Reading and Being Read
Spiritually Disciplined • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Do you know what an antimetabole is? A sentence where the second half is a reversal of the first half, in order to highlight a point.
You know what I mean. They kind of sound like wisdom or a proverb, but usually they are so stupid your eyes roll in the back of your head so far they are doing 360’s. If you looking for examples, you can probably check your mom’s facebook page because odds are she posted one in the last couple of months .
Examples:
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
“I know what I like and I like what I know”
“Its not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
I hate these types of phrases. They reek of simplistic thinking and throw nuance out the window. But you know something I hate more than those? When one of them actually works and is good.
“We didn't land at Plymouth Rock. The rock landed on us" - Malcom X
“We've got what it takes to take what you've got.” - Canada Revenue Service.”
You gotta get into the Word, and get the Word into you.
As a young adult, I fell in love with the Bible.
Story of being given a church Bible and first reading Romans 8.
12 For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.
I have felt that: as I read the words in the scriptures, my heart was laid bare before me, revealed in its pages and the Holy Spirit took those words and used them to transform me.
But your story may be different than mine. Not everyone has fallen in love with the Bible like I have. Some people have taken this literary work of art and twisted it to manipulate, abuse and oppress people.
Others have butchered this book to make it say what they want it to say. For example, Thomas Jefferson, a founding father of America, took a razor and glue to cut and paste a version of the Bible that removed all mention of the supernatural, including the resurrection.
Many people find this book confusing, especially as they try to reconcile their view of God in the Old Testament with the person of Jesus in the New Testament.
Some find it offensive because they interpret it through our 21st-century North American view of ethics.
And some people doubt the legitimacy of the Bible. They believe it was made up to invent a religion and to modify and moderate people’s behaviour. They agree with atheist Richard Dawkins when he says, “... the Bible largely consists of made-up stories by unknown authors attempting to explain their views of the world and its origins. These authors sometimes modified stories from earlier cultures to shape their present needs and goals. There are countless biblical contradictions, as well as historical and scientific falsities.”
But maybe what concerns me the most as a pastor, is that more often than not, the Bible is ignored by those of us who profess to follow Jesus. We affirm that it’s the Word of God and we want the pastor to definitely teach from it, but because it takes work to understand and it’s not as entertaining as we want, we often end up ignoring it.
Instagram stories, Tik Toks and memes have taken over culturally and they are now the means by which we allow ourselves to be shaped theologically. The problem is that soundbite theology is often about as deep as the antimetaboles that we looked at earlier.
We need to get into the Word and get the word into us.
Smoking a brisket recently.
No microwave, need to slow cook it.
We need to be people who study (not just read) the Bible and then meditate on it, to allow it to get deep into us.
We need to get into the Word and get the word into us.
Here’s three steps I want to encourage you to take when it comes to studying the Bible.
1. Read the Bible Curiously
Author and speaker Bryant H. McGill said, “Curiosity is one of the great secrets of happiness.”
Need to be proven right vs. the need to learn and grow.
What does curiosity when it comes to reading and studying the Bible look like? It’s like curiosity for anything - ask questions
Who is being addressed in the passage and who was it written for?
What’s happening historically, politically, culturally that might influence this story?
Why did the author choose that story to include?
What is the author trying to say with this story / passage? How does that fit in with the rest of the teaching of the Bible?
What does this have to do with who Jesus is and what he has done?
Researching and answering these questions isn’t always easy. It’s going to take work. We need to get into the Word and get the Word into us. And when we get into the Bible with a curious spirit, asking questions and seeking the answers, the Bible comes alive to us and will speak into your heart and life, both to challenge you and to encourage you.
Read the Bible Meditatively
This is the marinating - the slow cooking part. If, through curiosity we get into the Word, this is where we get the Word into us.
97 Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.
So what is Christian meditation? Christian meditation is to ponder on what God is saying to YOU. Its to move past the first, initial thought and go deeper, letting the Word of Christ dwell richly in you.
Let’s look at an example. Let’s say that my readings are in John 6, where Jesus feeds the 5000, which is what our small group looked at this past week.
First, I approach the passage curiously. I ask, who is Jesus talking to in the passage? It turns out, he only addresses his disciples. So, the miracle is actually for them, not for the crowd. Then I ask, what’s happening around the passage? And I see from the previous chapter that Jesus is talking about his authority as the Son of God. So that tells me that while this passage displays Jesus’ compassion for the crowds, it’s actually a demonstration of his divinity - that Jesus is God and this miracle helps prove it. That’s me reading this passage curiously.
Now, we move into reading it meditatively. I see in this passage how the disciples looked at the problem from a human, practical standpoint and they couldn’t figure out how to feed everyone. Do I ever do that? Do I ever get caught up in the how and forget the who? Do I ever get hyper focused on the details and forget that Jesus is with me? Where do I do that?
And I sit with those questions for a while, praying that God would reveal them to me. And if an answer comes right away, I keep sitting with it for a while - it may go deeper.
That’s Christian meditation. It to dwell on the person of God, the work of God and the Word of God and listen for what God will say to you. It’s to get into the Word and get the Word into you.
Read the Bible Applicationally
I know that that is not a real word. I made it up (like someone did for every word there is). But it encapsulates this idea so well. First we read the Bible curiously - we ask questions to understand it. Then we read it meditatively - we ponder the passage and listen for how God speaks to us through it. But then we have to read it applicationally - we need to hear what actions God is calling us to do in light of the passage and then do them.
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Every. Good. Work. The point of studying our scriptures is not to be entertained, or to even to hear God say nice things to us. We are to live it out in real, practical ways.
Let’s return to the passage in John where Jesus fed the 5000. Through reading it curiously, we see that this passage is about Jesus proving his divinity to the disciples. Then, processing it meditatively, maybe we see God challenging us about trusting him, instead of ourselves. And because we are good readers, we go deeper and we see that maybe there is a specific area that we struggle to trust God with. And that’s where too many Christians stop. But to finish the process, we need to read it applicationally. In this case, its figuring out “what will I do or stop doing” in order to trust God more. It’s answering the question of “how can I trust God in this area?” “What does trusting look like and what do I have to do to get there?”
To read applicationally is to move past our feelings and take action.
22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. 24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. 25 But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.
We need to get into the Word and get the Word into us. And the sign that it is in us is that we live it out practically.
Conclusion
One day, a pastor’s car broke down on a country road, he walked to a nearby bar to use the phone. After calling for a tow truck, he spotted his old friend, Frank, drunk and shabbily dressed sitting at a table. "What happened to you, Frank?" asked the good reverend. "You used to be rich." Frank told a sad tale of bad investments that had led to his downfall. "Go home," the pastor said. "Open your Bible at random, stick your finger on the page and there will be God's answer."
Some time later, the preacher bumped into Frank, who was wearing an Armani suit, sporting a Tag Hauer watch and had just stepped our of a Mercedes e-class. "Frank." said the preacher, "Wow! It sure looks like things really turned around for you since I saw you last."
"Yes, preacher, and I owe it all to you," said Frank. "I opened my Bible, put my finger down on the page and there was the answer -- Chapter 11."
Church, that’s not how we are to read the Bible. We need to read it curiously, meditatively and applicationally because:
Curiosity + Meditation + Application = Transformation
So get into the Word, and get the Word into you.
Pray.