God's Storytellers - Part 3 - Biblical Background

When you look later on, when John the Baptist came— and so we've moved from Old Testament prophets to New Testament prophets— and John the Baptist had this to say: God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony, because of his story. Quoting the words of the prophet Isaiah, John said, "I am a voice shouting in the wilderness, clear the way for the Lord's coming." Now, the people understood this idea of clearing the way for the Lord's coming. What would happen is if a king was coming to visit, they didn't have freeways like we do today going into towns. They just— people walked and maybe rode a donkey, but there was no reason for a path, for a nice road. But when the king was coming, he was coming in a chariot, and so they would clear the way. And a runner would come, or sometimes a herald would come, a year or 2 years even sometimes in advance and say, "This is the king's plan." He's coming to your town X number of weeks or months from now, and the people would start moving the rocks out of the way and making a smooth path for the king's coming. And so when John the Baptist comes and says, "I have come to tell you to clear the way for the Lord's coming," they had this idea of what that meant. They were supposed to be clearing away things, and John the Baptist is shouting it in the wilderness. He's shouting his story. This is what I'm here for, and he's reminding them of Isaiah. And John the Baptist, he's taking his gospel commission very seriously. He's dressed like a prophet. He is a prophet. He's living like a prophet. He's eating like a prophet. He's doing things to draw people's attention to him. He is embodying the scriptures, you could say. A few nights later— actually, I think it was a few weeks later— I was putting the kids to bed again, and evidently that night at the dinner table we'd been talking about, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" And as I was tucking Mikey into bed, he said, I know what I'm gonna do when I grow up, Dad. Really, Mike, what are you gonna do? I'm gonna kill the devil. You're gonna what? He said, yep. And I said, how are you gonna kill the devil? He said, I guess I'll have to get some metal and melt it down and make a sword, and I'll poke him in the tummy. Whoa. I thought to myself, you know, Pastor Dave kicks in. You know, um, Jesus did this for us already. Jesus died on the cross and he paid the full price for us and he has destroyed the devil. But I thought, no way, I want to know why this kid is thinking like this. And so I said, Mikey, out of all the people on the planet, there's 6 billion of them right now and there's been lots more before and lots more will be after, why you? Why are you the one person in the entire history of the planet who's going to kill the devil? And he looked at me like I wasn't getting something, like I had missed something very obvious. And from his pillow, he just looked up at me and he said, "Dad, I am Michael." "Aha!" And you know, when I heard that, I laughed just like you did. And I said, "That is so funny." And then I told him I was proud of him, have a good night's sleep, went out, sitting on the couch again talking to my wife, and I said, "You know, I just found out what the power of story is." The power of prophecy as story. Mikey heard his name in that parable and he saw himself. He said, that's my role. I was, I was reading the scriptures. The scriptures were being told to me as I was going in, as I was coming out. My dad told me Michael's going to kill the devil. I'm Michael. I better start getting ready. And of course he knows now, and he says to me sometimes, "Dad, I wish you wouldn't tell that story anymore." I don't even remember saying it. Well, that's 'cause you were little. But when he thinks about it now, I hope, and when we think about it, and we look at the Bible and we realize that as God's storytellers, we're helping people to identify, we're helping ourselves to identify with who God is. We're helping them to identify with God's mission on this earth. We're helping them to identify with what the Bible's there for. And suddenly, God and the reality of who God is and the reality of what the Bible is and that it really is real becomes very real to people. Why? Because we believe it. And because we tell the story. And because we say, "And I have a role in this story. I'm talked about in the Bible. My name is right there." It says, "These are they who tell the story of Jesus." And I'm telling you right now, that's me. God's end-time people are his storytellers. If you have a look at what Jesus said to the disciples just before he went back to heaven, he said this: I've been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples. Now that go is literally as you are going. It's the same as that old Deuteronomy passage: as you go in, as you come out, as you rise, as you sit down. As you are going, make disciples of all the nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: you are never alone. I am with you always, even to the end of the age. And so Jesus says to his disciples, keep the story alive. I want you, just like my children of Israel used to tell the story to their children, I want you now to recognize that Israel just got bigger.. And you need to start telling the story to people who don't know it because they haven't been told it from childhood. You need to find them and you need to say, "Guess what? God's arms now embrace you because of Christ." And as you are going and as you are impacting people and touching people and talking to people, you need to let them know, "This is for you too. The gospel is yours. The good news is that Jesus, the Messiah, the Savior of Israel, is actually the Savior of all mankind." And as we are going and making disciples and baptizing them, We're teaching them like little children, as if they were our own, to obey all the commands that God has given us. That's the beauty of the gospel. Just before Jesus, literally just before He went to heaven, He said this: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you." What's that Spirit gonna do? When you receive that power, what's gonna happen? "You will be my witnesses." telling people about me everywhere. In your church, throughout New South Wales, in Australia, and to the ends of the earth. You know, that's what Jesus said to the people then. He listed in geographical proportions their world. And if he was standing here right now to you, he would say exactly that. You will be my witnesses, my storytellers, and you will tell people the story of Jesus. Starting in your church, in your homes, throughout New South Wales, in Australia, and it will go to the ends of the earth. This is Jesus' mission for his people, for his end-time people. Yes, we have the three angels' messages, and guess what? It's a fantastic story. Let's start telling it. You know, a bane— a bane is something that just really irritates, the nemesis in a good story. The bane is the thing they can't get at, the thing they can't change, the thing they can't destroy. And the dragon's bane, the bane of the devil, is God's storytellers. Because he can poke us, he can prod us, he can even kill us, but he can't stop the story. And as we tell God's stories, we encourage, promote, continue the kingdom of God in this world so that Jesus is ever closer until one day he will return to his storytellers and to all those who have heard and accepted his story.