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Greetings to everyone in the room, and everyone watching & listening online. We love all of you. Special greeting to all our live-streamers! Please leave us a comment and let us know you are there and where you are.
This is Redemption Church of Plano TX and I am Chris Fluitt. God bless you as we share the Word of God together.
We are in the final week of our sermon series entitled THE SAME JESUS.
I encourage you to look back over the previous weeks in the series and be reminded that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever! All the previous weeks of this series can be found at RedemptionPlano.com, Youtube, Facebook, and by Podcast.
Today I want to tell you The Same Jesus has the Same Plan!
The Same Jesus The Same Plan
The Gospel is not a departure from God’s plan. The Gospel is the fulfillment of God’s plan.
Jesus did not bring a new plan. Jesus fulfilled the original plan. Jesus was not a diversion from the plan… Jesus was not “plan B” after “plan A” failed in the garden.
God has always had a plan, and the plan has always been Jesus!
John 1:1 (NIV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
“The Word” is an interesting idea. We should understand that Jesus is THE WORD, but do we understand what it means for Him to be THE WORD?
John, the disciple chose a really interesting Greek expression to describe Jesus. “The Word” in Greek is “Logos.”
Logos
John uses Logos to begin His book about Jesus. In the first phrase of His Gospel, John wants you to know that Jesus is “Logos.”
Logos is where we get the word “Logic.” Logos means mind, thought, idea…
In the beginning was the Logos… In the Beginning was the thought… the idea… the plan… From the very beginning Jesus has been the plan.
John 1:14 (NIV) The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The Same Jesus The Same Plan
The plan of God has always involved a lamb.
The Plan is a Lamb
When mankind sinned in the garden God’s plan for a lamb was revealed.
- In Genesis a sacrificial lamb was required to cover the sins of an individual.
- In Exodus 12 a sacrificial lamb was required to cover the sins of a family.
- Later we see a single sacrificial lamb cover the sins of an entire nation.
God is showing us the plan for a single lamb whose blood will cover the individual, the family, the nation…
The one day John the Baptist declared these words…
John 1:29 (NIV) The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
The Lamb plan was never really about a lamb in and of itself…No!
The Plan is a Man
The plan is a Man who would lay down His life like a lamb…
Isaiah 53:7 (NIV) He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
The plan of a single sacrificial lamb covering the sins of an individual, a family, a nation, and the entire world is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the Plan. Jesus Christ is the Lamb. Jesus Christ is the Man.
1 Timothy 2:5-6 (NIV) For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.
The same Jesus is the same “logos” plan of God.
But the plan doesn’t just end at the man Christ Jesus.
The Plan is people
God’s plan has always been to work within and have relationship with people.
- He created people in the Garden: A man & a woman.
- He begs Cain to avoid sin and have a good relationship…
- He walks with Enoch…
- He saves the entire world through Noah…
- He chooses Abram & Sarai and creates a covenant promise with them… Blesses the world through them…
- He touches a scoundrel named Jacob and makes Him a nation…
- He takes a Moses and delivers slaves…
- He uses a woman named Deborah to be a successful war general…
- He picks a tall man named Saul and makes him a king…
- He picks a young shepherd boy and makes him a giant killing king…
- He uses ordinary people and makes them patriarchs, priests, potentates, and prophets…
- He walks up to fishermen… tax collectors… men & women and calls them into His plan…
God’s plan has always been to work within and have relationship with people.
Acts 17:25-27 (NIV) And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.
This is His Plan!
He gave everyone life & breath.
Created one man… and all the nations from the one man…
Allowed us to inhabit the land… marked out time in history and land boundaries…
God did all of this so that mankind would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him!
His Plan is about people!
Let’s clear up some confusion about God’s plan…
- God is not after money or power… Not running a Ponzi scheme or a scam…
- God is not after your vote to stay in office…
- God is not trying to build more buildings… He is not in the real estate game.
- God is not after your worship. He is not trying to feed His ego…
- God is not trying to control your life, actions, and thoughts…
- God is not trying to “kill all the bad people who don’t think like Him.” We all have bad in us… and none of us think like Him… His ways are higher & His thoughts are higher!
No, God’s plan is to have a relationship with whoever wants…
To feed the hungry… give water to the thirsty…
Comfort to the distressed… healing to the broken…
Salvation to all who call upon His name!
Power to the weak… Light to those in darkness…
Children to the barren… A way of escape to the lost…
His plan is people…. And not just people “like us.” All people.
“Red and yellow black and white they are precious in his sight…”
God has done it all for people. We are His plan.
Revelation 22:17 (NIV) The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.
John 3:16-17 (NIV) For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
In your Bible there is a word for the people who answer the call and join in His plan. There is a name for the people who are called out of darkness and into His marvelous light…
The Church
That word is Church. The Church is God’s plan!
The Church is a group of called out people. That is what the word means (Ekklesia)…
1 Peter 2:9 (NIV) But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
The Church is God’s plan for working in the lives of people… saving people from sin and giving them a purpose.
The Church is not a building but a people.
The Church is not a denomination but a people.
The Church is not a system of rules and beliefs but a people.
The Church is not a service with music and preaching but a people.
The Same Jesus The Same Plan
The Same Jesus has the same plan! His plan has always been about people. His plan is revealed in His Church!
And Redemption I really need you to impress me with your Biblical knowledge… I am going to ask you a question and it is really important to me that you know the answer…
In what chapter of the Bible was the Church born?
The Church was born… they were “born of the Spirit”… they were “born again” in Acts 2. That Church that was born in Acts 2 is what God plans on using in the world today.
The Same Jesus The Same Church
We need the same Church that was built by Jesus Himself.
Matthew 16:18 (NIV) …on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
The world doesn’t just need a church… The world needs the SAME CHURCH…
Spirit filled
Gospel preaching and Bible believing
Feeds widows & orphans
Can’t just pass by people in need (lame man at the gate beautiful)
Brave & Bold
Generous
Full of prayer
Not argumentative but obedient to God’s word
In love with Jesus
Refuses to stop talking about Jesus
In acts 4 Peter & John speak healing to lame man… Peter & John were jailed and beaten by the religious Pharisees & Sadducees… The religious leaders were bothered because…
Acts 4:2 (NIV) They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.
Religious people may become angry when you preach the same Jesus…
Acts 4:7 (NIV) They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”
Acts 4:8 (NIV) Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people!
Acts 4:10 (NIV) then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.
Acts 4:12 (NIV) Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
Acts 4:13 (NIV) When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
They say the SAME JESUS in Peter & John!
We need to have the Same Jesus in us! The Holy Spirit!
We need to be the same Church!
Acts 4:17 (NIV) But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name.”
There is pressure on us to calm down our message… there is pressure to not preach that Jesus is the only way to heaven… There is pressure to not preach the Same Jesus… we need to respond like the Same Church…
That evening the church gathered together in prayer…
Acts 4:29-31 (NIV) Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
The Same Jesus is among us today! We need to be His same Church.
We need that same doctrine…
The Same Jesus The Same Church
We need to be about 2 things – Jesus & People.
Knowing Jesus & making Him known.
musician
Jesus has Plans For You
You have been His plan from the beginning.
Do you want God to use you?
When was the last time you bowed at an altar and asked the Lord to use you?
Redemption Church I want us to be used of God. I want us to be like John & Peter… the Pharisees could tell these men had been with Jesus!
We need the same Jesus working in our life!