I’m going to have to lump these days together a) because I’m getting horribly behind and b) because it might actually just make more sense that way! So, on the 13th June Adam gave us the intro to the “sonata”. On the 14th we had another session with him, and then on the 15th we had TWO sessions. And then he ended with one on the 16th. We did other things in-between these sessions, such as “History book” assignments (helping us process some of the stuff we were hearing, our usual work duties, meals etc. For the Grahamstonians amongst us, an important detail: I also found some time to teach a few people ‘warlords and scumbags’ (Fifi would be proud!). For the sake of over-view though, I’m going to set it out like this (and bear in mind there is NO way I can go into much detail here... what Adam got through in 5 sessions with us, he usually does in 8-32 sessions! I’m going to try find some online links so ya’ll can hear more of his stuff if you’re keen. You SHOULD be. It’s epic!):
INTRODUCTION
· God delights to reveal Himself to us – everything we know about God is a gracious disclosure of Himself to us.
· We are all links in the chain of redemptive history. Every story in the bible is part of MY story!
· “What comes into your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you. Therefore the greatest questions before humanity is always God Himself.” A.W. Tozer
· The Holy Spirit like to reveal Jesus to us, and likes to reveal ME as the object of Jesus’ affection.
· On the Emmaus road, the disciples didn’t recognise Jesus because they were still so despondent as a result of his death. This is a parallel to our generation – we have been disappointed by our “gods”, by what we have put our hope in, and many struggle to see Jesus walking alongside us. But He longs to reveal Himself to us. It’s so much easier for this generation to deconstruct than it is to construct/create. But Jesus appears as a traveller, with them. Not judging, but asking them questions. He reveals Himself to them from scripture – by telling them stories.
· There is a grand story unfolding all around us – many stories making up one Story.
EXPOSITION
· We begin travelling further and further away from the home key.
· Days 1-3 of creation: God is forming things. Days 4-6 of creation: God is filling what He formed. This is the way of God – forming, then filling.
· God creates man, breathing His own breath into the dust. Adam opens His eyes, and the first thing he sees is God. But there is something missing – God says it is not good for man to be alone. “It is not good...” – the first time something is said to not be good! Because God lives in communion and unity within the trinity; He knows that it is good to be in family. God takes a rib out of Adam’s side (it says that Adam was “asleep” – in a state like death). Adam’s side is bleeding, pierced. Then from His creation, God creates... Eve. This is a parallel to us the church – think of Jesus on the cross, His side pierced and bleeding! The Bride was taken out of that place, the church created out of her groom. We are waiting to be re-united with Him.
· There are 4 essential questions that we as humans ask: Who is God? Who am I? What do I have? What do I do? These were the answers to those questions before and after the serpent tempts Eve:
Adam & Eve before | Adam & Eve after the serpent | |
Who is God? | Creator, artist, Father. Self-sufficient. Truthful. Joyful. BIG! Generous. Confident. Ultimate authority. | Untrustworthy. Liar. Angry. A with-holding God. “Did God really say...” |
Who am I? | Loved. Sons and daughters. Whole. Complete. Perfect. Unashamed. With authority. Pure. Beautiful. | Not like God. Gullible. Lacking, incomplete. Deceived. No purpose. Cut off from God. |
What do I have? | Creativity. Authority. Dominion. Unity. Relationship with God. Possessing God’s nature. Eternal life. | Sinful nature. Knowledge, but not wisdom. No purpose. Own mission! Uncertainty. Doubt. |
What do I do? | Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. Learn from God. Rule. | Whatever the flesh wants to do. |
· Religion is sewing fig-leaf outfits to try make ourselves acceptable in the eyes of man. God wants to clothe us in His righteousness.
· God asks them, “Where are you?” They are far from life, far from family. (A theme that is to come up later is people coming back to God saying, “Here I am, send me”. “Here I am, God!” – answering that question, “Where are you?”
DEVELOPMENT
· Right from the second generation, things spin further out – murder! God’s heart is grived because He is an emotional God. He decides to do a re-start with Noah. This story is a series of “fractals” – a repeating pattern that is always similar, but never exactly the same. god, in His grace, starts again, man messes it up.
· The whole story hinges on this:
1. Land
2. Descendants/Nation/People
3. Blessing to all
· God covenants to achieve all of this through one line – the line of Abraham, which we are a part of by faith.
· The big over-view –
Ø Abraham and Sarah: like the seed in a womb; a people is born
Ø Moses: God brings His people out (birthed/baptised through the Red Sea, like the washing of blood), and into sonship. He’s teaching them how to be sons, not slaves. Has to give them step-by-step guides for how to be free, how to live lives of sons.
Ø From Sinai through Joshua, through the Judges, He is teaching this “son”, this people how to obey His words again; how to live in relationships with Him.
Ø Samuel anoints a shepherd boy to be King – David’s reign marks the high-point of this people so far. They are an anointed people.
Ø After David: Solomon builds the temple, but is mislead by his many wives and all his wealth. The kingdom splits. There are a series of 19 evil kings in the Northern kingdom of Israel, in Judah there are 20 kings, and only 8 are good.
Ø Next comes a series of exiles – in 772 BC the brutal Assyrians and the prophet Hosea. 605 BC: Daniel. 598 BC: Exile to Babylon, the prophet Ezekiel (prophesying hope to dead bones). 586 BC: the people are marched away and destroyed.
Ø There are three good moves, three moves back towards God: Zerubbabel re-builds the temple (539 BC), Ezra re-builds the state (456 BC), Nehemiah re-builds the wall (444 BC) – like the three days before Jesus’ resurrection!
Ø 432 BC: Malachi, the last prophet before a long silence from God. It is a pregnant pause in the story!
· So the story goes: seed in womb – sonship – obedience – anointing – falling to death – ending with hope...
· The promises that were broken (later restored by Jesus – the one strand of hope and promise – Isaiah 53):
Ø Land (Nation)
Ø People (Tribes)
Ø King (Son)
Ø Temple (Found IN the people)
RECAPITULATION
All of the development has been God forming the story. No He begins to full it (like Jesus fills and fulfils the law!). The recapitulation is the story of Jesus’ life, and the slow returning of mankind to our Father.
· After many years of silence, God speaks to elderly Zechariah, and says he is going to have a son who he must call John – the beloved. He is filled with the Spirit, even from birth – even in the womb he knows of Jesus’ presence. He carries the spirit and power of Elijah – turning the hearts of the children to the Father. He is not only a fore-runner of Jesus, he is a family-preparer, a reconciler of God and man.
· An angel also comes to Mary to tell her about Jesus, who will carry the “eternal kingship” of David. We need to take the same journey as Mary – believe that the Son of God is within us – “May it be to me as you have said.” She has a moment of extraordinary belief – like Abraham, when he believed that he would be the father of many nations. What is God asking you to believe?
· Jesus walks out His life knowing that He is a son, and that He is loved. He has the right answers to those important 4 questions (see the table above!). He honours his earthly and heavenly fathers.
· What Adam couldn’t walk out in the best of circumstances, Jesus walks out in the worst. He perfectly obeys and fulfils the law. He never gives in to sin and temptation because He knows who He is. He walks in perfect submission – the Word learning how to speak words!
· His baptism – another fractal in the story. He relives the journey of the Red Sea, comes out of the waters of exile (the waters He Himself made!). The Father speaks His affirmation and acceptance over Him. After a long silence, the words God chose to spoke for many people to hear was: “This is my son, whom I love. In him I am well pleased.” God chose to speak of LOVE! We have diminished love! These are the very words that the enemy tries to steal from Jesus on the cross. “If he loves you, why won’t he save you?”
· Jesus then spends his ministry time welcoming people into the atmosphere of heaven. He spesks about the kingdom more than anything else. “This is how it is in heaven...” He remembered the delight of union with the Father, and he brings that unity, that family to those around him.
· Jesus, fulfilling the law, replaces Adam as a place-holder at the table of the family. Do you realise that there is now One who stands at the right hand of the Father who looks like us?! Who has ears and mouth and arms and scars?! He has the same body that He appeared in when He came to the disciples after the resurrection. Have you ever thought of that?!
· He tells the disciples that he must leave, and they are horrified. But He says that it is GOOD that He goes so that the Spirit can come – God no longer just with them, but IN them!
· At the Passover meal, the disciples realise what’s going on. They realise the Story. They realise that THIS is the lamb, and they are appalled by the thought.
· In the garden of Gethsemane (which means “the winepress” – the Vine is crushed), he prays “not my will, but YOUR will be done”. This is the opposite of man’s actions in the first garden, where their will took over.
· Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree and brought a curse upon themselves. Jesus hung on a tree and took that curse upon Himself. Like Isaac, he carried his own wood (the cross) to the place of sacrifice. God is fully revealed at Calvary; the creator naked on a cross. Even in his last moments, he welcomes the orphan hanging next to Him into the heavenly family.
· As He dies, darkness falls. It’s like creation is un-created. There is stillness in the heavens. The enemy waits in vain for one moment of disbelief – one moment of Him doubting that He is loved by His Father. With the cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” he identifies with the cry of the garden – “Where are you?” He takes all the sin and separation of the world into Himself, and then hands it over to His Father: “Into Your hands I commit my Spirit.” Then: “It is FINISHED.”
· The earth quakes – like creation waiting with trembling for the sons of God to be revealed. The curtain is torn and a way is made into God’s presence. Humanity is given back sonship, and the ability to rule as sons. Communion between God and man is restored, and EVERYTHING that is His now belongs to me!
· Out of His pierced and torn side, His wife the church was born. That Saturday, the disciples and creation were in despair. He went to hell, took the keys, opened heaven and presented His blood there once and for all. When he walked out of the tomb, it was as a new creation.
· He meets with Mary and the disciples – Jesus is NOT afraid of my most sincere doubts and fears! He will walk through my walls to release me.
· His last 40-day imprint: more on what the kingdom is about, what it’s like! To the hopeless He restores hope. He explains what the Father is like, He explains what family is like.
· We agree to this amazing covenant through communion (we ended this section with one of the most meaningful times of communion I have ever experienced!)
CODA
Honestly, I didn’t take much of this in. The reason for this is: as we started taking communion the night before, I began feeling super nauseous and siff. Adam Cox had been puking out his guts pretty much all the time he’d been with us, and it began to spread among the ranks :( I started throwing up at 2am, and was completely out of it all day! There were a few of us who were out of it – we lay in the worship room (feeling like lepers – I did a fair share of shouting “Unclean!” whenever someone healthy came into the room. I only wish I’d had a bell...) while the other met just outside it. I only heard bits and pieces through my sickness haze (and also numerous trips to the bathroom, which luckily was close by. The most delicate way I can put it is to say things were busy at both ends...:( ). But basically the coda is the glorious finish to the masterpiece – the story of the disciples and the early church, and of us who believe. It is the great returning to the state we were always meant to be in - at one with the Father. This is MY story. This is YOUR story. And ALL of it was woven for us so that we would be a part of it – so that we would know our value, and that we would always live with the Great Story in mind. I want to live out the best possible version of my contribution to this story :o)
Being sick meant we missed out on some of the prep for Cageless Birds, the worship gathering we’re hosting. But we did get to do an all-day long movie marathon in the House of Death (as we temporarily re-named the worship room). Praying for full health for the weekend ahead!
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