Sermon Tone Analysis

It’s Alive Part 4

Ha-Foke-Bah Hebrew

Ha-Foke-Bah English

It’s Alive

Introduction to Message

The Bible is alive because although it was not written to me it was written for me and it understands me.

We said the Gentiles came to the text because they became enamored with the Jewish Messiah and wanted to know the backstory of Yeshua.

And, they found that backstory in in the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings.

The Law, the Prophet and the Writings

The Backstory of Messiah

We also said that the Jewish people who had the text were challenged to re:believe the ultimate purpose of the Law, the Prophets and the Writings as the backstory for the Messiah.To some in the first century Jewish world they thought this was a hijacking of the text and many feel this same way today.

But, to those who believed, they thought everyone else was hijacking Moses and for the first time they understood Moses was just a servant pointing to the Son, Messiah Yeshua.

Re:Believe the TaNaK

The Backstory of the Messiah

The Problem & Solution

Unfortunately, very early on the Gentiles started to read the backstory about Yeshua and increasingly saw themselves as the “new Israel” and the “better” Israel and they started to write the Jewish people out of the backstory and put themselves in it.

When they did this they started to call the Bible, “Christian Scripture.”

The Law, the Prophets and the Writings

Christian Scripture

They may have only had parts of the Torah, the Law, the Prophets, and some of the Gospels and Paul’s letters but now these were Christian Scriptures and not Jewish.

But around 170 AD something happened that would forever change and influence how Christians felt about the Hebrew Bible.

A Jewish believer named Melito of Sardis who was the bishop of Sardis near Smyrna in western Anatolia, and a great authority visited Israel.

When he visited Israel for the first time as a Jew, he lived as a good Greek Jew in the diaspora, he visited the library at Caesarea Maritima, and Melito compiled the earliest known Christian canon of the Old Testament, a term he coined.He called it the Old Testament because he believed it had now been fulfilled and replaced by the New Testament.

In a letter he wrote to Marcus Aurelius defending “Faith in the Messiah,” he likened the “Old Testament” to the form or mold, and the New Testament or New Covenant, which he likened to the truth that broke the mold.

“His opinion of the Old Covenant was that it was fulfilled by Christians, whereas the Jewish people failed to fulfill it.

The New Covenant is the truth found through Jesus Christ.”

Unfortunately, Melito had an elevated status and influence being a Jewish follower of Yeshua he spoke from that authority and his position in the community.

He eventually constructed one of the most dangerous teachings in all of Christianity called the “deicide charge.”In

a famous sermon about Passover, Melito formulated the charge of deicide, namely that Jews were responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus.

He proclaimed that “God has been murdered; the king of Israel has been slain by an Israelite hand.”

His preaching would later inspire pogroms against the Jews.

So by the year 170 at the latest the Bible was Alive only for Christians who saw themselves as fulfilling the backstory and living out the new front story.The Jewish followers of Yeshua and anyone who disagreed were given a label, “heretic” and forced to go underground and when Constantine became emperor, they were forced to flee into exile or face official church trials for “heresy.”

And, increasingly the major thought within much of Christianity was that the New Testament was alive and the Old Testament had died or became irrelevant.

And more and more whether it was said overtly or explicitly the majority of Christian teaching thought like Agustine of Hippo, “The New Testament is the Old Testament revealed and the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed.”

Sadly, the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament was thought of as obsolete, irrelevant and even harmful for modern life.

Sadly, today many believe that the New Testament-the writings of the apostles-is what really matters; that the Old Testament was valid up until Messiah came, but at that time became old, outdated and even harmful for promoting true faith in Yeshua.

How can we get back to the the Bible being Valuable, Reliable, Inspired, Messiah Focused Sacred Scripture?

So we must answer this one last question?

Is all the Bible alive, or only the part I like?

I know some people like to change the question to say, “Is all the Bible relevant not alive?”

I would say the Bible has a funny way of being relevant.

When we were reading through the genealogies in 1 Chronicles my 8 year old daughter said something amazing in response to the question, “What does this mean?”

She said, “It is speaking to me about needing good friends because my friends will determine the quality and direction of my life.”

Relevancy happens for each of us at different times but the question I am asking is, “Is all the Bible alive, or only the part I like?” so that it can be relevant for me.

To my Christian friends and My Jewish friends I would say, “The authors of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible reveal what the 29 writings in the Brit Chadashah say Messiah Yeshua Fulfills.”

Simpler: The Hebrew Bible reveals what the Messiah Yeshua fulfills as attested by eye-witnesses.

Simplest: The Bible is one unified story.

Before there was such a thing as the Gospels or the Letters of Paul or the division between the Old and New Testament, the original disciples who heard Yeshua teach recorded that the Bible is one unified story made up of a Part 1 the Law, the Prophets and the Writings and Part 2 which at that time was the growing knowledge of Yeshua’s teachings.

That is what they had, just the teachings and sermons and conversation that they had with Yeshua.

Matthew, Mark and Luke all record this one interesting conversation Yeshua has with his disciples and the disciples of Yochanan the Immerser.

The Bible

“Then John’s disciples came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?”

And Yeshua said to them, “The guests of the bridegroom cannot mourn while the bridegroom is with them, can they?

But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.

“And no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch pulls away from the garment and a worse tear happens.

Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins.

Otherwise the skins burst, and the wine spills out and the skins are ruined.

But they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.””

(, TLV)

It is funny to me because each of the three Gospels that have this parable in them put a different twist on the ending of the parable.

Mark focuses on the negative consequence of trying to put the new in the old and he says,

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins.

Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins; and the wine is lost, also the skins.

But one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.””

(, TLV)

“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins.

Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins; and the wine is lost, also the skins.

But one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.””

(, TLV)

I would say that this is what happened when the Church started to read the Gospels and letters into the Hebrew Bible, they lost the Hebrew bible.

Dr. Luke agrees with both Matthew in preserving both, the outcome of mixture and then focuses more on what the human response is going to be when you offer the new wine in comparison to the old.

His final word on the parable is this:

Luke 5:37-

“No man who drinks old wine wants new, because he says, ‘The old is fine.’

”” (, TLV)

“No man who drinks old wine wants new, because he says, ‘The old is fine.’

”” (, TLV)

This reminds me of my Jewish step-father who one time told me, “Michael, I am glad that Yeshua has helped you out but don’t forget we are Jewish and don’t need him.”

In other words, “the old is fine.”

Three Amazing Statements About The Scriptures from Three Different Authors.

When we put these three statements together we find out why all the Bible is alive for some and why for other only part of the Bible is alive.

Slide Summing up the Three Statements

Matthew: Respecting both the Old and the New on their own merits is essential for the perseverance of both.

Mark: Putting the New Into the Old by some destroys both.

Luke: Rejecting of the New by some based on the taste of the Old is inevitable.

I thought to myself how in the world would I ever explain this to my diverse group of people in my life.

Some of my friends are former self-harmers who became self-deniers when they encountered the grace of God in Yeshua.

We did not call ourselves that but through our reckless living and abusive lifestyle we were by definition “self-harmers.”

How would I explain this to my “bonus Jewish family.”

- Bonus family is a new term I learned for referring to a family where at least one parent has children that are not genetically related to the other spouse.

I like that term rather than blended family or step-family.

- How would I explain this to my children?

How would I explain to my former friends at seminary?

Setting

I could see us all at a nice wine tasting in one of these nostalgic wineries where they love to do all things old like they are new.

Describer the wineskins and what they are made out of.

Characters Present and Conflict:

Roger the Self-Harmer: The New is just all right with me.

I tasted the old once.

Bonus Family: No, thank you.