Sunday School – THE GOSPEL IN PEAS (Continued) | SS20260719

INTRODUCTION  

There is only one Gospel … but there are many different ways of presenting the Gospel …  

• The ABC approach:  A short presentation where A is for Admit, B is for Believe and C is for Confess.

The Gospel in Peas    

A Gospel presentation, based on five words that begin with the letter ‘P’ … Purpose, Problem, Provision, Potential and Promise.  

1.  Purpose … God’s Purpose  … Relationship     

• Man was made differently … to have a relationship with God 
• God made the birds and the bees, the flowers and the trees “according to their kind” (Genesis 1:11-13, 20-23, 24-25), BUT … 
• Man was made in God’s image … so that man could have a relationship with God that was different from any other relationship  
  • Genesis 1:25  And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
  • Genesis 1:26   Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 
•    
• God wanted to be our God … and He wanted us to be His people  
  • Jeremiah 32:38
  • Hebrews 8:10
  • Revelation 21:3
• Man was made to have a family-type relationship with God  
• Notice how Jesus taught His disciples how to address God when they prayed …   
  • Matthew 6:9  … Our Father …
  • Notice what Jesus said to Mary after His resurrection …
  • John 20:17  … My Father and your Father ….
• Man was made with the potential to live forever     
  • Genesis 3:22 ²² Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”

2.  Problem … Man’s Problem … Separation     

• Isaiah 59:1-3  
• Man’s sins and iniquities separated Man from God … ever since the first sin was committed by Adam …
• Genesis 3:22-26
• Because of sin, Adam was driven from the Garden of Eden.
• Genesis 3:23-26
• The first sin caused the initial separation … and that initial separation may have been caused by sin (unbelief and disobedience), BUT that initial separation is what caused subsequent sins.
• QQQ … from sermon notes by Home Office …
  • It’s important, though, to frame sin as something far bigger than individual bad choices.  This does not deny personal sin.  Yes, our actions cause harm and have consequences.  But sin is a power that enslaves all humanity, not just a series of choices.  Individual sins are symptoms, not the root problem.   Humans are created to live in communion with the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit.   Sin is fundamentally a rupture of that communion.  
    • Sin is the distortion in our participation in the life of the triune God — a twisting of our true relationship with God and one another.  Sin even distorts our self-understanding. 
    • And it’s pervasive, meaning present everywhere and felt everywhere. 
    • It manifests both personally and systemically in ruptured and disturbed relationships, structures, and ways of being.  By “structures,” we mean the way society is organized — in institutions, cultural norms, economic arrangements, and social habits. 

    And this is why you will hear Christians and Paul refer to it as “powers.” 

    • These “powers” cannot be limited or reduced to isolated individual choices.  They include  embodied patterns of sinful human life that have gained momentum, structure, and influence. (Ephesians 6:12)
    • These “powers” include the ways sin becomes larger than any one person.   It takes shape in systems, cultures, and institutions. A nd these structures then influence how people think and act, holding people in bondage.  

    Sin has distorted and obscured how we see reality.  At every level, humanity’s shared life has become disordered by sin.  We are BOTH personally responsible AND we are also formed within corrupt systems that we did not choose and do not control.  

• So … what we can say is that sin caused the initial separation … but that separation is what has caused subsequent sins.  
• Ezekiel 18:4  “Behold, all souls are Mine; The soul of the father As well as the soul of the son is Mine; The soul who sins shall die … 
• Ezekiel 18:20  The soul who sins shall die ….    
• Romans 3:23   for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 

So, Man had a problem caused by SIN … but his sin was compounded by something else … 

• Romans 6:23   For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  
• Ephesians 2:1-3  And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, ² in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, ³ among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.  
• Romans 3:20  Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.  
• Romans 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not  subject to  the law of God, nor indeed can be. 

So, Man had a problem caused by SIN … and made worse by DEATH (spiritual).  

3.  Provision … God’s Provision … Jesus Christ   

• God provided a solution to Man’s problem by sending His Son, Jesus Christ … 
• John 3:16 …   
• God sent His Son to solve Man’s problem … but Man’s problem had two causes:  SIN and DEATH.
  • SIN was the cause of the initial problem,
  • but DEATH was why Man could not solve his problem (See Romans 3:20 and Romans 8:7)
• Because Man’s PROBLEM had two causes … Jesus’ SOLUTION had to address the two causes
• He did so by His DEATH and His RESURRECTION
  • He defeated sin by His death
  • He defeated death by His resurrection

4.  Potential … Man’s Potential … Reconciliation     

• Colossians 1:19-23    ¹⁹ For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,   ²⁰ and by Him to reconcile  all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.  ²¹ And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled ²² in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—  ²³ if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.    
• 2 Corinthians 5:18-20   
• ¹⁸ Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through  Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,  
• ¹⁹ that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.  
• ²⁰ Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 

5.  Promise … God’s Promise … Restoration      

• Revelation 3:20    
• Behold, I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.