The Blueprint Matters

Reading the Bible the Way God Intended

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever had your words taken completely out of context? Maybe you told someone something, but they, in turn, repeated it to someone else, but completely changed what you said. Maybe it was a text message and the person you sent it to took it out of context or read an attitude into your words that were not there. It can be frustrating when someone misinterprets what you say, takes it out of context, or twists your words to say something completely different than your original intent. But it happens all the time.

The unfortunate truth is that the same thing happens with the Word of God. How can two people sit down and read the same scripture passage and come to two completely different conclusions about what it means? It is often because those two people are looking at the Word of God through two different lenses. They are reading their ideas and opinions into the Word of God (eisegesis) instead of letting the Word of God speak for itself (exegesis).

How many of you have ever bought something that required you to put it together? How many of you read the instructions, the blueprints, before you got started? How many of you are confused right now and didn’t realize that it what that paper was in the bottom of the box? Even if you read the instructions, or followed the blueprints, how many would admit somewhere along the process you realized you installed Part “A” backwards with the wrong size bolts and now you’ve got to take apart about half of the alphabet to turn it the right direction and take the bolts back because you need them to attach “S” to “T?”

The Bible is like a blueprint, or a set of instructions, that God has given us to follow. There are some of you who refuse to read or hear the blueprint. I’m not even dealing with that today. What I’m dealing with today is learning how to read and interpret the Word of God correctly. To “rightly divide the Word of Truth.” To perform exegesis instead of eisegesis. So that what we believe, teach, and preach follows the blueprint. And I want to apply this to the subject matter that we began last week.

This morning we are continuing our series WHY ISRAEL MATTERS. Last week, we talked about God’s covenant with Abram (Abraham). How God confirmed the covenant by His own name, not by Abram’s obedience or disobedience, and how that covenant has not been annulled according to the Word of God. Israel matters because the covenant matters. This week, we are going to answer the overarching question, how do we know this, or any belief for that matter, is the right interpretation? How do we ensure we perform proper exegesis rather than eisegesis? What answers does the Word of God lead us to if we follow the blueprint? How do we know that God is not done with Israel and the church has not replaced Israel?

There is a right way and a wrong way to read the Bible. And the method you use determines what you find. When you read it the way God wrote it and intended it to be understood the blueprint makes sense. The pieces fit together. Everything falls into place.

MESSAGE

THE METHOD - How to Read the Bible Honestly - [2 Timothy 2:15; Luke 24:44–45]

The Craftsman Example

2 Timothy 2:15 NKJV

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Rightly Divide: We have a weighty responsibility to interpret the Word of God correctly. The idea in when Paul writes “rightly dividing” is to make a strait cut.

Illustration: Have you ever heard the saying, “measure twice, cut once?” It’s the idea of making sure the measurement is correct, making sure the cut is being made square, making sure material is not going to be wasted because of an error.

Application: This is the same idea in “rightly dividing” the Word of Truth. It takes diligence. It takes work. It takes prayer. So that when our work is presented to God for inspection, it is approved. When we stand one day before the judgment seat of Christ, we won’t be ashamed of the quality of the work we’ve done. The point is that sloppy work produces bad results. You cannot just hack at the Word of God and hope for the best. It requires care, precision, and a consistent method.

Jesus the Model Interpreter

Luke 24:44–45 NKJV

Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.

Literal Fulfillment: When Jesus walked the disciples through the Old Testament after the resurrection He did not allegorize it. He showed them that specific passages had specific literal fulfillments — in His birth, His life, His death, His resurrection. He read the Old Testament the same way we would read a history book — this said it would happen, and it happened, exactly like it said.

Application: If fulfilled prophecy is literal, there is no reason to treat unfulfilled prophecy as symbolic. Isaiah said a virgin would conceive — she did. Micah said the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem — He was. Zechariah said a king would enter Jerusalem on a donkey — He did. Every one of those prophecies was fulfilled literally. So when Isaiah talks about a future Kingdom, when Ezekiel talks about Israel returning to the land, when Zechariah talks about the King's feet touching the Mount of Olives — why would we suddenly switch to a symbolic reading? The method does not change just because the fulfillment has not happened yet.

The Golden Rule of Interpretation — State it Plainly

When the Plain Sense Makes Sense, Seek No Other Sense: If you can read it straight and it makes sense — read it straight.

The Burden of Proof: Is always on the person who wants to make it mean something other than what it plainly says.

THE DISTINCTION - Israel Is Not the Church - [Ephesians 3:1–6; 1 Corinthians 10:32]

The Error of Replacement Theology. Many of you may have sat in churches that taught — or at least implied — that the church has taken Israel's place. That God made promises to Israel, Israel failed, and so God transferred those promises to the church. It is called Replacement Theology. It sounds reasonable. It is also wrong. And Paul gives us two quick proofs that it is wrong.

Proof 1

1 Corinthians 10:32 NKJV

Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God,

Paul Lists Three Groups: Jews, Greeks, and the church of God.

Three Separate Categories: If the church were simply the new Israel — if the two were the same entity — that list would not make sense. You would not need three categories. The fact that Paul distinguishes them tells you they are distinct.

Proof 2

Ephesians 3:1–6 NKJV

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles—if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel,

Paul Calls the Church a Mystery: A truth that was hidden in the Old Testament and only revealed in the New. The Greek word for mystery does not mean something puzzling — it means a secret that has now been disclosed. The church was a hidden secret. God did not announce it in the Old Testament. He concealed it.

Here is Why that Matters: If the church were simply the continuation of Israel — if the church were just the next chapter in Israel's story — it would not be a mystery. It would be obvious. The Old Testament prophets would have seen it coming. But Paul says they did not. The church was hidden. Which means the Old Testament promises about Israel's future are not being quietly fulfilled in the church right now. They are waiting for their literal fulfillment — in national Israel — exactly as they were written.

THE BACKBONE - Daniel's 70 Weeks - [Daniel 9:24–27]

Daniel 9:24–25 NKJV

“Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy. “Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times.

The Precision: Six hundred years before Jesus was born, God gave the prophet Daniel a countdown clock. Not a rough estimate. Not a ballpark figure. A precise countdown to the exact day the Messiah would present Himself to Israel. And when that clock ran out — Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, the crowd waving palm branches, crying Hosanna. If God can predict the exact day of the Messiah's arrival 600 years in advance and hit it with mathematical precision — what does that tell you about how literally we should take biblical prophecy?

The Prophecy is for Israel: Gabriel tells Daniel that 70 weeks of years — 490 years total — have been set aside specifically for Israel and Jerusalem. Not the church. Israel and Jerusalem. Apply the reading rule — words mean things. Your people means Daniel's people. The Jewish nation.

The First 69 Weeks: 483 years — run from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem all the way to the arrival of the Messiah. Historians and Bible scholars have calculated that those 483 years land with remarkable precision on the week of the Triumphal Entry. God set a clock. The clock ran. It hit the mark.

The Gap: After the 69th week two things happen that are clearly not part of week 70 — the Messiah is cut off (the crucifixion) and the city is destroyed (Rome, 70 AD). Then the passage jumps to week 70 — and a completely different figure appears. Not the Messiah. The Antichrist. There is a pause between week 69 and week 70. A gap. And that gap is not something Bible scholars invented to make their system work — it is sitting right there in the text. Events happen in the gap that are clearly separate from week 70's events. That gap is where we live right now. It is the church age — the dispensation of grace — the time between the cross and the Second Coming. God's prophetic clock for Israel paused at the crucifixion. It will resume when the final Antichrist confirms a seven year covenant with Israel. And the final seven years — week 70, the Tribulation — will run to completion.

Here is What the Gap Means: If you mix Israel and the church together — if you say they are the same thing — the gap disappears. And then you have to explain away events in the text that have not happened yet. But if you keep Israel and the church in their separate lanes — the gap makes perfect sense. God has two programs running. One for the church. One for Israel. The church age is the pause between them. And the pause will not last forever.

THE UNFULFILLED PROMISE - The New Covenant - [Jeremiah 31:31–34]

Jeremiah 31:31–32 NKJV

“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord.

Apply the the Rule: Who does God say this covenant is made with? He says it plainly — the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not the Gentiles. Not the church. Not a spiritualized new Israel. The two divided kingdoms that every Jewish person in Jeremiah's day would have recognized immediately as their own nation. The plain sense is plain.

The Role of the Church: You may be thinking — but doesn't the New Testament apply the New Covenant to the church? Yes it does. Hebrews 8 quotes Jeremiah 31 and applies it to believers. Luke 22:20 — the Lord's Supper — connects the cup to the New Covenant. So what is going on?

The Distinction: Here is the distinction that unlocks this passage. Being invited to enjoy something is not the same as owning it. The church right now is experiencing the blessings of the New Covenant — forgiveness of sins, the Holy Spirit living inside us, the law written on our hearts. Those are real blessings and we are genuinely receiving them. But the deed to the covenant still has Israel's name on it.

Jeremiah 31:34 says — 'They all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest.' Has that ever been true of the Jewish nation as a whole? No. Not once in their history. There has always been a remnant of believers and a majority of unbelievers. Jeremiah 31:34 describes a condition that has never existed nationally for Israel. Which means the complete fulfillment is still future. And according to Romans 11:26 — it is coming. All Israel will be saved. That is Jeremiah 31:34 arriving at its destination.

WHY THE BLUEPRINT MATTERS RIGHT NOW

It Determines How You Interpret Scripture

You rightly divide the Word of Truth. You let God’s Word speak for itself instead of reading your biases and opinions into it.

It Determines how You Read the News

When you understand that Israel and the church are distinct — that God has a separate prophetic program for Israel that is currently paused — the headlines stop being noise and start being data. Every time you see Israel in the news you understand something significant is happening. This is not random geopolitics. This is a covenant story moving toward its conclusion. It is the Bible being fulfilled. You know what you are watching because you know how to read the book.

It Determines how You Treat Jewish People

When the church decided it had replaced Israel, it became easy to be indifferent to Jewish people. If God is done with them as a nation, why care about them as a people? History shows us where that indifference leads — and it is not a good place. The right reading produces the opposite response. When you understand that Jewish people are living inside an unfinished covenant story that ends in their national salvation — you love them. You pray for them. You share the gospel with them. You stand against antisemitism in every form. Because you know what God thinks of them. Because you understand that antisemitism is the spirit of antichrist.

Romans 11:17–18 NKJV

And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

It Determines Your Evangelistic Urgency

Romans 11:25 says the fullness of the Gentiles has a number. There is a specific count of Gentile believers God intends to bring in during the church age — and when that number is reached, the pause ends. The clock resumes. The rapture happens. The 70th week begins. We do not know what that number is. But we know we are adding to it every time someone comes to faith. Every person you share the gospel with is potentially one more name before the clock starts again. That is not a reason for fear — it is a reason for urgency. The blueprint is running on schedule. And we have work to do.

CONCLUSION

The Right Reading Changes Everything

Someone took your words out of context and twisted what you meant. It was frustrating because the meaning was right there — if they had just read it the way you wrote it.

God's Word has been taken out of context for centuries. Promises written to Israel have been reassigned to the church. Prophecies written in plain language have been spiritualized into obscurity. And the result has been confusion — theological confusion, historical tragedy, and a church that does not know what to make of the world it is living in.

The reading rule fixes all of that. When the plain sense makes sense, seek no other sense. Let Israel be Israel. Let the church be the church. Let prophecy mean what history has already proven fulfilled prophecy means. When you make that commitment the whole Bible snaps into focus. The gap makes sense. The clock becomes visible. The news makes sense. And the God who told Daniel the exact day His Son would ride into Jerusalem becomes the God whose remaining promises you can bank your life on.

We are living in the gap right now. The church age is not eternal — it has an endpoint. The dry bones are assembled. The fig tree is budding. The signs are converging. The question is not just — do you have the right reading? The question is — what are you doing with the time you have left in the gap?

ANTICIPATE THESE OBJECTIONS

"Isn't reading it literally too simplistic? The Bible uses figurative language." - Literal reading does not mean wooden or rigid. It means normal reading — the same kind you use every day. You already know when something is a metaphor and when it is not. You do not think Jesus literally has a sword coming out of His mouth. But you also do not think He literally meant His body was bread. Context tells you which is which. The rule is simple — when the plain sense makes sense, seek no other sense. Figurative language is always demanded by context, never imported by the reader.

"The New Testament applies the New Covenant to the church — doesn't that mean the church fulfilled it?" - Enjoying something is not the same as owning it. The church receives the blessings of the New Covenant right now — forgiveness, the Spirit, the law on our hearts. But Jeremiah 31:34 says they will all know the LORD from least to greatest. That has never been nationally true of Israel. The complete fulfillment is still coming — to national Israel — at the Second Coming.

"The gap between week 69 and 70 seems like something Bible scholars made up." - The gap is in the text itself. Events described between verses 26 and 27 — the crucifixion and the destruction of Jerusalem — happen after week 69 but are clearly separate from week 70's events. The sequence demands a gap. The gap is not an invention — it is an observation. And it only makes sense if Israel and the church are kept distinct.

"Doesn't saying Israel and the church are separate make the church a second-class citizen?" - Not at all. The church is not inferior to Israel — it is different from Israel. We have blessings Israel does not currently have — the indwelling Spirit, the completed Word of God, the full revelation of the mystery of Christ. Different roles in God's plan does not mean unequal standing before God. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek (Galatians 3:28) — but that spiritual equality does not erase the distinct covenant roles each plays in God's prophetic program.