Conflict at Gennesaret

The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive Jesus and the Bible

In the Bible, the only people who were told to wash their hands are the priests.

According to the law of Moses, the priests had to wash their hands before they went in and led worship. This makes perfect sense actually. It’s a very important part of the liturgy. It’s a very important symbol. It was a way for God to say, “I am holy. If you who have sin are going to approach me, it has to be cleansed. It has to be dealt with.” It’s a very helpful and important part of the worship.

But by the time of Jesus, according to the tradition of elders, everybody was required to wash constantly with water. Wash before eating. Notice all the references. Sometimes washing clothes, washing furniture. Why? Because you might have touched something unclean. You might have touched a Gentile. You might have touched something that was unclean. Just to be sure, even though it wasn’t in the Bible, there was this obsession with ritual purity.

Think about this. One of the principles of the Hebrew Scriptures was that Israel was to be a light to the Gentiles, a light to the nations. Yet of course that basic principle is totally lost in all the legalism and separatism that comes from all of these kinds of rules when it came to eating, which utterly separated you from the nations.

Another example. Jesus points out here at the latter part of the passage this thing about Corban. You see, the Bible, of course, says God’s claims supersede anyone else’s claim. As a result of that, the tradition of the elders had developed a really wonderful little loophole. You could take a piece of property, and you could declare it Corban. The word Corban means offered or offering. You could say, “I have dedicated, I have offered, this property up to God.”

What that meant was if somebody in your family, if one of your relatives or even your own parents, got into economic trouble or financial trouble and came to you and said, “You’re the kinsman. Would you help me get out of trouble?” you could say, “Oh, well, yeah. But I can’t use any of this because it’s all God’s.” See? Jesus says, “Look. By complying with the tradition of the elders, you’ve actually contradicted the whole spirit of the biblical principle, ‘Honor your father and mother.’ ”

Then the very last line of the whole passage. Do you notice what he says? He says, “I could give you a hundred more illustrations, but I won’t.” Why is he so angry? You can see when he replies to them in verse 7 he was so angry. Here’s why he was so angry. He was so angry because, as he said, “They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men. You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.”

This is a remarkable statement. What he says here is if you fail to honor the unique authority of the Bible, you fail to worship God. If you let human traditions, what the experts say, what your heart says, if you let anything else have equal authority with the Bible, you fail to worship God. You create your own god actually. You are your own god. Jesus is actually saying a failure to recognize and honor the unique authority of the Bible is a failure to honor the authority of God.

The authority of the Bible and the authority of God stand or fall together. You can’t have one without the other. This is a remarkably astonishingly high view of the Bible in which Jesus is seeing the Bible as not a human product but something that’s divine. This isn’t the only place. If we’re really going to understand what Jesus is saying here about the Bible and about how he is saying by not identifying the unique authority of the Bible and adjusting your life to its authority, you’re dishonoring God …

To understand all this, we need to do a little survey of the other things Jesus says about the Bible. If you look at Jesus’ life and you look at the Gospels and you see his view of the Bible, it is astounding. Jesus based all of his thinking, all of his actions, and even his heart on the Bible, mind, will, and emotions. Everything!

For example, mind. Thinking. Whenever Jesus had a problem, an issue, a question, some intellectual issue or ethical issue, the final word for Jesus was gegraptai. “It is written.” It is written. When he said that, it didn’t matter what the experts said. It didn’t matter what the culture said. It didn’t matter what the tradition said. It didn’t matter what your heart said. It was settled.

So John 10. Jesus says the Scripture cannot be broken, which means it can’t be disobeyed. In Matthew 5, Jesus says, “Not a jot or tittle,” which means not a letter or a part of a letter. Jot means yod, the smallest of the Hebrew letters. Tittle means a part of a letter. Not a letter or a part of a letter will pass away from the Word of God till it all comes true. He based his thinking on the Bible. It was the supreme authority intellectually.

Secondly, he based his actions on the Bible, his plans, his decisions. To me, one of the most amazing places where you see this is in Matthew 26. It’s the garden of Gethsemane. The soldiers arrived to arrest him. They’re arresting him! Think of all the chaos of that. As they’re arresting him and grabbing him, Peter pulls out his sword. What does Jesus say? He says, “Peter, put down your sword. I could call legions of angels.”

Then what does he say? “How will the Scripture be fulfilled?” At a time like that, he based everything in his life on the Scripture! He did everything according to the Scripture … all of his decisions, all of his plans, all of his actions. So there’s the mind. There’s the will. I think the most moving thing is to see that if you read the life of Jesus, you will see the main fortification for his heart was the Scriptures.

He did not handle the cosmic challenges of his life with willpower, but with the Scripture. For example, when he was assaulted in the desert by the Devil, when he was assaulted by the Devil … cosmic temptation, cosmic accusation … every single time what does he say? “Gegraptai.” “It is written.” Every time he takes the Scripture.

In fact, one time he actually said to the Devil, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” That’s Jesus’ way of saying, “Every word of the Scripture is my bread, my meat, my strength, my life.” When he was carrying his own cross to his execution and his life was literally ebbing out of him and he fell down at one point (you read this in Luke 22) and he sees the women weeping, what does he say to them? Where do you get the words at a time like that?

He quotes Isaiah. He is quoting the Bible. When he actually gets on the cross and when he is in the absolute greatest possible agony of body and soul, he quotes Psalm 22:1. He says, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He quotes Psalm 31:5. “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” He is quoting the Bible!

Look. Do you know what this means? If you’re falling off a cliff and you see your death in the rocks below and you cry out, what do you cry out? Or if someone comes after you with a knife and you see your death in the eyes of your assailant, what do you cry out? Whatever it is, you don’t think, “Well, what should I say? What will people think? What are the expectations here?”

No! What comes out is whatever is in you. The real you! The real depths of your heart are revealed at a time like this. When Jesus Christ is at the absolute limit, at the extremity, you see his mind, heart, and will are so saturated with the truths, the narratives, the images, the cadences, the promises, the warnings of Scripture that when he was stabbed, he literally bled Scripture. It just flowed out of him.

He faced everything with Scripture. His identity was based on Scripture. His life was based on Scripture. Now do you see the first point? Here’s what the point is. Remember how Jesus said the authority of God and the authority of the Bible stand or fall together? Well, the authority of Jesus and the authority of the Bible stand and fall together too. Here’s the reason why.

There are people all over New York I know who say, “Oh, I want to follow Jesus. I’m interested in following Jesus. Ah, but the Bible. Well, there are some parts I like, some parts I don’t like. There are some jots and tittles I like. There are some jots and tittles I don’t like. There are some parts that are regressive. Some parts we can’t accept anymore.”

Listen. You can’t follow Jesus and reject the very basis of his whole life. At the very best, that’s just not thinking. At the very worst, that’s hypocritical. It’s like, “I want the warm fuzzies of saying I’m with Jesus,” but you reject the very basis of your life. Listen. Unless you are willing, like Jesus, to conform, to adjust, your life to the supreme authority of the Scripture in every detail, even where it hurts, even where you don’t want to do it …

Unless you’re willing to conform and adjust your life to the authority of the Scripture, especially at the places where it contradicts your heart or your tradition or your culture or the experts or your friends, there’s no way you can follow Jesus. The authority of the Bible and the authority of God and Jesus Christ stand or fall together.

Aren’t we glad there’s not just one point to this sermon? Aren’t we glad this isn’t the end? Well, actually some of you are saying, “It isn’t the end?” Well, no. It’s not the end. Because, you know, if we stop here … You say, “Oh, so that’s following Jesus.” It’s just like, “Wow. It’s really hard. I’m going to have to do a lot of things I don’t want to do. You have to suck it up, and you just have to do it. You have to do your duty. I guess that’s following Jesus.”

Is that following Jesus? Well, look. You’re not going to be any good at your work, you’re not going to be any good at your friendships, you’re not going to be any good at your family life, you’re not going to be any good in life if sometimes you don’t just simply suck it up and do what you ought to do, even though you don’t want to do it. You’re not going to be a functional human being if you can’t do that. Fortunately, there’s a whole lot more to being a Christian than that.

The first point is we have to adjust to the Scriptures’ authority. Jesus criticizes people who aren’t willing to see the supreme and unique authority of the Scripture. The second thing Jesus Christ is saying about Scripture is we have to …

2. Grasp its purpose

We have to see what the Bible is for, what we’re trying to accomplish when we obey the Bible. Notice it says here, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.” What is Jesus saying here? This is a quote from Isaiah 29. What’s he saying here? Just this.

He says God says, “The purpose of the Bible is not formal compliance, but I want your heart. I want your heart! You’re far from me. I want to be close to you.” Jesus says, “If you look at obeying the Bible, if you add all these rules and regulations to the Bible, that shows you think the purpose of the Bible is so you can feel like a righteous person, so you can feel like you’re an obedient, righteous person, so you can say, ‘Oh, God, you have to bless me now because I’m living such a good life.’ ” That’s to completely miss, according to this, the purpose of the Bible.

The purpose of the Bible is not to get God in a corner, not to manipulate God, not to control him so he has to bless you and answer your prayers, not so you can feel righteous. The purpose, according to this, of obeying the Bible is an intimate love relationship with God. God says, “I want you to obey the Bible because I want intimacy with you.”

The greatest illustration and demonstration of this principle, of this understanding of the purpose of the Bible, you find actually in Exodus 19 and 20. In Exodus 20, we have what? The Ten Commandments, the ultimate revelation of God’s will for how people should live. The Ten Commandments. But where does God give the Ten Commandments? In Exodus 19, when he brings them to Mount Sinai, he says this.

Just before he gives them the Ten Commandments, he says, “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.” Listen. This is one of the most important points in the Bible. God did not come to the children of Israel in Egypt and say, “If you obey my Law, then I’ll rescue you. I’ll bring you out of slavery on eagles’ wings.” He didn’t say, “If you obey, I’ll save you.”

What does he say? “I saved you! I brought you out of slavery. I released you from the bondage to the most powerful nation in the world, and you didn’t have to lift a finger. You didn’t have to lift a weapon. I saved you. You didn’t do it. I didn’t do it because you were obedient, because you weren’t obedient. I didn’t do it because you obeyed the Law. You didn’t even have the Law. I did it because I loved you.”

Sheer, unmerited grace. “Hmm. Okay, if I’m already saved all by sheer grace and God has already set his love on me, why in the world do I obey?” He says, “Because this is how you can become my treasure. This is how you can treasure me, and I can treasure you. This is how we can have an intimate relationship.” You have to obey my will if we’re going to have this incredible, intimate relationship that I want with you.”

3. Fall in love with the Person as its center

For modern Western people, the ideas of obeying the Law and intimate, personal relationship seem very antithetical, don’t they? I mean, we don’t put those two things together. They actually seem to be antithetical. Well, we’re wrong. We’re wrong! Let me show you. If you’re really falling in love with somebody … really falling in love … and you want a love relationship, what do you do?

You start to do research. Oh, yes. Of course, one of the things you’re after is you want to find the things that offend and outrage the person (of course), and you want to avoid them. Important safety tip. Don’t have a love relationship if you’re constantly offending the other person. You’re not satisfied with that. You not only want to know what will offend and outrage them, but you also want to know what are even the little things that will delight them and make them happy. Even the little things!

What are you doing? You’re tracing out an arc. Well, what is this arc? It’s the will of your beloved. It’s what your beloved wants in his or her environment. It’s what your beloved wants. It’s the will of your beloved. Once you’ve done all your research, you find out not only the things that outrage and offend but even the things that make the person happy, even the things that delight the person, without being asked you begin to conform your life to the arc of your beloved. You begin to obey the will of the beloved.

Well, why doesn’t it feel like obedience? We don’t even think of it like that! Here’s the reason why. When you fall in love with somebody, you put your happiness into their happiness. You’re only happy if they’re happy. You can’t help it! That’s how love works. It’s not exploitation if the other person is doing it to you. If the other person has inserted their happiness into your happiness, if the other person is tracing out the arc of your will, the other person is beginning to submit to the authority, adjust your life to the authority in love of the will of the beloved …

When you’re both doing that, wow. That’s a love relationship! What’s really, really bad is if one of you is doing it and one of you is not. The old TV Star Treks, the old, old ones with Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner, of all the old TV Star Treks, I think one episode was probably the silliest and most ridiculous. Since all the old Star Treks were silly and ridiculous; therefore, this would have been the best of them all! Think about that, okay?

It’s about a man named Harry Mudd. Harry Mudd has a nagging wife, just a terribly nagging wife. He is just miserable. He flees to a planet. On this planet, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of robots, nothing but robots. They all are beautiful women robots. This is real high-concept science fiction, I hope you know.

He flees to this planet, and he says, “Finally, paradise!” because every one of these absolutely beautiful women robots never, never, never contradict him, no matter what he says. He traces the arc of his will, and all they ever do is, “Yes, dear. Yes, Lord Mudd. Yes, dear. Yes, dear.” He even has a robot made of his wife. Some of you are remembering this. I can tell just by the way …

What he can do is he can go over, and he can push the button to start it. She begins to berate him and says, “Harcourt Fenton Mudd, where have you been? Is there alcohol on your breath? Where have you been?” What he says is, “Shut up!” and pushes the button. She goes, “You, you, you, you …” Paradise! Beautiful women, nagging wife.

When the intrepid crew of the starship Enterprise gets to this planet, Harry Mudd is desperate to get off. He is absolutely miserable. He doesn’t have a single personal relationship, because if you’re in a relationship with another person who can’t contradict you … never contradicts you, only ever says, “Yes, dear. Yes, dear. Yes, dear,” that person is not a subject but an object.

There are lots and lots of marriages in the world in which one party is so traumatized and afraid of the other party that all they’re ever able to do is say, “Yes, dear. Yes, dear.” They can’t contradict. They can’t be honest. That is not a personal relationship. That’s an exploitive relationship. The person who is afraid to be honest and can’t contradict has been objectified. They’re not a subject; they’re an object.

Would you like a personal relationship with God? There’s only one way. You have to have a God who can contradict the deepest convictions (some of them), the deepest feelings of your heart. Otherwise, you don’t have a personal relationship with God. If you say, “Oh, I want a personal relationship with God but, you know, there are parts of the Bible I like and parts I don’t like. I’m going to accept the parts I like. I’m going to accept this. I like this part. This stuff I just can’t accept anymore …”

In other words, you have no way now for God to contradict you. You have a robot God. You don’t have the God of Job 42. When Job says, “Why are you letting these things happen?” he is very upset with God. God says, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” No, you don’t have that. You have a robot God who says, “Where were you, you, you, you …?” because you’ve pushed that button.

You say, “I’m sorry. There are parts of this I don’t really like.” Unless you have a God who can contradict you, you can’t even have a conversation. He is not a person; he is an object. Here’s what’s really tragic. There are all kinds of things in the Bible that you don’t want to believe because it’s the kind of stuff you don’t want to do. There are all kinds of things in the Bible that are hard to believe because they’re too good to be true.

The Bible says when our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts. There are times in which you’re going to feel like such a failure. The Bible comes and says, “Through the grace of God, in spite of all your failures, no matter what you’ve done, you can be my child.” You say, “No, no! It’s impossible.” But do you know what? If you haven’t ceded the Bible the authority to tell you the stuff, the bad stuff, how can the Bible come and give you hope when your heart is hopeless? How can it argue you into absolute contentment and joy? It can’t! It can’t.

You can’t have a personal, intimate relationship with God unless you are willing to submit, to adjust your life to the arc of God’s will and to the authority of the Bible. If you adjust your life to the authority of the Bible, out of love, out of a desire to please and know him, then you are understanding the purpose of the Word of God.

Here we have come to the place where some of you, if you’re really listening and you’re really thinking (and this is New York, so a lot of you actually do really listen and really think), some of you may be saying, “Guess what? I’m still skeptical because I know what’s actually in the Bible. Yeah, here you’re talking about submit to the authority of the Bible.”

Here you see Jesus saying, “Religiosity says external compliance to the rules, but the gospel is an inner heart filled with love and joy that wants to passionately, wildly love God and love your neighbor.” You use the Bible as a way to do that. You get out there. You go beyond just what offends to what delights. You’re out there loving. The Bible is the way for you to know how to love God and how to love people.

You say, “The trouble is, if you actually read the Bible and you read the stories and you read the things the Bible really demands, it doesn’t make you feel close to God. It doesn’t fill you with inner joy. It makes you guilty. It can almost crush you.” Virginia Stem Owens is a writer and also taught writing and composition to a class at Texas A&M some years ago. She figured, “Well, I’m in the Bible Belt, so surely they will have heard of the Sermon on the Mount.”

For her composition class, she assigned that they would read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and that then they would write an essay about it. To her surprise and to their surprise, most of them had never really read the thing. When they read it, they were appalled. In the essays, they said things like this. One of the students said, “I do not like the essay ‘Sermon on the Mount.’ It … made me feel like I had to be perfect and no one is.”

Here’s the fun one. It says, “The things asked in this sermon are absurd. To look at a woman is adultery? That is the most extreme, stupid, un-human statement that I have ever heard.” By the way, have you ever really read the Sermon on the Mount? I heard a minister who said if you actually read the Sermon on the Mount and see the kind of life it requires, if you really, really listen to it, you don’t sort of read it through some kind of rose-colored, sentimental glasses. If you really see what it says …

I remember one minister said, “You’re going to look up to heaven. You’re going to say, ‘God, save me from the Sermon on the Mount!’ ” It’s not going to make you feel close to God. It’s not going to make you feel all sorts of inner love and joy. So what are we going to do about it? Here’s what we’re going to do about it.

The main reason the Pharisees are so shocked by Jesus … Let’s remember what the tradition of the elders was. It was a way to explain to people what the Bible means. The traditions of the elders said, “This is what this means. This is what this part of the Bible means. This is what the Sabbath means. This is what the Passover means.”

When Jesus was just sweeping all the traditions away and telling his disciples not to follow him, saying to everybody, “Don’t follow them,” he was putting himself in the place. He was saying, “I’ll tell you what the Bible means. I am the ultimate revealer of the Bible. I can tell you what it means.” How can he? This is what’s so shocking to the Pharisees. How dare he? Here’s how he dare.

In the book of Luke, when Jesus Christ comes back from the dead, he meets with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. He meets with his disciples in the upper room. What does he immediately bring up? I mean, when you come back from the dead and you’re trying to get your friends ready for the rest of history, what do you say? Do you know what he says both times? “It’s imperative that you learn to read the Bible rightly.”

He says to the disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24, “ ‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”

Then in the upper room, he said to his disciples, “ ‘This is what I told you while I was still with you: everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.’ Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.” Jesus says, “The Bible will be an absolute despair to you. It will only crush you. It won’t be a joy to you unless you learn how to read it.”

What does he say is the secret to reading it? “You have to see there is a center to it. There is a plotline running through it. Oh, there are all these stories and all these stories and all these demands and all these stories and all these rules, but there’s a plotline running through all of them. They all point to me. Unless you see that, the Bible will be nothing but a crushing burden.”

You say, “Well, how does that work?” Well, I try to show you this almost every week, and I have been doing it for basically the main part of my life, but let me give you two quick examples. There’s a wonderful story in the Bible about Joseph, isn’t there? Joseph! He was sold by his jealous, resentful, bitter brothers into slavery in Egypt. They figure he’ll die in slavery.

Instead of dying, he is successful. He rises up to be prime minister of Egypt. He is sitting at the right hand of the king. When his brothers who betrayed and sold him get into his power, Joseph forgives them. He redeems them. Okay. What are we supposed to get from that? Okay. Isn’t that inspiring? Do you see what the Bible is saying to you?

“Be like Joseph. Even if people hurt you and they stab you in the back, they try to ruin you financially, they try to ruin you reputationally, they try to ruin you relationally … No matter what people do to you, no matter how much they try to hurt you, love and forgive them, and help them have a good life. Now run along and be like Joseph.”

Is that inspiring to you? “God, save us from this story of Joseph!” Who in the world could be like that? It’s not inspiring. It’s crushing unless Jesus is right. Here’s what Jesus says. “I am the true and better Joseph, don’t you know? See, I was sold not into near death but into real death. I rose up not just from slavery but from death itself. Now I’m sitting at the right hand of the Father.”

When the true and better Joseph sees us, the people who turned their backs on him, the people who have lived as if he doesn’t exist, the people who betrayed him, we, the people who caused his death, he forgave us at infinite cost to himself. To the degree you see that and that moves you and that melts you and that humbles you and that affirms you, to the degree you see him as the true and better Joseph, that empowers you to go out to try to be like Joseph.

Or Esther. Here’s one more story just to show you. Esther. There’s a wonderful story in the Bible. It’s about a woman who has the palace, and she has power. She has money. She has this status, but she realizes her people are about to be destroyed. In order to save her people, she has to risk losing the palace. She identifies with her people though she risks losing everything. She risks losing her life. She risks losing her status, but she does. As a result, her people are saved.

So be like Esther, everyone. Go ahead. Be courageous no matter what it costs. Do the right thing, and speak up for the truth even if it costs you your job, even if it costs you your money, even if it costs you your reputation, even if it costs you your life. Get out there, and let nothing cow you. Be afraid of nothing at all. Go. Run along. Go be like that.

God, save us from the story of Esther unless there’s a true and better Esther, Someone who was in the real palace, the ultimate palace. He saw the only way we could be saved was if he identified with his people. He came and identified with us not at the risk of his life but at the cost of his life, not at the risk of the palace but at the cost of the palace.

Do you know what? Unless that thrills you, unless that becomes the basis of your life, unless you think, “The Son of God loves me like that,” unless that changes your very self-image, unless you see he loves you like that and that becomes the basis of your self-image, you do not possibly have the security to be courageous.

See, without that, without knowing the eternal Son of God loved you like that and the God of the universe delights in you, where do you get your self-image from? Your achievements. You get your self-image from your money. You get your self-image from your status. For the truth’s sake, you’re not going to compromise those things, because that’s all you have for a self-image. Only if you see the true and better Esther, Jesus Christ, and he has changed your life with his love can you actually be like Esther.

Don’t you see? Unless you see Jesus as the ultimate Joseph, the ultimate Esther, the ultimate David, the ultimate Abraham who lived the life you should have lived and died the death you should have died, so when you say, “Father, accept me because of what Jesus has done,” that gets you out of Egypt! Not on the basis of your works and your obedience but on the basis of sheer grace. Then you can be like Joseph. You can be like Esther. You can, because out of gratitude.

Until you see the ultimate Rock of Moses, Jesus Christ, was struck with the rod of God’s justice to give us real water of life, until you see the ultimate Passover Lamb was Jesus Christ, the ultimate Passover Lamb who was slain so the angel of death would pass us over, until you see he is the ultimate Prophet, the ultimate Priest, the ultimate King, the ultimate Corban, the ultimate offering, the Bible will just be a crushing thing for you.

It won’t be something you read with joy. It won’t be a way of entering into a love relationship with God. It will just be a despair. Oh, but now wait a minute, you smart New York types. Some of you have been tracing it out and saying, “Now wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute! I kind of remember you saying something, though.

You said, ‘Yes, you give up your rights to live your own life. You adjust to the authority of the will of the beloved, but unless the other person is doing it back, it’s exploitation.’ Okay, so where is God adjusting to me? You want me to adjust my whole life to the Word of God? Where is God adjusting to me?”

Don’t you see now? In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said, “I don’t want to go to the cross. I don’t want to go into that cosmic hell.” Whatever it was he experienced on the cross, he suffered the punishment we all deserve for everything the human race has done wrong. He said, “Not my will but thine be done.” He adjusted his life to us in the most radical way possible. He adjusted his life to the fact that we needed to be redeemed. He let his will be crossed in the ultimate way.

He is not asking you to go to hell for him. He did that for us. He is asking you to go to heaven for him. It means letting your will be crossed, but do it! Have that love relationship with him. Humble yourself under the Word of God. Have the same relationship he had with it in your mind, your will, and your emotions, and it will be a joy. Let us pray.

Thank you, Father, for granting to us this word about your Word. We pray you would help us to receive it as a joy, receive it as a gift, not as a burden because we see at the very center of all the stories of the Bible is Jesus Christ your Son. It’s in his name that we pray, amen.

More than 200 years ago, Edward Gibbon wrote a six-volume series called, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. He spent 20 years studying the Roman Empire to find out how a nation that was so great suddenly imploded.

According to the law of Moses, the priests had to wash their hands before they went in and led worship. This makes perfect sense actually. It’s a very important part of the liturgy. It’s a very important symbol. It was a way for God to say, “I am holy. If you who have sin are going to approach me, it has to be cleansed. It has to be dealt with.” It’s a very helpful and important part of the worship.

Interestingly, the first volume was published in 1776, the year our country was born. Gibbon listed five primary reasons for the collapse.

1. The rapid increase of divorce, with the undermining of the sanctity of the home, which is the basis of society. 2. Higher and higher taxes; and the spending of public money on bread and circuses. 3. The mad craze for pleasure, with sports becoming every year more exciting and more brutal. 4. The building of gigantic armies to fight external enemies, when the most deadly enemy, the decadence of the people, lay within. 5. The decay of religion; faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life, and becoming impotent to guide it.

But by the time of Jesus, according to the tradition of elders, everybody was required to wash constantly with water. Wash before eating. Notice all the references. Sometimes washing clothes, washing furniture. Why? Because you might have touched something unclean. You might have touched a Gentile. You might have touched something that was unclean. Just to be sure, even though it wasn’t in the Bible, there was this obsession with ritual purity.

People in our culture really struggle with the idea of the authority of the Bible.

In today’s text Jesus teaches two remarkable truths about the Bible.

Think about this. One of the principles of the Hebrew Scriptures was that Israel was to be a light to the Gentiles, a light to the nations. Yet of course that basic principle is totally lost in all the legalism and separatism that comes from all of these kinds of rules when it came to eating, which utterly separated you from the nations.

Let’s look at these two truths he tells us. We must . . .

APPREHEND ITS AIM

Another example. Jesus points out here at the latter part of the passage this thing about Corban. You see, the Bible, of course, says God’s claims supersede anyone else’s claim. As a result of that, the tradition of the elders had developed a really wonderful little loophole. You could take a piece of property, and you could declare it Corban. The word Corban means offered or offering. You could say, “I have dedicated, I have offered, this property up to God.”

What that meant was if somebody in your family, if one of your relatives or even your own parents, got into economic trouble or financial trouble and came to you and said, “You’re the kinsman. Would you help me get out of trouble?” you could say, “Oh, well, yeah. But I can’t use any of this because it’s all God’s.” See? Jesus says, “Look. By complying with the tradition of the elders, you’ve actually contradicted the whole spirit of the biblical principle, ‘Honor your father and mother.’ ”

Then the very last line of the whole passage. Do you notice what he says? He says, “I could give you a hundred more illustrations, but I won’t.” Why is he so angry? You can see when he replies to them in verse 7 he was so angry. Here’s why he was so angry. He was so angry because, as he said, “They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men. You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.”

This is a remarkable statement. What he says here is if you fail to honor the unique authority of the Bible, you fail to worship God. If you let human traditions, what the experts say, what your heart says, if you let anything else have equal authority with the Bible, you fail to worship God. You create your own god actually. You are your own god. Jesus is actually saying a failure to recognize and honor the unique authority of the Bible is a failure to honor the authority of God.

Jesus five times in this passage criticizes what he calls the traditions of the elders. Jesus is not against tradition altogether.

The authority of the Bible and the authority of God stand or fall together. You can’t have one without the other. This is a remarkably astonishingly high view of the Bible in which Jesus is seeing the Bible as not a human product but something that’s divine. This isn’t the only place. If we’re really going to understand what Jesus is saying here about the Bible and about how he is saying by not identifying the unique authority of the Bible and adjusting your life to its authority, you’re dishonoring God …

To understand all this, we need to do a little survey of the other things Jesus says about the Bible. If you look at Jesus’ life and you look at the Gospels and you see his view of the Bible, it is astounding. Jesus based all of his thinking, all of his actions, and even his heart on the Bible, mind, will, and emotions. Everything!

You can’t really have a life without tradition. You can’t have a human community. You can’t have emotional health without traditions. Jesus is not criticizing tradition per se, but he is criticizing the tradition of the elders. The tradition of the elders was a set of rules and regulations that, over the years, had grown up around the Bible. They weren’t in the Bible.

It would be chaos, because it’s so nice to have the tradition that we do this every week at 7:00. You can’t really have a life without tradition. You can’t have a human community. You can’t have emotional health without traditions. Jesus is not criticizing tradition per se. It’s a fine thing, but he is criticizing the tradition of the elders. The tradition of the elders was a set of rules and regulations that, over the years, had grown up around the Bible. They weren’t in the Bible.

Teachers and scholars had developed these traditions, these rules about the Bible. They had added them to the Scripture as binding authoritative regulations for life. For example, in the Bible, you read we are supposed to rest on the Sabbath. The teachers said, “What does it mean?” You know, it’s natural to ask, “What does it mean to rest on the Sabbath?” The answer of the tradition of the elders was a couple hundred rules you did.

For example, mind. Thinking. Whenever Jesus had a problem, an issue, a question, some intellectual issue or ethical issue, the final word for Jesus was gegraptai. “It is written.” It is written. When he said that, it didn’t matter what the experts said. It didn’t matter what the culture said. It didn’t matter what the tradition said. It didn’t matter what your heart said. It was settled.

Then there were all these other things in the Bible like, “What is ritual purity? Why do we have to be pure when we go into the temple? What does the Passover mean? How are we to observe the Passover?” In every case, the tradition of the elders answered, “What this means is …” and gave a bunch of very detailed rules and regulations.

So . Jesus says the Scripture cannot be broken, which means it can’t be disobeyed. In , Jesus says, “Not a jot or tittle,” which means not a letter or a part of a letter. Jot means yod, the smallest of the Hebrew letters. Tittle means a part of a letter. Not a letter or a part of a letter will pass away from the Word of God till it all comes true. He based his thinking on the Bible. It was the supreme authority intellectually.

Secondly, he based his actions on the Bible, his plans, his decisions. To me, one of the most amazing places where you see this is in . It’s the garden of Gethsemane. The soldiers arrived to arrest him. They’re arresting him! Think of all the chaos of that. As they’re arresting him and grabbing him, Peter pulls out his sword. What does Jesus say? He says, “Peter, put down your sword. I could call legions of angels.”

The problem was the rules and regulations weren’t in the Bible, but they grew up around the Bible. They became equal in authority (that is what Jesus is criticizing), equal in binding authority on people. Because the rules and regulations were considerably more detailed and concrete than the principles of the Bible, they tended to distract people and sometimes even contradict the actual original biblical principles.

Jesus gives two examples to illustrate what I’m saying.

Then what does he say? “How will the Scripture be fulfilled?” At a time like that, he based everything in his life on the Scripture! He did everything according to the Scripture … all of his decisions, all of his plans, all of his actions. So there’s the mind. There’s the will. I think the most moving thing is to see that if you read the life of Jesus, you will see the main fortification for his heart was the Scriptures.

The first is the washing. If you go back to the Bible, where does the Bible talk about ritual washing for purification? Now this is not hygiene. This has nothing to do with why we wash our hands before eating. The idea here was ritual purity. In the Bible, the only people who were told to wash their hands are the priests.

He did not handle the cosmic challenges of his life with willpower, but with the Scripture. For example, when he was assaulted in the desert by the Devil, when he was assaulted by the Devil … cosmic temptation, cosmic accusation … every single time what does he say? “Gegraptai.” “It is written.” Every time he takes the Scripture.

According to the law of Moses, the priests had to wash their hands before they went in and led worship. This was a very important symbol. It was a way for God to say, “I am holy. If you who have sin are going to approach me, it has to be cleansed. It has to be dealt with.”

In Jesus day the tradition of elders required everybody to wash constantly with water. Wash before eating. Notice all the references. Sometimes washing clothes, washing furniture. Why? Because you might have touched something unclean. Just to be sure, even though it wasn’t in the Bible, there was this obsession with ritual purity.

In fact, one time he actually said to the Devil, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” That’s Jesus’ way of saying, “Every word of the Scripture is my bread, my meat, my strength, my life.” When he was carrying his own cross to his execution and his life was literally ebbing out of him and he fell down at one point (you read this in ) and he sees the women weeping, what does he say to them? Where do you get the words at a time like that?

He quotes Isaiah. He is quoting the Bible. When he actually gets on the cross and when he is in the absolute greatest possible agony of body and soul, he quotes . He says, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He quotes . “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” He is quoting the Bible!

Think about this. One of the principles of the Hebrew Scriptures was that Israel was to be a light to the Gentiles, a light to the nations. Yet of course that basic principle is totally lost in all the legalism and separatism that comes from all of these kinds of rules when it came to eating, which utterly separated you from the nations.

Look. Do you know what this means? If you’re falling off a cliff and you see your death in the rocks below and you cry out, what do you cry out? Or if someone comes after you with a knife and you see your death in the eyes of your assailant, what do you cry out? Whatever it is, you don’t think, “Well, what should I say? What will people think? What are the expectations here?”

In his second example Jesus teaches on Corban and honoring one’s parents. The word Corban means offered or offering. You could say, “I have dedicated, I have offered, this property up to God.” This means that God’s claims supersede anyone else’s claim.

The tradition of the elders had developed a really wonderful little loophole as it relates to Corban. For example, you could take a piece of property, and you could declare it Corban.

This meant that if somebody in your family even your own parents, got into economic trouble and came to you and said, “You’re the kinsman. Would you help me get out of trouble?” you could say, “I would like to but I can’t use any of my resources because it’s all God’s.”

No! What comes out is whatever is in you. The real you! The real depths of your heart are revealed at a time like this. When Jesus Christ is at the absolute limit, at the extremity, you see his mind, heart, and will are so saturated with the truths, the narratives, the images, the cadences, the promises, the warnings of Scripture that when he was stabbed, he literally bled Scripture. It just flowed out of him.

Jesus says, “Look. By complying with the tradition of the elders, you’ve actually contradicted the whole spirit of the biblical principle, ‘Honor your father and mother.’

Notice what Jesus says in verse 7

He faced everything with Scripture. His identity was based on Scripture. His life was based on Scripture. Now do you see the first point? Here’s what the point is. Remember how Jesus said the authority of God and the authority of the Bible stand or fall together? Well, the authority of Jesus and the authority of the Bible stand and fall together too. Here’s the reason why.

Mark 7:7 ESV

in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

Mark 7:13 ESV

thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

Mark 7:7 ESV

in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

There are people all over New York I know who say, “Oh, I want to follow Jesus. I’m interested in following Jesus. Ah, but the Bible. Well, there are some parts I like, some parts I don’t like. There are some jots and tittles I like. There are some jots and tittles I don’t like. There are some parts that are regressive. Some parts we can’t accept anymore.”

This is a remarkable statement. What he says here is if you fail to honor the unique authority of the Bible, you fail to worship God. If you let human traditions, what the experts say, what your heart says, if you let anything else have equal authority with the Bible, you fail to worship God. You create your own god actually. You are your own god. Jesus is actually saying a failure to recognize and honor the unique authority of the Bible is a failure to honor the authority of God.

This is a remarkable statement. Failure to honor the authority of the Bible is failure to worship God. If you let human traditions, your heart, what the experts say, or anything else have equal authority with the Bible, then you fail to worship God.

The authority of the Bible and the authority of God stand or fall together. You can’t have one without the other. This is a remarkably astonishingly high view of the Bible in which Jesus is seeing the Bible as not a human product but something that’s divine.

Listen. You can’t follow Jesus and reject the very basis of his whole life. At the very best, that’s just not thinking. At the very worst, that’s hypocritical. It’s like, “I want the warm fuzzies of saying I’m with Jesus,” but you reject the very basis of your life. Listen. Unless you are willing, like Jesus, to conform, to adjust, your life to the supreme authority of the Scripture in every detail, even where it hurts, even where you don’t want to do it …

Unless you’re willing to conform and adjust your life to the authority of the Scripture, especially at the places where it contradicts your heart or your tradition or your culture or the experts or your friends, there’s no way you can follow Jesus. The authority of the Bible and the authority of God and Jesus Christ stand or fall together.

To fully understand Jesus teaching here, we need to do a little survey of the other teachings Jesus has about the Bible.

For example, mind. Thinking. Whenever Jesus had a problem, an issue, a question, some intellectual issue or ethical issue, the final word for Jesus was gegraptai. “It is written.” It is written. When he said that, it didn’t matter what the experts said. It didn’t matter what the culture said. It didn’t matter what the tradition said. It didn’t matter what your heart said. It was settled.

Aren’t we glad there’s not just one point to this sermon? Aren’t we glad this isn’t the end? Well, actually some of you are saying, “It isn’t the end?” Well, no. It’s not the end. Because, you know, if we stop here … You say, “Oh, so that’s following Jesus.” It’s just like, “Wow. It’s really hard. I’m going to have to do a lot of things I don’t want to do. You have to suck it up, and you just have to do it. You have to do your duty. I guess that’s following Jesus.”

Whenever Jesus had a problem, an issue, a question, some intellectual issue or ethical issue, the final word for Jesus was gegraptai. “It is written.” When he said that, it didn’t matter what the experts said. It didn’t matter what the culture said. It didn’t matter what the tradition said. It didn’t matter what your heart said. It was settled.

In

Is that following Jesus? Well, look. You’re not going to be any good at your work, you’re not going to be any good at your friendships, you’re not going to be any good at your family life, you’re not going to be any good in life if sometimes you don’t just simply suck it up and do what you ought to do, even though you don’t want to do it. You’re not going to be a functional human being if you can’t do that. Fortunately, there’s a whole lot more to being a Christian than that.

John 10:35 ESV

If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—

John 10:35 ESV

If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—

which means it can’t be disobeyed.

Jesus says the Scripture cannot be broken, which means it can’t be disobeyed. In , Jesus says, “Not a jot or tittle,” which means not a letter or a part of a letter. Jot means yod, the smallest of the Hebrew letters. Tittle means a part of a letter. Not a letter or a part of a letter will pass away from the Word of God till it all comes true. He based his thinking on the Bible. It was the supreme authority intellectually.

In

Matthew 5:18 ESV

For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

, Jesus says, “Not a jot or tittle,” which means not a letter or a part of a letter. Jot means yod, the smallest of the Hebrew letters. Tittle means a part of a letter. Not a letter or a part of a letter will pass away from the Word of God till it all comes true. He based his thinking on the Bible. It was the supreme authority intellectually.

“Not a jot or tittle,” which means not a letter or a part of a letter. Jot was the smallest of the Hebrew letters. Tittle means a part of a letter. Not a letter or a part of a letter will pass away from the Word of God till it all comes true. He based his thinking on the Bible. It was the supreme authority intellectually.

The first point is we have to adjust to the Scriptures’ authority. Jesus criticizes people who aren’t willing to see the supreme and unique authority of the Scripture. The second thing Jesus Christ is saying about Scripture is we have to …

He based his actions on the Bible, his plans, his decisions. We see this in the garden of Gethsemane. The soldiers arrived to arrest him. Think of all the chaos of that. As they’re arresting him and grabbing him, Peter pulls out his sword.

Matthew 26:52 ESV

Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword.

Matthew 26:52–54 ESV

Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”

At a time like that, he based everything in his life on the Scripture! He did everything according to the Scripture … all of his decisions, all of his plans, all of his actions.

Matthew 26:52What does Jesus say? He says, “Peter, put down your sword. I could call legions of angels.”

Then what does he say? “How will the Scripture be fulfilled?” At a time like that, he based everything in his life on the Scripture! He did everything according to the Scripture … all of his decisions, all of his plans, all of his actions. So there’s the mind. There’s the will. I think the most moving thing is to see that if you read the life of Jesus, you will see the main fortification for his heart was the Scriptures.

I think the most moving thing is to see that if you read the life of Jesus, you will see the main fortification for his heart was the Scriptures.

He did not handle the cosmic challenges of his life with willpower, but with the Scripture. For example, when he was assaulted in the desert by the Devil, when he was assaulted by the Devil … cosmic temptation, cosmic accusation … every single time what does he say? “Gegraptai.” “It is written.” Every time he takes the Scripture.

2. Grasp its purpose

When he was carrying his own cross to his execution and his life was literally ebbing out of him and he fell down at one point (you read this in 3) and he sees the women weeping, what does he say to them? Where do you get the words at a time like that?

He quotes Isaiah. He is quoting the Bible. When he actually gets on the cross and when he is in the absolute greatest possible agony of body and soul, he quotes . He says, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He quotes . “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” He is quoting the Bible!

Do you know what this means? If you’re falling off a cliff and you see your death in the rocks below and you cry out, what do you cry out? Whatever it is, you don’t think, “Well, what should I say? What will people think? What are the expectations here?”

We have to see what the Bible is for, what we’re trying to accomplish when we obey the Bible. Notice it says here, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.” What is Jesus saying here? This is a quote from . What’s he saying here? Just this.

No! What comes out is whatever is in you. The real you! The real depths of your heart are revealed at a time like this. When Jesus Christ is at the absolute limit, at the extremity, you see his mind, heart, and will are so saturated with the truths, the narratives, the images, the cadences, the promises, the warnings of Scripture that when he was stabbed, he literally bled Scripture. It just flowed out of him.

He says God says, “The purpose of the Bible is not formal compliance, but I want your heart. I want your heart! You’re far from me. I want to be close to you.” Jesus says, “If you look at obeying the Bible, if you add all these rules and regulations to the Bible, that shows you think the purpose of the Bible is so you can feel like a righteous person, so you can feel like you’re an obedient, righteous person, so you can say, ‘Oh, God, you have to bless me now because I’m living such a good life.’ ” That’s to completely miss, according to this, the purpose of the Bible.

He faced everything with Scripture. His identity was based on Scripture. His life was based on Scripture.

The purpose of the Bible is not to get God in a corner, not to manipulate God, not to control him so he has to bless you and answer your prayers, not so you can feel righteous. The purpose, according to this, of obeying the Bible is an intimate love relationship with God. God says, “I want you to obey the Bible because I want intimacy with you.”

The greatest illustration and demonstration of this principle, of this understanding of the purpose of the Bible, you find actually in and 20. In , we have what? The Ten Commandments, the ultimate revelation of God’s will for how people should live. The Ten Commandments. But where does God give the Ten Commandments? In , when he brings them to Mount Sinai, he says this.

There are many people who say, “Oh, I want to follow Jesus. I’m interested in following Jesus. Ah, but the Bible. Well, there are some parts I like, some parts I don’t like. There are some jots and tittles I like. There are some jots and tittles I don’t like. There are some parts that we can’t accept anymore.”

Just before he gives them the Ten Commandments, he says, “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.” Listen. This is one of the most important points in the Bible. God did not come to the children of Israel in Egypt and say, “If you obey my Law, then I’ll rescue you. I’ll bring you out of slavery on eagles’ wings.” He didn’t say, “If you obey, I’ll save you.”

Let me be clear this morning. You can’t follow Jesus and reject the very basis of his whole life. Unless you are willing, like Jesus, to conform, to adjust, your life to the supreme authority of the Scripture in every detail, even where it hurts, even where you don’t want to do it there’s no way you can follow Jesus.

Unless you’re willing to conform and adjust your life to the authority of the Scripture, especially at the places where it contradicts your heart or your tradition or your culture or the experts or your friends, there’s no way you can follow Jesus.

What does he say? “I saved you! I brought you out of slavery. I released you from the bondage to the most powerful nation in the world, and you didn’t have to lift a finger. You didn’t have to lift a weapon. I saved you. You didn’t do it. I didn’t do it because you were obedient, because you weren’t obedient. I didn’t do it because you obeyed the Law. You didn’t even have the Law. I did it because I loved you.”

Some might say; “Following Jesus is doing a lot of things I don’t want to do. It more duty and drudgery than delight.”

Aren’t we glad there’s not just one point to this sermon? Aren’t we glad this isn’t the end? Well, actually some of you are saying, “It isn’t the end?” Well, no. It’s not the end. Because, you know, if we stop here … You say, “Oh, so that’s following Jesus.” It’s just like, “Wow. It’s really hard. I’m going to have to do a lot of things I don’t want to do. You have to suck it up, and you just have to do it. You have to do your duty. I guess that’s following Jesus.”

Sheer, unmerited grace. “Hmm. Okay, if I’m already saved all by sheer grace and God has already set his love on me, why in the world do I obey?” He says, “Because this is how you can become my treasure. This is how you can treasure me, and I can treasure you. This is how we can have an intimate relationship.” You have to obey my will if we’re going to have this incredible, intimate relationship that I want with you.”

Is that following Jesus? Let’s be honest. You’re not going to be any good at your work, you’re not going to be any good at your friendships, you’re not going to be any good at your family life, you’re not going to be any good in life if sometimes you don’t just simply suck it up and do what you ought to do, even though you don’t want to do it. You’re not going to be a functional human being if you can’t do that. Fortunately, there’s a whole lot more to being a Christian than that.

The first point is we have to adjust to the Scriptures’ authority. Jesus criticizes people who aren’t willing to see the supreme and unique authority of the Scripture. The second thing Jesus Christ is saying about Scripture is we have to …

3. Fall in love with the Person as its center

2. Grasp its purpose

For modern Western people, the ideas of obeying the Law and intimate, personal relationship seem very antithetical, don’t they? I mean, we don’t put those two things together. They actually seem to be antithetical. Well, we’re wrong. We’re wrong! Let me show you. If you’re really falling in love with somebody … really falling in love … and you want a love relationship, what do you do?

You start to do research. Oh, yes. Of course, one of the things you’re after is you want to find the things that offend and outrage the person (of course), and you want to avoid them. Important safety tip. Don’t have a love relationship if you’re constantly offending the other person. You’re not satisfied with that. You not only want to know what will offend and outrage them, but you also want to know what are even the little things that will delight them and make them happy. Even the little things!

What are you doing? You’re tracing out an arc. Well, what is this arc? It’s the will of your beloved. It’s what your beloved wants in his or her environment. It’s what your beloved wants. It’s the will of your beloved. Once you’ve done all your research, you find out not only the things that outrage and offend but even the things that make the person happy, even the things that delight the person, without being asked you begin to conform your life to the arc of your beloved. You begin to obey the will of the beloved.

We have to see what the Bible is for, what we’re trying to accomplish when we obey the Bible. Notice it says here,

Mark 7:7 ESV

in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

This is a quote from . What’s he saying here?

The aim of the Bible is not formal compliance, but I your heart. Jesus says; “You’re far from me. I want to be close to you.”

Well, why doesn’t it feel like obedience? We don’t even think of it like that! Here’s the reason why. When you fall in love with somebody, you put your happiness into their happiness. You’re only happy if they’re happy. You can’t help it! That’s how love works. It’s not exploitation if the other person is doing it to you. If the other person has inserted their happiness into your happiness, if the other person is tracing out the arc of your will, the other person is beginning to submit to the authority, adjust your life to the authority in love of the will of the beloved …

When you’re both doing that, wow. That’s a love relationship! What’s really, really bad is if one of you is doing it and one of you is not. The old TV Star Treks, the old, old ones with Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner, of all the old TV Star Treks, I think one episode was probably the silliest and most ridiculous. Since all the old Star Treks were silly and ridiculous; therefore, this would have been the best of them all! Think about that, okay?

The purpose of the Bible is not to get God in a corner, not to manipulate God, not to control him so he has to bless you and answer your prayers, not so you can feel righteous. The purpose, according to this, of obeying the Bible is an intimate love relationship with God. God says, “I want you to obey the Bible because I want intimacy with you.”

The aim, according to this, of obeying the Bible is an intimate love relationship with God. God says, “I want you to obey the Bible because I want intimacy with you.”

The greatest illustration and demonstration of this principle, of this understanding of the purpose of the Bible, you find actually in and 20.

It’s about a man named Harry Mudd. Harry Mudd has a nagging wife, just a terribly nagging wife. He is just miserable. He flees to a planet. On this planet, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of robots, nothing but robots. They all are beautiful women robots. This is real high-concept science fiction, I hope you know.

He flees to this planet, and he says, “Finally, paradise!” because every one of these absolutely beautiful women robots never, never, never contradict him, no matter what he says. He traces the arc of his will, and all they ever do is, “Yes, dear. Yes, Lord Mudd. Yes, dear. Yes, dear.” He even has a robot made of his wife. Some of you are remembering this. I can tell just by the way …

Just before he gives them the Ten Commandments, he says,

Exodus 19:4 ESV

‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.

Exodus 19:4–5 ESV

‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;

This is one of the most important points in the Bible. God did not come to the children of Israel in Egypt and say, “If you obey my Law, then I’ll rescue you. I’ll bring you out of slavery on eagles’ wings.” He didn’t say, “If you obey, I’ll save you.”

“You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.” Listen. This is one of the most important points in the Bible. God did not come to the children of Israel in Egypt and say, “If you obey my Law, then I’ll rescue you. I’ll bring you out of slavery on eagles’ wings.” He didn’t say, “If you obey, I’ll save you.”

What does he say? “I saved you! I brought you out of slavery. I released you from the bondage to the most powerful nation in the world, and you didn’t have to lift a finger. You didn’t have to lift a weapon. I saved you. You didn’t do it. I didn’t do it because you were obedient, because you weren’t obedient. I didn’t do it because you obeyed the Law. You didn’t even have the Law. I did it because I loved you.”

What he can do is he can go over, and he can push the button to start it. She begins to berate him and says, “Harcourt Fenton Mudd, where have you been? Is there alcohol on your breath? Where have you been?” What he says is, “Shut up!” and pushes the button. She goes, “You, you, you, you …” Paradise! Beautiful women, nagging wife.

When the intrepid crew of the starship Enterprise gets to this planet, Harry Mudd is desperate to get off. He is absolutely miserable. He doesn’t have a single personal relationship, because if you’re in a relationship with another person who can’t contradict you … never contradicts you, only ever says, “Yes, dear. Yes, dear. Yes, dear,” that person is not a subject but an object.

Sheer, unmerited grace. “Hmm. Okay, if I’m already saved all by sheer grace and God has already set his love on me, why in the world do I obey?” He says, “Because this is how you can become my treasure. This is how you can treasure me, and I can treasure you. This is how we can have an intimate relationship.” You have to obey my will if we’re going to have this incredible, intimate relationship that I want with you.”

There are lots and lots of marriages in the world in which one party is so traumatized and afraid of the other party that all they’re ever able to do is say, “Yes, dear. Yes, dear.” They can’t contradict. They can’t be honest. That is not a personal relationship. That’s an exploitive relationship. The person who is afraid to be honest and can’t contradict has been objectified. They’re not a subject; they’re an object.

Would you like a personal relationship with God? There’s only one way. You have to have a God who can contradict the deepest convictions (some of them), the deepest feelings of your heart. Otherwise, you don’t have a personal relationship with God. If you say, “Oh, I want a personal relationship with God but, you know, there are parts of the Bible I like and parts I don’t like. I’m going to accept the parts I like. I’m going to accept this. I like this part. This stuff I just can’t accept anymore …”

In other words, you have no way now for God to contradict you. You have a robot God. You don’t have the God of . When Job says, “Why are you letting these things happen?” he is very upset with God. God says, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” No, you don’t have that. You have a robot God who says, “Where were you, you, you, you …?” because you’ve pushed that button.

3. Fall in love with the Person as its center

You say, “I’m sorry. There are parts of this I don’t really like.” Unless you have a God who can contradict you, you can’t even have a conversation. He is not a person; he is an object. Here’s what’s really tragic. There are all kinds of things in the Bible that you don’t want to believe because it’s the kind of stuff you don’t want to do. There are all kinds of things in the Bible that are hard to believe because they’re too good to be true.

The Bible says when our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts. There are times in which you’re going to feel like such a failure. The Bible comes and says, “Through the grace of God, in spite of all your failures, no matter what you’ve done, you can be my child.” You say, “No, no! It’s impossible.” But do you know what? If you haven’t ceded the Bible the authority to tell you the stuff, the bad stuff, how can the Bible come and give you hope when your heart is hopeless? How can it argue you into absolute contentment and joy? It can’t! It can’t.

The word obedience for most modern people seems to nullify the idea of intimate relationship. We don’t put those two ideas together. Our response to the incompatibility of these two ideas shows how little we actually know. Let me show you.

If you’re really falling in love with somebody and you want a love relationship, what do you do?

You can’t have a personal, intimate relationship with God unless you are willing to submit, to adjust your life to the arc of God’s will and to the authority of the Bible. If you adjust your life to the authority of the Bible, out of love, out of a desire to please and know him, then you are understanding the purpose of the Word of God.

You start to do research. You want to find the things that offend and outrage the person and you want to avoid them. You not only want to know what will offend and outrage them, but you also want to know what are even the little things that will delight them and make them happy.

Here we have come to the place where some of you, if you’re really listening and you’re really thinking (and this is New York, so a lot of you actually do really listen and really think), some of you may be saying, “Guess what? I’m still skeptical because I know what’s actually in the Bible. Yeah, here you’re talking about submit to the authority of the Bible.”

What are you doing? You’re tracing out the will of your beloved. Once you’ve done all your research, without being asked you begin to conform your life to the will of your beloved. You begin to obey the will of the beloved.

Does that feel like obedience? No, and here’s the reason why. When you fall in love with somebody, you put your happiness into their happiness. You’re only happy if they’re happy. That’s how love works. That’s a love relationship!

Here you see Jesus saying, “Religiosity says external compliance to the rules, but the gospel is an inner heart filled with love and joy that wants to passionately, wildly love God and love your neighbor.” You use the Bible as a way to do that. You get out there. You go beyond just what offends to what delights. You’re out there loving. The Bible is the way for you to know how to love God and how to love people.

What’s really, really bad is if one of you is doing it and one of you is not. The old TV Star Treks with Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner,had an episode about a man named Harry Mudd. Harry Mudd has a nagging wife. He is just miserable. He flees to a planet. On this planet, there are thousands of robots, nothing but robots. They all are beautiful women robots. Upon arriving he says, “Finally, paradise!” because every one of these absolutely beautiful women robots never, never, never contradict him, no matter what he says. All they ever do is, “Yes, Lord Mudd.” He even has a robot made of his wife.

When you’re both doing that, wow. That’s a love relationship! What’s really, really bad is if one of you is doing it and one of you is not. The old TV Star Treks, the old, old ones with Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner, of all the old TV Star Treks, I think one episode was probably the silliest and most ridiculous. Since all the old Star Treks were silly and ridiculous; therefore, this would have been the best of them all! Think about that, okay?

You say, “The trouble is, if you actually read the Bible and you read the stories and you read the things the Bible really demands, it doesn’t make you feel close to God. It doesn’t fill you with inner joy. It makes you guilty. It can almost crush you.” Virginia Stem Owens is a writer and also taught writing and composition to a class at Texas A&M some years ago. She figured, “Well, I’m in the Bible Belt, so surely they will have heard of the Sermon on the Mount.”

It’s about a man named Harry Mudd. Harry Mudd has a nagging wife, just a terribly nagging wife. He is just miserable. He flees to a planet. On this planet, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of robots, nothing but robots. They all are beautiful women robots. This is real high-concept science fiction, I hope you know.

For her composition class, she assigned that they would read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and that then they would write an essay about it. To her surprise and to their surprise, most of them had never really read the thing. When they read it, they were appalled. In the essays, they said things like this. One of the students said, “I do not like the essay ‘Sermon on the Mount.’ It … made me feel like I had to be perfect and no one is.”

Here’s the fun one. It says, “The things asked in this sermon are absurd. To look at a woman is adultery? That is the most extreme, stupid, un-human statement that I have ever heard.” By the way, have you ever really read the Sermon on the Mount? I heard a minister who said if you actually read the Sermon on the Mount and see the kind of life it requires, if you really, really listen to it, you don’t sort of read it through some kind of rose-colored, sentimental glasses. If you really see what it says …

He flees to this planet, and he says, “Finally, paradise!” because every one of these absolutely beautiful women robots never, never, never contradict him, no matter what he says. He traces the arc of his will, and all they ever do is, “Yes, dear. Yes, Lord Mudd. Yes, dear. Yes, dear.” He even has a robot made of his wife. Some of you are remembering this. I can tell just by the way …

I remember one minister said, “You’re going to look up to heaven. You’re going to say, ‘God, save me from the Sermon on the Mount!’ ” It’s not going to make you feel close to God. It’s not going to make you feel all sorts of inner love and joy. So what are we going to do about it? Here’s what we’re going to do about it.

If this version of his wife begins to berate him all he has to do is push a button do shut her down.

The main reason the Pharisees are so shocked by Jesus … Let’s remember what the tradition of the elders was. It was a way to explain to people what the Bible means. The traditions of the elders said, “This is what this means. This is what this part of the Bible means. This is what the Sabbath means. This is what the Passover means.”

When the intrepid crew of the starship Enterprise gets to this planet, Harry Mudd is desperate to get off. He is absolutely miserable. He doesn’t have a single personal relationship, because if you’re in a relationship with another person who can’t contradict you … never contradicts you, only ever says, “Yes, dear. Yes, dear. Yes, dear,” that person is not a subject but an object.

There are lots and lots of marriages in the world in which one party is so traumatized and afraid of the other party that all they’re ever able to do is say, “Yes, dear. Yes, dear.” They can’t contradict. They can’t be honest. That is not a personal relationship. That’s an exploitive relationship. The person who is afraid to be honest and can’t contradict has been objectified. They’re not a subject; they’re an object.

When Jesus was just sweeping all the traditions away and telling his disciples not to follow him, saying to everybody, “Don’t follow them,” he was putting himself in the place. He was saying, “I’ll tell you what the Bible means. I am the ultimate revealer of the Bible. I can tell you what it means.” How can he? This is what’s so shocking to the Pharisees. How dare he? Here’s how he dare.

In the book of Luke, when Jesus Christ comes back from the dead, he meets with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. He meets with his disciples in the upper room. What does he immediately bring up? I mean, when you come back from the dead and you’re trying to get your friends ready for the rest of history, what do you say? Do you know what he says both times? “It’s imperative that you learn to read the Bible rightly.”

Would you like a personal relationship with God? There’s only one way. You have to have a God who can contradict the deepest feelings of your heart. Otherwise, you don’t have a personal relationship with God. If you say, “Oh, I want a personal relationship with God but, you know, there are parts of the Bible I like and parts I don’t like. I’m going to accept the parts I like. I’m going to accept this. I like this part. This stuff I just can’t accept anymore …”

He says to the disciples on the road to Emmaus in , “ ‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”

In other words, you have no way now for God to contradict you. You have a robot God. You don’t have the God of 38. When Job says, “Why are you letting these things happen?” he is very upset with God. God says, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” No, you don’t have that.

Then in the upper room, he said to his disciples, “ ‘This is what I told you while I was still with you: everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.’ Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.” Jesus says, “The Bible will be an absolute despair to you. It will only crush you. It won’t be a joy to you unless you learn how to read it.”

You say, “I’m sorry. There are parts of this I don’t really like.” Unless you have a God who can contradict you, you can’t even have a conversation. He is not a person; he is an object.

Here’s what’s really tragic. There are all kinds of things in the Bible that you don’t want to believe because it’s the kind of stuff you don’t want to do. However, there are all kinds of things in the Bible that are hard to believe because they’re too good to be true.

The Bible says when our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts. There are times in which you’re going to feel like such a failure. The Bible comes and says, “Through the grace of God, in spite of all your failures, no matter what you’ve done, you can be my child.” You say, “No, no! It’s impossible.” But do you know what? If you haven’t renounced the Bible’s the authority to tell you the bad stuff, how can the Bible come and give you hope when your heart is hopeless? How can it argue you into absolute contentment and joy? It can’t! It can’t.

What does he say is the secret to reading it? “You have to see there is a center to it. There is a plotline running through it. Oh, there are all these stories and all these stories and all these demands and all these stories and all these rules, but there’s a plotline running through all of them. They all point to me. Unless you see that, the Bible will be nothing but a crushing burden.”

You can’t have a personal, intimate relationship with God unless you are willing to submit, to adjust your life to God’s will and to the authority of the Bible. If you adjust your life to the authority of the Bible, out of love, out of a desire to please and know him, then you are understanding the purpose of the Word of God.

You say, “Well, how does that work?” Well, I try to show you this almost every week, and I have been doing it for basically the main part of my life, but let me give you two quick examples. There’s a wonderful story in the Bible about Joseph, isn’t there? Joseph! He was sold by his jealous, resentful, bitter brothers into slavery in Egypt. They figure he’ll die in slavery.

Instead of dying, he is successful. He rises up to be prime minister of Egypt. He is sitting at the right hand of the king. When his brothers who betrayed and sold him get into his power, Joseph forgives them. He redeems them. Okay. What are we supposed to get from that? Okay. Isn’t that inspiring? Do you see what the Bible is saying to you?

Virginia Stem Owens is a writer and also taught writing and composition to a class at Texas A&M some years ago. She figured, “Well, I’m in the Bible Belt, so surely they will have heard of the Sermon on the Mount.”

Here you see Jesus saying, “Religiosity says external compliance to the rules, but the gospel is an inner heart filled with love and joy that wants to passionately, wildly love God and love your neighbor.” You use the Bible as a way to do that. You get out there. You go beyond just what offends to what delights. You’re out there loving. The Bible is the way for you to know how to love God and how to love people.

“Be like Joseph. Even if people hurt you and they stab you in the back, they try to ruin you financially, they try to ruin you reputationally, they try to ruin you relationally … No matter what people do to you, no matter how much they try to hurt you, love and forgive them, and help them have a good life. Now run along and be like Joseph.”

Is that inspiring to you? “God, save us from this story of Joseph!” Who in the world could be like that? It’s not inspiring. It’s crushing unless Jesus is right. Here’s what Jesus says. “I am the true and better Joseph, don’t you know? See, I was sold not into near death but into real death. I rose up not just from slavery but from death itself. Now I’m sitting at the right hand of the Father.”

You say, “The trouble is, if you actually read the Bible and you read the stories and you read the things the Bible really demands, it doesn’t make you feel close to God. It doesn’t fill you with inner joy. It makes you guilty. It can almost crush you.” Virginia Stem Owens is a writer and also taught writing and composition to a class at Texas A&M some years ago. She figured, “Well, I’m in the Bible Belt, so surely they will have heard of the Sermon on the Mount.”

For her composition class, she assigned that they would read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and that then they would write an essay about it. To her surprise and to their surprise, most of them had never really read the thing. When they read it, they were appalled. In the essays, they said things like this. One of the students said, “I do not like the essay ‘Sermon on the Mount.’ It … made me feel like I had to be perfect and no one is.”

When the true and better Joseph sees us, the people who turned their backs on him, the people who have lived as if he doesn’t exist, the people who betrayed him, we, the people who caused his death, he forgave us at infinite cost to himself. To the degree you see that and that moves you and that melts you and that humbles you and that affirms you, to the degree you see him as the true and better Joseph, that empowers you to go out to try to be like Joseph.

Here’s the fun one. It says, “The things asked in this sermon are absurd. To look at a woman is adultery? That is the most extreme, dumb, un-human statement that I have ever heard.” By the way, have you ever really read the Sermon on the Mount? I heard a minister who said if you actually read the Sermon on the Mount and see the kind of life it requires, if you really, really listen to it, you don’t sort of read it through some kind of rose-colored, sentimental glasses. You’re going to look up to heaven. You’re going to say, ‘God, save me from the Sermon on the Mount!’ ” It’s not going to make you feel close to God. It’s not going to make you feel all sorts of inner love and joy. So what are we going to do about it? Here’s what we’re going to do about it.