The Story- asking for a friend

Introduction

Tonight I have been asked to teach about something we don’t talk about very often, but desperately need to- The Old Testament, also known as the Hebrew Bible. Yeah, before there was the New Testament the Scripture Jesus knew and loved was Part One of our Bible. Here’s the thing, he lacked nothing. And the Apostles? Peter, Paul, John? That was their Holy Scripture. 24 books divided into three sections, the Law (Moses), the Prophets, and the Writings (Proverbs, Psalms, etc..). All together it is called the Tanakh.

Let me put on the breaks, I have something to confess, and a question to ask- not necessarily in that order- How many of you like history? (Show a raise of hands). I see you- I see you! What I need to come clean about is that I majored in history in college. Boring! Right? Well, sometimes, yeah, I get it, History can be one of the most annoying, tedious, annoying subjects you can come across.

But let me address that, and I don’t want to insult your history teachers if you feel that way, but history should not be boring.

If you need me to convince you just look at your own life for a second. How many decisions did you make today? Seriously. There have been countless things you decided today: what to wear, what to say, how to sit, what games you wanted to play, or even what to talk to with your friends about in the minutes before you took your seat.

The point I’m trying to make is that your life is not boring. It is just as complex as anyone else’s, and anyone else’s is just as complex as yours. Take for instance the 117 billion souls that have ever lived, each one of them had lives full of decisions, just as complex and full as yours or mine.

To me that is the beauty and wonder of history. The people, the stories. That is what history is about.

Like I said just a minute ago, I’ve been asked to talk about the Old Testament. It is history, but it is also a story. It is the story God tells us, it is the Story of God’s People, and it is the Story You are all- each one of you- is invited into.

Now, when it come to stories- books in particular- people quote the idiom “don’t judge a book by its cover,” I’m curious- has anyone ever read ahead in a book? (Raise hand) Its common to do that- try to get a picture of where the author is going with a story. When I was younger, about your age, I heard about a way to see if I would like a book or not- read the last page or so. If that didn’t help, I was told, read the first chapter.

In middle school there was a book I fell in love with because the pages were ragged and soft- handmade, like this (show example). I read the last page, it talked about hunting Yeti in the Himalayas, I was hooked. The first page though? It was boring, it used words I didn’t know and the print was so small it was overwhelming. I never got past the first ten pages. So sadly, although I’ll take that memory to the grave, I’ll never know the story behind that last page. In other words- I just don’t have the context.

This is the same exact problem we run into if we only look at the New Testament and not the Old. It is like reading a section of a book and expecting to understand the whole thing. We will not have the context for who Jesus is, how badly people needed saving, or how he changed the world. These are all things we take for granted- my self very much included.

This series is called asking for a friend. It’s about the difficult questions we don’t have the answers to, and don’t know who to ask.

Let me get us started with a few to break the ice: Why does any of this matter? What is sin? What does it mean to be saved? The answer to each one of these questions, and more, are in the Old Testament. This book (hold up the bible) this whole book is the story of God, His people, and the story you are invited into.

I. The Story of God’s People

The Story of God’s people is one of hope. I want you to remember that. This is a hopeful story, one where for all of the violence and sin present, God is faithful.

Now I’d like to share some scriptures with you from Matthew, Luke, and 1 Peter.

I won’t read all of this, I trust you to do that, but I want to point out the way Jesus speaks about the Old Testament and the way He taught it.

Jesus taught that He was revealed through the Hebrew Bible.

*SPECIFICALLY** that the Christ would suffer and rise again on the third day, that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to the whole world.

-see Isaiah 53

Isaiah 53 NASB95

Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. But the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.

It is History, and it is prophecy- things to come- Jesus fulfilled these things:

Adam/Eve---------------------------------------------- Sin and death, promise of salvation, crushing the head of the snake

He makes covenants with His people, agreements with them, that they Will be His people and He will be their God.

Take them through the Journey of God’s people-

Abraham - wanderer and hope deferred (makes the heart sick) /// Isaac- God Laughs- had a sad life

Jacob- strife with his brother (redeemed cain and able)/// Named Israel- wrestling with God

Joseph- Abandoned by brothers/// you meant evil, God meant for good/// secured the line of Judah (salvation)\

Moses- came up from Egypt/// Law /// delivering

II. The Story of God

Let me say this: the Bible is God’s story. The fancy language is that it is His “self-revelation,” all that means is that people did not come to these conclusions on their own.

Genesis- the beginning- describes God’s vision for creation. It was to bear His image- the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Adam and Eve were tricked by Satan into “becoming like God,” but they already were. They were tricked into thinking God was an enemy. The damage was done, humanity became, in short, distrustful. Here’s a hard question: If God is all powerful, why wouldn’t He just make them pure again? My answer, because He is also loving, and He restrains His power so that our choices matter.

Have you ever messed up bad? I know I have, so bad that my mind wants to push those things so far down they’ll never be dredged back up. The thing is though, we learn from mistakes like that. Once bitten, twice shy- especially when we are the perpetrator and the victim. What would God be like if he took away every consequence of our actions? Wouldn’t we be like infants? Forever messing up and never learning? No, to be made in the likeness of God doesn’t mean physical appearance, it means to be spiritual, free, alive, and the consequence of deciding to disobey God is His letting us do so. Outside of God- the source of life itself- what is there? Yeah- death.

But it is His nature and character to always be faithful. That faithfulness is evident right after the fall of humanity when He promises that one day a descendant of theirs will crush the head of the serpent- the thing that bites and causes death. From that point on, God orchestrated all of history to lead to the birth of Jesus, who because he has two natures- Divine and human- was able to take on the enemy in the flesh. He’s like a king who goes out in front of His people to fight on their behalf.

A couple weeks ago Mauricio preached on David and Goliath. In the face of a massive army, and a literal giant, one shepherd goes out and kills the Philistine champion. That is how battles were sometimes fought- the best fighter from each side comes out and fights on behalf of the army so that only one person has to die rather than thousands. That victory was David’s in particular, but it also belonged to all of Israel.

That story is repeated over and over in Scripture, the prophets spoke of a messiah- someone anointed, specially chosen- who would come and deliver God’s people, just like David had before Him. Do you see the connections? A humble and lowly person- a shepherd. A king- someone who stands in the place for their people.

We’ll get into the history side of things in my next point, but for now I want to focus on God’s story, just waiting for you to discover it.

The scripture I want to cover tonight is from Jesus and His disciples, it’s their view of why the Old Testament matters. I’m not going to read all of it but I want to point out some connections that show us what they thought about it.

God’s story and that of His people are two sides of the same coin, lets look at it from the human perspective.

III. The Story You’re Invited Into

Union with Christ

Conclusion