Since the inception of our church I have tried to impress upon my brothers and sisters that all of Scripture is about Christ. To hear a sermon from the Old Testament or New Testament and to not have Christ as the aim or focal point is to have a Christless sermon—a non-Christian sermon really. The substance and essence of all Scripture is Jesus Christ Himself. He said so and taught accordingly.
John 5:39-40 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.
Luke 24:27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
And so in some way, we must always head to Christ from whatever passage we preach from. It was Charles Spurgeon who said, “I take my text and make a bee-line to the cross.” So whether the passage shows us our sin and utter depravity and need for the Savior like in Genesis 3…or whether the passage shows God’s faithfulness in presevering the people through whom Christ would be born like in Genesis 50…or whether the passage gives a prophecy of the work and person of Christ like in Isaiah 55…or whether the passage shows us a type of Christ like Jonah…or whether the passage gives us the wisdom of Christ as in Proverbs…or whether the passage points to the judgment of Christ as in Joel…IT’S ALL ABOUT CHRIST.
My aim in the past three and a half years has been to build this truth into my family and into our church. Naturally, you can understand my joy when my daughter and I had this conversation last night after she read her Bible.
“Macy, what did you read in your Bible?”
She replied, “Dad, I’m a little nervous to tell you.”
“Why? It’s ok if you forget a little. Just pick up your Bible and show me some of the things you learned. Was it about soccer? What is about food? Was it about Jesus?”
”Dad! All Bible stories are about Jesus,” she replied as if I didn’t know and that it should have been obvious to me.
She went on, “Dad. It was hard to understand. I’m not sure if I got it.”
I replied, “Well, it looks like God gave something to Moses. Did he give him some fish? Did he give him a high-five? What did He give him?”
“Commandments,” she said.
The Bible she reads from has some lessons that are designed to teach her essential truths of the faith. This lesson focused on the fact that we can’t know God unless He reveals Himself to us. Thus we see God speaking His Word. Scripture, which is God-breathed, shows us what God is like and what He expects of us.
Our conversation then went on to explaining the point of why God gave us His Law: to show His perfection and our sin, thus our need for Christ’s perfect obedience and His salvation. We had a good chat as she snuggled up into my arms and I told her the gospel story once again from Exodus.
John 5:39-40 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.
Luke 24:27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
And so in some way, we must always head to Christ from whatever passage we preach from. It was Charles Spurgeon who said, “I take my text and make a bee-line to the cross.” So whether the passage shows us our sin and utter depravity and need for the Savior like in Genesis 3…or whether the passage shows God’s faithfulness in presevering the people through whom Christ would be born like in Genesis 50…or whether the passage gives a prophecy of the work and person of Christ like in Isaiah 55…or whether the passage shows us a type of Christ like Jonah…or whether the passage gives us the wisdom of Christ as in Proverbs…or whether the passage points to the judgment of Christ as in Joel…IT’S ALL ABOUT CHRIST.
My aim in the past three and a half years has been to build this truth into my family and into our church. Naturally, you can understand my joy when my daughter and I had this conversation last night after she read her Bible.
“Macy, what did you read in your Bible?”
She replied, “Dad, I’m a little nervous to tell you.”
“Why? It’s ok if you forget a little. Just pick up your Bible and show me some of the things you learned. Was it about soccer? What is about food? Was it about Jesus?”
”Dad! All Bible stories are about Jesus,” she replied as if I didn’t know and that it should have been obvious to me.
She went on, “Dad. It was hard to understand. I’m not sure if I got it.”
I replied, “Well, it looks like God gave something to Moses. Did he give him some fish? Did he give him a high-five? What did He give him?”
“Commandments,” she said.
The Bible she reads from has some lessons that are designed to teach her essential truths of the faith. This lesson focused on the fact that we can’t know God unless He reveals Himself to us. Thus we see God speaking His Word. Scripture, which is God-breathed, shows us what God is like and what He expects of us.
Our conversation then went on to explaining the point of why God gave us His Law: to show His perfection and our sin, thus our need for Christ’s perfect obedience and His salvation. We had a good chat as she snuggled up into my arms and I told her the gospel story once again from Exodus.
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