The One Story of God

‌Good morning, Chapel; it is a privilege to be here with you this morning! While I know that many of us want to extend the season into January for the full 12 days, nevertheless, soon we will undecorate the chapel and our hallways and return to life as normal, though maybe a bit colder. Not only is it my privilege to be with you this morning, bringing today’s message, but also to introduce our next series that we will be working through throughout most of the coming year! What we begin today is, in many ways, similar to a reading plan, and perhaps some of you have made a resolution to read through the Bible, so we’re going to help you do just that! Albeit, in a way, very different from how you may have seen it done or gone about on your own in the past.

Before we begin, however, in classic military fashion, there will be a pretest; but fear not—it will neither be graded nor collected!

What time of day was Adam born? Just a little before Eve.

Why didn’t Cain bring an acceptable offering to the Lord? Because he wasn’t Abel.

Those were warmups; the next one will test your knowledge of Old Testament Characters a bit:

What kind of man was Boaz before he got married? Ruthless.

And finally, both as a segue back to the message and also on a more serious note,

What is the one and only man-made thing in heaven? The wounds of our Lord.

Transition:

I don’t mean to make light of the sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus, on the cross, but rather to bring awareness to what it is we do, what we have—as a people done, what lies ahead, and most importantly, what God has done, is doing, and where he has been throughout the struggle of His people, both historically and today. Once you see The Story, and I trust many of you have, it will change your life. For those of you who have been in the faith for some time, I trust you’ll be helping your brothers throughout this ministry season to understand our past and others; maybe your blessing is connecting the Upper and Lower Stories, which I will talk more about shortly. The point is that the Bible is like a mural that tells a single story. But it doesn’t read like any story you have ever read.

Illustration:

Take, for example, Renaissance art. You go to the renowned Louvre Museum. You are excited to see paintings by Rembrandt, van Gogh, and Monet, but you are most eager to gaze at The Mona Lisa, arguably the most famous painting of all time.

When you first enter the room, your expectations are dashed. What you’ve built up in your mind as this priceless, all-important piece of art is, in all actuality, 20”x30”. You can read the placard that lends insight about its conception, that she was born on June 15, 1479; her husband, a wealthy Florentine merchant who supposedly commissioned the painting for their home to celebrate the birth of their second son, Andrea. Altogether, a related yet irrelevant fact today as it has become, despite its humble beginnings, larger than life.

You then go to the Vatican. Walking into the Sistine Chapel, you see arguably the second most famous painting in the world, The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo—the strong finger of God is reaching out to give life to the limp finger of Adam.

Both paintings are stunning, and interestingly, Da Vinci and Michelangelo were painting them at the same time. The difference is that The Mona Lisa is sitting in a room all by itself, completely isolated from the other paintings. The story of Lisa’s life is completely disconnected from the stories behind the other paintings in the building. The Creation of Adam, however, is connected to paintings of over 300 characters, Noah, Jacob, Moses, David, Abraham, and Ruth. The Louvre is an art gallery. The Sistine Chapel is a mural that tells one grand story of redemption.

Scripture:

Scripture for today’s message comes from the book of Deuteronomy 29:29:

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.”

Exposition:

I think, as a general rule, all Christians hope to understand the Bible better; if you find it challenging, you’re not alone! It’s not a book to be simply read through. It is meant, rather, to be dwelled on. In the same way, if one approaches Scripture the same as they do the frog on the dissection tray, may I remind you that the patient never lives!

Paul tells every one of his audiences to put his authenticity to the test. In Acts 17:11, Paul describes the character of the Bereans as “noble” because they “examined the Scriptures … to see if [his] teachings were true.” In his first epistle to the Thessalonians, he instructs them to “test them all,” referring to prophecies in 5:21. Finally, to the Corinthians, in 2 Corinthians 13:5, he tells them to “examine [them]selves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?”

The Bible is not a book to be conquered, read, and put on a shelf, believing that one has understood all that it contains. Do not be mistaken—our church fathers solidified our confessions, the litmus tests of our faith; what is orthodox and that which is heresy hundreds of years after the Biblical times!

My point is that Pneumatology, or the study of the Spirit of God, is really limited in the Old Testament. Neither the word “Trinity” nor the explicit teachings on its doctrine appear in the New Testament, nor did Jesus or his followers intend to contradict the Shema from the Hebrew Scriptures found in Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one.”

In the first part of our Scripture, we have those “secret things [that] belong to the LORD our God” (Deut 29:29a). Obviously, we’re looking at the Old Testament and, in keeping with our intent to connect the stories, Jesus says in Matthew 5:17 that he came to fulfill the law and the prophets. It was only after he was resurrected; however, recorded in Luke 24:44-45, when the disciples were on the road to Emmaus, saying to his disciples, Jesus said, “these are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you: “everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”” Verse 45 begins with the word “then,” “then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”

The second part of our Scripture today, again, Deuteronomy 29:29(b), is “but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.”

So, we’ve got the Law or Pentateuch; it’s the Torah to our Jewish brethren. Followed by the Historical Books from Joshua to Esther; Poetry, from Job to Song of Songs or Song of Solomon as you may have learned it; and the Prophets filling out the last 17 books of the Old Testament.

The problem is, Chronicles and Kings, they’re written concerning the same periods; the prophets, too, some of the southern Kingdom, some from the North regarding both pre-and-post exilic times. Even here and now in the States, we can relate to that! Different narratives shaped each individually, with the timeline all jumbled; this series will help us all see how the mural of our faith fits together. We, as Christians, believe The Story continues through the Gospels, Acts, and the Epistles; what God has done, is doing, as well as where he is in our own lives today.

Transition:

As we begin the new year, I can think of nothing more Biblical that we begin too, something together, a new chapter, so to speak, as a chapel. I think it’s most appropriate, as in our Scripture today coming from the end of Deuteronomy where Israel renews its covenant with God; afterward, in Deuteronomy 31:9-13, there was a time, every seven years,

Application:

Israel got together to read through the law. Not just so they would become smarter, approaching it as an academic task, but so that they would live The Story. The phrase that’s used in verse 12, to “fear God,” simply means to know The Story of God and his people, understand how he was with us in the desert, what he is up to, in the hope that then you will be compelled to take him seriously when it appears that he is distant. Our Scripture, today Deuteronomy 29:29, in its second part, said, “but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.” That is a responsibility; it’s an imperative for which we are responsible. For us today, much like Moses then, making sure the next generation understands The Story is a duty.

Matthew 28:19-20, known to us as The Great Commission, “19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Moses knew they were only one generation away from losing their identity and returning to captivity.

Transition:

So, how does it work? Good question; thank you for asking! I said I’d come back to the explanation of the two stories: an Upper Story and a Lower Story.

The Story intro:

God declared, “for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” in Isaiah 55(8-9). I come from a charismatic sending church; it’s not really my background, and sparing you from all the dogmatics that aren’t really appropriate in a general protestant service; to be honest, I was really only ever asked if I was a cessationist. Boy, was I in for a surprise.

Basically, cessationists believe that Apostolic gifts ceased with the original twelve apostles. If that’s important to you, don’t worry, I do not! But it’s opposed to those who believe that the Holy Spirit may bestow the sign gifts to others at any time in the Church age. I’ll tell you what, though, the first time I had an experience with prophetic ministry—wow. I’m not going to lie either; I was thinking of the Old Testament standard for prophets; if it wasn’t true, put them to death, right?

Eventually, I came to understand that these people, don’t quote me, are highly perceptive, kind of like if you were gifted with discernment or anything else; they convey things to you that they’re receiving from God. They’re things that God may be blessing, things to work towards, rather than things that will happen for you, like a fortune teller. Good thing I didn’t stone them!

In the same way here, the goal is to align our story with God’s Story. In each chapter, there are two parallel stories going on at the same time—The Lower Story and the Upper Story.

The Upper Story is how things look from God’s perspective up above. But there is more! As in my illustration about The Louvre and The Vatican, God is weaving all the Lower Stories to tell one grand epic story from above.

Summary:

The point of today’s message, and the CliffsNotes point of the series, is that:

God’s Story is not finished yet.

You are a character in God’s Story.

You have a choice in the kind of character you will play.

Challenge:

As I close here today, my challenge to you is that as you take down your Christmas decorations, make sure you don’t leave Jesus in the manger of your heart. If you leave him in the manger, he remains a babe, as with your theology.

The average family owns four Bibles, but 41% confess to never reading them. Maybe you can relate. Research tells us that most people, not just people who go to church, but most people have “reading through the Bible” on their bucket list—things they want to do before they kick the bucket. And it’s right up there with climbing Mount Everest and skydiving, the last two being more likely to happen first.

My point is studies show that only somewhere around 8% of resolutions are kept, and less than 10% ever make it out of January! With odds like that, there’s no wonder why many have forsaken making them altogether. So, today, Chapel, will you resolve in this new year, to join us into this deep dive, 31 weeks of investigating The Story of our faith, which I believe will be enlightening and life giving, as well as inspiring purpose within us and strengthening our community.

Benediction:

Almighty God, may you be to us, our light and our life, showing us, in this new year your way and your truth. Know that the Lord is with you always, and may His peace, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.

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