2007 Issue 3 - Let's Talk: Once Upon a Time - Counsel of Chalcedon

8/11/2019 2007 Issue 3 - Let's Talk: Once Upon a Time - Counsel of Chalcedon

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hapter X

Once Upon Time

LET S TALK - a l l ~ s about the Bible

E1 nest I(evin (Edited by Wayne Rogers)

"Tell us a story," said a boy

when t was raining and 110 one

oould

go

outside.

I

want you to

tell me a story," said the little

girl who was hot and tired and

a little fretful on a long trip in

the oar. When I was a boy there

weren't TV's, oOl11puters, and

DVDs.

People actually read

things called books and parents

read stories to their children. I

hope you want to read and

hear

stories and

that

your parents

lilm

to read stories to you. It's

too easy today to

just

pop in

a

DVD or turn

on a computer

game. You should read and be

read to by your parents and

other adults. f they haven't

read to you

in

a while, ask thenl

to read you a story, even it isn't

raining outside

Nearly all the stories I loved

when I was a little boy used to

begin, Once upon a tinle .. "

and they used to all end this

way, .... and so they all1ived

happily every after." Have you

ever heard

that

Idnd of story? I

imagine

that

you have.

Here goes a story. But it

doesn't begin Once upon a

the Nations Ghrist s Disciples

time." When we hear those

words, Once upon a time,"

we

get

the

idea

that

this isn't a

true story at all; it's a made up

story. This story begins,

In the

beginning ..." And, sadly,

we

can't say in the end, And they

all lived happily every after."

So, here goes our story." In

the beginning" there was a

beautiful garden, and

in it

there lived a man and his wife.

God

had

created thenl and

put

thenl in

the

garden to tend and

keep it, and to rule over the

rest of

the

creation as God's

servants. One dreadful day

an evil thought was

put

into

the woman's nlind, and she

yielded to a temptation. Her

husband did the same. This is

the story of Adam and Eve and

the

way sin entered into

the

world.

By

their sin they lost

the joy of knowing God and

friendship with Hh11. They had

a boy named Cain who became

a murderer, and before very

long the whole world was full

of evil thoughts and evil deeds.

God would

not

allow this to

go

on, so

He

destroyed all those

sinners except one family to

whonl

He

showed nlercy. Noah

and his family were saved from

the Flood,

and

they afterwards

began to fill the world with

people again.

Now one day God went to a

great city

and

called a

nlan

to leave

the

city where

there

was much worshipping of false

gods,

and

to conle with Hinl to

a new country. Through this

man

God was going to

create

a new fanlily

to

worship, love,

and serve him in holiness and

obedience. He was going to

bring some people back into

fellowship with Hinlself. So

Abram canle

to

Canaan. He

had

a son named Isaac, and then

two grandsons

nat11ed

Esau

and Jacob. God chose Jacob

and prOl11ised to nlake a great

nation

out

of his

fal11ily. he

fal11ily

grew into a big tribe,

and

then finally into a nation. While

the

tribe was growing into a

nation all its people beoalne

prisoners in sonlething like a

huge concentration oamp in

Egypt but God rel11el11bered

His prOl11ise to Abraham

and

set the people free, and

their

leader, Moses, by faith and

obedience, led the people out

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0

Let s Talk - Sin Jin J in the ChoiT

of Egypt. This event was ca lled

THE

EXODUS

- "exodus"

means "going out". At

this

time they

all lived in tents

and God promised

that

He also

would live in a tent

with

them.

Because of the rebellion of the

people against His love and law,

God had to make the people

wait for forty years before He

would bring them into the

promised

land of

Canaan.

Those "chapters"

in our

story

are LEVITICUS, NUMBERS,

AND DEUTERONOMY. Joshua

led the battle against those

who lived

in

Canaan but it

took

a long while for

the

people

to settle down in their new

country. Even though they

were living in the land God had

given them the people still kept

doing what they wanted to do.

These are the JOSHUA AND

JUDGES chapters.

After a little while, the people

wanted a king, and they chose

Saul. But he, too, was a king

like

they

wanted, not like God

wanted.

Later on

God gave

them

the king He wanted,

David. He Was a king

after

God's own

heart.

King David's

son Solomon

became

king

after

him. It was to Solomon

that God said he could have

anything he wanted.

Wow

What

would you ask for? Do

you know

what

he asked for?

He asked for wisdom

to

serve

the Lord. King Solomon was

known

all over

the

world for

his wisdom and knowledge

and

it

was King Solomon who

built the wonderful Temple at

Jerusalem.After King Solomon

died, a lot of unhappy, sad,

things occurred. The

nation

of Isreal had been made up of

twelve tribes or families, based

on the twelve tribes or sons of

Jacob/Israel. Ten of these tribes

revolted agains t the new King,

Rehoboam, and set

up another

kingdom in the

north

of

the

country. This was very sad,

for now there were two kings

reigning

at the

same time, one

in

the south and one in the

north. Rehoboam in the south

was the

true

king, but Jeroboam

in

the

north

was a rebel. This

great division

of the

nation

lasted for over two hundred

years, and the two parts

became known

as the kingdom

of Judah in the south, and

the

kingdom of Israel

in

the north.

This period is known as the

DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM.

There were good and bad kings

in

both these

realms. This

part

of

our

story is found

in

chapters called Samuel,. Kings,

and Chronicles. Maybe you

have heard of or even read

The Chronicles of Narnia. Do

you know what "chronicles"

means? Chronicles has the

root word "chronos." Does that

help you to know

the

meaning?

Chronos

means

"time;" a watch

is a "chronometer," a time

meted Chronicles tells of

the

times, the history, of God's

people, God's kings. God found

some faithful

men

- we call

them "prophets" -

they

were

preachers of God's Word - and

He sent them as His messengers

to both of these kingdoms.

Great men like Elijah and

Elisha and Amos were sent to

the northern

kingdom,

and

Hosea wrote a book and sent it

to

the

King and

the

people to

read. To the

southern

kingdom,

God sent prophets like Isaiah

and Micah and Jeremiah. These

chapters in our story are

the

PROPHET chapters.

Alas The day came when a

great army rushed down on the

northern kingdom of Israel,

just as God had said they would

through the prophets. Their

towns were destroyed, and all

the people were taken away

as slaves. This was the

end

of

the northern

kingdom. This

happened in about 722 BC.

Do you know what BC stands

for?

f

you don't, ask someone.

In the south, the kingdom of

Judah

kept

on alone for

another

hundred and thirty-six years.

What do you get if you subtract

136 from 722? Then

the

end

came to thi s kingdom.

The

armies of King Nebuchadnezzar

from Babylon destroyed

Jerusalem

and

the

Temple,

and

they took the people away. For

seventy years the people lived

far from their own

country

as

captives in Babylon. This is

called THE EXILE. Some of

the preacher-prophets during

the exile were EZEKIEL AND

DANIEL.

After seventy years a good

Persian king who had

become King of Babylon

said

that the

people could

go back to Jerusalem. Only

a few went back at first, and

Zerubbabelwas their Captain.

Two prophets, Haggai and

Zechariah, encouraged the

people to build the Temple

again, and

they

did so. Later

on Ezra and Nehemiah came

to help them. This is called the

period of THE RETURN.

t

was a very little company of

Jews, for

that

is the

name

by

which the people now became'

known, who struggled

on

through the

next

five hundred

years,

and

at

last the Roman

soldiers with

their

generals

arrived in Palestine and took

the whole country into their

own empire. God

had

foretold

this

through

DANIEL (Chapter

2). The Romans found a man

The Counsel o Chalceclon


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named Herod and made

him

king over

the

country, although

the Ronlan Emperor (Caesar)

was the

real ruler, and Herod

had to obey hinl. About this

time,

in

a quiet little village

called Nazareth,

an

angel

appeared to a young woman

called Mary. The angel told

her

that

God was going to work a

miracle through her, and

that

she would have a son. This

child would

be

THE SON OF

GOD, and

His name was to

be

called JESUS, which

meant

I'Saviour." He was also the

son

of David and of Abraham. As

a matter of fact, this was

the

child that God

had

pronlised

to Adaln and Eve all the way

back in Genesis 3:15 who would

crush the

head

of the tempter,

the Devil. In the course of

time, this baby was born

in

Bethlehem,

and

Herod heard

about it. Herod was a terribly

cruel king, and, because

he

was afraid of this baby who

was called a king, he had all

the children

in and

around

Bethlehem killed,

but

Mary,

with

her

husband Joseph, had

been warned by

an

angel

and

had taken

her

precious child

into Egypt for safety.

About

thirty

years afterwards

a

man

nalned

John the

Baptist

came preaching

near

the river

Jordan.

He

interrupted his

preaching one day and pointed

to Jesus

in the

crowd, and said,

I'Look There is the Lanlb of

God who

bears

away the

sin

of

the world."

You

see, way baok

in

our story,

at the

time of the

Exodus, God

had

delivered His'

people fronl bondage by

the

death of latnbs whose blood was

spread on

the

headboards of

the doors of the houses of the

people of God in Egypt. t was

soon after this that Jesus caIne

preaching and teaching about

the Kingdom of God, saying

that

it had

come. He

spent

most

of His time working

in the

villages

and

the

open

country,

but

He also nlade a lot of visits

to Jerusalem. His nlirac1es

lnade Hinl popular with many

of the people, but

the

rulers

of

the

people did not like Him

at all. The public

ministry

of

Jesus lasted' about three

and

a half years,

and

at

the

end of this, He was

betrayed

and

crucified.

However, even this was

part of God's plan to save

people. The rulers

in

Jerusalem thought

they

had

seen

the

last of Jesus,

but they were mistaken.

On the third

day, He

rose from

the

dead

and

appeared to His disciples, and

after a few

weeks He went baok

to

heaven. When

he

went back

to Heaven,

on

a special day God

had

instituted long ago in

the

past,

the

day of Pentecost, his

disoiples

and

apostles realized

who Jesus really was. They

had

become new

men

and women.

, The rulers who

had

killed Jesus

tried also to kill His disciples

now. This nleant that all

the

friends

and

those

that

believed

that Jesus was

the

Son of God

and the

long awaited deliverer

of His people,

the

MESSIAH,

were driven from

their

honles

and

scattered everywhere,

but

they did

not

keep quiet

about Jesus. Everywhere they

went they spoke about Him

to others. Very soon after

this, one of their greatest

enelnies, Saul of Tarsus, was

converted to

the

Lord Jesus

Christ,

and

he

beoame one

of

the

lnost

important

of the

early preachers of

the

Gospel.

He went on great missionary

I et's Talk - 8inging

n

the

Choi1'

journeys

and

reached

the

big

city of Ronle itself. Before the

death

of the

last

of the disciples

of Jesus, we find that there were

strong oompanies of believers

in

Jesus in

almost every great oity

of

the

empire.

Yes, this

is

the

story of

the

Bible,

and

yes, every

part

of

it

is true. The story in the

Bible ends here, but

our

"In

the

beginning" story does not

stop here. The story

continues

today as

the

message about

Jesus

is preached and believed

by people like you and me.

How does it end? Does it all

end

"happily ever afte r"?

The

story

is not really finished

yet. Jesus will one day

take to

heaven the last of His saved

ones who have believed

in

Him

and

worshipped, followed, and

served Hinl, and

there

will

be

a new heaven

and

a new

earth

There will

be

no more

sin or death

for theln. Sorrow

and trouble for theln will be

all over,

and

everyone who

trusts in

Jesus will

be

"happy

ever after." But,

it

will

not be

an " ... everyone lived happily

ever after" story for those who

have

not

believed

and

lived

in

Hinl;

they

will be

cast

into hell

because

they

have

not

believed

in the

Son of God whOln God

sent as the Savior of sinners .

That's right

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2007 Issue 3 - Let's Talk: Once Upon a Time - Counsel of Chalcedon