4--The Bible According to God
Think Like Jesus • Sermon • Submitted
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THINK LIKE JESUS—Part 4 The Bible According to God
Ø Bible study is extremely important in the life of a believer
o There are a lot of different ways to do this…& we’ll look at some of those in a few weeks
o But there are some you need to maybe stay away from
o For example, there’s a Bible study method of closing your eyes, opening up your Bible, and pointing to a verse
§ Matthew 27:5—“Judas went away and hung himself”
§ Luke 10:37—“Jesus said, “Go and do likewise’”
§ John 13:27—“What you are about to do, do quickly”
Ø QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Who owns the most Bibles? (not on an app!) (us: 54)
o Why not give some of them away?
Ø In 1917, Russia was considered the most “churched” country in the world
o Only a decade later, it was considered just the opposite
§ What happened? A Revolution
o The church in Europe is only a shell of what it was not too long ago
§ The US is generally about 20 years, less than one generation, behind Europe
§ Despite a few pockets, the American church is following the same pattern
§ Since 2007, more churches have closed each year than were started
Ø If we are to make an impact, we must get back to radical Christianity
o “Radical” is a good word—one meaning is “fundamental” or “root”; get back to the basics—that’s radical!
o Another meaning is to turn things upside down—our faith should be turning our lives upside down—as well as the lives of our friends and our world
o Jude 3, “I urge you to contend for the truth that was once for all entrusted to the saints”
o To do that, we must understand the Bible
o Just learning the information is not enough
§ That will not impact the way we live—basically, it will just waste our time
o Understanding God’s Word to us is incredibly important for us to fulfill our purpose in making a difference in our world
o That brings us to where we are in our Spiritual boot camp
Ø Last week, we talked about how our Bible came together
o The integrity of the copies made
o The amazing continuity of 40 authors over a period of 1,600 years
o The people that gave their lives so we could have a Bible in English (268?)
Ø Today, in part 2 of our study of the Bible, we are going to look at the theme of the Bible
o In our goal to Think Like Jesus we must have a good understanding the themes of the Bible—and to see how they are consistent, from Genesis to Revelation
o The Bible is not a collection of stories about Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, Paul
o It is the story of God…God working through the lives of ordinary people like you and me to accomplish His purpose
o The Bible According to God
o We do not teach the Bible in a way that helps us understand its purpose
§ We teach and preach in a scattered approach—one week will be on Paul being shipwrecked, the next week David & Goliath, and the next week Jesus feeding the 5,000, and somewhere in there we have to talk about a talking donkey!
§ We lose our perspective about how all these fit together
· Not just in a timeline
· More importantly, how they all fit together to tell us the story of God
§ That’s what we’re going to learn today
Ø If there are any verses that sum up the purpose of the Bible, it’s John 3:16-17
Ø There are 4 main themes that take those verses & interconnect the story of the Bible
o Creation
o The Fall
o Redemption
o Restoration
Ø The first is Creation
o In the beginning, God created time and the universe by His power, turning nothing into something (ex-nihilo)
o He created the stars, galaxies, fish, cucumbers, trees, giraffes, and his greatest work of all, you!
o God placed the man Adam and his wife Eve in the Garden of Eden, a perfect environment, and gave them the responsibility to tend the garden and take care of the animals
o Meanwhile, a mighty angel named Lucifer, who the Bible says was the most beautiful creature God created, rebelled against God because of pride—he wanted to be God
o He was cast out of heaven and took the form of a serpent—actually has many forms!
o He tempted Eve to disobey God by eating something God told her not to do for her own protection, but when she did, & then Adam did, too, both the man and the woman felt shame and their relationship became fractured from God
Ø This is often referred to as the second major theme of the Bible—the Fall of Man, or the more correct term, original sin
o This means that human beings are not born morally good, but are born with an evil inclination to disobey authority—yes, that includes you and me
o The struggle between good and evil continued in the first couple’s family
§ One of their sons, Cain, murdered his brother Abel
§ Several generations later, the world was filled with such violence and defiance towards God, that only one man alive at the time, Noah, was extended grace
§ God revealed to Noah that He would send a great flood to bring judgment on the people, and so he told Noah to build an ark
§ After the flood was over, Noah and his family began to repopulate the earth
o God chose some of Noah’s descendants to become the beginnings of the Jewish people—the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob about 2000 BC
§ God promised to bless Abraham’s offspring and, through Abraham’s descendants, to bless all the nations of the Earth—read Genesis 12:2-3
§ What is a covenant?
· Not the same as a contract
· I promise to keep my end of the deal even if you don’t keep your end
· Testament same word as covenant—Old Covenant & New Covenant
§ Jacob, the youngest of the patriarchs, had twelve children, and God chose the eleventh child, Joseph, to become a powerful man in Egypt
§ Eventually they were turned into slaves by the Pharaoh of Egypt, Ramses II
o To rescue the Israelites, God raised up a man named Moses to bring the people out of Egypt and take them back to the land which had been promised to Abraham
o Once safely out of Egypt, the children of Israel camped at Mount Sinai, where God gave Moses the 10 commandments, which was the basis of His covenant with them
o In addition to the moral code (Do not murder, steal) the law defined the role of the priests and how they would offer sacrifices to atone for the sins of the people
§ “Atone” means to pay for the crime/sin—we all have to pay for our sins
o Atonement could only be made by the shedding of the blood of a spotless sacrifice, most times a lamb—eventually the Lamb of God
o The Law also detailed how to build the Tabernacle, a portable place in which God’s presence would dwell and where He would meet with His people
Ø After Moses died, God chose Joshua to lead the Israelites through various battles and they began to take control of the Promised Land
o However, they started to worship the idols of the people there and lost their identity as God’s chosen people, & they never completely took control of the Promised Land
o As a result, they no longer wanted God to be their king and asked Him for a human king because they wanted to be like all the other nations
o God reluctantly granted their request, and Saul became Israel’s first king
o Saul was a major disappointment, disobeyed God and God removed him from power
Ø God then chose David, of the tribe of Judah, to succeed Saul as King
o God promised David that he would have a descendant who would reign on His throne forever (about 1000 years later, this descendant would be Jesus Christ)
o David’s son Solomon reigned in Jerusalem around 950 BC, but civil war broke out, and the kingdom was divided—the north was called Israel; south was called Judah
o Every king Israel had was wicked, and, as judgment on Israel, God allowed the Assyrian army to conquer them in 722 BC
o Judah, the southern kingdom was overtaken by the Babylonian empire 150 years later, around 574 BC—why? They refused to follow God
o This is during the time when the prophet Isaiah predicted a Suffering Servant who would suffer for the sins of His people and be glorified and sit on David’s throne—700 years before Jesus was born!
o The prophet Micah predicted that this Promised One would be born in the tiny town of Bethlehem—750 years before Jesus was born!
o The Jewish people were carried off into Babylon for over 70 years, but eventually returned to Judah to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple
o Malachi wrote the last book of Jewish history and prophesied that the Lord would come to His temple and that a future king would come into Jerusalem riding on a donkey
Ø And then there was silence…………..not one word from God for 400 years
Ø This brings us to the 3rd theme of the Bible: Redemption
o The Old Testament is the story of God’s plan to bring about the redemption of man
o The Old Testament was God’s way of showing us that no one could be redeemed to God by following the Law
o No man who lived under this plan could keep it the way God demanded…perfectly!
o The sacrificial system, the spotless lamb, the savior of the world, the one who would die for his own people, was about to arrive on the scene
o The suffering servant of Isaiah—Jesus Christ
o The Son of David—Jesus Christ
o The Messiah of Daniel—Jesus Christ
o And the humble king of Zechariah, all found in one person, Jesus Christ
Ø Jesus grew up and kept all the OT laws perfectly—the only one to ever do it
o He began his public ministry at the age of 30
o People were following Jesus and calling him the Son of God, which was considered blasphemous because Jesus was equating himself as equal to God
o In his final trip to Jerusalem, Jesus celebrated the Passover with his disciples
o Later that night, while Jesus was praying, Judas, one of His disciples, betrayed him
o Jesus was arrested and dragged through a series of illegal trials
o He was condemned to death by crucifixion by the Roman governor
o At the moment of His death, there was a great earthquake and the Temple veil which separated the part of the Temple where God’s presence was from the people was torn from top to bottom—showing us God was no longer behind a curtain, but now lived with us, and to this day we continue to have direct access to Him!
o Jesus’ body was taken from the cross, laid in a nearby tomb, and on the third day, Jesus’ tomb was discovered empty
Ø All of this was to show the Jewish people that the sacrificial systems, the tabernacle, the priesthood, the atonement, the suffering servant, all the prophecies were fulfilled in the God-Man, Jesus Christ:
o He is the perfect lamb of God—the perfect sacrifice for our sins
o He is the High Priest
o He is the King of kings, Lord of lords, and king of all the earth
o And, most important, He is the Savior of the World
Ø Jesus, and Jesus alone, was God’s plan for redemption even before the universe was created
o This plan of redemption was not Plan B or Plan C
o This was God’s plan from before the beginning
o Let me tell you how I know this
Ø Throughout the Old Testament are what are called “pictures,” or “types” of the One Who was to come—they are like a reflection of the real thing, but before they actually happen
o Genesis 3:15 (go back even further to Genesis 1:26)
§ Jesus didn’t just appear on the scene in Bethlehem—been around for eternity!
o The story of Abraham & Isaac in Genesis 22
§ Isaac, his promised son, his only son (sound familiar?)
§ God told Abraham to offer his only son as a sacrifice (sound familiar?)
§ As they traveled to Mount Moriah (where Jerusalem & Calvary would be located centuries later), they traveled 3 days, Isaac carried the wood for the sacrifice on his back (like Jesus carried a cross)
§ Abraham told Isaac that God would provide the sacrifice
§ Coincidence? I think not!
o The Passover in Exodus 12
§ Before leaving Egypt, the last of the 10 plagues on the Egyptians was the death of the firstborn in each family
§ God told the Israelites to kill a lamb & spread its blood across the door frame of each home so the Angel of Death would pass over that house & they would live
§ Coincidence? No! Sounds like what the blood of Jesus did for us
o The Tabernacle they built as a place to worship God while they were in the desert
§ The shape? Many believe it was in the shape of a cross
o One of the yearly feasts of the Jews—The Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16
§ Two unblemished lambs were chosen
§ One was killed and its blood was sprinkled on the Mercy Seat in the Temple or Tabernacle
· The Mercy Seat was symbolic of the place where God met His people
o It actually sat on the top of the Ark of the Covenant
§ Where the 10 Commandments were kept
· But the only way for Him to meet the High Priest there was if the blood of an unblemished lamb was sprinkled on it—atonement for their sins
§ The other, called the scapegoat, had the sins ceremonially placed on its head & was then driven into the desert
§ Do you see Jesus in that picture?
o Many more pictures of Jesus in the Old Testament
§ Noah
§ Jonah
§ Melchizedek (Genesis 14 & Hebrews 7)
§ Job
§ Moses
§ Manna from heaven during their 40 years in the wilderness
§ Water from a rock
o The meaning of the name “Joshua” is “God is My Salvation”—the same exact translation of the name Jesus
§ One is in Hebrew, the other in Aramaic
§ Joshua led the people into the Promised Land
§ Jesus is our way (the ONLY way) into the real promised land—heaven!
o Can all these possibly be coincidences? What do you think?!?
Ø The final theme in the Bible is Restoration
o This will happen when Christ returns and makes all things right
o We are living in what is called the “already-not yet” period
§ This means that Christianity is “already” spreading, and the kingdom of God is “already” growing, but the thousand-year reign of Christ has “not yet” occurred
o We are waiting for the day when the Messiah will bring peace to the Earth and establish a new heaven and a new earth
o Read Revelation 21:1-8
o What a glorious day
Ø Creation…The Fall…Redemption…Restoration
o That is a simplified understanding of God’s Word to us
o There’s a lot more to it, but those are the 4 key points
o If you can get a grasp on those 4 words, you will have a good understanding of The Bible According to God
o The Bible is not the story of a bunch of individuals—it’s so much more!
o It’s the story of God—and how He makes Himself known to us
o It’s the story of God using imperfect people to accomplish His purposes
o If we understand these 4 words, the Bible actually starts making sense
§ The entire Old Testament points forward to Jesus
§ The entire New Testament points back to His life and reason for coming
§ God was working all throughout
§ If you don’t see Jesus on every page of the Old Testament, you missed Him!
o There’s an old line in the TV show and later the movie, The A-Team
§ “I love it when a plan comes together”
o God’s plan has definitely come together—and is still coming together!
o GOD IS IN CONTROL!
o And aren’t you glad! I know I am
Ø PRAY
Ø What is your part in His purposes?
o You know you have one
o The 1st step is to give your life to Christ—sell out to Him, let Him begin His plan
o But that’s only the beginning
o You will find His purpose for you through reading His Word & praying
o But to find your purpose, you have to start—it’s not going to come & hit you in the face
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