New Providence Presbyterian Church

Last week, we learned that Jesus is the Lord of Righteousness. This week we learn that God calls Himself, Jehovah Rapha, I AM Healing and Wholeness. In other words, God is healing and wholeness. Only the LORD can fill that hole in our hearts. Only God can heal anger, hurt, unforgiveness, and so on. And, Jesus does more than heal the woman with the issue of blood. He restores her life.

This week we are diving into  Jehovah Tsidkenu —Yahweh is our Righteousness. Join us as we learn what it means to be in right standing with God and how we respond this amazing gift of grace through King Jesus.

Our God is "Shalom" a peace that passes understanding, a peace like we experience when we are home. Shalom has been used as a greeting by God's people for ages. But it is more than a concept, or feeling, it is truly only found in Christ Jesus when we are in Him. As we come into the knowledge of Christ, it is as if he says... "Welcome Home"

YHWY is the name of God. It is translated many ways. Jehovah is one of the ways. Jesus Christ came as Living Torah. He embodied Torah, and in His life, he lived out the Jehovah names of God....such as Jehovah Raah, the Lord is our Shepherd.

In the Book of Acts, Luke says the story he told, ending with the ascension of Jesus into heaven, was the BEGINNING of the teaching ministry of Jesus. It was the BEGINNING of the deeds of Jesus. In other words, even though Jesus has just ascended into heaven and is gone from their sight, His teaching ministry is not done. It is not over. Life may not look the same, but Christ is not done.

Big idea: to consecrate yourself you have to be always watchful to not let anything pull you away from that.

Big idea: What are we consecrated for? To live for God and do the work of God, because of what Christ did as we're in the "already but not yet.

Big idea: Consecration is an exciting thing to do because you're getting yourselves ready for a new work of God.

Big idea: Christ empowers us to live the life He calls us to live. The author’s final exhortations are different callings made to followers of Christ. Apart from Christ, these things would be difficult. But because of Him, we are fully grounded to press on, move forward and know that we will see Him face to face.

Big idea: Christ is the foundation of our faith. We live by faith and not by sight. So many of the heroes of faith did not see what was promised, yet they persevered. Through Christ we have the ability to persevere with the greater hope that we will see what He promised—whether it’s on this side of eternity or with Him.

Big idea: Christ fully committed for us, so we can fully commit to Him, through Him. We have the ability to persevere because Christ persevered all the way to death and resurrected. Perseverance and surrender are the way of the Messiah, and the path He paved for us. It is a challenging road, but one that has eternal impact.

Big idea: Christ’s blood made the way once and for all. The shedding of blood was necessary for the forgiveness of sins—hence the sacrifices of the Old Testament. Through Jesus’s blood, we are fully cleansed and fully covered to enter God’s house—not an earthly tabernacle, but His direct Presence here on earth, and eventually enter our Heavenly home.

Big idea: Because of Jesus, we have access to the new covenant. As we learned in previous weeks, Jesus became our high priest, and in God’s faithfulness to His own word for His people, all who accept Christ now fall under the promise of the new covenant. Jesus has come to make all things new.

Big idea: Because God is fully faithful, we can be fully anchored on Christ. What are we anchored on? Anything that is not Christ will cause us to shift and sway at life’s happenings. But if we are anchored on Christ, we will see that we are anchored on ancient promises that stand the test of time. He is fully faithful, and therefore we can be fully anchored.

Big idea: Jesus is our High Priest because only He is fully holy. Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant. Fulfilling the requirements of every priest that ever existed, Jesus became the high priest (the one who offers the sacrifice), the altar (where the sacrifice is made), and the sacrifice (the actual offering) once and for all, for us. Because of this, we have freedom to approach G...

Big idea: Christ is our sabbath. One of the laws broken time after time by God’s people was the sabbath. People did not rest as God commanded them and that led to a whole series of problems. We live in a world where we are applauded for working “part-time, full-time and all-the-time,” and we too, break God’s command of keeping the sabbath holy. Christ is our true rest because of the work He accomp...

Big idea: In Christ we have a calling to persevere against unbelief. Throughout Israel’s history, the repetitive behavioral pattern of chasing after other gods and forgetting the promises of God is a prominent theme. Through Christ, our hearts of stone can become ones of flesh; being in communion with Him and community with others to press against the hardening of heart and unbelief.

Big idea: Christ was fully man and fully God. Because the very Son of God became a little less than the angels for a little while—God then exalted Him to the highest place. Because of the hypostatic union (fully God, fully man) we have a Messiah who relates to us in every way, yet while remaining sinless paved the path to our freedom.

Big idea: Christ is fully superior to all things. God exalted his Son to the highest place—over angels and all created things, so that in Him He might become preeminent—the firstborn of creation. With this title, we have an unshakeable confidence that in Christ we have God’s direct word. His direct revelation. And with that, we have all we need.

Big idea: In Christ, all things are fully filled. Introduce the series; objectives, and “start backwards.” Everything is fully filled in Christ. The benediction states that it is God who makes all things whole, through Jesus who is our Great Shepherd—the Lord is our Shepherd, therefore we lack nothing. All glory to Jesus forever and always, oh YES!

God has called every believer into his service, and he has uniquely blessed us with spiritual gifts to serve. You will hear from Charlene Friedman, the Director of the Deacon Caring Ministry, who will encourage all to use their spiritual gifts in service to the kingdom of God.

On this Pentecost Sunday, we will see how Psalm 110, a passage quoted by Peter in Acts 2 after being empowered and filled by the Holy Spirit, introduces the gift of the Holy Spirit as an extension of the ascencion.

Times of trial are not pleasant, but we have this blessed assurance in Jesus that all will be restored and made new. We can confidently proclaim, "The Lord has Done Great Things!"

Psalm 34:1-22

Psalm 16:1-11