Welcome to ECB's weekly sermon podcast. ECB is
an international church in Bangkok, Thailand,
with dozens of nationalities worshiping together.
We invite you to connect with us from wherever
you are through our website, ecb .asia, or our
mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed
by this week's sermon. Well, good morning. It's
good to be together again. As you know, during
this month, we've been doing this series called
Walking with God, which is a set of personal
reflections after this summer trip with our School
of Apologetics Crossroads, which, by the way,
there's a table downstairs that you have as soon
as you come out with the map. That's Crossroads'
table. You can ask questions about the courses
that we're going to be having. But before we
start this study today, I just would like to
first just bring my heart to the Lord together.
Lord, as we open your word, I ask you in Jesus'
name to use me in your power, in your grace,
in your strength. Reach our hearts. And Lord,
bring salvation to those that do not know you.
We pray in the powerful name of Jesus. Amen.
When we started this series of walking with God,
the idea was to create a space almost like if
we were sharing a cup of coffee, reflecting together,
talking about certain things that were in my
heart. And so far, you keep coming back. So I
think you like the coffee or you like the reflection.
Today, the thing that I want you to get from
this time of reflection, is love the truth. Not
everybody loves the truth. But if you're a follower
of Jesus, truth should matter to us. And we live
in a world that there are so many opinions about
everything, and the worldviews are so different,
that many followers of Jesus have abandoned truth
for opinions. I have abandoned the scriptures
for the words of the latest published book of
the experts. But what we need to remember is
that followers of Jesus have been known and must
be known for loving the truth. In the book of
Psalms, it summarizes the word of God like this.
Would you read it with me? Your word is a lamp
to guide my feet. And a light for my path. What
happens if you get rid of the lamp? And if you
get rid of the light? What do you get? Darkness.
And I've met Christians throughout the years.
That got rid of the lamp. Stopped trusting the
light. And they ended up getting lost in the
path. The path of darkness. Decisions in their
lives that were not aligned with the Lord. soon
to realize that they lost their way. Why? It
all begins by the attitude that we have towards
truth and towards the scriptures, which is the
source of truth for us. In the book of Acts,
we find that at the beginning of the Christian
movement, when the first Christians started preaching
the gospel and the good news, about salvation
in Jesus. These good news that redefine everything
because the message was that God who had created
the world loved humans so much that he became
a human himself in order to take upon himself
our sin, our shame, our fears that bound us.
And he took all of that and he died on our behalf
and he resurrected and he overcame the power
of darkness. And now he has the power to forgive.
He has the power to transform. He has the power
to make you new. Anyone who confesses him as
Lord and Savior. And that message was proclaimed
by the Apostle Paul in his second missionary
journey throughout the region. of what is nowadays
the area of Greece, and some areas of nowadays
Turkey. And if you zoom in into this map, you
will see that region of Greece that he went to,
and you will start recognizing some of the names
that are found in the books of the New Testament
in the Bible, like the Thessalonians, Thessalonica,
or Corinth, the Corinthians, Ephesus, the Ephesians,
Philippi, the Philippians. It's because in this
second missionary journey, the Apostle Paul went
to that region and started preaching this good
news of salvation in Jesus. And we are told that
when he got to Thessalonica, there was some drama,
some opposition he got there. So then he went
to a city called Berea. And in Berea, he had
an experience. And then he went from there to
Athens. And in Athens, he was able to preach
the gospel again. But something happens in that
journey that brings light to this idea of followers
of Jesus being people who love the truth. And
I want you to read with me this whole section
to see. Not out loud, but follow me as I read.
This is what it says. As soon as it was night,
the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea.
On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue.
So they left. Thessalonica, because of the danger
that happened, arrived to Berea and they are
going to try to engage with the Jewish community
in that town. Where did you find them? Well,
in the synagogue. So they went to the synagogue
to start preaching the message of salvation in
Jesus Christ. And the text says, now the Berean
Jews, where of, how can I put it? More noble
character than there was in Thessalonica. These
people were a little bit nicer. For they received
the message with great eagerness, and they examined
the scriptures every day to see if what Paul
said was true. Now, when we talk about organizational
values in companies, we talk about... Values
and cultures. What was one value that these people
had? They care about. Truth. And because they
care about truth. When they heard the message
from the apostle Paul. They wanted to know. Is
this true or not? So they spent every single
day looking at the scriptures. To see. To be
able to corroborate. Whether what Paul was saying
matched the word. Which means that what was the
source of truth that these people had? It was
the scriptures. What we have now in the Old Testament
part of our scriptures. And we are told that
as they started listening and as they started
corroborating through the scriptures what Paul
was saying, it matched. Then, as a result, many
of them believed, as did also a number of prominent
Greek women. and many Greek men. So because they
were able to see it was true, now they were able
to start following Jesus. And that's a very important
thing. Because we do not follow Jesus because
we are religious people. We do not follow Jesus
and call ourselves a Christian because we were
born in a Christian family. We follow Jesus Because
it's the truth. If it's not the truth. We're
wasting our time. From the very beginning. The
message of salvation. And the message of the
scriptures. Was rooted on the understanding.
That we are talking about. Verifiable things.
This is true. You can read the scriptures. And
see whether this matches or not. By the people
in Thessalonica. Were not like the Bereans. They
did not like truth. They wanted to be proven
right. They wanted to hear something that would
confirm what they already believed. And whenever
they met Paul and they had this message that
had to force them to question whether what they
believed was true or not. They didn't like that.
So the text says. But when the Jews in Thessalonica
learned that Paul was preaching the word of God
at Berea, some of them went there too, agitating
the crowds and stirring them up. They wanted
to cause trouble. They wanted to silence Paul
and his friends. In this trip, we are told that
the contrast between these two groups of people,
Those that love the truth, care for the truth,
search for the truth, and those who oppose it.
And they became very political and very militant
about it. The believers immediately sent Paul
to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at
Berea. Those who escorted Paul brought him to
Athens. And then left with instructions for Silas
and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.
And here is where the names come up. The Apostle
Paul had his friend Silas, but they had an apprentice.
His name was Timothy. He was going with them.
He was learning how this whole ministry of sharing
the gospel with people and making disciples was
like. And this experience was very significant
in his formation. Later, the Apostle Paul is
going to write to Timothy two letters that we
have in the Bible in the New Testament. And we
will get to read one of them today. And he's
going to reflect on these experiences and the
significance of truth for those who follow Jesus.
So what Paul does is that he goes to Athens.
And when he gets there, he sees all these Greeks
worshiping all these different deities. They
had a God for everything. A few years ago, I
had the privilege of going to Athens and seeing
the Agora and seeing the temple. And you climb
to the mount there and you get to see everything.
But there was an area where Paul had visited
and they have a... plaque there, a big one, with
the quotation from the book of Acts describing
how the apostle Paul went there and saw that
and exactly what he said. It was fascinating
to see the text of the Bible in a public place
like that. And it's because all of this is history.
This happened. But we are told that when Paul
arrived there and he started trying to engage
people with the good news of who Jesus was and
what he came to do, There was a group of philosophers
from the school of the Epicureans. And they heard
Paul, and they were wondering, we never heard
this, and they like ideas. So I said, let's talk
more about it so we can hear what this new idea
is about. The founder of that school, Epicurus
himself, is a man that will come at the end of
this study. So remember... Paul in Athens, remember
the school of the Epicureans. How amazing to
discover that from the very beginning, people
that became followers of Jesus became followers
of Jesus because they cared about truth. And
people who refused to follow Jesus, they did
not care about truth the same way. What they
wanted, Was to be proven right. And this is a
challenge. And this is the beginning of the spiritual
journey. And perhaps you are in that place of
your journey. Because when truth matters, it
can become difficult. When you realize that Jesus
is really true. And that this message is real.
And that you need a savior. And that your religion
cannot save you because only Jesus can save.
Suddenly you are confronted with the possibility
that your whole upbringing has been shaped by
a religion but not by truth. And what will you
do with that? It may mean that you have to confront
this reality and walk away from things that you
used to treasure. But what matters most? Truth?
Or your feelings. Truth. Or traditions. Followers
of Jesus. Are called. To love the truth. And
later the apostle Paul. Writes to Timothy. Now
Timothy. Is not the apprentice anymore. Now he's
been serving God for a long time. Now he is leading.
A church in Ephesus. And Paul now is in prison,
he's in Rome, and he writes these letters to
Timothy. And in fact, the second letter that
he wrote to Timothy is the last letter before
Paul died. And he tells Timothy, Timothy, I need
you to do this. Keep reminding God's people of
these things. Warn them before God against quarreling
about words. It is of no value. and only ruins
those who listen. We followers of Jesus do not
engage in just arguing for the sake of arguing
and proving them wrong and proving ourselves
right. No, that's not what we do. We're not militants.
So tell the people there in Ephesus, the followers
of Jesus, to don't act like that. But you, Timothy,
Do your best to present yourself to God. As one
who has been approved. Like a worker who does
not need to be ashamed. One who correctly handles
the word of truth. You need to know the truth.
You need to walk the truth. You need to live
the truth. So be a kind of follower of Jesus,
Timothy. That is not engaging in all that nonsense.
You are a man of truth. And you have nothing
to be ashamed of because you are walking with
the truth. But you are the kind of person that
knows it. You know the scriptures. You know how
to manage it. If this was a tool, you know how
to use it and you can teach others how to use
it. Be that kind of follower of Jesus. avoid
this kind of godly chatter because those who
indulge in it will become more and more ungodly.
Just talking about the latest theory of that
and that book and that view and all this stuff
that has no relevance. All that stuff. Focus
on the truth. Why? Well, because some of these
people start teaching things that are not true.
And they're teaching Will start spreading like
gun green. Starts infecting everybody. And people
die of it. Among them are people like Hymenaeus
and Philetus. Who have departed from the truth.
These were people that said we are followers
of Jesus. And they sat there at your church.
And they went to the worship services. And they
tried to help in different ministries. But now
in their journey they stopped caring about the
truth. And they started entertaining ideas that
were contrary to what the scripture said. And
they started teaching this falsehood to people.
And they stopped loving truth. And what happens?
Well, they say that the resurrection has already
taken place. Which it hasn't. This is going to
be later in the future. But they say, oh, it
already took place. So they are destroying the
faith of some people. They are confusing them.
Now they do not know who to believe. Because
they are all quoting the scriptures to prove
their point. And deception entered. Nevertheless,
God's solid foundation stands firm. Remains the
same. Sealed with this inscription. The Lord
knows those who are his. So are you a follower
of Jesus truly? Is Jesus your savior and Lord?
Good. The Lord knows you. He knows you are his.
So you don't need to walk in fear and shame.
But the second one. Everyone who confesses the
name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.
You must walk the truth. That you proclaim. You
must live the truth. That you believe. Because
the moment you say you believe the truth. But
you don't live it. Now your life becomes the
very reason. Why people walk away from Jesus.
Because the only Jesus they know. Is the one
they can see in you. And they don't see Jesus
in you. Truth. Timothy. Don't forget how important
it is. So become a person that knows it, knows
the scriptures, and trusts the scriptures. Because
the scriptures is the source of truth. Your worldview
must be shaped by the scriptures, not by the
latest theories of everything. Let the scriptures
tell you whether what that person is saying is
compatible with it or not. Because if it's not,
then it's not true. And what happens is that
as Paul writes these things to Timothy, and Timothy
now is engaging and growing in his faith, they
leave these things for us. We discover something.
That there are people who do not know the Lord,
who are very militant, that are going to oppose
you because you care about truth. And secondly,
There are people within the Christian community,
they say they are Christians, but they do not
know the truth, they do not love the truth, and
they are infiltrating false teaching inside.
And because those two things happened, we followers
of Jesus have to care about truth. Otherwise,
we will leave the path of the light and we will
be wounded. What are some of the common things
that cause people to start walking away from
the truth? No longer trusting the scriptures.
No longer believing in what God says. First one
is ignorance. You may have a Bible, but you do
not know the Bible. You don't read the Bible.
You wait until Pastor Pablo preaches on Sunday.
And that's all the food you have. And because
we don't really know the word, then we start
believing things that are not true, but we do
not know. And it happens all the time. Let me
say, for instance, let me ask you a question.
Don't give me the answer out loud. Just think
the answer, okay? Where does it say in the Bible,
in the Old Testament or in the New Testament?
Which one? This quote. God helps those who help
themselves. Okay, you got it? Old Testament or
New Testament? Ah. If you know the scriptures,
you said, neither one, Pastor Pablo. That's not
in my Bible. And some of you are saying, oh,
it's not? I thought it was Old Testament, maybe
a proverb or something. Didn't Jesus say that?
Isn't it God helps those who help themselves?
I read it somewhere. It sounds so right. That's
a very poor theology. And then we're praying
for our brothers, you know. It's like, may the
Lord bless you because, you know, God, you help
those who help themselves. So please help my
brother. And we start even quoting things that
are not even in the Bible. You see? Ignorance.
Things we say, you know, that sound right, but
actually they are not. One of the ones that I
find very intriguing is when people say, you
need to be like Jesus but with skin on. And it's
like, wait, are you a Christian? Do you believe
that Jesus died and resurrected? Then he resurrected
in a bodily form, he had skin on. So why? Why
do you tell me I need to be like Jesus but with
skin on as if he didn't have skin? I don't understand.
See, it sounds good, but it's poor theology.
You see that? The scriptures matter and ignorance
can slowly make you susceptible to deception.
The other one. is the sense of conspiracy. Pastor
Paolo, we know that throughout years of history
and all the political powers, people have changed
the Bible. You cannot trust what you read. It
has been changed so many times by so many people.
So this idea that the text is corrupted, so then
I cannot really trust what I'm reading. And the
third one is the idea that Actually, the Bible
is a myth. It's not really history. It's just
an ancient book like other books. It's not actual
history. It's just myth. That didn't really happen.
Pastor Pablo, you don't really believe that God
created humans out of the dust of the earth and
that there was a flood with Noah and all that
stuff? That God parted the waters with Moses?
You don't really believe that there was all this
stuff happening. I mean, it's just a metaphor,
isn't it? And all of these ideas then start keeping
people from really engaging with the truth because
you cannot grab it. You don't think it's true.
And suddenly, we throw away the lamp, the light,
and we find ourselves in darkness. Not knowing
to turn left, to turn right, we feel lost. And
we got to experience part of this, as you know,
in this trip to England as part of our Crossroads
training. This trip was the conclusion of the
year and a half of classes in Crossroads. Eight
courses, five sessions each throughout the year
and a half. And by the way, we are starting again
the last Sunday of August, course one. So if
you start in the middle of the training, you
can continue until you complete all. If you have
not done the training, you can start course one.
And if you want to learn more about it, go to
the table downstairs and talk to Roshanak about
it. But we went into this trip because the training
for Crossroads has the goal of equipping Christians
to learn how to think critically about issues
of worldview. How to engage then intelligently
with people in conversations and how to love
compassionately. Because when we are equipped
and we understand, then we can engage and guide
people in truth. So we went there for this purpose.
And one of the things that we did in that trip,
as I mentioned in the study last week, is that
we went to Charles Darwin's home, which is a
museum. Because one of the ideologies that we
were studying was the ideology of Darwinian evolution
as the origin of species. Now, if you missed
the study last week, go to our website or our
app and watch so you catch up more on the content
of this. But one of the things that we discovered
is that Darwin himself, until he was 22 years
old, he considered himself a Christian. He considered
one who believed in the Bible. And it was in
his 20s that he abandoned the faith completely.
And later, as an adult, after he got married
and he had kids, that's when he identified himself
as an agnostic, no longer believing in the Bible.
But his journey was progressive. But he wrote
about it. And it's very interesting to see. Because
as he writes his wrestling, you can see the window
into his mind. And this is what he said. I can
well remember often inventing daydreams of all
letters between distinguished Romans and manuscripts
being discovered, which confirm in the most striking
manner all that was written in the Gospels. Look
at the dates when he lived, 1809 to 1882. Think
about the historical context in which he lives.
They believe at that time that the universe is
eternal. There's no beginning, no end. That was
the scientific establishment at that time. Because
to believe that the universe had a beginning
would be to agree with the Bible. So no, the
universe is eternal. Okay. Israel and Jerusalem
was under the Ottoman Empire. So there was no
archaeology. Going on in that area. So he's reading
the Bible. And he wishes there was some kind
of evidence. Some kind of discovery. That corroborated
the Bible. But there was none. So he had to imagine.
And he would daydream sometimes. Wouldn't it
be cool if there was a Roman letter. That mentioned
Jesus or something. And it's like wow. It happened.
It's real. But he got tired of imagining. And
never actually discovering. But I found it more
and more difficult with free scope given to my
imagination to invent evidence which would suffice
to convince me. He gave up. And then he started
looking at the Bible. I had gradually come by
this time to see that the Old Testament from
its false history of the world. Did you pick
on that phrase? The Old Testament is not God's
word. It's just a myth. It's a false history
of the world. Did not happen. Abraham, no, did
not exist. Cyrus, all this stuff, no evidence.
That didn't happen. The history of the Old Testament
is fake. So the Bible and the Old Testament and
all this stuff was no more to be trusted than
the sacred books of the Hindus or the beliefs
of any barbarian. They're all the same. They're
not historical. It's just myth. And that's how
he thought. So for him, the choice he would pick
from these options was, I believe the Bible is
myth. That's why I don't. is true. And therefore
he had to create in his mind and imagination
another version of the history of humanity. And
he came up with his theory. This matters because
as we were engaging in these spaces, we are trying
to understand is Is the Bible really true? Can
we trust the text? And who translated the Bible
anyway? Is this really historical? Is there any
evidence? Is what Darwin said really true or
not? So we engaged in going to different places
and we went to the British Library, we went to
the British Museum in London because there were
things there that you will see in the rest of
this study that helped us understand a little
bit more of this so that we can be like the Bereans,
people that love the truth, not just live by
theories of people that reject the scriptures.
What we discovered is that the text of the Bible
is actually very reliable. This idea that it
has been changed throughout the centuries, there's
no way we can tell, that's not true. And it's
fascinating to see. Part of preparing to this
trip was watching this documentary that is called
Fragments of Truth. Now, take a picture of it.
You will go to YouTube and you will type fragments
of truth and you have homework to do this week.
You will watch this entire documentary. Excellent
work. Very well done. And it's a group of Christian
scholars that take the time to explain to you
the development of the biblical text and the
manuscripts and where they came from and where
they are stored today. The errors in transcribing
copies and different things. A lot of good information.
But I'm going to point only a couple of things
in this section for us. First is that you have
to remember that the Bible has two sections,
the Old Testament and the New Testament. The
Old Testament was originally written in what
language? Hebrew. And the book of Daniel had
a couple of sections in Aramaic that is very
similar to Hebrew. The New Testament, in contrast,
was written in what language? Greek. So the original
books of the Bible were written in these languages.
And they have complete different history behind
them. The Old Testament. It's one thing that
is very important because the Old Testament was
what Paul was using when he went to the Bereans
to teach. Did you know that in 1947, there was
a discovery in these caves that you can see the
picture here in an area called Masada, very close
to the Dead Sea in Israel. stored in these caves
all these old scrolls that came to be known as
the Dead Sea Scrolls. And they contain the Old
Testament that we have today, but in Hebrew.
And they dated to the first to the third century.
It was a long collection that had been written
throughout several centuries. First to the third
century before Jesus. Which means that we can
know what was the text of the Old Testament that
circulated during the time of Jesus. We can look
at the text that Paul would have used to go to
the Bereans. There's about 900 scrolls and manuscripts
and more than 25 ,000 fragments. It's a huge
collection. And you can see this today if you
go to Israel, to Jerusalem. It's in the museum.
And you can see all of that. And also, they take
some of these collections and they travel around
the world for displays in some museums as well.
So, what's amazing is that today we can know
Whether the text we have today matches that ancient
text. And guess what? It does. I had a dear friend
that went to Israel. And she got me a gift. And
I have it in my office. But this is a replica
of Dead Sea Scrolls. With a jar. So if you've
never seen anything like this. I'm going to put
it here in front so you can see it at the end
of the study. Just don't take it home. Can you
trust the text? Yes. But what about the New Testament?
Well, the New Testament is a whole different
beast because it was written in Greek. And it
was written throughout a different timeline because
it's after Jesus, not before Jesus. And right
now, we have such a large collection of manuscripts
and copies from long periods of time. The calculation
is that we have a total of 2 .5 million pages
of manuscripts, 5 ,800 actual complete manuscripts,
including several fragments of manuscripts. And
these things have been written in different materials.
The oldest are the papyrus. This was before the
invention of paper. The papyrus. Then the material
that was animal skin is called parchment. So
we have some manuscripts written in parchment.
And then the later ones are written in paper.
So you have... copies of copies throughout different
countries, different regions. And if you want
to know more about this part, watch the documentary
I just told you about fragments of truth. But
what's amazing is that if you put them in the
timeline from the time of Jesus until now, there's
a continuity, there's a consistency of copies
and copies and copies. And the oldest ones, the
oldest fragment that we have, Evidence of the
New Testament is this papyrus, P52. Let me say
that I got the number right. P52. P for papyrus
and 52 is the number because they're all coded.
And this papyrus dates to the year 150 and is
part of the Gospel of John. And you can read
it and it matches the John that you have today.
Now, the Apostle John wrote the Gospel of John.
He died when he was in his 90s. And the Gospel
circulated. Most of these copies and manuscripts,
it's estimated that they had a lifespan of about
100 years. So you can calculate, John dies when
he's in his 90s. He writes the Gospel of John
during that period of time, 100 years. By the
time this papyrus is copied, The Gospel of John
is already in circulation. They are parallel
to each other. And we have a copy of it. In fact,
if you want, you can buy a replica of it and
put it in my office. I'm sorry, in your office.
It's amazing. We have all this stuff. But that's
just a little fragment. Lots of fragments like
that. But what about a whole collection? Imagine
finding the entire collection of the Gospels,
all of them written in Greek. Wouldn't it be
great to find something like that? Well, you
don't have to try to find it. It's there already.
It's called the Codex Sinaiticus, and it's from
the year 350 or so. It's in that era. So by the
year 300s, we already had the full collection
of the New Testament put together. And the most
amazing thing is that today you can go to the
British Library and actually see it. And that's
what we did. We went to the British Library.
We had some lectures there. We were able to see
the actual original collection from the 300s
in Greek. Now, I brought a copy of it. It's a
smaller version of it from John chapter 1. And
if you want to see it, I also keep it in my office.
I brought it here. I'm going to put it here so
you can see what these manuscripts look like.
And you will see the ancient Greek. Just don't
take it home. That's really amazing that we have
so many copies of manuscripts and things. And
once you compare them to the Bible that you have
today, guess what? They match. So when we say,
well, you know, I'm not sure I can trust the
text. Yes, you can. The idea that the text has
been corrupted and there's no way to find out
is a myth. Dr. Wallace was one of my professors
on New Testament and Greek in Dallas Theological
Seminary. And after he was specializing in Greek
for many years, he realized, you know, we need
to make these manuscripts available to people.
So they started a nonprofit organization called
the Center for the Study of the New Testament
Manuscripts. And they go throughout the world
scanning in high definition all these documents.
They find them in lots of different locations.
There are still many to be scanned. And they
have this website where you can go online. You
go to the csntm .org and then you can search
for any of these manuscripts. And you get to
see high definition. Now that is for those of
you that love all this kind of stuff like me.
It's like, where were you when I was in seminary?
It would have been so good to have this access,
you know, like that. Let's see the manuscript.
Wow, there it is. Public, available to anyone
that cares for truth. So if you are one who has
been wondering whether I can trust the text,
I'm here to tell you, you can. We know. But the
other realization that really hit us when we
went to England, was the realization that the
text was very costly. Because do you realize
that not only many people throughout the centuries
had to write, some people were persecuted for
having this text, so they hid them in scrolls.
But all of that was in Hebrew and Greek. Did
you realize that you can read your Bible now
in English? How come? Did you know that there
was a, period of time in church history when
the Bible was only translated into Latin. And
if you were a follower of Jesus, the only Bible
that you could hear was Latin. It was considered
wrong to translate the Bible into any other language
because the fear was that it was going to dilute
doctrine and people were going to misunderstand
things and only the elite could have control
of that. But there was a man called William Tyndale.
He lived in England, and he was studying theology
and the scriptures, and he had this idea. Wouldn't
it be great that that boy working on the field
could have access to the scriptures in his language,
in English? Wouldn't it be great that someone
could actually translate from the Greek into
English? That would be awesome. But there was
a big problem. It was illegal. You couldn't.
So he left England and escaped to Germany. And
when he's in Germany, he starts translating from
the Greek to English. And he translates the first
New Testament in English. But then something
happened. As the New Testament got printed, he
went, he was there and the New Testament, some
of the copies made it into England. And when
the authorities started seeing this happen, they
burned them. In fact, we only have three surviving
copies of the original prints of that New Testament.
Tyndale's New Testament. And actually in the
British Library, they have one of the copies
and you can see it right there. And it so happened
that this year is the 500th, 500th, is that right?
Anniversary of the translation of the New Testament
into English. And we're right there in the middle
of it all. 1526, first New Testament in English
ever. But it came to a cost. Because then he
was persecuted. He was imprisoned in an area,
in the area known today as Brussels. He was there
for over a year and he was condemned for heresy.
Because he translated the Bible from Greek, the
New Testament from Greek to English. He was tortured.
He was strangled to death at the pole. And then
he was burned. And one of the last prayers that
he said was, Lord, open the eyes of the King
of England. And three years later, the King of
England made the English translation legal. Did
you realize that the Bible that you have in your
phone in English is only possible because people
love truth and were willing to die for it? Perhaps
you never heard the name William Tyndale. Now
you know. And you need to know who he was. Because
that was the preamble for us to have access to
study the truth. So the scriptures in English.
500 years later and here we are. Wow. That's
really amazing that that happened. And exactly
this year. But what about the content? Is the
history of the Bible reliable or is it a false
history? Like Darwin said. And this is where
I feel so bad for Darwin because I wish he would
have been born just a few years later. His whole
idea would have changed completely because so
much archaeology has developed since then. And
a huge collection of that biblical archaeology
is found in the British Museum. That's why we
went there with the team. We went to the British
Museum. We had lectures there. And there's so
much I cannot tell you all of it because I don't
have enough time for it. But as you go into the
spaces, you know, think about Genesis. The Bible
starts with creation and the fall of humanity.
Sin enters the world. And then people get so
corrupted that God decides to destroy the early
world with water. Like the Apostle Peter says,
the ancient world was destroyed by the flood.
So this global flood destroys the world, and
then God calls Noah and his family to start populating
the earth again, like he had done to Adam and
Eve, and now the earth starts being populated.
But at the end of that section in Genesis, who
is the main character that the narrative of Genesis
focuses on now? He's known as the father of the
faith. What's his name? Abraham. The rest of
Genesis focuses on Abraham. Because God gives
the promise of the Messiah, Jesus, coming through
his descendants. Abraham was the earliest person
that we'll have in the Bible after the flood.
And he came from a city called Ur of the Chaldeans.
You are Ur of the Chaldeans. Wouldn't it be great?
If there was some kind of archaeological evidence
that there was a place called Ur. From those
years. Well it is great. And it is there in the
British Museum. We have the archaeological evidence.
Of Ur of the Chaldeans where Abraham came from.
And you can see it right there. Wow that's very
early. We're talking about Genesis. Yeah. And
they have. Things from the Assyrians, from the
Mesopotamian cultures. They have things from
the Babylonians, from the Persians. All this
stuff, everything that is in the Bible in the
Old Testament, you find archaeology there in
the British Museum. And we got to see the famous
Cyrus Cylinder. Now, the replica of that one
was... Cost more like $2 ,000 to be able to buy
that one, so I didn't bring that with me. But
that is the one evidence of the time in which
King Cyrus from the Persian Empire sent people
back to their countries to start building their
temples so that he could have the favor of the
gods. And he writes this in this cylinder that
was discovered in Babylon. And it's fascinating
because in the Old Testament, prophet Isaiah
prophesied King Cyrus by name centuries before
he was even born. And he prophesied that he is
the one that God is going to use to bring Israel
back from exile, back in Jerusalem to build.
And that's exactly what the book of Ezra said
it happened. And now we have the evidence that
actually he did that for many different nations.
And his name is there. Fascinating. And as you
enter the British Museum display area, the first
thing that you see is the Rosetta Stone. Now
the Rosetta Stone is now my mouse pad in my office.
The Rosetta Stone has nothing to do with the
Bible directly. It doesn't mention anything about
the Bible. In fact, it's an Egyptian document
that was discovered, praising the pharaoh. But
what was interesting is that it's written in
three scripts. You have the Egyptian hieroglyphics,
and then the next paragraph says the same thing,
but in the official kind of legal... language
of Egyptian, and then Greek. So three languages.
And why does that matter? Well, because until
that point, we couldn't translate hieroglyphics.
We could see them, but we had no idea what they
meant or how to interpret them. But now we know
Greek, so we can look at the Greek and say exactly
what it says and start comparing things, and
we know the other language. So it's like, oh,
maybe this is what it means. And that is the
key that opened for archaeologists, the ability
to translate hieroglyphics. And this is what,
it gets so cool. You have to see this. The Bible
says in the Old Testament that all these nations
have pagan gods. And you have lots of those names
in the Bible. But when Moses is called by God
to leave the area where he is, to now go with
the Israelites out of Egypt and lead them out
of Egypt, Moses says to God, but what's your
name? When I go there and tell the Israelites,
you know, God has sent me, what do I say? God
says, my name is Yahweh. And that is going to
be my name forever. If you read your Old Testament,
often you will say, the Lord says, and the word
Lord is in capital letters. Well, actually, that's
the English translation. In the Hebrew, it's
this. Yahweh says. This is the 15th century before
Jesus. That is when Moses lived. That is the
time when God told him, this is my name, my name
will be Yahweh forever. Well, you have the Pharaoh
of the Exodus and his grandson builds a temple
in the area that is now Sudan. And there's a
place in Sudan called the Solib Temple. And the
grandson of that Pharaoh now builds this temple.
And he is building in the temple some drawings
and words, but with hieroglyphics. And that was
discovered. And when it was discovered, because
now we can translate, they could look at the
hieroglyphic and start making sense of it. And
they started putting the sounds to it and trying
to translate it. And it's like, okay, that's
definitely the why. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And
then that's ah, yah, yah. And that other symbol,
that's the woo, woo, isn't it? Yeah, it is yah,
yah. And that bird symbol is the eh sound. Okay,
wait. What? Yahweh. And the whole translation
was land of the nomads of Yahweh. This was a
group of people that he mentions. There was a
group of people that were nomads known as the
nomads of Yahweh. And the Israelites were nomads
until they got later in the promised land. And
this is the first time in history that we have
the name Yahweh outside the Bible. And it dates
to the 15th century before Christ, the same time,
the same period of time in which Moses lived,
the same century. And all of that because of
the Rosetta Stone, the British Museum. You see
how this is amazing? And just to conclude, there
was a whole section of Greece in the museum where
we have so much good stuff there. But this was
the sculptures of the philosophers. And I ask...
You know, Socrates, if I could take a selfie
with him, he didn't answer, nor did he smile.
And so I took that as a yes. And yeah, that's
Socrates. That's what he looked like. So you
have Socrates, and then you have this other guy.
But then you go to the third one, and look at
his face. His name? Epicurus. He is the founder
of the Epicurean School of Philosophy who taught,
eventually, these philosophers in Athens that
Paul met to share the gospel with. And actually,
there was no pictures during that time, but you
can see his face. This is what he looked like.
The Bible comes alive in archaeology. So we had
to take a picture next to these people, so famous.
You see how this works? We need to be like the
Bereans. They receive the message with great
eagerness and examine scriptures every day to
see if what Paul said was true. Can I trust the
text? Yes. Well, can I trust the content? Yes.
Why? Because it is true. will have so much evidence
for it that to believe it was myth, that will
not be true. To believe that it's a conspiracy
and the text was changed, that will not be true.
So if these things have kept you from engaging
with the scriptures, with the word, and study
it and learn and become like Timothy, a mature
follower of Christ, let those obstacles for once
be removed. And trust the scriptures. Because
we followers of Jesus love the truth. And therefore
we trust the scriptures. Would you stand up with
me. And read together as we close. Let's read
it together. Your word is a lamp to guide my
feet. And a light for my path. Today, perhaps,
this verse has to become a prayer for you. Will
you tell the Lord, Lord, today I commit that
your word is going to be the lamp and the light
that will guide my path. I have not been reading
it, studying it, learning it, trusting it. And
that's why I am where I am, Lord. Guide me with
truth. And that's what I ask, Lord, for your
people. Especially I ask, Lord, for our young
friends here who are maybe in school, maybe preparing
to go to college or in a college break. They're
being bombarded by ideologies and myths that
tell them the Bible is not true. And I ask you,
Lord, that today you strengthen their conviction
and their faith. And that you guard their heart
from deception. And that you lead them to lay
a foundation that will be strong for the rest
of their lives. That they can walk and live in
the light, not in darkness. Guide us, Lord. In
the name of our Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen. If
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And remember to join us next week. God bless
you.