The New People of God
Monday, June 08, 2009
Over the past five weeks, we’ve been talking about the message and mission of Jesus - what he said and what he did. As we look at Jesus’ message and mission, we also find the message and mission he has for us as a community. This week, we looked at Jesus’ mission to establish “the new people of God.”
In the centuries before and during the time of Jesus, God’s people were literally a nation. The nation of Israel. First as a people under God’s leadership through prophets and judges, then as a nation with a king. When the people obeyed and honored God, he blessed them. When they disobeyed and worshiped other gods, he allowed other nations to conquer them. This is a pattern repeated over and over throughout history. Yet throughout this recurring disobedience, the prophets talked about a time coming when the people would return to God and live in obedience. At this time, he will truly be their God, and they will truly be his people. That’s what we’re talking about here.
As you can see on the map, at the time of Jesus, the nation of Israel had been reduced to a province of the Roman Empire - and a relatively unimportant province at that. Many of the people lived in expectation of a new king coming who would break the shackles of Roman domination and restore the glory of God’s kingdom - Israel.
But this was not God’s plan. He planned to establish a new people of God, but not a geographical kingdom with boundaries, taxes, and an army. The new People of God is the church. It is a community, a family, a fellowship; made up of people from all nations and ethnicities, all walks of life; not bound by time or space; including people from around the globe and across the millennia; the community of those who have submitted themselves to Jesus’ leadership and committed themselves to living in Jesus’ community.
When we commit ourselves to Jesus, we join the New People of God. We can’t help it. God adds us to the community. He makes us one, he unites us.
He doesn’t fix us. We’re still all messed up, even though we’re God’s people. But we’re a community. We’re God’s community of broken-yet-healing people that provides love, support and accountability for each other as we share our spiritual journey.
Want to journey with us? Give us a shout or just come by our meeting this Sunday.
Peace,
Matt