“Adoption at the Cross”

September 15, 2013

Stetson Memorial United Methodist Church

“Cruising Sacred Waters with Jesus”

Sermon 9 of Summer Series

Worship Theme: Sonship

Romans 8:15-17 NLT

Galatians 4:1-7 GOD’S WORD

Let us pray… (Pray for the Spirit’s illumination)

A reading from the book of Galatians, chapter 4, verses 1-7…I will be reading from the God’s word Translation. Listen for a word from God to you and me, the people of God.

I love the fact that if a husband and wife really want a child…or another child…and they can’t, they are able to adopt a child. They are able to give this child a new home…a new life…a new family. This child gets to have a new start. A few years ago, Ray and I, with the girls, went up in front of a judge. It was a special day for our family. Ray was adopting Shyanne and Shanequa. The girls would now have the Foss name. The Foss family got a little larger that day. They were adopted, grafted into the Foss family. It was a day of joy and celebration for our families. It is a day I will never forget. Ray was saying out loud that he would be there for them, that he would care for and protect them from harm. Adoption is a way of saying “I choose you to be my child”…I choose you to be my child. What a wonderful feeling to be chosen.

Today we are going to stop into another port as we “Cruise Sacred Waters with Jesus”…the port of Sonship.  Now last week, we visited the port of Discipleship and decided that that was one of the most important ports. Without it the Gospel of grace would never be shared. But this port is one that is important not only to our faith but to our very existence…you see this port is about not only who we are but whose we are. It is a port that was opened one dark night on a hill long ago. It is a port that is all about the grace that flowed down from a Cross on that very same hill. We are adopted and grafted into the family of God because of the Cross of Jesus.

 Jesus began this process long ago while He was on the Cross. Even though He was going to die soon …even though He was in pain…even though there were those around Him mocking Him…at this pivotal time in His ministry…as He was completing His work on earth…Jesus wanted to have His ministry continue through His disciples…His extended family. As Jesus went through His ministry on earth, He spent a lot of time with these disciples. They ate together, slept together, prayed together and healed and cast out demons together to bring healing to those around them. He wanted the family of disciples to grow until there is not one left behind in the final days. This symbolic adoption was a sign of things to come as His disciples, past, present and future would bring about change and healing to the least, the lost and the forgotten. We are adopted and grafted into the family of God because of the Cross of Jesus.

          Ok…so how do we know that this includes us? Well from the Romans scripture we it tells us that we receive the Spirit when God adopts us…when we are grafted into the family of God. We are able to call God a most awesome name “Abba Father”, Abba means daddy, and we can call God Daddy. And not only that we are coheirs with Christ. Now the Scripture didn’t say only a few can become…it says that when we receive the Spirit…when we come before Jesus and accept Him as our Lord and Savior. All who believe… Our spirit joins God’s spirit because we are His children.

          The scripture from Galatians also talks about Son…and Daughter…ship. We are God’s children not because we deserve it…not because we earned it…we are children only by His grace that was poured out on all of humanity from the Cross of Jesus. We are no longer slaves but beloved sons and daughters of the Yahweh. We are adopted and grafted into the family of God because of the Cross of Jesus.

Being a disciple of Christ makes us all one family. We are joined together, graphed into, adopted into a royal priesthood and are co-heirs with Christ. We are “indoctrinated” into this family by our baptism when we become one with Christ and one with each other. There…at the cross…in His final moments…Jesus is connecting the dots of what His whole ministry was about. It doesn’t matter if you are Jew or Gentile to receive this coronation…It is through the blood of the Lamb slain, the final sacrifice for our sins and the sins of the world that we receive forgiveness, mercy and that crown of life. We are one! We are brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers to each other. Each one with a gift to share…a call to follow…a road to follow, but in order to do so, we need our family’s help, our family that began at a cross. We are adopted and grafted into the family of God because of the Cross of Jesus.

We are all part of God’s design. We are designed to be a family, together, working out our salvation, helping each other along the way. Jesus started the adoption process at the cross on Golgotha’s hill. In the last moments of His life He wanted to ensure his ministry would go on…the ministry of adoption into the royal priesthood. Is there part’s of you today that still hold on to that exclusive crowd instead of the inclusive one? Are there things that you need to let go of in order to begin the healing process in the family? Do you still think that you are not worthy for the family business? I would ask today that you would leave them at the foot of the cross and be embraced by the loving arms of our Risen Lord, hearing him say “welcome home my brother, welcome home my sister, welcome home my mother. I have work for you to do and I will help you do it.”

Amen!!