Sunday, November 25, 2012

GREATER

There's morality in the Bible, but the Bible isn't primarily about morality.  There are miracles and the supernatural and talk about money and heaven and hell in the Bible, but it's not primarily about those things.  The Bible is primarily about Jesus.  That's why one of our eight core values at KFA (www.kenoshafirst.com) is that we are Christ-centered.

It is a deep, driving conviction of KFA that the Bible is a book that God wrote and it's all about Jesus, and you can't make any sense of it whatsoever unless you connect it all to Him.

History starts with the first Adam and Jesus is called the last Adam.  The first Adam sinned and the last Adam atoned for sin.  Thru the first Adam there was condemnation; thru the last Adam there is salvation.  Thru the first Adam we inherit a sin nature; thru the last Adam, we receive a new nature.  The first Adam yielded to Satan; the last Adam defeated Satan.  The first Adam sinned at a tree; the last Adam atoned for sin on a tree.  The first Adam brought thorns; the last Adam wore a crown of thorns.  The first Adam was naked and unashamed; the last Adam was stripped naked and bore our shame.  Jesus is the greater Adam.

God comes to Abraham and says, "I'm sending you on a mission to a new place to start over with a new people."  Jesus left His Father's house to come to a broken Earth.  He came to set up a new humanity.  Abraham's descendants would be as numerous as the sand.  Today a few billion of us are descendants of the mission of Jesus to seek and save the lost.  Jesus is the greater Abraham.

Isaac was the promised firstborn son of Abraham and Sarai.  Then God told Abraham to do the unthinkable - offer your only son as a sacrifice.  Isaac, as an adult son, carries his own wood to the place designed for his death.  He willingly lays down to die at the hand of his own father.  But God stops Abraham and says: 'Wait.  The Father has provided a lamb.'  Jesus ultimately comes as our sacrificial lamb. He too carries His own wood on His back to the place where He would lay it all down on a cross for us.  Jesus is the greater Isaac.

Moses is raised up by God to bring deliverance to a nation in slavery.  Jesus comes to deliver us from slavery as well - slavery from alcohol, sex, fears, pleasures, even religion.  He defeats bigger Pharaohs than Moses did.  Jesus is the greater Moses.

There is a king named David.  He's a boy from a poor family in a rural area, yet he rises to become the greatest king Israel had ever known.  Jesus comes from David's family line and He is the King of all Kings and He is the greater David.

Jonah rebels against God's call to communicate the truth to a nation Jonah hates.  He runs from God via a boat and is tossed overboard by the crew and is swallowed by a big fish.  He's in there three days until the fish pukes him onto the beach.  He goes to Ninevah and over 100,000 find God.  Jesus came along and said, "As Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and nights, I'm going to go into the earth for three days and nights.  And as Jonah came out alive, so will I.  And though Jonah was used to save a multitude, I'm going to save even more."  Jesus is the greater Jonah.

There's a guy in the Bible named Boaz.  Boaz chooses a forsaken woman named Ruth.  She's poor, homeless, from the cursed Moabite race; she's had a husband before.  Not much going for her.  She also has a mother-in-law, Naomi, who is part of the package deal.  But Boaz loves Ruth and takes her as his own.  These are used by God to give birth to a baby named Jesus - and He takes us, people far worse than Ruth and Naomi and He accepts us and loves us and calls us His bride, the church.  Jesus is the greater Boaz.

It's about Jesus on every page.

And be blessed.

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