1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,640 Welcome to Trinity Sermons. 2 00:00:07,640 --> 00:00:11,600 Here at Trinity Church Streetsville, we want to share with you sermons that inspire and 3 00:00:11,600 --> 00:00:17,520 encourage you in your faith journey as together we are learning to love Jesus, live like Jesus, 4 00:00:17,520 --> 00:00:19,600 and lead others to Jesus. 5 00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:24,800 Today we are continuing our sermon series, The Bible for Grown-Ups, and we will dive 6 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:29,960 deep into what the Bible is not, but more so where the Bible actually is. 7 00:00:29,960 --> 00:00:31,640 We hope you enjoy this sermon. 8 00:00:31,640 --> 00:00:33,640 God bless. 9 00:00:33,640 --> 00:00:41,960 A reading from the Gospel of John chapter 5 beginning at verse 16. 10 00:00:41,960 --> 00:00:45,200 The Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 11 00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:51,720 In his defense, Jesus said to them, very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes 12 00:00:51,720 --> 00:00:57,760 him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged, but has crossed over from 13 00:00:57,760 --> 00:00:59,920 death to life. 14 00:00:59,920 --> 00:01:06,480 Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice 15 00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:10,520 of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 16 00:01:10,520 --> 00:01:16,760 But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form nor does his word dwell in you, for 17 00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:19,640 you do not believe the one he sent. 18 00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:25,760 You study the scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. 19 00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:30,720 These are the very scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to 20 00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:31,760 have life. 21 00:01:31,760 --> 00:01:35,160 This is the word of the Lord. 22 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:38,720 Last week we started a brand new teaching series and it was called, yes it was called, 23 00:01:38,720 --> 00:01:41,520 The Bible for Grown-Ups. 24 00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:45,760 And we got started by asking the question, where does the Bible come from? 25 00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:49,680 And it's an important question to ask because when we're little, when we're children, we 26 00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:51,320 probably don't care where the Bible came from. 27 00:01:51,320 --> 00:01:54,480 We're more interested in the stories that are in the Bible. 28 00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:59,800 But as we get older, then all of a sudden we need more than just the stories in the Bible. 29 00:01:59,800 --> 00:02:06,200 We also need to know the story of the Bible as in where did the Bible come from? 30 00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:07,200 That's really, really important. 31 00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:09,120 So that's what we talked about last week. 32 00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:13,780 If you by chance happened to miss last week's service or last week's message, you can always 33 00:02:13,780 --> 00:02:14,780 catch up. 34 00:02:14,780 --> 00:02:16,840 You can visit our YouTube channel or visit our website. 35 00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:21,940 We even have discussion questions to go along with each and every sermon that we cover. 36 00:02:21,940 --> 00:02:25,880 But today what we're going to do is we are going to put the clutch down and we are going 37 00:02:25,880 --> 00:02:27,720 to switch gears. 38 00:02:27,720 --> 00:02:28,720 Cars don't have clutches. 39 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:30,320 Some of the kids are like, what's a clutch? 40 00:02:30,320 --> 00:02:31,960 We're going to switch gears. 41 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:34,360 And today we are going to talk about a different question. 42 00:02:34,360 --> 00:02:38,200 Now that question is going to be, what is the Bible? 43 00:02:38,200 --> 00:02:39,680 What is the Bible? 44 00:02:39,680 --> 00:02:41,400 Now that's a really interesting question. 45 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:45,440 And I would actually like you to think that through yourself for about 20 seconds. 46 00:02:45,440 --> 00:02:49,400 I want to invite you to turn to somebody beside you and for 20 seconds just ask each 47 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:50,720 other this question. 48 00:02:50,720 --> 00:02:52,760 If someone asked you, what is the Bible? 49 00:02:52,760 --> 00:02:55,360 And it doesn't matter if you like the Bible, you don't like the Bible. 50 00:02:55,360 --> 00:02:58,400 If you read the Bible, if you haven't read the Bible, that doesn't matter. 51 00:02:58,400 --> 00:03:00,240 What's a good definition of the Bible? 52 00:03:00,240 --> 00:03:01,240 What is the Bible? 53 00:03:01,240 --> 00:03:02,240 Ready? 54 00:03:02,240 --> 00:03:05,060 Three, two, one, go. 55 00:03:05,060 --> 00:03:09,400 I want to say if I could just bring you back now, if I could just get you to come back. 56 00:03:09,400 --> 00:03:13,840 I have heard over my time lots of different answers for what is the Bible. 57 00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:16,960 I've heard this one that the Bible is a guidebook for life. 58 00:03:16,960 --> 00:03:20,040 It shows you how to live your life, takes you where you want to go. 59 00:03:20,040 --> 00:03:22,360 Just read it and it'll point you in the right direction. 60 00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:23,360 That's good. 61 00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:28,160 I've heard that the Bible is an encyclopedia of truth in that whatever you need to know, 62 00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:29,480 do you need to know something about money? 63 00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:30,960 You need to know something about love? 64 00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:33,040 You need to know something about sex or whatever? 65 00:03:33,040 --> 00:03:35,440 Just flip to the right page in the Bible and you'll find it. 66 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:39,080 It's there and you can just find it like an encyclopedia. 67 00:03:39,080 --> 00:03:42,480 I've heard other people say the Bible is a love letter. 68 00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:47,080 Billy Graham used to say the Bible is God's love letter to humankind. 69 00:03:47,080 --> 00:03:50,160 Maybe that's how you define what the Bible is. 70 00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:53,320 Other people say, no, the Bible is actually an allegory. 71 00:03:53,320 --> 00:03:55,800 What I mean by that is you don't just read the words of the Bible. 72 00:03:55,800 --> 00:04:00,720 You have to read for the hidden symbols and the deeper meaning underneath the words of 73 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:01,720 the Bible. 74 00:04:01,720 --> 00:04:03,960 The Bible is this allegory. 75 00:04:03,960 --> 00:04:08,160 Or some people, and maybe this was a teacher at high school taught you this or you went 76 00:04:08,160 --> 00:04:13,880 to university and a teacher said that the Bible is just ancient literature akin to other 77 00:04:13,880 --> 00:04:19,840 stuff that was written by Plato or Aristotle or Homer or something like that. 78 00:04:19,840 --> 00:04:24,760 Or perhaps you've even had someone tell you that the Bible is actually really valuable 79 00:04:24,760 --> 00:04:26,800 as an artifact. 80 00:04:26,800 --> 00:04:31,320 It just tells us about what was happening during a certain period of time. 81 00:04:31,320 --> 00:04:36,720 And especially if you want to know what a bunch of ancient Hebrew men thought about God, 82 00:04:36,720 --> 00:04:40,520 then yeah, it's a good idea to study the Bible. 83 00:04:40,520 --> 00:04:43,840 Now, there's a lot of other answers to the question, what is the Bible? 84 00:04:43,840 --> 00:04:46,320 You probably just shared a bunch of different answers to what is the Bible. 85 00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:50,640 But it is really, really important that we get this question right. 86 00:04:50,640 --> 00:04:51,840 And here is why. 87 00:04:51,840 --> 00:04:58,320 Because if we don't know what the Bible is, then we will turn it in to something that 88 00:04:58,320 --> 00:04:59,680 it isn't. 89 00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:04,480 And when we start to use the Bible for something that it isn't, then all of a sudden we can 90 00:05:04,480 --> 00:05:05,680 abuse it. 91 00:05:05,680 --> 00:05:09,480 We can misuse it to our own ends and to our own advantage. 92 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:11,320 I'm going to give you a little example. 93 00:05:11,320 --> 00:05:17,520 But when we were kids, we came across this recipe for how to make your own dog treats. 94 00:05:17,520 --> 00:05:22,680 And it said, you know, you have to mix bacon fat with like peanut butter and gravy. 95 00:05:22,680 --> 00:05:26,800 Put some old gravy and flour in there and a bit of dog food from a can. 96 00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:30,200 And you mix it all up and you baked it in the oven and then you brought it out. 97 00:05:30,200 --> 00:05:31,440 So we made these dog treats. 98 00:05:31,440 --> 00:05:32,560 We had a dog. 99 00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:36,600 And then my grandpa, who lived with us, was out doing chores. 100 00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:41,160 And he walked into the house while these dog treats were cooling on the counter. 101 00:05:41,160 --> 00:05:43,960 And he picked one up and he just took a bite of it. 102 00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:46,000 And we're like, grandpa, don't eat it. 103 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:47,760 It's dog food. 104 00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:48,760 But it was too late. 105 00:05:48,760 --> 00:05:53,920 He had already eaten it and he was already spitting it out. 106 00:05:53,920 --> 00:05:54,920 Here's what happened. 107 00:05:54,920 --> 00:05:59,160 He thought it was one thing, but it was something completely different. 108 00:05:59,160 --> 00:06:01,320 And the same is true of the Bible. 109 00:06:01,320 --> 00:06:06,720 If we open the Bible and start reading it, thinking that it is one thing, then it might 110 00:06:06,720 --> 00:06:10,880 leave a very bad taste in our mouth. 111 00:06:10,880 --> 00:06:14,680 So what is the Bible? 112 00:06:14,680 --> 00:06:15,680 What is the Bible? 113 00:06:15,680 --> 00:06:19,200 Well, the best definition I've come across for the Bible is actually from an organization 114 00:06:19,200 --> 00:06:20,200 called the Bible Project. 115 00:06:20,200 --> 00:06:24,840 If you go to thebibleproject.com, they've got all sorts of videos and resources to help 116 00:06:24,840 --> 00:06:27,080 people engage with the Bible. 117 00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:30,240 I strongly encourage you to visit that sometime during this series. 118 00:06:30,240 --> 00:06:32,400 All the resources are completely free. 119 00:06:32,400 --> 00:06:35,280 But at the Bible Project, they've come up with this definition of the Bible. 120 00:06:35,280 --> 00:06:37,120 I don't think you can beat it. 121 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:43,800 The Bible is a library of writings that are both divine and human that together tell a 122 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:47,440 unified story which leads us to Jesus. 123 00:06:47,440 --> 00:06:48,640 Why don't we just say that one together? 124 00:06:48,640 --> 00:06:50,200 Because this is a really important definition. 125 00:06:50,200 --> 00:06:51,200 Let's say it. 126 00:06:51,200 --> 00:06:58,480 The Bible is a library of writings that are both divine and human that together tell a 127 00:06:58,480 --> 00:07:03,040 unified story which leads us to Jesus. 128 00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:08,160 I put that definition in four parts because I want to look at those four pieces this morning 129 00:07:08,160 --> 00:07:10,920 as we try to figure out what the Bible is. 130 00:07:10,920 --> 00:07:12,440 Let's start with this. 131 00:07:12,440 --> 00:07:14,880 The Bible is a library. 132 00:07:14,880 --> 00:07:17,480 You might say, no, no, no, the Bible is not a library. 133 00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:18,480 The Bible is a book. 134 00:07:18,480 --> 00:07:20,000 The Bible is not a book. 135 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:21,200 The Bible is not a book. 136 00:07:21,200 --> 00:07:26,880 Now the word Bible actually comes from the Latin word biblia, which means book. 137 00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:35,240 But actually inside the Bible, the Bible never refers to itself as a book, which begs the 138 00:07:35,240 --> 00:07:39,400 question is the word Bible unbiblical? 139 00:07:39,400 --> 00:07:44,080 What does that mean? 140 00:07:44,080 --> 00:07:51,520 Now it's no wonder though that we think the Bible is a book because look, Gutenberg invented 141 00:07:51,520 --> 00:07:55,520 a printing press and he jammed all these things together and now we carry this thing around 142 00:07:55,520 --> 00:07:57,320 and yes, it looks like a what? 143 00:07:57,320 --> 00:07:59,160 It looks like a book, right? 144 00:07:59,160 --> 00:08:00,920 But actually it's not a book. 145 00:08:00,920 --> 00:08:03,320 It's a library of writings. 146 00:08:03,320 --> 00:08:07,200 Now to help us understand this, I thought I'd let you know that this week our staff decided 147 00:08:07,200 --> 00:08:09,760 to take a trip down to the local library, streets of the library. 148 00:08:09,760 --> 00:08:11,000 We didn't have any work to do. 149 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:12,600 We only really work on Sundays. 150 00:08:12,600 --> 00:08:16,400 So we were just saying let's go down, let's do some reading. 151 00:08:16,400 --> 00:08:17,400 And so we went down to the library. 152 00:08:17,400 --> 00:08:21,880 It was very interesting to see how the different staff gravitated toward different genre of 153 00:08:21,880 --> 00:08:22,880 reading. 154 00:08:22,880 --> 00:08:26,960 And so, you may not know this one now that she's a major mathematician. 155 00:08:26,960 --> 00:08:31,400 So she was ready to read a math book, some kind of math textbook. 156 00:08:31,400 --> 00:08:34,440 Then Grace felt like digging into a little bit of history. 157 00:08:34,440 --> 00:08:39,360 So she found a book about World War I and she was reading that, a history book. 158 00:08:39,360 --> 00:08:44,680 And then Sally, Sally's always a one for a good biography. 159 00:08:44,680 --> 00:08:47,800 So she found this biography on Michelle Obama. 160 00:08:47,800 --> 00:08:52,080 And then Elizabeth, I guess she was hungry maybe or something, but she came across a 161 00:08:52,080 --> 00:08:55,200 cookbook and started reading through it. 162 00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:58,800 And then I was wondering what was going on in the news. 163 00:08:58,800 --> 00:09:05,240 So I grabbed a copy of the newspaper and then Liz, our stewardship director, she was feeling 164 00:09:05,240 --> 00:09:06,240 poetic. 165 00:09:06,240 --> 00:09:09,320 She grabbed a copy of Shakespeare's poetry. 166 00:09:09,320 --> 00:09:15,600 True to form, Libby found a legal book about the criminal code and she was going through 167 00:09:15,600 --> 00:09:18,160 some of the finer points of the criminal code. 168 00:09:18,160 --> 00:09:19,360 So it was a legal textbook. 169 00:09:19,360 --> 00:09:22,280 And then we couldn't even find Alex. 170 00:09:22,280 --> 00:09:27,760 He had gone downstairs to the children's section where he found a copy of the Chronicles 171 00:09:27,760 --> 00:09:31,440 of Narnia and that's where he was reading. 172 00:09:31,440 --> 00:09:37,640 But the point is, you come to a library, very different than you come to a book. 173 00:09:37,640 --> 00:09:40,640 When you come to a book, it's usually all one genre, right? 174 00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:46,040 This is a novel or this is a memoir or this is a cookbook or it's a textbook or something 175 00:09:46,040 --> 00:09:47,040 like that. 176 00:09:47,040 --> 00:09:50,080 It's a library, a library has it all. 177 00:09:50,080 --> 00:09:55,200 And you have to read each type of literature different according to the genre that it is. 178 00:09:55,200 --> 00:10:00,880 You don't read, I mean, Elizabeth wasn't reading the cookbook the same way that Libby was reading 179 00:10:00,880 --> 00:10:05,680 the legal book and Alex wasn't reading the line the witch and the wardrobe the same way 180 00:10:05,680 --> 00:10:08,960 that Sally was reading the biography of Michelle Obama, right? 181 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:12,640 The Bible's filled with different types of literature, different types of writing. 182 00:10:12,640 --> 00:10:14,640 There is biography. 183 00:10:14,640 --> 00:10:16,040 There is legal writing. 184 00:10:16,040 --> 00:10:17,200 There is history. 185 00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:18,540 There is poetry. 186 00:10:18,540 --> 00:10:20,040 There is prophecy. 187 00:10:20,040 --> 00:10:22,320 There is census data. 188 00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:24,480 There are genealogical records. 189 00:10:24,480 --> 00:10:31,040 There are letters that you can't read it all the same way and so many problems emerge when 190 00:10:31,040 --> 00:10:36,080 we try to read the Bible as if it were all the same genre, but it's not. 191 00:10:36,080 --> 00:10:40,440 It's written by different people, different contexts, even different languages and we have 192 00:10:40,440 --> 00:10:42,160 to understand all that. 193 00:10:42,160 --> 00:10:46,160 I found this author who had written a book. 194 00:10:46,160 --> 00:10:54,120 The book was called Don't Read the Bible Literally, but Literarily, meaning we need to read the 195 00:10:54,120 --> 00:10:58,380 Bible according to its genre, right? 196 00:10:58,380 --> 00:11:02,320 According to what the author was actually trying to get across in that particular part 197 00:11:02,320 --> 00:11:03,320 of the Bible. 198 00:11:03,320 --> 00:11:06,120 Now some people here might say, Rob, I take issue with that. 199 00:11:06,120 --> 00:11:08,080 I always read the Bible literally. 200 00:11:08,080 --> 00:11:10,440 I'm a Bible literalist. 201 00:11:10,440 --> 00:11:17,120 And I would actually say, I don't think any of us truly are biblically speaking literalists. 202 00:11:17,120 --> 00:11:18,720 For example, here's a few test cases. 203 00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:23,280 This is from Isaiah 55-12, where we read, the mountains and hills will burst into song 204 00:11:23,280 --> 00:11:27,920 before you and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 205 00:11:27,920 --> 00:11:31,240 Now is this to be taken literally? 206 00:11:31,240 --> 00:11:35,000 Literally are the mountains going to form mouths and start singing? 207 00:11:35,000 --> 00:11:40,400 Are the trees literally going to grow hands like Lord of the Rings style and start clapping 208 00:11:40,400 --> 00:11:41,680 their hands? 209 00:11:41,680 --> 00:11:45,640 I think all of us would say, no, this is a metaphor. 210 00:11:45,640 --> 00:11:51,960 This is a metaphor saying that when God becomes king of all the world, then even all creation 211 00:11:51,960 --> 00:11:55,320 is going to, in a way, celebrate that moment. 212 00:11:55,320 --> 00:11:57,680 We don't read that literally. 213 00:11:57,680 --> 00:11:58,680 You don't read that that much. 214 00:11:58,680 --> 00:11:59,680 Now, here's another test case. 215 00:11:59,680 --> 00:12:02,080 I'm going to throw another one at you. 216 00:12:02,080 --> 00:12:05,480 This is from 1 Thessalonians 4-17. 217 00:12:05,480 --> 00:12:10,360 There are Paul writes, after that, we who are still alive and left will be caught up together 218 00:12:10,360 --> 00:12:16,640 with them in the clouds and meet the Lord in the air. 219 00:12:16,640 --> 00:12:22,480 Some of you might be familiar with this passage, but the idea is that when Jesus returns, what's 220 00:12:22,480 --> 00:12:27,960 going to happen is all of the true believers, according to one interpretation, we are going 221 00:12:27,960 --> 00:12:32,120 to be swept up into the sky because Jesus is going to come from the heavens, from the 222 00:12:32,120 --> 00:12:33,120 sky. 223 00:12:33,120 --> 00:12:37,120 We are going to meet Jesus in the sky, and then we are going to turn around with Jesus 224 00:12:37,120 --> 00:12:40,320 and we are going to head back to heaven where we'll live with him forever and everybody 225 00:12:40,320 --> 00:12:42,520 else gets left behind. 226 00:12:42,520 --> 00:12:44,800 You're familiar with the left behind books. 227 00:12:44,800 --> 00:12:45,800 They're in the library somewhere. 228 00:12:45,800 --> 00:12:48,880 I'm not sure under what section they would be. 229 00:12:48,880 --> 00:12:53,520 Maybe they're for sale in the front where they give away the books, but that's what happens. 230 00:12:53,520 --> 00:12:54,760 That's what one interpretation. 231 00:12:54,760 --> 00:12:59,480 But actually, if you read this historically speaking, understanding where Paul was and 232 00:12:59,480 --> 00:13:02,760 what he was talking about, then many scholars today say, no, no, no. 233 00:13:02,760 --> 00:13:09,680 What he's doing is he's alluding to how sometimes when a dignitary would come to a town, what 234 00:13:09,680 --> 00:13:13,280 would happen is the citizens of that town would say, hey, the king is here and they 235 00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:20,520 would run out and line the streets and welcome the king as he arrives and then not go off 236 00:13:20,520 --> 00:13:22,040 to some other place with the king. 237 00:13:22,040 --> 00:13:27,680 No, come back to the town, come back to the city with the king to celebrate his presence. 238 00:13:27,680 --> 00:13:31,000 So you see, that's a very different interpretation. 239 00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:34,320 So you can't, I don't think in this case, just read this literally. 240 00:13:34,320 --> 00:13:35,440 You have to know the context. 241 00:13:35,440 --> 00:13:37,720 You have to know the history of what's going on there. 242 00:13:37,720 --> 00:13:38,720 Okay? 243 00:13:38,720 --> 00:13:41,000 Now, here's another one. 244 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:43,240 Genesis 1 to 11. 245 00:13:43,240 --> 00:13:48,680 Most scholars agree that when you read Genesis 1 to 11, it's a different kind of writing 246 00:13:48,680 --> 00:13:54,400 there than when you start picking it up in Genesis 12 and on. 247 00:13:54,400 --> 00:13:58,320 So in Genesis 1 to 11, we have the six days of creation. 248 00:13:58,320 --> 00:13:59,400 We have Adam and Eve. 249 00:13:59,400 --> 00:14:01,160 We have the serpent in the garden. 250 00:14:01,160 --> 00:14:02,960 We have the flood. 251 00:14:02,960 --> 00:14:06,120 We have the tower of Babel and so on. 252 00:14:06,120 --> 00:14:10,480 And then in verse, in chapter 12, we start to hear about this guy named Abraham, who 253 00:14:10,480 --> 00:14:16,080 was called by God and God led him on a journey and all the purpose of his life and his family 254 00:14:16,080 --> 00:14:19,360 and it goes on from there. 255 00:14:19,360 --> 00:14:24,480 So when you come to Genesis 1 to 11, what is the question that you need to ask? 256 00:14:24,480 --> 00:14:29,720 Is the first question to ask, well, was there literally six 24-hour days that God created 257 00:14:29,720 --> 00:14:30,720 the earth? 258 00:14:30,720 --> 00:14:34,480 Was the flood a global flood or a local flood? 259 00:14:34,480 --> 00:14:36,760 Was it really just Adam and Eve? 260 00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:40,560 Are those that, is the world really just 10,000 years old? 261 00:14:40,560 --> 00:14:44,120 Are those the questions we should start when we come to Genesis 1 to 11? 262 00:14:44,120 --> 00:14:45,320 I would say no. 263 00:14:45,320 --> 00:14:54,760 The first question to ask is rather what kind of literature am I reading here? 264 00:14:54,760 --> 00:15:00,120 And it's really important because something that you're reading can be really, really 265 00:15:00,120 --> 00:15:04,840 true and yet not literally true. 266 00:15:04,840 --> 00:15:07,520 You saw a picture of Alex downstairs in the library. 267 00:15:07,520 --> 00:15:09,720 He was reading the lie and the witch and the wardrobe. 268 00:15:09,720 --> 00:15:12,480 Is the lie and the witch and the wardrobe literally true? 269 00:15:12,480 --> 00:15:13,800 No, it is not. 270 00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:18,760 There's no such thing as centaurs or fawns or niads or talking lions. 271 00:15:18,760 --> 00:15:23,280 Yet ask anyone who's read the lie and the witch and the wardrobe and they will say that in 272 00:15:23,280 --> 00:15:28,120 those pages there is deep, deep truth. 273 00:15:28,120 --> 00:15:33,680 Many scholars aren't even sure quite how to read Genesis 1 to 11. 274 00:15:33,680 --> 00:15:34,680 What is it we're reading here? 275 00:15:34,680 --> 00:15:35,680 Is it history? 276 00:15:35,680 --> 00:15:36,680 Is it myth? 277 00:15:36,680 --> 00:15:37,680 Is it allegory? 278 00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:38,680 Is it a parable? 279 00:15:38,680 --> 00:15:39,680 Poetry? 280 00:15:39,680 --> 00:15:40,680 What is it? 281 00:15:40,680 --> 00:15:47,960 My point is even if it's not literal truth, it still tells us something that is really 282 00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:54,600 true like who we are and who God is and what God is like and what the world was created 283 00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:55,600 for. 284 00:15:55,600 --> 00:15:59,320 And all those other types of questions we first need to be asking whenever we come to the 285 00:15:59,320 --> 00:16:03,600 Bible because remember the Bible is not a book. 286 00:16:03,600 --> 00:16:10,640 It is a library full of different genres, different types of literature that are all 287 00:16:10,640 --> 00:16:16,640 deeply true even when they're not literally true. 288 00:16:16,640 --> 00:16:18,760 Okay, that's the first point. 289 00:16:18,760 --> 00:16:22,040 The Bible, the Bible is a library. 290 00:16:22,040 --> 00:16:23,800 Let's go on to the second part of that definition. 291 00:16:23,800 --> 00:16:28,000 Secondly, the Bible is both divine and human. 292 00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:29,920 Okay, what does that mean? 293 00:16:29,920 --> 00:16:32,520 Well, let's start with the divine part. 294 00:16:32,520 --> 00:16:40,600 By divine we mean that behind every word and phrase and paragraph in the Bible, God 295 00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:42,120 is there. 296 00:16:42,120 --> 00:16:43,640 God is behind it. 297 00:16:43,640 --> 00:16:49,960 The Bible is inspired, the scriptures say, not inspired like a Tony Robbins motivational 298 00:16:49,960 --> 00:16:56,960 pep talk to get you inspired, but inspired as if to say that, well, like these were 299 00:16:56,960 --> 00:16:59,120 God's words to us. 300 00:16:59,120 --> 00:17:00,800 Peter writes this. 301 00:17:00,800 --> 00:17:07,080 He says for prophecy and maybe to substitute in there the Bible or scripture. 302 00:17:07,080 --> 00:17:13,040 It never had its origins in human will, but prophets, and you might substitute in their 303 00:17:13,040 --> 00:17:21,000 Bible writers, the authors, but the authors though human spoke from God as they were carried 304 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:25,280 along by the Holy Spirit. 305 00:17:25,280 --> 00:17:29,960 Or as one of my favorite scholars, NT Wright said, he said, inspiration is a shorthand way 306 00:17:29,960 --> 00:17:35,440 of talking about the belief that by his spirit, God guided the very different writers and 307 00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:41,600 editors so that the books they produced were and get this, they were the books that God 308 00:17:41,600 --> 00:17:45,960 intended his people to have tomorrow morning. 309 00:17:45,960 --> 00:17:50,480 If you get up when you get up to read your Bible, you are reading the books God intended 310 00:17:50,480 --> 00:17:51,480 you to have. 311 00:17:51,480 --> 00:17:54,920 You are reading the words God intended you to have in that way. 312 00:17:54,920 --> 00:17:59,040 It is very truly God's word. 313 00:17:59,040 --> 00:18:06,240 And yet it's also King David's word and it's Jeremiah's word and it's Peter's word and 314 00:18:06,240 --> 00:18:08,480 it's Paul's word, right? 315 00:18:08,480 --> 00:18:10,840 Because it's divine and human. 316 00:18:10,840 --> 00:18:18,200 There's a famous painting actually was destroyed during World War II by Caravaggio called St. 317 00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:20,360 Matthew and the Angel. 318 00:18:20,360 --> 00:18:25,960 And in the painting it shows an angel whispering in St. Matthew's ear as if to dictate to St. 319 00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:30,960 Matthew what he should be writing down as he wrote the Bible. 320 00:18:30,960 --> 00:18:36,680 Now it's actually interesting because some religions I believe think that their holy 321 00:18:36,680 --> 00:18:38,560 books came to them that way. 322 00:18:38,560 --> 00:18:42,200 I think Islam would say that this is kind of how it happened. 323 00:18:42,200 --> 00:18:48,800 And I also think Mormonism, Mormons believe the Book of Mormon was like verbally dictated 324 00:18:48,800 --> 00:18:53,520 but it's really, really important to know that the Bible and Christians have never 325 00:18:53,520 --> 00:18:55,840 said this about the Bible. 326 00:18:55,840 --> 00:19:04,680 Instead, Christians believe that God is always working through free, flawed, intelligent human 327 00:19:04,680 --> 00:19:05,680 beings. 328 00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:11,360 And as they wrote, God was not working them like a puppet and God was not whispering in 329 00:19:11,360 --> 00:19:12,360 their ear. 330 00:19:12,360 --> 00:19:15,800 As they wrote, God said, I'm not going to erase your personality. 331 00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:17,720 I'm not going to take away your culture. 332 00:19:17,720 --> 00:19:21,840 I'm not going to erase your vocabulary or your worldview or whatever. 333 00:19:21,840 --> 00:19:28,440 Instead, God collaborated with human beings to create the Scriptures. 334 00:19:28,440 --> 00:19:34,120 And so Paul writes very differently than Ezekiel would write. 335 00:19:34,120 --> 00:19:36,440 Ezekiel would write in a wild and flammable. 336 00:19:36,440 --> 00:19:38,320 And Mark writes very differently. 337 00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:41,880 Mark is very efficient in short and to the point and so on. 338 00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:47,840 So you see when God inspired the writers of the Bible, he gave them tons and tons of latitude 339 00:19:47,840 --> 00:19:50,920 and freedom to be human. 340 00:19:50,920 --> 00:19:56,000 And that humaneness comes through the Scriptures, which means we don't need to hide the fact 341 00:19:56,000 --> 00:19:58,520 that there are human fingerprints all over the Bible. 342 00:19:58,520 --> 00:20:02,440 Rather that is something that we should celebrate. 343 00:20:02,440 --> 00:20:06,200 And you see this everywhere you look in the Bible if you read properly. 344 00:20:06,200 --> 00:20:10,840 For example, take this one, for example, this is all taken from 1 Corinthians, Paul's 345 00:20:10,840 --> 00:20:13,080 letter to the church in Corinth. 346 00:20:13,080 --> 00:20:17,940 He begins the letter by saying, Paul to the people of Corinth. 347 00:20:17,940 --> 00:20:19,800 So who is writing this? 348 00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:21,400 He's saying it's me, it's Paul. 349 00:20:21,400 --> 00:20:22,400 Paul's writing, I'm Paul. 350 00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:24,080 I'm the one writing this. 351 00:20:24,080 --> 00:20:30,640 And then in chapter seven, he says, I give this command, but then he corrects himself, 352 00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:33,360 oh, it's actually not I who gives this command. 353 00:20:33,360 --> 00:20:35,360 It's the Lord who's giving this command. 354 00:20:35,360 --> 00:20:39,920 So we're like, okay, so what Paul is saying right now is actually not coming from Paul. 355 00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:44,240 This is actually Paul giving us what God is saying. 356 00:20:44,240 --> 00:20:48,760 And then two verses later he says, and to the rest of you, I say this, but then he says, 357 00:20:48,760 --> 00:20:54,080 no, this time it's me, this time it's me talking, and it's not the Lord. 358 00:20:54,080 --> 00:20:59,280 So you see this, Paul's not even trying to hide this tension, that the Bible is this 359 00:20:59,280 --> 00:21:04,720 mix of human and divine sources. 360 00:21:04,720 --> 00:21:11,320 And obviously the best way to understand this tension is probably to look to Jesus himself. 361 00:21:11,320 --> 00:21:15,120 Jesus is both fully God and he's fully human. 362 00:21:15,120 --> 00:21:21,360 He's not just God pretending to be human, and he's not human with a little bit of a divine 363 00:21:21,360 --> 00:21:22,360 spark in him. 364 00:21:22,360 --> 00:21:26,440 No Christians have always understood that he is, he's not either or. 365 00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:28,240 He is fully God and fully human. 366 00:21:28,240 --> 00:21:33,960 And the same way the Bible is both divine and human at the same time. 367 00:21:33,960 --> 00:21:39,920 It is on the one hand from the spirit of God, breathed out by God, and on the other hand, 368 00:21:39,920 --> 00:21:45,840 it's Paul and it's Mark and it's Jeremiah and Isaiah and so on. 369 00:21:45,840 --> 00:21:46,840 So there you have it. 370 00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:47,840 So far we've got this. 371 00:21:47,840 --> 00:21:53,640 The Bible is one, a library, two, the Bible is both human and divine. 372 00:21:53,640 --> 00:21:56,680 Now let's talk about the third point of that great definition we received. 373 00:21:56,680 --> 00:22:02,440 The third point is the Bible tells a unified story, unified story. 374 00:22:02,440 --> 00:22:07,640 Now I'm not going to say too much about this, but I will just point out this little pie 375 00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:09,880 chart that I found. 376 00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:14,120 It shows all the major types of literature found in the Bible. 377 00:22:14,120 --> 00:22:20,600 And as you can see, 60% of the Bible is history or narrative. 378 00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:24,160 So yeah, there's poetry there and there's wisdom literature and apocalyptic literature 379 00:22:24,160 --> 00:22:27,120 and prophecy and letters and so on. 380 00:22:27,120 --> 00:22:31,600 But most of the Bible is a story. 381 00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:37,600 And even more than this, you have to understand that the Bible is telling an overarching 382 00:22:37,600 --> 00:22:39,120 story. 383 00:22:39,120 --> 00:22:46,680 This great narrative arc moves through the Bible from Genesis all the way to Revelation. 384 00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:53,400 Walter Brueggemann, he said this, he said, the Bible is a complex tapestry of voices 385 00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:54,400 and genres. 386 00:22:54,400 --> 00:23:01,160 Yet, this is a really important yet, through it all runs a unified narrative. 387 00:23:01,160 --> 00:23:05,920 The story of God's relentless pursuit of relationship with humanity. 388 00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:09,280 That sounds like God's love letter there the way he's writing it. 389 00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:13,720 It's important that we learn to read the Bible as a story. 390 00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:15,360 Human beings love stories. 391 00:23:15,360 --> 00:23:18,600 Stories get our attention and they evoke our imagination. 392 00:23:18,600 --> 00:23:21,960 Like we're made for stories, right? 393 00:23:21,960 --> 00:23:25,280 And the Bible tells the greatest story ever. 394 00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:29,120 Another guy I came across this week, John Mark Comer, said there's another really good 395 00:23:29,120 --> 00:23:32,000 reason why you should read the Bible as a story. 396 00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:36,360 And that's because if you read the Bible as a story, it helps deal with some of the apparent 397 00:23:36,360 --> 00:23:39,800 contradictions that you might find in the Bible. 398 00:23:39,800 --> 00:23:40,800 Here's what I mean. 399 00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:44,480 Let's say you were reading the Bible and you turn back to the book of Leviticus. 400 00:23:44,480 --> 00:23:48,000 And you see here in Leviticus, there's a whole bunch of laws that say you shouldn't eat this 401 00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:51,600 food, you shouldn't eat this food, and you shouldn't wear these clothes, and you shouldn't 402 00:23:51,600 --> 00:23:52,760 wear these clothes. 403 00:23:52,760 --> 00:23:57,400 You might say, oh, interesting, it says here that we shouldn't eat these food, and we 404 00:23:57,400 --> 00:23:59,000 shouldn't wear these clothes. 405 00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:03,880 But over here, and then he turns to the New Testament and says, but over here, it says 406 00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:09,720 that we can eat any food we want, and we can wear any clothes that we want, and so on. 407 00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:12,320 See, so, huh, do you see the contradiction? 408 00:24:12,320 --> 00:24:14,920 The Bible says this over here, it says this over here. 409 00:24:14,920 --> 00:24:19,840 And if you read the Bible as if it's an encyclopedia, you're going to run into all those contradictions 410 00:24:19,840 --> 00:24:23,000 over and over and over again. 411 00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:28,880 But the way you have to understand this is it's a story. 412 00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:34,080 And there were, here in the early part of the story, there were these food laws that 413 00:24:34,080 --> 00:24:37,680 were really important for that part of the story. 414 00:24:37,680 --> 00:24:42,320 At that point in the story, God's people needed to remain distinct and they needed to remain 415 00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:47,360 separate so that their identity as God's people could be formed and not influenced by the cultures 416 00:24:47,360 --> 00:24:48,360 around them. 417 00:24:48,360 --> 00:24:49,960 That was that part of the story. 418 00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:51,960 But now we're in a different part of the story. 419 00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:54,960 The part of the story says we're supposed to go out and we're supposed to take the good 420 00:24:54,960 --> 00:25:00,280 news of Jesus to the world around us and not remain all kind of separate and isolated. 421 00:25:00,280 --> 00:25:01,840 We're in this part of the story. 422 00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:05,960 And here in Mississauga, 2024, we're definitely not in that part of the story. 423 00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:09,160 We're in another part of the story yet. 424 00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:14,920 So if we read the Bible as a bunch of disconnected little pieces, you're always going to run 425 00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:17,760 into saying this doesn't match that and that doesn't match that. 426 00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:24,560 But if you read the Bible as a story, it's going to help you see how God is working through 427 00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:31,680 history and actually how God is still working today and Jesus is still working today. 428 00:25:31,680 --> 00:25:33,600 That brings us to the fourth point. 429 00:25:33,600 --> 00:25:35,320 That brings us to the very fourth point here. 430 00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:37,840 Let me back up one slide there. 431 00:25:37,840 --> 00:25:41,280 The Bible leads us to Jesus. 432 00:25:41,280 --> 00:25:47,560 It's a library, human divine, tells a story, but that story leads us to Jesus. 433 00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:52,120 That does not mean when you open your Bible on every page, you are going to see Jesus' 434 00:25:52,120 --> 00:25:54,080 name on every page. 435 00:25:54,080 --> 00:25:59,320 But what it does mean is that in every page, in every chapter, in every paragraph, there 436 00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:06,440 is something pointing us forward to Jesus. 437 00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:08,520 Here's a fun fact. 438 00:26:08,520 --> 00:26:14,760 You probably heard many people call the Bible the Word of God. 439 00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:20,280 But you know, the Bible rarely refers to itself as the Word of God. 440 00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:26,240 Instead, do you know what the Bible is talking about when it refers to the Word of God? 441 00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:28,360 Yeah, that's right. 442 00:26:28,360 --> 00:26:29,480 Jesus. 443 00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:34,240 For example, when John begins his gospel and he says, in the beginning was the Word, he 444 00:26:34,240 --> 00:26:41,000 doesn't mean in the beginning was the Bible, he means in the beginning was Jesus. 445 00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:42,640 That's what the Word means. 446 00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:46,280 In other places in the Bible, when you see the Word of God, it's not just referring to 447 00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:50,680 Jesus, but it's referring to the gospel of Jesus, to the story of Jesus, to the good 448 00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:53,200 news of Jesus. 449 00:26:53,200 --> 00:27:00,560 So for example, when Paul writes this to Timothy, hey, Timothy, preach the Word in season and 450 00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:01,640 out of season. 451 00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:06,240 Is he saying, Timothy, preach the Bible in season and out of season? 452 00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:08,120 Actually, in context, no. 453 00:27:08,120 --> 00:27:09,520 Nothing wrong with preaching the Bible. 454 00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:15,120 But what Paul is saying here is preach the good news of Jesus, whether it's favorable 455 00:27:15,120 --> 00:27:18,680 or unfavorable circumstance for you. 456 00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:20,880 Or how about this one? 457 00:27:20,880 --> 00:27:26,080 This is one of the most popular ones that people use to talk about the Bible, the Word 458 00:27:26,080 --> 00:27:27,080 of God. 459 00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:28,080 Right? 460 00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:33,720 Hebrews 4, we read that the Word of God is alive and it's active and it's sharper than 461 00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:36,720 any double-edged sword. 462 00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:38,440 Is this talking about the Bible? 463 00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:40,080 Is the Bible alive? 464 00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:44,600 The Bible is amazing, but it's not alive. 465 00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:48,840 The Bible has words about life, but it's not alive. 466 00:27:48,840 --> 00:27:54,520 Only Jesus, the true Word of God is alive. 467 00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:56,160 Jesus is the Word. 468 00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:59,560 The message of Jesus is the Word. 469 00:27:59,560 --> 00:28:05,120 And it's important to get this straight because it can happen that some people elevate the 470 00:28:05,120 --> 00:28:11,520 Bible so high that they actually worship the Bible more than they would worship Jesus. 471 00:28:11,520 --> 00:28:13,920 And we want people to get excited about the Bible. 472 00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:15,440 That's what this whole series is about. 473 00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:19,840 But don't let it warp into bibliography, right? 474 00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:21,480 We don't worship the Bible. 475 00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:23,360 We worship Jesus Christ. 476 00:28:23,360 --> 00:28:29,840 And He's the one to whom the whole Bible is pointing. 477 00:28:29,840 --> 00:28:33,680 We heard this read for us this morning. 478 00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:38,200 Jesus said to a bunch of Pharisees, He said, you guys are studying the Scriptures diligently 479 00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:40,840 because you think in them you have eternal life. 480 00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:45,800 And these are the very Scriptures that testify about me. 481 00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:49,360 Jesus is talking to religious leaders, people who knew their Bible better than you know 482 00:28:49,360 --> 00:28:51,800 your Bible and better than I know my Bible. 483 00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:55,720 He's speaking to people with a very high view of the Bible. 484 00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:59,200 But you see, He's saying, you don't understand the plot of the Bible. 485 00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:03,120 You don't understand what the Bible is pointing to. 486 00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:07,400 And maybe you've got, here's the thing, maybe you've come across people who know their Bible. 487 00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:10,560 Man on man do they know their Bible, but they do not seem like kind people. 488 00:29:10,560 --> 00:29:14,720 They seem cruel and cold and they seem kind of angry all the time. 489 00:29:14,720 --> 00:29:16,240 And do you know why that happens? 490 00:29:16,240 --> 00:29:22,720 It happens because you can know your Bible and not know Jesus. 491 00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:30,040 You can study it and read it and memorize it and still not be anything like Jesus. 492 00:29:30,040 --> 00:29:33,920 In fact, that's one of the worst things that could happen. 493 00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:44,440 It's to become this snooty, mean, cold, unfeeling, but highly educated student of the Bible. 494 00:29:44,440 --> 00:29:48,800 But then our lives look nothing like Jesus. 495 00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:51,920 So what I'm saying is it's not enough to know the Bible. 496 00:29:51,920 --> 00:29:53,560 It's not enough to believe the Bible. 497 00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:58,640 It's not even enough to say the Bible is sacred and highly revered or holy or inspired. 498 00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:03,280 The Bible is amazing, but it cannot give you life. 499 00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:08,640 Only Jesus, to whom the Bible points, can give you life. 500 00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:11,360 So what is the Bible? 501 00:30:11,360 --> 00:30:12,360 It's a library. 502 00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:15,440 Secondly, the Bible is both human and divine. 503 00:30:15,440 --> 00:30:23,200 The Bible tells a unified story and most importantly, the Bible leads us to Jesus. 504 00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:25,720 So if you take last week, now we know where the Bible came from. 505 00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:30,440 If you take this week, now we know what the Bible is. 506 00:30:30,440 --> 00:30:37,560 And once we've gotten that far, then finally we'll be able to see what it is that the Bible 507 00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:38,560 does. 508 00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:40,480 What is the Bible for? 509 00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:44,800 But that is going to be our topic for next week. 510 00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:48,800 And we're going to pick it up there. 511 00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:50,720 Thank you so much for joining us today. 512 00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:54,320 And we hope that you learned a little more about the Bible. 513 00:30:54,320 --> 00:31:00,120 Today's sermon was taken from the April 14, 2024 service at Trinity Church Streetsville 514 00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:26,120 in Mississauga, Ontario.