Article 4: Scripture- Glasses

Welcome/Prayer/ Series Intro

Welcome and Prayer

What We Believe Series- The most important part of this series is to understand why we are doing this? Why do we need to know what we as a mennonite church believe?

When we don’t know exactly what we believe we tend to fill in the blank with what sounds Good. (God helps those who Help themselves, Doesnt Jesus say “Don’t Judge”

How can we fulfill the Great Commission if we do not know what We believe? How can we better share our faith if we don’t know the basic pillars of our faith

Series Recap - Article 2- Jesus, the foundation.

Jesus is the foundation of our faith

Jesus ministry is central to understanding God and His Will for the work of the Church

Jesus teaching is central for what it means to follow Christ.

I specifically addressed the supremacy of forgiveness to not only understanding Jesus teaching but what it means to be Christian

That we should constantly forgiving and asking for forgiveness.

We landed on the importance of our understanding of what we believe about Jesus because it changes how we think, which changes how we behave, which changes how we live our lives.

Would you pray with me?

Transition: This morning we are going to look at Article No 4, would you join me with your own copy of the confession as I read it out loud.

Article 4 and Glasses Metaphor.

We believe that all Scripture is inspired by God through the Holy Spirit for instruction in salvation and training in righteousness. We accept the Scriptures as the Word of God and as the fully reliable and trustworthy standard for Christian faith and life. We seek to understand and interpret Scripture in harmony with Jesus Christ as we are led by the Holy Spirit in the church.

We believe that God was at work through the centuries in the process by which the books of the Old and New Testaments were inspired and written.1 Through the Holy Spirit, God moved human witnesses to write what is needed for salvation, for guidance in faith and life, and for devotion to God.2

We accept the Bible as the Word of God written. God has spoken in many and various ways through the prophets and apostles.3 God has spoken above all in the living Word who became flesh and revealed the truth of God faithfully and without deception.4 We also acknowledge the Scripture as the fully reliable and trustworthy Word of God written in human language.5 We believe that God continues to speak through the living and written Word.6Because Jesus Christ is the Word become flesh, Scripture as a whole has its center and fulfillment in him.7

We acknowledge the Scripture as the authoritative source and standard for preaching and teaching about faith and life, for distinguishing truth from error, for discerning between good and evil, and for guiding prayer and worship. Other claims on our understanding of Christian faith and life, such as tradition, culture, experience, reason, and political powers, need to be tested and corrected by the light of Holy Scripture.8

The Bible is the essential book of the church. Through the Bible, the Holy Spirit nurtures the obedience of faith to Jesus Christ and guides the church in shaping its teaching, witnessing, and worship. We commit ourselves to persist and delight in reading, studying, and meditating on the Scriptures.9 We participate in the church’s task of interpreting the Bible and of discerning what God is saying in our time by examining all things in the light of Scripture. 10 Insights and understandings which we bring to the interpretation of the Scripture are to be tested in the faith community.

Glasses imagery.

How many of you have or at one point in your life worn Glasses raise your hand?

Well this morning we are going to look at what we believe about Scripture like a pair of glasses. (Picture of Glasses)

Glasses are made up of two primary parts: the frames and the lenses.

As we look at this article the “frames” will be what we believe about Scripture and the “Lens” will represent how we view and interpret scripture.

This metaphor, is also helpful to understand our relationship with scripture, because if you need glasses, there are things you cannot do without them. And even if you dont need all the time there are certain parts of life that would be almost impossible without them, such as reading. Its the same thing with the bible. Its essentail to the life of every Christian.

Transition: So Lets begin with the Frames. (Picture of Fames)

The Frames- What we Believe about Scripture

We believe that the Bible is the Word of God. Now that phrase “Word of God” is used frequently, but what do we mean by the word of God. Well if you read the commentary section you have a head start, but I want to work through it.

a message that God has communicated through persons in the Old and New Testaments, especially through Moses, the prophets, and the apostles

This usually comes in the form of a formulaic saying in the Biblical text in the form of “Thus saith the Lord” or “This is what the Lord says” This is a very literal understanding, this is what God said.

The Living word, Jesus Christ the Logos incarnate. Jesus’ as the living becomes our clearest understanding of God’s will for his people. In extension, anything Jesus says becomes God’s word because it is literally the word of God. God is speaking.

a word or words from God that have been put into writing this refers to a word from God that is quoted in another part of scripture that we see throughout the New Testament.

Jesus quotes the OT and the Psalms as does Paul all over the place.

Why is this important: Believing Scripture as the “word of God” emphasizes the richness of and fulness of what we mean when we say, “God’s Word”. Its not just the written text but a more comprehensive understanding.

We Believe that Scripture is Inspired.

The Bible itself says that its inspired in 2 Tim 3:16 (Slide)

2 Timothy 3:16 NIV

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,

This Greek word is a combination of God and wind. It is the breath of life. Its the same kind of image we see in Genesis when God breathes life into Adam.

There are other words that churches use to describe the bible, but I appreciate that we use the same word that the bible uses. I think we should let the bible speak for itself in this manner and not put the bible into a box by slapping human labels on it. (Repeat) (If anyone has questions feel free to ask)

The Bible is the Essential Book of the Church

Through the Holy Spirit, God moved human witnesses to write what is needed for salvation, for guidance in faith and life, and for devotion to God.

The Bible is what we bring all of our other pieces of life under to clarity and guidance or as the creed says, “Other claims on our understanding of Christian faith and life, such as tradition, culture, experience, reason, and political powers, need to be tested and corrected by the light of Holy Scripture.”

The Bible is the Churches’ guidebook for how to function as a church, or more specifically, instruction in salvation and training in righteousness.

However, when we come to the bible we cant just randomly open up a text read it and copy and paste that into our life, Think about some of the characters like Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and David there are definitely things that they did that we probably shouldn't repeat that’s where the Lens comes in.

The Lens How we interpret scripture

Our Glasses are bi-focals because there are two distinct ways anabaptists read the Biblical text that form one hermeneutical lens. (Picture of Bi-Focals)

Christ-Centered

We seek to understand and interpret Scripture in harmony with Jesus Christ as we are led by the Holy Spirit in the church because God has spoken above all in the living Word who became flesh and revealed the truth of God faithfully and without deception and Because Jesus Christ is the Word become flesh, Scripture as a whole has its center and fulfillment in him.

For Anabaptists then the first step in hermeneutics was to ask how a passage should be interpreted in light of Jesus life and teaching. He was honoured as the supreme revealer; as the ultimate revelation of God.

This means that we bring everything in alignment with what Christ says, a common example is when it comes to war. People say, there was war in the OT. Jesus says, pray for your enemies. Do not resist the Evil Person Turn the other Cheek. Jesus become our standard for faithful living above all else.

How many of you have The Munster Rebellion.? The Munster disaster was one of the few times that Christocentric hermeneutics was abandoned by Anabaptists. The Munster leaders chose to focus almost exclusively on Old Testament references to justify their apocalyptic vision. By-passing Jesus and his New Testament teaching resulted in disastrous consequences for the Munsterites and resulted in a long standing blight for Anabaptists.

Simply put, we live by a different set of standards now. Jesus’ teaching and example becomes the authoritative instruction manual for us as his Followers.

Community Centered

This means, We participate in the church’s task of interpreting the Bible and of discerning what God is saying in our time by examining all things in the light of Scripture as a community. Insights and understandings which we bring to the interpretation of the Scripture are to be tested in the faith community.

This falls in line with other protestant traditions in the belief that one person or one institution cannot have the final say on what is correct interpretation.

This practice is also rooted in scripture, In Paul’s teaching in I Corinthians 14; “When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Two or three prophets should speak, and others should weigh carefully what is said and if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged.”

One early Anabaptist, described interpretation as a conversation, In the Swiss Order, probably written by Michael Sattler in 1527, the suggestion is given; “When brothers and sisters are together, they shall take up something to read together. The one to whom God has given the best understanding shall explain it, the others should be still and listen.” 42 The encouragement to “be still and listen” implies a setting in which there is room for discussion and conversation following the explanation.

Thus, interpretation is a conversation. Reading and Interpreting the Bible is something we must do together. In fact, thats why I think joining a DBS Connect and Care Group is just as important as listening to a sermon on a sunday morning.

AND, why does all of this matter when it comes to what we believe about scripture?

Why does this matter?

Well, We have been talking about the Bible like a pair of Glasses and if you have terrible vision you need glasses, to see, walk, drive, read signs, buy food, do almost every aspect of life. Its the same way with the Bible .

The Bible helps us navigate our lives as followers of Jesus.

But, lets talk about our relationship with the Bible. Its true some of us have glasses but dont use them as we should, Jess always reminds me when I am looking over my glasses instead of through them.

Well its the same way with our Bibles, if we are not using them, how do we expect to see?

To see where God has worked in the past

To see where God is calling us to in the present.

To see where God leading us to in the future.

Ill be honest, sometimes its difficult to read my bible every day. Even as a pastor its a discipline. How many of you are willing to admit the same? Raise your hand.

What changed for me in my discipline is the why? I dont read the Bible to check off a box or even feel accomplished.

We read the bible to know God. This is how God speaks to his people. One of the practices I have started this semester is to begin my sunday mornings with a long chunk in scripture. God has spoken powerfully to me in those morning moments with him. We encounter God in his Word and When we encounter God we do not leave the same.

Would you pray with me?