Dismantling Myths of the Modern Mind: Kill the Dragon, Save the Girl
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Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”
Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”
Grab your bibles…go to cachurch.info..
We have stepped into a new series last week called Dismantling the Myths of the Modern Mind.
And what I would like to do over these next few weeks is talk about some of the stuff that is in the water.
PIC#1
In Batman Beginnings, the evil plot of Ra’s Al Ghul was to poison the main water main sending water into gotham, and causing holucinations on a mass scale.
So that their realities were horribly altered to the detriment of Gotham.
We live in an age where there are so many things in the water we drink; the air we breathe, that we often are not even aware of it, and rarely take the time to examine it.
Our continued influx of media and sound, and technology does a slow work on our whole person.
Add to these little stories, the reality of political, and international striff, loss of friends to tragedy, where do we find a better and in fact the best story?
Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”
Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”
A young man returning to his childhood home, to declare his return and that he is about to make a move, fortold centuries ago,
his return and
Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”
Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”
PRAYER
A young man returning to his childhood home, to declare his return and that he is about to make a move, fortold centuries ago,
What you never get from Jesus is the idea that he is a new answer to an old problem. That he is writing a new story.
“Look at my servant, whom I strengthen.
He is my chosen one, who pleases me.
I have put my Spirit upon him.
He will bring justice to the nations.
He will not shout
or raise his voice in public.
He will not crush the weakest reed
or put out a flickering candle.
He will bring justice to all who have been wronged.
He will not falter or lose heart
until justice prevails throughout the earth.
Even distant lands beyond the sea will wait for his instruction.”
God, the Lord, created the heavens and stretched them out.
He created the earth and everything in it.
He gives breath to everyone,
life to everyone who walks the earth.
And it is he who says,
“I, the Lord, have called you to demonstrate my righteousness.
I will take you by the hand and guard you,
and I will give you to my people, Israel,
as a symbol of my covenant with them.
And you will be a light to guide the nations.
You will open the eyes of the blind.
You will free the captives from prison,
releasing those who sit in dark dungeons.
“I am the Lord; that is my name!
I will not give my glory to anyone else,
nor share my praise with carved idols.
Everything I prophesied has come true,
and now I will prophesy again.
I will tell you the future before it happens.”
Sing a new song to the Lord!
Sing his praises from the ends of the earth!
Sing, all you who sail the seas,
all you who live in distant coastlands.
Join in the chorus, you desert towns;
let the villages of Kedar rejoice!
Let the people of Sela sing for joy;
shout praises from the mountaintops!
Let the whole world glorify the Lord;
let it sing his praise.
The Lord will march forth like a mighty hero;
he will come out like a warrior, full of fury.
He will shout his battle cry
and crush all his enemies.
He will say, “I have long been silent;
yes, I have restrained myself.
But now, like a woman in labor,
I will cry and groan and pant.
I will level the mountains and hills
and blight all their greenery.
I will turn the rivers into dry land
and will dry up all the pools.
I will lead blind Israel down a new path,
guiding them along an unfamiliar way.
I will brighten the darkness before them
and smooth out the road ahead of them.
Yes, I will indeed do these things;
I will not forsake them.
But those who trust in idols,
who say, ‘You are our gods,’
will be turned away in shame.
“Listen, you who are deaf!
Look and see, you blind!
Who is as blind as my own people, my servant?
Who is as deaf as my messenger?
Who is as blind as my chosen people,
the servant of the Lord?
You see and recognize what is right
but refuse to act on it.
You hear with your ears,
but you don’t really listen.”
Because he is righteous,
the Lord has exalted his glorious law.
But his own people have been robbed and plundered,
enslaved, imprisoned, and trapped.
They are fair game for anyone
and have no one to protect them,
no one to take them back home.
Who will hear these lessons from the past
and see the ruin that awaits you in the future?
Who allowed Israel to be robbed and hurt?
It was the Lord, against whom we sinned,
for the people would not walk in his path,
nor would they obey his law.
Therefore, he poured out his fury on them
and destroyed them in battle.
They were enveloped in flames,
but they still refused to understand.
They were consumed by fire,
but they did not learn their lesson.
Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe.
Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets.
What you never get from Jesus is the idea that he is a new answer to an old problem. That he is writing a new story.
Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe.
Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe.
There’s something about stories, especially really good ones. All kids love stories. But it’s not just kids—adults love stories, too! Stories entertain, teach, inspire and provoke. Stories are containers for truth.[1] Neurology and the social sciences are now confirming what our best philosophers, storytellers and artists have always known to be true—as human beings, our brains are hardwired for story. Stories are the way we make sense of the world and understand our place in it. Stories define us and shape the way we live. We are story-formed creatures!
There’s something about stories, especially really good ones. All kids love stories. But it’s not just kids—adults love stories, too! Stories entertain, teach, inspire and provoke. Stories are containers for truth.
our brains are hardwired for story. Stories are the way we make sense of the world and understand our place in it. Stories define us and shape the way we live. We are story-formed creatures!
And I believe that ne of the main reasons for this is that we are always on the lookout for a story we can call ours. One that we identify with and can emulate.
I. WE ARE ALL IN SEARCH OF A GREAT STORY
We can only answer the question, “Who am I and what am I to do?”, if we first answer the prior question, “Of what story or stories am I a part of?”
And the question is....where are we getting our stories.
The sermon, if I’m nice, takes up 35 minutes of your week.
Then there is your personal study, maybe community groups.
that is maybe 3 hours a week? is that being gernerous?
Where is the rest of our story being drawn from?
Theologian Kevin Vanhoozer.
“Each week the local Cineplex offers numerous movies for us to live by. The stories now in popular release in our electronic society may not take the form of three-point sermons, but they still preach, on screens large and small. . . . Their goal is to capture our imaginations and thereby to form us.”
“Each week the local Cineplex offers numerous movies for us to live by. The stories now in popular release in our electronic society may not take the form of three-point sermons, but they still preach, on screens large and small. . . . Their goal is to capture our imaginations and thereby to form us.”
How do these stories affect us? What vision of life do we adopt because of the movies we watch and the books we read? How can we be faithful to Christ in an age of endless entertainment?
Do we just create categories of good and bad?
Do we just create categories of good and bad?
Netflix bad, Pureflix good?
Some content is obvious not good for us....
morally objectionable?
song have explicit lyrics?
book describe an inappropriate scene?
But are stories just about what is said and done in them or is there more to it?
Forming our thoughts, shaping norms, changing our desires.
Stories are powerful, forming our thoughts, shaping norm, changing our desires.
Stories have a unique way of getting to the heart, where a simple statement of belief or tenets of the faith cannot. We are drawn into story.
C.S. Lewis calls this “stealing past watchful dragons”
There was something in story that penetrated past our defences.
Speaking of his own animocist towards faith he said....
“Why did one find it so hard to feel as one was told one ought to feel about God or about the sufferings of Christ? I thought the chief reason was that one was told one ought to. An obligation to feel can freeze feelings. . . . But supposing that by casting all these things into an imaginary world, stripping them of their stained-glass and Sunday school associations, one could make them for the first time appear in their real potency. Could one not thus steal past those watchful dragons?”
And it was out of this desire that he wrote the Narnia series, which gave the concept of the gospel through childrens stories.
Stories have a unique way of getting to our hearts
And for those who saw Christianity as boring or small mionded, Lewis was hoping to expland our hearts to grasp how exciting and supernatural the qworld of Christianity is!
Julians Barnes in his book, Nothing to Be Frightened Of speaking of death and the unknown....
speaks of how although he rejects it, he wishes the story of the Gospel was true!!
He goes on in his book to talk bout its staying power...
“The Christian religion didn’t last so long merely because everyone else believed it, because it was imposed by ruler and priesthood, because it was a means of social control, because it was the only story in town, […] It lasted also because it was a beautiful lie, because the characters, the plot . . . the overarching struggle between Good and Evil, made up a great novel. The story of Jesus—high-minded mission, facing-down of the oppressor, persecution, betrayal, execution, resurrection—is the perfect example of that formula Hollywood famously and furiously seeks: a tragedy with a happy ending.”
It is not a surprize in a book where he is in love with the beautiful story of Christianity but cannot come to beliueve it he begins the entire book by saying...
“I don’t believe in God, but I miss Him”
If it is true that we have been made in the image of God, that as St. Augustine said....
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
The Hidleberg Catechism
Wax, Trevin K. . This Is Our Time . B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.
If all that is true then all of creation will be stuck in a lesser story, saying ..... “I don’t believe in God, but I miss Him”
And And what we will find in the music, the Netflix series, and the movies we watch and therefore the lives we pursue are echoes and yearnings for this story to be true.
Treven Wax says it this way....
But we mustn’t be blind to the longings we find in entertainment. We have allies, not just enemies, in the beloved stories of our world. The aspects that make Christianity such a great story, the elements that tap into the Christian conviction that good will ultimately defeat evil—they show up all the time in popular books, movies, and music. Why? Because they borrow from the greatest Story ever, which happens to be true.
But without Christ they are at best only half truths and disipating triumphs.
They take place in a galaxy far far away, a long time ago.
Frodo and Samwise, Aragorn- it is make-believe---so why do we get caught up in it!!
Why do we weep when the hero is hurt and celebrate when darkness is defeated?
For christians we can easily draw the lines between these stories and otheers, but for many…it is harder to name the connection and draw of these stories.
It’s becasue...
“You may not believe in God, but you miss Him”
BUT Trevix Was goes on to ask this question.....
“What if the good and true elements of our stories are seeds that prepare hearts for the gospel?”
Stories of sacrifice, joy in the midst of suffering, stories of great reversal where those who humble themselves end up on top!
Stories that focus on a character separated from their father, husband, wife, children, homeland, and trying to find belonging and a home.
Stories of curses in the land, oppression where an evil queen or king or dragon oppresing the people must be destroyed.
There is a lot of garbage in hollywood, plenty of stories that we should not go near, but it could be that in many ways, Hollywood is preparing hearts for the gospel!
We love those stories because we WANT them to be true!
In our search for a satisfying story we are prone to fall for lesser ones.
Jesus says listen.... all the themes that delight your heart are fully realized in me.
The spiritual sleepiness, the cursed kingdoms, the dark dragons and overgrown thorns have met their match! I am the ultimate returning prince/king.
What you never get from Jesus is the idea that he is a new answer to an old problem. That he is writing a new story.
Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe.
AND rathet than a galaxy far far away. Not....once upon a time in a far away kingdom, in Middle Earth,....
But instead, nearbye, not on a page or on a screen but on our soil and in our lives.
See that is how the....
II. THE GOSPEL SURPRIZES US AND INVITES US INTO A BETTER STORY
a. The Gospel Surpsizes us
THE VERY GOD WE REJECTED, COMES TO SAVE!! He steps in to the mess we made and got dirty in it.
So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
The Word became flesh and walked among us.
We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.
The best part of this fairy tale is that it is real!
Ever wonder why Matthew in his gospel and Luke in his take the time to go through the geneology of Jesus; trace his ancestory in a way Ancestry.com could only dream of??
Becasue it tells us that this story has real hands and feet. This story made actual footprints in soil of Israel.
And so this is a story unlike others that are only a possiblity and so have no real claim to our hearts, but this story has something real to say to us.
To those who are captives, to those who are living ijn darkness, the true king has arrived, and he is coming again.
Deep inside us is a desire for the supernatural, for a love that rescuse and never leaves, there is a desire to see evil triumphed over!!
All the stories we love have those aspects, becasue that speaks to our desires and our needs.
Joy Lewis
after seeking out fulfillment in hedonism and the persuit of every pleasure, to being drawn in by Stalin and the Communist promise of utopian peace, she found herself broken and without a story.... until
“All my defenses—the walls of arrogance and cocksureness and self-love behind which I had hid from God—went down momentarily,” she wrote. “And God came in.”
But non of our movies, songs , poems, video games can truly answer those longings.
The real beauty that will truly break me free from beast-likeness is the gospel.
The only thing that will break me free from my spiritual slumber, is the Prince of peace.
The only story that will give me the unbridalled freedom of Neverland, where age and death are not an issue, is Christ.
PIC #2
And as we approach Christ, as we approach the true story of Jesus, with anticiapation and hope there is a great joy to be experiencd. And many of you in here have done so. The joy of salvation is comeing tot he ralization that all the best stories are true.
There is a moment in the movie Hook, a movie that ask hypothisizes about a Peter Pan that grows up and forgets his heritage, his youth as Peter Pan.
And at a point where he seems to be coming around, looking at murals of himself as a young boy full of life, he begins to stand different, he stands up straight, he has a different look in his eyes, and at one point Maggie Smith playing Wendy looks at him and says.. “Peter, the stories are true” and very similat to one encountering a Christian sharing the gospel look s at here like she is in sane.
The point is this. There is something in the human heart reachig out for the eternal, trying to find our who we truly are, and although stories can scratch the itch they can never take care of the the deeper need.
And finally it Tinker Bell surrounded by light that hits him over the head and carries him off.
Because,....
He us taken
As Tim Keller says...
To plant the story of Jeus in reality.
The gospel is not a disconnected story, it is all that we thought must be fantasy!! Everything we thought this only happens in myth, and fairytale, to say....THIS IS THE Story!!!!
Jesus Christ is not one more story pointing to these underlying realities. Jesus Christ is the underlying reality to which all the stories point.
Secondly, the genealogies do tell us something about all the stories. The Christmas account actually happened. It’s a fact, but it tells us something about all stories, all the stories we love. One of the things that bothers modern literary critics is the pervasive appeal, the kind of unstoppable appeal, of fairy stories or fantasies or myths and legends.
You know, we’re supposed to be more realistic, and yet Hollywood keeps basically … I mean, the Grimm’s fairy tales basically are being recycled all the time. That’s what all the movies are. Oh, they’re in all forms, you know, and they always come with their super heroes. They do this and that, but they’re basically … The old stories are constantly being turned out again and again and again.
This really upsets high critics. For example, some years ago in the New Yorker, Anthony Lane, whose reviews I love very much, actually reviewed The Lord of the Rings. This is what he said about it. He said, “It is a book that bristles with bravado, and yet to give in to it—to cave in to it [in other words, to really enjoy it], as most of us did on a first reading—betrays … a reluctance to face the finer shades of life, that verges on the cowardly.”
Here’s what they mean by that. Fairy stories, the great stories, you know? Beauty and the Beast. Sleeping Beauty. Peter Pan. Hercules. King Arthur. Faust. The great stories didn’t really happen. They’re not factually true, right? No, and yet there seems to be a set of longings in the human heart that realistic fiction can never satisfy, because deep in the human heart there’s a desire to escape death.
There’s a desire for the supernatural. There is a desire for love that never parts. There’s a desire to somehow not age but live long enough to realize your creative dreams. There’s a desire to fly. There’s a desire to communicate with other non-human beings like angels. There’s a desire to triumph over evil.
The well-told stories, whether movies or books or plays, that have all those fabulous aspects to them have magic. They have all those things. If they’re well told, for a moment, we find them incredibly moving. We find them incredibly satisfying, because even though we know somehow factually those things didn’t happen, our hearts long for or sense we really are enchanted. We really are under the power of a sorcerer of some sort. We really weren’t meant to die. We really need to defeat death.
We hear Beauty and the Beast, and we sense, “There must be a love that can break us out of the beastliness we have created for ourselves.” Here’s Sleeping Beauty. “We are really kind of in a sleeping enchantment, and there’s a handsome prince or somebody, a noble prince, who can come and destroy it.” Here’s Peter Pan. We read these things. We hear these things, and it stirs something that is deep underneath. Our hearts believe (or want to believe) these things are true. Even though the stories aren’t true, the underlying realities behind the stories are.
Our minds say, “No, no, no, no.” Anthony Lane says, “No, no, no, no!” He says the trouble is, when you give yourself to fairy stories and you really believe in moral absolutes and supernatural and that there’s really triumph over death and someday we’re going to live forever, that’s not reality. It’s cowardly to give yourself to it. Along we come to Christmas, and here’s a story about Someone from outer space who breaks into this world and has miraculous powers and can calm the storm and raise people from the dead and heal people.
Jesus is real. Jesus really happened. Jesus Christ has come from the ideal world we know is there, we sense is there. Our hearts know even though our heads say, “No, no, no.” He has come from that world, and he has broken … he has punched a hole in … the concrete slab between the ideal and the real, and he has come into our world.
Then his enemies turn on him, and he is put to death. It seems like all hope is over. But then he rises from the dead, and he saves everyone. What do we do? We read that, and we go, “Another great story! Wait till Peter Jackson gets his fingers on this. It will be incredible!” We’ll cheer, and it will make us feel good. Then we’ll leave the theater and get back to reality. It looks like the Christmas story is one more story pointing to these underlying realities, but the book of Matthew says no. It won’t begin, “Once upon a time …” It says, “This is the genealogy of Jesus.”
Do you know what the book of Matthew is saying? Do you know what the Bible says? Jesus Christ is not one more story pointing to these underlying realities. Jesus Christ is the underlying reality to which all the stories point. Jesus is real. Jesus really happened. Jesus Christ has come from the ideal world we know is there, we sense is there. Our hearts know even though our heads say, “No, no, no.” He has come from that world, and he has broken … he has punched a hole in … the concrete slab between the ideal and the real, and he has come into our world.
If he is right, if what Jesus says is right (and he is), if the Bible is right (and it is), if Matthew is right (and he is), then guess what? There is an evil sorcerer in this world, and we are under enchantment. There has been a noble Prince who has broken the enchantment. There is a love we never part from. We will fly, and we will defeat death. This world is not just red in tooth and claw, but it was created by God and created by angels. Some day the trees are going to dance. That’s what it says, and it’s saying.
unlike other stories where we are left on the outside.....The Gospel is not to be acted out by others, to be watched on a screen, or or simply observed.
In other words, even though all those stories aren’t factually true, the fact is the true story of Jesus makes all of the best stories true and real. If you’re a Christian and you understand the gospel and you see some little boy or girl put down a book and say, “I wish there was a noble prince. I wish there was a Superman. I wish there was a Hercules. I wish we could fly. I wish we could live forever,” you have to be careful, because you can’t just blurt out, “We will,” especially if their parents are around. They’d be upset.
Where the characters do not know your name. The Gospel has the main character turn to you and I and invited us to join in.
a. Surpsizes us
When Jesus proclaims --
When Jesus proclaims --
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
-
He is making it very clear, that He is the hero.
The one sent to be God to humanity-
The ultimate word of God ()
The image of the invisible God (Colosssians 1)
Which means that the author of the story has stepped in!!
It’s like Shakepeare has stepped into one of his tradgedies and corrected what his characteres could not!
Pic#3
Dorthy Sayers was one of the first women to ever graduate from Oxford back in the early part of the twentieth century. She was a detective novelist. One of her series of novels was the Peter Wimsey novels, great detective novels. Peter Wimsey was an aristocrat, sort of upper crust, but he was also very vulnerable, very smart, but broken and alone as he went from one mystery to another, without finding love or meaning, until about half way through the seires he met Harriet Vane,
About halfway or a third of the way or two-thirds of the way through the series, suddenly a female character appears, and that female character is named Harriet Vane. Harriet Vane was one of the first women who ever graduated from Oxford. Harriet Vane is a writer of detective novels. What most people (who know something about Dorothy Sayers and know something about the literature) know is here’s what happened.
Harriet Vane’s character was one of the first women who ever graduated from Oxford. Harriet Vane is a writer of detective novels.
So what happened, what was going on?
As Dorothy Sayers was looking at the world she created, she saw the loneliness of Peter Wimsey in the middle of all his pursuits and incarnated herself into the world she created in order to save him.
That’s our story....
Apostle Paul writes in Rom 5:6-11
To plant the story of Jeus in reality.
The gospel is not a disconnected story, it is all that we thought must be fantasy!! Everything we thought this only happens in myth, and fairytale, to say....THIS IS THE Story!!!!
Remembering God’s Story
Remembering God’s Story
When we come to a page or chapter in our life that makes no sense, we also need to remember and follow God’s story. Though we don’t know what will happen tomorrow, we do know what happened in the past and what will ultimately happen in the new heavens and new earth. Like the Israelites, we can follow the story of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and New Creation.
We know the Author of this story, and we trust him.
Creation: When life isn’t going right, when pain and grief surrounds us, it’s because we know that things are not the way they should be. The story of Creation explains how God created everything good and perfect. Before the Fall, Adam and Eve enjoyed intimate communion with their Maker. Their relationship with each other was also filled with complete intimacy, honesty, love, joy, and peace. Feelings of shame and guilt were non-existent. The desire we have for completeness, wholeness, and peace are reminders that things are not as God created them to be.
Fall: When our heart cries out, “This isn’t fair!” and when we ache with unfulfilled dreams, are weary from the pains of living in this world, and our struggle with sin overwhelms us, we can look back to the Fall. The story of what happened in the garden, Satan’s lies and Adam and Eve’s subsequent sin, explains how we got to where we are. All that was perfect and good was broken the day they desired to be like God and bit into the flesh of the fruit God told them not to eat. Sin and shame then entered the world. Ever since, each and every person is born a sinner. The curse of sin spread beyond humans, infecting the physical creation as well. Sickness and disease, hunger and famine, floods and violent storms, are all the result of that first sin.
Redemption: But the story doesn’t end there. We can follow God’s redemptive plan to save and restore us back to himself. Like the Israelites, we can remember our own exodus from slavery to sin, God’s provision of a Savior, and his fulfilled promises through Jesus. From to the end of Scripture, we have the story of Redemption laid out in rich detail. Every page unfolds God’s glorious plan to rescue and redeem, culminating in the life, death, and resurrection of his Son.
Restoration: John’s vision of the future in Revelation gives us hope and glimpses of the full glory and restoration that is yet to come. This life is temporary; eternity awaits us. Jesus will return to create new heavens and a new earth. The sin and sorrow that we endure in this life will be no more and we will live forever in our glorified bodies, praising the One who has redeemed us.
The story of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and New Creation is one we need to read often. It’s the story of God’s faithfulness and goodness. And because we know the Author of the story personally and we trust his will, we can watch the story of our lives unfold with wonder and awe. Even when we get to a scene that is confusing or seems out of place, we can remember, wait, and watch, knowing that the storyline is moving forward to a beautiful and glorious end. Jesus made it so when he signed the manuscript with his own blood and said, “It is finished!”
Every story, movie, song is a call out for or a celebration of an aspect of these things being corrected.
When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
What we could not do. The wedge of our sin driven between us and God, so He writes himself into our story.
It’s like all the fairy tales but its better, becasue its true!
BUT.... here is the best part.....
b. The Gospel invites us in
Jesus who has since the beginning of time been not only a part of the story, written the story sustaining the story, the high point of the story, he then through his life, grabs us with both hands and pulls us in!!
unlike other stories where we are left on the outside.....The Gospel is not to be acted out by others, to be watched on a screen, or or simply observed.
Where the characters do not know your name. The Gospel has the main character turn to you and I and invited us to join in.
Wax, Trevin K. . This Is Our Time . B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
(Dorthy Sayers writing herself into her story)
About halfway or a third of the way or two-thirds of the way through the series, suddenly a female character appears, and that female character is named Harriet Vane. Harriet Vane was one of the first women who ever graduated from Oxford. Harriet Vane is a writer of detective novels. What most people (who know something about Dorothy Sayers and know something about the literature) know is here’s what happened.
As she was looking into this world she had created, she fell in love with Peter Wimsey. She saw how lonely he was, and she wrote herself into that world. She incarnated herself in that world, and she married him. She saved him. Isn’t that moving? Isn’t that romantic? Guess what? The Bible goes one better. The gospel goes one better.
For the Christian, life comes not from knowing the Gospel story, or even from believing the Gospel story, it comes from living in the Gospel story.
If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.
If you try to hold onto, be the hero of, write your own story, you will not have life!!
But if you loosen your story from its attachment to success, from its attachent to only having a worthwhile story if you are in a romantic relationship, from being recognized and rewarded, your story will be like every other farytail. It will last for a eile and then drift.
Becasue those stories can never bring true liberation!
Malcolm Muggeridge
“All other freedoms, once won, soon turn into new servatute. Christ is the only liberator whose liberation lasts”
Why? Because it is the telos the natural path of the world and the shadow that currenty influenes our culture.... “to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus says…my purpose ....
The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
I have come to bring
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
Luke 4:
SLOWLY...
In it says what?
He has sent me to tell those who mourn
that the time of the Lord’s favor has come,
and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies.
What comes with the day of God’s favour?
anger against his enemies.
It has always been a part of the story that one day justice will come, and God in wisdom will bring about justice.
The theif that steals kills and destroys will be taken care of, and thay vengience belongs to God,
But that time is not now.
Now is the time for this good news, this story of God welcoming in all who will trade in their story. All who will burn theor script, for a better one.
PIC#
In the 2008 movie Bedtime Stories. Where Adam Sandlers’ character Skeeter, loved stories, he loved hearing them and he loved telling them. But out side of that they had not real effect on his life.
He was unhappy and longijng for a better story.
Until he found that the omnce he started living as if the stories were real, they had real life efects in his life.
He saw himself as an active actor in the stories.
(Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler)
(Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler)
The reason the stories has such power and changed theri lives was because they did more than think they were neat stories, they were invited into and lived in the story.
See many after this pronouncement by Jesus were content to go on with their lives, others to really be shaken by his words, but .....
If ll Jesus is for you and I is a nice story, a charming story, maybe a tragice story there is not power in it.
It is only when THIS story is YOUR story that is will work in you.
It is only when we are willing to drop or lesser stories, our personal scripts, and allow Jesus the hero, the asnwer and fulfillment of every other good story to be the hero of ourse as well.