We are in a 7 week series called The Story of Us: Rediscovering Who We are as the People of God. The Story of Us is told with seven words: Creation, Catastrophe, Covenant, Community, Crown, Christ, and Church. Each week we will unpack each word and its application in our lives.

1) Creation - God created everything and it was very good. We were created to live in completely vulnerability with God and with one another.

2) Catastrophe - We as humans chose to be like God, to set our own course, which leads to rebellion from God. Sin entered the world and separated us from God, each other and even within ourselves. Sin infects all people, all institutions and creation itself.

3) Covenant - God is redeeming creation through a particular family, the family of a man from Haran named Abram. God revealed himself to Abram and told him the he will bless him, make him a creation nation and all the peoples on the earth will be blessed through him. Abram went as God has told him to a land he had never been before. His kids were not perfect but God used them to bless the world.

4) Community - God and Moses led the people from Egypt to Mt. Sinai and made a covenant that they would be his people. The purpose was to create a people to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, a nation reflecting the character of God. The nation of Israel was to show the world who God is and what God is like.

5) Crown - The Nation of Israel wanted a king over them, to be like all the other nations. By this step, they were rejecting God as their king. This ultimately lead to the downfall of the nation, the splitting of the kingdom and hope for a Messiah that would come.

Today we are seeing the culmination of the story of Israel, Jesus the Messiah has come to rescue and restore not only his chosen people but all people,

Often our understandings of Jesus are culturally influenced. For me as a pastor (this is Scott writing), I really didn't understand the significance of Jesus being Jewish was to him being the Messiah.

As you read Isaiah 11:1-12 and Jeremiah 31:31-34, you will see that the nation of Israel began hoping for a time when God will make a new covenant with his people, that he will write it on their hearts and a king from the lineage would come.

Therefore as we look at all the things we can say about Jesus, here are 7 qualities or characteristics of the person of Jesus.

1) Promise Keeper - After 400 hundred years of silence in scripture, the first words we see in Matthew 1:1 is the genealogy of Jesus. He is the son of David, the son of Abraham. In other words, he is the one that we had all been waiting for. God is keeping his promise of redeeming the brokenness of humanity.

2) Kingdom Bringer - We see the inauguration of Jesus ministry in Luk 4:18-21, that he quotes the Messianic expectation from Isiah 61 and says, "this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing". The Kingdom of God is at hand.

In fact Jesus first "sermon" and the encapsulation of his message was from Mark 1:14-15, "The Kingdom of God is at Hand. Repent and believe the good news."

3. Miracle Worker - Jesus' miracles were a sign that kingdom of God had come. Healing the deaf and blind, healing a paralyzed man, walking on water, feeding 5000+ people, raising the dead are all signs that Jesus is the Messiah and that the kingdom had come.

4. Wisdom Teacher - In the sermon on the mountain, the greatest sermon ever given, Jesus interpreted God's law and the meaning behind it. He said he came to fulfill the law. Human's continually fell short and by the offering of Jesus' perfect life, he fulfilled the Old Testament law.

5) Boundary Extender - Jesus expanded the boundaries of who is in God;s love. He touched the leper as a way of healing and didn't just speak it into existence. Jesus spoke to the samaritan woman who was isolated from her people. Jesus went to gentile areas and brought his disciples with him because everyone was important to God. Though his stories, he defined neighbor as not just those physically around you but everyone is your neighbor.

6) Spirit Modeler - Jesus modeled what it means to be as a human lead by the Spirit of God, able to discern God's voice and be obedient to it.

7) Loving Reconciler - Jesus came to offer his life on the cross and be raised to life again so that our sin could be paid for and for us to experience eternal life.

Matthew 16:24-25. Are you building your life on yourself or by being a disciple, a follower of this man? Jesus does not need fans, supporters or adherents. He is inviting us to become his disciples and learn how to live as we were meant to live. He is inviting us to new life by his grace, life here on earth and life eternally. Let us build our lives on Jesus.