God’s big idea is simply to be with us, but the first two people, Adam and Eve, chose a different vision. But God had a plan from the very beginning to get us back. As we have been journeying through The Story, it has looked bleak in the lower story, but God has never taken his eyes off of us or veered from his plan in the upper story. In the Old Testament he established a brand new nation called Israel, and from Israel came the solution, Jesus Christ. Jesus bore all of our sins and overcame death. To those who choose the gift, they will receive the forgiveness of their sins, once and for all. With that, the separation we have experienced from God because of the sin we were born with will be reconciled. After Jesus ascended to the father, he started a brand new movement with new believers called “the church.” The church is to spread the good news that God is about to make things new. There will be a new city, with a new garden in the centre where God will dwell once again. The only remaining question is, “will you be there?”
In the Lower Story there is chaos, confusion, struggles, sickness, and imprisonments. Sometimes we feel like that is all there is. As Christians we realise that above all that there is an Upper Story. God has a plan before time that will continue, and He uses the Upper Story to direct the Lower Story. Everything in the Lower Story is fitting into a perfect plan. We may not understand it, but like Paul, we can say this is for God’s glory, and it’s ultimately going to work out for good. While we’re challenged and occasionally discouraged, we do not despair. We don’t give up. We hang in there. We hold on.
In the first four books of the New Testament - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - we learn that Jesus’ objective is very clear: he is going to represent us. He who knew no sin became our sin that we might become his righteousness. On the day the sinless Jesus died on the cross, all of the sins of humanity - past, present, and future - were placed on him. God then took Jesus’ sacrifice as full payment for our sins. Those who reach out and grab the free gift by faith are forgiven of their sins and they enter into the eternal relationship with the living God he has been wanting with us all along.
Now the question is, who is going to take the message of Jesus and what he has done to the world?
Just like parents will do whatever it takes to search for a missing child, so does God. God has lost children. They have lost their direction, lost their bearings, lost their place in life, lost their vision about the next life. God has initiated a massive strategy to redeem his lost children. We have seen the phases of his strategy throughout The Story. In the Old Testament we saw Phase One, Israel. Using patriarchs and prophets, trials and teachers, God clearly demonstrated he wants all his children to come home.
Phase Two is Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus was big news, and He was good news. Phase Three is us, the church. What God began with Israel, what he accomplished through Christ, he continues and proclaims through the church. This is the message of the book of Acts: God never stops looking for lost children.
The first Easter Sunday was so good because the day before had been so bad. Good Friday commemorates the crucifixion and Easter Sunday the resurrection. The Saturday in between commemorates desperation. On that Saturday it seems that Christ was totally defeated, as his body lay utterly dead in a rock tomb. The spear had sliced his heart and his tongue had gone silent. Death was absolute. No one was betting on resurrection. In chapter 27 of The Story we will see how we can get unstuck from Saturday and move into Sunday.
For almost two thousand years, the simplest expression of our faith has been the cross. The clearest, most remembered and most widely recognised symbol of what the Christian faith stands for is two pieces of wood stuck together on which criminals were executed. An instrument of death is our corporate logo. What is so important about the cross of Jesus Christ? Why should it be our logo? Other logos convey messages like: victory, happiness, or status. What about ours? What makes the cross so important? In chapter 26 of The Story we find an answer to these questions.
In Mark 8.29 we read that Jesus gathered his disciples together and asked them “Who do the people say that I am?” His disciples saw Him do amazing things. He walked on water; fed 5000 people with a few loaves and a couple of fish; he healed the sick and even raised the dead. But He also did normal things. He worked, as a carpenter, told jokes, got angry, went to the bathroom, laughed and wept.
The question reverberates through history about Jesus: “Who is this guy?” Every thoughtful person has to raise and answer this question. Just as in Jesus’ day, there were various popular answers, so there are many answers in our own time. In The Story, let’s consider some of the answers to the question about Jesus, “Who is this guy?”
The Old Testament gave us many kingdom images. The King created the world with just a word. He commanded the flood to come, commanded the Israelites to leave, commanded the sea to open, sent His children into exile, and pulled them out of exile. God is creating a kingdom.
In the New Testament, Jesus quiets storms and controls demons to give us an inkling of what life will be like when the King is on this earth, where He will once and for all silence all storms and banish all demons. The purpose of the miracles is to give us incontrovertible evidence that Jesus is something other than anyone we have ever seen, worthy to be called king. He proves his kingship now so that we, longing for a king, will turn to him as ours.