God sometimes changes things up in fun and interesting ways. This morning is such a time. The message I had prepared for today is now on hold and will be saved for another time... God has given me a new thought for our time together, here, this morning.
We’re going to take a quick, but hopefully, meaningful journey through the Bible from front to back, beginning to end. I’m not entirely sure what God’s intension is... but if we simply open our minds and hearts to God’s presence I’m sure we will all be blessed.
For this journey to have meaning we need to learn what Paul was teaching his young apprentice, Timothy, about faith and Scripture...
Scripture
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
All Scripture is God breathed.... ALL Scripture... no picking and choosing... no leaving bits out or focusing solely on certain things.... ALL Scripture is God breathed... so let’s take a journey through the Scripture...
The Journey
Unfortunately, they eventually ate from the tree they were commanded not to eat from, and their sin broke their fellowship with God and they were kicked out of Eden.
The Tabernacle and the Temple (Ex 25 & 2 Sam 7:5-f)
Ex 25:8-9, "8 "Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. 9 Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you. "
Sanctuary means holy place or sacred place and Tabernacle means tent for dwelling... so this is to be a tent but a holy dwelling place for God. Notice the model...
Now the temple is built with very similar features, although it is no longer a tent, no longer a mobile dwelling, it is now a permanent dwelling place for God. It was David’s dream to build it, although he was only able to begin the project. Solomon was actually the king that was able to complete the temple in all it’s magnificence. But, note also... the design... it also has a Holy Place and a Holy of Holies that is separated by a curtain. Again, this curtain keeps humans and God apart.
God talks through the prophet, people talk through the priest
Humans, following the episode with the tree in the garden, did not have a personal relationship with God. It was more like good old Uncle Morty... you know, the uncle that you have never met, the one that lives far away and no one ever talks about. You know he is there, he is a member of the family; but he hasn’t ever come around. Humans were like that with God... they knew He was there, they knew they were family, but they never talked with Him.
The curtain kept the people and God apart. So how did the people communicate with the Lord? Through the priests and prophets. Nabiy (naw-bee) in Hebrew means an inspired man. The prophet was inspired by God with the messages for the people. It was through the prophet that God spoke to humans. Their messages were not just future things but "divine truth." I can tell the future... if I am driving down the highway and see, on the other side of the median, an accident that has traffic completely blocked off. As I drive a little ways farther up the road I see a car coming the other direction... I can tell the future... I know with pretty accurate certainty where that car is going to be in another minute... Just because I know the future doesn’t mean I am telling divine truth... Divine truth is God’s revelation to humans and He uses special messengers to proclaim this truth; the prophets.
The people, when wanting to talk to God, had the priests as go betweens. The Levites were set aside by God to be the ministers to the nation Israel; and it was from the tribe of Levi that the priests were chosen. Their job was to speak to God on behalf of the people.
When a person had some reason to seek God they would go to the priest, usually with some type of sacrifice plus an offering for the priest’s effort. The process of human/God interaction and communication was through priests and prophets... again, being separated by the curtain.
The people spent 3000 years breaking God’s heart - being disobedient, worshiping other gods, sacrificing idols, marrying outside the faith, breaking the Ten Commandments, being dishonest, etc. God tried, repeatedly, to bring the people back. He used invading armies, plagues, famines, the messages of prophets... all were ignored. The people broke God’s heart.
But when, according to His perfect timing, Jesus is born. Let’s turn to John 1:1-5
1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
We know the story well. Jesus came as a baby, the shepherds visited Him, Anna and Simeon praised Him, the wise men came, Herod tried to kill Him, He grew... At age 12 His parents thought they had lost Him. 18 years later He is baptized by John.
Jesus fulfills prophecy
Over the next 3 years all of the prophesies in the Old Testament, pertaining to the Messiah, are fulfilled in Jesus. Not a single one is left out. It is obvious that Jesus is the Son of God. But what is His ministry all about? Interestingly, Jesus performs miracles, healings, knows men’s hearts, yet all of these things are not to glorify Himself, but the Father... so what is His ministry about... glorifying God!!! Yet, He came to save the lost... John 3:17, "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."
Jesus was beginning to help people know and understand God in a personal way. But, according to God’s plan, Jesus would become the ‘pascal’ lamb, become the last and final sacrifice for sin. Jesus paid the price for every wrong ever done, there is no punishment left to deliver.
The Epistles
We’re going to come back to the pascal lamb in a couple of minutes but we need to move on to the Epistles. The letters of the New Testament have two purposes, first, they are an historical account of the activities of the first century evangelists. Second, they are intended to teach us, through their activity, what Christian faith is all about and how to actually live our lives the way Jesus wants us to. Not sure how to handle a certain situation in your life... read the epistles, you will find that God will speak to you through them and help you discover the solution to your problem.
Revelation
Finally, we come to Revelation. The entire Bible has been God revealing Himself to humans. As we read we can see God as He opens our minds to His presence. We begin to know Him, to understand Him, to learn from Him. In Revelation God wants us to see what Heaven is going to be like. He is ‘revealing’ more of Himself through John’s vision of the end times.
One of my favorite stories is of WWI hero, Sgt. York... York was what my mother would have called, a helian. He was always causing some kind of mischief. When the war broke out he went to enlist and the recruiter gave him a Bible and told him to read it first. York disappeared for several days... the story is that he went into the mountains where he could be alone and read the Bible from front to back. When he returned the recruiter asked him what he had learned from it. York’s response was, "We Win!"
Jesus is coming back... to get us
In order to understand Jesus’ death we need to look at the first chapter of Acts 1:9-11
9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."
Jesus taught us, in the Gospels, that He was going into Heaven to be with the Father, but that He would return to get us and take us into Heaven for all eternity. I wonder what that might be like....
Why die?
The Curtain is torn/access to God is for everyone
Remember the tabernacle and temple... the Holy of Holies
access to God is now available, not through the priest and prophet, but directly to every believer
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