Bible Overview Intro

Written By Jana Owens

In the last term we’ve travelled through a bible overview in sermons & seminars. The sermons are available on the website, but a number of people wanted to get a handle on what we covered in the seminars - so here’s the first of a few summaries.

Start with WHY - Seeing Jesus

So many things in the Christian life would be solved if only we could SEE JESUS. If we’re built to know God & commune with God through Christ, surely we need to SEE him. Surely SEEING him & talking with him would be the route to:

Deeper relationship
Greater confidence & joy
Understanding what He’s doing in us & through us.

Seeing Jesus on the road to Emmaus

We believe one day we WILL stop knowing in part and instead, seeing him face to face in the New Creation, we will know fully even as we are fully known (1 Cor 13:12). But actually Jesus holds out a profound & beautiful way to see Him BEFORE that day.

Luke, who hadn’t seen Jesus physically, is writing to Theophilus, who also hasn’t seen Jesus physically. And Luke deliberately finishes the last chapter of his account of Jesus with the story of the road to Emmaus.

Jesus has risen from the dead, and he comes and walks alongside two disciples heading out of Jerusalem. Just like Luke & Theophilus, they are kept from seeing Jesus physically for most of the journey; but by the end of journey, they see Jesus so clearly ‘spiritually’ that their ‘hearts burn within them’.

What causes that? v32 - Jesus ‘opens’ their spiritual eyes as he ‘opens’ to them the scripture all the Old Testament says about the Christ - how he would suffer & die before he entered his glory. (The same word is used for both kind of ‘opens’ in v31&32)

Jesus COULD have just revealed himself to them physically. Instead, he chooses to reveal himself by opening up the bible. Jesus’s point to the disciples and through Luke is clear - if we want to see Jesus today - we CAN - it’s as we see Jesus in the bible.

Bible Overview - Seeing Jesus in UHD (4K)

People spend loads to watch the latest celebs get their 15 minutes of fame in UHD(4K) - ultra high definition, 4000 pixels.

Why patiently give yourself to tracing the bible’s seemingly strange story line? Because that is the way to behold the only one truly worthy of our attention.

As is so often the way when Jesus works, it all sounds a little weak & strange to begin with and yet, here’s His plan:

When Jesus wants to give us ultra high definition,
he opens scripture to us.

One theologian talks of our experience of reading scripture as ‘meeting Christ clothed in his promises’. Jesus didn’t simply say ‘I’ll die for your sin’. Instead, he pointed millennia further back into Israel’s history & presented himself as the greater Passover lamb. God gave a spotless one to die to redeem his people - Jesus wants us to meet him as the fulfilment of that promise.

Why 4K?

We’re not re-inventing the wheel here, but to get a handle on the bible’s story, we’ve noted that tracing particular bible’s ‘themes’ can be really helpful. I know what you’re thinking, if only there was a handy infographic with some slightly crow-barred attempts to get 4’K’s …!

In the next few articles, we’ll trace these different themes.

Don’t be daunted, be excited!

God wants to encourage us & thrill us with a sight of Christ & his work:

  • The God whose arm was not too short to save Israel is not too short to save you.

  • The God who promised never to leave or forsake Israel, in Christ will never leave or forsake you.

  • The God who deserves perfect obedience has made a way to deal with our disobedience & change us from the inside out.

  • The transcendent God of all is drawing near that we could know him.

Jana Owens