WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.000 Today we come to the final part of the study that we've been doing on Sunday mornings on the story of the Old Testament. 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:13.000 In this series we've been looking at some of the big moments that take place in the Old Testament. 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:16.000 We're trying to learn more about what happened at these big moments. 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:28.000 We've been trying to explain how they fit together, and above all, we've been trying to see how they are all pointing forwards to the coming of Jesus Christ in the new. 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:38.000 Today I hope that we'll be able to bring everything together, and our title is Post Exile, and we can read again from Malachi 4 where it says, 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:44.000 Behold, the day is coming, like burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evil doers will be stubble, 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:52.000 the day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 00:00:52.000 --> 00:01:04.000 But for you who fear my name, the Son of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings, you shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:10.000 Usually I begin these sermons by asking the question, what's the story so far? 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:15.000 But we've reached the end of the Old Testament, so the story so far is actually the whole story. 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:25.000 And so instead of going through everything again in detail, I want to offer you a summary of the story of the Old Testament using four key headings, 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:30.000 Homeland, Family, Community, Kingdom. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:37.000 If you go all the way back to the beginning of the Old Testament in Genesis, God establishes each of these. 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:43.000 He created this amazing universe as a beautiful homeland for humanity. 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:49.000 He created Adam and Eve, joined them as husband and wife, and told them to build a family. 00:01:49.000 --> 00:02:03.000 He established a wonderful community with appropriate rules, responsibilities and morals, and he himself came to dwell with them, God and humanity together. 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:14.000 And in that he gave humanity a leadership role with delegated authority from God over creation. And although the term kingdom isn't used in Genesis, 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:17.000 it's clear that the world is God's territory. 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:24.000 Humanity is to be his people and his rules and commands are to be followed. 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:35.000 So the Old Testament begins with a beautiful homeland, a loving family, a wonderful community, and a righteous kingdom. 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:42.000 But all of that is broken because humanity rebels against God. 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:51.000 And in Genesis chapter three, humanity deliberately disobeys God's command and rejects his lordship. 00:02:51.000 --> 00:03:05.000 As a result, the homeland is cursed, the family is divided, the community is hostile, and the kingdom of evil claims authority over humanity. 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:16.000 And because of that, we've said several times throughout this series that now the world and humanity are beautiful and broken. 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:29.000 And that's why if you look at any period of history or if you look at anything that's happening in the world today, you'll see a lot that's beautiful and you'll see a lot that's broken. 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:38.000 But the story of the Old Testament is that God does not give up and he responds to all of this by initiating a plan of salvation. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:42.000 That plan is centered on promises. 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:50.000 These promises take the form of covenants and covenant is really the concept that holds the whole Bible together. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:55.000 In fact, when we say Old Testament and New Testament, what we mean is Old Covenant and New Covenant. 00:03:55.000 --> 00:04:00.000 And it would probably actually be a wee bit better if those were the terms that we used. 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:07.000 And the covenant promises that God gives relate to these four headings that we've selected. 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:15.000 So in terms of homeland, God calls Abraham out of his homeland and promises him a new one. 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:19.000 Moses leads the people out of Israel into that, towards that land. 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:22.000 Joshua enters that land and conquers it. 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:26.000 David secures the borders of the land. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:32.000 Family, God promises Abraham a child and after many years, Isaac is born. 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:40.000 Isaac, father Jacob, Jacob had 12 sons and from these a huge family nation arises. 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:43.000 Jacob was given a new name, Israel. 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:48.000 So the Abraham, Isaac, Jacobite family are known as the Israelites. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:56.000 Community, that great family was organized into a society where they were to live as God's people. 00:04:56.000 --> 00:05:07.000 A wonderful community governed by God's law and a community where God himself would come and dwell with them in the tabernacle and then the temple. 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:16.000 It was a community to be characterised by justice and togetherness and it was to stand out from the rest of the world. 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:27.000 And kingdom, eventually God raised up David to be king and he promised that David's family would be a royal line. 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:38.000 David secured the homeland, the family nation could now flourish and the community of God and his people together could thrive. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:45.000 And so God's promises related to all of these things and with these promises came wonderful blessings. 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:48.000 So the homeland gave people liberty. 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:51.000 They were free from oppression and exploitation. 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:54.000 The family gave them unity. 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:57.000 They were all part of one great family nation. 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:00.000 The community gave them identity. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:08.000 They were God's people living in his way, different from everyone else, shining as a light for the nations. 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:18.000 And the kingdom gave them security with David on the throne, they were strong, safe and prosperous. 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:20.000 These were the great moments of the Old Testament. 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:23.000 These were the high points. 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:29.000 But as we've seen over the past few weeks, none of it lasted. 00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:40.000 It's easy, I think, to assume that the Old Testament is a story of heroes and successes and sometimes our impression as children can be that. 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:42.000 And there were many great moments. 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:47.000 But the truth is the Old Testament is a story of failure. 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:58.000 Despite all the great promises that God gave, the people continually rebelled against him. 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:04.000 That's why we've been saying that you can depict the Old Testament history with a diagram like this. 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:06.000 That's got some upward spikes. 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:10.000 These are the high moments of Abraham, Moses, David and others. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:15.000 But overall, the trajectory is downward. 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:19.000 The story is one of failure. 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:26.000 And by the end of the Old Testament, all four of these headings have been lost. 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:28.000 So the homeland is conquered. 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:31.000 The capital city Jerusalem lies in ruins. 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:35.000 The family is totally divided. 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:37.000 First of all, it splits into two nations. 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:41.000 Now there's a diaspora of ethnic Jews scattered all over the place. 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:48.000 Many have mixed with other peoples and there's only a tiny weak remnant left in the land. 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:50.000 The community has crumbled. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:59.000 So the temple, the ark, the family nation living as God's people and the presence of God himself are all gone. 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:01.000 And the kingdom is finished. 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:08.000 That under foreign rule, the line of David has come to an end. 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:13.000 And as we saw a couple of weeks ago, and all on the last couple of weeks, 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:25.000 the story of the Old Testament reaches its lowest point when the people are taken into exile in Babylon in 586 BC. 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:29.000 And they remain there for 70 years. 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:32.000 And they lost their liberty, no longer able to thrive. 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:34.000 They lost their unity. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:35.000 They were bitterly divided. 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:36.000 They lost their identity. 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:39.000 They'd forgotten who they were and who they were meant to be. 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:40.000 They lost their security. 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:47.000 They were at the mercy of the next emperor to rise up and take control. 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:53.000 And what I hope you can see is that when we use terms like liberty, unity, identity and security, 00:08:53.000 --> 00:09:00.000 what I hope we can see is that the story of the Old Testament has been repeated many times in history. 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:04.000 And it's still getting repeated today. 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:07.000 People today are longing for liberty. 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:14.000 In Western Europe, that might not be political liberty, but it's definitely the case for many other parts of the world. 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:17.000 But even here, many people are enslaved. 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:22.000 Enslaved to addiction, drugs, alcohol, gambling. 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:26.000 Enslaved to the restrictions of poverty. 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:32.000 Or to the pressures of success, to the attraction of wealth, to the lure of power. 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:34.000 Others are imprisoned by guilt and shame. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:40.000 Others are in bondage to the slave master of what other people think of you. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:44.000 People today are craving for unity. 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:48.000 So if you look at the news, people are dismayed by inequality. 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:50.000 People are hurt because of hostility. 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:54.000 And if you look around us, people are suffering in isolation. 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:59.000 People are heartbroken because they've been rejected by others. 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:02.000 People today are searching for identity. 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:10.000 So, so many people are trying to figure out who they are, what their purpose is, what's right and wrong, 00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:14.000 what we should put our energy into so that our contribution will be recognised. 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:20.000 And it all comes back to the fact that we long to be special and we long to be part of something. 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:25.000 And people today are longing for security. 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:29.000 Maybe in terms of finance or a job or a relationship. 00:10:29.000 --> 00:10:37.000 And in the last year, definitely in terms of health, we're all desperate to be safe. 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:40.000 We're scared of bad things happening. 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:49.000 All around us, we see people who are enslaved, divided, searching and vulnerable. 00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:57.000 And if we're honest with ourselves, I think we have to recognise that these things are so often through of us too. 00:10:57.000 --> 00:11:01.000 So, I put pressure on myself to succeed. 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:05.000 So, I'm enslaved to what other people think of me. 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:12.000 I can so easily judge other people as a threat rather than seeing them as family. 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:16.000 I long to be special. I don't want my life to be worthless or pointless. 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:18.000 I want it to achieve something. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:28.000 And so often the outward impression that I give is masking a whole pile of insecurities on the inside. 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:35.000 And it's reminding us that the story of the Old Testament isn't just ancient history. 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:39.000 We can see it all around us. 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:45.000 And I can see it in my own life as well. 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:49.000 So, the story of the Old Testament is a downward slope. 00:11:49.000 --> 00:11:55.000 Despite all of God's amazing promises, the people continually failed. 00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:59.000 But at the very end of the Old Testament, there's a glimmer of hope. 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:06.000 I don't know if you noticed that, but I deliberately put just a wee tiny upward slope at the end of our diagram 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:09.000 because there's a glimmer of hope. 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:15.000 And that upward slope at the end is the post-exile period, and we read two passages from that period, 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:19.000 one from Ezra and one from Malachi. 00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:24.000 Just for information, if you look at the Old Testament books, there's a full list of the Old Testament books. 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:28.000 The ones in red come from the post-exile period. 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:32.000 So, the books of the Old Testament are not in chronological order. 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:35.000 So, you've got a little bit in the middle, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther. 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:41.000 The three books at the end, Haggai Zachariah and Malachi, they're all written from the post-exile period. 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:46.000 I've put two question marks beside Joel because we don't really know exactly when Joel was written. 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:50.000 So, some people do think that it was written in the post-exile period, others don't. 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:52.000 We don't know for sure. 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:56.000 It's one to think about, one to research if any of you want to do that. 00:12:56.000 --> 00:13:02.000 But certainly, the other six are definitely from this period. 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:07.000 This is the period between 538 and around 400 BC. 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:17.000 The Jews started coming back to Jerusalem and they gradually rebuilt the temple and they gradually rebuilt the city. 00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:22.000 And Ezra and Nehemiah are the books that tell us the most about what happened. 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:26.000 At that time, two things were happening. 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:31.000 One, the people were looking back. 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:35.000 So, we read about that. Philip read that for us in Ezra chapter 3. 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:39.000 They laid the foundation for the temple in order to rebuild it. 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:44.000 So, if you imagine that St. Columbus got hit by a bomb and the building had fallen down. 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:45.000 And we all fled Edinburgh. 00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:50.000 70 years later, we came back and we're like, right, we want to rebuild our building. 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:53.000 Foundation is laid. They're getting started. 00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:55.000 And there was great rejoicing. 00:13:55.000 --> 00:14:01.000 But the older people who could remember what things used to be like wept. 00:14:01.000 --> 00:14:09.000 We saw that in these verses and the sound of joy and the sound of weeping was intermingled into this great noise together. 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:19.000 And it's reminding us that we must never forget that at the end of the Old Testament, the people of Israel were very, very bruised. 00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:25.000 So, their recent history had been hard. 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:28.000 The high points of the Old Testament were a distant memory. 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:32.000 And they looked back and they saw many mistakes. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:37.000 And now they carried many regrets and many bruises. 00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:40.000 The people were looking back. 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:47.000 But the second thing that was happening just now was that God was looking forward. 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:52.000 And we read about that in Malachi where it says, a day is coming. 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:55.000 God is sending his messenger. God himself is going to come. 00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:59.000 He is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:05.000 So in the midst of all the bruises and brokenness of the post exile period, God is looking forward. 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:09.000 And he's promising a day when he will come. 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:14.000 And of course, all of that is going to be fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:24.000 As we've been saying through the whole of this series, the high points of the Old Testament are signposts towards what Jesus is going to do. 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:26.000 And there's so many amazing things that we've seen. 00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:28.000 There's so much I wish we could look at today. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:39.000 I just want to focus on one thing that Malachi talks about in chapter four, because there he tells us what God is going to bring with him when he comes. 00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:45.000 Malachi 4 is saying a day is coming. God himself is coming and he's going to bring something with him. 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:47.000 What is he going to bring? 00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:53.000 He is going to bring healing. 00:15:53.000 --> 00:16:01.000 The son of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. 00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:13.000 In a world that's beautiful but broken and for a people who are so badly bruised, healing is exactly what they need. 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:22.000 And if you look at what the New Testament reveals, you see that Jesus has come to bring healing in all the areas that we've been speaking about. 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:25.000 Jesus is coming to heal the homeland. 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:28.000 He's broken sins, grip on creation. 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:36.000 He's defeated the power of death on the cross and he's going to restore the whole universe into a new heavens and a new earth. 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:39.000 And it will be a beautiful homeland again. 00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:42.000 And that's giving us amazing liberty. 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:48.000 We can be free from death's power and we can thrive now and for eternity. 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:51.000 Jesus is healing the family. 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:59.000 He's calling people from all different nations to come and be brothers and sisters and to know God as our perfect Father. 00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:04.000 He's removing this divide between Jew and Gentile that's existed through the Old Testament. 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:11.000 And he's uniting us together as one body, one family and that gives us beautiful unity. 00:17:11.000 --> 00:17:16.000 We can be part of something amazing now and for eternity. 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:21.000 He's healing the community and so he's teaching us to love one another. 00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:28.000 He's establishing a society where broken people are helped, where people who've made mistakes aren't judged 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:32.000 and where people who've gone down the wrong path are shown a better way. 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:37.000 And he himself has come to dwell with us by his spirit and that gives us real identity. 00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:48.000 As unique individuals and as a great community together we can be something really special now and for eternity. 00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:51.000 And Jesus is healing the kingdom. 00:17:51.000 --> 00:17:54.000 He is now risen and exalted. 00:17:54.000 --> 00:17:56.000 He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:05.000 He's our ruler, our defender and because of everything that he has done we can have security now and forevermore. 00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:13.000 Jesus is the Son of righteousness who has risen with healing in his wings. 00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:25.000 And for the bruised people at the end of the Old Testament and for people like you who are bruised by life today, 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:28.000 that's exactly what we need. 00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:42.000 But the most amazing thing of all is that in order to accomplish that healing, Jesus was bruised in our place. 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:48.000 As he approached the cross he took all the bruises that the Kingdom of Evil could throw at him. 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:55.000 On the cross he took all the bruises that our sins deserve. 00:18:55.000 --> 00:19:01.000 And if you go back to the very beginning of the Old Testament you discover what? 00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:05.000 You discover that that was the plan all along. 00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:08.000 God said at the very beginning when humanity sinned, 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:12.000 I'll put enmity between you and the woman between your offspring and her offspring. 00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:13.000 He shall bruise your head. 00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:20.000 You shall bruise his heel pointing towards the great plan of God that was being worked out. 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:26.000 In Genesis chapter 3 God's beautiful creation was broken. 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:36.000 In Malachi chapter 4 God says, I am coming to bring healing. 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:49.000 And it is all because God does not give up. 00:19:49.000 --> 00:20:00.000 We have covered a lot of ground over the past few weeks and yet having done so we've only just scratched the surface of the story of the Old Testament. 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:10.000 I want to close our sermon today and our series with four massive lessons that we learn from the story of the Old Testament. 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:16.000 Lesson number one, people are incredibly stupid. 00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:23.000 Now that's quite blunt language but it's definitely true of the people in the Old Testament. 00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:33.000 And I don't think that we can deny that there's plenty evidence still around today to show that this conclusion is valid. 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:40.000 In the Old Testament people repeatedly thought that they could do things their way. 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:46.000 That basically that they could set the terms of their relationship with God and that they knew what was best. 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:49.000 So they ignored God's warnings. 00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:54.000 They disregarded God's teaching and they thought that instead they could do things their way. 00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:56.000 They could do what they wanted. 00:20:56.000 --> 00:21:02.000 And that kind of behavior is seen in various ways in the Old Testament. 00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:11.000 So sometimes people thought that they could mix their faith in God with other beliefs. 00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:18.000 That's the term for that is syncretism and it was very, very prevalent at certain times in the Old Testament. 00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:23.000 People would be like, well, yes, we do want to follow God but we're going to mix that with what we see in the world around us. 00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:29.000 It was a kind of, we believe in God but we also want to be like everybody else approach. 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:33.000 Does that still happen today? 00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:37.000 At other times people were just half-hearted towards God. 00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:43.000 They kind of went through the motions of outward religion but their hearts weren't in it. 00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:47.000 And as a result they didn't do anything to help people who were in need. 00:21:47.000 --> 00:21:55.000 And if you go to chapters like Isaiah chapter one or even to Malachi chapter one or two, it talks about half-hearted approaches to God. 00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:58.000 Does that still happen today? 00:21:58.000 --> 00:22:02.000 At other times in the Old Testament people thought they could live a double life. 00:22:02.000 --> 00:22:07.000 So honouring God one day, committing awful sin the next. 00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:10.000 Even David fell into that trap. 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.000 The people in the Old Testament thought they could live a double life. 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:17.000 Does that still happen today? 00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:21.000 And other times people in the Old Testament just thought, it's fine. 00:22:21.000 --> 00:22:23.000 Oh, it's fine, it's fine. 00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:28.000 And there were prophets at various times even in the Exas saying, look it's fine, it's going to be over soon. 00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:34.000 It was so easy for people to think, well we don't really need to do anything, it's fine. 00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:37.000 Does that still happen today? 00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:46.000 All these things, syncretism, that mixing of beliefs, half-heartedness, double life, it's fine. 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:53.000 They are repeatedly done in the Old Testament and they are still done today. 00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:58.000 But if you think of that key word in Malachi, the word healing, 00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:04.000 what happens if you apply these things to medical healing? 00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:09.000 So imagine you're ill, you're given a prescription and you say, oh well I think I'll take part of this 00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:13.000 but I'm going to mix it with the drugs that other people are taking. 00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:17.000 Or imagine you thought to yourself, well I'll just turn up for my appointments, 00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:22.000 I'm not really going to listen to what the doctor says but I'll just make sure I show face. 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:28.000 Or imagine that you were going to the doctor saying, yeah I'm going to do what you say, 00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:31.000 I'm absolutely going to follow your instructions, I'll take this medication, 00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:35.000 but then when no one's looking you abuse yourself with all sorts of harmful substances, 00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:37.000 just for a moment's pleasure. 00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:46.000 Or imagine the doctor gave you a serious diagnosis and you responded by saying, ah it's fine. 00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:55.000 All of that thinking would wreck your chances of healing. 00:23:55.000 --> 00:24:00.000 And if I did that, and to be honest at times I have done that, 00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:06.000 so a month ago I was sledging and I hurt my finger, this finger, 00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:08.000 and I thought, ah it'll be fine. 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:12.000 And a month later my finger is still really sore and I think I've actually damaged it quite badly, 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:14.000 but I ignored it because I thought it's fine. 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:21.000 What was I? Incredibly stupid. 00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:27.000 If that is true of medical healing offered by a doctor, 00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:41.000 is it true in regard to the spiritual healing that God is offering to you? 00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:46.000 The second massive lesson though is that people are incredibly precious. 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:51.000 So although the people in the Old Testament were foolish, they were incredibly precious. 00:24:51.000 --> 00:24:55.000 And we've been seeing the story of the Old Testament is that God does not give up 00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:58.000 and the reason he doesn't give up is because humanity, 00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:04.000 even though humanity deserves to be abandoned, humanity is too precious for God to give up on them. 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:08.000 And we see this when we highlight some of the most famous verses in the Old Testament. 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:11.000 There's four of the most famous verses in the Old Testament. 00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:14.000 We've seen Jeremiah 29 a couple of times the last couple of weeks. 00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:16.000 Lamentations, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:20.000 Sam 32, one of my favorite verses, you're a hiding place for me. 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:23.000 Isaiah 55, come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. 00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:26.000 That great, great invitation. 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:29.000 These verses give amazing promises from God. 00:25:29.000 --> 00:25:32.000 They're like the big, awesome, wonderful verses of the Old Testament. 00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:36.000 They have all got one thing in common. 00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:46.000 They were all spoken at times when people had totally stuffed things up. 00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:52.000 And possibly my favorite version, the whole Old Testament is Hosea 11 verse 8, 00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:57.000 written at a time when God's people were an utter mess. 00:25:57.000 --> 00:26:05.000 And God says, how can I give up on you? 00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:08.000 How can I hand you over? 00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:11.000 My heart recoils within me. 00:26:11.000 --> 00:26:17.000 My compassion grows warm and tender. 00:26:17.000 --> 00:26:24.000 The Old Testament makes it so clear that in God's eyes, people are incredibly precious. 00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:32.000 And when people are around us, stuff up, we need to show them that they are precious. 00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:44.000 And if you have stuffed up, God is saying to you, you are still so precious. 00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:48.000 The third lesson is that the Bible is seriously cool. 00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:56.000 One of the things I hope that you've seen during this series is just how the Bible fits together so amazingly. 00:26:56.000 --> 00:27:02.000 We've been saying that these high moments in the Old Testament are signposts pointing towards Jesus. 00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:07.000 That diagram is not quite accurate because really it should look something like this. 00:27:07.000 --> 00:27:11.000 There's just tons of awesome connections between the Old Testament and the New. 00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:15.000 And it's just mind-blowing how it all fits together. It is so cool. 00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:17.000 And I wish I could show you this more clearly. 00:27:17.000 --> 00:27:19.000 I want to just try and give you one example. 00:27:19.000 --> 00:27:25.000 Here are the words that John the Baptist's father spoke when John was born. 00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:27.000 Now I'm not going to read through it all because it's a long passage. 00:27:27.000 --> 00:27:30.000 I'm just going to highlight and read the Old Testament connections. 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:32.000 There they are. 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:35.000 Right through it. Talks about the God of Israel, redeeming his people. 00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:38.000 David, prophets, fathers, covenant, Abraham, holiness and righteousness. 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:41.000 That's points to the law. Prophets are the most high. 00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:43.000 To prepare his ways, that's Malachi language. 00:27:43.000 --> 00:27:46.000 To give a sunrise, that's Malachi language. 00:27:46.000 --> 00:27:49.000 To give light to those who sit in darkness. 00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:52.000 The whole thing fits together so perfectly. 00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:55.000 When Zachariah announces the coming of John the Baptist, 00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:57.000 who's going to announce the coming of Jesus, 00:27:57.000 --> 00:28:05.000 the words he speaks are just saturated with what the Old Testament has been talking about. 00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:11.000 The Bible is seriously cool. 00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:25.000 But the last thing of all and most of all is that the story of the Old Testament tells us that God is utterly awesome. 00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:30.000 The Old Testament is saying to us, God will not give up. 00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:36.000 The New Testament is saying God did not give up. 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:40.000 And he actually did everything that he promised. 00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:43.000 His plan has worked. He's kept his word. 00:28:43.000 --> 00:28:47.000 He's actually fixing things and now we can have healing. 00:28:47.000 --> 00:28:50.000 And it's all because God is just so, so good. 00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.000 And the result is that we can have a new start. 00:28:54.000 --> 00:28:58.000 Or in the language of Malachi, 00:28:58.000 --> 00:29:03.000 we have a son of righteousness rising on a new day. 00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:08.000 The healing that God brings in Jesus is like the sunrise of a new morning, 00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:11.000 a fresh start, a new day, a new hope. 00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:15.000 And the result is that we can be like calves, 00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:18.000 leaping out of the barn on a beautiful morning. 00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:21.000 How cool is that? 00:29:21.000 --> 00:29:23.000 Do you think of how you've mucked up your life, 00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:25.000 how things have been hard, how things have been difficult? 00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.000 God is saying, I can give you a fresh start that's just 00:29:29.000 --> 00:29:32.000 like a calf leaping out of the barn on a morning. 00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:36.000 If your life feels dark, 00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:41.000 if you feel bruised and broken, if you feel weary and rubbish, 00:29:41.000 --> 00:29:45.000 God is saying to you again, 00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:50.000 I'm not giving up on you. 00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:53.000 And if you're not yet a Christian, God is saying to you, 00:29:53.000 --> 00:30:00.000 I am not giving up on you. 00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:05.000 And the whole of the Old Testament proves it. 00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.000 God is not giving up on you. 00:30:09.000 --> 00:30:15.000 So, you know the story of the Old Testament now. 00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.000 You've seen all the bonkersness in it of people rejecting God. 00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:21.000 None of that. 00:30:21.000 --> 00:30:23.000 Just go for it. 00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:24.000 Follow Jesus. 00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:26.000 You will never regret it. 00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:32.000 Amen. 00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:36.000 Father, we thank you for everything 00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:40.000 that you have revealed to us in the Old Testament. 00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:46.000 We thank you that you are the God who promised not to give up. 00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:51.000 And now in Jesus we can see that you kept that promise. 00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:54.000 You did not give up. 00:30:54.000 --> 00:31:01.000 We pray, O God, that we would all follow you today and every day. 00:31:01.000 --> 00:31:17.000 Amen.