- April 8, 2020
Re: Pastor Russ’ Message
To the dear brothers and sisters of Grace Baptist Church of Dallas, Oregon,
God bless you today, and remember that God loves you very much! I want to say that I love you as well and consider you a valuable part of our Grace Baptist Community. I pray for you regularly.
On Palm Sunday we held “Drive Thru Church,” and a number of you came. I was so encouraged: 1. because so many came, 2. because I have missed seeing you, and thirdly because I heard over and over again of how you loved and missed each other and our gathering as a church body. We have a special body of believers. Thank you, and don’t forget to keep the faith. I want to say, “Thank you,” to Lena, who called me and volunteered to have the Communion Elements ready. I also want to say, “Thank you,” to LaVoy who met me at the church on Sunday and asked if it would be okay to buy flowers to hand out to all the ladies who came though. It was ok, and He did!
Please remember to pray for each other; to call each other and encourage each other; and don’t forget to spend time in your Bible! That’s important. God’s Word IS His Word; and it is “Useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work,” 1 Tim. 3:16-17. Jesus reminds us that, “Man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God,” Matt. 4:4.
I was happy sharing communion with you; praying for you; and just seeing you! This coming Easter I will be at the church-house again. It seems to me un-natural not to be here on the Lord’s Day. I will be praying for you all—and should you drive thru, I will be happy to exchange a word and a prayer. One thing I will be sharing is, “He is risen!” I am also going to try to put together an Easter Chat and post it somehow? A number of you have requested some kind of an online appearance. I have also gotten offers to help. So, I plan to try my hand at that. Please bear with me on this.
You’ll recall I spoke to you last week about Jesus’ triumphal entry to Jerusalem. He fulfilled prophecy that was hundreds of years old: The riding on the colt; the shouting with joy; and specifically the righteous and victorious king coming to the city. These were just some of the fulfilled predictions of Jesus’ life and ministry. But all of that was part of a much BIGGER STORY, the story of God’s redemption of mankind that would hinge on the cross and resurrection of Passover week. We need to read our Bibles through the lens of the Bigger Story: God’s redemption of mankind.
You see, Jesus gave us a clue as to how He read God’s Word in John 5:39-40, He said, “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.” In other words, the Scriptures speak of Him. He is the Hero of the Bigger Story. Jesus told two of His disciples on the road to Emmaus, how that “the Messiah would have to suffer these things and then enter His glory? And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself,” Luke 24: 26-27. Later that evening, Jesus told all His disciples, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms,” Luke 24:44. The key to Bible understanding is Jesus. It is all about Him. He is the Hero of the Bigger Story of God’s redemption of mankind.
God’s Story has four movements to it. It begins with Creation. In the beginning, God created… everything! He is the creator. What He creates is “Good”. God desires relationship with mankind. God creates a beautiful garden for the man and the woman and gives them everything they need to thrive. God gives them the opportunity to do some creating themselves as they tend the garden. They have God’s blessing and His authority to rule over the earth. The man and the woman are vice-regents with God. They are to fulfill God’s commands as they maintain right-relationship in God’s Kingdom. But something went wrong…
In Genesis 3 we read about the Fall of Mankind. Yes the man and the woman rebelled against God and broke a rule, they ate the forbidden fruit. You see, Adam and Eve, just like us wanted to be the “hero of their own story.” They wanted to be like God. And with that act of rebellion, right-relationship with God was broken. The result was a curse on the Serpent and a curse on the soil. No longer would gardening be an easy and joyful act of worship; rather it would be hard and man would raise crops by the sweat of his brow. And the woman would bear children only in much pain. This was less than ideal. But worst of all, the man and the woman were driven from the presence of God, and no longer would they “Walk with God in the cool of the day,” like they used to. Their rebellion, also known as sin, had separated them from their God and His Kingdom.
But God had made a promise, which hints at the coming chapters in the Bigger Story. God told the Serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel,” Gen. 3:15. In other words, God says that He would bring about a Hero who would ultimately defeat Satan, but that in that exchange he would suffer a blow himself. This movement is called “Redemption.” Redemption is defined as, “the action of regaining or gaining possession of something in exchange for payment, or clearing a debt.” What God was promising was that He would one day provide for Himself a man who was perfectly capable of defeating Satan and winning back the people who were led astray and therefore re-establishing His Kingdom on the earth.
In the chapters following Genesis 3, we begin to see the Bigger Story unfold. The plot seems to be foiled when the wickedness of the human race became so great that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. God’s heart was troubled by this and He regretted that He had made human beings on the earth. God said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created,” Gen. 6:7. “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord,” Gen. 6:8. As the story unfolds after the great flood, there is more and more wickedness that God has to deal with. And He does so—so that He might bring about the Savior of all mankind. The King, who is righteous and victorious; who would come to His people and save them from themselves—their rebelliousness and desire to be their own “hero” instead of receiving the “Hero” that God had intended at the beginning. Generation after generation had passed, and one nation after another had passed, until one day, in the fullness of time, God sent forth His One and Only Son. This brings us to the high point of redemption.
You see, Jesus was introduced by His forerunner, John the Baptist, as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Now lambs were used for sacrifices, and these sacrifices would remedy the people’s problem of sin temporarily. But the blood of animals could never atone for the sin of the world, but a perfect and eternal Lamb could. In other words, something “perfect and eternal,” or God, would have to become flesh and blood and dwell among us—and then give His own life and blood for the payment of sin this world has committed. And that remedy for sin could then be applied to the individual believer through faith—in the same way an Old Testament Believer exercised faith in bringing a lamb to atone for his or her sins personally. Hence, Jesus’ blood could be also applied by faith to individuals who believed. That happened in the life of Jesus! He came to His own, but His own received Him not. And on Passover when the lamb was to be slain, our Hero Jesus, the Lamb of God, was slain on a cross. He is God’s redemption payment for us who believe. And in doing this, God regains possession of that which was lost. John 1:12-13 says, “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost—and that is how He did it. He died for the ungodly. But He rose on Sunday, victorious over sin and the grave. Now, by grace though faith, a lost mankind can be redeemed. But this is not all.
The last movement consists of the return of the King. This is called Consummation. Consummation means: “The point at which something is complete or finalized.” Yes the King is “Righteous and Victorious” and He reigns in heaven. But God had initially promised redemption for the Fall, and the evil work that Satan had done on earth. Jesus will return and “reverse the curse” so to speak. One day, He will bring about a “New Creation.” The angels told the disciples looking into the sky, “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven,” Acts 1:11. Jesus’ return will bring about the consummation of God’s promise, and He will make all things new.
In the first 2 chapters and the last 2 chapters of the Bible we see God’s Dominion as it was intended to be. God’s creation was called “Good,” and there is right-relationship between God and His people. All the chapters in between speak and God’s dealing with people’s sin—and the highlight of all that work is the cross of Christ. So just as King Jesus, the righteous and victorious One, came to Jerusalem, so He will once again return and claim this world for Himself. We look forward now to the loud voices in heaven who will one day shout, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever,” Rev. 11:15. That will be the consummation of the Bigger Story; at which point, God will begin writing a new chapter about life in His Kingdom. I can’t wait. Yes, every eye will see Him, every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus IS Lord. Palm Sunday was a foretaste of what that GREAT DAY will be like. Let’s be ready and waiting for Him. He is risen—He is risen indeed. Jesus is our HERO. Through Him we are saved to the uttermost.
Now, may the Lord richly bless you as you take these things to heart.
Pastor Russ Hilsinger,
Grace Baptist Church of Dallas
P.S. Please stay safe in this current coronavirus pandemic.