Jesus the Alpha and Omega of Bible Study - Chapter 2-3

1:06Who does God want interpreting the oracles that He has given? And where do we go to find reliable principles of interpretation? Those are the basic questions. What are the oracles of God? God is very clearly a speaking God. He has made himself known. And so he wants to have a relationship with his people through connecting with them. With his words. So, what are those words? What specifically are the oracles of God? And then, second question: who does he want to interpret them? And three, where do we go to find reliable principles? So, that's where we're questions we're trying to answer, or I'm trying to answer in this book. And by the way, or certainly in this chapter, feel free to raise your hand if you have questions or comments or whatever. These are bigger issues than you might imagine. Sounds very basic, but how you answer these questions stream the religions that are on planet earth today. And so, very important.

2:20The thesis of this chapter is that the incarnate word has shown us how to interpret the written words. The word is a communication. There's the incarnate word. Jesus came, he walked among us, God's communication, God's manifestation of God's communication in bodily form, Jesus. And he's the one who has shown us how to interpret the written words. And so, that's the thesis of chapter two. We can rely upon the incarnate word to teach us how to interpret the written words.

3:02But it's helpful maybe to begin with just a conversation or a thought about unreliable oracles. Unreliable oracles. If you've been around, maybe you've heard me talk about this before, but years ago, went to Greece, and this is a photograph of the temple of Apollo there in Delphi. And to give you a little bit about a little history about this, and this takes you a lot deeper into Greek mythology than you probably have ever cared to go. But it is very important because this is ancient. This goes back into the second millennium BC. Remember, you're talking 1800-ish, right? If we use fuzzy dates, right?

4:02You've got the time of Abraham. You've got 1400-ish. You've got the Exodus. So you've got, and this, the oracles go back as far as that. And so when Balaam comes and seeks. To curse the Israelites. He's coming from this world, this ancient world. And his, this is very, what's happening at the oracle at Apollo's temple in Delphi is, there's knockoff versions of this happening all around, but the Mediterranean world at this time. But to give you an idea of how the oracles of Apollo worked, and just Apollo's one of the Olympian gods, this place, this temple that is built to him, is there in Delphi, and it's close to a spring where apparently Zeus sent two eagles to find the center of the world, and one went east, one went west. They came around, they hit each other, and that's what they call the navel of the world, and that's Delphi. Apollo goes to this place. Now, Apollo's the Greek god with the arrow, bow and arrow. And there's a spring there in its garden. It's guarded by a big dragon or a big serpent. He shoots the dragon. Or serpent with his arrow, and Python is his name, and it means rot, dies, or whatever, rots. Apollo feels bad, and so gets he subjects himself to some human person for seven years to sort of a kind of a penance type deal. And afterwards, he emerges as this god of spiritual light. So, he, in many ways, he's one of the most important of the Greek gods because people sought counsel from him. And so, they would go to the to Delphi, they would pay a sum of money, they would go in this temple, he would it was it had an inner sanctum, and so once you were able to ask your question, and I mean, we're talking kings, we're talking people asking when to go to war, we're talking it's it's a major, this is a major industry, and so once, and it could be when you when you plant your crops and all that kind of stuff, all kinds of questions, they would go and they would ask Apollo. And the way they would ask Apollo is they would ask through the priestess, and the priestess was she was called Epithea, Pythia, one who would go and listen to Apollo. And so, the way it would work, you'd ask a question. She would go into the inner sanctum, sit above, and you can kind of see in the middle of it right here, it's kind of a broken place. There's a spring right there and a fissure where gas, ethylene, they think, would bubble through. And so, the priestess would go and sit up there and inhale the ethylene gas or whatever gas was bubbling out. And there's two, two, National Geographic has done a whole bunch of study on this site. And right there, there is an intersection of two fault lines. And so, she would go in, she would inhale the gases, and she would fall over and start speaking in an unintelligible tongue. She would literally start speaking in an unknown tongue. Another group of priests would take down her words, and then they would record those words. They would then exegete those words. They were the exegetes. They would tell the inquirer what that meant. And so you would have, and it was usually put in some little poetic metrical form. And so you have this going on, the oracles of Apollo. And I mean, and I remember there's one here, one example, just how King Croesus of Lydia came and he was paid a lot of money, and he asked Apollo if he should go to war with King Cyrus of Persia. And the oracle came back, and this is what it said. If Croesus passes beyond the river, he will destroy a great country. So a lot of times the oracle itself, once it got translated, had to be interpreted. Well, what does this mean? So Croesus took that to mean he would destroy Cyrus' country, and he advanced into Persia. He was soundly defeated, thus destroying his own country. And so even though Croesus was a, was a, supported the temple, his priests could easily blame the Croesus, not the oracle. The point of this is you could start getting the idea of the power of the interpreter. And by the way, when we're talking about the oracles of Apollo, this is, you remember when Paul goes into Philippi, and you remember a little servant girl coming along who had a Demon who would come and were saying, These are the men of the most high, or listen, and she was called a Pythia. Pythia, it's a word there, a direct relationship here. In fact, when there's a there is a temple of Apollo there in Corinth, and when Paul is speaking about tongues and what's happening there, he's saying, Look, if people come in here, they are going to think you are mania, have a demon, that you're going to be, and very much, they're going to think of you like they think of what's happening at the temple of Apollo.

11:23Well, all this boils down is to think about what are the oracles, what has God said, and think of the power of the interpreter. These people, this was huge industry. The wealth that came into Delphi was incredible because of this deal. And this goes on for nearly 2,000 years. And you know when it ended? With the rise of Christianity. And that's when people are like, no, these aren't the oracles. But you can also see, just from this example, the vulnerability of the inquirer, right? What are the oracles? And there are a lot of unreliable oracles out there today. There are a host of unreliable words that are competing for the supremacy in the modern marketplace. Supremacy of ideas. What has God spoken?

12:38We are spiritual beings. And we need something solid to build our lives upon, something stable, even to think. You know, we need something stable. I think, therefore, I am far more profound than you might think. But anyway, the point of it is, we have to start somewhere with a foundation. And so, very important. But contrast, unreliable oracles. And listen, what are some of the oracles out there today? Just unreliable oracles that you can, any examples. Talk to me.

13:34Yeah, writings of Nostradamus, other texts, yes. Or somebody say words, yeah, words that come, word of faith, it comes from a mind or from an individual that may claim some kind of divine revelation, and we do that, right? Yes. Astrology, yeah, okay, yeah, very good. Some other, and that's what happened after a lot of this stuff passes off, after the oracles pass off the scene, then you start seeing a rise of a lot more. What are some other things? What are some tea leaves? What are some other things we can read and get some kind of a connection, some kind of guidance?

14:16And it becomes profitable, right? Is that what God has given us? No, God, God, we think about the oracles of the true God. It's something about God that He wants a relationship with His people. And He doesn't delight in being secretive or evasive or ambiguous. You can't have a relationship on those terms, right? He is not trying to be miserly with His words. He's not trying to profit. He wants a relationship. And he speaks clearly, freely, so that people can understand him and properly relate to him. That is God. He's not some vague stuff out there.

15:17He has spoken very clearly because he wants a relationship with his creation. And so he gives us written oracles, right? Before I go to the word, there's written oracles. And the written oracles came, the idea to have written oracles came from God himself. He first starts and he writes with his own finger. What does he write? Remember, tablets? Yeah, Ten Commandments. He puts them down there. He writes. And then he tells Moses, You put these things into the Holy of Holies. But he wasn't through speaking. And then he tells Moses to write more words. And guess where he tells him to put the? He says, put those words in a book and put them in the Holy of Holies, same place where the other ones were written. And you go through, Joshua added to the canon, and you go through and you see how God just kept adding words.

16:22And you have to be pretty confident that these are the words, like Joshua, who put words in that same place. As Moses, he had to be pretty confident that God was speaking, right? And so you get this Biblos growing. And then when you come to the time of Jesus, guess what? There is no debate about the extent of the canon. He has laid out, there is no debate that not once does it's interesting to note that Jesus and the New Testament authors quote various parts of the Old Testament scriptures as divinely authoritative over 295 times, but not once do they cite any statement from the books of the Apocrypha or any other writings as having divine authority.

17:29In fact, in Deuteronomy 9:22, 9 through 18, 9 through 22, God explicitly directs his people away from mediums and spiritus, what you would see at Delphi and the knockoffs of Delphi and all those claiming oracles. Such were the regular practices of the Canaanites, and that led them to detestable things, to do detestable things. Things. And so if you start off with bad oracles, you're not going to be able to relate properly to God. So God said, I will raise up prophets, and ultimately I will raise up a prophet, the prophet, and you're to listen to them.

18:18In other words, that is going to be your window into the spiritual realm. The words that God, the oracles that God has given, that becomes our window, if you will, into the spiritual realm. We're not to be listening or going other realms, other ways into the realm. That's why he gives us his word. Any questions on that? Any thoughts? Okay. I could give you more and more, but you get the idea. So the word was made flesh. So what God does, he heightened his oracles to mankind in the person of his son.

19:17God, Hebrews 1, 1 through 2, says, God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and in the prophets in many portions, and In many ways, in these last days, he has spoken to us in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world. And so you have Christ coming, that incarnate word, the word made flesh, a communication that goes beyond just text on a page, but goes into living, breathing, the whole persona of God manifested. And so when you think about that in these last days, in these times, that is it.

20:11Can you think of a higher revelation? No, if God comes and walks among us, and his personality, his being is with us. I can assure you, what we look back on now is that revelation of Christ and those from eyewitnesses who related to him and those New Testament prophets who interacted and spoke, moved by the Holy Spirit. And so we have scripture. Any questions? Then we have, so God's word, he has spoken openly, he has spoken clearly, and his words are readily accessible. This is the most published book in the history of humanity by a margin that dwarfs second place by light years.

21:30It's that readily accessible. And so we have his words. And so, but we come to there's some challenges to the oracles of the true God. So now we have oracles of the true God. But then there's challenges to that, right? In fact, there's the challenge to the words themselves. There is a temptation we looked at a little bit last time: adding words to scripture and taking away words from scripture, right? And that's it's interesting what Jesus said in Mark chapter 7, verse 6.

22:14He speaks about Isaiah rightly prophesying about these hypocrites. He says, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, but in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctors. Doctrines, the precepts of men. So they had elevated their precepts to the status of God's oracles. Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men. And he was saying to them, You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your traditions. So, what they would do, they would add to, they would interpret according to the way they wanted. And what they would do is by adding to or by subtracting, guess what the result is? You set aside the word of God.

23:16You see, it's a big difference, right? When you add words to scripture, you come away with a whole nother oracle. And that's what experts do. And so, talked last time about a number of organized religions that are unashamedly who are unashamed about raising their traditions to the level of scripture, or they reduce scripture down to the level of their tradition. However, you look at it, but there are numbers of extra texts, there are extra traditions, and many are not at all ashamed about that. And so they will certainly proclaim a Christ, a scripture, and tradition, or and something else.

24:28Talked about that last time, so I won't spend as much time on that. But there's another challenge, and that's the challenge of how the words are interpreted. So, not only is there the challenge of adding to, taking away, but then interpreting the words, right? How do we interpret, how are the words interpreted? And so, you get this whole conversation about who's the authoritative interpreter. Okay, so it's now it's like, okay, these may be the oracles of God, but who is the one that's going to go tell us what they mean?

25:11And so, now there is a posture, and listen to what the Roman Catholic Church and how they assert their authoritative position. The task, and this is Catechism 85, paragraph 85. Of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of tradition. So we're the interpreters of whether it's written, the Word of God, whether it's written or tradition, and see how they raise both to the same status: Word of God and tradition. The task of giving an authentic interpretation of either the Word of God or their tradition has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ. This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the bishop of Rome.

26:16So you go on down. There are several others. You could go through, you can look at similar claims made in Orthodox traditions, in Mormons, in Islam, and a whole lot of other prophets who self-appoint themselves as apostles who are still speaking the Word of God today, or oracles of God today. And so they elevate themselves as the new spokesperson. And, friend, we see this a lot even in our evangelical world. We see that I am getting a divine message for you.

27:00Well, I have got oracles for you that are inerrant, that are from God. And so, again, we, and there's a vulnerability of those who think, okay, you have the oracles of God. What does he say? How should I think? And you can see how that becomes an issue. But it's like, but it's still a valid question, right? Who is the authoritative interpreter? And the answer is: there is no authoritative interpreter, at least with humanity. I mean, the Holy Spirit, right?

27:47There is no authoritative interpreter outside of God Himself. Authority is in the thought that God intended to communicate through the words He chose. That's where the authority is. It's in the meaning of the words. It's not in the interpreter, even if the interpreter gets it right. In other words, as I walk through the text and I'm preaching through a text, the authority isn't in me, even if I get it right. The authority is still in the Word of God.

28:27And so the goal. Of a teacher, a preacher, a proclaimer is to take you into the Word of God so that you see what it says, so that you're interacting, the relationship is between you and the Word. And a good teacher, preacher keeps that in mind and seeks for you to see the Word, for you to handle the Word, for you to have that relationship with God and not to usurp. So true prophecy doesn't come out of the interpreter's decision or the interpretive decisions of the reader any more than gravity comes out of the mind of the one who observes it, right?

29:15But God communicated his thoughts because he wants to engage us in personal relationships. So God envisions that you and I will read our Bibles. That's this low-hanging fruit, right? This isn't rocket science. But I can assure you, a large part of much of what goes on under the name of Christianity doesn't ascribe to that. No, you are to be reading your Bible. They are the oracles, and through that, God, He envisions that you will read. So, any questions on that?

30:08All right, so then how do we get started? Okay, if God envisions that we will be reading our scriptures, how do we get started? Very simple principle of growth, chapter 3. How do we get started? And so, if we're to be the interpreter, if we have the oracles of God, we know what they are, that's what chapter 2 is about. We know that we're to be interpreting them. So, then how do we start? And if you've been around, you've heard me teach on this because as we were looking at how do we raise children, we spent some time looking at Jesus' childhood. And so, in our parenting class, we spent some time looking. So, this will be somewhat familiar to you if you were in the parenting class because we thought, well, Jesus had to grow up, so what can we learn from his childhood? But here's the general thesis of chapter 3: skill in one's ability to read and understand scripture involves a growth process. In other words, you're going to learn how, you're going to grow in your ability to read and understand. Understand scripture. There's a growth process involved. And you can see this quite clearly when you start looking at Luke chapter 2 and Jesus' childhood. Remember, Jesus had to grow up. It's interesting. There's not much said about Jesus' childhood, but Luke gives us a little window in chapter 2 and gives us insight, gives us a look into the childhood, at least enough for us to get an idea of how he grew up. And certainly that Jesus himself went through a growth process. Luke 2:40 says the child, speaking of Jesus, continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. Now look at those. The language is pretty dynamic. He continued to grow and become strong.

32:46So there's a growth process physically, but also in wisdom. He was increasing. He was constantly increasing in wisdom, constantly being filled up with wisdom. I think it's hard for a lot. Sometimes we think so much about the deity of Christ that we forget the humanity of Christ. That he came into the world and he grew up. He was a little boy, and he went through the growth processes of humanity. And so he increased in wisdom. Luke 2:52 says, And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and men. Remarkable statement. He kept increasing in wisdom, but not only that, he also increased in favor with God and with men. Now, think about that.

33:49This does not imply that Jesus was anything less than full deity, but it does give us an idea of the degree to which he emptied himself. He went through a growth process. He grew in his ability to understand scripture, to understand how it fits together. He grew in his obedience. He grew in favor with God and with men. He grew. I find that very encouraging, by the way. Now, he didn't have sin, so there's a difference between he was able to grow a lot quicker because he wasn't, his mind wasn't infected with sin and that. So, yeah, his growth process was certainly more rapid, you could say, and but it was still there. The text is very plain on that. He grew, and so we can start piecing together what did this routine look like for Christ just from Luke 2. You can start getting a routine of what his childhood was like.

35:22First of all, and I would love to spend some time talking to you about the principles of education during Israel, during the time of Jesus. By the way, if anybody ever wants to really get into maybe writing a good, deep paper or whatever, I know Nancy tackled this topic, but God put Jesus in a place where he would grow and develop. And there were education expectations during the time, and education was central. To a Jewish, in a Jewish home. The whole education system was God-centered. The instruction was based upon the words and deeds of God as recorded in the scripture.

36:15The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom. The purpose of the education was the fear of Yahweh. It was the beginning point and the ending point. And children were taught to obey their parents, and the boys usually learned the occupation of their father. But it was in this home that Jesus grew as the Son of Man. And he grew. And as you put it together, you can see that for Christ's childlike routine, childhood routine, scripture was central. Scripture was central to him.

36:58And by the time he's 12, he really has a pretty good grasp of scripture. But you can see that that was the routine of our Lord growing up. And how much more should we pay attention to that? Right? He went through a growth process, and we can expect his people to do the same. So scripture was central. The places of God's presence and instruction were central. Like what snapshot we see of Jesus, he is there in the Temple and surprise. Well, why did you look for me? Didn't you know I had to be about my father's house? That the affairs of my father, didn't you know I had to be about that? And so he was there. The Jewish celebrations, they were a devout Jewish home, so they went to the feast. They took part in all that God required.

38:00And the places of God's presence and instruction were central to his life. Scripture and the places of God's presence were central. Jesus submitted to the authorities that were placed over him. And Jesus was busy doing the things that he ought to be doing. And it was in this routine that the Son of Man grew. And I find that very, it's a perfect routine. It's a routine for perfect development. And that's why we say it's important to be in God's word, in the oracles of God. It is through those that he relates. And to be, well, well, let's bring it home to us. That was Jesus, the perfect routine for Jesus growing up. Well, I think we should have a similar routine for us today.

39:00And not just when you're young, but even keep this throughout your life. Our daily routines should center around meaningful time in the scriptures. And I encourage read for breadth and then have maybe read for a little bit of depth and maybe do some devotion, you know, pray, you know, have some, you know, it's good to get the sweep of it all, but it's also good to go deep into the word. You can compare and contrast what I'm talking about by looking at maybe how Sunday mornings we go really deep. And when Jeff is preaching, he covers, he goes pretty quickly through minor prophets. In fact, a lot of people, that would be very deep. You know, how much time, but he does an excellent job. But you get the idea of breadth and depth. And we should have that.

40:11And, you know, you don't expect muscular development unless you go exercise, right? Do you want to be in a physical routine where you want to develop muscles and same, yeah, same thing is true with the word. Our daily You're not going to get better at reading your word, reading the Bible, unless you spend time doing it. And meaningful time, not the one-minute Bible. You know, that, okay, let me get a thought and go. And that's better than nothing. Don't get me wrong.

40:45Always be turning your mind, but start developing a routine of being in the word. In fact, second thing: our weekly routines should center around meaningful time participating in a Bible-believing church. There's so much that happens in a church. In fact, you cannot be obedient to many of the commands in Scripture unless you're part of a local community. In fact, I would think I say it like this: that God expects us to live in community with one another. And for instance, commands such as assembling together and encouraging one another. In Hebrews 10:25, you cannot encourage one another without an assembly, without some kind of a connection. We urge you, here's 1 Thessalonians 5:14. We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. You have to be in a local church.

42:01To be obedient to that. And I would say one of the best things: get involved in teaching at some capacity. Look, I guarantee you, somewhere in your, wherever you are in your walk with Christ, there are those you can help. There are those you can help bring along and spend some time teaching. I think the whole routine of study the Word, interpret the Word, and explain the Word goes a long way to helping you understand the Word. And those of you who have to teach or do teach, you learn it a lot more, don't you? In order to teach something, you have to have a greater mastery of it. And so I encourage you to be part of that, whether it's a children's program or in something that you would be active in that.

43:07So our daily routines are important, our weekly routines, and our lives should gladly welcome the authorities that God has placed over us and make every effort to be a delight in their eyes. Jesus unquestionably submitted to the authorities that were placed over his life. And if you're going to follow him, you're going to do the same thing. And it's interesting that Jesus grew in favor with God and with men. He was a delight. There was something about the Son of God, and he welcomed the authorities because God had placed him there. He welcomed them because his Father had put him there. And so he submitted to them. He welcomed them.

44:08And then we should be busy fulfilling the responsibilities that God has entrusted to our care. So we should be busy doing the things that we're supposed to be doing. By the time you get done with your daily routine centering around, and you get done with your weekly routine, and then you're gladly welcoming the responsibilities and obligations that come from the authorities that God has placed over your life, and you are busy fulfilling the responsibilities that He has entrusted to your care, you're going to have very little time to get caught up in some of the debilitating directions and debilitating sins and vices that snare so many.

44:57But we have a Perfect routine set before us. Jesus wasn't an expert when he first started reading the Bible, and that may be hard for some to understand, but he came as a child and he grew. And we should expect the same for us. Any thoughts? I don't know about you, but I am very encouraged of this thought. Are you going to get it wrong sometime? Yes. Does a child fall sometimes when they're learning to walk? Yes. Does this mean you don't teach your child to walk? No.

45:49Yeah, exactly. And so it's like reading. Yes, read, get in there, read, study. And no, yeah, you're going to grow. There's going to be a growth process. But I'm encouraged by that because God wants us interacting with the oracles that He has given. And that's why He's been so precise and so particular about His Word and how it came about and how it was protected and how it was transmitted because He wants a relationship. And that relationship is with you. It is not to be a relationship with some interpreter, it is to be a relationship with.

46:31You through his words. And yes, as a pastor, I want to do my best to bring you to this word, to show you what it says, and to show you good principles of interpretation. But that's because there's a relationship there between you and God, and it is not to be with me, though I hope you appreciate my labors. The relationship is with God, it is not with an interpreter. And so that's why he invites us, that's why he's given us. And so I find that very encouraging. I find that a God wants to interact with me. And as spiritual beings, we relate through words. When Nancy and I would correspond via letters, there's these things. You take a piece of paper and you write before all this electronic stuff, and she would write down words, and I would read those words. And even though she wasn't there, we would connect through those words on the page.

47:42And that's what God has for us. Any questions? I hope you're encouraged to go and spend some time with your God because he has spoken and he wants to interact. With you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your goodness. Thank you for teaching us your ways, for wanting to have a relationship with us. And Father, we just pray that what was spoken tonight would encourage greater study of your word and interaction with you, and to know that you delight when we approach you, as a father delights when one of his children approaches him. Father, thank you in Jesus' name.