Twenty-seven books, written by eight different men, fishermen, a doctor, a tax collector, a rabbi-turned-church-planter, and the half brother of Jesus who didn’t even believe in him until after the resurrection, across fifty years and three continents, without any of them meeting to compare notes. If I told you that somehow adds up to one unified story, you’d think I was exaggerating. I’m not. As we close out our walk through the New Testament and get ready to start Genesis, this episode is a birds-eye flight over everything we’ve covered: the shape of the books, the ground the story covers, and why we’re heading back to the beginning next. The Shape: Four Acts The New Testament moves through four acts: the Gospels, showing four different angles on who Jesus is; Acts, the single book of pure narrative history describing a terrified handful of disciples becoming a movement that crossed the Roman Empire in one generation; the Epistles, twenty-two real letters to real churches with real problems, thirteen of them from Paul alone; and Revelation, the apocalyptic close that tells persecuted churches one thing above all, Christ wins. Paul, the Unlikely Author of Half the New Testament Paul wrote roughly thirteen of the twenty-seven books by himself, meaning half the New Testament came from a man who spent the first part of his life trying to destroy the church before spending the second part building it. The Ground: From Bethlehem to Rome The story starts in Bethlehem, a village so small the prophet Micah had to point it out by name, moves through Galilee, the backwoods fishing region nobody expected much from, and lands in Jerusalem for the trials, the cross, and the empty tomb. After Acts, the map blows wide open as the apostles carry the gospel to Antioch, Cyprus, Galatia, Macedonia, Greece, and Rome, and church tradition carries some of them even further, to India, England, and Spain. Mercy Before Judgment The two threads that stood out to me most as we finished Revelation: every day we’re given is God’s mercy, one more opportunity to come back to Christ before that door closes, and Revelation shows plainly what happens once it does. Why We’re Going Back to Genesis None of what we’ve just walked through makes sense without the Old Testament. The king in Matthew was promised in Isaiah, the suffering servant in Mark was already there, the Lamb in Revelation was pictured on the altar in Leviticus, and the very first covenant was made the night God covered Adam and Eve’s shame. Starting after Labor Day, we head into Genesis, moving story by story instead of chapter by chapter. The New Testament answers two questions: what does God require of us, and what has God done because we can’t meet it. Now we go back to where the answer to both first began to unfold. Jill’s Links https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/ - Find my podcasts, videos, downloads and ways to contact me https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod https://x.com/NorthWoodsJill Email the podcast at NorthwoodsJill@fastmail.com “Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.” Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers. “The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”. Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/ Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software. Free for non-commercial use by individuals or organizations. May be presented before live audiences; may be posted on social media; may be re-distributed. May not be used commercially. May not be modified or included in published works without permission; contact permissions@faithlife.com. Attribute as: “Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software ()”. By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal experiences, faith journey, and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed pastor, theologian, or counselor. Any spiritual reflections, devotional thoughts, or suggestions offered should not be considered a substitute for guidance from your own pastor, faith community, or professional mental health provider. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.
