"Our World Belongs to God - REDEMPTION" by Neil & Virginia Lettinga - March 15 2026

If you were to summarize the whole Old Testament with just 4 people/4 stories in addition to Adam and Eve, what would they be?

In these weeks leading up to Easter, we've been using "Our World Belongs to God: A Contemporary Testamony" as a framework for what leads up to Easter's great celebration.

Two weeks ago we started with Creation.  

8. In the beginning, God—Father, Word, and Spirit— called this world into being out of nothing, and gave it shape and order... and everything was very good.

Last week Mike walked us through the section titled Fall.  

13.  ...our first parents walked with God. 

But rather than living by the Creator’s word of life, 

they listened to the serpent’s lie and fell into sin.

Mike left us with three dark, sad words: Fallen.  Estranged.  Lost.  This is the world we know. This is us.

15. When humans deface God’s image,the whole world suffers:we abuse the creation or idolize it;we are estranged from our Creator,from our neighbor, from our true selves,and from all that God has made.

We are tangled people living in a tangled world.  But the world belongs to God.  That's the theme of "Our World Belongs to God".  Our world belongs to God.  God does not let go or give up. 

This week we have the privilege of helping you look at the next section -- Redemption.

18. While justly angry, God did not turn away from a world bent on destruction but turned to face it in love.  With patience and tender care the Lord set out on the long road of redemption to reclaim the lost as his people and the world as his kingdom.

Notice the lessons about God this highlights:

• God does not turn away.

• He faces the world in love.

• He shows patience and tender care.

AND  He works through a LONG road of redemption.

Redemption is a long road.  A slow process.  

A student friend complained about this, saying "Why does God waste so much time?  Why doesn't he just snap his fingers and make everything right?" I don't actually have a great answer to this.  I often don't understand why God works exactly the way he does.  But I CAN SEE that God works with patience and tender care.  His work of redemption isn't the snap of his fingers.  

God's long, slow work is reflected in the "Our World Belongs to God" summary of the Old Testament.  We wanted to challenge those who are familiar with the Bible to consider how you'd do it.

Q: If you were to summarize the whole of Old Testament Scriptures in just 4 people and their stories (after Adam and Eve), which 4 would you choose?

And now let us ask you a more important question:

Q: What do these characters and their stories teach you about GOD?

(That's Scripture’s point: to teach us about God)

Redemption comes to a great climax with Jesus Christ.  (And Jesus Christ is the focus of next Sunday's teaching.)  But redemption itself is a long road in which God shapes people and teaches us about himself.  God shows himself in Scripture:  in the Old Testament's stories and poetry, laws and human interactions.  (Perhaps you've listened to a Bible Project video or podcast and heard their guiding theme: "The Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus." 

The authors of "Our World Belongs to God" were thinking that, too.  To lay out this unified story, they chose  Noah, Abraham and Moses as individuals, and then mentioned "rulers, teachers, and prophets" in general.  It's not the 4 people I would have chosen...But they are fine choices for focusing on what God teaches about himself.  

20. When evil filled the earth, God judged it with a flood 

but rescued Noah and his family and animals of every kind.He covenanted with all creatures that seasons will continueand that such destruction will not come again until the last day when the Lord returns to make all things new.

Humans fill the earth with evil  -- and fill the long road to redemption with their mistakes and sins.  

But notice what we learn about God: God judges AND He rescues. God promises continuity in the world. He promises to one day return to renew it all. These are promises to give us hope.

With Abraham, God begins to teach through the history of one family.  Notice: God starts with a hopeless case: an elderly, childless couple without

a homeland.  Nothing is too hard for God.

21. The Lord promised to be God to Abraham, Sarah, and their children,

calling them to walk faithfully before him and blessing the nations through them.

Q: But what do we learn about God here? 

What do we see God doing... 

• He makes a promise: God promises to be their God.

• God gives a call: He calls them to act like his people.

We could make a case that this fits our relationship with God today just as it did centuries ago

• God gives us a promise. 

• And God calls us, like Abraham and his family, "to walk faithfully before him blessing" others...

We won't pretend that Abraham and his family do this particularly well.  They don't, though there are bright spots as well as dark spots in Old Testament history.  But let's not forget to focus on what God shows about himself  through Israel, the people of Abraham's descendants.

"Our World Belongs to God" continues...

God chose Israel to show the glory of his name,

 the power of his love, and the wisdom of his ways.

 The Lord gave them the law through Moses and led them

by rulers and teachers, shaping a people

in whom God is revealed—a light to the nations.

Q: What do you notice here? Did you notice that...

• God is the chooser: He chooses his people

• God means his people to show...

-the glory of his name

-the power of his love

-the wisdom of his ways 

• God provides law and leaders to shape his people into what they should be.  

• God's goal is that his people should be… "a light to the nations" (Micah 6, Isaiah 60)

We could insert ourselves into this picture, couldn't we?  For us, too...

• God is the chooser.  He calls and has chosen you.  You and those sitting around you this day... (Election is the old theological word for this.)

• God means you -- he means us -- to be people who show the glory of his name, 

the power of his love and the wisdom of his ways.  People who shine His light to the nations.

Do you hear a reminder that Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew chapter 5 that "You are the light of the world.  A town built on a hill cannot be hidden."

But it is a long, slow road of redemption. The law can trap us.  It can become a burden instead of a light-giver.  Leaders succeed at times... and fail miserably at others.  In the Old Testament and today.  Some people love God and are largely good.  Many are self-centred, proud and do harm.  That was true among the Old Testament people.  It remains a danger among us today. 

"Our World Belongs to God" summarized it this way:

22. When Israel spurned God's love—

lusting after other gods, trusting in power and wealth,

and hurting the weak—

God scattered them among the nations, 

yet kept a faithful remnant and promised them the Messiah: a prophet to speak good news,

 a king to crush evil and rule the earth with justice,

 a priest to be sacrificed for sinners.

 God promised to forgive their sins and give them a new heart and a new spirit, moving them to walk in his ways.

God's chosen people fail.  They spurn him, they trust the wrong things and hurt others.  So much for them. But notice again what we learn about God through all of this. We see...

• God judges AND he rescues.

• God's plans are not deflected by human failures.

• God gives a promise.  He repeats a promise He already made to Adam and Eve.

• God will provide a Messiah.  A rescuer.  A saviour.

Christians know that this is Jesus! God himself becoming a human to rescue his troubled world. In Jesus, God does what humans are called to do -- but fail.  

• Jesus is the Messiah who shows the glory of God's name, 

• Jesus is the Messiah who is a prophet, a king, and a priest.

• Jesus is the Messiah who speaks good news, crushes evil and rules with justice.

• Jesus is the Messiah who is a priest who makes the final sacrifice and provides forgiveness.

And the Messiah starts something new.  He is the first born of a new creation.  The path of redemption may still be long and slow, but all the same, consider what we learn about God: 

God steps in and changes us to lead us into new creation.  Through Jesus...

• God gives his people new hearts... though they may beat slowly at times.

• God gives his people a new spirit -- His Spirit to move us to walk in his ways.

The Apostle Paul writes that "if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"     (2 Cor 5:17)

And we'll talk more about Christ next week.

But since we've come up to Jesus, we'll point out that it is not merely the Bible Project that sees "the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus."  Jesus himself does, too.  Perhaps you remember the two disciples who were walking to the town of Emmaus on the first Easter day? 

In Luke 24:

¹⁴ They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. ¹⁵ As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; ¹⁶ but they were kept from recognizing him.

¹⁷ He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”

They stood still, their faces downcast. ¹⁸ One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

¹⁹ “What things?” he asked.

They describe to him their dashed hopes, the sorrow of Christ's crucifixion, and the women's crazy story of angels and an empty tomb.  And Jesus says to them, 

²⁵ ... “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶ Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” ²⁷ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

Jesus surprised a pair of sad and confused disciples. And here he behaves like God. He judges them AND he rescues them.  

At this moment, it is a small and tender judgment.  "How foolish you are.  How slow to believe all the prophets have spoken!"

Jesus rescues them by giving them what they need to understand what Scripture teaches about him. Surely, this is a judgement AND a rescue that everyone who knows Jesus has met.  This couple on the Emmaus road loved God and had pinned their hopes on Jesus.  They tell the stranger on the road that: "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people."   

All the same, they didn't recognize Jesus. They missed the major thrust of the Bible.  Doesn't that describe us?  It's like the Emmaus Road is another name for the "Long Road of Redemption."  

We've all been on the road to Emmaus at some point in our lives.  And like the confused couple, we need God himself in Jesus to show us what Scripture says and who He is.   

We need new hearts and his new spirit that shows us how to walk in his ways.  God himself stirs in the words of Scripture.  He stirs in the observations of Bible scholars -- and in the observations of one another at TCC.  God stirs in the shaping of words like those in "Our World Belongs to God".  

No wonder the disciples say to one another after walking with Jesus, "Weren't our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” 

And don't we all long to feel our hearts burning within us as we walk on our roads?

We walk on the long path of redemption under the patient and tender care of the Lord who is determined to "reclaim the lost as his people and the world as his kingdom."  This is good news.  Our world belongs to God!   

So pay attention to the ways that Christ Jesus walks with you on the long road of redemption!

This is the word of the Lord.  

Thanks be to God! Our World Belongs to God!

"If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.”

(2 Cor 5:17-18)