Jesus in the Old Testament 017: Jesus, the Living Water

Jesus in the Old Testament 017:

Jesus, the Living Water

Thesis: The Hebrews wandering in the desert are fed miraculously but run out of water.  Dying of thirst is incredibly painful, and they grumble again.  Again, God provides for their needs.  This miracle is meant to be a picture of the means by which God will meet a much more profound need, salvation, in Christ.  Jesus references this miracle and clarifies that it was about himself.

1. Nutshell with Kids (<5 min)
1. Have you ever been thirsty?  Tell me about it.
2. Summarize Ex 17. Why do you think they got so mad?
3. God met their needs in a unique way.  Striking a rock is not normally how you get water.
4. Picture of Jesus.
5. Jesus said he is the living water.  What do you think this means?
6. What kinds of needs has Jesus met for us?

2. Deeper with Adults
1. Mike’s Mountain story
2. Exodus 17: Hebrew Mike’s Mountain
1. Rephidim, modern Wadi Reyfayid. Nothing much there.
2. "They are almost ready to stone me!" (Ex 17:4). 
3. God’s instructions (vs 5-7)

a)      Go ahead (walking in pain)

b)      Follow me.

c)      God will stand on the rock.

d)     Moses strikes the rock.

e)      Water will come out, and the people will drink.

f)       Their needs are met when God is symbolically struck

(1)    1 Cor 10:1-5:

(2)   The rock is Christ

4. Again, the people grumble and doubt God’s presence, and again He demonstrates that He is with them.
2. A repeat of the miracle in Num 20
1. Similar setting (Wilderness of Zin)
2. Similar complaining (vs 2-5)
3. (vs 6-9)Moses and Aaron come to God, and he again answers, but with different instructions.

a)      Take the staff, but speak to the rock.

b)      Jesus was struck once for the forgiveness of our sins

(1)   Romans 6:10

(2)   Heb 9:26-28

(3)   1 Pe 3:15

c)      After this, only our confession is needed for forgiveness (1Jn 1:9-10)

4. (vs 10-13) Moses’ disobedience

a)      Struck the rock twice after an angry outburst.

b)      Water comes out.  People drink, cattle are saved. It works, but it isn’t God’s desire.

c)      The picture of sanctification was ruined.

d)     Moses’ punishment was that he would not enter the land. (brought behind the barn).

e)      Shocking.  God worked through Moses for so long in so many ways, but this outburst of anger disqualifies him.

f)       Water still named Meribah, quarreling

4. In John 4:13-14,
1. Speaking of the offering of his life to the woman at the well
2. The waters of Meribah satisfied momentary, physical thirst.
3. The water that flows from Jesus (his blood) gives eternal life.
5. John 7
1. Vs 1, Feast of Tabernacles.
2. Jesus doesn’t go up with his family as expected.  He sneaks in.
3. Lots of references to it not yet being his time (vs 6, 8, 30, 34).
4. Vs 37-38. On the last great day (explanation)

a)      During the water libation ceremony, Jesus steals the show.

b)      The water being poured out on the altar had several meanings:

(1)   Cleansing the altar: Jesus brings real cleansing (Heb 9:11-14).

(2)   A thanksgiving in advance for the rains which are about to come.  Jesus’ sacrifice was already promised, and it was appropriate to give thanks in advance (Mike’s Sermon upcoming).

(3)   Water and Wine to symbolize abundance supply for the crops (water) and an abundance of completed harvest (grapes, wine).  Jesus’ water and blood at the cross.

c)      Immediate context references the Holy Spirit, who comes at Christ’s bidding (Jn 14:25-26)

6. Invitation to come and drink. 
1. Jn 4 and 7 both include invitations.
2. Both also include parameters. 
3. Moses rejected for going outside the parameters.
4. God invites us to know him and to be satisfied within the terms He has set forth.
5. He has worked salvation once.  You cannot work it any other way. 
6. All that is left for you is to speak to the rock and be saved (Romans 10:9-10).

Discussion Questions:

1. God had a picture he wanted Moses to present to the Israelites about how He meets our needs through Jesus.  Moses messed that up.  As a consequence, he didn’t get to enter the Promised Land.  What does that show about how much God cares about us presenting Him well to others?
2. This whole story revolves around a basic need for life: water.  Do you trust God to meet your basic needs?  Or do you find yourself grumbling like the thirsty Israelites?
3. Jesus says that He is the living water.  What does that mean to you?
4. God is inviting you to trust Him to meet your deepest needs, including the need for forgiveness.  What needs do you need to let Him meet for you today?

Theology of Family 5: The Family on Mission

Theology of Family 5:
The Family on Mission

Psa 68:5-6

Thesis: The family, as the central functional unit of the church, is to be about the mission of the Kingdom of God.  The inclusion of orphans in Biblical families is central to the heart of God and is a mission that the family can undertake together.

1. Introduction
1. We’ve spent 5 weeks now describing how the family is supposed to function, how it serves as the main tool of continuing the faith, what it teaches the watching world, and how God can use it to bring healing. 
2. This week, we look at it as a missional unit. Many individual efforts can be made to minister and grow the Kingdom.  God can use individual people and singles to do many things, but a central piece of ministry can only be done by families: Orphan care.
2. Father to the Fatherless
1. Psa 68:5-6 Father to the Fatherless is God in His holy habitation.  God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.
1. God meets the lack in the lives of His people. 

a)     Bread of life for the hungry

b)     Living water for the thirsty

c)      Light to those living in darkness

d)     Comfort for those who mourn

e)     Father to the fatherless

2. Explicitly described as helping the orphan and the widow 17 times in the OT.
3. God meets the lack of the orphan and alone by settling them in homes.  He does so from His holy habitation. 
4. Out of the riches of his glory he ministers to the “least of these.”
5. He desires to minister to the vulnerable through His people, in the old covenant and the new.
1. Justice for the Fatherless
1. Exo 22:22-24 ESV You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry,  and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.
2. Isa 1:17 ESV Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.
3. Psa 10:17-18 ESV O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.
4. Psa 82:3-4 ESV Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.  Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked."
5. Those who would exploit others often choose those least able to defend themselves: orphans and widows.  God is very clear that this is a sin.
6. There are very clear warnings against this action!
7. His people follow his heart by defending these fragile people.
8. Modern ways to step into this ministry: CASA workers.
2. Provision for the Fatherless
1. Deu 10:18 ESV He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.
2. Deu 14:29 ESV And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.
3. Deu 24:19-21 ESV "When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.
4. Clear commands in scripture to make provision for the fatherless out of the contributions to the Lord as well as out of the overflow of your increase.
5. Church-directed ministry funds as well as personal contributions.
6. The orphan and widow, who righteously lack the ability to earn their own food, should be cared for by God’s people.  The governmental aid we see is necessary because the church has not continued to take these needs as seriously.
7. Modern ways to help: Foster and Orphan Parachurch ministries.
3. Support  for the Fatherless
1. Psa 10:13-14 ESV Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart, "You will not call to account"? But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation, that you may take it into your hands; to you the helpless commits himself; you have been the helper of the fatherless.
2. Psa 146:9 ESV The LORD watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
3. Hos 14:3 ESV Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, 'Our God,' to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy."
4. God supports the mental, emotional, and spiritual needs of the orphan and widow.  He comforts them in the sorrows and calms their souls.
5. Children need more than a home and food.  The downtrodden need loving relationships, social support, and fellowship.
6. Modern ways to help: Foster Family Support Groups, Respite Nights, Counseling, Mentorship, and good old friendship!
4. Adoption and Fostering
1. Psa 27:10 ESV For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in.
2. John 1:12-13 ESV But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
3. John 14:18 ESV "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
4. Romans 8:14-17 ESV For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”  The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
5. Galatians 4:4-7 ESV But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.  And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
6. Adoption in Israel was a matter of defending the helpless, as it is in our culture.
7.  Adoption in the Roman world had less to do with caring for the destitute than securing an heir. 
8. Both pictures are Biblical.  God came to rescue us from a desperate situation in which we could not hope to succeed and to establish us as a co-heir with Christ and bestow on us amazing spiritual blessings.
9. Abba! God is not only “a Father.”  He is “our Father.” He desires intimacy with us.
2. What to do?
1. Jas 1:27 ESV Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
1. Spiritual disciplines of many kinds are extolled in scripture, but none of them are identified as the “center of the mark.”
2. Whatever else you think God wants you to do, the clearest way to “live out” your faith is to bless the vulnerable amongst us: the orphan and the widow.
2. 7-Church coalition story
3. Our Church’s piece of the puzzle: Foster/Adoption Training Announcement.
4. This is a whole-church action.
1. If you can, Adopt.
2. If you can’t, Foster.
3. If you can’t Foster, you CAN support the process!

a)     Childcare

b)     Food for classes

c)      Prayer

d)     Home-visit minor repairs

Jesus in the Old Testament 016: Jesus the Bread of Life

Jesus in the Old Testament 016:
Jesus the Bread of Life

Thesis: God sent bread from heaven once to continue our life physically.  Jesus has come to give us life spiritually. The first bread of heaven required a little trust.  The second requires all-in, soul-investing faith.  The first came to get Israel into the Promised Land.  The second came to bring all of mankind to heaven.

1. Nutshell with Kids:
1. Quick storytelling
2. Do you hide food in your room in case mom and dad forget to feed you?
3. Why not? (Faithful Parents, learned to trust them).
4. This was God’s original intent, to teach trust.
5. Jesus mentioned this miracle in talking about why he came.  Why do you think He did that?
6. Can we trust Jesus to be enough for us when we die? Absolutely!

2. Deeper w/ Adults:
1. Ex 16:
1. The Israelites strike out into the desert of sin and journey toward their appointment with God at Mount Sinai.

a)     No naturally occurring food or water.

b)     Dependent upon God.

c)      Grumbling

2. Moses prays (implied)
3. God answers (vs -5).

a)     Quail in evening

(1)   Some migrating species of quail return to Arabia exhausted after flying over the red sea and fall to the ground unmoving for the feat.

(2)  Every evening? For 40 years?

b)     Manna at dawn (dried dew)

(1)   Lice excrement (still harvested by Bedouins)

(2)  Dried Lichen

(3)  Neither nutritionally sufficient nor plentiful enough to feed millions of migrating people.

(4)  Neither fulfills the description of 6 days/week and twice the volume on Friday.    

c)      Miraculous! What is it?

4. It requires faith and trust.

a)     Don’t horde→ worms

b)     Then (vs 5-6), Get twice the supply→ Nothing to gather

5. Foreknowledge of the Sabbath in Jewish Culture.

a)     Jews came out of a setting of slavery, where work was ever-present, and there was no rest.

b)     The Sabbath commands won’t be codified until they get to Sinai, a few weeks out yet.

c)      The creation pattern of the workweek is already established in their culture

(1)   Gen 2:2-3, God blessed the seventh day at creation.

(2)  Ex 16:23-30,

(a)  First usage of the word “Sabbath”

(b)  God gave them this picture of Sabbath before the Law

(c)   Rebuke for not following God’s pattern of work and rest. 

6. No clear formula. The goal is to be trained to follow.
7. Not allowed to provide for themselves along the way.  They were to trust God daily.
8. Jar of Manna to be kept as a testimony. Miraculously preserved.
1. John 6:22-59
1. Context:

a)     Feeding of the 5,000 with a Lunchable

b)     If he rules, there will be no food problem!

c)      John 6:15 records, "Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself."

2. Jesus sets his followers straight about his intentions.  His purpose is to die for the sins of the world.
3. More than being the source of bread from heaven, he is himself the bread of heaven which has come down from the Father.

a)     Eat His flesh and drink His blood?

b)     Replaces the Jewish formulaic approach to God.

c)      In the desert, manna brought physical life.  Jesus comes to bring life eternal.  Jn 6:49-51

4. Jesus foretells his suffering and death at this point in all four gospels, and in John's account, He even gives us the recast meaning of Passover in what we now call "The Lord's Supper."
5. The followers of Jesus need to trust Jesus’ provision for their needs even more clearly than the Israelites did for their food.
6. Manna vs Jesus

a)     God sent bread from heaven once to continue our life physically.  Jesus has come to give us life spiritually.

b)     The first bread of heaven required a little trust.  The second requires all-in, soul-investing faith. 

c)      The first came to get Israel into the Promised Land.  The second came to bring all of mankind to heaven.

Discussion Questions:

1. How are you doing at trusting God for your daily provision?
2. Do you find it easier or more difficult to trust him with your eternal soul?
3. Do you feel like you need to understand the details of what God tells you to do before you can obey?
4. Both Israel in the wilderness and people alive today have evidence that God is able to do what He promises.  Why is it so hard to trust?

Theology of Family 4: The Family as a Showpiece of the Gospel

Theology of Family 4:

The Family as a Showpiece of the Gospel

Eph 2:1-10

Thesis:  Families are made up of sinners trying their best to live out their place in the concert of love, submission, and authority.  They will fail often. Because of this, grace, mercy, and love, the centerpieces of the gospel, are needed in abundant supply.  The family that bathes itself in these virtues will experience the transformative power of God in their homes.

1. Introduction:
1. Dysfunctional statistics
1. 1 in 8 children today are born to a teen mother.
2. 1 in 3 children today are born to parents that are unmarried, although they may be cohabiting.
3. 1 out of every 25 kids in the United States does not live with either one of their parents.
4. 56% of working moms and 50% of working dads say they find it very or somewhat difficult to balance their responsibilities.

2. Alley family is broken too.

2. Gospel Power: (Eph 2:1-10)
1. Vs 1-3, the fallen state
1. “Dead”

a)      No worse state.  Not “injured” “sick.”

b)     Reiterated in vs 5.

2. “In trespasses and sins.”

a)     The environment in which our souls dwell before the gospel IS death. 

b)     Not dead because we individually sinned, although that is also true.

c)      Our souls came to be in the context of deadness.  The environment of deadness was created by the sinfulness of fallen mankind (Rom 5) and then verified by the sinful choices of the individual soul itself.

3. Universal deadness (all once walked, course of the world, like the rest of mankind).

a)     Not a discrete problem.  No special cases.

b)     Nobody righteous (Rom 1:21-32; 3:1-23)

4. Temptation lies without and within.

a)     Supernaturally superintended by Satan. The world follows Satan, and we follow the world.

b)     Also, our fallen bodies and corrupted minds lead us astray.

c)      Disney is wrong.  Don’t follow your heart.  The answer does not lie within you.  Above all else, don’t be true to your heart.  Your heart is desperately wicked! (Jer 17:9-11).

5. For the Family:

a)     You can’t do it all.  You won’t be able to have it all be true in your home.

b)     No perfect fathers, mothers, or children.

c)      Satan is ultimately defeated, but he is not asleep.

d)     Sin lives in our own hearts and gets in the way of us doing what we know we ought to do (Rom 7:15-25).

2. Vs 4-5, transforming, interrupting love
1. “But God.”  His actions here are a disjointed set from ours.  He responds dissimilarly toward us.  He does not love because we are lovely.  We are “children of wrath.”  Yet He loves.
2. (Isa 30:18) His love, mercy, and kindness flow out of the wealth of His nature, not in response to ours.
3. Death to life. Opposites of the greatest order.  With a dead person, nothing can be done.  With a living person, anything is possible.
4. For families:

a)     We are called to respond to our family members with the love, mercy, and kindness of God because of God’s nature.

b)     Their actions toward us and our response to them should be a disjointed set.

c)      It makes it easier to be kind when they are kind, but our instructions are not based on the obedience or worthiness of our spouse, they are based on the worthiness and nature of Christ.

d)     God’s nature is to be the reservoir of kindness, mercy, and love when our family members do not seem worthy of it.

e)     When family members draw upon the love and nature of God, families can go from death to life.

3. Vs 6-7, God-glorifying grace and kindness
1. Because we are made alive “in Christ,” we also share in his resurrection and are heirs with him. 
2. Ultimately, God works all things for the demonstration of His own glory, including our salvation.
3. The result of his mercy, love, and kindness is our salvation, which points back to the amazing mercy, love, and kindness which wrought our salvation in the first place.
4. For the family:

a)     When we treat the members of our family as Christ has asked us to, despite their actions or worthiness, we will see our families restored.

b)     The restored husband, who has been brought back into the family he left because of his wife’s love, will glorify God’s love, expressed through his wife’s love.

c)      The prodigal child who is treated with love and grace even in the midst of rebellion will, after restoration, acknowledge the work of God expressed through his parents’ love.

4. Vs 8-9, The heart of the gospel
1. Our justification, our being-set-right with God, is something that is given to us apart from anything we’ve done.  Again, it is a disjointed set.
2. Even our faith, which is the only thing we “do” in the process, can be seen as a gift of God according to the grammar.
3. MacArthur: “This” refers to the entire previous statement of salvation, not only the grace bu the faith.  Although men are required to believe for salvation, even that faith is part of the gift of God, which saves and cannot be exercised by one’s own power.  God’s grace is preeminent in every aspect of salvation ( Rom 3:20; Gal 2:16).”
4. For the Family:

a)     Even when people are unrepentant, the disjointed set kind of Love of God does not keep a laundry-list of sins for which we are billing them with our bitterness and hostility

(1)  1 Cor 13:4-7

(2)  Matt 5:43-48

b)     If even the faith which serves as the basis for our salvation is a gift of God.  Cannot even the repentance which precipitates forgiveness be drawn out by the ongoing disjointed love of the wronged?

c)      Forgiveness is commanded of every follower of Christ when the wrongdoer asks for it.

(1)  Luke 17:3-4

(2)  Following the heart of God (2 Chron 7:14; 1Jn 1:9)

d)     Ultimately, the power to live this way is from God, by His Holy Spirit.  This is not a natural reaction to a broken family member.

e)     This does not mean you need to lie down and accept abuse. There are situations where separation and distance for your protection are warranted, but these should be seen as temporary settings that give space for healing and restoration.

f)       This also doesn’t mean that there is no discipline or consequences to the wrongdoer.  God disciplines His children (Heb 12:5-8), and there are consequences to wrong behavior, but even these consequences are delivered in the context of love and mercy.

5. Vs 10, resultant sanctification
1. God loved, saved, and restored of his own volition. 
2. Sanctification is no different.

a)     He makes us who He wants us to be.

b)     He prepares the good works beforehand for us to do.

c)      He invites us into his work.

3. We are called elsewhere in scripture to participate in the process and put forth our best efforts, but it is not our efforts that are effectual.

a)     2Tim 2:15

b)     Col 1:29

4. For the Family:

a)     We desire to live in a family with perfect Fathers, Mothers, and Children.  They will never be perfect, and their improvement is not our job. 

b)     We cannot be the Holy Spirit for them.  We cannot sanctify them.

c)      They also cannot be their own Holy Spirit. They cannot try hard enough to become an ideal family member.

d)     It is the work of God in their life, as they surrender, confess sin, and allow God to work through them that takes them from who they are to who God has called them to be.

e)     If rules (Law) or discipline (deportation) could have made people perfect, God would not have needed to send his Son in order to make himself a people.  He did.  Rely on his methodology.

f)       Our part is to love and pray for our family members and ask God to work in their hearts.

6. Conclusion: What can you do to help your broken family become what God wants it to be?
1. Pray! Eph 3:14-19
2. Be who God has called you to be.  1Pe 3:1-6.  The principle is unisex.
3. As much as it depends on you, be at peace Rom 12:18
4. Never give up on the Love of God flowing through you to your family. 1Jn 4:7-11