Basics of Bible Study – Time Frame– Four Weeks
Pastor Tom Gardner
SOM CCC
Week Two - Basics of Bible Study
We have a total of three more classes with this one,
this is a very short class
so we have a total of three more classes including tonight.
So I’m going to try to get in as much as I can –
I’m going to try to keep it as clear as I can,
let’s put it that way.
Again I think it’s important for us
to have a good basic foundation
as to how we ought to approach the Bible.
I also want to recommend
for those of you who want to go further
a book that’s been out for a long time.
It’s called How to Read the Bible for All its Worth.
This is without a doubt one of the best little texts
that you’re going to find to teach you
how to accurately interpret scripture.
Excellent little book –
How to Read the Bible for All its Worth excellent, excellent,
and its by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart.
If you just write that title (meaning to Google it)
that’s the only one that has that title.
It’s been out, I think, for quite a number of years now,
I forget what the original copy write is … (looking in book) 1981.
So it’s been out for twenty-couple of years.
Good, good, good stuff, teaches you about context,
about how to interpret various parts of the Bible;
how do you look at the Old Testament?,
how do you look at the New Testament?,
how do you look at prophetic writings?, greater detail
and it just would be a good thing for you to have on your shelf –
as you see this book (his)
has a lot of highlighting and underlining and note scribbling.
I’ve used this book a ‘couple of times’ and think it’s an excellent book.
Let’s talk about what you experienced here in this last week,
how are you finding the book?
(reference to Kay Arthur’s LORD Teach Me to Study the Bible in 28 Days).
Are you finding the book O.K.? That’s very helpful –
Some folks go through it at different speeds than others,
and that’s O.K. too.
I have this way of going through books myself.
If you were to go to my home library and pull a book off my shelf
that I’ve really paid attention to –
you probably don’t want to take that book home with you;
because you won’t be able to read it.
I have a tendency to take a book if I’m really studying it,
and I will read the book first; and I have this methodical way,
because I used to have to do that
doing acquisitions for a publisher.
I used to have to read sometimes fifty or sixty manuscripts a month.
I would get a book and I would read the table of contents,
I’d read the first sentence of every paragraph,
then I would underline it.
Then I would go back through and take down key notes.
By the time I was done I had actually read the book three times.
People have different ways of reading and studying.
You’re talking to someone who is dyslexic here,
who has a problem reading.
So I have to approach things in a little different way
than some other folks do.
I usually get it by the time I read it through a couple of times.
Can you give me any observations about the book?
Any thing that you are finding specifically?
Any surprises in it for you?
Any thing like “Well that’s a good way of saying that.”
Or anything like that?
Student Response:
“I like how Kay Arthur is like…
she wants to be right beside you,
and she says that she can’t be right beside you;
but actually in the book
she does approach you as a student that way.
That helps me tremendously.
I found myself being more comfortable
and more easy and readily to receive
what she had to say to me.”
She has like these encouraging little “Mommy Moments”
Did you notice that, as she goes through, she’ll say,
“Now don’t worry about this.” and that’s really nice.
Anybody else?
Student Response:
“Actually I think it was like the first day,
and I found a word I didn’t know –
I actually looked it up in the dictionary;
and right after that she said,
“Oh by the way this word means ‘that’;
I thought that was awesome!”
Now let’s talk about you’re other assignment;
you were looking at a passage of scripture.
We should be sitting in the same seats more or less
than we were sitting in last week
so we are kind of in these study groups.
What can you tell me about that, as you began –
you’re actually going to spend
a good amount of this class period this week
talking about that in your study group,
but I want to ask you this.
What did you notice about that
as you began to process through it?
Anything come to mind?
Instead of just reading scripture,
as you started to ask scripture questions,
did anything come to mind? Did you notice anything?
Student Response (unintelligible low volume)
Yes that’s important isn’t it?
Student response:
“What the deeper meaning is.”
Student response:
“Repetitive phrases.”
Ah yes, that’s something that you kind of get a hold of, isn’t it?
We don’t have time to touch on everything,
but one of the things you notice in interpreting scripture
is to look for phrases that are repeated.
In fact we’re going to do a little thing together,
right at the beginning
and you’re going to see exactly what I’m talking about.
Because, when you see those repeated phrases,
the Lord is giving us a principle,
or He is giving us an illustration of something.
Sometimes when you look at a passage of scripture
you are going to look at its literary or grammatical context,
you look at its historical context,
but if you begin to see things like repeated phrases;
suddenly the context and the purpose and the application
of that scripture goes like this. (expanding motion)
Now we have something that is a general principle
that we can apply to our lives right now.
Sometimes something was a letter
written two thousand years ago or three thousand years ago,
that was for a specific purpose on a specific occasion,
but when there are specific themes that come up,
now the context broadens.
Do you understand what I mean by that?
Now the application and the usefulness of that
now becomes part of us, and we have to look at it more closely.
I’m a pattern guy. I see patterns in stuff.
Did you ever see that movie “A Beautiful Mind?”
Did you ever see that movie?
Do you remember how he looked at patterns in everything?
That’s how we have to look at scripture.
Just not be crazy like he was, but …
It was a great movie by the way, wasn’t it a great movie?
Were you fooled in that movie?
Let’s not tell everybody, in case you haven’t seen it…
go get the movie, you have to watch that movie.
A lot of surprises in that movie.
So, anybody else, any comments
about the homework that you did
or things that you noticed as you looked through
while asking the questions
who?, what?, when?, where?, why?, and how?
Anything else that comes to your mind, just in general?
Last week we talked about the fact that when we’re looking at scripture we need to ask it a few questions. Right? What were those questions?
What? (observation)ed. fkj
So What? (interpretation)ed. fkj
Now What? (application)ed. fkj
Let me ask you this, just out of curiosity.
Any of you this week as you were reading your scripture
that was unrelated to this class –
did any of you happen to begin to look at the scripture
and begin to ask that question?
Did you find yourself looking at the scripture in a different way?
And say… hummmm what?
What’s this person saying here? Who’s talking here?
When you start to see it that way,
you will begin to observe patterns,
you begin to observe names,
you begin to see all sorts of different things
that you might not have looked at before.
Now we are not glossing over it
we are asking the scripture some questions.
This week we are going to talk about observation.
What does observation mean?
Student responses:
Look at, examine,
To look at to examine, (a chorus of cheers from the 3rd year class arose)
to have cheer leaders in the background…
those people are very excited about something.
What would you say, what is observation?
Student responses:
What?
What, that’s good
Student responses:
Seeing it
Seeing it, good we are getting a birds-eye-view a little bit.
We need to observe what’s happening here.
We need to kind of look at a surface level.
The person I studied Hebrew and Torah with, who’s since passed on,
talked about three levels, I won’t give you the Hebrew things, but there’s three levels (of understanding- ed. fkj) that the Rabbis would look at.
1- The surface level –
what’s the plain meaning and observation of this?
2- The hinting level –
requires a little more investigation
3- The deep seeking level
where we find deep principles
There are several different rules of interpreting scripture
Pastor Tom Gardner
SOM CCC
Week Two - Basics of Bible Study
We have a total of three more classes with this one,
this is a very short class
so we have a total of three more classes including tonight.
So I’m going to try to get in as much as I can –
I’m going to try to keep it as clear as I can,
let’s put it that way.
Again I think it’s important for us
to have a good basic foundation
as to how we ought to approach the Bible.
I also want to recommend
for those of you who want to go further
a book that’s been out for a long time.
It’s called How to Read the Bible for All its Worth.
This is without a doubt one of the best little texts
that you’re going to find to teach you
how to accurately interpret scripture.
Excellent little book –
How to Read the Bible for All its Worth excellent, excellent,
and its by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart.
If you just write that title (meaning to Google it)
that’s the only one that has that title.
It’s been out, I think, for quite a number of years now,
I forget what the original copy write is … (looking in book) 1981.
So it’s been out for twenty-couple of years.
Good, good, good stuff, teaches you about context,
about how to interpret various parts of the Bible;
how do you look at the Old Testament?,
how do you look at the New Testament?,
how do you look at prophetic writings?, greater detail
and it just would be a good thing for you to have on your shelf –
as you see this book (his)
has a lot of highlighting and underlining and note scribbling.
I’ve used this book a ‘couple of times’ and think it’s an excellent book.
Let’s talk about what you experienced here in this last week,
how are you finding the book?
(reference to Kay Arthur’s LORD Teach Me to Study the Bible in 28 Days).
Are you finding the book O.K.? That’s very helpful –
Some folks go through it at different speeds than others,
and that’s O.K. too.
I have this way of going through books myself.
If you were to go to my home library and pull a book off my shelf
that I’ve really paid attention to –
you probably don’t want to take that book home with you;
because you won’t be able to read it.
I have a tendency to take a book if I’m really studying it,
and I will read the book first; and I have this methodical way,
because I used to have to do that
doing acquisitions for a publisher.
I used to have to read sometimes fifty or sixty manuscripts a month.
I would get a book and I would read the table of contents,
I’d read the first sentence of every paragraph,
then I would underline it.
Then I would go back through and take down key notes.
By the time I was done I had actually read the book three times.
People have different ways of reading and studying.
You’re talking to someone who is dyslexic here,
who has a problem reading.
So I have to approach things in a little different way
than some other folks do.
I usually get it by the time I read it through a couple of times.
Can you give me any observations about the book?
Any thing that you are finding specifically?
Any surprises in it for you?
Any thing like “Well that’s a good way of saying that.”
Or anything like that?
Student Response:
“I like how Kay Arthur is like…
she wants to be right beside you,
and she says that she can’t be right beside you;
but actually in the book
she does approach you as a student that way.
That helps me tremendously.
I found myself being more comfortable
and more easy and readily to receive
what she had to say to me.”
She has like these encouraging little “Mommy Moments”
Did you notice that, as she goes through, she’ll say,
“Now don’t worry about this.” and that’s really nice.
Anybody else?
Student Response:
“Actually I think it was like the first day,
and I found a word I didn’t know –
I actually looked it up in the dictionary;
and right after that she said,
“Oh by the way this word means ‘that’;
I thought that was awesome!”
Now let’s talk about you’re other assignment;
you were looking at a passage of scripture.
We should be sitting in the same seats more or less
than we were sitting in last week
so we are kind of in these study groups.
What can you tell me about that, as you began –
you’re actually going to spend
a good amount of this class period this week
talking about that in your study group,
but I want to ask you this.
What did you notice about that
as you began to process through it?
Anything come to mind?
Instead of just reading scripture,
as you started to ask scripture questions,
did anything come to mind? Did you notice anything?
Student Response (unintelligible low volume)
Yes that’s important isn’t it?
Student response:
“What the deeper meaning is.”
Student response:
“Repetitive phrases.”
Ah yes, that’s something that you kind of get a hold of, isn’t it?
We don’t have time to touch on everything,
but one of the things you notice in interpreting scripture
is to look for phrases that are repeated.
In fact we’re going to do a little thing together,
right at the beginning
and you’re going to see exactly what I’m talking about.
Because, when you see those repeated phrases,
the Lord is giving us a principle,
or He is giving us an illustration of something.
Sometimes when you look at a passage of scripture
you are going to look at its literary or grammatical context,
you look at its historical context,
but if you begin to see things like repeated phrases;
suddenly the context and the purpose and the application
of that scripture goes like this. (expanding motion)
Now we have something that is a general principle
that we can apply to our lives right now.
Sometimes something was a letter
written two thousand years ago or three thousand years ago,
that was for a specific purpose on a specific occasion,
but when there are specific themes that come up,
now the context broadens.
Do you understand what I mean by that?
Now the application and the usefulness of that
now becomes part of us, and we have to look at it more closely.
I’m a pattern guy. I see patterns in stuff.
Did you ever see that movie “A Beautiful Mind?”
Did you ever see that movie?
Do you remember how he looked at patterns in everything?
That’s how we have to look at scripture.
Just not be crazy like he was, but …
It was a great movie by the way, wasn’t it a great movie?
Were you fooled in that movie?
Let’s not tell everybody, in case you haven’t seen it…
go get the movie, you have to watch that movie.
A lot of surprises in that movie.
So, anybody else, any comments
about the homework that you did
or things that you noticed as you looked through
while asking the questions
who?, what?, when?, where?, why?, and how?
Anything else that comes to your mind, just in general?
Last week we talked about the fact that when we’re looking at scripture we need to ask it a few questions. Right? What were those questions?
What? (observation)ed. fkj
So What? (interpretation)ed. fkj
Now What? (application)ed. fkj
Let me ask you this, just out of curiosity.
Any of you this week as you were reading your scripture
that was unrelated to this class –
did any of you happen to begin to look at the scripture
and begin to ask that question?
Did you find yourself looking at the scripture in a different way?
And say… hummmm what?
What’s this person saying here? Who’s talking here?
When you start to see it that way,
you will begin to observe patterns,
you begin to observe names,
you begin to see all sorts of different things
that you might not have looked at before.
Now we are not glossing over it
we are asking the scripture some questions.
This week we are going to talk about observation.
What does observation mean?
Student responses:
Look at, examine,
To look at to examine, (a chorus of cheers from the 3rd year class arose)
to have cheer leaders in the background…
those people are very excited about something.
What would you say, what is observation?
Student responses:
What?
What, that’s good
Student responses:
Seeing it
Seeing it, good we are getting a birds-eye-view a little bit.
We need to observe what’s happening here.
We need to kind of look at a surface level.
The person I studied Hebrew and Torah with, who’s since passed on,
talked about three levels, I won’t give you the Hebrew things, but there’s three levels (of understanding- ed. fkj) that the Rabbis would look at.
1- The surface level –
what’s the plain meaning and observation of this?
2- The hinting level –
requires a little more investigation
3- The deep seeking level
where we find deep principles
There are several different rules of interpreting scripture
according to the Rabbis and one of those rules is
that there is no disagreement or conflict in scripture,
that can’t be settles by just studying more scripture.
We need to let the scripture interpret scripture.
I met with a young couple this morning
who came in to pretty much gripe about God and the Bible.
They were not from here, they are not from this church
(Christ Community Church, Camp Hill PA.)
they came in because
they ran into somebody from this church somewhere
and they said well they doubted God
and they doubted the value of scripture.
Why was the Bible any different than the Hindu scriptures
or the Buddhist scriptures or the Koran;
why was it any different?
So they went them in to talk to me. Well thank you.
Thank you for starting my day that way.
Actually it was a good conversation
because it made me remember some things.
The thing that came to my mind is the fact that
all the other holy scriptures, so called sacred scriptures,
the Bhagavad Gita that they would read in India
or the Koran, those scriptures basically have some truth, right,
they have some good general principles
and some truth but they don’t have a personality.
They don’t have what the Bible has.
The Bible in a sense is really exposing
the character and the heart of God.
That is really what it is.
I began to kind of talk them through some patterns
that you can see in scripture.
For instance, the one young man was saying
“How can God be a merciful God
if there’s a lot of smiting and killing
and all that kind of stuff in the Bible?”
I said, that’s the result of the fall and disobedience.
It is actually redemptive
when you see as God being merciless
is actually God being merciful,
because He is trying to remove the evil from the land.
That’s basically what he is trying to do.
There’s a kind of an unfolding of the heart,
like I said – think of about one doctrine that confuses you
in the scripture. The Trinity.
You can say the Trinity doesn’t seem to make any sense
and the Bible just doesn’t say much about it.
Well that’s really not true.
But you have to look at that at a deeper level.
For instance, in the very first verses of scripture…
1In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth.
2The earth was formless and void,
and darkness was over the surface of the deep,
and the Spirit of God was moving
over the surface of the waters.
3Then God said, "Let there be light";
and there was light.
Genesis 1;1-3 NASB (ed fkj)
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
That’s God that’ ĕlôhıym (el-o-heem')
[ ‘Supreme One’ ‘strong, mighty’ed. fkj]
That’s the Father – say father
It says in the beginning
He created the heavens and the earth.
Then it says that the earth was what?
Formless and Void
Then it says something happened, what happened,
into that emptiness and darkness, then what happened?
It says in that darkness that God said something,
what is the first thing He says?
The very first words uttered,
in the very first thing the Spirit…
Actually when it says the Spirit was hovering,
that’s actually more the word “to vibrate.”
The Fathering heart of God wants to create…
Then there’s this hovering, vibrating action of the Spirit
that is activating or bringing the heart of the Father…
And then He says,
"Let there be light"
Well, who’s the light?
The sun’s not invented for a couple of days.
Who’s the light? It’s Christ!
In the first verse of scripture it has guess what?
The Trinity.
It’s all right there.
You can see it (the Trinity) over and over and over again.
Look at the great them of light.
The theme of light is the very first thing talked about…
the very first thing God speaks into existence,
the light which is Christ.
What’s the last thing He’s talking about;
Revelations twenty-two’s talking about the table,
and the city of Jerusalem.
What is the source of light there in Jerusalem?
Christ!
What’s the Bible about?
Christ!
The very beginning and the very end… it’s light…
beginning to end right?
So when we begin to look a little deeper
we see some of these patterns.
For instance, Moses says in Exodus thirty-three,
Lord show me Your glory.
God says O.K., here’s My glory…
I am the Lord, your Lord, slow to anger
gracious abounding in love and mercy…
We have compassion – say compassion -
That’s the condition of God’s heart…
We have grace – say grace -
That’s the attitude of God’s heart…
Then we have mercy – say mercy -
That’s the expression of God’s heart…
So you have the condition
Then you have the attitude
That word in Hebrew actually means the bent
It’s which way His heart is bent or literally leaning.
Isn’t that a pretty cool thought…
Grace means which way God’s heart is leaning.
Now that’s a pretty good pattern there
compassion
grace
mercy
It’s all through the Psalms
It’s all through the prophets
It’s through the… Jesus teaches about it actually often
Think about, for instance the prodigal son.
Luke fifteen…
It says the son decides to come home…
He turns around, he’s going back toward the father
Now the son is approaching the father
And it says, while he was still a long way off, what happens,
The father saw him
and was moved with compassion
Remember that, sound familiar?
Then he ran to him… that’s the picture of grace
he was bent toward him
Then he embraced and kissed him that’s the act of mercy
You see it’s all throughout the scriptures
It’s the glory of God.
When Jesus is teaching
Jesus is teaching about the glory of God
He is teaching about the nature of God
and who God is… A-Men?
The good Samaritan
The man gets mugged outside of Jerusalem
Here we have the Samaritan man who comes along …
it says that the Samaritan man what?...
He saw him and was moved with compassion…
And he came to him, that’s grace…
And he bandaged him, that’s mercy the act of mercy…
Then it says he takes him to the Holiday Inn
and gives him his Visa Card.
He says, put it on my bill, that’s faithfulness…
That’s the other thing
that it talks about in Exodus thirty-four.
So what I was talking about to this young man,
I said you have to not try to look at the Bible,
for instance, and just see it as a historic document.
The Bible has historical value,
but it is not primarily a history book.
The purpose of the Bible is not to be a history book.
Now pieces of it, for instance
like the Gospel of Luke – with Theophilus –
1Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account
We need to let the scripture interpret scripture.
I met with a young couple this morning
who came in to pretty much gripe about God and the Bible.
They were not from here, they are not from this church
(Christ Community Church, Camp Hill PA.)
they came in because
they ran into somebody from this church somewhere
and they said well they doubted God
and they doubted the value of scripture.
Why was the Bible any different than the Hindu scriptures
or the Buddhist scriptures or the Koran;
why was it any different?
So they went them in to talk to me. Well thank you.
Thank you for starting my day that way.
Actually it was a good conversation
because it made me remember some things.
The thing that came to my mind is the fact that
all the other holy scriptures, so called sacred scriptures,
the Bhagavad Gita that they would read in India
or the Koran, those scriptures basically have some truth, right,
they have some good general principles
and some truth but they don’t have a personality.
They don’t have what the Bible has.
The Bible in a sense is really exposing
the character and the heart of God.
That is really what it is.
I began to kind of talk them through some patterns
that you can see in scripture.
For instance, the one young man was saying
“How can God be a merciful God
if there’s a lot of smiting and killing
and all that kind of stuff in the Bible?”
I said, that’s the result of the fall and disobedience.
It is actually redemptive
when you see as God being merciless
is actually God being merciful,
because He is trying to remove the evil from the land.
That’s basically what he is trying to do.
There’s a kind of an unfolding of the heart,
like I said – think of about one doctrine that confuses you
in the scripture. The Trinity.
You can say the Trinity doesn’t seem to make any sense
and the Bible just doesn’t say much about it.
Well that’s really not true.
But you have to look at that at a deeper level.
For instance, in the very first verses of scripture…
1In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth.
2The earth was formless and void,
and darkness was over the surface of the deep,
and the Spirit of God was moving
over the surface of the waters.
3Then God said, "Let there be light";
and there was light.
Genesis 1;1-3 NASB (ed fkj)
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
That’s God that’ ĕlôhıym (el-o-heem')
[ ‘Supreme One’ ‘strong, mighty’ed. fkj]
That’s the Father – say father
It says in the beginning
He created the heavens and the earth.
Then it says that the earth was what?
Formless and Void
Then it says something happened, what happened,
into that emptiness and darkness, then what happened?
It says in that darkness that God said something,
what is the first thing He says?
The very first words uttered,
in the very first thing the Spirit…
Actually when it says the Spirit was hovering,
that’s actually more the word “to vibrate.”
The Fathering heart of God wants to create…
Then there’s this hovering, vibrating action of the Spirit
that is activating or bringing the heart of the Father…
And then He says,
"Let there be light"
Well, who’s the light?
The sun’s not invented for a couple of days.
Who’s the light? It’s Christ!
In the first verse of scripture it has guess what?
The Trinity.
It’s all right there.
You can see it (the Trinity) over and over and over again.
Look at the great them of light.
The theme of light is the very first thing talked about…
the very first thing God speaks into existence,
the light which is Christ.
What’s the last thing He’s talking about;
Revelations twenty-two’s talking about the table,
and the city of Jerusalem.
What is the source of light there in Jerusalem?
Christ!
What’s the Bible about?
Christ!
The very beginning and the very end… it’s light…
beginning to end right?
So when we begin to look a little deeper
we see some of these patterns.
For instance, Moses says in Exodus thirty-three,
Lord show me Your glory.
God says O.K., here’s My glory…
I am the Lord, your Lord, slow to anger
gracious abounding in love and mercy…
We have compassion – say compassion -
That’s the condition of God’s heart…
We have grace – say grace -
That’s the attitude of God’s heart…
Then we have mercy – say mercy -
That’s the expression of God’s heart…
So you have the condition
Then you have the attitude
That word in Hebrew actually means the bent
It’s which way His heart is bent or literally leaning.
Isn’t that a pretty cool thought…
Grace means which way God’s heart is leaning.
Now that’s a pretty good pattern there
compassion
grace
mercy
It’s all through the Psalms
It’s all through the prophets
It’s through the… Jesus teaches about it actually often
Think about, for instance the prodigal son.
Luke fifteen…
It says the son decides to come home…
He turns around, he’s going back toward the father
Now the son is approaching the father
And it says, while he was still a long way off, what happens,
The father saw him
and was moved with compassion
Remember that, sound familiar?
Then he ran to him… that’s the picture of grace
he was bent toward him
Then he embraced and kissed him that’s the act of mercy
You see it’s all throughout the scriptures
It’s the glory of God.
When Jesus is teaching
Jesus is teaching about the glory of God
He is teaching about the nature of God
and who God is… A-Men?
The good Samaritan
The man gets mugged outside of Jerusalem
Here we have the Samaritan man who comes along …
it says that the Samaritan man what?...
He saw him and was moved with compassion…
And he came to him, that’s grace…
And he bandaged him, that’s mercy the act of mercy…
Then it says he takes him to the Holiday Inn
and gives him his Visa Card.
He says, put it on my bill, that’s faithfulness…
That’s the other thing
that it talks about in Exodus thirty-four.
So what I was talking about to this young man,
I said you have to not try to look at the Bible,
for instance, and just see it as a historic document.
The Bible has historical value,
but it is not primarily a history book.
The purpose of the Bible is not to be a history book.
Now pieces of it, for instance
like the Gospel of Luke – with Theophilus –
1Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account
of the things accomplished among us
2just as they were handed down to us
2just as they were handed down to us
by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word,
3it seemed fitting for me as well,
3it seemed fitting for me as well,
having investigated everything carefully from the beginning,
to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus;
4so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.
Luke 1:1-4 NASB (Ed. fkj)
the purpose of that was to give an account
of something that happened with Jesus – that’s true,
or the Acts of the Apostles,
those things are written and those are history.
They are not epistles,
they’re not prophetic, they are history.
They have a specific purpose,
but there are other parts of the Bible
that have different purposes.
We have to know what is the purpose of this scripture,
what is it, who is it written to, all those kinds of things.
Again, my point to him was to say –
we have to look in a deeper way, in the scripture,
and know that
the Bible is actually
telling us about the heart of God.
4so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.
Luke 1:1-4 NASB (Ed. fkj)
the purpose of that was to give an account
of something that happened with Jesus – that’s true,
or the Acts of the Apostles,
those things are written and those are history.
They are not epistles,
they’re not prophetic, they are history.
They have a specific purpose,
but there are other parts of the Bible
that have different purposes.
We have to know what is the purpose of this scripture,
what is it, who is it written to, all those kinds of things.
Again, my point to him was to say –
we have to look in a deeper way, in the scripture,
and know that
the Bible is actually
telling us about the heart of God.
So it’s not what you know,
or not what he history that’s coming forth from the Bible;
it’s what am I becoming as I engage the Bible.
What am I becoming, not what do I know.
Not what do I say, what am I becoming!
I need to know some things
if I’m going to be transformed by the Bible.
The Word of God should change me.
It says that we see now in a mirror – what?
Darkly or dimly, it’s the word in Greek enigma.
An enigma is something that is not clearly seen.
We see now in this enigmatic unclear way
but later we will see Him face to face.
Right now we have the scriptures
and the purpose of the scriptures
is not just to understand and study history,
and become masters of biblical fact; that’s not the point.
or not what he history that’s coming forth from the Bible;
it’s what am I becoming as I engage the Bible.
What am I becoming, not what do I know.
Not what do I say, what am I becoming!
I need to know some things
if I’m going to be transformed by the Bible.
The Word of God should change me.
It says that we see now in a mirror – what?
Darkly or dimly, it’s the word in Greek enigma.
An enigma is something that is not clearly seen.
We see now in this enigmatic unclear way
but later we will see Him face to face.
Right now we have the scriptures
and the purpose of the scriptures
is not just to understand and study history,
and become masters of biblical fact; that’s not the point.
The point of scripture is always
to disclose the heart of God.
A little commercial announcement for the Word of God!
We are going to do a little something different here tonight,
just because we want to.
Open your Bibles.
Matthew eighteen…
I want to show you something about this…
Before you even look at that scripture, when I say Matthew eighteen,
to disclose the heart of God.
A little commercial announcement for the Word of God!
We are going to do a little something different here tonight,
just because we want to.
Open your Bibles.
Matthew eighteen…
I want to show you something about this…
Before you even look at that scripture, when I say Matthew eighteen,
what’s the very first thing you think about?
Student reply:
Correction in the church
Correction in the church?
Yeah you’re right!
That’s a pretty automatic thing.
(reference to the thinking the passage is about correction ed: fkj)
I’ve actually heard people say,
“I’m going to do Matthew eighteen with that person.”
I mean what is that, is that like a dance?
I don’t know what that is…
I’m going to do Matthew eighteen…
is that like a drug?
I’m going to roll up some Matthew eighteen
and I’m going to smoke it, I’m going to snort it – what is it?
We didn’t have that in the seventies.
I want to look at this passage of scripture…
We are going to look at this in a way that we are going to see
Student reply:
Correction in the church
Correction in the church?
Yeah you’re right!
That’s a pretty automatic thing.
(reference to the thinking the passage is about correction ed: fkj)
I’ve actually heard people say,
“I’m going to do Matthew eighteen with that person.”
I mean what is that, is that like a dance?
I don’t know what that is…
I’m going to do Matthew eighteen…
is that like a drug?
I’m going to roll up some Matthew eighteen
and I’m going to smoke it, I’m going to snort it – what is it?
We didn’t have that in the seventies.
I want to look at this passage of scripture…
We are going to look at this in a way that we are going to see
what we are actually talking about here.
Before we get to the place
that everyone wants to talk about
which is in verse fifteen…
We always want to talk about
If your brother sins, go and show him his fault…
And so-on and so-forth and so-forth…
Isn’t that what we want to do?
That is the least important thing of this chapter.
It’s the least important thing!
You all can probably quote Matthew 18:15-20 to me,
at least in some form or fashion.
Because we are all into correcting!
But that’s not what it’s about.
Look at the very first verse of Matthew eighteen…
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said,
"Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
Before we get to the place
that everyone wants to talk about
which is in verse fifteen…
We always want to talk about
If your brother sins, go and show him his fault…
And so-on and so-forth and so-forth…
Isn’t that what we want to do?
That is the least important thing of this chapter.
It’s the least important thing!
You all can probably quote Matthew 18:15-20 to me,
at least in some form or fashion.
Because we are all into correcting!
But that’s not what it’s about.
Look at the very first verse of Matthew eighteen…
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said,
"Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
2And He called a child to Himself
and set him before them,
3and said, "Truly I say to you,
unless you are converted
and become like children,
you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
4"Whoever then humbles himself as this child,
he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
5"And whoever receives one such child
in My name receives Me;
6but whoever causes one of these little ones
who believe in Me to stumble,
it would be better for him
to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck,
and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
Matthew 18:1-6 (ed fkj)
What does it say?
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said,
"Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
What’s he do verse two?
2And He called a child to Himself
and set him before them,
3and said, "Truly I say to you,
unless you are converted
and become like children,
you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
So far, what’s this about?
Student response:
Children
Thank you for that Mommy anointing coming out.
4"Whoever then humbles himself
As a what?
as this child,
he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
5"And whoever receives one such…
child (emphasis added)
in My name receives Me;
6but whoever causes one of these little ones
What are we talking about?
Children…
What’s this about!
Children! Thank You!
who believe in Me to…
Now here’s another word we need to look at…
He causes him to what?
Sin or let’s use the word stumble.
In the New American Standard we have the translation
that is actually a very good translation here
as the word stumble.
…it would be better for him
to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck,
and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
Well that’s not very merciful Jesus.
Now if you look in the text of this…
In most texts you are going to see
that they separate it into paragraphs and so on…
This is one of those occasions
when I don’t think it should be separated.
I think it is all the same point.
Can I prove this to you?
We are starting to see something now.
In this first paragraph here
In what’s called in biblical criticism a pericope
A fancy word spelled like periscope
Ed. fkj
A pericope (pronounced /pəˈrɪkəpi/)
(Greek περικοπή, "a cutting-out")
in rhetoric is a set of verses
that forms one coherent unit or thought,
thus forming a short passage
suitable for public reading from a text,
now usually of sacred scripture.
Really the thing we are writing to
and about here is what, what did we say?
Children…
Now, it says right at the end of that
something that might happen to children.
What is it that might happen to them?
They might stumble.
Let’s look at the rest of this.
7"Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks!
Hummm, stumbling blocks,
now what are we talking about?
For it is inevitable that…
stumbling blocks come;
Which is actually the Greek word scandalon
What does that sound like to you?
Hummm… scandals – yeah.
We can talk about that in a minute here too…
Ed:fkj
skan'-dal-on
A “scandal”; probably from a derivative of G2578; a trap stick
(bent sapling), that is, snare or trigger on a trap
(figuratively cause of displeasure or sin): - occasion to fall
(of stumbling), offence, thing that offends,
stumbling-block.
Children…
What’s this about!
Children! Thank You!
who believe in Me to…
Now here’s another word we need to look at…
He causes him to what?
Sin or let’s use the word stumble.
In the New American Standard we have the translation
that is actually a very good translation here
as the word stumble.
…it would be better for him
to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck,
and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
Well that’s not very merciful Jesus.
Now if you look in the text of this…
In most texts you are going to see
that they separate it into paragraphs and so on…
This is one of those occasions
when I don’t think it should be separated.
I think it is all the same point.
Can I prove this to you?
We are starting to see something now.
In this first paragraph here
In what’s called in biblical criticism a pericope
A fancy word spelled like periscope
Ed. fkj
A pericope (pronounced /pəˈrɪkəpi/)
(Greek περικοπή, "a cutting-out")
in rhetoric is a set of verses
that forms one coherent unit or thought,
thus forming a short passage
suitable for public reading from a text,
now usually of sacred scripture.
Really the thing we are writing to
and about here is what, what did we say?
Children…
Now, it says right at the end of that
something that might happen to children.
What is it that might happen to them?
They might stumble.
Let’s look at the rest of this.
7"Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks!
Hummm, stumbling blocks,
now what are we talking about?
For it is inevitable that…
stumbling blocks come;
Which is actually the Greek word scandalon
What does that sound like to you?
Hummm… scandals – yeah.
We can talk about that in a minute here too…
Ed:fkj
skan'-dal-on
A “scandal”; probably from a derivative of G2578; a trap stick
(bent sapling), that is, snare or trigger on a trap
(figuratively cause of displeasure or sin): - occasion to fall
(of stumbling), offence, thing that offends,
stumbling-block.
but woe to that man
through whom they…
What are we talking about in that verse?
Stumbling!
Look at this…
This is an example of something that’s a fancy word
The word hyperbole
Ed:fkj
hy•per•bo•le
(h -pûr b -l )
n. A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect,
through whom they…
What are we talking about in that verse?
Stumbling!
Look at this…
This is an example of something that’s a fancy word
The word hyperbole
Ed:fkj
hy•per•bo•le
(h -pûr b -l )
n. A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect,
as in I could sleep for a year or This book weighs a ton.
Hyperbole means a purposeful exaggeration of something.
I exaggerate something way…
For instance, if your hungry you could say,
“I could eat a horse.”
Has anybody here ever eaten an entire horse?
When you tell somebody,
“you’re so hungry you could eat a horse.”
Are you actually telling them to go get Mr. Ed
and put him on a plate?
That’s not what you’re saying.
You are trying to tell people that you’re
Very, very hungry.
7"Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks!
For it is inevitable that…
stumbling blocks come;
but woe to that man
through whom they come
Now look at verse eight…
8"If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble,
What are we talking about?
Still talking about stumbling here…
cut it off and throw it from you;
Now do you really think
He’s talking about cutting off our hand?
What is He saying?
What’s Jesus saying here?
How does Jesus see you?
What does He see you as?
He sees you as a little child.
And he sees the sin, or the problems or the habits that we have as what?
Things that we trip over.
Now that word scandalon by the way
is the Greek word for the trigger on a trap.
That’s something that we could step in
And it triggers something that does what to us?
Stops us, traps us, holds us captive.
So, so far we are talking about…
see what this is about…
it’s about little children
this is how the Lord sees (us)
and it says it’s about stumbling blocks.
Then He goes on to this purposeful exaggeration…
about your eyes and so-on and so-forth.
It is better for you to enter life with one eye,
than to have two eyes
and be cast into the fiery hell.
Why is that, what is the Lord talking about?
Apparently, what does He not want to see
happen to His little children?
He doesn’t want to see us stumble or what else?
Go to Hell.
He loves us, do you want to be separated from your little children?
He uses a very tender word here for little children… a very tender word
Ed fkj
paidion
pahee-dee'-on
Neuter diminutive of G3816; a childling (of either sex), that is, (properly) an infant, or (by extension) a half grown boy or girl; figuratively an immature Christian: - (little, young) child, damsel.
Not Kid’s, you know like they should be seen and not heard…
This is a tender word.
So it says here,
10"See that you do not
Look at verse ten, proving my point here…
see that you do not despise
What?
one of these little ones,
Who are we talking about?
Children, thank you very much.
for I say to you that their angels in heaven
continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven.
11["For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.]
What is it that’s lost?
The children… who are the children?
Us… yes!
Now, here’s the thing that happens…
We look at this and we look at Matthew eighteen –
And again we try to use Matthew eighteen as this legal formula
Make me puke!
That’s not what its about!
Look at the rest of the chapter here.
There’s another illustration here,
but as you see it is part of the same thing.
12"What do you think?
If any man has a hundred sheep,
and one of them has gone astray,
does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains
and go and search for the one that is straying?
13"If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you,
he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine
which have not gone astray.
What is He talking about there?
What’s the key word?
Look at it again
If any man has a hundred sheep,
and one of them has gone astray,
does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains
and go and search for the one that is straying?
What’s another word for straying?
How about lost?
What’s lost?
What is Jesus constantly concerned about in Matthew eighteen?
His children!
What is the sheep He’s talking about?
One of His children…
He’s using this merely as an illustration of the story.
Student Query:
I have a question for you…
As far as children is that limited to just Christians
Or because all humans are made in the image of God
I was thinking we generally say that Christians
are the children of God, as Christians,
that’s what I have been brought up to say.
But what if you would say because
we are all created in the image of God
that all of us are children;
but some of us realize that
and pursue Christ and accept Him?
Can we handle that in just a minute?
Sure.
Because that’s about a five hour dissertation right there
But I won’t give you five hours, I’ll give you the Tom Gardner capsulized theology that takes about two sentences.
I had that discussion with a group of pastors one night down at seminary.
Hyperbole means a purposeful exaggeration of something.
I exaggerate something way…
For instance, if your hungry you could say,
“I could eat a horse.”
Has anybody here ever eaten an entire horse?
When you tell somebody,
“you’re so hungry you could eat a horse.”
Are you actually telling them to go get Mr. Ed
and put him on a plate?
That’s not what you’re saying.
You are trying to tell people that you’re
Very, very hungry.
7"Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks!
For it is inevitable that…
stumbling blocks come;
but woe to that man
through whom they come
Now look at verse eight…
8"If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble,
What are we talking about?
Still talking about stumbling here…
cut it off and throw it from you;
Now do you really think
He’s talking about cutting off our hand?
What is He saying?
What’s Jesus saying here?
How does Jesus see you?
What does He see you as?
He sees you as a little child.
And he sees the sin, or the problems or the habits that we have as what?
Things that we trip over.
Now that word scandalon by the way
is the Greek word for the trigger on a trap.
That’s something that we could step in
And it triggers something that does what to us?
Stops us, traps us, holds us captive.
So, so far we are talking about…
see what this is about…
it’s about little children
this is how the Lord sees (us)
and it says it’s about stumbling blocks.
Then He goes on to this purposeful exaggeration…
about your eyes and so-on and so-forth.
It is better for you to enter life with one eye,
than to have two eyes
and be cast into the fiery hell.
Why is that, what is the Lord talking about?
Apparently, what does He not want to see
happen to His little children?
He doesn’t want to see us stumble or what else?
Go to Hell.
He loves us, do you want to be separated from your little children?
He uses a very tender word here for little children… a very tender word
Ed fkj
paidion
pahee-dee'-on
Neuter diminutive of G3816; a childling (of either sex), that is, (properly) an infant, or (by extension) a half grown boy or girl; figuratively an immature Christian: - (little, young) child, damsel.
Not Kid’s, you know like they should be seen and not heard…
This is a tender word.
So it says here,
10"See that you do not
Look at verse ten, proving my point here…
see that you do not despise
What?
one of these little ones,
Who are we talking about?
Children, thank you very much.
for I say to you that their angels in heaven
continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven.
11["For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.]
What is it that’s lost?
The children… who are the children?
Us… yes!
Now, here’s the thing that happens…
We look at this and we look at Matthew eighteen –
And again we try to use Matthew eighteen as this legal formula
Make me puke!
That’s not what its about!
Look at the rest of the chapter here.
There’s another illustration here,
but as you see it is part of the same thing.
12"What do you think?
If any man has a hundred sheep,
and one of them has gone astray,
does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains
and go and search for the one that is straying?
13"If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you,
he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine
which have not gone astray.
What is He talking about there?
What’s the key word?
Look at it again
If any man has a hundred sheep,
and one of them has gone astray,
does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains
and go and search for the one that is straying?
What’s another word for straying?
How about lost?
What’s lost?
What is Jesus constantly concerned about in Matthew eighteen?
His children!
What is the sheep He’s talking about?
One of His children…
He’s using this merely as an illustration of the story.
Student Query:
I have a question for you…
As far as children is that limited to just Christians
Or because all humans are made in the image of God
I was thinking we generally say that Christians
are the children of God, as Christians,
that’s what I have been brought up to say.
But what if you would say because
we are all created in the image of God
that all of us are children;
but some of us realize that
and pursue Christ and accept Him?
Can we handle that in just a minute?
Sure.
Because that’s about a five hour dissertation right there
But I won’t give you five hours, I’ll give you the Tom Gardner capsulized theology that takes about two sentences.
I had that discussion with a group of pastors one night down at seminary.
There talking for about forty-five minutes to an hour about this doctrine of election
and I was like, O.K., that is so boring I can’t stand it.
So I gave them a two sentence definition.
Now look at verse fifteen of the same chapter.
Are we still in the same book?
Still in Matthew eighteen, still all together here?
O.K., now look at this.
15"If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private;
Now look at verse fifteen of the same chapter.
Are we still in the same book?
Still in Matthew eighteen, still all together here?
O.K., now look at this.
15"If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private;
if he listens to you, you have won your brother.
You know the rest of this, what is this about?
It’s about bringing back what was lost…
And who is it that is lost?
The children.
Does it give us a different opinion, a different way to look at scripture
You know the rest of this, what is this about?
It’s about bringing back what was lost…
And who is it that is lost?
The children.
Does it give us a different opinion, a different way to look at scripture
if instead of seeing this passage of scripture and the few verses 15-20…
Instead of seeing it as a legal formula – now what is it actually saying to you?
Instead of seeing it as a legal formula – now what is it actually saying to you?
By the time I get to verse fifteen looking and the context
and what we have talked about what is it really about?
Instead of just a legal process, what is it?
It’s about lost children…
It’s about the heart of God being grieved…
For those lost children…
It’s about lost children…
It’s about the heart of God being grieved…
For those lost children…
if your brother sins or stumbles
How many times did we say stumble in there?
If he stumbles… steps on a scandal…
if he is lost… if he is separated…
Look at the tender words Jesus uses here…
look at some of the relational words…
what are some of the relational words you would see?
How about the word brother…
How about that?
Again, little children, how about father,
how about those words…
what is Jesus talking to us about?
He’s talking to us about
a tender relationship of a Father
who does not want to be separated from His children.
He is not talking about a legal cold dead
rabbinical process of restoration,
that’s not what He’s talking about.
What do you think about that?
Is that a little different way to look at that passage of scripture
that you have probably read a dozen times?
I like this too, by the way, when you get to the end look at this…
There are lots of different ways you could say this
I like this too, by the way, when you get to the end look at this…
There are lots of different ways you could say this
but when you get down to verse nineteen which seems to be another paragraph,
but again I don’t think it is because verse nineteen starts with what word?
Again.
Does that sound like it’s connected or disconnected?
Sounds connected to me.
19"Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.
20"For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst."
What is He saying here?
He’s saying I you see somebody who is stuck in a trap,
Again.
Does that sound like it’s connected or disconnected?
Sounds connected to me.
19"Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.
20"For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst."
What is He saying here?
He’s saying I you see somebody who is stuck in a trap,
somebody who is locked in a sin,
somebody who may even be presently sinning,
instead of going after them with some kind of rabbinical tractate
Ed:fkj
trac•tate
• Pronunciation: \trak-tāt\
• Function: noun
• Etymology: Latin tractatus, from tractare
• to draw out, handle, treat, treatment
trac•tate
• Pronunciation: \trak-tāt\
• Function: noun
• Etymology: Latin tractatus, from tractare
• to draw out, handle, treat, treatment
instead of doing that
bring my presence and heart to bear.
He says look, anything that you ask
in My name,
When we are talking about the name of somebody what are we talking about?
Student response:
Character
Yeah, the character, and according to Matthew eighteen
what seems to be the character of Christ,
or the Father that seems to jump off the page.
What is the character?
Compassion…
Grace…
Mercy…
Doesn’t that seem true to you?
I wanted to do that little text with you,
just so you could see
that we need to look at the whole scripture.
Look at the whole counsel
of what the scripture says.
Not just pick out a little piece of it
Remember our stories last week, -
which I got a kick out of.
I really have to say
that I got a kick out of your stories last week,
it was like a library, like gothic novels
and romances and murder mysteries
and who knows what?
I thought that was great you know.
But there was a point to that…
what was the point of that exercise?
Context… I need to know
what the Bible is saying in its full context.
Again, for instance, if you read an epistle,
you’re studying the epistles,
read the whole epistle, don’t just extract a chapter,
don’t just pull out one verse or a paragraph.
Read what it is saying, what is the point of it?
Like in the book of Ephesians,
it says twenty-seven times ‘in Christ’ or ‘in Him’
what’s that about – about living in Christ
or being in Him.
Any questions or observations
about what we just did
with that passage of scripture?
Student Query:
As far as Matthew eighteen I was looking at
“Again I say to you,
that if two of you agree on earth about anything
that they may ask, it shall be done”…
I wrote down, I just want to make sure
what you were trying to say,
would this be just for people coming together
for correction in the church
or is that for all matters?
As far as Matthew eighteen I was looking at
“Again I say to you,
that if two of you agree on earth about anything
that they may ask, it shall be done”…
I wrote down, I just want to make sure
what you were trying to say,
would this be just for people coming together
for correction in the church
or is that for all matters?
and adjust your vocabulary just a little bit?
Sure
What was it actually about?
Love
It’s about compassion, love and restoration.
It’s not about correction…
correction seems to be a piece of it,
but it is actually not about correction solely,
it’s about love, mercy compassion, restoration –
look at all the tender words that are used there.
So that verse would be for…
I know a lot of times Christians commonly ask
is that for anything that you ask for,
like healing or anything
I know a lot of times Christians commonly ask
is that for anything that you ask for,
like healing or anything
Nope
Is this for seeking His mercy and compassion…
That’s right, now I could if I’m tempted to,
give you a little more exegesis about that passage of scripture,
Is this for seeking His mercy and compassion…
That’s right, now I could if I’m tempted to,
give you a little more exegesis about that passage of scripture,
because I’ve studied it in a little bit of detail.
That passage of scripture in Matthew eighteen that He’s saying
“if you ask anything”… what does the scripture say in that verse there,
nineteen and twenty, what does it say…
If any of you agree… How many?
Two or three…
Let’s take this for a minute…
I’m going to show you again, principles, patterns that sort of thing…
If any of you agree… How many?
Two or three…
Let’s take this for a minute…
I’m going to show you again, principles, patterns that sort of thing…
Anybody here know what the mercy seat is?
What’s the mercy seat…
What is it Fred?
Student response:
It’s the area above the arc of the covenant
where God’s presence resided.
It’s the area above the arc of the covenant
where God’s presence resided.
You can find them starting to talk about it in Exodus twenty-five.
The very first thing that that God establishes, or the very first structure,
here me on this, the very first that God ever details to tell men to build
in all of the bible is the mercy seat. What does that say?
What is God concerned about?
He’s concerned about His children, and He wants to bring them back to mercy.
He’s concerned about His children, and He wants to bring them back to mercy.
Now, I want you to look at this in a little different way.
You may not have seen it this way before.
On the mercy seat what do we have? We have of course a seat…
but we have what else?
Student reply:
Two angels
Two angels
they’re powerful fire angles – (hothuv) – that’s a word in Hebrew
that means something like God means business…
cherubim comes from the word hothuv you know…
like the same word for a sword or something like that.
That’s really powerful, a powerful word –
not chubby cute little angels with blink
(makes a motion like cupid shooting an arrow).
These are big bruisers!
These are big bruisers!
There is a representation of these angels in this verse here, how many are there?
Two
Now, if you think about this in Exodus twenty-five, toward the end of that chapter,
Two
Now, if you think about this in Exodus twenty-five, toward the end of that chapter,
it says you shall make two cherubim upon the mercy seat,
they shall be one piece with the mercy seat,
and they shall be made of hammered gold.
Ed:fkj
17"You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold,
two and a half cubits long
and one and a half cubits wide.
18"You shall make two cherubim of gold,
make them of hammered work
at the two ends of the mercy seat.
19"Make one cherub at one end
and one cherub at the other end;
you shall make the cherubim of one piece
with the mercy seat at its two ends.
20"The cherubim shall have
their wings spread upward,
covering the mercy seat with their wings
and facing one another;
the faces of the cherubim
are to be turned toward the mercy seat.
21"You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark,
and in the ark you shall put
the testimony which I will give to you.
Exodus 25:17-21 NASB
One piece, what does that kind of tell you?
Who do you need to be in agreement with?
What is it that they need to be in agreement with?
How about mercy?
So here we have two cherubim on the mercy seat.
How many?
Two…
What’s in the middle?
The presence of God.
Say the presence of God…
That was very good…
Now I want you to see this
Because I have this Christological way of looking at the Old Testament
Ed:fkj
Christology (from Christ and Greek -λογία, -logia) is a field of study within Christian theology which is concerned with the nature of Jesus Christ, particularly with how the divine and human are related in his person.
As my rabbi used to say your so called Old Testament
Ed:fkj
17"You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold,
two and a half cubits long
and one and a half cubits wide.
18"You shall make two cherubim of gold,
make them of hammered work
at the two ends of the mercy seat.
19"Make one cherub at one end
and one cherub at the other end;
you shall make the cherubim of one piece
with the mercy seat at its two ends.
20"The cherubim shall have
their wings spread upward,
covering the mercy seat with their wings
and facing one another;
the faces of the cherubim
are to be turned toward the mercy seat.
21"You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark,
and in the ark you shall put
the testimony which I will give to you.
Exodus 25:17-21 NASB
One piece, what does that kind of tell you?
Who do you need to be in agreement with?
What is it that they need to be in agreement with?
How about mercy?
So here we have two cherubim on the mercy seat.
How many?
Two…
What’s in the middle?
The presence of God.
Say the presence of God…
That was very good…
Now I want you to see this
Because I have this Christological way of looking at the Old Testament
Ed:fkj
Christology (from Christ and Greek -λογία, -logia) is a field of study within Christian theology which is concerned with the nature of Jesus Christ, particularly with how the divine and human are related in his person.
As my rabbi used to say your so called Old Testament
which is actually to say the Bible. And here it is.
You have two cherubim and in the middle you have the presence of God.
The presence of God means He’s present!
He’s present, He’s with us right?!
That was not a trick question, that was pretty straight out there.
So He’s present, He is here… right?
So here’s what happens… those two angels are turned toward what?
They are turned toward the presence of God
He’s present, He’s with us right?!
That was not a trick question, that was pretty straight out there.
So He’s present, He is here… right?
So here’s what happens… those two angels are turned toward what?
They are turned toward the presence of God
and they are one piece so it means they have to be in agreement… say agreement.
Go back to Matthew eighteen.
If two of you agree
Now some of you have the King James which is a much better translation
Go back to Matthew eighteen.
If two of you agree
Now some of you have the King James which is a much better translation
for it says “agree as touching”
Actually there is a word there in the Greek text that says that
you agree as in completing a circuit.
If you come to agreement what does it say in Matthew eighteen
when two people come to agreement? What’s going to happen?
It will be done, that’s good but what is the last part?
What does it say in the very lasty line?
I will be present.
You see this thing that you’re talking about here in Matthew eighteen is a picture
It will be done, that’s good but what is the last part?
What does it say in the very lasty line?
I will be present.
You see this thing that you’re talking about here in Matthew eighteen is a picture
I believe an allusion to the mercy seat.
I believe that you and I establish the mercy seat of God!
I believe, that when you and I are determined to restore lost little children
I believe that you and I establish the mercy seat of God!
I believe, that when you and I are determined to restore lost little children
who are out here in the world –
I believe that you and I are actually bringing people to the mercy seat of God.
I believe that’s what we are doing.
Now, here’s the thing… this is a kind of interesting picture here…
Now, here’s the thing… this is a kind of interesting picture here…
if I had a cherubim here, and a cherubim here and somebody sitting in this mercy seat
those two angels, their wings would actually be touching,
they would actually be connected together.
Below that we have this person being brought to the mercy seat
and being shown and manifest the compassion and glory of God.
Now is that just more confusing,
Now is that just more confusing,
or does it give you a little different way to look at the scriptures?
We want to look at the scriptures in that way.
In the middle of this I see Jesus in the New Testament and Jesus in the Old Testament.
In the middle of this I see Jesus in the New Testament and Jesus in the Old Testament.
Guess what Jesus says… remember the scripture that says,
it actually says it in two places*… once is in Romans…
it say that He has been set forth as the propitiation – fancy word…
That is the Greek word…
you don’t have to write this down,
but it is the Greek word hilastriom.
That word hilastrion occurs also in the Greek translation of the Old Testament.
Do you know how it’s translated?
Mercy seat!
Mercy seat!
The Greek word for mercy seat is hilastrion.
So it says Jesus is the mercy seat… Jesus becomes the mercy seat.
Ed:fkj
*actually in four places
Romans 3:25; Hebrews 2:17; 1 John 2:2 and 1 John 4:10
hilasmos
hil-as-mos'
atonement, that is, (concretely) an expiator: - propitiation.
You look half mystified, but that’s O.K.
What do you think about that, the way we just talked about that?
How does that make you feel, when we talk about that?
Student responses:
It makes it come alive
Empowered
Ed:fkj
*actually in four places
Romans 3:25; Hebrews 2:17; 1 John 2:2 and 1 John 4:10
hilasmos
hil-as-mos'
atonement, that is, (concretely) an expiator: - propitiation.
You look half mystified, but that’s O.K.
What do you think about that, the way we just talked about that?
How does that make you feel, when we talk about that?
Student responses:
It makes it come alive
Empowered
Doesn’t it kind of look a little differently?
You know how I learned that stuff?
I studied, for instance Matthew eighteen like one sentence, one word, one phrase at a time.
You know how I learned that stuff?
I studied, for instance Matthew eighteen like one sentence, one word, one phrase at a time.
To look to see, what is He talking about here, tow or three agreeing, what are we talking about?
I looked to find other places in scripture where two things agree
and the first thing I come up with is the mercy seat.
Then I said O that’s about the presence of God, and that’s what the mercy seat is about….
The mercy seat in the Old Testament is about the presence of God.
How does the presence of God come to earth?- when you and I agree –
and what is it that we agree on or toward? –
we agree that some people are lost, that we don’t want them to step in traps,
we don’t want them to be separated from the Father,
we want to bring them to the mercy seat and give them mercy…
not a five verse legal edict. Cut it out! You know that’s what it’s about.
One thing here I want to answer your question about,
are all people the children of God
or some people think that
only Christians are the children of God.
The simple answer is that all people were born
in the image and created in the image of God
to be children of God.
When we talk about the doctrine of election,
this is not a theology class,
but if it was I would say that
the doctrine of election is like this…
One thing here I want to answer your question about,
are all people the children of God
or some people think that
only Christians are the children of God.
The simple answer is that all people were born
in the image and created in the image of God
to be children of God.
When we talk about the doctrine of election,
this is not a theology class,
but if it was I would say that
the doctrine of election is like this…
If you’re worried about it you’re in!
Tom Gardner – Doctrine of Election 101.
If you’re worried you’re in, if you don’t care, we have to talk.
Yes you have a question?
Student Query:
Yes
What you are telling me is…
I have heard preachers and teachers preaching about…
they and just take two verses of the bible
and have a forty-five minutes sermon.
And actually I have heard
number six and seven from Matthew eighteen
and they haven’t mentioned anything about kids.
Are they wrong?
Well they are incomplete. They are missing the point.
Student response:
O.K., they are incomplete,
but Peter was assigned the mission
to preach to the Gentiles.
There are a lot of people having discussions
about eating pork or not eating pork,
because of the vision.
So this will take another hour or two probably…
of just talking about eating pork or not…
it is written in Leviticus…
but the meaning of that vision means something else…
is it about eating pork or not?
So how can that be incomplete one is totally opposite…
Let’s say it this way, some people
can take one or two verses of scripture,
and as long as they have the context correct
it’s good because they have the general principle.
If I were to look at that again, Matthew eighteen
is he using that as an example
because that is a commonly preached about scripture.
If I look at it and see it as
merely five verses for correction that would be…
on one hand it is accurate,
but on the other hand it’s incomplete.
It misses the heart of God.
When Peter in the book of Acts…
you know God says he had that vision two times,
do you remember? And He says, kill and eat.
What He is talking about is… He is saying,
look those former things
that had to do with law and legalism
and the results of the curse in the fall;
those things are now done away with.
Now everything is going to be permissible, in that sense.
In other words he is talking about the things
that have to do with the curse and the fall
and all those kinds of things.
In Leviticus when those Kosher laws come out,
there are several Kosher laws –
that’s talking about things that are good to eat
verses things that are not good to eat.
Basically what God’s purpose was here…
was when He gives that vision in Acts nineteen,
it wasn’t just about what couldn’t be eaten…
what is the very next thing that happens?
That’s like a sandwich, that little passage of scripture,
that’s like the bologna in the sandwich.
What happens before that?
Remember there’s a man called Cornelius … what is he?
A Gentile, not a Jewish person.
Before that time the only people
who could be under the covenant would be Jewish,
so Cornelius has this revelation…
and they must have had some powerful meetings there.
Cornelius who is a man in authority
sends a couple of his soldiers to find Peter.
Cornelius is a Gentile man,
who before would have been seen as what?
Unclean. So now there’s again…
that’s an example the Lord is using
that example of what is clean verses what is not clean.
If you look after that then Peter goes to Cornelius’ house,
and the order is…
in fact God just turns the order up-side-down.
God first of all baptizes them in the Holy Spirit,
they begin to speak in tongues and then Peter says…
because apparently God had to use that as an object lesson
because Peter still had a problem.
His head…
he’s thinking head first here, instead of heart first.
He still thinks that there is perhaps a problem.
What happens is He… God pours out the Holy Spirit…
they begin to speak in tongues…
and Peter says
‘Oh my gosh, I guess we have to baptize him in water.
I guess they belong too! That’s a covenant statement.
So that whole chapter of scripture,
what is it nine or ten I forget…
that is all about then… if I look at the whole context
then what is it really about?
Gentiles and the Jewish being the same…
Now what about if I was just to preach
those to verses and say
what I should eat and what I shouldn’t eat?
Not clear and not complete.
Context is the thing.
Now you don’t read the whole passage of scripture as long as you know what the context is – as long as you say this is the context of that scripture then that’s good to do.
Does that make sense?
Student Query:
I have one more question.
You have a three question limit today…
I heard you say that all things are permissible
he’s thinking head first here, instead of heart first.
He still thinks that there is perhaps a problem.
What happens is He… God pours out the Holy Spirit…
they begin to speak in tongues…
and Peter says
‘Oh my gosh, I guess we have to baptize him in water.
I guess they belong too! That’s a covenant statement.
So that whole chapter of scripture,
what is it nine or ten I forget…
that is all about then… if I look at the whole context
then what is it really about?
Gentiles and the Jewish being the same…
Now what about if I was just to preach
those to verses and say
what I should eat and what I shouldn’t eat?
Not clear and not complete.
Context is the thing.
Now you don’t read the whole passage of scripture as long as you know what the context is – as long as you say this is the context of that scripture then that’s good to do.
Does that make sense?
Student Query:
I have one more question.
You have a three question limit today…
I heard you say that all things are permissible
but not beneficial is that the one you were referring to when you said permissible?
you can eat whatever is necessary is what he is saying
Student response:
Oh O.K. I … but what would be an interpretation of all things are permissible but not everything is beneficial?
It would be mostly the story of my life.
All things are possible but very few things have been profitable.
Student response:
So you can pretty much do everything you want…
So you can pretty much do everything you want…
Yeah, you can stick your finger in your eye if you want to….
But that’s not necessarily a good thing.
See, what I want to do… is
I want us to really search
from the heart of God in the scripture.
Just in that passage of scripture there brother,
that is a powerful passage of scripture to teach,
because it’s again…
about God saying everybody is welcome.
It’s not about what’s clean verses what’s not clean.
God is saying… “I want them.”
They’re my children… they belong to Me…
I want them back. I believe that’s really true.
What I want you to do is
just really fall in love with the heart of God
as it is expressed in the scriptures.
A-Men, because it is over-and-over.
Again, not to read the scriptures
just to understand the fact…
it’s good to quote scripture,
good to have facts and all that kind of stuff…
that’s really good…
but it’s not a question of what you know,
it’s a question of what do you become.
As you search the scriptures…
What did Jesus say,
“You search the scriptures,
and in them you think you have life,
but they testify of Me.”
So what is all of the scripture about?
Christ
It’s all about Jesus,
from the Old Testament to the New Testament.
What did we say the first source of light and the last source of light…
It’s Jesus!
I can’t see how we don’t see that?
It’s all about that.
Now what we want to do
is we want you to fall in love with that!
To search the scriptures to see the heart of God –
it is so powerful and so passionate,
the heart of God is so passionate
in the scripture for us the people that He loves.
A-Men? O.K. we’re going to just take another couple of minutes…
Any other questions before we do just a little bit of teaching, then you’re going to have an activity to work on tonight.
Yes
Student query:
Whenever you are trying to get
the context in the Bible,
how much do you need to read for the context…
are you going by like the headings, paragraphs…
how much context do you need…
do you know what I mean?
How far ahead do you read?
That’s a very good question…
did you all hear that question,
I want to make sure you heard that…
she says if you’re trying to get the context,
how much do you need to read?
The answer to that question is
that it depends upon what kind of scripture it is.
For instance, is it a Psalm?
Is it a narrative in the Old Testament?
Is it a Gospel… something like the Gospel of Matthew?
Apparently here (Matthew eighteen)
we had to look at a whole chapter to understand.
This is just the way I look at things,
and I think this is a proper way,
especially if you’re interpreting the Gospels.
I tend to look at it on the basis of
what Jesus is saying in a given place.
That’s one kind of context.
To understand if I need to…
If I’m looking at one verse,
if for instance the Lord brings one verse to mind
or if your meditating on one verse,
it’s good to see where does that rise from?
What is the context, what is He talking about?
Let’s think of an example in the New Testament…
Do you have an example in scripture
that you’re thinking about?
Student response:
No just in general, I was thinking even in the beginning
But that’s not necessarily a good thing.
See, what I want to do… is
I want us to really search
from the heart of God in the scripture.
Just in that passage of scripture there brother,
that is a powerful passage of scripture to teach,
because it’s again…
about God saying everybody is welcome.
It’s not about what’s clean verses what’s not clean.
God is saying… “I want them.”
They’re my children… they belong to Me…
I want them back. I believe that’s really true.
What I want you to do is
just really fall in love with the heart of God
as it is expressed in the scriptures.
A-Men, because it is over-and-over.
Again, not to read the scriptures
just to understand the fact…
it’s good to quote scripture,
good to have facts and all that kind of stuff…
that’s really good…
but it’s not a question of what you know,
it’s a question of what do you become.
As you search the scriptures…
What did Jesus say,
“You search the scriptures,
and in them you think you have life,
but they testify of Me.”
So what is all of the scripture about?
Christ
It’s all about Jesus,
from the Old Testament to the New Testament.
What did we say the first source of light and the last source of light…
It’s Jesus!
I can’t see how we don’t see that?
It’s all about that.
Now what we want to do
is we want you to fall in love with that!
To search the scriptures to see the heart of God –
it is so powerful and so passionate,
the heart of God is so passionate
in the scripture for us the people that He loves.
A-Men? O.K. we’re going to just take another couple of minutes…
Any other questions before we do just a little bit of teaching, then you’re going to have an activity to work on tonight.
Yes
Student query:
Whenever you are trying to get
the context in the Bible,
how much do you need to read for the context…
are you going by like the headings, paragraphs…
how much context do you need…
do you know what I mean?
How far ahead do you read?
That’s a very good question…
did you all hear that question,
I want to make sure you heard that…
she says if you’re trying to get the context,
how much do you need to read?
The answer to that question is
that it depends upon what kind of scripture it is.
For instance, is it a Psalm?
Is it a narrative in the Old Testament?
Is it a Gospel… something like the Gospel of Matthew?
Apparently here (Matthew eighteen)
we had to look at a whole chapter to understand.
This is just the way I look at things,
and I think this is a proper way,
especially if you’re interpreting the Gospels.
I tend to look at it on the basis of
what Jesus is saying in a given place.
That’s one kind of context.
To understand if I need to…
If I’m looking at one verse,
if for instance the Lord brings one verse to mind
or if your meditating on one verse,
it’s good to see where does that rise from?
What is the context, what is He talking about?
Let’s think of an example in the New Testament…
Do you have an example in scripture
that you’re thinking about?
Student response:
No just in general, I was thinking even in the beginning
before you read the whole book of Matthew, there’s one page…
It’s always good to read the background.
Again, Matthew is the most Jewish of the Gospels.
He quotes the Torah and the prophets
more than any other New Testament Gospel.
It is good to read those things… we understand that each one of the witnesses has a slightly different perspective.
Student response:
So if you’re not getting it yet
if you’re not understanding what the context is –
just go back until you do get it?
Remember this (Hand close to eyes and moving away slowly)
what did we say about this last week?
What happens as I move this away?
I get a context, I get a perspective right?
Hopefully as you are going through the Bible study Text,
Some of those things will become more clear to you as well.
I encourage people to study
a book of the Bible at a time as much as you can.
There are sometimes… for instance
I will do what I would call a topical study.
For instance, I did a study, I taught a class last year,
I think it was in June, I forget, May or June
that was the Seven Sabbath Miracles the Jesus did.
What’s the purpose of the Sabbath… what’s it about?
Rest… seven is also the number of rest.
Jesus did exactly seven miracles on the Sabbath.
What’s He saying?
He wants to bring us into rest.
You know that every time
He heals somebody on the Sabbath
He makes a point about what it means to come to rest.
It’s on my website graceandtruthfellowship.com
You can listen to the teaching – it’s on there.
Basically, He makes a point
about what it means to come to rest.
That’s a topical way, but even then when I taught that
I would look at the whole passage of scripture
to see what’s the context.
For instance, the man who he heals at the pool of Bethesda.
Do you know what Bethesda means?
It means the house of mercy.
So part of mercy is coming to a place of rest.
Jesus sees this man who has been there for thirty-eight years,
I actually, looking at that passage of scripture
estimated that Jesus had had to have walked by that man
at least one hundred times in his life previous to that day.
A minimum of a hundred times – minimum!
But there was a certain day, it says it was a certain day –
Conditions were ripe, the man’s heart was receptive…
and so Jesus walks into the scene,
and Jesus chooses that day to heal him.
What’s this guy trying to do?
What’s he trying to do all the time?
He’s trying to crawl his way to mercy.
It doesn’t work.
Mercy is a gift.
I think Jesus had to wait until this guy was good and tired.
Tired of trying to crawl to the pool,
because the water gets stirred up…
see people that think
you have to word to obtain mercy,
see God as this rather inconsistent
unmerciful, hard to know –
all that kind of stuff…
That’s not who God is.
God, is Jesus walking by,
after this guy has worn out in his own energy,
saying O.K., what do you want?
Because, He says, ‘do you want to be healed or not?’
The guys been there for thirty-eight years,
apparently he didn’t know what it took to get healed,
or come to this place.
What it took was, he had to trust the heart of God.
Jesus had to show up on the scene and heal him.
That’s one way of looking at things, a topical way…
There are lots of different studies like that.
But you still have to look at the context.
In the Gospels, the way I read them –
I look to see where it is by location, not necessarily by paragraphs.
Now this bible here is the New American Standard
It’s always good to read the background.
Again, Matthew is the most Jewish of the Gospels.
He quotes the Torah and the prophets
more than any other New Testament Gospel.
It is good to read those things… we understand that each one of the witnesses has a slightly different perspective.
Student response:
So if you’re not getting it yet
if you’re not understanding what the context is –
just go back until you do get it?
Remember this (Hand close to eyes and moving away slowly)
what did we say about this last week?
What happens as I move this away?
I get a context, I get a perspective right?
Hopefully as you are going through the Bible study Text,
Some of those things will become more clear to you as well.
I encourage people to study
a book of the Bible at a time as much as you can.
There are sometimes… for instance
I will do what I would call a topical study.
For instance, I did a study, I taught a class last year,
I think it was in June, I forget, May or June
that was the Seven Sabbath Miracles the Jesus did.
What’s the purpose of the Sabbath… what’s it about?
Rest… seven is also the number of rest.
Jesus did exactly seven miracles on the Sabbath.
What’s He saying?
He wants to bring us into rest.
You know that every time
He heals somebody on the Sabbath
He makes a point about what it means to come to rest.
It’s on my website graceandtruthfellowship.com
You can listen to the teaching – it’s on there.
Basically, He makes a point
about what it means to come to rest.
That’s a topical way, but even then when I taught that
I would look at the whole passage of scripture
to see what’s the context.
For instance, the man who he heals at the pool of Bethesda.
Do you know what Bethesda means?
It means the house of mercy.
So part of mercy is coming to a place of rest.
Jesus sees this man who has been there for thirty-eight years,
I actually, looking at that passage of scripture
estimated that Jesus had had to have walked by that man
at least one hundred times in his life previous to that day.
A minimum of a hundred times – minimum!
But there was a certain day, it says it was a certain day –
Conditions were ripe, the man’s heart was receptive…
and so Jesus walks into the scene,
and Jesus chooses that day to heal him.
What’s this guy trying to do?
What’s he trying to do all the time?
He’s trying to crawl his way to mercy.
It doesn’t work.
Mercy is a gift.
I think Jesus had to wait until this guy was good and tired.
Tired of trying to crawl to the pool,
because the water gets stirred up…
see people that think
you have to word to obtain mercy,
see God as this rather inconsistent
unmerciful, hard to know –
all that kind of stuff…
That’s not who God is.
God, is Jesus walking by,
after this guy has worn out in his own energy,
saying O.K., what do you want?
Because, He says, ‘do you want to be healed or not?’
The guys been there for thirty-eight years,
apparently he didn’t know what it took to get healed,
or come to this place.
What it took was, he had to trust the heart of God.
Jesus had to show up on the scene and heal him.
That’s one way of looking at things, a topical way…
There are lots of different studies like that.
But you still have to look at the context.
In the Gospels, the way I read them –
I look to see where it is by location, not necessarily by paragraphs.
Now this bible here is the New American Standard
which I think, to me anyway this is just my opinion – humble person that I am –
that it is the most accurate but readable translation; that’s my opinion.
If you study a little bit of the original languages
and you begin to read down through the New American Standard
you see that they are pretty dog gone similar, if you are translating them.
So, I have that on pretty good authority.
But even that divides into subheadings and puts paragraphs and headings,
that I’m not always sure to be honest with you are helpful;
because when I look at those subheadings
I am starting to see someone else’s observation.
I don’t know if that’s a good thing.
If I ever invented my own bible
If I ever invented my own bible
it would be the New American Standard with no subheadings,
and no chapters, no verses –
it would just be text and you would have to read it and figure it out.
I think it would be great… don’t tempt me.
Yes
Yes
Student query:
I have one quick thing… in the pool of Bethesda it says in one verse
that the angel stirred the water and people went in for healing
as a footnote instead of in the text…
how do you feel about that, I think that I’ve heard that was
the whole point of the whole text..
like usually people would go in and get healed –
but he never got to go in, so Jesus came and healed him.
How do you feel about that?
Because the NIV which is called a dynamic equivalent,
Because the NIV which is called a dynamic equivalent,
uses a particular underlying Greek text, that that particular verse,
what is that thirteen or fourteen, I forget what verse it is…
Student response:
four and five
O.K., I knew it was a four or something like that…
Student response:
four and five
O.K., I knew it was a four or something like that…
that particular verse there is extracted because it doesn’t occur in the oldest text.
The New American Standard and the King James do use that
because it is in the text that they have.
We have older texts today than they did when they translated the King James Bible.
We have older texts today.
It is obvious though that what Jesus is talking about –
that the meaning is clear that the angel would stir it –
it was a very well known thing and somebody merely added that
as an anecdotal footnote latter on which became a verse.
The fact is you can trust what it says, read the footnotes,
Student response:
Is that an actual verse?
It is in some Greek texts, there are more that one;
Student response:
Is that an actual verse?
It is in some Greek texts, there are more that one;
there’s the Received Text, a text that was used in 1611.
There’s an old text that was found after that.
It is accurate to say that that is part of the text.
Student response:
So that is part of the text
Yes it is.
Student response:
It is part of the whole point of the whole thing..
You can trust it yes.
Just like it says in the Gospel of Mark
the fourteenth chapter it says
that these signs shall accompany them..
and so-on-and-so-forth that is not in all the texts.
So should I leave it out? No,
some of the texts are fragmentary texts,
but I don’t want to get into textual criticism here
because that will take all night O.K?
But the fact is you can trust the text.
The NIV was put together by incredible scholars…
The New American Standard was put together
by even more incredible scholars.
You know, I like it; I like the New American Standard ,
I’ve been reading it since I was saved –
when somebody lead me to Christ
sitting on the floor playing Ginger Bread Man
with this guys little daughter;
they put a New American Standard Bible in my hand,
and that’s been my bible ever since then –
and I know why the Lord did that
because it is very accurate.
Most seminaries today
probably would prefer that as the version to study.
Kay Arthur uses the New American Standard too.
She is a great teacher.
A couple of notes here and then
we are going to take our break here about eight o’clock.
When we look at a passage in the bible
we need to know some things.
Remember this week
we’re looking at just observation aren’t we.
For instance in the Book of Acts
chapters nine or ten that we were talking about;
that’s a history book. We need to know that.
I need to know what kind of literature am I looking at.
I need to know, is it history, is it poetry,
is it prophetic, is it an epistle, is it part of a Gospel,
because as I look at the type of literature it is,
that’s going to determine…
and that’s why I suggest you get that little book
Reading the Bible for All its Worth
because those two go into very good detail
as to how you ought to interpret
those various kinds of scripture.
I think it is excellent, very, very well done.
We need to know and identify
what kind of a form of writing
or literature this thing is that we are looking at
so we know how to interpret it.
Some things may cross over…
Let me give you an example of something
Think about when Jesus is hanging on the Cross.
In the Synoptic Gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke
Ed:fkj
The synoptic Gospels (from the Greek 'syn,' meaning "together," and 'optic,' meaning "seen") are three Gospels in the New Testament the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, and the Gospel of Luke, that display a high degree of similarity
especially Matthew he says,
something pretty powerful,
He quotes scripture…
Anybody happen to know what He quotes?
My God, My God why have you forsaken me.(spoken in Hebrew)
In my opinion He probably spoke this in Hebrew,
not Aramaic because He is quoting the Torah
and the Torah was written in Hebrew.
Oh excuse me the Psalms are written in Hebrew not Aramaic.
He is saying My God, My God why have you forsaken me
Do you know where that comes from?
Student response:
The Psalms
Psalm twenty-two.
Let’s look at the rest of Psalm twenty-two for a minute.
Well just look at the first verse here:
My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?
Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.
O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer;
And by night, but I have no rest.
3Yet You are holy,
O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.
4In You our fathers trusted;
They trusted and You delivered them.
5To You they cried out and were delivered;
In You they trusted and were not disappointed.
Now look at verse six…
6But I am a worm and not a man,
A )reproach of men and despised by the people.
7All who see me sneer at me;
They separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying,
8"Commit yourself to the LORD; let Him deliver him;
Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him."
What does that sound like?
It is exactly what they were saying around Jesus
as Jesus is hanging on the Cross… see that?
Here’s another thing, look at this in verse eleven
11Be not far from me, for trouble is near;
For there is none to help.
12Many bulls have surrounded me;
Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.
13They open wide their mouth at me,
As a ravening and a roaring lion.
14I am poured out like water,
And all my bones are out of joint;
My heart is like wax;
It is melted within me.
15My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
And my tongue cleaves to my jaws;
In other words He’s incredibly thirsty
What does He say on the Cross?
I thirst!
And You lay me in the dust of death.
16For dogs have surrounded me;
A band of evildoers has encompassed me;
Look at this…
They pierced my hands and my feet.
17I can count all my bones.
Why because He’s stretched out like that…
So you can see
Especially when you see Jesus in the New Testament
quoting something in the Old Testament…
you can’t understand what that passage
in the New Testament is about,
unless you understand
where it came from in the Old Testament.
Is that clear?
Student observation:
Wasn’t it a tradition,
a Jewish tradition to quote the first verse and then…
They would assume the rest.
Yes, let me give you another example of that.
This might upset some people’s theology,
but I’ll do it anyway…
Ephesians four,
I’ve always liked to upset people’s theology…
Ephesians four talks about
having the character of Christ, longsuffering
and so-on, but in the beginning of verse six or seven
It says something like that He …
well why don’t I just read it to you.
Just a second…
is this helpful when we do this kind of thing?
Look at verse seven,
But to each one of us…
How many?
Each – it’s a Greek word escatos which means
“to each and every single one.”
Who does that include?
Raise you hand if that includes you.
You are, an “each one.”
I now officially swear you in as an ‘each one.’
So how many people have received a grace gift?
Everybody.
According the measure of Christ’s gift…
Now look at what it says in verse eight here,
8Therefore it says,
"WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH,
HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES,
AND HE GAVE GIFTS
or you could translate that He received gifts among MEN."
Where’s that come from?
Student reply:
Psalms sixty-eight
It comes from Psalms sixty-eight…
Arise O God…
Look at Psalm sixty-eight
Look at what that says,
So what are we talking about here…
Student response:
So that is part of the text
Yes it is.
Student response:
It is part of the whole point of the whole thing..
You can trust it yes.
Just like it says in the Gospel of Mark
the fourteenth chapter it says
that these signs shall accompany them..
and so-on-and-so-forth that is not in all the texts.
So should I leave it out? No,
some of the texts are fragmentary texts,
but I don’t want to get into textual criticism here
because that will take all night O.K?
But the fact is you can trust the text.
The NIV was put together by incredible scholars…
The New American Standard was put together
by even more incredible scholars.
You know, I like it; I like the New American Standard ,
I’ve been reading it since I was saved –
when somebody lead me to Christ
sitting on the floor playing Ginger Bread Man
with this guys little daughter;
they put a New American Standard Bible in my hand,
and that’s been my bible ever since then –
and I know why the Lord did that
because it is very accurate.
Most seminaries today
probably would prefer that as the version to study.
Kay Arthur uses the New American Standard too.
She is a great teacher.
A couple of notes here and then
we are going to take our break here about eight o’clock.
When we look at a passage in the bible
we need to know some things.
Remember this week
we’re looking at just observation aren’t we.
For instance in the Book of Acts
chapters nine or ten that we were talking about;
that’s a history book. We need to know that.
I need to know what kind of literature am I looking at.
I need to know, is it history, is it poetry,
is it prophetic, is it an epistle, is it part of a Gospel,
because as I look at the type of literature it is,
that’s going to determine…
and that’s why I suggest you get that little book
Reading the Bible for All its Worth
because those two go into very good detail
as to how you ought to interpret
those various kinds of scripture.
I think it is excellent, very, very well done.
We need to know and identify
what kind of a form of writing
or literature this thing is that we are looking at
so we know how to interpret it.
Some things may cross over…
Let me give you an example of something
Think about when Jesus is hanging on the Cross.
In the Synoptic Gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke
Ed:fkj
The synoptic Gospels (from the Greek 'syn,' meaning "together," and 'optic,' meaning "seen") are three Gospels in the New Testament the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, and the Gospel of Luke, that display a high degree of similarity
especially Matthew he says,
something pretty powerful,
He quotes scripture…
Anybody happen to know what He quotes?
My God, My God why have you forsaken me.(spoken in Hebrew)
In my opinion He probably spoke this in Hebrew,
not Aramaic because He is quoting the Torah
and the Torah was written in Hebrew.
Oh excuse me the Psalms are written in Hebrew not Aramaic.
He is saying My God, My God why have you forsaken me
Do you know where that comes from?
Student response:
The Psalms
Psalm twenty-two.
Let’s look at the rest of Psalm twenty-two for a minute.
Well just look at the first verse here:
My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?
Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.
O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer;
And by night, but I have no rest.
3Yet You are holy,
O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.
4In You our fathers trusted;
They trusted and You delivered them.
5To You they cried out and were delivered;
In You they trusted and were not disappointed.
Now look at verse six…
6But I am a worm and not a man,
A )reproach of men and despised by the people.
7All who see me sneer at me;
They separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying,
8"Commit yourself to the LORD; let Him deliver him;
Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him."
What does that sound like?
It is exactly what they were saying around Jesus
as Jesus is hanging on the Cross… see that?
Here’s another thing, look at this in verse eleven
11Be not far from me, for trouble is near;
For there is none to help.
12Many bulls have surrounded me;
Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.
13They open wide their mouth at me,
As a ravening and a roaring lion.
14I am poured out like water,
And all my bones are out of joint;
My heart is like wax;
It is melted within me.
15My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
And my tongue cleaves to my jaws;
In other words He’s incredibly thirsty
What does He say on the Cross?
I thirst!
And You lay me in the dust of death.
16For dogs have surrounded me;
A band of evildoers has encompassed me;
Look at this…
They pierced my hands and my feet.
17I can count all my bones.
Why because He’s stretched out like that…
So you can see
Especially when you see Jesus in the New Testament
quoting something in the Old Testament…
you can’t understand what that passage
in the New Testament is about,
unless you understand
where it came from in the Old Testament.
Is that clear?
Student observation:
Wasn’t it a tradition,
a Jewish tradition to quote the first verse and then…
They would assume the rest.
Yes, let me give you another example of that.
This might upset some people’s theology,
but I’ll do it anyway…
Ephesians four,
I’ve always liked to upset people’s theology…
Ephesians four talks about
having the character of Christ, longsuffering
and so-on, but in the beginning of verse six or seven
It says something like that He …
well why don’t I just read it to you.
Just a second…
is this helpful when we do this kind of thing?
Look at verse seven,
But to each one of us…
How many?
Each – it’s a Greek word escatos which means
“to each and every single one.”
Who does that include?
Raise you hand if that includes you.
You are, an “each one.”
I now officially swear you in as an ‘each one.’
So how many people have received a grace gift?
Everybody.
According the measure of Christ’s gift…
Now look at what it says in verse eight here,
8Therefore it says,
"WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH,
HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES,
AND HE GAVE GIFTS
or you could translate that He received gifts among MEN."
Where’s that come from?
Student reply:
Psalms sixty-eight
It comes from Psalms sixty-eight…
Arise O God…
Look at Psalm sixty-eight
Look at what that says,
So what are we talking about here…
now people talk about this and they use it as a passage about the five fold ministry.
They go on, and He gave some as apostles, pastors and teachers
for the equipping of the saints and so-on-and-so forth…
We talk about that when we talk about ascension gifts and almost establish them as offices,
We talk about that when we talk about ascension gifts and almost establish them as offices,
but that’s not really what we are talking about here.
How does Psalm sixty-eight begin,
speaking of quoting the first line and assuming the rest…
1Let (A)God arise, let His enemies be scattered,
And let those who hate Him flee before Him.
What is this about them, if I’m quoting Ephesians four …
or excuse me Ephesians four is quoting Psalm sixty-eight
What is it really about then?
Who is arising, me?
God!
Is that apostle, prophet, evangelist,
pastor, teacher or who is it?
It’s God arising, it’s Christ arising…
I put in my bible…
“Let Christ arise, let His enemies be scattered.”
How does He arise?
Christ arises the apostle in me,
the prophet in me, the evangelist the pastor, the teacher – that’s how Christ arises!
What is the whole purpose of that
So that we will come to maturity
so that we will grow up into the head
who is Christ Jesus.
That’s another place,
when you see something quoted
you want to look and see
where did that come from.
We need to understand the original context of that.
Again, it’s not saying that there’s not ascension gifts
but it is saying that the purpose of those gifts
is not to establish somebody
in a new priesthood or a new office,
but the purpose of those gifts beloved is to do what?
Let Christ arise!
It’s not about man, it’s about God!
That’s what it’s about.
So we need to understand what form of literature we are looking at here.
Some other things we want to look at
Look at for instance the paragraphs,
now some of your bibles might have paragraphs,
again I just commented on that a few minutes ago
that that’s not always a reliable way
of looking at the context of scripture,
in my opinion it is really the least good way,
it depends again on the passage of scripture.
There could be something in the Book of Romans
that you might find, for example
the eighth chapter of Romans has a particular theme
that goes through the whole chapter, or something like that.
But I need to know, I can look at paragraphs, I can look at repeated words which we’ve talked about tonight, I could look again, how about some reoccurring themes. We have looked are reoccurring themes tonight. What reoccurring themes have we looked at?
Mercy
Children
Separation
Intimate Relationships
Light
You want to get fried sometime… get your concordance out and just look up the word Light… and then pack a lunch!
But then if you understand that Christ is the Light
Look in the general epistles of the New Testament…
Look at the epistle of First John,
“If we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light…
we have… fellowship
and the blood of Christ…. cleanses us
What are we talking about,
we are talking about living
in the intimate presence of God.
It seems like John’s priority here
is to have us live
in an intimate relationship with God…
If I do that guess what,
not only do I have fellowship with God,
I have fellowship with you.
Not only do I have fellowship with you and with God
but then there is a cleansing that takes place.
How does the cleansing take place?
As I live in the presence of God.
O.K.? Make sense?
You look mystified, but that’s O.K.
It’s all about living in the presence of God.
Think about the prophet Zachariah…
it’s in three or for I forget…
Joshua the high priest comes to him in a vision
he comes into the throne room
and he is covered with dung spattered garments
if you can imagine that. That’s pretty bad.
Can you imagine anything more defiling
than coming into God’s presence with manure on you?
Not menorah… manure!
Imagine that!
It says that Satan stands there at his right hand to accuse him.
Satan means accuser.
He stands there to accuse him,
but then it says the angel of the Lord
which in this case I interpret it as
the presence of Christ standing there
at the right of the throne.
He says shut-up devil!
Then he says, remove those filthy garments from him
and I will clothe him with festal garments.
I’m going to put a turban on his head
and new shoes on his feet.
I’m going to give him a mind
that thinks in the presence of God
and I’m going to teach him to walk
in the presence of God.
Now what came first, who did the cleansing there?
Did Joshua have to do something?
You see, Satan wanted him to do something, Satan was accusing him and pointing out all the stuff. What was the whole point of that… it was if you look at that particular vision there you will see that the cleansing came in the presence of God. Wasn’t that exactly what it says?
If I walk in the light as He Himself is in the light
I have fellowship with God and His blood cleanses me.
It’s the same thing… the presence of God is what brings the cleansing.
Paragraphs, repeated words and themes, images and word pictures.
Anybody have any other examples of word pictures?
What’s a word picture?
Student response:
Well in the Hebrew, the whole Hebrew language is word pictures…
It’s all word pictures.
But just today, if we were talking in word pictures, what would we be saying… what would a word picture be today?
A metaphor, mostly – a verbal picture that describes something.
We see some of those pictures as well.
Break
1Let (A)God arise, let His enemies be scattered,
And let those who hate Him flee before Him.
What is this about them, if I’m quoting Ephesians four …
or excuse me Ephesians four is quoting Psalm sixty-eight
What is it really about then?
Who is arising, me?
God!
Is that apostle, prophet, evangelist,
pastor, teacher or who is it?
It’s God arising, it’s Christ arising…
I put in my bible…
“Let Christ arise, let His enemies be scattered.”
How does He arise?
Christ arises the apostle in me,
the prophet in me, the evangelist the pastor, the teacher – that’s how Christ arises!
What is the whole purpose of that
So that we will come to maturity
so that we will grow up into the head
who is Christ Jesus.
That’s another place,
when you see something quoted
you want to look and see
where did that come from.
We need to understand the original context of that.
Again, it’s not saying that there’s not ascension gifts
but it is saying that the purpose of those gifts
is not to establish somebody
in a new priesthood or a new office,
but the purpose of those gifts beloved is to do what?
Let Christ arise!
It’s not about man, it’s about God!
That’s what it’s about.
So we need to understand what form of literature we are looking at here.
Some other things we want to look at
Look at for instance the paragraphs,
now some of your bibles might have paragraphs,
again I just commented on that a few minutes ago
that that’s not always a reliable way
of looking at the context of scripture,
in my opinion it is really the least good way,
it depends again on the passage of scripture.
There could be something in the Book of Romans
that you might find, for example
the eighth chapter of Romans has a particular theme
that goes through the whole chapter, or something like that.
But I need to know, I can look at paragraphs, I can look at repeated words which we’ve talked about tonight, I could look again, how about some reoccurring themes. We have looked are reoccurring themes tonight. What reoccurring themes have we looked at?
Mercy
Children
Separation
Intimate Relationships
Light
You want to get fried sometime… get your concordance out and just look up the word Light… and then pack a lunch!
But then if you understand that Christ is the Light
Look in the general epistles of the New Testament…
Look at the epistle of First John,
“If we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light…
we have… fellowship
and the blood of Christ…. cleanses us
What are we talking about,
we are talking about living
in the intimate presence of God.
It seems like John’s priority here
is to have us live
in an intimate relationship with God…
If I do that guess what,
not only do I have fellowship with God,
I have fellowship with you.
Not only do I have fellowship with you and with God
but then there is a cleansing that takes place.
How does the cleansing take place?
As I live in the presence of God.
O.K.? Make sense?
You look mystified, but that’s O.K.
It’s all about living in the presence of God.
Think about the prophet Zachariah…
it’s in three or for I forget…
Joshua the high priest comes to him in a vision
he comes into the throne room
and he is covered with dung spattered garments
if you can imagine that. That’s pretty bad.
Can you imagine anything more defiling
than coming into God’s presence with manure on you?
Not menorah… manure!
Imagine that!
It says that Satan stands there at his right hand to accuse him.
Satan means accuser.
He stands there to accuse him,
but then it says the angel of the Lord
which in this case I interpret it as
the presence of Christ standing there
at the right of the throne.
He says shut-up devil!
Then he says, remove those filthy garments from him
and I will clothe him with festal garments.
I’m going to put a turban on his head
and new shoes on his feet.
I’m going to give him a mind
that thinks in the presence of God
and I’m going to teach him to walk
in the presence of God.
Now what came first, who did the cleansing there?
Did Joshua have to do something?
You see, Satan wanted him to do something, Satan was accusing him and pointing out all the stuff. What was the whole point of that… it was if you look at that particular vision there you will see that the cleansing came in the presence of God. Wasn’t that exactly what it says?
If I walk in the light as He Himself is in the light
I have fellowship with God and His blood cleanses me.
It’s the same thing… the presence of God is what brings the cleansing.
Paragraphs, repeated words and themes, images and word pictures.
Anybody have any other examples of word pictures?
What’s a word picture?
Student response:
Well in the Hebrew, the whole Hebrew language is word pictures…
It’s all word pictures.
But just today, if we were talking in word pictures, what would we be saying… what would a word picture be today?
A metaphor, mostly – a verbal picture that describes something.
We see some of those pictures as well.
Break
30
fkj
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