Jesus the Alpha and Omega of Bible Study - Chapter 1

0:40And I want you to know. I want everyone who is in this church to know how to distinguish and how to give an answer to the false Christs or to those who are following false Christ today and why. And so I put this book together for that purpose. If you've been here a while, some of this will be very familiar. You've heard me talk through this. It's in my mind, it's on paper, but just because I've completed that task doesn't necessarily mean it's in your mind. And so I thought I would take summer and walk through this just so that you can understand and hopefully. Engage what's the content because I really do believe this is the way forward for Bible study, the way forward for our church as a whole, and hopefully it'll bring some clarity to that. So, the title of the book is Jesus, the Alpha, and Omega. I am not much of a person who spends time reading the news. I usually have a whole lot more things to do, and I'm usually behind on those, so I don't spend a lot of time reading current events, so I'm not really up on all of them, maybe as I should be, but or could be. But this one caught my eye last week, and specifically as it relates to what we're studying tonight. Hank Newsom, those of you probably saw, if you're in the news, you're probably watching some of this. He's the BLM leader for New York. This couple days ago, he made these statements.

2:40I don't know if you can read that, but I'll read it. He said, This, if this country doesn't give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it. Pretty aggressive words. But what's interesting is what he says shortly thereafter. He says, I love the Lord. And my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the most famous black radical revolutionary in history. We would almost look at this and see there is a contradiction here. There's a disconnect here. How can you talk like this and then at the same time say, I love the Lord and use terms, and my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

3:32Those are words we would use, right? But there seems to be a disconnect, does there not? And what Newsom has adopted is a very, it's what we would call the liberation Christ of our day, a Christ who is more of a revolutionary. And if you understand the Christ of Scripture, you would understand very quickly there is some very vast differences between what Newsom's understanding of Christ is and the Christ who is revealed in Scripture. And this is just one example of the many Christs that are being proclaimed today.

4:30And how are you going to navigate? How are you going to uncover? How are you going to distinguish? And so, largely, I wrote this for my kids, for anyone, friends, to understand how do we definitively make a distinction? How do we avoid the false Christs of our times? And because there are many. In fact, let me read to you portions of Matthew 24. Well, Jesus very much speaking about the end times. There's the phase one, which is what I would call sort of the birth pangs phase: that there's wars, rumors of wars, there's many people coming in his name saying, I am the Christ, misleading many. There will be nation against nation, ethnos against ethnos, rising against one another. There's going to be famines and all this, earthquakes, all this is just the beginning of the birth pangs. Then you shift gears into phase two, and it is, then they will deliver you to tribulation and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name. At that time, many will fall away and will betray one another.

6:00Because of lawlessness, but many false prophets will arise and mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. And he goes on and he keeps talking. He gets to verse 24 near the very end. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. And so, how do you distinguish between the Christs that are being proclaimed today? And how can you know for sure you're following the right one?

6:39In fact, I would say, how come there are so many denominations today? This is a fundamental question that you need to be able to give your children an answer. Why are there so many denominations? Why? Well, the answer is very simple. Not everyone approaches the scripture the way Jesus did. Not everyone even starts with a scripture-alone Jesus. And so, how do we realize, how do we really understand who the true Christ is and really be sure about it?

7:19That's what's at stake. And afraid our, just by looking at even popular circles of Christianity, Christianity, seems like many are being misled. And I believe the young man that I showed up there is genuine. I think he really thinks he loves Christ. And yet the Christ is a far cry from the Christ revealed in Scripture who calls us to forgive, who calls us to love, who calls us to submit to the governing authorities. And so that's where we're going. So the Bible, the book, any questions?

8:20So the book, very simple. Jesus, the Alpha and Omega of Bible study. Very simple. I'll come back to it in a minute. I don't see what's coming next, so I might surprise myself with what's next. Yes, sir. Do you have a few more examples of some of the parts of Christ that are out there? Yes, and we'll go through several. There's Christ, the Christ of, I would say, the politically correct Christ of today. In fact, there's a whole, there is a whole theology.

9:01Of a Christ who is very sympathetic to homosexuality. There is a, I would say, the politically correct Christ of our day. There is the Christ of Scripture and tradition. Christ of Scripture and tradition. You would see that in some of these groups, like the Orthodox or Catholic, certainly Catholicism. You'd see tradition raised. You'd also see the Christ, well, we'll get to a number of them. Christ of really personal revelatory experience. Let me tell you, I know who Christ is because this is what he showed me. And then all of a sudden, personal revelatory experience takes authority over Scripture. So you have the Christ, many different Christs, the Christ of Mormonism, very different Christ than the Christ of Scripture. There are some similarities to the Christ of Scripture, but then when you look closely, there's some vast differences. Why these differences? Well, they're not understanding the Christ of Scripture. And so, and you're going to navigate all these, you're going to see they're here, they're alive, they're. Pressing in, and they seem so wise.

10:35The exclusive or the inclusive Christ just spent last week talking in seminary about the inclusive Christ, who his whole purpose for calling Paul on the road to Damascus had really nothing to do with conversion, but had to do with him going to the Gentiles and seeing to it that the churches included them. And that the issue at Galatia was that Paul that they weren't trying to be justified, but that they were trying, they were being exclusive. They were not exclusing, and they had come up with a religion that excluded the Gentiles. And so, what Paul is really upset about is that you're not being inclusive, and that's the inclusive Christ. And so, the question becomes: as I address this, where do we go to learn how to read the Bible?

11:44How do we learn? The many Christs that come that we're dealing with today that are not Christs at all, they don't emerge from the pages of Scripture. So, how do we go? How do we learn? To read the Bible. That's what I'm trying to address in here. And my answer is very simple: Jesus. Jesus had to read Scripture. He interacted with Scripture. He approached Scripture. He viewed Scripture a certain way. He let it, he came under its authority. He knew how to relate properly to the Bible. And there is enough information in the scriptures about how Jesus interacted with Scripture to give us a guide for our own lives, how we are to approach Scripture.

12:36In fact, I would say this: that if you don't follow Christ in the way he approached Scripture and interpreted Scripture, you cannot follow him at all. Because the only way you know the Christ of Scripture is through the words of Scripture. And so if you don't read those in a way that he read and approached Scripture the way he approached it, you're not going to be able to understand. But this much, I am convinced that true Christians have a couple of things in common. And I don't care what denominational background you come from or what sort of background you grew up in. If you're a true Christian, we all have these two things in common. Number one, true Christians want to be more like Christ. Want to be more like Christ. Second, true Christians want to understand the Bible better.

13:48And these two are enough of a place for you to start growing in your understanding. If you truly are a believer, you're going to want to be like Christ, and you're going to want to understand your Bible better. And Christ shows us how to do that. In fact, we want to be like Christ in the way he read the Bible. This book is low-hanging fruit, okay? This is simple. It's written simply. It's not dealing with really complicated orders of thought, but very simple. And so, did I see a question? Okay.

14:34What is the goal of the book? What is my goal for writing? Well, I want my readers to know the Christ of Scripture more intimately. I want you to know him, and I want you to know him intimately by using sound principles of biblical interpretation that come from Jesus Himself. That's how you're going to know him more intimately, is by reading your Bible the way he read his. And so that's my goal: to know the Christ of Scripture deeper and more intimately.

15:18So, any questions on just so first chapter in the book is entitled The Alpha and Omega of Bible Study. And my main thesis for this chapter is that Jesus is our beginning point and ending point for Bible study. You get alpha and omega. Now, if you're putting that in English, how would you say it? From A to Z, right? Okay, so Jesus is our alpha for our Bible study. He is our Omega. He is our beginning point and our ending point for Bible study. I hope this sets a framework for what God, why God gave you the Bible in the first place, and what he intends to accomplish by you reading the Bible.

16:13And I shared this story. I will not go into it, but I've talked at Christmastime about a beautiful flower. How many of you all remember that? The whole idea, this is kind of a A shortened version of that, but the similar idea. Can you imagine a beauty that is so wonderful, whether it's a sunset, whether it's a flower, whether it's anything? Can you imagine a beauty that is so beautiful that its beauty is actually contagious? That by beholding it, the beholder takes on the beauty of the object.

17:02And we can think of beauty, but it's always outside of it. It's always a beauty that we can marvel at or gaze at, but it doesn't transform us. You can look at a beautiful flower, but that beautiful flower doesn't lift your spirits or something, you may appreciate it, but it doesn't transfer its beauty to the beholder. And so I imagine a hypothetical situation where there is a beauty so contagious that it can actually transform the beholder. And that is the Christ of Scripture.

17:47That's who Christ is. That He is so beautiful, He is so glorious that by Beholding him, the beholder is transformed. You know why many people do not look like Christ, do not show the beauty of Christ, soured in their hearts, detached from him, is they've never really seen him. They've seen a Jesus of something, maybe some semblances of Scripture, but they haven't seen the Christ of Scripture. In fact, as we are translated into glory, we are going to be like him. And do you know why we're going to be like him? Because we will see him as he is.

18:47And that is what God has created. When man, in his image, we are his image-bearers. And so, what we are to do, we are to see him and reflect him. And it comes from, it's a natural consequence of beholding him. When you behold him, you become like him and you reflect him. And so the Christ of Scripture is this contagious beauty. And what we seek to do as a church, this is who we proclaim. This is who we emulate. This is who we want to be like. Our fellowship is centered around a love for him and knowing him more intimately and proclaiming him. That's why we exist. And when we stop doing that, we don't need to exist, or we will become a very confusing institution and even a very harmful one.

19:58We are chartered to know him and to make him known. And that's the glory of being a follower of Christ is that we're called, if you're called to make him known, guess what? You're called to know him, and he's going to make sure that happens. The Christ is scripture. So then the question becomes: if he is this transforming glory, how do we see him? How do we see this transforming glory today? He's not walking around. And even when he walked around on earth, many didn't see his glory because he was in his humbled state, right? Even when he walked the earth, you had to see him.

21:00Through even the words of Scripture, you had to understand him even when he walked around through the words of scripture. And even now, how do we see him? How do we see this transforming glory as we wait until we stand in his presence? Well, we see him through the words of scripture. That is how he is seen. The words of scripture connect us to the Christ of Scripture. The words of man, additions, show us that, a different Christ. But the scripture words we read this morning, the scriptures transported us this morning to that wonderful moment on the cross.

21:56John, eyewitness, writing down what happened and gives them to us so that we too may be connected to that event. He is, we are connected to him. And so, when the words of Scripture are properly understood, they show us the Christ of Scripture. And so, then, how do we properly understand the words of? Scripture. That's what this book is really about: is coming to that to really get into some simple, and this is low-hanging fruit, simple parameters for Bible study that will give you guidance and serve you well in seeing the Christ of Scripture.

22:54Well, Jesus Himself called Himself the Alpha and Omega. Let me read to you a portion of this. You know, parting words are often the most significant. You get to the very end of the Revelation, the last book of the Bible, Revelation, and the last book in the canon. And it is instructions about interpreting the Bible. So you think, here's Jesus at the very end of Revelation, and what does he do? He gives us instructions on how to interpret Scripture. Just read to you, beginning verse 12 of chapter 22, it's the very last words. Really, it's coming to the very last words of Scripture.

23:54And Jesus is very concerned about how we. Read our Bibles. Verse 12: Behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me to render to every man according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. So, such a statement, Alpha and Omega, it describes cause, effect, origin, the one in control of all things, the one who knows the beginning, knows the end, and is guiding all things to their conclusion. So, when he makes a statement, I am the alpha and omega, that is a vast, sweeping, comprehensive statement about his godness, his deity.

24:48And he says, Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to eat of the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the immoral persons, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying. That almost gives you, almost ought to give you a reality check right there. Here is the alpha and omega, the one who is directing all things to insin. Let me ask you: do you practice lying? Is there truthfulness in your heart and on your lips?

25:32His words outside are those who practice lying. Of course, that's going to play into how we interact with scripture and being honest with scripture. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things. For the churches, I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star. The Spirit and the bride say, Come, and let the one who hears say, Come, and let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who wishes to take of the water of life without cost. What an invitation. What a promise.

26:25And then, there's a lot in this passage. We'd love to, and we will. We'll get to, by the way, when I get through with John, I'm going to 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and then we're going to go to Revelation. So we're going to sit at the feet of John a little bit longer. And you think about how that plays out. He writes his gospel, right? And you see the history, his interaction with Christ and all those events. And then you see the letters where he's taken that, all that he learned, and he's turns it into. Into practical instructions for church, and then you see Revelation that which he is seeing that is to come.

27:11But then, the last part of Revelation, verse 18 says, I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of this book, of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life, from the holy city, which are written in this book. I don't know if you can say something more severely or stoutly or to the point than that.

27:44Very last words, right? You're getting to the very end, and he says, He who testifies of these says, Yes, I am coming quickly. So he's coming, and his last exhortation: handle the word accurately. But that's his final words. So then the question becomes: he is the Alpha and Omega, and He, and as a subset, as an implication of being the Alpha and Omega, guess what? He's the one who imagined Bible study. He's the one who imagined the Bible. Bible.

28:32He wrote it by his spirit. His spirit, spirit of God inspired it. But he is the alpha omega. And so these final words really deal with how we are to relate to scripture. You see, the first expectation is that Jesus expected his disciples to honor scripture. Look at what he says to John. John chapter 1, verse 19. Okay, so here's John has just seen Jesus in a glorified state. And in verse 17, he says, When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. And he placed his right hand on me, saying, Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last and the living one. And I was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. I have the keys of death and Hades. And then he says this, therefore, write.

29:46So he's telling John, write, write. He's the one imagining this, right? Write. So he's commanded John to write, and he specifically tells him three things, which you have seen. Things which are and the things which will take place. What he just saw. I'll preach that when we get there. But then what happens in 22 and verse 18? Jesus commands John's readers. So he commanded John to write, and then he is commanding John's readers in every age with the severest language to honor Scripture.

30:38And he does it in the severest language. You do not add to, you do not take away. And that's how you honor Scripture. And oftentimes we are tempted to add to we, the church, people, denominations. There are entire denominations that don't even try to be scripture alone. There are many denominations that unashamedly, yes, there are other testaments of Jesus Christ. The very name Mormon, the Book of Mormon, starts out another Testament of Jesus Christ. You go through the Quran, you go through the religious texts through history, even the ecumenical councils. Of the Orthodox systems all become grids or become in addition to Scripture.

31:41And Jesus, very clearly, do not add. Do not take away. Do not take away. Let the meaning stand. And sometimes we can add to, or many times we will lower the standards of Scripture. Even personally, we will struggle with that. We will sometimes go beyond Scripture. Sometimes we lower the standards. Can you think of two examples? Give me a couple of examples of areas we might do that, where we might be tended to do more, say more.

32:31Yes. Women in the church. We might, yeah, Scripture is very clear. So in that add very clear roles. But then we will either take away, right, and say, well, he doesn't really mean that, or we will add to, add spheres of authority and places that Scripture does not. So we add to, yeah. And that's, and what you have to do is you have to lower the standard of scripture to do that, right? Or elevate yourself. But either way, you have to go beyond. That's a good example.

33:12Taking the scripture out of context to make it say what you want to say. Did you have a? Systematic theology, yeah. We can very quickly get our pet doctrines, and then we will set up our systematic grid. Maybe it's because we grew up in a certain tradition or whatever, and that's systematic, or maybe we have some pet dog, or maybe we just flat out think God ought to be a certain way, and so we will force a scripture that says something very different into our systematic grid.

33:52Of course, that's not the approach, right? We are to let our grids be changed by clear. And if we don't understand, we just don't shoehorn the scripture into our, we want to be teachable. And so, good. Yes, ma'am. Systematic theology is where the question is: what is systematic theology? Systematic theology is where you take perhaps a topic or a matter of Important theology, and you take everything that the scripture says about it, and you systematize it to get an understanding of what the Bible says about this topic. For instance, angels. Angeology is a study in systematic theology. So you take the whole scripture and you systematize what it says about angels. And you do your best. And there's a place for it.

35:01A good place for it. I teach it. It's important to understand what the Bible says about something comprehensive like that. But if you're trying to get your mind around God, and that's what systematic theology does, is try to really get our minds around God as best we can. But sometimes, you know, we're human and we just are trying to put God into a box so that we can comprehend him. And sometimes he just doesn't fit. In fact, I'll say that he doesn't fit. And that's okay.

35:46And we need to be honest with Scripture and let it inform our theologies. Yes, good thoughts. Yes, ma'am. Sexual immorality. Yeah, okay. Yeah, on the one hand, you can add to, you can raise a standard beyond, but you can take away, lower the standard, which is more the problem we have in our society today, right? Anything goes whenever we want it to go, and we can lower. The examples are many, but you dishonor scripture when you add something or you read something in.

36:37I'm sorry, I forgot. Please tell me your name again, Spur. Yes, Ernie. Yes, as Ernie was saying, you get in trouble when you read something into Scripture that was never intended there. He doesn't want us to be adding meanings that were never intended, nor does he want us to take away meanings that were intended. And that's what honoring Scripture is about. Very simple. He puts it at the end: do not add, do not take away. Second thing, as the alpha and omega, guess what? Jesus expects his disciples to read and interpret scripture.

37:23So Jesus not only read and interpreted scripture himself, but he expects his disciples to do the same. He does the same. In fact, you can, if you spend, we spent some time in John chapter 17. You remember he prays for his disciples. He prays that he had given his words to his disciples. And these are the apostolic, those 12. And he had given his words to his disciples. Then one defects, right? He's got the 11, and he's praying for those 11, that God would, that his father would keep them. And then he's commissioned them to communicate those words. And then he begins to pray for those who will come after them who will believe in Christ through their words. And it's through the apostles' words that we come to know Christ. And this is the family he prayed for. He gave his words to his 11, and his 11 in turn testified. And it's through those testimonies, New Testament prophets, that God gives our connection to the Christ revealed in Scripture. And he expects his disciples to read and interpret scripture.

38:50This isn't prophet science. He wants you to, this is what he wants you to do. He wants you to honor Scripture, let it inform you. And he wants you to read and interpret the scripture. So, if he wants us to read and interpret the scripture, did Jesus leave his followers any kind of principles for interpreting scripture? That becomes the question in the first part of this book. And the answer is an emphatic yes. In fact, one of the very first things he taught his disciples is how to properly relate to scripture. He constantly wanted to model submission to the scripture. He taught them how to interact with scripture. Yes, he wants his disciples to know how to interpret scripture as a matter of top priority.

39:57You know, when we start a seminary, one of the very first things, we have this class called hermeneutics. What is hermeneutics? Really? How to interpret the Bible. It's just a big name. Hermes was the God who interpreted things. So the Greek word Hermes for interpreting, it's basically what it means: the study of interpreting the Bible. That's what hermeneutics means. But you teach, that's one of the very first things you teach, at least in a Seminary that esteems God's word as authority. That's where you've got to start because that's where everything comes out, right? Well, that's the first place. Jesus started with his disciples. The same thing.

40:44The very outset of his ministry, and that's what we'll be working through in coming weeks, is some of these specific examples. Not exhaustively, but just enough to give you a feel for how Jesus interpreted Scripture and how he wants you interpreting scripture. And that's what we're going to do. We want to sit at Jesus' feet. And I thought it would be really neat if Jesus were to teach today a class on hermeneutics or teach a class on how to interpret the Bible.

41:20I'll tell you what, the best minds planet earth would do well to sit at his feet. He had a legal mind that outshone, outshined, outshone, shined, outshined. Okay, we can have a debate on that. How many on this? Outshined the brightest minds, but I won't get into it. I had a big debate with our editor on that. And I think outshone one, but I always thought outshined. But anyway, it outshined. He outshined the brightest legal minds of his day.

42:05And so he was a master at understanding how to read text on a page, and especially the word. And whether that was in a narrative or poetry, wisdom, or prophecy, he understood. He understood. And so the quick overview of this book, and we'll be done. Jesus is the alpha of Bible study. You get the beginning point. You see, alpha, he is the beginning point. We should read their Bibles the way he read his. That's what the alpha means. It's very simple. This thing's got two parts. So we should read our Bibles like him. We should start as he starts with him. He is the alpha. And to do so, we need to understand how Jesus approached, viewed, interpreted, and applied scripture to his own life and to those around him. And so, what the first part of this book is about, the alpha part, it examines key principles of Jesus' approach to scripture based on his use of the Old Testament. The Gospel writers document numerous occurrences where Jesus interacted with the Old Testament scriptures, and it gives us insight into the basic principles Jesus used to interpret the scripture. There's enough information the gospel writers have given us so that we can. Get a look into how Jesus related to Scripture. And, friend, if you're going to start anywhere, start there. There's enough information there.

43:45Part two: Jesus is the Omega. As you begin to see the Christ of Scripture, guess what happens? As you begin to see His beauty, that begins to transform the beholder. And so, He is the Omega of Bible study. Understand that God's purpose for Scripture is to transform you, to transform you by a relationship with your Creator. We will ultimately be transformed into His image, and we're transformed as we see Him, as we know Him. And so, the goal of Bible study is Christ-likeness. It's not just a perfect theological system, it is reflecting the perfect person.

44:38So, the goal of Bible study is Christ-likeness. So, we begin with Jesus and we end with Jesus. It's as far as we're going to go tonight. We'll get into chapter two next time. But hopefully, that'll set a trajectory. And hopefully give you a desire to read your Bibles more. There is a divine personality that's being revealed that God wants you to see. He wants you to see himself. And so as you behold him, you will reflect him. That is why he created man in the first place. Any questions or thoughts?

45:31Yeah, yeah, there's a whole bunch of them. There's a whole bunch of them out there, and there's more. So, so, yeah, so I'll just read it. It's an easy read. It's written on a yeah, on the on the resource room. Yes, James. It's also available on Amazon. We have plenty here. They're going to be about half the cost that they are on Amazon, but can't get go ahead and get it on Amazon, but that's right here as well. So yes, sir.

46:33Well, the gospel writers have left a record that is sufficient for us to come up with an understanding of how Jesus approached and interpreted Scripture. So it's sufficient to come up with, and it's actually quite there's quite a lot of information about him interacting with scripture and certainly sufficient to lay some very basic blocks in place. And I would say, if you want to take it to another level, there's some sophisticated, but this book doesn't really, but whenever you see Jesus interacting with Scripture, stop your study. Go look and understand what he's referring to and see how he's interacting with it. And because he's giving rules, guidelines for interpreting scripture. And it's sufficient. The interactions that the gospel writers give us are sufficient for us to build a pretty conclusive and certainly basic approach to scripture that emulates the way he did. That's what I'm trying to say in there. Maybe I could have articulated it better. Anyway.

47:52Well, let's go home. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for engaging us. Thank you for wanting to communicate to us. We know that you are a God who loves and who wants to be in relationship with your creation. So, Father, we want to be in relationship with you and do whatever it takes in our hearts and in our lives to bring us closer to you. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.