The Hero’s Legacy – Part 1
Posted by Pastor Pat on January 7, 2009
In the story of God, He created a world in which His story would unfold. From the very beginning a villain, an antagonist was presented. But God also wrote into His story a deliverer who would bring deliverance. This hero was foreshadowed and imaged throughout biblical revelation and history. The foretelling and figure were so exact that when the hero arrived all who were looking were able to identify God’s hero. The Hero came at a very specific time in history and with a distinct purpose. He came as a deliverer, and He brought with Him deliverance. The Hero has finished the work entrusted to Him by His Father; now He gives to His people the responsibility to carry on the work of proclamation to all the nations. Even though we acknowledge the story of God, we fail to see how we are living in the story and how our lives are a part of the ongoing story of God.
We are the means God has established for the proclamation of His story to all the nations. This is His legacy to us. He left us with this inheritance. What we have in the story is the only thing in life that is truly priceless. The story is the treasure. Of all things created this is the one thing we cannot duplicate. The person and work of the story’s Hero is beyond us, and there is nothing we can do to do what was done. This work is the treasure that we are to share with all the nations.
Initially we spoke of the kingdom being the vocabulary of the story. Thus it is important to remember, “God’s redemptive purpose is expressed in a Kingdom theme and made known through a mission vocabulary.” God’s eternal purpose is expressed through a Kingdom imagery using the language of missions. The mission of God is the establishment of His rule over all created things. None of God’s activities are trivial or unrelated. God’s program is neither dysfunctional nor disjointed. Everything is a part of the whole. The following verbiage captures this idea.
We are determined to shout the supremacy of God in all things (Rom. 11:36) by finding, celebrating and declaring He is enough in this life and the life that is to come (Phil. 2:9-11; Rev. 4, 5) through the systematic study of His Word (2 Tim. 2:15) and to share this message with every tribe, tongue, people, and nation (Matt. 28:18-20; Rev. 5:9).
It is safe to say, “Missions is the means God is using for the establishment of His Kingdom.” The Kingdom idea is the visual or imagery that God uses to communicate His thoughts to finite beings. Thus to speak of missions is to speak of His Kingdom. And to speak of His Kingdom is to lay hold of His eternal purpose, the story of Scripture. Notice how our Lord ties all of this together in Luke 24:39-49. It is as if we have a large puzzle with various pieces, and the puzzle maker shows us the big picture and how all the various pieces now fit together. In looking at Luke 24 there are several notable features.
First, our Lord speaks to the foretelling and figuring of His arrival and work from the Old Testament text (vv. 44, 45). Our Lord reviews the story in order to prove what is now apparent. All that He is and has done is in accordance with what was spoken of previously.
Second, He accents the central idea of the entire story, and it is the sacrificial and vicarious suffering of the story’s Hero. Paul captures this idea in the statement, “Christ crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2; Gal. 6:14). I firmly believe there is continuity inside of God’s kingdom program but there is one thing that is significantly different from what we preach and what was preached prior to the cross and it is this, Christ crucified. All of the foretelling and figuring was exact enough for those who sought Him to find Him, but all of the foretelling and figuring was still a shadow of something greater. “The Old Testament picture was like a dark negative as compared to the white positive of the New Testament revelation.” (C.C. Ryrie, The Grace of God, 122).
Third, the Hero’s coming had a distinct purpose. His work would secure for His people forgiveness of their rebellion against Him (v. 47a). This is the consequence of His cross work. The Hero’s work was to remove from us our shame, our fear, and our guilt. This is what it means to be forgiven. It is only when we repent of our own self-efforts of covering our shame, fear, and guilt and accept His sacrifice that we can be truly covered. This language resonances back to the Garden of Eden and that original act of rebellion by our initial parents, Adam and Eve.
Fourth, what the Hero initiates His people are to disseminate (v. 47b). I do not know why we miss this but we are to be proclaiming the story of God to our community, our nation, and our world. There is nothing that can absolve us of this responsibility. No amount of delegation can fulfill our responsibility as a local church to think, pray, and act aggressively in the carrying out of our Master’s wishes. This is His legacy to us. We are to share the story with everyone everywhere at all times.
Fifth, our text specifically calls us to be witnesses of the story’s content (v. 48). We are to be retelling the story to those around us. It is like us gathering around the open fire and relating the story to those who sit with us. It is sitting with our children and grandchildren and telling them the story. Although much of what we learn is from the written page, we must remember our oral history. The story is be told and retold orally to all who have ears to hear. We are the witnesses to whom He has entrusted this legacy. No matter who you are or what you do, you are to be witnessing of God’s story. We need to repeat the story of creation, transgression, condemnation, and redemption to all the nations, beginning in our immediate Jerusalem.
Sixth, the author of the story provides the means for His purpose to be fulfilled (v. 49). He gives to those whom He saves the power to witness for Him, to tell the story to others. No matter how formidable the task may appear, we have all we need to do what is necessary. You and I have the power as husbands, wives, young people, seasoned saints, parents, children, employees, employers, or whatever our role is, to be witnesses of the story, God’s story.
All of us have the power. What we fail in is how we understand the power and what we are to be doing. We already have the power and we are already where He wants us. What we need to do is simply do what God did: speak and act, proclaim and image the story. We need to begin where we are at and allow the story to spread naturally like a fire without boundaries. Much has been done and much still needs to be done. I do not believe kingdom advancement is so much linear as it is cyclical. While more and more people groups hear the story, we must always be working so that every uttermost becomes a Jerusalem. This is our calling and this is our destiny. The story God wrote includes you and me, and we are to tell His story to every tongue, tribe, people, and nation. May we never tire of telling the story to each and every generation.
By Pastor Patrick J. Griffiths. For more information see the Waukesha Bible Church series The Storyline of the Bible.
