The Extra
The Extra is a podcast hosted by Crosspoint Christian Church in Conyers, Georgia. Senior Minister, Curtis Zehner, and his friend, Ken Pierce, talk through each week's sermon unpacking the extra material that didn't make the cut for the weekend message. Curtis' and Ken's conversational and relaxed style lend itself to listeners of all ages and spiritual maturities.
The Extra
Jesus from A to Z
Join us as we explore how Jesus is intricately woven throughout the biblical narrative, influencing everything from ancient prophecies to the core of New Testament teachings. By reflecting on passages from Luke we discover how Jesus is portrayed as the fulfillment of the holy scriptures.
Check out more at www.CrosspointConyers.com
Today on the podcast, Ken and I are talking about how Jesus fits in the Bible from A to Z. Welcome to the Extra. That's a pretty big topic for discussion, isn't it, Ken?
Speaker 2:It doesn't get bigger.
Speaker 1:How does?
Speaker 2:Jesus fit into the Bible from beginning to end. It's a good way to picture. The bible is going to exhaust jesus. He's going to, he's going to be in everything and you don't have to look for him because he's there.
Speaker 1:It just is the product of his presence I was having a discussion with some of our elders this past week, and one of our elders converted from Judaism years ago, and so he's familiar with some of the things I preached about on Sunday, like the Tanakh, which is the Jewish Bible and he's fascinated with and so are the other elders about finding Jesus in the Old Testament.
Speaker 1:Okay, right, and he does appear, but sometimes you do have to have eyes to see it. Right, the NIV, I think, has a study Bible out right now that highlights in the Old Testament. Every time the Old Testament is talking about Jesus or like the future Messiah, and there are just a ton of places where, like whole story of Jesus, the prophecy of the Messiah coming, and even just how the beginning of the Bible really ties into the beginning of the Gospels, and I'm going to talk a little bit about that in next week's sermon as we begin the book of Genesis. But yeah, you're totally right, jesus is all in there and you can find him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's in there. It's sort of like he's there, you just have to look. Or he's there, you just have to see it. It's understood that he is the backdrop and he is the very nature and the structure of the Bible, and if you miss it it's because you want to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in a way yeah, if you're not, if you're not hearing it, it's because you're, you don't want to hear it, you don't see it, it's because you don't want to, and you really don't have to want to see it. To see it, definitely, you just it sort of just is revealed.
Speaker 1:That's my feeling yeah, yeah, you know um when jesus was talking to his disciples and telling him like in um what was the verse I used on sunday? It was luke 24 were you?
Speaker 2:were you completely in luke or you were exclusively in Luke?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did two passages in Luke. Let me pull up those notes real quick Instead of just guessing on some things. Here we go. So I was. We talked through Hebrews and then Luke 11. Jesus talks about, you know, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, all these prophets who have died, the blood of those prophets. This generation is going to be held responsible for all of it. Right, and that's where we got this A to Z theme Abel to Zechariah, because the Tanakh, the Jewish scripture, is structured in that Abel is really the first person who died, who was honoring God with his life. Cain killed his brother, abel, and then Zechariah is a priest, the high priest, and he died honoring God by calling out the king at the time, who was Joash, and Joash doesn't like being called out for sin, nor do I. I don't like it.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. That's one of the things that jumped out the concept of responsibility, critique, criticism, being called out, being held accountable All these things nobody likes. You have to learn. The ones that say I love being held accountable, nobody likes. No, you have to learn the ones that say I love being held accountable, nobody likes that. I'm a firm believer that nobody likes it. Yeah, they just learn to live with it better than others.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, I mean, it becomes more palatable the longer that you are a Christian. You know what, now that I say that out loud, maybe it becomes less palatable the longer you're a Christian. Maybe it does Like when you first become a Christ follower.
Speaker 1:You're on, yeah, you're in the honeymoon period and you are, you're following Jesus because of your recognition that you aren't perfect, and so it kind of begins with this understanding of I'm I'm messed up, man, I know I got a lot of problems, that's why I need Jesus. But then we get into this place of complacency maybe or complacency is not the right word that sounds right Comfortability.
Speaker 2:In recovery it's called complacency.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:Because when you first start recovery from addiction, you go. I'm just going to live a perfect life.
Speaker 1:That's what.
Speaker 2:I'm going to do Great.
Speaker 1:No, it's not. That is not great because it's impossible.
Speaker 2:So some things get tougher, some things get easier. Avoiding triggers gets a little bit easier because you're like well, I don't need to go to a bar, I don't need to.
Speaker 2:I used to think I had to, but now I don't need to. That becomes easier. But avoiding certain toxic people, that might become more difficult. And being held accountable for certain things you did 20 years ago, that's not comfortable. So you're right, there are parts of it that it's less palatable here but more palatable there and you just have to take. You have to take both because it's all one one thing.
Speaker 1:You. You see less of the mistakes that you make the longer, the longer you're in this game, right? Yeah, I think Jesus talks to that in the sermon on the Mount. He says look at the speck in your own eye before you worry about the log. Or, excuse me, the log in your own eye before worrying about the speck in your brother's eye. We all have a tendency to misjudge ourselves or misunderstand our own motives.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's called an attribution error, the fundamental attribution error in social psychology, where you're like, hey, that guy ran a red light. I would never run a red light.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then you say, well, okay, everything that's happening, everything bad that's happened to me is not my fault, everything good that's happened, I have brought it about. It's a fundamental error in human behavior. Okay, what are you in control of? What are you not in control of? Are you sure you wouldn't have ran the red light? Are you sure?
Speaker 1:Depends on the circumstance, I suppose.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would righteously run the red light.
Speaker 1:Exactly, I would have a great reason yeah.
Speaker 2:Everybody thinks I only do things for good reasons.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Not true.
Speaker 1:No, and that's maybe some of the part of why King Joash in 2 Chronicles 24 was so upset, because he was being portrayed as a person who wasn't righteous Right, even though he thought he was he did. Joash had a good relationship. Man, we digress on this. Okay, stick with us. Yeah, joash had a good relationship with Zechariah's father, mm-hmm. But Zechariah. Things got really bad in the kingdom after Zechariah's father died and Zechariah took over as high priest, and Zechariah, through the Lord, just called Joash out for it. Joash didn't like it and so he had Zechariah stoned in the temple courts. And that's how the Tan's how the the tanakh, the jewish bible again, that's how it ends.
Speaker 1:It's not literally the last page there's there's a few chapters after that that rounded out. But that's how the jewish tanakh is ordered genesis through second chronicles. So it's the same content. All the our genesis through malachi is in the tanakh. It is the same content. All the our Genesis through Malachi is in the Tanakh. It is the Tanakh, Okay. Okay, it's just ordered differently in our Holy Bible.
Speaker 2:I'm unfamiliar with that.
Speaker 1:Well, and that's what's so fascinating about what Jesus is saying, jesus truly believed that the Tanakh was the word of God and that he as a person was the fulfillment of the Tanakh, that everything, from beginning to end, that's that Luke 11 passage, luke 11, 51, the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah is going to be. The responsibility of that blood is going to be on this generation, meaning himself. So everything from A to Z in our most holy book is fulfilled. In me. That's a huge claim.
Speaker 2:Big claim.
Speaker 1:Big claim, big words. And then Jesus, after he resurrected from the grave, in Luke 24, verse 44, he says this is what I told you, speaking to his disciples this is what I told you while I was still with you. So, before I went through all this, it's like, see, he told you, yeah, I was still with you. So, before I went through all this, it's like see told you, yeah, I was trying to tell you, yeah, but like that is See, how could they have understood this?
Speaker 2:Also, nobody likes being told, see, told you.
Speaker 1:But how could the disciples have ever understood what Jesus was trying to say to them Right that those three years before his death?
Speaker 1:to them that those three years before his death, I mean Jesus was trying to teach them that he was at the center of it all and that it was all going to be fulfilled through him. How could the disciples really have grasped that until after the resurrection? I talked about bold claims in the sermon on Sunday. Like you got to have truth to back up a bold claim. You know those examples of Kellogg's. Yes, you know the frosted mini-wheats, the attention span yeah.
Speaker 1:Your kid will be 20% more attentive Newsflash. It doesn't work that way right? No, it's a bold claim and the science didn't back it up. So if Jesus is making a bold claim, he's got to pay for it.
Speaker 1:Exactly. If Jesus is making a bold claim, he's got to be able to back it up. Well, the proof behind the bold claim is the resurrection. So if you don't believe in the resurrection, then I guess you don't really believe in any of it, Right? You don't believe in what the Tanakh was was. You don't really believe in any of it, Right? You don't believe in what the Tanakh was teaching or pointing toward in the Messiah. And if you're looking at who the person of Jesus is, then he's just a good dude who died because he made some bold claims.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, in any system or theory, you're going to have bold claims and then the less bold claims, like some of the fine print. So what's the boldest claim? That christianity makes virgin birth. Plus, there's a few, plus resurrection. Yeah, you know that's, that's just two, that's just to mention two. And then you know it's all the other things that trickle down from that, and you know the great pyramid of belief you might call it's all the other things that trickle down from that, and you know the great pyramid of belief you might call it.
Speaker 1:And then everything has to be judged by its boldest claim or by its biggest foot forward and there's quite a few of those in Christianity, yes, I mean just those two that Jesus lived twice, and both times it was supernaturally Right, born of the Virgin Mary, so conceived of supernatural means. Jesus lived twice, and both times it was supernaturally Right, born of the Virgin Mary, so conceived of supernatural means and then resurrected from the grave. People don't come back to life after they die Right, but Jesus did, and that's why, like the disciples, they truly believed this, because they saw him.
Speaker 1:They witnessed him as a resurrected human being after he was buried in that tomb. And so that's why John, in the first chapter of John, he says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. He says he was the light and life of all men. Only a person who can resurrect himself from the grave can be the life of all men.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Like he created us and he gave us life when he created us, because he himself is life. Bold claim. Bold claim Backed up by the reality of the resurrection.
Speaker 2:Backed up boldly. Yes, yeah, you know who Christopher Hitchens is. You ever heard of him? He's passed away now, but he was one of those four horsemen of the new atheism boldly. Yes, you know who Christopher Hitchens is. You ever heard of him? He's passed away now, but he was one of those four horsemen of the new atheism. He was the most pompous British person you've ever met. And he said are you saying that all of natural biology ceased to exist here at the virgin birth and here at the resurrection and it just so happens to benefit you personally? Are you really just saying that? And then everybody that claims to believe that will say yes, that's exactly what we're saying. And he can't say anything after that because, okay, well, you believe it, but here's the proof of it. Here's the proof, here's the evidence. Here's the anecdotal and even event-based evidence of it Absolutely.
Speaker 2:But he would still. He would try to straw man the argument and say, are you really telling me that? And we'd go yeah, that's exactly what we're saying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so Jesus is with his disciples. In Luke 24, verse 44, and he says remember, this is what I was saying to you, right, while I was with you. Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets and in the Psalms, so everything that was written in the Torah the.
Speaker 1:Nevi'im and the Ketuvim, the whole of the Tanakh. There's a whole lot of Hebrew words that I just spat out of my mouth, Just essentially everything from A to Z that is written in our holy book. Jesus says is fulfilled in me and Luke. This is what I love about the author Luke in the gospel is that he sets Jesus up to be portrayed as that, as the fulfillment of all of it. If you go to Luke, chapter four, this is the beginning of Jesus' ministry.
Speaker 1:So he's been baptized in the Jordan River by his cousin, john the baptizer. He's gone out into the wilderness, led by the Holy Spirit, and was tempted, for he fasted for 40 days and then was tempted three times by the adversary, by Satan. After that he begins to teach and preach, repent and believe the good news. The kingdom of heaven is near. And then Luke 4, verse 14, he goes. He's in Galilee and then he goes back to Nazareth where he was brought up. Jesus of Nazareth You've probably heard that phrase before. So he goes back to Nazareth, where he's from, and on the Sabbath he went to the synagogue as was his custom. Verse 17, it says he opened the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. It was handed to him and this was a very prestigious moment that he was going to read from the scroll and then pontificate about it.
Speaker 1:He was the teacher that day in synagogue, essentially. So he's sitting, everybody else in the room is watching him. He starts reading from the scroll and this is what it says Verse 18,. The spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Then Jesus rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him and he began by saying to them Jesus said Right, and you heard it from me, I'm the one who's fulfilling this prophecy, right. So Luke opens up. Right, it's chapter four of Luke, but it's the opening of the ministry of Jesus. So Luke 1 and 2 is the birth story and then 3 is the baptism and the temptation of Jesus. So now we're into. He's doing the work.
Speaker 2:I can't breathe. I'm so excited. I literally forgot to breathe.
Speaker 1:I do that too. I'm so excited I literally forgot to breathe. Luke sets up Jesus as from the beginning, this is all about me, and then he ends it in Luke, chapter 24. I was just there, but I lost my place. I've read it so many times already. He said this is what I told you while I was with you. All of this must be fulfilled, all that was written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms. So Luke bookends it. He says all right, this is Jesus. He claimed that everything was about him. Then Luke tells us all about everything that he did and he ends it by saying see, I told you it was all about him. Yeah, end of book.
Speaker 1:That's just incredible to me yeah, this is fascinating that these guys. Luke was not an apostle, by the way. He was just like a investigative journalist that would be a good trivia question well, um, it's uh. Actually he might have been a physician, but the way that he went about his writings.
Speaker 1:It was like he was an investigative journalist. But Luke knew Jesus enough, from the people who were with Jesus the most, that even he believed this dude is the real deal, and if you just know the scriptures you're going to know Jesus. It all points back to him. Fascinating, absolutely fascinating to me.
Speaker 2:It's a good place to start when you're talking about okay, this is where Jesus' ministry starts, and he is in it A to Z. He is it pretty much. You can say it. You can think about it like that.
Speaker 1:The guys over at Bible Project. You ever heard of Bible Project? I feel like I'm stealing this, so here I'm giving them credit. This is from Bible Project, bibleprojectcom.
Speaker 1:Their catchphrase is we believe that the Bible is one unified story that leads to Jesus. Now, the way that they say it is their way, that's their little trademark way of the Bible is one unified story that leads to Jesus. Now, the way that they say it is their way, that's their little trademark way of the Bible project. But that's nothing new, because we, at Crosspoint, believe that the Bible is one unified story that all points to Jesus, and it is.
Speaker 1:If you read it from cover to cover, you'll find that the Holy Spirit has inspired these authors to point the reader toward the one and only Messiah, the one who died for all of us and was resurrected from the grave and man. Now, upon understanding the Bible, we have to apply that Bible to our lives. Bible, we have to apply that Bible to our lives. And if the Word, who became flesh and dwelt among men, died, resurrected, ascended to heaven and sent us the Helper, that Word is now living in us, and so our lives become part of the story, where he is at the center of everything, for us center of everything for us it's going on the thread of bold claims.
Speaker 2:That is a bold proposition for somebody to try to live out.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:That's where you get a lot of the tension internally. That's where you get a lot of the tension between believers. Are you doing what the Bible says? Yes, I think I am. I feel like I am. Then somebody can come along and quote.
Speaker 1:I'm using air quotes.
Speaker 2:Hold you accountable or call you out or critique you, which nobody likes, and then there's tension or critique you which nobody likes.
Speaker 2:And then there's tension With the bold statement. If it's true, then all the other less bold statements should also be true. Well, if this holds, then everything else. Like, I have no reason not to believe everything else. So that's why you start with the bold claims and probably just like if you were building a case in a courtroom, if you're a lawyer, you start with the most bold thing and if you can get the jury on your side with those things, everything else is just like well, yeah, yeah, yeah. But this is the real thing that, like, you're hanging your hat on this, All that other stuff, all those other 10 things, Sure, Fine.
Speaker 1:Well, man A to Z, Jesus is at the center of it all, and what the Bible is teaching us to pay attention to is how are we fitting Jesus into the center of our lives? And hopefully today we will do a better job of that than we did yesterday. Am I right, Ken? And this?
Speaker 2:year better than last year.
Speaker 1:Oh man, that's right, it's 2025. Yeah, happy New Year, ken.
Speaker 2:Happy New Year. I got stuck in December. Last night I was sending an email and I was like no wait, it's not, it's January, it's January.
Speaker 1:It's the future. Well, listen, we certainly appreciate you joining us for the Extra podcast today. Follow along as we continue to unpack more about how Jesus is at the center of it all, from A to Z. Next week we're talking through the book of Genesis and hope you'll join us not only on the podcast, but also at church. Sunday mornings at cross point, church starts at 1030 in the morning. I'll see you there, ken. I'll see you there on Sunday.
Speaker 2:I'll be back in the saddle playing in drums.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir, y'all have a great day, thank you.