Bible -2
THE BIBLE STORY
… based on 1 Timothy 2:5-6
There’s a name that’s held in high esteem by every student who has ever taken a H.S. or college literary course. It’s not Shakespeare, or Dickens, or Hemingway … the name that I have in mind is Cliff. That’s because Cliff has written the greatest works of all time … “CliffsNotes.”
Are you familiar with CliffsNotes? CliffsNotes are reduced versions of famous novels. We can get “Nicholas Nickleby,” the 900-page novel by Charles Dickens … just 35 pages. We can read Tolstoy’s “War & Peace,” that mammoth novel, in ½ hour. Teachers hate CliffsNotes, but I remember loving them, especially the night before a test on a book I hadn’t read.
So, is the greatest Book of all time available on CliffsNotes?
It is, & it’s 224 pages long. (The Reader’s Digest version is 767 pages.) Now this is a daunting Book … not just because it’s long … but because it’s not just simply 1 book, it’s 66 books in 1. 66 books that were written over a period of 1,700 years by 40 different authors, who lived in 10 different countries, on 3 different continents. They worked at 20 different occupations … from shepherd to king to military hero to fisherman to Dr. to tax collector. And they wrote in 3 different languages. And when they got done & put the whole thing together it included a cast of 2,932 people by name.
So, is there a storyline that ties it all together? … And the answer to that is … yes. And if we know the storyline then no matter where we begin reading, we’ll be able to discern what God is saying to us.
This is the 2nd message in our series on how to read, & interpret,
& apply the Bible to our lives. Last week it was “Text Message From God,”
today, “The Bible Story.”
So, listen now to Good News, from Paul to Timothy, & Paul to Bear Creek Church. Within our hearing comes the Word of the Lord …
There is one God, and there is one who brings God and human beings together, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself to redeem the whole human race. (1 Timothy 2:5-6)
May my words & my thoughts be acceptable to you,
O LORD, my refuge & my redeemer! (The Psalms 19:14)
May the Lord grant that we may engage in contemplating the mysteries of His Heavenly wisdom with really increasing devotion, to His glory and to our edification. Amen
Now to help us think about this, I’ve divided the Bible into 6 parts,
& each one ties into the theme of the storyline. The theme of the Bible’s story is redemption. What’s the theme? (redemption)
Part 1 … redemption prompted.
So, what does redemption mean? The best way to find out is to jump right into the storyline of the Bible. Every good story begins with a crisis, with a conflict that must be solved. It’s what grabs our attention & hooks us … & the Bible is no exception. The Bible begins with the mother of all problems.
Theologians refer to it as the fall of humanity. (Isaiah 59:2)
Here’s the story. Adam & Eve, the 1st human beings are placed in a paradise called the Garden of Eden. And life is extremely good. And God promises that it’s going to stay good as long as they obey 1 command … to not eat from the tree that gives knowledge of what is good & what is bad. But, Satan, posing as a snake, enters the picture. He tempts them … they eat …
& things immediately get bad. Now I remember as a teenager thinking … “what’s the big deal. They ate a apple? What’s so horrible about that?”
Well, it’s a big deal because Adam & Eve opened Pandora’s Box.
Adam & Eve introduced sin into God’s world, & with sin came devasting consequences. Sin destroys what God has created. Here’s the account …
“That evening Adam & Eve heard the LORD God walking in the garden, & they hid from him among the trees. But the LORD God called out to the man,
‘Where are you?’
He answered, ‘I heard you in the garden;
I was afraid & hid from you, because I was naked.’
‘Who told you that you were naked?’ God asked.
‘Did you eat the fruit that I told you not to eat?’
(‘Yes, Lord, I did it.’ … No, he didn’t say that.)
The man answered,
‘The woman you put here with me gave me the fruit, & I ate it.’
The LORD God asked the woman, ‘Why did you do this?’
She replied, ‘The snake tricked me into eating it.’
Then the LORD God said to the snake,
‘You will be punished for this; you alone of all the animals must bear this curse: From now on you will crawl on your belly. & you will have to eat dust as long as you live. I will make you & the woman hate each other; her offspring & yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head,
& you will bite her offspring’s heel.”
And he said to the woman, ‘I will increase your trouble in pregnancy
& your pain in giving birth. In spite of this, you will still have desire
for your husband, yet you will be subject to him.’
And he said to the man, ‘You listened to your wife & ate the fruit which I told you not to eat. Because of what you have done, the ground will be under a curse. You will have to work hard all your life to make it produce enough food for you. It will produce weeds & thorns, & you will have to eat
wild plants. You will have to work hard & sweat
to make the soil produce anything.’ (Genesis 3:8-19)
So, this has become a horrible situation.
It began with Adam & Eve hiding from God … the God that they had been so intimate with. Sin brings alienation from God, & conflict in relationships … always. Every conflict we have in any relationship in our life can always be traced back to some sin … anger, pride, selfishness. So, we have alienation from God, conflict in relationships, & the arrival of an evil adversary …
Satan now has a foothold in God’s world. (2 Corinthians 4:4)
And with all this comes another consequence that God never intended.
There’s going to be physical & emotional pain. Eve’s going to have pain in childbirth. She’s going to love her husband, but he’s going to become chauvinistic, & try to rule over her. And even nature itself becomes contaminated. There’s going to be weeds & thorns, which will lead to diseases & natural disasters … all a result of sin. And then the list wraps up with death; people are going to die … all because of sin. In fact,
things get so bad that God decides to clean it up with a flood, (Genesis 6:13) … but, as soon as Noah & his family get back on dry land, things go bad again.
Our daughter Kelly is one of the most positive people you’ll ever meet.
No matter what’s going on in her life. “Hey, Kelly, how’s it going?” Her reply,
“It’s all good.” Well, read Genesis 3-11 … it’s all bad.
But thankfully our loving Heavenly Father decides to intervene.
You see, God could have turned His back on His creation at this point.
He could have washed His hands of humanity.
Instead, He devises a rescue plan by which He’s going to redeem,
not just fallen humanity, but everything He has created. (John 3:16)
Now I want you to turn in your Bible to the Table of Contents,
& keep it open in front of you. There are 66 books: 39 O.T. & 27 N.T.,
& we’re going to go from Genesis to The Revelation. (Don’t panic,
you’ll be home in time to see the Indiana Fever tip-off at 7:00 p.m.!)
So, part 1 … Genesis … redemption prompted.
And here’s the 1st sign. God is in the middle of lowering the boom & He addresses Satan. “The woman’s offspring will crush your head, & you will bite her offspring’s heel.” Let me explain what that means. God’s telling Satan, “One day an offspring of the woman is going to totally destroy you; He’s going to crush your head. However, in the process you’re going to severely wound this human, you’re going to bite His heel.”
Here’s a picture, already in Genesis, of Jesus’ death on the cross.
When Jesus dies on the cross, He pays the penalty for sin. (1 Peter 2:24)
He overcomes this adversary we have. (But that’s part 4.)
What I want you to see is that there are hints of redemption already being shown in the earliest parts of the Bible … redemption prompted.
Let’s move on to part 2 … redemption prepared.
We’ve just learned that God plans to send the world a Redeemer.
And this Redeemer is not just going to redeem fallen humanity … but all of creation. So how does God pave the way for this Redeemer? He does it by preparing a group of people that will be “set apart”, & they’ll become the ancestors through whom this coming Redeemer will one day arrive.
Genesis 12. Here’s a conversation that God has with a man named Abram. This takes place around 2,000 B.C.
“The LORD said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your relatives,
& your father’s home, & go to a land that I am going to show you.
I will give you many descendants, & they will become a great nation.
I will bless you & make your name famous, so that you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, But I will curse those who curse you.
And through you I will bless all the nations.’” (Genesis 12:1-3)
God makes a promise to Abram, a promise that deals with a people,
a place, & a purpose.
“I will give you many descendants, & they will become a great nation.”
(Now when this promise was made to Abram, he was 75 years old …
& he doesn’t have any kids. In fact, it’ll be another 25 years before a son is born to Abram, whom he names Isaac, which means “laughter”.
I suspect God was laughing at this.) This 100-year-old man has a son,
so God changes his name to Abraham, which means “father of many.”
And one of Abraham’s descendants will be Jesus! (Matthew 1:1)
Now the rest of Genesis has to do with Abraham, his son Isaac,
his grandson, Jacob, & his great-grandson Joseph. Joseph has 11 brothers, & the 12 of them become the 12 tribes of Israel …
the people through who the Redeemer is going to come.
So, God is setting apart a group of people. And because they’ve been set apart God wants to make sure they behave as they should. That’s what the word “holy” means in the Bible … “set apart.” God wants His people to be holy, so He gives them 5 books of laws. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
& Deuteronomy … explain how God’s people are to behave.
Now there are 3 different kinds of laws.
There are civil laws which help the people govern themselves.
There are moral laws, which help them decipher right from wrong.
And there are ceremonial/religious laws, which explain how to receive forgiveness when we’ve disobeyed the moral laws. When you read these 5 books, keep in mind that the civil laws & ceremonial laws no longer apply to us today. They’re directed at Israel.
But moral laws are timeless, & so we’re still called to obey them.
God also promised Abraham a place …
“Go to a land that I am going to show you.” (Genesis 12:1) So Abraham goes to the land of Canaan, which eventually becomes known as the Promised Land. However, years after he moved there there’s a terrible famine & his descendants relocate to where there is food … Egypt. (Genesis 12:2)
And things are good for a while in Egypt.
But eventually a new Pharaoh arrives, & he doesn’t know about Joseph so makes slaves of them. (Exodus 1:8) And for 430 years God’s people live in slavery until a redeemer comes along whose name is Moses.
Moses redeems God’s people from slavery in Egypt & takes them to the very border of the Promised Land. (This is a preview of coming attractions because God’s plan is not just to redeem His people from slavery in Egypt,
but to someday redeem all people from the slavery to sin in a fallen world.)
The books of the Law end with Moses taking people to the very border of the Promised Land. (Deuteronomy 34:4)
The next book is Joshua. Joshua is Moses’ successor.
He’s a military leader, & he will take God’s people into the Promised Land & conquer it. So now God’s people have a place of their own.
But there’s a 3rd part to God’s promise to Abraham, which has to do with the people’s purpose. The people of Israel have not been set apart & given a place of their own just so they can enjoy an exclusive relationship with God. Remember what God said.
“Through you I will bless all the nations.” Okay, how?
His descendants will be part of the family tree of the Redeemer. One day the Redeemer of the world will come through Abraham’s descendants.
And He will be a blessing to all who come to faith in Him.
But there’s a 2nd way in which God intends for Israel to be a blessing to all the nations. God wants His relationship with them to look so inviting that all the other people on the planet will say, “We want the one true living God to be our God too! We want your God to be our God.”
This is the purpose that God gives to His people; it’s their mission,
(you know, it’s our mission, also).
So, how’d they do? … Not too great. Back to the Table of Contents …
Joshua down to Esther are the “books of history.” We had 5 books of the law, now there are a dozen books of history. This is the history of God’s people from the time they entered the Promised Land on. Here’s a recap.
Right after Joshua comes Judges. It’s called Judges because the new leaders in Israel are Judges. Now don’t think Judge Judy with a black robe sitting behind a big desk. These Judges were governmental leaders.
After the Judges comes Kings. Most of us are familiar with the names of the 1st 3 kings of Israel … Saul, David, & David’s son, Solomon.
They began their reign about 1,000 B.C. Abraham about 2,000 B.C. …
David about 1,000 B.C. This becomes Israel’s golden era. It’s during this period that the books of wisdom are written, many by David & Solomon:
Job, The Psalms, The Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, & Song Of Songs.
Solomon had a son named Rehoboam, & he does some really stupid things when he becomes king, & as a result there’s a mutiny in his kingdom. And the 10 tribes in the north decide that they’re going to break off & start a country, (1 Kings 12:16-17) which they name,
Israel, & Samaria becomes the capital. Meanwhile in the south,
the 2 remaining tribes, named their country Judah, & the capital, Jerusalem.
Now here’s everything you need to know about Israel from this point on.
In the north they have 1 bad king after another.
The spiritual life of the northern kingdom basically goes into the toilet.
And finally, God has had enough, & He allows the superpower of the day, the Assyrians, to come & destroy those 10 northern tribes. Some are taken into captivity; others just disappear. This happens around 722 B.C.
The 2 tribes in the south fare a little better. They last an additional 150 years, because they occasionally have a good king, who points people back toward God. But it never lasts for long. So, in 587 B.C. God has had enough of the southern kingdom, & He sends the current superpower, Babylon, to destroy Judah & take many of its’ people into captivity. They remain in exile for 70 years, at which time they return to their homeland, which is a mess. They have to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. They have to rebuild the Temple. And this is where the books of history conclude.
But God has a plan of redemption. He promised Abraham a people, & a place, & a purpose. Unfortunately, the people didn’t live up to their purpose.
But even though the people fail at their part, God still has an ace up His sleeve. He still plans to send a Redeemer through Abraham’s line,
that’ll be announced through spokesmen called Prophets,
which brings us to part 3 … redemption prophesied.
Back to the Table of Contents. After the books of wisdom come the books of prophecy, which run to the end of the O.T. The books of prophecy break down into 2 groups: the Major Prophets & the Minor Prophets.
There are 4 major Prophets … Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, & Daniel.
(The book of Lamentations was written by Jeremiah.) After the 4 major Prophets there’s a dozen minor prophets from Hosea to Malachi.
What’s the difference between a major Prophet & a minor Prophet?
It’s not because their message is more important than the message of the minor prophets. The reason the major prophets are called major prophets is because their books are longer.
Here are some tips to help you understand the prophet’s books.
Tip #1 … knowledge of the historical context of the particular book.
Who is Joel? Or Amos? Or Ezekiel? Who are they writing to? Sometimes they’re writing to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, sometimes they’re writing to the Southern Kingdom of Judah, & sometimes they were writing against the enemies of God’s people. Who is it that they’re writing to?
It makes a difference in understanding the book.
Also, what’s going on? What’s the issue that the Prophet is addressing?
(Introductions in many Bibles are helpful here,
i.e. the N.I.V. Life Application Bible.)
Also, when is this happening? Before the exile. During the exile?
(The Prophet Jeremiah wrote while God’s people were in exile in Babylon.) Or does it happen after the exile, when they are trying to rebuild the Temple? (Malachi wrote during that period.)
2nd tip … don’t assume that these books are totally about the future.
In fact, there’s very little future predictions in these books. The majority of material is addressing the present wickedness of God’s people …
“it’s time to repent & come back to God.”
Tip #3 … keep your eyes open for specific predictions about a coming Redeemer, because they’re there. Here’s a couple of my favorites from Isaiah.
“A child is born to us! A son is given to us! And he will be our ruler.
He will be called, ‘Wonderful Counselor,’ ‘Mighty God,’ ‘Eternal Father,’ ‘Prince of Peace.’ …
He will rule as King David’s successor, basing his power on right & justice,
from now until the end of time.
The LORD Almighty is determined to do all this.” (Isaiah 9:6-7)
That was written 800 years before Jesus was born. Isaiah 53 is the flipside of that.
“But because of our sins he was wounded, beaten because of the evil we did.
We are healed by the punishment he suffered,
made whole by the blows he received.
All of us were like sheep that were lost, each of us going his own way.
But the LORD made the punishment fall on him,
the punishment all of us deserved.” (Isaiah 53:5-6)
The Prophet Micah predicted that the little town of Bethlehem would see a Redeemer born right there. (Micah 5:2) The Prophet Daniel tells us the exact time that it would take place (Daniel 9:25) … 100’s of years before Jesus is born. Zechariah predicts that one day this Redeemer will ride triumphantly into Jerusalem on the back of a colt,
but later be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. (Zechariah 9:9; 11:12)
Isaiah, in other portions of his prophecy, writes that this Redeemer will be executed alongside of criminals, & yet buried in a rich man’s tomb.
(Isaiah 53:12,9) God’s plan of redemption is prophesized.
Then, over 400 years after Ezra wrote his book … the Redeemer shows up.
Jesus arrives on the scene, which brings us to part 4 … redemption purchased. We’re now in the N.T. & I’m going through this quickly because I know you’re more familiar with this. The N.T. begins with 4 Gospels …
Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John. These are the biographies of Jesus.
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tells us in His own words what His mission is, why He has come to earth.
“The son of Man, who did not come to be served,
but to serve & to give his life to redeem many people.” (Matthew 20:28)
Jesus came to die for us.
Jesus came to purchase our redemption by paying the penalty for our sins.
The Gospels focus is Jesus’ death on the cross.
Now that doesn’t mean that the rest of His life was unimportant, because what Jesus taught is very valuable for us. But the Bible focuses on His death. Even what it says about His life is given to us as evidence as to why His death on the cross is so effective in purchasing our redemption.
Let me illustrate what I mean. We read in the Gospels that Jesus was born of a virgin. That’s pretty spectacular. He’s conceived by The Holy Spirit. The Gospels also report many of His miracles. This all points to His Godness. Jesus had to be God for His death on the cross to be of infinite worth in paying the penalty for our sins. How else could the death of 1 man cover everyone in history who wants forgiveness …
unless that 1 man is the infinite God Himself?
Not only do the Gospels point to Jesus’ deity … they also show Him to be a man. And it’s important that He is human … otherwise He couldn’t serve as a representative for fellow humans when He dies on the cross.
In order to pay the penalty for our sins … He’s got to be one of us.
So, Jesus is the one & only God/man.
Uniquely in history there was no one else like Jesus … infinite God,
able to pay a penalty, by a death that is of infinite worth. And yet one who is a man acting as humanity’s representative. This is redemption purchased.
And all those who put their trust in Him are redeemed.
Now what happens to those who put their trust in Him & are redeemed? That brings us to part 5 … redemption proclaimed.
As we continue on with the Bible’s story, we find that those who are redeemed just can’t keep this Good News to themselves & that’s what the next section is about.
Back to the Table of Contents … the next book is The Acts. The Acts is the history of the early Church, those 1st believers who are redeemed by Jesus. This is the N.T.’s only book of history. It’s followed by 21 letters, or epistles. From Romans all the way down to Jude … these are all epistles; 21 letters that describe what happened to these people who put their trust in Christ. They proclaim the Good News; they talk about Jesus to everyone.
Now as we read this, we’ll discover this proclaiming is done in 2 ways …
through words & through actions. It’s done through words as they tell people that they too can discover forgiveness through what Christ has done from them on the cross.
And this is where the story hits home. Are you doing that?
Am I doing that? Are we talking to people about what Jesus has done for us? Are we inviting people to come to Bear Creek Church?
This is what we do with our mouths.
But we also proclaim Jesus through our actions.
And that’s illustrated in The Acts. The epistles reiterate the teachings of Jesus. They explain how followers of Jesus ought to behave. They explain how to behave with one another … how to behave with our enemies … how to behave in our families, our marriages. It’s what my worship ending charge is all about. Go out into the world in peace, have courage, hold on to what is good, return to no one evil for evil, strengthen the fainthearted,
support the weak, help the suffering, honor everyone.
That’s how we’re to behave. And that comes from the epistles.
We tell the story with our words; we tell it with our actions.
We share the truth with our words; we share the proof with our lives.
God’s people proclaim that they’ve been redeemed by their mouths & by their hands … & that’s part of the way we know whether we’re real or not,
whether we’re genuine or not, whether we’re truly redeemed.
Listen to what the early Church was about?
“The group of believers was one in mind & heart.” (The Acts 4:32)
If we’re followers of Jesus, we will be proclaiming the fact that He has brought a change in our life … both through our words & our behavior.
This brings us to the closing part in this story … redemption perfected.
And there’s only 1 book left … The Revelation.
Bible scholars refer to it as an apocalypse. This kind of writing uses symbolic imagery to describe how history will end & how eternity is going to begin.
Let me quickly recap The Revelation for you.
The Revelation tells us that in the End Times things are going to get very, very, very bad on earth. It describes a great tribulation. And at the end of the great tribulation Jesus is going to return. There will be the battle of Armageddon & the final judgment. And all the living & all the dead will come before Jesus’ judgment seat to give an account of their lives. And those who rejected His offer of redemption in this life are sentenced to Hell.
No one spoke more about Hell in Scripture than Jesus Himself.
He was constantly warning people … “don’t go there.
Don’t reject my offer of redemption.”
On the other hand, those who have embraced Jesus’ offer of redemption in this life … & the evidence of that again is that their words
& their lives show that they’ve been redeemed;
those people are welcomed into God’s eternal Kingdom.
It’s referred to in chapters 21 & 22 as “a new heaven & a new earth.”
“Then I saw a new heaven & a new earth.
The 1st heaven & 1st earth disappeared, & the sea vanished. …
I heard a loud voice speaking from the throne:
‘Now God’s home is with people! He will live with them, & they shall be his people. God himself will be with them, & he will be their God. He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. There will be no more death,
no more grief or crying or pain. The old things have disappeared.’”
(The Revelation 21:1,3-4)
Doesn’t that sound good? Doesn’t that sound like something we want to be part of? “Then the one who sits on the throne said,
‘And now I make all things new!” (The Revelation 21:5) Redemption perfected.
So, where are you in the story? We covered a lot of ground today …
the whole story of the Bible. I wanted you to understand the incredible lengths to which God has gone to redeem us from sin & to make us His own.
God put a plan into place that began all the way back in the Garden of Eden that culminated with the death of His Son on the cross so that He could undo the consequences of sin, not only in our life, but in all of creation,
so that one day we could enjoy a new heaven & a new earth in His presence.
So, the question is … what have you done with His offer of redemption?
MARANA THA
