Sermon “New Creation Mystery”

Intro: If you were God, what would you do when someone rejected your decisions? If you were God what would you do with absolute power over life itself? If you had all that unmeasured power, and no one could harm you, or take from you, or successfully resist you, what would you do with any resistance to your approach and decisions? The 1000 years of peace are about to begin, and you are in charge of a major part of it – KRISTALLNACHT - THE NIGHT OF BROKEN GLASS It happened on Nov 9, 1938 as a result of a seventeen-year-old - Herschel Grynszpan (anglicized as "Greenspan") - who was living in Paris with this aunt and uncle (Abraham and Chawa Grynszpan). Receiving a postcard, from a family member, Herschel learned his family had been deported. Extremely upset, the teenager bought a gun and went to the German embassy in Paris on the 7th of November, 1938. Planning to kill the ambassador (Count von Welczek), he shot a lower-level dignitary (Ernst vom Rath) instead. Two days later, vom Rath died. When Josef Goebbels “you” - the Reich's minister of propaganda communications - heard about the diplomat's death, he talked with Hitler superior. At 10 p.m., on the 9th of November, 1938, Goebbels told a gathering of Nazi-party officials that vom Rath was dead. As part of his tirade “righteous indignation”, Goebbels gave instructions to begin a retaliatory response.

Payment would be extracted for Herschel's actions. Jewish Pagan businesses and synagogues places of worship were attacked - during the night of November 9-10 - but Goebbels “you” also ordered that no looting would be permitted and no Jews Pagans would be harmed. The rampage against the Jews is known as Kristallnacht (or, "The Night of Broken Glass"). Scholars often refer to the event as the beginning of the end of German Jewry. Survivors of Kristallnacht relate their memories from the Night of Broken Glass. A pogrom, against the Jews, was underway. Such an event had not happened since the middle ages. Jewish men were rounded up for concentration camps, rabbis were debearded and Jewish scriptures and artifacts were burned. Firemen, dispatched to make sure non-Jewish buildings did not burn, were dismayed when they were ordered not to help the Jews. Some Germans were shocked and did what they could to help their Jewish friends and neighbors. Others cheered at the burning synagogues. Still others worried ... what would such hatred and violent actions ultimately mean for them? Germans did not speak up against the Nazi actions, on Kristallnacht, because they were afraid for themselves. At the end of the attack, newspapers around the world reported its devastating results.

No one was charged with any crime. Germans called the event Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass") because there was so much shattered glass everywhere. "The destruction of plate glass alone amounted to half-a-year's production of the Belgian glass industry." Reich leaders decided that Jews should pay for their own damage while insurance dollars were turned-over to the government. In addition, the victims were fined for what happened. Jewish people ... in other words ... "could be attacked with impunity and they were the ones who still had to pay the price." Thirty thousand Jewish men were imprisoned in three concentration camps - as further payment for Kristallnacht. Survivors relate what life was like - especially "the terrible fear of what is going to happen." Most of these men were later released, but the intent of the regime was made clear: "Leave the country, or we'll get you again." SLAVE SHIP ZONG On the 29th of November, 1781, The Liverpool-owned slave ship, Zong, sailed from Africa bound for Jamaica. The skipper Luke Collingwood had taken on too many slaves for the size of vessel. Sixty had died during the crossing and Collingwood’s crew threw any weak slaves overboard. Slaves were considered cargo so London insurers allowed that if a slave went over the side alive, then the Liverpool ship-owners could claim. If a slave died on board, then the insurers wouldn't pay because that was bad cargo management. Collingwood and his crew threw 133 ill-looking slaves into the sea. The owners cited lack of water as the need to dump their human cargo. The insurers said that was bad management and challenged the claim in the courts and won.

Benefit Statement: There is a difference between the way we will handle resistance in the Kingdomand the world today. The difference is due to us being different than we have been. We ARE different. We may not know HOW different. We may not realize HOW this is happening, and HOW profoundly God is responsible instead of us. We are about to look into what the great leaders and educators of the world have not. We are allowed, and even invited to know what even the leaders of Israel did not. We see what no Age has seen. This is because of what we really ARE. And this is not given to make us superior in any way. This is given to us by God to direct, and motivate, and INCLUDE us much MORE in the PLAN.

SPS: Today we are invited to see the “New Creation Mystery” as we may never have seen it. Body: 1) Mk 4:11 11And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, 12so that ‘Seeing they may see and not perceive, And hearing they may hear and not understand; Lest they should turn, And their sins be forgiven them.’” Sounds very much like Gen 3 when God said that mankind must not have access to the Tree of Life lest they “live forever”? Gen 3:4 4Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Adam and Eve became perverted as they believed they were “as God”? We know God is selfless. They didn’t. BUT we could become perverted by thinking the same thing, right? So we need to understand WE are different than humans who DON’T understand what it really MEANS to be “as God”. (((1. God gives life to all things. (Like the sun giving off power and light …even life.) "I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate..." (1 Timothy 6:13).

2. God created us humans in His own image, but with temporary physical life. "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them… And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being" (Genesis 1:27; 2:7). 3. God is the only source of eternal life, and He offers it to us! "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23).))) (((Heb 5:8 8though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. As Christ did, we too have lived learning through suffering, obedience, and sacrifice. Mk 8:34 34When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 35For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. Adam and Eve didn’t learn the self-sacrificing approach to life. So mankind has not been allowed to have the information of their Incredible human Potential, AND the actual transformation that has begun in this physical life which is no longer truly, totally physical. It would be possible to become “superior” with this information, without first grasping the reality of selflessness through suffering and obedience through the faith in God through Jesus Christ. ))) Only some very few humans have understood that training to become God requires total sacrifice of self including all credit for the process going TO God.

1 Cor 2:4 4And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. 6However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 10But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ. The context here is that the “mystery” given to the Church then was concerning something “for our glory”, and that means the likeness of God, and this is delivered to the Church THROUGH the Mind of Christ.

Eph 3:9 9and to make all see what is the fellowship [κοινωνία koinōnia koy-nohn-ee'-ah- partnership, stewardship] of the mystery [means “mystery”], which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; 10to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, [REMARKABLE!] 11according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, THE INCREDIBLE HUMAN POTENTIAL IS NOT HUMAN. 12in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. 2 Cor 5:12 12For we do not commend ourselves again to you, but give you opportunity to boast on our behalf, that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart. 13For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or if we are of sound mind, it is for you. 14For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. 16Therefore, from now on, we regard [be aware of or behold] no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. They began to be consistently aware than mankind was purposed to not merely be flesh. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation …LITERALLY NEW FORMATION! A NEW KIND OF BEING. [κτίσις ktisis ktis'-is – formation, creature, creation, ordinance, building]; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. They started seeing Creation as God does – positively.

18Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ [Who shows us HOW to do this], and has given us the ministry [selfless, outgoing concern for ALL] of reconciliation, 19that 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. So now WE are the light of the world since we are taught HOW to do so – be selfless. (Mt 5:14) 20Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, [WHY?] that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. What? WE = righteousness of God? Yes because we understand the mystery of the hope. 2) We KNOW what this “New Creation” comment is about …right? Rom 8:9 9But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells [Oikeo - like occupying a house] in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

Col 1:26 the mystery which has been hidden [treasured] from ages [worlds] and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. 27To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles [the unconverted of the world]: WHICH IS Christ in you, the hope of glory. We may have accentuated “Christ in you”, and not looked closely enough at what that Being in you makes possible. That human who has Christ dwelling in him, has real forward-looking expectation of the same “glory” Christ has now. THE “MYSTERY” IS THE HOPE OF GLORY BECAUSE CHRIST DWELLS IN THIS NEW CREATURE, NEW SELFLESS BEING WHO HAS CONFIDENCE IN SELFLESS GLORY TO COME. Acts 17:28 28for in Him we live and move and have our being [esmen – we are], as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ We are a different “being”, “creature”, with a “life” that is not the life we had. Does this sound like we are the same as any other human, or that we are totally human at all? 3) So …what are we to DO about this? Work out our own salvation; do the Work; plan for the pogrom that we will carry out to rid the world of evil? Plan to throw the useless overboard? Have we perhaps misunderstood the depth of selflessness which God is exampling and we are to imitate? We are learning to give up our self, no matter HOW difficult life is at any time. WE ARE CONFIDENT OF ANOTHER WORLD …YET TO COME

2 Pet 3:1 1Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), 2that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, 10But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved [see it as they saw it – (“old things made new”)], what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, SO …we are to have this “Hope of Glory” because of Christ in us. 12looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 13NEVERTHELESS we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

THIS IS REVELATION. Humans do NOT understand WHY this is about to happen! 14Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; 15and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, Human beings are allowed into eternal Life because of learned, practiced selflessness! (((16as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. 17You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; The way of the human world, which is selfishness! 18but grow in the grace and knowledge [sacrificing ourselves for those who cannot repay because of the example-“knowledge”] of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. TO HIM BE THE GLORY both now and forever. Amen.))) Eternal Life is at the root of the motivation to stay active in God’s Way. Selfish? Not an eternal Life of Selflessness. But how was mankind to understand Eternal Life in selflessness before Christ showed us how to do it?

((( 2 Tim 1:8 8Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, 9who has saved us and CALLED US WITH A HOLY CALLING, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, This whole thing was going to happen from the beginning! 10but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, THAT WAS POSSIBLE BECAUSE …NOW HUMANS COULD UNDERSTAND TRUE SACRIFICING OF SELF BY CHRIST’S EXAMPLE AND IMITATE (BE DISCIPLES OF) HIM))) Conclusion: How does this all come together simply? How are we to be motivated to act like God, and then to become Godly? (the Bible calls it – “transformation” – A PREDICTABLE PROCESS).

Rom 5:1 1Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5Now hope does not disappoint, because the LOVE OF GOD has been POURED OUT IN OUR HEARTS by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Rom 16:24 24The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. 25Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began [Our foundation is in this Person called Jesus Christ AND concerning this “mystery”] 26but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures [What is “prophesied AND made manifest”? the Family of God! This is because the coming of the messiah had been prophesied already then.] made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith— this is done by rejecting the human world’s way and sacrificing self as God for all humanity. 27to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. Christ teaches His Church NOW how to obtain this selfless Glory! He lived it – Selflessly! Close: HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS HOPE OF GLORY – THE NEW CREATURE? Gal 6:15 15For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation[ as 2cor 5:17].

1 Jn 3:2 2Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. John wrote Revelation and the description of Christ in glorified form after that was written. Rev 1:12 12Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. 14His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; 15His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; 16He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. One last thought – So now we see this life unlike mankind - IF WE UNDERSTAND THE DEPTH OF OUR INVOLVEMENT. SELFLESS “GLORY” OBTAINED AND GIVEN BECAUSE OF IMITATING THE SELFLESS CHRIST WHO SHOWED US HOW! 1 Jn 3:3 3And everyone who has this hope [elpice confidence] in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. THAT IS THE “NEW CREATION MYSTERY” – HIDDEN FROM THE AGES – UNTIL NOW!