Courier Conversations
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Courier Conversations
Unlocking the Bible's Cohesive Narrative
Ever wonder why certain books of the Bible, like Leviticus and Numbers, seem daunting and irrelevant? Join me, Jeff Robinson, as I unravel this mystery through the lens of Luke 24, exploring how Jesus' resurrection provides a fresh perspective on these challenging texts. This episode promises to illuminate the significance of Christ's resurrection and how it can transform your reading of the Bible into a cohesive, hope-filled narrative. Let's journey together to understand why these ancient texts matter deeply to our Christian faith.
Throughout history, Jesus Christ has been the central figure that both the Old and New Testaments point to, and in this episode, we uncover how the entire Bible serves as a unified narrative centered around Him. We'll explore the profound connections between the law, prophets, writings, and the redemptive work of Jesus, including the significance of events like the Passover. By understanding these connections, you'll gain new insights into the consistent message of salvation woven throughout the scriptures and see how even the most obscure passages can come alive with meaning.
Engage with us as we challenge common interpretations of Scripture and encourage a God-centered reading that emphasizes the Bible's overarching redemptive narrative. Discover how this perspective answers fundamental worldview questions and shifts our focus from merely personal application to the historical unfolding of God's plan. I invite you to connect with us through Baptist Courier Ministries, where we aim to inspire and inform, fostering a deeper appreciation for the Bible's relevance to your life and faith.
https://baptistcourier.com
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Hello and welcome to the latest episode of Courier Conversations, a ministry of the Baptist Courier. My name is Jeff Robinson and I am president and editor-in-chief of the Baptist Courier and Publishing Company. Usually Travis Kearns, my co-host, is joining me, but today he is being used in another place in God's kingdom so we let him off the hook today. So it'll just be me doing solo today. I hope you're doing well.
Jeff Robinson:We come to the end of January and the Baptist Courier the last couple of years has been promoting Read Through the Bible in a year and we've published a reading plan and many of you are undertaking that reading plan now, I know, and so you tend to get to January and it's gone well for a month and then I think in our reading plan we're still in Genesis, maybe Psalms, we're in Chronicles, some books that are, I guess you'd say, more interesting just on the face of it. All of God's Word is interesting, of course, but on the face of it it's more interesting. But soon you will come to books like Leviticus and Numbers and if you're not careful you're going to get frustrated and bogged down and say what is all this blood and guts and these numbers and all these genealogies, and what does that have to do with the Christian faith? And those are good questions. And so this episode, I want to give you some help, I want to give you a little bit of a push to continue on, to persevere through these difficult books, and I want to do it from Scripture itself, because as Southern Baptists, as evangelicals, we believe that Scripture interprets Scripture, that God. Not only has God inspired the Bible, the words of the Bible, but he's also inspired the hermeneutical principles by which we interpret the Bible. So we interpret the Old Testament, for example, by the way the New Testament writers understand it.
Jeff Robinson:Today I want to look at a chapter in Luke's gospel that I think will help you. I know many years ago I had many aborted attempts to read through the Bible. When I was in college I would always get to Leviticus and think, man, this has got nothing to do with my everyday life or Jesus or anything else, and it's because I'd never really been taught how to interpret the Bible in terms of itself. But our Lord Jesus Christ rescues us in Luke, chapter 24, and gives us what I would argue is really the interpretative key to the entire Bible, and so we're going to look at that today. I realize that's an audacious claim. Anytime you can boil something down, I'm always skeptical. Well, you've got all you need in this X thing. Well, we're not selling you anything, that's just it. So I don't benefit from this, but I do benefit from this and you will too, and I think this will help you.
Jeff Robinson:So Luke, chapter 24, the road to Emmaus and many of you are listening. Probably you're familiar with this story. Maybe you've read it your whole life, had it read in Sunday school. I know I saw it actually in the 1970s, first on flannel graph, if you remember that amazing technology that was on par with eight track tapes and things like that of the period. But we've graduated for that, but it really did help me.
Jeff Robinson:But still, the road to Emmaus in Luke, chapter 24, just to kind of set the scene, there are two disciples on the road walking to Emmaus and our Lord joins them. These two men, they were already his followers and it happened on the same day that the Lord had risen from the dead. So it was a Sunday, the first day of the week, what we now know as the Lord's Day, and they were discussing this titanic news that had happened there in the village on that day, this seismic news that this man had been nailed to a cross Jesus had been nailed to a cross, buried for three days, and some women had returned earlier with a report about an empty tomb and some who had seen him, and of course this had shaken them to the core that you know, dead bodies don't rise from the dead. Empty tombs are only empty if someone steals the body. So this caused quite a stir in the city. And yet we'll see that this disciple, the first one, cleopas, and an unnamed companion they don't give the other name, luke, didn't? It's not important they're not quite convinced by the women's report and they certainly do not understand that the central act in human history has just taken place. Think about that. We divide time AD, anno Domini, and BC before Christ, anno Domini, year of our Lord by this event. So the central event in human history has taken place over this weekend. What a weekend, right.
Jeff Robinson:And so Christ joins them and they don't recognize him due to what I believe is divine blinding. He kept them blind. I don't think it's because he was all beaten up and all this stuff that some say I think he was. Actually they were kept from seeing him, did not recognize him A divinely placed veil, I think, was over their eyes, and so their eyes were kept from recognizing him in verse 16 here in Luke 24. Instead, cleopas and the other man stand there looking sad, clearly moved by the day's events, all the while assuming the one with whom they're speaking is a clueless visitor to Jerusalem. So they fill him in on what's happened, and of course they don't understand who this is the one to whom they're talking. They don't understand the nature of the kingdom, and Jesus is going to point that out.
Jeff Robinson:And so we get to verse 25 through 27. I'm going to read this, and I'll read a couple other verses as well. Verses 25 to 27,. Jesus says this. Verses 25 to 27, jesus says this and he said to them O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. I'm going to read on here. This is important.
Jeff Robinson:So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going. Jesus acted as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, saying Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent. So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took the bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them and their eyes were opened and they recognized him. So now the Lord has given them the ability, he has opened their eyes. This is a miracle and this is what it takes, by the way, to understand scripture, to understand who Jesus is.
Jeff Robinson:And Jesus 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? And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem and they found the eleven, the eleven disciples and those who were with them, gathered together, saying the Lord has risen, indeed, and has appeared to Simon. Then they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. And as they were talking about these things, jesus stood among them. Now imagine this. They're talking about these things. Jesus stood among them. Now imagine this. They're talking about Jesus, and here he is. I mean, at least it would frighten me, right?
Jeff Robinson:I heard a televangelist once who told a story about how Jesus always appeared to him while he was shaving. And I want to ask him how did you keep from cutting your throat? Of course I don't know that Jesus appeared to him, because evidently they just had a conversation, but at least this would frighten me. So Jesus stood among them and said to them peace be to you. They were startled. I'll say now, that's the response, that's the proper response, not, hey, hello Jesus, your homeboy, I'm going to keep shaving here. No, that's not the right response.
Jeff Robinson:They were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit, a ghost. And he said to them why are you troubled and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is myself. And so they still disbelieved. He asked for something, and then verse 44, he says this and this is what I'm, this verse 27,. And this is what I'm after in this little, just this talk.
Jeff Robinson:Then Jesus said to them these are my words, that I spoke to you while I was still with you, and here it is, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them thus it is written. Where is it written? What's he talking about here? Well, the Old Testament, this trifold division, this Jewish division, traditional division of the Old Testament, law of Moses, that's the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible and the prophets. Of course, that's the prophets and the writing. That's sort of everything else, that's the wisdom literature, that's 1 and 2 Chronicles and 1 and 2 Kings and what have you.
Jeff Robinson:So he opened their minds to understand it and it's written there in those writings, the Old Testament, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Your witness is to these things. So all the scriptures, jerusalem, your witness is to these things. So all the scriptures, every bit of it is about him. So when you're in Exodus, leviticus, numbers, deuteronomy, you're reading about Jesus. Jesus says it right here. It's all about him, in types and shadows. In some way it is about him. The entire Bible is about Christ. The threefold division. That proves it, because he's talking about his death and resurrection being spoken of in the scriptures in the Old Testament, and so that really transforms how we read the Bible.
Jeff Robinson:And this isn't the only place where in the New Testament where we see this. This is clear, in the Gospels and other places, places like Matthew 5, 17, john 5, 46 and 47, john 8, 56, paul in 2 Timothy 3, 14 and 15, says you, however, tells Timothy the young pastor, continuing the things you have learned and become convinced of knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings, the Old Testament, which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. So so he tells Timothy, the sacred writings, the Old Testament we don't have the New Testament yet canon's not complete the Old Testament, the scriptures, lead you to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Of course, in John 5, he speaks to the Pharisees about how, if they believed Moses, and he says if you believe Moses, you believe in me, because Moses wrote of me, wrote about me. In 1 Peter 1, peter says they prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, the grace of God, and he even will go on to say in 2 Peter 1, how, when Jesus was with them on the mountain, the disciples, when he was transfigured, he said we heard God speak from heaven. This is my son, in whom I'm well pleased. Listen to him. And he calls that. He says we heard a voice on the mountain, but we have the scriptures, to which are more sure than our experience, and of course, it's about Jesus, because God said himself this is my beloved son, listen to him. So the whole Bible is about Jesus.
Jeff Robinson:Even if you're in one of those books that's obscure, read the book of Hebrews. The entire book of Hebrews is most likely a sermon, arguing that the Old Testament is fulfilled in Christ, showing that he is the greater priest, the greater sacrifice, the greater temple, the greater covenant, surety for sinners. It's about Christ. And so when you're reading about all the laws, all the ceremonial laws, the civil laws, even the moral law of God, you're not just left with a bunch of rule keeping or weirdness. I remember hearing a well-known rock star one time said you know, I tried to get into Christianity once, but the Bible was just too weird. It's very strange, all the blood and the guts and the sacrifices and all those genealogies. Well, he should have read Luke 24, because it's all about Christ, every bit of it. I mean the genealogies. In some way they will unpack and unfold the line that leads to the Messiah, which started, of course, with the patriarchs Abraham, isaac and Jacob. And so if you understand the whole Scripture in terms of Christ, then it transforms our reading.
Jeff Robinson:Romans Paul writes Romans 15, 4, whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction. Of course, again, we're speaking the Old Testament here, and through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. So there's hope in Matthew, mark, luke, or not just Matthew, mark, luke and John, but also in Genesis, exodus, leviticus, numbers, deuteronomy 1 and 2 Chronicles 1 and 2 Kings, and all those prophecies in Ezekiel, those really the visions and the valley of the dry bones, all those things. There's Christ in those things, there's hope in those things, and we see that when we think about the Passover, for example. It doesn't take much deep thinking to understand that the Lord's Supper, the New Testament meal, is the fulfillment of the Passover. And of course, that's all pointed to Jesus right, because the blood that was sprinkled on the doorposts caused the death angel to pass over. And what happens to you If you're a Christian and you are in Christ and the blood of Christ pleads for you. It's sprinkled over the door of your heart. Then the death angel will pass over you. You see, there's just one type, one shadow, and then you have the law of God, the Ten Commandments, what we call the moral law of God.
Jeff Robinson:Theologians of the past have called it that and I think that's right and I do think there's significance. They endure today. But it's not a list of things do's and don'ts you keep. You should not steal, you should not commit adultery. You shall not have no other gods before me. Those aren't things that if you keep those things then you'll be saved. No, we can't keep those things. And they show us. We cannot keep those things. They're also a guide to sanctification for the believer. That's a summary of God's moral law. In the New Testament, he said it's summarized by love to God and love to neighbor. Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. And so you see how these are tied together.
Jeff Robinson:And in the Sermon on the Mount, think about Matthew 5, 6, and 7. Sermon on the Mount Jesus says he corrects the Pharisees and their very rigid, legalistic understanding of the moral law, and that's what he's talking about the moral law. The Jewish mind would understand it that way. He's saying you have heard it said you should not commit adultery. But I say to you that if a man looks upon a woman with a lust in his heart, he's committed adultery with her already. Jesus is there giving the fullness of the law. That it's not just. You know, you should not murder. I didn't shoot a man in Reno just to watch him die. It's not just that, but it is. Have I committed murder in my heart? It's a heart issue and the heart is transformed by Christ. And so you know, the Christian faith is often thought of as just being a list of rules. I think this rock star said he couldn't keep all the rules. Well, of course he couldn't, but Jesus did. He kept the law perfectly and died in our place, and that's what's imputed to us when we come to him. So the gospel is the point of the whole Bible and I think a good paradigm for the most helpful paradigm I'm aware of that.
Jeff Robinson:I teach all the time in my church and in schools where I've been privileged to teach is a summary of the Bible is creation. That's the first two chapters of the Bible Genesis 1 and 2, fall. That's about the first. Well, I guess we'd say most of Chapter 3 of Genesis. And then creation, fall, new creation, and that begins in about chapter or verse 15 of Chapter 3 of Genesis, where there's a promise, this what we call the proto-gospel, the early gospel, that sort of an echo of the gospel backward, where the Lord says that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the seed of the serpent. His heel will be bruised, but you'll crush his head and you kill a snake by crushing his head, and the snake is Satan and of course, the seed of the woman is Christ.
Jeff Robinson:And from that point forward to Revelation, chapter 1, you have and Isaiah, or rather Israel in the Old Testament. They were the son of God and they brought redemption on one level to the world. But they couldn't do, they couldn't take away our sins that's what Hebrews tells us and so we had to look to one, the true son of God, jesus, who would come, who is the true Israel, and see, that's how we put the Testaments together. That keeps us from getting frustrated in our read through the Bible in a year, and it really has transformed it for me so that every year I look forward to reading the Old Testament books, I look forward to the law of God and the Pentateuch and things like that, because I understand it Christologically.
Jeff Robinson:But we tend and now wait a minute, we go back for a minute. So you have creation, fall, redemption, then new creation, the book of Revelation. That's where we're going. We have where we came from creation, fall, redemption, then new creation of the book of Revelation. That's where we're going. We have where we came from creation, what's wrong with us? Fall, how it's going to be fixed, how God has acted to fix it, redemption, and then where we're going, that's the new creation. So you have all that, all those basic fundamental worldview questions answered in Scripture, and that is the summary of the Christian worldview and that's how Scripture unfolds as the Holy Spirit inspired it through men long ago.
Jeff Robinson:But now we tend to read the Bible as a man-centered document. We kind of read ourselves into the narrative in such a way that you know David and Goliath, for example, will become how to slay the giants in your life, and that ain't it. That's not what it's about. Oh, maybe that's a distant application, okay, but it's about the battle belongs to the Lord which David says in there. So I've heard some really creative things done to that particular story or Daniel and the lion's den and things like that.
Jeff Robinson:But we understand it as Peter clearly did. We focus on redemption and we understand it as Peter clearly did. We focus on redemption, like Noah's Ark. Noah's Ark, instead of being a picture of God's wrath and God's salvation and the washing of baptism as Peter puts it, we focus on the animals and make it kind of a cute story for our children. Like on a sentimental trip to the zoo I actually ruined my wife's wallpaper in our first child's nursery. We had the animals on there and we had Noah and I said so we have a picture of the wrath of God on our son's nursery which she said. You're over-theologizing things. I know I was spoiling the fun, but no, I was attempting to be funny. But that is what it's about.
Jeff Robinson:But we tend to read it legalistically. We think it's a bunch of rules to try to be kept and we read it as Dan Dorian calls it it's class four legalists. Think of a river, the waves of the rapids in a river. The class four is the deadly ones. We're class four legalists and grace tends to dry up and we try to be good enough to curry favor with God, and that frustrates us and we're going to quit on that pretty soon.
Jeff Robinson:I think the Ten Commandments show us the impossibility of that. We read it as liberals do. We read it all as what would Jesus do? It's all moral example and I would ask what would Jesus do? It's all moral example and I would ask what moral example do you want? Do you want David's adultery and murder, or do you want Lot's carrying on with his daughters? What do you want? Well, no, that's not the point, is it? The point is we can't, we're not. There's an unrighteous no-not even when we need Jesus to come. We need Jesus to come and so it cannot be all. What would Jesus do? Which liberal theology tends to read it as? We can read it as read a response what the text means to me. This text means this to me, and it's very subjective, but there is a meaning in the text and there are other ways. Therapy. We can read this.
Jeff Robinson:Some of us tend to use the Bible as a self-help manual and I think this plays into our need for therapy and mollycoddling that's so prevalent today and widespread in our culture today. This happens when we kind of embrace what I like to call the Oprah gospel and we see the problem as being outside of ourselves and the solution as being inside of ourselves. And so we read the Bible as sort of chicken soup for the soul. We use the Word of God like an encyclopedia or a dictionary. I think some of us just wish that the Bible had tabs on the edge, arranged according to topics, so we just look it up here's stress, anxiety, here's money. Now, the Bible does deal with all that, but it's in the context of a redemptive story, that's true, that unfolded in history and unfolds like a flower. It gets clearer as we get toward the end.
Jeff Robinson:And there's probably the most popular one today is the hermeneutic of humility, which says I'm too humble to think I can understand God and the Bible. So I don't understand it and I've got my ways of thinking about it and you've got your ways, and that has a kind of a hint of humility, but it's not humble. We can understand the scriptures and we have an inspired hermeneutic, I think, that Jesus gives us in Luke 24 and in other places and there's another one, and I'll stop with this one what's called the trajectory hermeneutic developed by William Webb around 2000, a book he came out with which argues that the Bible is culturally bound and we need to allow now for the righteousness of homosexuality and same-sex marriage and all the letters in LGBTQ, because, after all, we had slavery and the Bible condemns slavery. We finally figured out that the Bible condemns slavery. It's on a trajectory and now we'll eventually figure out that the Bible affirms homosexuality and same-sex marriage and all the things that go with that, and of course, that's just as evangelicals. I hope we know that that is just totally false and faulty.
Jeff Robinson:So Christ and his gospel, they're the guardrails, as Edmund Clowney, one of my heroes, put it, to keep our understanding of the Bible on the straight and narrow path that leads to Calvary and keeps us in dropping off the deadly cliffs of legalism and liberalism and moralism and works, righteousness and all the rest legalism, self-love, all that. So we need to press on and read Luke 24, meditate on that, underline it. I've got my Bible here beside me and I've got about the whole thing highlighted in yellow. So I don't know what the point is of using a highlighter if you highlight the whole thing right. I think it just helps my aging and failing eyes at this point. So I hope this is helpful.
Jeff Robinson:Above all, read the Word of God. Take the reading plan that we publish, or any reading plan that's good, that's solid, that will help you, one that you can adapt to your own pace. Don't make it legalistic. You might say I'm going to read through the Bible in three years and that's fine. You'll look in vain at Scripture to find a command that says thou shalt read through the Bible every year or you'll be condemned. We don't want to make it about checking boxes, but something that we delight in. Make it the delight of your soul and read it. The inspired, inerrant, authoritative, all-sufficient scriptures. Read it Christologically. Well, that's all the time we have now. Thank you for joining us.
Jeff Robinson:Come back next month, we'll be, or in two weeks. Actually, we're doing two episodes a month this year. The 15th of the month will drop and the last day of the month, lord William Travis will be back with me. Next month we will be looking at any number of topics, but be sure to join us. You can download it. Take a second to visit our website, baptistcouriercom, which is updated daily with news and features and edifying material from across South Carolina, baptist life and the evangelical world. Also, don't miss our publishing site, baptistcouriercom, which is a new site which advertises our books. We have about 15 books coming out in the next year or year and a half, and so you want to be sure that you're aware of those. Like us on Facebook and Instagram and all the other platforms, on all the social media platforms. Like us. Consider leaving us a five-star review, but thank you for listening and be sure to join us next month. Until then, keep reading God's Word, read it Christologically, and may you live your life to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
Speaker 2:We're glad you joined us for Courier Conversations, where we are informing and inspiring South Carolina Baptists and beyond. For more information about these topics and more, subscribe to our e-edition or go to our website at baptistcouriercom. The Courier is located in Greenville, south Carolina. As a multimedia ministry partner of the South Carolina Baptist Convention. To comment about today's podcast, email us at conversations at baptistcouriercom. This podcast, produced by Bob Slone Audio Productions,
