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.

God’s people were waiting for a deliverer, the Messiah, to come. They were expecting a lion to crush their enemies. Instead they got Jesus – a lamb who would take their sin away. But Jesus was no pushover. He stirred fear in the heart of the opposition and amazement in the heart of the onlookers. He goes head-to-head with demons – even the Devil himself. He does the impossible. Contemporaries of Jesus Christ saw firsthand what it meant to be more than conquerors.

We’ve heard the story before – An angel’s message. A miraculous conception. No accommodation. Shepherds. Wisemen. Saviour.

John’s rendition of the birth of Christ forgoes some of those details. He writes, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us…” (John 1.14) Greek readers understood the word “logos” as the representation and the essence of God. Hebrew readers also understood John’s message. John writes: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” “In the beginning” are the first words of the book of Genesis.

John says the beginning of all creation is with the Logos, the Word of God who has become flesh. For the Greeks, he was reason who became flesh. For the Hebrews, he was the Creator who became flesh. For us all, he is God who became flesh.

We all know people whose defences have fallen down. Their lives have become ruinous, absolutely hopeless and helpless. For a ruined life, what does it mean to rebuild defences? Can a ruined life be rebuilt to strength and power and purpose again?

This week in The Story, we look at the book of Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. God’s people return from captivity and begin the arduous task of rebuilding Jerusalem’s defences.