Sermon Tone Analysis

BIG IDEA:

14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

What do we have to know?

Why do we need to know it?

What do we have to do?

Why do we have to do it?

ME

We are on our third part of our series on Embracing Tradition.

What does it mean to be a Baptist?

We have already explored through Pastor Ken what it means that Jesus is LORD, and also the Priesthood of all Believers, today, we are going to look at the Bible as Authority.

Now what immediately jumps out is the two keywords, Bible, and Authority.

Assuming we know what Bible means, and if not, here’s a really quick 2 minutes explanation of the Bible.

The Bible is now binded as one book but it actually contains many books or genres of writings, largely narrative or stories, but also poetry, Greco-Roman style letters, oracles, historical records of dynasties and wars, legal documents.

We separate them into two larger groups, the Old Testament, containing 39 books predominantly written in Hebrew language, with a bit of Aramaic, capturing from Genesis the creation of the cosmos and all that’s in it, including the origin of humanity, the fall or rebellion of human against his creator and the curse and punishment, then from the macro to the micro focusing on one family which will become the people of God, the Israelites through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

You following me so far?!

For the sake of time, this people became a nation which is repeatedly rescued by God and given its own land and identity through Moses and Joshua, and you can go to the sermon archive online and hear the series on Exodus: the Presence of God.

Then as God formed a nation, the Israelites, his people rejected him as their king and asked for a king.

And eventually King David established a dynasty through God for many years until Israelites rejected him not only as king, but as their one and only God.

And with it cane corruption, assassinations, and eventually Israelites losing their land and blessing even as the prophets warned and foretold all this, they did not repent.

Finally the Old Testament ends with a return from exile and a hope for God to claim kingship to his people.

New testament, 27 books altogether begins with four biographies of the expected and anticipated king.

Jesus, who came in order to save us from our sin and rebellion once and for all, and by his life, death and resurrection redeem his rebellious people and by extension all who had or will rebel against him.

When he rose from the dead and he promise to send his Holy Spirit to be presence amongst his people, and the rest of New Testament are history and letters of how the people of God form the church who live under the Kingdom of God until one day when this king returns and establishes dominion in all creation.

That’s salvation history in a very brief and truncated presentation.

What is authority?

Authority has several meanings, 11 on my dictionary app.

Of which most important to our discussion is a power or right, delegated or given, an accepted source of information, advice, etc. Persuasive force, conviction, a testimony and witness.

In our denomination document ‘Why Baptist?’ Here’s a summary of this Authority:

Baptists believe that God communicates his will through the inspired Word of God.

For Baptists, the Bible is the final authority in matters of faith and practice.

It is to be interpreted responsibly under the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit within the community of faith.

WE

To break it down, the first sentence is already loaded with foundational truths.

Baptists and I would say all churches believe this, that the quintessential characteristic of God is God speaks.

God has a will and purpose for his creation, and chooses to use inspiration of human witnesses to be agents of this message.

Further to that, it is not just the authority, but the final authority, meaning it has the last word when it comes to faith and practice.

It is the first and final consultation in determining who God is and what God did and therefore who we are, how we ought to live and what we should do as God’s people.

Not human wisdom, the latest philosophy or cultural or social studies, or family and traditions, when it comes to all things related to the Christian faith and life or practice, it is the definitive document.

The statement goes on to say it is to be interpreted responsibly which means the meaning and truth behind these genres and passages require a level of training to comprehend, since these are ancient writings in one sense and we do not live in that time of history and culturally and contextually we are different, yet at the same time the human situation of life, death, joy, sorrow, loss, triumph is pretty universal.

The human condition that we are dead in sin, rebellious to God and alienated can’t be deduced, only revealed by the Holy Spirit.

Reason will never give us access to God’s revelation.

Only by that Spirit which inspired the many writers to write down these truths and God using it to be his witnessing document are we given access to God’s will.

The statement ends with within a community of faith.

This means the work of interpretation is safe in the arms of the believers through checks and balances, because the same Spirit which speaks to one believer ought to also speak truth which is not contradictory to another!

So you can see authority of scripture is not a simple or simplistic task.

But it is a wonderful task, a needed task, and can bring great joy.

All throughout history God’s word is transmitted from one generation to the next.

GOD

Perhaps one of the most key text to understanding the authority of scripture is found in a letter written from the apostle Paul to his protege, his son of faith, Timothy.

It’s one of the very last letter Paul wrote to Timothy before he stands trial under Nero when he appealed to stand before Caesar to testify to the gospel.

In this extremely personal letter, Paul not only remind Timothy of the gospel he heard and was taught, but also how Paul’s life reflects the sacred writings and points them to the revelation of Jesus Christ for Timothy to plainly see, and the treatment he gets for being faithful to it is persecution.

So turn with me to 2 Timothy, we will begin at 3:14.

It is found in the pew bible on page 996.

I. Source, Transmission, and Authority of Scripture

14 But as for you (Timothy),

continue in what you have learned

and have firmly believed (persuaded or sure of truthfulness or validity),

knowing from whom (plural, inc.

Paul) you learned it

15  and how from childhood

you have been acquainted () with the sacred writings (Old Testament),

which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

First, notice the 3 of the 5W1H.

What?

Whom? how?

What has Timothy learned, and whom did he learn it from, and what is the origin of what he learned.

We learn (no pun intended) from earlier on, Timothy learned the truth through his family.

[] I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.

Not only so, the whom is plural, and definitely included Paul, perhaps Silas, in other words, a whole community of believers is required to be faithful so that successive transmission and constant refinement and correction of God’s word can occur.

Notice here and also later in verse 15 there is a key ingredient to this transmission.

By faith.

Only by a Supernatural requirement can scripture become the word of God.

By faith (supernatural).

in Christ Jesus (revelation).

wise for salvation (appropriation of the word of God's primary benefit).

See many have approached the bible as many things.

There are university degrees in religion which looks at these 66 books an analyze them as a historical document, a moral textbook, a philosophy treatise, but so long as we don’t have faith, we can’t have access to what this book is primarily and sufficiently for.

To reveal who Jesus Christ is.

In the area of systematic theology, the doctrine of Scripture is a subset of the doctrine of Revelation.

In that order.

That is because scripture can be controlled, manipulated, and used to teach all kinds of things by corrupted man and woman so long as we skip Jesus Christ and his life, death and resurrection.

Except here’s another plot twist, these sacred writings only cover the Old Testament, because Paul himself is still writing his letters which would eventually be canonized (officially received) as the New Testament.

Paul is saying to Timothy search the Old Testament and Jesus is in every page.

Says who? Jesus himself says that.

In John [] You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life...

46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.

47 But iif you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

Here lies the truth of revelation.

Because Jesus used the apostolic witness to be the revelation of his life, death, and resurrection as the Messiah, His authority has now been given to the scripture.

Further, because Jesus claims Moses himself wrote about him in the Torah (Laws), and elsewhere Jesus also say the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms (, ) testify about him, God authenticates scripture as his way of revelation.

This family heirloom of transmitted truths from Eunice and Lois and Paul can make you wise for salvation.

Scripture itself does not bring salvation, but only Jesus Christ, who is revealed as God uses Scripture to reveal Himself does.

In the Commentary by George Knight says : "Scripture’s instruction does not itself bring salvation but points “to” it or leads one toward it."

God did not reveal a book.

God revealed a person, His son, Jesus Christ on Nazareth.

That leads to the question, then how is

Scripture inspired?

Prelude of the use of scripture in 15b.

II.