Waukesha Bible Church: Storyline of the Bible

While teaching the children in our fellowship the story of God I asked the question, “What do

you do if you find yourself in a part of the story you do not understand?” One of the children

cried out, “Keep reading the story!” Friend that is the best counsel I could give to any one

who finds themselves in the hard place, “Keep reading the story!” I would like us to keep

reading and find where the story ends.

There is a distinct person, purpose, and plan in the legacy our Lord and Hero left to those who

love Him and who are privileged to carry out His mission in His physical absence.

We go to all the nations, but we begin in Jerusalem. I often hear of imbalance where the focus

is only on missions as it exists on foreign soil or an unhealthy emphasis in reaching your

immediate context without any real concern for the world at large.

Our responsibility to the world is not met by throwing a few dollars and offering up token

interest. Such a response cannot silence our obligation to our immediate community either.

We must become relational with our community and with our world through individual

involvement and through corporate strength.

Inside the Book of Acts there are three salient features. First, what were they to do; second,

how would they do it; finally, where were they to go?

In the story of God, He created a world in which His story would unfold. From the very

beginning a villain, an antagonist, was presented. But God also wrote into His story a

deliverer who would bring deliverance. This hero was foreshadowed and imaged throughout

biblical revelation and history. The foretelling and figure were so exact that when the hero

arrived all who were looking were able to identify God’s hero. The Hero came at a very

specific time in history and with a distinct purpose. He came as a deliverer and He brought

with Him deliverance. The Hero has finished the work entrusted to Him by His Father; now

He gives to His people the responsibility to carry on the work of proclamation to all the

nations. Even though we acknowledge the story of God, we fail to see how we are living in

the story and how our lives are a part of the ongoing story of God.

Everything in the story has prepared us for this moment in time. From Genesis 3:15 and 3:21 it

is clear there will be an identifiable deliverer and deliverance. God has already written into

His story the hero’s identity and His work.

Why didn’t Jesus come sooner? Why where there about 400 silent years between the

testaments? Why wasn’t the world’s Redeemer waiting in the Promised Land to meet the

incoming Israelites with Joshua?

When we consider the season of Advent, our own actions and attitudes toward Christmas

appear vulgar, if not blasphemous. We have so commercialized the story of God that only a

hard right turn will put us back on course. In life, it seems that greed and not God controls us.

It is self-serving action and not sacrifices on any level that marks us and characterizes our

lives. We are heirs of the promise and joint-heirs with Christ, yet we live puny lives simply

because we do not know and live in the story.

Salvation always comes through judgment in various ways. Salvation for the nation of

Israel at the Exodus came through the judgment of Egypt, and this pattern is repeated

throughout the OT. When God saves Israel, he delivers the nation by bringing judgment

on the nation’s enemies.

Salvation for all believers of all ages is made possible by the judgment that falls on Jesus

at the cross. The cross allows God to be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in

Jesus (Rom 3:24–26). Even though members of the remnant live before Jesus, saving

faith is explicit trust in the promises of God. I believe the promises of God begin in

Genesis 3:15, and I think that many of these promises concern an anointed redeemer

whom God will raise up to accomplish the salvation of his people—Messiah. So even

though OT saints don’t know that the Messiah will be named Jesus, grow up in

Nazareth etc., they have heard God promise to raise up a man who will save them and

they trust God to keep his word. So they are saved by faith in God’s promised Messiah.

Why sin? Sin, is perhaps, the hardest truth for mortal man to accept. Sin is problematic not

only because of its hideousness, but because of its application. Sin is a very real part of our

present condition. We cannot fully appreciate the scope of sin’s permeation into our makeup,

nor can we fully comprehend what life will be like without it. Yet, why would a good God

permit the entrance of sin into a perfect universe? This question has puzzled thoughtful

people for centuries. There is no truly adequate answer. Man does not have the capability of

answering the question because of his finiteness and sin. Furthermore, the Bible is silent.

The Bible is the unfolding of God’s purpose and person for creation in general

and for His people in particular.The Bible is the unfolding of God’s purpose and person for creation in general

and for His people in particular.