SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to this new series that we're in called Storyline.
SPEAKER_00: Last week we started this series, and this series is all about seeing the big picture of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the way that we like to say it and maybe a helpful illustration for us to just kind of visualize why this series is so important is this that reading the Bible, apart from seeing or knowing or understanding the big picture, is kind of like trying to put together a puzzle, but not having the front picture on the box for a reference.
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever tried to do that, then you know that it's much harder to figure out how the pieces are oriented, maybe how they need to turn, but also how they all fit together.
SPEAKER_00: And so the idea of this series is that when we zoom out and we look at the Bible not as individual verses or chapters or books, but instead see the big picture or the storyline of the Bible, then when we zoom in, it actually helps us see how these individual pieces or verses or chapters or books actually how they fit together.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's why I personally think that this series is extremely important for us, and it's this is that understanding the storyline or the big picture of the Bible, it does four things for us.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, it gives us a framework for how we read the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I mean when I say the individual pieces, the individual books.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have a daily reading plan that you follow, and as much as it's important to have those devotional type thoughts and those takeaways from whatever it is that you're reading through right now, we also have to understand that the entire Bible is one story woven together.
SPEAKER_00: And so understanding the storyline gives us a framework for what we read and how it fits to the rest of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing that I think understanding the storyline of the Bible does is it gives us a lens through which we see the world today.
SPEAKER_00: I heard Josh Howerton say it this way.
SPEAKER_00: He said that the Bible is timeless.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't just tell us what happened as if it's just a history book dated thousands of years ago, but instead it tells us what always happens.
SPEAKER_00: And I think for us today, living in 2026, is that the Bible, if we understand the big picture, the storyline of the Bible, it gives us a reference point for how we see and interpret the world today.
SPEAKER_00: Because the world today isn't just a product of history, but instead that humans are fundamentally human, and humans have been the same way for thousands of years.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible talks about the human condition, and so it gives us a lens through which we see the world today.
SPEAKER_00: It gives us a reference point for understanding and making sense of the world today and things of why does this happen and why does that matter.
SPEAKER_00: It gives us a lens through which we see the world today.
SPEAKER_00: Let me summarize that and say it this way the Bible is just as relevant today as it ever was.
SPEAKER_00: And understanding the storyline helps us to see and to connect the dots for how scripture applies to today.
SPEAKER_00: The third reason why I think understanding the storyline of the Bible is important is it gives us a reason to have gospel conversations.
SPEAKER_00: That this is not just my preference versus your preference.
SPEAKER_00: We may have different ideologies, world religions, different thought processes, different beliefs.
SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, if the Bible is true and the storyline of the Bible is one coherent story telling us about God's plan of redemption, then this gives me a reason.
SPEAKER_00: This pushes me to have those types of conversations with the people around me, especially the ones that I'm close to and the ones that I love.
SPEAKER_00: Understanding the big picture of the Bible is not a random verse that can be inspirational, although you can draw inspiration from it.
SPEAKER_00: It's that this is one cohesive story, and the story is propelling us to know the God who made us.
SPEAKER_00: So it gives us a reason to have these gospel conversations and not to shy away from them just because we have different perspectives or beliefs.
SPEAKER_00: And then lastly, and we'll get here at the end of the series, is I think understanding the storyline of the Bible gives us hope beyond this life.
SPEAKER_00: And when I mean hope is I mean like a real hope that this world is not all that there is, that this life is not all that we have to hang on to, but instead, if we understand the storyline of the Bible, where we came from, where we are, where eventually we are going, it gives us real hope beyond this life.
SPEAKER_00: And so, with that being said, I think this series, storyline, is so important for us today as modern-day followers of Jesus, or maybe you're just here and you're trying to figure this all out, is understanding the story of the Bible helps us in these four ways.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, last week we we uh ended the message with this idea that that a good God created a good world, but then this thing called sin happened.
SPEAKER_00: And sin through Adam and Eve, through their disobedience, through their rejection and rebellion towards God, is that sin screwed up the good world that a good God created.
SPEAKER_00: But we ended it with this thought that from the very beginning, though sin has broken and distorted God's good creation, from the very beginning God had a plan to redeem it.
SPEAKER_00: That sin screwed it all up, but sin didn't catch God by surprise, and it did not completely ruin God's purposes and his plans, but instead, in spite of sin, God always had a plan to redeem the world in which he created mankind and whom he created them in his image.
SPEAKER_00: And so the big idea for today, as we begin part two of this series, is that this plan of redemption is realized in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: That's where it's ultimately fulfilled and we see it in its completion.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what we need to understand as Bible readers in 2026 is that it's not just skipped to the New Testament, but the entire Old Testament is foreshadowing God's plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: And so what that means is sometimes when we go through our reading plans and we make our New Year's resolutions, we get to some places in the Old Testament and we're left scratching our heads because we have names we can't pronounce or rules that we can't really understand, and we kind of fail to see, man, I don't understand the point of this.
SPEAKER_00: Can't I just skip to the New Testament?
SPEAKER_00: Can't I just skip to the good parts?
SPEAKER_00: Like this stuff is just really boring and it seems like it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, when we see the storyline of the Bible, we see that the entire Old Testament is pointing to what will one day be fulfilled in the New Testament, but that God's plan of redemption has been the plan all along and it has been foreshadowed all throughout the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Last week we we kind of settled in this verse or this passage, and it's in Romans chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: And really, this Romans chapter 5 passage is kind of like our launching pad for the entire series, because in Romans chapter 5, Paul kind of summarizes the entire storyline.
SPEAKER_00: But if we don't understand the storyline, then maybe we fail to see what Paul says in Romans chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul is writing in chapter 5 of Romans to people who understand the storyline, at least the basic elements of this story of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And what Paul's doing in Romans chapter 5 is he is arguing for the legitimacy of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: He's arguing for the legitimacy of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's his entire point.
SPEAKER_00: We might say it this way: that Paul's point is that Jesus is the fulfillment of everything that God intended from the very beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the fulfillment of God's plan of redemption, but yet he kind of walked through this logical argument.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to read for us just the first couple verses, Romans chapter 5, verses 12 through 14.
SPEAKER_00: And as we read this, understand Paul's point is he's arguing for the legitimacy of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But to do so, he he kind of summarizes the entire storyline of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: So Romans chapter 5, verses 12 through 14, they read like this.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people because all sinned.
SPEAKER_00: That's the entirety of what we talked about last week in week one.
SPEAKER_00: A good God created a good world, but something happened.
SPEAKER_00: Sin entered the world through man's disobedience, through Adam's disobedience, and it screwed it all up.
SPEAKER_00: It corrupted and distorted the good world that God intended.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin.
SPEAKER_00: And this way, death spread to all people because all sinned.
SPEAKER_00: That's the beginning part of the story that we talked about last week.
SPEAKER_00: Paul goes on, he says, This in fact, sin was in the world before the law.
SPEAKER_00: The law is like ding-ding-ding.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're talking about Old Testament, we're talking about Exodus, we're talking about Leviticus, we're talking about the core of Judaism.
SPEAKER_00: Sin was in the world before the law, but sin is not charged to a person's account when there is no law.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Moses, if you were Jewish, is like the epitome of the law.
SPEAKER_00: He's the one that God gave the tablets to.
SPEAKER_00: He's the one that God spoke through when he introduced the law that would govern his people.
SPEAKER_00: And so now we're talking about a huge chunk of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul is writing to people who understand the storyline.
SPEAKER_00: He's walking them to Jesus, but he's referencing parts of the story that we have to make sure that we understand in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam's transgression.
SPEAKER_00: And here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Because he, Adam, is a type of the coming one.
SPEAKER_00: So again, zoom out.
SPEAKER_00: Understand Paul's point is he's arguing for the legitimacy of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That salvation is by faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because of God's grace towards us, he sent his son Jesus, and that our salvation is realized through faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The problem was Paul was writing to people who said, But what about the law?
SPEAKER_00: What about the commandments that we learned?
SPEAKER_00: What about the traditions that we were raised in that our parents taught us?
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's point is this that the Old Testament foreshadows God's plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: So you see elements of redemption in the Old Testament, but ultimately it's all pointing to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Paul would say this in fact, Adam was a type of the coming one.
SPEAKER_00: Adam was a type of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So anticipating pushback from a Judish audience, because that's what Paul got wherever he went, the Jews were like, hey, don't tell what's the deal with this Jesus stuff?
SPEAKER_00: Because, like, what about the law?
SPEAKER_00: We just throw it away, we just could do whatever we want.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's like, no, no, no, no, you're misunderstanding the storyline and its intended purpose.
SPEAKER_00: So anticipating some pushback from a Jewish audience, Paul bolsters his argument.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, he's arguing logically for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He bolsters his argument by using two familiar people from the Old Testament, people that the Jews were very familiar with.
SPEAKER_00: The first one is Abraham in chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have time to read through that.
SPEAKER_00: But the second one is Adam, this first man from whom all mankind descended.
SPEAKER_00: And what Paul says about Adam is that he was a type of the coming one.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what does that mean for us?
SPEAKER_00: We don't necessarily understand what type means, but that word type in the Greek, it actually means a model, a pattern, or a mold.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you're familiar with molds, it's this, it's this almost like a negative space in which something else can be poured or molded into it, that it will take that shape.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what the word type means.
SPEAKER_00: It means a pattern or a mold or a model.
SPEAKER_00: Uh one person said it this way: a person, a type is a person or thing that prefigures a future person or thing.
SPEAKER_00: And what Adam would say to us is that, or what Paul would say to us is that Adam was a type of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Adam was a mold in which Jesus would almost like step into to model similar patterns and things for us.
SPEAKER_00: And specifically, here's Paul's point.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, for people who are like, oh, I don't understand how Jesus can save the whole world just by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Like, what about the law?
SPEAKER_00: Don't have to do something, don't have to keep the commands.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's point is this through Adam, here's the type, the pattern, the mold.
SPEAKER_00: Through Adam, one person, death spread to all people.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a point that really can't be disputed.
SPEAKER_00: Because every single person, especially a Jew, would understand that the reason why we see death in the world is because through Adam, death entered the world because of his sin, and that that death was passed down from every generation.
SPEAKER_00: It's a fact that you cannot deny.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the ultimate statistic, you've probably heard this, is 100% of people die.
SPEAKER_00: It's the ultimate statistic.
SPEAKER_00: And so what Paul is saying is it is written in human history, it is concrete, that through Adam, death spread to all people.
SPEAKER_00: That is a reality that we cannot dispute.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's point is that just like through one person, the consequences of death spread to every person, he says through Jesus, the second Adam, through one person, Jesus, the second Adam, that life is made possible for all people.
SPEAKER_00: And so his point is that yes, it is possible that through one man, Jesus, that salvation or eternal life or forgiveness can be passed down to all people through faith.
SPEAKER_00: That's Paul's point.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the greater point for us in this series of storyline, it's this is that through his argument, Paul iterates to us that God's plan of redemption was always Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so for us, here's what that means it means that Jesus wasn't just a random Jewish guy who showed up in the first century.
SPEAKER_00: It means that from the very beginning, if Adam is a type of Christ, that means that it was intended that through one man these consequences would be passed down, that through Jesus salvation would be made possible to all.
SPEAKER_00: Is that from the very beginning, if Adam is a type, that means that God's plan of redemption was in the works from the very beginning.
SPEAKER_00: And so all throughout the Old Testament, we see that God has a plan of redemption, and through human history, he is moving us to this pivotal moment where Jesus finally shows up.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus himself confirms exactly what Paul would say and what we're saying in this series in Luke 24.
SPEAKER_00: Luke 24, you may know this as the road to Emmaus.
SPEAKER_00: It's after the resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There's two men walking to a town called Emmaus, and Jesus joins them, but they don't understand or know who he is.
SPEAKER_00: His identity is concealed from them, and they begin to express their dissatisfaction, their sadness, their grief because of what happened to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And then we pick up in Luke chapter 24 and verse 25, and this is what we see.
SPEAKER_00: And he says to them, How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
SPEAKER_00: The prophets, again, those are the Old Testament figures that a Jewish audience would certainly be familiar with.
SPEAKER_00: Wasn't it necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things?
SPEAKER_00: In other words, like you guys are grieved over what the prophets said had to happen.
SPEAKER_00: He's pointing it out like, hey, hey, this has been foreshadowed from the very beginning in your Old Testament scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: You just didn't quite see it that way.
SPEAKER_00: Wasn't it necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory?
SPEAKER_00: And then in verse 27, this is what Jesus says about himself.
SPEAKER_00: Then beginning with Moses, that's the law, and the prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all of the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, we would say it like this in the purpose of this series storyline is that what Jesus says is he begins with the law given through Moses all the way through the prophets, and he says to these two men to encourage their hearts, that this has always been the plan from the beginning, and he walks them through these Old Testament scriptures and he shows them how these Old Testament scriptures ultimately point forward to him, his coming, his suffering, but ultimately his resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: And so he does that.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus himself says, look, the Old Testament is foreshadowing and telling you all of these things were going to happen because this is God's plan from the get-go.
SPEAKER_00: A familiar game that we may be familiar with, but it may be helpful for us to understand how does the Old Testament foreshadow God's plan of redemption ultimately realized in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: John MacArthur actually points it out this way.
SPEAKER_00: He says, seeing Jesus in the Old Testament is a lot like playing Where's Waldo.
SPEAKER_00: So you may be familiar with that, especially if you were born in the 1900s.
SPEAKER_00: You understand that Waldo was this figure and this sort of a game, this mystery type game of you have to find Waldo in this crowd of people in these busy scenes.
SPEAKER_00: John MacArthur said it this way.
SPEAKER_00: He said, My grandkids like to play a game called Where's Waldo.
SPEAKER_00: Waldo's this goofy-looking skinny guy, funny clothes, and a kind of peppermint cap, and you have to find Waldo in this mass of people and things in a picture.
SPEAKER_00: But he says this if you don't know what he looks like, Waldo, you will never find him.
SPEAKER_00: If you have sort of a passing idea of what he looks like, you may find him, but it's not likely.
SPEAKER_00: But if you know exactly what he looks like and you have studied him carefully enough, if you look long enough, you will find him.
SPEAKER_00: He says, so we're going to use the Where's Waldo principle in the Old Testament, and here's his point.
SPEAKER_00: Since we know exactly what Jesus looks like, we are able to find him in the Old Testament, and that's what we're going to do.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, like Jesus says in Luke chapter 24, he says, now that we have a full picture of who Jesus is, we have a full picture of God's plan of redemption realized.
SPEAKER_00: Now, knowing exactly what Jesus looks like, we look back through the Old Testament and we see these traces of God's plan of redemption from the start.
SPEAKER_00: So for the sake of time today, I want to talk about two ways in which the Old Testament foreshadows God's plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is just a plug that I would encourage you, if you live in the vicinity of one of our three locations, I would encourage you to step out, to be bold, to take a chance, and to visit us in person at one of our locations.
SPEAKER_00: And here's why is because for the sake of online, we don't have time to talk about everything that we can talk about in person.
SPEAKER_00: And so today online, we're just going to talk about two of these ways.
SPEAKER_00: There's more, but just these two ways in which the Old Testament foreshadows God's plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: And primarily in these two ways, it's this through patterns and promises.
SPEAKER_00: Through patterns and promises.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, we find patterns and promises that point us forward, that show us traces of God's plan of redemption that will ultimately be realized in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The first one is patterns, and I want to talk specifically about the law.
SPEAKER_00: The law of Moses, the law of the Ten Commandments, the law of Leviticus, all of these things that we talk about in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: But primarily I want to talk about the Day of Atonement.
SPEAKER_00: The Day of Atonement, here's a summary of the Day of Atonement and how it worked.
SPEAKER_00: On the Day of Atonement, one time every year, one day, the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies, the most holy place in the temple.
SPEAKER_00: It was the only time all year the high priest, and the high priest is the only one who could go in and do this.
SPEAKER_00: On the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies.
SPEAKER_00: He would offer sacrifice for himself and the sins of the people.
SPEAKER_00: And the way in which this would work is that he would offer a bull for his own sacrifice, but he would offer two goats.
SPEAKER_00: And the goats represented the sins of the people, and those two goats, one of them was killed, the other was set free.
SPEAKER_00: It's where we get the idea of escapegoat.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Day of Atonement, the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies, he would sacrifice one goat, he would place his hands in the blood of that goat, place the blood on the other goat, the other goat would be set free into the wilderness, which signified and symbolized that the sins of the people had been removed from them.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what we see through the Day of Atonement is that the Day of Atonement foreshadowed exactly what the writer of Hebrews says, that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.
SPEAKER_00: And so on the Day of Atonement, the sins of the people would be symbolically removed through the shedding of blood of this one goat.
SPEAKER_00: And if you know the wearer's Waldo principle, then you understand in the New Testament that it was through the shedding of Jesus' blood by which you and I can have salvation, by which you and I can be forgiven of our sin.
SPEAKER_00: The second way I think we see a pattern in the Old Testament that foreshadows God's plan of redemption is through feasts and festivals.
SPEAKER_00: There were certain times of the year where certain feasts and festivals were commanded that the people would partake in these festivals, but the festivals were always to remind the people of something that is true about God.
SPEAKER_00: And so they had different festivals at different times of the year, but always the festival, the point of the festival was for them to be reminded.
SPEAKER_00: One of those festivals, one of the most popular of these festivals was Passover.
SPEAKER_00: You know the story in Exodus, God sends the ten plagues on the tenth plague.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, it's it's Pharaoh's had enough, and he's gonna let the people go, and God tells them ahead of time, hey, here's the last plague.
SPEAKER_00: The last plague is every firstborn child in this region is gonna die.
SPEAKER_00: But where Passover comes from is God says to the people that for anybody who would sacrifice a lamb, that the lamb's blood would be spread across the doorposts of their house.
SPEAKER_00: So when the angel of death comes, if he sees the blood, he will pass over that house and the firstborn would be spared.
SPEAKER_00: And so, as you can imagine, looking back, where's Waldo, because we understand who Jesus is, we look back and we see that this is God's plan of redemption being foreshadowed.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what the Passover specifically teaches us is that it foreshadowed those that are covered by the blood of the Lamb would be spared of judgment.
SPEAKER_00: That God's mercy would be exacted on those people because of the blood that covers them, then they would be spared of death, judgment.
SPEAKER_00: We can see how even in the Old Testament, a festival that was commanded for them to be reminded of every year that it foreshadows one day this ultimate plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: I think another point for us to understand with the storyline of the Bible is in the Old Testament with the sacrificial system, with the blood of the Lamb that would be spilled at Passover, is that the sacrifice of sin is meant to be kind of a gruesome scene.
SPEAKER_00: You know, in our modern-day context, we're so shielded from blood and death and decay.
SPEAKER_00: And yet I think it was a visual reminder, especially to the priests, of like, this is the seriousness of sin.
SPEAKER_00: This is the severity of sin, that there is real blood being shed, that there are animals who now no longer breathe, that they are lifeless because the penalty of sin is death.
SPEAKER_00: We saw that last week that a good God created a good world.
SPEAKER_00: And yet death entered the world.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul says is that through one man Adam, death entered the world.
SPEAKER_00: But it wasn't just like this principle out there, it was a visual reminder of the gruesome severity of sin, that sin has a cost.
SPEAKER_00: And I think the Old Testament, through these patterns, whether it be the law or the feast and the festivals, they remind us that sin has a consequence.
SPEAKER_00: And sin is not like a, it's just this isolated thing, that there are gruesome consequences to sin, because the consequences of sin, the penalty of sin is death.
SPEAKER_00: And this feast, festival, and the law, the patterns of the Old Testament are reminders of the severity of sin.
SPEAKER_00: But also the hope that we have that through the shedding of blood that sin can be removed.
SPEAKER_00: The second way in which the Old Testament points forward to God's plan of redemption, realizing Jesus, is not just the patterns that we see, but also the promises.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, dating all the way back to Genesis chapter 3, in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, this verse is often referred to as the proto-evangelium, the first gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And pronouncing the judgment of sin to Adam and Eve, that the earth would be cursed, there would be pain in childbearing, all of these things.
SPEAKER_00: But God says this in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, after sin entered the world, I will put hostility between you and the woman, talking about the snake, and between your offspring and her offspring.
SPEAKER_00: And many people see that this is a gospel promise that we see all the way back in Genesis chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: And he, the offspring of the woman, will strike your head, the serpent, and you will strike his heel.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, that one of these will be a fatal blow to the serpent.
SPEAKER_00: Many people call this the proto-evangelium, that this is God foreshadowing that one day the offspring of woman, the Son of Man, will come and he will ultimately and finally deal a death blow to that serpent and to the consequences of sin on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: But then we also see in places like Isaiah, the prophets of the Old Testament, that there are promises that foreshadow God's plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah chapter 53, verses 3 through 7.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we read.
SPEAKER_00: Now again, remember the Where's Waldo principle.
SPEAKER_00: As I read this in Isaiah, who predates Jesus, I want you to imagine who you think about when you hear these words, foreshadowed long before Jesus ever walked this earth in the first century.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Isaiah says in Isaiah 53.
SPEAKER_00: He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was.
SPEAKER_00: He was like someone people turned away from.
SPEAKER_00: He was despised and we didn't value him.
SPEAKER_00: Yet he himself bore our sicknesses and he carried our pains.
SPEAKER_00: But we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted.
SPEAKER_00: But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities.
SPEAKER_00: Punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds.
SPEAKER_00: We all went astray like sheep.
SPEAKER_00: We have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.
SPEAKER_00: He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb led to the slaughter, and like a sheep silent before his shears, he did not open his mouth.
SPEAKER_00: Now we read that in Isaiah, but understanding who Jesus is, understanding what happened to Jesus, I think it's very obvious when we apply a where's Waldo principle that Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 53 is foreshadowing the plan of redemption where God would send this man of suffering who would take our iniquity, our sin upon himself, where he would be punished for our sin.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's a very obvious foreshadowing in the Old Testament by one of the prophets, where he understands that God has a plan of redemption and he always has, and this plan of redemption is ultimately realized and fulfilled through Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And here's why this is important for us as a storyline is that when we understand the storyline of the Bible, we understand where we came from, we understand that sin corrupted and distorted a good world created by a good God.
SPEAKER_00: Is that when we read through the Old Testament, we understand that it's all building up to this moment that this plan of redemption is realized.
SPEAKER_00: And understanding the Old Testament and its intended foreshadowing points forward to Jesus, and it helps us see clearly who Jesus is and what he came to accomplish.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Jesus says this to his disciples in Matthew chapter 13 blessed are your eyes because they do see, and your ears because they do hear.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what he says For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people long to see the things that you see but didn't see them, and they long to hear the things that you hear but didn't hear them.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, here's what Jesus says to his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Guys, you are blessed right here in this moment, because saints of old, prophets of old, they long to see what was just a shadow in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: They long to see how this plan of redemption would be ultimately realized and fulfilled, and you guys are seeing it play out in real time because you are here with me, the Messiah, who will one day ultimately fulfill God's plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: The other thing I think this helps us understand when we read the New Testament, especially the Gospels, is this that Jesus' greatest conflicts and critics were those who failed to see how Jesus fulfilled the patterns and promises of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus' greatest conflict came from people who couldn't understand that the law or the Old Testament was pointing to this very one.
SPEAKER_00: The same one, by the way, that they had crucified is the same one who came to fulfill the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: And his greatest interactions and conflicts with these people came because they failed to see that the Old Testament is pointing forward to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so for us, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: It means that we understand when we read the Old Testament that it's pointing forward to, that we see traces of God's plan of redemption and how it would be fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what we have to understand.
SPEAKER_00: We have to understand that Jesus was always God's plan A.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was ultimately the one who would fulfill all that God had promised, all that God had patterned in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, here's what Paul says in Colossians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, don't let anyone judge you in regard to food or drink or in the matter of festival or new moon or Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: These things that are pointing to Jesus, and here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Because these are a shadow of what was to come, but the substance is Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Here's Paul's point.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's point is you no longer need the patterns and the festivals and all of those things because now you have Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus, all of these things are ultimately fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: And his encouragement would be hold fast to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And my encouragement to us today in 2026 in modern-day Western culture is that we would cling to Jesus and we would realize that Jesus is God's plan of redemption, and he always was.
SPEAKER_00: So here's our takeaway thought for today is that Jesus was always God's plan A.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was not just a random accident that happened in the first century.
SPEAKER_00: It was always building up to this moment where Jesus would come, take on human flesh, and fulfill God's plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: And here's a reminder for us as we ended last week.
SPEAKER_00: A good God created a good world.
SPEAKER_00: Sin entered the world, distorted, and corrupted that good world.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the hope that we hold on to today.
SPEAKER_00: But that same good God sent his son to the world so that the world might be saved through him.
SPEAKER_00: The Old Testament is pointing us to the coming of the one through whom you and I might be saved.
SPEAKER_00: This is the hope, and this is the storyline of the Bible that paints a picture that God always had a plan to redeem this sinbroken world that we live in.
SPEAKER_00: This is the hope that we cling to.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: God, thank you for today.
SPEAKER_00: God, thank you that we get to zoom out, see the storyline of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what we see: that this plan of redemption, that Jesus was always your intended purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not just a random accident.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't just happen to show up in the first century, that you, from the very beginning, had a plan to redeem the sinbroken world that was corrupted.
SPEAKER_00: Or the effects and the penalty of sin, that you had a plan that your Son Jesus would come and he would bear our iniquities.
SPEAKER_00: That our sin would be placed on him so that, like the scapegoat covered by the blood, or that we could be the ones who live and are set free at the expense of Jesus giving his life for us on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: This is the hope that we have.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that this would inform our decisions, this would inform our conversations, that we would go and take this hope to the people around us.
SPEAKER_00: We love you, we thank you.
SPEAKER_00: We ask this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.