the New Testament if you open up a Bible
to its table of contents you'll see it's
made up of two large collections the Old
and New Testaments the word Testament
refers to a covenant partnership which
is what both of these collections are
all about
they tell one epic and complicated story
of God's covenant partnership with
Israel and all humanity the Old
Testament is called Tanakh in Jewish
tradition it's a unified scroll
collection of 39 Israelite texts that
were over a thousand years in the making
in contrast the 27 books of the New
Testament all came into existence within
30 to 40 years of each other they were
all written by first-generation
followers of Jesus from an early period
Christian communities began collecting
these texts and reading them alongside
the Old Testament as one unified story
that leads to Jesus the New Testament
begins with for narrative books that
together are called the gospel they tell
the story of Jesus of Nazareth's life
death and resurrection as an
announcement of good news there followed
by a fifth narrative work called Acts of
the Apostles here the Risen Jesus
Commission's the Apostles a word that
means the sent ones they're appointed as
jesus's representatives to spread the
good news about him throughout the
ancient world after Acts comes a
collection of letters from the Apostles
these were written to provide teaching
and guidance for local communities of
Jesus's followers called churches there
are 13 letters connected to the Apostle
Paul and they're not arranged in the
order of when they were written but
rather from the longest to the shortest
then there's a letter to the Hebrews
written by a close but unnamed associate
of the Apostles after this are the
letters of James Jude Peter and John -
were brothers of Jesus and - were among
his first followers the last New
Testament book is the revelation a
letter to seven churches that reveals a
prophetic word of challenging comfort to
all of Jesus's followers so those are
the books of the New Testament but what
are they about and how are they connect
with the Old Testament to make up one
unified story think of it this way the
Bible is one long epic narrative with
multiple movements or acts the Old
Testament recounts the first series of
Acts that give you everything you need
to make sense of the story to follow the
core themes and the plot conflict are
arranged in design patterns and then in
the New Testament these are all picked
up and carried forward to the store
his culmination in Jesus let me show you
what I mean the first act is about God
and all humanity God provides a sweet
garden temple for humans who are made to
be God's partners in ruling the world
but the humans are foolish and they give
in to a dark temptation and rebel
against God's wisdom so their exile into
a wilderness where they start killing
each other they build cities that spread
their selfishness and oppression leading
up to the big bad city of Babylon but
God loves the world and it's foolish
humans so he sets in motion a rescue
plan by promising the arrival of a new
human who will destroy the evil that has
lured us into self-destruction the next
act of the biblical story is about God
and Israel and it develops the themes
and patterns of the first act god calls
a new humanity out of Babylon into a
sweet garden land Abraham Sarah and his
descendants the Israelites God promises
that through them divine blessing will
be restored to all of the nations surely
these are the new humans that we're
waiting for but the Israelites repeat
humanity's rebellion against God
building their own violent cities that
lead to self-destruction and another
exile in Babylon but God sustains his
promise that the new human will come
from Abraham's lineage it will be a
priest king who will now have to rescue
both Israel and humanity from Babylon to
restore God's blessing to the world now
notice how these two acts are designed
according to the same pattern the second
act is a longer and more violent version
of the first and together they explore
the tragic human condition but they also
highlight God's promise which is
developed more in the next act the Old
Testament prophets and poets the
prophets accused Israel and all nations
of their evil and they announce that one
day God himself would arrive to bring
the day of the Lord and deliver his
world from Babylon he would do it
through a promised royal priest who's
going to suffer like a slave and die for
the sins of Israel and all humanity but
then he'll be exalted as king over the
nation's
he will call others to leave Babylon and
join the new covenant people who will
partner with God to rule over a New
Jerusalem that is over a new creation
and so the Old Testament concludes by
anticipating a new act in the story and
when you turn to the New Testament it's
the same story now being
carried forward in Jesus let's see how
the four Gospel accounts introduce Jesus
of Nazareth both as the promised son of
Abraham who will restore God's blessing
to the nation's and also as that new
human who will defeat evil and restore
humanity to partnership with God so
Jesus is portrayed as a human and more
he went about announcing the arrival of
God's promised kingdom and he spoke and
acted as if he was Israel's divine king
but instead of calling himself King
Jesus referred to himself as the Son of
man that is the human one who would act
like a servant the Gospels are making
the claim that in Jesus Israel's God has
become the faithful Israelite
and the true human that we are all made
to be but have failed to be Jesus's
mission was to confront that dark evil
that lurks underneath humanity's evil
luring us into selfishness violence and
death but how do you defeat that kind of
evil the surprising answer in the
Gospels is that Jesus overcame our evil
by allowing it to kill him on his
paradoxical throne the cross where Jesus
died for Humanity's evil and sin and
it's where he lived out what he taught
that non-violence forgiveness and self
giving love are the most powerful things
in the universe and because God's love
for his world is stronger than evil or
death Jesus was raised to new life as
the prototype of a new humanity and this
brings us to the story of Acts through
the spirit God empowers Jesus's
followers to spread the life and love of
Jesus out into the world as they invite
people to leave their old humanity and
join Jesus's multi-ethnic family the new
humanity this is where the letters from
the Apostles fit into the story here the
Apostles address early Christian
communities and they show how the good
news about the risen King Jesus changed
history and should reshape every part of
our lives they also explained the good
news by constantly appealing to stories
from the Old Testament and the stories
of Jesus showing us how to see our own
life stories as part of the epic
biblical story so all humanity is
trapped in a babylonian exile but Jesus
came to create a new home we're all
living in different kinds of Egyptian
slavery to selfishness and sin but Jesus
died as the pass
to liberate us into the promised land
our old humanity is bound for the dust
of death but Jesus's resurrection opened
up a new future for a new humanity we
live here in the current evil age but
through Jesus and the spirit a new
creation has burst open here and now and
this leads us to the book of Revelation
where the whole biblical story comes
together in powerful symbolism and
imagery Jesus is portrayed as a
slaughtered bloody lamb who is exalted
as the divine king of the world
he's leading his people out of slavery
in exile in Babylon and as they resist
babylons influence they may have to
suffer alongside their slain leader but
when you follow the risen king not even
death can prevent the dawn of the new
creation which is here depicted as a New
Jerusalem garden temple the true home of
humanity after its long exile and so on
the Bible's last page heaven and earth
are reunited and the new humans take up
their appointed tasks from the Bible's
first page to rule the world together in
the love and power of God the New
Testament is a remarkable collection of
documents they represent the testimony
of the Apostles that points us to the
Risen Jesus himself and through God's
Spirit these human words have been
speaking a divine word of hope from the
first century to the 21st
each book shows how God through Jesus
and the Spirit is leading our world to
its ultimate goal in a renewed creation
and so the story's end is really the
beginning of a new story that is yet to
be told and that's what the New
Testament is all about