Genesis #49 - The Gospel According to Genesis #1 - "Gospel Foundations" (Genesis 1-11)

Luke 24 and the Gospel in Genesis

Luke chapter 24 if you have a copy of God's Word. Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24. Luke chapter 24 as we come to the preaching of God's Word. I'm going to do something a little bit different this morning but still going to be in God's Word.

So Luke chapter 24 beginning in verse 13. Luke chapter 24 beginning in verse 13. This morning we're beginning the first part of, I didn't plan on this being a two-parter but that's what happens in the study, a two-part mini-series and I promise it's gonna stick to two parts, called the Gospel according to Genesis.

I'll explain why we're doing this in just a moment. But now Luke chapter 24 beginning in verse 13 and we're gonna read down to verse 27. So Luke chapter 24 beginning in verse 13 and through to verse 27.

Luke 24 from verse 13 and if you're able to do so one more time can I invite you to stand with me. We like to read, stand for this reading of God's Word because as we're coming to hear God preach to us really through His Word, speak to us I should say through His Word.

We want to honor that even with the posture of our bodies. So Luke chapter 24 verse 13. I'm reading as always from the Christian Standard Bible. Luke chapter 24 beginning in verse 13. Brothers and sisters these are God's words to us this morning.

Now that same day which is the day of the resurrection two of them were on their way to a village called Emmaus which is about seven miles from Jerusalem. Together they were discussing everything that had taken place and while they were discussing and arguing Jesus himself came near and began to walk along with them but they were prevented from recognizing him.

Then he asked them what is this dispute that you're having with each other as you are walking? And they stopped walking and looked discouraged. The one named Cleopas answered him are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who doesn't know the things that happen here in these days?

What things he asked them. So they said to him the things concerning Jesus of Nazareth who is a prophet powerful in action and speech before God and all the people and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death and they crucified him.

But we were hoping that he was the one who was about to redeem Israel. Besides all this it's the third day since these things happened. Moreover some women from our group astounded us they arrived early at the tomb and when they didn't find his body they came and reported that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive.

Some of of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said but they didn't see him. He said to them how foolish you are and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

Wasn't it necessary for the messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory? Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures.

The grass withers the flower fades but this word of our God will remain forever. Allow me to pray ask for the Lord's help and we will dive into the word of God this morning. Let's pray together. Well heavenly father we ask that as we open up your word this morning that you would speak to us as only you can.

Father I can use words but only your spirit can take those words and go beyond just our ears into our hearts. So may your spirit be at work using the preaching of your word to glorify your name to encourage us in our faith and if there's anybody here who doesn't know you to bring people to faith in you.

Father we normally take a moment to pray for other churches in our area and this morning we pray for our friends just around the corner from us at Anchor Church. This morning is a new season for them.

Their new interim pastor is starting. Mark Anderson pray for him as he takes up this six-month posting there at Anchor Church as they think about next steps. Father pray for your wisdom in that situation.

Pray for the church that as they gather even now to worship and to hear your word that you would bless that church, bless their efforts, give them the wisdom as they think about what to do next following the departure of their pastor.

I'll pray that you'd be with them and pray that you'd be with us as we open up your word here. We ask all this in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen. Please go ahead and be seated. As our regulars know we have been working our way for quite some time verse by verse through the book of Genesis and as we got done my intention was to do a single message kind of doing a jet tour of the whole book of Genesis.

I maybe should have recognized that was a little ambitious. I'm not really a very ambitious person by nature but I thought hey we can do this but as I started to study and it's always a glorious thing when you study and realize there's so much truth here because that's what we need but then I realized yeah this is not going to happen in one sermon.

Let's not kid ourselves and so I broke it up into two and so this morning what we're doing as we wrap up our study of Genesis and if you haven't been here for part or any of this series hopefully this will be good on its own.

What I want to do as you can see up on screen there is I want to consider this first book of the Bible. I want to kind of do a survey of it but I want to especially focus on how we see the gospel in the pages of this first book of your Bible and so let me give you a bit of a warning.

If you grabbed the handout that I normally have each week it feels a little heavier than normal. That's because there is a lot to cover. I feel the need as our regulars know I sometimes give what I like to call sermonic health warnings.

This is going to be one of those weeks. I haven't done this in a while but let me just warn you this is going to feel at times like a typical sermon and at times it will honestly feel like a Bible study on steroids.

I apologize. I was almost going to joke it was going to feel like a Bible college lecture but nobody likes lectures so I will not use that language. So let's just go with a Bible study on steroids. So again I apologize in advance.

This might get technical at points. I will do my best to keep us all on the same page. But as you can see on the top of that handout that I've given you there I really have three aims for these couple of messages as we close out the book of Genesis.

Number one I want to encourage you to spend more time in this book. Just because we finished preaching it here doesn't mean you never need to go back to it. Really that should just be the start for your own study I hope.

So my hope is that as we kind of do this gospel survey if you of the book of Genesis I want to encourage you to spend more time in the book. I also want to encourage you to think through how to handle your Bible responsibly.

We all have Bibles. In fact let me see your Bible. If you've got on your phone you can lift your phone that's fine. But let me see Bibles. We've all got Bibles. But having a Bible is great. Reading it is even better.

Reading it well is better still. The reality is though not everybody reads the Bible well. And I don't mean that just reading out loud. I mean in terms of reading and understanding it. And so my hope is to kind of model for you in this and the next message as we look through the book of Genesis how to handle the Bible responsibly on its own terms.

So I want to you spend more time in the book. I want to encourage you or help you to think through how to handle the Bible responsibly. I also want you to hopefully learn as we do this how to view not just Genesis but any book of the Bible through the lens of God's overarching purpose.

The Bible is 66 books in one but these 66 books are telling us one story. And if we read the Bible in the kind of way that doesn't reflect the fact that it is one story. Lots of subplots. It's kind of like when you watch a movie.

A good movie has one plot but that one plot will be fleshed out through lots of subplots. Well the Bible is that way. There are lots of individual subplots in the Bible but all of them connect to the one main plot.

And so I want us to learn how to view the Bible in that kind of way as we walk our way through a survey of the book of Genesis this morning. Before we get to that though and this is going to be part one of this.

I've called it Gospel Foundations because we're going to look at Genesis 1 through 11 and not every single verse but in a survey. Before we get to Genesis 1 through 11 though, I want to talk for a little bit.

I want to kind of zoom out for a second and I want to talk about how should we read the Old Testament. I want to take a few moments and kind of give you some tools for reading the Old Testament well. Because again reading the Old Testament is one thing.

Reading it well is something else entirely. The reality is the Old Testament has kind of gotten some bad PR over the years. To many Christians the Old Testament is a closed book. It's got ancient laws.

It seems to have this very vindictive picture of God. It's got this very archaic backwards morality. An ever-widening gap of culture. We are thousands of years removed from the events of the Old Testament and for a lot of Christians either implicitly or in some cases as long as I've been teaching the Bible sometimes explicitly there's almost a sense of why do I need to business myself with the Old Testament?

Can't I just stay in the New Testament where Jesus is and everything is a little bit easier? Well actually you can't because first of all the Old Testament as we call it is three quarters of your Bible.

75 of your Bible is the Old Testament. So if you want you can cut out three quarters of your Bible just don't expect the quarter you've got left to make sense. That's one reason why here at Redeemer you know we've made a conscious effort in our preaching cycle.

We kind of do we do Old Testament. We do New Testament. We'll do something more doctrinal and then we just kind of cycle through so we're seeing all of the Bible because those of you who are in our Sunday school class our teacher is Dr. Sinclair Ferguson this go-around.

Sinclair Ferguson famously said that it takes a whole Bible to preach a whole Christ to make a whole Christian. So we try to do just that. As much of the Bible as we can. But for many Christians the Old Testament is a closed book.

For others they maybe say yeah I like the Old Testament because the Old Testament has all these examples that teach me how to behave. It's the kind of approach to the Old Testament that basically says the Old Testament is good for giving me moral examples.

So if you've grown up in church like I did probably heard the phrase dare to be a Daniel. It's from an old Sunday school chorus. We just looked at the life of Joseph and the tradition I grew up in. They were very obsessed with thinking all of us were basically like sex crazed teenagers.

I later discovered that wasn't entirely untrue. But as a result we were constantly coming back to the story of Joseph and remember Joseph and Potiphar's wife she tried to but she ran from that. He ran from that temptation.

Therefore you should run from temptation when it comes. Well yes Joseph did do that and yes that is commendable. But is that the point of the story of Joseph? Well here's one that gets used a lot. David and Goliath.

I mean we have oh I don't know maybe you haven't. If you haven't God bless you. But I have heard the sermons. How to slay the Goliath in your life. Yes you've got problems like Goliath but you're David.

Is that the intended point of the story of David and Goliath? That you've got big problems but God is bigger than your problems and with faith in God you can defeat your problems like David did Goliath.

Is that really the point of the story of David and Goliath? I am going to go ahead and say no. What's the problem with that kind of reading? Whether it's in the book of Daniel or the story of Joseph or the story of David or any other biblical character.

What's the problem with that kind of reading? Well even at its best it's making biblical characters the hero of the story. It's saying that these biblical characters are they're the ones who are the heroes of their story and you can understand why because in typical stories that we hear outside of the bible the people in the story are the heroes.

So of course that makes sense to us but that's a best case scenario. At worst here's the problem with that kind of reading. It's making you the hero of the biblical story. So what's the problem with the David and Goliath?

You know slaying the Goliath in your life or as I heard one time someone took the story of Ruth and Boaz. Here's a singles conference. I hate singles conferences. We'll never have one at Redeemer. But they had a singles conference.

Being the kind of Ruth to find your Boaz. Well first of all there goes all the men in the room because none of us are Ruth. None of us are Boaz either actually. But again what's wrong with that kind of reading?

You're the center of the story. The bible becomes a book not about God and what he is doing. The bible becomes a book about you. Me, me, me, I, I, I. I would argue that those are not sensible ways. Those are not good ways to read your Old Testament.

So how should we read the Old Testament? Well let me give you some pointers. I think there are three ways to read the Old Testament in the kind of way that glorifies God. So how should we read the Old Testament?

Well first of all read the Old Testament as the word of God. Read the Old Testament as the word of God. I'm thankful that I know in this fellowship I don't have to labor this point because many of you already believe this.

But just in case the Old Testament is inspired scripture. By inspired scripture we mean that it is the product of God speaking through men by his spirit. So Jesus believed that it was. In John chapter 10 he is once again arguing with his best friends the Pharisees.

And as he's arguing with the Pharisees once again they're accusing him of blasphemy. And Jesus answers it. John chapter 10 verse 34 says Jesus answered them isn't it written in your law I said you are gods.

And he's quoting Psalm 82 verse 6. If he called those know what he says to whom the word of God came gods and the scripture cannot be broken. So he equates the reading of the writing of the Psalms as the word of God and as the scripture.

Do you say you are blaspheming to the one the father sent apart set apart and sent into the world because I said I am the son of God. Jesus grounds his identity as the son of God not just in what he says about himself or even what the father says but also in what the Old Testament said.

And he calls it the word of God. Verse that we call all the time around here 2nd Timothy 3 16. All scripture is inspired by God. When Paul is writing that the New Testament is being written. There are maybe parts of the gospel floating around at this stage but by and large the Bible he's talking about the scripture he's talking about is that three quarters of our Bible the Old Testament.

Peter says it in 2nd Peter 1 19 through 21. We have we also have the prophetic word strongly confirmed and you will do well to pay attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

Above all you know this no prophecy of scripture came from the prophet's own interpretation. In other words they were not making this stuff up from themselves because no prophecy ever came by the will of man.

No I would say true prophecy I might add. Instead men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. And again he's talking about the Old Testament at that point. Whatever view we have of the Old Testament or the Bible at large it has to start here.

That the things that we are reading in the Old Testament are the very words of God. So read the Old Testament as the word of God but don't just read it as the word of God. Secondly read it as a unified revelation.

As a unified revelation. Now when I say a unified revelation what I mean is this. That as I just said a few moments ago the Bible this book we call the word of God it's telling us one story. Lots of subplots lots of different things happening but all those different things converge on one point.

As you can hear from my accent most of you know I'm from London. It's actually been proven that you can take any road anywhere in the UK and at some point there is a direct route to London. Pretty interesting how the Romans did this because London was kind of their capital.

And the Bible functions kind of the same way. That no matter where you are there is some road that will get you back to the one story of the scriptures. This book is not telling us 10 different stories.

It's not telling us 15 different stories. Not telling us even two different stories. It's one unified revelation. The fancy way that people put this is it has a thematic center. A theme around which everything orbits like a sun which orbits around a solar system.

And there's lots of debate as to what the center is. I'm just going to cut through all that and tell you what I think the center is when you read the Bible. I would argue that the Bible's center is often this theme of the kingdom of God.

So Matthew 4 .23 says that Jesus begins preaching in Galilee and what does he come preaching? Matthew 4 .23 he's teaching in their synagogues preaching the good news of the kingdom. Mark 1 .15 the first message we hear from Jesus chronologically says the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near.

Repent and believe the good news. Again gospel is center of his message. Jesus dies and resurrects. Acts chapter 1 he's with his disciples. He spends 40 days essentially putting them through a Bible college class.

What is the subject of that class? Acts 1 .3 he appeared to them over a period of 40 days speaking about the kingdom of God. Paul who is the teacher in the new testament if you will over and over and over again it mentions him going from place to place persuading people.

Acts 19 .8 about the kingdom of God. The book of Acts ends. Acts 28 .23 with him Paul. I'm going to read it. Paul tried to persuade the Jews about Jesus from the law and the prophets. From dusk till dawn he expounded and testified about the kingdom of God.

This idea of the kingdom of God starts all the way back in Genesis chapter 1 and comes to completion in Revelation chapter 22. It's the, if we can use the analogy of the train, it's the track on which the train of biblical revelation runs.

It gives unity to the Bible as a whole. Lord willing next summer if the Lord wills and we're still here I actually plan on doing some teaching on the nature of the kingdom of God. So pray that well if we're not here it's because the Lord's come back for us which would be great.

We won't need my sermon series I suppose. But if we are still here and the Lord wills we'll do some more teaching on this. I won't labor the point for too long. But what do we mean by this idea of the kingdom of God?

Let me give you a simple definition that you can run with. The kingdom of God refers to the rule and reign of God over his people in the place he chooses through the man he chooses. Let me say that again.

The kingdom of God refers to the rule and reign of God over his people in the place he chooses through the man he chooses. So the kingdom of God refers to the rule and reign of God. You can't say you're a king if you don't rule and reign that's what kings do so first of the rule in the reign of god well kings rule and reign over people so it's the rule and reign of god over his people.

Well people typically are found in a place so it's the rule and reign of god over his people in the place he chooses through the man he chooses. God's rule is in the bible always mediated through men.

So as you read the bible the bible is a story about a kingdom and you should read the bible as a unified revelation telling us this story of how this kingdom is coming about. So we read the bible. Read the old testament excuse me as the word of god we read it as a unified revelation about the kingdom.

And if you read it that way you'll ultimately number three. Read the old testament as pointing to christ and his work. Read the old testament as pointing to christ and his work. I opened our time in god's word in luke chapter 24 because jesus gives us his take about who the old testament is ultimately about.

Hopefully we've still got it open in front of you. So uh luke 24 verse 25 jesus said to them how foolish you are and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Wasn't it necessary for the messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory.

Then beginning with moses and all the prophets he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures jesus understood that the old testament was primarily about him. Kofi hold on.

Didn't you just say the bible's a story about a kingdom. Absolutely. Guess what. You can't have the kingdom without the king. Jesus says something a little more clearer in another passage. Turn with me to john chapter 5.

Next book over. If you still got luke open john chapter 5. And again jesus is being uh accused by those who oppose him. Pick up with me in verse 44. John chapter 5. Verse 44. How can you believe since you accept glory for one another but don't seek the glory that comes from the only god.

Do not think that i will accuse you to the father. Your accuser is moses. Otherwise he says don't think i'm your biggest problem. He goes. You don't believe me. You say that i'm a liar and i'm making all this up.

Okay i'm not the one telling you you're wrong. Moses is your accuser is moses on whom you have set your hope for. If you believed moses you would believe me. Why does jesus say if you believed moses you believe me.

Because he wrote about me. So who does jesus say moses was writing about. That was actually the question. Who does he say he was writing about him. Moses was writing about jesus. And so he can say verse 47 if you don't believe.

But if you don't believe what he wrote how will you believe my words. He says moses is writing what roses. His writings were clear enough. If you're not going to listen to them. And you'll listen to me.

The reality is jesus understood the old testament to be a revelation of who he was. I love how dr greg harris who's a former professor at master's seminary uh he tells the story of how these verses in john 5 how they changed his perspective of the old testament.

He says. Quote these important verses change my perspective on the old testament. If you had asked me about the old testament i would have answered as most people do that. It's the story of creation adam and eve the fall the flood moses birth and so on.

But jesus specifically said moses wrote about me and linked his teaching about himself to properly understanding this biblical truth. So while the first five books of the bible contain the creation account of adam and eve and such jesus specifically sets forth that the first five books of the bible are his story the story of jesus.

If you are looking for him you will clearly see him in the first five books. If you are not looking for him you likely will miss him. As i did as i did once i started factoring john 5 into my studies the name of my first class on the first five books of the bible unofficially became jesus in the pentateuch the first five books of the bible.

I've met dr harris and he's a very honest man. He has no qualms in saying look i used to think this i was dead wrong. And here's all the reasons why i was wrong. And here he is acknowledging that the bible the old testament is about jesus.

We're meant to read the bible and the old testament in particular we're meant to read it as teaching us about jesus and teaching us about jesus in a few different ways. Again i'll try to be quick about this.

In one sense it's predicting his coming. So lots of your old testament is filled with what we often call messianic material material about the messiah who was yet to come. So there are lots of prophecies and predictions about the messiah to come as you find them in the old testament.

So that's one way that the old testament teaches us about jesus. Most christians agree there. But i want to take it a couple steps further because not only does the old testament prepare us for jesus by predicting his coming it also helps us by preparing for his coming.

What i mean by preparing for his coming. I don't have time to read it. But if you're taking notes galatians 3 24 galatians 3 24 he's the law was given to lead us to christ. Well in what sense. Because it shows us our need.

It shows us the fact that we need somebody who is a sovereign and a savior and a sanctifier. When you see in the old testament especially where you see the failure of men in the old testament which is a lot when you see the failure of men it's designed to point us to the fact that we need somebody who never fails.

Man always fails but we need somebody who doesn't. So predicting his coming preparing for his coming. The old testament also points to christ by pointing us to his future work by pointing us to his future work.

And it does this in two ways. It points us to who the savior is and how the savior saves. Let me back up for just a second. It points us to who the savior is. You may think wait a minute jesus as a person doesn't appear in the old testament.

A whole lot true. But you know who does god. The father. And the bible says john chapter 14. If you've seen me you have seen the father. If you want an understanding of who jesus is and how jesus operates you can look at the father and get a pretty good idea in a very real sense like father like son.

And so when we see how god deals with his people in the old testament we can get a sense of how god deals with his people in jesus. But not only do we see who god is we also see how god saves how the savior saves.

One of the big misconceptions people have about the old testament is that people in the old testament were saved by works. In the new testament were saved by grace. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Actually people are saved exactly the same way in old and in new testament. What may differ is the amount of information they had. Easily i think i've used illustration here before for people in the old testament they were looking forward to the promise of a redeemer.

In the new testament we are looking forward to and we're looking back at the fact he's come but they're looking at the same cross the same savior. And so when you see god's dealings with his people in the old testament we're getting an insight into how god saves because it doesn't change just because jesus comes on the scene in a very real sense.

The bible is the jesus book. And yes the king. The purpose of god is worked out through this theme of the kingdom of god. But again you cannot separate the kingdom from its king. And i i start here i have us think about this about how we read our old testaments because that's been our approach through genesis.

It's all of god's word. So we have made our way through all of it. It's a unified revelation about the purpose of god. And so we treated it that way. And of course it's a book about jesus. And so we have sought every opportunity we get to see jesus within its pages.

And as we sought to see jesus through its pages we summarize the book of genesis in one paragraph if you will that despite the failure of god's covenant people god's purposes and plans will come to fulfillment not through the faithfulness of others but through the faithfulness of god.

That's been our overarching message as we've gone worked our way through genesis that though god's people fail. So next week we're going to talk about the four main characters in the book of genesis abraham isaac jacob and joseph.

All of them fail in different ways. But though they fail god is the one who doesn't fail and his promises come to fulfillment. Not because those biblical characters were so great. Sure they have great moments.

But ultimately it's because of god's faithfulness. It's not their faithfulness all right. That all that was introduction. What i want to do for the rest of our time this morning is i want us to walk through genesis 1 through 11 very quickly.

And i want us to see how this truth that despite the failure of god's covenant people god's purposes and plans will come to fulfillment not through the faithfulness of others but through the faithfulness of god.

I want us to see how that works its way through this book. As we take a gospel centered tour through the first half of genesis i said this is a two-part. But really it's one message over two sundays.

So i have two points. We'll get point one this week and point two next week. Point number one. I want us to look at the gospel in genesis 1 through 11. And as we look at the gospel in genesis 1 through 11 we see who god is.

We get portraits of who god is in the first 11 chapters of genesis. Genesis 1 through 11 layout. In fact the series that we did in that section we called foundations. Because that's what it does. It lays out the foundations of the world as we know it.

And there are four key events in genesis 1 through 11. Easy way to remember the book of genesis. Four key events in chapters 1 through 11. Four key people in chapters 12 through 50. Four key events happen in genesis 1 through 11.

And each of these events teach us something about the nature of the faithful god who fulfills his promises. And so i want us to look at genesis 1 through 11 through that lens. So four events. The first event we see is creation.

Creation Reveals God's Power

And in creation we see god's power on display. In creation we see god's power on display. So genesis opens with god's act of creating the world out of nothing. I don't know about you but when i first started reading the bible properly the question i had was why did it take god six days.

Ever thought about that god could have done it in six in a sixth of a second. He didn't need six days. I mean he does some pretty impressive stuff just within each of these days. I don't think it's a stretch that he could have done it in a sixth of a second.