, growing into maturity so we can share the gospel with others.
Discipleship Question: How is God inviting you to move from spiritual consumption to active participation in teaching, learning, and loving others?
#ParticipatingWithChrist 🤝
5. Growing into Glory 🌱
Theme: Through devotion to Scripture, fellowship, prayer, and the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Spirit forms us into mature sons and daughters who reflect Christ’s life in the world.
Discipleship Question: Which of these practices is God calling you to engage more deeply as part of your growth into authentic humanity?
#GrowingInGrace 🌱
Reflective Moment:
Epiphany invites us to pause and ask not simply what we should do next, but who we are becoming in Christ. In Jesus, God has already revealed what authentic humanity looks like, fully alive, fully loved, and fully at home with the Father. Our lives are not meant to be driven by anxiety, self-effort, or endless resolutions, but by trusting participation in the life Jesus shares with us by the Holy Spirit.
As you reflect this week, consider where you may still be striving to become something God has already given you in Christ. Listen again to the good news: Jesus remains human for you, mediating grace, restoring your humanity, and patiently drawing you into His life. Even now, by faith, His glory is beginning to shine through you. Take a moment to rest in this truth. Let the Spirit remind you that your story is already held within God’s greater love story and that your life, in Christ, truly matters.