The Bible in a year-An Introduction

by

2021 01 03

Based on

  1. The Fall of Mankind
  2. The Flood of Noah
  3. The Tower of Babel
  4. Sodom and Gomorrah
  5. Israel and the Law of God
  6. Jesus The Christ
  7. The Judgment and the Renewal of all things

Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, [which is] your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what [is] that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Word of God effectless

Praying useless

Your reality – God doesn’t exist!

Luke 18:7-8 (NKJV) 7  And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? 8  I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”

Revelation 22:20-21 (NKJV) 20  He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! 21  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

2 Corinthians 5:20-21 (NKJV) 20  Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21  For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Introduction to Creation

1 Corinthians 15:21-27 (NKJV) 21  For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.
22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.
23  But each one in his own order: Christ the first fruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.
24  Then comes the end, when He delivers the Kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.
25  For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.
26  The last enemy that will be destroyed is death.
27  For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted.

1 Corinthians 15:55-57 (NKJV) 55  “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”
56  The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
57  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

  • We need a proper understanding of God’s plan.
  • We short-change God for the word because of ignorance
  • From Genesis through Revelation the Kingdom of God involves a beautiful and wonderful restoration of all things.
    • A brief history
  • This plan brings a thriving relationship with God and our Saviour
  • This storyline is centred and anchored in Jesus the Messiah.
  • Understanding this plan, believing in it, makes everything we do and every trial we face worth it.
    • Acts 14:22 (NKJV) strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.”
    • 2 Timothy 2:12 (NKJV) If we endure, We shall also reign with If we deny Him, He also will deny us.
  • A tangible, real Kingdom awaits all who devote their lives to King Jesus.
  • No matter how bad things get, a wonderful Kingdom awaits.

What is a Kingdom?

  • The Kingdom of God is the rule of God over His creation

Matthew 6:9-13 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as [it is] in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

  • The concept of “Kingdom” includes at least three essential elements:
    • Ruler: A Kingdom involves a ruler with rightful and adequate authority and power.
    • Realm: A Kingdom involves a realm of subjects to be ruled.
    • Rulership: A Kingdom involves the exercise of ruling.

While most Kingdom passages focus on God’s Kingdom on earth, God’s universal Kingdom is always in operation.

He is always in control and He always prevails.

Daniel 2:44 (NKJV)  And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.
Matthew 6:10 (NKJV)  Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
Acts 1:6 (NKJV)  Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

God’s Kingdom program involves five major parts:

  1. Creation:           Genesis 1 – 2
    • The Kingdom is present with creation as God the King of creation tasks His image-bearer, man, to rule and subdue His creation.
  2. Fall:           Genesis 3
    • The fall marks man’s failure to rule God’s creation; both God’s image-bearers (humans) and the creation come under the devastating effects of the fall.
      • The Fall of mankind
      • The Flood at Noah’s time
      • The city of Shinar and the tower of Babel
      • The judgment and destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
  1. Promise: Genesis 3:15 – Malachi
    • The promise plan guarantees the seed of the woman will eventually succeed over the power behind the serpent (Satan); the fall will be reversed and man will effectively rule over creation.
  2. Redemption: Gospels – Epistles
    • Jesus the King brings redemption through His atonement, and His death is the basis for the Kingdom and reconciliation of all things.
  3. Restoration: Revelation of Jesus Christ.
    • With the restoration of all things, God’s Kingdom plan is fulfilled as Jesus successfully reigns over the earth; this Kingdom merges into the perfect Kingdom of the Father.

The Bible’s storyline shows how

  • the Kingdom created goes to the Kingdom fallen,
  • the fallen Kingdom then leads to the Kingdom restored.

1 Corinthians 15:1-8 (NKJV) 1  Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2  by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you–unless you believed in vain. 3  For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4  and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5  and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6  After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7  After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8  Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.

Colossians 1:10-23 (NKJV) 10  that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11  strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; 12  giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13  He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14  in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. 15  He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16  For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17  And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18  And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. 19  For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20  and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. 21  And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22  in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight– 23  if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

There can be no Kingdom in the truest sense without the ruler, the realm, and the reigning function.

For a time, men may resist God’s mediatorial/earthly Kingdom plans, yet they never escape God’s universal rule.

We can trace the Kingdom theme from Genesis through Revelation.

This theme provides a unifying structure that bound all the Bible together into a unit

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