2nd July 2017 - Inspiring the Body of Christ - Joy Blundell

Joy Blundell

2nd July 2017

Inspiring the Body of Christ

Today’ preach is a ‘big picture’ narrative which takes in the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation.  Its purpose is to inspire and encourage people to worship God 24/7, through all that they do in their lives.  People who:

·         Pursue knowledge and wisdom and make it available to others

·         Reflect the hospitable heart of God in their welcome to others

·         Demonstrate the order and security of God as the organise and direct others

·         Pioneer and take risks with new ideas to benefit others

These people are our neighbours - look around with new eyes and recognise them!

Creation – the big picture

Take a moment to think - why did Jesus die?

If you answered, “to save us from our sins” then you’re right – we were all fallen, in need of fixing and forgiveness, redemption and renewal.  But there’s more; before the fall came creation, and that’s where we need to start, celebrating what is good before dealing with the fall.

This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

Gen2^4-14

The Bible starts with a wedding between Adam and Eve, and ends with a wedding between Christ and His church.

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Rev 21^1-4

Revelation goes on to describe how ‘the nations’ bring wedding gifts to the occasion.

God’s plan for us

Genesis teaches us that God’s creation was good but incomplete, and humans were appointed as co-creators to fill the earth. There are families to be born, kingdoms established, cities built, dances ballads and sculptures to be composed, knowledge to be discovered.  When Genesis speak of a garden to be cultivated, the word cultivated is the root of the word culture, and that is what God called mankind to. God looks to us to bring our creativity to his world – as a manifestation of our worship.

Four rivers flow out from the garden of Eden.  Using these in an attempt to pin the geography of the garden misses the point – the real meaning is to be found in their names.

·         Pishon means increase.  Yes, we are called to increase our numbers, but also to increase who we are and our presence in the earth – so that God may – Increase his presence in us.  Joy and her husband Paul have reflected on the prayer of Jabez (to enlarge/increase his territory) and applied it to their own lives:

Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.

1 Chron 4¹⁰

One of the lessons God has taught them is that In order to increase you need to decrease – laying some things down so that you can pick up others.

·         Gihon means gushing, flowing. It represents abundance, fullness; the same word is used in Psalm 23⁵ “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”  God wants us to do more that survive, He wants us to thrive, and as we do so the things flowing out of our life are bound to impact on the world within us. 

·         Hidakel (the Hebrew name for the Tigris) means swift, darting; it’s a word picture of an arrow in full flight, like the film sequence in “Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves”.  We’re designed to have purpose, intentions, goals, to actively bring the kingdom of God into this world.  It calls for decision - this is what God called me to, I’m going to go for it.  It’s a discussion Joy and Paul have every year – what are we dreaming for, what are we pointing our lives towards this year?

·         Euphrates: sweet-fragranced, and fruitful.  We’re called to sweeten the lives of others, as in Matthew 5¹⁶: “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds [sweetness] and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Those four rivers speak of God’s intention for his creation, and for our part in it – to increase, to live with intention, to aim for a goal, and to exhibit ‘sweetness’.

Then there was the Fall - disobedience, disconnection, and failure.  Jesus came to came to redeem God’s creation in its entirety (Colossians 1^19-20: “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”).  Matthew 28^16-20, sometimes called the Great Commission, is not just a call to spread the good news – it should be seen in the context of creation as a reawakening of the Genesis mandate.  In Jesus, we become again the people we were meant to be.  In effect Jesus says, “Go into the world and write your place so that people can thrive and the world may come to life again.”

In the words of a Dutch theologian and Prime Minster, Abraham Kuyper: “ … there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!”.  We are the image bearers of that vision.  It is a difficult task in a fallen world – but God will prevail.  Revelation 8 and 9, which speak of ‘woes’ inflicted on an unbelieving world, describes a painful ‘regime change’, a reordering of power over the world which reaches its fulfilment in Revelation 21.  At that time, there is no more pain.

Questions

Joy and her husband Paul once sat down to imagine what “no more pain” would look like for Lincoln:

·         No more depression

·         No more broken bottles in the park

·         No more foodbanks

·         No more racism

·         No more racism.

What do you think “no more pain” would mean for Bracknell?

What can you do tomorrow, as an act of worship to breathe life into that dream? To influence children, buildings, ideas, plans for the future, businesses?

Because of Jesus we were reconnected to our original purpose. Our challenge is to find others we trust to share our aspirations with, and together to encourage each other to bring more of heaven to earth; our worship.