Connect With the World | Sunday, January 30, 2022

Welcome to Cross Connection Church online. I'm Pastor Garrett, and we at Cross Connection Church are so grateful that you are joining us for our service today. If you'd like to know more about Cross Connection Church, please check us out on our website at lifeinconnection.com, where you'll find out more about us, events coming up, and ways to get plugged in at Cross Connection Church.

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I would be hopeless without Your goodness. I would be desperate without Your love, a slave to the darkness if it wasn't for the cross. You have won me with Your kindness, chased me down when I was lost. Where would I be if it wasn't for the cross?

Hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus. I was a prisoner, but now I'm not. With Your blood, You bought my freedom.

Nearly every year here at Cross Connection Church, I begin the year by reminding you about our vision. If you have been with us over the years, you've definitely heard it. But even if you're relatively new to the church, we talk often about our mission, which is life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus.

When I share this with you, I always talk about how God, at the very beginning, as it is described in the opening chapters of the Bible in Genesis chapters one and two, made us to live life in connection. He created you and He created me for connection with Him and connection with one another.

Of course, that connection was disrupted; it was destroyed by the fall that is described in Genesis chapter three. This fall brought about the loss of connection, just as God had told Adam and Eve would happen if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He said, "In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die." When they ate of it in Genesis chapter three, they didn't immediately just fall over dead, but there was a death—a spiritual death—a separation between them and God, and a separation between one another as well.

What that means is that each of us is born separated from God and one another after the fall that happened in Genesis chapter three. This is really why every single person, whether they understand the theology of the fall or not, has an intuitive sense that the world is not as it should be. We all feel as though things could be or should be better, or maybe even that they would be better if so-and-so would do this or that group would do that. Then we think that things would be better.

Paul describes this condition, this situation, in his New Testament letter to the church at Rome in Romans chapter five, verse twelve. He says, "Therefore, just as through one man, Adam, sin entered the world, and death through sin."

And thus, death spread to all men because all sinned through Adam and Eve, the first two humans named in the Scriptures. Sin entered into the world, and that sin has brought about all of the brokenness, all of the suffering, and all of the death that we are each acutely aware of.

The age-old question is, why is there evil and suffering in the world? A lot of people wrestle with that. I've had many conversations over the years with people grappling with that question. From a theological standpoint, I believe that the answer is relatively simple: sin has brought about evil, suffering, and death in the world. Whether it is malevolent evil at the hands of other people with malevolent motivations, or if it's just the natural evil of storms, fires, floods, and all these sorts of things, these are all the result of a world that is under the curse and brokenness of sin.

So, that's the world that we live in, and we are all very aware of it. However, this is not the world as God intended it to be, nor is it really as God desires it to be. You may remember, if you followed along with my message last week, that in the closing of the creation account in the opening chapter of the Bible, in Genesis chapter 1, verse 31, we read these words: "Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed, it was very good." So, the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

God's master plan is not a world that is devastated by sin, suffering, and death. Just as God's initial good creation had a garden with a tree of life in the midst of it, as you find in Genesis chapter 2, around verse 9, God's ultimate master plan involves a restored garden with the tree of life in the middle of it.

The first two chapters of the Bible look back to a beautiful, good creation. God saw all that He had made, and indeed, it was very good. The first two chapters, Genesis chapters 1 and 2, reflect on this glorious garden in which God and man are joined together in connection. Then, in the last two chapters of the Bible, found in the last book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, we find them looking forward to a similar restoration.

Forward to a similar image, a similar picture. In fact, follow along as I read in Revelation chapter 21, the second to last chapter of the Bible. At verse one, we read this:

Now John, the Apostle, saw a vision of a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men." God is connected to humanity again. The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.

God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, no more sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." He said to me, "Write, for these words are faithful and true."

Now, if you skip one page to the right, you arrive at the very last chapter of the Bible, Revelation chapter 22, verses one through five. There, John says, "And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb." In the middle of its street and on either side of the river was the tree of life, just like we find in Genesis chapter 2, verse 9. There was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

There shall be no more curse—the curse that was brought about because of sin in Genesis chapter 3 is completely done away with. You could use that cliché phrase: the curse is reversed. Here in this passage, there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it, in this city of God, this restored, renewed new heaven and new earth. His servants shall serve Him, and they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.

There shall be no more night there; they need no lamp nor light from the sun, for the Lord God gives them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. These are the last images that John the Apostle has as a vision of the future. Genesis chapter 1 gives us a vision of how things were at the very beginning.

In the very beginning, there was a garden with the tree of life, representing the connection between God and man. This connection was completely destroyed in Genesis chapter 3 through the fall, resulting in man being expelled from the garden and losing access to the tree of life.

However, if we look forward to the very last words of the Bible, we find a vision of the future where man and God are joined together once again in a new heaven and a new earth, in a beautiful renewed garden. In this vision, there is the tree of life, and there is no more curse, no more sin, and no more suffering. These images are presented at both the opening and closing of God's story. This is the beginning, and this is the end; this is the Alpha, and this is the Omega. It truly is a beautiful image, but that is not the world we currently know.

So, the question is: how do we get from Genesis 3, where the fall happened, to Genesis chapters 21 and 22, where we see this restored creation and renewed access to the tree of life, along with a connection with God and one another? This leads us to what is sometimes referred to as the overarching story of the Bible, or the metanarrative of the Bible.

The metanarrative of the Bible consists of four acts. In what I just shared, we have three of the four acts. The first act is found in Genesis chapters 1 and 2, which is the act of creation. The second act, the act of the fall, occurs in Genesis chapter 3. Then, in Revelation chapters 21 and 22, we see the final act, the fourth act, which is the act of restoration.

So, we have creation, the fall, and then ultimately restoration. However, there is another act—the third act—which takes up the whole of the Bible from Genesis chapter 3 until Revelation chapter 20. We are currently in the third act of God's story, which is the act of redemption. Therefore, the metanarrative of the Bible consists of four acts: creation, fall, redemption, and restoration.

How do we get from the fall in Genesis chapter 3, the second act, to the restoration that I believe every single person longs for?

I would love to explore how we get from Genesis chapter 3, which describes the fall, to the restoration in Revelation chapters 21 and 22. This is the whole story of the Bible, a narrative that actually involves you and me. We are in the middle of this story, living under the fall and the curse of sin, along with the death that comes from sin. We see this brokenness all around us, whether it manifests in fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, or in the malevolent actions of people through war and murder. The brokenness of the world affects all of humanity; we are all separated from God and from one another by the sin that originated in Genesis chapter 3.

However, at the time of the fall in Genesis chapter 3, God gave a prophetic promise as He spoke the curse over the serpent. If you have never read Genesis 3, I encourage you to do so later. You will find a very interesting story about Adam and Eve and a serpent who deceives Eve. They partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which God had commanded them not to eat from in Genesis chapter 2. After they eat from it, their eyes are opened, and they realize their vulnerability and nakedness.

Following this, God comes and speaks into the situation. At a certain point, it is identified that the serpent was the one who led to all this deception. God then speaks a curse to the serpent in Genesis chapter 3, verse 14. The Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, deceived humanity, you are cursed more than all the cattle and more than all the beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life."

Then, in verse 15, we find a key passage. God says, "I will put enmity between you, the serpent, and the woman, between your seed, your offspring, and her seed, her offspring. He, the offspring of the woman, shall bruise your head, serpent, and you shall bruise his heel." This passage has been referred to by scholars and theologians for a very long time as the "protoevangelion." This term simply means "the first gospel," and it represents the first allusion to the good news of redemption.

People believe in God's plan for redemption and restoration as outlined in the Scriptures. This plan is contrasted with the deceptive work of the serpent, which is associated with God's adversary, Satan. Through the deceptive work of the serpent, sin was brought into the world. As a result of sin, we experience separation, suffering, and death. Sin has spread to all humanity, but God says, "I am going to bring about a resolution to this. I am going to crush the serpent, the head of the serpent, which is a death blow. I will crush not only the head of the serpent but also the work of the serpent: sin, suffering, and death."

This is effectively what Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, known as the Protoevangelion, conveys. It is the first declaration of what God plans to do to bring about restoration and redemption. He gives us this first glimpse into His plan at the very opening of this dilemma. This marks the beginning of the third act: creation, fall, and the act of redemption. When you get right down to it, the rest of the biblical narrative tells the story of how God will carry out this greatest rescue mission ever.

God promised in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, the coming of "the one" who would be born of a woman. This one would be a man, as God states, "He shall bruise your head" or "crush your head," referring to the head of the serpent. This descendant of Eve, the one who comes from the seed of a woman, will come to crush the serpent and all of the works of the adversary, the devil.

But what does this have to do with connection or life in relation to the world? Don't worry; I will get there. I am trying to move in that direction. I don't have enough time today to delve deeply into the entire storyline of God's redemptive act throughout the Bible, so I will summarize quickly what unfolds as we follow the story.

In Genesis chapter 4, right after the fall in Genesis chapter 3, we learn that Adam and Eve had children. Of course, they had many children; otherwise, we wouldn't be here. We are given the names of three of their offspring, even though there were more.

They had many children, as we can assume from what we find in the Scriptures. However, we are only given three of the names because they serve as keys to the story as we go through this whole redemptive narrative. Remember, the story focuses on what it is that God is trying to bring about.

They had their first son in Genesis chapter four, whom they named Cain. You may remember hearing that name if you were connected to a church when you were growing up. Cain had a brother named Abel, and we will get to him in just a moment. When Cain was born, Eve may have thought, "This is the one," the one that God promised in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15. God had said that she would have a child who would crush the head of the serpent. So, she may have thought, "This is the one I have obtained from the Lord," a man. That is exactly what she says in Genesis chapter 4. It was a pretty hopeful declaration, perhaps a little premature, when she said, "Cain's the one."

As you see when you go through Genesis chapter four, Cain ended up not being such a good guy; he had some issues. Adam and Eve had Cain, and then they had Abel. In the process of time, there was conflict between Cain and Abel, and Cain killed his brother Abel. Clearly, Cain was not the one; he manifests the fallenness of this world through murder. So, he is not the one that Eve was looking forward to. Now, Cain is set aside, and Abel is gone—he's dead.

As you follow the story of Genesis, you see that Adam and Eve had another son, and they named him Seth. The biblical story begins to zero in on Seth. Why doesn't the Bible talk about Adam and Eve's other children? Why doesn't it discuss the other people that would have come about or who Cain married? It doesn't talk about that because that's not the storyline. You need to understand that God has a very specific purpose that He is trying to accomplish in revealing all of this to us through the pages of Scripture.

The focus is on the key players, if you will, and Seth, this third named child of Adam and Eve, becomes the focal point. Not just Seth, but really the line of Seth, because Seth has children who have children who have children, and everything just continues down. In fact, if you read through Genesis chapter 5, you will see this long genealogy from Seth going down to Noah. Then, you follow from Noah's line down through his son Shem, and you just keep following these different people until you get to Genesis chapter 11.

We are introduced to one of Seth's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandkids, a man whose name is Abram. In Genesis chapter 12, the Lord God speaks to Seth's descendant Abram, and He says this: "Get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse him who curses you, and in you all of the families of the earth shall be blessed."

What we find here is what theologians refer to as the Abrahamic Covenant, the promise of the one in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, who would come and destroy the work of the serpent, the devil. This promise now zeros in on Abram in Genesis chapter 12. Not just Abram, but Abram's family as well. Abram followed God by faith; he is the first follower of God by faith. His faith is important because Genesis chapter 15, verse 6 says, "Abram believed God, and God accounted it to him for righteousness."

As Abram follows God by faith, God makes good on His promise to make Abram's name great, to make him a blessing, and to make him a great father of many nations. In fact, God later changes Abram's name to Abraham, which means "father of many nations."

What's amazing is that we have this thousands-of-years-old document, this story that we find in Genesis chapter 12, where God says to this man Abram that He is going to make his name great and that many descendants will come from him. Fast forward thousands of years, and Abram, or Abraham, may be one of the most well-known characters in all of the world, aside from Jesus. Abram really becomes the father of the three monotheistic religions in the world.

In reality, probably more than half of the people who are alive today look back to Abraham as being a very important part of their faith and a part of their people, their nation. So when God said, "I’m going to make your name great," that has actually come to pass.

Fulfilled prophecies in the Bible reveal a key one in Genesis chapter 3. God said to Abram, "I'm going to make your name great, and you're going to become a blessing. There are going to be many people who descend from you." The three monotheistic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—look back to Abram, or Abraham, as their father. He becomes the father of many nations, but really, the Scriptures say he is the father of the faith of all those who believe.

Abram is called by God in Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 3, and he follows God by faith. God makes good on His promise that started back in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15. Abram has a son by miraculous means; God brings about that he has a son in his old age, when his wife is very old and has been barren her entire life. They name their son Isaac, and then God's promise is passed from Abraham to Isaac. It is reaffirmed to Isaac, who has two sons, one of whom is named Jacob. God's promise continues through Jacob, and then God changes Jacob's name to Israel.

Where did we get this name, Israel? God changed Jacob's name to Israel, and Israel, Jacob, has twelve sons. Those twelve sons become the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. God chose one of those twelve sons to continue His promise—the one made in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15—the promise of the one who will come and destroy the work of the devil, the one who will bring restoration and redemption. God chooses to continue His promise through one of Israel's sons, a son named Judah.

You can follow this story down through Israel's descendants. Eventually, at the end of Genesis, they end up in Egypt. Then, moving into the second book of the Bible, the book of Exodus, you follow the story of Israel's descendants as they are in Egypt. We come to a man named Moses, and God, through His power, brings the children of Israel out of their bondage. He redeems them. The story of redemption is like a foreshadowing of what God is going to do in the future. He redeems His people by the hand of Moses out of Egypt.

That's the second book of the Bible. Then, you follow the story of Israel's descendants as they enter into a covenant relationship with God and establish a tabernacle where God is going to meet with His people. Now, there is a connection.

The restored connection between man and God is established through the sacrificial system and the tabernacle. However, it is not a perfect connection; it marks the beginning of this relationship. This is the story of the third book of the Bible, the book of Leviticus.

As we follow the story of Israel's descendants, we see them wander in the wilderness. They drift away from God, and then God brings them back. This cycle of drifting and returning is the essence of the book of Numbers, the fourth book of the Bible.

We then come to the fifth book of the Bible, Deuteronomy, which is where we were as a church a couple of years ago when the whole COVID mess started. In Deuteronomy, Moses, the leader whom God used to redeem Israel out of Egypt, leads them through their wilderness wanderings and helps them begin their connection with God through the sacrifices and the tabernacle. He gives one last message to them in this book. For those who have been waiting for a while, we will be returning to the book of Deuteronomy very quickly here at Cross Connection Church.

Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Bible, leads into the sixth book, where Moses dies. God then brings a leader named Joshua, who will lead Israel's descendants into the promised land. This is part of God's promise to Abraham back in Genesis chapter 12 and again in Genesis chapter 15, where He states, "I am going to give you this land, the land of Canaan; it will be the land for your people, the land of Israel, the promised land." Joshua brings the children of Israel into the promised land in the sixth book of the Bible.

While this may seem like a long, meandering story, there is a point to it. This is all the setup for God's rescue mission. The whole of the Bible is a continuous, interconnected story, all moving with the same theme and focusing on the event where God will, in the third act, bring about redemption so that the fourth act of restoration can occur.

This overarching meta-narrative, from creation to fall to redemption to restoration, is a huge story contained in the 66 books of Scripture. These books form a continuous, interconnected story, all with that same theme. What is absolutely amazing, at least to me, is that this book tells a continuous interconnected story about creation, the fall, redemption, and restoration.

It was written by 40 different human authors over a 1,500-year period on three different continents, in three different languages, and in 66 different books, from Genesis to Revelation. Yet, it is all one continuous, interconnected story about what God is doing to bring about redemption and restoration after the fall. How does that work? How can you have 66 books written by 40 different authors in three different languages on three different continents over 1,500 years, and it all has a cohesive, interconnected, continuous story?

I would suggest to you that the only way that happens is that this is divinely inspired. As 2 Timothy 3:16 says, it is God-breathed and useful. In Genesis 3, God promised that there would be a man—if I were writing it out, I would put a capital "M"—a man who would come to destroy the serpent and the works of the serpent: his deceptive, sinful works that brought suffering, death, and brokenness to this world.

So, God selected an individual, a man named Abram, or Abraham, and his family through which the one promised in Genesis 3:15 would come. That one would come to deliver us, and the whole story of the Old Testament is the setup for that individual's arrival—the coming of the man of Genesis 3:15.

When you come to the New Testament, after the first 39 books of the Old Testament, you reach Malachi, and there is a period of time where God appears to be silent. But then you have the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. What happens when we come into the Gospels? Matthew chapter one tells us of the arrival of a man; his name is Jesus. The angel announces his coming and says to his mother, "You shall call him Jesus because he shall save his people from their sins."

So, the man arrives, Jesus of Nazareth, and we are told in Matthew chapter one about his lineage. We are given his genealogy, and you can trace the lineage of Jesus of Nazareth, the one who would come to save his people from their sins, all the way back to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and down through one of Judah's greatest descendants, King David. You can follow the line of Jesus all the way back.

Way back in Luke's Gospel, you can see the genealogy of Jesus, not just going back to Abraham, but all the way back to Adam, to Genesis chapters two and three. Jesus appears on the scene in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. When He appears, what does He say about His purpose for coming? Matthew chapter one states that His name shall be called Jesus because He will save His people from their sins.

But who is this Jesus of Nazareth, a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and David? What has He come to do? He tells us exactly what He has come to do in His purpose statements. Just like any big organization, church, or business has a purpose statement—answering the question of why they exist—Jesus explicitly tells us in the Gospels why He came.

For instance, in John chapter 10, He says, "The thief has come for nothing more than to steal, to kill, and to destroy." The thief is connected to the devil, the serpent. However, Jesus continues, "I have come"—this is His purpose statement—"that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly."

A couple of chapters later, in John chapter 12, Jesus gives another purpose statement. He says, "I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness." You and I, because of sin, are born in darkness, dead in trespasses and sins. But Jesus has come as a light to the world so that whoever believes in Him should not remain in darkness.

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus provides another purpose statement in Mark chapter 10. Why did Jesus come to the world? What was the purpose of His coming? The cohesive, continuous, interconnected story of the Scriptures focuses on redemption. There is a promise in Genesis 3:15 that one will come to redeem those who have fallen under the curse of sin. In Mark chapter 10, verse 45, Jesus says, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many."

So, Jesus came to the world to be a light to those who are in darkness. He came to give His life as a ransom for many.

Life and life more abundantly. He came to the world for the purpose of being a ransom to buy us back from the bondage of sin and death. In Luke chapter 19, verse 10, the Gospel of Luke states that Jesus says, "For the Son of Man," there's that title again applied to Jesus, "the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."

So why did Jesus come? He came to be the fulfillment of that redemption promise in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15. This is the third act in the story of redemption. The metanarrative of the Bible is creation, fall, redemption, and ultimately restoration. Jesus, at His first coming, came to accomplish redemption. He promised that after He died on the cross and rose from the dead, He would come again. When He comes again, He will bring about the restoration.

In His first coming, He came to fulfill the story of redemption and the promise of Genesis chapter 3, verse 15. He came to give life and that more abundantly. He came to seek and to save that which is lost. He came to give His life as a ransom for many, and He came to be a light to those who were in darkness. That is the story of redemption.

We were dead in trespasses and sins because of the fall described in Genesis chapter 3. But God, who is rich in love, mercy, and grace, set out on a rescue mission to redeem us. Just like God sent Moses into Egypt in the book of Exodus to redeem His people out of bondage and death in Egypt, Jesus comes on a rescue mission to redeem us. He came to seek and to save that which was lost, and all of us were lost and blind. He came to find us. He came to give His life for us as a payment for our sins. He came to destroy the work of the thief and to give us life and that more abundantly. This is the beautiful story of redemption.

So how do we get from Genesis chapter 3 to Revelation chapters 21 and 22? That's the question I asked several minutes ago. How do we get from the fall and the curse to the restoration, where we have access to the tree of life and we are joined in connection with God and one another perfectly once again? This story really answers that question. Jesus came in fulfillment of hundreds of prophecies written about Him in the Old Testament Scriptures, and He gave His life as a ransom for us on the cross 2,000 years ago. He died for our sins.

First Corinthians chapter 15 says that He died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried, and He rose again the third day for our justification, to save us and to pay the payment for our sin. After His resurrection, He gathered His followers together, and this was prior to His ascension. Jesus rose from the dead, which we will celebrate in a few months on Easter, and then He ascended into heaven 40 days after His resurrection. What we celebrate is the ascension of Christ, and then after that comes Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

After His resurrection, Jesus gathered His followers together and spoke to them after He had fulfilled the work of redemption. He said to His followers in Mark 16:15, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel." That word "gospel" means good news. He instructed them to go into all the world and proclaim the good news to every creature. What is the good news? The good news is that through sin and the fall in Genesis chapter 3, all of creation, and humanity as a part of creation, is devastated by the curse of sin, the stain of sin. But Jesus came to redeem and ultimately restore.

So, Jesus said to His disciples before He ascended into heaven, "Go into all the world and proclaim this good news to every creature. Everybody needs to hear about this." In Matthew chapter 28, we have another one of His commissioning statements, what we call the Great Commission. In Matthew 28:19, Jesus says to His followers, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations," not just people in and around Israel, where Jesus was when He spoke these things. He commanded them to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. "And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen."

Then, in Luke's Gospel, we have Mark 16:15, Matthew 28:19-20, and Luke chapter 24, verses 46 through 47. Jesus said to them, His disciples, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and rise from the dead on the third day." This was essential for the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15 and the redemption story. He had to die on the cross; it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day. In verse 47, He stated that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at...

Jerusalem. We have here three commissions of Jesus: Mark 16:15, Matthew 28:19-20, and Luke 24:46-47. Then we have another one in John's Gospel, chapter 20, verse 21. Jesus said to His disciples, "Peace to you. As the Father has sent Me, so I also send you."

You see, after Jesus accomplishes His work in the redemption story, He calls you and He calls me. As we have trusted in Him, as we've been rescued by Him and redeemed by Him, He sends us out and commissions us to go into the world to carry this good news to others. These are the commissions of Jesus. Jesus came to the world on a mission, and at the fulfillment of that mission, His initial mission, He commissions you and me as His followers. He commissions us to a mission as well.

If you have received the salvation that Jesus gives and you have been reconciled to God and one another in Christ Jesus by His forgiving grace, then you are now called to this mission. Just before Jesus' ascension into heaven, after giving these commissions to His disciples, He spoke to them one last time. In Acts 1:8, He says, "But you, My followers, shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses of Me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

The story of the Book of Acts in the New Testament begins with Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and then Acts. The Book of Acts tells the early history of Jesus' first followers fulfilling His mission as He enables them by His Holy Spirit and empowers them by His Holy Spirit. If you read the very last words of the Book of Acts in Acts 28, you'll find that it ends in a peculiar way. It doesn't have a clear "the end" sort of conclusion.

The reason the Book of Acts does not have a clear ending is that the story of the Book of Acts, which is the acts of God by His Spirit working through Jesus' followers to carry this message into the world, continues. It's not over. All the way down to this moment, on this day in January 2022, we are still a part of the story of the Book of Acts. You are a part of God's story.

God has called you to join Him on His mission. What is the role that God desires you and me to play in this redemption story? We're still in the third act, looking forward to the second coming of Jesus, where He will fulfill the restoration act. I look forward to a world where there will be no more sin, no more suffering, no more tears, and no more sorrow. I don't know anyone who would not desire that, even if they have yet to put their faith in God or believe the Bible. Everyone would desire the restoration, but right now, we're in the redemption.

So, what part do we play in this whole situation? I think part of the answer to that question is found in another New Testament book, the book of Second Corinthians, where the Apostle Paul writes in Second Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All the old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ. Jesus restores us to connection with God and to one another. He has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

That is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them. He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: be reconciled to God. For God the Father made Him, Jesus the Son, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

You are a part of God's story. If you have been saved by Christ, you have been reconciled to God and to one another through Him. You have life in connection with God and one another through Jesus. Now, after you have been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, you have life in connection with Him and one another. You are now an ambassador of God's kingdom, and He has given you the message of reconciliation.

What does an ambassador do? Years ago, here in San Diego, we had a Billy Graham crusade before Billy Graham passed on to be with the Lord. I was selected by the church; I think this was around the year 2000.

Around that time, I was selected by the church to be the main person from our congregation involved with the Billy Graham Crusade. My role was to help people get involved with this initiative. I went down to a big meeting that was held at what was once Qualcomm Stadium, which is no longer there now.

During this meeting, we had a large lunch, and one of the speakers had been with Billy Graham for many years—about five decades. His name escapes me now, but some of you would recognize it if I mentioned it. He shared a story about how he and Billy Graham were in China decades ago, where they had dinner with an American ambassador. Billy Graham asked the ambassador what exactly the job of an ambassador entailed.

I'll never forget the answer to this question because it resonated with me, especially in light of the passage that states you and I are ambassadors of the Kingdom of God. The ambassador explained that he was in China as an ambassador of America to make friends and share the message of America. He was there to convey the good news of America in a nation that does not share the same political or economic mindset. As an ambassador of the U.S., he aimed to build friendships with the Chinese people and share the good news, the gospel, if you will, of America.

So, what is your job as an ambassador? Your role as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God is to make friends with people in your workplace, on your school campus, and in your neighborhood. You are to share with them the message of reconciliation. You are an ambassador on your school campus, in your office building, on the construction site where you work, in your neighborhood, and perhaps even within your family and among your friends.

You have been given life through Jesus; you have been reconciled to God and reconnected to one another. Now, you and I are on a mission. Our mission is to go and make friends, sharing with them the good news of reconciliation, forgiveness, grace, mercy, and peace to anyone and everyone we encounter. I want you to understand that if you have trusted in Christ, God has called you. He has not only called Pastor Miles, Pastor Mark, or Pastor Jason, or any other pastors you see out and about.

God is not only calling ministers; He is calling you. He fills you with His Spirit, empowers you, and connects you with many people at work, at school, on a construction site, or in the gym you go to. He has connected you with people that I may never meet, so that you can share the good news of His grace with them.

As we begin to close out this Life in Connection series here at Cross Connection Church, I have a question for you: How are you doing in this work as an ambassador? Are you fulfilling the role of an ambassador? What could you do to improve in that work or to engage in it more fully?

There will come a day when I will give an account to God for how I have used my time, my talents, my money, and my energy. I will be accountable for how I have used these things for His kingdom, because ultimately, these are His gifts that He has loaned to me.

So, how are you reaching people? Are you reaching people? Some of the ways you are currently reaching others are through your interactions with them. But can you also share with them the good news of Jesus Christ? How can you do that? One way is to recognize that you are on this mission and that you can share the good news. You can invite them to come to church or pray for them, among other things.

I also want to highlight some of the ways you are fulfilling this mission right now, especially if you are a part of Cross Connection Church. As you pray for this church, support it, and engage as part of this body, you are contributing to our work of connecting the world with Christ.

We have missionaries in China, the Philippines, Central and South America, Africa, and Israel that we support. We are also connected with a larger body of churches, both within Calvary Chapel and the Southern Baptist Convention. Because you are part of this church, you are connected with the North American Mission Board, which is reaching people and planting churches in the United States and Canada. Additionally, you are linked with the International Mission Board, which has more than 4,000 missionaries throughout the world.

You are a part of something significant. Not only are you connected to the missionaries who are taking the good news to other parts of the world, but because of the way you support this church and support me as a pastor, along with the other pastors here, we are your ambassadors working in this mission.

I want to share with you one of the organizations that you are a part of if you are a member of Cross Connection Church. There are two organizations that I have the privilege of serving as a board member. One of them is a ministry called Enduring Word. If you go to enduringword.com, you can find this website. Perhaps you have visited it before. It features the Bible commentaries of my very good friend, Pastor David Guzik, who has spoken here at this church before.

To illustrate the impact you are having in the world at this very moment, let me share some statistics. Last year, in 2021, enduringword.com, which I had the privilege of originally building, had 77 million page views. That is more than 211,000 page views a day, which translates to about 150 people every single minute looking at the commentaries. People find this website by searching for questions about God or the Bible on Google or DuckDuckGo, and they end up on enduringword.com.

So far, we at Enduring Word, and the work you are a part of if you are part of Cross Connection Church, have translated that commentary—especially the New Testament—into Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic, and German. It is also partially translated into Portuguese, Russian, Hindi, Farsi, French, Italian, and Urdu. Over the next five years, we will continue to expand this reach by translating it into Japanese, Kurdish, Bengali, and Korean. This word is going out all over the world, and we have people checking out that information about the Bible and learning about God through Enduring Word because of your support here at this church.

In addition to my work with Enduring Word, I also have the privilege of serving with a ministry called Blue Letter Bible, which is another online resource. If you go to blueletterbible.com, you can study the Bible in the original languages.

Languages, cross-references, and various studies are all part of what we do. Here’s the amazing thing: last year, Blue Letter Bible distributed content at a rate of more than 2 million page views a day. They had 750 million page views last year—absolutely phenomenal! What God is doing is incredible. This is part of what you are a part of as you support this church through prayer and financial contributions.

We have missionaries in China, the Philippines, Africa, Nepal, and Israel—truly all over the world. However, the question still remains: what part do you play in the mission of God? We are living life in connection with God and one another. That is wonderful and something we will enjoy for all eternity because of the work that Jesus did. Yet, we need to connect others in this world with Christ. You are doing that by praying for and supporting this ministry, but I want to ask you to become a part of this work by serving God as an ambassador.

Who do you connect with on a regular basis that needs to be connected to God? We did a little bit of research, which I have shared with the church before, about our area. Several years ago, we found that within 10 miles of this building, where I am sitting and recording this right now, there are nearly a million people. Less than 10 percent of them are reached by a Bible-teaching, gospel-focused church like Cross Connection Church. This means there are more than 850,000 people who live within 10 miles of this building who are disconnected from God. You connect with those people on a regular basis.

These are the people you see at work, at school, at the gym, on the soccer field, or at the store. They are the ones you encounter when you check your mailbox. So, who do you connect with on a daily or weekly basis that needs to be connected to God? How do you reach them?

The first thing you can do is pray. Commit to pray for them daily. Write down their names and pray for them consistently. You can put their names on a prayer card here at the church, and we will pray with you for them.

The second thing you can do, after you pray for them, is to be kind to them. Let them see in you the fruit of the Spirit as you bear that fruit.

The spirit of joy, love, peace, patience, kindness, self-control, and so on allows others to see your peace, joy, kindness, patience, self-control, and love. Then, invite them to church or share the gospel with them. Ask if you can pray for them. These are all very simple ways to begin engaging in the work that God has called you to.

At the end of the day, it is this very simple thing that God has called you to, and it is found in one of Peter's letters. In First Peter, chapter two, verse nine, Peter says, "You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own special or peculiar people." For what purpose? Why are you a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people? It is that you would proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light.

That is your task. It is a simple task that God has for you: to proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Tell people about Jesus, who saved you from sin, death, suffering, and darkness. He found you when you were lost. You, who were once not a people, are now the people of God. You, who had not obtained mercy, have now obtained mercy. You have obtained mercy from Jesus Christ. You have been brought into connection with God and one another because of what Jesus did on the cross for you.

Now, all you need to do is share that with somebody else, because I guarantee you know many people who need to hear that good news.

Father God, I pray that you would give us a passion to share this good news with others. There are so many people we interact with daily who are far from you, feeling the effects of sin, suffering, and death in their lives. They are fearful of death because of the unknown nature of what comes after it, and the judgment that follows. But God, you have given us the words of life. You have given us the ministry of reconciliation. I pray that we would take that good news and share it today. There is someone today that you want us to talk to—maybe someone we need to send a text message to, an email to, or call to share with them the good news of who you are. Would you enable and empower us to do that?

Your people, just as You said You would, You said, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses." So, God, would You empower me and my brothers and sisters? Empower us to share this good news with others, because this is the message that people need. Not a political message, not an economic message, not a medical message, or a technological message—none of that. This is the life-giving Gospel that started all the way back in Genesis chapter 3 and is still being played out today.

As we look forward to one day when You will bring about the restoration, we anticipate that. But until then, God, help us to share this good news with others. We ask this today in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now, Your mercy will be my song. Oh, the glory! Oh, hallelujah! Thank You, Jesus. I was a prisoner, but now... hallelujah!

Thank you, Jesus. I was a prisoner, but now I'm not. With Your blood, You bought my freedom. Oh, hallelujah! Thank You, Jesus. Hallelujah! Thank You for the cross.

Thanks for joining us for our broadcast today. I pray that you were greatly encouraged by it. We here at Cross Connection Church would love to invite you to join us in person next week on Sunday at 8:30 and 10:30 services. If you can make it, again, 8:30 and 10:30 services here at Cross Connection Church in Escondido, California. We would love to see you there.

Of course, if you want any more information about Cross Connection Church, check us out on our website, lifeinconnection.com. God bless you guys and have a wonderful week.

Good morning, Cross Connection Church! It's Pastor Garrett here. Welcome to church this morning. We're so glad that you could be with us. Here at Cross Connection Church, we're all about living life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus.

Christ and the beginning of the year is a great time for you to start a new habit of getting connected. One of the best ways that you can do that here at Cross Country Church is through our Connect Groups. Connect Groups are simply family gatherings at people's homes where we share meals together, talk, pray for each other, and have a great time.

If you'd like to get involved in a home fellowship Connect Group this year, I strongly encourage you to do so. If you're not already involved, check out our website. The link will be right here below, and you can even look at our interactive map to find homes that are near your location. We would love for you to get plugged into Connect Groups this year and grow in your faith and in fellowship with the great people we have here at Cross Country Church.