Life, the Universe and Everything

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Life, the Universe and Everything

• The message of the Bible

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The Bible is a narrative

• The story of the Bible is the story of mankinds
  rejection of God..
• Gods loving pursuit of mankind..
• Mans desperate attempts not to respond to that
  love..
• And Gods amazing sacrifice to bring mankind back
  into relationship with him.

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We discover..

• How the world began
• How human beings relate to the world we are in
• Why we exist - our purpose
• What will happen when we die our destiny
• What will happen when time ends

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Two kingdoms

• Light and life..
• darkness and death

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Two locations

• The heavens..
• .. and the earth

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Two destinies

• Life through relationship with God
• Death through denying that relationship

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So lets trace the story..
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In the beginning..

• God created the heavens and the earth
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  Genesis 11
• But was that really the beginning?

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In the beginning..

• .. was the Word
• John 11

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• In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
  with God, and the Word was God. The same was in
  the beginning with God. In him was life, and the
  life was the light of men. The light shines in
  the darkness, and the darkness hasn't overcome
  it.
• John 11-4

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God creates

• For by him all things were created, in the
  heavens and on the earth, things visible and
  things invisible.. He is before all things, and
  in him all things are held together..
• Colossians 116-17

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God creates

• In the beginning God created the heavens and the
  earth. Now the earth was formless and empty.
  Darkness was on the surface of the deep. God's
  Spirit was hovering over the surface of the
  waters. God said, "Let there be light," and there
  was light. (Gen 11-3)

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God creates

• God said, "Let the earth bring forth living
  creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping
  things, and animals of the earth after their
  kind" and it was so. God made the animals of the
  earth after their kind, and the livestock after
  their kind, and everything that creeps on the
  ground after its kind. God saw that it was good.
• (Gen 124-25)

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God creates

• God created man in his own image. In God's image
  he created him male and female he created them.
  (Gen 127)
• What does in his own image mean?

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God and man in relationship

• In his image able to relate to God
• Having a purpose to tend the garden and
  exercise stewardship over the earth
• Walking together in the cool of the evening

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Separation

• Now the serpent.. said to the woman, "Has God
  really said, 'You shall not eat of any tree of
  the garden?' " The woman said to the serpent, "Of
  the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat,
  but of the fruit of the tree which is in the
  middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall
  not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest
  you die.' " The serpent said to the woman, "You
  won't surely die, for God knows that in the day
  you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you
  will be like God, knowing good and evil. (The
  woman) took of its fruit, and ate and she gave
  some to her husband with her, and he ate. The
  eyes of both of them were opened. (Gen 31-6)

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Separation

• God said, "Behold, the man has become like one
  of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he put
  forth his hand, and also take of the tree of
  life, and eat, and live forever..." Therefore
  Yahweh God sent him forth from the garden of
  Eden.. So he drove out the man and he placed
  Cherubs at the east of the garden of Eden, and
  the flame of a sword which turned every way, to
  guard the way to the tree of life. (Gen 322-24)

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A destiny unfulfilled?

• What if man had eaten from the tree of life
  instead of the tree of knowledge?

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A plan for restoring the broken relationship

• I will put enmity between you and the woman, and
  between your offspring and her offspring. He will
  bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel."
  (Gen 315)
• The first prophecy of Jesus the Messiah

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The outcome of mans rebellion against God

• God saw that the wickedness of man was great in
  the earth, and that every imagination of the
  thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
  God was sorry that he had made man on the earth,
  and it grieved him in his heart.. But Noah found
  favor in Yahweh's eyes. (Gen 65-8)
• There has always been one!

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A continuing witness

• Jesus said to him, " 'You shall love the Lord
  your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
  and with all your mind.' This is the first and
  great commandment. A second likewise is this,
  'You shall love your neighbour as yourself.' The
  whole law and the prophets depend on these two
  commandments."
• (Matthew 2237-40)

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A new history begins

• The law and the prophets were until John. From
  that time the Good News of the Kingdom of God is
  preached, and everyone is forcing his way into
  it. (Luke1616)

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God enters the world

• The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw
  his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son
  of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John
  114)
• The true light that enlightens everyone was
  coming into the world. He was in the world, and
  the world was made through him, and the world
  didn't recognize him.. As many as received him,
  to them he gave the right to become God's
  children. (John 19-12)

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A parable

• There was a man who was a master of a
  household, who planted a vineyard, set a hedge
  about it, dug a winepress in it, built a tower,
  leased it out to farmers, and went into another
  country. When the season for the fruit drew near,
  he sent his servants to the farmers, to receive
  his fruit. The farmers took his servants, beat
  one, killed another, and stoned another. Again,
  he sent other servants more than the first and
  they treated them the same way. But afterward he
  sent to them his son, saying, 'They will respect
  my son.' But the farmers, when they saw the son,
  said among themselves, 'This is the heir. Come,
  let's kill him, and seize his inheritance.' So
  they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard,
  and killed him. (Matthew 2133-39)

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Reconciliation the relationship restored

• For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him
  and through him to reconcile all things to
  himself, by him, whether things on the earth, or
  things in the heavens, having made peace through
  the blood of his cross. (Col 119-20)

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The Cross a substitution

• Whoever sins must die unless someone dies for
  them

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The Cross a sacrifice

• The shedding of blood as a symbol of the giving
  up of one persons life for anothers

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The Cross - redemption

• Whoever commits sin is the slave of sin. Through
  Adam we sold ourselves in slavery to the devil
  through the blood of the Cross a price was paid
  by Jesus to gain our release

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Death through Adam, life through Jesus

• For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned
  through the one so much more will those who
  receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of
  righteousness reign in life through the one,
  Jesus Christ. So then as through one trespass,
  all men were condemned even so through one act
  of righteousness, all men were justified to life.
  For as through the one man's disobedience many
  were made sinners, even so through the obedience
  of the one, many will be made righteous. (Rom
  517-19)

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The risen Christ is Lord of all

• Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ
  Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, didn't
  consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,
  but emptied himself, taking the form of a
  servant, being made in the likeness of men. And
  being found in human form, he humbled himself,
  becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the
  cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him, and
  gave to him the name which is above every name
  that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
  of those in heaven, those on earth, and those
  under the earth, and that every tongue should
  confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
  of God the Father. (Phi 25-11)

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And we are part of his eternal kingdom

• (God) delivered us out of the power of darkness,
  and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of
  his love.. in whom we have our redemption, the
  forgiveness of our sins. (Col 113-14)

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Our eternal purpose

• But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love
  with which he loved us, even when we were dead
  through our trespasses, made us alive together
  with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and
  raised us up with him, and made us to sit with
  him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that
  in the ages to come he might show the exceeding
  riches of his grace in kindness toward us in
  Christ Jesus. (Eph 24-7)

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And now for something completely different..

• I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first
  heaven and the first earth have passed away, and
  the sea is no more. I saw the holy city, New
  Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
  made ready like a bride adorned for her husband.
  I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying,
  "Behold, God's dwelling is with people, and he
  will dwell with them, and they will be his
  people, and God himself will be with them as
  their God. He will wipe away from them every tear
  from their eyes. Death will be no more neither
  will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any
  more. The first things have passed away." He who
  sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all
  things new." (Rev 211-5)

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The tree of life

• I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and
  the End. I will give freely to him who is thirsty
  from the spring of the water of life. He showed
  me a river of water of life.. proceeding out of
  the throne of God.. On this side of the river and
  on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve
  kinds of fruits.. The leaves of the tree were for
  the healing of the nations. There will be no
  curse any more.
• (Rev 216 221-3)

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Eternity to eternity in 30 minutes

• So.. God created the world and humanity
• And it was very good
• Until man chose to rebel against God
• And has lived in rebellion ever since
• But through the death of Jesus, a way of
  reconciliation has been opened up
• And all those who believe enter into his kingdom,
  and receive his life through the Spirit
• Until one day Christ returns and remakes the
  world with us as a part of that new creation

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