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Sunday 22 September 2002 - "Breaking - broken relationships and God's answer"

(Summary of sermon by Kjell Olsen)

1 Cor 11: 23 & 24: John 6: 54

The breaking happens everywhere: between children & parents, wife and husband, congregation members, and most especially, between an individual and God.

When individuals get together in rebellion against God they say, as in Ps 2:3: "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us."

God's answer is His Son "broken for you." 1Cor 11: 23 & 24. in Isaiah 53:5, "But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed." Christ was broken in the sense of his body (yet not a bone of him broken) but especially in the sense that God, who is too pure to look upon evil, looked away from His Son on the Cross. Christ endured a broken relationship – thus "My God, my God, why…?" He Himself is the broken bread."
We must eat of Him who is our bread: the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life. John 6:63. Jesus is heaven's manna sent into our desert lives; we are not going to be saved by a recipe, cooking method, and shelving system for bread but by eating what we have been given by grace.

He is the Word broken for us: "How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" Psalm 119:103; "When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God Almighty." Jeremiah 15:16; "But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee; Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee." Ezek 2:8.

PROVISION: His suffering reveals the provision of God. It reveals that Christ’s death is sufficient for our every need.

We must be broken in repentance: Jer 4:3 Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. Ps 34:18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; Result of repentance, Ps 51:8 that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. & Ps 147:3 He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.

If you break with Him who was broken for you, then: "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Ps 2:9.