The Mission of Christmas ~ Genesis 12:1-3 December 8, 2013 ~ New City Church of Calgary ~ Pastor John Ferguson Intro:

Mission statements became all the rage in the business world in the 70s & 80s. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find a successful business that did not have a clear sense of its identity and mission. Weve taken this one step further to personal mission statements. Question: What is Gods mission statement?

The Mission of Christmas ~ Genesis 12:1-3

Background: Gen 1-2; 3-11 The Rebellion (Gen 3) o God initiates his covenant of Grace; promises not only Christmas but Easter The Corruption (Gen 6) o Gen 6:5: The Lord saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. o God forges his covenant with Noah to preserve the earth for the future The Scattering (Gen 11) o Curse is mentioned 5x in Gen. 3-11: // 3:14, 17; 4:11; 5:29; 9:25.

Christopher Wright, Genesis 1-11 poses a cosmic question to which God must provide a cosmic answerWhat can God do next? 12:1 Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your fathers house to the land that I will show you. Abram: 75 years old (Gen. 12:4); married to a barren woman, Sarai (Gen. 11:30).

12:2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 12:3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. Note the mission of God: Bless/blessing (Heb: barak) occurs 5x in 3 verses. Christopher Wright, What can God do next? Something that only God could have thought of. He sees an elderly, childless couple in the land of Babel and decides to make them the fountainhead, the launch pad of his whole mission of cosmic redemptionThe call of Abraham is the beginning of Gods answer to the evil of human heart, the strife of the nations and the groaning brokenness of his whole creation. A new world, ultimately a new creation, begins in this text. That is the Good News the Gospel according to Genesis!

1. One man and his family is chosen that all families might be blessed. One family was chosen that all families could be beneficiaries of that choice. Gen 22:18, through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed.

2. Jesus is the offspring of Abraham through which the nations will be blessed. Galatians 3:16, Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, And to offsprings referring to many, but referring to one, And to your offspring, who is Christ. Galatians 3:8, And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the nations by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, In you shall all the nations be blessed.

3. Christ became a curse for us so that the blessing of God can flow to us. Galatians 3:13-14, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for usfor it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a treeso that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations. Acts 3:25-26, You are the sonsof the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness. Thats the mission of Christmas!

12:4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot with him. Abram was seventyfive years old when he departed from Haran. 1. Remember the two commands that God gives Abram: Go and be a blessing. 2. Note Abrams obedience: Go so Abram went. Note the gravity of the call: Go (1) from your country; (2) from your kindred; (3) from your fathers house. Note the insecurity of the call: to the place I will show you. Period. Theres a sense in which following God is always uncomfortable b/c he is constantly calling us out of our comfort zones more & more. Therefore, we cannot make decisions based on what is comfortable & safe.

3. C. Wright, Christians who commit themselves to the mission of God in the world have to start with a certain going out from the world.We need to recognize the idolatrous nature of the world and all its claims and ideologies.there is a form of leaving and going that is spiritual, mental, and attitudinaleven when it is not physical. For it involves the abandonment of the worldview through which the world tells its own usurped story, adopting, in faith and hope, the worldview of the story we are in the biblical story of Gods mission. Main Idea: Christmas is about Gods commitment to blessing every nation on the planet in Jesus Christ.

Application: 1. Rejoice over the worldwide scope of Gods Christmas mission. Revelation 5:9, And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation Rev. 7:9-10, After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lambcrying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.

2. Remember, we have been blessed to be a blessing. Galatians 3:29, And if you are Christs, then you are Abrahams offspring, heirs according to the promise. o To be a Christian means to see yourself as part of the worldwide family of Abraham through which God intends to make His blessings flow. o I am blessed in order to be a blessing. Time, talents, resources. In the world, but not of the world, yet for the world.

Conclusion: Just like Abraham, God still calls His people out of their comfort zones and into the brokenness of this world in order to bring the blessing of Christmas to bear upon our city. Joy to the World: Joy to the world! The Lord is come / Let earth receive her King / Let every heart prepare him room / and heavn and nature sing // No more let sins and sorrows grow / nor thorns infest the ground / He comes to make his blessings flow / far as the curse is found. 3

That is the mission of God that we celebrate this advent seasonthe mission of Christmas that defines us, includes us, and blesses us in Christ Jesus to be a blessing.