The Seven Major Themes Of The Bible

The Seven Major Themes of the Bible

Luke 6:17-26

Do preachers repeat themselves? The good ones do! Certainly, Jesus did. A good preacher repeats himself Sunday after Sunday. I’m not talking about telling the same stories repeatedly; nor am talking about using old, worn-out phases that everyone has heard a million times, I’m not talking about being predicably boring from the pulpit. No, no. When I say that pastors ought to repeat themselves over and over, I mean we ought to stick to the great foundational themes of the Bible and repeat them again and again.

Jesus did. Even a casual reader of the New Testament will know when he or she hears our Gospel reading this morning that they have heard this before – wait a minute, this is almost like the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. Even the closing story is the same. Different place, different crowd but many of the same points said in a slightly different way. Jesus repeated himself.

I suggest that there are seven major themes that every Christian preacher ought to hammer home from the pulpit. Not every theme every week but over a year of preaching every theme should be proclaimed. Let me briefly share with you these seven great themes or doctrines of the Bible and see if Jesus picks up on and of them here in Luke 6.

1. The Doctrine of God. One British Oxford professor and philosopher Dr. Michael Reeves has recently pointed out that our generation has great fear of viruses but little fear of God. We have great knowledge of human behaviour but little knowledge of God. We need to grasp anew the God of the Bible Who is Almighty, loving, holy and eternal. This Spirit Being has shown himself to be One God in Three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is the creator of all things, seen and unseen. He is the source of all life not just in the past but right now. Should God choose to stop sustaining our life we would cease to be instantly.

2. The Doctrine of Homo Sapiens as imago dei. Or the Doctrine of Man made in God’s image. One of the problems with our culture is that most of us don’t realize how special we are. Because we have never been taught that humans are created in the image of God, we think we can sleep around like the chimpanzees and steal like racoons. But the truth is God Almighty choose homo sapiens to bear his image. He created us for his glory and pleasure and to represent him. To fellowship with Him. Sadly, we rebelled and lost that awareness of who we are. And so, we fall apart. We are lost. Were confused.

3. The Doctrine of Jesus Christ. What is the greatest miracle in all of history? - an event that defies all the laws of science? I suggest there are two miracles that are far and away greater than all the rest. First of all, the creation of this universe from nothing. We create things but we create from other stuff. God created from nothing.

Scientists can now go back to within a millionth of a second of the Big Bang and explain what was going on but then the laws of physics break down. They do not know what came before that. And that, friends, is where Christian faith and holy mystery come into play.

The second great miracle and mystery is the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. How is it that the eternal, Spirit God, the immutable One who fills all worlds could become a microscopic embryo in Mary’s womb, grow to be a man with all the limitations that implies and still be God? No greater theme ever passed the lips of a preacher than Jesus Christ: His birth, his life, his teachings, his death, his resurrection, his ascension and his Coming Again. Charles Surgeon used to tell his students: whatever text you take for your sermon make a bee line for the cross. And that brings me to the doctrine of Salvation.

4. The Doctrine of Salvation. We need to learn that the human heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. We need to confront what the Bible teaches about evil and suffering. Most people have some idea that the world is a mess. We barely pull out of Afghanistan and we’re getting ready to fight in the Ukraine. Most people secretly admit their lives are a strange mix of good and evil. We have lofty ideals, but we do some terrible things. And most people don’t even want to think about death and what might lurk after that.

How are we to be saved from all this? Most world religions teach that if we do enough good things, we can dig our way out of the mess. Many Christians believe that. We need to learn once more what Jonah learned long ago that Salvation is of the Lord. Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling. By grace we are saved through faith. Good behavior does not earn brownie points with God. There are no Air Miles to heaven. Good Works are important, but they will not get us to heaven. And that brings me to the next great theme of the Bible.