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12-1-74. Anticipating a ~Ew Beginning. All of Us Like to Have a New Beginning

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12-1-74. Anticipating a ~Ew Beginning. All of Us Like to Have a New Beginning 12-1-74. Anticipating a ~ew Beginning. All of us like to have a new beginning. People changing jobs, or moving to a new town, always think of it as a new beginning, a fresh start. Some of us prefer the spring to the other seasons because it gives us a chance to start over with nature as the flowers bloom and the buds burst, the garden is plowed and the seeds of a new year are sown. Each new year is a new beginning, just as each month and week and day. We can start all over, get a new deal of the cards, wipe the slate clean and rr i.t.e something fresh. ~-Te are inspired and en• courages· by the thought that whatever mistakes we may have made are over and done with and we can start aaew, hopefully not to go make some new ones. So we put the old away and look toward the new. And this is what our lesson for today is about. It is the start of a new day, a new week, a new month, and a new quarter. And ~re contin our series, the survey of the Bible,,with a new topic, the Living God seeks man in the NT. Last qr we surveyed the OT, saw the highlights of the early covenants between God and his people, the creation and the flood and the promised land. ,re looked briefly at the heroes of the OT--the father of the Hebr nation, the lawgiver, the prophets and priests. The theme of that series, as is the theme of the OT, is that the living God seeks man his creature, to keep close and vivid the relationship between God and man. 1'1an does not seek Jod, which is the pagan underst of the relatship, but God seeks man, thru covenants and protection and punishment and defeats. God gave the Law but man could not keep it; God sent the prophets but man would not listen; God watched over the nation but the nation felt that faith was unnecessary. So now we come to the crossroads lesson between two covenants, two testaments, two ways of keeping intact the relat betw God ane man. For our Bibl backgr we have passages from 2d Isa and from Paul's ltr to the Galatians, both dealing with the fresh start God offers his children in the person of the Xr· First is the beauti• ful beginning of 2d Isa, Ch 40: 1-S. This is the beginning of the 2d part of Isa, in which the promise of the Messianic king of the first part becomes the Suffering Servant. The first part is the promise of the return from exile of the remnant, while the 2d part is a praise for the incom• parable God, the universal Creator, the always-present Ruler. The Hebr people were in exile in Babylon, and in the depths of despair came the joyous vision of the prophet, in words which are the most eloquett and beautiful of all Oriental lit. It is an excstacy of joy, a glow of hope, a certainty of conviction. The long dark night is over and the dawn is coming up. So be comfor• ted, the warfare is ended, the sin is pardoned, a new s t.ar-t is at hand. I-repare the lJay for the coming of God, in which all of nature will be exalted and the glory of God will be revealed and all flesh shall see it. This is the promise of God. Isa 40: 27-31. Do you not know that God is above all, is creator (the word create occurs 15 times in these lS chapters) is everlasting God who does not faint or grow weary. It is for us to wait for such a God who will not fail. Those of us who are his people will be carried upon wings, and will no longer toil in weariness. Here is the anticipation of the new beginning, the pledge of the new covenant in the suffering servant of God who took our lashes upon himself, who was punished for our sins. This idea of the newness of the Xr covenant was one of Paul's major themes in interpreting the theol meaning of the Xr. He saw new meaning in the suffering servant prophecies of Isa, and he also saw a new beginning for all mankind in the experience of the Xr. Gal. 4: 1-7. Here he contins the thot of the earlier paragr, in which the new personality is descr. In Xr Jesus wer are all sons of God thru faith; as we are baptized into Xr we put on Xr; there are no longer any distinctions between us, neither slave nor free, neither Jew nor Grk, neither male nor female, we are all one in Xr. And as we are Xr's, we are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. The heir, when a child, is like~ slave; he is under authority of guardians and trustees. So with us; when children werwere slaves of the elemental spirits--superstitions and fears. But when the time came, God sent his Son, born under the law, to buy back, redeem, those under the law so they might be adopted as sons. And because we are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts crying Abba, Father. So thru God we have a new beginning. We are no longer a slave but a son, a member of the family, an heir to the riches of God. This is what the new beginning in Xr means. When we were under the old covenant, under the law, we were slaves and not free men. We were outside the family of God by our own failures and rebellions. But because Xr came we can start off fresh. ''Te can put on Xr so that we are new creatures, heirs to all that God has promised. We can even be adopted sons of God thru him. And when we are sons, God sends the spirit of his son into us so that we become new. We put off the old garments and put on the new. r.re step out from under the rule of the law and into the warmth of God's love. We step out of our unrighteousness and into the righteousness that Xr gives us. This is truly a new start. The long dark night of exile is over, the dawn is breaking, the light is coming thru. Have you not seen, have you not heard? No longer need we toil and suffer and strive to meet God's favor. In the supreme act he has broken into our lives in the person of his son, and has restored the broken relatship we could not of ourselves heal. Eternity came into time as God became flesh and d~elt among us. It divided thP- calendar into two parts and made all things new. Let us give thanks unto God for reaching down to our weakness and giving us a new begin Ding 12-15-74. Celebrating the Promise. In all our survey of the Bible this fall, one fact has come clear--God keeps his promises. God made promises to Abram long after the normal time for his wife Sarah to bear a child; God made oromises to Israel and to Moses and to the prophets. He promised a land and a relationship in the covenant; he promised his presence and his protection. And God kept all his promises. Only mankind broke their word, again and again. Men did not keep the com• mdmts, men spurned and stoned the prophets, men asserted their indep of God and estranged them• selves from him. And now, in 3d Sun in Advent we are coming upon the grand event in all of Bibl history--God keeping his promise to seed a redeemer, to live and move among his people as one of them, to take on the flesh and the traits of humanity in order to save humanity. This is the msg of Christmas. It is Emmanuel, which means, God with us. Not God up there somewhere looking down on us, not God out there somewhere looking on, but God with us and in us, which is the hope of glory. Not man trying to eter the realm of God, but God entering the realm of men. This is the Living God seeking man in the ultimate sense of the term. God revealee himsel~ in many ways in the long stu;oy of his quest for a close relationship w/man, but now he revealed himself in the flesh, like unto men, limited in time and space, but perfect in all aspects. Earlier revelats were only partial, therefore imperfect. But now, praise the glory of God, the revelat will be complete and perfect, with nothing hidden or kept back. This is God's master play, the ultimate act in the drama, pouring it on with no stops and no uncertainty. Humanity may no longer wonder about God's nature, or his purpose, because mankind may now look upon the face of God. Jesus, as someone once said, is God with skin on his face. So with the advent we celebrate the promise as we celebrate the fulfillmt. And if men do not respond to God in Christ with repentance and faith There is only the promise of destruction and judgmt left. And as God has kept all his other pro• mises let us not think he will not keep this one too.
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