All The Bible Is About Jesus
Blog | Pastor Duane
Whether a text mentions Jesus or not, according to Jesus, every single passage, every single word, every single letter, and every single mark of the Bible is all about him. Until we see how a passage is connected to the gospel of Jesus we have not fully understood it. Every text in some way is about our sin and our need for the savior Jesus.
Matthew 5:17-18 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”
Luke 24:27 “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he (Jesus) interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”
Galatians 3:22 “The Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”
Two Guiding Principles
Seeing how all of the Bible relates to Jesus is a both a formal discipline of interpretation and an art. That is, there is a right way and a wrong way to see how things connect to Jesus. We do not just have liberty to read Jesus into any and every text however we feel like. For example, Rahab’s scarlet red cord does not represent the blood of Jesus on the cross and Elisha’s floating iron axe head does not represent the iron nails of the cross and Jesus’ resurrection.
The formal discipline of interpretation in seeing how all the Bible relates to Jesus is called “Christotelics.” Telic, comes from “telos”, which means goal or end. Thus, Christ is the goal or end of all of Scripture. Good christotelics follows good historical grammatical interpretation. There are many rules or principles to historical grammatical interpretation (such as studying the actual meaning of the words and taking into account the historical and cultural background etc.)…however two are perhaps most helpful to keep in mind when doing Christotelics.
The God Who Gives His Son
Jonah Series | Matthew 12:38-41 | Pastor Duane Smets
This an exegetical sermon of Matthew 12:38-41 which wraps up the book of Jonah by looking at the significance of seeing how all the Bible relates to Jesus and how Jesus saw himself as a fulfillment of Jonah when he spoke about the book. Particular attention is paid to the nature of signs and the “sign of Jonah” as well as judgment day and what kind of judge Jesus is. This sermon was originally preached on May 22nd, 2011 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
Jesus Unfolds His Plan For The World
Matthew Series | Matthew 16:13-23 | Pastor Duane Smets
This week is an exegetical sermon on Matthew 16:13-23 where Jesus is declared the Christ and Son of the Living God, Jesus says he means to start a church and will be the one to build, protect and lead it, and Jesus speaks of his plan to accomplish that task and defeat Satan by dying and rising again. This takes a special look at the Catholic form of church government and classical Protestant interpretations, as well as church growth strategies and the centrality of the cross. This sermon was originally preached on July 11th, 2010 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
Nehemiah Series (Part 8): “The Centrality of God’s Book in God’s Vision”
This is the eighth week of our sermon series, “Nehemiah: Building God’s Church in the City.” Part 8, this week is an exegetical sermon of chapter eight and is about The Centrality of God’s Book in God’s Vision. This sermon addresses the following issues in the context of church planting: assembling to study the Bible, receiving instruction from the Bible, understanding the meaning of the Bible, and responding to the message of the Bible. This sermon was originally preached March 15th, 2009 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
