Speaker: Dustin Scott

Passage: Luke 3:38

A NEW HUMANITY – LUKE 3:38

You guys are getting quiet, am I supposed to teach now? Hey, could you do me a favor? We’re pretty packed out right now. If you see any spare seats in between you, I know it’s uncomfortable to do in Colorado, but could we scooch in just a little bit and make some room? 

Hey, I just want to comment real quick on where pastor Gary led us during the ministry time. My wife Kelly and I, many years ago, were diagnosed as being completely and entirely infertile. We were diagnosed that way by multiple doctors. I’m going to be respectful, because my grandpa is in the room, and he was a doctor, so I got to tread lightly here. But someone came to me and said, Hey, doctors are just practicing. God doesn’t practice, and He has the final word. But far from being triumphalist, Kelly and I were ready to punch the next person who prophesied a kid over us in the face. We were tired of it. We were heartbroken. We were wrecked. I don’t know why God moved the way that He did, probably because He’s kind and He’s God. 

But if you’re here and Paul’s statement of “hoping against hope” is where you’re at, remember that God gets the final word. And even if it takes a while, even if it happens tomorrow, even if God fulfills His word in a way you couldn’t have expected, He gets the final word. And it’s not because of any of our doing, it’s because of His goodness. 

THE GENEALOGY OF JESUS IN LUKE’S GOSPEL

All right, I’m going to get back on track now. Contrary to what you might suspect, I’m not going to take us into Revelation 13 and the Mark of the Beast today, no matter how much I would want to. We’re going to begin our December series, and I want to begin looking at the story of Christmas, and I want to start in a place where most of us got really, really bored as kids during our Christmas readings. I want to start with the genealogy of Jesus and Luke 3. And so what I want us to do is I’m going to read a little bit more of it– don’t worry, I won’t bore you with it all– but would you stand with me? 

I’m just going to read verse 36 and onward. We’re about four-fifths the way through Jesus’ genealogy through Mary, and it says, “Son of Cainan, son of Arphaxad, son of Shem, son of Noah, son of Lamech, son of Methuselah, son of Enoch, son of Jared, son of Mahalaleel, son of Cainan, son of Enos, son of Seth–” and this is where I want to focus– “son of Adam, son of God.” 

Let’s pray. Lord, as we study Your Word, as we look in a fresh way at Your person, Jesus, would You lead us and would You guide us? Lord, You are the One Who came to restore humanity to Your original intention and purpose. So, as we study the way You did that, would You be with us? I know it’s a word from the Book of Revelation, but I think it can count for the whole Bible– to anyone who adds or takes away. So would You not allow me or us to add or take away from Your Word? But would You, Jesus, be preeminent in Your church, and would You transform us to look more and more like You? We ask this in your holy name, Amen. 

We’re going to be exploring the Biblical person of Adam, our first forefather of humanity. And as we look at the figure of Adam, I want to ask several questions: what does it mean to be made human? What is our purpose within the world? Why did God put us within this Creation? 

Next, we’ll look at how did Adam and how do we, in our daily lives, fail to live out that vocation? As we look forward to Jesus– the second Adam– I want to ask the question, how are we, as believers, made truly human in Him? How are we restored to God’s purpose for humanity in the beginning? And what characteristics and what attributes bespeak true humanity– Jesus? 

THE TEMPLE AND THE IMAGE

I want to take us to a place which is a little bit off the beaten path, to 1 Kings chapters 6-8, and I want to look at King Solomon’s construction of the first Temple of Jerusalem. We find that in 1 Kings 6, it took King Solomon exactly seven years to build the Jerusalem Temple. And as we move forward to 1 Kings 8, depending on if we’re looking at the Hebrew text or the Greek text of the Septuagint, the commencement ceremony– the grand opening of the Temple– occurred either in a cycle of seven days or two cycles of seven days. 

You guys are like, We’re out of Revelation, but we still can’t get away from the number seven, can we? Why did Solomon build the Temple in all these cycles of seven? Well, if we go all the way back to the very beginning of our Bible, what structure, what creation, was made in a cycle of seven days? Creation was. The physical universe was. So, King Solomon understood a spiritual principle. 

He knew that in the beginning, when God formed the heavens and the earth, God’s intention for the world– the physical universe– was always that it would be a Temple where His presence and His glory resided. God made the first Temple everything we see, from mountains to oceans to land to animals. It was all intended to be within God’s first Temple. 

And as we look at temples in the ancient Near East– and we go on a bit of a nerdy journey– let’s look at some of the common and shared features of ancient temples. They were built atop a mountain or an acropolis. And the reason for this is temples were seen as occupying that middle place between the heavenly realm– which was seen as being above– and the earthly realm– which was below. Which is why if you visit Jerusalem today and you go to the Temple Mount, it’s on a mount, right? 

The next thing was, temples would have an exterior barrier. And in Hebrew, it was marked by something called the soreg, and it forbade Gentile entry because the Temple was a sacred and set-apart space for God’s presence. If you were in a Phoenician temple or a Sumerian temple, there would be a physical altar, an incense altar, with rising smoke, which would block the common people’s view of God. 

Do you guys remember that strange story when Aaron’s sons are struck dead by the Lord in the Book of Leviticus? You want to know why? Because they were copying the cultural practices around them by putting incense, which would block the people’s view of God’s glory. And God’s answer is, My glory shall be seen by all. And so that’s some of the common features of ancient temples. 

So what was the last thing, the last being, the last structure to be placed within a temple, as it was built? The image or the idol would be placed within the temple as a physical representation of that deity’s presence. And for those of us who remember our Sunday school lessons, we know that the Hebrews were told not to make idols, right? They were not to make graven images. 

And I always thought, growing up, that the reason for that is it’s a practical safeguard against idolatry. We know the Israelites were kind of about that from time to time– so are we. Maybe it’s a thing that set them apart from the Canaanite nations, which surrounded them. But the problem with all of those views, within the light of the whole of Scripture, is the Israelites are commanded to place statues– hammered cherubim– atop the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies. So God doesn’t have a problem with all statues; He has a problem with images of Him being created. 

Why? This is going to take us to the gist of this morning’s teaching. If we go back to Genesis 1, God’s original Temple, we find that God placed an image within it. Genesis 1:26– this is the Triune God speaking– says, “Let us make humanity in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, over the cattle, over the wild animals of the field–” and I love this part– “over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” Sounds a little creepy, doesn’t it? 

HUMANITY IS YAHWEH’S IMAGE

Humanity was Yahweh’s image, and as such, we were given three responsibilities in creation: We were to represent and carry the presence of God, we were to reflect His nature and glory, and we were to accomplish His will as stewards of the earth. 

And as spiritual material beings, what do I mean by that? The human person is the only creature in existence which has a physical animal’s body. If you go back to biology, we’re mammals, right? But yet we have a Divinely-given spirit according to Genesis 2:7. Which means, unlike the angels of Heaven, who have no physical body, and unlike the creatures of earth, who have no Divinely-given spirit, we as human beings, sit in the in-between. We were always made to have one foot in Heaven and one foot on earth. We are the bridge between the two worlds. That’s why God installed us in Creation. 

ADAM AND THE FALL

And we all know how the story went, right? Didn’t go very well. Adam failed. Humanity failed its first vocation. And if you think about the story from Genesis 3, where the serpent comes to Eve and is enticing her, saying, If you partake of the fruit, you’ll become like God. What’s the tragedy in that? She already was; he was enticing her with something she already had.

And before we decide to get angry at Adam and Eve, like I have historically, and thought, Stupid Adam, why do you have to mess the story up for the rest of us? Am I the only one who’s thought that? Okay, good. The joke is really on us because if you take the definite article away from the Hebrew word ha-adam, Adam means human. 

So when Paul says things like, “Sin entered the world through Adam,” he’s not organizing a smear campaign against Adam. What he’s saying is the tragedy of Creation is that humanity– which was intended to bear the image and likeness of God– was the very channel that didn’t bring Heaven to earth; we brought death and sin and destruction to earth. We failed our first vocation. We failed the call to be truly human. 

ISRAEL FAILS GOD’S CALL

And the story wasn’t unique to Adam because Yahweh, again and again throughout the Old Testament, is going to take humanity back to its calling. In Genesis 1, all of the human race is set apart as priests and image-bearers of God. But in Genesis 3, humanity fails. We go to Exodus 19, and the whole of the Israelite nation– not just a tribe– the whole people is set apart to be priests and image-bearers of God. 

But it takes them a whole three chapters to build a golden calf, choose idolatry, and fail that vocation. One tribe– at least for the most part, if you kind of exempt Aaron from it– one tribe stays faithful, and that’s the Levite tribe who gathers to Moses to cleanse the camp. 

And so God takes a tribe and sets them apart as priests and image-bearers of God. But as we get to the prophets, especially Malachi, we find that the tribe failed. They chose sin and idolatry and failed to be truly human. It’s almost as if the funnel is getting smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller as no person and no group succeeds in being truly human. 

JESUS: THE TRUE HUMAN

Yet, here’s the beautiful part: God doesn’t change His mind. His Will was perfect; humanity had to fulfill its vocation. There was no plan B where God was going to ship in a couple extraterrestrial aliens that were going to be the new image-bearers of God. That wasn’t on the agenda. And so the whole of the Hebrew Scriptures are looking forward to a day when Yahweh Himself would adopt the responsibility of becoming truly human. He would fulfill the story. 

And in the words of David Mitchell, the Son of God became a son of Adam so that the children of Adam might become children of God. That’s the great exchange of the Gospel. And I want us just to sit in the majesty of Jesus’s identity as communicated in the Scriptures. John 1 tells us that “All things came into being through Him, and without Him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in Him was life, and that life gave light to all people.”

Colossians 1 will tell us that “In Him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible,” and later on, it says that “All things were made through Him and for Him,” Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, the Second Person of the Trinity, the eternal Son of the Father, the One Who, in Genesis 1, is the Word which speaks, Let there be light, and there was light. The One Who, in the words of 1 John, gives life to every single human person, past, present, future. This Being, this Power, this Divine Person, became human like us. And He didn’t just become human, He became wholly human. 

If we go to Philippians 2, we find that Infinite Power took upon Itself utmost slavery for us. If we go to Luke 2 and Hebrews 5, we find that Unchanging Knowledge took upon Itself the pain of growth, of learning, of maturing, for us. And especially in the Gospel of John, we find that Eternal Life took upon Itself shame, humiliation and mockery, for us. In Jesus, the Divine became human, but the human also became Divine. 

How? Because Jesus was wholly God but also wholly man. He was tempted. He suffered. He had difficulty. His family picked on Him and called Him a fraud. He went through all the rejection, all the betrayal, all the challenges of life, and through the sanctification of the Spirit in His own will, He never failed; His will was perfect. 

And you know why that happened, you know why God orchestrated this plan of salvation? So that in Jesus, through His obedient life, through His incarnation, through His death, resurrection, and ascension, the reset button could be hit on humanity and we could start again. Which means we don’t live in accordance with the first Adam; we live in accordance with the new Adam. Jesus is the beginning of our heritage. 

The story was always about Him. This is why Paul can say in Colossians 1, speaking of Jesus’s humanity, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” Jesus fulfilled the human story. Jesus joined together Heaven and earth in one person. Jesus commenced and began a new humanity. 

THE NEW HUMANITY

And the good news is that if we are in Christ, we have been adopted into this new humanity. We’re not a part of the humanity of Adam anymore; we’re a part of the humanity of Jesus. That’s why the Scriptures are going to teach us that salvation is so much more than just being saved from sin– though that’s crucial, that’s foundational. We’re also saved to conformity to Jesus. 

This is why Paul will tell us of our own destiny in Romans 8, when he says, “For those whom He chose, He destined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that His Son might be the firstborn within a large family.” We are part of a new humanity. Which means we can’t define ourselves by Adam anymore; we’re to be a people who carry Jesus’ nature, we are to be a people who follow Jesus’ example, and we’re to be a people who obey Jesus’ commandments. 

He must become every aspect of who we are, which means annoying things like this: when I form beliefs and opinions, I don’t actually have a right to one anymore; it means I have to believe in accordance with what He teaches. It means when I make decisions, I don’t have a right just to lock myself in a room and think up my own ideas; I have to consult Him through the Scriptures and through prayer and live in accordance with what He decides. And when I’m pressed to act or respond, especially when I’m annoyed– I know that doesn’t happen to you– it means I can’t just react anymore; I have to react as He examples. 

JESUS MUST BECOME OUR ONLY DEFINITION

We continuously recite this mandate; it’s the mantra of our church; it comes from the Lord’s Prayer: “On earth as it is in Heaven.” But we so readily forget that on-earth-as-it-is-in-Heaven is a person, and His name is Jesus. 

He must become my everything, which means I’ve got to ask hard questions like, do I use my finances the way He would? Do I use my phone or digital device the way He would? I know you’re like, Jesus didn’t have a phone. Well, He’s eternal, so He knows about it.

And when I talk about using phones and digital devices, I don’t just mean refraining from sexual sin on the internet. That’s foundational. If that’s still in your life, get rid of it, get it out. And if your answer is I’m trying, I’d say, Do or do not. There is no try. Jesus has the power to rid you of it. 

But if I’m talking about this, I don’t just mean avoiding sin. I mean as we’re getting ready to gather with family members, loved ones, do you think exampleing Jesus looks like this? No. I’ve got to ask myself a question: do I serve in every context? Do I serve my family? Do I serve my coworkers? Do I serve my fellow believers? Do I hurt for and meet the human needs which surround me the same way Jesus did when He saw those who were wounded, He saw those who were disabled and lost and hopeless? And He didn’t just look at it. He healed it. 

Do I think about, do I dwell, do I watch things which He would? Or do I fill my mind with things which He would call sin? Do I speak as He speaks with love, with encouragement, with kindness? Think about how gracious He’s been to you. Think about how gracious He’s been to me. 

Do we treat other people that way? Or do we choose to live with abusive language, sexually-perverse language, profane language, which Jesus tells us in the gospels isn’t just wrong, He says that if you call your brother a word for an idiot, you’re deserving of hell. And why would He say that? Because He’s the Word of Life. Words which destroy and bring death are the opposite of Who He is. 

And this is the hard one. It’s the one Jesus talks the most about: do I forgive and tangibly bless all people, especially those I consider to be my enemies, as He would? Because, as a new human being, I can no longer parrot the excuse of the old man when I sin and go, I know I made a mistake, but I’m just human. I can’t say that anymore because the Scriptures say, “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: the former things have passed; new things have been brought into being.” 

We cannot claim the benefits of our new humanity– things like eternal life, things like reconciliation with God, things like forgiveness from sin– if we aren’t willing to live in accordance with the new human– Jesus. As 1 John tells us, “Whoever says, ‘I abide in Him,’ ought to live the same way as He lived.” Jesus has to become our only definition; He has to define us in everything. 

WE HAVE BECOME CHILDREN OF GOD

To close, I want to look at a statement Jesus makes to His Father in John 17, pretty close to immediately before the crucifixion: He says to the Father, “I made Your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which You have loved me may be in them and I in them.” 

Also, think about this– this rocked me as a young Christian– because we are in Jesus, the eternal Son of the Father, because He grafts us into Himself, we now have access to the same love and the same relationship which exists between the Father and the Son. I’ll put it another way: the Father loves you and loves me, if we be in Jesus with the same intensity with which He loves His own eternal son, God loves us as much as God loves God. 

Do we think about the gravity of that? Do we let it change every aspect of who we are? I’m contemptible without Him. I’m arrogant. I’m prideful. I’ve destroyed lives. Why does He love me this way? When I think about that, how can I not exchange every part of this old, dead guy for Him when He’s so much better than us? 

If we look at the whole of the Scriptural story, we were made as image-bearers, we had a function in the world. We became sinners. We blasphemously initiated a rebellion against God, and yet He decided to make us sons and daughters in Jesus. We’ve become children. We’ve become sons of the Father. And I love the language which Hebrews continually uses: we haven’t just become sons of the Father; we’ve become little brothers and little sisters to Jesus, the God-Man. Why would God do that? I guess it’s because He’s love, as 1 John would tell us. 

This season is going to keep bringing us back to the gift of Jesus, and I want to invite us in every moment where we see Christmas. I’m going to do a little bit of a throw out to my mother-in-law. She’s a wonderful woman. She serves others with everything she has, but she watches the most horrendous romantic comedies you’ve ever imagined and every Christmas, we have to endure hundreds of them. 

Do I choose the old man, or do I follow the example of my mother-in-law and take upon myself the person of Jesus? Every time we see Christmas, every time we’re reminded of the gift, we should ask ourselves, Am I living as He lives? Am I reflecting Him? Is my life a living mirror? So that when the hopeless, the lost, the hurting, the broken see me, the only thing they think is, I need Jesus. 

I want to be a church– thank God we already are– where a bunch of messed up people got saved. I want to be a church where we see addicts and prostitutes and the socially-forgotten and those who are deemed hopeless and beyond redemption are saved. But unlike many of those church signs we see, which say, God accepts you the way you are, He doesn’t. 

He loves you too much for that; He loves you too much to let you stay the way you are. He wants you to be conformed to the One Who’s perfect. Because in the end, this is all God’s love story about how a Father loved His Son so much that He wanted to see His Son in everything. And we’re a part of everything; we have a role to play. 

And so, as we enter into this season and beyond, keep asking yourself, Am I living as a new human in Him? Does He govern my thoughts, my attitudes, my intentions, my behaviors– and most of all– does He govern my love? Yeah, that reminds me of the bracelet, What Would Jesus Do? 

We saved bread and cup for the end. If your heart’s getting stirred up like mine, thinking about all the things that don’t reflect Jesus, these are the moments where we repent. We say to the old man, Hey, I know that guy, he died when he got baptized. There’s a new man now; I’m realigning with Him because He defines me. 

Wherever those places are, where maybe you’ve deviated a bit, the answer is so simple: repent and go back to the Person who joins Heaven and earth together. We’ve got tables in the front, tables in the back. You can partake alone, with family. If you have some things to repent of, maybe now’s a good time. Let’s partake of the bread and the cup together.