“Open Your Bibles as We Read from the Book of…”

With the 8th anniversary of Christianity 201 happening on Easter Sunday, we’ve been looking at some of the older articles on file; this one is from March, 2012…

I believe the most powerful words with which a preacher can begin any sermon is to say, “Take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of…” I love analogies, I love to hear about the context in which the writers wrote, I love it when a preacher quotes contemporary and classic writers, and I need to hear the suggested application of the passage to my life…

…but it all has to begin with scripture.

^{2 Peter 1:16-NIV} For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. ¹⁷ He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” ¹⁸We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

¹⁹ We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. ²⁰ Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. ²¹ For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Verse 21 in the above is key to this discussion. No matter what my will would desire to say, my words must, first and foremost, be guided by the direction of the Holy Spirit.

Eugene Peterson translates the concluding section of the passage:

The main thing to keep in mind here is that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of private opinion. And why? Because it’s not something concocted in the human heart. Prophecy resulted when the Holy Spirit prompted men and women to speak God’s Word.

The problem we face in the Christian media, including Christian radio and television, and in Christian books, is that you’re hearing a lot of what Peter would call “private opinion.”

Any blogger or pastor or author has to be continually running a check: Is this my opinion or is this what God is saying? Is this my pet peeve or favorite subject or am I letting the passage speak?

In the U.S., there was (and probably still is) a network of radio stations that operated under the corporate name Clear Channel. That’s a radio term originally referring to certain powerful AM-frequency signals that broadcast over a wide area — especially at night — without interference from local stations that were assigned the same frequency.

Being a clear channel of what God means speaking with the power of His Word and not allowing the message to be fuzzy or subject to interference.

Continuing this theme in the next chapter — and remember the chapter divisions don’t exist in the original — Peter goes on to describe those whose signal is “interfered with” as false teachers.

Years ago, I asked a friend of mine who was doing research into cults to explain to our church exactly how does a cult get started. I used the analogy, “How does a rocket, properly aimed and positioned start to veer off course?”

I think it’s not a stretch to look at chapter two of Peter’s epistle as having some origins in what he says in chapter one: It began with someone’s “own interpretation” (NIV) or “private opinion” (Peterson).

A crowd can be wrong. Just because hundreds of people are jumping off a cliff doesn’t mean you should also. But there is a security in both (a) the way the ‘church fathers’ have traditionally dealt with a passage of scripture; established through study Bible notes and commentaries, and (b) the confirmation that comes through the reading of other passages.

In preparing today’s thoughts, I was somewhat astounded by the large percentage of commentary and writing in the Christian quarter of the internet that begins with opinions and stores, compared with the very tiny percentage that begins with a verse or chapter of the Bible. (And yes, my other blog was trending that way so I created this one to give my own life and writing some balance.)

When it’s your turn to be the speaker, make the first words out of your mouth, “Take your Bible and turn to…”

~PW

 

The People Christ Died For

Recently a young man in our community asked if I could help him prepare a talk for high school students on the theme, “The love of God.”

In a situation like this, my tendency is to offer too much help, thus denying the person the opportunity to make their own discovery in scripture. So my first email back to him was rather short:

Try these on for size; mull them over, and get back to me after 24 hours.

Just play them over in your mind and see where it takes you.
Seriously!!

Romans 5:7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.…

Titus 3:4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, 5He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy.

But then, just to make it interesting, I wrote:

Focus on the set-up verses in these pairs that don’t mention God’s love; in the first one verse 7, in the second one verse 5.

Because we’ve dealt with the Titus verse in various places here, like this one, I’ll focus to day on Romans.

I think verse 7 of Romans 5 is key to understanding verse 8. Jesus did not die for good people, he died for sinners, and this goes against every human instinct. Yesterday he asked for some clarification and I wrote this (edited for readers here):

Okay, I really believe Paul is having some fun with this verse in that he’s toying with his readers wanting them to see the idea for themselves rather than him just telling them.

He’s saying you might die for a good person, or more generally, a human might be willing to lay down their life for another person, if that other person were intrinsically good or moral or virtuous or capable of offering some gift that might help the planet in some significant way.

A good question to open with might be: “Do any of you have a friend or family member that you honestly would be willing to die for?” I wrestled with this my third year working at Christian summer camp, as I had never known true agape from outside my family; but I got to be good friends with two brothers, one of whom I still email occasionally to this day. I don’t know how or where the topic came up, but I was asking the older brother why the younger brother was willing to do something for me back in the city all summer, and the older brother suddenly said, “Because he loves you, man; and I love you, too.”

That was just too much for me, and I had to really work through the meaning of friendship, especially within the context of Christian community. Later, in further discussions the topic came up about being willing to die for a friend.

So the obvious answer is that if you thought the person worth dying for, if you thought their life was worth something, you might do it. BUT you wouldn’t do it if you thought the person was trash. Scripture tells us that to God, our righteousness is “as filthy rags.” Apparently the various shades of meaning in the original here are really gross; you might not want to go there with a youth group, or they won’t hear anything you say after that point! But in that state, Christ loved us, hence verse 8.

That’s where Titus 3:5 fits in too; the idea that there’s nothing we can do to earn God’s favor.

Here’s another possible opening question. “Let’s pretend that you just died, and that St. Peter is waiting for you at the entrance to heaven — even though the Bible actually doesn’t say anything about Peter at the Pearly Gates — and he turns to you and says, ‘Why should I let you in?‘”

People will usually give performance-based answers.

This question,  is at the heart of a program called Evangelism Explosion, and adults usually get it wrong, too. They’ll give all kinds of reasons why they were kind, volunteered, gave money, helped old ladies across the street, etc.

If you can help high-school kids to get past performance-based faith, you’ll be doing them a world of good.

This of course leads in to the broader topic of grace. Grace is something we learn about in church, but we never really know it until we’ve really wrapped our heads around the idea of our wretchedness versus God’s total ‘other-ness’ which we discussed a few days ago.

People don’t grasp this fully in one sitting. (I don’t fully grasp it right now.) So you want to leave them with an appetite (thirst) for more.

…I haven’t decided whether to send this as well — it’s important not to give someone too much help — but I thought of it as I was preparing this. This story exists in different forms, Andy Almendarez shares this one at Sermon Central:

I want to tell you the story of a young man. It is the story of a West Point graduate who is sent to Iraq. He takes his men into combat. He did a very good job in keeping his men alive. Until one night they were surprised by insurgents. All of the young Lt’s men were able to get to cover except one. The one soldier lay wounded. The Lt. and his men could hear his agonized cries. They all wanted to go out and get him and bring him to safety. However, there was one problem, leaving cover meant enemy fire was sure to follow.

Finally the young Lt. could stand it no longer and he himself went out into the deadly area. He got to the wounded soldier and managed to drag him back to safety. Just as the Lt. was pushing the young man behind cover he was fired upon and hit. He was killed instantly.

Time passed and the wounded soldier recuperated and went back to the states. The parents of the Lt. learned of this and wanted to meet the young man their son gave his life for. They invited him over for dinner one evening.

Finally the big night arrived. Their guest arrived, drunk. He was loud and obnoxious. He told bad jokes, was rude and showed no concern for his hosts. The parents of the brave Lt. did their best to salvage the evening and make it worthwhile. Finally the night ended and their obscene guest left.

As her husband closed the door the mother collapsed into a heap of tears and cried, “To think our son had to die for somebody like that.”

Before we jump on the bandwagon and begin to criticize that young man for his behavior, shouldn’t we consider just how much we have in common with him…

[…continue reading at this link…]

My hope today is that you and I will not only continue to know the breadth and width and depth of the love of God, but that we will be able to share it in such a way that people hunger and thirst for more.

This is a trustworthy saying that deserves complete acceptance: To this world Messiah came, sinful people to reclaim. I am the worst of them.
  (I Tim. 1:15 ISV)

 

“Take Your Bibles and Turn With Me…”

I believe the most powerful words with which a preacher can begin any sermon is to say, “Take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of…”   I love analogies, I love to hear about the context in which the writers wrote, I love it when a preacher quotes contemporary and classic writers, and I need to hear the suggested application of the passage to my life…

…but it all has to begin with scripture.

^{2 Peter 1:16-NIV} For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. ¹⁷ He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” ¹⁸We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.

 ¹⁹ We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. ²⁰ Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. ²¹ For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Verse 21 in the above is key to this discussion. No matter what my will would desire to say, my words must, first and foremost, be guided by the direction of the Holy Spirit.

Eugene Peterson translates the concluding section of the passage:

The main thing to keep in mind here is that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of private opinion. And why? Because it’s not something concocted in the human heart. Prophecy resulted when the Holy Spirit prompted men and women to speak God’s Word.

The problem we face in the Christian blogosphere, on Christian radio and television, and in Christian books, is that you’re hearing a lot of what Peter would call “private opinion.”  

Any blogger or pastor or author has to be continually running a check: Is this my opinion or is this what God is saying?  Is this my pet peeve or favorite subject or am I letting the passage speak?

In the U.S., there was (and probably still is) a network of radio stations that operated under the corporate name Clear Channel. That’s a radio term originally referring to certain powerful AM-frequency signals that broadcast over a wide area — especially at night — without interference from local stations that were assigned the same frequency.

Being a clear channel of what God means speaking with the power of His Word and not allowing the message to be fuzzy or subject to interference.  

Continuing this theme in the next chapter — and remember the chapter divisions don’t exist in the original — Peter goes on to describe those whose signal is “interfered with” as false teachers.

Years ago, I asked a friend of mine who was doing research into cults to explain to our church exactly how does a cult get started. I used the analogy, “How does a rocket, properly aimed and positioned start to veer off course?”

I think it’s not a stretch to look at chapter two of Peter’s epistle as having some origins in what he says in chapter one:  It began with someone’s “own interpretation” (NIV) or “private opinion” (Peterson). 

A crowd can be wrong . Just because hundreds of people are jumping off a cliff doesn’t mean you should also. But there is a security in both (a) the way the ‘church fathers’ have traditionally dealt with a passage of scripture, and (b) the confirmation that comes through the reading of other passages.

In preparing today’s thoughts, I was somewhat astounded by the large percentage of commentary and writing in the Christian quarter of the internet that begins with opinions and stores, compared with the very tiny percentage that begins with a verse or chapter of the Bible.  And yes, my other blog was trending that way so I created this one to give my own life and writing some balance.

When it’s your turn to speak, make the first words out of your mouth, “Take your Bible and turn to…”

~PW

The graphic at the top of the page is from Till He Comes, and really doesn’t have a lot to do with today’s topic directly other than that I liked it!