“And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” (Luke 24:27)
INTRODUCTION
Some of you may have seen the puzzle called “find Waldo.” There is a character named Waldo who hides in a puzzle of different crowds, forests, city neighborhoods… The goal of the game is to see who can locate him first.
In the verse mentioned above, Jesus is walking with two disciples on the road from Emmaus after his resurrection. They are despondent and defeated over Jesus’s death even though they had heard reports that He had risen. They weren’t able to recognize Jesus, just as we can’t recognize Him when we are drowning in unbelief from looking at our circumstances. Jesus then takes them systematically through the Old Testament and shows them that He is there. The stories and events all point in different ways to reveal Him. When they saw Jesus in the Word it opened their eyes to see Jesus with them in their present life.
THE PRINCIPLE
The greatest transformational principle of the Bible is to discover how Jesus’ coming revealed that the Bible isn’t about us and what we’re to do to gain approval and blessing from God. The Bible is about Jesus, what He has already done for us, who He is for us, and how He wants to live His life in us so that we know and live in the blessings and approval that is already ours through Him.
If you read the Bible as if it is about you it will either make you proud and legalistic or it will crush you with its demands. When you read it as a revelation of Jesus it will transform you.
An Example: The story of David and Goliath
About Me
- I do have giants in my life.
- David was very brave. I should be brave and I will try but probably fail.
- David used a great strategy. What are things I can do defeat my giant?
- I end up thinking either, “Look how good I am, why can’t other people get it together” or “I tried and failed again, I’m a failure.”
About Jesus
- Jesus is my David - Satan, Sin, My Old Self are the enemies He came to defeat.
- Jesus already fought and won my battle on the cross as my substitute.
- Jesus, like David, used the Devil’s weapons to destroy him.
- The victory Jesus won is for all of us.
- I stand in Jesus’ victory; what the enemy has brought to defeat me, Jesus will use to crush him.
Examples
- Jesus our true and better Adam, who passed the test in the garden, whose obedience is now imputed to us
- Jesus is the true and better Abel, who though innocently slain has blood that cries out for our acquittal not our condemnation
- Jesus is the true and better Abraham, who answered the call of God to leave all of the comforts of a familiar home to go out to the void alone, by doing so created out of all of us a new nation of sons and daughters of God.
- Jesus the true and better Isaac, who is not just offered by his father, but is sacrificed by His Father. Afterwards God said because you did not withhold your only Son, whom you loved, from me I will bless you beyond imagination. Because of Jesus sacrifice we know how much we are loved and are confident in Him to receive all blessings in heavenly places because of Christ Jesus.
- Jesus is the true and better Joseph, who at the right hand of the king, chooses to use his power to forgive those who betrayed him, and makes it possible to intervene on their behalf to save them.
- Jesus is our true Moses, who went up the Mountain not to get the law to bring us but to fulfill the law and all of its demands by becoming accursed and dying to pay for every way we have transgressed God’s commands and so that the cloud of the glory of God which represented His presence comes to live inside of us by the Holy Spirit so that we live out all of the integrity and demands of the law through His love in us.
- Jesus is the true and better Job, the true and innocent sufferer, who then intercedes and saves his ignorant friends.
- Jesus is the true and better David, whose victory becomes his people’s victory though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves.
- Jesus is the true and better Esther, who didn’t choose to risk and lose an earthly palace but lost the ultimate heavenly one, who didn’t just risk losing his life but gave his life to save his people.
- Jesus is the true and better Jonah, who was cast out in the storm so we could be brought in, and was the sign for us that through His resurrection we can be sure our life will be resurrected from sin and death because h rose again.
- Jesus is the true prophet, the true king, the true priest, the true temple, the true sacrifice, the true lamb, the true light, the true tree of life, and the true bread or manna that when we eat causes us to live forever!
APPLICATION
As you read the Bible today keep asking this question. “How does this passage point to Jesus? How can I see in this something He has done for me, wants to be on my behalf, or claim because of the fact that I’m crucified with Christ and it is no longer I but Christ who lives in me.
“You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39-40)