The Narrative of Scripture

In the Beginning: The King, His People, in His Land

June 18, 2023 • Edgardo Rosa • Genesis 1:26–31, Genesis 2:15–17

We study the following under these two markers: Identity and Purpose 1. Land 2. People 3. King Let us approached the beginning of the story. Let us reconsider how deep and meaningful the Genesis 1 and 2 are. It is not only good enough to know what day God created what. We must dig deeper into why He created. Genesis 1 and 2 are inviting us to see the narrative of God and to get or mistreat the beginning will have catastrophic results. The reason we dug, and will continue to dig into land, people, king is because these three themes will ultimate and continually point us to Jesus, His character and work. All of Scripture, everything written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms, is pointing and culminates with Jesus (Luke 24:27, 44). So, the more we contemplate and mediated on the narrative of Scripture—from Genesis to Revelation—the more that we will encounter and delight ourselves in Jesus. So, please keep joining us as we unfold this summer the narrative of Scripture.

In the Beginning: The King, His People, in His Land Pt. 2

June 25, 2023 • Edgardo Rosa • Psalm 95:1–7

What do we learn about the King in the first two chapters of Genesis? He is: 1. Transcendent 2. Source & End 3. Rules By His Word 4. Benevolent This morning we started by reading Psalm 95 and not reading from a portion of Genesis. This is because the aim, the end, of creation is God’s glory that is magnified in our praise. If we did not praise and worship God after studying His kingly rule over his creation, we would be falling short of our creaturely purposes. As we read in Psalm 95, a right posture before the King is a posture of praise and worship. We bow the knee in adoration. This is the posture of all of subjects of his kingdom. While Psalm 95 gives us an earthly picture, Revelation 4 gives us the heavenly picture. We read in Revelation 4 that the heavenly beings praise the King before his throne crying out. The question is not whether God is king or not, the questions is whether you recognize him as your king. The questions this morning is, “Who is the king of your life? God or you? You see, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess his rule. But will you confess his rule over you as your King or as your conqueror? We will either bow the knee in praise and worship or bow the knee in defeat. We hope that you would see that there is no greater or kinder King to follow. He is the great King who stands above creation; the great King who is the source and end of all things, working everything out for his glory and our joy; the great King who rules justly and joyfully by his word; the great benevolent King who seeks the good of his people. This world and our own sin temp us to doubt and usurp his rule over us, but we must know that his rule is not heavy but light. To live under the rule of the King is to live under peace, under love, under grace, under mercy, under hope, under victory, under protection, under his blessing. By grace through faith, in Jesus we hostile enemies are reconciled to the King and are promised to one day live in his land with him and his people forever. This is the great narrative and promise that the Bible lays before us.

The Deceit, The Despair, and The Defeat of Sin

July 2, 2023 • Edgardo Rosa • Genesis 3

Continuing with The Narrative of Scripture we look at what Bible has to say about Morality and read Genesis 3. Understanding what God has to say through His Word in Genesis 3, we see: 1. The Deceit of Sin 2. The Despair of Sin 3. The Defeat of Sin

A Covenant of Blessing

July 9, 2023 • Edgardo Rosa • Genesis 12:1–3

In Abraham we have a model of the Christian life. An imperfect man called and used by God. A man who was once an idol worshipper but by grace was granted faith to believe and trust in the promises of God. A man by whom to world would be blessed. We too by faith are made sons and daughters of Abraham. Because of our union with Christ we are made into the people of God and we look forward to the land of rest to come. We are made a kingdom of priest. All of the promises find their fulfillment in Christ, and by faith we inherit such promises. Through Jesus, God blesses the whole world with: 1. A Covenant Declared 2. A Covenant Solidified 3. A Covenant Displayed 4. A Covenant Tested In Abraham, God was redeeming and restoring the world to himself. Not just the Jews but every nation and this is why we too can declare the good news to every nation. We can go across the street, across the cubicle, across the globe calling all to faith so that they too can be heirs of the covenantal promises God made to Abraham and his offspring. The King in his love and kindness continues to remind us that he longs to call to himself a people who will dwell with him in the land and all that he calls forth is our faith and our obedience.

Freed to Serve

July 16, 2023 • Edgardo Rosa • Exodus 6:1–8

We are Freed by the Blood of Christ. We are granted 'Freedom from a Master' to be 'A Service to a Master'. We are freed from the grasp of the Sinful World and it's Sinful Master. We are adopted in God's Family as His Children to serve Him and rejoice this Freedom to serve Him as our Master. God is our only Master. We gather because there has been a greater Passover, a greater Lamb, a greater redemption, a great Mediator, a greater mountain. Because of Jesus we now get to come, to gather, at Mount Zion and not Mount Sinai. That we get to gather at the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. By the working of the Holy Spirit, we are gather with an innumerable amount of angels in festal gathering, and with the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. We gather because God has freed us to serve him. We gather because he heard our cries; he saw our misery; he knows our feebleness; he came in the person of Jesus Christ his Son who would give himself as our Passover Lamb. We gather because he delights in us and we in him. We gather because in obedience we display his glory to the world around us. Milestone, when we gather we encounter the living God of the universe. The God of the burning bush, the God who brought the plagues, the God that parted the Red Sea, the God who no longer dwells in a tabernacle but who dwells in us. We gather because we have been freed to serve him.

Jesus - The Victorious King

July 23, 2023 • Samuel Hauzel • 2 Samuel 7:12–17

1. Failed King 2. Ideal Kings 3. Victorious King

The Covenant Faithfulness of God

July 30, 2023 • Dave Fischer • Jeremiah 25:1–14

Through the Prophet Jeremiah, the Lord reminds us of His character. We see in chapter 25 of the book of Jeremiah and look at: 1. Patience of the Lord 2. Persistence of the Lord 3. Punishment of the Lord 4. Promise of the Lord

A Covenant of Peace

August 6, 2023 • Edgardo Rosa • Ezekiel 37:21–28

Four distinct components to the new covenant: 1. A Shepherd King 2. An Edenic Land 3. A Resurrected People 4. A Glorious Presence Filled with shame and guilt, feeling hopeless, lost with no real direction in life, full of lust, anger, bitterness, jealousy, hatred, deep dissatisfaction, we are reminded of this time in our lives that it is in this moment that the Lord, in His kindness seeks us, calls us, rescues us, gathers us, feeds us, gives us rest, protects us, and heals us. Like Israel who was sitting mourning in a foreign land with no song to sing, we sit with no hope but God in His kindness shine a ray of hope. He, through the preached word and the working of the Holy Spirit open our eyes to see and our ears to hear of the good news of Christ, of His covenant of peace which graciously promises us an eternal and secure future in which He is our king, a blessed land, a new life, and his presence. In the moment of salvation the Lord puts a song in our heart so that we no longer mourn but rejoice with singing. With the psalmist we must join saying, “Oh sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The LORD has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises! Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody! With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the LORD!” (Psalm 98:1–6). One final question that would be right to ask would be, “Isn’t this covenant only for Israel?” “Isn’t God just addressing a particular nation and not everyone?” The answer to these questions is “Yes”! God is talking to Israel, and “Yes” God is only making a covenant with Israel. This is where the good news of the gospel is so important. The good news, or the gospel tells us that by faith, those who were once alienated and separated from the promises of God, like all of the rest of the nations, can partake and participate in the promises made to Israel. Over and over, again and again, the New Testament makes clear that those who have faith, no matter what their background is can participate and be grafted into the Abraham.

The Gospel of the Kingdom of God

August 13, 2023 • Edgardo Rosa • Mark 1:14–15

We focus on two major points from Mark 1:14-15: The arrival of the kingdom, and the reception of the kingdom. 1. Kingdom Come 2. Kingdom Received How can we then know that this kingdom is real? Couldn’t Jesus have just been lying, tricking many people to follow a clever scheme? The reason we trust Jesus as King and His kingdom is because of the resurrection is that in His death, Satan and his kingdom thought that they had won, but the resurrection of Jesus proves that His authority and kingdom is greater than any other authority and kingdom. The resurrection was the hinge point for the apostles. Peter, in his first sermon after the ascension of Jesus said, “This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. [But] God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:23–24, 32, 36) It is because the King humbled himself and took the form of a servant and obeyed to the point of death that God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11). So, will you bow before Him as your loving and ruling king, or will you bow before Him as your conquering and judging king? He has made away, he has brought the good news of the kingdom of God, and he calls us to repent and believe. He calls us to trust that his kingdom is full of love, forgiveness, freedom, and mercy. The King and the kingdom are for all who confess that Jesus is Lord—is king—and believe in their hearts that God raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9)

The Kingdom Present and Yet to Come

August 20, 2023 • Edgardo Rosa • John 5:24–29

With the paradigm of an already-but-not yet, we will rightly understand the extent of the kingdom of God. With that in mind, we read from John 5:24-29. To what extent has the kingdom of God been established here on earth and what are the blessings dispensed by the King and his kingdom"? 1. The Extent of the Kingdom 2. The Blessings of the Kingdom The nature and extent of New Testament eschatology in three points: a. The great eschatological [end-time] event predicted in the Old Testament has happened. b. What the Old Testament writers seemed to depict as one movement is now seen to involve two stages: the present age and the age of the future. c. The relation between these two eschatological stages is that the blessings of the present are the pledge and guarantee of greater blessings to come We celebrated a baptism at Milestone. In obeying the command to be baptized, we testifies to the in-breaking of the power of the kingdom. Identifying us as a kingdom member and as such, we have experienced the power and blessings of the kingdom as follows: a. A New Status b. A New Ethic c. A New Hope d. A New Life We are all part of a kingdom. Some of us are building our own kingdoms of comfort, money, success, and accolades. Others build their kingdom around relationships, their kids, their friends, social acceptance, or beauty and trends. All of these kingdoms will fall. There is only one King and one kingdom that will remain forever and that is Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. It is only in His kingdom that we find our truest freedom, our truest joy, our truest satisfaction, and you and I don’t have to wait for it, we can now, currently, in the present get to taste and savor the blessings of the kingdom, while awaiting the full menu that is yet to come. He came and laid down His life so that we would have life and have it abundantly. By the Spirit He made a pledge; He has given us a deposit which guarantees the fullest to come.

Behold The King

August 27, 2023 • Edgardo Rosa • Philippians 2:5–11

As we study Philippians 2:5-11, we see three things about our King. We see that Jesus is: 1. A Divine Son 2. A Humble Servant 3. An Exalted Lord We will call Jesus Lord before the fight or after the fight but everyone will call Him Lord. Some will call Him Lord as they are His faithful servants. Others will call Him Lord as He is their sovereign judge. Those who confess Him now, He will confess them later before the Father. Those who confess Him later will never draw near the Father but they will be cast away in judgment. So, will you bow before the humble King, or will you bow before a mighty and wrathful King? Will you be humble now as you imitate the King, or will you be humbled later under the judgment of the King?

A New Kingdom : The New Heavens and New Earth

September 3, 2023 • Edgardo Rosa • Revelation 21:1—22:5

As we study Revelation 21 and 22, we will see: 1. A Victorious People 2. An Adorned Land 3. A Radiant King Application: a. Perseverance b. Patience c. Perspective

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