Jesus Christ: Climax of the Bible's Story

During the summer between 7th and 8th grade I attended a conference with my family in the arena where the Atlanta Hawks used to play basketball. During a break my mom pointed toward a huge replica jersey of a former player whose number had been retired, and said, “Chris, who is Hudson? I’ve never heard of him.” I looked to where she was pointing and said, “You can read that?” She said, “You can’t read that?!?” I said, “No, it’s just a big blur to me.” And that’s when I was awarded my first trip to the eye doctor.

We went the next day to get me fitted for glasses, and can you guess what the first thing I said was when I walked outside with my new glasses? “I can see the leaves on the trees!” This was quite a revelation to me. A few weeks later when we went to an Atlanta Braves baseball game, I marveled at the fact that I could see the players on the field—that they weren’t merely white dots on a fuzzy green backdrop.

For the two disciples on the road to Emmaus the encounter with Jesus was that moment when everything they were familiar with came into focus. Obviously it didn’t come together immediately for these guys since their eyes were kept from realizing who this teaching stranger was, but later when our Lord broke the bread in their presence, Luke tell us, “And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?””

I want to make two simple points this morning. The first is the tree, while the second is the new glasses that allow you to see the details of that tree. The first point is that the Bible is a story. I don’t mean by that that the Bible only contains stories, like Jonah and the big fish, Joseph and his colorful coat, and David and Goliath. I mean that the Bible is a story. All the stories, laws, wise sayings, and characters of the Bible play into this story. It should be no surprise to us that we love stories, whether in books or plays or movies or at the feet of a grandfather or great aunt. We love stories because God is the greatest storyteller of all, and unlike many stories we grow up hearing, his is real and true.

But this was nothing new to the Hebrews of Jesus’ day, including our friends traveling to Emmaus. They knew the story of the Old Testament well. What changed their lives is the second point—the glasses they put on: the fact that the story of the Bible climaxes in Jesus Christ.

The crucial verse here is Luke 24:27, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” This is to say, Jesus went back, told the story again, but this time with glasses on that brought everything into focus; he showed how the story pointed toward himself.

The story God had been telling for thousands of years was the story of redemption. God created a perfect world and created man and woman to bear his image in this world. But Adam and Eve disobeyed God and their sin became the gateway of death and corruption into the good creation. God promised them redemption from sin and Satan, and the rest of the Old Testament is the story of how God began to work through his people Israel to bring about this salvation.

So Jesus goes back through this story on the road to Emmaus and shows how he is the fulfillment of all the buildup, all the cliffhangers, all the loose ends that had been left for hundreds of years. He gave them glasses to see that Messiah was the seed of Eve that God said would crush the serpent’s head. Messiah is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abram that “In your seed all the families of the peoples will be blessed.” Messiah is the one Moses was talking about when he said, “God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.” Messiah is the one that fulfilled God’s promise to David to establish one of his offspring as a king forever. Messiah is Isaiah’s Suffering Servant. Messiah is Daniel’s Son of Man. Everything in the Old Testament pointed toward Messiah.

I don’t know how much Jesus could teach on a seven-mile walk, but Luke tells us that he left no stone unturned. He opened up all the Scriptures and showed them the things concerning himself. And afterwards, as the disciples reflected on what happened, they said, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” In other words, our people have been longing for clarity and focus for hundreds of years, and now it’s here—this Jesus is the Messiah!

So we have two simple points here: the Bible is a story, and the story climaxes with Jesus. He is the hero of the story. He is the king come to take his throne. He is the redeemer come to save his people. He brings the story into focus so we can see that the story is all about Jesus.

It is doubtless that somebody is sitting there scratching your proverbial head, saying, “This is great, but why in the world are you talking about it?” I’m glad you asked. Next week we are starting a series in the Minor Prophets that will run until Palm Sunday. Lord willing, we will preach through Amos, Micah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and Joel. We will also be going through most of those books in Sunday School, where we are able to get into more detail, so that will be a valuable hour on Sunday morning.

But I still haven’t told you why this morning’s sermon is about Jesus being the point of the Old Testament story. The reason is simple. The fact that Jesus is the climax of the story of redemption means that we read that story with him in mind. Or to use Luke’s language, the fact that Jesus interpreted in all the Prophets the things concerning himself means that we should not do a study of Amos or Joel without talking about Jesus.

Think of it this way. Say your family sets out for Disneyland for a vacation, and along the way you see all the billboards advertising the theme park. Now, you have been to Disneyland five times, but your kids have never been. So when you look at the billboards promoting the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad or Splash Mountain, you remember the thrill of those rides, whereas your children are only formulating ideas of what it might be like.

That is an imperfect, but hopefully helpful way to think about Jesus and the Old Testament. The stories and characters and laws and prophecies of the Old Testament were giving snapshots of what Messiah would be like, but it wasn’t until Jesus came in the flesh that they all made sense.

So as we enter a study of some of the Minor Prophets, we don’t want to treat them as independent stories that have nothing to do with the rest of the Biblical story. We want to study them in relation to Jesus.

But at this point I want to clarify that it is the story of the Old Testament that points toward Jesus, not necessarily every little detail. Some people get so zealous about Jesus’ presence in the Old Testament that they want to show how every gem on the priest’s breastplate relates to the person of Christ. But the point of the Emmaus road encounter was the story. God had been telling a story of redemption for thousands of years, and finally the hero came—Jesus Christ.

So as we approach the Minor Prophets, which can be rather baffling sometimes, our primary question we ask is this: how does this fit into the Old Testament story that reaches its climax in Christ? We’re not as concerned about how Ezekiel prophesying on his side and cooking his food over cow dung relates to Jesus. But we are concerned about how this and other parts of Ezekiel’s ministry related to the story of redemption—the story that reaches its apex with Jesus the redeemer.

As we close this morning I want to ask this question: does your heart burn when you hear and tell and study God’s story of redemption? Have you ever had that experience of putting on the glasses called Jesus the Messiah and allowing him to draw the Old Testament story into focus? I want to challenge you to read the book of Amos this week and next week. Next Sunday I will give a general introduction to the Minor Prophets and then we will dive into Amos on the 15th. So you have two weeks to soak in the book of Amos before we preach on it. And if you read Amos and haven’t a clue where it fits into the Old Testament story, go read 1 and 2 Kings to see how the kingdom divided after Solomon and how Israel began a fierce dive into idolatry and injustice and forsook the Lord. But as you do all of that, keep your glasses on and continually ask, “How does this fit into God’s story of redemption? How does this point toward Jesus?”