Second Sunday of Easter
Notes
Transcript
Text: Ps. 133
CIT: Subject - What is the experience of the people of God when they are united? Complement - They feel God’s overwhelming presence and enjoy his blessings of life.
CIS: The church gathering should be celebration of joy and fellowship
SO: Apply - I want the members of the chapel to recognize their responsibility to cooperate and celebrate with each other
Moving Into Comm Office
Old Stuff Moving out
Putting it in a dark hallway after speaking with a senior leader
The run-in - Hey, brother where am I supposed to put it? /I’m not your brother!
Making amends, but that was not a good start
Conflict within a groups hampers their goals.
Text: Today we are going to look at vision of the goal of the gathering of the people of God to see what it should look like.
Pray
Context:
Psalms
One of the most beloved portions of OT scripture for Christian : Gideon’s Bibles
Some are attributed to certain authors: Moses & Solomon. Many are David’s
Within Psalms there are different collections of books you may notice as you read through
Although they are beloved, there are some common issues when understanding the Psalms.
The Psalms do not guarantee a pleasant life
They are not contractual agreements that God has set-up
The lyrical/poetic qualities of the Psalms are significantly obscured by their translation in to readable English speech.
Not all elements of the song are from God’s perspective, some are human perspectives, i.e. impreccatory Psalms, which exemplify balanced/honest prayers.
They emotive/metaphorical/illustrative pictures; the are not exhaustive theological statements.
Eg. “That movie will rock your socks.”
DMX - X gonna give it to you/ y’all gone make me lose my mind.
We must guard against treating the Psalms as if its a different type of literature and do our due diligence to proper understanding.
Within the Psalms there are further subcategories, with there own distinctive patterns:
Laments
Thanksgiving
Celebration
Like the difference between Rap, Rock, and Classical Music
Our text today is identified as a Wisdom Psalm, similar to what is found in the Proverbs.
General purpose of wisdom is to demonstrate the right way of life.
Text
The life found in unity
The life found in unity
Exp:
v.1 - The main point is explicit: the unity of the brothers.
NIV - God’s people.
The OT people were a part of an exclusive ethnic connection with God.
In Christ, Jesus has broken down the ethnic walls in his church. We are all children of God, w/Jesus at our head.
Two Similes of the experience of unity: A comparison of two things using like/as
V.2 - The Oil of Consecration
The oil used in the initial consecration of Aaron was a special oil that was only to be used for holy things like the preperattion of the tabernalece.
Only the High Priest could be annointed with the oil. Ex 30:30-33
The priestly service assured the people of God’s forgiveness and blessings.
The oil represented the empowering presence of God on the priest that overflowed even down to his clothes.
That’s a lot of oil - a powerful symbol of the Lords presence.
In OT times, this was the sole experience of the high priest. But even then Moses envisioned the entire Isrealite population being a kingdom of priest (Ex 19:6). This was made a reality in Christ!
Peter, the one who Jesus called the rock on which the church would be built, tells us 1 Pet 2:9-10
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
The oil for you is the empowering presence of the HS.
The unity and fellowship of the church ought to overwhelm/drench us
V.3a - The Dew of Hermon on Zion
Both Hermon and Zion are mountains in the Holy Land
Zion is in the desert it is where the temple of Jerusalem was located.
Hermon is at the farthest Northern point of Israel, It is a true mount with which is snow capped.
The precipitation on the mount flowed down and watered the rest of the country, particualry the see of galiee which contrubutes down to the dead see near Jerusalem.
The Israelites depended on this water source for there lives and livelihood.
The unity and fellowship of the church ought to nurish us!
V. 3b - Unity is the context of blessing and life
The Psalmist identifies here that in unity is where the blessed life of the people will be experienced.
Remembering the cautions:
Is this a contractual agreement?
Is this a promise of goodness everytime we gather?
What is it?
A Wisdom Song: Functions for believer to remind us - The church gathering should be celebration of joy and fellowship.
Do we have work to do?
Ill - Listening to music to change your mood for the better
Getting stressed out and needing to turn on some music to change the atmosphere.
Being more productive for it!
App (Worship Team)
I want to see our community grow in unity
This unity is not uniformity, but commitment to Christ and to each other.
Everyone turn your head and look around this chapel
How can you develop fellowship, cooperate, and celebrate what God is doing with the people at the opposite side/corner of the this room?
Will you join into our family?
Salvation Response
Believers’ Response (Stand) - Worship with Joy/Allow the Lord to lead you to respond in unity with the person on the opposite side of the room. Even in the COVID times, there is fellowship, cooperation, and celebration we can have with each other though the Spirit who empowers us. So how will you respond?
Pray