AWANA Trek 1.3 - Evidences

LESSON 3 – Evidences / A Kingdom through Covenants

Primary Evidence for God

• There are three proofs for God.
• Conscious – If we had evolved then we wouldn’t have a sense of right and wrong. Right would be murdering the helpless.
• Creation – All things that begin to exist have an explanation, the universe began to exist, therefore God created it.
• Reason – God is greater than anything that can be conceived. To exist is greater than to not exist, therefore God exists. It’s complicated and we won’t spend time on it.
• These arguments won’t work on scoffers who refuse to believe, of which there are many.
• That’s all I have, and all you will need for now. Your book talks about the dead sea scrolls, which you can read on your own. Let’s go back to the subject from week 1, it will be more helpful for you moving forward.

What is the Main Theme of the Bible?

 

• The Kingdom. Acts 28:23 – “And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening.”

   

How has that Kingdom arrived?

• Through the covenants, both old and new.

How the Jews arranged the Scripture

• The books of Moses and the Prophets. This is why Moses and Elijah were on the mount of transfiguration in Matthew 17. The prophet Moses was head and shoulders above the others, prophets, which is why the book of Hebrews is only concerned with showing Christ greater than Moses, because if he can do that, He’s automatically greater than all the other prophets as well.
•   The OT is more or less divided into what God said, and what He did. That’s why the phrase “thus says the Lord” is so prevalent. (For you scholars, I’ll just give you Jer 30:2)
• Sometimes they broken it into the books of Moses, the prophets, and the writings- technical words: Torah, Nevi’im, Ketuvim.
• Their Bibles ended with 2 Chronicles, which left them a hope that they were not abandoned as a people
  
  (spend no more than 1 minute on this section.)

How Christians arranged the Scriptures

• In two halves: Old Covenant, New Covenant. Sinai and the cross stand as THE two places in the Bible. They are at the center.
• The Jews understood their history in three parts, Abraham to David, David to Exile, Exile to Christ. The Christian has a larger view in mind.
• Covenant here more nearly means will, like the document which is what is read when you die. For that reason we have the words Testament. This has the happy effect of pointing us toward the fact that covenants are ushered in by death.

The Story of the Kingdom

• Covenants come at the end of the ‘kindgom.’ They are the primary vehicles for revelation about the mystery of salvation that God has kept hidden.
• Wisdom literature comes at Solomon, the high point of the representative kingdom, it’s designed to show us and teach us how to interact with the rest of the big picture. It makes the lessons personal.

·          

 

This is a couple of helpful chart by Vaughan Roberts, who got the idea from Goldworthy. I mostly emphasized the big picture narrative of a kingdom through covenants, and how the covenants are the primary vehicle of revelation.

Some things to note: this lesson ran a little long, although, not very. I also got a talking to by the directors saying don't do this again, stick closer to the script in the book.
I hate to incur the displeasure of the leaders, but in retrospect giving a short talk on evidences and then doing this groundwork has proven invaluable in getting the kids minds tuned in to the big picture of the Bible.