Story of God
For many Christians and people in our culture, the Old Testament is just that, old. It seems archaic, taking place thousands of years ago. It is involves a world we don’t understand, names we can’t pronounce, animal sacrifices, wars, famines. On top of that, God seems different than he does in the New Testament. In the New Testament, we see God as Jesus. He is loving, gracious, inviting and compassionate. In the Old Testament, God is often described as angry, wrathful, and vengeful. We identify with Jesus. Pastors preach about Jesus and spend more time in the New Testament. On top of that, the thinking goes, Jesus came and now we are under grace, not the law of the Old Testament, so what is the point of reading the Old Testament? We don’t sacrifice animals or stone people, so why read it?
The problem though is that the Old Testament makes up 75% of the Bible, yet so many Christians try to follow Jesus while only reading or knowing 25% of the Bible. Imagine if you tried to describe The Lord of the Rings by talking about the last half of Return of the King. No one would know what you were talking about or why you were so excited about how it ended.
For the next 5 months, at Revolution Church, we are going to walk through the Old Testament. We will look at the idea that not only is God the same through all of Scripture, but that you can’t have the New Testament without the Old Testament. The fit together like a lock and a key.
We will see how throughout the entire Bible, God has one mission, calls out imperfect, broken people to follow him and to bring his mission about through those people. We will see people just like us who God is able to use to change the planet. And through it all, we will begin to see more clearly The Story of God.
Here is what the series looks like:
- April 23: The Image of God (Genesis 1:1, 26-28)
- April 30: God's Blueprint for Marriage & Life (Genesis 3)
- May 7: Noah – Grace Beats Sin (Genesis 6 – 9)
- May 14: Abraham – Faith is Costly (Genesis 12 – 22)
- May 21: Jacob – Wrestling with God (Genesis 32:22 – 32)
- May 28: Joseph – Seeing Life Redemptively (Genesis 38, 40 – 50)
- June 4: Moses – Freedom from Slavery (Exodus)
- June 11: Joshua – Freedom from Fear (Joshua 1:1 – 9)
- June 18: Samson – Strength out of Weakness (Judges 16:18-30)
- June 25: Job – Persevering Through Suffering (Job 1:6-12, 38:1-11)
- July 2: Hosea - Relentless (Hosea 2:14-20)
- July 9: Esther – My Comfort or His Kingdom? (Esther)
- July 16: David – Repenting of Sin (Psalm 51:1-13)
- July 23: Ruth – Friendship & Redemption (Ruth 1:8-17)
- July 30: Jonah – Surprised by Grace (Jonah)
- August 6: Malachi - Testing God (Malachi 1:6-14)
- August 13: Daniel – Loving God for a Lifetime (Daniel 1:3–7)
Download the study guide for this series here