“The Mission of Christmas”

Genesis 12:1-4

God Gives Us His Words of Eternal Life

Found on pages 8-9 in our guest Bibles.

Today’s Scripture: Genesis 12:1-4

What is God’s Mission

Statement ?

1

The Background Story

The Creation: Gen 1

1The Rebellion: Gen 32

The Background Story

The Creation: Gen 1

1The Rebellion: Gen 32The Corruption: Gen 6

The Background Story

3

The Creation: Gen 1

1The Rebellion: Gen 32The Corruption: Gen 6

The Background Story

3The Scattering: Gen 114

The Creation: Gen 1

“Genesis 1-11 poses a cosmic question

to which God must provide a cosmic answer…

What can God do next?”

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go

Genesis 12:1

from your country and your kindredand your father’s house to the landthat I will show you….”

“And I will make of you a great

Genesis 12:2

great nation, and I will bless youand make your name great, so thatyou will be a blessing….”

“I will bless those who bless you,

Genesis 12:3

and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families ofthe earth will be blessed.”

“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 redemption…

“The call of Abraham is the beginning of God’s

answer to the evil of human hearts, the strife of the

nations and the groaning brokenness of his whole creation. A new world,

ultimately a new creation, begins in this text.”

“…through your offspring all nations on earth

will be blessed.”

~ God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 22:18

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….

~ The Apostle Paul in Galatians 3:16

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.”~ The Apostle Paul

in Galatians 3:8

“”

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’—so that in

Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the

nations….

~ The Apostle Paul in Galatians 3:13-14

image: Christopher Brown

You are the sons…of the covenant that God made with your fathers,

saying to Abraham, “And in you shall all the families of the earth be

blessed.” ~ The Apostle Peter

in Acts 3:25-26

God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your

wickedness.~ The Apostle Peter

in Acts 3:25-26

So Abram went, as the Lord had

Genesis 12:4

told him, and Lot with him. Abramwas seventy-five years old when hedeparted from Haran….

“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 attitudinal—even 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 God’s mission.”

!

Christmas is about God’s commitment to blessing

every nation on the planet in Jesus Christ

Main Idea

Rejoice over the worldwide scope of

God’s Christmas mission1

image: JD Hancock

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…”

~ The Apostle John in Revelation 5:9

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 Lamb…crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to

our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

~ The Apostle John in Revelation 7:9-10

Remember we have been blessed to be a blessing

2

image: asenat29

“And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the

promise.”~ The Apostle Paul in Galatians 3:29

We are called to be in the world

but not of the world yet for the world.

JD Hancock: http://www.flickr.com/photos/83346641@N00/5545810212/

asenet29: http://www.flickr.com/photos/72153088@N08/6510934443/

Christopher Brown: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7853490@N07/3531948937/

flickr images courtesy of:

other images:

photos.com: Bob Ainsworth / 96672813