Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Luke 24 | Date: December 3, 2017 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Open your Bibles with me, if you will, to Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24. It is often taught in seminaries to young pastors: don’t ever make the mistake of apologizing for your sermon before you start. You’ll put everybody off. If it’s bad enough, you can apologize afterwards. But I’m going to apologize ahead of time, and I have to confess I’m rather apprehensive about the message this morning. I’m very excited about the theme and I love it, but a few weeks ago, when I was giving one of the recent installments in this series on the Bible story of salvation, I felt like I just tried to cram in too much and it was overtaxing on people. And that’s just really discouraging to a preacher afterwards when you go home and feel like it was just trying to accomplish too much in one time and they must have been thinking, “Well, what are you talking about?” And I fear that that’s going to happen again this morning.

But I want to lay the blame squarely on someone else. Several of you—and I’ve been very encouraged overall with the response—you folks have been wonderfully encouraging in this series of the Bible story of salvation. And some of you have asked recently, “Can you back up and give us the thinking behind that?” That is: how do you see these themes and these major tracks that run through the Bible telling the Bible story of salvation in Christ? Well, that’s the discipline of biblical theology in the seminary, and I can’t give a course in that, and I don’t want to reduce the Sunday morning service to that; but yet it is, at the same time, I think, a helpful suggestion, if I can do it successfully, and that is to show how the Bible works, how it hangs together, and how it is I’m coming up with these themes. One lady in the church in particular encouraged me to do that, and so I will blame her, but I won’t give her name.

But we do that this morning, and for lack of a more exciting title, we will call it Tracking the Bible’s Story. Tracking the Bible’s Story. I would like to read all of Luke chapter 24 in this regard, but as I will do throughout the message this morning, I’m going to presume on you and I’m going to assume that you’re familiar with the story here, and I’m going to assume that you’re familiar with a lot of things that we just fly through this morning, and hopefully it will all make sense to you.

But here in Luke chapter 24, you’ll remember the beginning of the chapter: Jesus has risen from the dead; His tomb is found to be empty by the women. We know that a couple of the disciples, John and Peter, have gone to check it as well. The women have seen an angel who explained to them that He’s alive. They’ve told the disciples that Jesus is not in the tomb, but the angel said He’s alive. They can’t believe such a fantastic tale. And so now we have two of them in Luke chapter 24 walking back to Emmaus where they live. We’re not told exactly who they are. At one time, I did the detective work and decided that one of them was Luke. Don’t ask me why, I don’t remember now, but that was my decision then. But we have these two disciples walking on this road to Emmaus, famously, and they’re just as discouraged as they can be. “We thought he would be the one to redeem Israel,” and then Jesus shows up on the scene and starts talking to them. It says there—well, let’s pick it up with verse 16:

“But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, ‘What is this conversation that you’re holding with each other as you walk?’ And they stood still, looking sad. And one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, ‘Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things that have happened there in these days?’ And he said to them, ‘What things?’ And they said to him, ‘Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.'”

And now Jesus responds. “And he said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.’ So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?’ And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!’ Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, ‘Peace to you!’ But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them. Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.'”

Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, this is a marvelous theme that we take up this morning. It is the theme of the Scriptures, and yet it’s such a big theme. We pray that You will open our minds and our hearts and give us through this a new appreciation of the glory of the Lord Jesus, the wonder of the Scriptures, and its message about Him. We pray in His name. Amen.

Jesus’ Claim

Well, I’ve mentioned here the context. It is after the resurrection. We’ve read through the passage how Jesus came and explained the Scriptures to the disciples and gave them real reassurance as to the recent events. It was not a failure. It was, in fact, what God had prophesied would happen. He explained to them from the Scriptures how it must be so, and you have to feel, in verse 32, when you read it, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” You can only imagine how hope was rising in their hearts as He began to explain the Scriptures, and they began to see that this was not a failure on the part of Jesus, and that He is the Messiah, and this was not a failure, but this was in fact His success. You can just enter into and empathize with the feelings that must have been going through them at that time. Just an exciting, exciting moment.

But I want you to notice Jesus’ claim in verse 27: “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” We have the same thing again in verse 44 when He meets with all of them: “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Well, this is a familiar claim of Jesus, and it’s not just here. We find it in the Gospel of Matthew. We find it in Mark. We find it in John as well. It is a familiar claim that Jesus is the subject of Scriptures, and that the Old Testament was in fact written about Him. He says that to His opponents in John chapter 5: “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.” This is a regular claim of Jesus.

But what I want you to see particularly here in these verses, verses 25 to 27, and also verses 44 and 45, is that Jesus is doing more than saying there’s an isolated prediction here, an isolated prediction there, or an isolated prediction over in this other place about me and I fulfill them all. He’s saying more than that. He’s not just saying that here’s a verse, there’s a clause, and everywhere is a tidbit—something about Jesus. What He’s saying is that structurally, the Old Testament is a book written about Him. And in fact, when He gives the three sections here in verse 44—the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms—that’s the three sections of the Old Testament canon. The Jewish canon has the same books that we have, but they were arranged differently. And these are the three sections: the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings (called here the Psalms because that stands at the head of that category of the Writings). Arranged differently, same books that we have, but what Jesus is saying is that the Scriptures in all of their parts, in all of their parts, are written about Me. And they in fact tell you of the events that you have just witnessed in Jerusalem.

So what He’s doing then is showing them how to read their Bibles. He’s telling them that the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings—if you’re going to understand them rightly, you have to see that they’re talking about Me. That is, the Old Testament is a Christocentric book, a book written about Jesus. That’s what Jesus Himself says at its very heart, and in all of its parts, and in its structure. The Old Testament is a book about Jesus. Specifically, it is a gospel-shaped book about Jesus. We know that because it tells us about His death and resurrection, verse 47, and the whole point of it is now that the Old Testament Scriptures have been fulfilled, you now are to go preach the gospel to the nations.

Now some Old Testament scholars have argued that we must be careful not to read the Old Testament with too much of the New Testament light into it. We have to study the Old Testament to get it right. We have to study it on its own terms and not read the New Testament back into it. And of course, there’s something about that that’s very right. But what I want you to see this morning is that Jesus is claiming here in these verses that the Old Testament, read on its own terms, is a book about Jesus. Now, of course, when we get to the New Testament, more is filled in and we understand it better. But when He says to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken,” He is saying you should have seen this. It’s there. It’s not something we put into it after the fact. But the Old Testament Scriptures, understood rightly on their own terms, is a book about Jesus.

Tracking the Story

Now, so what we’ve been trying to do in this series then is to track that story about Jesus. If the Bible is a story about Jesus, leading up to Him in the Old Testament, pointing toward Him, and then in the New Testament presenting Him and interpreting Him and all of that—if the Bible is a story about Jesus, let’s make sure we know that story. It’s not just a conglomeration of miscellaneous writings. The Bible is a story. And then let’s see the various themes that carry that story from beginning to end. And what I’ve been trying to demonstrate is that there are a number of these major themes running through the Bible that tell us the same story in different terms, with different angles and different slants, but it’s telling us the same story.

And you’ll remember then the story. The story begins with God creating man in His own image. Man is accountable to God. He’s responsible to God to carry out His reign and His rule in the world. It has all failed because of human rebellion. God comes in judgment, but He makes a promise of a champion who will come. And the rest of the Old Testament is an unfolding of that promise. We get into Genesis a little bit further. We have the promise to Abraham that in you and in your seed all of the families of the earth will be blessed. And we have from his seed the great nation that comes and the stage is set for the coming of the seed who will bless the nations. And from that nation we have a man named David and God makes a promise to David and says it’ll be your descendant who will reign as king to bring about these promises to the nations. And then of course there’s the problem of human sin. How do we take care of that? God’s people being disobedient people, breaking the covenant always and failing over and over again. And so God comes along with Jeremiah and several other prophets and He says, “I’ll make a new covenant and I’ll forgive your sins and I’ll cause you to walk in my ways.”

And we move on through the Old Testament, and there’s this story developing with these wonderful promises, this coming deliverer, and the great blessing to the nations that will come. When God breaks in and establishes His kingdom, we get to the end of the Old Testament and it’s kind of—great story, but it hasn’t ended yet. It’s failed. One failure after another. One king after another fails. The nation of Israel fails, fails, fails, fails. We get to the end of the Old Testament. It’s a glorious promise, great plot, but it never culminates. It’s a book that doesn’t have an ending. And then you open the New Testament and it begins, Matthew chapter 1 and verse 1: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Here He is, the one who’s going to bring about the promise. And He’s presented to us, and the word goes out to the world in the book of Acts. He’s interpreted for us, and the culmination comes at the end when Jesus comes again and brings about the saving purpose in its final culmination. The broad story of the book is Christ-centered and, in fact, gospel-shaped because right in the center of it, Jesus is presented and accomplishes God’s kingdom through His death and resurrection on behalf of His people.

Not just the story, but I like to make sure we understand that the Bible itself in its literary makeup is a book about Jesus. You know that the Bible is divided into two major parts, the Old Testament and New Testament. In the Old Testament, we have the books of the Law, we have the books of History, we have the books of Poetry, and we have the books of the Prophets. In the New Testament, we have the Gospels, Acts, the Epistles, and Revelation. And in each of those structures, we find that it is about Jesus. Now, in the Old Testament canon, it’s arranged differently, and it has its own way of developing that theme, and the arrangement of the Old Testament books—I can’t get into that today. But even in the English canon, the arrangement that we have, it’s arranged with this in mind: that there is this presentation of Jesus.

So in the Law, the books of the Law—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy—we have the foundations for Christ. We have creation, we have the fall, we have the promise. We have the promise in Genesis 3:15, we have the promise to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, we have even the promise to Judah later in the book. We come to Exodus and we have the forming of the nation, bringing them out of their bondage, bringing them to Mount Sinai, giving them the law, forming them as a nation of God’s own people, God dwelling among the nation, the establishing of the ceremonial law and the sacrificial system and all of that.

And then we come to the historical books, and we have the preparation for Christ. The foundation for Christ is in the books of the Law; the preparation for Christ is in the historical books. And here the people move into the land and they establish themselves as a nation there in the Mideast. And then we have the kings coming and established over the nation, and then one king after another, one king after another, failing and failing and failing, preparing the way for the great King who will come.

And then we have the poetic books. We’ve had the foundation (the Law), we have the preparation (the historical books), and then we have the books of poetry: our aspirations for Christ. And here we have the wisdom literature and its aspiration for wisdom, which ultimately points to Jesus. Even the New Testament picks up the wisdom theme in Jesus. We have the books of the various Psalms passionately showing their aspiration for God and the great satisfaction that is found only in God, and we find that is found ultimately in Christ as well. We have the foundation for Christ, we have preparation for Christ, the aspiration for Christ in the poetic books, and then we have the prophetic books, and we have the expectation of Christ, where He is prophesied over and over and over and over and over again. He’s coming, He’s coming, He’s coming, He’s coming—this great Prophet, this great Messiah, this Servant of the Lord, this great King, the kingdom of God—all of these great themes expanding through the prophets and this great hope unfolding. He’s coming, He’s coming.

And we get to the Gospels, and the great announcement of the Gospels is: He’s here! He’s here! His name is Jesus! And it picks up on the Abraham theme, and it picks up on the David theme, and it picks up on the New Covenant theme, and all these are—He’s here! And He establishes Himself as the King—not by reigning over people with the sword, but He establishes Himself as King by taking the place of His people under the judgment of God on the cross, bearing their sin, rescuing them out of the kingdom of Satan into His own.

Then we come to the book of Acts. In the Gospels, we have the manifestation of Christ. In the book of Acts, we have the propagation of Christ, where the word goes out from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the uttermost parts of the world, finally to us. And we have the Epistles: the interpretation of Christ, where they fill in all the blanks. “Here’s what it all means. Here are the implications. Here then is how we ought to live.” And then we come to the book of Revelation. We have the consummation in Christ, where Christ comes finally and brings to culmination the whole story and God’s whole saving purpose.

Themes That Carry the Story

Well, what we’re doing then is tracking the story, both as a story in a whole book, but then as each section of the Bible contributes to that story as well. And what we’re doing then in this series is trying to see those themes that carry the story—how each next biblical era, each next biblical writer builds on what has gone before and how these themes develop and advance until finally they culminate in Christ.

And so we have seen a number of them. I’ll give you just a thumbnail sketch of what we’ve seen so far and maybe some others as well, depending on how much time we have here. We’ve seen the creation theme. Creation is not just an event. It’s not just a doctrine. It is a theme that carries the story of the Bible. So God creates the world. He establishes man and woman in His image as vice-regents over His created order. They fail. And the kingdom seems to have lapsed. God seems to have lost His kingdom, and in fact, we find throughout the Bible indication that it’s now Satan’s kingdom. It’s been relinquished from Adam to Satan, the god of this world, the prince of this world, the prince of the power of the air.

And we find Jesus coming. We’ve got throughout the Old Testament development of this kingdom theme: God’s going to get it back. He’s going to get it back. Now there’s a theme also above that where God’s kingship is always over all. But this matter of kingship where He has a people in willing subjection to Him—it seems to have been lost. And the story develops of God taking back the kingdom to Himself. He establishes a people, Israel, makes them a great kingdom, and they fail, and they fail. And He’s got kings, and they fail, and they fail. And we come to the New Testament, we’ve got a new King, Jesus, who establishes the kingdom. And finally, at the end, the kingdom is brought to great consummation as the world over, just as the prophets had expected, the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. From creation, to creation fallen, to creation regained. Or as it’s familiarly said: paradise, paradise lost, paradise regained.

Not just the creation theme, we have another theme that carries the story: kingdom. It’s manifestly obvious that in the opening chapters of Genesis and creation, God is presented as King. He commissions Adam and Eve to reign for Him as His image, ruling over the created order. God’s kingdom is established, and then it fails. And God goes about to reestablish His kingdom through the people of Israel in that kingdom, and finally through the kingdom that Jesus establishes, and finally in the kingdom established when the King returns in the book of Revelation. Creation to new creation; kingdom, kingdom lost, to kingdom regained.

The kingship theme: God is King over His creation. He commissions Adam and Eve to be kings. They fail. God makes a promise of a new champion who will come. He’ll take it. Is it Noah? Nope, he fails. Is it Israel? Nope, he fails. Who is it? We have this kingship failing, failing, failing. Then throughout the prophets, we have the promise of this great King, the Servant of the Lord who will come. He’ll be guided by the Spirit of the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord will be upon Him and He’ll be anointed, and He’ll bring in this great kingdom. Then we come to the New Testament. Here He is, and the King is presented—the son of David, the son of Abraham, the one who fulfills it. Jesus establishes the kingdom, again, not by sword, but by giving Himself on the cross to rescue His people. And the new King is established and then He begins to exercise His kingly rights throughout the book of Acts. He begins to reclaim people one by one and bring them into His kingdom. And then it all finally culminates in the coming of Christ when, as King, He comes, as Revelation depicts it in graphic terms, riding on a white horse to exercise His authority universally. Creation to new creation, kingdom to kingdom lost to kingdom regained, the kingship—kingship failed, kingship regained, kingship finally fully recognized.

We have the dominion mandate in the opening chapters of Genesis where Adam and Eve are commanded to be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth, rule over and exercise dominion in God’s stead over the earth. Of course, that dominion is failed, and it’s attempted again through the nation of Israel. And finally, we come to the New Testament, and we find this tying in with the seed theme, developing God’s people theme. And the gospel goes to the world, and the seed of the woman develops, and the people of God bring about the rule of God over the earth.

There are other themes that carry the story as well. You see, it’s the same story every time, different themes. We have Adam, the son of God. Luke calls him that, the son of God, but it’s pretty obvious that’s what he is in Genesis as well. God made him, so he’s God’s son, and he fails. He’s a disobedient son. We have another one that looks like him for a while: Noah. Yeah, he looks like him after the flood as well, and he fails. And we have other of these Adam-like figures—Israel itself, God’s son. “Israel is my firstborn son… Let my son go that he may serve me.” And Pharaoh finally lets them go, and they come out to serve God, and they fail. And they fail over and over again—the nation itself. God makes a promise to David: “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.” And we find this Davidic son theme as God’s son. We come to the New Testament, we have a new Son of God who comes on the scene, the Son of God Himself, Jesus. And unlike all the previous sons, He’s not disobedient; He obeys. And with that, we have the Adam theme: Adam standing as a representative head over humanity, bringing all the world into sin. And we have a new Adam that comes and brings about a restoration and redemption of all that the first Adam had lost. We sang about that this morning: the new and better Adam come to save the hell-bound race.

Well, there are so many of these themes running through the Bible that tell the same story over and again, but with a different emphasis. We will see, I think, next time, the Exodus theme—how it picks up, actually begins back in Genesis and is picked up in Exodus. And throughout the Old Testament, there’s this expectation of a new Exodus, a new deliverance from exile that will come. It points all to Jesus, who brings about this exodus from exile that’s finally fully accomplished in the book of Revelation. We find the land theme where they are brought into the promised land and then they’re booted out because of disobedience, and finally we’re brought to realize that in Christ and finally in the new heaven and new earth in the book of Revelation.

We have the Sabbath theme that begins in the book of Genesis right away with God resting on the seventh day, and that’s picked up with Sabbath day remembrances, Sabbath years, and big Sabbath celebrations in Mosaic law. And then there’s the statement in the Psalms and other places of the Sabbath representing not just a day, but the land itself. And the land is the rest that the people will enjoy. That’s picked up in the New Testament as well. We find a fascinating example of it in Hebrews chapter 4, where the author there points back to Psalm 95, reflects on Joshua and the people rebelling and they didn’t enter into the rest and all of that. In the book of Hebrews, the author says, “Now wait a minute. If David in Psalm 95, five centuries after Joshua, can say, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts,’ and ‘enter into his rest,’ be careful that you do enter into his rest.” Whatever else we know is that whatever Joshua accomplished didn’t exhaust the promise because David is still saying it four or five centuries later. Well, I wonder what rest he’s talking about? Then you come to Jesus: “Come to me… and I will give you rest.” The book of Hebrews picks it up in just those kinds of terms, and it ends up in the book of Revelation with our final rest in glory in the presence of God.

There are so many of these themes: the champion theme, the priesthood theme, the coming of God theme, the David theme, the shepherd theme, the marriage theme. There’s a marriage at the beginning of the book and there’s a marriage at the end of the book. How does that carry the story? And the point in all of this is to say, “All right, this story that is being told is a story that’s being carried by all of these different themes.” And these themes, you begin to notice, are distinguishable but entirely inseparable. They all run together, and yet they are distinguishing themes. So the new creation theme is pretty much the new kingdom theme. The Messiah theme—you can’t talk about that long without talking about the kingship and the priesthood theme, and the prophet theme, and the servant theme—and they all run together. And of course, so many more: the presence of God theme tied to the theme of the tabernacle, the temple, and the presence of God coming finally.

The point in all of this is to say that to understand the Bible, to understand how the Bible hangs together, to understand the Bible whole in its big picture and what it’s doing, we have to see the story and we have to see the themes that carry the story. Now some people have made some efforts to discern “the” theme of the Bible. What is the overarching theme? Well, how do you state the theme of the Bible in big enough terms to capture it all? And so some have suggested the theme of the Bible is God. Okay? It’s hard to argue with that, isn’t it? But that’s not very defining either, is it? So others have suggested the theme of the Bible is the glory of God. Okay, that’s better. But again, it’s not very defining. How does the Bible do that? And so others have said the theme of the Bible is redemption. It’s a book of redemption. Well, that’s pretty good. But then what about God and the glory of God? And so others have suggested the theme of the Bible is the glory of God through human redemption. That’s the story. That works pretty well.

I have a good friend at the seminary who’s written a book called God’s Glory in Salvation Through Judgment. God’s Glory in Salvation Through Judgment. And he’s trying to demonstrate that’s the theme of the whole Bible. That’s the theme every individual book of the Bible contributes to in some way: God’s glory in salvation through judgment. And judgment, of course, culminating in the judgment of God upon His Son at the cross, accomplishing salvation. Well, it’s a difficult thing to do to determine because there are so many themes in the Bible and they are all so very interrelated. How do we do that? And in fact, in all of these major themes, you find that there are many sub-themes that carry the theme as well, and so it gets more complex.

Sometimes it’s just a matter of a word or two that is spoken early; later biblical writers pick it up, later biblical writers pick it up, and it begins to take on increasing and growing significance. One of my favorite examples of that is in Exodus chapter 34, which is actually a passage I’ve wanted for years—I haven’t done it yet, but I’ve wanted for years—to develop as a Christmas sermon for the congregation. You remember the setting. Israel has broken the law. God is angry. “I’m going to wipe them out. I’ll start over with you, Moses.” “No, God, you can’t do that. People will mock your name if you do that. You’ve got to take them into the land as you promised.” God says to Moses, “I will. I’ll go with you.” “Will you go with us?” “Yeah, I’ll go with you.” “If you don’t go with us, we can’t go.” “I’ll go with you.” “How can I know these things? Show yourself to me.”

You remember, finally, God shows Himself to Moses, and He says, “I’ll show my goodness to you. I’ll proclaim my name before you.” And God appears to Moses, and He proclaims His name: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” Those two words—steadfast love and faithfulness (grace and truth)—begin to crop up in the Old Testament. And God promises His love, His steadfast love, His faithfulness, and it becomes part of these prophetic passages expecting God’s inbreaking in His kingdom and so on—that God will be faithful to do all that He’s promised. It reaches a climax when we come to John chapter 1, verse 14: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Here God has come good on His promise. Here God’s goodness is shown supremely in the arrival of Jesus Christ.

Sometimes they say it’s a sub-theme of a sub-theme. Sometimes you don’t even—it’s really very subtle. John, for example, can do some subtleties like that—picks up Jacob’s ladder and shows how that’s Jesus. Sometimes you don’t know it’s a theme until after the fact. You would not have guessed, perhaps, that God’s providing of the manna in the wilderness for the people was a theme of Christ providing eternal life for His people. If you think that’s a little fanciful, be careful before you say it, because that’s exactly the subject of Jesus’ sermon in John chapter 6. He feeds a multitude with a boy’s lunch and says, “All of that’s like the manna. I am the bread of life, which God has given.”

Well, we have so many of those kinds of themes, and I know all of this seems so helter-skelter, and that was my concern this morning, but my point is to show that there’s this complex, almost impossibly complex system of themes running through the Old Testament and all ending at the same place. George Herbert, a poet, I think captured it well: “Oh, that I knew how thy lights combine and the configurations of their glory, seeing not only how each verse doth shine, but all the constellations of the story.”

Overall Observations

So we have the Bible as a story, the Bible structurally telling us about Jesus, and we have all of these themes running to Jesus. Now what can we say about all of that, some overall observations?

Number one, we should say something just quickly to mention it about the canon of Scripture. If not for a fixed body of literature like this, this would be impossible. And if you expand it and open it up, it’ll be endlessly hopeless. But because we have this fixed body of literature given to us from God, we can see the unity involved.

And that brings me to my next point. Not just the canon of Scripture, but the unity of Scripture. When you see this, you see something of the organic character of the Bible. Each part is of a piece with the rest of it. And the Bible holds together. The Bible hangs together by a number of these cohesive factors that bring it together. Now we’ll come to, in the series on salvation, we’ll come at some point to deal with particular doctrines like substitution, expiation, justification, and so on. But you see how all of these fit in this larger complex of the story of the Bible and its own developing themes. And we find that this is a remarkable unity to the Bible. For all of these centuries, forty different authors, and all of these impossibly complex themes, and yet they all come together without contradiction, beautifully converging on the Lord Jesus.

And that brings me to the next point: the canon of Scripture, the unity of Scripture, number three, the inspiration of Scriptures. This has been a ridiculously quick overview of it, but few studies will give you a settled sense and a feel for the inspiration of the Scriptures than a study, a prolonged study, of these kinds of themes. When you see one connection in Scripture—”Oh, this looks like that; it looks like he’s picking that up”—you might suspect that’s just a coincidence. But then you see another. And then you see another. And then you see another, and then there’s another. This is way beyond coincidence. And then you find there’s another theme, and it’s connected just like that through the Bible. And another theme that’s connected like that through the Bible. And another one’s connected like that through the Bible. And all of these themes intertwine and overlap, and yet are distinguishable, and finally together tell the same story in an impossibly complex way. You think, “There’s got to be one mind behind this book.” And you have all of these authors contributing in their own way over the period of the centuries, and yet you see there’s a divine author involved directing each writer to tell the story and to contribute to it in his own way. This book is humanly impossible. Behind all of the human authors, we find a single divine author. And as I say, this gives you a sense of the inspiration of Scripture like few other studies that I’ve ever done. The Bible claims it for itself, and the inspiration of Scripture is evident in many different ways. But I don’t know of any study that gives you a sense of that like this: to see these impossibly complex themes woven together so effortlessly and so beautifully, converging in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that brings us to the last point: the canon of Scripture, the unity of Scripture, the inspiration of Scripture, and fourth, the message of Scripture. Two things here about the message of Scripture. Number one, it’s unfolding. All knowledge was not given all at once. God didn’t just dump a systematic theology book on us. He gave us a story. And as that story unfolds in what we call progressive revelation, we see history moving steadily according to its purpose, designed by God from creation to new creation, from kingdom to new kingdom, and so on. The message of Scripture, number one, it’s unfolding.

Number two, and here’s where I began the whole series, the message of Scripture is relentlessly focused. The message of Scripture is relentlessly focused. The Bible really is a book about Jesus. He’s not just a character that shows up. The book really was written about Jesus. And in fact, not only is the Bible a book about Jesus, what I’ve been trying to emphasize is that it is a gospel-shaped story about Jesus. That’s what the book was written to tell. And in fact, Jesus Himself said so. It’s one of the reasons I began with Luke chapter 24—that He would show them how the Scriptures are about Me, so that the forgiveness of sins will be preached to the nations. This is a gospel-shaped book about Jesus. Jesus Himself said so. It has this multi-varied witness, but all pointing us to Jesus, the Son of God, come to our rescue.

This is—it’s impossible to see it all in one flyover—but this is the Bible’s own template for how to understand, how to read the Bible. This is the clue, this is the key, this is what we look for in order to understand the Bible. This is the preacher’s task when he examines any particular portion of Scripture. Part of it is to see not just how it goes in that verse and that verse in its own small context, but to see how all of this fits in the big picture of things. One man who had heard me preach for a while made the remark that Fred is always talking about Christ and the gospel. And he said, “I’ve noticed that preachers tend to have their own thing.” And he named another preacher; his thing was holiness. “Pastor Fred’s thing is the gospel.” I winced when I heard it. I thought either you have completely misunderstood me or I’ve been a complete failure in what I’ve preached. This is not just “my thing.” What I want you to see is that this is what the Bible is about, understood on its own terms and its own intention, and God’s purpose in giving it in Jesus’ own claim. This is how the Bible hangs together.

You see in the book of Acts, when the apostles, especially with a Jewish audience, whether it’s Pentecost and the synagogues—they take a verse from the Old Testament and they run to Jesus with it. They take another verse from the Old Testament, run to Jesus with it. Take another passage and they run to Jesus with it. This is the way the Bible works; this is how it hangs together. This is its theme. We have to see that in order to read our Bibles with ultimate profit.

I want to say this for all of you. This is not something that is to be reserved for the professionals and the academics and the preachers. This is how you are to read your Bible. That’s what Jesus says in Luke chapter 24. You want to understand it right? Look for Him. Now it doesn’t all speak of Jesus in the same way. Some is preparing for Him in this way or the other. Some’s anticipating Him in this way. Some is showing the need of Christ. Some showing what He will do. Some pointing directly, some explaining, interpreting. A multitude of different ways it talks about Jesus, but He’s the cohesive factor that hangs it together.

And I think this could be very helpful to you if you follow it in your own devotional reading of the Bible. Too many Christians approach the Bible as, “Okay, I’m going to read this chapter or these chapters today and look for that nugget that makes me feel good.” And as wonderful as that is, and there’s lots of those nuggets throughout the Bible, if that’s all you’re doing, you’re missing the point. It’s a book about Jesus, and you ought to be reading the whole with an eye to the big story. What is this telling me about Jesus? Sometimes when you read your Bible—depending on the different kinds of minds that go to it, we’re all wired differently—but some people tend to think, “What does that word mean? What does that word mean? How’s that word significant?” And as important as that is, if that’s all you do, you miss the big picture. Read your Bible, read your Bible, read your Bible, and start to notice how it flows to Jesus and flows out of Jesus and flows to Jesus again. It is a Christ-centered, gospel-shaped book.

You Sunday school teachers, by the way, would do well to keep this in mind as well when you’re teaching through all of the stories of the Old Testament, the stories of the New Testament, and the Gospels. Keep in mind how this reflects. This is the little picture of the big picture. This is another little picture of the big picture. You’re dealing with the judges, the kings, and you notice their failures. Keep in mind, this is all part of a large swath of literature moving us toward a better King, a better Judge, a better Champion who is coming.

Bottom line, two points that I gave, I think, in the first message in this series. These are just extremely important. Number one: to understand the Bible, look for Jesus. To understand the Bible, look for Jesus. That’s Jesus’ claim—it was about Him. And number two: to profit from the Bible, look to Jesus. That’s its point. Jesus says to the Jews of His day, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” If you read the Scriptures rightly, you’ll be directed to Me, He says, in faith and be saved. Amen.

Let’s pray. Our Father, we thank You for this wonderful book that You’ve given to us and how we love to glory in its great subject. We thank You for Jesus. We’re thankful that You’ve saved us by Him and we’re thankful that You’ve shown Him to us in all of these varied and wonderful ways so that we may revel in His greatness and revel in Your great wisdom in giving Him to us. Give us, Lord, an understanding of this book and its story. And by that, give us an increasing faith and increasing love for the Lord Jesus. We pray in His name. Amen.