Isaiah 62:1-64:12 How to read the Bible when you don't like what you're reading: Jesus will crush his enemies

Isaiah 62:1-64:12

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Today I want to take you behind the scenes – a ”making of” – of preparing a sermon. Welcome to my world, at least on Thursday’s and Friday’s. What I do Monday-Wednesday is accounting – be grateful I’m not giving you a behind the scenes on that!

So, when you’ve got a text like Isaiah 62-64 how do you go about preparing to preach it?

The first step in preparing a sermon is to read the text. Not the commentaries. Not the latest article on Facebook to pop up on this topic or this book. But to read the text. Why? Because the text is inspired by God. It is God’s word. And everything else is uninspired. Everything else is corrupted by sin. Only the Bible is written by God for us so that we can know him in all his fullness.

So we start by reading, just like we’ve done.

And then we read it again, more carefully. Look for surprises. Look for questions. Look for big ideas.
That sounds familiar, yes. This is what we do in Bible study! This is in fact how we read any text we want to understand. Especially those written from a different cultural viewpoint, and especially those which disagree with us. The Bible is both of those. It’s written to Ancient Jews. And it often disagrees with us!

Here’s my text.

Here’s some of the surprises and questions.

62:1 Because I love Zion, I will not keep still. Because my heart yearns for Jerusalem, I cannot remain silent. I will not stop praying for her until her righteousness shines like the dawn, and her salvation blazes like a burning torch.

Who’s speaking? Is it Isaiah? Is it Jesus (carrying on from chapter 61)? Is it the Lord, speaking from Heaven?

Whoever it is, He is speaking with great power. And he will not stop until Jerusalem is holy, until Israel is restored, until the people of God are made righteous. It is someone who loves Israel. So, these could very well be Isaiah’s words – but they are also the words of the Servant King, the words of Jesus, the one who fulfilled Isaiah 61 “The Lord has anointed me to preach good news.”
Why? Because there is amazing grace here. Did you notice it? Eg v5 Then God will rejoice over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride. And that’s a surprise, isn’t it? WHY? Why does God love his people? Why does God claim them as his bride.

If you don’t ask that question, you’ll miss it. You’ll miss the glory. You’ll miss the astounding grace. You’ll just go, meh, that’s what God does. Yes it IS what God does – so be astounded, be amazed! That’s why this first part QUESTION is so important. Why will God rejoice over his people? Because they’ve been really good? Because they repented? Because they followed the rules really well? No. Because God has decided to have mercy. Because Jesus announced the day of the Lord’s favour. (61:2) That is now.

So the first surprise is the love of God for his people. The mercy that he has on rebellious people. Today is the day of the Lord’s favour. I fact, turn back to 61:1-2. Remember last week? This is what Jesus quoted in the synagogue (the Jewish church) in his home town: The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is upon me, for the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. 2 He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the LORD’s favour has come,

So, context control! Yes, our first surprise is right – God really does love his people. He really has come to save us.

But the second surprise is the sudden violence in 63:1-6 where the Lord is covered in blood from crushing his enemies. It is a big puzzle, a big surprise, a big question mark – but it is also, we have found one of the BI GIDEAS in theses chapters and the book as a whole: Jesus the warrior.

Read those verses again and feel the weight of them. Let it hit you between the eyes. This is our God. Woah.

63:1-6 Who is this who comes from Edom (one of the enemies of Israel), from the city of Bozrah (the capital of Edom), with his clothing stained red? Who is this in royal robes, marching in his great strength? “It is I, the Lord, announcing your salvation! It is I, the Lord, who has the power to save!” 2 Why are your clothes so red, as if you have been treading out grapes? 3 “I have been treading the winepress alone; no one was there to help me. In my anger I have trampled my enemies as if they were grapes. In my fury I have trampled my foes. Their blood has stained my clothes. 4 For the time has come for me to avenge my people, to ransom them from their oppressors. 5 I was amazed to see that no one intervened to help the oppressed. So I myself stepped in to save them with my strong arm, and my wrath sustained me. 6 I crushed the nations in my anger and made them stagger and fall to the ground, spilling their blood upon the earth.”

Good grief! Is this the God we know and love? Is this God the gentleman? God who is full of love? God who accepts everyone? Who is always fair and just? Is this really gentle Jesus meek and mild?

The difficulty with preaching is this: I have an idea of God in my mind. A way I like to think about God. But in preparing a sermon I cannot preach to you my version of God. I must preach God’s version of God. And in my experience he is always more out of control, wilder, bigger, scarier than my version of him.
And it’s the same for all of us if we want to read the Bible properly and really know God. We must allow the text to change our picture of God.

A big problem is that our idea of God comes not from the Bible but from our culture around us. What does our culture say God should be and shouldn’t be? It affects us more than we know.

How do we deal with a passage like this? It wrecks us because it ruins our idea of God. And our idea of ourselves.

In order for us to be good Bible readers we need to understand our cultural bias. So we don’t read what we want to be there, but read what’s actually there.

So, what does our culture say about God and about us?

Let’s start with ourselves. Because that’s what we’re most interested in. What do we think about ourselves? We are inherently good. Not perfect, but pretty decent. It is outrageous that God does not accept us. Totally unfair that God sends us to hell. Punishment does not fit the crime. We do not think of ourselves as sinners. Sinners are other people, certainly not me.

This is because we don’t understand that God’s standard is perfection. That’s partly what holiness means: absolute perfection. Absolute goodness. But we think that’s unreasonable. Perfection is unreasonable. When Chinese parents drive their children or Russia drive their gymnasts to be perfect we think hey, slow down. So when God says be perfect. Uh-oh.

And of course Hell doesn’t exist. That’s far too unreasonable. Maybe Hitler is there. And a few Islamic State guys. But no-one else. Fire & brimstone seems childish.

Our movies though reveal another side. When Liam Neeson’s daughter in Taken gets kidnapped – he goes all out and murders loads of criminals involved in the sex trade. And we’re all woohoo! Justice.
Or in Avengers when the alien baddies get killed by our heroes. With a nuclear bomb! Oh well they’re aliens.
But we understand the need to be rescued from evil. When there’s evil in the world we want justice.
But note we are always innocent. We’re never the ones doing the evil. Bad news – the Bible says that we’re the evil ones.

Well, that’s what we think about ourselves. The good. The decent. The innocent. I’ve heard many times “I thought I was good, until I started reading the Book”. One of our members said that a few weeks ago! We don’t believe we are sinners, rebels against God.

But what do we believe about God?

God is a kindly old grandfather, who says tut-tut to our sins, but will really let us all in to paradise anyway, because hey, we’re basically good people. Maybe not Hitler though. Maybe he shouldn’t be let in. Anyway, the Bible says “God wants everybody to be saved” so they will be, right? The Bible says it so it must be true.

We don’t believe God is sovereign. I determine my life. I have free will, and that is what makes me human. It is the creed of humanism – har du lyst, har du lov (så lenge det ikke skade andre). Do what you want, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else. And so there is no room for the God of the Bible who is in control of my life.

We also don’t believe in God as judge. I am my own judge. The only opinion that matters is mine. On Thursday at the school concert a young girl was wearing a t-shirt that said “I complete me”.
In the movie Frozen the heroine, Elsa, ends up saving herself. No-one else saved her. She did it. Her own character was what saved her in the end. Our culture says you do not need a rescuer (Jesus) you can save yourself. God cannot judge you, only you can judge yourself.

How does this compare to what we’ve just read?

Couldn’t be further apart! And so our temptation is to make God a bit less holy, a bit less scary, ourselves a bit better, a bit bigger, a bit more like God. Every cult, false religion, has a small God. You can win him over. Do this, do that and he’ll like you. JW’s, Iglesio ni Christo, Islam, Hindism, even atheism although there the “God” is me. Just do these things and you can win God’s favour. The God of the Bible? You cannot win his favour. You cannot impress God. Look at 64:6! We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.

Even the good things we do are worthless – our goodness is like dirty rags. Literally the word there is menstrual cloths – that is pads or tampons. You really think you can impress God with your goodness. I’m a decent guy! Hey look God here’s a load of used tampons – are you impressed. It’s shocking language because it’s mean to shock us, wake us up! It’s meant to blast our cultural bias right away.

Our culture creates a God like ourselves – just slightly bigger. He has a bit more power, but not all-powerful. He’s a bit better than us, but not holy, not blindingly, frighteningly perfect. He demands nothing of us. Unlike the God of the Bible who demands obedience. As Jesus said: if you love me you’ll obey my commands. If you want to follow me pick up your cross – crucify yourselves daily and give up your lives for me. Would our Norwegian “God” ever ask that?!

No wonder we struggle when the Bible says that God is coming as judge – to judge us! That his judgement is that we have fallen short, and belong in hell. And that he’s coming to trample us like grapes in his winepress.

So what do you do as a preacher or indeed just as a reader of the Bible when you come to verses like these? What do you do with 63:1-6?

I know. Just don’t read them. Just don’t read the Bible. Many of us don’t. Or just read the “nice” bits. Or we read the Bible lazily. We read without really thinking about what we read. We read what we want to be there, rather than what’s there.
That’s what we do isn’t it? How many of us here do exactly that?
Examine yourself here. If you don’t read the Bible or you only read the bits you like... is it because you are hanging onto your culture, your false view of God – an idol, rather than the true and living God.

It’s much easier if we don’t read the Bible or just read bit of it, because then we can make God whatever we want him to be. That’s what the Jehovah’s Witnesses do. And the Mormons. And unfortunately, many, many Christians. Including us.

So, those are the puzzles, the surprises, the question marks. Ok. So now that we’ve battled our culture we can see what these verses really tell us. We can get to the big picture. What are some of the big ideas in the passage, and what is its overall message?

62:1-12, the whole chapter, is God’s promise to rescue his people and give them a glorious future. Made righteous, not forsaken, a royal wedding. He will place watchmen on the walls who will cry out day and night to the Lord , praying, until he keeps his promise. He will not forget. HE will redeem, save, rescue his people.

And this is certain. Because he is the sovereign, AWESOME God of the Bible – BIG not small. Because we’ve seen time and time again that when he says something it happens. We know: he will redeem his people. He will rescue his people. If he was not sovereign it would just be wishful thinking. I HOPE I can rescue my people.

See, we like the God can rescue us part, but we don’t like the God is sovereign part – but God’s promises are meaningless, worthless, if he is not sovereign. If we want God’s rescue, if we want to know the future is secure that heaven awaits, that the world will be remade, that Jesus will come back – if we want all of that, we have to accept his sovereignty. Otherwise he has no power to make things happen! But we know he does because of the Old Testament stories. Because of Isaiah. How often do we read “ I, the Lord, have said this”. He wil rescue his people.

And we also know that God will take revenge on his enemies. 63:1-6. Why is this here? Because judgement is the flip side of salvation. There is no salvation without judgement. It is one and the same action. God comes down – you either cry to him for mercy – and he will save you – or stand against him – and he will crush you. Are you one of his people or not.

Again, God is sovereign to judge. Judgement will happen. Again, that’s not something we particularly like. But actually, we should. Because it means that evil will not have the last word. Evil will not overcome. He will have the last word.

I read on Wednesday evening in the newspaper that Islamic State just burned alive 19 Yazidi girls for refusing to be sex slaves. I read another article about two of these women who were kidnapped by IS and what they went through – and the men who are risking their lives to rescue them. That’s just one event, in one small part of the world. Stuff like that is going on everywhere. We live in an evil and ugly world. But evil will not win.

Because God is sovereign. Because God is taking care of them now. No-one escapes. Everybody dies and will stand before the fury of the righteous judge. Light so bright you cannot look at it. Remember Isaiah’s cry when he saw the Lord “I am doomed”. And Isaiah WAS a “good” man. But he was doomed. Filthy rags do not belong in the throne room.

So, application. What do we do with this chapter?

If we read the Bible lazily. If we read with our cultural blinkers on. What will our application be?

Work hard! Impress God. By being a bit better. By choosing to be a nice person. That’s our default “gospel” that we have.

And that’s completely wrong.

Thankfully Isaiah shows us what our reaction should be, what our application should be: a prayer of thanks and asking for mercy.

63:7 to the end of 64 is one long prayer.

I want us particularly to note his reaction to Jesus the warrior God in v7. 7 I will tell of the Lord’s unfailing love. I will praise the Lord for all he has done. I will rejoice in his great goodness to Israel (His chosen people), which he has granted according to his mercy and love. Remember that Isaiah writes this inspired by the Holy Spirit. So He, the Spirit is also teaching us how we are to respond to God’s judgement on his enemies: “I will tell of his unfailing love”.

Isaiah then goes through and remembers all the times God has faithfully rescued his people in the past, even though they rebelled and sinned against him. God of mercy.
And so, because God is merciful to sinners, he is so bold to ask again “Lord, remember us. Lord, save us.” 15 Lord, look down from heaven; look from your holy, glorious home, and see us. Where is the passion and the might you used to show on our behalf? Where are your mercy and compassion now? 16 Surely you are still our Father!

Amen we cry. Lord, you are still our Father because of your great mercy. We do not trust in our own goodness – even our best good works are filthy rags before you the holy, almighty God. We are weak, we are small, we are hard pressed. Is 64 Oh, that you would burst from the heavens and come down! How Himingen and Gaustatoppen would quake in your presence!

Let us cry out to mercy to the Lord, and ask him to help us, remember us. Our God will come in salvation or in judgement. Let us plead with him to come to us in mercy. Let us plead with him for Notodden, for Norway.

Let us stand and pray v5-9 Let us make it our prayer. 5 You welcome those who gladly do good, who follow godly ways. But you have been very angry with us, for we are not godly. We are constant sinners; how can people like us be saved? 6 We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind. 7 Yet no one calls on your name or pleads with you for mercy. Therefore, you have turned away from us and turned us over to our sins. 8 And yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand. 9 Don’t be so angry with us, Lord. Please don’t remember our sins forever. Look at us, we pray, and see that we are all your people.

Who is the Holy Spirit?

Isaiah 55:&-56:8, Genesis 1:1-3, John 14:15-18, John 16:8-11, Acts 2:1-4

Isaiah 55:6 God says “my word…always…accomplishes all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it”

But why? Why is God’s word so powerful? Why, when we speak the gospel of Jesus Christ to people – words which seem so weak and a story which seems so weird and powerless (a guy rose from the dead, yeah right) – why does that change people’s lives? How can the gospel transform somebody? Change them completely?
Why have so many of us here experienced exactly that – these words which transformed our life?
Why is it true that if you go you grow? That the more consistent you are at church and at Bible group and reading the Bible yourself – you really do grow? Why?

Because when we hear the word, read the word of God, the Bible, we’re not just reading a book or hearing ordinary words – we are hearing the Spirit speak. The Spirit of God is speaking when the Bible is read. When you open your Bible, His voice is what you hear. When you share the gospel, He is there in power.

We meet the Spirit right at the beginning of the Bible in Genesis 1:1-3. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

The Hebrew word for Spirit is ruach, also meaning wind or breath. Just as when you speak your words are carried on your breath, He, the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, is literally the breath of God. He is the way God’s words are carried out in to the world.

Note that if there is no breath, there is no words. There is no division between the Spirit and the Word. Without the Spirit the Word is dead. That’s why we pray before we preach, before we read the Bible – we need the Spirit to make the Word alive.

This morning we are celebrating the Holy Spirit. Because today is Pentecost (pinse) – the day the Spirit was poured out on the church and the church was born. He is the reason why the word always accomplishes all God wants it to (Is 55:6)

So we’re going to look at what happened in Acts 2 when the Spirit was poured out on the church.
Then we’re going to listen to Jesus tell us what the Spirit’s role is – what does He do?
And then we’ll bring it back to Isaiah and see how the Spirit’s work at Pentecost and his work today fulfil His words given to Isaiah so many years ago.

1. What happened today?

Acts 2:1 On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. 2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. 3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

Jesus had left them. 40 days he had been with them after his resurrection – but then he rose up into heaven and was gone. They were a small group of about 120 men and women (Acts 1:15). They were hardly the stuff of legends. A small, powerless group, waiting obediently in Jerusalem just as Jesus had commanded.

And then the Spirit moved. The room shook, the wind roared, heavenly fire came down upon their heads and a new power filled them – the very power of God.

So what did they do? Healing? Miracles? Foretelling the future? Have a music show with fog machines and a preacher-man up front slaying people in the Spirit. All that nonsense we associate with the “Spirit” now.

No. They began speaking in other languages – the reversal of Babel where humanity was judged for rebelling against God. Here is hope that one day humanity can be united again – but now under God, instead of against him.
And what were they speaking? About the wonderful things God has done (v11). About the gospel. About Jesus. About the God who keeps his promises to rescue his people. Different tongues, but one message. The mark of the Spirit is not miracles – but people witnessing about Jesus.

And so Peter stands up and proclaims in a loud voice that God is fulfilling his promises in scripture, the promise in Joel that God’s Spirit would be poured out on his people in the last days, the days we now live in, the days of the church. And His Spirit is with us, each one of us, young and old, women and men, without exception.
And he ends with these words – Peter, Peter who was always saying the wrong things at the wrong time, now empowered by the Spirit:
Ac 2:32–36 “God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this. 33 Now he is exalted to the place of highest honour in heaven, at God’s right hand. And the Father, as he had promised, gave him the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us, just as you see and hear today. … 36 “So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!”

Before Pentecost there were about 120 believers. The Spirit came down, empowered his people, and THREE THOUSAND responded to Peter’s message. (Acts 2:41). Three thousand saved in one day.

That is the power of the Spirit. And He is here today, this morning at work in this church. As we share the gospel at work, at home, wherever, whoever - He is with us. So let us not be afraid, but be bold to speak about Jesus. For we are not alone.

2. We are not alone. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, is with us

John 14:15–18 “If you love me, obey my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate (representative), who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. 18 No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you.

This is Jesus’ last night with his disciples before his betrayal, trial, and death by crucifixion. He is speaking plainly to them, preparing them for what will happen to them, and to the church after them. So what does Jesus say will happen?

Firstly, v16, Jesus, having become human, must return to heaven in order to be with his people. He cannot be everywhere at once, but his Spirit can. So Jesus returns to heaven and the Father sends the Spirit. And the Spirit will never leave us. Hurray for Ascension Day!

Secondly, the Spirit lives in us. V17 But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. That “later” was at Pentecost, when the Spirit entered in to the disciples in a visible way. And that is the experience of every Christian – the Spirit moves in, makes His home in our hearts. That’s why we start to change from the inside out. We can’t sin properly anymore! Because we’re under new management. The Spirit is at work.

Thirdly, to have the Spirit is to have Jesus. Note v18 “I will not abandon you… I will come to you” Jesus and the Spirit are one. One God in three Persons. The Father is fully God, Jesus is fully God, the Spirit is fully God. To have one is to have all. And we have the Spirit. We have the very power of God in us.

Jesus was leaving – but we are not left alone. His Spirit is with us. Not just alongside us, but in us. He gives us a new heart, new motivations – we are made new from the inside out.

So brothers, let us remember that next time we feel tempted to sin, or say “I can’t do it”. The Spirit of God is in you and in me.
The same Spirit who empowered the words “let there be light”. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. You can obey God because He is with you and in you.

His word empowers us because the Spirit is with us.
We are not alone.

3. But what will the Spirit do?

When we start talking about the Holy Spirit and his work we often jump to things like healing or prophecy or singing. And we believe in those things in this church. We prophesy in Bible study, we sing here & in Bible study, and we pray regularly for healing. But that’s not what the Holy Spirit’s job is.

No-one can understand the Spirit’s work without carefully considering what JESUS said about the Spirit. His words are in John 16:8-11

8 And when he (the Spirit) comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. 9 The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me. 10 Righteousness is available because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more. 11 Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged.

What is the Spirit’s job? His primary job? To convict the world! He is the power which convicts which means to convince of error or sinfulness – to find a defendant guilty.

And how does he convict? Well notice that His work is focussed on Jesus.
He convicts us of sin. How? In our attitude to Jesus. V9 We refuse to believe in Jesus.
He convicts of God’s righteousness. How? Through Jesus, v10 – because he dies – he goes to the Father.
He convicts of judgement – because v11 the ruler of this world, Satan, is judged, and defeated on the Cross.

The Spirit’s primary role, the main event, is the gospel of Jesus. The Spirit’s role is to glorify Jesus, the Son. Jesus glorifies his Father. And the Father glorifies the Son.

If you want to be filled with the Spirit – tell people about Jesus. When we’re talking about Jesus, the Spirit is there.

So back to Isaiah.

4. Seek the Lord!

What better way to celebrate this Pentecost Day, this pinsedag than to Is:55:8 Seek the LORD while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near. 7 Let the wicked change their ways and banish the very thought of doing wrong. Let them turn to the LORD that he may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously

Do you hear the Spirit’s words this morning? Do you hear him calling to you? Seek the Lord while he can be found. He will forgive generously. We know. We’ve seen the end. We’ve seen the promises fulfilled. Jesus, on the cross, his death paying for my sin – and yours. His resurrection life defeating death and bringing me eternal life. And offering you eternal life too.

Listen to the words of the Spirit.

Isn’t it an incredible message! Yes it is. This is what God has been saying to his people – I’m, going to do something amazing, something unbelievable. That God himself will come down to earth, become one of us, walk among us, eat with us, laugh with us, cry with us, be one of us – and then suffer for us, die in our place, that we might have life. But that’s not all – for when we accept Christ – when he swaps places with us and takes the punishment of death that our sins deserved – we swap places with him. In perfect relationship with God. So perfect, we are so righteous in God’s sight because of the work of Jesus, that His Spirit can come to live in us. New life flows through us because of what he has done.

8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. 9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

Who could have imagined such mercy? Thank God his thoughts are not like ours! Higher thoughts.

And so His powerful word goes out, changing lives. My life. Your life. Your neighbour’s life. The people you work with. Your children. Your parents. There is no-one beyond the power of God.

10 “The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry. 11 It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.

And so, if we are in Christ, our hope is secure. The Spirit is the deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. He is the first taste of the joy to come. 12 You will live in joy and peace. The mountains and hills will burst into song, and the trees of the field will clap their hands!

The way is open. Foreigners (v3) and eunuchs (v4) (castrated servants) now have hope. They were excluded from worshipping at the Temple. On the outside looking in. But now the way is open. 7 I will bring them to my holy mountain of Jerusalem and will fill them with joy in my house of prayer. I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifices, because my Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations. 8 For the Sovereign LORD, who brings back the outcasts of Israel, says: I will bring others, too, besides my people Israel.”

That promise happened today, 1977 or so years ago. When the floodgates of heaven were opened at the Spirit poured out on His church, and Jews from every nation heard the gospel in their own language. From Jerusalem to Jews, to Judea, to the Samaritans, and then to us Gentiles, foreigners, the Spirit spread His church, and is still doing so today – in China, in Iran, even in North Korea – and yes, even here in Notodden, Norway. He is at work, brothers and sisters. At work in us helping us obey Christ. At work in those around us, drawing them to Christ.

So what does this mean for us today? A few points of application to end.

Firstly: Seek the Lord while he may be found. If you don’t yet know him, seek him. Look for him. Listen to the Spirit calling to you. Investigate the evidence for Jesus’ death and resurrection. Keep coming to church and to Bible study. Search for the truth. And then ask the Spirit to show you Jesus.

Secondly: Christian brothers and sisters, let us obey Christ, knowing we have the Spirit of Jesus within us. The same power that raised Christ from the dead. As Jesus said “If you love me, you will obey my commands”.
What commands? Well, let’s consider the three big areas we struggle with because of the society we live in: time, money, and sex (or wallet, willy and watch as my friend Doug calls it).

Money: When we give, it is a sign that we trust the Lord, instead of ourselves, to provide. I am happy that about half the church gives. But concerned that half the church gives. This means that half of us are trusting in ourselves, rather than God, to provide for our needs. How much you give – that is a wisdom issue. But that you give, that we all give, I am very concerned about. We live in a greedy society, and we are greedy people. Giving breaks that hold over us. Ask the Spirit to break that hold in your lives, and make a decision to give regularly and give first – the first thing that goes out when you salary comes in – and you may be very surprised at what happens. The Lord looks after his people.

Sex: I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that every one of us in this room is a sexual sinner, whether in thought or in what we’ve done. God’s view on sex is easy: are you married to the person? Have sex with them. Lots of sex. Are you not married to the person? Do not have sex with them.
So if you’re married but not having sex often, repent. If there’s a medical reason – sort it out as quickly as possible. If there’s relationship issues, sort it out. You have the Spirit. Decide to obey.
And if you’re having sex with someone you’re not married to, repent. That includes looking at pornography. You’re not married to her, so you shouldn’t be watching her having sex. And if you’re living together, get married – it’s a statement that you trust God. And if you’re sleeping around (having sex with lots of people), just stop.
Why? Because if we love Jesus, we will obey his commands. Because we are new people and the Spirit lives within us, and the power of heaven is at our disposal, if we ask.
You do know how you fight sexual temptation? With your hat. Grab your hat and RUN! But seriously we mustn’t get ourselves into situations where we could be tempted. Don’t even go there.

Time. If you go you grow. Simple but true. And I’d simply like to challenge us all to put “church” and “bible study” in the same category we put work. If a friend phones and says “can I come over on Monday morning” you say “no, dude, I’m at work”. But if he says Sunday morning we’re often like sure, I can miss church once. Remember that we are in a battle. We need all the help we can get. We need each other. We need Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. So many of us struggle – even just with money and sex, but also lying, gossip, anger, worry, disobedience, harsh words, bitterness, and so on – and part of the reason we struggle is because we’re not using the weapons God has already given us. This church! Satan shudders every time you walk into church. Because here you hear the Word of God. That powerful word, carried by the Spirit.

So let us obey the Lord, knowing we have his power within us. And let us share the joy that we have, the joy of Jesus, knowing that when we talk about Him, the Spirit is with us and is at work convicting about sin, about judgement, and about salvation.

Real Jesus?

Real Jesus?
How do we know what we know about Jesus?

As many of you know, I grew up in a Christian home. My parents were missionaries. I grew up attending church. So obviously I was a Christian and would be a Christian.

You would think. Come with me to me: age 19. Living in Drammen with my uncle and aunt after a year at Sagavoll folkehøgskole.

Oh, if people asked me I said that I was a Christian. I knew all the right things to say. I was a fairly good boy. Didn’t smoke or drink or have sex. I even read my Bible. Mostly every day. So far, so good. See, that’s conditioning. That’s growing up as a Christian. I knew how to behave. I was, to quote my Dad, “evangelically house-trained”.

But I wasn’t a Christian. A Christian is a Christ-one, one who belongs to Christ. A Jesus person. Because my Christian life was in a box. God in a box. I took him out in the morning, listened to His Word as I read the Bible, prayed to Him – then carefully put Him back in the box for the rest of the day, and ignored Him. I struggled along in the rest of the day with my own problems and issues and sins. To be honest, I was fairly selfish, especially towards my uncle and aunt, and my cousins who were 3 and 1 at the time. God made no impact on my life whatsoever. My life. God. In His box.

Until one day he broke out of the box, much to my surprise! The beginning of autumn 1995 I had an experience that changed my life. Forever. Eternally.

But an experience is just that – an experience. It is something internal to me. There is no evidence of the reality of that experience. I claim to have met with God – how do you know that is true. There are many, many people who claim to have met with God. How do you know what they say is true? Jospeh Smith, founder of the Mormons, and Muhammed, founder of Islam, were just two such men who claim to have met with God. But how do we know?

Experience is not enough. We need evidence. Is there any evidence to back up my experience, or should it be dismissed as a psychological crisis?

Did Jesus really exist? Or is Jesus like Winnie-the-Pooh (Ole Brumm) – a great character that we all love, and has some wise things to say, but isn’t real. Come on.

Let’s investigate. Engage the little grey cells!

Let’s start our journey back through time in AD 325 at the First Church council in Nicea under Roman Emperor Constantine. This was a gathering of bishops and minsters from all across the Roman Empire. Many say it was here they made up Jesus.

1. Theory 1: The Bishops and Constantine made Jesus up in 325AD

From the records we know there were around 300 bishops at the council from all across the Empire, representing about 1800 bishops. These bishops all had lots of congregations under them. This is a HUGE amount of Christians. So the first problem to trouble our little grey cells is: where did all these Christians come from in the first place? If this is where Jesus was made up, where did all the Jesus followers come from?
And if they believed in an ordinary Jesus – and then the council came out and said “no, THIS is the Jesus you must believe in” – how do you think people would react?

In fact, we know how. Because we know that what the council was about. They kept minutes of their decisions. The big argument was “Is Jesus fully God or is he God’s first creation”. The Council said that the Bible teaches that Jesus is God, and that to say otherwise is heresy. And that argument created massive problems in the church for about 300 years afterwards. Can you imagine what completely changing Jesus would have done? Or making up a new religion and then saying “this is your religion”.
But history gives us no evidence for that. No evidence of a church in upheaval.

There is also no evidence that they discussed creating a Bible. The decisions they made included things like “you are not allowed to castrate yourself” – apparently a problem in those days – “young women are not allowed in the house of minister if it looks suspicious” – good rule even today, flee from temptation, and a whole load of other things. None of them were “write a new Bible”

So, if they didn’t do this, what did they do? Oh, maybe they put together the Bible – well, the New Testament – by carefully selecting the stories about Jesus as superman, as God, and leaving out the stories where he was just an ordinary guy. That’s how they twisted thing.

2. Theory 2: The Bishops and Constantine carefully selected the books of the Bible to make the Jesus they wanted in 325AD

Let’s look at the evidence. Hmm. There isn’t any. In fact, the canon of the Bible – that is which books make up the Bible – canon – not cannon BOOM – c a n o n. was not even discussed at the council.

Maybe it was done in secret. And the new Bible came out. We know that Constantine ordered 50 Bibles made in 331AD.

But we still have that problem that no-one made a fuss. Do you think it would work today if we had a big council and said actually, Jesus wasn’t the saviour, but it was Peter who did all the miracles. He was the real power behind the Messiah. How well do you think that would go down? I mean people have been put to death over whether you can baptise babies or not and whether you need to go all the way into the water or just have it sprinkled. Put to death! And this was changing the basis, the foundation of the Christian faith.

The second problem is that we have copies of the New Testament before and after 325AD. And they match. Finding Papyrus Bodmer XIV-XV (P75) wrecked this theory. P75 is from 175AD – 150 years before the Council. And it matches Codex Vaticanus which is dated to 325AD (the year of the Council). And Codex Vaticanus matches what we have in our Bibles today. The same words. The same Jesus. The Jesus of history. Powerful. Able to heal at a word. Full of grace for sinners. Full of judgement for the self-righteous. One who went to the cross to save sinners – and said that he would rise again on the third day. And then did so. That’s the Jesus of the Bible and has always been the Jesus of the Bible.

There is no evidence that the Bishops and Constantine selected the stories to go into the Bible. The core of the Bible (the four gospels and most of Paul’s letters, as well as Revelation) was fixed very early on (around 150AD). A few other letters went in and out over the years as church leaders debated whether they really were historical writings or later additions – until the books we have today were finalised around 380-400AD.

So, the books we have in the Bible were not changed by the bishops and Constantine. But maybe someone changed them between then and now. I mean, that’s 2000 years of copy after copy. Should be pretty easy to change something?

3. Theory 3: The writings were changed between then and now

Well, it would be pretty easy to change something if we didn’t have a ridiculous number of New Testament manuscripts. More than 5600 copies at last count – and we keep discovering more!

If we follow the evidence we find copies of manuscripts going in different directions to different parts of the Roman Empire. Comparing those copies from different branches reveals what the original manuscript contained. If copies from two or three different branches match, then we know what the original said. Likewise, the more copies we have, the more we can isolate any errors and be rid of them.

The evidence that we have for the New Testament writings are ridiculously strong. They are hilariously overbalanced when it comes to historical reliability. Put them in the ring with any other historical source the New Testament stomps it into the ground like a 500lb gorilla versus an ant. Let me give you an example: Julius Caesar we all know of: Rome’s first Emperor and great military leader. We know of him through the writings of Tacitus. In fact, most of what we know about Roman history comes from Tactius. He is the great Roman historian. He wrote around 100AD – 150 years after Julius Caser. Know when the earliest copy of his writings we have comes from? 1100AD. 1000 YEARS after it was written. How many historians think therefore that it is unreliable? None.

The earliest of the New Testament letters were written in 51-55AD – only about 15 years after Jesus death and resurrection. As in most people were still alive who witnessed what happened with Jesus. So very, very close to the actual happenings. Know when the earliest copy we have if New Testament books? If you were listening closely and said Papyrus Bodmer XIV-XV or P75 you’d be wrong by nearly 75 years. Yes! We actually have a piece of physical parchment from 100AD – still within living memory of the Cross. It’s called Papyrus 52 or the John Rylands fragment. It’s a tiny piece of John’s gospel, 9cm x 6cm, which matches what we have today. Historically this is incredible. It’s the historical equivalent of having a high-speed camera clicking away, recording what happened.

Okay, so we’ve followed the evidence all the way to the events of Jesus life. We know that the bishops and Constantine didn’t make things up, they didn’t change the Bible in any way, and they didn’t select the Bible. What we have in the New Testament today is what was written down between AD51 (1 Thessalonians) and AD95 (Revelation).

4. Theory 4: The disciples made it up

Now this is a much cleverer theory. Now you don’t have to explain why there were so many Christians, or why the church existed, or if the New Testament documents were changed. Sounds like a winner.

Let’s investigate. Use the little grey cells. Now for this to happen – for it to be true that the disciples made it up – we need means, motive, and opportunity.
Means: did the disciples have the skill to pull off the greatest con in history?
Motive: what did they personally gain from this?
Opportunity: could they actually pull it off?

It’s like a being investigated for a murder – if any of those are missing, I didn’t do it. I might have the means (a gun), the motive (I hated the person) – but not the opportunity because I was 1000 miles away when it happened. Or I might have been right next to him, and hated him – but I had no gun, no means. Or I had a gun (means), and I stood right next to him (opportunity), but he was my brother whom I loved – no motive.

So let’s engage the little grey cells in this scenario. Did they make it up?

First: means.

We need to understand that we are not in the year 2015, or even the year 1800, or 1000 – we are way back around 40-50 AD. The literary world was very different then. Most people couldn’t read or write. Popular fiction didn’t exist. In fact there were basically two types of literature: factual, and mythical. Mythical was about the gods and their dealings with us in ancient times. But on-one ever wrote myths like facts. The idea was just stupid. Why would you do that? “To entertain” we say. To which the Romans would respond “That’s idiotic! Myths are myths and facts are facts. Only a fool would mix the two.”

And the disciples certainly aren’t writing myths. They are very clear that what they are writing is historical, eye-witness facts. In 1 John 1:1 John writes We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He [Jesus] is the Word of life.

In the gospel of Luke, Luke writes “Many people have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us. 2 They used the eyewitness reports circulating among us from the early disciples. 3 Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write a careful account for you, most honourable Theophilus, 4 so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught.”

CS Lewis was a professor of Mediaeval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, says this: “I have been reading …myths and legends all my life. I know what they are like. And I know none of them are like…these gospel texts…The reader who doesn't see this simply hasn't learned how to read."

This modern way of writing – Harry Potter, da Vinci code, Tom Clancy’s novels - believable stories, with real historical detail mixed in with fiction, made-up stuff, that way of writing hadn’t been invented yet. It was totally unknown. Myths were myths and written like myths. History was history and written like history. No-one would ever, or had even thought of, writing myth like history.

Now it could have happened. Maybe one of the disciples stumbled upon this way of writing and kept it secret. Could have happened. But that’s a massive leap forward. Literature develops like anything else progressively, on the backs of what has come before, like technology. To say the disciples knew this way of writing is like saying the disciples shot Judas with a gun. It’s possible that they developed some kind of basic gun – out of nothing, then never used it again, and it was never heard of again until over a thousand years later. Possible. Not very likely. So “the disciples made it up” fails the means test. They couldn’t do it.

Second: motivation.

Haha, you might think, look how powerful the church is. It’s all about money. Like the Catholic Bishop who spent 14 million euros on his house, or the TV evangelists who preach about God wanting you to be rich – and they get rich, while their listeners get poor.

But you’re reading today’s reality back into history. For the disciples, the gospel of Jesus was a death sentence, not a pathway to riches. All the disciples were either martyred or imprisoned. They were arrested, tried, beaten, left for dead, stoned, mocked, ridiculed, spat at, caused riots, wherever they went. And in many parts of the world, still goes on today. The disciples died for Jesus – would they do that if it were a story they’d made up? Wouldn’t you just say “wait, I made it all up”. They gave their lives because they were convinced that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Saviour – and that to know him is to know Almighty God himself.

So, they didn’t have the skills to write modern fiction, so fail the means test. All they gained was suffering and hardship, so fail the motive test. But what about opportunity? Surely they had the opportunity. I mean they were the ones closest to Jesus, they could have said whatever they wanted.

True. If they were off in the desert somewhere and no-one else is around. If you’re Muhammed off in a cave, or Joseph Smith in a room by yourself. Oh, then you can claim great miracles occur. I can tell you I went up into the mountains and saw a great light and that the angel Gabriel himself stood before me… but you’ve just got to believe me.

That’s what these genius fraudsters, con-artists should have done. Put Jesus doing all these things far away and long ago. But we know the New Testament was written within living memory of the death and resurrection of Jesus. It was written when people were still alive – you could ask them did this happen. And if you’ve read any of the gospels you know that all of Jesus’ ministry happened very publically. His death on the cross was an extremely public event – everyone saw him die. He was dead.
And his resurrection was equally public. The women saw him. His disciples saw him. Two disciples on the road to Emmaus saw him. Then Thomas saw him and touched him. Then he ate breakfast with Peter. Then over 500 people saw him at one time – most who were still alive when those words were written. Go and speak to them.

Our 4^th theory: “the disciples made it up” fails every test. The disciples did not have the means, the motive or the opportunity to fake this.

5. Theory 5: Jesus rose from the dead, and everything he said and did is historical truth.

You know, we don’t even need the gospels to know that Jesus existed. Non-Christian historians and non-Christian writings give evidence that Jesus did exist, that he did die, and that Christians were running around convinced that he rose again from the dead.

Suetonius, Roman historian, in 120AD reports on Jews being expelled from Rome in 49 AD because of rioting about “Chrestus”.

Pliny the Younger in 110AD writes to Emperor Trajan asking if he must continue executing Christians because all they do is worship Christ Jesus "as a god" and promise to do good.

Mara bar Serapion in 70AD warned his son not to persecute wise or good men, like Socrates, Pythagoras, and 'the Jews who killed their wise king.'

In 55AD – very, very early! – Thallos, Roman historian, writes about the darkness during Jesus’ crucifixion.

Josephus, Jewish historian, writing between 60-100AD, writes about Jesus doing miracles, the chief priests taking him to Pilate who condemned him to death – and how instead of stopping Christianity, this seemed to make it grow stronger.

My favourite quote, however comes from Tacitus, the Roman historian, who wasn’t really a fan of Christianity. “Christians derive their name from a man called Christ, who, during the reign of Emperor Tiberius had been executed by sentence of the governor Pontius Pilate. The deadly superstition, thus checked for the moment, broke out afresh not only in Judea (Jerusalem) the first source of the evil, but also in the City of Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world meet and become popular”.

The growth of Christianity was extremely rapid. Like ripples in a pond when you throw a stone, we see that something momentous happened in Jerusalem in around 33-38AD.

History tells us that in Judea, in Palestine, 2000 years ago, there was a man who claimed to be God, and proved it publically with mighty works, a predicted death, and a dramatic resurrection from the dead. Many, many people believed this message very early on – and they could have gone and spoken to eye-witnesses, talked to people who heard Jesus. If it was false, it would have died out. Instead, the church grew massively, not by the sword, like some other religions, but in the face of the sword. Because it’s truth.

These events did not happen off in corner, like in a magic show where you can’t see behind the curtain. But in full view of everybody. This happened. Jesus lived, ministered, died, rose again.

No other theory fits the facts.

So what are you going to do with Jesus?

What are you going to do with Jesus?

Psalm 1: True Happiness

Psalm 1

Imagine if I told you there was a way to be truly happy. A guaranteed method to experience joy!
Do you want to be happy? I do! To be happy, full of joy, at peace. What a delight.

Well, that’s what we find in today’s passage. The path of true happiness.

Happiness is difficult to get, isn’t it? Buying things promises happiness – fast cars, big houses, good food – but they rust or need painting or give us indigestion, and it’s gone. Experiences promise happiness but they disappoint or all too soon they are over.
People, people can make us happy! But they are sinners like us and will let us down - especially if you burden them with the impossible burden of making you happy all the time.

Happiness comes when you’re not looking for it. You cannot demand happiness, buy happiness, force happiness. Because happiness is a by-product of unselfishness. Only when we stop trying to make everything and everyone make us happy does happiness sneak up on us! Why? We were designed to be happy! That’s where our need comes from. It is God-given. The source of our happiness is not found within ourselves but in Him or reflections of Him. God is our happiness.

V1 Oh the joys of those… v2who delight in the law of God. The words translated “joy” in v1 is the word eh-sher, often translated Blessed or happy. In the Hebrew it literally says Blessed, Happy is the man... who delights in the law of God”.
And the “law” of God is Jewish shorthand for the holy Scriptures: the inspired (breathed-out) word of God.

So: you want to be happy? Delight yourself in the word of God!

Now this morning we’re looking at the first “Psalm”. The word Psalm is a Latin translation of the Hebrew “Tehillim” which means “song of praise”. Psalms are songs or poems, yes, but they are more than that: They are inspired songs. Inspired means words that God has breathed out and caused to be written. These are his written words.

Let’s turn to Psalm 1 and find out how we can be happy!

1. Happy is the man who turns away from sin and throws himself into God’s word

Ps 1:1 Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. 2 But they delight in the law of the LORD, meditating on it day and night.

The first key to happiness is… repentance. Repentance: turning away from what is wrong or evil, and turning towards what is good and right.

Do not listen to the wicked, to what they say is true and right. Because out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. So if they are against God, their words, their “wisdom” is anti-God. It pulls us away from God.

Just think about some of the things we’ve been learning recently, and what the world says in contrast.

The Lord says “Love of money is the root of all kinds of evil”. The world says “Love money, money brings happiness”. God says “be generous, all you have is a gift”, the world says “grab all you can, because you only live once. It’s yours! You deserve it!”
Jesus says “Do not worry about anything, what you will eat, what you will wear – seek first the kingdom”. But we seek first our own kingdom, and live in fear, trying to protect ourselves from everything that could go wrong.
Jesus says “Go into all the world and make disciples”. The world says “Faith is private and shouldn’t be shared.”
Jesus says “I am the Way the Truth and the Life. No-one comes to the Father except through me”. The world says “there is no such things as absolute truth – and that’s absolutely true!

The “advice of the wicked” is all around us. It infects us. It’s in the songs that we listen to on the radio, in our movies, books, articles, in our conversation. How do we not fall into just doing what the wicked advise?
By counter-acting it with delighting in the law of God. The more we fill our minds with His words, the less we will be fooled by the words of the world. When we know the genuine, the true, we will not be fooled by the counterfeit, the false.

And the battle starts here – in our minds. Rom 12:2 says Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may know what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
We start by transforming our mind – absorbing the mind of God as we study his thoughts, and we will start to think more like God, seeing his will, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Let me read v1 of Psalm 1 again, Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers.

Do you see the progression there: from following advice, to standing with sinners, to joining in with the mockers. We move from listening to wickedness, to approving of (standing with) wickedness, to joining in with those who mock God with their words or lives or actions.
And it’s easy. None of us ever sets out to sin, do we? But infected by worldly wisdom, we think “that sounds like a good idea – look at them, they look happy” and then in we go. Think about Eve and the forbidden fruit: listened to the advice of the serpent, stood listening to the serpent instead of leaving, and then joined in – mocking God’s word – “you know nothing, God!”.
And we’ve never stopped falling into the same trap as Eve!

If you’re battling with some sin, the first place you need to start is with your mind. You need to replace the lie with Truth. You need to delight in God’s word. If you’re struggling with greed – meditate on 1 Timothy 6. If you’re struggling with sexual temptation, meditate on 1 Corinthians 7. If you’re struggling with revenge or bitterness or anger or hate – read Galatians 5:19-22 The fruits of the Spirit. Or read the praise Psalms and simply rejoice in our great God. If your mind is filled with Him and His glory – everything else seems to fade away.

The first step in the path to happiness is repentance: turning away from what is evil, and turning towards what is good.

I’m sure many of you have heard the parable, supposedly told by an American Indian chief, of the two dogs inside? One dog represents the sinful or worldy man versus the other dog: the Spiritual man. And they are in a battle, a fight to the death. When asked which dog would win, the chief replies “The one I feed the most”.

There is much truth in that, and gets at what these two verses in psalm 1 are saying. Feed your soul, Christian! Delight in the words of God. Fill your mind with Him.

So what do we do with this?
Impossible application from this is to avoid going to church and Bible study, or to be lacklustre about it “I’ll go if I feel like it, I’ll go if nothing better comes up”. And to have an “oh, must I” attitude towards reading the Bible. The impossible application as a Christian is to resist God’s word. To be annoyed when he says no to things that you don’t want to do.

The true application is to delight in God and his word. To be filled with joy when we read his word or hear them preached. To love obeying him. To see that obedience brings life and joy and happiness. To really believe that happiness comes from obeying the Lord.

Possible application: Go to church and bible study. Make it number 1 priority – not the last thing you do, the first thing. No, it’s not a law. But it is weird if you don’t. Set aside time every day to read the Bible and pray. It’s not a law. But it is odd if the Bible says the man of God delights in the law of the Lord and we can’t even be bothered to read it.

So delight in the Lord and in his word. We know him. We love him. He loves us! That is deep joy.

Happy is the man who turns away from sin and throws himself into God’s word.

2. The man who delights in God’s word will prosper

3 They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do. 4 But not the wicked! They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind.

So many of us struggle in our lives. Often we feel like our lives are empty, purposeless. What are we actually here for? Our lives feel like worthless chaff - the bits of the wheat plant that can’t be used and at harvest time is just flung up in the air for the wind to blow away.

Well, if that’s how you’re feeling, maybe it’s because you don’t actually know the Lord? It is warning to you to get right with him.
Or maybe we do know him but we’ve stopped delighting in his word? Maybe we’ve stopped meeting with his people or reading his word – or I know what it says but I’m disobeying?

How often in my life have I felt uneasy, angry, snapping at Debby or the kids (or both) – feeling unsettled, without purpose. And I think “what’s wrong with me?”. And then I think – when was the last time I spent some quality time alone with the Lord? Sat down and read His word, not for a Bible study or a sermon, but just sat down with Him and prayed and listened to Him.

Because when we delight in His Word we are rooted. Life flows through us. Like a tree planted by a riverbank we give out life. We draw from His deep reserves of joy and generosity and truth and love. And we start to reflect Him.

Isn’t that the type of people we want to be?

Christian and Johanna are a great example of this delighting in God’s word leading to being like a tree planted by streams of living water. As they have put the Lord first, as they have thrown themselves into ministry, as they have made Bible reading and church and Bible study their number one priority, wow, have they grown! And their joy in the Lord radiates out from them, and is shared with us, with their neighbours, with their job colleagues.

Do you want to be like them? Then delight in the word of the Lord.

They’re not the only ones. Many of you have experienced the same thing. Many of you have said that this church has changed your life. And that’s right, that’s what church should do. Because church should be a bunch of people together delighting in God’s word. His word is our life! As Jesus says “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt 4:4 quoting Deut 8:3).

Psalm 119, the biggest Psalm in the Bible, has, in almost every one of its 176 verses, the “word of the Lord”. The word of God is central to the life of God’s people. Our God is a God who speaks!

Much of the weakness, lack of power and error in today’s Christianity can be traced back to one thing – our attitude towards the “law of God” the words spoken by God once for all time. We substitute with music and emotion, with “prophecies” new words from God which are more acceptable to us, or we fill it with ritual and religion – anything to avoid reading and thinking about what God has really said. Or we just go full liberal and completely ignore his word and overturn what he has said.

Much of the weakness, lack of power, and error in our own lives can be traced back to one thing: how we view God’s word written here for us in the Bible. Do I avoid his word in my life?

And just in case you’re thinking but it’s just a book, that God threw a book at us and said read that and then left… no, His Spirit is here with us, and when we open the Bible those words come alive with the Spirit’s power. As we obey blessings flow out. Is that not true? Have we not all experienced that? As we obey, take that scary first step – in that moment we are suddenly aware that the Spirit has been alongside us all the time, and as we obey we see!

Delight in the law of the Lord. Embrace his word. And be not like chaff - blown by the wind – but like a tree of life deeply rooted in Christ’s life-giving waters.

Happy is the man who turns away from sin and throws himself into God’s word. Happy is he, because the man who delights in God’s word will prosper, deeply rooted, full of joy.

3. Happy is the man who knows the Lord, for he will be saved

5 [The wicked] will be condemned at the time of judgment. Sinners will have no place among the godly. 6 For the LORD watches over the path of the godly, but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.

It is a serious business with eternal consequences. The godly, the one who delights in the word of God, and avoids sinning - that person, they are the one who will not be condemned at the time of judgement.

So don’t fail. Because if you fail to delight in the Lord, if you fail to meditate on his word day and night. If you fail to bear fruit every season and prosper in all that you do – you will be condemned. Worthless, like chaff, scattered in the wind. Do not fail!
Sinners will have no place among the godly. The path of the wicked leads to destruction.

Let’s pray.

Almighty God, your word is clear. If we fail to delight in you, we will have no place among the godly. Please Lord, help us not to fail, because we don’t want to go to Hell. Amen

>>> Sit down

But wait a minute! I don’t delight in the Lord day and night. And, unless I’m very much mistaken, you don’t either. My life is not lived in complete obedience to Him. And neither is yours.
And if that’s the case, then we have a problem. Because according to Psalm 1, that means that we are the wicked!

This was a problem the Psalms understood. There is this tension throughout the book between knowing what the man of God should be and do – and the knowledge that, however hard we try we fall short.

A quick search of the book of Psalms for the word transgressions or sins gives 192 verses: and scanning through them we see how the Lord hates sin, the realisation that we sin, and therefore our only hope is confess our sin the Lord Ps32:5 I said “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord” – and amazingly the Lord has mercy. 32:5 continues And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.

Now to the Psalmists this was a mystery. How could God forgive those who continually fall short? How could God bless those who did not delight in the law of the Lord? How could he treat us, the wicked, as if we were the righteous?

I want you now to read Psalm 1 again. This time recognizing that we are the wicked; who then is the righteous one? Who is the Psalmist describing?
....

Who did only what his Father willed? Who brought life wherever he went? Who prospered even amongst his enemies? Whose path did the Lord watch over, even unto death and beyond? Who did not advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers, but instead delighted in the law of the Lord?
Jesus. Jesus is the great hero of Psalm 1. And he is the answer to the Psalmists puzzle: How can God treat the wicked as the righteous?

The answer is through the great swap on the Cross, where Jesus took your wickedness and my wickedness upon himself, and walked the path of destruction, the path to hell that we deserved. And he gave us his perfection, his righteousness, his delight in the Lord. Given to us.

So we can say we are blessed. Blessed beyond belief! We have a new heart, new desires. We suddenly WANT to listen to God’s word. We WANT to be with his people. We WANT to be with Him. Just like Jesus because His Spirit lives within us.

That’s why someone who claims to be a Christian but doesn’t delight in God’s word – disobeys it, ignores it, is never in church or studying the Bible, someone who says “I know, but…” whenever confronted with the word of God – are they really a Christian? If you’re in Christ you become like him.

So if you’ve found yourself drifting away from the Word, being ho-hum about church, trying to ignore God. Whatever the reason: repent, turn around, away from wickedness, and embrace the forgiveness that is your in Christ Jesus.

And then, in joy, remember that His Spirit is within you and start living like it: taking delight in the law of the Lord. Rejoicing that this God whom we serve, this holy, powerful, pure, perfect God – has made a way for people like us to know him and enjoy him forever.

Because the wicked may be destined for destruction, but the forgiven are destined for Eternal Joy. A celebration of our God, a festival of delights, never-ending. That’s what we were built for, and, in Christ, that is our future. Put your roots down into that glorious truth, and spread the joy of knowing God.

Happy is the man who repents, knowing that he is forgiven in Christ, and so delights in the word of the Lord. For he is in Christ, and His Holy Spirit is a river of life in him.

Let’s pray (properly this time!)

Lord, we repent of disregarding your word. Help us to delight in you. Help us to put church and Bible study first, help us to set aside time to be with you each day, help us to obey you in everything, however hard or costly that might be. Thank you for your forgiveness.
Thank you Jesus for not stumbling, for delighting in your Word, and for giving us your Spirit that we may too delight in your Word. Thank you for taking our wickedness, so that we who were chaff can now say “The Lord watches over my path”. Oh how we bless your Name!

1 Timothy 5:16-25 Leading the church

1 Timothy 5:16-25

Today’s passage is all about church leaders.
Who should lead the church?
How should we respond to our leaders?
What do we do when a leader does wrong?
Let’s get straight into it in v17

1. Good church leaders should be respected and paid well

17 Elders who do their work well should be respected and paid well, especially those who work hard at both preaching and teaching. 18 For the Scripture says, “You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain.” And in another place, “Those who work deserve their pay!”

First question is: what’s an “elder”? An elder is the Bible’s word for the church leader – the one responsible for teaching the church the Bible, for praying for the church, and for leading the church by example (that means the elder should be a picture (an example) of how to live as a Christian). In this church we have three elders: myself, Jack, and Christian. We are responsible for leading the church.

And a good elder – that is, one who teaches the Bible, prays, and leads by following Christ – should be listened to, respected, supported – paid well. It is the church’s responsibility to look after their elders.

Let’s spend a bit of time reminding ourselves of what an elder, or church leader is, and what they should be. How should they lead? Where should they lead us? What’s the elder’s job that we should be supporting them to do? Let’s turn back to chapter 3 :

1 Ti 3:1 This is a trustworthy saying: “If someone aspires to be an elder, he desires an honourable position.” 2 So an elder must be a man whose life is above reproach. He must be faithful to his wife. He must exercise self-control, live wisely, and have a good reputation. He must enjoy having guests in his home, and he must be able to teach. 3 He must not be a heavy drinker or be violent. He must be gentle, not quarrelsome, and not love money. 4 He must manage his own family well, having children who respect and obey him. 5 For if a man cannot manage his own household, how can he take care of God’s church? 6 An elder must not be a new believer, because he might become proud, and the devil would cause him to fall. 7 Also, people outside the church must speak well of him so that he will not be disgraced and fall into the devil’s trap.

An elder has authority to shepherd God’s people, through teaching the Word (the Bible) and obeying the Word himself, so that he leads by example. Did you notice that all the requirements of church leadership was “character”. Who you are. And also that nothing in that list is anything more than expected of every Christian? An elder or church leader is someone with a track record of following Christ. They’re a Christian.
An elder is not some kind of super-Christian with “heavenly anointing” or any such nonsense. God does not say that here, does he? He does not say “v2 An elder must be a man who has been filled with Holy Ghost fire” or “who sees visions” or “has a special anointing”. Equally it does not say “v2 An elder must be a man who has completed his Bachelor in Theology”. Because a man who has a degree or a man who appears to have a direct link to the Holy Spirit may not have the character to lead. I’ve met plenty of people who “prophesy” who I wouldn’t have anywhere near the leadership of the church – and I’ve met many with degrees who are so arrogant and full of themselves because they have a degree that they disqualify themselves from leadership!

Let us not be fooled by outward appearances when considering our leaders. Even who we listen to online – because you are putting them in authority over you. What’s their character like? That’s why God, through Paul, commands Timothy (and all of us after Timothy) to 5:22 Never be in a hurry about appointing a church leader. Why? Because v24 Remember, the sins of some people are obvious, leading them to certain judgment. But there are others whose sins will not be revealed until later. 25 In the same way, the good deeds of some people are obvious. And the good deeds done in secret will someday come to light.

Basically, eventually character will out. Over time you will see what type of man that potential leader is. That’s why if you want to be a church leader - well that’s a good thing 3:1 This is a trustworthy saying: “If someone aspires to be an elder, he desires an honourable position. But you will be tested, over time. Your character will be evaluated. We will have to know you – or at least talk with the people who do know you. We’ll chat to your wife – what are you really like at home, in everyday life? Because character will out. And a godly character is the most important requirement of a church leader. Because as you go, the church goes.

People follow what you DO rather than what you say. So you may be a genius in the pulpit, you may be eloquent in speech and able to dazzle people with your charm, you may be up there with Augustine, Calvin and Luther in your theological expertise – but if it’s all up here and not in your heart. If it’s external not internal. If you don’t truly know Christ – your church will be full of bitterness and arrogance and fakery.

By the way, that’s why you’ve got to be really careful with listening to people online. Because you don’t know them. There’s a reason we have a local church. We know each other! We carry each other. We see each others’ struggles. We rub each other up the wrong way and annoy each other – which is a great opportunity to grow more like Jesus and forgive each other. No-one grows in a church of one! You’re never challenged – your sinful, selfish heart is never exposed. But come to church for a bit, and oh yes, you’re challenged!
And loved. And forgiven. And taught. And prodded. And have the joy of serving. And encouraging. Church is fantastic! God’s a genius for creating church.

Pity the elders who have to steer this ship! However, we are not alone. We have the Word of God, and the Spirit of God. The Word teaches us, the Spirit through His Word, drives it home and changes us from the inside out.

If you look at our organisational chart here of our church leadership structure, you can see how it works:

God the Father

Gives all authority in heaven and earth to his Son 

Our Lord Jesus Christ

Who is also head of the Church 

And leads through his 

Holy Spirit

Who speaks powerfully through his Word, the Bible. 

The elders (trainer of ministers)

Teach the Bible faithfully and prayerfully to 

the ministers (congregation)

Who will witness to and serve all people, and the elect will respond. 

An elder’s job is to lead the church, and the primary way he does that is through the Word of God, the Bible. That’s why we emphasise so heavily teaching the Bible in this church. And not teaching you “this is what it says” but actually getting you to read it and unpack it for yourselves. We are not interpreters, standing between you and the Bible, saying “this is what it really means” – and then giving you OUR thoughts. We’re like tour guides, making sure you don’t get lost or miss anything important, saying “keep your eyes on what is in front of you”.

As my friend Justin Mote says “The key to understanding the Bible is reading”. He introduces the two-year church apprenticeship program in the North-west of England with these words “Over these two years we are going to teach you to read”.
Because simply reading the Bible – reading what is there rather than what we think is written or what we want to be written – that takes discipline and hard work.

And that’s why the elder needs to be paid well so that he has time to read the Bible. Because it is so easy for us to twist Scripture to what we want. As I struggle with the text to preach on or teach a Bible study – my struggle is not with the commentaries or with understanding the words. My struggle is with myself. Can I move myself, my prejudices, my framework, my sins, my excuses for my sins, my desire to be popular – whatever it is – can I move that to the side and let God speak. That’s the struggle. And that takes time. Because it’s not just understanding the text and packaging it into a 20 minute talk…40 minute talk. That’s easy. It’s letting the Spirit loose on your heart and mind, turning yourself inside out. Being brutally honest with your own heart so that the Word can be sharp and real and you the congregation can hear the very word of God every Sunday. That’s the real work of the elder. It is unseen, but vital. Without the word, we die. And that’s why we support the elder. That’s why he is worthy of respect and should be paid well. Because it takes time. If he’s preaching regularly he does not have time to work a full-time job and prepare to preach as he should.

And it’s hard work. It is labour. And as v18 For the Scripture says, “You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain.” And in another place, “Those who work deserve their pay!”

The ox quote is from Deuteronomy 25:4 and is the picture of the ox walking back and forth, working hard treading grain – which was separating the grain from the stalk and the chaff. So the ox would walk back and forth, back and forth, and would get hungry... and so would probably start to munch on the grain. Let the ox eat, says God, don’t muzzle it. It deserves payment (food) for the work it does. It deserves to be looked after.
Likewise the human labourer – the worker deserves his pay. Paul is quoting Jesus here, when Jesus sends out the 72 which we’ve just read on Wednesday in the Bible study. It’s in Luke 10:7.

So the elder deserves to be paid. 17 Elders who do their work well should be respected and paid well, especially those who work hard at both preaching and teaching Especially those or perhaps a better translation would be namely or that is. Elders should be respected and paid, that is those who work hard at preaching and teaching (since that is what an elder does).

How much do you pay? Enough! He should not be distracted by worry about providing for his family. But equally not too much that eldership becomes a pathway to riches – because someone who loves money should not be an elder.

So, elders, church leaders, respect them and pay them well. Honour their God-given authority over you. Give generously to support them.

But what happens when an elder goes bad? What happens when they abuse their power? Good church leaders should be respected and paid well, and

2. Bad church leaders should be disciplined

19 Do not listen to an accusation against an elder unless it is confirmed by two or three witnesses. 20 Those who sin should be reprimanded in front of the whole church; this will serve as a strong warning to others. 21 I solemnly command you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus and the highest angels to obey these instructions without taking sides or showing favouritism to anyone.

When I first read those verses I wasn’t sure whether v20 meant the whole church or not. You know – one of you sins so I call you up here... come up here and confess your sins... CONFESS!

In fact this whole section from v17-25 has church leaders, specifically elders, as its focus. And v19-21 is about elders gone bad. See, the Bible is pretty realistic about us, about people. It recognises that elders will sin. It recognises that people might have less than pure motives for accusing elders, and it recognises what effect the elder’s sin can have on the whole church.

Firstly 19 Do not listen to an accusation against an elder unless it is confirmed by two or three witnesses. This again is an Old Testament principle, it’s from the Jewish law courts, and where we in our courts today get a lot of our thinking about evidence and evaluating witnesses. It comes from Dt 19:15–21 “You must not convict anyone of a crime on the testimony of only one witness. The facts of the case must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. 16 “If a malicious witness comes forward and accuses someone of a crime, 17 then both the accuser and accused must appear before the LORD by coming to the priests and judges in office at that time. 18 The judges must investigate the case thoroughly. If the accuser has brought false charges against his fellow Israelite, 19 you must impose on the accuser the sentence he intended for the other person. In this way, you will purge such evil from among you. 20 Then the rest of the people will hear about it and be afraid to do such an evil thing.

A case with only one witness is a weak case. Because we recognise that a single witness can be a liar. We’ve been through a case just recently where the court has taken the evidence of just one witness. Now that’s a bad court! Especially when the rest of the evidence doesn’t match her statements. Not good. So that’s why accusations should not even be heard unless there are further witnesses or confirming evidence - and especially accusations against elders. You don’t have to have been in ministry long before someone accuses you of something, I can tell you!

Why? Because being a church leader means that you will offend people – particularly if you’re a good church leader. Because the gospel is offensive. It is good news, fantastic news – but also offensive news! We are sinners – how dare you! Saved by grace. We cannot save ourselves, only Christ can save us. How dare you! It nails our pride, hits right at the heart of sin.
The heart of sin is selfishness, that desire to do away with God, to be God in my own life. If I believe that I am God – well, I’m certainly not sinner, I haven’t broken God’s laws, my laws, and He’s not angry with me. And if he is, well then I can just bargain with him because I’m also a God, and so I’ll do a few good things and be a nice man and he’ll be ok with that!
No, we are sinners. We have ignored God. We disobey him. We rebel against him. And that can make us angry and so we lash out at the messenger – the man in leadership. Start spreading rumour, saying false things or just being nitpicky and critical.

And you can imagine in Ephesus, Timothy’s church, how some of the false teachers who are told to be quiet or asked to step down as elders; and indeed some of the widows who were removed from the widows list and told to get married and have babies instead of being idle and meddling and making nuisances of themselves in the church – you can imagine some of them wanting revenge. So there must be confirming witnesses, and the whole matter must be judged impartially. Listen to the strong language in v21 I solemnly command you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus and the highest angels to obey these instructions without taking sides or showing favouritism to anyone.

So just because you may dislike someone you cannot condemn them – but equally just because you like someone and know them well does not mean that they’re not guilty. Weigh the evidence, make a decision – and if they have sinned, they must be v20 reprimanded in front of the whole church; this will serve as a strong warning to others.
An elder who sins is serious because his life affects the church. Character matters – as he goes the church goes. So an elder who is habitually sinning and covering up that sin is going to affect the church badly. Scriptures will be twisted or the volume turned down to cover over his sins. People will do what he does – so they will need to be told that the way he was living was false and not to be copied.

Eldership, church leadership, is a public matter – and so the sin needs to be dealt with publically, as it affects all of us. It’s like getting married. One of the worst things I found about getting married is that my sin now affects my wife as well. It’s heartbreaking. And then you have kids. And you see you impatience, your short-temper, your jealously – reflected back in them. Oh no! So too with the church leader.
So because his leadership is public and connected with his character, any serious sin must be dealt with publically as well. It is not for everyone who sins in the church to be hauled up to the front to confess - otherwise we’d be here all day!

Good church leaders should be respected and paid well. Bad church leaders should be disciplined. So…

3. Be careful who you appoint as church leaders

22 Never be in a hurry about appointing a church leader. Do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.

Because character is what matters in church leadership, more than skills or gifting, well, that takes time to evaluate. How do you know what type of man a man is unless you spend time with him: see him in different situations and in different relationships. See how he is with his wife, his children, his friends, at his workplace. Is this a man who follows Christ? There is no rush to appoint a leader. Take the time that is necessary. Because, Paul says, you may end up sharing in their sins. It seems v22 is talking about appointing a bad leader too quickly, and you either get associated with them or you then have to deal with the mess they’ve made! It may also be referring to reappointing the elders who have sinned and been disciplined. They will need to go through a reasonable time of proving themselves. So keep yourself pure.

V23 Don’t drink only water. You ought to drink a little wine for the sake of your stomach because you are sick so often. seems pretty random – although many think that Paul, thinking about Timothy’s purity, remembers that Timothy’s stopped drinking wine, probably to be different to the false teachers who were often drunkards – or maybe there had been some accusation against him. So for whatever reason, to maintain his purity, he’d stopped drinking alcohol. Unfortunately this was in the days before purified water and so water without alcohol would often make you sick. And being sick all the time makes it difficult to lead a church! So Paul says to Timothy - be pure, yes, but in this case I think you’ve taken it a bit far.

And then he rounds off this whole discussion on elders, church leaders with these words:

24 Remember, the sins of some people are obvious, leading them to certain judgment. But there are others whose sins will not be revealed until later. 25 In the same way, the good deeds of some people are obvious. And the good deeds done in secret will someday come to light.

You know, some people can fool you for some time, but eventually the real person will come out. I remember a well-respected lady at a previous church who seemed to be godly- but one day she was put under pressure and this vicious snake appeared, such venom and bile and anger – suddenly her façade of godliness was revealed to be just that: a façade, a fake front covering the sinfulness within.

Others I have known who I have heard terrible things said about them – which as time has gone on have been shown to be completely false. Character will out.

That’s why we can’t as Christians, fake it til we make it. There is only one way to follow Christ: fall before him, cry out “help me Lord, I am a sinner” and allow Him to change you from the inside out.

And your new character will start to shine through in all sorts of surprising ways.

One of the guys in this church said to me “I’m the same, but I just can’t do the bad things I used to do any more. I don’t know why, really”. Ha! There’s the Holy Spirit at work.

Good church leaders should be respected and paid well. Because a good church leader will be spending a great deal of time reading and reading and reading the Word, battling with himself to bring you God’s life-giving word.
Bad church leaders must be disciplined. Elders are sinners like everyone else – and sometimes that sin is serious, and needs to be dealt with publically. Publically, because an elder, a church leader, leads by example.
So be careful who you appoint as leaders! Take time to get to know them, because character matters.

A couple of weeks ago we read 4:16 Keep a close watch on how you live and on your teaching. Stay true to what is right for the sake of your own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you.

So dear friends, pray for you elders. Support your elders. Give generously so we as a church can pay our elders as they need it – and appoint new ones! If we’re going to grow enough to reach only 10% of Notodden – that’s 1200 people, 1200 baby Christians who are going to need a lot of shepherding! Being a church leader is an awesome responsibility! The days are short. The work is vast! See, the fields ripe for the harvest. See, how many need to hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus – and to see that gospel lived out.

The Message of the Bible

Some notes from the Bible Overview from the last two Sundays :

The Message of the Bible

Why Bible overview.

Bible is not like other holy books. Khoran – suras arranged in order of longest to shortest. No narrative between them. Principle of abrogation. Where they contradict, the later abrogates (replaces) the earlier.
But Bible is a single story, told over multiple books, different types of literature, with different authors. But like any good story, it reveals more and more of the “mystery” as Paul calls it on Colossians – the mystery of Christ. So as we read we need to think “where are we” in the overall story the “meta narrative” (biblical theology) of the Bible.

Who is Jesus?

We’re going to start off this Bible overview by looking at the Resurrection.

Now, that might be a strange place to start, but as God says through Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:17-18 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

If Christ was not raised, then the whole pack of cards falls down, and we might as well go home right now.

Of course, if you DO investigate the resurrection, you will discover a wealth of evidence, beyond reasonable doubt, that Christ was raised from the dead. Eyewitness accounts, from hundreds of people, testify to this. And no other theory is plausible. No other theory fits the facts. If Christ was not raised, how did a frightened little band of disciples suddenly stand against the might of the Roman empire, in the midst of persecution and death, and begin a world-wide religion? If he was not raised, why did they die for a lie, when they could have saved themselves? If he was not raised, why was his body not produced by the authorities, or – if stolen by the disciples, another betrayer like Judas?

And how do you explain the mass sightings of Jesus – hallucination?

No, to continue the passage we started:

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

Jesus rose from the dead, as he said he would.

Therefore, he is who he said he is: the Messiah, the King, the Christ, the Holy One of Israel – God incarnate.

Therefore, his words are God’s words, and his actions are God’s actions.

So, what did Jesus have to say about the Bible?

What did Jesus say about the New Testament?

New Testament: Gospels, & letters

John 16:13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

The disciples were empowered to remember the words of Jesus and to teach others those words (the Gospels). They were also empowered to interpret the work of Jesus on the Cross, and the work of the Spirit in the early church, to complete the theological framework which Jesus had outlined (the Epistles).

The Apostles (including Paul, the Apostle “born abnormally” themselves regarded their letters to the churches as inspired by the Spirit).

What they wrote was what the Spirit inspired them to write, which was to glorify Jesus.

The New Testament is about JESUS – his person, his work, his return.

Therefore we ask of the New Testament – what does this teach me about Jesus?

But is the Old Testament different?

What did Jesus say about the Old Testament?

John 5:39 Jesus says to Pharisees: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”

Matt 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Luke 24:25 And <Jesus> said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Therefore it is clear that the Scriptures (Old Testament – the New wasn’t written yet!) are, like the New, ALL ABOUT JESUS! They bear witness about him, he fulfils them, and they are about him.

What does this then mean for the way we read the Old Testament?

What questions do we need to ask?

- What is does this reveal to me about Jesus?

- How does he fulfil this passage?

- How is this passage about Jesus?

But let’s not forget that the Old Testament was written to people before Christ as well, and had meaning and application to them (and not just wait for Christ – although it often was!).

Both the Old and New Testaments are about Jesus - – his person, his work, his return.

Therefore we ask the SAME questions of the Old and New Testaments – what does this teach me about Jesus…..

CASE STUDY: David and Goliath

Let’s apply these questions to the well-known story of David and Goliath (1 Sam 7), and see if it helps us.

Let’s first start with the application to the original hearers:

God always has a rescue plan, often from the most unlikely place imaginable! David is the unknown king, who saves the Israelites, God’s people.

Respond in faith to God’s promises no matter what’s happening!

Apply the other questions:

What does this reveal to me about Jesus?

How does he fulfil this passage?

How is this passage about Jesus?

So the application to us on this side of the Cross is:

David is a type of Christ – he is the unknown King who rescues his people from certain defeat.

God’s unlikely rescue plan is to send his son, the Lord Jesus, to die, and thus defeat the Goliath of death. Jesus is the rejected, unknown King, who saves Christians, God’s people.

Respond in faith to God’s promises in Christ no matter what’s happening!

Bible History

The Bible can basically be divided into the following different types of books:

­ Historical: 5 books of Moses (Genesis to Deuteronomy); Joshua; Judges; Kings; Samuel; in fact, the first 17 books of the Bible from Genesis to Esther, document the history of the Tribe of Israel. [Isaiah and Daniel also have some historical portions]

­ Prophetic: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and all the other smaller books near the back of the OT that we forget about.... (Hosea to Malachi)

­ Poetic: Psalms and Song of Songs (but also have moments of prophecy)

­ Wisdom literature: Ecclesiastes, Proverbs and Job

­ New Testament Historical: Gospels + Acts. Also contain much directly applicable stuff, like the Epistles (such as the words of Jesus - but again we have to look at the context: who was He talking to, why, etc.)

­ Epistles: Letters to Christians written by the apostles. Contains much that is directly applicable. Explains the Gospel more clearly. (Context.... who’s it written to....)

­ Apocalyptic: Revelation, Daniel, Mark 13, Isaiah... (Message: God wins)

He’s not talking to you….!

Q1. How would you summarise the whole Bible story in a sentence?

The unfolding revelation of God’s promise to restore creation through Jesus, the Christ.

Q2. What is the main theme of the Bible?

Salvation from judgement through Jesus, foreshadowed, promised, fulfilled.

Timeline – helpful to summarise using framework of promise to Abraham: people land blessing

Creation: God’s people (Adam & Eve) in God’s place (Eden) under God’s rule (God walked with them and spoke with them).

Fall: God’s people out of God’s place under judgement

Abraham: God’s person, chosen to be under God’s rule, going where God tells him.

From him will come a people (Israelites), land (Canaan), blessing (they will be God’s people)

Moses: God’s chosen people (descendants of Abraham – Israelites), redeemed from slavery in Egypt (Exodus), and then taught how to live under His rule (the Law), and brought to God’s place (Canaan).

David: God’s king foreshadowed (in David) and promised (to David) – this future king will rule as God’s ruler, over all the nations, bringing God’s blessing.

Jesus: Fulfilment: God’s chosen King revealed, who calls out a new people from all nations, saving them and ruling over them by his word and Spirit.

Heaven: Final fulfilment: The King revealed, come to judge, and restore all creation: God’s people (Christians) to live in God’s place (Heaven) in God’s blessing (with God)

CASE STUDY 2

In one sentence: What would have been the application to the original hearers of the passage?

In one sentence: How does this passage relate to Jesus?

• Noah – Genesis 6:17-22.

Original: God does not let sin go unpunished, but he will always provide a rescue from judgement.

Jesus: The Ark is foreshadow of Jesus’ rescue from judgement

• Abraham – Genesis 17:1-22

Original: A promise that they (Israelites) were God’s people, in God’s place (Canaan), under God’s rule (the Law, by faith)

Jesus: It applies to Christians today as well, having been fulfilled by Christ: God’s people (the descendants, now Christians), in God’s place (the land, once Canaan, but actually Heaven), under God’s rule (circumcision of the heart - which is a heart devoted to God and His purposes).

• The Law – Ex 23:16-19 cf Gal 3:24,25,28.

Original: Obey God from a grateful heart because he is merciful to save us and be in a relationship with us, and it is the right expression of our status as His people.

Jesus: The fulfilment of the Law is found in Christ, and now written in our hearts – we are to obey the Law out of gratitude to Christ, and because it is the right expression of our new nature.

• Sacrifice – Lev 5:14-19

Original: Have faith in God’s method of forgiveness.

Jesus: Jesus is perfect sacrifice who empowers all the other sacrifices – have faith in him, who is God’s revealed method of forgiveness

• Hosea – Hosea 2:9-20

Original: Repent and accept the mercy offered.

Jesus: Respond in repentance and rejoicing that God can offer mercy yet still be just because my sins have been paid for on the Cross.

• Temple – 1 Kings 8:3-11

Original: Rejoice that God has chosen to dwell amongst us, and provide a way for us to meet with him in the Temple

Jesus: Rejoice that Jesus came to dwell amongst us, that we can meet with God through Jesus, the True Temple, and rejoice that he, even more amazingly, has made us the Temple by dwelling in us in the person of his Holy Spirit.

Why should we bother to understand the Bible?

Because it is the word of God, our Father, our First Love.

Because it is the words of Christ, about Christ, that will save people from the wrath to come.

Because Jesus is Lord of all of life, and only by submitting to him in all areas of life (money, job, friends, marriage, sex, time, etc.) will we experience true life and ultimate happiness.

Because if we understand the beginning and the middle, we will understand the certainty of the end: the Return of the King.