The Journey's Map - The God Who Speaks
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Introduction:
Introduction:
When I first started driving at 16, my dad created a kit for the trunk of my car. It had everything from road flairs to a quart of oil, to a bag of quarters just in case I needed to make a phone call. But in that that kit was also one of these. (This isn’t actually the one I had, I had to borrow this from someone over the age of 40). This is a road atlas which contains a a printout of all the roads in California. Doesn’t need a battery. And the idea is that if you are ever lost, all you need is 2 cross streets and you can find your way home. Pretty awesome.
But these had one fundamental flaw. Roads change. And year by year, these atlas’s need revisions and updates. So you have to buy a new one every year. Because what good is a road map if you can’t trust it.
On our Journey with Jesus, what is our road map? And can we trust it? And why?
And the other question is, does it ever need to be updated?
The 3 Primary themes of scripture are history, theology, and ethics.
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.
21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
2 Peter
Big Idea: Listen to God who is speaking.
Big Idea: Listen to God who is speaking.
1. The Bible is the word of God. ( ; )
1. The Bible is the word of God. ( ; )
It does not simply contain the words of God, it is the word of God. And how did we get the Bible that we have today?
Scripture testifies to this. That might seem like circular reasoning, except that the Bible wasn’t written in a vacuum.
The Old Testament extensively quotes the Old Testament.
The New Testament extensively quotes the Old Testament.
The New Testament quotes the New Testament.
Paul quotes Moses and Luke in calling both scripture. “The Laborer deserves his wages.”
Peter called what Paul wrote scripture in .
The Early church beyond the 1st century quotes the OT and NT so much that we have 90% of the Bible even without having an actual Bible.
Why? Because they believed that it was the word of God and therefore Relevant and Authoritative. Do you know what they didn’t quote? The gospel of Thomas, of Judas, of Mary and Mary Magdalene.
What did Jesus think? Jesus disagreed at lot regarding the teachings of scripture and the specifics of following the law, notice that they don’t seem to disagree on books of the bible. When they are speaking of the scriptures they seem to be speaking of the same things.
There is an interesting interaction in the Book of Matthew.
35 so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.
34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town,
35 so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.
matthew 23:34-3
Another question that I feel needs mentioning but I can’t spend too much time on is the question is what we have now the same as what was written down. The short answer is yes. Some people nerd out on Star Wars or comic books or video games. I will too from time to time, but where I really nerd out is on “How we got the Bible.” To some that might be a snoozefest, but far too many people just take the word of the History channel which is largely based on conjecture and best guess. And the truth is if you don’t believe that the Bible is the word of God, then you don’t allow for the outcome in your research. The evidence is overwhelming for the Bible...
But I’ll give you 2 examples.
For the OT: The dead sea scrolls. Dead sea scrolls were discovered from from 1953-1956 in caves around the dead sea. They found hundreds of scrolls dating from 225 BC to around the time of Jesus. Contrary to what you may have heard, the dead sea scrolls deal exclusively with the Old Testament. There is no mention of Jesus or the early chruch. This is not where the lost gospels (gnostic) were found. Prior to this discovery, our earlierst copy of the Old Testament dated to about 1000 AD. SO the dead sea scrolls would give us a picture of any changes that were made over a 1200 year period. If you’ve ever played a game of telephone where you whisper in one person’s ear on down the line of people until you get to the end. The final sentence rarely has any resemblance to the original. So we should reasonably expect that with 1200 years, there should be little similarities between what we have and what was preserved then. But low and behold, they were almost identical.
The Jewish people were so in awe of their scripture that they wouldn’t dare change a thing. So at a minimum, whether you believe in God or not, what we have in the Old Testament, is very close to what was actually written.
For the NT: 60,000+ manuscipts and translations. And we have fragments or copies of every book within 100 years of Jesus’ crucifixion. And while there are differences from manuscript to manuscripts, most of those differences amount to spelling or grammar errors in the copies. And accross all the varients, not a single major doctrine of the christian faith is in doubt.
Ironically, many have seemed to suggest that the deadsea scrolls contained those lost gospels of Jesus and thus insinuating that they were found after being lost. The truth is they were lost and then refound. The truth is there was no mention of Jesus in the dead sea scrolls at all. They dated to 100 years before He was born. The fact is we’ve always known about the socalled lost gospels. We’ve just always rejected them because they didn’t measure up to the strict guidelines that have determined what is scripture and what isn’t.
A great documentary on this is on Amazon Prime right now if you want to know more. “The God Who Speaks.” Ironically not where I got the title for this sermon because I didn’t know about it until after I picked the title.
I could spend hours on this subject but I got to keep moving.
The second thing these passages teach us is that...
The Jewish people were so in awe of their scripture that they wouldn’t dare change a thing. So at a minimum, whether you believe in God or not, what we have in the Old Testament, is very close to what was actually written.
2. The Bible is relevant. ( ; )
2. The Bible is relevant. ( ; )
Ok, so if the Bible is the Word of God that doesn’t mean it’s still relevant to me today. What if God only meant it for those people? And that’s a fair point, because we do have some passages that were cultural.
We can eat bacon.
Women don’t wear head coverings in worship anymore.
2 Timothy says that scripture is useful. In other words it’s relevant. 2 Peter reminds us again that the Bible is not man made relevance.
We can eat bacon.
Women don’t wear head coverings in worship anymore.
However, all scripture tells us something about who God is and what he expects from his people. And sometimes, what it tells us about God is that we are to be obedient to God even when it doesn’t make any sense.
Who is God?
Who am I?
What does God expect of His people?
Dumb laws in califonia:
1. In one city, you are not permitted to wear cowboy boots unless you already own at least two cows.
2. You can’t ride a bicycle in a swimming pool.
3. It is illegal to spit, except on baseball diamonds.
4. Poorly worded law: No dog shall be in a public place without its master on a leash.
The Bible tells us 3 things:
Who is God?
Who am I?
What does God expect of His people?
Some people would ague that the Bible is no longer relevant and needs to be updated. However, if you read it, you would know its power.
“One of the greatest evidences for the truth of the Bible is that it diagnoses my sin.” (Ligon Duncan)
As you read the Bible it speaks into your situation. We have to remember that it’s not all about you. But it does have application.
So when you say, I’ve been praying for God to reveal His will to me. Or what does God want me to do? I’m going to ask, what are you reading in the Bible?
God is speaking through His word…don’t wait for an audible voice. If you want an audible voice of God…read it out loud.
3. The Bible is authoritative. ( ; )
3. The Bible is authoritative. ( ; )
And here it is, this is the question everyone wants to have answered…do I have to follow it?
Well if, the Bible is the word of God and by reading it I can see that it’s relevant to my life? Why wouldn’t you want to follow it?
Would you take a car apart if you weren’t intimately acquainted with the repair manual. Same with a computer.
Why would you go through life blind without a map.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
And the very first thing that the Word of God tells us to do is turn to God for life.
As a follower of Jesus, to neglect regular reading of the the Word of God is foolish.
However, when hearing the reading of God’s word even for the 1st time, gives us a warning
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,
The Bible calls us out of darkness and into the light of God’s word.
Thy word is a lamp until feet and a light unto my path.
Peter called what Paul wrote scripture in .
Reflection: God is still speaking. Are you listening?
Reflection: God is still speaking. Are you listening?
So this is our reflection this morning. spend some meditating on God’s word.
Who is God?
Who am I?
What does He want me to do?
Reflection: God is still speaking. Are you listening?
Reflection: God is still speaking. Are you listening?