Telling the Story of Jesus

It's good to be here with you this evening. I am going to be a little bit less formal. This is my cue that lets me know how much time we've got here. So I'm going to do that for you as much as I am for me. It's great to be here with you this evening and to be able to talk with you about the gospel. Just a minute ago, when Brother was praying and speaking to us, he made mention of the fact that all Scripture points to Christ, and that is truly the case. In fact, the great Pastor, theologian Charles Haddon Spurgeon, one time was quoted as saying, if you open the Scripture to any text, I will proceed directly from that text to the cross of my Savior. And that is what I intend to talk with you about tonight. I'll ask you a question as we get started. And this is a little bit less formal, so feel free to answer if you would like to do that. What is the gospel? What is the gospel? Because if we if this is a church and the church is built on the foundation of the teaching of the apostles is built upon the gospel message, then the church should be able to articulate the gospel. What is the gospel? Where would you go in the scripture if you were going to to take someone and say, here's here's the gospel? OK, the book of Acts. OK, 1st Corinthians 15, very good, a lot of people. In fact, let's turn there real quick. A lot of people immediately will say, OK, well, Paul seems to have summarized the gospel message in 1st Corinthians chapter 15 and and that is the case, he says there in 1st Corinthians chapter 15 verses one and following. This is now brothers. I want to remind you of the gospel that I preach to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand by this gospel. You are saved if you hold firmly to the word that I preached to you. Otherwise, you've believed in vain. And here's where he goes in and defines it. He says, for what I received, I passed on to you as a first importance that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, that he was buried. And that he was raised on the third day, according to the scriptures. And then he goes on and says that he appeared to many after that resurrection. Now, typically, when we think about the gospel, people will go there and they'll say, OK, the gospel is that Christ died, that he was buried and that he raised again. And to that, I say, yes, that is the gospel. That is the essence of the gospel message. But what I want to point out to you here from these verses that we've just read is something that people oftentimes gloss over. The gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. But look at the way that Paul articulated. He said that this is the first importance, that Christ died for our sins. And then what phrase is there? According to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he raised again According to the Scriptures, what Scriptures was Paul referring to? The Old Testament, at this time, the New Testament was not written, the letters that the Apostle Paul had sent to many of the churches, the Gospels were not formulated in a written form that they weren't being passed around like that as of yet. And so the Apostle Paul, when he's writing to the church at Corinth, he's reminding them of the gospel that he had proclaimed to them, the gospel that was built on the foundation of the Old Testament scriptures. And so I want to ask you tonight. If you had to do it, could you share the gospel with somebody using just the Old Testament? Because most people, that would be an intimidating thought to think that I need to I need to share the gospel with someone using the Old Testament. And yet that is what precisely what the apostles did in the first century. Now, we have the luxury and the privilege of not having to do that. And yet there's something to the fact. That the whole book, just as I started this morning from Genesis all the way to Revelation, this book, in answer to my question at the beginning, what is the gospel? The words of this book. The story that this book tells, the whole thing is the gospel. Now, 66 books written over, you know, close to a couple thousand years by many different authors, and yet all of it together forms one unified story, one unified message that is in and of itself points to the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, the essence of the gospel. But the whole book points to that and is built upon that foundation. In fact, the core text that I sent that I was going to teach from tonight is found in Luke chapter 24, because I don't want you to think, OK, here's this guy's this guy's edgy. He's trying to tell us to do something. He's trying to tell us we should be able to share the gospel without using the New Testament. No, I believe me. I use the New Testament. I love the New Testament. But I want you to see that Paul was not the only one. who could proclaim the gospel from the Old Testament. Look at Luke chapter 24. It's a familiar story. Just after the resurrection, some of the disciples of Jesus that had followed him in his earthly ministry, they were leaving and they were on their way on a journey on this road to Emmaus. And on this journey, they were discouraged. They were discouraged. It's because after following Jesus and after walking with Jesus, possibly for years, a couple of years, I don't know how long these disciples in particular had been following him, but they were discouraged because they still didn't understand the gospel, the good news that Christ not only was going to die, but that He had risen. And so here on this road to Emmaus, they have an encounter with Christ. They can't recognize Him. His appearance was hidden from them. But in this conversation as they walked along the road, they said to Him, haven't you heard what happened this week in Jerusalem? And Jesus asked them to explain what they were talking about. And then look what happens in verse 25. Verse 25 and following Jesus speaks to them after their discouragement, he says to them. How foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter into his glory? And listen to this, verse 27. And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, Moses being the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, beginning with Genesis chapter one, verse one, is in essence what this is saying. Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself. And then it goes on down and it says they entered into a village and they shared a meal and at a certain point in that meal, it says that Christ disappeared from their sight. They recognized him and then he disappeared from their sight. In verse 32 it says, and they asked each other, were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us? Now, what I want to talk to you about tonight is the essence of the gospel message from the whole of Scripture. Paul, when he taught Corinth, he was writing to them and reminding them it wasn't just that Christ died, was buried and raised again. He showed them the foundation of that when he established that church in the city of Corinth. Jesus, with his disciples here, He shares with them everything from Genesis 1, 1 and following points to me. And he walked them through how all of the Scripture pointed to his death, burial and resurrection, his atoning sacrifice. And so for that reason, I want to challenge you that we need to look at the Scripture, the whole of Scripture, and constantly be refining our ability to communicate the gospel from the whole of scripture. Now, I'm not a student necessarily of literature, but I have read a little bit about the formation of literature. And in a story, there's typically four parts. If you study classical literature, there's four parts. There's the beginning of the story is called exposition. The exposition shows the whole setting of what's going to happen in the story. And so typically in the exposition, you've got the main characters are introduced, you've got the setting. In fact, when you watch movies or television shows, they do this at the beginning all the time. You know, it may pan over a city skyline to let you know, okay, this is taking place in Manhattan. So you see these recognizable buildings or something. And then certain characters are introduced into the story. And you generally know these are main characters, these are central characters, and the story is going to follow these people. That's the case in all of literature. Exposition is the beginning. And then there's a second part to a story. It's called rising action. Rising action or conflict. And you've got some sort of conflict that enters based upon the protagonist, the main character of the story and the antagonist, the one who is opposing the center of the story. And then this rising conflict crescendos at a certain point where there's a face off. There's a battle between the main character and the one who's opposing him. And that's called climax in the story. And then after the climax, The story, the tension releases, and you know who's winning. You know that good wins over evil, and that's a fancy French word, denouement, or resolve. So if you look at literature, if you look at movies, if you look at books, they all follow that same pattern. In fact, at the beginning of children's stories, kids, how do children's stories typically begin? Once upon a time and then following that you get the exposition you get the description of where these things are going to take place you get the main characters introduced and how do stories typically in children's stories and they lived happily ever after God Has woven into our very fabric of existence a story And the story, as I said this morning, is not so much about us as it is about Him. In fact, if you look at the Bible, the Bible is one complete story, one overarching story. There's many subplots along the way, but everything, as Jesus says in Luke 24, every one, even of those subplots, point back to the fact that God Himself is central, that we were created to worship Him, and that he was going to send a rescuer who would enable us to worship him as we were created. And ultimately, that there is a happily ever after that's waiting for those who've been reconciled to God. Now, whenever I share the gospel, here's what I do. There are basically four universal worldview questions that every person on the face of this planet answers, whether or not they realize they're answering them. The first one is, where did we come from? No matter what background you have. You are answering, you're living through this worldview, this view of life. You're answering the question, where do we come from? From a Judeo-Christian background, we look to the beginning of Genesis, and we talk about the creation account. There's a story there, and I talked about it in detail this morning, the story of creation. But other worldviews have their own stories. of where we came from. In fact, even the atheist or the secular humanist, they have their own explanation. Why? Because it's woven again into the fabric of our being to look back and say, where do we come from? Because our purpose is rooted in where we come from. Christians must be able to tell the story of creation in a compelling manner because the Bible answers the question. The biblical worldview demands that we answer the question where we came from. We tell the story of creation. That's the exposition. It gives the setting, introduces the main character right at the beginning. In the beginning, God. He is the protagonist of the story. He is the main or central character of this story. And then human beings in chapter one, verse 26, are introduced and we're not the antagonist. We're the supporting actors. We exist to make much of him. And so our whole existence is rooted in him. And then who's the antagonist? Chapter three, verse one, the serpent was more crafty than all the other animals the Lord has made. The antagonist comes in. And then what happens as a result of the fall? There's conflict. The Bible has a story to tell about the fall, in fact, the first universal worldview questions, where do we come from? And we answer that by telling the story of the fall very much kind of like I did this morning. The second question is what went wrong? Because in the story of creation, as I said this morning, chapter one, verse thirty one says what God looks at his creation and he says, behold, this is very good. And I explained this morning that when God says something, it's good. The only way that that can possibly be understood is that it's good in relation to how it is relating to him. It is fulfilling the purpose for which God created it. So when God says man and woman are good, it meant that man and woman are properly relating to him. They were worshiping. They were obeying. And when God declares The serpent to be evil, not good, it means that he is not relating properly to me. He is a created being. And see, that's one thing that the Christian worldview we have to be able to answer. What went wrong? When the antagonist comes into the story in Genesis chapter three, the biblical worldview is not one of dualism. Do you know what dualism is? Dualism says that there's a good God and there's a bad God, a God of good and a God of evil, and they are at war with one another. And really, the outcome is open to speculation. And yet so many people in our churches across America live as if that were the case. We live as if the antagonist, Satan, could possibly even win this. God is sovereign and he is in control and he is victorious. There is no speculation as to who is going to win in the end. That's the reason why we can read Revelation 22 and have confidence there. And so when we're sharing the story of the gospel with people, we need to explain to them where they came from and tell the story of creation. We need to explain to them what went wrong. and tell the story of the fall. And then the third question, the third universal worldview question is, OK, if everything's messed up now, if awestruck worshipers are now brazen idolaters, if the earth now is filled with worshipers, but the wrong kind of worshipers, worshipers who are worshiping themselves, as Paul says in Romans 1, then what hope is there? Every worldview tries to answer that question. What hope is there? You know, the Buddhists, they go and they spin the prayer wheels. We were in Thailand in the summer. We saw it. They're going to go through and they're hoping that through their faithfulness to the five pillars of Islam, at the end of their life, when God weighs out things on the scales of justice, that the scales will tip towards good and that God will allow them into paradise. That's their only hope. But you ask a Muslim and there is no confidence. You can never know. So in reality, their hope is no hope at all. But for the Christian, The biblical worldview says that God himself is sending a rescuer. In fact, I mentioned to you this morning or introduced the concept, the first mission of the gospel in Genesis 315. And from that point, I said that the question was posed. Who is this seed that God is that language of seed and offspring and generations that's used throughout the scripture? Have you noticed that? The question is posed, who is this seed that God's going to send to rescue us? Have you ever wondered why there's so many genealogies in the Bible? The reason why there's so many genealogies is because the question is an important one. Every single genealogy that you read, the purpose of that genealogy is to narrow the scope and narrow the funnel all the way down to the point where Jesus Himself is identified as the seed that God had promised. And so you look at, say, Genesis chapter 5, and there you'll find a genealogy, and you'll find the people listed out. And just after this, Genesis chapter 6, verse 5, God looked at His creation, and instead of things getting better in the wake of Him making this promise that He's going to send a Savior, instead of things getting better, they had gotten very bad. In fact, Genesis 6-5 says, And the Lord God looked and beheld, and all of the thoughts and the inclinations of man was only evil all the time. There were none good. And so that's in Genesis six, five, God declares there or sees that that evil is pervading the earth, that idolatry has spread and filled the earth. And so what does he say? He relents. He says, I'm going to destroy. that which I've made, but I'm going to preserve Noah. So what had happened up to this point, the question, who's the seed? The population keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Who is it? Who's the promised one? And then in Genesis chapter five through a genealogy and Genesis six through the promise of wrath, the funnel is narrowed. OK, it's going to be through Noah. And so Noah in the flood, you know, I joke around, my wife doesn't like when I share this, but We tell the story of the flood and Noah and the ark and we decorate our children's nurseries with the second greatest act or outpouring of the wrath of God in the history of the world. And, you know, we focus on the animals. The point was not the animals. The point was that God is a deliverer. And God was narrowing the way, and He had chosen Noah, and it was through Noah's lineage that this promised seed was going to come. And as soon as Noah gets off the boat, Genesis 9, verse 1, guess what? Flip there in your Bible. Genesis 9, verse 1. I want you to see it because it's a repeat of what I said this morning. God spoke to Noah. God blessed him and said to him, what? Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And this morning, implicitly with worshipers, Noah, now it's through your lineage. And just in case you didn't get it, he repeats it again in verse seven of chapter nine. And so then the three sons of Noah begin to spread out. They begin to have children. And then you find Genesis chapter 10, a list called the Table of Nations. Genesis chapter 11, the story called the Tower of Babel. And we see what happens is that the world's population was gathered on the plain of Shinar in defiance to God. God had said, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. with those who will make the name of God great. And guess what happened? The people in defiance gathered on the plain of Shinar. And instead of being fruitful and multiplying and filling the earth, they gathered to make a name for themselves so that they wouldn't be scattered throughout the earth. Direct defiance against God. And oftentimes when we tell that story, the Tower of Babel, you know, God looks down in Genesis 11. He says, behold, if they can do this, nothing is too difficult for them. It's not that God was intimidated by their construction prowess. God's not intimidated by that. Basically, God is saying their defiance is only getting worse. And so at the end of Genesis chapter 11, you've got literally people that God had scattered. He took from that tower and he scattered them over the face of the earth and he put languages, confuse their languages and send them over the face of the earth. That's where the ethnicities of the world come from. It's God's plan. We look at it like it's a problem to reach unreached people groups. And yet God created the people groups and the languages they speak. And in Genesis chapter 12, just when you think, OK, this is getting out of hand, you're never going to know who the seed is. God pulls it back together again. Genesis chapter 12, verse one. And through three, it's known as the Abrahamic covenant. God chose for himself one man and he set him apart and he made a promise, a covenant with that man, Abraham. And in that covenant promise, God said, I'm going to bless you. And I'm going to bless those who bless you. And those who curse you, I'm going to curse. And then he says, and behold, all of the nations, he had just talked about the introduction of the nations in Genesis 11, all of these peoples on the earth, the goyim, that's the Hebrew word, all of those people. Will be blessed, Abram, through you. So, George, you are just like. Going all over the place, listen. Here's why I'm going there. Genesis, chapter 12, verse three is the gospel. You say, what in the world, how can Genesis 12, three, where God's in his covenant talking to Abraham, how can that be the gospel? Turn to Galatians, chapter three. Oh, I want to make sure that you see that I'm not being heretical here, I'm I'm being serious. Galatians, chapter three. And let's see how the Apostle Paul interpreted that verse. Galatians chapter 3, verse 8. Well, actually, it's back up to verse 6. It says, Consider Abraham. He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Understand then that those who believe are the children of Abraham. Now, listen to this, verse 8. The Scripture, the Old Testament, foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith. And so announced the gospel in advance to Abraham when he said all nations will be blessed through you. How then is the Abrahamic Covenant the gospel message again, it's this that the identity was sure God said, OK, Abram, it's going to be through your lineage that the rescuers coming, the promised seed from Genesis 315, the one who will destroy the works of the devil. He's coming through your lineage in the rest of the Old Testament is an outworking of that the creation of the nation of Israel. Moses, the deliverer. David, the king. You think about it, Abraham had a son. His name was Isaac, and Isaac had a son named Jacob, and Jacob's name was changed to Israel. And he had 12 sons, and one of those sons was Judah. And through the lineage of Judah came King David, and through the lineage of King David came Jesus. And so here's how the whole story. Where do we come from? What went wrong? What hope is there? Here's what hope there is. Look at Matthew chapter one, verse one. Matthew chapter one, verse one. It says again, here it is again, another list of names, a record of the genealogy of Jesus. The Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Significant. What is Matthew trying to establish here? Why would Matthew begin his gospel narrative of Jesus with those words that this is a record of the genealogy? In other words, this is proof. that he is the promised rescuer. He's the son of David. He's the son of Abraham. And it goes through and it lists out this genealogy, tracing it back in time, giving written proof to the people, the Jews, Matthew focused his gospel towards the Jews, that this is the promised deliverer. And that's the reason why he said he's the son of David, the son of Abraham. If you go to Luke's gospel, has a little bit more of a Gentile bent to it. Luke, more than likely a Gentile himself. In Luke's genealogy, I think it's in Luke chapter three. If you look there, you'll see something astounding as well. Luke gives the genealogy of Jesus. And at the end of his genealogy, he traces it not back to Abraham, where does he trace it to? He says he's the son of Adam, the son of God. So. What I'm getting at here is if you're going to share the gospel with people increasingly in this world. There is a lack of a biblical worldview. Increasingly in churches. There is a lack of a biblical worldview. The average person in the average pew in America today, if you ask them, where's the gospel in the Old Testament? They'd say it's not there. They wouldn't understand that. They wouldn't know that. And yet for the gospel to grip our hearts like it did those men on the road to Emmaus, they said their hearts burned within them. As He opened up the Word and explained how it all pointed to Him, that's what we're after, right? That's what we want to see on the campus here. And people are never going to have their hearts burning until they see why the cross is significant. And they'll never see why the cross of Jesus is significant until you put it into the context of the whole story. You see, most of the world thinks that the cross of Jesus was a tragic accident. And the Bible and the story that I've tried to just highlight for you flips that on its head and says, no. The cross of Jesus was no tragic accident. It was the intentional plan of God from the beginning. It's the gospel from eternity past. God planned to send his son that he would be the rescuer, that he would be exalted and worshiped among the nations. And that people would be reconciled to God through the death, the burial and the resurrection of his son. And so if we're going to communicate the gospel in an effective way on the campus here or anywhere around the world, we need to become master storytellers. We need to learn how to tell the story well so that people understand that the gospel makes sense. It has an application for them. Every person on that campus over here has a story. What they need to see is how their story is a part of a much larger story. And how their story has been written into his and through repentance and faith, their story can have meaning and significance and purpose, not in and of itself, but as worshipers of him. People who live a life of obedience through repentance and faith. That's what they need to hear. So where do we come from? We tell the story of creation. What went wrong? We tell the story of the fall. What hope is there? We tell the story of the rescue of the cross and the resurrection. That's what hope there is. That's the climax. That's the reason why when Jesus declared it is finished, that the climax had hit the crescendo. Jesus crushed the head of the devil there. That's the reason why Paul could say, oh, death, where's your victory? Oh, grave, where's your sting? It has nothing on me because I'm in Christ. The devil has been defeated for those who are in Christ. And so we tell them what hope there is. We tell them the story of Jesus just as he did. I firmly believe in Luke 24. That's what he did. He walked through the scriptures like that and pointed to show the people, show them the cross wasn't an accident. It was the intentional and express purpose of God. It pleased the father to crush him, Isaiah says. And so the fourth question is this. What is the future hold? What does the future hold? Every worldview in the world has an answer for that. We're all looking, you know, got some people think that aliens are coming for us. You got some people think that, you know, that you're seeing the Hindus burned on the side of the Ganges River and their ashes put in there. And they believe that they flow out into eternity and then reincarnated into something else. The Buddhists, they believe they're working towards Moksha. They want to be released from this body into nothingness. What does the future hold? The Bible tells a story. What the future hold, and it's found in the last book, Revelation chapter 22. If you turn there for just a moment, we've got a story to tell. Revelation 22. Actually, I'm going to jump back to Revelation chapter 21 and look at this. This is the New Jerusalem, verse three, it says, And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Listen, now the dwelling of God is with men. And he will live with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away. And he who was sitting on the throne says, behold, I'm making everything new. Do you see? What John the Revelator is writing here? He's showing how the cross has undone every consequence of the fall. Death, sickness, tears, pain, confusion, it's all undone. Hiding in the bushes, it's undone. No longer does God just walk with man in the cool of the day in the garden. Here we see in the new creation, when all things are made new, that God Himself will dwell with us. There is no hiding when you live in the same house, right? And God is going to make His dwelling with us. And then look at Revelation 22 where it speaks of the river of life. And it says in verse three, no longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and his lamb will be in the city and his servants will serve him. They're worshiping him and obeying him, right? And they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no more night. They will not need the light of lamp or the light of the sun for the Lord, their God will give them light and they will reign forever and ever with him. What is the future hold for those who are in Christ, the future holds? Happily ever after. Exactly what our hearts are bent towards, everybody's looking for it. The problem is brazen idolaters are going to look for it in sex. They're going to look for it in substances. They're going to look for it in relationships. They're going to look for it in their education. They're going to look for it in their relationships. They're going to look for it everywhere. But the gospel says the only place that you can find purpose and meaning, the only place where where you can be What you were created to be is in Christ. And for those who are in Christ, the future holds great hope. Everything that's wrong with our world now, for those who are in Christ, will be made right by virtue of what Christ has accomplished through his death, through his burial and through his resurrection. And the amazing thing is in this last chapter of the story, what we see those who had rebelled are punished eternally. But the new heavens and the new earth, the new earth is filled. With worshipers. Who obey? Genesis 128, God bless them. And he said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Fill the earth with worshipers. Revelation 22 mission accomplished. How do you get from one to the other? There's only one path and it runs straight through the cross. the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We've got to be able to tell that story. And so what I want to do is I want to pray for us and I want to leave you with something tonight. I've been working together with some guys with a ministry called Spread Truth over the last six, eight months, and we've developed a little gospel booklet that tells the story. And what we've been doing is we've been training people. We're developing. We're developing a video curriculum that we're going to give away to people. We're going to teach people how to tell the story because, you know, the Romans road and these the four spiritual laws and there's nothing wrong with those. But increasingly, people, when you talk about the gospel, they have no foundation. They have no context. It's like dropping them into the middle of a movie. You can ask my wife. I hate that. She can turn on a movie right in the middle and be fine with it. For me, no, because I don't know who's who. I don't know who the main character is. I don't know who is the protagonist, the antagonist. I don't know the plot line. I don't know the setting. Increasingly, the way that we have shared the gospel in the past is like dropping somebody into the middle of the story and saying, OK, now make sense of this. But if we tell them the whole story and we tell it well. Then they'll see through biblical worldview glasses, the gospel and the Holy Spirit of God will do what only he can do, regenerate cold, dead hearts. And draw them to repentance and faith in Christ, and that's that's why this church exists. And so you better make it one of your top priorities to be able to tell that story, not just the person who stands up here on Sunday morning, but every single person who's a part of this body, your life and your labor. As long as God gives you strength in days is to be able to tell that story and to tell it well. So let's pray together. Father in Heaven, we thank You for the story of the Gospel. We thank You, Lord, that this whole Bible, as Christ Himself said in Luke 24, this whole Bible from Moses and all the prophets, Lord, declared that Christ would die, that He would be the promised seed, that all things would revolve around Him in His Gospel. Lord, we thank You for that. And like Spurgeon said, Lord, help us to be able to open the Bible to any text and start right there and proceed directly towards the cross of Christ. Father, I pray for this church. I thank you for the privilege of being here with them this week. I pray for their leaders. Father, I pray for the whole congregation that you would just put in them a burning in their hearts, just as those men, those disciples on the road to Emmaus, their hearts burned within them when they heard the story. Father, burn our hearts with this story that we might tell it well, that we might do it in the power of your Holy Spirit. and that we would do it for your glory, that the earth may be filled with worshipers who worship you in spirit and in truth. Thank you, Lord, that you are the hero of the story and there's no question about it. Those in Christ will live happily ever after. In Jesus name. Amen.