Description
Run Through the Bible
Week 2
“The New Testament”
November 11, 2018
By Ed Young
In the second part of this two-part series, Pastor Ed Young gives us an overview of the 27 books of the New Testament. And as he moves us from the Old Testament into the New Testament, we discover how the overall storyline of Scripture continues to point to Jesus and reveals the power and ability he has to help us get the most out of life.
Transcript
Good morning! Are you ready to run through the Bible? I am, too. I’ve enjoyed this series. I need this series as much as anyone. If you’re brand new here to Fellowship I’ve been in a series, which means – you know – we do kind of a meal in bite-sized chunks. I decided to go through the entire Bible in two Sundays. So often we sort of pick and choose when it comes to the Bible. It’s like you go through some sort of a cafeteria. OK, I’ll take this. No, I don’t want that. I’ll have this, I’ll have that. And then you never really take a step back and look at the entire menu! Look at the entire restaurant. Look where the restaurant is, and let me see the context of where I am.
ILLUS: This past Tuesday I found myself on a 15-story observation deck with a couple of school administrators looking at a beautiful, massive university. They were pointing out different landmarks. This is the medical school building. OK, that’s a dorm, that’s a dorm, that’s a dorm. And there’s the arena. This university had flown in our creative worship team and also had flown in me and some others to do some speaking before their student body. So, we spoke on Wednesday morning to 11,000 students, then Wednesday night to about 4,000. And it was amazing because Fellowship Church, of course, we have the opportunity now and then to do a lot of traveling, and to spread our DNA to tell others what God is doing. So, it was a great, great trip.
What was interesting about the trip, though, was when I walked around the campus on the ground level I got lost several times. It was like a maze, you know? But when I was able to look at everything from the perspective of this observation deck, even though I’m directionally challenged I got it. I was like, wow! I see it now! I’ve got it now. There’s the football stadium, there’s this building, there’s that building. So, context is everything. Perspective is everything.
And today we’re zooming out, we’re doing the Google Earth thing, you might say. We’re droning the Bible as we discuss what the Old Testament and specifically the New Testament is all about. Hopefully you’ve brought in your message map. Did you see these footprints? Yeah, we’re running through the Bible. We’re not skipping, we’re not jumping. These are very, very important because as I go through this stuff really, really fast you’ll see on these gorgeous LED screens behind me where you can fill in the blanks. And we fill in the blanks for you as I go through, so just pay attention as we do this because hopefully you’re going to go, “Wow! I was able to climb 15 stories at Fellowship Church and see the Bible in a different perspective. As opposed to going to the cafeteria and going, yeah, I’ll have some beans. No, I don’t want any tortillas, but I’ll have some chicken, please.” Yeah, you can do that but let’s look at the whole context of it, the context, the content, and the concepts.
The Bible says about the Bible in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, this. Would you read it with me? That means at all campuses. A 1 and a 2 and a 3! “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
This text says the Bible is <breath!> God-breathed. That word is theopneustos. God breathed it. It’s inspired, from Genesis to Revelation. Not revelations, Revelation. The writers from a kaleidoscopic range of backgrounds, of socioeconomic levels, of races inspired by the Holy Spirit of God wrote the Bible. The Bible is a story. Basically, it’s a Him book, a book about Him, Jesus. There’s one hero, Jesus, one villain, the devil, and one message, our Savior rescues. That’s the Bible. That’s the story. That’s the flow. The Old Testament, 39 books, 28 authors, over 2,000 years. Let’s put the light on the Old Testament over there, the light. Why do you have 10 icons? 10 toes, 10 toes down, why do you have 10 icons for the New Testament? 10 toes down. Are you feeling me? OK, I thought you were. The New Testament, 27 books, 9 authors, over 100 years. That’s it. So, it took a couple of thousand years in the Old Testament and only really one generation for the New Testament. If you missed last time, make sure to watch it online. There’s this thing called, as my father says, the in-ter-net. The internet. It’s kind of funny. He’s 82 years old. Gotta show him some love. And you can go online and watch the whole thing and you’ll understand the context, but I do want to bring you up to speed.
These 10 icons represent the Old Testament. The Old Testament means the old covenant. What is covenant? It’s like a commitment on steroids. That’s covenant. The Old Testament. The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed. Say that with me. The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed. You got it! I put some pressure on you and you got it! All right. The New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. Say that with me. The New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. Revealed! Huh.
I take pictures all the time, you know. I have a cellular phone. I love to take pictures. Now, the Old Testament would be pictures that are unedited. The New Testament are pictures that are edited, and I kind of scare my kids because now I know how to edit. I can take those shadows out. I can bring out the vivid colors. I can arrange it. I’m dangerous. So that’s the New Testament. The New Testament would be the edited photos. The Old Testament, unedited.
These icons tell the story. A story about Him. The Bible talks about, in the Old Testament, our spin cycle, or our sin cycle. <thumping sound effect> You have forgetting, we forget God, we all do. Then we fail, then we fall, then we’re forgiven. And throughout the Old Testament we have that in play. This would be the Garden of Eden. God created man in his image, yet we have a choice in the matter. We chose to rebel against God. What did God do? Well, God began to unfold his plan of atonement. Atonement would be, in this case with Adam and Eve, the shedding of blood of an innocent third party to cover the sins of man. Very important. That’s what happened, that’s what went down in the Garden of Eden. God, right before their eyes, took the life of an innocent animal, clothed Adam’s and Eve’s nakedness with the skins of the naked animal, foreshadowing (it’s not edited yet. There are still shadows, see?), foreshadowing what Jesus is gonna do for us thousands of years later as he died on the cross for our sins, the new covenant. Then God brings forth the franchise players. Abraham. You like that? Cool shades, huh? Isaac, Jacob, Jacob’s son, Joseph. Through a strange turn of events they’re enslaved in Egyptian bondage. They’re there for 400 years. God taps Mo (I’m talking about Moses), gives him great momentum. Moses leads them out of Egyptian slavery to the Promised Land, the greatest real estate deal ever closed. God promised Abraham that way back in the day. Now it’s coming into fruition. Moses messes up, he drops the ball. The J-man, Joshua, takes over. They close the deal. Israel is supposed to drive out everybody from the Holy Land, but they keep a couple of people around, disobeying God. Remember, sin dealt with radically is sin dealt with effectively, in your life and in my life. Even in the children of Israel’s lives. Then God brings in the judges. Is it just me or whenever I watch football it seems like I’m watching referees more and more these days. Throwing flags all the time and reviewing plays. I mean, I’m all into that, I love sports, but I’m like – let’s just play the game! Anyway, I kind of got off subject. But the judges, Samson. Gideon, people like that, Deborah, etc.
“We want a king! We want a king!” the Old Testament people said. “Mommy, daddy, I want a car like they have! And I don’t want to have a curfew, they don’t have a curfew!” Whatever, whatever. We’re like that as adults, right? Well, the kings didn’t work. I’m talking about Saul and David and Solomon, because the kings were wheels off in the spin cycle of sin. The nation of Israel split into the north and the dirty south. Those who like hip-hop understand that. The dirty dirty… OK, then God brings forth an eviction. Because remember, what do we have? Forgetting. We have failing. We have falling. And falling is we can choose our choices, but we can’t choose our consequences. So, what’s the falling? They were evicted from their land. The Assyrians came in and opened up a can. And then the Babylonians came and opened up a can. We never hear from the northern tribes of Israel again. We hear, though, from those in the dirty dirty. Then they return back to God’s land, a U-turn, and then we have 400 years of silence. Touch somebody and say silence. Yeah.
So, you have the Pharisees and the Sadducees. You have the Greeks and the Romans. And you think, wow! God’s redemptive plan kicked off in the Garden seems like it’s done. I mean, there’s just a remnant, there’s just a few. Surely, it’s not going to continue. Because you know, God and the prophets and the men and women are pointing to this ultimate sacrifice. It doesn’t seem like it’s in the cards any more but God’s still working and still moving behind the scenes. Then we move to the New Testament. 10 toes down. I said 10 toes down. You have the Fantastic Four. Who would that be? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Do you like to watch Netflix? I do. I love documentaries. I’m a documentary guy. Lisa doesn’t like documentaries as much as I do. I love documentaries. I don’t know why, I just do. When you see Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, think about documentaries. Think about producing documentaries. Has anyone here ever produced a documentary before? Anybody? OK, well, I don’t know why I asked. I just thought I would. The Fantastic Four. And who do they write about? It’s a Him-book. They write about Jesus. Matthew writes to the Jews. Mark writes to the Romans. Luke writes to the Greeks. And John writes to everybody. Now if I’m going too fast, I am. That’s just the way it is. They write about Jesus.
OK, let’s talk about real quick the Person of Jesus, the power of Jesus, and the preaching of Jesus. Very important. All right. Here we go. The person of Jesus. Who is Jesus? He’s born in a manger. I did a series years ago called Cribs. Crucial relationship initiated by the Savior. Let’s talk about the person of Jesus, fully God, fully man. Something we’ll never understand. God did something. God said, you know what? I’m gonna have to do something radical. I’m gonna have to do something just ridiculous. I’m going to commission my son, the second person of the Godhead, to enter planet Earth and to live a righteous life, to die a sacrificial death, and to rise bodily. Jesus was a man. He drafted the dirty dozen, or you could say the dream team. I’m talking about the disciples. And these guys were a rag-tag bunch of people, the last people on earth you would expect the son of God to draft. I mean, they didn’t have their degree from Harvard or Yale, they didn’t come from the right side of the tracks. They didn’t use good language. I mean, what? What? Those guys? Well, that’s why I can identify with the Bible and so can you!
Also, notice who else he chose. He became a friend of sinners. So, he chose friendships like Zacchaeus, Nick at Night – Nicodemus, the rich young ruler. I mean, he even knew prostitutes and pimps and what? What-what? And the religious people, the Sadducees and Pharisees said, “What are you doing, Jesus? You’re a friend of sinners, hanging out with them, going to that party. I can’t believe it!” You see, Jesus and God is not about religion, it’s about a relationship.
Notice, too, he rose above the haters. You see that? You’re doing great, people hate. You’re gonna have haters, that’s OK. You can’t worry too much about the haters. It’s difficult, though, in our land of social media. It’s very tough on everybody. Everybody has haters. Well, I want to live life without a hater. Well the best way to do that is to die. Then you’ll have no haters. Or just do nothing. Just sit there in your basement for the rest of your life, eating your nachos and surfing the in-ter-net. See I used dad’s line I used earlier.
OK, let’s now talk about the Power of Jesus. The power of Jesus. The power. Is he just a person that walked across the stage of life with another messianic complex? Well, the power, he performed the miracles. The Bible says the miracles showed he was God. His first miracle at a wedding, he turned H2O into merlot. I think about the time he fed 5,000, the Hebrew Happy Meal. Or he fed 4,000 with Chick-fil-a. it was unbelievable the miracles. The blind could see. The lame could walk. He could calm storms. This is not an ordinary man. A miracle-workers. Wow! His power, I mean, that’s some serious power!
So, you have the person of Jesus, and the power of Jesus, now the Preaching of Jesus. The preaching. And the blanks are information, demonstration, and application. Jesus told stories. Two-thirds of everything he said was a story. Also, over 69% of his words were words of application, meaning words of execution, words of ‘here’s how to live it out.’ If we’re not careful (John 6:35) Jesus said, “I’m the bread of life.” He said, “I am the light of the world.” He said, “I’m the good shepherd.” He said, “I’m water.” Many times, he used these word pictures, these illustrations people could connect with. He told stories, stories and stories. Well that’s what we do at Fellowship. We simply take a page out of his teaching book. He taught with application. So, over 69% of his words were words of, all right, here’s how I live this out. Isn’t that interesting? Life application preaching.
I spend – people ask me this a lot – I spend, I don’t know, 17-25 hours every week studying for the message. That’s what I have to do. Speaking is not easy for me. It’s challenging, and I spend that kind of time by myself just studying. Well, I like to, I think about memorable things to say things as a speaker. Like this. Didn’t our graphics team do just… they crushed it with these logos and stuff. Are you kidding me? Just think about all the stuff we plan with the shoeprint and just all of the blanks. So, I’m thinking about that and I’m thinking, OK, how do people remember things that I say, for example. So, I like to use rhyme. I love rhyme. Maybe mom read me too many nursery rhymes growing up, I don’t know, but I just like to rhyme on the dime, every time, yours and mine, peace of mind! I like rhyming. I like alliteration. That’s purposeful. That’s powerful. That’s potent. I mean, I can go on and on. I mean, I like that. I think we remember that. And if you look at hip-hop it’s all about the rhyme and alliteration. That’s another story.
Anyway, invariably here’s what people remember when I meet them about messages. Almost every time they tell me this. Like, I was out in the lobby between services, this guy goes, “Yeah, I remember this message…” and I thought he was gonna say, “Here’s the outline.” You know? God is good, he lives in our hood, people could. It wasn’t that. “That story you told when you guys started Fellowship Church. Oh yeah, that story, I remember that story about that person that you met who heard a worship song from Fellowship Creative.” It’s stories! Now all that’s great. It’s stories. The Old Testament, story. When Jesus preached, story. When we look at Fellowship Church and all of our menu of teaching, just check it out. For 28 years I believe we have a biblical balance of information, demonstration, and application. That’s why we teach the way we do. We’re just simply doing what Jesus did.
All right, so we’ve got the person, we’ve got the power, we’ve got the preaching, now we’ve got the Cross. Everything moved to the cross. Remember in the garden? I set that up. We have this atonement awareness thing in our lives, do we not? Someone shoots up a bar, somebody’s got to pay. Somebody does something crazy in a school, somebody’s got to pay! Someone dings your door or mine, somebody’s got to pay! Someone takes advantage of this person, somebody’s got to pay. Social injustice, whatever it is, somebody’s got to pay! Why do we have that? My dogs and cats don’t have that. Animals don’t have that. It’s this atonement awareness thing. We’re made in the image of God. What did God do? In the fullness of time, at the right time, he sent Jesus the person, the power, the preaching. Jesus said, one day he was standing in front of the temple, he goes, “You know what? You can destroy this temple and in three days I’ll build it back.” Everyone thought, oh you’re talking about the temple? You’re talking about blowing up the temple? No! He was talking about himself.
So, he predicted his death and resurrection. He died on the cross for your sins and mine. For your iniquities and mine, once and for all, and the reason he could take it all is because he was totally and completely righteous, the Bible says. The cross, our sin-debt, paid in full. I mean, I have a debt. I was born with it, that I cannot pay by myself. I can’t file Chapter 11 or Chapter 13, nor can you. I can’t work my way in, because at the end of the day I’m a self-centered sinner in need of a sovereign, singular Savior. A sinless one who died on the cross for our sins. He voluntarily, voluntarily took everything upon himself. He died. And people thought, it’s over. DING! DING! DING! Tapped out. Lights out. But … 1… count it with me. 1… 2… 3… bing-bing-bing-bing-bing! Jesus rose again. The greatest act in human history. He appears in bodily form, the bodily resurrection to women, to many others, to people just walking down the street. One time he appeared to over 500 people! At one time. Any lawyers in the house? You talk about a case that demands a verdict? How would you like to have that case? Oh yeah, I’ll bring 475, no I’ll just bring in the 500 witnesses, just line them up, man. Would that be amazing? That’s slam-dunk, man. You got that! That’s what Jesus did. So, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, that’s the atonement.
An innocent third party, because remember in the Old Testament they had the sacrificial system. They were spilling the blood of all of these animals. Blood was pouring everywhere, and it was foreshadowing of the ultimate sacrifice, this new covenant of Jesus, dying on the cross, suffering for your sins and mine, paying for our sin debt, and rising again. Jesus is called the first fruits of the Resurrection, meaning, let’s go all the way down here to the book of Revelation, not revelations. Let’s don’t do… people say, “In the book of Revelations…” no, let’s say it together. 1-2-3, Revelation. OK, when we clock out of here, because we’re all facing a forever, when we go to the other side of the dirt, we’re going to live forever. We’re going to resurrect just like Jesus did. Does that make sense? I just wanted to say that, so you’ll understand it. So, you have the death, burial, and resurrection. Everything rises and falls on the death, burial, and resurrection.
Maybe you’re here, you have doubts about the Bible. You have questions. Great! God’s bigger than your doubts and questions. Go for it. Ask him any question, express any doubt. I promise you the Bible is big enough and bad enough, and lean enough and mean enough, to take all of your scrutiny. Because I don’t care how many degrees you have, I don’t care how many questions you ask God, people smarter, brighter, and cooler have asked those questions squillions of times. But if you want to repeat those questions, good! And it’s good to do that. Doubt’s not bad. Doubt and faith go on similar tracks, it’s which one do you feed?
Yet, Jesus demands this personal faith decision. So, Jesus rose again, appeared, even ate meals and stuff, the resurrected body. Then he goes, you know what? I gotta go. I gotta go. So, he is getting ready to <whoomp!> to ascend. He says, “I’m gonna send a helper.” A what? A comforter. What? A guide. The fire! <singing> Fi-yah! Remember that song? I sometimes will do humor. For those of us who are 45 years of age and older, Ohio Players. <singing> “The way she walk, and talk, really…” anyway. I was just, they were a great band. Song starts off with a siren. So creative. <siren sound effect> and the drums… jigga-ju, jigga-ju. “Hey now, uh-huh! Ba-bum-bum-bababum-bum! Oh, wow. Hey now. Uh-huh!” That’s pretty good, isn’t it? Don’t say yes, but those who are 45 and older, that’s pretty good. Right, OK. Thank you! He said, “Preach it, white boy!” That’s the best compliment I’ve received all day long. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Well, Jesus is saying, I’m going somewhere. And let me quote Acts, because the book of Acts is a bridge book from the gospels to the rest of the New Testament. It’s a bridge. The book of Acts, chapter 1, verse 8, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” So, Jesus said, you guys hang out and wait in J-town, Jerusalem. I’m gonna go up and you’re gonna receive power when the Holy Spirit will come upon you. Why? Well, you’ll be my witnesses. Somebody. Touch your neighbor and say, “witness!” “You’ll be my witnesses telling people everywhere about me, in J-town, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Huh.
So, Jesus is saying that, he’s saying, you know what? When you become my followers I’m not gonna zap you to Heaven. You’re here not to sin, but to share. And again, at Fellowship Church we never ask you to do anything the Bible doesn’t ask you to do. Never. So, we ask you to do three things as a member of the body of Christ. To share, share your faith, share your story. To sow, the Bible talks about this, sow your resources, and to serve. Get outside of yourself and serve. Here’s the book of Acts in a nutshell. Holy Spirit comes down. Simon Peter takes the Church, preaches messages, 3,000 people – boom! In the church. Incredible things, connectivity. And the Bible says, the Bible uses the word fellowship. Great name for a church. And things are just happening, yet the church is being persecuted.
One guy who is like this heavy hitter is really after the church, Paul. Well back in the day his name was Saul. He was killing Christians and he has this amazing conversion experience. He becomes a follower of Christ, and it’s just going crazy, man. I mean, everything is happening, and Paul goes on these missionary journeys <foghorn sound effect>, these cruises <foghorn sound effect>. He starts a church here, a church there, a church everywhere and he’s starting all these churches. He’s this new guy, this brand-new believer. It’s starting to spread and expand. Well here’s the church. You ready for this? This is huge. Here’s what happened. Jesus went up, that’s his ascension. The Holy Spirit came down, that’s the presence of Jesus. And he could only come down because Jesus went up, right? The disciples went out, and the lost came in. That’s it. That’s what happened in the book of Acts. And then, of course, Paul wrote, for example, the book of Romans, the Magna Carta of the Christian faith. You realize that 50% of the book of Romans is a book of application? Interesting, is it not? So, the church begins to grow and expand. It’s the only thing that Jesus ever built. That’s why we’re people of the church. It’s just very simple. We’re people of the church.
So, what does Paul do? Paul comes back from his cruises. And they weren’t easy cruises, these are difficult. And I just did that <foghorn sound effect> just so you’ll remember it. He sends an e-mail blast. Yeah, to all of the churches he helped start. I mean, from Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, on and on and on. All of that, the Letters written to the church. They’re called the epistles. Then he writes letters to individuals, Timothy, he’s writing to all sorts of people, like Philemon, on and on and on. Here is Paul’s letters, his e-mail blast, summed up: Scripture alone. Well, that’s Fellowship Church. We’re under the authority of the Bible. Guys, we’re based, we’re a Bible-teaching church. What kind of church is Fellowship? A Bible-teaching, Bible-believing church. We teach the Bible. We’re not some political church, we’re not some this church or that church, we’re a church that teaches the Bible.
Now when you teach the Bible you’re gonna have issues that come up that might be political or might be hot topics. Every time we speak, what does the Bible say? Scripture alone. How about…? No, Scripture alone. Yeah but… Scripture alone.
#2 – Christ alone. It’s about Jesus, a Him-book. It’s about Jesus. Everything is about Jesus. The person of Jesus. Without Jesus we’re in trouble. Without the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus we can’t live this way. It’s about his power, it’s about the dynamite power. Acts 1:8, “You’ll receive power…” the word power is dunamis, dynamite. You dynamite! J.J. Walker, Good Times! I saw some of these millennials, there was zero love. You guys don’t know! Jimmy Walker, I’d put him up against Will Smith any day. The guy was hilarious, he still is! Remember that? How many remembers Jimmy Walker, used to do like this? Oh yeah. I had a Jimmy Walker hat, a Jimmy Walker shirt. Somebody, send him this message. I love Jimmy Walker. Maybe we’ll bring him into Fellowship Church one day. I don’t know.
Scripture alone. Christ alone. Faith alone. It’s a faith decision. We’re not saved by works, because no one can work their way in. It’s just not in the cards. By grace alone. What’s grace? God’s riches at Christ’s expense. God’s riches at Christ’s expense. Something we don’t deserve. To the glory of God alone. Everything I do should be for the glory of God. I’m watching a Netflix documentary to the glory of God. I go into this particular restaurant to the glory of God. I’m frequenting that website to the glory of God. I’m having that conversation to the glory of God. So, it’s not some legalistic trip, it’s a relationship.
Then you have the other different books of the New Testament. From Hebrews, I think it was probably written by Paul but we’re not sure. James, written by the half-brother of Jesus. On and on and on it goes. Segue into the book of – not revelations but Revelation. Correct someone please, if you hear them say that. Just say, “Excuse me, I’ve got to do this. I mean that just drives me crazy. It’s Revelation.”
So, Revelation is the Re-creation. It is a new Heaven and new Earth. So what God started in the book of Genesis, you think that creation was great pre-fall? It’s even better when you have a recreation. Heaven is not gonna be us just floating around on cumulus clouds, and you know, strumming the harp and singing, “Hosanna…” I mean, it’s gonna be a place where there is true expression of our love to God. We will be able to use our gifts and abilities like never before. We will have relational connectivity like never before, creativity like never before, colors like never before, sounds like never before. It’ll be like never before. And that’s the way we’re going. Again, though, it’s your choice and mine.
As I said when I spoke to this university on Monday and also Wednesday, I said, you know, God doesn’t slam-dunk anybody into eternity. We make that choice. So, what you decide on this side of the dirt will show you where you’re gonna spend time on the other side of the dirt, and forever is a long, long time. So, what have you done with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus?
So, the Bible is a Him-book. It’s about Him.
In Genesis he is the woman’s seed.
In Exodus he’s the Passover lamb.
In Leviticus he’s our High Priest.
In Numbers he’s our Cloud by day and Fire by night, I’m talking about Jesus.
In Deuteronomy he’s our promise-keeping, promise-making God.
In Joshua he’s the Captain of our salvation.
In Judges he’s our Law-giver.
In Ruth, our kinsman Redeemer.
In 1 and 2 Samuel, our Prophet.
In Kings and Chronicles he’s our reigning King.
In Ezra he’s our Worship.
In Nehemiah he’s our Wall-builder.
In Esther he’s our Mordecai.
In Job he’s our Encourager and Healer.
In Psalms he’s our Shepherd, he’s my Shepherd.
In Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, he’s our Wisdom.
In Song of Solomon he’s the Initiator of marital love.
In Isaiah he’s our Prince of Peace.
In Jeremiah he’s the Potter and I’m the clay, and you’re the clay as well.
In Lamentations he’s the Weeping Prophet.
In Ezekiel he’s the Wheel within the wheel.
In Daniel he’s the fourth Man in the fiery furnace.
In Hosea he’s the faithful husband.
In Joel he’s the one who pours out his spirit on all people.
In Amos he is our Burden-bearer.
In Obadiah he’s Mighty to save.
In Jonah he’s our foreign Missionary.
In Micah he’s the Hope of restoration.
In Nahum he’s the Avenger of God’s elect.
In Habakkuk he’s God’s Evangelist.
In Zephaniah he’s our Savior.
In Haggai, he’s our Restorer.
In Zachariah, our Fountain of Life.
In Malachi he’s our Tithe.
How about Matthew? In Matthew he’s the Jewish Messiah.
In Mark he’s the Son of Man.
In Luke he’s the Savior of the World.
In John he’s our Beloved Disciple.
In Acts he’s Paul on the Damascus Road.
In Romans he’s the great Justifier.
In 1 and 2 Corinthians he’s the Gift into the Church.
In Galatians he’s the God of Grace.
In Ephesians he’s the Armor of God.
In Philippians he’s Contentment.
In Galatians he’s the Head of the church.
In 1 and 2 Thessalonians he’s coming again.
In 1 and 2 Timothy he’s the Living Word of God.
In Titus he’s the pastor’s Friend.
In Philemon he’s the Mediator.
In Hebrews, our High Priest.
In James, he matures our faith.
In 1 Peter he’s our Hope in Suffering.
In 2 Peter he guards us from false teaching.
In 1, 2, and 3 John he’s called Love.
In Jude he keeps us from failing.
In Revelation he’s the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I’m talking about our Savior! I’m talking about our Lord! I’m talking about our Redeemer! I’m talking about our Master! I’m talking about Jesus!
That’s right! Yours is the Name Above all Names! The name of Jesus! Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus.
As our heads are bowed, let’s continue this time of worship. Let’s keep the instruments going for just a second. You know, if you’ve never, ever called out and asked Jesus to take control of your life, you can do it by simply saying, “Jesus, I choose you. I’ve got doubts, questions, whatever, but I choose you right now. I make a faith decision. I believe.” Just say that. “That you, Jesus, died on the cross for my sins and rose again, and at this moment I receive you, the name of Jesus, into my life. Become my Savior, my Forgiver, my King, my Lord, my Everything.” If you prayed that prayer, that’s the greatest prayer, the greatest decision that you’ll ever make. So, I pray that your first act of worship is singing again the name of Jesus. Let’s sing it again and worship.
