1. Adoption is something God had always planed and was initially fullfilled in Israel
1.1. Give to Abraham Gal 3:15-18
1.2. Fullfilled in Israel Gal 3:15-18,29
2. About "heuiotheisa"
2.1. Means "the placing of a son" or "to put in the place of a sun"
2.1.1. Sometimes translated as sonship
2.1.1.1. Gal 4:5
2.1.1.2. Rom 8:15
2.2. Paul is the only one to use this word
2.2.1. not foudn in the septuagint
2.2.2. not found in the other NT authors
2.3. The 5 times it's use covers redemptive
2.3.1. Eph 1:4-5
2.3.1.1. Protology
2.3.2. Romans 9:4
2.3.2.1. Covt Theology
2.3.3. Gal 4:4-6
2.3.3.1. Soteriology
2.3.4. Romans 8:15-16
2.3.4.1. Pneumatology
2.3.4.1.1. Abba father - points back to mark 14:32-36
2.3.5. Roamns 8:22-23
2.3.5.1. Eschatology
3. Quotes
3.1. To borrow a thought from the Southern Presbyterian Benjamin Morgan Palmer, no other term embraces so much of the whole system of grace as adoption.
4. The motifs of apostles are different
4.1. All use Father, sons, children
4.2. John speaks most in terms of new birth, conformed to his image, previous were children of the devil, brought into the kingdom
4.3. Paul speaks of adoption, union with christ, previous were slaves to sin, brought into his family
5. illustrations
5.1. In the spring of 2002, popular talk show host Rosie O’Donnell revealed her lesbian relationship live on her show. In what would become the final season of the program, O’Donnell pushed for multiple political shifts that would grant further rights for homosexuals. In seeking to demonstrate the normalcy of her life and relationships, O’Donnell talked about her adopted children and her fight with Florida’s then-governor, Jeb Bush, over the rights of homosexual couples to adopt. That same spring, Angelina Jolie, noted actress, director, and humanitarian, adopted her first child from Cambodia. After shooting several films in the economically-depressed country, she thought it a fitting complement to her humanitarian aid to change at least one life directly. Jolie, as a high profile star, went on to adopt two other children. In many respects, adoption went mainstream in the first few years of the twenty-first century as Hollywood brought attention to the growing need for action on the behalf of children worldwide. High-profile adoptions created new interest in the plight of children worldwide and led to further adoptions by other stars as well as raising awareness for the need of families to become involved in adoption.
5.2. In 1852, Charles Loring Brace, a Yale-trained Presbyterian pastor, began working with the poor on what became known as Roosevelt Island. Seeing the needs of countless children—the survivors of which were repeating their parent’s patterns of heavy drinking, crime, and so on—he decided to do something about it. He created the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) and began working with evangelical churches throughout New York State to relocate children with Christian families willing to take in a child. For many of these children, this was the first glimmer of hope that had yet appeared in their life. In fact, this early foster care system became a boon to farmers and aided many children in becoming integrated members of society in their adult years. Brace created a movement that lasted for almost 75 years. Called “Orphan Trains,” Brace and his organi- zation would purchase tickets for children to ride the rails from New York City to far off locations in places like Kansas and Michigan to gain a new home. These trains became the means for children to escape horrible circumstances and childless families or families needing extra hands to work the farm to bring more children into their life. For children without parents, Brace and the CAS would send information about the children weeks in advance to local churches, who screened the candidates for suitability. As the train would pull into the station, the parents that were deemed fit would go and look at the adoptable children who were placed on boxes so the crowd could see them, thus, the etymol- ogy of the phrase, “up for adoption.” There were some serious shortcomings and flaws in Brace’s ministry. Yet his goal was commendable: to place children without hope into evangelical families, in the hope that the new context would alter the life of the child and eventually transform society (7).
5.3. Similarly, in the earliest expressions of evangelicalism found in the Pietistic and Moravian movements, a concern for children along with their discipleship and growth, especially for children without a home, marked the movement. As historian W.R. Ward once quipped, early evangelicals could be spotted simply wherever there was an orphanage (8). Taking the claims of Scripture seriously, the evangelical movement simply obeyed the commands of the text and took care of the widow and the orphan.
5.4. Wall Street Journal gave one glimpse of the result. “As more and more evangelical churches take up the cause of [foster-to-adopt] on a large scale, their congregations have begun to look like the multiracial sea of faces that Christian leaders often talk about wanting.”
5.5. Russell More
5.5.1. “The younger the child is, the more opportunity you will have to bring up that child in Christian nurture and instruction, to form the character and eternal destiny of this son or daughter,” writes Russell Moore in Adopted for Life. “An adopting Christian couple may decide they want to adopt an infant or young toddler so as to exercise a maximal amount of stewardship in that child’s life. That’s a legitimate decision.”
5.5.2. Russell Moore’s first visit with his sons in his book, Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches (2009), describes his sons as “lying in excrement and vomit, covered in heat blisters and flies.”
5.6. In Reclaiming Adoption: Missional Living through the Rediscovery of Abba Father (2010) Dan Cruver declares, “The ultimate purpose of human adoption by Christians, therefore, is not to give orphans parents, as important as that is. It is to place them in a Christian home that they might be positioned to receive the gospel.”
5.7. We all long for [Eden], and we are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most humane, is still soaked with the sense of ʻexileʼ. If you come to think of it, your (very just) horror at the stupid murder of the hawk, and your obstinate memory of this ʻhomeʼ of yours in an idyllic hour (when often there is an illusion of the stay of time and decay and a sense of gentle peace) are derived from Eden (The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, 110).
5.8. graphic
6. Pasages
6.1. Do not oppress foreigners in any way. Remember, you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt. Do not exploit widows or orphans. If you do exploit them and they cry out to me I will surely help them. My anger will blaze forth against you, and I will kill you with the sword. Your wives will become widows and your children will become fatherless. (Ex 22:23-24)
6.1.1. This harsh pronouncement demonstrates a couple of key items that need to be considered. First, based on verse 23, we may discern that the widows and orphans have direct access to God. He hears their cries and appeals for help and promises swift action. Second, avoiding upholding justice for the widow and orphan secures judgment—even death—upon those who look the other way. In the prophets, this becomes one of the burning indictments against the rulers of the house of Israel as they avoided caring for the needs of the widow and orphan.
6.2. From the outset of the book of Genesis, we are given explanation regarding the role of the family. Married couples are to be fruitful and multiply, following the same pattern given to all of creation. When sin and death mar the beauty of creation, a new class of people that fall outside normal societal and familial bounds become the victims in a broken world—namely widows, orphans and foreigners. In the text of the Hebrew Scriptures, almost every instance of the term “orphan” (yatom) or “fatherless” is paired with that of the widow (almonah). Usually their care and provision is provided under the same regulations and restrictions of the foreigner or sojourner among the children of Israel.
6.3. In the Old Testament, the entire community is commanded to care for the needs of the least of these in their midst. In this respect, orphan care becomes the responsibility of the entire community. There are no instruc- tions for orphanages, not to mention homes for the aged, leading to the claim that adoption is a foreign concept within the Old Testament worldview
6.4. Presumably, given the injunctions found in the text, children found homeless were taken in by extended family in order to maintain the hereditary rights of the child as stipulated in the law.
6.5. Deut 24:17,19-21
6.5.1. Only harvest once
6.6. Deut 16:11,14
6.6.1. Take widows, orphans, aliens into family as celebration
6.7. Deut 26:12-13
6.7.1. Nation commanded to tithe for the need of widows, orphans priests and aliens
7. Culture
7.1. Roman culture
7.1.1. 1. Usually a man without natural offspring would adopt male as son. Seldom an infant. 2. Young men sometimes adopted out of slavery; redeemed from such into privilege of son. 3. Natural father sometimes "sold" a son to adoptive father. 4. Paternal authority under Roman law was often severe. 5. Adopted son became legal son with all legal rights and responsibilities. 6. Some allege Roman adoption irrevocable. Use as basis for "once saved, always saved" 7. Some allege Roman adoption was rite of manhood for placement as "adult son."
7.2. Hebrew culture
7.2.1. 1. No mention of adoption in Old Testament Law. 2. Possible occasions of such. All outside of Palestine. a. Moses - Exod. 2:10; Acts 7:21; Heb. 11:24 b. Genubath - I Kings 11:20 c. Esther - Esther 2:7,15 d. cf. II Sam. 7:14; Ezra 10:44
7.2.2. 1. Orphan care is commanded by God for the entire community of faith. 2. Orphan care is designed to protect the rights of orphans in the hereditary transfer of land. 3. A curse followed those who did not take up the cause of the orphan and oppressed. 4. In the definition of evil found in the condemnations of the prophets that were recited against Israel and the surrounding nations, lack of care for orphans almost always appears. 5. God hears the prayers of orphans. 6. God promises to be the defender and father of orphans.
7.3. NT - Orphnos
7.3.1. John 14:18
7.3.1.1. Jesus picked up on this idea of fatherless as he's about to leave - and there's this vulnerability, this what do we do now? what do we have?
7.3.1.2. And he says to them- ““I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14:18, ESV)
7.3.1.3. The issue is what? Vulnerablity
7.3.2. James 1:27
7.3.2.1. James picks up on this word and ties it to pure and undefiled religion
7.4. Paul the apostle to the gentiles
7.4.1. Focuses on Roman judicial system
7.4.2. Orphans
7.4.2.1. many became servants of teh Empire through forced service in the military
7.4.2.2. Temple prostitutes
7.4.3. Roman law allowed romans to adopt children of slaves as their own
7.4.3.1. Resul t= slave child goes from poverty and obscurity to rul riths and stauts as heirs
7.4.4. So Paul uses lanugage like this often
7.4.4.1. God, children, slves, adopted, sonship
7.4.4.2. John uses God , chirlend new birth, child of devil, new life
7.4.5. Examples
7.4.5.1. Gal 4:3-7
7.4.5.1.1. We are slaves to the law
7.4.5.1.2. In christ, adopted to righful sonship
7.4.5.1.3. How? by verse 3-4, substitutionary atonement - we were under the law, he was born under the law
7.4.5.2. Romans 8:12-9:5
7.4.5.3. Romans 9:26
7.4.5.3.1. You who are not my people will be my child and called children of God
7.4.6. Adoption in roman times often refered to Emperors that adopted to have a suitable heir fro their great famrily
7.4.6.1. Paul might pick this up to say that to be adopted by God is far better than the emperor
7.4.6.2. Of note also was that the ones adopted were often not children, but a young adult, generally not a child, not poor, not even an orphan
7.5. African Culture
7.5.1. http://www.conradmbewe.com/2010/11/adoption-orphanages-and-african.html
8. Inntroduction
8.1. A couple of caveates
8.1.1. The issue is not adoption, but the care of the fatherless
8.1.1.1. Not all will be called to adopt. That is not the mandate. No one needs to leave here feeling guilty for not adoptiing
8.1.1.2. All should feel convicted to care for the fatherless and not turn the other way
8.2. My challenge this morning
8.2.1. To see the God-mandate
8.2.2. To help-you appreciate the theology of God's care for teh fatherless
8.2.3. To feel the weight of the mandate
8.2.4. To help you feel the mandate
8.2.5. To help you feel that yo ucan help
9. Stats
9.1. 1. There are 3.4 million “double orphans”—children lacking both parents—in Asia. 2. Over 400,000 orphans in Latin America over- whelm their social services. 3. 10.3 million orphans fend for themselves in sub-Saharan Africa; 15.7 million African children have lost at least one parent to AIDS. 4. More than 400,000 children are in the United States foster care system; approximately 107,000 children of these children are available for adoption. 5. In the state where I live, a social worker stated that there are more than five thousand children whose parents’ rights have been terminated by the courts and are awaiting adoption.
9.2. about 18.3 million are double-orphans. Some have extended familiy and communities that might take them in.---- We need a comprehensive view
9.3. Likewise, the movement also encompasses foster care and foster-to-adopt as well. In Colorado, even nonreligious observers like the Denver Post affirm that Christian engagement has literally cut the number of “waiting children” in the foster system by half, from 800 to less than 400.
9.4. By their mid-20s, less than half are employed. More than 80 percent of males have been arrested, versus 17 percent overall. With women, 68 percent are on food stamps, compared to 7 percent overall. Similarly tragic consequences of growing up without a family are seen globally as well, from stunted size and intellect to emotional trauma. One startling yet representative study in Romania by Harvard professor Charles Nelson found that up to age 3, children’s IQ decreased by nearly one point for every two months spent in an orphanage.
10. Conclusion
10.1. Support mothers
10.2. Open up your home
10.3. Care for the fatherless
11. Connection
11.1. To understand the metaphor of adoption, we must remember that the meta-narrative of the bible
11.1.1. What is it?
11.1.1.1. Creation
11.1.1.2. Rebellion
11.1.1.3. Redemption
11.1.1.4. recreation
11.1.2. What ist he full consumation? Restored relationship
11.2. Restored relationship - is it any wonder that when God identifies himself and does so by the quartet of people - fatherless, the aliean (immigrant), the widow and the poor, it's those that are marginalized in socieity - relatinhop lly marginallized. So God sides with them.
11.3. It is in this redemptive-narrative taht we understand and appreciate adoption
11.3.1. Israel is called son of God.
11.4. What we know is the gospel never speaks of adoption, but simply shows us the goal - namely that Jesus knows the God as father.
11.4.1. Jews persecuted him
11.4.2. He said he wlays does the will of the Father
11.4.3. My father.
11.4.4. There is this great tremendous foudnation for his life, direction for his life.
11.4.5. He lives the most succesful life because his life is the life humans was meant to live - in relatinship to the father.
11.4.6. Spirit empowered, great things .. but never detached from relationship wit the Father.
11.4.7. Prays "abba father" - familial - Father, Dad.
11.4.7.1. Not just daddy.... very emotional.
11.4.7.2. Growing up, i didn't relate to my dad that way. Perhaps that shapes part of my own fatherhood. It was warm and loving, but not in that way.
11.4.7.3. It's not just a child like faith. That's cute, but we're not always called to cute. There is something far deeper in this word. It's the word for acceptance, it's the word of knwoing self and knowing God and knowing tha tyour father knows you and accepts you. It's the word of assurance. It's a word of confidence .. boldly come into his throne type of confidence.
11.4.7.4. I'ts not just a little girl daddy - not many guys can relate to that, so let's not super impose that
11.4.7.5. ILL: ??
11.4.7.6. But it's love and commitment at the deepst levels
11.5. Paul points back to this in both points of adoption --
11.5.1. Why? Cause that's the goal of redemption.
11.5.2. In the romans times - adoption was often not waht we expected
11.5.2.1. It was emperor to young adult
11.5.2.2. It was to perpetuate ones kingdom
11.5.2.3. One great worth giving the unworthy something valuable.
11.5.2.4. On a smaller scale, romans could deploy this mechanism themselves. chidlren of slaves and they become heirs
11.5.3. Paul deploys adoption (only one) 5 times to convey this idea ...
11.5.3.1. Trinitarian work (Eph 1:3-6)
11.5.3.2. Romans 8:23 - climatic consummation of new heavens an dnew earth