Why Should I Trust the Bible?

The scripture reading comes from Luke 1 starting at verse 1.

Please follow along on the screen or in your bulletin.

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us,

just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us,

it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past,

to write down an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,

that you may have certainly concerning the things you have been taught. Amen.

Great, thank you Christina. Nice and short reading.

Well, good morning church. It is so good to see everybody.

I know we've said it many times, but I was just thinking before the service,

coming back together is like coming back for a Chinese New Year reunion meal.

And the difference between this and church online is like eating McDonald's on your own, right?

It's a meal. It'll get you through the day. It's okay. You won't starve.

But that compared to a reunion meal with your family when you've been away for a year is just vastly different.

And so it's so great to see everyone. It's wonderful to see you face to face.

And I want to just come and give everyone a great big hug, but I know that's socially inappropriate.

And so I'll refrain from that, but it's so wonderful to see us all face to face together.

I'm sure these guys will work on the sound.

We are continuing our series called Why Christianity?

I don't know if you've been journeying with us the last couple of weeks.

We've been looking at some of the big questions that confront Christianity.

Things like, isn't it arrogant or exclusive for Christians to say that what they believe is the one true faith?

Or what about evil and suffering? Or what about science and faith?

How do these things come together?

And this morning we're going to continue that.

And we're going to ask the question, how do we make sense of the Bible?

Or why should I trust the Bible?

And it's a really important question because at the heart of Christianity is the person of Jesus Christ.

And what the Bible says, who he was and what he accomplished in his life and in his death.

You see, Christianity is not really an ethical movement.

It's not a bunch of wisdom to tell you just how to live your life, how to improve your life.

At the heart of Christianity is the person of Jesus.

And almost every world religion, you could remove the founder of the religion and the essence of the faith would still stand.

You take Buddha away from Buddhism and his teachings still stand and Buddhism would still stand as a philosophy, as a worldview.

You could take Muhammad out of Islam and Islam would still stand.

But if you remove Jesus Christ, the person of Christ and who he is, who he claimed to be,

and what his life accomplished, Christianity falls flat.

And so in many ways, the Christian faith hinges on what the Bible says, who Christ is, and what he accomplished in his life.

And therefore, the credibility and the reliability of the Bible is a really important thing for us to grapple with.

And so this morning we're going to ask kind of two questions.

One, why should I trust the Bible?

And secondly, how do I make sense of the Bible?

In order to do that, I want us to think about it three ways.

I want us to think about it historically.

I want us to think about it culturally or carefully.

And thirdly, to think about it personally.

Okay.

So let's dive in.

Historically.

Let's think about the Bible historically.

Now, these days, we often hear objections or questions or people saying,

how do we know that what's written in our Bible today is the same thing that was written 2,000 years ago?

A lot has happened 2,000 years ago.

It was originally written in Aramaic and Hebrew and Greek.

It's been translated into Latin.

It's been translated again.

It's been copied many, many, many times over the 2,000 years.

And we don't have any original, original documents.

We don't have the original parchment that Matthew, Mark, and Luke wrote on.

So how do we know that what's here is the same thing that was written all those years ago?

And secondly, the question is, how do we know that even if this is the same thing that was originally written,

how do we know that church leaders didn't make stuff up and put it in here?

How do we know that the Jesus of faith, of Christianity, is the same as the Jesus of history?

Maybe Jesus of history was just a good, wise, moral man, a good, wise teacher.

But the church leaders embellished it or put a whole lot of myths and fables and legends in

to prop up Jesus and make him something more than he claimed to be.

So let's think about this.

I want to give, again, three historical things to think about as we think about this objection.

The first one, we can trust the Bible because of the historical data.

I want us to think, firstly, when we consider historical documents,

such as the New Testament or any other historical documents,

that's not a religious exercise.

That's an academic exercise.

And scholars and academics, when looking at the reliability or credibility of a historical document,

use a science called textual criticism.

And again, that's not something in religious departments.

That's just historical departments.

And textual criticism looks at the copies that we have of ancient historical documents

and works out by asking a number of questions how reliable, how accurate are those earliest documents we have

compared to the original document that it was based upon.

And there's a whole lot of questions that they ask, but there's two main questions.

The first one is, how many copies do we have?

If you've got five copies or ten copies or fifteen copies, okay, that's okay.

If you've got a hundred or five hundred or a thousand copies,

well, then it's far more accurate to see where changes have taken place,

where there have been edits, where the original has been corrupted or changed over time.

Okay?

So the first question is, how many copies do we have?

The second question, very important, is how big is the time gap between the copies that we have

and the original that was written?

So if the time gap is a hundred years, that's a good thing.

If the time gap is a thousand years or two thousand years, okay,

then there's more space for changes to take place.

And so you want to know, how many copies do we have?

And what are the earliest copies that we have?

And from those two things, generally, you can work out what did the original document look like or say.

Now, when you apply these criteria to the New Testament documents,

almost all historians will tell us that the New Testament documents pass with flying colors

any questions or tests of historical credibility,

especially when you compare it to other historical documents.

So let me give you a couple of examples, right?

We've all heard of this ancient Greek philosopher called Plato.

Plato, one of the wisest philosophers in the ancient world,

kind of the founder of Western thought.

When you look at the historical evidence for Plato's teachings and his sayings,

we have about 200, 210, actually, official documents that highlight what he said and what he taught.

And those documents range from somewhere around 950 to 1,500 years after his lifetime.

Okay?

So 200 documents, 1,000 to 1,500 years after his lifetime.

Or think of Alexander the Great.

We've all heard of Alexander the Great, the Macedon king,

who conquered kind of the Western world before the Roman Empire conquered the Greek Empire.

And Alexander the Great, one of the great military leaders of the ancient world.

And again, almost everything we know about him comes from two sources,

a man by the name of Plutarch and a man by the name of Arian.

And these were written about 450, 500 years after his death.

Okay?

And all historians will take that as credible documentation that we know about the life of Alexander the Great.

And we could keep on going.

There's hundreds of ancient historians that we could look at.

Julius Caesar and his Gaelic Wars, 50 BC.

He wrote this book called The Gaelic Wars.

And we have about 250 copies of those.

And the surviving copies that we have are written about 1,000 to 1,500 years after the event.

Okay?

So lots of copying took place.

And we've got 200 documents recording the original.

When it comes to the documentation of the New Testament,

the New Testament stands head and shoulders above everything else.

For the four Gospels, we've got five, almost 6,000 Greek documents of the Gospels alone.

And of the New Testament alone, we've got between 20,000 and 30,000 original early documents that are verifiable and accurate.

And those documents were written not 1,500, not 1,000 years, not even 500 years.

Some of those earliest documents we have are from between 30 and 50 years of the events,

of the documents in which they're written.

So for instance, John's Gospel is written somewhere at the latest stage around 90 AD, 95 AD, the very latest.

We've got documents of John's Gospel written from the year 130 AD.

That's 35 years after the original was written.

You compare that to Plato, 1,000 years, 1,500 years.

And not just 200 documents, 20,000 or 30,000 of the New Testament documents.

One historian put it like this.

Simply put, if we reject the authenticity of the New Testament on textual historical grounds,

we'd have to reject every ancient work of antiquity

and declare null and void every piece of historical information

from written sources prior to the beginning of the 2nd millennium AG.

In other words, anything from 1,000 AD onwards, we'd have to say,

listen, we can't trust it.

Who knows?

It's all just guesswork.

And that's not just Western thought.

That's the same for Confucian, same for Confucius, same for Buddha.

All the major thoughts of the world.

Nothing stands out to the historical credibility of the New Testament Gospels.

Okay, so first one is the historical document.

Secondly, think about the eyewitnesses.

When we read the New Testament,

one of the things that you encounter a lot

is all sorts of random names of people and places.

And we often skip over those names, right?

Now, confession time.

How many of us have read Matthew 1 or Luke 3,

all these names, and just turned over the page quickly, right?

There are all these names, and we think,

who put that in there?

Who thought it was a good idea to put this in God's Holy Word, right?

Those names don't make sense to us in the 21st century,

but a lot of them make a lot of sense to the 1st century audience.

And the reason is the Bible wasn't primarily written for a 21st century audience.

It was written as a historical document, largely, for a 1st century audience.

And those names are put there for a very specific reason.

One of the reasons is because many of them were still alive

and were eyewitnesses of the things that were being written in the documents.

So let me give you an example.

In Mark's Gospel, chapter 15, Jesus is going to the cross.

And Mark writes this in his Gospel.

He says, verse 20,

Now we read that and think,

Mark could have just said,

and they compelled a passerby to carry the cross.

But Mark's very specific.

He writes the name of this guy, Simon, from Cyrene,

and his two children.

He's the father of Rufus and Alexander.

Why put that detail in there?

Well, when you consider the fact that Mark's Gospel is written somewhere around 20 to 25 years,

15 even, some historians will say,

after the event took place,

in all likelihood, Rufus and Alexander are still alive

and are possibly part of the Christian community.

They are known to the audience.

In other words, what Mark is doing is he's saying,

there are eyewitnesses that are still alive.

And you can go and test what I'm saying.

Go and ask him if what I'm saying is true.

There are eyewitnesses that could either falsify or verify

what the writers are saying in the New Testament.

And all the New Testament writers do this.

Paul, in 1 Corinthians chapter 15,

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

he writes and he says,

the Gospel which was handed down from others to me,

that Jesus died, that he rose again on the third day,

he appeared to 12,

then he appeared to more than 500 brothers and sisters at one time,

and then he writes this,

most of whom are still alive.

Why does he say that?

What he's saying is,

I want you to go and verify what I'm saying.

I want you to go check it out.

I want you to go and do the research.

Go and ask those people

if what I'm writing in my epistle is true.

The reason the New Testament writers put all these details in

is because they want us to go and check.

They want us to verify the facts.

First, Justin here works for the DOJ, right?

The prosecutor.

And as any prosecutor or attorney will tell you,

if you want to lie or if you want to make up a story,

make sure there are very few witnesses around

that can contradict you, right?

I'm assuming that's good knowledge, right?

Or think about, we've all watched TV shows,

and someone gets arrested,

and what do the arresting officers all say?

You have the right to remain silent,

anything you say can and will be held against you

in a court of law.

And a good attorney will tell you,

if you ever get arrested,

here's some free advice, okay?

Next time you get arrested,

don't say anything.

I hope you're not going to get arrested anytime soon.

But don't say anything.

Why?

Because anything you say can and will be held against you.

In other words, if you're going to make up something,

if you want to try,

if you're in trouble,

the more details you give,

the more that can be held against you.

Minimize the details that you give.

The New Testament writers do the opposite.

They're trying to get as many eyewitnesses as well as possible,

and they're trying to give as much detail as possible.

Why?

Because they want just to go and verify

what they have to say.

And so, today we come,

and this is going to be very brief,

but we're going to look at Luke chapter 1.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

And it's in your bulletin.

And look at it with me.

Look what Luke writes here.

Now, by the way,

Luke was not a disciple of Jesus.

He was a medical doctor and a historian.

And so Luke wasn't an uneducated fisherman

like some of the disciples.

He was a doctor who was used to examining the evidence

and coming up with a diagnosis.

And Luke, it seems like,

he writes this letter to this man called Theophilus.

And it seems like Theophilus was a high-ranking Roman official

because he calls him most excellent Theophilus.

And the only other times in the Bible that that phrase is used

is when addressing a Roman magistrate.

And so, it seems like Theophilus is a high-ranking Roman official.

And it seems like Theophilus has heard about Jesus

and he wants to verify that what he's heard is true.

And so, he commissions this doctor historian called Ruth,

not Ruth, Luke,

to go and verify the data.

And so, look at how Luke begins the beginning of his epistle.

He says,

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile the narrative

of the things that have been accomplished amongst us,

now he's probably talking about Mark's gospel there,

that was written previously.

Just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses

and ministers of the word,

and they've delivered them to us,

it seemed good to me also,

having followed all things closely for some time,

to write an orderly account for you,

most excellent Theophilus,

that you may have certainty

concerning the things that you have been taught.

See what Luke's doing there.

He's saying,

I've gone and I've done the research.

I've gone and interviewed the eyewitnesses.

And I've decided to write this orderly account,

not just based on the other narratives that are out there,

gospel of Mark, etc.

I've done my own research.

I've asked the eyewitnesses,

and I'm writing this account

that you may have certainty,

Theophilus,

about the gospel that you've heard

about the person of Jesus.

Okay, so consider the historical data.

Consider the eyewitnesses.

Thirdly, very quickly,

consider the embarrassing passages.

Many people say,

the Jesus of history

is different to the Jesus of the Bible, right?

They don't correlate,

because the church leaders

put a whole lot of legend and myth

and interesting stuff in there

about miracles,

to make Jesus to be something different

than what he was, right?

And the reason why church leaders would do this

is to bolster their own reputation,

to bolster their own movement,

and to lend credibility to their claim,

their religion that they're starting.

But there's too much stuff in the New Testament

that is just too embarrassing

if you're trying to start a new religion.

There's too much stuff in there

that if you're trying to convince people

to get on board,

if you're making up the story,

you'd rather leave it out.

But there's hundreds of cases,

but just consider a couple of them.

The one is,

Jesus is on the cross.

Think about it.

Jesus is on the cross.

Now, firstly,

no Jew believed

that the Messiah was going to die on the cross.

But anyway,

Jesus ends up on the cross.

But while he's there,

he cries out,

he says,

Father,

why have you forsaken me?

If you're trying to make up a Savior

that's going to save the world,

you probably wouldn't put

that kind of information in there.

Or consider just before the cross,

Jesus is in Gethsemane.

And he's sweating,

his sweat is turned to blood,

and he cries,

he prays his prayer,

and he says,

God,

if there's any way

to take the cross from me,

let it be.

Why is Jesus,

why do you include this stuff

in your religion

about Jesus trying to get out of the cross?

It doesn't make sense,

unless,

unless it really happened.

Or consider the way that

all four of the Gospels

recount that the very first eyewitnesses

to Jesus' resurrection

were women.

Now,

that's not a big deal

in our day and age.

That's perfectly acceptable.

But in the first century,

that was ridiculous.

Women's testimony

was not admissible

in a court of law

because of their low social status.

In fact,

there's one ancient

critic of Christianity

who said this.

He said,

Christianity cannot be true

because their testimony

is based on

hysterical females.

That's how he wrote it.

It's like,

it can't be true.

It's the women,

it's the hysterical females

that were the first witnesses.

Any historian knows

if you try to bolster your claim

that Christianity is true,

the last thing you want to do

is make the first witnesses

to the resurrection

women.

And yet,

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John

all do that.

Why?

The only credible reason

is because that's exactly

what happened.

And again,

if you consider

the life of the disciples,

the disciples,

these are the guys

that were meant to be

the founders of Christianity,

the religion,

and yet,

when you read the Bible,

they are clumsy,

they are idiotic,

they say dumb things,

they deny Jesus,

they run away,

they abandon Him,

they're fearful,

they're cowards,

they are doubting.

Why would you make

the very people

that are writing the books

look that way

unless,

unless that's what

actually happened?

where am I?

Okay,

so,

remember what Luke says

in his opening paragraph.

He says,

It seemed good to me,

O Theophilus,

having followed all things

closely for some time,

to write an orderly account

that you may have certainty

concerning the things

that you've heard

about the person of Jesus.

Okay,

friends,

here's the point.

There's too much

historical data,

there's too many eyewitnesses,

there's too much

perplexing information

in the New Testament

for it simply to be made up,

for it to be changed

or edited.

The Bible that we have

in our hands,

you can trust it,

it's reliable,

it's credible.

It is what the disciples wrote,

it is what the early church wrote,

and it is reflect accurately

the person of Jesus.

Okay,

you can trust it historically.

Second thing,

culturally.

Let's think about it culturally,

or I put it on the slide carefully.

Now,

one of the questions

that we often arise

when we think about the Bible

is,

okay,

let's just assume

that it is historically

accurate and credible.

Okay,

that what's in the Bible

is what the apostles wrote,

and it is true.

Many people will say,

okay,

but it's still so offensive.

I mean,

there's just so much stuff in there

that is socially repressive,

it's offensive,

it bothers me,

the Bible's sexist,

the Bible says all sorts of stuff

about slavery.

How can I even take it seriously,

even if it is true?

It's just archaic

and out of date.

There's many issues

that we could look at,

right?

We could look at genocide,

we could look at,

does God hate gay people,

gender,

and all these kinds of things.

There's lots of issues

we could talk through.

But Tim Keller,

Dr. Tim Keller,

has really helped me

think through this,

and he's given us

a framework

to think through it.

And this is what he says,

he says that

rather than looking at each issue,

let's think about

the culture and the context

in which it's written.

And there's two handles

that I want us to think about

when we think about

the Bible this way.

The first one is this,

is to consider the possibility

that maybe what you think

it teaches,

at first God,

is not what it actually teaches.

I remember about a year ago

I was having lunch

with a young man,

16, 17 years old,

and he was just throwing

a whole lot of questions

at me about the Bible

and faith and science

and how can you believe it.

And after about half an hour

I said,

hey but just a quick question,

have you actually read

the New Testament?

Have you gone to

the source material?

He said,

no, no, no,

but I read a blog

and the blog told me

that the Bible says this,

right?

There's many things

that we hear,

the Bible says this,

the Bible says this,

and as you actually examine it

and carefully think about it,

you realize that's maybe

not what the Bible

is saying at all.

Let me give you one example.

When you read

the Old Testament,

especially the first five books

of the Old Testament,

one of the things

that stands out to you

is many of the leaders

of the Old Testament,

the way that they treat women,

right?

You read and you think,

that's just terrible.

Many of them have got

multiple wives,

they've got concubines

on top of that.

They seem to just

treat women as objects

that they can trade

and buy and sell.

And on top of this,

many are the leaders,

people like Abraham

and Isaac and Jacob

and David

and multiple wives

and the treatment of women.

And you think,

how on earth

can God condone that?

How can God encourage that?

How can that be

in any inspired sacred book?

Many years ago,

in the 1980s,

a Jewish scholar

by the name of Robert Alter,

a professor

at Berkeley University,

wrote a book called

The Art of Biblical Narrative.

And what Robert Alter says

in there

is that when you read,

he says,

in the ancient custom,

there were two institutions

that were kind of

universally accepted.

The institution of polygamy,

which means that men

can have as many wives

as they want

and therefore men

have all the power.

Wives just get reduced

to an object.

The men have all the power.

But the second one

is the institution

of primogeniture.

And primogeniture

essentially says

the firstborn son

gets everything.

He gets all the honor,

all the wealth,

all the money,

all the blessing,

and the others,

well, best of luck to them.

And what Robert Alter says

is that

when you read

the Old Testament,

one of the things

you quickly see

is that

in every case

of polygamy,

it always ends

in a train wreck.

It always ends

in a train wreck.

It wrecks the people

physically,

socially,

psychology,

their family,

emotionally,

and worst of all,

spiritually.

And the great example

of this, of course,

is King David.

King David is the greatest king

in the Old Testament,

but his treatment of women

is not great.

He's got a couple of wives,

and one day

he sees this lady

bathing,

and he says,

I want to.

And he treats her

just as an object

to satisfy

his own sexual desires.

And so he pulls her

to the palace,

he arranges for her

husband to get killed,

he sleeps with her,

and then he marries her.

Right?

But as you read

the Old Testament,

one thing you see

is that from that moment on,

David's personal life,

his family,

his kingdom,

his reign,

and in fact,

the entire nation

of Israel

goes absolutely downhill

and never recovers.

And what Robert Alter

tells us

is that

God is never

condoning this.

He's challenging it.

He's saying,

can't you see

that I've designed

for man and woman

to be united,

kept for one another,

and when you mess

with that order,

it never,

ever works out well.

It always

lends in

heartache

and pain

and destruction.

It's always

a wreck.

Secondly,

think of primogeniture.

When you read

the Old Testament,

who does God

always choose?

He always chooses

the one

that nobody else chooses.

He chooses Abel,

not Cain.

He chooses Jacob,

not Esau.

He chooses Isaac,

not Ishmael.

And even though

Leah is the older

sister of Rachel,

Rachel's the beautiful

one that everyone

loves and gets invited

to the parties

and all that.

And God chooses Leah,

the one that's despised

and rejected,

to be the great,

great,

great grandmother

of King David

and ultimately

of the Messiah.

And so Robert Alter

is saying that

when you read this,

at first you think,

that's disgusting.

How can that be

in the Bible?

How can God

condone that?

And he's saying,

God's not condoning it.

He's subverting it,

not supporting it.

Okay,

so consider the fact

that the Bible

might not be teaching

what we first think

it teaches.

The second thing

is this.

Consider the influence

of your own

personal,

cultural bias.

Experts tell us

that almost none of us

can read something

like the Bible

or other ancient scriptures

without our own

cultural bias

influencing the way

that we read it.

We all come to it

from a worldview,

a lens that influences

the way that we see it

and what we think

is right and wrong.

Which means

we all have

unexamined assumptions

that our cultural norms

are correct

and everyone else's

are less than correct.

Right?

And yet,

there are parts

of the world

where other cultures

find our cultural norms

just very troubling.

Let me put it lightly.

Okay?

Does that make sense?

So we all have

our cultural norms.

We think,

this is just normal.

This is the way

the whole world operates.

Everybody thinks like me.

Until you go to another

part of the world

and you realize,

oh, wait,

not everybody thinks like me.

Okay?

We're a very international church.

I'm sure we've all

experienced that.

In my own story,

I don't think I understood

what the Bible really meant

about honoring your family

or about the beauty

of community

until I moved to Hong Kong.

Because Western culture

is just far more individualistic.

We don't honor our family,

we don't honor our parents,

and we're not as

community-orientated

as we are here in Asia.

Right?

And I consider myself an Asian.

So those Westerners

are very different

from us Asians.

Right?

I'm kind of saying

the tongue-in-cheek.

One of the things

that's interesting

is Christianity

in the last 500 years,

and maybe you could argue

even earlier than that,

has largely been influenced

by white Caucasian

Western theology.

Right?

But that's changing.

In the last 50 years or so,

the majority of Christianity

is shifting

from white Caucasian

Western theology

to Africa and Asia

are going to be

the biggest Christian continents

in years to come.

Which is good news

for us, right?

Africa and Asia

are going to be

the most Christian continents

in the next

150, 200 years.

Now one of the amazing

things about the Bible

is that it has the ability

to both confront

and challenge

as well as affirm

and encourage

every culture.

No matter what your culture is,

there's going to be

parts of your culture

that the Bible affirms

and says that's good,

and there's going to be

parts of your culture

that the Bible challenges.

Because all of our cultures

have part of it

that align up

with God's heart

and part of it

that are distinct

from God's heart.

And so the question is

if you're going to take

the Bible seriously,

if you're going to

take it to heart,

no matter what culture

or country you come from,

there's going to be

parts of the Bible

that you think

that doesn't make sense to me.

Why would God allow that?

And there's going to be

other parts that you think

yeah, that makes

complete sense to me.

Tim Keller gives

a great example.

He says,

most Western countries

think that the Bible's

teaching on sexual ethic

is just repressive,

it's archaic,

it's out of date,

and it should just be dismissed.

And yet most Western Christians

love the Bible's teaching

on forgiveness

and mercy

and turning the other cheek,

right?

But if you go to the Middle East,

those two things swap around.

Many people in the Middle East

will think actually

the Bible's teaching

on sexual ethics

is pretty good,

if not a little liberal,

maybe you could tighten it up

a little bit.

And yet the Bible's teaching

on forgiveness

and mercy

is just considered

as weak

and just offensive.

Why would you do that?

That's just less people

getting away with things

unnecessarily.

You see,

there's parts of all

of our culture

that we like,

or parts of all

of our culture

that affirms

what the Bible says,

but the Bible also

challenge every part of us.

And what that means

is that if you're going

to make sense of the Bible,

if you really understand

it for what it's saying,

you can't read it

imperialistically.

You can't read it

from the worldview

that says,

my culture is right

and everything that disagrees

with my culture

must be wrong.

You've got to come

up the Bible and say,

God,

where are you affirming

my culture,

but where are you

challenging it?

Where am I right

and where am I wrong?

And here's the other thing.

If you serve a God

that never challenges you,

never confronts you,

never challenges your culture,

chances are you're worshipping

a made-up God

of our imagination,

a God who we've made

in our own image.

But here's the problem.

That God will never save you.

That God will never deliver you.

That God will never comfort you

in the midst of the storms of life.

That God will never be

an anchor for your soul

when your fear arises

and when the storms come.

A God that is made

in our image

will never be there

to minister

and to comfort us.

You must consider

the Bible culturally.

Okay,

thirdly and finally,

how are we doing?

Are we all right?

Okay,

thank you,

Emily.

Let's consider the Bible

personally.

Personally.

At the end of Luke's gospel,

very famously,

Jesus dies,

he rises from the dead

and he's walking

along this road

between Jerusalem

and the town called Emmaus

and he comes across

two disciples

and the disciples

don't recognize him.

They're not one of the

twelve originally,

they're a bigger

group of disciples.

One's called Cleopas,

we don't know the other name

and Jesus comes up

and says,

hey,

what are you talking about?

And they say,

Jesus of Nazareth,

the man that we had hoped

would save Israel,

but he died on the cross.

And Jesus kind of plays dumb

and he asks them a few more

questions and they say,

who are you?

Where have you been?

Don't you know who Jesus was?

And they're so disappointed,

they say,

we really hoped that he would

deliver Israel,

but he died.

And Jesus says to them,

O slow of heart,

do you not see that

the Christ had to suffer

and die for the sins

of the world?

And then Luke says

that Jesus,

starting with Moses

and all the prophets

explained to them

all the scriptures

concerning himself.

In other words,

Jesus goes through

the whole Old Testament

and he shows them

how the Old Testament

points to the Christ,

Moses.

Don't you see how

Moses is writing,

but he's actually telling you

about the Christ.

Isaiah is writing,

but he's actually telling you

about the Christ.

Jeremiah is writing,

but he's actually telling you

about the Christ.

David.

And he goes through

the whole Old Testament

and shows them

that actually the whole Bible

is all about the Christ,

the one that had to come

and die on the cross.

They go to the village,

they have a meal,

and at the end of the meal,

Jesus leaves them.

And as Jesus leaves them,

suddenly they realize

who it is that they've

been speaking to.

And they turn to one another

and they say this,

Did not our hearts

burn within us

when he opened up to us

the scriptures?

Did not our hearts

burn within us?

And Greek scholars

will tell us

that what that word

burns within us,

what it means

is an uncontrollable longing

to speak to God

or to pray.

In other words,

they're saying,

when Jesus opened up

the scriptures,

didn't you also feel

your heart come alive

in this desire

to know God

and to encounter him

personally?

And what Luke

is telling us here

is that Jesus

was showing them

the scriptures,

but he wasn't just

showing them

that they are

intellectually stimulating.

He wasn't just

showing them

that they are

spiritually enlightening

and rewarding.

He was showing them

that they are

personally inviting.

That when you read

the scriptures,

it's not just,

okay,

that's interesting.

It's an invitation

by the living God

to know him

and to encounter him

and to encounter

his incredible love.

Now,

what does that mean?

Edwin Clowney,

Professor Edwin Clowney,

writes this,

and he says,

there's two ways

that you can read

the Bible.

You can either read it

as if it's all about you

or you can read it

as if it's all about Christ.

So when we read the Bible

as if it's all about us,

we read it as if

it's telling us

what does God

want me to do?

How does God

want me to behave?

What do I need to do

in order to save myself

and get the blessings

of God?

Or,

you can read the Bible

Christocentrically,

which means it's all

about Christ.

And when we do that,

we see that Christ

is at the center.

It's all about him

and what he's done

to rescue us,

to save us,

and to bring us

into relationship

with God.

Either you read it

where you're at the center

and it's a self-help guide

to save yourself,

or where Christ

is at the center

and it's the story

of what God has done

to bring us

into relationship

with him

by Jesus dying

on the cross

that we can know him

and love him.

In fact,

look at verse 21.

The disciples say this.

He says,

we had hoped

that Jesus

would rescue Israel,

but he died

on the cross.

You see what they're doing there?

They're doing the exact thing

we spoke about in point two.

They're reading it

from their own

cultural perspective.

They've read the Bible,

but they haven't understood it.

And Jesus comes

and shows them,

you know what it says,

but you don't know

what it's saying.

And what it's saying

is that I am the Messiah

and I've come to die

on the cross

to rescue you,

to save you.

Friends,

when we read the Bible

Christocentrically,

we discover

that the Scriptures

are not only reliable,

not only relevant,

but they are personally inviting.

Jesus says to us here,

don't you see

all the Scriptures

from Moses

all the way

through the Old Testament

is all about the Christ.

In other words,

what he's saying,

the whole Bible

from beginning to end

is God's great plan

to bring those

that are far from God

and don't know him

back into relationship,

to be included in the family,

to know him

and experience him

and to encounter him.

Chris earlier

in the call to worship

spoke about how

God's Word

is encouraging.

Well,

that's because

Jesus is encouraging.

God's Word

is hopeful.

Well,

that's because

Jesus is hopeful.

God's Word

is enlightening.

That's because

Jesus is enlightening

because the whole Scriptures

are all about

Jesus.

If we read the Bible,

if it's all about us,

what we'll do

is we'll reduce

the Scriptures

to a rule book,

a manual,

a documentation

to tell us how to live.

Friends,

the problem

with a rule book,

with a manual,

with the documentation

how to live

is that,

as we all know,

a rule book

doesn't warm the heart.

A rule book

is never going to

elicit worship

and adoration.

A manual

about how to

make your own way

to heaven

is never going to be there

to rescue you,

to comfort you,

to save you,

or deliver you.

Throughout the New Testament,

we're coming to land now.

Throughout the New Testament,

consider this.

Who does Jesus

reserve His strongest

criticism

and most stinging

rebukes for?

It's not for sinners

and it's not for those

that have failed.

Jesus always

reserves His strongest

rebuke and criticism

for the religious leaders,

those who have spent

their lives

poring over the Scriptures,

studying it,

trying to understand it.

Why does Jesus do it?

Because though they know

what the Bible says

intellectually,

they've missed

what it's all about.

And Jesus,

in John's Gospel,

in chapter 5,

He comes and He says

to religious leaders,

He says this,

You study the Scriptures

diligently

because you think

that in them

you have eternal life,

but you refuse

to come to Me.

See what He's saying?

He's saying the Bible

is not just there

for us to study intellectually.

The Bible is not just

spiritually enlightening.

The Scriptures are there

as a personal invitation

to know and encounter

the living God,

to have our lives

turned around by Him.

Friends,

don't read the Bible

as if it's a book

of instruction.

Don't read it

as if it's some magical book

to give you insight

or wisdom

to how to improve your life,

how to give you wisdom

or some advice

to secure favor with God.

Read it to encounter Jesus,

the living God,

to discover Him

for who He is,

why He came,

why He died on the cross,

but most importantly,

come to God's Word

as an invitation

to encounter Jesus.

Now,

very quickly,

what does that mean practically?

How do you actually do that?

If you're a Christian

here this morning,

I want to ask you

two questions.

Are you getting

into God's Word?

Are you getting

into God's Word?

Are you reading it?

And secondly,

are you reading it

to meet Jesus?

Now,

you say,

how do I do that?

Well,

you've got to read it

worshipfully.

You've got to read

God's Word

and as you do that,

don't just say,

oh,

that's interesting,

I didn't know that before.

You've got to ask,

how am I reading

leading me to worship God?

How's it causing me

to adore Him?

You've got to read it

confessionally.

You've got to see

that what the Word says,

how's it challenging

your own heart

and your own life?

You read something

in the Bible

about being generous

and you confess

and repent.

Say,

God,

actually,

that's not true

of my life.

Help me to be

more generous

than you.

You read something

in the Bible

about community

and you realize

I'm individualistic

and self-orientated.

Say,

God,

I confess,

I repent,

I'm sorry

for my individualism.

I want to be

more like you.

You read something

in the Bible

about God,

I don't need Jesus.

And you say,

God,

actually,

I'm so sorry.

I'm more concerned

about pleasing people,

people liking me

than telling them

the truth.

I'm so sorry,

God,

forgive me.

You've got to read

the Bible worshiply,

you've got to read

the Bible confessionly.

Thirdly,

you've got to read

the Bible joyfully.

You've got to let

the Bible lead you

to the place

of taking joy

and delight

in who God is,

finding your identity

and your security

in Him.

What happens

if you're here this morning

and you're not a Christian?

You're not a follower of Jesus?

Can you get into the Bible?

I want to encourage you

this week,

come to the Bible

and read it.

And as you do that,

pray this very simple prayer.

So Jesus,

I'm not sure

if I believe in you.

I'm not sure

if you're real.

But if you are real,

won't you reveal yourself

to me in the Scriptures?

If you are who you say

you are,

won't you show me

from your Word?

Come and chat to me

afterwards,

come and ask questions

when you're standing here.

I'd love to show you

where to start in the Bible,

how to get in this week.

But this week,

whether you're a Christian

or not a Christian,

get into God's Word

and go and meet Jesus,

encounter Him personally.

Friends,

let's not make the mistake

that so many have made.

You can trust the Bible

historically.

According to any metric you use,

it stands up,

it's credible and reliable.

Come to the Bible

and read it.

Not as you want to impose

your culture upon it,

but as God is what He's saying.

And there you'll discover

the truth of who God is.

But thirdly,

and most importantly,

come to the Bible personally.

Don't just come to learn

some academic information.

Come to meet

the person of Jesus,

the one who died on the cross,

the one whose arms

are stretched out wide,

the one who invites you,

the one who's come

to save and to rescue,

the one who's come

to bring you to His family.

Come and meet Jesus personally

in His Word this week.

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus,

thank You so much

for Your Word.

God,

that Your Word

is living and active.

It's alive and real.

It's not just

a historical book,

though it is historically reliable.

It's not just

an interesting book,

though culturally

it is full of interesting things.

God,

Your Word is alive and real.

God,

I pray for us as a church

that we'll be a church

that loves Your Word

and is rooted in Your Word

and anchored in Your Word.

But God,

not arrogantly,

not proudly,

not thinking that

we know better than others.

God,

we want to come to Your Word humbly.

We want to come on our knees.

We want to come

and encounter You,

the living God there.

Jesus,

come and open the eyes

of our hearts

to not just see

and understand the Scriptures,

but to see You there.

We pray these things

in Your great

and gracious name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.