Sermon Title: One Book 4.24.16

One Book (4.24.16) 5

First Reading 2 Timothy 3:14-17
14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it,15and how from infancyyou have known the Holy Scriptures,which are able to make you wisefor salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.16All Scripture is God-breathedand is useful for teaching,rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,17so that the servant of God[a]may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Hebrews 4:12-16
12For the word of Godis aliveand active.Sharper than any double-edged sword,it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.13Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight.Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
14Therefore, since we have a great high priestwho has ascended into heaven,[f]Jesus the Son of God,let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.15For we do not have a high priestwho is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.16Let us then approachGod’s throne of grace with confidence,so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Gospel reading Matthew 5:17-19
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.18For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.19Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commandsand teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.20For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

We are going to begin with a little quiz. I will give a hint, the answers are all the same.
What one book is not only the best selling of all time but is also the best selling every year? To give some perspective on this, in 2005 if you were to take the sales of the most recent Harry Potter book and double it, you still would not get to the number of copies of this book sold in 2005. What one book has, in whole or part, been translated into over 2,000 languages? That's the most of any book ever. To give some perspective, Shakespeare has only been copied into 60 different languages and Homer's Iliad only 40. Head and shoulders this one book stands above all other literature in every measurable category. What book has had more movies, other books, articles, and documentaries centered around it than any other? Finally, what book has as its' central character the life and influence of the person we date our calendar by? Put differently, we live about 2016 years after the person this book predicts, describes, and works out the implications of.
The answer is, of course, the bible. This document is actually 66 books written over the course of 1,500 years, by more than 40 different authors on three different continents in three different languages. It influences our speech, have you ever heard someone say 'that's the gospel truth?' It influences our laws, we literally have 'Good Samaritan' laws on the books. As I mentioned before, it even influences our calendar, we live in the year 2016 A.D.. That stands for Anno Domini which is Latin for, 'In the year of our Lord' or 2016 years after the earthly life of Jesus of Nazareth. Because of the impact and influence of this one book the dismissive, patronizing, and sometimes disrespectful attitude people take toward the bible is, to say the least, unfounded.
We live in a time and place where people are likely to say something like, "You are so ignorant because you believe things just because they are in the bible. I am far more sophisticated because I believe things just because I read them on the internet!" However, if one were to push past an anti-biblical bias they may realize something about the scripture and Jesus, its central figure. Something Tom Price realized when studying philosophy at Oxford. He said "When one person among 60 billion stands out, that person deserves a second look." Taking a second look at Him and the one book about Him we may find ourselves saying "I believe in scriptures."
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement said, "I want to know one thing—the way to heaven; how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach me the way. For this very end He came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God! I have it: here is knowledge enough for me.Let me be a man of one book.” This morning, we are continuing our series on the material used for our exploring membership class by considering what it means to be a people of one book. To do this we must trust in the inspiration of the bible. Second, we must be faithful in our interpretation of the bible. Finally, perhaps most importantly, we must be faithful in the application of its message in our lives.
What inspired the bible and what does it mean to trust in its inspiration?
The answers to these questions vary, and for some, those answers are the reason for their skepticism. Two examples are that some are skeptical of the bible because they think it was inspired by Greco-Roman mythology and some believe that it was inspired by a hunger for power and control. After briefly touching on these, we are going to explore the possibility that the bible is, as it says it is, "God breathed" or inspired by God Himself.
Something that is gaining popularity, particularly on college campuses, is this idea that the bible, particularly the New Testament, was inspired by Greco Roman myths. Has anyone heard this silliness? I know that's not very nice. It is just that it blows my mind what people are willing to believe so long as it takes away from the authority of the bible. I say this because the myths they refer to simply do not parallel the record of Jesus. Here is just one example. Often they like to use Mithras saying that he was born of a virgin, had 12 disciples, and offered a meal to his disciples of his body and blood. The problem with that is Mithras was born from a rock not a virgin woman, he had two followers not 12 disciples, and he feasted not on his own flesh but on the flesh of a bull with the sun god. However, even if these were true Christians were confessing the virgin birth, recognized the 12 apostles, and celebrated the Lord's supper before they ever came into contact with the Mithras cult. Other than that, Jesus was not a Greco-Roman figure, He was a first century Palestinian Jew! The supposed parallels only get worse after this.
In terms of a power grab, some think the Christian faith was invented as a conspiracy. A youtube clip entitled "Best Conspiracy Ever" is helpful in understanding why this is not likely. It opens with St. Paul talking to St. Peter. Paul says, "Hello Peter, do you remember how we were talking the other day about exploiting the life of Jesus by making up our own religion? I think I figured out what we should do. Let's say that Jesus proved that He was the Son of God by rising from the dead."
Peter responds by saying, "Ok but won't people be able to disprove that in like two seconds by just going to His grave and seeing His body?" Paul then says, "Shut your mouth fishermen, I wasn't finished!" To which Peter responds by saying, "Alright so I'm guessing that we tell people that since Jesus came back from the dead they can to if they give us lots of money?" Paul says, "No we are not going to get rich off of this."
Confused, Peter says, "We're not? Are we at least going to get lots of chicks or something? How is this conspiracy going to make our lives better?" Paul then says, "It's not. In fact it is going to get way worse. People are going to hate your guts and you will probably be going be crucified upside-down for it. I am going to give up my rock star status as a Pharisee, people will hate my guts too, I will have rocks thrown at my head, and get killed for this made up religion. Oh and we are going to have to find like 11 other guys to do the same." Peter then says, "Dude the only way people are going to flush their lives down the toilet for claiming that Jesus rose from the grave is if they actually saw it happen." Paul then says, "I know that is why it is going to be the best conspiracy ever!" Peter shakes his head and says, "You really have to stop drinking out of lead cups!" Not likely how it went down!
What if the bible was not inspired by Greco-Roman myths or a conspiracy? What if it is what it says it is, inspired by God Himself? When we talk about the bible being inspired we mean that God used human authors to communicate His redemptive narrative by inspiring them to write.
Three things must come together in order for the bible to be inspired by God. First, in our hands today, we must have an accurate copy of the original testimony of the apostles. God would not inspire people to distort His word. Second, the testimony of the apostles would have to be true, this is not just an accurate copy of a lie. Finally, there has to be something supernatural about it. If it is inspired by God it cannot just be a human document.
Many people who are skeptical of the bible have an interesting narrative of How it was written. The story goes something like this, Jesus dies in 33 AD, very sad. After a while people start saying, "Jesus was a cool guy, let's encourage people to be like him." A few years, even a generation, go by and that's not enough. To juice up the story they say, "I know let's say He did miracles!" More years go by and they say, "The miracles are not enough, let's say He was raised from the dead!" The argument is basically saying that this book is distorted from its original intent. When one looks at the evidence, however, we find that this is just not true. In fact the oldest documents talking about the Christian faith we have are fragments and full copies of NT documents. The core of these early documents is that Jesus is Lord, He died for our sins, and that He is risen from the dead.
The testimony of the apostles has not changed over time, but is it a true testimony? Earlier we talked about the fact that they did not have any good reasons to make it up. On top of this, archeologists, and historians, are constantly finding details that confirm the testimony of our scripture. Extra biblical writings give commentary on some of the same events, names of cities and rulers that match up with the date, geography, and political atmosphere in the bible, and the list could go on. The point is that support for the bible recording accurate events is staggering and evidence that discredits it is very thin.
If the bible is an accurate copy of events that actually happened, that makes it an interesting book, but not inspired by God. To be God breathed there must be something supernatural about it. One piece of evidence for supernatural activity is the fulfillment of prophecy. In our gospel reading Jesus says that He came to fulfill the law and prophets. Throughout the New Testament we are told Jesus fulfills prophecy. Most of these were written 40hh0 years before His birth. If Jesus fulfilled one, two, or even five prophecies we may be able to explain it away like a horoscopes, so vague it is meaningless. However, the number of prophecy that Jesus fulfilled is at least 190. Some were out of Jesus' control and very specific. His birth place, His legs not being broken when He was crucified, and His family history are just some of the prophecies He fulfilled. The number and specificity is staggering.
Another, more subjective piece of evidence is the fact that scripture has a ring of authenticity that is undeniable. Hebrews reminds us that the Word of God is living and active. So often, the words just jump off of the pages. So much is this the case that Gandhi, a devout Hindu, said that Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, “fills me with bliss even today. Its sweet verses have even today the power to quench my agony of soul.”
When approaching this one book we can pray "God inspire my reading of this book as you inspired others writing." The Holy Spirit will help us interpret it. Opening ourselves to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is the first thing we must do to rightly interpreted the bible. During the class talked about three other things to keep in mind. They are context, context, and context.
First, we have to look at the passage context. In order to be a people of one book, we have to understand how the passages we are reading relate to the rest of the book. Is this God speaking or humans pleading that God would do something? Is this a parable, or a story of something that actually happened?
As we read that context we also have to keep the book context in mind. The bible is a collection of 66 books, more for our Catholic friends. In it there are books of poetry, letters, historical books, and even a genre that doesn't exist anymore. To understand what a book is saying it is important to know what kind of literature it is.
Finally, we have to consider historical context. What Paul said is correct, "all scripture is God breathed and useful." To help us understand what it means for us today we have to strive to understand what it meant to the original readers.
The same Spirit that inspired the scripture will shed light onto its interpretation so that we may be faithful in our application of it. In 2 Timothy 3, Paul outlines two basic kinds of application.
First, it is to initiate us into the faith.