The Things About Himself
I’m excited for this Sunday – and not just because of our Fall Kick Off Picnic (pray for good weather!). The reason I’m excited is because of the series of series that we’ll be kicking off at Central, and then journeying through for most of the next year. Let me tell you about it.
At our last gazebo service, I spoke about my favorite story in the bible: the two (ex)-disciples on the road walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus. It’s the first Easter morning, and they’re walking away from Jerusalem, away from their faith-community, away from faith – away from Jesus (literally and metaphorically). But Jesus doesn’t walk away from them. They’re disappointed by their hope, disillusioned with their religion, and disbelieving in Jesus. But Jesus goes after them to reestablish their hope, open their eyes, and lead them back to faith in himself.
One of the ways Jesus does this is, in Luke’s words,
“beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.”
Jesus opened their minds to ‘the things about himself in all the scriptures’. What Luke is saying here is that Jesus told them about how the Old Testament (Moses and all the prophets) pointed towards him, anticipated him, waited for fulfillment in him, and leads us to him. It probably was the greatest ‘bible study’ walk and talk ever given! What we’re going to embark on this year is an attempt, in a way, to do the same.
We’re going to comb through the Old Testament and pick out certain moments, the consistent themes, and the illuminating stories that give us Jesus. We’ll do this on Sundays in the sermons, and in our bible studies, look at other stories that complement them.
The outcome of that Emmaus road bible-study walk and talk was, upon reflection, the disciples’ “hearts burning” within them as Jesus was opening the scriptures to them. Hearing how it all pointed to Jesus – how the great story of the beginnings of God and this world, God and his people, God and his great acts of liberation, God and his kingdom, God and his people’s restoration, and God and his ongoing promises all pointed to Jesus – set their hearts on fire, and my hope is that it might do the same for you.
For a world that is so much like those two disciples (disappointed in, disillusioned by, disbelieving of faith – walking away from God), my hope is that as a church, we will be better equipped to speak ‘heart-burning’ God-talk to it. In other words,
we will be more able to faithfully share Jesus if we know the stories that gave us Jesus.
So this week, we’ll start at the beginning with a series called “Beginnings”: the first series of the “Stories that Gave Us Jesus” year-long series. I hope that you can be there, Sunday at 9:30AM. I hope that you can invite someone whose heart could use a little fire. I hope that you can find your way into one of our bible studies this year.