Taking the Bible Seriously

In 2016, the Oxford Dictionary selected post-truth as its word of the year, as it does every year.

It selects a word that sort of captures Western civilisation's vibe at that time.

So post-truth was 2016.

And it defines post-truth as an adjective relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal beliefs.

It's a word that dates back to 1992, but its usage exploded by 2000% in 2016.

Sorry, 2016.

In 2016.

Why?

The US presidential election, which saw Donald Trump elected as president.

An election campaign marked by so many competing and false claims, allegations of fraud and proven mistruths.

Voices across the political spectrum were quick to condemn the opposition with little or no facts and quick to defend their stance regardless of facts.

Fake news allowed agendas to advance regardless of and often contrary to the actual facts, the truth.

It's hard to think of a better word suited to the spirit of our age than that of post-truth.

Post-truth has now blossomed into a culture of confusion.

In a post-truth world, answers to life's big questions no longer need to correspond to reality at all.

They only need to cater to whatever we personally desire.

The question is, as a society, are we better off?

You see, confusion only gives birth to more questions.

That's the nature of confusion.

And more questions only builds anxiety and uncertainty.

So we need answers, not just questions.

And so the title of this series that we're currently in, Your Word, is Truth.

Now, I understand that we exist in a culture that many people would think that the Bible fits in that category of fake news.

It was written thousands of years ago over a long period of time.

And it makes some incredible, in fact, startling claims.

It claims that there is a God who made the universe.

It claims that this God sent his son into the world to die on a cross for humanity.

It claims that Jesus, the son of God, performed miracles, that he was raised from the dead,

and he is now present with his followers by the Holy Spirit through his word right now.

It claims that he will come back to this earth one day as the universal judge and king,

wind up history, right every wrong that has ever happened,

and with his people exist forever in eternal bliss.

They're extraordinary claims.

Extraordinary claims.

And we need some pretty serious evidence to believe them.

And yet, on the other hand, billions of people over time have believed these claims,

including some of the smartest people in our world to this day.

And, in fact, smartest people throughout history.

They have believed the claims, and from all different cultures,

have believed the claims of the Bible are true,

and that they are authoritative over their lives.

And so today, if you've got the St. Paul's app in front of you,

I encourage you to open it up, open up your Bibles.

We've got really three points here to kind of,

each point's got, well, the first two have got three sub-points,

but to build on last week's assertion that the Bible is true,

and it is reliable for everything in life and faith.

And the three points are, it's historically reliable, culturally reliable,

and it's personally reliable.

So, first of all, historically reliable.

One of the common accusations today is that the Bible,

and particularly the New Testament accounts about Jesus,

are written by, if you like, the winners in history.

And therefore, because it's written by the winners in history,

no one can really know the original Jesus, what he was really like.

In fact, the claim is that the claims about his miracles

and the fact that he was divine and that he rose again

were all written much later in history by church leaders

in order to try and get Christianity to spread.

In other words, it's an attempt for them to build their power base.

There are, in fact, multiple reasons

why those particular modern accusations are simply not right

and, in fact, unfair.

But I want to just give you three, very briefly,

three reasons why you can trust the Bible historically

about what it says about Jesus.

Firstly, the New Testament accounts about Jesus

are written way too early for them to be legends.

Take the beginning of Luke that Anne just read out for us.

Luke has written a biography about Jesus

and he points out to his readers in verses 2 and 3,

many have undertaken to draw up an account

of the things that have been fulfilled among us

just as they were handed down to us

by those who from the first were eyewitnesses.

I myself have carefully investigated everything

from the beginning.

I too decided to write an orderly account for you.

Now, Luke is writing 30 to 40 years after Jesus

and he makes the point

that lots of people

who were eyewitnesses of Jesus

post his resurrection

are still alive

and you can check the facts with them.

Now, writing even closer

than Luke,

closer to the events of Jesus' life

was the Apostle Paul.

He wrote letters only 15 to 20 years

after the events of Jesus' life

and he says this

in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 6

1 Corinthians 15:6

about the resurrection of Jesus.

He appeared to more than 500

of the brothers and sisters

at the same time,

most of whom are still

living.

Paul could not have possibly written

a public document

promoting Christianity

and make a statement like that

unless it was, in fact,

provable by other eyewitnesses

apart from himself.

Or in Philippians chapter 2,

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Paul quotes a hymn

of Jesus' divinity

and if Philippians is written

so close,

in fact,

potentially his very first letter

that he wrote,

so close to the events

of Jesus' life

and Paul is quoting

in Philippians

something that Christians

have been declaring

from outside of Philippians,

right from the very early days

as the gathering

of the early church,

Christians have been worshipping Jesus

as God himself

from the very beginning.

Not hundreds of years later,

from the very beginning,

they saw him as divine.

The documents of the New Testament

are way too early

for people just simply to say

that they just said

whatever they wanted about Jesus

while thousands of people

witnessed him in person

were still alive.

You just simply cannot do that

historically.

Secondly,

the documents of the New Testament

are too counterproductive

to be legends.

Remember that the accusation here

is the Bible

is what the early church leaders

wanted people to believe

in order to build their own power base

and spread Christianity.

So imagine you're one of those church leaders

living, you know,

70, 80, 100, 300 years afterwards

and you make up stories about Jesus

so that people will believe

your stories about Jesus.

Would you put in those stories

when you're trying to convince people

that Jesus is divine son of God,

saviour of the whole world,

a person of perfection,

would you put in there

stories of Jesus,

for instance,

in the Garden of Gethsemane,

asking his father

if there's any other way,

take,

I don't want this plan,

come up with another plan.

Sweating tears of blood.

Would you put in there

Jesus on the cross

crying out to God,

why have you forsaken me?

Those accounts make look,

Jesus make look like he's,

he wants a different way.

He wants something,

some other option.

Makes him look weak.

Would you include

in your first century stories

that all of the first eyewitnesses

to the resurrection were women?

You know,

I know this is Mother's Day,

so bear with me on this one.

This was a time

when women's evidence

was not admissible in court

because of their low social status.

And so on today,

we want to give thanks

to the New Testament documents

and early Christianity

that changed that.

Does not oppress women at all.

all the gospel accounts

say that the original eyewitnesses

were women?

And not only that,

but when you get into

the New Testament,

you see that the apostles themselves

are far from glowing figures.

They're cowardly,

they're slow to believe,

they're self-interest.

Why would you include

any of that

if you're making it up?

These stories

are totally

counterproductive

for consolidating power

for the early leaders

of the Christian movement.

Thirdly,

they're also too detailed

to be legends.

Ancient myths and novels

were never written like this.

Never written like this.

That is the current form

that we have with novels today,

I think, for instance,

the Da Vinci Code,

where it mixes

a little bit of history,

historical facts,

with a completely

a bunch of legends in there

to make people think

that it's written as history.

That is a very modern phenomenon

in terms of a writing style.

Ancient legends

were never written in that way.

The New Testament doctrines

of Jesus

don't have the forms

of legend.

They are written

too early to be legends

and they are too

counterproductive

to be legends.

You need to be able

to trust them.

You go,

hang on a bit, Steve,

you haven't seen anything

about the Old Testament.

I haven't got time

to go into that detail.

There are plenty of books

written about that as well

in terms of the reliability

of the Old Testament.

But briefly,

let me just say,

if you can trust

what the New Testament

says about Jesus,

you can trust

what Jesus says

about the Old Testament.

And Jesus saw

the Old Testament

as authoritative.

And it was true.

He quoted virtually

every book

of the Old Testament

and called them

the Scriptures,

God's Word.

Secondly,

my second point

is that we can trust

the Bible culturally.

Now, I think it's true

to say that modern people

care less about

historical reliability

of the Bible

because they're more

troubled by the cultural

aspects of the Bible.

That's more of a problem

for the modern person.

They consider the Bible

offensive,

primitive,

backward,

in its views.

The Bible offends

Sydney-siders

in multiple ways.

Multiple ways.

And it's a long list

of ways

that's constantly

moving

and changing.

So here's

three considerations

of any bit

of the Bible

that might offend you.

Three considerations.

Firstly,

consider the possibility

that it isn't teaching

what you think

it's teaching.

when you read it.

For instance,

I could never understand

why some of the

great spiritual heroes

of the Old Testament

had so many wives.

When I first read it,

and I see in the New Testament,

you know,

the leaders of God's church

must have been

a husband

of one wife.

And it's like,

polygamy didn't seem

to be a New Testament thing,

but was in the Old Testament thing.

And I could never understand

why

that was the case.

Until I realized

that the Bible

was not in any way

endorsing it.

It was actually,

when you read the accounts

in the Old Testament,

the Bible

is actually

subverting it.

In every case

where polygamy

is practiced,

it goes bad.

And the Bible

records it

going bad.

There's never a case

of polygamy

in the Old Testament

where it,

and they lived

happily ever after,

husband with 700 wives.

Never

do you see that

in the Old Testament.

Families break down,

lives are ruined,

physically,

spiritually,

emotionally,

relationally.

The Bible shows us

consistently how bad it is,

even as it records it.

That is,

the Bible

wasn't endorsing

something that I

thought it was endorsing.

It wasn't teaching

something that I

thought it was teaching.

Secondly,

please consider the

possibility that you

are misunderstanding

what the Bible

teaches because of

your own cultural

blind spots

and personal

preferences.

Luke 24,

Luke 24:20

verses 20 and 21.

Anne just read that

out to us on the

road to Emmaus.

Sorry,

it's the account

of the road to Emmaus.

Anne wasn't there.

We see these early

disciples

had misunderstood

the prophecies

about the Messiah,

the Old Testament

Messiah.

As Jews,

their blind spots

were they were

only thinking

about the redemption

of Israel,

not the whole world.

They had a cultural

blind spot

that meant

that they in fact

misread

scripture

and couldn't

therefore

understand

Jesus.

And the modern

person does the

same thing

on so many ways.

So many ways.

That long list

of offensive

to Sidneysiders.

Let me just

raise one.

Slavery.

One accusation

is that the Bible

condones slavery

when we clearly

know as modern

people that it's

wrong.

wrong.

And therefore,

if it's wrong

on this issue,

then how can we

trust the Bible

on any

moral and

ethic issue?

It just needs

to update itself.

So the question

is,

does the Bible

actually condone

slavery?

Now there are

parts of the New

Testament

when Paul tells

slaves to obey

their masters

and we go,

ah,

there we go,

there it is,

right there.

In the New

Testament letter

of Philemon,

Paul is

addressing a

relationship between

a master and

his servant.

And as Paul

unpacks this

relationship,

it is clear

that it's not

the same kind

of relationship

that we would

call slavery.

slavery.

When we read

the word

slave in our

cultural context,

we automatically

turn our minds

back to the

17th,

18th and

19th century

and modern

slavery.

Race-based,

ethnic minority

slavery.

slavery.

And we

import our

cultural blind

spot into

every time we

read the word

slavery.

When we read

the Bible with

those cultural

blinders on,

we are

misunderstanding

what the

Bible is

teaching.

In the

Greco-Roman

world,

slaves were

not

distinguishable

from everyone

else by race

or by the

way that they

spoke or by

the clothing

that they

wore.

They looked

and lived

like everyone

else and

were not

segregated off

as part of

society.

Slaves were

often quite

educated and

even more

highly educated

than their

masters and

therefore they

held high

positions.

Therefore you

see that in

Luke 16.

High

managerial

positions.

Slaves also

made the same

wages as

free labourers

and therefore

over time

they were able

to save

themselves,

save the

money up and

to buy

themselves out

of slavery.

The average

slave worked

for a master

in the first

century for

less than 10

years.

It was not a

lifelong oppressive

relationship.

It was the

purpose of

paying back

debts.

So as soon

as we get

our modern

mindset of

slavery and

impose it on

the Bible,

we have

completely

misunderstood

scripture and

what it's

actually teaching

in that

moment.

So and I

want to add

those who

historically have

to use the

Bible to

defend the

practice of

kidnapping and

enslaving people

such as in the

slave trade of

the modern era,

they have read

the Bible through

their own cultural

blind spots as

well and they

are wrong.

In the same

way we are

wrong if we

read the Bible

through our own

cultural blind

spots now.

Thirdly,

consider the

possibility that

you are being

offended by the

Bible because of

an assumption

that your cultural

moment is in fact

superior to all

others.

This is

offence

because I

am superior.

Often that

assumption has

never been tested

and it's actually

never been

personally

acknowledged.

The reason we

are offended by

some biblical

passages is

because it is

culturally offensive

in my own

cultural moment.

But

in other

cultures in

this moment

and in other

cultures from

the past,

they have no

problem with

the exact same

text.

On the other

hand, the

passage we think

is fine today,

we're happy

with,

they have a

problem in

their culture

right now with

those texts

and in the

past.

You see, in

our progressive

individualistic

Western society,

what the Bible

says about

sex is like

such a

problem.

But what it

says about

forgiveness,

that's pretty

good.

Love each

other.

Go to the

Middle East

today and

what the Bible

says about

sex is pretty

good, probably

not strict enough

but pretty

good.

What it

says about

forgiveness,

that's a

problem.

That's a

problem in

a shame and

honour culture

and particularly

a shame

culture.

That's a

problem.

If we are

offended by

something in

the Bible,

I'd want to

ask, why

should your

cultural

sensibilities

trump everyone

else's?

it's a

little bit

arrogant?

Could even

say it's a

little bit

racist.

Why get

rid of the

Bible because

it offends my

culture at

certain points?

After all,

for the

liberal

progressives

amongst us,

the young

ones who

sit over

the authority

of the

Bible,

the old

ones who

sit over

the authority

of the

Bible in

this moment,

just a

little bit

of a tip.

Your

grandchildren

and great

grandchildren

are going

to find a

lot of

what you

think today

is very

embarrassing.

They're going

to think

exactly the

same of

you.

Your

cultural

progressiveness

is going

to be seen

as conservative

and traditional.

in about

50 years.

Of course,

you don't

know which

bits,

but it

will be

true.

Don't

miss out

on all

the Bible

and the

Christian

faith has

to offer

just because

you won't

let go

of some

cultural

truth

that in

50 years

will be

considered

a joke.

If the

Bible really

is God

revealing

himself to

creation

and it's

not the

product of

any specific

culture as

I have said

multiple times

over the last

five to ten

years,

wouldn't it

therefore

contradict

every culture

at some

point

and even

have to

offend

every culture

at some

point?

So if

you read

it and

find some

things

beautiful

and other

things

offensive,

then it's

probably

true

and from

God.

Lastly,

it's

personally

reliable.

A

completely

authoritative

Bible is

the prerequisite

for a

warm

personal

relationship

with God.

It is

not the

enemy

of a

warm

personal

relationship

with God.

As I

said last

week,

in fact,

you cannot

have a

relationship

with God

without

his

word.

It's

like for

you who

are Christian

and you

are not

regularly in

your word,

it's like a

wedding day

where you

make promises

and don't

communicate

with your

spouse from

then on

in.

have a

look at

Luke 24

32

where the

disciples

reflect back

on their

journey along

the road to

Emmaus.

Were not

our hearts

burning within

us while

he talked

with us on

the road and

opened the

scriptures to

us?

In the

Bible,

the heart

is the

centre of

the whole

person.

It's not

just the

seat of

the emotions.

Hearts

burning here

in Luke

24 means

a full

life-changing

personal

encounter with

God.

And they

experienced

something here

in this

moment that

they have

never

experienced

before.

And when

did they

experience

it?

When he

opened the

scriptures to

us.

when the

Bible,

its meaning

was properly

open to

them,

when they

understood

what it

meant,

that is

the way

into this

deep

relationship.

And notice

how it

happens.

Verses

20-21,

they say

Jesus died,

but we had

hoped that

he would be

the one who

would save

us.

And Jesus

calls them

out for

being foolish

and slow

to believe

the Bible.

way to

win friends

and influence

people.

Why did

they

misunderstand?

Verse 27,

beginning with

Moses and

all the

prophets,

in other

words,

Old

Testament,

he explained

to them

what was

said in

all the

scriptures

concerning

himself.

He is

saying that

every single

thing in the

Bible is

about him.

Too many

people have

walked away

from the

Christian

faith and

the Bible

because they

have misunderstood

that central

point in

verse 27.

It's all

about Jesus.

If we think

the Bible is

somehow about

us and

what we

must do

and how

we must

live,

then we

don't need

it as a

saviour who

will die

for us.

all we

need is

simple rules

and a

code of

conduct

and therefore

in the

modern times

it is

regressive.

There are

only two

ways to

read the

Bible.

Read it

as if it

was all

about us

and what

we must

do or

we can

read every

part of

it as

if it

is about

him.

It is

about

Jesus

and what

he has

done.

And if

you're in

a community

group right

now,

you're

working

through that

process of

understanding

how the

whole Bible

is connected

to Jesus.

If you're

not in a

community

group,

jump into

that space

and have

your eyes

opened.

The whole

Bible points

to Jesus

and explains

Jesus and

everything is

achieved for

us in

dying in

our place

for our

sin.

The

exodus from

slavery in

Egypt,

where Jesus

started with

these guys

on the road

to Emmaus,

the sacrificial

lamb and

the passing

over of

God's

judgment is

all about

Jesus.

When the

Bible is

all about

Jesus and

what he's

achieved for

us out of

his love

for us,

that's when

the Bible

gets personal.

That's when

it becomes

an encounter

with him,

a deep

relationship

with him.

And so

my conviction

from both

experience and

the teaching

of the

Bible itself

is that the

most effective

means for

bolstering

confidence in

the Bible is

not so much

what I'm doing

right now and

did last week,

building arguments

about the

authority and

the truthfulness

of the Bible,

but in fact

to spend time

in the Bible,

reading the

Bible with

Jesus at

the centre.

Put it like

this,

I could tell

you right

now that

honey is a

substance made

from several

bee species.

Bees produce

honey by

gathering and

then refining

the sugary

secretments of

plants or

secretments of

other insects.

this refinement

takes place

within the

individual bees

through regurgitation

and enzymic

activity.

And honey

is sweet

because of

its high

concentrations

of simple

sugars like

fructose and

glucose.

In fact,

it has the

same relative

sweetness as

white sugar.

One standard

teaspoon of

honey provides

over 190

kilojoules of

food energy.

It is a

remarkable,

remarkable

sweet bit

of food.

And I

could tell you

that.

It's all

true,

but the best

thing I could

do for you is

not tell you

about the

sweetness of

honey,

honey,

but to

get some

and to

put it

on a

spoon

and taste

it.

And of

course,

then do

something with

your insulin

pump.

I'll do

that in a

moment.

Make some

adjustments for

that.

In other

words,

if you

don't get

it then,

I could sit

here and do

a lecture

about the

sweetness of

honey,

and you

can walk

away with a

bunch of

facts.

Reliable

facts.

But what

you need to

do to

really get

the facts,

you need to

stick it on

a spoon,

you need to

taste it.

Taste that

it is,

in fact,

good.

And if at

that point,

that is,

you don't get

it until you

taste it,

and if you

don't get it

once you've

tasted it,

there's

nothing more

I can do

for you.

there's

nothing more

I can do

for you.

And so,

as King

David invited

others to

join him

in Psalm

Psalms 34:8

34,

verse 8,

so I

invite you

to taste

and see

that the

Lord is

good.

God

promises to

bless the

reading and

teaching of

his word.

The word

of God

itself is

more than

enough to

accomplish the

work of

God in

the people

of God.

God

and there

is no

better way

to understand

and come

to embrace

the truth

and the

authority

and the

goodness

and the

rightness

of scripture

than in

fact to

open it

up

and let

it out

in your

life.

And as

you do,

as you

do,

pray,

Lord,

help me

to taste

and see

that you

are good.

Amen.