************ Sermon on Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 19 ************
By: Rev. Adrian Dieleman
This sermon was preached on December 4, 2005
Q & A 19
Acts 8:26-40
"The Holy Gospel Tells Me"
Introduction
According to the Associated Press, Madonna was recently included in a list "of the most powerful and influential Jews in America." Madonna was included in the list "for making Kabbalah a worldwide trend."
And a worldwide trend it is. Other celebrities who have gone starry-eyed for this mystical form of Judaism include Demi Moore, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, as well as many others. They can be seen at countless Hollywood parties wearing the trademark "red string bracelet," which is said to offer protection from evil forces and negative energy.
What caught my eye in the article is what the Kabbalist religion says about the Bible. The Bible is not so much a book to be read as it is a hidden code. And, "like any complex code, it requires deciphering and deeper understanding." Thus, the Bible has a "subatomic level far beneath the surface level of the literal text." For example, "Adam" and "Eve" are code words for the one Vessel. The Ten Commandments are not commandments; rather, they are to be understood as a "code for the ten dimensions and spiritual energy and Light that dwells in the 99 percent reality."
Are Madonna, Britney, Demi, and Paris correct in saying the Bible is a hidden code that "requires deciphering and deeper understanding"?
In our advent reading this morning we heard how Jesus Christ is to be found in every book of the Old Testament. It goes without saying that He is also to be found in every book of the New Testament. From beginning to end the Bible is about Jesus. From beginning to end the Bible is focused on the Gospel. From beginning to end the Bible tells us why Jesus Christ came into the world in human flesh. From beginning to end there is nothing secretive, mysterious, or subatomic in the Bible – it is all about Jesus and the Gospel!
Q & A 19 of the Heidelberg Catechism parallels Q & A 3 of the Catechism. Q 3 asks, "How do you come to know your misery?" A 3 says, "The law of God tells me." We learned, when we looked at Q & A 3, that our misery needs to be revealed to us. We learned that apart from the Law we don't know we are alienated and exiled from God. We learned that someone needs to show us our sinful condition.
Q & A 19 comes from the exact same perspective. Q 19 of the Catechism asks, "How do you come to know this [ie – your salvation]?" A 19 says, "The holy gospel tells me." Salvation, like misery, needs to be revealed to us! Apart from the Gospel we do not know and cannot know about Jesus, His birth, His life, His death, His resurrection. Apart from the Gospel we do not know about God's grace and mercy to us in Christ.
I Read the Bible Backwards
A Our Bible reading tells us the story of the Ethiopian. This Ethiopian had no idea that Isaiah was telling the story of Jesus until Philip explained it to him. It was only when the Ethiopian knew the story about Jesus that he was able to see Jesus in the book of "Isaiah the prophet."
So what does this means for us? It means that when we read the book of Isaiah we should not hear the Word of the Lord merely as Judah heard it. Instead, we should hear the new interpretation of Isaiah that Philip was able to give to the Ethiopian, when he "began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus" (Acts 8:35). In other words, when we come to the passage we are to meet Jesus Christ.
B Every once in a while when I am reading a book I will take a peek at the end just to see how the story turns out. We need to do something like that with the Bible. The first part makes sense only when we know how the second part turns out.
The Bible is a book that is best read backwards. We need to know the New Testament story about Jesus before we can see or understand what the Old Testament says.
Topic: Faith
Subtopic:
Index: 1201-1218
Date: 5/2000.101
Title: We Already Know the Outcome
I remember coming home from evening church the Sunday in January of 1997 that the Green Bay Packers were playing in the Super Bowl. My stomach was in a knot, my hands were sweaty, my knuckles were probably white, and I was anxious about the outcome of the game. I didn't have to be because Green Bay wiped out their opponents.
Now, Green Bay's win was a big thing in Wisconsin. So big that the next night it was played on TV again. Only this time I didn't have a knot in my stomach. I leaned back on the couch and put my feet up.
"What made the difference? I could relax because I knew the outcome."
As New Testament Christians we know the outcome – something that Old Testament believers did not know and could not see. That's why we read the Bible backwards. That's why we read the Old Testament in the light of the New Testament.
II The Gospel Everywhere
A Now, what happens when we read the Bible backwards?
When we read the Bible backwards we begin to realize that everywhere in the Bible we can hear and read about Jesus Christ and His coming. When we read the Bible backwards we come to realize that God "began to reveal" the gospel already in Paradise, He "proclaimed" it by the holy patriarchs and prophets, He "portrayed" it by sacrifices and ceremonies, and He "fulfilled" it through His Son.
The Bible is first and foremost a history of God's redemption in and through Jesus. That's how God explains His own words and deeds. And, after His resurrection, that's how Jesus interpreted the Scriptures to His disciples. Remember Jesus walking with two of His followers to a village called Emmaus? "He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures" (Lk 24:45). "And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself" (Lk 24:27).
The Bible was written over a span of 1600 years by 36 different human authors. The authors did not sit down as a committee to decide what to write. They were separated by great time and distance. Yet, there is an underlying unity. The Old Testament points forward to the coming of Jesus. The New Testament tells us He has come. The underlying theme of the Bible is the Jesus whose birth we celebrate in this season of Advent and Christmas.
B We in the New Testament can see the Gospel in Genesis more clearly than Old Testament believers ever could because Jesus has already come. We can see the beginning of the Gospel because the end has already come, because we read the Bible backwards. Since the resurrection and ascension of Jesus and the outpouring of His Spirit, God's children have learned to read the Scriptures with new insight. Suddenly, throughout the books of the Old Testament we find concealed references to God's salvation in Christ.
C I want to point out some different verses to you. The first comes from the beginning of the Bible, from what God said to the serpent after man's fall into sin:.
(Gen 3:15) "And 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."
When we read the Bible backwards we discover that it is the Gospel that God was proclaiming here in the Garden of Eden. God is speaking about Satan's crushing defeat brought about by the cross and grave, the crucifixion and resurrection.
Listen to the words God said when He first called Abraham to follow Him:
(Gen 12:1-3) "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. (2) "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. (3) I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
When we read the Bible backwards we know that God was speaking of Christ when He proclaimed to Abraham that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him (cf Gal 3:8) and when He said that Abraham would be a great nation.
Listen also to the instructions God, through Moses, gave to the High Priest:
(Lev 16:15) "He shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull's blood: He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it."
When we read the Bible backwards we realize that God was portraying the atoning work of Christ when He told Aaron to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat (cf Heb 9:12).
Consider the words of King David in Psalm 22, a Psalm of Lament:
(Ps 22:1, 6-8, 17-18) My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? ... (6) But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. (7) All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: (8) "He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him." ... (17) I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. (18) They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.
When we read the Bible backwards we realize that these verses of Psalm 22 foreshadow what happened to Jesus upon the cross.
Think, too, about the words of Isaiah, the prophet, to Ahaz, King of Judah:
(Is 7:14) Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
When we read the Bible backwards we realize that Isaiah was talking about Jesus as God in the flesh, as God with us. And, the same thing is true about the words of Isaiah a couple of chapters later:
(Is 9:6) For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
When we read the Bible backwards we realize that Isaiah was prophesying about Messiah Jesus and the wonders and glories of His Lordship.
Or, consider for a moment the passage that the Ethiopian eunuch was reading:
(Is 53:3-7) He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (4) Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. (5) But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. (6) We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (7) He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
Anyone who reads the Bible backwards realizes that Isaiah was talking about the what and why of Christ's crucifixion.
Do you see what happens when you read the Bible backwards? You meet Christ everywhere! In fact, if you don't meet Christ you are not reading the Bible properly. If you don't meet Christ you, like the Ethiopian, do not understand what you are reading. If you don't meet Christ you are wasting your time.
D When we look closely at Q & A 19 we see it distinguishes between 3 different stages in the history of revelation. First, "God began to reveal the gospel already in Paradise." Second, "later He proclaimed it by the holy patriarchs and prophets and portrayed it by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law." Third, "finally He fulfilled it through His own dear Son." Do you notice the progression? We are told what God began to reveal. We are told about later. And we are told about the fulfilment.
This tells us that though Scripture is a history of God's redemption in and through Christ not every part has the same clarity.
We are now living in the last days. This is the time between the ascension of the Lord and His return. In these last days, because of the outpouring of Christ's Spirit, more of God's mysteries have been revealed to us than to the Old Testament saints. In these last days we know God better and more intimately than believers could have in the Old Testament period. We of the new covenant community are richer in spiritual possessions than the people of the old covenant. We are even spiritually richer than the prophets, priests, kings, and other members of the old covenant who received special gifts.
I love what the Apostle Peter says. He says God's prophets of the old covenant could never fully comprehend what they themselves were saying because they were actually serving us when they were speaking God's Word about Christ and the last days (1Pt 1:10-12; cf Acts 3:22-24).
Consider, also, what Jesus says about John the Baptist. Jesus says John the Baptist was the greatest of the Old Testament prophets (Mt 11:11-15). Greatness is measured by our closeness to Christ. And because John the Baptist was last in the long row of Old Testament prophets – the only one who could say, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" – he is the greatest of all those who pointed forward to Christ. Notice, though, what Jesus has to immediately add: that the least in the kingdom is greater than John. Jesus says this because those who know Jesus and His atoning death know more than John the Baptist. We are closer to the heart of God because we know the necessity of the cross and the glory of the grave.
E There are people today who think the Old Testament – and maybe parts of the New Testament – are outdated. I don't remember who said this to me or even when, but someone came up to me after a service and said, "Pastor, why do you preach on the Old Testament so much. We are a New Testament church and should spend our time in the New Testament." It became obvious he thought the Old Testament was out-of-date for New Testament believers.
That word outdated may be used to describe schoolbooks, clothing, hair-dos, language, and technology like VCRs and turn- tables and sound systems but it cannot be used to describe any part of the Bible. In the Bible the old is never abolished when the new comes. Rather, the new is concealed in the old and the old is fulfilled in the new. Just as childhood and adolescence are not abolished in adulthood but brought to maturity, so newness in God's plan brings the old to fruition. So, let there be no mistake about it: the Old Testament is not outdated! The Old Testament is Gospel and, in the light of the New Testament, it can and should be used to teach us about Jesus.
Conclusion
"How do you come to know your salvation?" "The holy gospel tells me."