Is There A Meaning in This Bible?

Is There a Meaning in This Word?

Introduction: Last week, we began this new year of 2021 with a focus on the Bible and this week, we are continuing that focus on the Bible and what it means for you in your life - at the outset of a brand new year filled with uncertainties and the changes that will surely come to our lives .... even though, right now, we may have absolutely no idea what those changes will look like.

With all of the circumstances that will come at you - things you have no control over - a government changes, a government makes decisions that you disagree with, maybe changes that terrify you. A health crisis hits the world, a health crisis hits your life … a loved one dies ....

If your joy rises and falls according to the circumstances of your life … then I’ll tell you right now - your life is going to be misery. Always playing react - always playing defence - often reeling. And you know that.

That’s why we began the year, last week, by looking at the importance of the Bible for your life in the coming year. I want your joy. That’s why I’m here. Because I want your life to be marked by joy in a dreary world. And if you are going to have joy in a world that is constantly in a state of panic: Crisis on your left, crisis on your right, crisis ahead. That’s the world the media paints and shouts into your ears incessantly.

… if you want joy in a world that, then you need an anchor. You need to be steadied .... and the unchanging, timeless, life and world transforming Word of God is the ONE ANCHOR that will hold and keep you from being knocked back and forth.

That’s why I urged you last week to get a plan - set a goal for yourself for this year - how you are going to get the Word of God into your life. What plan of attack are you going to use ? Most of us make a plan for our daily dinner - maybe not the minute details - but you have some kind of plan at least of what you’re going to eat and when - that’s why you go to the grocery store. So, let me ask - have you done anything about your Bible diet in the past week?

You need to get into God’s Word and you need to get God’s Word into you. There’s no other way to make it, joyfully and confidently through the twists and turns ahead of us.

But it’s not enough for me to tell you to feed on God’s Word. You see, when it comes to reading the Bible in our day - there’s a challenge. Even among peope who say, ‘Yes, I believe the Bible is an important book’ - there are more and more people on the INSIDE OF THE CHURCH - who raise the question of meaning. “Is there a meaning in this text”. “Can we ever really be sure about what the Bible means?”

Does the Bible have anything to say to us in our day, that we can be sure about?

There is a Christian doctrine that has been critically important to the Christian Church - from the time of the Bible itself - and was massively important during the Reformation of the 16th Century .... it is the doctrine of the Perspecuity of Scripture ...

Perspecuity is just a fancy theological word for ‘clarity’ - which is kind of ironic - since if you’re talking about ‘clarity’ - doesn’t it make more sense to speak clearly rather than use a word like ‘Perspecuity’? But theologians have to make themselves sound important somehow.

The clarity of Scripture: what exactly does that mean? Well, the London Baptist Confession, follows the Westminster Confession very closely when it explains the doctrine like this:

Paragraph 6: “The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the Holy Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelation of the Spirit, or traditions of men ...”.

7. “All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of ordinary means, may attain to a sufficient understanding of them.”

So, the ‘clarity of Scripture’ does NOT mean that you don’t need to study, don’t need to listen to sermons or pray. What it DOES mean is that if you do use the resources God has given us … Scripture is clear enough that a child can understand the meaning of what they need to understand. “There is a clear meaning in the Bible”.

But more and more - people are saying, “I don’t thinks so. I don’t believe that we can really know what God is saying in the Bible.”

Rob Bell: “The Christian faith is mysterious to the core. It is about things and beings that ultimately can’t be put into words. Language fails and if we do definitively put God into words, we have, at that very moment, made God something God is not. .... The MYSTERY IS THE TRUTH.”

Jen Hatmakes, influential ‘Progressive Christian’ blogger and author:

“For a season that sense of certainty was wonderful … but of course, upon scrutiny it breaks down, because, as always, because we come to Scripture and the Things WE SAY are certain are obviously not certain to other people .... CERTAINTY REALLY ONLY WORKS IN AN ECHO CHAMBER.”

In other words - the Bible is NOT clear - and if you think you know what it means - you’re just hearing the sound of your own wishful thinking - you think it means what you want it to mean.”

And those wors resonate with us, at least a little, don’t they? I mean, we’ve all heard people so confident about their strange ideas of what the Bible says. Remember that guy, Harold Camping - he was an evangelist and a radio personality - and he read his Bible and it was CLEAR to him that the world was going to end on Sept. 6, 1994. Didn’t happen .... so he revised the date: “Nope - got my signal wires crossed.” It was actually Sept. 29. Came and went. Nope. Oct. 2 .... ya - still ‘no’.

Then after those 3 failed predictions Harold Camping disappeared from the spotlight … for about 10 years. But then he came back in 2005 and said, ‘Now I’ve got it! New Bible - now it’s clear! Jesus is actually coming back on May 21, 2011.

.... Well, we’re still here - so that tells you all you need to know about Harold Camping’s Bible being clear.

“If the Bible’s so clear … why do we have so many stories like that?” Well - first of all - the Bible does CLEARLY talk about Jesus’ return - and Jesus himself says in Matt. 24 that ‘noone knows the day or the hour.” So there’s that.

But also - think about where that leaves us - if the Bible doesn’t have a clear message for us? How do you know that you know God at all? What is your authority for trusting that your ideas about God are truth? How can you ever be confident about ANYTHING you believe? How can you ever, EVER have joy … with no clear certainty about anything in the Bible?

Well, that’s what we want to focus on in the rest of our time together - - and to that end, let’s get back into our text. Let’s hear what the apostle Peter said.

1 THE NEED FOR A CLEAR WORD

Remember where we join our brothers and sisters in Christ’s Church, when we pick up the letter of 2 Peter. It is the mid ‘60s AD. Nero is ruling as the Emporer over Rome - the greatest superpower on earth. And while the Christian Church is growing and expanding across the Empire and around the world … Philip witnesses to the secretary of the treasury in Ethiopia, who takes the Gospel down into Africa, Thomas takes the Gospel to India just as two examples.

But there’s a problem: The Church is under threat. The fire of Rome has just happened - Christians are being used as scapegoats - tortured and killed for their faith in Jesus Christ. And the apostles are, one by one, also being killed. James has already been beheaded, Peter knows that his own day is coming quickly. Look at 2 Peter 1:12-14, “I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. (13) I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, (14) since I know that the putting off of my body WILL BE SOON, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. (15) And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.”

Within two years of writing these words, Peter will be dead. Crucified - like his Saviour, but upside down, because he feels unworthy to be killed in the same way his Lord was.

So what we have in this letter, are Peter’s last words. And just like any time you are at the side of a dying person and they are about to speak what will likely be their very last words to you .... you lean in close and listen as you’ve never listened to them before - because you know this is an important message to you .... in that same way - when Peter says he is going to be gone soon - you listen up for what he’s going to tell you.

Here in 2 Peter 1, the apostle’s last message is that he needs the Christians who live on after he’s gone - he needs them to be ‘established in the truth they have’ (v. 13) … so that, as v. 15 puts it - when he’s gone: “… after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.”

Peter’s saying - “You are leaving the dock on an adventure into uncharted waters. The eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life and death and resurrection are not long for this world. You need a Word that will carry you and keep you - when the sound of our voice fades in death.”

That’s where our passage comes in.

Starting in v. 16, Peter’s recounting the Transfiguration - that momentous event on the mountain when Peter, James and John were with Jesus - when right before their eyes, Jesus was transfigured -

Elijah and Moses were there - back from the dead … and you say: “How do you expect me to believe THAT?!” Well if that’s what you’re thinking - then you aren’t alone - Peter was anticipating people in his own audience reacting with that same skepticism. That’s why he goes on to say in that same verse: “but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” Verse 17, “For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestice Glory, ‘This is my beleoved Son, with whom I am well pleased, (18) we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven … for WE WERE WITH HIM on the holy mountain.”

Look at v. 19, “And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention AS TO A LAMP SHINING IN A DARK PLACE.”

Last week, I reminded you that this analogy - of the Scriptures - the written word of God being like ‘light’ in the darkness … this is an echo from way back in the book of Psalms. Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” That’s a great analogy - let’s think about it for a minute …

Many of us have been camping at some time in our lives. I know, there are some people who have different ideas about what ‘camping’ is - for some people, camping is what you do when you stay at Holiday Inn, instead of The Westin. For some of you, camping is what you do when you pull that small home behind your vehicle and then ‘rough it’, when you’re inside, watching movies on the big screen tv, while you’re heating up dinner in the microwave.

For the rest of us - camping means having to trek to a bathroom at all hours of the night, when the sky is pitch plack. If you’re walking in a dark place - and all you have to get you to the bathroom instead of into the woods and maybe face to face with a bear .... you need a flashlight.

And when you turn on your flashlight - you don’t have instant daylight so you can see thw whole campground. No, you have a beam of light - shining on the ground right in front of you, so that you can see where to put your next few steps.

But, outside of the beam - the path ahead of your flashlight’s illumination … and on either side of you .... there’s still darkness. That’s what the ‘clarity’ of the Bible is like - If you have no light to guide you … how can you ever know that you’re going in the right direction? The Bible shines light on the pathway just ahead … so that you can safely walk and know truly where you’re standing.

So there’s definitely still mystery. The Clarity of the Bible doesn’t say that everything is equally clear. Peter says that in this very letter. Last week I pointed you to 2 Peter 3:15-16, where Peter’s talking about Paul … “… our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him. (16) as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are HARD TO UNDERSTAND, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destrucction, as they do the other Scriptures.”

Not only does Peter lift up Paul’s writings to the status of Scripture - equal to the Old Testament, but he also says that not all Scripture is easy to understand. “Man, some of the Scriptures Paul writes are so difficult … even I have a hard time with them … and I’m an APOSTLE!”

Of course there are going to be mysteries in understanding the Bible - we’re dealing withthe INFINITE Eternal God, who is so much greater than we can fully complrehend with our finite, created minds - that there’s lots of muystery OUTSIDE of the beam of light that the Bible gives us in this dark night. Lots that the Bible doesn’t tell us and what we could never grab hold of ourselves.

So, when you turn your attention to focus on trying to understand the eternal God … you come to the doctrine of the Trinity: That there’s ONE God - but there are THREE Persons in that one Godhead: One in Three; Three in One. The Trinity is clearly spelled out in the Bible, but it’s beyond us to fully comprehend.

The Incarnation is the same thing: Jesus Christ is 100 percent human and 100 percent God - He’s not 75%-25% or 50% - 50%. he is fully both in the same person. The Bible makes that crystal clear - and it’s a good thing for us, too - because there’s no other way that we could ever be saved.

Atonement:

A man dying on a cross might show that he cares about you … but it will do you no good. God Himself cannot die .... so there’s no way God could die for your sin. It took the power of the God-Man to pay the penalty for my sin and rise from the dead for the assurance that I can be saved. There is so much there that we can’t understand - - but if .........

2 OBJECTIONS TO CLARITY

In verse 16 of our text, Peter’s describing the objections of the false teachers he’s warning against. Peter and the rest of the apostles are using their eyewitness accounts of the Transfiguration and the Scripture writings of the prophets to support the reality that Jesus is coming again. The false teachers are saying, (v. 16) that these are ‘cleverly devised myths’.

Verse 19, “We have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention”. In other words: “This isn’t make-believe - this is the teaching of God’s written word.”

I said that the doctrine of the Clarity of Scripture is under attack in our day - and I need to prepare you at the outset of this year - so that when the impressive sounding questions come along and you hear things like: “Well, how can you know?” .... You will be able to confidently stand on God’s Word - and maybe even more importantly … confidently and humbly sit under God’s Word and let it speak into your life and change your direction - when you’re getting off track.

This is no new attack, friends. “Did God REALLY SAY?!” That was the first temptation to sin in the history of the world … a temptation by the devil himself, to doubt the clarity of God’s Word. My, how things never change.

“You can’t really be sure about what God wants”

Let me point to a couple of the main objections to the clarity of Scripture:

FIRST: There are those who say, “God is so far above us, that we can’t possibly know what He’s like. It’s mystery … who are we, puny humans we are - to DARE to presume to able to declare what God thinks about a subject.” The Bible writers were doing their best to understand God .... but they were stuck as prisoners in their day and in their own cultures.

SECOND: There are those who say, “If the Bible is so clear, why are there so many different interpretations?” I know there are people who hear me preach and think to themselves, ‘You stand up there, preacher and you raise your voice and wave your arms around … as if you know for sure what the Bible says … But right after you’re done, I can choose another church’s Youtube channel and listen to a different preacher and he’ll take the very same passage and tell me it says something different. So, how can you say the Bible is clear?”

What do you say to that objection?

I’ll tell you what I would say: I would say, first of all that, actually the differences aren’t as great as you’re suggesting. In fact, if you go back through Christian history - you will see that in every generation, Christian Bible readers from all different nations, cultures, languages and social backgrounds - ALL agree on every essential. In fact, history proves the Bible is NOT an obscure book.

And secondly - I’ll admit that there are different interpretations on a whole range of different issues. But I would suggest that that’s not a Bible problem. That’s a HUMAN problem.

Politics is huge in our society today. People all over the political map are passionately certain that their solutions are the very ones that the world needs.

Corornavirus - again - almost everyone recognizes that there’s some kind of problem here. BUt what’s the best way to deal with it? “Well … follow the science. The scientists will lead us.”

But the scientists don’t all agree. So does that mean that we may as well not bother voting? Does that mean we give up on any strategy to save lives and not destroy our society at the same time? Do you see how, if you’re consistent - you have to admit that clarity is a problem in every area of life.

If you say, “Since different people interpret the Bible differently … there must be no clear meaning we can get … let’s all just live in happy MYSTERY ....”. If you say that … then you have to admit that you can’t know anything in ANY area of life.

But we DO know things - you can’t live rationally in this world, unless we KNOW that certain things are clear and true.

G.K. Chesterton: “We have placed the organ of humility ....

ILLUSTRATION

If God is so far above us that we can’t understand His ways or His character with any confidence at all .... then how high above us is He … really?

I struggle to communicate with my kids … just ask them. I’ve struggled to communicate all of their lives, I admit it ....

But my failure to get my message across to the them is NOT because I’m so far abovet hem in intellect or greatness or glory - that the canyon between my greatness and them is too great to bridge.

NO! my inability to get my message across is because my WEAKNESS gets in the way. I know that.

But God is the infinitely glorious God of the universe. He designed us … He formed us … He wrote the owner’s manual .... Do you really think that He would have left Himself locked on the OUTSIDE of our world - wanting the best for us … wanting to communicate … but just not able?!

That is NOT a great God. Not in my opinion.

3 CONFIDENCE IN GOD’S COMMUNICATION, vv. 20-21

But it doesn’t matter what I think. What matters is what’s true. What does the Bible say about its own clarity? Peter says in our text - 2 Peter 1:20, “… no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. (21) For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

Question: Why would God bother to inspire the Bible writers to write - if He didn’t have a message He wanted so badly for people to understand - that He didn’t just leave the Bible writers to reflect on … but carried them along by His Spirit?

V. 19, “We have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place.” The very imagery of Scripture as a lamp in a dark place - to light your path … that’s Bible clarity being described! Psalm 119:130, “The unfolding of your word gives light, it imparts wisdom to the simple.”

And this all matches what Jesus teaches. Remember the Great Commission, in Matthew 28:18-19, “Go … and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (there’s the mystery - how we as sinful humans can be saved and drawn into relationship with the Triune blessed God!) … teaching them to observe (or obey) all that I’ve commanded you.” OBEY - How do you do that without an ability to understand? And how can you understand without a clear message from God?

In fact, let me make a suggestion here - that, at least in our society today - the people who most want to deny that there is a clear message from God in this Word - who want to say, “There are too many different interpretations - so don’t be arrogant and claim to push your Western imperialist interpretation down my throat … we can’t know anything for sure” … are usually themselves the fruit of the Western world - and don’t like the Bible’s teaching on sexuality.

What does it tell you that God SPOKE the world into existence - but that He wants us to know about Him?

What does it tell you that John’s Gospel calls Jesus, ‘the WORD’ - “in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word WAS God?” Jesus is called the Word because He is God’s self-revelation and God’s speaking is His loving communication with the humans that He created in His own image.

How many times does Jesus go to the written Word of God - the Bible, to shut down a debate. Six times in Matthew’s gospel alone, Jesus responds to a question: “Have you not read”? In other words - this is a clear word and he holds his audience responsible to understand it.

God has made promise after promise in His Word - and the reason you can have confidence that His promises are sure - is because He cares enough to give you His promises. They’re right here.

This is God’s Love letter to you, friend.

And what does it tell you that throughout history, life after life after countless life has been transformed … entire nations and cultures have been radically improved … by people who have been convinced of the clarity of Scripture? People of every age and educational and social level.

As Gregory the Great put it: “Scripture is like a river … broad and deep. Shallow enough here for the lamb to go wading, but deep enough there for the elephant to swim.”

I remember being at a Backyard Bible Club, as a five year old child. John 3:16 was read: “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

I was no theologican or philosopher … I mean, I hadn’t even reached Grade 2 yet. But I felt confident enough in the clarity of the Bible to believe I could understand what God was saying in those words - that He was speaking to me

… and that very night, beside my bed, knees planted on the hardwood floor of my room and mom at my side, I prayed to the God who would love me enough to send His son to die for me .... I asked Him to be my Saviour and surrendered my life. And that prayer, after that experience with the clear word of God … it changed me. It transformed my life - and I know I’m not alone - even at this service today.

So many of you have your own story.

This Word is CLEAR friend.

Ravi Zacharias: Hien Pham: A lively Vietnamese Christian - did some translating work for the American Military, during the Vietnam war. He also did some work with foreign missionaries. Ravi Zacharias found him of immense help when he was ministering in that country. Four years after their time together - Vietnam fell to the Communists, and nobody knew what became of Hien. In 1988, Ravi Zacharias got a phone call from Hien, and just like on a Paul Harvey radio episode, he got the 'rest of the story'. The story went like this:

Hien had been arrested by the authorities and charged with aiding and abetting - collaborating with the Americans. He was thrown into prison and was cut off from reading anything in English. The only thing that he was permitted to read was Communist Propaganda in either Vietnamese or French. So he was getting a constant stream of Marx and Engels. The brainwashing began working its magic. He began to doubt: "Maybe God does not exist. Maybe the West deceived me." At last he came to the decision that when he woke up the next morning - he would not pray anymore; He wouldn't even think about the Christian Faith.

Well, the next morning he was assigned to clean the latrines. That is likely the worst possible chore to do in a broken down prison in a hot and humid Asian nation. Hien cleaned out one tin can that was overflowing with toilet paper - and his eye caught a glimpse of something that looked familiar .... it looked like English, printed on the paper. He quickly washed it off and stuck it in his pocket. He hadn't seen anything in English for ages. That night, under his mosquito net, after his bunkmates had fallen asleep, Hien pulled out a small flashlight and read in the top corner of the paper: "Romans 8". He trembled as he read from the chapter, these words: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him. If God is for us, who can be against us. Nothing shall separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus ....", and so-on.

Hien silently started to sob. He cried out to God for forgiveness. The Lord had decided that He was going to reverse Hyan's decision NOT to pray, that day.

The next day, Hien went to the camp commander and asked if he could clean the latrine AGAIN! The commander was blown away - cleaning the latrines was punishment. Nobody had ever actually ASKED for the privilege of doing that. The request was granted and Hien went gladly to work, day after day. He had realized that some officer in the camp was using an English Bible as toilet paper.

Hien would carefully clean the feces off of each piece and carefully put it in his pocket with more care than any diamond ring could ever be held - so he could take it back to his bunk and, in the dim light of a flashlight, in a rank, smelly communist prison camp - - that thought it could keep God out ... God used His Word - to rescue and to nourish the soul of His struggling child.

That’s the POWER OF GOD’S WORD –