KEY TEXT
Psalm 107:2 (NKJV)- Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy….
INTRODUCTION
- An illustration
Lesson: You and I have been held captive to sin, but Christ has purchased our pardon and set us at liberty. When a person has this life-changing experience, he will want to sing, “Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed!”
- Explanation of our Key Text
- Title
‘THE REDEMPTIVE HEART OF GOD PART 1’
Outline:
- Definition of Redemption
- Redemptive plans of God
- Redemption Stories in the Bible
- Embracing the redemptive heart of God
- Our Greater Kinsman-Redeemer
(I). DEFINITION OF REDEMPTION
In New Testament, the essential meaning of redeem or redemption is to buy a slave out of slavery through the payment of a ransom; or to release by the payment of a ransom.
In the Old Testament, the idea of redeem or redemption is used in several ways, such as:
- deliverance of persons or property that had been sold for debt.
- deliverance from captivity, destruction or preservation from harm and danger.
- release from an undesirable condition through intervention
Key aspects of redemption include:
- Being bought back
Redemption involves a price being paid to release someone from a state of bondage or sin.
- Restoration
It signifies a return to a state of harmony and well-being, often with God or a higher power.
- Deliverance from sin
In a spiritual context, redemption is often associated with the forgiveness of sins and liberation from their consequences.
- Atonement and sacrifice
The concept of redemption often involves a sacrifice, such as the death of Jesus Christ in Christianity, to atone for sins and offer a path of redemption.
- Hope and forgiveness
Redemption offers hope and a chance for renewal, allowing individuals to move forward after past mistakes or challenges.
IN SUMMARY:
WHEN SOMETHING DEVIATES FROM ITS ORGINAL PLAN AND DESIGN, AND IS RECOVERED AND RESTORED, WE CALL IT REDEMPTION.
(II). THE REDEMPTIVE PLAN OF GOD
Ephesians 1:9,10 (NKJV)- 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.
God has planned something, called ‘mystery’ until now.
Whatever seems to have been lost will be fully gathered back together in Him.
Ephesians 1:10 (Message Bible)- a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.
Colossians 1:20 (NKJV) – and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
Colossians 1:20 (MESSAGE BIBLE) – Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe– people and things, animals and atoms–get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the Cross.
Although things seemed to have “gone out of hand” through Lucifer’s rebellion and the Fall of Man, God had already planned and has worked a way to see all things redeemed back to Himself.
(III). REDEMPTION STORIES IN THE BIBLE
#1 – God’s dealings with the people of Israel
Exodus 15:13 (NKJV)- You in Your mercy have led forth The people whom You have redeemed; You have guided them in Your strength To Your holy habitation.
Psalm 78:35 (NKJV) -Then they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their Redeemer.
Isaiah 43:1,2 (NKJV)- 1 But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you.
#2 – The year of Jubilee
Leviticus 25 describes the “Year of Jubilee”
Jubilee in Hebrew = the blast of a trumpet
Leviticus 25:10,13,14 (NKJV) – 10 And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. 13 ‘In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his possession. 14 And if you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor’s hand, you shall not oppress one another.
Leviticus 25:39-41 (NKJV) – 39 ‘And if one of your brethren who dwells by you becomes poor, and sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave. 40 As a hired servant and a sojourner he shall be with you, and shall serve you until the Year of Jubilee. 41 And then he shall depart from you—he and his children with him—and shall return to his own family. He shall return to the possession of his fathers.
“The acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:19) =year of jubilee.
We are living in “the acceptable year of the Lord”, a time of jubilee where we will experience the redemptive power of God.
#3 – The kinsman redeemer
Its basic use had to do with the deliverance of persons or property that had been sold for debt, as in Leviticus 25:25: “If one of your brethren becomes poor, and has sold some of his possession, and if his redeeming relative comes to redeem it, then he may redeem what his brother sold”.
If he prospers, the man himself may “redeem” it (Lev 25:26).
A poor man may sell himself to a fellow Israelite (Lev 25:39) or to an alien living in Israel (Lev 25:47).
The responsibility “to redeem” belonged to the nearest relative—brother, uncle, uncle’s son, or a blood relative from his family (Lev 25:25,48,49).
The person (kinsman) who “redeemed” the one in financial difficulties was known as a kinsman-redeemer.
The kinsman-redeemer was responsible for preserving the integrity, life, property, and family name of his close relative or for executing justice upon his murderer.
The Book of Ruth is a beautiful account of the kinsman-redeemer.
Naomi points out to Ruth that Boaz is a potential kinsman-redeemer.
Ruth 2:20 (MESSAGE BIBLE) -20 Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Why, GOD bless that man! GOD hasn’t quite walked out on us after all! He still loves us, in bad times as well as good!” Naomi went on, “That man, Ruth, is one of our circle of covenant redeemers, a close relative of ours!”
Boaz steps in to fulfill his role of kinsman-redeemer.
Ruth 4:5 -Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you must also buy it from Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance.”
Boaz asked the close relative, the first in line of kinsman-redeemers if he would be willing to carrying out this responsibility.
He was unwilling.
To someone (i.e. Ruth) who was an outsider, a woman of Moab who was not a Jew, who seemed to have lost everything (no husband, no children) and who had nothing (she left her own land and people to go with her mother-in-law), the kinsman-redeemer steps in and restores honor, dignity, family, position, and everything she could desire.
Because of the work of the kinsman-redeemer, Ruth is brought into the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 1, Luke 3).
#4 – The prodigal son story
Luke 15:11-24 -the story of the prodigal son
While we do not see all elements of Redemption in this story (i.e. the payment of a ransom) we see the heart of the father longing for the son to return.
We see that no matter what wrong was done, the father’s heart was set of seeing the son redeemed.
#5 -The great plan of redemption
The greatest of all is of course God’s plan of redemption for mankind……SALVATION
Reconciliation by Christ
Colossians 1:20-22 – 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—
His love knows no bounds.
Romans 8:38-39 – 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
He saves to the uttermost.
Hebrews 7:25 – Therefore, He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
God’s heart is always set on……
recovering what is lost
regaining what is wasted
restoring what is ruined
releasing what is bound
rebuilding what is destroyed
beautifying what is marred
healing what is wounded
renewing what is worn down
reviving what is dying
resurrecting what is dead.
(IV), EMBRACING THE REDEMPTIVE HEART OF GOD
God’s heart is redemptive in nature.
God never quits on what He starts.
He loves and saves to the uttermost no matter what the cost.
We are called to be like Him, and hence our approach to life situations and to the problems we face must be redemptive as well.
When we view people, situations of life, we need to view them with God’s redemptive heart.
If a friend or someone known to you has messed up their lives and there is nothing left to look forward to – look at them with God’s redemptive heart. There is hope.
If a son or daughter has gone astray – look at him or her with God’s redemptive heart. God can bring them back.
If your marriage or home is falling apart – look at it with God’s redemptive heart. God can turn your mourning into dancing.
If your own life or finances or job situation or something else, has gone from good to bad to worse – have faith in God’s redemptive heart for you. God brings people out of the miry pit and sets them on solid ground.
If a dream you’ve been carrying seems to be cruelly crushed right before your eyes – God is still your Redeemer. He gives life to what is dead.
(V). OUR GREATER KINSMAN-REDEEMER
We are like those birds caught in the wilderness of sin
Trapped in the cage
Meant to be fed to the devil in hell.
No song of hope in us.
Jesus – our Savior and as our kinsmen, our Elder Brother came.
He paid the debts we owed God the Father because of our sins.
AD 33 was the acceptable year, the year of Jubilee, where He came to buy us back from Satan, the owner of our souls.
Loss of ownership of our soul to Satan
Someone needed to buy us back.
Jesus, our greater Kinsman, our greater Elder Brother, came and paid with His own life and blood to buy us back from Satan.
Why many of us as the redeemed ones, are unable to announce or proclaim our redemption?
Why can’t we fulfill the command of Psalm 107:2 – Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy?
Why do we fail to look at our hardship and difficult people with trust in the redemptive heart of God?
It is because we minimize and fail to see the cost Jesus has paid to buy us back and therefore, we take His redemption very lightly.
We fail to trust in the redemptive heart because basically we forgot where we all have come from.
We all came from spiritual poverty, spiritual bankruptcy, spiritual doom, spiritual dirt and mess.
Adam and Eve cursed us all with a bad start.
And because of that, everything in our life and in this world have deviated from its original plan and design.
But thanks to the death of our Kinsman redeemer, who used his life and blood as a ransom to buy us back from our slave-master, Satan, we have now our Jesus as our redeemer to recover and restore us back to our original design.
Because of this, we can sing and declare about the redemption of God in our life.
Whether you believe it or not, the minute you accepted Jesus as your Lord, your identity has become CHILD OF THE LIVING GOD, THE REDEEMED ONE.
Redemption of God is stamped all over your life meaning, not only God delivers you from your sins but every hardship, every mess, every deviation you may have committed along life’s journey, every disappointment, every pain, every trial, every estrangement, every suffering becomes REDEMPTIVE (recoverable and restorable) because of Christ the Redeemer living inside you.
All things work together for good to those who love Him and to those who are called according to His purpose.
If Christ can turn our sins into salvation, surely, He can turn any darkness into light for us – that is REDEMPTION.
It is possible because of His BLOOD.
His ransom is enough for that transformation.
