{"id":32630,"date":"2022-09-10T16:17:05","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/4-reasons-to-preach-the-bible-as-one-story\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T16:17:05","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:17:05","slug":"4-reasons-to-preach-the-bible-as-one-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/4-reasons-to-preach-the-bible-as-one-story\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Reasons to Preach the Bible as One Story"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Trevin Wax<\/em><\/p>\n

There has been a much-needed resurgence of preaching the Bible as one storyline lately. But what\u2019s the big deal? Why is it so important for Christians to be able to connect the dots of the Bible\u2019s grand narrative?<\/p>\n

Here are four reasons I list in my book, Gospel-Centered Teaching:<\/em><\/p>\n

1. To Gain a Biblical Worldview<\/h3>\n

The first reason we need to keep the biblical story line in mind is because the narrative of the Bible is the narrative of the world. The Bible doesn\u2019t just give us commands and prohibitions. It gives us an entire worldview.<\/p>\n

Everyone has a worldview, even people who are not Christians. Unfortunately, there are many Christians who do not have a Christian worldview. They may display some of the religious trappings of Christianity, but they demonstrate by their choices that they are living by another worldview.<\/p>\n

The storyline of the Bible is important because it helps us think as Christians formed by the great Story that tells the truth about our world. It is vitally important that people know the overarching storyline of the Bible that leads from creation, to our fall into sin, to redemption through Jesus Christ, and final restoration in the fullness of time. If we are to live as Christians in a fallen world, we must be shaped by the grand narrative of the Scriptures, the worldview we find in the Bible.<\/p>\n

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2. To Recognize and Reject False Worldviews<\/h3>\n

A few years ago, two sociologists studying the religious views of young people in North America coined the phrase \u201cmoralistic therapeutic deism.\u201d Those are three big words that sum up the following five beliefs of many in our society today:<\/p>\n

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  1. \u201cA god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.\u201d (That\u2019s the \u201cDeism\u201d part. God created the world, watches things, but doesn\u2019t do much in the way of intervening in human affairs.)<\/li>\n
  2. \u201cGod wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.\u201d (That\u2019s the Moralistic part. The goal of religion is to be a nice, moral person.)<\/li>\n
  3. \u201cThe central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.\u201d (That\u2019s the Therapeutic part. The most important thing in life is to be happy and well-balanced.)<\/li>\n
  4. \u201cGod does not need to be particularly involved in one\u2019s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.\u201d (Now, we see the Deistic view of God combine with God\u2019s therapeutic purpose. He exists to make us happy.)<\/li>\n
  5. \u201cGood people go to heaven when they die.\u201d (Salvation is accomplished through morality.) Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. \u201cMoralism,\u201d for short. Our society is awash in this worldview. Even longtime church members are not immune to it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So, if we are going to be effective witnesses to the gospel in our day and age, we must put forth a biblical view of the world that counters rival worldviews.<\/p>\n

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    See also  The Group Most Likely to Still Be Missing From Your Church<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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    3. To Rightly Understand the Gospel<\/h3>\n

    Another reason we need to know the storyline of the Bible is because the gospel can quickly become distorted without it. The story of the Bible gives context to the gospel message about Jesus.<\/p>\n

    Too many times, we think of the gospel as a story that jumps from the garden of Eden (we\u2019ve all sinned) right to the cross (but Jesus fixes everything). On its own, that works fine in communicating the systematic points of our need for salvation and God\u2019s provision in Christ, but from a biblical and theological perspective, it doesn\u2019t do justice to what\u2019s actually in the text. Once a person becomes a Christian and cracks the Bible, they\u2019re going to wonder what the big deal is about Israel and the covenant, since that storyline takes up roughly 75% of the Bible. Getting people into that story is important. As D. A. Carson says, the announcement is incoherent without it.<\/p>\n

    We need the biblical storyline in order to understand the gospel of Jesus. Otherwise, sharing the gospel of Christ\u2019s death and resurrection is like coming into a movie theater at the most climactic moment but without any knowledge of the story thus far. You will be able to discern bits and pieces of the story, but you won\u2019t understand the full significance of what is happening unless you know the backstory.<\/p>\n

    4. To Keep Our Focus on Christ<\/h3>\n

    Every story has a main character. The Bible does too. It\u2019s God. Specifically, it\u2019s God as He reveals Himself to us in the Person of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

    Here\u2019s what happens if we learn individual Bible stories and never connect them to the big Story: We put ourselves in the scene as if we are the main character. We take the moral examples of the Old and New Testament as if they were there to help us along in the life we\u2019ve chosen for ourselves.<\/p>\n

    But the more we read the Bible, the more we see that God is the main character, not us. We are not the heroes learning to overcome all obstacles, persist in our faith, and call down fire from heaven. We\u2019re the ones who need rescue, who need a Savior who will deliver us from Satan, sin, and death. It\u2019s only in bowing before the real Hero of the story that we are in the right posture to take our place in the unfolding drama. Bearing in mind the big story of Scripture helps us keep our focus on Jesus, and off ourselves.<\/p>\n

    Adapted from Gospel-Centered Teaching\u00a0(B&H Publishing Group, 2013)<\/em><\/p>\n

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    Related posts:<\/h3>\n
    How the Gospel Is Good News for Every Worldview 3 Ways to Reach Non-Religious People in Your Community 3 Reorienting Truths for the Discouraged Pastor <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Trevin Wax There has been a much-needed resurgence of preaching the Bible as one storyline lately. But what\u2019s the big deal? Why is it so important for Christians to be able to connect the dots of the Bible\u2019s grand narrative? Here are four reasons I list in my book, Gospel-Centered Teaching: 1. To Gain … Continue reading “4 Reasons to Preach the Bible as One Story”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}