Sister Teri Sunday school 6/17/12

Sister Teri Sunday school 6/17/12

Sin puts people in a whole different realm than the Kingdom of God.  Our job is to be ambassadors to them and help them get out of that kingdom of darkness and bring them to the Kingdom of God.  We are given the responsibility of being ambassadors in Christ’s stead to the lost. 

We need to personally live the life of holiness that Jesus lived so that we are not a reproach to the Kingdom of God.  We are then to physically carry the message to others.  The Spirit of God is going continually, speaking to souls.  We are to be the witness in physical form and examples of what the Word and Spirit will do in a life.  We can be the visible proof of what God can do for souls.

Ambassador: a diplomatic representative sent to another country as a representative of their own country.  This world is not our home; we’re just passing through.  We represent our Heavenly Father, our King, and the kingdom that God desires to bring us into.

2Co 5:17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

2Co 5:18  And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

2Co 5:19  To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

2Co 5:20  Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

2Co 5:21  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

2Co 5:15  And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

The two kingdoms:

Col 1:12  Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

Col 1:13  Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

When we were sinners we were under the power of darkness.  This darkness opens the door to sin, deception, and confusion.  When we are saved then we can begin to understand the truths of the Word of God. 

People couldn’t understand what Jesus was showing to them of the Kingdom of God, “light came into the world and the world comprehended it not.”

Luk 19:10  For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

In the beginning of this chapter Jesus reached out to a sinner, Zacchaeus, and because he responded then Jesus was able to help him. 

1Ti 1:15  This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

The lost spoken of in Luke are the sinners spoken of in First Timothy.

Mat 20:25  But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them.

Mat 20:26  But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;

Mat 20:27  And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:

Mat 20:28  Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Jesus didn’t come to set up an earthly kingdom where men would be held in high authority ruling over people.  He came to serve, and to save.  His life and death, his sacrifice, paid the price for our sin so that we could be redeemed and reconciled to God. 

We also are not saved for ourselves.  We are saved to be ambassadors for Christ: to live a holy life as Jesus did and reach out to the lost.  It is possible through the power of God to live a holy life.  We then give our lives to point others to Christ.  We cannot save them but we can point others to the savior.

Luk 4:43  And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent.

Jesus went about preaching what the Kingdom of God was all about:  What it takes to get in it and what it takes to be a part of it.  Matthew has a lot of the parables that Jesus told of the kingdom of God.  There is depth to those parables that can only be discerned by the Spirit of God.  It is about what is here and what is on the other side of time.

Mat 5:17  Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

Some measure their spirituality by whether they are living under a bunch of rules.  Others throw all of the rules out and think that they don’t have to follow any.  They think that the grace of God will cover all our sin and we can live however we want.  These spirits were in Jesus’ day and they exist today. 

Jesus came to fulfill the law and make a change in our heart.  The law was an eye for an eye but Christ said to love our enemies.  The law held boundaries because it knew what the flesh would do.  The flesh would be inclined to demand more than an eye for an eye.  It set boundaries and said that true justice is fair. 

Jesus went beyond this and gives a heart to love, to reconcile to those that have wronged us.  We wouldn’t want to harm another; we want to treat them as a child of God.  They are not loved less than us.

A heart change takes place: no longer do we have to say, an eye for an eye.  Not that there are not consequences, we leave that to God. God will take care of things. 

We are not in bondage and our salvation isn’t based on conforming to a bunch of rules.  We have a change of heart that helps us live according to God’s principals.

Luk 12:51  Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:

Luk 12:52  For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.

Luk 12:53  The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

As peacemakers, as ambassadors for Christ, our job is not to just get along with everyone on the earth.  For us to do that we would have to all be totally silent on the message.  We’d have to be alone somewhere in the mountain where there would be no contact with others so our lives don’t bring them into conviction. 

We live in a divided world, there is the Kingdom of God and there is the kingdom of the world.  There will be times that we need to speak and put judgment on things but we need to let God let us know how to do it. 

We shouldn’t be silent though.  If we are, then the voice of the world is free to have a complete monopoly in the conversation.  We are to have our life on a candlestick not under a bushel.  We don’t want to sow discord and strife but we need to do what we should be doing.

It is not a battle of flesh and blood.  This is how we stay out of contention.  It is not a battle of people, but a battle of principalities.  We are not bringing this to condemn others.  Truth is truth and right is right.  If people continue in their sin then they will be lost forever. 

We need to let them know that we love them and they are on the wrong road and we don’t want them to be lost.  When a child runs into the road we need to pull them out even if they don’t like it. 

Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Joh 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Joh 3:18  He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Joh 3:19  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

Joh 3:20  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

Joh 3:21  But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

We don’t carry this message out to condemn people but so that they may be saved.  So they can get out of sin and be reconciled and ready to go to heaven.  People are already condemned.  They are condemned if they love darkness rather than light.  The light is not the condemnation but that they want to stay in their darkness rather than come into the light.

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.

In verses 24 to 41 you see how Jesus healed a man that was born blind on the Sabbath day.  The man that was healed preached a message to these educated Pharisee’s “I don’t know all of what you’re saying, but this man healed me.”  We have this message as well:  “I don’t know all of that but this I know He delivered me out of darkness and now I am saved.”

The Pharisee’s were brought to a point of accountability.  There was a witness that this man was born blind and now is healed.  We have the witness that we were lost under sin and now live according to the Principals of the Word.  This brings people that see us to a point of accountability.