People of the Word
Notes
Transcript
13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.
17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
19 “What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”
25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
I love that Luke records this post-resurrection interaction for us. For me, it’s one of the most vivid and significant moments in the days between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.
Here, on the day He rose from the grave, Jesus decides to join a couple of gents on the road leading from Jerusalem to Emmaus. They start discussing the events of the last few days WITH JESUS, but they don’t realize it’s Jesus.
Turns out they, like us, missed a great deal about Jesus. What an incredible blessing to have been instructed from Jesus directly beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, to have Jesus explain what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself.
I’ve said before I wish I could have listened-in on the conversation Jesus had with those two fellas. To hear Jesus expound and explain God’s Word, to hear Jesus’ love for the Scripture, to walk alongside Jesus as He preached—what a gift! Those two men had an amazing story to tell to their friends and family.
Someday, I’ll know how that conversation went. Maybe we’ll even get to rehash it with our Emmaus brothers. Who knows?
What I know for certain is that the Bible you have sitting in your lap or on a shelf at home preaches/teaches/instructs you about Jesus. The Bible you have in your hand, the Word of God, is a matchless gift. And too often ignored, even in the church.
Perhaps my biggest conviction in ministry pertains to the Word of God. If what’s being taught in church isn’t found in the Bible, I have zero interest in it. There’s no other book to preach than God’s Holy Word. If it’s not in the Bible, it has no place in church.
This is where things start to get a little tricky; the ways of the world have infiltrated the church.
Church business meetings are often more regulated by Robert’s Rules of Order than they are the Bible.
I’ve heard more Christians give a passionate defense of the United States Constitution than I’ve heard give a defense of the Bible.
You can probably tell me all about the 2nd Amendment and what it means for you.
But what about the 2nd Commandment, or the second of Jesus’ beatitudes, or anything about the second letter to the churches in Revelation?
The newest book from that quasi-Christian celebrity gets more read-throughs than the Bible does.
We’d rather read a book like Jesus Calling (which puts words in Jesus’ mouth NOT found in the Bible) than we would just read the Bible.
The ways of the world have infiltrated the church.
Years ago, right here at Rich Hill Christian Church, I had a well-meaning church member tell me I needed to endorse a specific presidential candidate from the pulpit and encourage the church to vote for said candidate (from the pulpit).
I told them, with all the love and patience the Holy Spirit has given me, that if that candidate’s name happened to come up in whatever chapter of Matthew we were preaching through that Sunday, I’d be sure to mention it.
I won’t endorse a political candidate; I have much, much, much more important business to attend to.
I won’t acquiesce to cultural pressure to downplay sin or to call that which is evil, good.
The ways of the world have infiltrated the church, this is true.
It might make me old-fashioned (I kind of feel it lately anyhow). I’ll tell you: I’d rather be Biblical and old-fashioned than unbiblical and progressive.
WE ARE PEOPLE OF THE WORD
WE ARE PEOPLE OF THE WORD
This is my hope for the Church (with a capital ‘C’)—to be a people, gathered together, centered and focused upon the Word of God; people who believe the Word is true and right and good, people who delight and desire and depend upon the Word; people who believe certain truths about the Word, feel a certain way about the Word, and do certain things in light of the Word.
As I was thinking about and praying about what to preach after Easter, I kept coming back to the idea of preaching about the Word of God.
The Bible—the Word of God—is foundational to what we do. It is what informs everything else. We can’t think rightly about God or ourselves without the truth of God’s Word.
So, for the next couple of weeks (and today, of course) we’re going to spending time in the longest chapter of the Bible: Psalm 119.
This psalm is longer than some books of the Bible. 3 weeks won’t allow us to cover it exhaustively, but we will get the general idea and importance of this psalm.
Psalm 119 is made up of 22 stanzas of 8 verses each. 22 x 8 = 176 verses. That’s one long chapter. The longest chapter in the Bible. And the longest poem in the Bible.
That intrigues me. The longest poem in the Bible isn’t written by a man for his wife; it’s not a poem about the beauty and majesty of God’s creation.
The longest poem in the Bible is about…the Bible.
Out of these 176 verses, 169 reference God’s Word. The author of this psalm (whoever it is, we’re uncertain) uses several different terms to speak about the same thing: "Law", "laws", "statutes", "decrees", "commands", "precepts", "word", "words", "promises".
These terms have different shades of meaning, but they all center on the same big idea: God’s revelation in words.
What People of the Word believe about the Word is vital to our expression of faith.
There’s been a lot of changes over the years in church and culture. In any number of ways, culture seems to be changing the church more than church is affecting culture.
When a church starts to let their commitment to the Word of God slip, it’s an ugly spiral. A lot of the time, it’s subtle. It starts with that first temptation in the Garden: “Did God really say…?” and then it just gets easier and easier.
Like Thomas Jefferson, there are many who’d like make their own Bible that only includes what they’d prefer to read. Jefferson didn’t believe in miracles, so he literally cut out every reference to the miraculous works of Jesus. He was left with one shredded Bible.
I haven’t heard about anyone doing exactly that, but there are people and groups of people who ignore large chunks of Scripture—“Did God really say the office of pastor/elder is for men only? Did God really say that marriage is for life? Did God really say that homosexuality is a sin? Did God really say…?”
That—questioning and ignoring what God has really said—is bad enough; it’s sinful and foolish. But, possibly worse, is the downgrading of the Bible’s place and position within the church.
It wasn’t really until I went to college that I realized just exactly what other churches believed about the word of God. It never dawned on me that the Bible wasn’t the rule of faith and practice in every church.
The Methodist/Wesleyan denominations have what they refer to as the Wesleyan Quadrilateral: STRE—Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and Experience. John Wesley adapted this for use in his churches. And it’s not a bad idea, at least in its inception. Wesley was a “man of one book”, the Bible.
Unfortunately, as mankind tends to do, the quadrilateral shifted and Scripture is no longer their sole authority.
Scripture shares it’s place with the other three—tradition, reason, and experience.
“Well, my life experience is just as valid as what Scripture has to say, and if my experience disagrees with Scripture, my experience is right and Scripture is wrong.”
We see this and hear this all the time!
It breaks my heart when I hear my Methodist and Wesleyan friends refer to their church’s Book of Discipline instead of appealing to the Bible. “Well, the Book of Discipline says that’s fine!”
I don’t care what the Book of Discipline says; it’s updated every 4 years, however the winds of culture tend to blow the convention.
The Word of God, on the other hand, never changes. It lasts forever!
The Roman Catholics worldwide listen to a man as much or more than they do God’s Word. The Pope is their authority. He gets to alter whatever he pleases. He gets to set new doctrine and polity.
Traditional Catholic assertion is that each pope has the totality and supremacy of the power Christ left on earth for the building up of the kingdom of God. The pope is said to have the plenitudo potestatis, or fullness of power.
Other groups that claim to be “Christian” absolutely aren’t. They use the Bible as a prop, but really prefer to read from and teach the books their founders wrote, like “The Pearl of Great Price” and “Doctrine and Covenants”—it’s all heresy, masquerading as Christian; darkness pretending to be light in an attempt to lead people astray. Satan is a clever foe.
The Independent Christian Churches are not perfect. We’re not the only Christians (it’s not “Us versus Them”). One thing I love about and the reason I’m part of the Restoration Movement, the Independent Christian Churches, and ultimately Rich Hill Christian Church is the dogged and unwavering commitment to the Word of God.
Like most Christian Churches,
“We look to no book but the Bible—it is the only Word of God, our only rule of faith and practice; its 66 books are inspired and infallible, dependable and sufficient.”
That is stated clearly on our website, on the weekly bulletin. This is our commitment.
If my preaching or teaching ever fails to uphold this belief, please confront me.
If this church ever moves from its commitment and dedication and subservience to the Word of God, I’ll be the first one out—and I’m taking my family with me.
What People of the Word believe about the Word is vital to our expression of faith.
In Psalm 119, we see at least three essential, irreducible characteristics we should believe about God’s Word.
God’s Word Speaks What is True
God’s Word Speaks What is True
God’s Word can be trusted. We must trust God’s Word. Like the Psalmist writes:
41 May your unfailing love come to me, Lord,
your salvation, according to your promise;
42 then I can answer anyone who taunts me,
for I trust in your word.
For I trust in your word, he writes. We, too, can trust in God’s Word, knowing it is altogether true:
142 Your righteousness is everlasting
and your law is true.
God’s Word—His law, His precepts—are TRUE.
We can’t trust everything we read, can we? Absolutely not! We have to read everything—textbooks, library books, so-called Christian books—everything with a critical eye (not looking to critique, but to confirm truth).
We can’t trust everything we hear from our professors or teachers (they are, even the best of them, fallible. They’re human, prone to mistakes).
Don’t you dare trust everything I say simply because I say it. Be Bereans:
11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
We can’t trust the facts given by our politicians or those who fact-check them. We have to admit our biases and realize that we are, at times, as blinded to the truth as they are.
Statistics can be manipulated. Pictures can be photo-shopped and faked. Magazine covers are often airbrushed.
Our friends, our teachers; science, and even our own eyes can deceive us.
But the Word of God is entirely true, ALWAYS true.
89 Your word, Lord, is eternal;
it stands firm in the heavens.
96 To all perfection I see a limit,
but your commands are boundless.
160 All your words are true;
all your righteous laws are eternal.
I’ve done my share of pastoral counseling over the years. Some of it’s official—people come to my office just for counsel. The bigger part of it happens in the course of everyday life and ministry.
A lot of issues, both personal and interpersonal, come down to the issue of truth: “he said/she said”; the nagging feeling deep inside about what to do.
The best advice I can give a person is to remember what is true. And where to we find truth? In God’s Word.
If you ever need to know what is true, what’s true about you, what’s true about people, what’s true about the world, what’s true about the future, what’s true about the past, what’s true about God, then come to God’s Word.
God’s Word teaches what is true. Every word is true, true, gloriously true. It doesn’t disappoint. It doesn’t change. It doesn’t move with the winds of culture.
In this dark and lost world, trust God’s Word to always speak the truth.
God’s Word Commands What is Right
God’s Word Commands What is Right
Psalm 119 gladly acknowledges God’s right to issue commands. The psalmist humbly accepts that all God’s commands are right.
75 I know, Lord, that your laws are righteous,
and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
86 All your commands are trustworthy;
help me, for I am being persecuted without cause.
128 and because I consider all your precepts right,
I hate every wrong path.
137 You are righteous, Lord,
and your laws are right.
138 The statutes you have laid down are righteous;
they are fully trustworthy.
Have you ever admitted, honestly, that there’s stuff in the Bible you don’t like? “I don’t like that the Bible says that, but since it’s in the Bible, I’ll do it.”
I’ve said before, “I wish that wasn’t in the Bible…I’d really like to not have to preach on that.” During my first three years at RHCC, I preached through Matthew’s Gospel. I would have preferred to not preach on adultery and divorce during my first few months as pastor, but it’s there in God’s Word.
“Since it’s in the Bible, I’ll do it” is an admirable example of submitting to God’s Word.
Far better than begrudgingly doing what God’s Word says, would be to see the goodness and rightness in all that God commands.
We should love what God loves.
We should delight in whatever He says.
God does not lay down arbitrary rules. He doesn’t give orders to make us miserable or to restrict us just for funsies. He’s a Good Father, not a Father who sets out to exasperate His children.
God never requires what is impure, unloving, or unwise.
What God demands is always noble, just, and right.
God’s Word Provides What is Good
God’s Word Provides What is Good
Contrary to what you might think, and certainly contrary to what the world often says, the Word of God is the way of happiness. This is how Psalm 119 starts off, using the word “blessed”
1 Blessed are those whose ways are blameless,
who walk according to the law of the Lord.
2 Blessed are those who keep his statutes
and seek him with all their heart—
We seek happiness by looking in all the wrong places. Think through what Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes. Searching for happiness apart from God is going to give you a net total of zero happiness.
But God blesses and showers with favor, granting true happiness.
All other avenues we trek in our search for happiness are worthless:
37 Turn my eyes away from worthless things;
preserve my life according to your word.
The Word of God is the way to happiness, the way to avoid shame
6 Then I would not be put to shame
when I consider all your commands.
The way of safety:
9 How can a young person stay on the path of purity?
By living according to your word.
The way of good counsel:
24 Your statutes are my delight;
they are my counselors.
The Word of God gives us good things: strength and hope and wisdom, and shows us the way we should go...
28 My soul is weary with sorrow;
strengthen me according to your word.
43 Never take your word of truth from my mouth,
for I have put my hope in your laws.
98 Your commands are always with me
and make me wiser than my enemies.
99 I have more insight than all my teachers,
for I meditate on your statutes.
100 I have more understanding than the elders,
for I obey your precepts.
130 The unfolding of your words gives light;
it gives understanding to the simple.
105 Your word is a lamp for my feet,
a light on my path.
What God spoke, what God recorded and preserved for us (in the Bible)—it’s all unfailingly perfect and it gives us what is good.
>As the people of God, we believe the Word of God can be trusted in every way to speak what is true, command what is right, and provide us with what is good.
Perhaps, more than anything else, that which is true, right, and good points us to the Author of the Word.
Like Jesus taught on the Emmaus Road, it all points us to Him and our deep, deep need for salvation.
It teaches us what we need to know about our Savior. The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to draw people to God.
People can’t call on God without believing. They can’t believe without hearing. They can’t hear without preaching. And there’s no preaching without the Word of God. There’s no Good News, no Gospel, apart from the Word of God.
The Word of God is true—it’s from Him and it points to our true need.
The Word of God is right—we believe whatever God says is right for us.
The Word of God is good—it points us to what is best for us, most significantly to Jesus who died and rose again to save us from our sins and ourselves.
Church, let’s double-down on our commitment, our steadfast and unwavering trust in the Word of God!
Let’s stand firmly on the Word of God—our only rule of faith and practice; inspired, infallible, dependable, and sufficient.
Let’s believe and preach and live-out this Book and look to no other!