The Last Adam

This is a good word from Steve Fleshman of the Lightwalkers BIBLE fellowship.

“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive… And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit… The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.” 1 Cor. 15:22, 45, 47

In these verses, we see a comparison of the only two original men; all mankind have descended / been born from Adam, but only those who have been born again are kindred to “the last Adam”. If we’re related to the first Adam only we’re already dead spiritually and we’ll die physically one day too; but if we’re reborn into a relationship with Christ by faith, we’ll “be made alive” now and forever! Since Rom. 5:14 says that Adam “…is the figure of him that was to come”; Adam was a type or pattern of Christ. Consider that both are called “the son / Son of God” (Lk. 3:38; Jn. 1:34); both were tempted in a garden (Gen. 3:6; Mt. 26:39), and both were offered forbidden fruit. Adam yielded to the temptation but Jesus rejected “wine” (Mk. 15:23); the implication is that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a vine tree and the forbidden fruit was grapes. Adam was commissioned to be “fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” (Gen. 1:28) with sons of God; Jesus gave a similar commission to his disciples (Mt. 28:18-20). Adam was also called to “subdue” the earth (Gen. 1:28) but failed; Christ will one day “subdue all things unto himself” (Php. 3:21). Both were given a “help meet / bride” to accomplish their mission; Eve for Adam and the church for Christ (Gen. 2:18; Eph. 1:22-23; 5:21-33; Rev. 21:9). Both got a hole in their side, out of Adam came a rib from which woman was formed (Gen. 2:21-23) and out of Christ came blood and water from which the church was formed (Jn. 19:34). In Gen. 5:2, God “called their Adam” (Eve’s identity was in Adam), which is why women take men’s last name in marriage today. This is also why, when a person gets saved, they are called “Christian”, i.e. they take on the name of Christ and their identity is now in him! After sinning, Adam was driven out of paradise, taking Eve with him (Gen. 3:23), Jesus entered into “paradise” after overcoming sin, taking the first member of his bride with him (Lk. 23:43). Adam had dominion over everything and lost it because of sin; Jesus remained sinless and won back dominion over everything (Col. 1:20). Because of his sin, Adam realized he was “naked” and went and “hid” (Gen. 3:6, 7), because Jesus was sinless, they stripped him and crucified him naked for all to see (Mt. 27:35). God planted the tree by which man sinned; man planted the tree / cross of Calvary. The tree by which man sinned was “pleasant” (Gen. 3:6) to the sight; the tree on which Jesus died was “cursed” (Gal. 3:13) and horrible to look upon. The tree by which man sinned was in the “midst” of the garden (Gen. 2:9), the tree of Calvary was in the “midst” of transgressors (Jn. 19:18). The fruit of the tree by which man sinned was forbidden to be eaten because it would bring forth death; the tree of Calvary is meant to be freely eaten of because it brings forth life! The serpent was “subtil” with Adam and Eve (Gen.3:1 – first mention in Old Testament), just as the chief priests, scribes, and elders tried to take Jesus by “subtilty” (Mt. 26:4 – first mention in New Testament). Satan enticed man to partake of the forbidden tree; Satan uses “any means” (2 Cor. 11:3) to keep man from partaking of the tree of Calvary. The name Adam means “red earth”, no doubt in reference to the dust he was made from, but the same Hebrew word is translated “dyed red” in context of the ram’s skins that covered the tabernacle (Ex. 26:14), which housed the ark of the covenant, i.e. the presence of God. So, skins dyed red / Adam; were used to house the presence of God / Christ! Friend, is Christ dwelling in your skin from Adam? If not, be instructed from another word translated from the same Hebrew word for Adam “red”, and be made “white” in Christ today...

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isaiah 1:18

Author Steve Fleshman, copyright © 2009, all rights reserved. You may copy this material or use it as long as it is not changed and this copyright, and author’s information is left intact. All scripture references are from the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible.

Back From Bhutan

Oh What a Night! The outreach at Bethel Community Center was incredible. A special thanks to Mang Sonna for inviting HBF to serve dinner to our friends in KCK. A large team headed up by Gwaine and Betty Arney did a great job of taking a dinner for 50 and dishing up food for 75 or more.

Praise God for the gift of tongues! We addressed a large Bhutanese community along with Burmese and hispanic speaking peoples. If it were not for Reuben my sermon would have sounded like a tinkling symbol and a sounding brass! Reuben did a great job of translating my sermon from John 1:1-14 on "Meeting Your Maker".

A relative of Kumar gave a great speech to their hosts. David Stetler, A great friend of the Bhutanese community, was also honored by the Bhutanese was honored as well. We were blessed with a wonderful conclusion to the presentation with an ethnic Nepali dance from the Bhutanes refugees.

My only regret is that we didn't really have a whole lot to offer to the Burmese who were in attendance. I pray the Lord provides a strong gospel witness that connects with the Burmese immigrants. While I don't know the plan for Burmese refugee's it is clear that God is bringing these persecuted people to our country to hear the gospel too. Fortunately Burma has a strong gospel witness dating back to the famous missionary Adoniram Judson (1788-1850).

The evening was capped off with a school supply give away! You would have thought it was Christmas in September! All the children were glad to receive their school supplies. I pray every soul that heard the gospel preached tonight receive the greatest gift of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Ephesians 3:19-21
And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

The changing landscape

If you ever exit I-70 off of the Lewis and Clark viaduct into Kansas City Kansas, you will see an archway with symbols representing the different ethnic groups of their city. The welcome sign to KCK is an introduction to the face of the metro. It amazes me how much the neighborhoods have changed that in the short time I have been away from KCK. I used to frequent the entire metropolitan area when I worked for Fagan just seven years ago, and I never saw the diversity that I now see across Kansas City, Kansas and the entire metropolitan area.

Tuesday evening I entered a friend's home in KCK and said, "It smells like Nepal". He had quite a laugh over my comment, but it really did! The smell of food cooking was distinctly Asian and reminded me of our trip last October to Nepal. If you would have told me this time last year that God would have connected HBF with a ministry to the Bhutanese refugee's in our own metro, I would have not believed it, but God is so good!

I often tell our congregation that we must be ready to reach the world because the world is coming to us. It is such an exciting time to preach the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ! While we do travel abroad to reach the people of the world, some of the greatest contacts are right here withing our own Jerusalem. Tomorrow night a team from HBF will be serving the Bethel Community Center in KCK. It will be a great cross cultural exchange. Saturday a group will be serving at Worlds of Fun to help raise money for our sister church “Igreja Batista da Vida Nova” (New Life Baptist Church) in Nova Santa Rita, Brazil.

The sad thing is that so many people miss the work that God is doing right where they live. No matter how dramatic our cultural and ethnic landscape changes there are only two types of people on this planet and within our sphere of influence; the lost and the saved. The love of Christ is universal! It is not limited and neither are we!

Crumb Catchers

Proverbs 8:34
Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.

Everyday the rich man saw Lazarus sitting at his gate begging for a crumb from his table (see Luke 16:21). A crumb from the rich man's table was fit for a dog. The beggar was content to eat crumbs, and ultimately the rich man would be content to taste a drop of water from the tip of the beggars finger tip. While it may have been easy for the rich man to overlook the beggar, God will never overlook those who watch daily at his gates! What a contrast between the rich man of Luke 16 and my Lord Jesus Christ! While our flesh is just as rotten as Lazarus's' we are rich because the Lord Jesus Christ blesses those who hear him and wait daily at his gates and the posts of his doors.

Get up and eat up! God is meeting those who take the time to meet with him! It is no wonder he stands at the door and knocks He wants in to sup with us. More than crumbs he wants to deliver a full blown meal! Revelation 3:20