Jacksonville Presbyterian Church
1st Corinthians 10:1-13 (June 30, 2024)
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> Well, good morning. Welcome to Jacksonville Prez. If you would, let's stand for the reading of God's word. If you're able, open up in your Bibles to First Corinthians. Chapter 10, we're looking at First Corinthians chapter 10 verses 1 through 13 this morning. If you don't have a Bible, grab one of these blue hardback Bibles. They're all throughout the room. You can take one of those. Open up to page 1137, I believe. Page 1137. If you would, grab your Bibles up and up to First Corinthians chapter 10. Full disclosure, this is my favorite passage in First Corinthians. That doesn't mean it's going to be your favorite, but it's my favorite. So if nothing else, you'll see me having a lot of fun with this passage. I just think it's full of glory and beauty and of gospel truth. And so hopefully you had your coffee this morning. Look at First Corinthians chapter 10 verses 1 through 13. Brothers and sisters, if you would now hear the word of the Lord to us, this is God's holy and anerrant and beautiful word. The Apostle Paul writes to you and me, "For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them, God was not pleased. For they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did. Don't be idolaters as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. We must not indulge in sexual immorality of some of them did and 23,000 fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Friends, the grass swithers and the flower fades, but the word of our God remains forever and this is the word of the Lord. - Praise to be God. - And now would you be seated and keep that Bible and your heart open as we pray. Father, we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ that you would give us the mind of Christ to open up your word as Jesus did on the road to Emmaus and show us how every word and every chapter in your holy word points to Jesus Christ our Savior. So Father expand our hearts and our minds to see Christ on every page and Lord would we see it and would that change the way that we live our lives? And Lord we thank you that we are those upon whom the ends of the ages have fallen. And Lord would you give us that perspective now in Jesus name, amen. How do you think your ancestors show up in your story? - What role do your family members and ancestors play in who you are? It's a beautiful question to think about. David Brooks asks it in his book, How to Know a Person. It's one of his last chapters and he says, one of the ways that you and I get to know other people and full disclosure of the way you and I get to know ourselves is we remember that we stand downstream of our family and ancestors. And it's really interesting, you know, the older you get, the more likely you are every Christmas to get what for Christmas? Ancestry.com, and Socks, but also chances are your kids or maybe your relatives will say, hey, don't you wanna do like, you know, what is it, 23 in me and find out who you are, how you're gonna die? You know, all the fun stuff you can learn about your ancestors. You know, knowing your family history is such a beautiful gift, but this is also why things like chattel slavery in the US was so wicked, it was because it didn't allow people to know who their ancestors were. The slaves didn't know their family history. Knowing your family history is sweet and fun and exciting, but it can also be painful to think about if you're adopted. For many of those who are adopted, if you have them as your friends or maybe you're adopted, that's one of those things that you have to wrestle with as you get older, is trying to figure out what is my family, do I get in touch with them? Well, I wanna suggest to you this idea of knowing your family history. One of the most beautiful things about the gospel of Jesus Christ. The most beautiful thing is that he declares that anyone who believes in him is now part of his family. If you've come to faith in Jesus, you've probably read the gospel of John. If you have not come to faith in Jesus, consider reading the gospel of John one-on-one with someone in our church, because in the gospel of John it explains the gospel like this, it says, but to all who did receive Jesus, that is, all who believe in the name of Jesus, God gave them the right to become what? The children of God who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but born of God. That is when you believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, you are brought into the family of God. And it doesn't matter your ethnicity, it doesn't matter your bloodline. To believe in Jesus is to become a part of the family. Later on in the story of Jesus in Mark chapter three, someone says, "Hey Jesus, your family's standing outside." And do you remember what Jesus says? Jesus answered these people and he says, "Who are my mother and my brothers? Who does Jesus consider his family?" And in Mark chapter three, Jesus looks around at those who are standing around him and Jesus declares, "Here are my mother and my brothers, for whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and my sister and mother." When I want you to see, friend, if you look down at first Corinthians chapter 10, whether you know your family history or whether it's still a mystery to you, whatever your background is, the message of Jesus Christ is if you believe in him, you have a new family. And the new family is the people of God from every nation, tribe, and language that God is gathering in him. And what unites this family is being born from God, being born anew. And what that means for you and me, if you believe in Jesus, friend, is that the book you have in your lap, the book you have right in front of you, is your family history. So even if you don't know where you come from or you don't know your family history, what you have in front of you, Christian, is your family history. And it's written down for you and me. Look at first Corinthians chapter 10, verse one. And don't forget, when Paul's writing to the Corinthians, are they all from the same ethnic group? Is everyone in the Corinthian church Jewish? No, they're primarily Gentiles. And most of them were not born of high repute. Many of them were slaves. So Paul is writing to people who are slaves, who don't know their family history. He's writing to some Jews, yes, but also to many Gentiles, but listen to how Paul talks about them. He says, "The Bible is all y'all's family history." And yes, that was like a triple plural, possessive. Look at first Corinthians chapter 10, y'all. "For I do not want you," that's plural, you, "for I do not want y'all to be unaware, ignorant of your family history, brothers." And that word brothers right there is Adelphi in Greek. It means brothers and sisters. It'd be like kind of how we'd say, "Hey guys, listen up." He says, "I don't want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers," he's including them in this story. He says, "They were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and they were all baptized into Moses." And he's gonna recount the story of the Exodus for the next several verses later. But I want you to pause right here and say, "When I'm suggesting to you, is that when you read the Bible, Christian, you're reading your family history. And if you're not a Christian, I'd invite you to be born again, to confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior, to repent from your sin, and to realize that this is your new family. And the Bible is your new family history. But the way that you and I are gonna sort of read this section to go through our family history, we've got to dip into some of our historical ways of looking at Scripture. And so we're gonna take a chariot ride through our family history this morning, okay? This is my goal. We're gonna take a chariot ride through our family history. And I use that phrase chariot ride very specifically, okay? So again, I told you, this is my favorite section of Scripture, so this may not be your thing, but I think this is super rad. So listen up, okay? So the ancient word for a chariot, does anybody know it? It's quadriga, quad meaning four. And so when you think about a chariot, how many horses are typically pulling the chariot? Can you picture in your mind's eye that great scene from the 1959 movie Ben Hur? You know when Moses is like in the chariot race? Yeah, well, he's been hur in this movie, but you know, it's Charleston, Heston, same guy, right? Have you not seen this movie? This is great. If you don't have anything to do today, watch Ben Hur, it'll change your life. All right, so Jesus shows up, it's a great surprise, it's a great movie. All right, so the chariot, right? There are four horses, can you picture this? So that's called a quadriga. And the ancient church loved to approach scripture using what they called the quadriga. And they would say that there were four chariots that carried you through understanding the Bible. And we're gonna use those four lenses or four horses, if you will, to look at this passage. And the first way we could approach the passage is the literal way of understanding it. So let's look down at 1 Corinthians chapter 10. What is the literal meaning? What Paul's gonna do right here to help us understand our family history, whether you are Jewish and this is literally your ethnic family history or you are just a Christian Gentile who is now adopted into the family of God, not born of the flesh, but born of God. And now you are looking at your family history. And we're gonna look at these stories literally. We'll look down at 1 Corinthians chapter 10. What Paul is doing is he's retelling the Old Testament story. And what he's gonna do is he's taking a very Christian perspective on it, but he's basically just recounting the story of the Exodus, right? So if you go back to the book of Exodus, you might remember that God sees his people, the people of Israel and they are enslaved by what country? Egypt, it's not a trick question, right? Egypt, yes. And God delivers them, right? There's the 10 plagues of Egypt that God delivers them. And then what leads them out of Egypt? It's a Theophany, it's an image of God. Does anybody remember? It's a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire by night, right? So that's what he's talking about right there. That God leads them out under the cloud. That is God led them through this amazing cloud. And then when do the people of Israel pass through a sea? Does anybody remember? Yeah, Moses, God splits the Red Sea and they walk through it, right? Jesus, ring a bell. So he's telling you that story. And I'll pass through the sea and then look at verse three. They all eat some kind of spiritual or miraculous food. When does that happen? When does anything in the Old Testament, when do God's people eat miraculous food? Exodus 16, what falls from the heavens? Collects on the ground, manna, right? And then in verse four, it says, they all drink spiritual or miraculous drink. And what is it that happens in Exodus? Anybody remember? They don't have any water. And so God says that he is going to stand in front of a rock and Moses is to take the rod of judgment. And instead of striking the grumbling people, God says, strike me with the rod of judgment. And when you hit me with the rod of judgment, when you punish me for y'all sins, out of the rock will gush what? Water and everyone can drink. And then that's not the only time miraculously, literally that God made a literal rock gush forth water. If you read on into the book of Numbers, which it's real Hebrew name is in the wilderness, which is a way cooler name for a book than Numbers, I literally cannot think of a more boring name for a book than Numbers. You might as well subtitle it, don't read me, right? Hebrews called it in the wilderness. I'm like, that sounds cool. Numbers sounds dumb. Anyway, sorry. The book, the title of the book is not inspired by God. Okay, the Hebrew is the, it's in the wilderness, which shows up, that phrase in the wilderness shows up a lot in this passage if you look. Paul's referencing the name of the book of Numbers in the wilderness by mid the bar in Hebrew. The rock in Numbers 20, God says, oh, they need water again? This time Moses asked me for water, and I will make water come out. But what does Moses do in Numbers 20? Moses is fed up, fed up with the people, fed up with God, and Moses wacks the rock. And God says, you don't hit me like that. And so Moses doesn't make it into the promised land, but he is taken to the cliffs of the mountains where he can see it. Let's keep going. Look at verse six and seven. He says, now these things took place as examples for us. That is, to understand the Bible, you have to believe that these stories are true. That's the most basic literal understanding of scripture. Does the Bible present these as true stories? Yes, it does. Are people dumb in the ancient world for believing that rocks can gush forth water? No, they know that water doesn't miraculously come out of a rock. They understand the physical world. They are telling you that story because something unbelievable happened. That's why they tell the story. They know how things work, right? When Jesus comes back from the dead, it's not because ancient people are dumb and don't understand death. They tell these miraculous stories because they're unbelievably true. It really did happen. So as Christians, the way we approach the Bible, the first horse in the four horse chariot is the literal understanding. These things really did take place. But they happened so that we would learn from them. Look at verse six. They took place not just literally, but for a purpose. Now, he's gonna go on in verse seven and he's gonna recount a couple of more stories if you know them from the Old Testament. Okay, so when Moses goes up to Mount Sinai to get the law, he stays up there for 40 days. Meanwhile, what are the people doing at the base of Mount Sinai? Are they just like content to worship all day long? Do they start like the Mount Sinai House of Prayer and worship and they just livestream it like 24/7? Nope, they do not. They are taken out of Egypt, but they still have a lot of Egypt in them. And so they get bored and they start to want to rise up and play, which is a euphemism to have sexual morality and to basically party. So in Exodus 32, and Moses comes down from the mountain, he sees this awful party going on and they're worshiping a golden calf. And if you read Exodus 32, it's so important to know the story because when the people get bored, they demand that Aaron, you know, one of the leaders of the people of Israel, they say, we want to worship Yahweh, but we want you to make a golden calf, which we will then call Yahweh. So idolatry is not just worshiping other gods, it's actually remaking the true God into something more palatable, which continues to be the temptation for people today. The Bible says this, well, let me twist that to be more in terms of my liking. And then I'll worship the God of my own making. The Bible says it's idolatry. You have to take God for who he is. You can't say, well, I'm going to worship Yahweh, I'm just going to conceive of him as a golden calf. Moses comes down from the mountain, he sees the golden calf and when you remember what he does, he grinds it up and makes the people drink it. So if you look down at verse nine, again, we see another story, a true story in verse nine. And he talks about the people being destroyed by serpents. This is a story from in the wilderness, chapter 21, or you might have it in your Bible as numbers 21. And if you know this story, the people grumble and they want to go back to Egypt, they're fed up with this manna, they don't like what God is providing and they grumble, they complain, their hearts are turned from the Lord. And so serpents come and bite them. And what's the cure? Does anybody know the story? What's the cure? There are serpents, the sign of judgment. And if they bite you, you're dead. What's the cure though? What's the way of escape? Does anybody remember? In numbers 21, God tells Moses to make a golden serpent, put it on a staff and raise it up. And anyone who looks at the bronze serpent is healed of being sick. Many people think that's the foundation for that like medical symbol on the back of an ambulance, a staff with like a serpent wrapped around it. Other people think it's from a pagan religion, but it probably has Judeo-Christian roots. All that to say, look at verse 11. These things happen to them, they happen to them, but they are for our instruction. They happen as an example. And we are those on whom the end of the ages has come. Actually, that word right there, end is plural in Greek. It's the only time this phrase occurs in the New Testament. It's the ends of the ages. It's an interesting phrase which we'll come back to. So what I want you to recognize, there's a couple of things. If you're gonna really try to study the Bible and understand what it has to say for you and me, the first step is to take it literally. These stories really did happen. These miracles really do prove that God is among us. The world that you and I live in is not just a physical world. There's a spiritual component that we will never fully understand, we'll never plumb the depths of. There is a spiritual reality. There is a God who works miracles. And the other nice thing to understand as we consider this literal interpretation is that one of the great surprises when you study the Bible is you start to realize how much of the Bible is in dialogue with itself. You'll read something here and you're like, "Wait a second. "I think that's talking about this other story over here." And so the more you hear these stories, the more you realize that actually the Old Testament and the New Testament are constantly interacting with one another. Santa Gustin famously put the Bible this way. He said, "In the Old Testament, the new is concealed, "but in the New Testament, the Old is revealed." I'll say that again. Santa Gustin, in the Old Testament, the new is concealed. So the gospel's there, it's just concealed. And in the New Testament, the Old is revealed. All of the stories in the Old Testament make sense once you start learning about Jesus. And all of these strange stories about bronze serpents start to make a whole lot of sense when you hear about the message of Jesus. All this language of passing through water and eating spiritual food and drink to get you through the wilderness as you journey towards the promised land. All of those themes start to make sense when you hear the story of Jesus. Okay, so the first thing you need to realize is Christians, we take the Bible literally. We take it at its plain meaning, the plain sense of the text. This is how you and I are to read scripture. The other thing to remember is that if you look down at 1 Corinthians chapter 10, if you look down, clearly the Apostle Paul sees the Old Testament as God's word. You know, there's movements today by some of the most prominent pastors in America at shocking who have suggested that you and I unhitch the Old Testament from the New Testament that really you and I could operate just fine as Christians if we got rid of the Old Testament. This is coming from one of the most prominent pastors in America and friends, that is crazy talk that is crazy talk. You cannot make sense of the message of Jesus apart from the Old Testament. This is literally the oldest heresy in Christianity. You can look this up on Wikipedia. One of the earliest false teachings that Christians had to combat was led by a guy named Marcian. He was a pastor in the 100s. He was basically that first generation after the apostles all died. And one of the main tenants of Marcianism that the church unanimously rejected was Marcian taught that only the Gospel of Luke and 10 Pauline epistles were scripture. Everything else in the New Testament you should reject and you should reject the whole Old Testament. And he tried to distinguish the God of the Old Testament from Jesus. You know, the God of the Old Testament is all mean and Jesus is all super nice, you know? That was his basic idea. And I'm like, have you read Jesus's words? Try to convince a Pharisee that Jesus is nice, you know? He's truthful, he's loving, but he's not always nice. And the God of the Old Testament is mean, please. God's constantly forgiving these people. He's set about to save the entire world. So the early church said no. The Old Testament is always important. The book of Romans reminds us that God entrusted to the Jews the oracles of God. The Old Testament is scripture for you and me. Okay, so is that all that Paul's doing? If you look down at 1 Corinthians 10, is that all Paul is doing? Is he just telling you what literally happened? No, that's not all Paul is gonna do, okay? And this leads us to the second horse in the quadriga in the chariot, okay? And this is where I'm gonna lose you and I'm gonna geek out and you're gonna be like, this got weird for a five minutes or so and then it started to make more sense. But if you can hang in there, this is where it starts to get fascinating, all right? We have left high school math and now we are into, I don't know, calculus three or trigonometry. What's college math? I stink at math. Is trigonometry a high school math? I didn't do it, so I'll just assume it's like graduate level math, okay? This is the graduate level math. And that is what Paul is doing in these Old Testament stories if you look down is Paul is clearly believing that these stories are true. But now Paul is going to look at these stories through a particular lens and that lens is Jesus Christ, God in human form. And he's going to take what theologians and the Bible will call a typological lens, a type, T-Y-P-E, that word tipos occurs twice in this passage, right there in verse six when it says these things took place as examples, it literally says these things are types, okay? So when you and I read the New Testament, sometimes the New Testament will take a typological interpretation of a story. And what typology is, now it can be a little funky sometimes but it's actually how the Bible functions. And what is a typological lens or what does it mean to see a type? A type according to Gerald McDermott in his wonderful book Everyday Glory is, this is a type. It is a person, a pattern or a thing, so a person or a certain pattern or a thing that participates in the reality and reveals something about Christ and his redemptive kingdom. Okay, I understand that does not explain it to you. Here's what a type is. A type is a person or a pattern or a thing in the Old Testament that points to the reality of Jesus. Let me give you an example. The Old Testament story is about God choosing a group of people, the Jews, that will one day bless the entire world. They get enslaved for 400 years and then God delivers them out of slavery but God raises up a man named Mosheh, Moses. And when Mosheh is born, who tries to kill him? Is he just born like in the suburbs and everything's fine and he goes to the private school? No, well he does go to the private school but not because of his parents, right? What happens to Mosheh when he's born is people try to kill him but he miraculously escapes and he is raised up to lead God's people out of slavery through the wilderness on the way to the what? To the promised land. And the New Testament sees Moses as a type, as a pointer to whom? Jesus. When Jesus is born, do people try to kill him as a baby? Yes they do. Kind of reminds you of Moses, doesn't it? And then God calls Jesus to be the redemptor, the one who carries his people not out of slavery to Egypt but out of slavery to sin and death. And now you and I are living in the wilderness of life. Have you made it to the promised land? I hope not. If your heart is beating, you're not there yet. And you and I are on the way to the promised land which is God's eternal kingdom, heaven and earth reunited one day. And if Christ is a return by the time you die, you'll go to heaven and then you'll wait with heaven until heaven and earth are reunited. This is what it means to see things as types. That's a pattern that's pointing to Jesus and this is how the New Testament writers are reading these stories. Think about it this way, I don't know if this makes sense. Let me approach typology from a different way, okay? Let's do a thought experiment. Do you think that God created human life? You know, God's like, you know what I'm gonna do? I make these little like hybrid half spiritual, half physical things and they're gonna be in my image and I'm gonna make them so where they produce more versions of themselves and then there's gonna be a relation between a father and a child. You think God decides to make fathers and children's and then later on he's like, hey, whoa, actually that's a really cool relationship if it's done well between a father and a child. That's kinda like what I do with you. I'm like your dad, I'm their father. Or do you think there's something about God's love that he works into creation ahead of time. And he's like, I love and produce things. I am the creator, but I'm not just creator. I am the father who loves. So when I make fatherhood, I'm gonna make it reveal something about myself. Or do you think when God says, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna have two people, a man and a woman commit to each other for life. And I want the man to love his wife and I want the wife to respect her husband. And do you think he just realizes at some point later on in history? Hey, actually that's a really helpful analogy for Jesus and his bride. Or do you think God already has all of this in mind and he works it into marriage from the beginning? I think it's the latter. God has all of these realities and he works creation so that they reveal some of his glory. Think about a mother with a child. God can say, I yearn to gather you like a mother hen gathers its brood. There's something about the love of God that you can see if you have eyes to see it with a mother and her daughter. There's something revealed to you when you see a father loving his child. You are learning something about the heart of God when you see it. All of life is typological. Every inch of creation is pointing to the creator if you have eyes to see it. The book of Psalms can say just like the sun rises, that's like God rising up to save his people. Do you think God just saw the sunset one day? I was like, oh, that's kind of like what I do. Or do you think that God made it so that when you see a sunrise, you could see his love for you rising if you have eyes to see it. What I would suggest to you is this is the Christian view of reality. And this is a problem with the modern world. When you look at the stars, if all you see are balls of gas way, way far, far away, you're missing why God put the stars there to begin with. The Bible would say, just like they're these little spots of light in the midst of a dark world, that there is a message that you and I Christian are like little balls of light in a dark world. So when you see the sky, you're supposed to be seeing something about Christ's kingdom and his work in this world. It's not a magical view of life. It's a deeply Christian view of life. That there's not a blade of grass that does not bring glory to God. To quote John Calvin. A typological way of looking at life sees glory in everything. God's glory revealed. And God's glory revealed is through Jesus in the kingdom of God. So if you take that understanding, you can look at all of these Old Testament stories and realize they're all pointing to Jesus Christ. We've done it first Corinthians 10. Let's see if you can follow the typological lens that Paul's using. I don't want you to be unaware of brothers and sisters adopted into the family of God. Our fathers, our family history teaches us that our family was all under the cloud and they all went through the Red Sea. It literally happened. But now let's go through a spiritual understanding of that a typological lens. Look at verse two. That is, they were all baptized in a sense into Moses. That is, they went through water in allegiance to the guy who was leading them out of slavery, Moses, who is a pointer to Jesus. And they all went through the cloud and in the sea. And so the cloud represents the Holy Spirit and the Red Sea represents baptism. So in a similar way, Christian, when you are baptized, the Holy Spirit is metaphorically or symbolically falling on you. And then look at verse three. And they all ate spiritual food and they all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them and the rock was Christ. When Jesus is interacting with people in John chapter six, people are like, how do I know you're true? Like, why should I believe you're the son of God and come to save us all? Why would I believe any of this stuff? Can't you prove it to us? And that's what they say in John chapter six, 30. They said to him, then what sign can you do? What miraculous deed can you do so that we would believe in you? What work do you perform, right? Okay, if you're gonna make me believe in you, Jesus will do something miraculous. And then listen to what they say. They say, our fathers ate the man in the wilderness. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Hey, we ate man in back in the day. What's the big miracle you can prove that you're true, Jesus? Jesus answered them, truly, truly I say to you. It wasn't Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my father who gives you true bread from heaven for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. And they say, well, give us this bread. What is this spiritual bread that we can live forever on? And what does Jesus say? Anybody remember? It's one of the I Am statements in the Gospel of John. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. If you go back to 1 Corinthians chapter three, what Paul is telling you in me is that this idea of bread from heaven sustaining us through the wilderness of life is all about Jesus, who is the ultimate bread from heaven who sustains us on our journey to heaven. And we have spiritual drink, the water from the rock. And what's the meaning of that story, water from the rock? Well, if you remember, the people complain because God hasn't given him anything to drink and they're like, what are you gonna do? Make us die in the wilderness. We're all just gonna just die of starvation and thirst. And the people are about to stone Moses. So the people are doing something really wrong. They deserve punishment. But what happens in the book of Exodus is God says, I will put my presence in front of this rock and with the rod of judgment, instead of punishing the people, who does God tell Moses to hit? He says, hit me, hit the rock and I will take the punishment for their sins. And out of the rod of punishment hitting the rock, water flows and the people live. Does that ring any kind of bells for you, Christian? That God's people, sin against Him, are deserving of punishment. And God says, punish me, not them. And when you hit me with the rod of judgment, out of me will flow life and forgiveness. John thinks there is. And that's why in John 19, when Jesus dies on the cross, a rod of judgment, you might call it. When the spear goes into the side of Jesus, what flows out of Him? Blood and water. And then John says, he who testifies to you is telling you the truth. I saw it with my own eyes. Jesus is the rock. The story about a rock being punished, which was God and us living because God took the punishment we deserve, that was about Jesus. And if you think this is like crazy talk, you know, just think about it this way. What's the most famous verse in the entire Bible? Anybody know? John 3 16, right? So if you were to flip over in your Bible to John 3 16, everybody knows this, right? John 3 16, for God so loved the world, that He gave His only son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life, right? The gospel promise. But what's amazing about that is, have you ever read the verse right before that sentence? It's fascinating. These are the verses right before John 3 16. So this is the context that Jesus is talking about, John 3 16. He says, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness by mid-var, just like that weird story in numbers about a serpent being lifted up, a symbol of sin, being lifted up so to the son of man must be lifted up so that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only son. Jesus is telling you and me that just as this bronze serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, and all you have to do is look at it and you'd be sealed and saved. He says that story was a type. It was a pointer to me who would become sinned for you. He would take on our sins and take the punishment we deserve. And by Jesus being lifted up on a cross, whoever looks to Him for salvation would be saved. This is the typological reading. I could go on for hours and hours about typology, but what I want you to see if you looked at at 1 Corinthians chapter 10, this is how Paul is reading these stories. Okay, so that's the second horse is typology. Have I thoroughly confused everybody? This one will be much simpler. That is the third horse in the ancient way of looking at scripture is the moral lens. And this is where you and I are much more comfortable, where we understand there's literally the exodus and then a typological horse would tell you, well, this is about Jesus. If you have eyes to see it, the third horse would tell you now that all of these stories have a moral. You know, have you ever heard somebody say what's the moral of the story? Well, tell me if you can see any times where Paul is telling you the moral of these stories. Look at verse six. Now these things took place as examples for us. Now these things literally took place as types for us, is what the Greek says. So that we might not desire evil as they did. Don't be idolaters as some of them were, right? Don't make God in your own fashion. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and then they rose up to play. And look at verse eight, here's another moral of the story of the exodus. We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did and 23,000 fell in a single day. So he's talking about Deuteronomy, excuse me, Exodus 32 and then look at verse nine. He says, we must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer. Is there a moral to these stories? Look at verse 11. Another way is that here's the moral of the story. Look at verse 11. Now these things happen to them as an example, as a type, but they were written down for our instruction. And then look at verse 12. Therefore, more of the moral of the story. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. That's another way of saying, don't be proud, be humble before God. Don't presume that you would have been better than the people in the wilderness. Depend on God's grace. In look at verse 13, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. I mean, the moral of the story is just all over this, right? We should not commit idolatry. We should not commit sexual immorality. He says we shouldn't grumble against God and put him to the test. But notice that what he's doing is he's deriving morals from all of these stories. Not only are they literally true, not only do they point to Jesus, he's also saying these are warnings to you and me. These are moral. So what's the moral of all of these stories? I think what he would say is right there in that last sentence. As you walk through the wilderness of life, as you, Christian, are on the way to heaven, as you are on the journey to the promised land, look to your family history. When you read the Bible, let it inform how you see yourself and also your inclinations. You know, people often talk about alcoholism as something that passes from generation to generation. Well, sin works the same way. These temptations that they faced are all common to humans and they're common to you and me. And so that's why we need to read the Old Testament is because it warns us not to squander the goodness and the grace of God in our lives. These are warnings. But how do you and I, you know, heed the warning, you know, what is the way of escape when you and I face temptation? Well, I love verse 13 so much because he says, look, no temptation has overtaken you that everybody else doesn't have to deal with too. But the focus is right there. When you and I are tempted by sin, the hope is God is faithful to you. That is, God is with you in that temptation. He has not abandoned you. You are not lost in the wilderness. The rock followed them all through the wilderness and Christ is with you through the wilderness. God has not abandoned you in the midst of your temptation and struggle. In fact, God always provides a way of escape. And I love that so much because if you read through those Old Testament stories, there's always this hope of escape. I mean, think about the bronze serpent. People are grumbling, but what is the way of escape? If you don't want to die from the serpent, what can you do? Look to the bronze serpent. When the people grumble and complain about God at Mount Sinai in Exodus 32, you know what happens? Why does God not wipe them all out? Do you know what happens? In Exodus 32, Moses, the guy who's leading them out of slavery to the Promised Land, God's chosen Redeemer, Moses goes to God and he intercedes for the people. He actually goes to God and he says, please forgive them. Yes, they were worshiping Baal. Yes, they were doing all these strong things, but he walks in front of God and says, God have mercy on them and forgive them. And God does. He provides the way of escape, but it comes through a mediator. It comes through a man. And that should be bringing all kinds of bells in your mind, Christian. Is there somebody who stands between you and the wrath of God? Jesus, what is our hope? He intercedes for us. Friends, what I want you to see in 1 Corinthians is the way of escape is Jesus. If you are in temptation, if you are struggling, plead Jesus. Jesus, help me. That's the way of escape. It's not improving your morals. It's looking to Christ. The last horse, I will not go on very long. The last horse in the Quadriga, this ancient way of looking at scripture, after you look at your family history, literally typologically, and then what's the moral of the story? The last way was the eschatological, which is a fancy word talking about the end of time. Eschaton is the wrapping up, the final things. And a way of looking at it is to say, if you know you have a past that tells you you and I also have a future. And one of the most important things you can do, Christian, is to keep the end in mind. That our lives are storied. There's coming a day that you and I will die and our grandkids will forget who we are. But God will not forget who we are. You are destined to live forever. And one day God will reunite heaven and earth. All those who oppose God will be thrown into a lake of fire, but there will be a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells. And people from every language tribe and nation worship God with physical bodies made new. And the reason we believe this is because Jesus has a physical body made new. He is the down payment of a new world that is coming. And I mean that literally. But I also mean that eschatologically, pointing to the end of all things, that a new world is coming. This is the ground for Christian hope. Our hope is not in what happens in November. If you have hope for November, you should think more clearly about what's happening in November. But even if we had the two greatest candidates of all time, that's still not our hope. Christian hope is looking forward to what God is looking forward to, which is the new heavens and the new earth where righteousness dwells, where the lion and the lamb lay down next to each other. Is there any sense that Paul wants you to think about that in this passage? Well, of course there is, look at verse 11. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction on whom the ends of the ages has come. Did you catch that? Paul says, think about your past, but don't forget the trajectory of your life. And that's one of the things we can learn from our family history, you know? We're like, why are they so, why have you ever read the Bible? And be like, why are they so dumb? You know, they're like literally going to the Promised Land. They just need to chill out, stop worshiping Baal. Don't you know what God has in store for you? You knuckleheads? Or like, have you ever read the story of the Gospels and been like, why don't the apostles just, you know, like believe Jesus? Why are they so like thickheaded? Why? It's because there's nothing that's not common to all people, we're all thickheaded. I mean, if you could really see the trajectory of your eternity, you really believe that you would live with God forever. Don't you think that would change why you live your life today? If you don't, you haven't thought about eternity long enough. You are destined for eternity that shapes the way you live today. Paul says that was written for your instruction and we are those who the ends of the ages have come. We are in the final days. God is gearing up for that new world. Friends, how do your ancestors show up? How do your ancestors show up? When I think about being a Christian, I remember that my ultimate family is not my biological family at whom. It's the church. And when I read the Old Testament and when I read the New Testament, I'm reading my family history. And I hope you read it that same way. I hope you read it literally. I hope you read it as pointing to Jesus. I hope you let it shape your moral life. And I hope the Bible reminds you that you are destined for an eternity. And that matters and that changes how you live today. So let me just finish up with this encouragement, thinking about our family. This comes from the book of Hebrews, which is full of typology, by the way. Therefore, since you and I are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which cling so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and the perfector of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Christian, one day you will see that throne. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your holy in an air word. Father, we thank you that it challenges us to understand how we see ourselves, how we see our family, how we see our lives. And Father, we ask in Jesus' name that more and more and that we would understand your word. Lord, that just as you opened up the eyes of those disciples on the road to Emmaus, showing them yourself in all the law and prophets. Lord, would you give us eyes to see Christ throughout the old and the New Testament? Father, we pray that as we hear these stories or that we would be warned from the sins that cling so closely to us, that are so common. Lord, that we are so tempted to fall into, Lord, preserve us. Lord, we thank you that Jesus is the way of our escape. Lord, that Jesus is our mediator, that he pleads before us now. He's ever interceding for us. And Lord, that our righteousness is not something that we do, but Christ in us. And Father, as we think about eternity, Lord, would you let that sober us? In Lord, we live every day this week differently because we see our lives storied. Lord, we pray for those this morning who are going through difficult times of difficulty. Father, we pray for John Schmidt, Paul Deller, Sean McCoy, Karen Applegate, Bailey Taylor, Clyde and Lorraine Hoffman and Jim Salz. Father, would you give them that eternal perspective in the midst of their suffering? And Lord, would you empower them by your grace to endure everything that they are facing? And God, show your hand of mercy and power in their lives. Lord, this morning we pray for another sister church here in the Rogue Valley. Lord, we lift up to you, the Salvation Army in Medford. And Lord, we thank you and praise you for their work in the poor and in the needy in our community. Lord, for their works of righteousness. And Lord, we know that you are not so unjust as to overlook their deeds done for your glory. And so Father, we pray that you would bless them for the work of their hands. Lord, would the gospel go forth through that church? And Lord, would you continue to show your face upon them? And Lord, lastly this morning we pray for our mission of the month. Lord, we pray for the pregnancy center. And Lord, we pray that more and more they would equip those young mothers and fathers, not to be afraid, but to know that you are the God of life and that you are the God of grace. And so Lord, we pray for courage for those young people with children and Lord, we pray that those lives would enter the land of the living in Jesus' name. Amen. (gentle music) [MUSIC PLAYING]