Archive for the ‘Reconciliation with God’ Tag
Who and Where Jesus Is, and What He’s Doing!
Filed under: Ascension, Ascension of Jesus, Bible, By Pastor Timothy, By Tim Brassell, By Timothy Brassell, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Discipleship, 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, relationship with God, Sermons, The Church, The Dance and Dream of the Trinity, The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit, The Plan of Adoption, Timothy Brassell, Trinity, Uncategorized, Union In Christ, Union with Christ, Witness, Witnessing to God, Witnessing to Jesus, Worship, Worshiping God, Worshipping Jesus | Tags: Adoption, Ascension, Ascension Sunday, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Ephesians 1, Ephesians 4, Forgiveness of Sin, Glorified Humanity, God's Throne of Grace, Godly Encounter, Gospel, Human Being Perfected, Human Destiny, Jesus, Jesus Rules Everything, Jesus' Ascension, Love, Our Father's Help, Pastor T, Pastor Timothy Brassell, Pastor Timothy Brassell of New Life Baltimore, Pastor Timothy Brassell of New Life Fellowship, Reconciliation to Jesus, Reconciliation with God, Relationships, repentance, The Ascension of Jesus, The Father's Will, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Turning From Sin
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Part 1A
Part 1B
Scripture: Ephesians 1, 4
Introduction:
Summary and Goal:
On this Ascension Sunday, we ask, “Who is Jesus Christ?” And, “Who are you, Lord?” We get the incredible response and reminder that He is the Father’s Son in the Holy Spirit Who, as the God/Man, is The Way, The Truth, The Resurrection, The Life, and The Ascended One!
Theological Theme:
As the Ascended One, Jesus is ruling over all things with his Father and the Holy Spirit as the God/Man! Though He is living with the limitations of our glorified human nature, he is also living with the unlimited nature of his God Being, as one Person with two natures! Ruling over the earth was always Jesus’ destiny, even if we hadn’t sinned, for God alone can rule over all things within creation and outside of creation! God alone can rule over the visible as well as the invisible! Apart from Christ, no one can do anything! This is not just a statement coming from the fact that we have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory! Only the Father Son and Holy Spirit God can pull off Their real, full, and final goal inside their creation; the goal of the adoption of mankind into Their relationship!
Christ Connection:
In Jesus’ being conceived by the Holy Spirit, he has started something fresh and new right here in the middle of our broken humanity (for he was not born of the will of fallen man but of God). In his fleshly life as a baby, a child, a teenager, a young adult, and a full-grown man, he has completely undone every obstacle and all sin between the Father and us. We can relate with him and the Father and come before his throne of grace boldly to receive mercy in time of need! In his suffering and crucifixion, and his ascension to heaven as a fully glorified Man before the Father, Jesus is sharing everything He is and has with our human nature in the Holy Spirit.
Missional Application:
In the grace and power of the Holy Spirit Who is with us, and through whom Jesus knocks on the door of our hearts to live inside us, you can now turn and come to the Father! Through Jesus the Son you can live a life that glorifies God—great things Jesus has done! You are called to live in unity with Jesus and the Father by receiving the Holy Spirit, a relationship that is offered to you freely! You are summoned in Jesus by the Spirit to embrace and stop rejecting the Father! You are called to understand Jesus and stop putting off understanding Him! You are called to enjoy the Holy Spirit and stop grieving Him! You are called to receive and share this Good news with others!
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“Jesus: ‘Look, I Am Making Everything New!'”, Part 2
Filed under: Bible, By Pastor Timothy, By Tim Brassell, By Timothy Brassell, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Discipleship, 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, Sermons, The Church, The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit, The Plan of Adoption, Timothy Brassell, Trinity, Uncategorized, Union with Christ, Witnessing to God, Witnessing to Jesus, Worship, Worshiping God, Worshipping Jesus | Tags: All Things Made New, All Things New, Becoming Glorified, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Directed to Jesus, Direction, Forgiveness, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, God's Character, God's Encouragement, God's Mercy, God's Warnings, Good News Of The Gospel, Gospel, Grace Communion Baltimore, Grace Communion International, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jesus Is Risen, Jesus Lord of All, Jesus Makes All Things New, Jesus Savior Of All, Jesus The Resurrection, Jesus' Resurrection, Love, Maturity In Christ, Ministry of the Holy Spirit, Pastor Timothy Brassell of New Life Baltimore, Pastor Timothy Brassell of New Life Fellowship, Personal Receptivity, Personal Relationships, Personal Response, Reconciliation with God, Relationship vcs. Individualism, relationship with God, Relationships, Revelation 21, Sanctification, The Grace of God, The Love of God, transformation, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Trust In Jesus
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Scripture: Revelation 21:1-8
Introduction:
The Lord Jesus Christ Is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! So, “Who is Jesus Christ?” “Who are you Lord? And the answer he gives is that He himself is the Resurrection and the Life! The scriptures themselves testify to Jesus Christ as the person around whom all things revolve and the One to Whom we should all turn and be directed.
Theological Theme:
Holding this two all together we can say that the Gospel is the Good News about Jesus Our Resurrection, and therefore the Resurrection is primarily about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ (personal doesn’t mean individual! It means sharing in Jesus relationship with his Father, the Spirit and all things!) It IS also about a glorified body! But it must be clarified in our day that Easter/Resurrection is a proclamation of the Fact that: You’re not just going to rise from the dead, you’re going to rise before, and accountable to Jesus Christ!
Christ Connection:
Relationship with Jesus is a priority ahead of receiving a new and glorified body! Because Jesus is not only the Resurrection but the Father’s Son, He is God and therefore present to us now in the Holy Spirit! He is Not first far off, but up close! He is “The God who made the world and everything in it—he is Lord of heaven and earth— [and he] does not live in [things] made by hands. 25 Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things. 26 From one man[e] he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. 27 He did this so that [we] might seek God, and perhaps [we] might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 For in [the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit] we live and move and have our being,” – Colossians 1:24-28a
The picture you should have in your head about God is one where the Father embraces and seeks to embrace you through his arms of Jesus and the Holy Spirit! And Jesus is central because he is the one who takes us to the Father and sends us the Holy Spirit, so…
“We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me.” (Col 1:28-29)”
Missional Application:
In participation with Jesus Christ, by the Spirit, and to the Glory of the Father, we continue to proclaim Jesus to all and encourage all to place their faith in Him and enter a trust relationship with Him!
“the ministry of the Holy Spirit is personal and personally transforming—it is dynamic and interactive, bringing about receptivity, responsiveness and participation. And the result is that we are on a journey towards spiritual maturity and full sanctification, being changed into the likeness of Christ. But this journey is not automatic, causal, or impersonal. It is not mechanically imposed on all believers…receptivity and participation do make a difference, [and so] the New Testament indicates the differences it makes and encourages, exhorts and even commands us to be receptive to the Word of God and the ministry of the Spirit out of trust in God’s faithfulness through the Son and in the Spirit. As Paul exhorts in Eph. 5:18, we are to be “filled with the Spirit.”
These personal distinctions related to personal participation should not be taken to mean that God is faithful to some but not to all. The difference our personal responsiveness makes does not condition God into changing his purpose and aim for us and all humanity. It does not make God for some and against others, and it certainly does not lead him to want to see those who are unresponsive perish.
Our personal response (or lack thereof) to God cannot undo the fact that Jesus is and remains Lord and Savior of all. The character and purpose, mind and heart of God remain just as they have been revealed in Christ. The finished work of Christ is never undone—God remains, in Christ, reconciled to all people, no matter their response. He has and holds out forgiveness for them, is ready to receive them back into fellowship with him, and in that sense accepts them. However, while God accepts them, he does not accept their rejection, their sin, their rebellion, but accepts them in order to do away with what is against them and against their participation in the reconciliation accomplished for them in Christ. Nothing changes that reconciliation (with all it means), not even a person’s complete or partial rejection of God’s gift. However, our personal response (participation) does affect the quality of our lived relationship with God and thus our personal experiencing of the benefits of Christ.”
-Dr. Gary Deddo
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“JESUS: The Most Important PERSON and TASK For Everyone! Part 2” (Jesus’ Human Life / The Biblical Worldview)
Filed under: Bible, By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Evangelism, Faith, GCI Windsor Mill, Maryland, God, God Father Son and Spirit, God's love, good news, Gospel, Grace Communion Baltimore, Grace Communion International, identity in Christ, Jesus Christ, Love, New Life Fellowship Of Baltimore Maryland, New Life Fellowship Of Windsor Mill, MD., On Mission with Christ, Participation with Christ, Participation with Jesus, relationship with God, The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Timothy Brassell, Uncategorized, Union In Christ, Union with Christ, Worship, Worshiping God, Worshipping Jesus | Tags: Baptism, Christian Living, Christianity, Christmas, Church, Faith Seeking Understanding, Gospel, Grace, Human Life, Human Nature, Human Nature Renewed, Important Relationships, Important Tasks, Jesus, Jesus' Human Life, Life Priorities, Love, Luke 2:52, New Life Fellowship Of Baltimore Maryland, Reconciliation with God, Relationships, The Baptism of Jesus, The Biblical Worldview, The Incarnation, The Incarnation of the Son, Timothy Brassell of New Life Fellowship, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Vicarious humanity of Christ
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Part 2A:
Part 2B:
Part 2C:
Full Message:
Bible Verses: Luke 2: 52 (Various Scriptures)
Theological Theme:
In relationship with Jesus His faith in us causes us to seek understanding about Who He is in His Person and Deeds, taking into account the entire course of His Human Life, with the help of the Holy Spirit. We’ve rehearsed Jesus’ Person and Work by grasping more of the meaning of His Virgin Birth. In this message we understand more basic and fundamentally the meaning of His Incarnate Life!
Christ Connection:
When Jesus lived He lived our life, meaning that as the Son of the Father united to us in our human nature He was the God/Man renewing our fallen human nature from the inside because he never sinned in it. Just as in Adam the human nature in which we all have shared became fallen, so in the one person of Christ the human nature in which we all shared was made right and saved! Jesus is more significant than Adam because He not only shared in our fallen human nature, but was also the One in, through, for and by Whom all things are created and made! He was both God and Man. This means that by his one human life, the human nature of everyone is now set on an entirely new basis! Where sin abounded (Adam), God’s grace in abounds even more (in Jesus!!)
Missional Application:
“Jesus embodied the unreserved presence of God with and for sinners. “Those who are well have no need of physician,” Jesus declares, “but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mt. 9:12f.). Christ’s incarnate humanity — his entire life, death, and resurrection among and on behalf of sinners — provides the basis for and the reality of reconciliation. He stands in our place and acts on our behalf to heal our humanity. His vicarious humanity — i.e., his substitutionary life and death in our place and representative humanity on our behalf — reconciles us to one another and to God. Social reconciliation is both an indicative and an imperative of the gospel of Jesus Christ, both gift and task, both command and promise.” – Ray Anderson
So, as we experience reconciliation with the Father-Son-Holy-Spirit-God that Christ accomplished, and because it is social – touching the lives of every human being – we share this Good News with others that they, too, might trust Christ and experience the gift and promise of real human life before the Father along with other believers!
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Grace To A Runaway Slave!
Filed under: Bible, By Ann Vinson, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Discipleship, 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, Liturgy, 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, 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: Active Participation With Jesus, Adoption, Christian Living, Christian Reconciliation, Christian Unity, Christianity, Cross, Cross of Christ, Discipleship, Duty, father, former slaves to sin, GCI Baltimore, God Father Son and Spirit, God in Flesh, God Incarnate, God Likes You, God the Trinity, God's Faith, God's Faithfulness, God's Gift, God's Grace, God's Healing, God's Hope, God's Humility, God's love, God's Love And Life, God's Mercy, God's Mission, God's Patience, God's Power, God's Presence, God's Salvation, God's Unconditional Love, Gospel, Gospels, grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, Grace Communion International, Grace To a Runaway Slave, heralds of reconciliation, Humanity Uplifted, Humility, Humility of God, Humility of Jesus, Incarnation, Included In Christ, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jesus Is God's Love Revealed, Jesus Is God's Salvation, Jesus Is Our Salvation, Jesus is the way the truth and the life, jesus ministry, JESUS THE CHRIST, Jesus Transforms, Jesus' Reconciliation, Jesus' Authority, Jesus' Presence, Jesus: True God True Man, law, Love, Obligation, Oneness, Oneness in Christ, Outpouring Of The Holy Spirit, Participation with Jesus, Participation with Jesus Christ, Pastor Timothy Brassell of New Life Baltimore, Perichoresis, philemon, Philemon 8-22, Purpose, Racial, Racial Reconciliation, Receiving God's Love, Reconciled, Reconciled To God, Reconciliation, Reconciliation to Jesus, Reconciliation with God, Relationship With Jesus, Relationships, Salvation, Salvation By Grace, Salvation By Grace Alone, Salvation In Christ, sameness, Sharing God's Love With Others, Slaves, Spiritual Maturity, The Father, The Father's Love, The Father-Son-and-Spirit-God, The Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit Of Love, The Holy Spirit's Power, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Unconditional, unconditional acceptance, Unconditional Love, Union and Communion, Union With Jesus, Union with Jesus Christ, Wholeness in Christ, Worship, Worshipping Jesus
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Part A:
Part B:
Full Message:
Bible Verse: Philemon 8-22
Introduction:
In his short letter to Philemon, Paul made an appeal for oneness and unity in Jesus Christ. He placed himself in the middle of a broken relationship between Philemon, a slave master, and Onesimus, a runaway slave. Contained within this story of reconciliation, grace, and de-exaltation is the gospel itself. A slave himself, Paul urged Philemon to consider love—not law, duty, or obligation. His instruction to receive Onesimus as a brother, not a slave, challenges us to evaluate our pride and align our perspectives of others with Christ’s perspective. In this letter, Paul helps us reflect on the racial, radical, and redemptive reconciliation Christ offers.
“The salvation secured by Christ in the gospel is more comprehensive than justification alone: it brings repentance, wholeness, love for brothers and sisters in the Christian community.” –D. A. Carson
Outline:
1. Appealing to Love, Not Obligation (Philem. 8-14)
Like Philemon, love is to be our motivation for obeying God in all things. We can easily fall into the trap of obeying God primarily out of obligation. We obey because we have to. We know we should. While this is certainly true—God has given us commands, not suggestions in Scripture— obligation cannot be what prompts our obedience. Love must be.
Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commands (John 14:15). Love fuels obedience; obedience verifies love. A steady diet of love fattens obedience, but obligation will starve it at some point. This is why Jesus fused the two together. Our love for God produces obedience that pleases Him and also brings Him glory as the world around us sees us joyfully obey.
2. Accepting a Brother, Not a Slave (Philem. 15-17)
“Love all men, even your personal enemies, not because they are brothers but in order that they may be brothers, in order that you may always burn with brotherly love, whether for one already become a brother or for an enemy so that by [your] loving he may become a brother.” –Augustine
3. Anticipating Grace, Not Duty (Philem. 18-22)
If we as Christians only obey God out of a sense of obligation or duty, then we commit the sin of the Pharisee: righteousness without right-heartedness. God desires that our obedience come from the heart.
After committing adultery with Bathsheba, David discovered, “The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. You will not despise a broken and humbled heart, God” (Ps. 51:16-17). God cannot overlook a broken heart. He collects them, tends and mends them. Duty is a harsh master, but through the cracks of a broken spirit, the Holy Spirit enters into us and distributes grace to every limb. Paul had a broken heart when he penned his letter—a heart that Philemon could heal by demonstrating the grace of Christ to Onesimus. “Refresh my heart in Christ,” he instructed (Philem. 20).
Theological Theme:
Christian reconciliation models the cross of Christ.
Contained within this story of reconciliation, grace, and de-exaltation is the gospel itself – a gospel that regardless of background, skin color, class, or cultural difference unites God’s [Father-Son-Holy Spirit] family members and demonstrates the reconciling power of the cross. Christian unity is not about sameness; it’s about oneness.
Christ Connection:
When Paul appealed to Philemon on behalf of the runaway slave Onesimus, he placed himself in the middle of their broken relationship. In order to make peace, he volunteered to pay Onesimus’ debt. Through this action, Paul modeled Jesus Christ, who is the peacemaker between God and sinful humanity. By volunteering to pay our debt, Jesus reconciled us to God and to each other.
Missional Application:
God, through his Holy Spirit, calls us to live as peacemakers who reflect the heart of our crucified Savior.
Conclusion:
Jesus once promised that He would “go away and prepare a place for you” (John 14:3).
After the toils of life are over, God will declare your emancipation also. Like Paul, you will escape “this body of death” (Rom. 7:24) and abscond to your mansion in glory—a home where “neither moth nor rust destroys” and “where thieves don’t break in and steal” (Matt. 6:20). This future home is what should motivate us today. Because we anticipate entering Christ’s presence and basking in His love and grace as His brothers and sisters, we give to others today what we will receive then. It is the least we, all former slaves to sin who are now one family in Christ, can do for one another.
“We have but one leading aim, to which it is our deliberate and unreserved desire that every thing else in which we are concerned may be subordinate and subservient—in a word, that we are devoted to the Lord, and have by grace been enabled to choose him, and to yield ourselves to him, so as to place our happiness in his favor, and to make his glory and will the ultimate scope of all our actions.” –John Newton
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The Preeminence Of Jesus Christ!
Filed under: Bible, By Richard Andrews, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Discipleship, 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, Liturgy, 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, Pentecost, 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: Active Participation With Jesus, Adoption, All Are Included In Christ, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Colossians 1, Colossians 1: 15-23, Cross, Discipleship, father, focused on Jesus Christ, Fruit of God's Grace, GCI Baltimore, God - Father-Son-and Holy Spirit, God Father Son and Spirit, God in Flesh, God Incarnate, God Is Love, God Likes You, god the father, God the Trinity, God's Faith, God's Faithfulness, God's Gift, God's Grace, God's Healing, God's Hope, God's Humility, God's love, God's Love And Life, God's Mercy, God's Mission, God's Patience, God's Power, God's Presence, God's Unconditional Love, Gospel, grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, Grace Communion International, heralds of reconciliation, Humanity Uplifted, Humility, Humility of God, Humility of Jesus, identity in Christ, Incarnation, Included In Christ, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jesus Is God's Love Revealed, Jesus is the way the truth and the life, jesus ministry, JESUS THE CHRIST, Jesus the preeminent one, Jesus Transforms, Jesus' Authority, Jesus' Cross, Jesus' Presence, Jesus: True God True Man, Love, Outpouring Of The Holy Spirit, Participation with Jesus, Participation with Jesus Christ, Pastor Timothy Brassell of New Life Baltimore, Perichoresis, preeminent, Purpose, Receiving God's Love, Reconciled, Reconciled To God, Reconciliation, Reconciliation to Jesus, Reconciliation with God, Relationship With Jesus, Relationships, resurrection of Jesus, Salvation, Salvation By Grace, Salvation By Grace Alone, Sharing God's Love With Others, Spiritual Maturity, Spirituality, The Father, The Father's Love, The Father-Son-and-Spirit-God, The Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit Of Love, The Preeminence Of Jesus Christ, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Unconditional, unconditional acceptance, Unconditional Love, Union and Communion, Union With Jesus, Union with Jesus Christ, Wholeness in Christ, Worship
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Part A:
Part B:
Full Message:
Bible Verses: Colossians 1:15-24 2: 3
Introduction:
What is the outlook you have in your life? Do you see Jesus?
How and what we see is so important for the life we live today, the relationships we have, and to the words we speak today. Our outlook/view is so important to our walk, ministry and testimony.
“We should be focused on The Father, Son and Holy Spirit and The God who is revealed in Jesus”
“We should be (given the context of the lives that we live today, given all things that we’re going through, through the tears, celebration, through the relationships, through the work and through the worry) focused on Jesus, who is supreme, who is central, and who is sufficient in and for all things, and for all times.”
Paul wrote the letter to the church at Colossae when he learned through Epaphras that heretical teachings were running through the church. Paul’s letter pointed the church to the person and work of Jesus Christ. The cross of Christ is not merely a theory for theologians to ponder; it’s a real-life, realtime reality that heals, restores, and reconciles. Through the cross, Christ reconciled us to the Father, reconciles all things in Himself, and reconciles us to one another.
Paul focuses on the reconciling work of Jesus and focuses our attention on reconciling in 3 different areas in our lives:
1. Christ is preeminent in His reconciling all things. (Col. 1:15-20).
2. Christ is preeminent in His reconciling us to God. (Col. 1:21-23).
3. Christ is preeminent in His reconciling us to one another. (Col. 1:24–2:3).
Theological Theme:
Through His work on the cross, Christ is restoring the world and reconciling us to God [Father-Son-Holy Spirit] and to one another.
Christ Connection:
Jesus is the preeminent one. Growth and maturity are firmly established on that precept.
“For everywhere He is first; above first; in the Church first; for He is the Head; in the Resurrection first.” –John Chrysostom
In prison, Paul encouraged God’s people by proclaiming the magnificence of Christ—His identity as God’s Son and His work on the cross to reconcile us to God. Christian growth and maturity does not take place through moving beyond the gospel to other Bible teaching but through continually refocusing our attention on Christ—who is the focus of the Scriptures and the head of the church
Missional Application:
God, through His Holy Spirit, calls us, as those who have been reconciled to God, to be heralds of reconciliation to the world.
Conclusion:
Just as Christ is preeminent in His reconciling creation, He is preeminent in His reconciling us to God, which He accomplished through taking on flesh and then laying His life down on our behalf. Because of the blood He shed on the cross, we are no longer alienated, hostile, and evil. That is the old person who has been put to death with Christ on the cross. In that person’s place, we have received new life, new identity, in Christ. And it is this new person who has been declared holy, faultless, and blameless whom Christ presents to the Father. This is the fundamental change of Christ’s reconciliation. He has undone sin’s curse. He has restored that which was broken. He has made right that which was wrong. He, not us, has accomplished this work of reconciliation. And this is why He receives all the glory of our salvation.
By the cross, Christians enter into a personal relationship with the Man of Nazareth who, being fully God and fully man, suffered with us, suffered for us, and suffers through us as we “weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15). The beams of the cross point us upward (Christ), downward (grounded in the faith), and outward (loving others). Be careful to keep those three beams together, for if we become deficient in one, the others will fall apart. May we proclaim a whole redemption through a whole Christ to a world that is not yet whole.
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The Most Important Priority For Everyone Everywhere! Part 1 (Our Christian/Biblical Worldview)
Filed under: Bible, By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Discipleship, 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, Pentecost, Perichoresis, Prayer, relationship with God, Relationships, Sermons, The Church, 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: Active Participation With Jesus, Adoption, All Are Included In Christ, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Colossians, Colossians 1, Discipleship, Faith, Faith in God, Faith in Jesus, Faithfulness, father, Fruit of God's Grace, GCI Baltimore, God Father Son and Spirit, God in Flesh, God Incarnate, God Likes You, God the Trinity, God's Faith, God's Faithfulness, God's Gift, God's Grace, God's Healing, God's Hope, God's Humility, God's love, God's Love And Life, God's Mercy, God's Mission, God's Patience, God's Power, God's Presence, God's Unconditional Love, Gospel, Gospels, grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, Grace Communion International, Humanity Uplifted, Humility, Humility of God, Incarnation, Included In Christ, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jesus Is God's Love Revealed, Jesus is the way the truth and the life, jesus ministry, JESUS THE CHRIST, Jesus Transforms, Jesus' Authority, Jesus' Presence, Love, Outpouring Of The Holy Spirit, participating with God, Participation, Participation with Jesus, Participation with Jesus Christ, Pastor Timothy Brassell of New Life Baltimore, Perichoresis, Priority, Purpose, Receiving God's Love, Reconciliation, Reconciliation with God, Relationship With Jesus, Relationships, Salvation, Salvation By Grace, Salvation In Christ, Sharing God's Love With Others, Spiritual Maturity, Spirituality, The Father, The Father's Love, The Father-Son-and-Spirit-God, The Father-Son-Holy Spirit-God, The Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit Of Love, The Holy Spirit's Power, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Unconditional, unconditional acceptance, Unconditional Love, Union and Communion, Union With Jesus, Union with Jesus Christ, Wholeness in Christ, Worship, Worshipping Jesus
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Part 1A:
Part 1B:
Full Message:
Bible Verses: Colossians ( Various Scriptures)
Introduction:
Over the past few Gospel messages we’ve been sharing in the mind of Jesus Christ by reading through the book of Colossians and seeking to grasp all that the Father inspired to be written for the Christians living there under His leading! We have been beholding the complexity of the Father, Son and Spirit’s oversight and purpose for everything, everywhere! Understanding His loving care and concern for our faith, hope and love in Him! Trusting Him for His loving care and concern for His Church, His Kingdom, and the World at large. Receiving His loving care and concern for all created things as Reconciler and Redeemer of each and all of us who have been negatively impacted by evil and are in a state of recovery from the Fall in Christ our Lord!
We’ve been seeking to understand and have God’s view of what it means to live in and amongst all this complexity, even as the Colossian church members were, too! We are hearing the call of the Lord to continue to let the Truth of our Being (Jesus Christ!) be the Way of our Being, participating with him in his earthly historical life!
Theological Theme:
In Astounding and Inclusive Love the Father has sent and given humanity His Son and Word (Jesus), and gives us His Holy Spirit, that all of humanity might share in His Fellowship as Father, Son and Spirit! How do we receive, trust and live out this relationship in the complex situation going on around us? How do we honor and love God and neighbor while we are still in a becoming state of being more like Jesus? In Colossae, and like us, they were believers who are seeking to relate with Jesus and seeking to understand the Jewish/Christian connections of faith in Jesus Christ! At the same time they are also working, living, and breathing in a particular secular culture that had businesses, educational institutions, gossip, industry, various religions, and therefore various idols and powerful influences that threatened to attack and undermine their faith and trust in Christ!
“Human beings are fallen and therefore subject to temptation and being deceived by evil influences. Fallen, we are also inveterate self-justifiers seeking to maintain our own autonomous righteousness (ethics) apart from the gift of God received by repentance and faith upon hearing the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.” – Dr. Gary Deddo.
Abba, Father, help and save us through this tension through our Lord Jesus Christ, by Your Spirit!
Christ Connection:
The Good News of the Gospel is that Christ has already overcome this tension, and our fallenness, through his obedience to His Father by the Spirit, from inside our broken human nature. He has turned our human nature around and back to the Father! From his place of Ascension as a glorified human being he now sends, and we receive freely, the Holy Spirit he sends from the Father, giving us a share in his overcoming power through his very own faith and trust poured out in us!
“For the Lord touched all parts of creation, and freed and undeceived them all from every deceit.”
― St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation
Missional Application:
Jesus is the only hope for all, not just Christians! As Jesus encounters and empowers us believers in our relationship with him, we call upon pre-believers to place their faith and trust in Jesus by the Spirit – calling on them to repent, be baptized, deny themselves and pick up their cross, following Jesus!
“The problem of pursing a life of moral faithfulness is not simply a matter of discerning what God’s will is—as if simply knowing it, figuring it out, takes care of it. The barriers are much greater. No earnest pursuit of moral faithfulness to Jesus Christ will come to fruition unless the Holy Spirit in conjunction with the Word of God, breaks down our resistance to the Word and the Spirit and kills our self-justifying pride that resists repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and his Word.” – Dr. Gary Deddo
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Our Father’s Hope For All: In The Forgiveness Of Sin! pt.6
Filed under: By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Christianity, Christmas, Church, Discipleship, 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, Song, 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, Christian Living, Discipleship, father, Forgiveness, Forgiveness For Everyone, Forgiveness of Sin, GCI Baltimore, God Father Son and Spirit, God in Flesh, God Incarnate, God Is For Us, God Is With Us, God Likes You, God the Trinity, God With Us, God's Faith, God's Forgiveness, God's Gift, God's Grace, God's Healing, God's Hope, God's Humility, God's love, God's Love And Life, God's Mercy, God's Mission, God's Patience, God's Power, God's Presence, Gospel, grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, Grace Communion International, healing, Hope in Christ, Hope in God, Human Nature Renewed, Humanity Uplifted, Humility, Idolatry, Incarnation, Included In Christ, Inclusion, Jesus, Jesus Is The Resurrection, Jesus is the way the truth and the life, Jesus' Presence, John 3:16, Love, Luke 24, Luke 7, Luke 7: 36-50, Outpouring Of The Holy Spirit, Participation with Jesus, Pastor Timothy Brassell of New Life Baltimore, Purpose, Reconciliation, Reconciliation with God, relationship with God, Relationship With Jesus, Relationships, Restored Relationship With God, Resurrection, resurrection of Jesus, Salvation, Sin, Spiritual Healing, Spiritual Maturity, Spirituality, The Father, The Father's Love, The Holy Spirit, transformation, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Truth, Unconditional, Union and Communion, Union with Christ, Union With Jesus, Wholeness in Christ, Worship
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Part 6A:
Part 6B:
Full Message:
Main Bible Verses: Luke 24 Luke 7: 36-50
Introduction:
“Our Father’s hope for all: In The Forgiveness Of Sin” has primarily to do with relationship and how relationships work. It is not some static fact apart from actual relationship. When we say Resurrection, we mean God’s forgiveness resulted not only in the sending away of sin but RELATIONSHIP with JESUS in a RENEWED HUMAN NATURE by the Spirit. This message focuses in on the forgiveness/reconciliation that is ours because of Jesus, The Resurrection.
Theological Theme:
The Gift God gives us is The Gift of Himself. God doesn’t have anything else to give humanity but Himself, so the gift you have been given in The Gospel is God -The Father, Son and Spirit and relationship with Him. This is why Jesus personalized Resurrection saying that HE IS THE RESURRECTION – John 11:25.
Christ Connection:
The primary thing Jesus has been proclaiming is HIMSELF and Who HE IS. Because He is God the Son, the only begotten of The Father, then when He is with us, in our humanity, He is God with us, God for us, for our humanity!
What The Resurrection is proclaiming:
- Jesus is God The Father for us (since He is One with the Father).
- Jesus is The Holy Spirit in us (since the Spirit is One with He and the Father).
- Jesus is God, having done something to our human nature. Jesus is literally inside our human nature and so God is intimate with us by the Holy Spirit in our human nature.
- Jesus is God, transforming our human nature up close and personal – personalizing and humanizing us.
When we say JESUS, we are saying that in Him and because of His union with us as His creation, there is now a reconciled relationship that God has with all with creation. For Jesus to become human and to touch and heal humanity means that what God created but had fallen into sin has now been made right again, in Him, so that we can have hope now and fulfillment at Jesus’ Final Appearing! We receive in Christ the complete forgiveness of sin and at the same time the complete healing of the proper relationship between God and man, and all creation.
“The Gospel is as inclusive as Jesus’ Humanity” – Bobby Grow
Missional Application:
What sin is:
Because God is a relationship and has called us into His relationship, sin means our not believing in Him, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Sin is our not trusting, or relating with Him. Sin is turning to something else other than The Father, Son and Spirit for your identity, for guidance in your life, for strength in your trials, etc. Sin is also the horrible motive of seeking to put God to death. Sin according to the scriptures is lawlessness meaning that it corrupts every part of our humanity in word and deed, and everything in between..
However, the one unchanging Truth of the universe is God and His love revealed in Jesus Christ. God is interested in us and in a restored relationship no matter that we have sinned and despite that we have done everything to mess up our relationship with Him. In His fantastic mercy and grace He has placed into the universe, and into His creation in Jesus Christ, THE FULLNESS OF THE FATHER SON AND SPIRIT IN FLESH! So Law in The New Testament is actually the Love of The Father, Son and Holy Spirit Revealed in the human nature of the Son. Since everyone has sinned, and Christ has undone our sin, every human has been forgiven of their sin and reconciled to God in Jesus Christ and, therefore, are each and all called to put their trust in Jesus and receive this forgiveness and reconciliation freely given to us!
Conclusion:
In The Resurrection Season, God The Father proclaims to you through His Son and in the Holy Spirit the forgiveness of all of your sins. Luke 24: 1-8
God wants all to participate in what Christ has done for us and to receive what is already theirs in Christ – THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN. The reason your sins are forgiven in Christ is because Jesus is “THE ONE FOR THE MANY”. Knowing Christ in His Resurrection means knowing the forgiveness of ALL your sins. Hear and receive this hope and proclamation of THE COMPLETE forgiveness of your sins because of Jesus, THE Resurrection, and because of Jesus’ Resurrection, bodily, from the dead!
“….Despite man’s sin, God is with him, the One who was in Jesus Christ reconciling the world, drawing man unto Himself in merciful judgment. Man’s evil past is not merely crossed out because of its irrelevancy. Rather, it is in the good care of God. Despite man’s life in the flesh, corrupt and ephemeral, God is with him. The victor in Christ is here and now present through His Spirit, man’s strength, companion, and comfort. Despite man’s death God is with him, meeting him as redeemer and perfecter at the threshold of the future to show him the totality of existence in the true light in which the eyes of God beheld it from the beginning and will behold it evermore. In what He is for man and does for man, God ushers in the history leading to the ultimate salvation of man.” ― Karl Barth, The Humanity of God
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Our Father’s Hope For All: In Jesus’ Reconciliation! pt. 5
Filed under: Bible, By Tim Brassell, Christianity, Church, Discipleship, 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, 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: 2 Cor 5, 2 Corinthians 5: 1-21, Adoption, Christian Living, Discipleship, father, GCI Baltimore, God Father Son and Spirit, God in Flesh, God Incarnate, God Likes You, God the Trinity, God's Faith, God's Gift, God's Grace, God's Healing, God's Humility, God's love, God's Love And Life, God's Mercy, God's Mission, God's Patience, God's Power, God's Presence, Gospel, grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, Grace Communion International, Hope, Hope in Christ, Humanity Uplifted, Humility, Incarnation, Included In Christ, Jesus, Jesus is the way the truth and the life, Jesus' Reconciliation, Jesus' Presence, Our Father's Hope, Outpouring Of The Holy Spirit, Participation with Jesus, Pastor Timothy Brassell of New Life Baltimore, Purpose, Reconciliation, Reconciliation to Jesus, Reconciliation with God, Relationship With Jesus, Salvation, Spiritual Maturity, Spirituality, The Father, The Father's Love, The Holy Spirit, Trinitarian Theology, Trinity, Unconditional Love, Union and Communion, Union With Jesus, Wholeness in Christ, Worship
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Part 5A:
Part 5B:
Full Message:
Main Bible Verse: 2 Corinthians 5: 1-21
Introduction:
Celebrating Jesus as Our Resurrection
“Our Father’s Hope For All” emphasizes what Jesus’ reconciliation is for all, what it accomplished for all and how we, by the Grace of the Holy Spirit shared with us, can participate in what Jesus has done for all to the glory of God our Father.
According to T.F. Torrance (1992): “As our Representative and Substitute, Jesus Christ is our human response to God.’- T.F. Torrance: Union with Christ through the Communion of the Spirit
Theological Theme:
God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, sent Jesus Christ to humanity so that whomever believes in him, trusts and receives Him, would not perish due to trusting in Jesus and in His power by The Holy Spirit. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” – John 3: 16
“God loves you so utterly and completely that he has given himself for you in Jesus Christ his beloved Son, and has thereby pledged his very being as God for your salvation. In Jesus Christ God has actualised his unconditional love for you in your human nature in such a once for all way, that he cannot go back upon it without undoing the Incarnation and the Cross and thereby denying himself. Jesus Christ died for you precisely because you are sinful and utterly unworthy of him, and has thereby already made you his own before and apart from your ever believing in him. He has bound you to himself by his love in a way that he will never let you go, for even if you refuse him and damn yourself in hell his love will never cease. Therefore, repent and believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.”- (T. F. Torrance, “The Mediation of Christ,” 94)
Christ Connection:
Jesus Christ is “The Center Of The Center (of everything in Creation).” He is the world’s Lord and Savior. When you want to understand the central purpose for everything, you must look to Jesus Christ because, apart from Him, we can’t know anything as it should be known. We can’t know His Father, and we can’t know anything about his Holy Spirit, and we can’t even really know anything about ourselves or Creation.
Jesus is the Mediator between God and man. He is the One who mediates our humanity to God and who mediates God to fallen man. In total dependence we look to Him, look at life through Him, and receive along with Him His Father in the Spirit. Empowered by Him we look with Him beyond our own self-centeredness first to his Father and then in that love to our neighbors – loving them as we love ourselves and with the very love with which Jesus has loved us.
What Jesus did and does as The Resurrection is so that we might have a share in HIS LIFE, HIs Resurrection.
A life first filled with Jesus’s relationship with His Father in the Spirit. And then a life filled with his love for everyone and everything else.
Our identity lies only in Jesus Christ who has taken up our cause, our humanity, our human nature and Who alone has put us right before God, sending His Spirit that we might trust Him as the one and only source of life. JESUS – the center and core of our personal identity!
We are being encouraged by Jesus Christ, The Resurrection, to receive our new humanity in these feeble bodies now, while also looking with hope to the complete renewal of our human bodies in the future at His return. We are encouraged by our Father to prepare for the resurrected life in which we will be even more gloriously and fully human, in a human body, just like Jesus.
Jesus judged sin in sinful flesh. He killed sin thoroughly and by his life, suffering, death and resurrection. On the third day he raised up a new human nature and a new body in His resurrection. It is a humanity that is totally responsive to The Father in The Holy Spirit. This is what it really means to be a human being; what Jesus did, how He lives and responds in His human flesh.
Torrance (1986) writes: “Jesus Christ… embodies in himself what he mediates, for what he mediates and what he is are one and the same. He himself in the wholeness of his Person, Word and Act, is the content and reality of divine Reconciliation. He is the Propitiation for our sins; he is our Redemption; he is our Justification. It is in this identity between Mediator and Mediation that the living heart of the Gospel is to be found.” (pp. 475, 476)
Missional Application:
Every human everywhere has a great need for The Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the actual bond of love between the Father and the Son through whom it is possible for us to share in the love of the Father and Son. The Holy Spirit is also God of God and He is the One who makes Jesus and The Father known to us. He is the One who enables each person and all of us to trust Jesus. He is the One who empowers us to live with Jesus and to love our neighbors. In this time period where we can’t see Jesus, Jesus sends his Spirit to us to be an Advocate for us, to teach us what Jesus is doing so we can participate with Jesus, share in His power, and live transformed. We not only receive the Spirit personally, but encourage everyone else to do the same, for God desires all to be saved and to share in his love and life!
Conclusion:
When we declare that ALL are included, we are affirming:
Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior of ALL humanity.
Jesus Christ died to redeem ALL. He has atoned for the sin of EVERY single person. Through what He did God reconciled ALL people to Himself in Christ.
Jesus Christ is The Mediator between God and humanity.
Jesus Christ has made ALL His own by virtue of His redeeming work. He is for ALL and against NONE.
Jesus is The Judge of ALL so that none might experience the condemnation. His saving is done on behalf of ALL and that work includes His Holy and righteous responses to The Father in The Spirit. Responses characterized by repentance, faith, hope, love, praise, prayer, worship and obedience.
Jesus is in Himself EVERYONE’S justification and sanctification.
Jesus is EVERYONE’S substitute and representative.
Jesus is EVERYONE’S hope and life including eternal life.
Jesus is EVERYONE’S profit, priest and king.
ALL PEOPLE have been included in God’s love and life in and through Jesus Christ by The Holy Spirit.
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Our Father’s Hope For All: In The Resurrection Relationship! pt 4
Filed under: Bible, By Tim Brassell, Christian Living, Christianity, Church, Discipleship, Easter, 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, Sermons, The Church, 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: 1 Corinthians 15, 1 Corinthians 15: 1-34, Adoption, Christian Living, Discipleship, father, Forgiveness, GCI Baltimore, God Father Son and Spirit, God in Flesh, God Incarnate, God Likes You, God the Trinity, God's Faith, God's love, God's Power, God's Presence, Gospel, grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, Grace Communion International, Hope, Humanity Uplifted, Humility, Incarnation, Included In Christ, Jesus, Jesus is the way the truth and the life, Jesus' Presence, Love, Outpouring Of The Holy Spirit, Participation with Jesus, Pastor Timothy Brassell of New Life Baltimore, Reconciliation, Reconciliation with God, Relationship With Jesus, Resurrection, resurrection of Jesus, Union and Communion, Union With Jesus, Wholeness in Christ, Worship
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Part 4A:
Part 4B:
Full Message:
Main Bible Verse: 1 Corinthians 15: 1-34
Introduction:
God The Father so loved the world that He gave His Son to us as Jesus (God in the flesh) that whoever believes in Jesus (The God Man) by the power of The Holy Spirit will not perish but will have eternal life. God’s life – the Life He talks about by which we will not perish but live and thrive – is life knowing The Father, and Son intimately in The Holy Spirit. That is Who and what Life and Resurrection is and is about.
Theological Theme:
All truly are included in God’s [Father, Son and Spirit] love and life. It doesn’t have so much to do with a decision we make but has something to do with a decision God made prior to any decision we can make and which is the basis for our decision. That decision is the Person of Jesus Christ, Who is God for us from within our humanity. The gospel is not primarily about us receiving God into our life. The gospel is primarily about the tremendous grace of God, through Jesus, receiving us into His life.
Largely it is relationship with The Father, Son and Holy Spirit by Whom you are guided about how you think about life, what you do, what you receive, and what you reject.
Christ Connection:
Resurrection means relationship with Christ and being reconciled to the Father in and through Jesus Christ. Being reconciled means being in relationship with The Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Forgiveness means reconciliation with God and it means the restoration of relationship with God. Forgiveness of sin doesn’t just mean that sin ends but salvation means that we are saved INTO the restoration of relationship with God, where new relationship begins!
Missional Application:
God the Father Himself IS your Salvation. Sharing with Jesus in His relationship with His Father IS Salvation. Sharing friendship with Jesus IS Salvation. Intimacy with The Holy Spirit IS Salvation. The Holy Spirit comes upon you to reveal Christ to you, to mediate Christ to you. You respond by receiving and believing what The Holy Spirit has to say and, as God directs, witnessing to others about Him.
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The Risen King Forgives And Restores!
Filed under: By Ann Vinson, Christian Living, Christianity, 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, Jesus Christ, Love, Ministry, New Life Fellowship Of Baltimore Maryland, New Life Fellowship Of Windsor Mill, MD., Participation with Christ, Participation with Jesus, Prayer, relationship with God, Relationships, Sermons, The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, The Gospel Project, The Holy Spirit, Uncategorized, Union with Christ, Witnessing to God, Witnessing to Jesus, Worshiping God, Worshipping Jesus | Tags: Counting The Cost, Encountering God in Jesus, Entrusting Ourselves To God, Failures Forgiven, Focusing On Jesus, Following Jesus, Forgiveness, Glorifying God, God Provides, God's Forgiveness, God's Grace, God's love, God's Mercy, God's Will, Intense Suffering, Jesus Forgives, Jesus Revealed, Jesus' Power, Jesus' Provision, Pastor Tim of New Life Fellowship, Questioning God, Reconciliation, Reconciliation with God, repentance, restoration, Restored to God, Strengthened By God, Suffering For Jesus, Suffering With Jesus, Supported By God, The Cost Of Following Jesus
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Audio – Part 1a: 19 min
Audio – Part 1b: 19 min
Audio – Full Message:
Bible Verses: Luke 24:13-35
Jesus revealed Himself to His disciples for a third time after His resurrection. Through this breakfast encounter, Jesus demonstrated the reality of His restorative power. Because He fulfilled God’s plan to rescue people from sin, Jesus was able to forgive the disciples for their sins and failures and then recommission them in their task of following Him. As Jesus’ followers, we trust in the power of His restoration to enable us to move beyond our sins and failures and accomplish great things in His name.
Theological Theme:
Forgiveness of sins is what makes following Jesus possible.
Christ Connection:
Through His breakfast encounter with His disciples, Jesus showed the reality of His restorative power. Because He fulfilled God’s plan to rescue people from sin, Jesus was able to forgive the disciples for their sins and failures and then recommission them in their task of following Him.
“Reverencing the presence of his Lord, [Peter] threw himself into the sea…The love of Christ draws men through fire and water.” – John Wesley (1703-1791)
Missional Application:
God the Father calls us to demonstrate our love for Jesus by following Him in the Spirit, no matter where the journey might lead and no matter what happens to other followers.
“[T]he Lord Jesus Christ is entrusting the slave with sheep he bought with his blood, and so he requires of the slave the capacity to suffer to the point of shedding his blood. It is as though he were saying, ‘Feed my sheep. I am entrusting my sheep to you.’ What sheep? ‘The ones I bought with my blood. I died for them. Do you love me? Be ready to die for them.’ And as a matter of fact, while that human slave of a human master would pay money for sheep destroyed, Peter paid the price of his blood for sheep preserved.” – Augustine (354-430)
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Trinity and Humanity 