Friday, March 30, 2018

Genesis 5 Sermon Notes

Genesis 5:1-6:3
Sermon Notes
Live Long and Prosper
March 25, 2018
Lynchburg, Virginia

EXHORDIUM
As we make our way through the early part of Genesis, we see many main themes of the Bible emerge.
God has made mankind in His image and giving him charge over all the Earth. Man is take dominion on the Earth, ruling the Earth like a fruitful garden.
However, Eve sinned and included her husband in the sin. Adam was the covenant head of mankind. His failure to protect his wife from sin and then to join her in the sin, plunged mankind into a fallen estate of sin and misery.
Thus, now the Earth itself was unruly and difficult to manage. Eve found that her childbearing created sons who were at enmity with one another, thus great pain in this childbearing.
Now, a fatal flaw is prevalent in man. Envy pokes its ugly head into everything. Man, who was made to take dominion on the Earth through husbandry and service, became one who would rather rule through domination and intimidation.
But God did not leave mankind without promise. He promised Eve that one day her seed would crush the head of the seed of the serpent. But these seeds both arise in her, Cain and Abel.
Another main theme that occurs here and continues throughout the course of the Bible is the seeming impossibility of the fulfillment of the promise.

Anticipate Resurrection

This Holy Week is full of all sorts of feelings and emotions. We look towards that most gruesome event, the cross, and we shudder to even go there. Even today, as we think about the Triumphal Entry, we shrink back from declaring it really to be a triumph. It was so short lived. But was it?
         Wasn’t it really the purpose? That a great one must be killed, the greatest one for the greatest number of people? And He was and His death was not the end of the story. Do not shrink away from the week, the adulation of the crowds, the scorn of the leaders, the complicity of the civil rulers, the torture, the death, the silent Saturday.

         When Jesus arises, this all gets brought into perspective. When He ascends to rule forever and ever, the adulation of the crowds is realized. His triumphal entry really was triumph. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

Bread and Wine of Jesus

Our Father in Heaven, You are the Creator and Sustainer of all things and in You we live and move and have our being. We come to this Table as Your children and believe that Your promises to us in Christ Jesus are yay and amen. In Him, You hold out to us the scepter of life. When we reach out and touch Him, You speak peace to us and call us to draw near to You. We give You thanks and pray that as we partake of this meal of bread and wine, that by faith we would partake of Jesus Christ for life and health for our body and soul. Amen.   

Thanksgiving

O Lord, our God, all good things have come from Your hand. You have made us, provided us, cleansed us in the blood of Jesus Christ, washed in the water of the Word, and called us into Your presence to speak kind words to us. You have provided everything needful for us and we give You thanks. As we serve You, we pray that You would continue to provide each day our daily bread, and to use us, our gifts, our money, our talents, and our lives to advance Your kingdom to the ends of the earth and for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen.