Summary: In week two of our series on Understanding The Bible we will see that from Genesis to Revelation the Bible has one overriding and compelling story - The Coming Of Christ!

The Story of The Bible

#UnderstandingTheBible

Bumper Video

Good morning MGCC!

Welcome to week 2 of our series, ‘Understanding The Bible.’

A series that has 2 primary goals…

Goal #1 – To take a look at the overwhelming evidence that demonstrates (contrary to the onslaughts of modern culture) that The Bible is not just another book or mere ink on paper, but that it really is from God, the Maker of heaven and earth.

Goal #2 – Motivate, encourage, challenge and inspire people to read the Bible like never before… because it is from God and because in this series they will be given tools and principles that will equip them to understand it better.

MAN – I hope that you will be one of those who will be motivated, challenged, encouraged and inspired… to read the bible like never before.

NOW – last week we talked about…

HOW – if a non-contingent, uncaused by anything else, self-sufficient, self-reliant, all-powerful, intelligent, always existing, unique, good & moral God who loves us were to write a book – that it would be the most amazing book ever written…

B/S – I stand before you today and without any doubt whatsoever in my mind declare to that the bible is that book and that you can trust what it says…

UNDERSTAND – the bible is…

• Unique (in a class of it’s own),

• Accurate (we could trust what it says)

• Supernatural (it would know some stuff that only God could know)… and it would be

• Transforming (it would radically change the lives of people).

IF – you missed last week message I can not encourage you enough to check it out online…

OKAY – let’s do this…

Week 2… AND – a conversation called, Understanding The Bible…

NOW- I want to kick off our time together this morning with 3 passages of Scripture…

One from the OT, one from the Gospels and one from the NT.

The first is from Isaiah chapter 9 which was written to God’s people when they were going through some very dark and difficult times… (ever been there?)

AND THESE WORDS – were especially addressed to those from the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali who lived around the region of the Sea of Galilee…

AGAIN – things are rough, times are dark, the outlook is gloomy…

Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever.

Amen! Now, some of you needed this morning.

The land of Zebulun and Naphtali will be humbled, but there will be a time in the future when Galilee of the Gentiles, which lies along the road that runs between the Jordan and the sea, will be filled with glory.

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned…

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.

YEAH – darkness and despair will end… but His greatness and peace will not.

He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

– Isaiah 9:2,6-7

THE NEXT – passage is from the Gospels, John chapter 1.

NOW – I am sure that they are very familiar words to most of us…

BUT NEVERTHELESS – they are still so beautiful and powerful.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it...

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. – John 1:1-5, 14

HEY

DID YOU CATCH – that John is declaring that the ‘filled with glory’ and ‘end of darkness’ thing that God promised His people through the prophet Isaiah 700 years earlier… is fulfilled?

The light has come… and now his glory fills the earth.

B/S – God always keeps His promises…. (R/L)

NOW – for the final passage.

AND LISTEN – these are some words that Paul wrote in his first letter to the church in Thessalonica… in 50 AD.

Words that have encouraged believers have read these words during the last 1968 years or 718,320 days….

And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope.

For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.

We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died.

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves.

Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words. – 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Prayer…

NOW IN – Luke 24 Jesus (the recently risen Lord) does something really awesome, and he does it twice…

First to a couple of guys on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

Remember they are the two guys who were bummed out and did not believe the women’s story about the empty tomb and that Jesus was alive.…

IN FACT – they said that very thing to Jesus as he walked along the road with them… and the Jesus…

He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

- Luke 24:25-27

• AND – as Jesus is talking, they arrive home

• They ask Jesus to grab some dinner with them

• Jesus agrees and when he breaks the bread and gives thanks… their eyes are opened and they recognize Jesus and then he disappears…

• In the Greek…‘he non-visible became.’

32 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? - Luke 24:32

B/S – their hearts burned, WHEN…

• Jesus opened up the Scripture to them…

• They realized and understand what the Scriptures were ultimately about.

AND LISTEN – a little later in Luke 24 He does the same with His disciples, but with them Jesus went a little further…

He said to them, “This is what I told 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.”

Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. - Luke 24:44,45

SO THAT THEY – would understand that ‘all’ of the Scripture have…

• One ultimate purpose

• One compelling theme

YOU SEE – it’s here we see that crazy unity thing about the bible, how despite being written by 40 men – over a period of 1500+ years – in 3 languages – on 3 continents… and yet there is but one compelling and unifying story, “The Coming Of Christ.”

YES – in Luke 24 we Jesus opening up Scripture, so His guys would understand it, and so their hearts would burn…

AND MGCC

THIS MORNING – I am going to ‘attempt’ in at least a small way to open up our minds to the Scriptures…

SO THAT – our hearts will burn and our faces no matter how downcast will be lifted up, as we realize and understand, that not only does the bible have ONE ultimate, compelling, overriding (theme, story and purpose) BUT so does all of human existence… ‘The Coming Of Christ!’

OKAY – so let’s walk through and open up our minds to the Scriptures… so we can see the story of the bible (why is this important…

Old Testament – Christ Is Coming!

MGCC - when you boil it all down, the (Coming of Jesus) is pretty much what the 39 books, 929 chapters, 23,214 verses and the 622,771 words of the OT are all about.

UNDERSTAND - from Genesis to Malachi the Old Testament resonates with good news of great joy for all people….

Good News that is intended to lift up our faces and to ignite in each of us a (roaring, living and sustaining)

BURN into our hope…

Christ is coming!

In Genesis Christ’s Coming Is Revealed

AND - the reason I say that Christ coming is revealed in Genesis is because Christ coming was planned before Genesis.

In Revelation 13:8 we read that Christ was slain before creation.

UNDERSTAND

BEFORE - God created the world,

BEFORE - He formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed life into him, God already planned on sending Jesus. YES - Jesus’ death on the cross was God's idea

FROM BEFORE - the beginning…

NOW - in the beginning God created the World and everything in it. He created Adam and Eve, and put them in a garden paradise – in a perfect world untainted by sin, corruption and decay.

AND – not only that, but they had an intimate and close relationship with God, as God walked with them in the cool of the Garden.

Think about that. Picture that.

AND THEY - had only one restriction, one command .

AND THAT - was not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

WELL - you know the rest of the story…

THEY - were tempted and deceived by Satan.

THEY - blew it, they disobeyed God, they sinned.

THEIR - eyes were opened, they realized they were naked, they hid from God and were booted out of their garden paradise.

AND - in Genesis 3:15 we find what many call, "the Gospel in the garden."

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. – Genesis 3:15

UNDERSTAND

EVEN THOUGH - man had turned his back on God and sinned -- God did not turn his back on man...

LIKE - we read in 2 Samuel 14:14,

All of us must die eventually. Our lives are like water spilled out on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. But God does not just sweep life away; instead, he devises ways to bring us back when we have been separated from him.

NOW IN - Genesis 3:15, God reveals 3 things, that…

• Satan would ultimately be crushed

• The agent of this crushing would come through the seed of woman (Mary)

• The victory over Satan would only be possible through suffering on the part of the crusher.

AND - for centuries Gen 3:15 was the only, star of hope that God's people had, and they clung to it ever so tightly.

THEN - after the flood, in Genesis 9, God gives His people another star of hope as He reveals that one day He Himself would dwell in the tents of men.

AND THEN – a little over 2,000 years before Christ...

God called Abraham… we read about this in Gen 12…

AND IN THIS CALL - God reveals that a descendent of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, would one day bless all of the nations of the earth... That descendent is Jesus.

AND - as God's first book to his people nears it's end…

GOD REVEALS - in Genesis 49 that one day a

rest bringer would come from the royal line of Judah, bringing about a time of peace and great abundance....

In Genesis The Coming Of Christ Is Revealed…

AND - from…

Exodus – Esther we read of the preparations for Christ’s coming

UNDERSTAND – in these 16 books

God prepares His people for Christ’s coming in at least 5 ways…

FIRST…

God prepares His people

By delivering them

NOW - as the book of Exodus opens we see that God's people had become slaves in Egypt..

AND - while in those shackles they were taught 2 important things…

# 1 – That they needed a deliverer.

# 2 – That they could not free themselves.

AND SO GOD - became that deliverer....

I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.

God sees - God hears - God is concerned

So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out

(B/S – we serve a God who can bring us ‘up out of’)

of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey… - Exodus 3:7,8

AND SO GOD – delivers them by working mighty miracles (hail, frogs, Nile to blood, death of Egyptian 1st born, parting of Red Sea)..

Through his servant Moses,

Bringing Pharaoh and his mighty empire to it’s knees,

Redeeming His people, winning their freedom.

God prepares His people

By giving them His law

UNDERSTAND - because God had delivered them...

The Israelites were not there own... And God therefore had the right and He had the power to expect something from them...

And God spoke all these words: "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. "You shall have no other gods before me… – Exodus 20:1-3

UNDERSTAND - God prepared His people by giving them His law TEACHING THEM - about sin, obedience and His Holiness, as His servant Moses brought down from thundering Mt. Sinai on tablets of stone, His commandments...

God prepares His people

By fulfilling His promise

NOW – in the book of Joshua we read of God's new leader conquering Canaan and establishing God's people in the land that HE had promised to Abraham over 700 years earlier.

Teaching them that their God is a promise keeper.

God prepares His people

By establishing the royal throne of David

Through whose blood line the true King would one day come.

Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever. – 2 Samuel 7:16

God prepares His people

By building them a temple to worship in

Giving them a place and a system that allowed for sinful people to approach a Holy God.

YES FROM – Exodus to Esther, God prepared his people by…

• Delivering them

• Giving them His law

• Fulfilling His promises

• Establishing the Royal line of David

• Giving them a place to worship Him

In The Poets We See The Great Desire For Christ’s Coming

In the Book of Proverbs

The desire is for perfect wisdom to be incarnate,

THIS WISDOM – is found in Christ.

In Ecclesiastes

Solomon exposes the futility of life without God.

He tried women, wine and wealth and had all 3 in great abundance but still came up empty.

UNDERSTAND B/S - Solomon discovered that true and lasting… meaning and fulfillment – are not found in anything under the s.u.n.

BUT RATHER – they are found in the person of the Son.

The Son of God, Jesus Christ..

In the Song of Solomon,

Solomon aspires for perfect love and commitment -- which is found only in Christ…

I am my beloved's, And his desire is for me. – Song 7:10

And in Job and Psalms

We have many direct reference to the coming of Christ.

Job - longed for a divine mediator between him and God. And he looked forward to the coming of his redeemer.

He says in Job 19…

I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

– Job 19:25-27

David the psalmist longed for the coming of…

• God’s glorious Son (Ps2)

• The great parable teller (Ps 78)

• The Davidic King (Ps 89)

• The Royal Priest (Ps 110)

UNDERSTAND – King David longed for the glorious, perfect and perpetual reign of the coming Messiah

THE NEXT – section of the OT is…

The Prophets looked forward to Christ’s coming with great hope and expectation.

YOU SEE - the prophets lived during a time when God's people had turned their back's on God and His Word as they bowed down and worshipped false gods and idols.

The people and their leaders were rotten and decaying both spiritually and morally.

Wrong had now become right... AND GOD - was reduced

(btw – not a good thing to reduce ‘the unreduce-able God’ in your heart and mind)

to a distant deity and worship had become nothing more than heartless religion… simply pretending and preforming

These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. – Is 29:13

JUSTICE - was nowhere to be found and the poor were greatly oppressed. AND THIS - growing corruption would eventually lead to…

• The dividing of the Kingdom (as brother fights against brother – never a good or pretty thing).

• And the fall of Israel and Judah, as God judged the nation with the sword of foreign conquers (Assyria/Babylon).

AND - the once mighty Kingdom was no more.

B/S - it was during these perilous, dark, difficult and ungodly times, that the Prophets lived…

WHICH IS WHY - they…

Looked forward to, clung to, and spoke about with unwavering hope and expectation the coming of a New and Better Kingdom…

Isaiah who is known as the Gospel prophet wrote in his 11th chapter of a KINGDOM that would be united in peace and harmony and would include all people…

He said that the lion would lie down with the lamb

In other words – all barriers and walls between people would be broken down… everyone would be included and natural enemies would become friends.

AND ISAIAH - wrote of a time when a new and better leader would rule over God’s people…

A king will rule in a way that brings justice, and leaders will make fair decisions. Then each ruler will be like a shelter from the wind, like a safe place in a storm, like streams of water in a dry land, like a cool shadow from a large rock in a hot land…

- Is 32:1,2

AND IN – chapter 53 Isaiah look forward to the Coming of Christ and the healing he would bring:

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. – Isaiah 53:1-5

YES - the prophets looked forward to a time…

• When Christ would come and heal the deep and deadly wounds of sin...

• When the good news would be preached to the poor, the captives set free, the prisoners released, the brokenhearted bounded up and God’s favor poured out… (Is 61)

Jeremiah writes about the expectation and hope of a new and better relationship/covenant with God.

The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers

when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt,

because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, " declares the LORD.

This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD.

For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." - Jeremiah 31:31-34

THE MESSAGE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT IS… Christ IS COMING

The Gospels – Christ Is Here!

The plane touches down on the run way.

The last line is thrown from the ship to the pier.

The car pulls into the driveway.

AND SUDDENLY – all of the energy and emotion of anticipation now shifts to an eruption of joy.

The band is playing -- The Cameras flashing -- The flags are waving....

A Husband embraces his wife

A teary eyed dad holds his little girl has never seen...

A mother hugs her son who has become a man...

We have all felt these emotions, the joy can be overwhelming.. The wait is over.. and our loved one is here!!

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. – John 1:14

Jesus’ Birth

B/S - the wait that began 1,000's of years ago in the garden was over! The crusher had come, the Savior was here! And a great company of angels appeared in the fields outside of Bethlehem praising God and saying; “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” – Luke 2:14… AS - baby Jesus lay in the arms of His mother..

Jesus’ Ministry

And the baby grew and became a boy. He laughed, he ran, he played with his friends, wrestled w/his brothers and worked with his dad in the carpenters shop.

And at the age of 12 he sat down at the temple among the teachers listening and asking them questions…

Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. – Luke 2:47

And the boy grew to be a man and scripture says,

He grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

- Luke 2:52

And At the age of 30 he began his ministry: and what a ministry it was:

He healed – the blind, lame, the leper and even raised the dead

He changed water into wine, calmed violent storms

and multiplied food

He spoke with authority and with divine insight into the heart of men…

IN FACT - one time when some temple guards were sent to arrest Jesus and bring him back to the chief priests, they came back empty handed. And the only response they could offer was:

“No one ever spoke the way this man does…” (still true today)

Jesus’ Death

True no one ever spoke the way Jesus did, and no one ever died the way Jesus died.

Betrayed by a friend.. Abandoned by His disciples..

Put through a mock trail..

Beaten.. Spit upon… Scourged .. weak and bleeding.. forced to carry His own cross... Huge spikes driven into His hands and feet. Yet, on the cross Jesus still thought of others -- His mother Mary.. and even His enemies "FATHER FORGIVE THEM.."

He was innocent -- the Jewish leaders knew it -- Pilate knew it -- Yet, Jesus did nothing -- said nothing to free himself...

Understand the old hymn written in 1958 by Ray Overholt is…

“He could have called 10,000 angels to destroy the world and set him free. He could have called 10,000 angels but he died a lone for you and me…”

Actually Jesus could have called a lot more than 10,000

“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?”

- Matthew 26:52-54

(A legion was 6,000 soldiers… 12 x 6000 = 72,000)

Jesus died and was buried..

And on the 3rd day he rose from the dead...

Jesus is alive!! Death could not hold our king!

Amen – do you feel the burn of that truth!!!

AND LISTEN - those who are in Christ will likewise rise to be with him for eternity in Heaven.

B/S

The victory has been won…

The serpent is crushed…

Sin has been defeated…

Death is destroyed, and the grave is destroyed

AND – because He lives we ‘now’ can have forgiveness and a hope and purpose that can never be erased!

OT – Christ is coming!

Gospels – Christ Here!

New Testament – Christ Is Coming Again!

Jesus, the Risen Lord was with his disciples for the last time.

And He told them and us about our job…

7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.

"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky?

This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven." – Acts 1:9-11

AND LISTEN – throughout the book of Acts and the letters to the churches – God’s people including us look forward to His coming again…

Paul writes

Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

– Phil 3:20,21

When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. – Colossians 3:4

Peter writes;

And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away. – 1 Peter 5:4

And in 2 Peter 3:12 Peter tells us to look forward to that day and speed it’s coming

John writes..

And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. – 1 John 2:28

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

– 1 John 3:2

MGCC

WE - like they, should find it comforting and encouraging as we live in a rough and some times very dark, difficult and wicked world -- to set our sights on the future glory that awaits us as God's people...

This world is not our home we're just passing through Jesus Christ is coming again… TO…

QUESTION…

Does your heart burn at the thought of His return?

AND FINALLY (What was revealed in Genesis is fully realized in Revelation)

In Revelation – His Coming Is Realized

As God unveils for the apostle John what Christ’s return will be like…

That's what the word revelation means -- it is an unveiling of the Lord Jesus Christ in all His glory...

For 22 chapters God pulls back the curtain and allows us to see the Glory of Jesus.

AND LISTEN - one thing becomes evident as the curtain is pulled back -- when Christ comes again (and he will) it will not be like his first coming...

Where he was: mocked, beaten, spit upon, pushed, shoved and crucified on a cross -- clothed only in the precious blood that poured form his suffering body.

Men will not:

• beat Him anymore

• mock Him anymore

• do anything to him anymore

When Christ returns he will return in glory and will be clothed in power... and all the earth will see Him (and on his robe and thigh he will have this name written KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

And every knee in heaven and on earth will bow down and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

B/S – the story of the bible, the story and centerpiece of all of human existence is the coming of Christ…

Jesus himself, said in Revelation 22:7… the chapter of the bible

Behold I am coming soon!

MGCC – when we open up our minds we see that it, this this book is all about Jesus…

I MEAN – like, from Genesis to Revelation, Jesus is everywhere…

IN…

Genesis – seed of woman

Exodus – Passover lamb

Leviticus – great High priest

Numbers – bronze serpent lifted w/healing

Duet – prophet like Moses

Joshua – CAPTIAN of our SALVATION

Judges – deliverer of God’s people

Ruth – Kinsman redeemer

Samuel – Faithful PROPHET

Kings/Chronicles – true KING of the nation

Ezra – Faithful SCRIBE

Nehemiah – re-builder of our broken lives

Esther – Our Mordecai

Job – divine mediator

Psalms – God’s glorious Son

Proverbs – wisdom incarnate

Ecclesiastes – He is our meaning

Song of Solomon – He is the bridegroom whose desire, is for us

Isaiah - suffering servant

Jeremiah – the BRANCH of David

Lamentations – weeping prophet

Ezekiel – RIGHTFUL KING

Daniel – 4th man in the fiery furnace

Hosea – the one who takes back His adulteress people

Joel – STRONGHOLD of the nation

Amos – our burden bearer

Obadiah – LORD of the KINGDOM

Jonah – great foreign missionary

Micah - Savior from Bethlehem

Nahum – AVENGER of His adversaries

Habakkuk – VICTOR over satan

Zephaniah – RIGHTEOUS LORD

Haggai – God’s signet ring

Zachariah – the PIERCED One

Malachi – SON of righteousness

Matthew – Royal King

Mark – Servant of God

Luke – Son of Man

John – WORD become flesh

Acts – fire of His church

Romans – He’s our justifier

Corinthians – He’s our sanctifier

Galatians – our robe of righteousness

Ephesians – the grace that saves us

Philippians – the one to whom every knee will bow and tongue confess…

Colossians – he’s all the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form

Thessalonians – the soon returning Lord

Timothy – the one who saves even the worst of sinners

Titus – the one who pours out the Holy Spirit to wash and renew us

Philemon – He is the friend that sticks closer than a brother

Hebrews – He is both High Priest & Sacrifice

James – He is the tamer of our tongues

Peter – He is our Chief Shepherd

John – The love of God and the one that is in us and is Greater

Jude – He is the one who can keep us from falling

Revelation – He is the KING of kings and LORD of lords…

LISTEN, LISTEN…

Jesus is everywhere

Jesus is everything

It’s all about him, to Him and for Him…

QUESTION – do these truths, that…

All of Scripture, and that ALL of human existence has

One hope, One purpose, One (compelling, ultimate, overriding theme)… JESUS!!!

I MEAN – do you feel the BURN?

Christ is coming again.

There will be justice

All will be new

IN HEBREWS 9:28

Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people, and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him."