The Whole Story

Introduction

Again, good morning. Having been here just what’s coming up on a year, it’s occurred to me there may be things about me you don’t know. And I won’t know you want to know everything. And so I thought I would tell you something about me this morning that you probably don’t know. You probably aren’t aware of the fact that I went to Harvard. I don’t know what to make of that laughter. It’s not a joke. I went to Harvard. Yes, that Harvard. University located in Boston, Massachusetts, a one of the most prestigious post-secondary learning institutions, not just of this country, but of the entire world. And although it’s been decades since I went there. I remember it like it was yesterday. I think it was in March or April.

I know it was spring of the year. My recollection is accurate. I think it was a Tuesday that I went to Harvard and visited the campus.

Simply saying that I went to Harvard wasn’t the whole story quiet. It’s only when you learn that I just went there for one day and walked around the campus that you get really the whole story. And really the true meaning of what occurred. And so this morning I’d like for us to talk about the whole story. And talk about the importance and illustrate, hopefully, the importance of seeing all that the Bible has to say on a particular subject. You see, it’s not enough just to have one line of information. You really need to have the whole story to get the true picture. And we could illustrate that on several subjects on different levels, but obviously the most important would be in regard to salvation. The all-important question, what must I do in order to be saved?

How is that question going to be answered? How is that question going to be addressed? And it must be answered and addressed by really looking at the whole story. Let’s illustrate it with another biblical story. I want you to think about what you know about this one particular biblical account.

1. The Confrontation in the Garden

The night that Jesus is betrayed, Judas is leading that mob who will arrest Jesus and then eventually crucify him. You remember that story from the Gospels? Do you remember that although Jesus, when that mob confronted him and was going to take him away to beat him and put him to death, that although Jesus spoke words of peace, and although Jesus did not resist in any way, but gave in to that murderous mob, that there was a confrontation that took place that night. Do you remember that confrontation? Someone had a weapon. And with that weapon seriously injured somebody else. You remember the story that I’m talking about? I want you to think about what you know about that confrontation. Think about the names. There are two people involved.

One that did the injuring, one that was injured. Think about their names if you can remember their names. Think about the weapon that was used. Think about what part of the body was injured on that person. And then think about what happened to that injury. Did he live the rest of his life scarred? Or did something happen to change and affect that? Do you have that story fairly firmly in mind? That story, the story of the confrontation in the garden, is actually one of the stories that’s recorded in all four of the gospel accounts. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And do you recognize that what you know about that story, the whole story, has to be gleaned from all four of those gospel accounts? If you just read Matthew’s account, you wouldn’t get the whole story.

The same is true of Mark, Luke’s, or John. You have to read all of them to get the story. Let’s look at that. Turn with me, if you will, in your Bibles to Mark chapter 14. We’re going to look at all four of those accounts, and to illustrate how important it is that we look at everything the Bible has to say upon a subject in order to get the whole story. From Mark’s account, what we have on the screen here is what we can learn, the essential parts of that story. In Mark chapter 14, let’s just read one verse. Verse 47 says, and one of those, one of those who stood by, drew his sword, and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.

Well, we learn about that story, don’t we? But there’s something missing. Who drew the sword? Whose ear was injured, which ear was injured, by the way. And maybe what else happened? We don’t learn that from Mark’s account. From Mark’s account, we learn one of those with Jesus drew his sword and cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest. Well, let’s look at Matthew’s account. In Matthew chapter 26, Matthew tells the same story, but gives us some additional information than we’ve found in Mark. Matthew chapter 26. Beginning our reading there in verse 51. Matthew 26, verse 51, and suddenly one of those who were with Jesus struck out, stuck out his hand and drew his sword, struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.

But Jesus said to him, put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you not think that I could pray to my Father and he would provide me with more than twelve legions of angels? Do you see the information that Matthew gives us that Mark didn’t tell us? The statement of Jesus in rebuking Peter’s not found in Mark’s account. We had to go to Matthew’s account to learn that he said, Put away your sword. I could have called more than twelve legions of angels. So as we read more of the story, we get more information. Now let’s look at Luke’s account. In Luke chapter 22.

2. We Had to Read the Whole Story

We find more information. In Luke chapter 22, this time begin reading with me in verse 47. Actually, let’s skip down to start to verse 49. Luke 22, verse 49. When those around him saw what was going to happen, they said to him, Lord, shall we strike with the sword? And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus answered and said, Permit even this. And he touched his ear and healed him. You see, the additional information that’s provided by Luke is we find out which ear was cut off. It’s the right ear. And we find out what happened afterward, that Jesus touched the ear and healed him. We didn’t learn that from Matthew. We didn’t learn that from Mark.

We had to read Luke’s account. Alright, I guess you probably know where I’m going here. Let’s look now at John’s. In John chapter 18. John gives his account of the same incident in John chapter 18.

Let’s look at verse 10. Luke or John 18, verse 10 says, Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear. That servant’s name was Malchus. And so from John’s account, we learn the names of our participants. It was Simon, Peter, the apostle, who drew the sword, and he struck off the right ear of, now we find out, not only the servant of the high priest, but we find his name Malchus. Do you see what point we’re trying to make in looking at all four of those accounts? That we had to read every account in order to get all of the information. That if we just read one of those accounts, you wouldn’t have the whole story.

Now, while it might be okay for us not to have the whole story of the account of this confrontation in the garden. There are subjects that the Bible addresses that it is absolutely essential that we have the whole story. And so let’s think about this confrontation and what we learned and how we arrived at that. In order to get the whole story, we had to read the whole story. You don’t get the whole story by reading part of it. We had to read the whole story, which means we read all of the accounts, not just one or two of them. We had to read all four of the gospel accounts in order to get the whole story. In other words, we had to read everything that God’s word said on that subject in order to get the whole story.

3. Refrigerator Door Theology

Do you see where we’re going? Let’s make the application to the question, what must I do in order to be saved? Based upon that illustration, that really just illustrates something that we already know. That to get the whole story, we have to have the whole story. Based upon that illustration, what should we do to address and answer the question, what must I do in order to be saved? Read the whole story. You know, sometimes in religion, people practice what we might call refrigerator door theology. And what I mean by refrigerator door theology, your refrigerator door may look like our refrigerator door. It’s got stuff stuck on the front of it held by magnets. And sometimes people will do that with a Bible verse. They probably don’t cut up their Bibles.

They’ll probably handwrite or maybe type it out on the computer and print it out. One verse. One verse that means a lot to them or really strikes to the heart of them. And they’ll cut that out and they’ll put that on the refrigerator door. That’s my verse. I like that verse. You know, we do that with refrigerator doors, don’t we? We cut out stuff that we like and we put it up there. When we lived in the Birmingham area, the Birmingham newspaper used to put out with regularity the meanings of names. What your name means. And I think I’ve told you already before, for obvious reasons, I like to point out. And one time they had in the Birmingham News, they said, Do you know what the name Kenneth means?

Kenneth means handsome. Well, I cut that out. And I put that on my refrigerator door. Because I like that. Funny enough, and I’m not making this up, about a month later. The Birmingham News says, Do you know what the name Deedra means? Deedra means sorrow. You know what I did. I cut that out. And put that on the refrigerator door, just by right by handsome. And we do that with the Bible sometimes, don’t we? Oh, there’s a verse. I like that verse. And we pull it out, cut it out, and put it up here. That’s my verse. What do I need in order to be saved? Look on my refrigerator door. I’ve cut the verse out. It’s up there. Well, we’ve illustrated the danger of that, haven’t we?

Because in so doing, it’s like telling somebody I went to Harvard. That’s not the whole story. And so let’s think about what the Bible says. In the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, any discussion of salvation must start here. It starts with what we just sung about, the victory that we have in Jesus, the fact that Jesus died for our sins. There is no salvation, much less a discussion of salvation without this. Without Jesus dying upon the cross. And so the apostle puts it this way in 1 Corinthians 15, beginning in verse 1. Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preach to you, which also you received, and in which you stand, by which you’re also saved. If you hold fast that word which I preach to you, unless you believed it in vain.

For I delivered to you, first of all, that which I also receive, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. And then he was buried. And then he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. There is encapsulated in short form the gospel, the good news. Jesus died for my and your sins. Well, let’s cut that verse out and put it on the refrigerator. How are we saved? And we can point to it. Jesus died for my sins. That’s how I’m saved. But then we must ask the question of the hour. Is that the whole story? Is that everything that the Bible says on the subject? We go to somebody else’s refrigerator, and they may have cut out the importance of hearing the word of God.

In fact, they may have Romans chapter 10 and verse 17 on their refrigerator. You remember what Romans 10, verse 17 says? So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. It’s the word of God and hearing the word of God that needs to be saved. And practicing our refrigerator door theology, someone says, that’s my verse. That’s how I’m saved. But you know somebody has this verse on their refrigerator, John 3, verse 16 tells us what we must do in order to be saved. And so say maybe someone is printed out John 3, verse 16 that says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Believe.

4. Do We See the Fallacy?

That’s how you’ll be saved. We pull that verse out, put it on the refrigerator, and say, That’s how I want to be saved. But again, is that the whole story? Someone else that maybe is a little bit more militant might have Acts chapter 17 on their refrigerator. Acts chapter 17. Verses 30 and 31. Say, truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. Because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. He’s given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead. Well, that verse says we’re commanded to repent. And then yet again we go somewhere else, and someone on their refrigerator may have Romans chapter 10.

That’s their verse. Here’s what the Bible tells me in this place that I need to do to be well pleasing unto God. And we look at Romans chapter 10, they’re right. Here’s something that the Bible tells us that we must do. Romans 10, verse 9, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. And so the one who has Romans 10 verses 9 and 10 on the refrigerator says, No, no, you see, this verse says that you have to confess him in order to be saved. And that’s my verse. That’s what I want to do in order to be saved.

Well, someone else may have Mark chapter 16 as their refrigerator door verse. Mark chapter 16, Jesus very plainly states what was necessary in order to be saved. And sending out his apostles on that great commission, he would give them these instructions. Mark 16, verses 15 and 16, he said, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. And someone points to their refrigerator and says, That’s my verse. That’s what I want to do in order to be saved. Do we see the fallacy of this kind of reasoning? Of pulling out one verse or a couple verses and saying, you see, that verse says this. The story of Peter and Malchus is screaming from the balcony saying, read the whole story.

And so what we really need to do is to get all of those refrigerators and put them side by side.

Or is what we just did with the subject of salvation the same thing we did with the story of that confrontation in the garden. And do we have to take all that God has said on the subject? And to assemble all of those parts together to come to the knowledge of the whole story of what you and I must do in order to be saved.

5. The Whole Counsel of God

This illustrates a couple very important points. Number one is this speaks to the importance of diligent Bible reading and Bible study. That we look at the whole story, that we read the entire story to find out all that God says on a particular subject. And it also illustrates the need to see every component and to make application to our own lives. Is it any wonder the Apostle Paul, in speaking to the Ephesians in some sort of defense of what he had done during his time there, in Acts chapter 20 and verse 27, he would say, I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. If we were to paraphrase what Paul said that he did in Ephesus, we could say it this way.

I told you the whole story.

6. Read the Whole Story of the Book of Acts

Not just part of it, not just what I liked and what I wanted, but I told you everything. And so let’s do that further, just a little bit in the time remaining this morning. Let’s think about conversions. We could go through the book of Acts. Time does not permit us to do this with any great detail, but I encourage you to read the whole story. Read the whole story of the book of Acts. The book of Acts could be subtitled, the Book of conversions, because on almost every page, if not every page, we find somebody responding positively to the preaching of the gospel, that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and arose on the third day. And in those conversions, we see what they did. And when we read the whole story, this is what we see.

We see the preaching of the gospel, the declaration of that good news. We see, as we read in those verses, people believing that. We see people either repenting of it of their sins or at least being told to repent of their sins as a necessary step in order to be saved. We see people confessing their faith in Jesus Christ, as we are commanded to do in Romans chapter 10. We see people being baptized, immersed in water for the remission of their sins, and then we see the end result of that of them being saved from their sins. When we do that, when we take the whole story, here’s what we see. We see on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, that they were told, after being cut to the heart and crying out, what shall we do?

They were told in Acts 2, verses 37 and 38, repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins. Now we’d read that verse and cut it out like we would and put it on a refrigerator and say, that’s the whole story? No. But that’s what they were told to do. The Ethiopian eunuch on his way back home was presented with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he was told that the necessity of belief. He confessed his faith in Jesus Christ, and he said, See, here is water what hinders or prevents me from being baptized. And the story goes on to say they went down into the water and he baptized him. There’s more of the story. Later we see the story of Saul, who we would later know as the Apostle Paul.

We see him baptized. He was told by Ananias who came to him, why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins. Later in the book of Acts, Cornelius, the first Gentile convert, believed the message that Peter presented. He repented according to Acts chapter 11. And he and his household were baptized into the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins. Later in Philippi, the Apostle Paul is preaching to the Philippian jailer.

He is baptized in the same hour of the night, verse 33 says, and they rejoiced that they had been saved from their sins. In that same chapter, we see Lydia also in Philippi being baptized for the remission of her sins. And being faithful to the Lord subsequent to that. And so what’s the point of this chart? The point of this chart is to say, here’s the whole story. We don’t isolate one part of the story to the neglect of the others. We say, as we would say about any subject, particularly any important subject, and what more important subject could we discuss this morning? But we say about this subject like we would say about any other subject, it’s absolutely essential that you get the whole story.

Conclusion

What must I do in order to be saved? A lot of ways, I guess we could answer that question. But I guess since this is on my mind today, if somebody asked me today, what must I do in order to be saved? My first reply would be, get the whole story. Get the whole story. And then we might go through the gospel accounts, or we might go through the book of Acts and say, What were they told? And what did they do? And so the question is to you this morning. Are you a child of God? To ask in a more pointed way, if Christ were to return today, or if you were to die today, what would be your eternal destination? What will you do in order to be saved?

Get the whole story. Believe. Repent. Confess. And to be baptized this morning so that you might be saved. Moral of that story is that it’s possible for a child of God after being saved to sin such that they’re separated again from their father. But we’re told in that story what we must do to come back. Would you come to him this morning, either in return as the prodigal son, or initially coming back to him, doing everything that God has asked of you to do in order to be saved? Can we encourage you to follow and to be obedient to the whole story this morning? If we can help you as you answer the invitation this morning in any way, let it be known right now, as together we stand and as we sing.