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Andy Stanley - The Fundamental List Part 8 Fundamental 8 · Andy Stanley Sermons

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So about fifteen years ago, I was at home watching in a YouTube video
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and there's a famous atheist written lots of books, and I've read two or
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three of his books, actually listeners podcast, and I was watching on YouTube.
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He's in a university setting and he's going on and on and on about
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the absurdity of Christianity. And this wasn't like the title of his talk,
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but basically that was what it was about. And as I listened, and
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this was a really a defining moment for me, caused me to shift some
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things in terms of not my belief, but in terms of my approach to
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how I preach and teach in some of the language I use. It has
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occurred to me as I listened to him that his entire talk was based on
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an assumption, a false assumption, but on an assumption that many Christians hold,
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and many, in fact, most evangelical Christians hold, the one I
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was raised on. And the assumption was a false assumption. But again it
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that the basically he was whole his whole talk was based on the assumption that
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the foundation of our faith, what makes Christianity viable, what makes christ Christianity
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sustainable and plausible, that the foundation of the Christian faith is a Bible without
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any errors, or, to use the modern term, in an errant Bible.
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That was his assumption. So his argument went, hey, look at
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all these errors in the Bible. And he was pointing out historical errors and
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scientific errors and just some absurd things that were in the Old Testament in particular
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in the things in the New Testament as well. And his point is,
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look, these things aren't true. So if these things aren't true, the
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Bible isn't true. And if the Bible isn't true, the Bible can't be
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trusted. If all of it isn't historically, mathematically and scientifically accurate, then
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why would anybody believe any of it? Right? Might as well just dispense
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with the whole thing. And at the end of the day, we should
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just dispense with Christianity. And the crowd goes wild. It was amazing.
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But according to this misguided assumption, unfortunately that too many Christians hold on to,
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and it's what we're talking about today, is that the legitimacy of Christianity
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is precariously In this a little bit clunky statement, I made it up that
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the legitimacy of Christianity sits precariously atop a collection of errorless or inerrant ancient text.
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That was the assumption of his talk. And then he just dismantled the
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text. And if you dismantled the text, you dismantled the biblely dismantled Christianity.
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We're done here. The assumption being if there is an error in the
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Bible, Christianity becomes indefensible. It's a house of cards. You just pull
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out the Creation account, you pull out Levitigus, you pull out some things
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with the New Testament. The whole thing comes crumbling down. Goodbye Bible,
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goodbye Christianity. Now this is not true, which will come as a relief
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to some of you, but will sound like heresy to others. So pay
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close attention. Today. We've been up our series that I've so enjoyed putting
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together, and I think some of you enjoy have enjoyed as well, the
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fundamental lists subtitled recovering the Essentials of our Faith. In this series, if
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you've not been tracking along with us, and I hope you'll go back and
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watch or listen to this entire series because each part builds on the other.
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The bottom line for this series is that we're asking the question what must a
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person believe, not do? But what must a person believe in order to
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be a faithful follower of Jesus. We talk about the due part all the
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time because it's so important, because doing is what actually makes the difference.
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But we've stepped back from that to ask the question, Okay, if I'm
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going to be a Jesus follower, what must I believe in order to follow
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Jesus? What's essential? What's the irreducible minimum? And this is an important
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question because, as you know, there are so many versions of Christianity.
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Christianity is like a big house of living rooms with front doors, all facing
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the outside world. But every time you go into one of these rooms,
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these Christian rooms, these Christian traditions, these Christian denominations, Christian churches,
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you discover that each one has its own terms and conditions, its own ex
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and traditions, its own Bible, its own text and its own interpretation of
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text, and its own way of prioritizing the text. And we are part
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of that group. We have our own traditions, we have our own way
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of approaching things, we have our own way of prioritizing certain texts over the
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other. So the question is, with all these difference is how do you
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know? Because the one thing that we all have in common, every church,
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every denomination, every expression of Christianity, every Christian tradition, the one
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thing we all have in common, including to us, is we think we're
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right, and that everybody else is not quite as right as we are right,
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that they just need to be as right as we are. They need
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to see the Bible the way we see it, they need to prioritize the
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way we see it. That we need to approach God and approach prayer and
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approach everything else the way that we see it. So everybody kind of feels
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like they're right then, and that's not such a big deal. But what
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really makes it complicated is that in every generation, beginning in the second century,
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this isn't new, And every generation, new and novel ideas get woven
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into the fabric of Christianity and get woven into the fabric of certain Christian traditions.
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And often these new and novel ideas get elevated to the point where they're
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considered essential, doctrine, fundamental. In other words, if you reject one
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of these new and novel or modern ideas. You're out. You're not a
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real Christian, you're not a real Jesus follower. So it creates all kinds
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of confusion because these things happen and change really almost every generation. And so
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the reason we're talking about this is because you're smart, and you're honest,
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and you're curious. And when smart, honest, and curious people realize that
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non essentials have been woven into the fabric of their particular church, or their
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particular denomination, or their particular faith tradition, thoughtful and honest people feel like
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they have to step back and reevaluate, not quit believing in God, and
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not even quit believing in the deity of Jesus. But they it's like,
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wait a minute. You talk a lot about the Bible, and you know
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the Bible, but I'm not sure you you know Jesus. And so people
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feel the pressure to kind of deconstruct, and to deconstruct is to say,
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hey, I need to tear this thing down to the bear essentials. I
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need to tear this down to the fundamentals so that I really know the foundation
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of what I believe in, why I believe it, and I think my
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church has departed from it, or I think my denomination got it wrong,
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or I think my faith tradition isn't exactly right about that. So people step
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out, and generally they just step out of organized religion, and sometimes they
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never go back. So we're asking the question what is fundamental, what is
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essential? What is fundamental in terms of what we must believe in order to
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be a follower of Jesus versus what's just cultural or what's familiar or what's comfortable,
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or what's fashionable but peripheral. So we've said so far, we've discovered
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seven things, and we've done these chronologically basically as we follow Jesus through the
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gospel. So I'm going to hit these real quick, and then for those
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of you who are watching, if you're at any of our local churches,
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we're going to send you an email this week with the list of these eight
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fundamentals so that you can keep these in front of you. So here they
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are real quickly. Number one, Jesus is God's Son and our King.
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We started with this one because this is what Jesus claimed about himself. Number
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two, Jesus came to illustrate and demonstrate what God the father is like,
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that's what he claimed that one of his purposes in coming was Number three Jesus
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defines sin specifically as anything that harms you or others. Number four that Jesus
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promised justice in the end and invites us to trust him in the meantime.
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And number five that Jesus died for your sin to reconcile you to God.
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This is where many of us probably thought we would begin, but we don't
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discover this until toward the end of the journey with Jesus through the Gospels.
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And then number six that Jesus established an eccles a movement, a group of
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people that we call the Church, and the Church, we discover, is
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God's agent of transformation personally, culturally, and ultimately globally. And this is
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why number verse seven, Jesus said, at the very end of this ministry,
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I want you to take what I've taught you, and I want you
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to teach others. I want you to teach every nation and people in every
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nation and every generation to do what I've taught you to do, and to
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view and approach God the way I have taught you to view and to approach
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God. So today, as we wrap this up number eight, we're gonna
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talk specifically about the Bible. Now, this one's a little different because Jesus
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never mentions the Bible because there was no Bible. The Bible wasn't a symbol
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the way we think about the Bible until the fourth century. So this one
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is a little different. But we're asking the same question. What must we
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believe about the Bible, or what must one believe about the Bible to be
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a follower of Jesus? In other words, what is essential? And here's
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what I want to say to some of you. If you left, if
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you left your faith, if you left the Christian faith because of something in
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or about the Bible, I'm so glad you're listening, and I'm so glad
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you're watching. This is for you. This is the Bible my dad gave
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me when I was sixteen years old. He gave it to me and he
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had marked it with this yellow ribbon. He said, Andy, I want
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you to take this. This is I want to give you this Bible,
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and I want you to memorize David's speech to Goliath when he went down into
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the Valley of Allah to fight Goliath. And I want you to memorize that
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speech, he said, and I want you to memorize it, so whenever
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you're tempted to send you just quote this speech back to your temptation, because
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that's like a goliath in your life. I thought, I love that,
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so I memorized the entire speech. You come to me with the sword of
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spear and shield, but I come to you in the name of the Lord
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of Host, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have to
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fight, and this day I'm going to strike you down. And then it
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gets great. It's about gore and heads falling, and the birds are picking
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the flesh off the Philistines and they chase them. And it's the perfect passage
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for a sixteen year old to memorize. Now, it's kind of a long
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speech, and I think the reason he wanted me to memorize it is by
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the time you finished quoting that speech back to your temptation, you've pretty much
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forgotten what you were tempted. Pretty much forgotten what you were tempted. Now
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here's the thing. Like many of you, when I was raised in church
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preacher's kid, I was given a little red bible with my name on the
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front that I was given this Bible, and had several Bibles, But when
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the Bible was first presented to me, it was presented to me as God's
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Word, all true through and through. God's Word, all true, through
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and through. And I believed that before I ever read it. Like many
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of you, and most evangelical Christians of which I am one, most evangelical
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Christians hold to some biblical view or some view of Biblical inspiration, infallibility,
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or inerrancy, and most of you probably do as well. However, and
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I'm not picking on you. I'm just pointing out something that's kind of obvious
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regardless of which words you choose. If you choose one of these words,
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you probably couldn't define it exactly, but you just believe God gave us his
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word and God spoke and we have it. And you know, there's just
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a general sense that the Bible is inspired, or it's infallible, or there
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are no errors. It's an errant. So when I chose to go into
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ministry, I thought, if I'm going to spend the rest of my life
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teaching from this and preaching from this, I need to know exactly. It's
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not enough to say it's inspired. Okay, what does that mean it's infallible.
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What does that mean? In error? Really, there are no errors.
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So I chose the most conservative graduate school in America when it comes to
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a high view of the Bible and the inerrancy of scripture, Dallasyological Seminary,
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And it was not part of the denomination I grew up in, which was
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kind of a problem because when I chose to go there, and my dad
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was actually the president of the denomination whose schools I did not choose to attend,
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So that was an interesting conversation. But the reason was I needed to
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know and I wanted to know, and I chose a grad school accordingly.
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And I had the privilege of studying under this gentleman, doctor Norman Geisler.
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We call him Dorman Norman Geisler. He was amazing and he was brilliant,
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and he was the editor of this book in Errancy. This is a standard
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textbook in every conservative evangelical school, seminary, graduate school, or college.
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Is still in print. It's still a textbook. It's dense. Again,
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it's very academic. So in his lifetime he passed away in twenty nineteen July
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twenty nineteen. He was the champion of Biblical inerrancy, and I took every
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single class I could under doctor Geisler. I remember walking out of an apologetics
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class one day. This is in Dallas, Texas. I'll never forget.
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In fact, we visited the school a few years ago. I took the
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people with me to the place where I was standing. I walked out of
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class one day after sitting through one of his lectures, and when he would
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finish, you know, there was like a bell that rang. I don't
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know if they still do that in school, but we actually had a bell,
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you know, and we wouldn't move. It was just like it was.
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I remember walking with my briefcase coming down. We had to wear ties,
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you know, and I walked down. I can remember where standing on
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the sidewalk, and I looked up in the sky blew Dallas clear sky,
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and I said, under my breath, God, I've always believed you were
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real. Today I know with certainty. Was it was so powerful to sit
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under his teaching, and he taught us the doctrine of biblical and Aaron say.
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Now, a few years ago, some of you may remember this.
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I did a series called Who Needs God? And during the series Who Needs
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God? I talked about the Bible in ways that we're going to talk about
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the Bible today. And some evangelical leaders took me to task and on social
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media said all kinds of critical, rude things, and he doesn't believe the
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Bible. Andy da da da dah. And the problem with when they criticized
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me, they're really criticizing you. And I don't care if they criticize me,
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because I just take the most strange ones and make pictures of them and
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put on my phone show my kids, so it doesn't bother me. But
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when they start criticizing the people in our church, oh, you know,
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they're just following along their goats, you know, their mindless and I'm like,
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are you kidding? We have like the smartest, most insightful, most
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curious group of Jesus followers in the world in our churches. That's what I
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think about you. But anyway, so they were critical of me during this
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series. So about two thirds of away through the series, Sunday afternoon,
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never forget, sitting on the front porch after Sunday kind of you know,
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just trying to recover a little bit, and the phone rings. I look
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and it's from Charlotte, North Carolina. And I only knew two people who
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live in Charlotte. So I answer the phone and I hear this voice.
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Andy, this is Norm Geisler. Now there's only three people that made me
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feel like I've been sent to the principal's office. Okay, if God called
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me, you know, if my dad called me, or Norm Geisler,
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it's like, okay, am I in trouble. And I'm telling you.
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Here's what he said, Andy, I see you've gotten yourself into a little
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trouble. He said, people don't understand apologetics and they don't understand what the
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Bible is. You keep going, that's good apologetic preaching, I know.
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And I'm like, thank you, Bill. You don't have to cloud,
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but thanks anyway. So, but that's all I needed to hear. Now
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there's a reason I'm talking so much about me today. But I'll get there
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in a minute. So that was so. And then he said this,
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he said, but you need to write about it. It's not enough to
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preach about it. People don't understand. And he just talked and you know,
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he's very academic and just brilliant, beyond brilliant that you know, the
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average Christian doesn't think in these terms. So Andy, when you say those
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kinds of things, it just confuses them. I'm thinking, not the people
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in our church. They didn't give any criticism from the people that were actually
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in our church. But anyway, he said, you need to write about
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it. I'm like, like, write a book about it. He is,
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Yep, you have to write about it or people or not. I'm
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like, I don't have time to write a book about it. That's so
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academic. He said, you got to write about it. So when I
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wrote the book Irresistible in response to doctor Norman Guys, who taught me the
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doctrine of inerrancy. That's why where the book came from. So the point
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is the reason I'm telling you all that is I understand the tension that we're
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about to step in for the next few minutes. And I'm going to assume
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he's listening today to ensure I don't lead any of you astray. Okay,
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So that's kind of the background. But the bottom line is this bottom line
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is this, when it comes to what you must believe about the Bible in
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order to be a follower of Jesus, it really boils down to this.
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You have to believe when it comes to the Bible, that Matthew, Mark,
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Luke, or John are reliable accounts of actual events. That's it,
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that Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John are a reliable account of a
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of actual events. Because if you've adopt any one of the four Gospels as
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something that's a reliable account of actual events, you're there because both of all
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four of these gospels present Jesus as God's Son and your king, and everything
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we've talked about in this series flows from that one simple idea. It means
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that what he said about God is true, what Jesus said about you is
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true, and what Jesus said about the Hebrew Scriptures is true. That Christianity
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does not rise or fall on our ability to prove that the Bible is without
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error. I learned this from the guy who edited the book in Errancy.
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Because people we've talked about this before. People were following Jesus for three hundred
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plus years before the first Bible was assembled. First century Christians, you know
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this, First century Christians. They didn't follow Jesus because of something they read.
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They followed Jesus because they'd seen him crucified and raised from the dad.
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Now, is there a case to be made. I mean, is there
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a case to be made that the Bible is without error? Yes, there
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is a case to be made. And if you'll give me three weeks of
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your undivided attention, I can make the case because I studied under the Master
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right. But is this view of the Bible and essential to being a follower
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of Jesus. No. Our faith does not rise or fall on our ability
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or your ability to prove that the Bible has no errors. Christianity rises and
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falls based on the identity of Jesus, which is validated by the resurrection of
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Jesus. And this is why, this is why, if you're curious about
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these kinds of things, this is why Christian apologists a Christian apologist to somebody
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who contends for the faith publicly, this is why Christian apologists. And by
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the way, doctor Geisler was an extraordinary debater. He would debate folks in
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the university settings around the city of Dallas are really even different parts of the
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state of Texas, and we would all go to sit in the back and
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just watch him dismantle his opponents because he was so ridiculously smart, a little
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bit snarky, a little bit funny, and just kind of a scary person
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in terms of his personality, and so we would watch him just I mean,
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he could defend the faith like crazy. But here's what you'll learn.
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And those of you who are a little bit geeky and you love to debate,
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you know, between Christians and atheists, what you'll discover is this that
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Christian apology. Christian apologists, they always build their case on the resurrection of
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Jesus, not the inspiration of the Bible, because they know that the foundation
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of our faith is not an inspired text. The foundation of our faith is
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the event of the resurrection of Jesus. Now, just to you know,
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kind of bowld this and italicize this, and to underscore the importance of this,
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I want to read to you one of the most overlooked and yet one
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of the most important statements in the New Testament, written by the man who
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wrote about half the New Testament, the apostle Paul. Here's what he said.
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We've looked at this before, but the significance of this, you can't
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overlook the significance of this. And again, if you've lost faith over something
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in or about the Bible, I just want you to lean in, listen
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listen to it. Paul again, who's credited with writing about half the New
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Testament. I mean, if anybody's gonna say, hey, the Bible is
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the foundation of the faith, because after all, I wrote half the New
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I mean, this is the guy. But here's what he said. He
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said, if Christ, if Jesus has not been raised, all my preaching,
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my entire ministry, mere risk in my life going around the Mediterranean rim
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is useless. Paul, Wait, all of your preaching, he says,
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not just mine, Ready, our preaching, Peter's preaching, John's preaching,
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James the Brother of Jesus preaching, and Matthew's preaching. Anybody who's out there
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preaching about Jesus, it is useless. Wait, you're you're telling us that
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your entire ministry, the integrity of your entire ministry, hinges on an event
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that took place outside the walls of Jerusalem, the resurrection of Jesus. Absolutely.
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Then he doubles down, Not only is my preaching useless, so is
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your faith, to which we say, wait a minute, that's unfair.
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You don't even know me. He's like, I don't have I have to
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know you. If you're basing anything in your life on the claims of Jesus
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or the teaching of Jesus. It's useless. It's a waste of time.
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Because the only reason we take that Rabbi from Nazareth seriously was the resurrection,
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because it affirmed what he claimed about himself. The problem with Jesus was not
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what he taught. The problem with Jesus is what he said about himself.
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And only crazy people say the kinds of things he said about himself, crazy
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people and the people for whom it's true. And the resurrection of Jesus validated
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his claims to be the son of God, the resurrecting, the resurrection of
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the life and your king. But Paul's still not done Versus Later, he
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says this, and if Christ has not been raised from the dead, your
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faith is feutile, and you're still in your sins. No, none of
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my sins. I asked Jesus to come into my heart. And Peter and
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Paul saying it's a fairy tale, none of it's true. Everything I've done
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is a waste of time. All of your faith, it's all fiction.
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Convince yourself it's a fairy tale. None of this is real. None of
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this is matters except for that single event that changed everything. And you are
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still separated from God regardless of what you think, because no one is paid
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for your sin. Because Jesus was claiming things about himself that we're not true.
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His point is simply this at the foundation of our faith. This is
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an event, the resurrection, that launched a movement, the Church of Jesus,
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that ultimately assembled the first Bible in the fourth century. So is the
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Bible important. It's extraordinarily important. While the Bible is not the foundation of
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our faith, it's certainly not irrelevant to our faith. But and this is
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my point, this is so important. There is no single there is no
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single modern view of inspiration that is essential to following Jesus. And this is
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why I wanted to talk about this. There is no I'm going to come
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back to this word a minute, there is no single modern view of inspiration
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that is essential to following Jesus. Now, some of you are thinking,
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Andy, I don't even care about this. I mean, you're you're raising
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questions I've never asked. Can we just talk about something practical? I get
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that. We'll get back to that. Some of you are thinking, any
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why, why will labor the point and you going to risk your career.
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I mean, why is this so important? This is extraordinarily important to you,
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and it's extraordinarily important to me, and it is extraordinarily important to us.
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And let me tell you who else is important to you. It's important
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to your children, and your grandchildren and your great grand children. And why
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would I use the word modern. Here's why. When a specific view of
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inspiration, when a specific view of inspiration that it's you know, verbally inspired
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or there aren't any errors, or do whatever, view whatever, however you
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want to tease that out, however you want to define it. When a
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specific view of inspiration is elevated to the status of doctrine, fundamental, essential,
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the Bible becomes an obstacle to faith for some people. In other words,
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when a view of inspiration is elevated to the status of Jesus as the
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son of God, or when it's elevated to the status of doctrine and essential
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the actual Bible, this is tragic. The Bible becomes an obstacle to faith.
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That's why I want to say again, if you left faith because of
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something about this or in this, you got to lean back in at least
24:41
for a few minutes. When we make a specific view of inspiration elevated to
24:47
the status of doctrines, you know what happens. We eliminate room for questions.
24:51
Wait, you mean to tell me or I can't explain it. But
24:53
that's what the Bible said. That's what God's word says, So don't question.
24:56
That's what God's word says. Yeah, but I don't understand. Well,
24:59
you don't get to under This is just what God's word says, so
25:02
you just accept it, move on. But no, no, it's God's
25:04
words. It's all true. You can't you can't ask questions, you can't
25:07
be curious. And if I could poke around a little bit for some of
25:11
you who raised like me and believe like me, not only can you not
25:15
be curious, sometimes you can't be honest because you're reading this and you're like,
25:22
I don't I'm just I don't want to read that part anymore. I
25:25
don't. Oh no, I don't like that part. Jesus has a sword
25:27
in his mouth that he's going to smite his enemies and be covered. I
25:30
don't like that part either. So you know what, I'm just I'm just
25:32
gonna kind of stay right here in the middle. I like Psalms, and
25:34
I like Jesus and that other stuff. Somebody's just else is gonna have to
25:37
figure out you can't even be honest about your own faith and your own view
25:41
of the Bible. The reason some of you chuckled, it's like, exactly,
25:47
my kids keep asking me about those parts. I'm like, don't look
25:48
at those parts, look at the other parts right well. That that's no
25:52
way to live, that's no way to worship, that's no way to approach
25:57
God, who created you know, six hundred plus different kinds of beetles.
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I mean, are you kidding? We should be the most curious and the
26:04
most open minded people in the world because our faith isn't anchored to a perfect
26:11
text. Our faith is anchored to a solitary event outside the walls of Jerusalem
26:18
that changed everything, including the people who were there and knew Jesus personally.
26:26
Now, US conservatives, and I'm so conservative theologically, US conservatives, we
26:30
trend this way because we were told, right, we were told, an
26:36
error, an error in any part of it, undermines the credibility of all
26:41
of it. I hear this all the time, that an error in any
26:45
part of it undermines the credibility of all of it. Okay, look up
26:48
here, that's true of your passport. That is not true of the Bible.
26:56
The all or nothing view is it's mistaken, and it is unnecessary,
27:02
And the problem is the reason we're talking about it. It creates an unnecessary
27:04
off ramp to faith. It sets people up for a crisis of faith.
27:08
The apparent discrepancies and contradictions. This is fascinating to me because I like church
27:14
history, the parent contradictions. It says this, but it says that,
27:17
and these guys don't agree all that stuff. Do you know? You check
27:19
it out. That stuff didn't bother anybody in Christendom for the first five centuries.
27:26
In other words, the people that followed the Apostles, the people that
27:27
wrote and led and suffered and died to protect these ancient texts, none of
27:33
them were hung up on the fact that some of the details didn't coordinate,
27:37
and they didn't understand how some of the things in the Old Testament could have
27:40
happened. They just weren't hung up on that. The group that came after
27:44
the Apostles, after they all were martyred or died, they're called the church
27:47
fathers, the church fathers. Many of the church fathers actually knew and were
27:52
trained by and taught by the apostles and the church fathers. Again, they
27:56
just weren't hung up on what we get hung up on. And in terms
28:00
of the sophistication of the text, I'll give you a good example of that.
28:04
There was a fourth century bishop from Constantinople. His name is John Chris
28:08
Sistem, Crown Christistem. You may have seen quosed by John Christistem if you've
28:12
ever read church history, fourth century bishop. Here's what he says, and
28:15
I chose this in particular. Here's what he says about the apparent contradictions or
28:19
misalignments in the gospels. Matthew, Martin, Luke, and John. If
28:25
you've ever read the different accounts of the resurrection of Jesus, you know they
28:29
don't line up perfectly. You know, it's like one person or was it
28:32
four? And there's so many Mary's and you know who got there first and
28:34
who I mean, it's just the details don't line up. And of course,
28:37
you know, agnostics and people who poke funds say, look, there's
28:41
this doesn't even line up. Why should we believe all this Hey, the
28:45
men and women who brought us the gospels were not bothered by that. The
28:48
next generation wasn't bothered by that. The next generation. So fourth century Bishop
28:53
here's here's his approach. Here's what he writes about. It's a little clunky
28:57
because it's it's old and it's translated. John writes, says, but if
29:00
there be anything touching time or places like when this happened or where this happened,
29:07
which they the gospel writers have related differently. In other words, they
29:11
tell the same story, but they tell it differently. This nothing injures the
29:15
truth of what they have said. Now, others, we don't feel like
29:19
we have to stand off the rough edges and make it all work together.
29:22
I mean, we know the point they're trying to make. But those things
29:26
he goes on, which constitute our life, how to live our lives and
29:30
furnish out our doctrine, nowhere is any of them found to have disagreed.
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No, not ever so little. Now other words, this is this way
29:40
of saying right, it doesn't all line up perfectly, But so what we
29:45
got the gist of the story. And besides, Jesus rose from the dead.
29:51
Everybody agrees on that And the reason a minute ago that I inserted the
29:55
word modern modern is this, and this is so important. The precision,
30:02
the precision that we demand from written texts today was not an ancient expectation that
30:08
the precision. In other words, we want grammar to be right, spelling
30:11
to be right, everything to match, you know, if it's a copy
30:14
of you know, we're making a copy. Oh, it's not. The
30:17
reason we had We demand such precision in our modern world is because we can
30:21
pull it off. But in a world that was mostly illiterate, and they
30:23
were illiterate, not because they weren't smart. They were illiterate because in order
30:27
to learn to read, there has to be something to read, and texts
30:30
were so expensive and people didn't have access. So in a world that was
30:34
primarily illiterate, the precision that we demand from a written text was not even
30:41
was They never even considered such a thing back in ancient times. Again,
30:45
is there a case to be made that the Bible is without error? Yes?
30:51
Is holding that view essential to following Jesus? No? And if that's
30:56
why you left, you should reconci Now. The more conservative you are,
31:03
like me, I realize, the more troublesome this messages and I understand that.
31:07
But here's why I'm taking the risk, and I say, our collectively,
31:15
our approach to ministry is informed by something the apostle Peter said at a
31:18
critical junction in the life of the ancient Church. There was a meeting in
31:23
Acts chapter fifteen. This is about twenty years after the Resurrection. Some of
31:26
you know about this, and they had a real big conflict in the church.
31:30
And the conflict in the church was around the scripture, not the Bible.
31:34
In fact, the Gospels hadn't even been written yet. The apostle Paul's
31:37
just beginning to write. The conflict or in the church around the scripture was
31:41
around what we would consider the Old Testament, the Law and the prophets,
31:44
the Jewish or the Hebrew scripture. But the conflict was not around whether or
31:48
not it was inspired. It wasn't about inspiration the challenge. The conflict was
31:52
around application, which was a much bigger deal. There's no way that I
31:57
can even begin to explain, I think elicit the emotions that were in the
32:04
room as they debated the place of their Bible in the local church. In
32:09
other words, we have this. They didn't call it a bible it was
32:13
just the books, or it is the Old Testament. They didn't even call
32:15
it that because only Christians called it old. The Jewish people who wasn't old,
32:17
It's like, no, this is our Bible. But the question is
32:21
what do we do with this? And one group said, well, we
32:23
have to teach it to all the gentiles. They have to become Jewish in
32:27
order to become Christian. They have to follow and embrace the Messiah the way
32:30
the Messiah is described and outlined and taught by Moses. Before they can embrace
32:35
Jesus as Messiah. Basically, they've got to learn our culture, eat our
32:39
food, practice our morality, and the men they got to have a little
32:45
surgery. And so this is in fact, this is in the text Acts
32:47
fifteen. Read it for yourself. They were requiring that all the gentile men
32:51
be circumcised, because you've got to be part of the Covenant of Moses before
32:54
you can become part of the New Covenant. This is what they were arguing
32:58
for this. And the group that was arguing for this is so fascinating to
33:02
me is these were priests who had become Jesus followers in other words, and
33:08
Pharisees who'd become Jesus followers. What in the world would cause a Pharisee who
33:14
you know, just trail around behind Jesus and persecuted him for three and a
33:16
half years. What in the world do you think it took to change their
33:20
mind? The Resurrection of Jesus. Now, Christians and they're in the church,
33:23
and they're in Jerusalem and their leaders and they're saying, hey, these
33:27
gentiles have to become Jewish before they can be a Christian. Peter the Apostle,
33:31
Peter and Paul are saying, oh, no, they don't, and
33:35
they're arguing the opposite. Now listen to what they're arguing. They're arguing that
33:39
gentile Christians, which is most of us, do not have to learn,
33:45
memorize, study, They certainly would never own one a copy or embrace the
33:51
entire law, the Old Testament law. Basically, they were saying, they
33:55
don't have to do anything that Moses can demanded the ancient Jews, our forefathers
34:02
to do. Now, we have some suggestions, because we got to somehow
34:07
merge these groups where we're gonna have a Jewish church and a Gentile church.
34:10
I mean, this was a colossal issue, and this is so cool.
34:15
The debate goes back and forth, back and forth, back and forth,
34:17
and then James stands up. James the brother of Jesus, who didn't follow
34:22
Jesus until after the resurrection. Now he's the pastor of the church in Jerusalem
34:28
where these events took place. James stands up. He says, all right,
34:31
have made a decision. Here's what he says, brothers, he said,
34:36
listen to me. Peter has described to us how God first intervened to
34:40
choose a people for his name from the gentiles. Peter has just told this
34:45
story. I wish I had time to tell it. It's it's hard to
34:47
believe. It's even in the Bible. Peter tells a story about being invited
34:51
to a gentile home and he didn't want to go. He's invited to a
34:53
gentile home to tell them about Jesus, and Peter's like, I'm not going.
34:57
And he gets there and he finally goes and listen to how he opens
35:00
This is how he opens his message to all these gentiles. I've never entered
35:07
the home of a gentile before, and I never wanted to implication because you
35:10
people are nasty. But God made me come here. Okay, So here's
35:14
what I want to say to you. Really, you read it for yourself.
35:16
It is so offensive, Peter says to this group. Look, I
35:21
get it. I get it. I was as anti gentile and I was
35:23
so worried about getting gentile stuff on me as you guys. But I'm telling
35:28
you God has opened the way to the world, and if it means setting
35:36
aside in some way the way we're thinking about it our scripture, our Bible
35:40
in order to let them in, do it. So, James says,
35:45
it is my judgment. I love this. In fact, this statement is
35:47
on the walls of all of our offices, at all of our church churches.
35:51
These are our marching orders. This is why I'm making such a big
35:53
deal out of it. It is my judgment therefore, that we should not
35:58
make it difficult for the gentiles who are turning to God. In other words,
36:02
if our text has become an obstacle, we need to remove it.
36:07
These men and women are trying to get into the Kingdom of God, and
36:10
there's no way in the world we should allow our Bible to be an obstacle
36:16
to their faith. Because the essential element of our faith is a brand new
36:22
king the shadow castor has arrived. Everything our text pointed to is a reality.
36:30
And just as they decided they shouldn't make it difficult for gentiles who are
36:32
turning to God, we're not going to make it difficult either. The Bible
36:37
should never be an obstacle to faith. Is it important, of course,
36:42
it's important. Is it essential, Yes, it's essential. But it should
36:45
never be an obstacle because the Bible isn't the starting place. Jesus it's the
36:52
starting place. And I know and I hear the critics already. It's like,
36:55
yeah, but the Gospels are in the Bible. Okay, we've talked
37:00
about the historical sequence of things. That's a ridiculous argument. There was no
37:02
that Matthew predated quote the Bible Mark predated all the New Testament documents predated the
37:08
Bible because the Bible wasn't assembled until the fourth century. So there's no argument
37:13
to be made there. The issue is who's Jesus. The issue is who
37:19
is Jesus. That's it. That's the starting point, that's the ending point,
37:22
that's the launching point. So what must we believe about the Bible in
37:29
order to be a follower of Jesus? So I put together kind of a
37:32
long, clunky statement. This is just my answer to that question. The
37:37
Bible. Here's what we have to believe. The Bible documents God's redemptive activity
37:43
in the world, culminating in the arrival of his final king. Listen,
37:49
the reason gentile people eventually got really, really, really interested in the Old
37:55
Testament wasn't because they were interested in becoming Jewish. They weren't even that interested
38:00
in the Jews. They realize that the Old Testament documented God's redemptive activity in
38:07
the world, and that it had culminated in their lifetime with the arrival of
38:14
the Final Listen. The Bible provides us with the backstory and the main story.
38:22
The Bible provides us with the backstory. The Old Testament is a saga
38:27
of God's people clinging to Yahweh as he prepares the world for his final king.
38:31
Its ancient history with a divine purpose. It's an over the top graphic
38:38
account of God waiting into the mess created by our sin to see the story
38:44
of our redemption played out to its bitter and bloody. Crucify him, Crucify
38:49
him, and the story arc of the entire Bible should cause all of us
38:55
all mankind, the entire human race, to drop to our knees and gratitude
39:01
for what God has done on our behalf, for what God has done on
39:06
behalf of the world. So I read it every single day. Associate you,
39:19
if for no other reason, and if you're a skeptic, and if
39:22
you've walked away from faith, and look up here for one second, if
39:24
for no other reason, here's why you should read the Bible. Because the
39:29
words of Jesus recorded in the Gospels are the very words of God. The
39:39
words that we discovered last week are the words that bring us back to center,
39:45
the words that keep us from moving too far to the left, are
39:47
too far to the right in our culture or in our personal lives. The
39:52
words of Jesus inform our conscience, they fuel our faith, and they direct
39:57
and inform our behavior. If just the words of Jesus were elevated to the
40:02
place where they should be, it would revolutionize the church and perhaps revolutionize our
40:08
culture in the world. So that's our fundamentalist that's what's essential. That's what
40:17
we must believe in order to follow Jesus. And if you'll just embrace the
40:21
first one, if you'll just embrace the first one, that Jesus is God's
40:24
Jesus is God's son, and our King, our resurrected worthy to follow king
40:30
the rest. It's kind of detail, but as a teenager, it's detail
40:45
that changed my life. It's detail that has the potential. If you lean
40:52
in or lean back in it's detail, it will change yours as well.
40:59
Because John, who was there for all of it, looking back as an
41:02
old man, said, I grew up as a Jewish boy. I know
41:07
the whole story. I know the whole story arc and now I've experienced the
41:12
coming of the King. And here's what I would tell you. For God
41:17
so loved, and once upon a time I didn't believe this. So for
41:21
God so loved the world, even the gentiles in the world. For God
41:22
so loved the world that he does what you do when you love someone.
41:28
He gave but we didn't see this coming. He gave his unique son,
41:35
and he gave him to us first as someone we could see and touch and
41:40
hear, and our hands have handled the word of life. He would write,
41:45
for God's love the world, that he gave us what was most precious
41:47
to him. He gave us his son. He gave us his life.
41:52
That whoever would lean in, that whoever would believe, that whoever would be
41:58
open allow themselves to be convinced, would not be lost to God anymore,
42:04
but would experience eternal wife. That's why it's good news of great joy for
42:15
all people.