Adam’s Kingdom

Gen 2.15,19-20

• Adam was given dominion over God’s Creation (PS 8.4-6)
• The kingdom was not a future hope, it was the world God had created
• Adam gave up his regency by turning from God

Jesus, the King that Adam was not

• MT 4.17 Jesus preached a kingdom that we live in today – it is not just a future hope
• MT 25.33-35 the kingdom involves real people, helping in real ways
• Jesus has shown us the way to be the divinely created humans we are supposed to be in His life on earth – He is the way, the truth, and the life (JN 14.6)

Kingdom of God

Col 1.13 we ARE CURRENTLY in the kingdom Jesus preached in MT 4.17

Jesus Victorious over Powers of the World and Death

• Col 2.15 the cross was where the world thought Jesus was defeated, but it was where Jesus was victorious over the world
• Col 1.20 Jesus has reconciled everything to God in the cross… the kingdom Adam gave up has been reconciled to God and
• Dan 7.13 and Acts 1.9 Jesus sits as King over creation at the right hand of God
• 1 Cor 15.26 the sin introduced by Adam has now been resolved, and the death that resulted has now been conquered

Jesus victorious in the cross, vindicated in the resurrection, sanctifying His kingdom citizens today, coming for them soon in His return, our glorious resurrection, His region fulfilling the David Covenant, and finally, bringing to God all of creation – all of this in Jesus. In Jesus ALL THINGS are reconciled, the separation in Genesis 2 (and all that follows) is resolved in Jesus.

Our Village in His Kingdom

Col 1.19 God’s Will for His creation, us, everything, is resolved and dwelling in His Son Jesus

Our church began in 1916, in the midst of village and its mill. Our bell rung out to sound the call to worship and its echoes reminded the people of the gospel. God has preserved us for 98 years. We are called to serve in His kingdom today, just as Paul served in his time. The kingdom is not just a future glorious hope – it is before us today. The kingdom is not just a spiritual kingdom inside of us. Jesus healed real people who were blind, lame, and stricken. We are called to our world today. What we do here and now matters – our service is in the service of our village and His Kingdom.

We are to be the feet to carry the gospel, we are to be the lips that speak comfort and truth, we are to be the hands of compassion – in our time, in our village, where He has placed us in His Kingdom!

back to basics: prayer

Brotherhood Purpose: ministering to our church through prayer

Brotherhood is simple and missional. It is ministering to our church through prayer.

Past Themes:

Growth:                             horizontal more people, branches = more fruit; vertical glorifying God and people deeply rooted

Healing:                             spiritual, emotional, physical

Fulfilling God’s Word:      Jesus Word realized, covenant

Resurrection:                    renewal, promise

God will work:                  now matters, continuity with eternity

 

Have we consistently prayed for these things AFTER Saturday morning?

If our purpose is to minister to our church through prayer – this is one important measure of our success.

Philippians 4:6 KJV – 6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

PRAYER

John 11:41-42

Jesus comes to the grave of his friend – put yourself there in that moment. To understand this prayer, you have understand the stakes involved. The tension would be almost overpowering – Jesus was about to have a moment that could be disastrous for His mission.

While the crowd stood back, faces covered to protect against the stench of death, Jesus stood closer. We must struggle to read ourselves into that experience, to forget that we know the outcome, and to experience the events as if we were in the first century, standing there (hopefully with enough faith to be close to Jesus and not back with the crowd!), and feel the weight of that moment. Because if you don’t understand that this prayer is impossible, that it goes beyond just medical science, that this prayer to God would be asking for something that they understood could not happen. The resurrection, when it occurs, would be for all people, at one time (God’s Judgement), not for one person, in their time.

Then, He prays. And what a prayer! Thanks! He begins in absolute certainty that His Father had heard Him, and then just to make sure we all get it, He says with no doubt, no question, that He knows that His Father always listens and hears Him. Now, stand there in that moment. This prayer was so specific, it demanded a response so immediate, and it required no special revelation – either Lazarus would walk out of that grave in victory or Jesus would walk out that town in defeat. Knowing the ending does us little good here. We know Lazarus rose. What we could miss is that this prayer was impossible, and yet it was prayed in complete faith.

God didn’t become man and walk this earth as our example in order to show us impossible things. He showed us how to be the people of God. So let us watch Him pray, and aspire to His faith and pray like Him.

 

John 12:28-29

If we are not careful, we distort what prayer is like. That is why it is worth looking at how Jesus prayed. Here are 4 words, that   challenge the conventional depiction of prayer. We always here about prayer being either some kind of intense struggle, or exploding with emotion, and most of all centered on us.

Jesus prayed this short prayer about His Father. Too short to match the examples above. It wasn’t a night spent supplication, or a walk under the sky entreating, or even closet where He wrestled with God. It was short, simple, and focused right on His Father.

God responded. Not just to Jesus – everyone around Him heard. There is nothing wrong with the prayers that get held up as examples to us. But, they are unfair – because these are not the prayers of everyday life. And if we are not careful, we end up assuming that these grand prayers are THE model, and other prayers are somehow not good prayers. Let’s watch Jesus pray. Listen to Jesus pray. In His prayers let us find the true model of our prayers.

John 17:20-24

Prayer is how we commune with God. We have here an brief look into the intimacy between Jesus and His Father. And in this time, between two who are so close they are One, we find ourselves. The Almighty God and the Lamb are talking about us. And the prayer expresses this incredible (and incredulous) desire that God wants to be so close to us, that someone looking at us would see only one. Then our prayers wouldn’t be petitions sent up like the smoke of incense in the tabernacle, they would be more like the intimate thoughts we within ourselves or the whispers between those embracing one another.

 

growth

 

HORIZONTAL  ⏪  ⏩

more branches = more people =

more fruit = more glory to God

 

JN 15.8

Herein is my Father glorified , that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

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VERTICAL  ⏫ ⏬

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