The Bible – It’s all about Jesus

All righty, and let's see does anyone

recognize

uh let's have that first PowerPoint.

Anyone recognize this book? Do you

recognize this book? Yeah? Yeah, you do.

What's The Very Hungry Caterpillar

about? What's it about, Bella? It's

about

a caterpillar that

eats lots of food. It's about a

caterpillar that eats lots and lots of

food on every day of the week. He keeps

eating more and more and more food. I'm

going to move that there so it's not in

the way. How about this one? Who's read

this book? Yeah, it's a very famous

book. Who's watched there's a film

version as well, isn't there? Yeah.

Yeah, and all the variations in between.

Yes, The Gruffalo and the big twist in

the story is that The Gruffalo is real.

Uh

who's read Thomas the Tank Engine or

watched Thomas the Tank Engine? Wow,

fantastic. What's Thomas the Tank Engine

about? It's about

It's about Thomas the Tank Engine, yeah.

You're absolutely right. He's the title

character. What's that from? What's that

Emily? What's that from? Uh What film?

It's Frozen.

>> It's Frozen, yes. It's

Anna and Olaf.

>> It's Elsa and Anna and Olaf, indeed.

Well, you could probably, kids, if

you've read those things or watched

these you could probably tell us the

whole plot. I'm sure your parents could

too cuz they've watched it millions of

times. But what about the Bible? What is

the big story of the Bible? I'm going to

spoil it for you straight away. We could

sum up the story of the Bible in just

one word.

We could say it's all about Jesus. Now,

we know there's the parts of the Bible

that you've been looking at recently in

kids church which talk about the life of

Jesus. So, they're obviously about

Jesus, aren't they? And then there's

some letters that were written that

explain what Jesus' life was about and

what it means for us today.

But even the Old Testament, even the

bits that happened before Jesus came to

Earth are all about Jesus. And this

morning the plan is we're going to see

three different ways in which the Old

Testament points us to Jesus. And the

idea is it should help us all in our

Bible reading to spot the different ways

in which the Old Testament leads us on

to Jesus. Have you ever played the

opposite game?

No, the in the Oh, you have. In the

opposite game, I say something, you do

the opposite. Now, we only do the

opposite game as a game. We don't do it

all the time.

Right? Cuz when mommy and daddy do say

to do something, we don't say, "Oh, I'm

playing the opposite game." We do what

they say. But for this moment right now,

we're going to play the opposite game.

So, if I said to you,

"Sit down." What would you do? You'd

stand up. Okay, so stand up then. Right,

here we go. Adults, if you want to play

along, feel free. You don't have to.

Right, if I said, "STRETCH OUT AS WIDE

AS YOU CAN." What would you do?

What's the opposite of going as wide as

you can? You go as small as you can.

Small as you can. Nice and small. If I

said to you, "Look up." You would look

down. Okay, right. I'm going to see if I

can trick any of you, okay? Can you keep

up with the opposite game? So, stand up.

All very good.

And look down.

Oh, my gosh. Someone, okay. If I say,

"Make yourself as small as possible."

Oh, someone you forgot. No, we've got to

do the opposite. You've got to go as big

as possible. Uh if I say,

uh well, if I say, "Sit down."

Oh, I got Teddy.

Oh, yes. And if I say, "Make yourself as

big as possible." You make yourself as

small as possible. And if I say, "Stand

up and be loud."

You sit down and be quiet. Very good.

Okay, that's the end of the opposite

game for now, okay? We might come back

to that later.

Um very good. So, we're thinking about

how the Bible points us to Jesus. And

sometimes it does it by showing us the

opposite of who Jesus is. Let me give

you a few examples. Who was the first

man and the first woman? Who knows?

First man and first woman? Lydia.

Adam and Eve. And they'd been told

clearly by God they could eat from all

of the trees of the garden. There was

one they were not supposed to eat from.

And the devil comes along in the form of

a serpent and makes them doubt what

Jesus said. And here's what happens.

So, when the woman saw that the tree was

good for food and that it was a delight

to the eyes and that the tree was to be

desired to make one wise,

she took of its fruit and ate. And she

also gave some to her husband who was

with her.

And he ate.

Now, this is a bit of a repeated story

that happens over and over again in the

Bible. And I give give us four actions

to help us remember it. First of all,

she sees. Can you do this? She sees. She

sees the fruit.

And then she thinks, "Ooh,

that looks really good. God's told me I

shouldn't take it, but it seems really

good." And then she takes

the fruit. So, she sees. She thinks it's

really good. She takes it.

And the really sad thing is that at the

end,

death comes into the world. And that's

the pattern. And you know, this pattern

happened again and again and again in

the Bible. I'll give you two more

examples, but there's loads of them. So,

later on in the Bible, in the book of

Joshua, God's people are about to

conquer the city of Jericho.

And this is the first city that they

were going to take in the promised land.

And because it was the first one,

any precious things they found there,

any gold, any silver, any amazing

precious clothes, they were supposed to

give straight to God.

They were not to take it for themselves.

What do you think happens? And suddenly

they look so tempted.

They took it

and then Very good. You've already got

the idea. And here's what happened.

Achan says, "I've sinned against the

Lord. I saw among the spoil a beautiful

cloak from Shinar, 200 shekels of

silver." So, there's lots of silver and

gold. And he says, "And I I coveted

them." He wanted them for himself even

though they weren't supposed to be for

him. And he took them.

And you know, at the end of the day,

it leads to his death.

And the Bible, the Old Testament,

there's another one, okay? It's to do

with this guy. Here's a picture of It's

not actually King David. We don't know

what he looked like, but there's King

David, okay?

Um

And uh there's something very important

that we need to know here with the story

of King David. See, God made husbands

and wives so that they fit together

perfectly. It's amazing. God We were

thinking at the start of the service how

God made everything. Well, God made

husbands and wives so that they fit

together perfectly. It's how they show

that they love each other. But it's

important that only husbands and wives

do that together. It's exclusive. It's

not for anyone else. Well, one day

David was up on the roof

and he saw

a woman

and she was very beautiful and he

thought to himself,

"Hm, God said I should not do this, but

I want to take her for myself." And he

does. He gets his servants to go and

bring her.

And they do what they should absolutely

not have done, and the story ends in

death.

And this is a story that happens again

and again and again in the Old

Testament, and it's no accident that

it's that way. There is one author of

the Bible, God, ultimately, and he's

deliberately put those stories in place

for us. We should look out for this.

Oh, it's so sad. It just keeps on

happening. And as I read through my

Bible, I hear about they see things and

they think, "Ooh, I want to take it."

Even though they've been told not to

take it, they take it, and it leads to

death. Won't somebody come along who can

provide a bit of contrast, who can do

something that's different, who can do

the opposite? Like our opposite game

that we were playing.

And that

is where Jesus comes in. This is one of

the ways in which the Old Testament

points us to Jesus.

See, one day Jesus uh he had been

fasting. He hadn't eaten for 40 days and

40 nights.

And the tempter came to him

and said, "If you're the son of God,

tell these stones on the ground

to become loaves of bread.

You see what the devil was trying to do

was get him to see

and to make him do something which

actually Jesus doesn't do because he

knows it would have been a wrong thing

to do. He was fasting. He was committed

to God. This was not what he was

supposed to do and he doesn't do it.

Rather than seeing, thinking, "Hmm,

that's great." and taking it,

Jesus sees it and he resists. And it

happens again.

Uh he get he's taken up to the top of

the temple.

Really, really high up.

And the devil says to him, "You could

throw yourself off and God will catch

you. He'll send his angels to catch

you."

And wow, you might think, "Wow,

what a fantastic thing, you know, God

could do that for me. He could catch me

if I jump off this building. Wouldn't

everyone see how amazing I am that God

loves me that much?"

But

Jesus doesn't do that. He says, rightly

quoting the Bible, "You should not put

the Lord your God to the test." He

doesn't do the wrong thing and he does

it one more time.

The devil took him to a very high place

and showed him all the kingdoms of the

world and their glory.

And there they were and he said, "You

can have all of this if you just worship

me."

And Jesus does not do that.

He says, "Begone, Satan, for it's

written, 'You shall worship the Lord

your God and him only shall you serve.'"

The Old Testament is full of stories

which lead to death, but the story of

Jesus

he doesn't fail.

When this temptation comes along, when

he's shown things that he could take for

himself, he doesn't do it.

And ultimately, the story of Jesus'

life, rather than leading to death,

ultimately will lead to life.

Jesus breaks the pattern. Jesus lived a

perfect life. The stories of the Old

Testament,

they're really stories about me.

They're stories about you as well.

So many times in life

we've been told what's the right thing

to do and what's the wrong thing to do,

and we choose the wrong thing.

But praise God, he sent Jesus who

doesn't do what we do, who lives a

perfect life

so that we can be forgiven.

Jesus died for our sin. Remember, our

sin leads to death. Jesus took that

death

so that we can have life.

What good news that is for us. We need

to put our faith in Jesus to save us

from our sins.

See, sometimes

we can just feel so uh

gross and horrible and sticky and wrong

because of we know the sin in our life

and it just makes us sad, particularly

when we're Christians. In fact, when

we're Christians

when we sin, it feels awful.

Life becomes miserable. It loses its

shine. The colors just aren't the same.

Life is hard and difficult, but Jesus

has come

so that rather than us facing a world

which is just a bit deathy, we can have

life.

His grace. He's given us what we don't

deserve. Jesus obeyed while we

disobeyed. That is good good news.

Incidentally, last week in the

children's talk I talked about how you

shouldn't eat soup with a with a with a

What was it?

Toothpick. That's it. Well, we're going

to read all the different parts of the

Bible according to the genre that

they're written in. That's what we're

doing this morning. We're looking at

three different kinds of literature. So,

adults, see if you can pick up on what

exactly they are.

Um fantastic. Okay.

I've got kids. You might you're going to

want to come and see this, okay? You're

going to need to see my screen. I'm

going to show you a super zoomed in

picture. You're going to tell me what it

is, okay? Here we go. Uh what is this?

What do we think that is?

You think it's a burger?

It is a burger. Very good. Okay. Yeah,

yeah, you You you can see this as well,

Emily, okay? This is a super zoomed in

picture. What is this a picture of?

Pizza. Pizza. It is pizza. Wow, you're

good at these.

All right, I think I've got one more.

Beer.

That's it.

It's not chips. Mango.

Mango. I've not heard it yet.

Pepper. Shall I show you? Pepper. It's

not yellow pepper. It's boiled eggs. No.

Oh, come on. What was that reaction

about? Sometimes in the Old Testament,

we get a really zoomed-in picture of

something about Jesus.

And it doesn't really make sense,

or [clears throat] we find it difficult

to make sense of

until Jesus comes along in the New

Testament. We're going to listen to a

psalm, so Rachel's going to come up and

read us Psalm 110. And Psalm 110 speaks

about Jesus.

But before Jesus comes along in the New

Testament, if you didn't have the New

Testament, this psalm would be really

confusing, a bit like my pictures that

are super zoomed-in. Thank you, Rachel.

>> Okay. Psalm 110, Bible page Bible

numbers 509.

The Lord says to my Lord, "Sit at my

right hand until I make your enemies

your footstool.

The Lord sends forth from Zion your

mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of

your enemies.

Your people will offer themselves freely

on the day of your power in holy

garments.

From the wombs of the morning, the Jews

of your youth will be yours. The Lord

has sworn, "I will not change his mind.

You are a priest forever after the order

of Melchizedek. The Lord Lord is at your

right hand. He will shatter the kings on

the day of his wrath.

He will execute judgement among the

nations,

filling them with corpses. He will

shatter his chiefs over the wide earth.

He will drink from a brook by the way.

Therefore, he will lift up his head.

Thank you very much, Rachel. So, Psalm

110 is an ancient Hebrew poem.

Uh and in poems, we don't just say

exactly what we're thinking. Let me give

you an example. Um let's say you really

enjoyed a slice of cake, right? And you

could just say that was a very yummy

piece of cake.

But if I was to write a poem, and I have

written a poem, about a piece of cake

that you've eaten, you might say

something like this, right? Cloud-like,

the fluffy cake with gentle sweetness,

tender bite, the rich cream,

the sour jam, an artful dance upon my

tongue. Though a hole in my tummy be

filled,

a hole in my heart now the cake is gone.

Right? So, when we write poems,

we use words that paint pictures. We

don't just say exactly what we're

thinking. And that's what this poem,

Psalm 110, does. And it's speaking about

a king. Some of the words it uses a

mighty scepter. Here's a kind of a

picture of what a scepter might look

like. It's the staff that the king holds

that shows that they're the ruler. It

speaks about how he rules. It speaks

about having your people.

But then the Psalm also talks about holy

garments.

And this same person

being a priest.

Now, this is a big problem in the Old

Testament because priests came from one

family line. They came from the tribe of

Levi.

Kings, at least after King David, came

from the tribe of Judah.

It was impossible for someone to be both

a king and a priest. It doesn't make

sense. This song's got a really weird

picture in it.

And then it gets even weirder. So, we

know this is a song written by David,

and David was the king, right? He says,

"The Lord says to my Lord." Now, where

it's got Lord in all capital letters,

can you see that? That's used wherever

in the Bible the special name for God is

used, Yahweh. We get Lord in all capital

letters written.

So, David is saying, "The Lord God

says to my Lord."

But that's a problem, because how can

King David

have a lord?

If he's the king, he's the top guy,

right?

So, we've got these confusing pictures.

How can he be both a king

and a priest?

And how can David have someone he calls

Lord?

It's very, very confusing. It's like

we're too zoomed in on what's going on

until we get to the New Testament and we

get the bigger picture.

And we discover that this priest king is

Jesus, and the letter to the Hebrews

particularly explains that to us. Jesus

is the king priest. And this is really,

really good news.

It means that Jesus is the ruler. He is

the one who is in control.

But he's also a priest.

And the priest's job was to make sure

that the people could have a

relationship

They drew people to God through the

sacrifices in the Old Testament.

Well, Jesus is both.

And that's really, really good news.

Jesus doesn't just say, "I'm the king.

You must obey me."

He also says, "I'm your priest,

and I will bring you to God.

I will forgive you."

Jesus isn't just king.

He's also a priest, and that doesn't

make sense in the Old Testament, but in

the New Testament it does.

So, sometimes the Old Testament will

give us these confusing pictures, these

glimpses of Jesus, these zoomed-in

pictures that don't make sense until we

get to the New Testament.

But, you know, if we ignore the Old

Testament and we miss these glimpses,

actually we have a less good idea about

what Jesus is really like and who he is.

It's so important for us to know that he

is king and priest.

Because Jesus

he's wonderful. He's so good to us.

He's not cruel. When we do things wrong,

he doesn't send things our way to punish

us like in the Old Testament. He's our

king and he's our priest.

Who I think Jesus really is

will come out in the way I deal with it

when I realize I've become angry in a

wrong way.

When I realize my own sin, who is Jesus?

That comes out in my response in that

situation. If he's just your king, then

you'll feel totally condemned.

If he's just your priest then you'll

start thinking that obeying him doesn't

matter.

He must be your king and your priest.

Jesus, my shepherd, my savior, my

friend, my prophet, my priest, my king,

my lord, my life, my way, my end. And

get to the Here we go. Right. Okay,

we're coming to our third and final way

in which the Old Testament leads us to

Jesus. Because the Bible, it's all about

Jesus. Oh, right. Okay, I've got some

instructions here on the screen on how

to make a paper airplane. Now, I know

some of you know how to do this, but go

with this illustration, okay? So, first

of all, I fold my paper in half, right?

Who's made a paper airplane before?

Yeah, done it before? Oh, some of you

not done it? Right, okay, well, I'm

going to get on that. Here we go, that's

my next instruction. So, I've got to

fold down the corners, right? So,

there's one corner there. There's

another corner there, okay? Well, that's

not looking very much like a plane yet,

is it? Okay. And then I got Oh,

goodness. Okay, right. I got to fold

back in.

You know, okay. What if I use card? This

is much harder with card. Right, come

on. Fold.

And okay, good. Okay, well, that's

starting to look like a plane. Okay, and

then uh

Oh.

Well, that's not very good, is it? I've

This is not Well, that's not a plane

yet. I mean, that's not going to That's

the point of the illustration, is it? It

doesn't work.

Well, that's no good, is it? I've got a

sort of funny-looking triangle.

I've run out of instructions. That's

That's no good. Well, I suppose it's

more aerodynamic. That's a good word as

well. Well done. Very good. Got an

engineer here. All right.

Well, okay. As we're thinking about the

different parts of the Old Testament and

how they point us to Jesus,

we might be familiar uh like this

There's many times, maybe at Christmas,

there's some verses that we often hear

hear read, "For unto us a child is born,

to us a son is given." Right? Very

familiar. Those are words written by

Isaiah hundreds of years before Jesus

came. Amazing prediction.

Or later on in Isaiah,

"He was pierced for our transgressions,

crushed for our iniquities." The Old

Testament speaks about Jesus. It

predicts him in advance, hundreds of

years before. Here's an example you

might not have heard before. This bloke

is an actor playing Moses, right? Moses

was leading God's people. He's about to

lead them into the promised land, but

Moses is also about to die.

And Moses is the one who God has spoken

to and given all the commandments for

his people to follow.

But Moses is going to die.

They've been told what to do through

Moses. Are they going to left be like

me? Are they going to be left with

partial instructions? Not the whole way.

Moses goes, and God's going to go,

"Well, you'll have to make do."

Well, no. God makes an amazing promise.

>> [clears throat]

>> Uh this is Moses speaking first of all.

The Lord your God will raise up for you

a prophet like me from among you, from

your brothers. It is to him you shall

listen. Just as you desired of the Lord

your God at Horeb on the day of the

assembly when you said, "Let me not hear

again the voice of the Lord my God or

see this great fire anymore lest I die."

The people were scared of what was

happening. There was fire coming down as

God was speaking.

They wanted someone else and Moses was

chosen.

And God said, "They are right in what

they've spoken. I will raise up for them

a prophet like you from among their

brothers. I will put my words in his

mouth and he shall speak to them all

that I command him. And whoever will not

listen to my words that he shall speak

in my name, I myself will require it of

him." God is promising his people in the

Old Testament that he's not going to

leave them with partial instructions,

with half a paper airplane, right? He's

going to give them all the instructions

that they need and that's what happens.

God sends the different prophets along

uh and they

they're able to tell the people with

messages from God what they should do.

It's not far off now, is it? I know. I

know.

But here's the thing.

Even though the people are given more

prophets, they're given all the

instructions, they don't obey.

They disobey God.

And actually they even they even kill

some of the prophets. They so much don't

like the messages that God is sending

them. They kill the prophets. But notice

this and I've highlighted a little part

there.

God is saying he's going to send

a prophet. Not just some more prophets,

that is true, but specifically a

prophet, someone like Moses. Now Moses,

he got to speak with God like a man

speaks to a man face to face. In fact,

after Moses had finished speaking with

God, he had to cover his face with a

veil because his face would shine with

the reflected glory of God.

What an amazing privilege Moses had.

Moses had a very, very close

relationship with God.

Well, here God is promising that he's

going to send along someone like Moses.

Someone with a close relationship with

God who will tell his people what they

should do.

Who is it?

It's all Jesus, indeed. Yes, it's all

about Jesus, right? Jesus takes these

words to himself. "For if you believed

Moses, you would believe me, for he

wrote of me." The people understand

Jesus to be the prophet, the one that

God had promised to send. In the book of

Acts, we also get in Peter and Stephen's

sermons, they also bring up this

prediction as referring to Jesus. Jesus

is predicted in advance in the Old

Testament. Moses was speaking 1,300

years before Jesus came.

And he was able to predict that Jesus

would come.

And he was absolutely right.

That is incredible. That's not cuz Moses

is amazing. That's because God is

amazing.

God has made sure that we've not been

left with just partial instructions. God

has given us everything that we need.

And it is so important that we listen to

Jesus.

We aren't waiting for more messages from

God. We're not going to be left in this

kind of situation. We have everything we

need to know in the Bible.

And so, the question we have to ask and

answer is how will I respond? Indeed,

how will I respond to what God says to

me in his word?

Will I put my faith in him

as the only way to be saved? It is

golden on the edges, isn't it? It's

quite pretty.

In fact, that's helpful. It reminds me

how precious God's word is. It's got

this gold edging. I think, "Wow, what a

precious thing this is."

These words are the words of life. What

are we going to do?

Are we going to believe them? Are we

going to put our faith in Jesus?

Well, we should absolutely believe him.

And the most important way we can do

that is by asking Jesus to forgive us of

our sins, to take them away. Because not

only does the Old Testament predict

Jesus coming,

it also predicts the fact that Jesus is

going to come again.

Jesus came the first time born as a

baby. He's going to come again and this

time he'll come as judge. He'll come as

that king.

And at that point it would be too late

to put our faith in him.

So, where is our faith right now?

Jesus says to us,

"Come to me.

Put your faith in me.

You can't obey all of the words in this

book.

But Jesus says, "I've obeyed them

perfectly.

So, that if you put your faith in me,

you can be in heaven with me forever."

Where is our faith?

So, there's three different ways in

which the Old Testament leads us to

Jesus. As you read your Old Testament,

notice in narrative, in poetry, and in

prophecy how it all leads us to and

points to Jesus.

Okay. We are going to finish our service

with two songs. First of all, we're

going to sing a song called Have You

Heard the Voice of Jesus?

Which is to a very familiar tune, so you

don't need to worry if you don't

recognize the name of the hymn, anyone.

And it's a hymn which asks us the

question and makes us think about have

we responded to Jesus the prophet. After

that, we'll stay standing and I'll pray

a short prayer for us.

And then we're going to finish with a

more exciting song, a bit of a faster

song. Jesus is the name we honor. It's a

great hymn of worship uh to him. So,

shall we stand as the music begins, as

we're able, and let's worship God.