The Spirit of Adoption

The Spirit of Adoption

Ian Thomas

Romans 8:12-17

January 20th, 2019

What is a Christian? The question can be answered in many ways, but the richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God as Father… If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and control his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. - J.I Packer

Main Idea: Though we were orphans, we have been adopted by God through Christ, making us fully and completely children of God.

I. TRULY BROTHERS AND SISTERS (8:12-13)

To address the church in Rome as “brothers and sisters” was revolutionary in this context. The constant threat of division between Jews & Gentiles within the church is the single biggest issue of the New Testament outside of the gospel itself. 

 The question that looms over the early church and the New Testament: Are we really brothers? Are we really sisters? Is this really our family? 

 Paul urges the church to no longer live “according to the flesh” which always leads to tribalism. This looks like an “us” vs. “them” mentality that only ever goes skin-deep. And it leads to “death.” 

 We are a family not formed by the blood of biology but by the blood of the cross. Caring for orphans makes perfect sense when we grasp this. We are not the sum of our biological background or our biological family, no matter what that may look like.

John 20:17 Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.

II. TRULY SONS (8:14-15)

Paul strikes at the heart of what it means to be “spiritual” here. The primary work of the indwelling Holy Spirit is to instill a deep sense within us that God is indeed our Father. The Spirit works to confirm this identity in us. 

 Adoption is a choice, not an obligation. This should confirm to us that God does not merely “tolerate” or “put up” with us, but he views us as beloved sons and daughters. 

 The Spirit here leads our souls to cry out “Abba! Father!” Abba is a term of intimacy, but this is more intense than a childish babble. It is a cry (or a scream or “groan” cf. 8:26) of desperation toward our Father, realizing he is the only hope that we have in this face of brokenness. 

 The only way that we are given this identity and this privilege is because Jesus himself became an orphan for us. He was adopted into an earthly family, cries out in the garden of Gethsemane “Abba!” and on the cross “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

…But all they knew was the orphanage. It was filthy, but they had no other reference point. It was home. They are now thoroughly Americanized, perhaps too much so, able to recognize the sound of a microwave ding from forty yards away. I still remember, though, those little hands reaching for the orphanage. And I see myself there. - Russell Moore

Growing in Christ means leaving behind what we know as “home” and what is comfortable, which is always scary. But when we leave behind what is “comfortable” for what God is calling us to, we leave behind the spirit of slavery to fear and instead move toward our eternal family and the true Kingdom. This is where our true identity is found. 

III. TRULY HEIRS (8:16-17)

The issue of inheritance was far more than receiving a lump sum of money when a relative died in the 1st century; inheritance was tied up to your livelihood and lineage far more than we can imagine today. 

 Paul assures us that we are “heirs” of God and “co-heirs” with Christ. This means that we are going to inherit the whole world alongside Jesus, receiving the very same blessing that is given to him from God the Father. But this is all in the context of family. 

 The picture that Paul is painting: though we were orphans- though we were not the “natural-born” children- God has made us truly brothers and sisters; we truly have God as our Father; we are truly heirs of God. This should be hard for us to believe. 

 The picture we get of the Kingdom of God is a bunch of adopted children.

 It is not a matter of “if” God has called us to orphan care but rather “how” he has called us to this. 

 This mission of the church is to declare and display the gospel to the “least” of these, because Jesus is there with them (Matt. 25:40).

More important than your name, however, is hearing it called out by the One you’ve come to know, or rather who has come to know you. When you see him for the first time face-to-face, when your legal adoption is fully realized, the Spirit within you will cry out, “Abba! Father!” And you’ll hear another voice, louder than all the others, cry out the same thing. You’ll turn to see him, the Messiah of Israel, the Emperor of the universe, Jesus of Nazareth. And you’ll call him “Brother" - Russell Moore

Holding Fast Together

Holding Fast Together

Ian Thomas

Hebrews 10:19-25

January 13th, 2019

What happens to the church in this environment? It’s not that suddenly all the sanctuaries are emptied and the church gets rejected. Instead, the people who continue to attend church do so because they believe the church can help them find and express themselves. Religiosity doesn’t disappear; it morphs into something adaptable, something you embrace on your own terms. Faith is no longer focused on reality or something true; it’s a therapeutic choice intended to aid you in your pursuit of self-exaltation and self-fulfillment. - Trevin Wax

Main idea: God’s faithfulness toward us in Christ bonds us into a family that is called to hold fast together.

I. THE BASIS OF OUR FAMILY (10:19-21)

The “holy places” here is a reference to the innermost part of the tabernacle/temple, that was only accessible to the High Priest once a year on the Day of Atonement. It was unaccessible and dangerous. 

But now, the author urges this community that they have “confidence to enter” this place. How is that possible? 

• They have confidence through the blood of Jesus, who, through his death, has torn the curtain that separated mankind from the presence of God

• Because of this work, Jesus now serves as our High Priest, interceding and pleading on our behalf before God. 

Application:

These verses push back on a rugged individualism in 2 ways:

1. This pushes us to define our identity upward, not inward. (Cf. Colossians 3:1-4)

2. Jesus as our High Priest is connecting us to the community of the Trinity. Community is not merely a good suggestion: it’s at the center of God Himself.

II. THE BEHAVIOR OF OUR FAMILY (10:22-25)

How do we actually access the presence of God? How do we take advantage of our confidence to enter this holy place? The author makes it clear that it is only through one another. The family of the church is where the presence of God is seen and experienced.

This section is framed by 3 exhortations to the community:

1. We draw near (10:22). 

We do so with “true’ (sincere, genuine) hearts, with full confidence, because our hearts have been sprinkled clean & made new. But we must draw near together.

In friendship, we think we have chosen our peers. In reality, a few years difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another...the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting--any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, "You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," can truly say to every group of Christian friends, "You have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another." The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others. - C.S Lewis

2. We hold fast (10:23)

We don’t do this very well on our own, however. We need one another to remind us that God is faithful and that He will bring to completion the good work that has begun in us (Cf. Phil. 1:6). 

3. We consider one another (10:24-25)

To “stir up” literally means “to irritate” or “agitate.” We need people in our lives who can have the hard conversation with us, and to speak the truth in love 

In all of this, we cannot neglect meeting together. We must fight to show up. There were some in this community who were neglecting this. Do we have margin for one another? 

So then, what if the Church became the first place, instead of the last place, that people went looking for family? What if the Church was filled with unmarried people but had no “single” people, because unmarried people were as family to each other, and surrogate brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and sons and daughters to the rest of the Church? What if the Church was the place where no parent felt the burden of having to raise children alone, and where every child had hundreds of mothers and fathers and grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles and big sisters and brothers? What if it were true that God sets the lonely in families? What if the Church was the place where anyone in the world could find refuge and solace from the age-old curse—first uttered into Paradise—that it is not good to be alone? - Scott Sauls

A Greater Worship

A Greater Worship

Ian Thomas

Psalm 103

January 6th, 2019

Here's something else that's weird but true: in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships... And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never feel like you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already... The trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness… The insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they are evil or sinful; it is that they are unconscious. They are default settings. They’re the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see & how you measure value without ever being fully aware that’s what you’re doing. - David Foster Wallace

Main Idea: We are called to worship with our all because of who God is and what God has done.

I. What is Worship? (103:1-2)

This Psalm opens in a strange way for 2 reasons:

1.     The Psalmist is talking to himself.

2.     The Psalmist is asking us to “bless” the Lord instead of the other way around.

Worship is ascribing ultimate value to an object and engaging your mind, your heart, and your will- your whole being, as you do it. It is using your entire person to ascribe ultimate value to some object - Tim Keller

When we consider all who God is and all he has done, it is an invitation for all that I am to respond. Worship engages our entire being: our head, heart, and hands. 

 The first act of worship is to “forget not” (to remember). We are a people prone to forget and are in constant need to remember the Lord (cf. 2 Peter 1:3-9)

 Application: Do we have this proactive posture toward worship? Do we recognize that worship is a battle? 

II. Why Should We Worship God? (103:3-18)

The Psalmist gives three overarching categories here:

1. We remember the works of the Lord (103:3-5) 

He forgives, heals, redeems, crowns, satisfies, and renews us. We find all of these benefits and works supremely in Jesus Christ. 

2. We remember the character and nature of the Lord (103:6-13) 

The Lord is a righteous and gracious Father toward his children. 

David is remembering the scene at Mount Sinai after the Exodus from Egypt, where the Lord “made known his ways to Moses” (v. 7), but also where the Israelites sin in creating & worshipping a golden calf. 

Despite our sin, the Lord in his steadfast love removes our transgressions as “far as the east is from the west,” separating them infinitely far from one another. 

3. We remember who we are in light of who the Lord is (103:14-18)

Pride and an elevated view of the self will wage war against a proper worship of God. 

We are merely dust, grass, and flowers when compared to God, which should produce the “fear of the Lord” within us. 

Application: Habits, rhythms, and remembering.

Meditation is listening to your heart, then arguing with your heart with the truth, and then praying it hot in the presence of God. - Tim Keller

III. Who is Called to Worship? (103:19-22)

The Psalmist moves from his own soul to progressing to a collective “our,” to ending with a vision of all of creation joining in on this worship of God. Since the Lord has established his throne and his kingdom rules over all, nothing short of of the worship of all of creation will suffice. 

 Application: Are we participating and pointing others to this worship through declaring and displaying the gospel?