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Today we continue our Advent series in the Shadowlands: How the old testament prepares us for Advent.
Last week we began by looking at a key scene in the New Testament.
Here we have Jesus, Post-Resurrection, coming up to two of His disciples on their journey.
He asks them a question about why they are so sad.
They respond by asking if he had heard of what just happened, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified!
Some of the women found an empty tomb, what is going on?
So Jesus unpacks the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi all the things concerning Him.
Last Sunday we took a 30,000 foot overview of the Old Testament and showed in different patterns, promises, and Presence of Christ.
Today, we will be looking at specific pattern of Jesus in the Old Testament.
So what is a pattern of Jesus?
A Pattern is a person, place, thing, or an event, that is true and factual, and it historically happened, but all of it is a Shadow or Substance of Christ Himself.
Last week I hit on David and Goliath.
David is a type of Christ.
David is the unexpected hero who faced off against the greatest foe and won victory for His people.
Jesus is the unexpected hero who faced off against sin and death, and won a victory for His people.
This week we are going to look at an event that really happened, that gives us a shadow of Jesus to come.
But before we look to that, I want us to remember why Jesus needed to come in the first place.
Illustration: Country Music.
Music.
We fall in love to it, remember loved ones with it, remember why we no longer love certain people because of it.
Music brings life to song and gives it a beat.
If you are like me, you’ve also gone through a bunch of different phases with music.
I went through a goth/metal stage, a pop stage, a ska stage, an 80’s stage, and finally landed in my true stage of neo soul music.
Motown R&B for the 21st century.
I feel like I’ve found who I am musically and I was just born 20 or 30 years too soon.
But regrettably, I also went through a country stage.
Even more regrettably I’m stuck with my oldest son going through the same stage, probably at the same time I did in my youth.
Now I must be careful at this point because Christian is controlling the slides and this could get awkward for me real quick!
But, I share this because he had his playlist cranked up on the property and a country song came on that caught my attention.
The song is called: Where I come from by Alan Jackson.
As I listened to the lyrics I resonated with the chorus until one part.
It reads as follows: Where I come from It's cornbread and chicken - I’m down with that.
Where I come from a lotta front porch sitiin' - I personally would prefer a front porch swing, but we’re still good.
Next is where we start beginning the head scratching part.
Where I come from tryin' to make a livin' - Well yes it rhymes, but I’m pretty sure that is where everyone comes from.
I don’t think that is just where Alan comes from.
Then we have the last part.
And workin' hard to get to heaven - Where I come from.
I looked at Christian during that part and yelled.
Blasphemy!
Which he thankfully agreed or we were going to have to sit down and start dissecting the theology of Alan Jackson which wouldn’t be fun for any of us!
While yes it is just a song, it does reflect the thought process of mankind since just after the beginning of time.
Though Christianity has spoken against this and completely rejects this line of thinking, many who claim Christianity still believe this.
Perhaps you still believe this.
Maybe not outright and you would say that you didn’t if pressed, but your actions and thought process still reflect this age old heresy.
The reason why this is such a difficult idea to kick is that we are surrounded by it every day.
Every fabric of our existence is based off of the ability to earn what it is we need to survive.
We have to earn money to buy food, to buy clothes, we have to earn our jobs.
We have to earn our spouses, mine was especially hard to get: But worth it!
Not only are things hard to earn, they are hard to keep.
I can go back to spouse here again!
But we can add jobs, friends, money, respect, love, ect ect.
So, it naturally flows that we would do the same for Heaven.
Matter of fact, every religion out there is based on this concept of earning heaven.
Even Christian cults have some aspect of earning your eternity.
But Christianity is the only religion that is different, that is the opposite of what we would expect.
Christianity is that of Christ.
Jesus earned our Salvation.
Jesus earned our Eternity.
Jesus did the work that we kept failing at.
Jesus then gives us everlasting life through Himself instead of through our works.
The reason Jesus came 2000 years ago in a lowly manger to a virgin teenager was to accomplish what we couldn’t achieve.
Our faith, our hope, our destiny, no longer is this unbearable weight that is crushing us.
We no longer have to lie to ourselves by whispering sweet nothings disguised as daily aspirations into our own ears.
We no longer have to look ourselves in the mirror and try to convince ourselves why we are good enough.
Jesus is good enough.
Jesus did achieve for us, Jesus handled the weight of our sin and failure and bore the wrath of God due to us.
If you could receive any gift this Christmas season, receive the gift of Christ.
The gift of true freedom, true purpose, true meaning.
You’ve heard it said, Jesus is the reason for the season.
May this be the year that you embrace not just the cliche, but the fullness of its meaning.
To help us emphasize this meaning we look to the Old Testament in Genesis Chapter 28
We will read together verses 11-17.
Open your Bibles or turn them on if that is your preference to the first book of the Bible.
These are the words of our God.
These are the words of our God.
This scene is affectionately known as Jacob’s ladder.
That moment when Jacob saw into heaven through a dream and saw how heaven and earth was connected.
How heaven reached down and reached back up.
But one thing was noticeably missing in these scene.
That of Jacob, of humanity, climbing up and down the ladder.
Jacob even being used at all is one of the most scandalous ideas imaginable!
Let’s take a few moments to realize why.
First, Jacob was the second born of twins, his brother being Esau.
Esau means hairy.
I kid you not.
What must Esau have looked like to come out of the womb and His dad be like, that kid is a fur-ball.
He shall be named Hairy.
Jacob came right after and Jacob means deceiver.
Right from the beginning this family was going to have issues with Harry and Deceiver from the names alone.
Esau, as harry as he was, caught the favor of his dad.
He seemed to be a burly of a man.
He was the hunter of the family
Jacob on the other hand had fair skin and was a momma’s boy.
Instead of out doing manly things, apparently he was doing the dishes.
And seemingly perfecting the world’s best stew.
Because one day Esau came in from hunting and was famished and hungry.
Jacob being the deceiver refused to give him any food unless he sell him his birthright.
Ever seen the meme “That escalated quickly?”
I’m pretty sure it was first used for this scene.
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