Yesterday I preached “A Seven Mile Walk through the Old Testament: What Jesus Might Have Said to the Emmaus Disciples” (Luke 24:25-27). Shortly after, at our family lunch, my ever-wise wife suggested that, in light of the message, we should go back through The Jesus Storybook Bible (which is, really, a Biblical Theology for kids). So, at dinner last night, Autumn, our 10 year old, read us the first chapter. It ends with these great words about God’s plan (p. 17, emphasis added):

The Bible is most of all a Story. It’s an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure. It’s a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne — everything — to rescue the one he loves. It’s like the most wonderful of fairy tales that has come true in real life!

You see, the best thing about this story — it’s true.

There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them.

It takes the whole Bible to tell this story. And at the center of the Story there is a baby. Every story in the Bible whispers his name. He is like the missing piece in a puzzle — the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture.

And this is no ordinary baby. This is the Child on which everything would depend.

Since I began my sermon by saying how the Bible is like a puzzle that needs putting together and has Jesus at the center, some of the kids wondered if I had gotten parts of my sermon from The Jesus Storybook Bible (I think the quote was, “Hey, wait a minute, you said the Bible is like a puzzle with Jesus in the middle!). Well, I hadn’t consciously “borrowed” from the kids’ book, but that wouldn’t have been such a bad thing. It’s such a great book.

Other similar, great “Biblical Theology for kids” are:

• The Big Picture Story Bible
• Discovering Jesus in Genesis and Discovering Jesus in Exodus

P.S. I hope to add some further “Biblical Theology resources for the older crowd” here on the blog in the next day or two.

In anticipation of our Clarus weekend, I’ve been rereading some sections of books by our speakers, Ray Ortlund, Jr. and Sam Storms. In When God Comes to Church: A Biblical Model for Revival Today, Dr. Ortlund says this (p. 9):

Revival is the season of the life of the church when God causes the normal ministry of the gospel to surge forward with extraordinary spiritual power. Revival is seasonal, not perennial. God causes it; we do not. It is the normal ministry of the gospel, not something eccentric or even different from what the church is always charged to do. What sets revival apart is simply that our usual efforts greatly accelerate in their spiritual effects. God hits the fast-forward button. And this blessing spills out from the church to wash over the nations with an ingathering of many new converts.

May it be so, Lord! And may it be now!

This Easter Sunday the sermon will focus on Luke 24:13-47. When I mentioned that to my wife she pointed me to D.A. Carson’s devotional, For the Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God’s Word. On the reading which covers Luke 24, Carson gives this poetic account of the chapter:

They came alone: some women who remembered him,

Bowed down with spices to anoint his corpse.

Through darkened streets, they wept their way to honor him‚

The one whose death had shattered all their hopes.

“Why do you look for life among the sepulchers?

He is not here. He’s risen, as he said.

Remember how he told you while in Galilee:

The Son of Man will die and rise up from the dead.”

The two walked home, a study in defeat and loss,

Explaining to a stranger why the gloom‚

How Jesus seemed to be the King before his cross,

How all their hopes lay buried in his tomb.

“How slow you are to see Christ’s glorious pilgrimage

Ran through the cross,” and then he broke the bread.

Their eyes were opened, and they grasped the Scripture’s truth:

The man who taught them had arisen from the dead.

He was a skeptic: not for him that easy faith

That swaps the truth for sentimental sigh.

Unless he saw the nail marks in his hands himself,

And touched his side, he’d not believe the lie.

Then Jesus came, although the doors were shut and locked.

“Repent of doubt, and reach into my side;

Trace out the wounds that nails left in my broken hands.

And understand that I who speaks to you once died.”

Long years have passed, and still we face the fear of death,

Which steals our loved ones, leaving us undone,

And still confronts us, beckoning with icy breath,

The final terror when life’s course is run.

But this I know: the Savior passed this way before,

His body clothed in immortality.

The sting’s been drawn: the power of sin has been destroyed.

We sing: Death has been swallowed up in victory.

In the first chapter of Jesus on Trial, James Montgomery Boice and Philip Graham Ryken ask, “Who is to blame for the arrest, trial, and execution of Jesus?” They suggest seven different categories of people involved in “The Conspiracy” (the name of the chapter), elaborating on each throughout the chapter:

• The Jewish religious leaders
• Judas
• The Roman rulers
• The crowd
• Us
• God, the Father
• Jesus himself

While Boice and Ryken do not use the following words, I would summarize their conclusion like this:

The multiplicity of conspiracies leading to the death of Jesus was precisely what God had planned for accomplishing our redemption and glorifying the Son. However wicked and unjust each part of The Conspiracy was, they fit together like a jig-saw to bring about the greatest event in redemptive history. What appears to be “the perfect storm” is, in fact, a Divine orchestration or a perfectly executed battle plan. Or, in the words of the early disciples, these seemingly horrible events are simply “whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur” (Acts 5:28).

Then the chapter ends with this smile-worthy analysis:

Jesus is just full of surprises. Put him to death, and he comes back to life. Conspire against him, seeking his death, and he will conspire against you, dying for your sins and then rising again to give you eternal life. Put Jesus on trial‚ if you dare! Try to decide if he measures up to your standards and you will discover that all the while he has been investigating you. Perhaps even now Jesus is plotting to bring you into a whole new relationship with him.

My buddy, Justin Taylor, gives a heads-up on the latest Time magazine cover story, 10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now.

Here are the top 10–but I’ll warn you in advance that you probably didn’t see #3 coming:

Jobs Are the New Assets

Recycling the Suburbs

The New Calvinism

Reinstating the Interstate

Amortality

Africa, Business Destination

The Rent-a-Country

Biobanks

Survival Stores

Ecological Intelligence