Answers Bible Curriculum: Lesson 1 - The Messiah Has Come

Now, who is writing this gospel? Luke. And Luke is writing, if you guys remember the opening part of the gospel, who's he writing to? Theophilus, so he's writing to a Greek man, not somebody who's necessarily schooled in Hebrew culture and the Old Testament, correct?

And so, He's, he's talking about Jesus coming, 8 days being completed, and he has to explain what's going on with this circumcision, what's going on with this purification, and so on and so forth. And so back in. In verse 21, we see 8 days are completed for the circumcision that comes right out of the Levitical law. Verse 22, and when the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.

There's a lot going on here. Circumcising a male, having a baby made one impure. They had to go, marry as a, a Jewish woman had to go through a time of purification, which for a woman would be, if she had a male was 33 days. She had the 7 days to wait for the circumcision, 33 days of purification, that means 40 days after the birth of Jesus, they're now bringing the first born male.

to present him before the Lord. The reason that they're bringing the firstborn male is because any first born child that opened up the womb is holy to the Lord or meant to be presented to the Lord. If it was an animal, the animal will be sacrificed to the Lord. If it's a human, they were brought and presented at the temple as Lord, this is your child.

Just as the Lord killed all of the firstborn, it says in Exodus of Egypt and all of the firstborn animals, we bring our firstborn recognizing that we've been saved, we've been passed over, and we're offering our firstborn to the Lord for any way in which he chooses to use this child. That's a lot of data. That Theophilus would just probably have no idea about if he hadn't read his Septuagint, his Greek Old Testament. And so Luke, goes to, and, and, and is going to quote frequently from the Old Testament to help his audience and his readers understand what's going on.

So if you look at verse 23, And it is written in the law of the Lord. Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. That's why she's coming to the temple. And to offer a sacrifice according to what is paid in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons.

Now, what Luke doesn't tell us that there are actually different types of offerings that could be offered, but if you were poor and you weren't able to afford the animal, the large animal sacrifice, you could bring turtle doves. So, the fact that Mary and Joseph are bringing turtle doves or pigeons, what does that say about their relative wealth? They're poor And so they come, they're going to, bring this offering. Notice in verse 23, it says, every male who opens the womb shall be holy to the Lord.

Does this mean that God doesn't like females? Is God chauvinistic? What do you guys think? Yes, yes.

Now, if you go back and you read, we're not gonna turn that now, but if you read Exodus chapter 13, for the rationale, it's, it's, there's this tie-in to all the male, all the male children that were killed in Egypt as a part of that Passover. Remember, the final great plague was that all of the, the firstborn of all of the animals and all the male children in Egypt were killed, except for those Hebrew kids that were in their homes. The blood had been put on the doorway and when the avenger or the angel of death came, all of those that were under the blood were sacrificed, were, were saved.

All of those that were not were killed.

And so when a male child was brought before the Lord, this was to be a remembrance that their children had been passed over while Egypt's children had been killed. And so it has nothing to do with some ancient form of male chauvinism. No matter what my professor said back at Cal State San Berardino. Let's look at verse 25 and following.

And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem. Whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout and waiting for the consolation. Of Israel And the Holy Spirit was upon him. So what are some descriptions of this man named Simeon that we see in verse 25?

How does Luke describe Simeon? He's devout. Good. What else?

He is righteous, just. Yeah, so he's seeking the consolation of Israel. He's been. so this isn't just.

This is somebody who knows, probably knows his Old Testament. He knows that there's a time coming when the consolation, which is a synonym for the Christ, would be coming. And then what else does it say? The Holy Spirit's upon him.

So, when the Holy Spirit's upon you in an old, we're still technically in the Old Testament from a dispensationalist viewpoint, right? The Holy Spirit hasn't come upon the church yet. But the Holy Spirit's upon him in the way that you would see the Holy Spirit coming upon David, or Samson, or any of the Old Testament saints. And so the Holy Spirit's upon him, then verse 26, and it had, it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ, the Lord's Christ.

So he would not die until he had seen this consolation, this Christ, this Messiah. Anybody know, those because that maybe looked at the study material this week, what does Christ mean? Like, what would be the translation, English translation of Christ, the anointed one, right? So an anointed one would be somebody who's been picked, plucked out or, or, or chosen for a special purpose, anointed with oil, anointed by the Holy Spirit for a special purpose.

David was anointed, right, by Samuel. And so, the Christ is the ultimate. Anointed one and Simeon will not see death. He's been told.

Verse 27, and he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the child, Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, He took him up in his arms and blessed God and said. Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation. Which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles.

And the glory of your people. Israel That's pre, this is a pretty interesting. Occurrence. Simeon, being led of the Holy Spirit, takes up this little baby.

And what are some of the things that Simeon is, is, is attributing to this baby? Salvation, that salvation is gonna come to this little child. What else? Yes, It's gonna be a light of revelation to the Gentiles.

And then after that, Yeah, glory for the people of Israel. Notice that, it, I don't know if you have this in your Bibles, but it's set off as poetry. So you have these couplets. So you've got light paralleling with glory, you've got Gentiles paralleling with Israel.

And so as he's prophesying, he's being led of the Lord to prophesy in a Hebrew poetic form. And, so just acknowledging that the Lord has now fulfilled what was promised to Simeon and that he's been able to see with his own eyes the salvation. So now we've, we've had several different descriptions of Christ, salvation, consolation, he's called Christ, he's called Jesus. Already, we've got a lot of attributes that are being built up around this little baby, that he's gonna be the one that brings consolation from what?

The fact that Israel had all these promises that went unfulfilled and now there's been nothing for really 400 years, right? Think about all the promises because we're here a few weeks ago. Think about all the promises that were being dished out via Daniel and Ezekiel, that you guys are gonna come back into the land and never again be plucked up. And the Lord's gonna put His law in your hearts, and nobody's gonna even have to talk to their neighbors and witness their neighbors cause everybody's gonna know the Lord.

They come back into the land. They start to intermarry. And they even start to fall back into idolatry, which is why they got thrown into captivity in the first place. And before it, there's another people group that takes over, and then you have a little bit of a Maccabean period where the Jews are rolling themselves, and Alexander the Great, and then you've got the Romans.

And there's just, it's like there's been no consolation, no hope, no fulfillment of what we heard the prophet saying. Now Jesus is coming to be that consolation, to be Jesus. What does Jesus literally mean? Anybody remember?

Yeah, Jehovah saves. So he is Jehovah's salvation. so he's consolation, he's salvation. His name means salvation.

And it's pretty interesting that Simeon's prophecy would involve the Gentiles. We do see hints of that in the Abrahamic covenant, and Isaiah and other places, but it comes right out in this early, early prophecy about Christ. This is gonna involve the Gentiles. Now, let's pick it up in verse 33.

And Joseph, his mother, and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him. Then Simeon, it, it'd be really cool if you just stopped right there. Right? If he just stops right there and says, here's the consolation, here's the Christ.

This is Jesus. This is really exciting. But then he has to turn to Mary, says, behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign which will be spoken against. Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

Who knows even if Simeon know, knew the full import of what he was prophesying. but this is, this doesn't feel, this isn't a good feeling. The first part of the prophecy, I don't know about you, but it's a good feeling, isn't it? But then for him to turn to Mary and say, hey, he's gonna cause the rise and fall of many and he's gonna, and your own heart's gonna be pierced.

So, this seems to be a veiled reference perhaps to the cross, right? And the road that Jesus is gonna go on. And so even now, as we get this foreshadowing, Christ is gonna come and accomplish our salvation from sin, but we're not gonna see the full fulfillment yet in this advent of Christ, seems to be what's implied in this prophecy. All right.

So what are the, if you guys were to pick like Some of the top terms about this child, just by way of review, what are the big terms that are popping out of this text? Just about the child. And you can shout it out. Or wrap it if you want, whatever.

Again, big nouns, big describer words if you want to. OK, light Say it again. Glory. Salvation, what else?

OK, glory Christ holy, OK. OK. And so the, so probably the big one would be Christ. You, would you agree?

Consolation in Christ, those are probably the big terms. Let's turn now over to John. I can always forget about my wonderful PowerPoint that I spent all this time on that I never show you guys. Let's click over here to.

To John. Chapter 1, verse 40. So now we've got a scene. Where Jesus, he's, he's now, beginning as ministry and, and this first, group of converts and disciples.

We'll actually pick it up in verse 35, although we're gonna focus down around 40 to 42. Again, the next day, John stood with His, two of his disciples and looking at Jesus, as he walked, he said, Behold the Lamb of God. So there's another describer of Jesus. And two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.

Then Jesus turned and seeing them, following, said to them, What do you seek? They said to him, rabbi, which is to say, when translated, Teacher, where are you staying? And he said, come and see. And they came and saw where he was staying and remained with him that day.

That was about the 10th hour, and one of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, and he found his own brother, Simon, and said to him, we have found the what? Messiah. Which is translated Christ, verse 42, and he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, he said, You are Simon, son of Jonah.

You shall now be called Cephas, which is translated stone. In verse 40 to 42, there's some interesting things that are going on. Who's the Again, who's the author of this particular book? John.

OK, so we're in John now. And so let's notice, first of all, a couple of things. Do you think John's Audience based on 40 to 42. Do you think they speak, what language do you think is the primary language of the readers?

Greek. Right. And we would know that based upon him saying, which is translated. This, right?

So look at verse 441 again. We have found the Messiah. Which is translated Christ. So, when he says Messiah, he's writing in Greek letters, the Hebrew Messiah or Messiah, right?

And so he wants them to be able to pronounce it when they're reading the Greek New Testament, Greek, but the average Greek reader is gonna look at that and not know what that word means. it's kinda like, we'll probably talk later about a word. There's a Greek word prosko, right? Prosko.

And if I threw that up with Greek lettering, you guys wouldn't even be able to pronounce it, but I could spell it, I could spell it out for you in English letters, P R O S K U N E O. That's not how it's written in Greek, but then you guys could look at that, pronounce it Prosko, and then I would say, which is translated worship or bow down. And so that's what's going on here is his readers. They can read it with the Greek lettering.

But they don't know necessarily what it means, so he has to say which is translated to Christ. Now the assumption is they know what Christ means. Anointed one, and he brought them to Jesus. And then the same thing you see down with Cephas, you shall be called Cephas, and then that's the Aramaic term, which is translated a stone.

And so, in this particular setting, I think the emphasis that we want to make is that Andrew invites Peter to come meet someone called the Messiah or the Christ. And Peter as a Jew would have known exactly what that meant. This isn't just any average person. This is the consolation of Israel.

This is the person we've been waiting for. We looked to Moses, he didn't, he didn't go into the land. We looked at Aaron, he wasn't able to go into the land. David was an incredible king, but guess what?

His kingdom kicked off the split of the kingdom. We have all these prophecies that came in the Old Testament that seem like The Lord was going to cause the spirit to fall upon all peoples and it just didn't happen. And so we're still waiting for this time when the prophet, priest, King, when the Messiah will show up. Andrew comes up to Peter and says, we found him.

Now, we've grown up with these stories, many of us since we were little kids in Sunday school. And so when we hear Andrew saying to Peter, we found the Messiah. at 9:30 in the morning when we're only halfway through our coffee, it's just like. Oh wow, that's cool.

All right. That's awesome. But just try to get your, your Into the mindset of Peter and Andrew. These guys are underneath the yoke of the Romans.

They know their history. That That there is somebody coming at some point. They don't know if it's gonna be in their lifetime or some future lifetime, but for Andrew to walk up to Peter and say, we have found the one that the Old Testament has been talking about for 4000 years, all the way back to Genesis, when God promised that the one that would come out of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. He is here.

this would have just probably sent shivers up and down the spine of Peter. And the same thing with Simeon, when he suddenly realized that this prophecy that had been revealed to him through the Holy Spirit, now he's actually holding this little baby. That is the Christ. And this must have been an overwhelming, overwhelming moment.

One of the things I appreciate these days is there's a, there's better and better Christian films that are coming out that are able to really put on display some of the, just the emotion and intensity of some of the biblical narratives. I don't know if any of you guys have seen, one of the recent ones we've seen is Paul. Has anybody seen the, the Paul movie? Yeah, there's, and they're just towards the end of it.

I don't wanna spoil it, the spoiler, but. And just the intensity that they're able to bring to the film of Paul seeing the savior after his death, just looking up and there's Christ. It's just like, wow, that is so awesome. for artists today to take this, what we know is gonna be true that when we die, we're gonna be with Christ and to be able to really bring out with all of the music and the visuals of, the, just the thought of Christ seeing Paul after a life poured out for Christ.

And, and I think the scriptures are meant to bring out that emotion that when we see these types of events, Andrew speaking to Peter, Simeon holding this baby in his hands, we're meant to like feel the swell of the music of the story that's been building from the Old Testament and to really feel the intensity of what's happened. so I, I don't know about you, but I If, as long as I'm watching the right movie, the, those types of experiences add to my appreciation of scripture, no movie hits it perfectly and, anybody seen Samson?

This is a rabbit trail. Anybody seen Samson yet?

Oh man. Oh, Pastor Milton has? OK. There's some really cool movies that are coming out that I'm, yeah, I'm like, willing to, when the, when the family's saying, hey, let's go spend $15 on a movie ticket, and I look at some of the ratings, like, all the three F words and this one and that one, and a little bit of nudity and that stuff, I'm like, why do, why do I wanna spend $15 on this?

But when there's something that's coming out that, might not match our Artistic standards as Americans, but it's a good film that's, that's producing biblical truth. I'm like, I'll spend $15 on that. And that Samson movie, it shows the Holy Spirit coming upon Samson before he kills the 3000 Philistines. Is it Philistines, or the people that are attacking him.

And it's just really cool the way he like gets filled with the spirit and then grabs the donkey bone and just goes ape wild. It's pretty awesome. So you should see it just for that, just to see him like kill all these Philistines with the donkey bone. Not very politically correct, by the way, these days.

But a killer, killer scene. Now, let's, now let's turn over to Hebrews now to kinda wrap this. tie this. Whole transition.

So in Hebrews chapter one, We're now, the writer of Hebrews is It's writing a little bit more after the fact now. Jesus has already come. He's died. He's been raised from the dead.

And There does seem to be a sense in the book of Hebrews. That he is writing to predominantly a Jewish audience, thus the title. Hebrews, right? And And so some of these early Jewish Christians.

trying to piece together some of the story that might be there as to why he's writing this epistle, mixing it in with some of the other data from the New Testament. There seems to be some questions going on. One, there's like an enamorment still with the old covenant, and how does the new covenant interact with the old covenant. There seems to be people that are really enamored with angels, really caught up with the concept of angels, and, And, and also within the midst of some of these churches, there's a big question mark about who's really saved, right?

just like here at Cornerstone or any other church, there's people that come every week who hear the gospel preached, but we're under no illusion that everybody that's in these seats this morning are born again, even if they've been coming for a long time. There's gonna be a mixed crowd. And so, How do you determine who's born again, who's not born again, how do people check themselves, so on and so forth. And so the writer of Hebrews.

This is, this is a, an epistle that, a lot of epistles, they warm up to the thesis. This one just jumps right into the thesis and just slaps you in the face from verse one. There's just no buildup at all. There's not even any like, we, we don't even know who the author is because they didn't say, hey, the apostle Paul to this church, or let me send you greetings and grace and mercy.

They just go, boom, God. Look, look at verse one. God, who at various times in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets. This, he spoke to prophets in times past, the Old Testament, right?

Has in these last days spoken to us by his son. whom he appointed heir of all things. Let's just stop right there. So you've got one verse about the prophets, God spoke by the prophets.

But in his last days, he's spoken to us by his son, and then the rest of the book is pretty much about the son. And just look at the flow of this first chapter. So he spoke by the prophets. OK, enough with them.

Let's talk about the sun now. whom he appointed heir of all things. So, by the way, first of all, he's inheriting all things. What does he mean by all things?

He means all things, absolutely everything is his. He has authority over it all. Through whom he made the world's, and you almost have to get this idea. There's almost like, by the way, he made everything, right?

He's the son, he's the heir of all things, and As an aside, he made the whole universe. Whom, by the way, and I'm throwing that in there, being in the brightness of His glory and the expressed image of his person. So he's, he's the exact representation of the nature of the father. upholding all things by the word of his own power.

Think about that, the sun upholds all things by the word of his own power. That's very, that calls you back to Colossians chapter one. The idea here is, all Jesus has to do is speak. And if you only understood, understand the idea of word, all he has to do is think.

And it just happens, he upholds everything by the word of his own power. When he had himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of majesty on high. It's a big mouthful. So this one who created all things, who upholds all things by the word of his power, who's going to inherit all things, he purged our sins and then sat down at the right hand of majesty.

In other words, He's the man. So the, the whole rest of the book is gonna try to demonstrate that Jesus is the highest. He is the supreme one. There is nobody higher.

Therefore, we're gonna talk about angels here, the rest of the chapter. He is in charge of the angels. We're gonna talk about the Aaronic priesthood a little bit later. Guess what?

He is the high priest. We're gonna talk a little bit about the prophet. He is the highest prophet. We're gonna talk about the old covenant.

Guess what? It's the old covenant. It had a built-in expiration date. It's expired.

He's now the, he's now in charge of this thing called the new covenant, which is called New Covenant for a reason, right? It is new, it is better. And so if you were to put a big thesis statement over the book of Hebrews, if we were to rebind it and put like a subtitle, Hebrews, the subtitle would be Jesus is Better. Better than what?

Everything. Everything you can imagine. Let's, let's kinda do a, a flyby through the rest of this chapter, verse 4. Having become so much better, there you go, right?

What do you guys, what do your translations have? Let me look at your translations. Do you guys all have better in verse 4? Better, superior, better, superior?

Anybody have anything different than better or superior? Superior? OK. So he's better.

He's superior. to the angels as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. Verse 5, for to which of the angels did he ever say, You are my son, today I have begotten you, and, and again, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. Has he ever said that to any angels that you guys are so excited about?

No, it's, this is the only one he said that to you. But verse 6, when he again brings the firstborn into the world, he says, let all the angels of God worship who? Him. Angels are worshiping Jesus.

That's our word Proscaneo. Can you guys say Prosko? Prosko, the idea is you bow down to and worship. So Prosko could be in some context, it's just Proskneeling before a king.

But whenever it involves Jesus, or angels or spiritual things, it always involves worship. That's why in the Book of Revelation, when the apostle John Proscaneos before the angel, what does the angel say? Get up. You don't proscaneo me, right?

and so when in this context, when it talks about angels, Prosko and Jesus, that is worship of a deity. It's not just bowing to show reverence and respect like you might respect the king. No, this is, this is actual worship. So Jesus is getting worship of angels.

Verse 7. And of the angels. He says, who makes his angels, spirits or winds, some translations say, and his ministers a flame of fire. But to the son, he says, your throne, oh God, for, is forever and ever.

A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. So, Christ's kingdom is forever. It's eternal, and by the way, he's also called Theos God. Verse 9, you have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.

Therefore, God, your God has anointed you. There's our word anointed. That's the idea of Christ with the oil of gladness more than your companions. Verse 10, and you, Lord, in the beginning, laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.

So these are all quotes, right? We're quoting the Old Testament, demonstrating, he's demonstrating how they, affirm Christ are pointed towards Christ. Verse 11, they will perish, but you will remain. They will all grow old like a garment, like a cloak, you will fold them up and they will be changed, but you are the same and your years will not fail.

But to which of the angels has he ever said, sit up my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool? So verse 1 to 13, it's like, Jesus Christ has created all things, he inherits all things, all the angels worship Him. And by the way, he created the world again, he reminds us of that. Everything else is gonna grow old, but the sun will not grow old.

And then in verse 14, we get a, a little bit of a, a prop for angels. Are they not All ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation. So it's not like angels have no role, but let's get their role right. They're here to minister to you.

And they bow before Christ, and Christ is better. He's ultimate. He's superior. So what's the bottom line here?

What we should be walking away with as we move into the Into the New Testament. is the Old Testament. when you, when you read the Old Testament. I don't know about you, but if I was God writing a book about, All these, trying to really demonstrate.

The awesomeness of my people and Israel and so on and so forth. You would just never make up a story like the Old Testament. Because it seems like every hero that comes up in the Old Testament ends up being a real failure. And, and, and, and a disappointment.

And you look at the one group of people that God chooses out of all of the nations, and aren't they one of the most dysfunctional families you've ever seen in your life? It's like he calls out Jacob. Jacob's a trickster who has to run out of town from his brother Esau, and then, he has all this trouble with Laban, and then he ends up having 4 different wives, and then kids from 4 different wives, and they're all after each other, and then they throw this guy named Joseph into a pit, by the way.

who ends up going and saving Israel.

And you just read through the whole story and you're just like, you would never write a story like this. it's like, what are you doing, Lord? there's just no heroes. Everybody seems like a knucklehead.

and then the Lord starts to do some pretty amazing things. And the prophet never makes it into the land, the priest never makes it to the land. King David, who's the greatest king in the Old Testament, has some big time serious flaws, who ends up having this consequence that ends up lasting the rest of his life and causes division in the whole period of Israel. and so the whole book of the Old Testament with as much as you see the Lord doing, it ends with great disappointment.

Until you come to the New Testament and finally you have this consolation of Israel, this hope, this salvation. And even then, Jesus Christ dies on the cross. And at first, people are like, what is, what is going on? Let's turn to Luke to kinda, we'll, we'll finish with this.

Luke. I'm losing the Exact chapter, I want you guys to go to the Road to Emmaus. Brian, what chapter is that? I think You think it's 24?

Is that right? Yeah, so 2413. And following So I remember, Jesus has died and then several people just think that his body has been stolen. We'll pick it up at At verse 17.

And this is, Jesus said to them, what conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad? So these disciples, they're not like excited that Jesus Christ died on the cross, and that his body has disappeared. They're, they're not, they're not putting 2 and 2 together yet. Verse 18, then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to him, Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem?

And have you not known the things which happened, there in these days? And he said to them, what things? I love this, Christ says humanity just, his resurrected humanity, just Lead them along. Hey, what things?

So they said the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified. But we were hoping that it was he who was going to, what, redeem Israel. This is past tense. We were hoping.

And here we are again. it hasn't happened. Indeed, besides all this, today is the 3rd day since these things happened. Yes, certain women of our company arrived at the tomb early, were astonished us.

When they did not find his body, they came saying that they also had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive and certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it was just as the woman had said, but him they did not see. And so, even though they, they know he's has, wasn't in the tomb, they're still sad. So Jesus comes along and here they are just sad walking along the road. In verse 25, 0, foolish ones and slow of heart to believe what all that the prophets have spoken.

All the stuff that Hebrews 1 talks about, every, there's been all this stuff that's been building up to this moment, verse 26, ought not the what? Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory. This is the way it was meant to be. And beginning, where did it begin?

That Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. That just must have been a crazy, amazing conversation as Jesus is developing the doctrine of Christ from Genesis through Malachi. Just hitting all these high points of the prophecy, prophet, priest, King, what was meant to be happen of Christ, and you guys know the story. That suddenly he breaks bread, their eyes are opened, and he said, man, wasn't our hearts burning when he was speaking to us.

And so we see that, that Jesus Christ, he is better, he is superior, and, and that his death on the cross was not a mistake. It wasn't Plan B. It was plan A in his first Advent. But now we're sitting in a time period where God has called us to go out and spread this hope of the consolation of Israel and the light of the Gentiles in anticipation of his return.

When he returns the next time, We're looking forward, we understand, to the rapture of the church, but then he's gonna come and ultimately defeat his enemies. We'll see the full fulfillment of the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic New Covenant. on into the millennium. And any, I guess, just one of the big takeaways that encourage us with is what are the things, the, the people that were reading the book of Hebrews.

They had gotten enamored with angels. Is it bad to read about and think about angels? Nah. But they got so caught up with angels that the writer of Hebrews has to say, hey, the angels worship Jesus, right?

What are the hobby horses that we can get caught up with? There's lots of things, even in scripture, we can kinda go on these rabbit trails and get caught up in little rabbit trails. In life, we can get, I don't know about you, but every day my heart's like running towards a different idol that I can get enamored with and I have to come back and say, let's keep the main thing, the main thing, Christ, my relationship with Christ, my love for Christ, understanding his love for me, keeping the main thing the main thing.

And So I would just encourage us with that, that, the message of the New Testament is the Old Testament is ultimately leading to Christ.

And it's all about his superiority. He is better. He is the one that will get glory and he wants to get glory from From us. Any, any thoughts that you guys have before we pray?

And closed for the morning. Comments, questions, criticisms. Or concerns. All right.

So you guys have an assignment. One is to go and look at lesson two this week. We've got packets on the back. I'll email you guys out, the lesson for next week for you guys to check that out.

The other thing I want you to do over the next week or two is go find either on Amazon or Redbox or the theater, find a good Christian movie. to get pumped up about, cause there are some really good Christian movies that are out these days. And, and, and, and get pumped up with Some of that Christ exalting stuff that's out there. I'll give you one other one that you guys go check out.

There's a series on Amazon, it's called the Bible Collection where they put together a bunch of different movies that you can buy for about $1.99 or $2.99 to rent them. And I've been really impressed with the quality of the movies. They're, they're not all like brand new. Some of them are like early 2000s, but the one on Esther, is really killer.

And the one on Jeremiah like just had me like bawling. As Jeremiah is trying to resist the Lord to, he doesn't really want to go out and prophesy, and then the Spirit falls upon him and he's just like, and he just has to speak for the Lord. it's a really cool movie. I personally liked Paul, but not everybody likes it.

So that's your 2nd assignment. And then I would challenge you guys. I know we're in April, but Get into some, if you're not doing so already, some Bible reading program where you are reading through the Bible in some, some clip. It doesn't have to be the ninety-day Bible program, but something that's getting you through scripture to where you're getting the big picture.

I think if you tried the ninety-day Bible program, you guys would be surprised. And how, how easy it is, that it's not as intimidating as it sounds. honestly, I can do my Bible reading, my 90-day Bible reading plan in the time that it takes me to watch two Seinfeld episodes with no commercials. Right?

You watch one Seinfeld, it's 23 minutes. Next one's 23 minutes. In 45 minutes, I can, I can do my Bible reading. And I sit there and watched 2 episodes of Seinfeld like it was nothing, right?

Just goes by Yeah, the 90-day Bible reading program is you read the whole Bible in 90 days. And basically, if, if you read for 45 minutes, you can buy the NIV version if you want because they break it up for you. And the NIV one, it's called the 90-day, it's by Zondervan, 90-day Reader. It's 12 pages a day.

And the average reading, if you're just an average to slow reader, you can do it in 45 minutes a day. It's not like you're not trying to suck the morrow out of every phrase, you're just reading through it. And then what I'll do is I keep a pen next to me and I'm just, if there's something I wanna go back to, I just really quick write it. I don't stop.

And, and for me, personally, it helps if I have audio going while I'm reading because then I'm not tempted to go off on rabbit trails and start thinking about, oh, that's an interesting phrase. Yes, sir. I just like, just move through it in 45 minutes. Yeah, it's pretty cool.

And then there's this Bible app. I'll end on, I keep telling you guys I'm gonna end on this. It's a useless preacher term. So this audio Bible app, this actually is by Bible Gateway.

But this one, it actually has the text of the Bible on the app where it's, let me see if it's picking it up. Like, I don't know if you guys can see that. It rolls through the text while it's reading. So it's changing slides.

And you can set it up on, you can set it up on a timer, like if you wanna read for 30 minutes, you can put a timer 30 minutes. You can also make it go faster or slower. Right now I've got it at 1.5. from.

Oh, I answered, your servants have come from a very distant country because of the fame of the Lord your God, for we have heard reports of Him, all that he did in Egypt and all they did to the two kings of the Amorites. See, I've been doing it fast for so long that that sounds, that's totally normal to me. It just helps me, more my reading speed rather than my listening speed. Does that make sense?

The app is called Bible Audio. It's for free. On, your App Store. And yeah, the thing I like, there's, it's all, it's only King James and NIV but there's several different audio of the NIV and the thing I really like about it is one, I can see it.

I'll use it sometimes if I don't have my Bible if I'm like somewhere else without this copy of the God's word and I can hit the timer and I'll actually do it this speed sometimes and that's the speed I do when I'm going through like the. The, no, no, like like Levitical laws and stuff or like if I'm going through like all the genealogies, that's my genealogy speed. Take provisions for your journey and meet them and say to them, we are servant. but so you can change the speeds and stuff.

Anyway, just some ideas. Yeah. I do better, like if I read with the audio, I do better than listening to the audio. I'm not very, my learning style is not really geared towards audio by itself.

I do better reading, but if I have reading and audio, it helps me stay at a certain speed. Otherwise, like my tendency would be, if I was trying to do the 90 Bible program without audio, it would probably take me 2 hours to read my section each day cause I wanna stop and study this and look up that word and start to daydream and I, I have ADD so. I think, I don't know, just. All right.

Well, let's pray and if you guys have any other questions, I'll be up here. Lord, thank you so much for your kindness and goodness to us. we thank you, Lord, for just being able to start the New Testament today and what a blessing it is to see the consolation and hope that we have in Christ. Well, and we thank you Lord for the hope that Christ, gave, Moses, who was not able to enter the land, Aaron that was not able to enter the land, David, who failed in his life, and yet they all pointed to the perfect prophet, priest, and king.

And we thank you Lord Jesus for being our prophet, our King, our priest, for being the Christ. We thank You, Lord, for ministering angels, but we look to you as the ultimate, superior, better one. And we ask God that you receive worship this morning as your word is preached, as we sing, and we, thank you in the name of Jesus. Amen.