Welcome to Bible Insights with Wayne Conrad. Today's topic, finding our roots. In the past decade, there has been an increased interest in genealogy searches using DNA. Websites such as Ancestry.com and MyHeritage are flourishing. People are curious about where their family lines originated and facts about the past. It's become a pastime to many families. Historical novels, often based on some oral history and imagination, have been produced, such as Alex Haley's Roots in 1976. In PBS, Public Broadcasting Service had a popular series with Henry Louis Gates called Finding Your Roots. Sometimes, such a search can give people a sense of dignity and ego strength to pursue dreams. I've enjoyed knowing more about my own lineage coming from England on my mother's side and my Native American Cherokee ancestry on my father's side. I value my past even while living in the now with a mixed heritage. If people in groups can benefit from an examination of historical origins and the movement and passion of historical development, so may the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. So come with me today for a look at our roots. The Christian faith has its deepest roots in the Old Testament. That is the Hebrew scriptures of the writings of Moses and the Torah along with the prophets and the writings. Abraham is the father of believers as well as a historical founder through Isaac and Jacob of the Hebrew nation, the Jewish people. This sense of continuity was very important in the Old Testament. Not only were their fathers to teach their children the law and the ordinances of God, but they were also to teach them the providential history of the people of the Hebrews. Listen to this liturgy from Deuteronomy chapter 26 of the first fruit offerings. You see the, the offer brings his offering and places it before the priest. And then he responds by saying in the presence of Yahweh, your God, the following words. My father was a wandering Aramaean. He went down to Egypt with a few people and lived there. There he became a great, powerful, and populous nation, but the Egyptians mistreated and afflicted us and forced us to do hard labor. So we called out to Yahweh, the God of our fathers, and Yahweh heard our cry and saw our misery, hardship, and oppression. Then Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand, with an outstretched arm, with terrifying power, and with signs and wonders. He led us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. I have now brought the first of the land's produce that you, Yahweh, have given me. You will then place the container before the Lord your God and bow down to him. Consider the Passover yearly celebration table recital as recorded in Deuteronomy chapter six, verses 20 and following. When your son asked you, this is at the Passover meal, when your son asked you in time to come saying, what did the testimonies, the statutes and the ordinances which Yahweh our God has commanded you mean? Then you will tell your son, We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and Yahweh showed great and awesome signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh and all of his house before our eyes. And he brought us out from there that he might bring us in to give us the land which he swore to our fathers. Yahweh commanded us to do all these statutes to fear Yahweh our God for our good always that he might preserve us alive as we are today. Now Paul references the exodus deliverance and wanderings to the primary Gentile church at Corinth, 1 Corinthians 10. Now I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers, he's speaking about the Jews and Gentiles who believe in Christ, that our fathers were all under this cloud, all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and they all drank the same spiritual drink for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. The point, you see, is that God began his work of redemption with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses in the past. So Christianity was not a totally new thing when he made his appearance in Judea in the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Because what Jesus did as the Messiah and the King of the Kingdom of God, as he brought to completion the covenants of old, and he brought them to their terminus, to their fulfillment in himself, his own life and work. Jesus, the Messiah, was a true Jew of the tribe of Judah, and he embraced fully the biblical faith of the old covenants. Even more, he fulfilled the provisional aspects of that covenant or covenants and established in his own blood the new covenant of God's everlasting grace to his people. As Christians, we are a people of the whole book of God with this progressive climax of God's self-revelation in Christ Jesus as the eternal and ultimate reality. We can justly call Abraham, Moses, and David our forefathers in the faith. We should never forget that Jesus is David's greater son and Lord, as well as the son of God. Our primary route, however, is certainly found in the apostolic witness of the New Testament writings. In the two decades after Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension, we have the testimony of eyewitness disciples in the interpretation of the person, ministry, and saving deeds of Jesus of Nazareth. The true font of God's revelation is found here. This is so crucial because here is the climax of God's revelation. The scriptures of the 27 writings of the New Testament are the infallible word of God. The gospel is written plainly here. But Christians have other historical roots that are very important to us as well. In a day of heavy emphasis on individual religious faith, it's important that we consider the historical faith of our fathers as well. In 1977, the Chicago Call was issued by the National Conference of Evangelicals for Historic Christianity. Part of its call reads, we confess that we've often lost the fullness of our Christian heritage too readily, assuming that the scriptures and the spirit make us independent of the past. In so doing, we become theologically shallow, spiritually weak, blind to the work of God and others. Therefore, we call for recovery of our full Christian heritage. What this group of Christians did was to issue a call for all of us to consider our spiritual and historical roots and to become better Christians for having done so. One place to begin is to recognize our common heritage as Christians and the orthodox faith of the early centuries of the church. In those early years, through controversy, conflict, and pain, the churches produced summaries of the biblical faith about God and the Lord Jesus Christ. These have been passed on to us in the words of the Nicene and Apostles' Creed and the definition of Chalcedon. This is so important for us. We do not follow newly devised and constantly revised Gospels or accounts of the Messiah. Our faith is in the living triune Yahweh of biblical revelation. Our Lord is Jesus Christ the Messiah and none other. He is the way to God, and it was for us humans and for our salvation that he came down from heaven to earth. He was a man among men, yet God in human flesh appearing, two distinct natures, but one person. True biblical Christianity also has its roots in the Reformation of the 16th century, when the gospel was restored after being crusted over with medieval Catholicism. In this great revival of the biblical faith, we recall back to the scriptures. There was a recovery of the gospel of the grace of God. From this heart-burning faith, there flows an urgent drive to proclaim the saving and unmerited grace of Christ. There also flows a continual need for renewal of the church's life of worship and doctrine by conformity to the scriptures. The Reformation was no mistake of history, but the vital breath of God. awakening the church from its stupor to a vibrant faith that transformed all of life. And like the early years in the church, there was controversy and conflict and pain, but crucial restorations in varying degrees among all the different reformers. Various denominations of Christians have roots in the last hundred years. One of those roots that we think of as a contemporary actually dates back to the beginnings of the first church in Jerusalem. As Christians, we have Pentecostal roots in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in power. Our God is no absent, powerless deity. He is the mighty Spirit Lord who makes spiritually dead people come to spiritual life, revitalizes the life of believers, and induces them to function as living members in God's temple. Here's a question for you and for me. As a Christian, are you familiar with your roots? Have you caught the stability and the excitement of being part of God's chosen people? Do you realize that we worship the true and living God in Jesus Christ? Has the grace of God captivated you? Are you submitted to the mighty spirit who can enable you to hold the truth of God in faithfulness and share the truth of Christ Jesus in power? Christian, pay close attention to your roots. This has been Wayne Conrad with Bible Insights. Until next time, the peace of Christ be with you.