WH-ThenCameSunday Sample Chapter

7/30/2019 WH-ThenCameSunday Sample Chapter

1/14

INTRODUCTION

Jesus went through all the towns and villages,teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good newsof the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness(Matthew 9: 35).

Good news is exciting and theGospel is often referred

to as good news. However, a question that may beasked is this, if the Gospel is really good news, why is

it rejected by so many? Are people listening? Are people

really hearing a good news message? Are those of us

who share the Gospel completely accurate in our

presentations of its messagesboth the written word

and the living word? Perhaps that is not always the

case.

More than two centuries ago, Robert Burns (1759

1796) criticized the lack of good news in the messages

he was hearing. He lamented, Its easy to thunder from

the pulpit from off the Big Black Book and drive out

theological heresy with theological truth; but its not the

thin sour wine of theological doctrine that floods thehuman heart; nor are the bowels of human compassion

wrung with doctrinal diatribes.1 In other words, where

is the love? Today we may not always hear the harsh

theological doctrines that Burns heard, but neither do

we always hear the refreshing messages he longed to

hear. Burns was looking to hear messages like the ones

Jesus preached.

1 Barke, James. (1946). The Wind That Shakes the Barley. London,Long Press.


2/14

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all

gathering around to hear him [Jesus]. But the Pharisees

and the teachers of the law muttered, This man

welcomes sinners and eats with them(Luke 15: 1-2).

The Pharisees and teachers were always critical of

the good news message of Jesus and of His association

with tax collectors and sinners. Their own harsh

messages were based on the Laws of Moses and the

strict obedience demanded by these laws enslaved

people. Love in the new law proclaimed by Jesusloveof God, love of neighbors, and love of selffrees the

enslaved and gives them new life. That is the reason the

tax collectors and sinners were so eager to hear the

good news Jesus preached and why the Pharisees were

so angry. Truly, now as then, mankind needs to hear a

heart messagethe true good news message of

Christianity.

So what is Christianity? It is Christ! Nothing

more. Nothing less. Christianity is not an ideology

or a philosophy. Neither is it a new type of morality,

social ethic, or worldview. Christianity is the good

news that beauty, truth, and goodness are found in

a person [Jesus Christ]. And true humanity and

community are founded on and experienced by

connection to that person.

Conversion is more than change in direction, its

a change in connection. The Bibles use of the

ancient Hebrew word shubh to call for repentance

Deuteronomy 4: 30 and Nehemiah 1: 9, for example

implies not viewing God from a distance but

entering into relationship where God is command

THEN CAME SUNDAY

2


3/14

central of the human connection.2

What then is that good news that we need to find

and share? What is that heart message? What is thehope of mankind? The answers to these questions must

be found in the scriptures.

In Search of the Good News

From beginning to end, the Bible is a love storya

love story involving the love between the Creator God

and His creation. This love may be easily seen;

(a) inasmuch as God created us in His own image,

(b) in that He perceived Adams loneliness and gave

unto him a wife,

(c) in His setting the couple in the midst of a garden

in the center of which grew both the tree of life and

the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and

(d) in His return to the garden in the cool of the day

seeking fellowship with Adam and Eve.3

Gods great love and desire for a holy people who are

devoted to Himself is further seen in His actions;

(a) as he cleansed the earth, preserving only Noah

and his immediate family (a just man and perfect

in his generations, and Noah walked with God4),

Introduction

3

2 Sweet, Leonard & Viola, Frank. (2010).Jesus Manifesto.Nashville, Tennessee. Thomas Nelson, p. xvii.

3 Genesis 3: 8.4 Genesis 6: 9.


4/14

(b) as He called Abraham and Sarah to become a

great and mighty nation, [through whom] all the

nations of the earth shall be blessed,

5

(c) as He called Moses to lead the Israelites (people

whom He had chosen to bless the whole earth) into

freedom, and

(d) when He gave His one and only son as a sacrifice

sufficient to redeem all mankind from its

wickedness.6

History clearly demonstrates our great propensity to

sin and as a result we create barriers between a loving

Father and ourselves. Nevertheless, undaunted by the

sinfulness of mankind, our loving God always

intervenes with an alternate solution to deal with our

sins. In the garden, it was the slaughter of animals, and

shedding of their blood, in order to obtain skins to cover

the sinners. Later, the shedding of blood, throughcircumcision, sealed His covenant with Abraham. The

shedding of blood provided protection for the Israelites

on the night the Death Angel passed over Egypt.

Likewise, with Moses, the ordained sacrifices required

for forgiveness or atonement of sins required the

shedding of blood. So also was it true with Jesus, His

all-sufficient sacrifice for sin redeemed all mankindifthat redemption is accepted. In all these instances, it is

notable that the shedding of blood was the common

denominator.

THEN CAME SUNDAY

4

5

(Genesis 18: 18.6 For this is good and acceptable in the sight ofGod our Saviour;

Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto theknowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator

between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself aransom for all, to be testified in due time (1 Timothy 2: 3-6).


5/14

Perhaps both Gods love and the need for the

shedding of blood will become clearer as we search more

deeply into the ways in which Gods love has been made

manifest towards us. This journey of discovery will focus

most diligently on the scriptures and the stories

contained therein. Any deviation from this approach

carries with it the fearful risk of mere fanciful

speculation.

In the Garden

Gods final creation was the man Adam. Adam was

placed in a garden where God had planted all manner of

trees and plants for Adams benefit. Among these trees

were two special onesthe tree of life and the tree of

knowledge of good and evil. Of the latter God said, You

are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must

not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

for when you eat of it you will surely die.7

God soon recognized that Adam, whom He had

commissioned to tend the garden, needed a partner.

Accordingly, God formed Eve from a rib removed from

Adams side and presented her to him as his wife and

the two became one. Innocence still prevailed in the

garden and though they were naked,8 without clothes,

they were neither cold nor ashamed. But they soonfound that they were not alone.

A serpent (Satan in disguise) found Eve all alone in

the garden, near to the tree of life and the tree of

knowledge of good and evilwhere she, perhaps only

out of curiosity, may have been regarding the trees fruit

and their beauty. Satan engaged her in a seemingly

innocuous discussion, Did God really say, You must

Introduction

5

7 (Genesis 2: 16-17.8 Genesis 2: 25.


6/14

not eat from any tree in the garden?9 Eve replied, We

may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did

say, You must not eat fruit from the tree that isin the

middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you

will die.10 Here it is that Eve erred. Though God

planted two trees in the middle of the gardenonly one

was forbiddenthe tree of knowledge of good and evil.

From this one may suppose that the tree of life was

truly meant for their usethe fruit of that tree being

eternal life.

Apart from Adam (i.e., all by herself) and somewhat

confused by the serpent and her own misunderstanding

of Gods instructions, Eve took the forbidden fruit, ate of

it, and gave some to her husband. Immediately, they

were aware of good and evil and for the very first time

they were aware of their nakedness.

Filled with this new knowledge of good and evil,

Adam and Eve felt guilt-ridden because of their

nakedness. Later, when God came to commune with

them, they hid. For their misdeed, God forthwith turned

them out of the Garden of Edenseparating them from

the tree of life. To ensure continued separation from the

tree of life, God placed Cherubim and a flaming

sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the

tree of life.11 Gods most perfect plan was marred.

Once the knowledge of good and evil was shed

abroad, sin became rampant. Jealousy between the sons

of Adam and Eve led to bloodshed and Abel was slain.

From then on things grew progressively worse. After

only a few generations, God utterly despaired of His

creation.

THEN CAME SUNDAY

6

9 Genesis 3: 1.10 Genesis 3: 2-3.11 Genesis 3: 24.


7/14


8/14

Here again we clearly see the true heart of GodHe

wants all people to be blessed, but He desired that it

should happen through the actions and behaviors of His

servants.

For a time Gods plan was carried forth by Abraham

and his descendants, but, because they were a people

favored by God, their Egyptian rulers began to fear

their growing numbers and subsequently enslaved all

of Abrahams descendants. Their release from slavery

fell to a man called Moses.

Moses and the Law

The story of the first Passover and Moses leading the

Israelites out of Egypt is well known. Once away from

the Egyptians, and while yet wandering in the desert,

Moses was given another commission. He was called

upon by God to record a set of laws whereby His chosenpeople might learn to live a lifestyle pleasing to Himself.

Because the Israelites had inherited from Adam and

Eve a sense of good and evil, right and wrong, Moses set

forth laws to serve as moral and legal guidelines to help

them deal, or contend, with their inherited knowledge of

good and evil. While Moses did as he was commanded,

we learn from subsequent events that no set of laws can

fully restore the innocence lost in the Garden of Eden.Laws can not make people righteous, not even the

Israelites who were once called to take Gods blessings

to all nations. Paul tells us that the laws served only as

stop-gap measures until a better solution came to

pass.14

There is, however, an important message to be

learned from the laws of Moses. Forgiveness. Much ofthe teaching provided by Moses pertains to attaining

THEN CAME SUNDAY

8

14 Galatians 3: 19.


9/14

annual, or temporary, forgiveness or atonement for sins

and trespassesattainment that always entailed the

offering of sacrifices and the shedding of blood.

Truly the practice of the shedding of blood for the

remission of sins was first ordained by God Himself

when he clothed Adam and Eve in the skins of animals.

(Their coverings of leaves were deemed insufficient by

God.) He continued the requirement for shedding of

blood at the Passover in Egypt and later through

application of the Laws of Moses.

Jesus and the Tree of Life

Little has been said to this point about the second

tree that grew in the middle of the gardenthe tree of

life. This we do know, however, upon eviction of Adam

and Eve from the garden, a guard was placed before

that tree.After he drove the man out, he placed on the eastside of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming

sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to thetree of life(Genesis 3: 24).

Nevertheless, there is now a new access to the tree of

life. What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was

commanded because of transgressions until the Seed to

whom the promise referred had come.15

The Seed referred to in that verse is none other than

Jesus and He obtained our access to the tree of life

through His death on the cross and His resurrection.

Day after day every priest [keeper of the law] standsand performs his religious duties; again and again heoffers the same sacrifices, which can never take away

sins. But when this priest [Jesus] had offered for all timeone sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of

Introduction

9

15 Galatians 3: 19.


10/14

God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to bemade his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has

made perfect forever those who are being made holy

(Hebrews 1: 11-14).

What, one may ask, was that one sacrifice offered for

sins? It was none other that the body and blood of Jesus

Christ. Paul makes the necessity of this clear.

In fact, the law requires that nearly everything becleansed with blood, and without the shedding of bloodthere is no forgiveness (Hebrews 9: 22).

Having identified sin as our greatest problem, we are

also confronted with the fact that, ...without the

shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. But what

blood is to be found satisfactory? Again, the Bible

provides that answer.

Final Word on the Power of the Blood

The significance of blood in the transaction of

forgiving sin is made abundantly clear by the Apostle

John.

They [i.e., victorious believers] overcame him [i.e.,

Satan, sin and uncleanness] by the blood of the Lamband by the word of their testimony;they did not love theirlives so much as to shrink from death (Revelation 12:11).

Given the extreme significance of blood, it may be

useful to consider its nature more fully.

Life is in the BloodFor the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have

given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the

altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for ones life(Leviticus 17: 11).

Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth, unless you eatthe flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have

THEN CAME SUNDAY

10


11/14

no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks myblood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last

day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains inme, and I in him (John 6: 53-56).

Whyte makes the point that the word in is

extremely important. The blood is not life. Rather, life is

in the blood. Life is carried throughout our body by the

blood.16

What then is blood and what does it do? What are its

components and their functions?

Components and Functions of Blood

Blood is composed of four elements:

(a) plasma (a watery substance) that flows through

all our veins and arteries carrying nourishment to

cells and waste products away,

(b) red cells (corpuscles) that carry oxygen from thelungs to the cells and carbon dioxide from the cells

back to the lungs,

(c) white corpuscles that attack any foreign

organisms that try to invade the body, and

(d) platelets that form clots and stop the flow of blood

from wounds.

Blood also has the capacity to identify us and to

distinguish us from all others.

Source of Blood

Blood cells do not reproduce like other cells in our

bodythey are produced, or manufactured in the

marrow of our bones. This may suggest that there was

significance in Gods instruction to Moses at the time of

Introduction

11

16 Whyte, H. A. Maxwell. (1971). The Power of the Blood.Kensington, Pa. Whitaker House, p. 18.


12/14

the first Passover; It [the Passover lamb] must be eaten

[for nourishment] inside one house; take none of the

meat outside the house.Do not break any of the bones.17

This instruction was equally applicable to Jesusthe

second Passover Lamb.

Identification Through Blood Types and DNA

Beyond sustaining life, blood is useful in

identification in cases of criminal or paternity lawsuits.

Blood is of four main types; A, B, AB, and O and

blood typing is often used in paternity suits or in theelimination of possible suspects in a crime. Knowing the

blood types of the child and mother, blood types of some

individuals may be excluded from parental

consideration. For example, if a mother is Type O and

the child is Type B, then only males of Type B or Type

AB are included as possible fathers. In the same way,

blood typing may be used to rule out some crimesuspects.

The DNA contains the instructions for building and

maintaining our bodies and researchers tell us that if

these instructions were written out, and printed, they

would fill one thousand six-hundred-page books. Think

of it, every cell in your body has enough information, if

written out, to fill that many books. Every cell, that is,except two types of cells; red blood cells (which are

manufactured in the bone marrow) and the sex cells

the male sperm and the female egg or ovum. Precise

identifications may be made using DNA. Unlike blood

types that are only used to eliminate certain individuals

from consideration, DNA has the qualities necessary to

identify a specific individual with an extremely highprobability of accuracy.

THEN CAME SUNDAY

12

17 Exodus 12: 46.


13/14

Spiritual Significance of Blood

What does blood (and its basic elements) have to do

with us spiritually?Just as red corpuscles carry oxygen from the lungs to

the cells and carbon dioxide from the cells back to the

lungs, so the Word provides nourishment and cleansing

of our souls.

Plasma (the water-like substance that flows through

all our veins and arteries as a carrier of both nutrition

and our blood cells) represents the life force God hasimplanted within us.

White corpuscles designed to attack foreign

organisms that try to invade the body represent our

spiritual healing. Linked together with the platelets,

that form clots and stop the flow of blood from wounds,

we have the basis for both healing and protection.

Blood also has the capacity of identification. In lifeour blood types and DNA describe who we are.

Spiritually, the blood of Jesus establishes who we are.

His blood restores to us the life that was forfeited by the

sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden. His shed blood is

our identity.

So what can we make of all this? Something

beautiful. The tree of life which grew in the center ofthe Garden of Eden seems, at first, to have been

removed from our reach forever. The merciful

(compassionate) God did, however, provide an alternate

plan which Moses implemented, through a set of laws,

while sojourning in the desert. Because of the obstinacy

of the people, that plan also faltered. Nevertheless,

when all seemed lost, Jesus, the only begotten Son ofGod, appeared on the scene and changed everything

forever. By His death and resurrection, He restored our

access to the tree of life. His broken body and His shed

blood were the all-sufficient ransom for the souls of all

Introduction

13


14/14

mankindif they will but accept it. Such is the nature of

Gods love and mercy towards those who turn to Him.

Having this skeletal foundation for understandingblood and its relation to physical and spiritual life, we

can now turn to a more detailed consideration of the

spiritual significance of blood as an instrument of our

salvation.

In the next chapters the significance of blood will be

further traced through the scriptures.

THEN CAME SUNDAY

14

Documents

WH-ThenCameSunday Sample Chapter