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Andy Stanley - The Bible For Grown-Ups, Part 1 Last Things First · Andy Stanley Sermons

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: The B-I-B-L-E Yes, that's the book.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: For me I stand alone on the Word of God
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: The B-I-B-L-E The B-I-B-L-E Yes, that's the book for me
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: I stand alone on the Word of God The B-I-B-L-E.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: The B-I-B-L-E. Yes, that's the book for me. I stand
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: alone on the word. I stand alone on the word.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Hey, Bob.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: What are you doing?
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Uh, nothing.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Just cleaning up a little.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: So this is a series for adults, really, who were
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: introduced to the Bible as children. And this is a
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: series for adults who were introduced to the Bible as
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: adults by adults who were introduced to the Bible as children.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Because either way you go, most of us know some
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Bible stories, but very few of us know the story
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: of the Bible. That is, how we got the Bible
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: to begin with. And understanding how we got the Bible
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: is almost as important as knowing what's in the Bible.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Because as we're gonna see, the backstory sheds enormous light
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: on the story. Now, for children, growing up, was it
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: important that children knew that we knew when we were
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: kids how the Bible came to be? Probably not, we
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: would've been bored stiff and we weren't interested at all,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: so it wasn't a big deal. But as adults, this
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: is an extraordinarily, extraordinarily, extraordinarily important topic, and it's a fabulous,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: fabulous story. Because if you don't know, if you don't
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: know the story of the Bible, it's easy to discount
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: the stories in the Bible. In fact, some of you
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: have walked away from faith, or you have friends or
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: family member or kids who've walked away from faith. In fact,
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: maybe you're watching today, you haven't been to church in
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: a long time, or somebody invited you, you hadn't been
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: for a long time, and you haven't told the person
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: that invited you, or you haven't told the person you're
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: sitting next to, Maybe you haven't told the person that
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: you're married to or your parents that you know what,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: I just don't think I believe all that stuff anymore.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: And it's understandable because if you don't know the story
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: of the Bible, it's very difficult to continue to embrace
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: the stories in the Bible. And the problem is, the
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: big problem is, and we'll talk about this for the
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: next few weeks, is that the way that we got
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: our Bibles is not the way the world got the Bible.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: By the time you got your Bible, it had been
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: chaptered and versed up, right? It had been footnoted, it
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: was in English, all the type was set, there were maps,
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: there were titles, there were headers, there was all kind of,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: there were cross references, there was a concordance. When you
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: got your Bible, it was all done. But that's not
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: how the world got the Bible. And the story of
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: how the world got the Bible sheds extraordinary light and
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: gives us insight into the stories in the Bible. My
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: first Bible didn't look like this. My first Bible was red.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: It was much smaller. It was wrapped in genuine imitation leather.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: And it had my name printed on the front in
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: gold leaf. Now I'm just curious, if you're watching or
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: everybody everywhere at all of our campuses, how many of
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: you had a Bible as a child with your name
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: printed on the front in some form or fashion?
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: Yes, that's right.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: And I bet when you received your Bible, and for
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: those of you who didn't raise your hand, you're feeling
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: kind of left out. Chill, I'll tell you why in
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: just a minute, okay? It's no big deal. So the
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: thing is, when you received your Bible, if you received
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: a Bible like I did as a child, we were
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: probably told similar things. We were told, this is God's word.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: It's all true. Try to live your life by it.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: I don't know what kind of words you were told,
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: depending on how old you were. And of course, we
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: believed what we were told because these were adults telling us,
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: and we believed whatever adults told us. And if you're
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: like me, you've always had respect and held the Bible
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: in high regard. And I was an unusual child. As
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: I began to read, I actually read the Bible and
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: then throughout my entire life and every season, even high
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: school and college, I've always read the Bible. But the
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: way I received even my Bible that I love is
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: not the way the world received the Bible. Now your
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: situation may be very different. Maybe you weren't given a
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Bible as a child. In fact, maybe you went to
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: a church or maybe you had a religious tradition where
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: you were not even encouraged to read the Bible. There's
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: a couple in our small group right now who they
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: said the tradition they grew up in, they were actually
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: encouraged not to read the Bible, even though it was
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: a Christian congregation because the pastor or the priest was
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: responsible for telling everyone in the church what was in
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: the Bible and how to understand the Bible. But regardless
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: of how you were raised with the Bible, the truth
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: is for most of us, we developed an understanding of
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: a respect for the Bible not based on reading it
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: because very few people actually read it. We based our
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: understanding on what we were told about the Bible and
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: the stories that we were told and the stories that
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: were selectively told to us as children, as high school students,
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: and ultimately as adults. But either way, regardless, and again,
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: you may have not been raised in a Christian tradition
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: at all. But even if you've not been raised in
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: any kind of Christian tradition, even if you've never read
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: the Bible, you have a perspective or you have sort
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: of an attitude about or you have a belief about
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: what the Bible is and what the Bible isn't. So
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: regardless of where we're coming from, what happens is this,
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: that all of us carry our childhood perspective of the
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: Bible into adulthood. Now, for many of us, if the
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: Bible says it, that still settles it. But for many
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: of you, maybe who were even raised with the Bible,
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: it's just not that simple anymore. Because somewhere along the way,
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: somebody pointed out to you what else the Bible says.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: The parts they didn't talk about in Sunday school. The
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: parts they didn't talk about at church. In fact, you
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: may be in a situation where you brought some of
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: the parts to your parents' attention or to your pastor
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: or priest's attention that they skipped over in Sunday school,
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: that they skipped over in church, and you find yourself
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: having a very difficult time reconciling what you found in
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: the Bible with the reality that you live in and
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: the world that you live in.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: And you're an honest person. You couldn't just look the
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: other way.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: So perhaps because of what you discovered about or in
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: the Bible, you walked away. Or perhaps you're considering walking away.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: So regardless of where you came from and regardless of
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: how you were introduced to the Bible, this is a very,
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: very important series. You may be surprised to learn that
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: the story of the Bible does not begin in the beginning.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: The story of the Bible doesn't begin in the beginning.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: The story of the Bible actually begins toward the end
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: of the middle. The story of how we actually got
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: the Bible begins with a first century doctor who was
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: not Jewish but Greek and.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: His name is Luke.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: And Luke actually spent the time necessary to document the
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: events of the life of Jesus. And the reason he
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: sat down to document the events of the life of
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: Jesus is he had a wealthy friend named Theophilus. And
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Theophilus was a first century Jesus follower, first century Christian.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: And Theophilus, like many people in this region of the world,
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: had heard enough stories about Jesus and had met enough
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: of the eyewitnesses of Jesus' life and miracles that he
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: had put his faith in Jesus. But Theophilus wanted an
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: orderly account of how this whole thing transpired. It's a
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: little bit like hearing about somebody that you have a
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: lot of respect for and you hear bits and pieces
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: of the story and you have two or three quotes,
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: but at some point it's like, okay, but tell me
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: the whole story. Put it in order for me. So
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: Luke decided, for the sake of this wealthy friend, Theophilus,
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  Speaker 2: he decided to sit down and write an orderly account
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: of the events of the life of Jesus. In fact,
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: this is how his document begins. We know it as
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: the Gospel of Luke, but let's not call it that
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: yet because that would happen way down the road. This
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: was simply a Greek in the first century who's documenting
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: to the best of his ability the life of Jesus.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: and the works and the words of Jesus. And here's
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: how his document begins. He says, many have undertaken to
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: draw up an account or a document of the things
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: that have been fulfilled or the things that happened among us.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Something had happened worth And the interesting thing is that
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: Luke says, I'm not the only one trying to document
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  Speaker 2: all this. I'm not the only one that's trying to
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  Speaker 2: put down the story of the events that actually happened here.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: In this region of the world. And this, you should know,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: is very unusual.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: There are not many cases, historically speaking, there are not
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  Speaker 2: many cases of multiple written accounts of the same event
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: or series of events. In ancient times, we have virtually
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: no multiple written accounts of the same events. The life
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: of Jesus in some ways stands out all by itself
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: in that regard. He goes on, he says this, with
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: this in mind, with this in mind, since I myself
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, going back to
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: the beginning of Jesus' life, I too, along with a
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: lot of other people, I too decided to write an
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  Speaker 2: orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus. And this title,
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: most excellent Theophilus, is what gives us the idea that
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: Theophilus was an important person. He was a well-known person,
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: either a merchant or a land owner, who was a
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: Jesus follower, who wanted to know the story in order,
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: he wanted to know the facts, and so Luke says,
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  Speaker 2: I'm gonna spend the time necessary to put together an
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: orderly account. Now this is really, really important what I'm
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: gonna say next. When Luke was writing this document, Luke
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: was not writing the Bible.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Luke had no idea that this would ever exist.
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  Speaker 2: Luke could not even begin to fathom that 2,000 years
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: later there would be something that included what he wrote
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: along with what other people had written about Jesus and
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: other things.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Luke isn't writing the Bible.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Luke is simply creating an orderly account of the events
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: of Jesus' life based on eyewitnesses and based on the
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: people that he interviewed. And Luke, because of the way
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: he did this, tells us why and how the story
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: of the Bible began. And the story of the Bible began,
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: and the reason we even have a Bible is because
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: when it became clear to the people who followed Jesus.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: In the first century, when it became clear to them that.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: Jesus was clearly not who he claimed to be, that's
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: when the story of the Bible actually began. because Jesus
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: claimed too many things about himself. I mean, he said
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: some wonderful things, he did some wondrous things, but Jesus
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: said too much about himself, and when Jesus was crucified,
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: and there are other extra biblical literature that tells us
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: that Jesus was a historical person, that Jesus was actually
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: crucified or put to death under the Roman Empire, so
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: nobody disputes that, but in the first century, when Jesus'
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: followers recognized that Jesus had been put to death by Rome,
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: it was game over.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: There was gonna be no story.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: So Luke is documenting something fabulous that happened in the
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: first century, and his story tells us that a man
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: named Joseph of Arimathea, a part of the Jewish Supreme Court,
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: and a man named Nicodemus, two people that everybody in
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: that region would have known, these were famous guys in
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: the first century within Judaism, that these two men went
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: to the cross and took.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: Jesus' body down.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: Not because they believed he was the savior of the world,
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: not because they believed they would ever get their names
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: in a book, but because they had so much respect
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: for him, but they were so disappointed because clearly Jesus
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: was not who Jesus claimed to be. In fact, Luke says,
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: I thoroughly investigated and here's what happened. After he was crucified,
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: Joseph of Arimathea and his servants took the body down
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: and wrapped it in a linen cloth and placed it
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: in a tomb, cut in the rock, one in which
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: no one had ever been laid. Luke gives us all
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: this detail. And he gives us all this detail because
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: he's a doctor, he's detail-oriented, and he's trying to write
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: an orderly, detailed account. He goes on and he says this,
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: the women, the women who had come with Jesus from
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Galilee followed Joseph of Arimathea and saw the tomb and
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: how his body was laid in it. And then these
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: women went home And they prepared spices and perfumes, why?
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: They were gonna come back and re-embalm the body. Why
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: would they come and re-embalm the body? Because Jesus was
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: dead and everybody expected Jesus to stay dead. And in
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: this moment, this is so important, in this moment there
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: are no Christians. There are no Jesus followers. There is
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: no church, there is no hope. There are just brokenhearted
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: women and disillusioned disciples that are scared for their own lives.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: There's Rome, the eternal city, and clearly the gods of
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: the Romans had won again. And there was the temple,
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: and the leaders of the temple had won again. Between
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: Rome and the temple, the Jesus movement had been crushed
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: out of existence.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: And if it had ended.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: There, There would be no the Bible, and there would
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: be no Christians, and there would be no church, and
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: there would be no, as we're gonna see, Old Testament,
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: and there would be no account by Luke considering and
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: looking into the details of the life of Jesus.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: This is so important.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Luke documented, Luke documented the life of Jesus because the
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: story of Jesus didn't end on a Roman cross. If
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: the story had ended there, there would be no story.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: Luke tells us the reason that he was a Jesus follower,
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: the reason that Theophilus was a Jesus follower in the
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: first century is because Jesus was seen alive. And once
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: he came back to life, his followers came out of
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: hiding and they went to Jerusalem and they went into
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: the streets of Jerusalem and faced down the very people
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: that had Jesus crucified. And they got arrested and they
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: had to face down the very men who were responsible
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: for taking Jesus to Pilate to be crucified in the
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: first place. And Luke documents these early sermons and Luke
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: documents what these men said in the face of extraordinary,
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: in the face of actually being arrested and put to
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: death just like Jesus was. In fact, here's just one
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: sentence from one sermon that Luke documents, because again, he's
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: trying to document everything that happens surrounding the life of
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: Jesus and beyond. Peter, one of Jesus' followers, to Caiaphas,
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: the high priest, said, God has raised this Jesus to life,
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: and we are witnesses of it. We didn't read about it.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: We didn't hear about it. We saw him. And so
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: the Jesus movement, the church, was birthed. But still, there's
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: no Bible. Luke goes on to document what happens for
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: the next about 30 years following the resurrection. He documents
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: it in a book in our New Testaments called Acts
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: or Acts of the Apostles. Luke knew Peter, he interacts
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: with Peter, there are conversations between Luke and Peter that
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: are documented. Luke knew John, there are conversations between Luke
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: and John and James, the brother of Jesus.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: These men knew each other.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: Luke traveled with the Apostle Paul all around the Mediterranean basin.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: planting churches, and he documents the rise of the Gentile
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: church as the church became more and more Gentile and
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: less and less And this movement called the church would
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: ultimately shape Western civilization. In fact, the most secular of
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: secular historians all acknowledge that Christianity shaped and greatly impacted
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: all of Western civilization. But here's the cool thing, and
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: here's the interesting thing, and here's the thing that you.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Need to know.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Luke admits right up front, hey, I'm not the only one.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: I'm not the only one trying to document what happened
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: in our midst.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Remember what he said.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Many, many have undertaken to draw up an account of
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: the things that had been fulfilled or the things that
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: happened among us. And the question that we all should
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: wrestle to the ground, and if you've walked away from
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: faith or walked away from Christianity, I understand it. If
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: I heard your story as to why you walked away,
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: I would probably say, who could blame you? But here's
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: something you need to wrestle with because I think you
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: should come back.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Why so many? Why so many? Why so many?
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: That would be unusual now for multiple people to cover
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: the same event in detail. But then it was expensive
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: to write. Most people were illiterate anyway. Why would Luke
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: and why would others feel compelled to document the events
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: that happened in the first century surrounding the city of Jerusalem?
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: And the answer is undeniable. Because something extraordinary happened. happened,
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: not something extraordinary was written, that would come later. Something
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: extraordinary happened, something that had to be preserved. Because after all,
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: Peter and the boys, Peter and the followers of Jesus,
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: they weren't getting any younger. And their lives were threatened constantly.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: So several of them sat down and dictated or wrote
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: their account and their experiences with Jesus. In fact, Peter,
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: the apostle Peter, dictated his account to a young man,
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: a young Greek named John Mark. We know this from
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: a second century writer named Papias who tells us that
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: the gospel of Mark came from the lips of Peter.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: And Peter was probably illiterate, an illiterate but smart fisherman.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: So consequently he sat down with another Greek and he
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: gave him this story. And the Gospel of Mark, but
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: let's not think Gospel yet, the document that we call
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: Mark is short.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: It's action, it's action, it's action.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: It's almost as if a fisherman, this is how the
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: fisherman's account with sound, it's bottom line, it's event driven.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: And again, John Mark is no mystery to the history.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: John Mark traveled with the Apostle Paul. John Mark knew Luke,
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: he was a friend of Luke. And this document was
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: written in the 50s, just about 20 years after the resurrection.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: Luke said several people sat down to document this extraordinary event.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: Matthew was one of them. We call it the Gospel
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: of Matthew, but before it was called a gospel, it
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: was simply a document, a document addressing first century Jews
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: to say, trust me, Jesus is the one we've been
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: waiting for. Jesus is the Messiah, and he leverages Old
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: Testament passage after Old Testament passage after Old Testament prophecy saying, look,
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: all of the prophets, All the law and the prophets
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: pointed to the coming of the Messiah, and Jesus fulfills
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: so many of those prophecies. Believe that he is who
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: he claimed to be. The church fathers, that's what we
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: call the group of people that came after the disciples
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: in the late first century, second century. Church fathers indicate
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: that there was actually a Hebrew copy, a Hebrew version,
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: that the original version of Matthew was probably written in Hebrew,
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: which makes sense, it was written to the Jews. But
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: then it was translated into Greek. And the version that
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: we have today is a Greek version. And why would
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: a Hebrew document be translated into Greek? Because Greek was
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: the language of the Eastern Empire. And this was not
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: simply a message for Jewish people. This was not simply
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: a message for people in that region.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: Of the world.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: This was a message for the whole world. So there's
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: Luke and there's Mark and there's Matthew. And then there's
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: the Gospel of John. But again, we call it a gospel.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: John wasn't thinking Bible. John wasn't thinking gospel. John decided
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: that he too needed to get out of him the
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: story and the experiences that he had with Jesus. So
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: we might say to John, John, I mean you're an
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: old man, man because by the time he dictated this document,
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: he was an old man.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: John, why bother?
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: Others have already written. And here's something so fascinating. And
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: regardless of where you are with faith and regardless of
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: what your church experience has been, I hope you'll lock
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: into this. John, in the first century, again, he's not
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: thinking about this. This is the furthest thing from his mind.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: John is simply documenting his experiences with Jesus.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: And in his.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: Document that we call the Gospel of John, he tells
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: us at the end of his account why he bothered
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: to write in the first place, knowing that other people
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: had written as well.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: And here's what he said, and I don't want you
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: to miss this.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: John writes, Jesus performed many other signs because he's just
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: given us a list of things that Jesus has done.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: So we're at the very end of the gospel.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: He says, oh yeah, we're getting to the end of
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: this thing, but I want you to know, this isn't
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: the whole story. Jesus performed many other signs in the
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: presence of his disciples. These weren't done in secret. And
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: by disciples, he's not talking about the 12. He's talking
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: about the hundreds of people that followed Jesus from the
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: banks of the Jordan River right through the crucifixion and
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: then showed up after the resurrection. He said there were
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: many other things that Jesus did that are not recorded
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: in this book. And here's something very important for you
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: to know. When John says that there are events that
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: Jesus accomplished and things that Jesus did that don't show
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: up in this book, this book is not a reference.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: To this book.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: This book is a reference to the document he's writing.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: He says there are many other things that Jesus did
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: that don't show up in my account of the life
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: of Jesus, and then he says something so important. But these,
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: the ones I have chosen, the ones I have chosen,
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: these are written. In other words, as I face the
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: end of my days, as I face the end of
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: my life, my faith is still intact, not based on
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: what I see around me now, but based on someone
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: I met and what I saw. And so John says,
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: I wanna speak to future generations. I want future generations
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: to know what I saw, what my hands have handled,
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: what we experienced.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Here's what he says. He says, but these things are
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: written that you, and do you know who you is?
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: You is you, and you is me. and you as
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: all of us.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: In other words, John is saying this, the reason I've
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: written this account of the life of Jesus is so
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: that whoever stumbles across this document, imagine this, he spends
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: all this time documenting his story, he has no idea
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: if it will survive a day or a week or
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: a month, much less 2,000 years, and would several hundred
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: years later be wrapped together with other ancient sacred documents
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: to be called the Bible.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: He's not thinking the.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: Bible, he's thinking, I just want the future generations to
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: know what I saw, what I experienced, what changed my life,
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: what changed my worldview, what gives me hope when the
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: world around me seems to be absolutely hopeless. This document
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: was dictated by an eyewitness of these extraordinary events that
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: Luke felt like he had to tell about Peter.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Matthew, and others. So here's what he says. But these
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: are written that you may.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: Believe. Now again, we have to ask the question, but
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: believe what? I mean, John, what is it you want
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: us to believe? Now again, back to us. It's possible
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: that you left faith because you have a lot of
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: presenting reasons if you walked away from faith or if
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: you're considering walking away from faith, you have lots of
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: presenting reasons.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Something you read, something you heard, you're just not interested.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, for most people
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: who walk away from faith, you know what the bottom
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: line is? And maybe this is your bottom line. Maybe
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: you know this, maybe you haven't thought about it. The
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: bottom line is, You know, Andy, it's good for you,
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: but I don't believe it anymore. I mean, I just
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: don't believe it anymore. And the question that I hope
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: you'll wrestle to the ground and the one that John
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: wants you to wrestle to the ground because he wants
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: to wrestle it to the ground with you is this.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: What is the it that you don't believe? If you
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: walked away from faith or considered it or are considering it,
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: what is the it? And John, not the Bible, we
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: haven't gotten there yet. John, not the Bible, is about
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: to tell you the only it that really matters, this
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: is so important. John, an eyewitness, someone who spent time
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: with Jesus, says this. These things that I've written in
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: this gospel, these things are written that you may believe,
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: believe what? That Jesus is in fact the Messiah to
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: the Jews, the Son of God to the Greeks and
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: the Romans, and that by believing, you may have life
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: in his name. Regardless of what you've heard, regardless of
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: what you've seen, regardless of what you've experienced in your
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: life as a Christian, John says this is the it.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: That's it, and that's the only it that really matters.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: And the implications of this statement and this document we
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: call the Gospel of John are staggering, and here's why
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: I say that. If John's account of the life of Jesus,
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: if John's account is all you have, John's account is
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: all you need. If John's account is all you have,
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: John's account is all you need.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: He said, I have written.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: This in such a way that if this is the
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: only message you stumble across, if this is the only
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: document you ever read, if this is the only bundle
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: of stories you are ever aware of, it's enough for
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: you to have confidence that God has done something in
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: the world. that God has done something in the world
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: on your behalf. Because it's John that interrupts Jesus' conversation
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: with Nicodemus because he can't help himself and he writes
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: that famous verse that most of us grew up having
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: memorized as children.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: It's John that says, look, let me summarize it.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: For God so loved the whole world, the Jewish world,
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: the Greek world, the Roman world, the pagan world, the
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: barbarian world, That God loved the whole world so much
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: that he sent his son. And I have been eyeball
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: to eyeball with the son of God that I'm convinced
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: is God in a body. That whoever believes, whoever places
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: their trust in him and who he claims to be
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: will not perish, will not be lost to God, but
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: will begin to experience in this life a different kind
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: of life. John calls it eternal life. John says, if
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: this is all you ever hear, this is all you
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: ever need.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: Isn't that amazing? You know what's so interesting about that?
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: For decades, actually for generations, for a couple 300, 400 years,
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: people have been directed not to read the Bible, but
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: to read the gospel of John. In fact, some of
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: you may have become Christians because somebody said, hey, I
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: just want you to read something. Don't start in Genesis.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: Don't start in Matthew.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Don't read the Bible.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: Just read this one account of the life of Jesus.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: And in reading the gospel of John, you put your
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: faith in Jesus because John was right. If this is
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: all you ever have, if this is all you ever get,
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: this is all you'll ever need. Isn't that amazing? 270
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: years before this book is ever assembled. That brings us
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: up to the end, about the end of the first century.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: At the end of the first century, there's still no
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: the Bible. At the end of the first century, there
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: are thousands and thousands of Christians, Jewish Christians, Greek Christians,
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: Roman Christians, Christians in other.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: Parts of the world.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: At the end of the first century, there are thousands
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: of Christians and there are dozens and then hundreds and
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: then eventually thousands of copies of these documents floating around
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: telling about the life and the works of Jesus. and
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: they're meticulously copied, and they're bundled together, and some people
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: have a gospel, and some people have two gospels, and
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: some people have three, and some people have a part
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: of one.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: And part of another.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: And can you imagine, can you imagine if you were
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: a first century Jesus follower or a second century Jesus follower,
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: can you imagine how valuable these documents would be to you?
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: That perhaps you had only heard the stories of Jesus
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: and then somebody comes to your town or your village
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: or your grandfather shows up and says, let me show
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: you something. He uncovers, here is a full copy of
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: John's recollections of his life with Jesus.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine this?
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: To have a parent or grandparents who had actually heard
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: Peter or John preach and they've told you to the
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: best of their memory what Peter and John preached and
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: then one day somebody comes to your town or your
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: village and they say, look, look, we have an actual
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: copy of a letter that Peter wrote.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine?
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: I'll give you an illustration that I'll admit up front
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: falls way short of the magnitude of what was happening
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: in the first or second century. I grew up hearing
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: stories of George Washington Stanley.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Yes, that's his real name.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: This is my father's grandfather, and it looks like he's
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: preaching during the apocalypse, like there's nothing left, only the
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: machines roam the earth, and he's the last surviving human being.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: I don't know where this picture was taken. He had
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: lived and he did most of his ministry in North Carolina,
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: but my dad's grandfather, George Washington Stanley, was a preacher.
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: And he started a whole bunch of churches and he
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: traveled around. And when my dad was a teenager, just
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: as he was finishing high school and about to start college,
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: my dad went and spent a good bit of time
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: with his grandfather. My dad's dad died when he was
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: 17 months old, so we never knew his father. And
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: so George Washington Stanley, for a short period of my
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: dad's life, this was his guy. This is a big
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: part of the reason my dad went into ministry and
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: became a pastor. And I grew up as a kid
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: hearing these amazing stories that my dad's grandfather told my
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: father that my father told me. And if I had time,
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: I could tell you some of the stories. And maybe
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: they were embellished a little. I don't know, they are fascinating.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: As a child, you just leaned forward and said, dad,
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: just tell us that one again. because he preached during
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: some very difficult times in the Southeast. And he wasn't
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: liked by certain groups of people. And yet he stood
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: firm and he taught the Bible the best he knew
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: how as an uneducated pastor in the Southeast, mostly in
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: the area of North Carolina, a little bit of Virginia.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: So I grew up on these stories. And then about
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: five years ago, my dad calls me. He said, Andy,
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: I want you to come over. I want to give
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: you something. I'm like, well, You know what, just come over,
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: I wanna give you something. So I drove over to
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: my dad's house and we go in the kitchen and
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: there on the kitchen counter are these two little blue books.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: They're about this thick, they're about this big. In fact,
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: I should have brought mine. I don't know why I
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: didn't bring my copy. And there are two of them
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: and I can tell they're very old.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: He said, guess what these are? I said, what?
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: He said, I didn't know this until last week, but
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: my grandfather actually wrote a book. He said, and my
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: sister was cleaning out some things, and she ran across
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: these two, and these are the only two copies that
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: she had, and she knew that I would want one,
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: and she knew that I'd probably wanna.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: Give you one.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: And he hands me a copy of a book written
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: by his grandfather, my great-grandfather, the man that was so
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: instrumental in influencing my dad, who influenced me as it
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: relates to ministry. Now, what do you think I felt
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: when I held that little blue book in my hand?
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: Do you think I got in my car and tossed
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: it in the backseat? No, I mean, before I even
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: opened it, before I even knew what was in it,
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: it was already precious to me because of the influence
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: he'd had on my father, and through my father, the
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: influence he'd had on me. And so I went home
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: and I read every single word. And then I read
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: every single word. How valuable is that book to me?
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: How valuable is that book.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: To my father? We can't even begin to imagine.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: Again, 200 plus years before there was ever one of these,
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: There were these precious, extraordinary documents that gave the first
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: and second and third century Christians a picture of, details,
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: quotes from their master and their savior, Jesus. From the
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: very beginning, they were considered valuable and reliable. From the
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: very beginning, they were considered sacred and eventually inspired. And
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: it is no surprise, and it should come as no
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: surprise that very quickly, these four documents, Matthew, Mark, Luke,
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: and John, were considered sacred scripture. 270, 250 years before
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: one of these ever existed.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: Isn't that amazing?
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: Now, to catch you up, the empire, the Roman Empire,
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: was very suspicious of Christians. And the reason the Roman
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: Empire was suspicious of Christians was not because of what
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: Christians believed, it was because of what Christians didn't believe.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: Because Christians didn't believe in the gods.
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: Now, Rome could care less who you worship as long
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: as you kinda threw a few, you know, did a
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: grain offering every once in a while to Caesar, and
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: a grain offering every once in a while for the
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: sake of the gods of Rome. You could keep your
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: household gods, you could keep your regional gods. If you
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: were a barbarian, you could keep your barbarian gods, your
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: Greek gods, as long as you acknowledge the gods and
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: as long as you acknowledge Caesar. And that was a
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: problem for Christians because Christians refused to declare that Caesar
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: was their lord. They declared that Jesus was their lord,
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: which offended Caesar.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: And the gods.
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: Now, in the words of Stevie Wonder, the Romans were very, very.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: Superstitious, okay?
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: So... Anytime something went bad in the empire, and this
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: is true for us today, even as Americans or Canadians
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: or wherever you live. Anytime things went bad in the empire,
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: they look for someone to blame. And when things were good,
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: they considered it the blessing of the gods. And when
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: things went bad, they assumed that the gods were disturbed.
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: And if the gods were disturbed, there was a reason
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: the gods were disturbed. And why would the gods be disturbed?
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: It must be the growing number of Christians who don't
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: recognize the gods. There was a late second, early third
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: century Christian leader, author named Tertullian, and he wrote this
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: famous statement that survived antiquity. And this gives us a
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: glimpse of what the Christians were up against in the
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: second and third century. He wrote this, he said, if
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: the Tiber River, it's a river, if the Tiber River floods,
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: the city, or if the Nile refuses to rise and
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: water the crops, or if the sky withholds its rain,
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: if there is an earthquake, a famine, a pestilence, at
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: once the cry is raised, Christians to the lions. That is,
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: Christians were blamed for everything just about that went bad
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: in the empire. The point was to keep the gods
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: happy at all costs and at all times. And the
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: gods demonstrated their pleasure or displeasure through the wonders of nature,
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: through the rains and the floods and the river and victory.
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: in war. So from time to time when things were
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: bad in the empire, Christians got too much attention from
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: the empire. And this culminated, and I'll end with this,
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: this culminated in the year 303 when Emperor Diocletian, Emperor
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: Diocletian issued an edict that resulted in the worst state
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: sponsored persecution of Christians that had happened up until that time.
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: It was very official and this edict declared that every
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: single house of Christian worship must be destroyed that assembly
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: by Christians was illegal, that the bishops were to be
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: rounded up and forced to recant and offer a sacrifice
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: to the gods and declare that Caesar was their Lord
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: or else they would be punished by death. But perhaps
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: worst of all, all Christian literature, all Christian literature was
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: to be turned in and was to be burned. And
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: if you were caught with Christian literature, you could lose
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: your life after you watched your wife, your daughter, and
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: your son lose their lives in order. and hundreds and
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: hundreds of Christians risked and lost their lives protecting, this
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: is important, not the Bible. There still wasn't a the Bible.
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: They risked and lost their lives protecting fragments of Matthew
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: and Mark and Luke and John. bundles of two or
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: three gospels together, copies of the letters of Paul and
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: the letters of Peter. And the reason that those valuable
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: documents survived the third and early fourth century is because
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: of their confidence that these documents told the truth about
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: something that had happened on planet Earth in the first
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: century when God showed up in the person of Jesus Christ.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: They died rather than give up. those sacred documents.
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: Even during that persecution, Christianity continued to spread. And then
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: political change brought about reform and an easing of hostilities.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: And by the year 324, Constantine the Great became the
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: undisputed emperor of both sides of the empire, canceled those edicts,
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: returned property to the church, allowed Christians to worship freely,
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: and Christianity, as you know, became the preferred religion of
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: the empire.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: And then, for the.
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: First time ever, so important, for the first time ever,
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: Christian scholars were able to work in the open. And
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: Christian scholars were able to work in the daylight. And
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: Christian scholars could gather together without fear of persecution and
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: without fear of having their ancient documents taken away.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: They were able to work in the open.
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: And for the first time, they were able to bring
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: together this extraordinary collection of valuable, what we would call
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: New Testament documents. And the stage was set for the
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: assembly of the very first tabiblia, the Bible. But there
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: is so much more to this story. And we will
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: pick the story up there next time in part two
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: of the Bible for grownups.