In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In six days he created everything including all living things. On the seventh day he rested. One day while Adam and Eve were in the garden, a serpent convinced them to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In doing so, they disobeyed God’s only rule and sin entered the world. God became very upset and kicked them out of the garden because he did not want them to eat from the tree of life. We refer to this rebellious choice as “the fall.” Adam and Eve rejected God’s rule over them and represented all humanity through this rebellious act. In a sense they declared themselves to be God’s enemies resulting in physical and spiritual death. As Adam and Eve had children and the population grew, God saw that humans were constantly filled with evil. God was disappointed about his creation. To deal with this problem, he chose a man named Noah and told him to build a huge ark. Noah filled the ark with 2 of every kind of animal and God flooded the world, destroying all living things except those in the ark.
After the flood, the population grew again, but sinful desired still led people to do things against God’s will. They built a tower to the heavens at Babel. God’s desire was for them to spread his name to the nations and they directly disobeyed this. After destroying the tower, God decided to deal with the problem of sin again. He chose a faithful couple named Abraham and Sarah to start an entire nation of special people from whom a savior of the world would come.
God promised them a special land to live in. One of their sons, Jacob, had twelve sons who became the father of the 12 tribes of Israel. One of the 12 sons, Joseph, was sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers. Joseph served Pharaoh in Egypt and was put in charge over all of the country. Joseph advised Pharaoh to store up food for a coming famine. When the famine came, Jacob’s sons had to go to Egypt to buy food. Joseph forgave his brothers and they moved to Egypt to live with Joseph.
The Israelites kept growing in Egypt and were forced into slavery. After hundreds of years of exile in Egypt, God remained faithful to his people and chose one man, Moses, to lead them out of exile into freedom. After Pharaoh let them go because of plagues God sent to the Egyptians, the Israelites travelled to Mount Sinai where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. After Mount Sinai and a bad report from Israelite spies sent into the Promised Land, the Israelites wandered in the desert until an entire generation of unbelievers had passed away. After forty years in the desert, Moses died and Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land. The land was divided among the 12 tribes. They had no formal leadership except for Judges that God called on as the need arose. The judges were generally ineffective and the Israelites eventually asked God for a king. God granted them their wish and Saul became the first King of Israel. After Saul, David became King followed by his son Solomon.
After Solomon died, the kingdom of Israel erupted in civil war and divided into two parts: Judah in the south and Israel in the north. Israel lasted 200 years before being destroyed forever by the Assyrians. Judah lasted 350 years before the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and God’s temple that Solomon had built. Many citizens of Judah were exiled into Babylon. After Persia defeated Babylon, the exiled Israelities were allowed to go back to their homeland and rebuild the temple. This is the end of the Old Testament and is also the first time the Israelites were referred to as Jews.
During the time between the Old Testament and the New Testament, the region where the Jews lived was controlled first by the Greeks and then by the Romans. The Romans appointed King Herod the rule over the province and Judea where the Jews were living.
Thankfully the loving Creator who rightly shows Himself to be wrathful toward our sin is determined to turn evil and suffering we have caused into good that will be to his ultimate glory. The next movement shows God implementing a master plan for redeeming his world and rescuing fallen sinners. Through his son Jesus Christ, God Himself comes to renew the world and restore his people.
Jesus Christ was born under Herod’s rule to a poor couple named Mary and Joseph. Mary was a virgin when Gabriel, an Angel of the Lord, said she would conceive a son by the Lord and he was to be named Jesus. Around age 30, Jesus was baptized by John and began his ministry by announcing that he was the savior sent by God to be a sacrifice for the sins of the world.He chose 12 men to be his apostles and taught people about how to have a relationship with the Lord. However, religious leaders constantly persecuted him. He was later arrested and tried before Pilate and Herod and was crucified. Three days later, Jesus rose from the Dead. Jesus Christ was God’s sacrifice, once and for all, for the sins of all humans past present and future.
After Jesus rose from the dead, Jesus appeared to more than 500 people before ascending to heaven. He promised his people that he would send a power from heaven. Ten days later, the Holy Spirit was given by God the apostles and the church began to grow rapidly. One of the Church’s main persecutors, Saul, encountered Jesus and was converted. After this, Saul became known as Paul and began preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ all over the region. One of Jesus’ apostles, Peter, was sent by God to preach the message of Jesus to the Jewish people, while Paul was tasked with preaching to non-Jewish people.
The church grew rapidly throughout the Middle East. The Bible ends with a prophecy about events that will lead to the return of Jesus and the establishment of a new heaven and a new earth. The story does not end with redemption. God has promised to renew the whole world, and the Bible gives us a peak into the glorious future. The restoration of all things will take place in two ways. Christ will return to judge sin and evil, and He will usher in righteousness and peace. God will purge this world of evil once and for all.
Recently, Pastor Todd Mullins at Christ Fellowship preached a series rooted in the book of Colossians. Colossians 1:15-19 states, “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see- such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else and he holds all creation together. Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ.”
After further analysis of this verse, it becomes apparent that if we want to know where Christian values come from and what they are, we need to look at Jesus’ life. God lived in Christ and embodied all the characteristics of a Christian. If we want to know how to treat others, how to act in hard times, how to confront sin, how to speak into the lives of others, the most important thing as Christians we need to do is look at the life of Christ.
Christian character is grounded in the character of Jesus. The verse that comes to mind when trying to identify the source and nature of Christian character is Galatians 5:22-23. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Paul uses the word “fruit” to help us understand the product of the Holy Spirit, who lives inside every believer. The fruit of the Spirit is produced by the spirit, not by the Christian.