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Bible.07: By Living According to Your Word

In all 176 verses in this psalm about God’s Word, one in particular gives us the cure for sin and selfishness: we need to be “living according to your word” (Psalm 119:9).  Great!  But, someone new to Christianity can be overwhelmed by the hundreds of translations out there.  How can they each read differently and still be God’s Word preserved to us through the centuries?

I. Galatians 4:4-5.  After the canon was established, the gospel continued to be spread in Greek that, thanks to Alexander the Great who conquered a few centuries earlier, was a perfect and precise language to preserve God’s Word.  The gospel spread faster by use of the Roman system of roads and preached at synagogues that existed wherever at least ten Jewish families resided.  A few decades after Constantine made Christianity a legal religion and the “masses” were forced to leave paganism to flood the churches, Jerome translated the Greek Scriptures into Latin that would hold dominate for the next 1100 years.  Latin was not very perfect or precise but careful copying by the Masoretes and monks got us to the invention of the printing press in 1455.

II. Acts 12:4.  The greater availability of God’s Word spurred on the Reformation a half century later but also stirred Erasmus to translate the Bible back into Greek.  The problem?  He didn’t have access to the over 5,900 ancient copies of the New Testament that we do today, and so he largely drew from the Latin Vulgate.  His “textus receptus” was the basis for many of the early English translations, including the King James Version (KJV).  It is the filtering of the Greek Word, pascha, through the Latin and the compromises with the pagan masses come into the church that the KJV renders that word ‘Easter’ instead of ‘Passover.’

III. Psalm 119:9-16.  Later translations and the rise of textual criticism relied on better research and bring us ever closer to the originals, of which none still exist.  In 1947, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were written about the time of Christ, confirm this in all the Old Testament books but Esther.  We can be confident, then, that the translation you have in your hand or on your phone will allow you to be “living according to [God’s] word.”

The big question is “will you?”  Most of us have more Bibles and various translations available to us than Erasmus could ever have dreamed of, yet we spend much time in other pursuits rather than studying God’s Word to live it out in our lives.  We must live according to God’s Word so that we can one day live–according to God’s Word.

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No time for you

O Lord, the world rushes on in its small affairs, people with no time for you or for others, no patience to hear the word of truth because they are living a lie.

Keep me from going that way. Make me a crier of good news. Praise to you for showing me eternal glory. Your mercy and sovereignty have brought this gift.

Thank you for the peace of great hope, for living in the moment because we have heaven, for joy in the power of the Scriptures to save.

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Bible.06: As They Do the Other Scriptures

The cross is the dividing line in history.  If the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, then the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.  So, how did we get the 27 books that fill the ‘canon’ or ‘rule of faith’?

I. 2 Peter 3:15-16.  God inspired and preserved the New Testament.  The new covenant was prophesied in Jeremiah 31:31-34 and spoken about by Jesus in Luke 22:20, but what a confusing time the 1st Century must have been for Christians wondering who and what to believe as God’s Word came first orally through various gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 2:13) to its written form (1 Corinthians 14:37).  Peter calls Paul’s letters ‘Scripture’ along with other books at that time.

II. Matthew 13:24-25.  The enemy has always operated by sowing weeds, and so the time of confusion during the 1st Century was no different.  While Christians wondered what was from God and what was not, the enemy sowed perversions (gnosticism), false teachings (Acts 15:1), and heretics like Marcion who declared just the writings of Paul and Luke’s gospel as authoritative.  This, though, caused the church to re-evaluate what books they already considered authoritative and used in their worship services.  The declaration of later church councils on the 27 books we have in the New Testament today did not “give us the Bible” but rather confirmed what Christians had already been using for centuries.

III. 2 Timothy 3:16-17.  We have all we need from that which we know to be ‘Scripture’ as it thoroughly equips us.  God’s divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness “through our knowledge ….”

This means we can study and obey the New Testament.  Let us not be ignorant or unstable, twisting them to our destruction.  Rather, let us let God speak to us about His Son on the cross who rose from the dead.

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Bible.05: That is Written About Me

The starting bid on ebay for a “signed” copy of the Bible was $1,000,000.69.  That’s ridiculous for anyone who knows anything about the Bible–even if Jesus purportedly used a blue Expo marker and dotted the ‘i’ in ‘Christ’ with a heart!

Yet, God in the flesh did appear to two disciples on the way from Jerusalem to Emmaus and “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets” reportedly “explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”  Besides being an incredible Old Testament study that most of us would have loved to be a part of, Jesus here confirms the inspiration and authorship of 39 books and reveals their purpose: Him.

I. Acts 2:16-36.  The Old Testament was the only Bible that 1st Century Christians had, outside of up-to-the-minute revelations through the Holy Spirit, to proclaim and confirm the gospel.  A look at the gospel sermons used in the New Testament shows how deeply they mined this resource.  God inspired and preserved the Old Testament through the centuries.  On stone, clay, leather, and eventually papyrus scrolls and codexes, the recording of God’s Word was commanded and maintained by God’s servants until the time of Ezra who, returning from the Babylonian captivity, organized these writings.  Just before Jesus was born, the Greek translation of the Old Testament (that He most often quoted from), the Septuagint, was written and the Qumran community stored away every book but Esther in clay jars near the Dead Sea.  When these were discovered in 1947, the careful copying of the Masoretes through the centuries would be proved true.

II. Romans 15:4.  So, what’s a New Testament Christian’s relationship with the Old Testament?  Why do we still have Genesis through Malachi attached to our Bibles?  The Old Testament deepens our understanding of the gospel (Hebrews 9:1-15).  Without it, we would not truly know God holiness, man’s sin and separation from God, God’s grace in taking a people and giving them priests, a temple, sacrifices, and laws.  We would not understand God’s plan to redeem sinful man from Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses & Aaron, David, Ezra, and Jesus.  We would not learn from the past (1 Corinthians 10:1-13) and so know better how to live our lives in Christ.

III. Matthew 5:17-18.  The New Testament is a fulfillment of the Old Testament.  An illustration I use is that it was my law when our kids were young that they couldn’t go near the road.  Now that they are grown, they go there all the time but do not break my law.  How?  Safety has always been at the heart of it.  When they were little, they did not know how to be safe near the road, but now they do.  The book of Hebrews compares the covenants and explains how the new is, in every way, better than the old.  Jesus, God in the flesh, fulfills all (Hebrews 8:5-13).

And so, the expression, “the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed,” is true … and it’s all about Jesus (Luke 24:44-49).

 

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Bible.04: But Men Spoke from God

A parent leaves a kid at home with a note that reads “Clean your room!”  The kid respects the parent’s authority and so obeys the command, but if he interprets the note how he wants by stuffing toys out-of-sight in the closet or clean clothing under the bed, is he truly pleasing to his parent?  No, of course not!  Yet, even if we all can agree that God’s Word is authoritative over our lives but interpret it however we would would like, can we be pleasing to God?

I. 2 Peter 1:19-21.  Authority came from the Father to the Son to men inspired to write God’s Word for us to obey.  Just as a cop cannot interpret the law however he wants, we cannot make God’s Word mean whatever we would like it to or best suits our lifestyle.  Rather, we must discover what God intended for us to understand and obey.

II. 1 Corinthians 11:17-29.  Good Bible study techniques must be applied.  Who’s speaking?  To whom is the passage being spoken?  What is the type of literature and language being used?  What testament and book does it appear in?  What’s the general, specific, and historical context?  Is there a clear command?  For an example, take the issue of when to take the Lord’s Supper.  Is there an approved example (Acts 20:7)?  Is there an inference about how often Christians met (1 Corinthians 16:1-2)?

III.  Ephesians 5:19.  We must treat biblical silence as prohibitive rather than permissive.  We can get into much trouble when we say, “God didn’t say we couldn’t ….”  Once we open a door, where does it end?  If I order coffee at a restaurant, I expect the waitress to bring me a mug of black coffee.  If she puts in several packs of sugar and whitens it with cream, I would not be pleased.  Those things are innovations (something new introduced) rather than an expedient (a means to get to the command).  Thus, the mug is an expedient for me to have coffee in the same way that a songbook or pitchpipe would aid us in singing.  An addition of a guitar or choir in worship, however, would be an innovation.

So, to please the parent, the kid should ask himself, “How would mom want me to clean my room?  What would she want me to do with these toys and clean clothes?”  God’s inspired Word, just as the parent’s note, can never mean what it never meant.

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Bible.03: By What Authority

“Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him.  ‘By what authority are you doing these things?’ they asked.  ‘And who gave you this authority?’” Matthew 21:23.  One of my students at a secular college once tried to argue in a paper with the question, “What gives God the right …?”  I told her that if she was going to refute God, she needed to prove that He wasn’t the sovereign Creator who did not have the right to establish His creation how He wanted to.  She chose a different argument.  God has all authority.  After the cross and His resurrection, Jesus said that all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to Him.  With His authority, we who are baptized into Him, are to “go and make disciples … teaching them everything [He has] commanded.”  To know what to teach, the Holy Spirit brought men into all truth and carried them along to record His inspired Word.  For a while, that authority entrusted to us was in spoken and written forms and confirmed by various gifts, but by the end of the 1st Century, we had His completed Word that thoroughly equips us written.  Does His Word have authority over you?

I.  Matthew 21:23-27.  The chief priests and elders believed they were in authority and so demanded from the Son of God in the flesh “by what authority” He was teaching and who gave it to Him.  They knew of course that God, as the sovereign Creator, had all authority but were unwilling to accept that Jesus had authority (Luke 5:20-24).  But, God now speaks to us through His Son (Hebrews 1:1-2).

II.  Hebrews 2:3-4.  What a confusing time the 1st Century must have been before the completed Word of God was written.  Before the cross, Jesus had promised that the Holy Spirit would lead them into all truth (John 14:26), and so through various gifts, God’s Word was spoken (1 Corinthians 14:1-5) and written down (2 Peter 1:19-21) until His authority was revealed (1 Corinthians 13:8-13).

III.  Matthew 28:18-20.  Because of mankind’s sin, the devil claimed to have authority to give Jesus if only He would worship him (Luke 4:5-8), but Jesus took the more difficult road to gaining all authority through the cross.  By His authority, now revealed to us through the completed Word of God that thoroughly equips us (2 Timothy 3:16-17), we are to go and make disciples of all nations.

Our reaction to the question “By what authority?” posed to Jesus should be “By what authority!”

 

 

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Bible.02: Living & Active

“For the word of God is living and active.  Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” Hebrews 4:12.  In a popular movie, The Monster Book of Monsters would try to take a bite from a person if not strapped shut.  This is not what is meant when the Word of God is described as ‘living and active,’ but rather it’s the difference between a doll and a baby.  A mother lets a toddler drag the doll by the foot down the stairs, but is adamant that she treat her newborn brother with great care when gently laying him in her arms.  So is the Bible unique and amazing, having only the appearance of a book with its cover and dead pages.  Its inspiration of God is its breath of life.  More than just an instruction manual for the human existence, God’s word is something we can treasure, study, and live out in our hearts and minds.  As a living seed, once planted there, it grows within us and overflows into the life we live out as Christians.  And, not only good for life, it is also accurate about life in every way, and through God’s Spirit guides us into all truth as it is itself ‘truth.’  Do you live out God’s Word?

The Bible is an amazing book.

I. Luke 8:11-15.  Like a seed, the Bible is living and active, but we must be good soil for it to grow within us.  Jesus is the Word (John 1:1-14).  We are baptized into Him (Galatians 3:26-27), but He also dwells in our hearts by faith (Ephesians 3:16-17).

II. 2 Timothy 3:16-17.  The Bible is inspired by God.  Not of human origin to fail (Acts 5:38-39), it has withstood the test of time because men were carried along by the Holy Spirit to write it (2 Peter 1:20-21).

III. John 17:17.  As it is truth, we would expect the Bible to be accurate.  Though it is not primarily a history or science textbook, unlike myths, it is accurate in details pertaining to history or science.  No “once upon a time in a land long ago” type of language in it, real people and places are described in the Bible (Luke 2:1-4).  Long before any scientists could have such knowledge, the Bible describes the earth being round (Isaiah 40:22), the paths of the sea (Psalm 8:8), and dinosaurs (Job 40:15-24)!

Even if the Bible could somehow be discounted, it still leaves us with the greatest moral and ethical code the world has ever known (John 15:12-14).  It truly is an amazing book.

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Bible.01: Ten Reasons Why the Bible is True

Convincing people that God’s Word is truth must come before they will believe anything you may show them and change their lives because of it.  This is part one of a twelve part series found only on sermonlines.com and heard throughout 2018 at plattsburghchurch.com.

Ten Reasons Why the Bible is True

1 The Bible itself says it is inspired of God and authoritative

a. We shouldn’t claim for the Bible what it doesn’t claim for itself (John 17:17, 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21).

b. Prophecy fulfilled centuries after it was written prove this: compare Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 to the events of the cross or Zechariah 11:12-13 to Matthew 27:3-10.

2 There’s a unity of thought and purpose over 1600 years of writing it (1500 B.C. to 100 A.D.).

a. There are no seeming contradictions that are not easily accounted for.

b. The theme is a loving God’s plan to bring sinful man back into a relationship with Him.

3 There’s a unity of thought and purpose though written by about 40 writers from many different backgrounds: kings, shepherds, fishermen, rich, poor, Jews and non-Jews.

a. The Bible was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic.

b. The writers were from different countries and political situations: Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Israel.

4 Careful copying through the centuries has given us the exact Bible as when it was first written.

a. See the methods of the Masoretes and monks who believed their salvation was at stake!

b. Found in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls, written about 100 B.C. to 100 A.D., prove the preservation of all the Old Testament books (except Esther).

5 Outside sources describe Bible events, places, and people.

a. In 93 A.D., the Jewish historian, Josephus, described Jesus rising from the dead, et. al.

b. Stories of the Genesis flood are preserved in cultures around the world.

c. The Chinese language depicts pre-Babel events in their ‘picture language.’

d. Outside sources are mentioned in Scripture (Joshua 10:12-14, Luke 1:1-4).

6 Archaeology continues to prove Bible events, places, and people(s) over and over.

a. Hazor was indeed burned by the Israelites when they came into the land (Joshua 11:12-13).

b. The temple was destroyed, rebuilt, enlarged, and destroyed again as the Bible states.

7 Man is more confident of the Bible’s accuracy than other ancient works.

a. Over 5,300 ancient Greek copies of the New Testament exist that are within two centuries of the originals.  It is better preserved and authenticated than Caesar, Plato, or Aristotle’s writings.

b. There were more witnesses to the Bible’s events, places, and people than to Shakespeare writing Shakespeare’s works.

8 The Bible was the newspaper of the day with witnesses who were for, neutral, and against Christianity attesting to the validity of the Bible’s events, places, and people.

a. Not even Christianity’s enemies of the 1st Century could explain away Jesus’ miracles or the empty tomb.  If they could have, they would have!

b. Jesus appeared at least ten recorded times over a period of 40 days after He was resurrected.  The largest group was 500 (1 Corinthians 15:5-6) to people who were not expecting to see Him alive.  Mass hallucinations do not happen in this manner.

9 Nature and science prove the Bible over and over.

a. Things tend toward chaos, not the complexity we see either through a microscope, telescope, or with our eyes (Romans 1:18-20).

b. The Bible speaks of the earth being round (Isaiah 40:22), the paths of the sea (Psalm 8:8), and dinosaurs (Job 40-41).

10 Changed lives prove the Bible is true.

a. Compare the apostles in Luke 22:54-62 to Acts 4:18-20.  Most died attesting to the gospel.

b. The changed lives of Christians today from how they were before they obeyed Christ attest to the Bible being true.

 

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When I turn away from the mirror of your Word

God, help me to remember what I have seen when I turn away from my reflection in the mirror of your Word to interact with others. Your grace and your love, incarnated so vividly in Jesus, provide a model for me and show me how I should walk and talk. Help me to live for you, and not to trust only in having talked with you. Hear my cries when I grieve. Turn my heart and my feet toward you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

—Michael Summers

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Gratitude for coherent vision

Thank you, Lord, for a coherent vision of life. Under your guidance, all things make sense. Those things we’ve not figured out yet, we recognize that you understand and in your time will reveal them, even though it be in the final judgment.

So we trust in you.

Thank you, heavenly Father, for the strength to tackle each day and the power to be different, to make a difference in people’s lives.

So we ask for your Spirit.

Thank you, O God, for revealing your will to the little people in the world, who receive it gladly.

So we seek for it humbly.

Thank you, O Revealer of truth, for free and easy access to your living Word, which guides us, instructs us, transforms us, and gives us hope of eternal life.

So we guard it in our innermost being.