Our spirituality and ecclesiology: “Unity and diversity”
(Membership class 3) 

Membership agenda: 1.25.08-2.17.08
    •    NHF Vision statement
    •    unto the coming of the kingdom of christ: our theology [Now and not yet]
    •    in the entirety of our lives individual and corporate: our spirituality and ecclesiology [unity and diversity]
    •    to broadcast the majesty and mercy of god: our missiology [here and there]

New Hope Fellowship exists to broadcast the majesty and mercy of God in the entirety of our lives, individual and corporate, unto the coming Kingdom of Christ.
1Pet. 2.9   But [we] are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that [we] may declare the praises of Him who called [us] out of darkness into His wonderful light.  10 Once [we] were not a people, but now [we] are the people of God; once [we] had not received mercy, but now [we] have received mercy.  11   Dear friends, [we are urged], as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against [our] soul.  12 [Let us] live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse [us] of doing wrong, they may see [our] good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.

Mythology vs. theology



Old Covenant: the Problem with the Law
    •    Ex 12:  In Egypt
    •    Ex 14:  Red Sea  Not God but what they can get from God
    •    Ex 16, 17:  Manna, quail, water:
    •    Ex 19.4- 6:  But what is in the heart of God?
4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.  5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”
    •    Ex 20.18- 21:  Moses is happy/ the people are distressed; they withdraw
18   When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance 19 and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” 20   Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.” 21   The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.
    •    Ex 32.1-4: At base of Sinai: Golden Calf:  
    •    Ex 32.5-6:  Hold a festival to the Lord offer sacrifices burnt offerings: then back to idolatry.  
    •    Ex 33.1- 7:  God’s presence lost, v. 2 “angel,” and the “tent of meeting”
    •    God’s heart is still towards them, but how does a Holy God dwell with sinners?
    •    Ex 34:  Receiving the Law on stone (Covenant reestablished)  
      God’s presence in the Ten Words of the Law and, during his life, Moses.
At the end of the wilderness wandering, on the verge of the Promised Land: now the people are happy and Moses is distressed.

Deuteronomy 30:1-6  When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations,  2 and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today,  3 then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you….  6 The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.

It doesn’t work. What failed?     Historical Books
Isaiah 29:13  The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.
God could lead the deer to living water, but He could not make it drink; could not make it pant.

New Covenant Prophesied: Prophets and the Plan of God
Jeremiah 31:31-34 1 “The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. 33 “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

Ezekiel 36:26-28 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God.

Something more than Law is needed, something far greater is coming… What is greater?
Hearing the music:  Imagine growing up among a people that walked like this…  Realize, others don’t sing and dance not b/c no such thing as music but b/c they’re deaf.  Music so beautiful you want to sing, but you can’t - something about it - ashamed - utter purity. But then next to this melody of holiness you begin to hear the harmony of mercy and you find your heart irresistibly drawn to the Singer and to sing and dance to His Song. Notes = “letter

How was Jonathan Edwards saved? "The first instance that I remember of that sort of inward, sweet delight in God and divine things that I have lived much in since, was on reading those words [1 Tim 1.17] 'Now unto the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever, Amen.'  As I read the words, there came into my soul, and was as it were diffused through it, as sense of the glory of the Divine Being; a new sense, quite different from any thing I ever experienced before.  Never did any words of scripture seemed to me as these words did.  I thought myself, how excellent a Being that was, and how happy I should be, if I might enjoy that God, and be rapt up in him in heaven, and be as it were swallowed up in him for ever!  I kept saying, and as it were singing over these words of scripture to myself; and went to pray to God that I might enjoy him, and prayed in a manner quite different from what I used to do; with a new sort of affection....
Psalm 40:  Not a new concept; but a song.

New Covenant Realized:  Gospels - It’s all about Jesus
Mt 11.11 I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
Jer 31/ Luke 22.20 This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood….”
By what power does the Song of God give this transforming knowledge of God?
New Covenant Actualized:  Paul and the Spirit
Rom 2.28A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.  29 No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.

2 Cor 3.3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts…. our competence comes from God.  6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.  
Cf. Ex. 33.18   Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” 19   And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.  20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
2Cor. 3.18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
In the Trinity, the Spirit is God’s love for God. His calling forth true worship in our hearts.  
Jn 4.23 But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in S/spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.

S/spirit


Eph. 4.1   As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.  2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  4 There is one body and one Spirit — just as you were called to one hope when you were called —  5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;  6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7   But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.  8 This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.”  9 (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions?  10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)  11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,  12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.



The Second Violinist at the cadenza.