Sermon Cloud

IMAGO DEI COMMUNITY: CHURCH AND GOSPEL

Week 1: Scripture as our Foundation

 

Christ is the Word of God who speaks through the words of God in our hands     

 

Sermon I. Truth & Meaning, the Word of God (5/11/08)  Garry Friesen gfriesen@multnomah.edu

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Intro: (1) Rick McKinley graduation, asked 3 weeks reliability                of Scripture.

          (2) Beard & Prince Caspian

          (3) Warning: knowledge without faith and Bible                            beaters:   the Pharisees.

          (4) Benjamin Franklin Quote

 

Benjamin Franklin said at the birth of our nation, "God governs in the affairs of man [Daniel]. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice [Matt 10:29], is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. [Ps 127:1]  I firmly believe this. I also believe that, without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel" [Gen 11]

 

        Overview

        1. Jesus trusted and obeyed the Old Testament                (OT)

        2. Jesus spoke with authority (Gospels)

        3. Jesus speaks through His Spirit in His                            apostles (Matthew-        Revelation) 

 

 

A.  God now speaks in HIS SON.  His Son validates            the OT, Gospels, NT    (Heb. 1:1-2; 2:3-4)

 

Hebrews 1:1-2 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.

 

  1. Jesus trusted and obeyed the Old Testament      (OT)

 

        a.  History of the OT quoted as real historical narratives

 

Abel  (Luke 11:51)

from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.    

 

                First book (Gen) to the last (2 Chronicles)

 

Abraham (Matt. 22:32)

‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living."

 

        (John 8:58)  "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!"

 

David  (Matt. 22:42-45)

"What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?"  "The son of David," they replied.  He said to them, "How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord'? For he says, "‘The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet." '  If then David calls him ‘Lord,' how can he be his son?"

 

Elijah & Elisha (Luke 4:25-27)

I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land.   Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed-only Naaman the Syrian."

 

Lot (Luke 17:28-29)

 "It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.  But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

 

Moses  (Matt. 19:8)

Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.

 

Noah  (Luke 17:26-27)  

"Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man.   People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

 

Solomon  (Matt. 12:42)

0The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here.

 

        Gen 1-2 basis for His view of marriage (Matt 19:4-5;      Mk 10:6-8)

                [God] said ‘For this cause a man shall leave his     father and mother"

 

        b. Jesus trusted Every letter, word, sentence

                                                                        (Matt 5:17-18)

 

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.  (Matthew 5:17-18)

 

                Yod - a comma on steroids (see Ps 119)

                Smallest Stoke - Dalet vs Resh,  He vs Het

 

                (1) Law prophesied a Messiah and His coming                                      kingdom

                (2) Jesus fulfills the Messiah and inaugurates the                          kingdom.

 

        c. Jesus overcame temptation by God's words

                                                                        (Matt 4:1-11)

 

Matt. 4:2-4   After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.   The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."   Jesus answered, "It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

 

                (1) Messiah passes the tests in the wilderness                              which Israel failed in the wilderness.

                (2) Messiah overcame temptation by believing                               God's words.

 

        Matt 15:4-7   Scripture supercedes Jewish     tradition

 

Matt 22:29-32  Each word is accurate including the tense of the         verb "Is" not "was".  "You are mistaken because you know neither     the Scriptures nor the power of God"

 

        c.  John 10:34  "the Scripture cannot be broken"

 

John 10:33-35 "We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."   Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are gods'?  If he called them ‘gods,' to whom the word of God came-and the Scripture cannot be broken-

 

                (1) Argument depends upon one word "gods"

                (2) Less significant passage

                (3) Scripture will not crack or break, it is true.

 

        d. Luke 24:25-27 OT filled with Jesus

 

He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!   Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

 

Luke 24:44-45 He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms."  Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.

 

        (1) Foolish if you do not know what the prophets                    said

        (2) Slow of heart if you do not believe all the                          prophets said

        (3) OT is about Jesus

        (4) The OT canon of books is set in three groups.

        (5) We read God opens our minds to understand

 

Christ Followers, Let's follow Christ into the OT

--into the mouth of Jonah's great fish

--into the Amos's battle for justice

--into the poetry of worship with David's Psalms

--into the beauty of Ruth's love story

--into the wisdom of Solomon's Proverbs

--into the adventure of Joshua's struggles

--into the real life history of Moses versus the        Political    Oppressor Pharaoh

 

  2. Jesus spoke with authority (Gospels)

 

        a. Father at the Transfiguration  "This is my beloved                      Son, in whom I'm well pleased, listen to Him"                     (Matt 17:5; Mark 9:7)

 

        b. Jesus is the truth (John 14:6) "I am the way, the                        truth, the life"

                (propositional truth is used to reveal that Truth is                           a person)

                John 17:17 Sanctify them by the truth; your                           word is truth.

                Christ's words are spirit and life (John 6:63)

 

        c. Jesus is in the line of prophets with miraculous                          confirmation.

                Prophet of Deut 18

 

        d. Jesus' word is divine

                Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away,                         but words will not

                John 3:34 He whom God has sent speaks the                                        words of God

                7:16-18 My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent                Me          8:26, 28, 38, 40, 43 with 47;  12:49f; 14:10,            24; 15:15; 17:8, 14;

                        Jesus speaks His Father's word

                18:37 Everyone who is of the truth hears My                                  voice.

 

Christ-followers, let's follow Christ into the Gospels and listen to His every word

                --follow into his kingly reign in Matthew

                --follow into his suffering service in Mark  

                --follow into his human obedience in Luke

                --follow into his divine glory in John       

 

  3. Jesus speaks through His Spirit in His apostles (Matthew-  Revelation) 

 

        a. Christ commissions the apostles with miracles and                    messages                (Matt 10:1-3; 10:16-20)

 

        b. Spirit remembers & teaches through the apostles                      (John 14:26)

 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

 

                (1) Jesus words will be remembered correctly

                (2) Spirit teaching the apostles who will write                                 Scripture

 

        c. Spirit guides into the truth and discloses future                          revelation  (John 16:13)

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

 

                (1) Spirit is one who brings God's truth

                (2) Spirit gives the apostles all truth including                                future revelation.

 

        d. Christ's apostles are confirmed as Jesus was by                               signs, wonders and miracles   (Acts 2:22; Acts                       14:3; 2 Cor. 12:12; Heb 2:3-4)   

 

Acts 2:22  "Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.

 

2Cor. 12:12 The things that mark an apostle-signs, wonders and miracles-were done among you with great perseverance.

 

        Christ-followers, let's follow Christ's Spirit speaking       through Christ's apostles in the epistles.

 

                --follow into the full joy of Philippians

                --follow into the redemption of Romans

                --follow into the fiery suffering of 1 Peter

                --follow into the works of faith in James

                --follow into the love of authentic community in 1                           John

                --follow into even the craziness of the book                                    Revelation

 

Narnia Illustration: Jill gets the water of Life and the words of Scripture (The Silver Chair, chp 2)