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Good morning, Gateway Chapel!
Happy New Year!
Hard time with COVID, snow...
Prepare our hearts to worship Jesus and hear from his word.
Opening Prayer -
The Lord is my portion; I promise to keep your words.
I entreat your favor with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise.
When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies;
I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments.
Though the cords of the wicked ensnare me, I do not forget your law.
At midnight I rise to praise you, because of your righteous rules.
I am a companion of all who fear you, of those who keep your precepts.
The earth, O Lord, is full of your steadfast love; teach me your statutes!
Almighty Father, the Psalms provide a heart language for our desire for you. So as we begin our time together we want to use the Psalms as our own words.
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.
As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
Holy Spirit, make us people who pray these words often and with honesty. We confess our hearts desire other things, but we want to want you. Help us. Guide us towards worshipping you this morning. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Intro
Welcome to a brand new year here at Gateway Chapel.
Explain The Year of Biblical Exploration.
We’ve done this before.
One way to consider working through this year is to read through the Bible in a year. That takes a ton of commitment.
Possibly mention sermons, community groups, personal reading.
If you’re not a follower of Jesus...
The Bible is the best seller.
Banned all over the world.
Why wouldn’t you read it for yourself to see what the hype is about?
What this will do: conversations, allow us to ask good questions, fall more in love with the biblical story.
What this won’t do: answer all questions, solve every riddle, end every debate.
“Let’s keep reading...”
Get to Judges and go NO! Keep reading...
We find as we keep reading the story unfolds.
“Churches need an atmosphere where the questions are encouraged believing that Christianity thrives under honest investigation.”
Leaders are available
Let’s dialogue and not email
Facebook is the worst place to debate the Bible
I’m going to ask some open questions about the Bible that I’m not going to answer
It’s okay to be unsettled
Let’s imagine you’re talking a friend about their New Years Goals.
“What are your New Years Resolutions?”
Oh, ya know, exercise, spend more time with the family, get organized, floss more...
Michael Scott Joke
“What are yours?”
“I found this leather bound book at my parents house. Turns out, it’s written in English, but it’s a translation from ancient languages and was written thousands of years ago. My goal is to read it every day and try and live by it.”
“Uh huh.”
Isn’t that essentially what we’re saying when we tell people we want to read our Bible more in 2022?
Why would anyone want to do this? It’s strange? There are hundreds of self help books written every year, there are even books written about this book but we say we want to read this book.
Why read the Bible?
I want to answer that question today. But before we simply say, “The Bible is the word of God therefore i read it and it’s simple, moving on!” I want us to wrestle with some of the
The Problem with the Bible
The Problem with the Bible
As I see it, there are many hurdles with reading the Bible. Many of us love content about the Bible. Reading the Bible itself is becoming a lost art.
Hurdles
We’re too busy.
Thoughts
Reading the Bible is for old time people who wrote letters by candle light.
We’re drowning in content.
Podcasts, shows (on Hulu, Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime) movies, music, articles, FB posts, Instagram stories, books we want to read, Marco Polos, texts.
We’re too entertained.
Modern sensibilities desire a different kind of entertainment.
Consumerism
A lot of hurdles
Literacy is low because of consumerism.
I will improve by buying something. We buy Bibles but don’t read Bibles.
The Bible is the best-selling book year over year. The Bible remains the best selling book that’s never read.
Most people have not read the Bible cover to cover.
More emphasis in older generation.
Some older generations have read thru it more.
Arrogance
“I’ve read this before.” “Why do I need to read it again, I know what the Psalms are about?”
Many of you in here love to read. What is so great about reading? You enter into another person’s world. You think their thoughts. You experience their emotions. You see the world from their perspective.
We are becoming illiterate about the Bible
We love content about the Bible (podcasts, sermons, etc.)
But learning to read the story is becoming a lost art.
Why is it becoming so low?
We don’t read anymore.
We read threads, blogs, posts, but we get trouble getting lost in a book unless it’s a movie.
Newspaper article - why we don’t read anymore
Why he only read 4 books this last year
He’s finding it harder and harder to concentrate on words
“I’m addicted to digital distraction and I want to change. I want to start reading books again.”
Books in a way that are different than other visual arts force us to walk through another’s thoughts one word at a time. We share our minds with that time with the writers. A forced reflection. Books recreate someone else’s thoughts and maybe it is this one-to-one mapping that give books their power.
If this is true, then let’s read the Bible.
To allow the thoughts of God to inhabit our minds completely until the Scriptures shape our imagination and let it inhabit our minds completely.
A lot of hurdles
Literacy is low because of consumerism.
I will improve by buying something. We buy Bibles but don’t read Bibles.
The Bible is the best-selling book year over year. The Bible remains the best selling book that’s never read.
Most people have not read the Bible cover to cover.
More emphasis in older generation.
Some older generations have read thru it more.
Why? We have questions that cause us to take issue.
This book is bloody.
Joshua - Look at what happens when you trust in God!
But some read Joshua and think…how is this not God commanded genocide and ethnic cleansing? How is that in the sacred Bible?
I do not allow a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; instead, she is to remain quiet.
What do you take that to mean?
Sunday sermon? Doesn’t say that. No qualifier. Just to teach.
The question is this: Have you ever been taught anything by a woman?
Who is it up to decide what that means?
Greet with a holy kiss
That’s not what it means…greet with a holy side hug
Why do you interpret it that way? Culturally conditioned. Doesn’t mean the same thing.
What about murder? Self evident…what about killing in self defense?
Jesus said turn the other cheek.
Jesus said get a sword!
Jesus said to put away the sword.
Jesus came back with a sword dripping in blood!
Blood is in his mouth, symbolic. How do you know when it’s symbolic? How do you know when to obey something in the Bible?
The Bible can be hard to understand.
Doesn’t take a PHD but it does take skill and intelligence
Has been used for the greatest evil and good the world has seen.
Twain - the poison and the cure
Started wars, sexism, slavery, native american people
The cure
Empowering of people, motivation to end slavery
Hard to read
Violent
We don’t like reading
Hard to interpret
It’s used for good AND evil
It’s in another language
Why do we not move on?
Why do we not move on?
We are followers of Jesus.
Who wraps books in leather anyways? Why are we reading the whole book this year?
He has obsessed with the Bible. More than likely had the OT memorized. Quote from it.
It is our aim to have the same relationship with the Bible Jesus did.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
After he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
Then the tempter approached him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
He answered, “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
Then the devil took him to the holy city, had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple,
and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will give his angels orders concerning you, and they will support you with their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”
Jesus told him, “It is also written: Do not test the Lord your God.”
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
And he said to him, “I will give you all these things if you will fall down and worship me.”
Then Jesus told him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.”
Then the devil left him, and angels came and began to serve him.
The Gospel according to Matthew (B. Jesus’ Temptation, 4:1–11
1. Then (see on 2:7) is sometimes used rather loosely in Matthew, but on this occasion it surely places what follows as next in time: after the baptism came the temptation. Jesus was led up, where up is probably very much to the point: the Jordan where Jesus was baptized is well below sea level, but the wilderness (see on 3:1) seems to mean the high country. The term covers a wide area, but the meaning here is surely not that Jesus remained in that part of the wilderness which adjoins the Jordan but that he went up into the lonely mountainous area to the west. All three Synoptists speak of the activity of the Spirit, though they put it in different ways. Luke says simply that Jesus was “full of the Holy Spirit” (Luke 4:1), but Mark says that the Spirit “drives” him into the wilderness. We must surely see that the temptation had its place in God’s plan for his Son. The Spirit had just come on Jesus at the baptism when Jesus was assured of his divine sonship, and that same Spirit now leads him into the place where some important truths about the nature of that sonship would become clear through the process of resisting temptation. At the baptism it was made clear that Jesus would be serving God in a special way, with a special mission. But what did that mean? How would he go about that mission? The temptation was apparently the process that cleared that up.
Jesus then went to the wilderness to be tempted, where the construction seems to signify purpose: this took place in the plan of God. This does not mean that God initiated the temptation, for God tempts no one (Jas. 1:13). It means rather that God can use the efforts of evil people and even of Satan himself to set forward his purposes. The verb means “to test” and may be used in a good sense, a test applied with the intention that people will pass the test (e.g., Heb. 11:17). But much more often it is used where the intention is that the person will fail the test, and thus it comes to mean “to tempt”; indeed, in the New Testament that is its characteristic meaning, and the participle of the verb has the meaning “tempter” (so in v. 3). Matthew is telling us that immediately after the experience in which Jesus, so to speak, was commissioned for his work as Messiah Satan tried to deflect him from doing the will of God.7 On this occasion the evil one is called the devil, the one who opposes God and tries to lead the people of God, and here the Son of God, away from the right path. Jesus has been called into the service of God. The devil will then try to seduce him into the service of evil.
2. None of the Evangelists indicates why Jesus fasted, but fasting was a natural accompaniment of serious thinking and prayer. It was a common practice among the Jews of those days and a suitable accompaniment of reflection on the new life that was opening out before Jesus. Matthew goes on to spell out the length of the fast as forty days and forty nights (the same period that Moses fasted at the time of the giving of the Law, Exod. 34:28; cf. also Elijah, 1 Kings 19:8). Mark and Luke speak of the same length of time (though they do not mention the nights), but refer to it as the time of temptation, not the length of a fast (though after speaking of the temptation Luke adds that Jesus ate nothing in those days). Matthew speaks of the fast first, then goes on to the temptation. At the end of the abstention from food he says that Jesus was hungry, the natural result of the long fast (JB has “he was very hungry,” and REB “he was famished,” but such translations are the result of reflecting on the length of the fast rather than a strict rendering of the Greek).
3. The evil one is seen in his capacity as the tempter (see on v. 1): he came to tempt Jesus to do what was wrong. He begins with If you are the Son of God. There is a certain subtlety here, for the first-class conditional seems to assume the reality of the case: “If you are the Son of God (as you are) …” while yet the “if” suggests a little doubt: it might be well to bring some proof of this. Jesus’ special position is implied in the Son of God; that Son should be able to do a small thing like make stones into bread (and was he not very hungry?). And has not the Son of God the right to meet his basic needs by the use of his powers? These stones, that is, stones in the very area, indicates rocky surroundings. It was a desolate place, and food would not have been obtainable by ordinary means. The stones may well have been small ones, resembling in size and general appearance the small loaves that were often used. We could translate the word “loaves of bread” (as NRSV, Knox), though this would present a problem when the same word occurs in the singular in the next verse and we could scarcely say “loaf” there. It is better to retain the kinship between the two verses. The important thing in any case is not the precise terminology, but the temptation for a hungry man, who knew he could do it, to turn13 stones into food, food that would satisfy his hunger then and there (and, of course, repeated on a larger scale, would provide many hungry people with food). At a later time, it is true, Jesus did use his powers to provide food for multitudes (14:15–21; 15:32–38), but these were special and exceptional occasions. There was no use of his powers for his own gratification or as a means of impressing people. His multiplication of loaves on those occasions was consistent with his God-ordained mission, just as was his refusal to do it here. He had come to take a lowly place and in the end die on a cross to save others; to use his powers to satisfy personal needs would be to deny all this. Many draw attention to the contrast with Adam. Cf. Glover, “With ‘every tree of the garden’ for food, Adam fell; with desert stones mocking His hunger, the second Adam conquered.” It is perhaps worth noting that Luke seems to bring out the contrast with Adam; between the baptism and the temptation he has his genealogy, which ends with Jesus’ relationship to Adam.
4. But sets Jesus in contrast: over against the tempter’s suggestion comes this reply. It stands written (see on 2:5) points to the reliability and unchangeability of Scripture. For Jesus, to have found a passage in the Bible that bears on the current problem is to end all discussion. He proceeds to quote Deuteronomy 8:3 in a form that agrees exactly with LXX (Luke stops at “will man live”). Not on bread alone does not deny the importance of bread (in Palestine it was almost synonymous with “food”), but it does deny its exclusive importance. A life sustained by food only is a very poor life. So Jesus goes on to a but that employs the strong adversative, and makes a sharp contrast with the preceding. Every word is comprehensive: Jesus is not suggesting that parts of Scripture may safely be neglected, but affirming that it is profitable in its entirety. The reason is apparent in the words that goes out through God’s mouth. Jesus views God as the author of Scripture, and because of this it must be heeded carefully. Through is unusual in such a connection; it perhaps hints that what has been spoken is more than a casual utterance. It does not originate on the lips, so to speak, but comes from the inner being. We should not overlook the fact that, while Jesus was tempted to do something quite beyond our ability, he does not cite a text that applies to the Messiah alone; what he quotes is valid for the whole race. Jesus overcame temptation with resources open to each of his followers. Obedience was important for him, and it is important for them.
5. The second temptation is the third in Luke, and there are considerable differences. In this opening up to and says to him Matthew has seventeen words of which only nine are in Luke, who has twelve words. Thus Matthew has most of what is in Luke, together with matter of his own. For then see on 2:7; it brings us to the next in Matthew’s sequence. Jesus had rejected the first temptation because he trusted God to supply his need; now he is tempted through that very assurance. Matthew reverts to the devil as his name for the evil one and says that he now takes (the present tense gives greater vividness) Jesus along into the holy city (i.e., Jerusalem; this term occurs again in 27:53 and 4 times in Revelation only in the New Testament). Neither Matthew nor Luke makes it clear whether this is a physical removal of Jesus from the wilderness or whether it means a vivid suggestion to the mind such that he saw himself in the position mentioned. But in any case we should remember that the essence of temptation is inward: it does not depend on the physical location of the person tempted. The devil stood him on the wing of the temple. The word translated wing seems to have been used for the extremity of anything; it is used of the fins of a fish, the tail flaps of a lobster, and the tip of a rudder (LSJ). It seems that here it means the peak, the point of a roof, or, as some think, a battlement or turret (“parapet,” JB, REB). But there is a problem in that we do not know what roof. The definite article shows that it was a well-known place, but we can scarcely do more than say that it was obviously something at a great height, so that a leap from it would be spectacular.
6. As in the first temptation, the devil begins with If you are the Son of God, and this time follows it with throw yourself down; he implies that Jesus can do this quite safely. It does not need to be said that this would be a spectacular miracle; the evil one simply suggests the leap. In the first temptation he had been repelled by the quotation of Scripture, but this time he does some quoting of his own, appealing to Psalm 91:11–12 with the strong formula of quotation it stands written accompanied by for, which gives the reason: Jesus should do this, Satan suggests, because the angels are there to help him. For the most part Matthew records the quotation as in LXX. The words in the Psalm, “to guard you in all your ways,” are omitted, but we should not see something sinister in that. It may well have been done to concentrate attention on the bearing up in the hands of the angels: it is safe descent from a height that is in mind, not angelic protection through the varied vicissitudes of every day. For angel see on 1:20. None less than the angels have received a command from the Father; the implication is that a command emanating from such a quarter and addressed to such agents will surely be carried out. Holding him on their hands means that he will be given close protection and that in the case of a fall from a height he will come to no harm. This will be done, the Psalm says, lest you strike your foot against a stone. Satan is suggesting that the care of the angels will be such that the smallest mishap is quite impossible. There would not even be a stubbed toe!
7. Jesus’ reply begins with Again, and once more it features it stands written. Jesus had defeated the first temptation by citing Scripture, and he uses the same method this time. He raises no objection to Satan’s quoting from the Psalm, but simply goes on to another passage that shows that the application the evil one has made of the Scripture he cites is faulty. Jesus draws attention to Deuteronomy 6:16 (Matthew has it exactly as LXX), “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” In Deuteronomy the words refer to the incident at Massah, where the Israelites were short of water and complained about Moses. That patriarch asked the grumblers, “Why do you put the LORD to the proof?” (Exod. 17:2), which is further explained in the question they had asked, “Is the LORD among us or not?” (Exod. 17:7). On that occasion God ordered Moses to strike the rock with his rod. When he did so, water came out and the people’s need was fully met. But the way the incident is reported makes it clear that a demand for the miraculous, such as the one the Israelites made, is not acceptable. The servants of God cannot demand that God should keep on intervening with miraculous provision for their needs. To jump from a height and then look to God to avert the natural consequences of such an act is just such an offense. Furthermore, it is worse than what happened at Massah, for at least the people there were in real need of water. What Satan is suggesting is that Jesus should needlessly thrust himself into danger; he would be creating a hazard where none previously existed. And for what? To compel God to save him miraculously. It is a temptation to manipulate God, to create a situation not of God’s choosing in which God would be required to act as Jesus dictated. Jesus rejects the suggestion with decision. He prefers the way of quiet trust in the heavenly Father, a trust that needs no test, and a ready acceptance of his will. He refuses to demand a miracle even if from the perspective of someone on earth that might seem desirable, even compelling.
8. Again together with the following verb repeats an expression from verse 5: once more Satan takes Jesus along, but this time to a very high mountain. There are frequent references to mountains in the Gospels (as also in the Apocalypses). This one was very high. From this standpoint the devil shows28 Jesus all earth’s kingdoms. The word means territory ruled over by a king, but here the emphasis is on the territory rather than the method of government. The world makes the expression as extensive as it can possibly be, and splendor brings out the attractiveness of those kingdoms at their best. The fact that there is no mountain from which all the world may be seen literally favors the view that the tempter brings all this before the mind of Jesus. Satan holds out before him the prospect of a mighty empire, one that would embrace the whole world. When we contemplate the evils that flourish in even the best states we know and the wickedness that abounds in high places, we can see that to establish a worldwide empire that would be ruled with perfect justice was a real temptation, not a sham parade. Nor should we dismiss the whole episode as something that happened to Jesus but has no relevance to anyone else. Many who profess to follow the Christ have purchased their own “empires” at the cost of the acceptance of evil.
9. But the price for all these things was a very high one. To obtain such an empire Jesus would be required to fall down and worship30 the evil one (Goodspeed translates “fall on your knees and do homage to me,” but this sounds too much like the honor that may be accorded humans in high position; Matthew is thinking of the honor that is to be given only to God). Filson explains it this way: “Serve the devil and rule the world. In modern terms, be practical, realistic, ready to compromise; ‘the end justifies the means’. To help people you must get position and power.” The expression signifies not a passing gesture but a real acceptance of Satan’s ways; it means yielding the chief place to Satan. It meant that if Jesus was to obtain these kingdoms he would have to accord to the evil one the place that belongs to God alone. Jesus would obtain the mighty empire only by doing what Satan wanted.
10. Jesus rejects this temptation with decision and, as he rejected the earlier temptations, by citing a passage of Scripture. Matthew begins this part of his account with his habitual then (see on 2:7) and again uses the present tense, which gives greater vividness. Go away is a decisive rejection of the proposition Satan has made; Jesus will have nothing to do with it nor with him who suggested it. Satan is used here for the first time in this Gospel (Matthew has it 4 times in all). The word has the meaning “adversary” and is used for the being who is strongly opposed to God and to the best interests of the people God has made. For it stands written see the note on 2:5. Jesus proceeds to quote from Deuteronomy again, this time from 6:13. In this passage the Lord your God stands first with emphasis; not Satan but God is to be the object of worship, and the prefix the Lord points to something of his majesty. You will worship is a future with the force of an imperative; the passage gives instruction on the object of worship. Divine honors are for God alone. With worship the passage links serve, another word that points to service offered to God. Worship and this kind of service are not to be offered to humans, nor to angelic beings, however high. The terms refer to what is proper for God alone. Only is an important word. It is worth reflecting that, while Satan offered Jesus sovereignty over all the earth if he would but worship him, Jesus worshipped God only and all power in heaven and on earth was given him (28:18).
11. Then (see on 2:7) denotes what is next in sequence. Satan was defeated and he left Jesus. Matthew says no more than that the evil one went away, leaving us to infer that the temptation was over, at any rate for the time being. Bruce comments, “Nothing was to be made of one who would not do evil that good might come.” Luke says that the evil one left Jesus “until a suitable time” (Luke 4:13), for which Matthew has no equivalent. This does not mean, of course, that Matthew thought that his Lord was never tempted again; there was a notable occasion when Jesus addressed Peter as “Satan,” clearly recognizing the evil one behind the words Peter had been speaking (16:23). Matthew rounds off this narrative with the information that angels (see on 1:20) came and took care of Jesus. He does not elaborate, and the verb took care is quite general and could denote any one of a wide variety of services. The imperfect tense denotes a sustained action.
We have met the tempter before. The story is knit together. Gets crazy in the middle and end but it is a single story.
Gen 3 - depicted as a snake and was tempting Adam and Eve. Origin story: the first thing the snake did was to question the authority of God’s word.
Did God really say?
Jesus meets the serpent and he tempts like in Gen 3, and he only quotes God’s word.
Almost like a slap in the face when Satan says “Did God say?” and Jesus repels him with what God ACTUALLY said.
Jesus meets this tempter who comes to him when he’s hungry and says, “Tell the stones to become bread.
Jesus uses the scriptures. His mind was saturated with the Bible.
Man shall not live on Bread Alone!
Deut
Two can play at that game!
Satan says “For it is written”
Jesus knows that Satan is misinterpreting
Jesus is a teacher
We often quote Scriptures sometimes to our own perils
It is ALSO written...
Deut 6 - a tone that allows you to see Psalm 91 in a certain way and you’re not taking it at what it means.
Very interesting.
Satan wants Jesus to worship him.
“Will you just worship me??”
Away from me Satan! Worship the LORD your God and serve him only.
Jesus uses the authority of scripture against Satan
Resources of heaven to fight with him
Matthew 26, Peter pulls out a sword because he has a legion of angels available. But how would I fulfill the scriptures?
Jesus lives the Scriptures out.
The Word was more important than angels for him.
Jesus reveals different aspects of his commitment to the Bible
God’s word is sufficient
The Devil tempted him with bread for his starving flesh
Satan uses carbs even today
The bread the devil offered him wouldn’t satisfy him.
Eat this book and it will satisfy your longings!
Sadducees about Marriage and the resurrection
Complicated question
In the resurrection, who’s husband?
Jesus answers: “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God?”
When our souls are sad, do we know the Scriptures?
Driven by our experience or intelligence and pick and choose which parts of the Bible we want to live under.
SO many things are distorted because we don’t know the scriptures or the power of God.
God’s word is coherent
Satan quotes Psalm 91 and JEsus says that’s not what it means.
He doesn’t say it can’t be trusted.
Jesus is saying we have to hold these two scriptures together. I’m not supposed to jump off a cliff! Hold them in tension.
The scriptures are coherent and trustworthy.
Matthew 5, Jesus has come to fulfill the Scriptures.
I have not come to remove them, he has a high view of the Bible.
God’s word is authoritative
Jesus places himself under the authority of Scripture. Jesus intends to obey and worship God only.
Unpack the issue of authority
Ongoing conversation: Where does the Bible get its authority. How can this book tell me what to do?
The Bible gets its authority from God.
Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
Doesn’t say all authority has been given to the Bible.
The authority of Scripture.
Books we’re going to recommend: Andrew Wilson
Short book called Unbreakable
“Our trust in the Bible stems from our trust in Jesus.”
Jesus talks and acts as if the Bible is trustworthy and authoritative then I want to do that too.
We trust the Scriptures because we trust Jesus.
The authority of Jesus is being exercised through the Bible. He mediates his authority somehow through the Bible. We shouldn’t have a problem with that. Authority is through written.
Boss emails you. Authority is being mediating through their writing.
Hard part: Most of the Bible is not as straightforward as email.
Most of the Bible is narrative.
“How can a story be authoritative?”
How do I DO the story?
Is the narrative of the OT as authoritative as it was for the Jewish people before Jesus?
Some things we’ll read that we simply do not do anymore. Because of Jesus. We have to read backwards, from Jesus BACK to the OT.
Close
You pore over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, and yet they testify about me.
All of it points forward to him.
We can make two errors:
Read this library of writings and after every month become more conceited with pride because we become cold-hearted bible nerds.
Pharisees are in the NT. That’s who Jesus talks about here. This book will not bring you eternal life. Life is only found in Jesus. He is the center of the scriptures.
Because of a problem with the church or people you’ve stopped engaging with the scriptures
You could be missing out on a relationship with God
Jesus though the scriptures were enough
He heard God speaking to him
Don’t miss out on God because of a sermon or person
Bible says look through me to see Jesus.
Use Mackie doc from class
This is a heading
This is a heading
Fast from fear, feast on grace.
Announce from the stage, via email, bulletin insert, slide, social, and app (if you have one) that you’re in the process of migrating to Faithlife Giving. Ensure you are able to clearly explain why your church is making this switch and briefly explain the migration will be happening over the next 90 days.
this is very slow
very very slow