Interlocked Overview Week 2

Overview of The Bible

Opening Illustration:

Hidden Tiger Optical Illusion

Point:

The Bible is not mean’t to be a hidden illusion.

On the contrary, the Bible is mean’t to be God’s revelation of Himself!

It’s mean’t to be understood by us!

So why is it so hard?

I do think part of the reason is Satan has distracted us.

We have become so wooed by entertainment and short attention spans that it’s difficult for us to sit through a 20 minute lesson or sermon much less sit down and read the Bible for more than 5 minutes.

God’s Word isn’t mean’t to be confusing.

We just need the discipline to interact with it.

Unlike the examples I showed you, while there may be things we discover in the Bible that were not easy to find, that’s not the point of the Bible.

The point, again, is God’s story throughout all time, revealed to us showing us God’s character and involvement.

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So How has God been involved throughout all time?

That’s a question we will seek to answer this morning.

We are going to attempt to look at a quick overview of Scripture.

Last week we discussed how important it is to see the Bible as connected.

Without a network of truth connecting the dots through Scripture, it is easy for us to hold on to a few nuggets of truth from the Bible, but those truths can be overwhelmed when they face opposition.

For example:

How would a loving God allow ______ to die of cancer?

If all you believe about God is that God is a loving God… That question is going to be much harder for you to answer.

However, if you know much about God’s perspective from you reading and becoming familiar with the God who reveals himself throughout Scripture, then you are going to have a much more complete view of God to help you answer that question.

So… Here is a timeline of Biblical events from Creation to Final Judgement.

*Show that timeline from page 4*

Creation.

What do we learn about God in creation?

We see God as outside of creation.

Roman asked me this week, “Dad, if God made everything who made God?”

Such a good question!

I showed him a straight line and said where is the beginning of this line.

He pointed to it. And I said, “Where is the end.” And he pointed to that.

I said, that represents us. We are like a line. We have a birthday and one day we will all have a death day.

God isn’t like that though.

and I showed him my wedding ring.

God is like this ring. Where is the beginning of the ring?

You can’t see it.

Where is the end? You can’t see it.

A circle has no clear beginning or end, it is a good representation of eternity.

And that’s an imperfect but helpful explanation of God.

God is good, holy, bigger than creation, yet still involved in creation.

How did God design man in creation?

Responsible dominion - work the earth, take care of it.

Marriage - Get married. Men and women were designed to complement one another.

Family - be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

This is God’s definition of normal human responsibilities.

Yet, much of our western culture pushes back against Marriage and Family in particular.

But that is one of our basic responsibilities given by God in creation.

2. Fall.

There is a philosophical idea called “Continuity of Being”

This means that gods, man, and animals are all on the same scale.

lesser beings are on one end of the scale and as you move along it, you find higher beings and eventually gods.

But this is not how God created things.

God created each organism to procreate after its own kind.

Plants don’t turn into animals.

Men don’t become gods (or angels)

However, God did create angels before man.

We will read much later in this study about Satan rebelling against God.

Satan’s goal was opposed to God. While God was creating new things and order.

Satan desires chaos.

But when Satan came to Eve in the garden, he brings this continuity of being idea up.

He says, Genesis 3:5 “5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.””

Another way to say this is that Satan told Eve that God was holding her back from becoming a higher being.

She needed to … evolve… and become something greater.

The fall occured the moment Adam and Eve believed that God was holding something back from them that was better than what they had.

And so they ate and sin entered the world.

Not only that, but what was normal and good that God had made now had what was abnormal - sin.

As you look at this graphic on the screen, You can see that From creation to the Fall, that was how God had created the earth to be. That was normal.

After the fall, this was abnormal. Good and Evil exists on the earth.

But one day, there will be a final judgement and God will return what was normal, good. and destroy evil permanently.

What does judgment look like?

Well, it began with the death of the first animal that God used to pay the debt of sin from Adam and Eve and to provide them clothing.

After the fall, the next major event is the flood.

3. FLOOD

Before the flood, humans lived insanely long lives.

There were still some long lives post-flood, but it does seem there was something about the earth before the flood that allowed much longer life expectancy.

I only bring that up because Adam lived 930 years.

During his life, Adam had ample opportunities to share about what had happened to him and Eve in the garden.

Adam had plenty of time to share about the dangers of sin.

Yet most of their descendents decided they wanted to be their own god…

Sin ruled the day.

So God sends the flood.

There are 5 quick lessons we can learn from the flood.

Grace before Judgment - God gave people time to turn from their wicked ways and turn to him.

Whom to save and whom to judge?

Saved - those on the ark

Judged - those outside the ark

Only one way of salvation

Only those behind the doors of the ark that God closed are saved.

There was no way to be saved other than the ark.

Man and nature impacted - The flood changed the whole world

How to be saved: by faith - Noah was saved because he trusted God.

Only those who followed God would be saved. That’s a huge lesson takeaway from the flood.

After the flood too, God resets for Noah what he told Adam and Eve.

At the end of Genesis 8 and 9, God reminds Noah that you are too:

take care of the earth, promote marriage, have families.

But God also adds anther institution after the flood.

Civil Government: Man needed to govern themselves for all the evil he could commit.

So in Genesis 9:6, “6 “Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind.”

This is capital punishment.

God uses this to provide just enough hope for man that one day, good will indeed overcome the evils we face.

Evil will always be held accountable.

Justice will have its day.

And so then God gives them a contract and seals it with a covenant, the rainbow.

Quickly, the next thing we see in the timeline is Babel:

4. Babel

Post-flood, everyone on earth descended from Noah. Have you ever though about that?

This was a time of massive potential where people had an opportunity to follow God.

Yet again most people rejected God.

They said in Genesis 11:4 “4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.””

This verse has always struck me as audacious. It spits right in the face of all the commandments God has given up until this point.

Instead of using civil government authority (man governing himself) that God had just given Noah, They pervert this institution too.

And so God scatters man across the earth and confuses the languages.

The next major event is Abraham.

5. Abraham.

In his mercy, God chooses one man to tell the world about Him.

God promised Abraham 3 things:

A. Land - God would give Abraham and his descendants physical land that would always be theres.

B. People - God promised that his descendants would be innumerable.

C. Blessing - God promised that Abraham and his whole family would be a blessing to the whole world.

Here’s another way to look at how God would use Abraham’s family.

Look at the next graphic.

Some look at this and accuse God of choosing favorites by picking Abraham, but they quickly forget that Adam and Eve, Noah’s family, and those at Babel, rejected God!

God is showing us his plan to save the world one step at a time.

You see, the kingdom of man looks very different from the kingdom of God.

Look at this.

Pagans is just a term for those against God,

But Pagans believe that man can save himself through his own ideas.

Self-effort

self-righteousness - I will be righteous because I say so. What I believe is good for me, it is my truth.

Kingdom of God though is based on Grace.

God would save man. Man doesn’t earn his salvation, God gives it.

Pagan Kingdoms: Babel, Egypt, Canaan- All rely on self.

God’s kingdom - God saving man

He chose Abraham, chose Israel.

Builds Israel through Abraham’s family.

Leads them through decades of trials to end up in the promised land.

Gives them kinds.

Eventually end up in Exile as a result of man, even in the kingdom of god, choosing paganism over the grace of God.

Why?

Because we love to do things our way.

We love to be self-sufficient. Self-reliant.

Now a lot happens between the Abraham and the next event, but in short, due to famine, Abraham’s family (through Joseph) end up back in Egypt.

6. Exodus

In the book of Exodus, we see God, through Moses, continually reminding Pharaoh, the Egyptians, and the Israelites that it is God over creation.

Through the plagues and the rescue of Israel, it was God and God alone, not Pharaoh or his magicians that is to be worshipped.

God also used the final plague (the death of the firstborn) to reveal more about how he would save the world. Through His one and only son.

Which reinforced 5 ideas that the flood taught us about God.

A. There is a time of grace before judgment.

B. It was clear who would be saved and who would be judged.

C. There was only one way to be saved

D. Nature and the world of Egypt changed

E. A person could only be saved if they trusted in God.

which brings us to God’s law and where we will stop today.

Next week we will get from Leviticus - Revelation.

One of the reasons Genesis takes a while (and this is just the overview btw, we haven’t really started yet) is because Genesis provides the basis for almost everything else in Scripture.

If we get Genesis wrong, we may have a warped worldview of God from the start.

Romans 8:28 “28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

If I could read and remind you of this this morning too…

God is working.

IF you missed anything else this morning, hold on to that.

God is working.

He is telling a story and invites us to be part of it.