Breaking the Silence: The Gift of Redemption
Breaking the Silence: The Gift of Redemption
Key Bible Verses
Exodus 2:23–25; Exodus 3:1–10; Exodus 6:1–8
Digging Deeper
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.” Romans 3:23-24
God has given us the gift of redemption through His Son, Jesus Christ. God had a plan to rescue us from the bondage of sin and death caused when sin entered into the world through Adam and Eve. He gives us the opportunity to have new life and freedom from the bondage of sin and death when we confess our sins and accept the new life given to each of us by Jesus' sacrifice of His life on the cross for our sins.
When we receive the gift of redemption, God forgives our sins and cleanses our hearts. We are not truly worthy of this gift's magnitude, but God has chosen us by His grace and goodness to be His children. When we put our trust and faith in Jesus, we become a part of His everlasting family.
During this Christmas season, let us gratefully accept God's gift of redemption. While we were not worthy, God chose us and gave us peace and joy that can only be found in Him. We can let the burden of past mistakes and failures go, knowing God’s love for us redeems us. We can focus on the glory God promises when we first accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and then know we have the promise of eternal life with God in heaven.
May we set our minds and hearts to live a life that brings glory to God’s name and live our lives with a spirit of thankfulness, praise, and worship reflecting God’s mercy to a world that is in darkness and needs us to share the gift of redemption.
What Not To Miss
The Main Point:
When God speaks, breaking the silence, He speaks redemption and sends a Savior.
I. Where people are.
The children of Israel are not in a good place in Exodus.
God used Joseph to bless Egypt and the surrounding nations by wisely navigating a severe famine.
Over time, the relationship faded, and the number of Israelites grew. Eventually, a Pharaoh rose to power and knew little about Joseph and what he did for the Egyptians.
The Pharaoh enslaved the Israelites and forced them into work camps, exploiting them for hard labor and killing male children.
While this historically and physically happened to the children of Israel, this account also illustrates what it means to live in a broken, fallen, fractured, and sinful world.
This physical picture of Israel in Egypt is a spiritual illustration of human beings:
We are slaves to sin.
We are enslaved to the world we created by our sin.
Sin is not our friend; it is our foe! The world is not our friend; it is our foe!
When we find ourselves in a place like Israel, and we realize where we are personally, individually, and collectively as a people and where we are corporately in the world, we have at least three options:
Remain in survival mode and try and reacclimate to make life better.
Revolt and fight back — but eventually we will experience a recycling.
Reach out for help to break the cycle.
The people of Israel are at the end of their rope, and they cry out for help, but they don’t cry out for help from God. Over 400 years, it seems they have drifted from a knowledge and an awareness of God.
II. How God responds to where they are.
God heard their cry and mourning,
God remembered His covenant.
God saw (looked at) their state.
God knew it was time to rescue them.
God exercised his own timing and movement.
God always has a reason for why, when, and how He does what He does.
He is an infinite God with infinite wisdom; we are finite people with finite wisdom.
God hears, sees, cares, and acts.
III. What God does to save them.
1. Takes care of Pharaoh.
2. Relieves their heavy burdens.
3. Frees them from slavery.
4. Redeems them with an outstretched arm.
5. Adopts them as His own.
6. Brings them to the land.
7. Gives the flourishing land.
God will send a deliverer, a rescuer to them and for them.
Moses:
Moses has already experienced what God was calling him to do.
Moses will be used as a conduit by which God saves.
Moses rescues the people, like Christ. But Jesus is so much greater than Moses!
Jesus:
Jesus crushes the head of Satan once and for all.
Jesus takes our heavy burdens upon Himself.
Jesus frees us from the oppression of our slavery to sin and the shame and guilt, and from the oppression and brokenness of the world.
Jesus becomes our new master. His yoke is easy, and His burden is light. He is the Cosmic King of the world who lavishes His love, grace, mercy, compassion, kindness, goodness, peace, and joy on us.
Jesus redeems with His outstretched arms as He hangs on the cross, shedding His blood and covering our sin.
Jesus takes our place as the target of God’s wrath, and He will breathe His last.
Jesus is buried, but three days later He will pull off the miracle of all miracles. He will rise from the dead, never tasting death again.
Jesus, in His death and resurrection, offers to buy our sin debt, to avenge our lives, and deliver us and rescue us from the penalty, power, and eventually the presence of sin.
Jesus adopts us as His friends, family, and bride, bringing us into God’s House and making us God’s beloved children. This makes us co-heirs with Him as He institutes and eventually completes and consummates His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus brings, leads, guides, and instructs us towards the new city. He will do so by giving us His Spirit.
Jesus gives us a land, a new city, where there is no more pain, no more crying, no more mourning, no more disease, no more oppression, no more death.
It will be a city flowing with everlasting, eternal milk and honey.
It will be a city of abundance, goodness, functionality, and flourishing.
It will be a city of SHALOM.
What God promised and did through Moses with the children of Israel pales in comparison to what Jesus did, is doing, and will do!
Christmas time marks the moment when God spoke, breaking the silence, and sent His one and only Son into the world so that the world might be saved, redeemed, and delivered through Him, by Him, and for Him!
IV. Why does God redeem His people?
When God broke the silence,
He brought Creation into existence and brought about SHALOM.
He gave us purpose and sent us on mission.
He saves His people from the unraveling of order, from chaos.
He saves His people from the antithesis of purpose.
He saves us from the penalty of living in a fallen, broken, sinful world marked by Genesis 3, 6, and 11.
God saves His people with an outward goal of making Him known to the world so that they may be invited into His redemptive project.
When God speaks, breaking the silence, He speaks redemption and sends as Savior.
Have you been saved?
Have you been redeemed?
If so, are you being a conduit by which you are demonstrating redemption and pointing people to our Savior and King?
Life Application
Take a few moments this week to reflect on how much God loves you and how He gave you the gift of redemption. In the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, express your gratitude to God in prayer that He sent Jesus, His only Son, to the earth to live a sinless life so that we could receive the gift of redemption from our sins. Also, realize during this joyous time of Jesus' birth, that ultimately, Jesus will die on the cross to atone for our sins and rise again to save us from death and eternal destruction. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
Small Group Discussion Questions
What is the best thing you have redeemed or claimed as a prize?
What are the contrasts between Moses and Jesus regarding redemption?
How did Jesus accomplish our redemption?
What is the result of God redeeming us?
How can we share the Good News story of God’s redemption with others?
Daily Devotional Bible Passages
Day 1: Redemption-Ephesians 1:7; Galatians 3:13; Isaiah 44:22
Day 2: Salvation-2 Peter 3:9; Romans 2:4; Romans 5;10
Day 3: Grace-Acts 3:19; Lamentations 3:57-58; Colossians 1:12-14
Day 4: Deliverance-John 10:10; Psalm 107:2; 1 Peter 1:19-20
Day 5: Love-John 3:16; Psalm 130:7; Job 19:25
Prayer
Lord, I humbly thank you for the gift of redemption. I know that I am a sinner and fall short and need forgiveness and mercy. I believe that you sent Your Son, Jesus Christ, to die for my sins, and through His sacrifice, I can joyfully accept the gift of redemption. Help me confess my sins, walk in wisdom, and obey the Bible's commands. Please continue to work in my life and transform me into the person that You know I can be, so I can reflect Your glory to the world and bring healing, restoration, and peace to those around me.
