We've been tracing the theme of the way in the Bible.

It's the road out of slavery, the road through the wilderness, and the road into the land of promise.

This is the Exodus Way.

Now, this was the road that ancient Israel took when they were rescued out of slavery in Egypt.

But this theme also becomes a way to think about the trajectory of all of human history, how

we're all enslaved to death, and how we all need a deliverer who will lead us out of that

slavery.

And the gospel authors declare that Jesus is that deliverer, and he's leading us out

in a new way.

In fact, this theme of the Exodus Way was so important to the first followers of Jesus that

they named themselves after it.

Why is the Jesus movement called The Way in the Book of Acts, which means haadas, the road.

Today we're going to look at the early Christian movement and how it's connected to the Exodus way.

One important idea in the story of Exodus is how Yahweh God has power over all the false gods of Egypt.

And so, this display of power was also central to the early Jesus movement.

When Yahweh does the Ten Signs and Wonders and delivers his people out of Egypt, that exposes

the gods of Egypt as bankrupt, powerless, subject to the living God. This is a major theme in

the book of Acts, which is confrontations with Greek and Roman gods,

exposing idols as a sham, announcing good news that God's raised up a deliverer, who is the one living

God. That's soaked in Exodus imagery. The story of Exodus is where the word salvation appears for the

first time. This word salvation, it means

rescue. And the early followers of Jesus saw that God's rescue was here. And they called everyone

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