WEBVTT 00:00:05.690 --> 00:00:09.289 Hey friend, welcome back to the semi -seminary 00:00:09.289 --> 00:00:14.210 in another week. Another installment of our Bible 00:00:14.210 --> 00:00:17.710 study that we call here the Bible for Grownups. 00:00:17.750 --> 00:00:21.649 Just a reminder, the Bible for Grownups is the 00:00:21.649 --> 00:00:25.410 understanding that most of us from the Christian 00:00:25.410 --> 00:00:30.829 faith were taught the Bible as children. Or maybe 00:00:30.829 --> 00:00:33.329 we came to the faith later in our lives and we 00:00:33.329 --> 00:00:36.250 were taught the Bible as adults, but unfortunately, 00:00:36.450 --> 00:00:40.630 we were taught the Bible by adults who were taught 00:00:40.630 --> 00:00:44.490 the Bible as children. Nobody's fault. The problem 00:00:44.490 --> 00:00:48.509 is, though, that it leaves us in a lurch. It 00:00:48.509 --> 00:00:52.009 puts us in a position where we have a childish 00:00:52.009 --> 00:00:56.049 understanding of God's relationship with us. 00:00:56.969 --> 00:01:03.789 In a very complex and adult world. So let's take 00:01:03.789 --> 00:01:07.409 a second. And I want to thank all of the new 00:01:07.409 --> 00:01:11.049 listeners to the podcast. And on this Thanksgiving 00:01:11.049 --> 00:01:13.769 break. Given that we can't have a Bible study 00:01:13.769 --> 00:01:17.090 on Wednesday night. Tonight we like to let the 00:01:17.090 --> 00:01:19.950 volunteers that take place. That do all of the 00:01:19.950 --> 00:01:23.109 wonderful work down at our church. For the Bible 00:01:23.109 --> 00:01:25.170 study to take place. For them to be able to have 00:01:25.170 --> 00:01:28.629 the night off. So that they can be with the families 00:01:28.629 --> 00:01:31.989 ahead of the holiday, the Thanksgiving holiday. 00:01:32.750 --> 00:01:35.890 So we don't have a fresh new episode. Joe will 00:01:35.890 --> 00:01:39.329 continue next week despite what you're hearing 00:01:39.329 --> 00:01:41.530 in this episode. Because this episode is going 00:01:41.530 --> 00:01:45.349 to be a rewind. It's going to take us back to 00:01:45.349 --> 00:01:49.689 the very, very, very first episode of the podcast. 00:01:50.890 --> 00:01:54.129 If you've never heard this episode, I hope you 00:01:54.129 --> 00:01:57.260 give it a listen. Been with us for some time. 00:01:57.260 --> 00:02:00.040 I'd hope you'd give it a re -listen and kind 00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:02.799 of think about the things that we've talked about 00:02:02.799 --> 00:02:09.520 for the last couple of, I guess, years now. About 00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:12.500 this idea of how we can approach Scripture in 00:02:12.500 --> 00:02:16.919 a way in which it's more accessible to us. It's 00:02:16.919 --> 00:02:20.159 more human. Tonight, we talk about how we came 00:02:20.159 --> 00:02:24.219 to the Bible. And what I'm trying to highlight 00:02:24.219 --> 00:02:28.659 this evening is how we need to get to an understanding 00:02:28.659 --> 00:02:32.199 that Scripture, the thing that we consider our 00:02:32.199 --> 00:02:35.560 handbook, our guidebook to our daily lives, is 00:02:35.560 --> 00:02:42.539 a patchwork. It is created in cooperation between 00:02:42.539 --> 00:02:48.400 fallible humans and the divine. That the human 00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:55.340 experience is... Not erased in the spirit divine 00:02:55.340 --> 00:03:00.599 truth of the Bible. That means that there are 00:03:00.599 --> 00:03:04.960 bumps and there are warts. It also means it's 00:03:04.960 --> 00:03:08.340 authentic because it's just like the life you 00:03:08.340 --> 00:03:11.099 and I both lead. It's something we can relate 00:03:11.099 --> 00:03:15.620 to. I hope you'll revisit this rewind with us 00:03:15.620 --> 00:03:19.039 back to episode one. And I'll see you on the 00:03:19.039 --> 00:03:26.919 other side. Tonight we're going to do the story 00:03:26.919 --> 00:03:31.719 of the Bible. This is a series. All of these, 00:03:31.819 --> 00:03:33.340 whether we're doing Matthew or whether we're 00:03:33.340 --> 00:03:37.159 doing 1 Chronicles, whatever it may be, all of 00:03:37.159 --> 00:03:39.099 these are going to fall under the heading of 00:03:39.099 --> 00:03:43.599 the Bible for Grownups, which I think is a valuable 00:03:43.599 --> 00:03:48.039 series. This is a series that is for adults who 00:03:48.039 --> 00:03:51.159 were introduced to the Bible as children. or 00:03:51.159 --> 00:03:53.219 for adults who were introduced to the Bible as 00:03:53.219 --> 00:03:55.740 adults who were introduced to the Bible as children. 00:03:56.419 --> 00:03:59.979 Either way, most of us know some stories in the 00:03:59.979 --> 00:04:03.240 Bible, but very few of us actually know the story 00:04:03.240 --> 00:04:05.860 of the Bible. And the story of the Bible is so 00:04:05.860 --> 00:04:08.919 incredibly important to the stories in the Bible. 00:04:09.020 --> 00:04:12.919 The problem is that the story of how we got the 00:04:12.919 --> 00:04:16.699 Bible is different than how we got the stories. 00:04:17.759 --> 00:04:21.560 In the Bible, the story of the first Bible. So 00:04:21.560 --> 00:04:24.639 many of you probably are a lot like me. This 00:04:24.639 --> 00:04:27.720 is actually not mine. This is my grandfather's 00:04:27.720 --> 00:04:30.319 what I actually keep on the pulpit. But you probably 00:04:30.319 --> 00:04:33.040 received if you have received the first Bible, 00:04:33.060 --> 00:04:37.019 probably something like this in imitation, authentic 00:04:37.019 --> 00:04:40.480 imitation leather. It might have had your name 00:04:40.480 --> 00:04:43.220 in gold leaf down here in the corner. I'm not 00:04:43.220 --> 00:04:46.240 sure. why we do it that way, but it seems like 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:48.360 that's what we do. And also by the time we received 00:04:48.360 --> 00:04:51.860 our Bible, it's been chaptered and versed. There 00:04:51.860 --> 00:04:53.660 are maps, there are concordances. The reason 00:04:53.660 --> 00:04:56.600 why I wanted to show you this Bible here is because 00:04:56.600 --> 00:05:03.019 this much of the book is the Bible. This much 00:05:03.019 --> 00:05:06.170 of the book is stuff explaining the Bible. So 00:05:06.170 --> 00:05:09.449 about half of this Bible isn't even the Bible. 00:05:09.550 --> 00:05:12.250 It's explaining the Bible. So by the time we 00:05:12.250 --> 00:05:15.709 get the Bible, it's had all of this stuff added 00:05:15.709 --> 00:05:19.069 to it, and it's been separated out. Some Bibles 00:05:19.069 --> 00:05:21.129 even have little subheadings that talk about 00:05:21.129 --> 00:05:23.709 specific events or stories that are in the Bible. 00:05:23.810 --> 00:05:27.290 But that's vastly different than how the Bible 00:05:27.290 --> 00:05:30.629 originally began. And I just real quickly want 00:05:30.629 --> 00:05:33.600 to show you, this is... A copy of mine of the 00:05:33.600 --> 00:05:36.100 Greek New Testament. This is just the New Testament. 00:05:36.420 --> 00:05:39.019 And you can perhaps see that there's no English 00:05:39.019 --> 00:05:42.300 in it. It's just Greek. So this would have been, 00:05:42.379 --> 00:05:46.100 if you would have had a copy of all of the letters 00:05:46.100 --> 00:05:49.819 and the gospel accounts, the epistles in the 00:05:49.819 --> 00:05:53.139 first century, this is what, at least, this is 00:05:53.139 --> 00:05:56.040 what it would have looked like in Greek. Because 00:05:56.040 --> 00:05:58.560 that's what it would have been written in. This 00:05:58.560 --> 00:06:02.120 is a copy of the Hebrew Bible. And so as you 00:06:02.120 --> 00:06:05.500 can see, this is written in Hebrew text. And 00:06:05.500 --> 00:06:08.199 it goes right to left, right, as Semitic languages 00:06:08.199 --> 00:06:14.660 go. So Genesis isn't here. Genesis is here. Because 00:06:14.660 --> 00:06:18.500 you actually read it the other way. So that's 00:06:18.500 --> 00:06:21.100 a Hebrew Bible. That's a Greek New Testament. 00:06:21.779 --> 00:06:24.740 That's a Holy Bible, right? But we're a long 00:06:24.740 --> 00:06:27.839 way where we start our story tonight from getting 00:06:27.839 --> 00:06:31.410 from these to this. Okay, so that's what we want 00:06:31.410 --> 00:06:35.470 to talk about tonight. And the thing about how 00:06:35.470 --> 00:06:37.550 we get to know the Bible and what's in the Bible, 00:06:37.670 --> 00:06:40.949 I think is pretty similar. We're all shown as 00:06:40.949 --> 00:06:45.589 usually as children, familiar or easy stories 00:06:45.589 --> 00:06:48.649 in the Bible that we can understand. But unfortunately 00:06:48.649 --> 00:06:52.170 for many of us as we got older, there might have 00:06:52.170 --> 00:06:54.610 been some of us that were shown Bibles, parts 00:06:54.610 --> 00:06:57.910 of the Bible that... They didn't talk about in 00:06:57.910 --> 00:07:00.910 church, or maybe they weren't as easy to explain. 00:07:01.189 --> 00:07:04.550 And as a result, we begin to question the authenticity 00:07:04.550 --> 00:07:07.389 of the Bible. And that can lead to disillusionment, 00:07:07.389 --> 00:07:10.290 confusion, and for some people, walking away. 00:07:11.209 --> 00:07:15.670 So where does the story of the Bible begin? Ironically, 00:07:15.730 --> 00:07:19.490 the story of the Bible begins when Jesus was 00:07:19.490 --> 00:07:23.110 not who he claimed to be. Now don't leave early. 00:07:23.790 --> 00:07:25.329 You have to stick with me because you'll see 00:07:25.329 --> 00:07:29.290 how on that first Good Friday, the day that he 00:07:29.290 --> 00:07:32.949 was crucified, there was a man by the name of 00:07:32.949 --> 00:07:36.430 Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Joseph of 00:07:36.430 --> 00:07:40.910 Arimathea was a rich man in Jerusalem. Nicodemus 00:07:40.910 --> 00:07:44.389 was a Pharisee. They would have been considered 00:07:44.389 --> 00:07:47.930 famous people. They took Jesus' body down from 00:07:47.930 --> 00:07:51.329 the cross. They laid it in a fresh cut. and then 00:07:51.329 --> 00:07:53.910 they arranged for women to prepare spices and 00:07:53.910 --> 00:07:56.629 perfumes so that they might embalm the body of 00:07:56.629 --> 00:08:02.189 Jesus. Why? Because they expected Jesus to stay 00:08:02.189 --> 00:08:07.310 dead. And in that particular moment, there was 00:08:07.310 --> 00:08:09.410 no Jesus movement, there were no Christians, 00:08:09.629 --> 00:08:13.310 there was certainly no the Bible. All there was 00:08:13.310 --> 00:08:17.050 was a handful of heartbroken women and frightened 00:08:17.050 --> 00:08:20.589 disciples that feared for their own lives. And 00:08:20.589 --> 00:08:24.550 then something happened. Not that something great 00:08:24.550 --> 00:08:27.009 was written down. That would come much, much 00:08:27.009 --> 00:08:31.790 later. But something happened. So, where does 00:08:31.790 --> 00:08:37.450 the Bible begin? In the beginning, right? No, 00:08:37.549 --> 00:08:41.129 no. The story of the Bible does not begin in 00:08:41.129 --> 00:08:43.570 the beginning. As a matter of fact, the story 00:08:43.570 --> 00:08:48.370 begins somewhere about halfway through the end 00:08:48.370 --> 00:08:51.860 of the Bible. About halfway through the last 00:08:51.860 --> 00:08:56.379 third of the Bible is where the Bible actually 00:08:56.379 --> 00:09:00.919 begins. And it began with a first century doctor 00:09:00.919 --> 00:09:04.899 by the name of Luke who began to write an orderly 00:09:04.899 --> 00:09:07.399 account of the life of Jesus on the behalf of 00:09:07.399 --> 00:09:10.059 another first century believer, a wealthy man 00:09:10.059 --> 00:09:14.220 by the name of Theophilus. And he wanted Luke... 00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:18.080 as a historian, to carefully document the events 00:09:18.080 --> 00:09:21.679 and eyewitness testimony of Jesus' life. So, 00:09:21.679 --> 00:09:23.879 in your little handout there, here's how Luke 00:09:23.879 --> 00:09:28.259 begins his account, his gospel according to Luke. 00:09:28.500 --> 00:09:33.480 He says, Many, many have undertaken to draw up 00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:35.720 an account of the things that have been fulfilled, 00:09:35.980 --> 00:09:40.059 or things that have happened among us. And just 00:09:40.059 --> 00:09:43.299 as they were handed down to us by those, From 00:09:43.299 --> 00:09:47.019 the first, he's talking about people who are 00:09:47.019 --> 00:09:50.480 familiar with the events of Jesus' life from 00:09:50.480 --> 00:09:52.679 the beginning, from the time the whole thing 00:09:52.679 --> 00:09:57.120 happened, there were eyewitnesses and servants 00:09:57.120 --> 00:10:01.120 of the word. With this in mind, since I myself 00:10:01.120 --> 00:10:04.299 have carefully investigated everything from the 00:10:04.299 --> 00:10:08.019 beginning, I too decided to write down an orderly 00:10:08.019 --> 00:10:12.129 account for you, most excellent Theophilus. This 00:10:12.129 --> 00:10:15.210 title, Most Excellent, is what gives us the clue 00:10:15.210 --> 00:10:18.149 that Theophilus would have been a rich guy in 00:10:18.149 --> 00:10:22.750 Jerusalem at the time. So that you may know the 00:10:22.750 --> 00:10:25.389 certainty of the things you've been taught. That's 00:10:25.389 --> 00:10:27.129 very interesting because Luke, right at the very 00:10:27.129 --> 00:10:29.870 beginning of his gospel account, says, I'm not 00:10:29.870 --> 00:10:32.769 the only one that's writing stuff down like this. 00:10:33.210 --> 00:10:36.669 He says, many are doing this. Now what's interesting 00:10:36.669 --> 00:10:40.889 about that is that That is actually very rare 00:10:40.889 --> 00:10:44.549 in the ancient world. Writing down documents, 00:10:45.009 --> 00:10:49.070 preparing documents, and then preserving those 00:10:49.070 --> 00:10:52.029 documents was something that was very rare in 00:10:52.029 --> 00:10:54.970 the first century and before. Why? Because it 00:10:54.970 --> 00:10:58.529 was expensive. Writing was a specialized talent. 00:10:59.500 --> 00:11:02.220 It took time to prepare. You had to have someone 00:11:02.220 --> 00:11:05.159 that could dedicate their time instead of working 00:11:05.159 --> 00:11:07.940 in the fields or being a fisherman. It was such 00:11:07.940 --> 00:11:11.659 a tedious work that it actually took someone 00:11:11.659 --> 00:11:15.460 as it would a job to do. So it's expensive. It's 00:11:15.460 --> 00:11:19.039 hard to do. And literacy rates, high or low in 00:11:19.039 --> 00:11:22.019 the first century, right? Relatively low. So 00:11:22.019 --> 00:11:24.159 even that, even whenever you get something written 00:11:24.159 --> 00:11:28.159 down, your audience is very, very small. Our 00:11:28.159 --> 00:11:31.179 consumption of the written word today as we all 00:11:31.179 --> 00:11:34.120 flip through our phones or we read books or we 00:11:34.120 --> 00:11:37.860 watch TV cannot possibly prepare our minds for 00:11:37.860 --> 00:11:40.139 the fact that it was just something that was 00:11:40.139 --> 00:11:43.500 not even hardly considered amongst the average 00:11:43.500 --> 00:11:45.700 person in the first century because the literacy 00:11:45.700 --> 00:11:48.580 rates people that had the ability to either acquire 00:11:48.580 --> 00:11:51.279 written documents or even if they got their hands 00:11:51.279 --> 00:11:54.080 on them to be able to read them was very, very 00:11:54.080 --> 00:11:57.159 small. So the fact that Luke notes at the very, 00:11:57.200 --> 00:11:58.820 very beginning of the writing of this gospel 00:11:58.820 --> 00:12:02.320 account that there are many people doing this 00:12:02.320 --> 00:12:06.600 same thing, that makes the writing down of Christ's 00:12:06.600 --> 00:12:11.940 life rare, very atypical to other ancient historical 00:12:11.940 --> 00:12:14.299 events. And we'll get into that a little bit 00:12:14.299 --> 00:12:17.720 later. Now, when Luke was writing his account, 00:12:17.919 --> 00:12:23.440 he was not writing the Bible. He had no idea 00:12:23.440 --> 00:12:27.820 that the Bible would ever exist. He was only 00:12:27.820 --> 00:12:30.500 writing an orderly account of what had happened 00:12:30.500 --> 00:12:33.899 when the Jewish authorities and the Roman Empire 00:12:33.899 --> 00:12:39.139 had crushed this Jesus movement. And if the story 00:12:39.139 --> 00:12:43.740 had simply just ended there, there'd be no church, 00:12:43.919 --> 00:12:46.659 there would be no Christians, there would be 00:12:46.659 --> 00:12:49.000 no Old Testament or New Testament, there would 00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:52.820 be no the Bible. Luke documented the story of 00:12:52.820 --> 00:12:56.019 Jesus because that story didn't end on a Roman 00:12:56.019 --> 00:12:59.820 cross. Luke tells us that he is a Jesus follower 00:12:59.820 --> 00:13:04.139 and that Theophilus is a Jesus follower because 00:13:04.139 --> 00:13:08.879 Jesus came back to life. Those are the events 00:13:08.879 --> 00:13:12.820 in which he is describing. And that there were 00:13:12.820 --> 00:13:17.059 followers, many followers who had seen Jesus 00:13:17.059 --> 00:13:22.590 alive. And those same followers went back into 00:13:22.590 --> 00:13:26.730 Jerusalem to face down the very authorities that 00:13:26.730 --> 00:13:30.210 had hung Jesus from a cross. And it's in that 00:13:30.210 --> 00:13:33.970 moment when they decide to go back into Jerusalem 00:13:33.970 --> 00:13:37.029 and challenge the Roman and Jewish authorities 00:13:37.029 --> 00:13:40.309 about the death and resurrection of Christ in 00:13:40.309 --> 00:13:43.899 which the church was born. But in that moment, 00:13:43.940 --> 00:13:46.480 even though the church had been created by a 00:13:46.480 --> 00:13:50.840 spark, there's still no the Bible. And so Luke 00:13:50.840 --> 00:13:54.799 goes on to document about the next 30 years or 00:13:54.799 --> 00:13:57.580 so of the story of the lives of Jesus' followers 00:13:57.580 --> 00:14:00.639 and how the story of Jesus spread throughout 00:14:00.639 --> 00:14:03.740 the Mediterranean basin. And that account is 00:14:03.740 --> 00:14:06.419 in the Bible, and we call that book the Acts 00:14:06.419 --> 00:14:11.399 or the Acts of the Apostles. And that book documents. 00:14:12.569 --> 00:14:15.789 Luke's relationship with Peter and with John 00:14:15.789 --> 00:14:19.669 and also the fact that Luke traveled around the 00:14:19.669 --> 00:14:22.350 Mediterranean basin with the Apostle Paul and 00:14:22.350 --> 00:14:26.389 described the rise of the Gentile church. So 00:14:26.389 --> 00:14:29.669 just so I can assume that anybody... that everybody 00:14:29.669 --> 00:14:31.789 knows exactly what I'm talking about when I talk 00:14:31.789 --> 00:14:35.129 about the Gentile church. I'm talking about those 00:14:35.129 --> 00:14:39.389 people who lived in Ephesus or in Rome or in 00:14:39.389 --> 00:14:42.750 Asia Minor. Those people, even in Judea, people 00:14:42.750 --> 00:14:46.429 that lived in the Mediterranean basin that heard 00:14:46.429 --> 00:14:48.990 and believed in the story of Jesus Christ that 00:14:48.990 --> 00:14:53.429 were not ethnically or religiously Jewish. Anybody, 00:14:54.289 --> 00:14:58.759 whether you be Greek or Roman or Persian, Syrian, 00:14:58.940 --> 00:15:02.679 right? If you're not a Jew, but you believe in 00:15:02.679 --> 00:15:08.120 Jesus, you're a Gentile. Just so we all know 00:15:08.120 --> 00:15:11.519 for sure what we're talking about. And this movement 00:15:11.519 --> 00:15:15.919 of Jesus' followers, largely made up by Gentiles 00:15:15.919 --> 00:15:19.000 in this area of the world, would end up shaping 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:21.600 the whole of Western civilization. Now, like 00:15:21.600 --> 00:15:25.929 I said, Luke... that he is not the only one documenting 00:15:25.929 --> 00:15:29.570 these events. Remember, many had undertaken these 00:15:29.570 --> 00:15:34.309 same things. And why had so many decided to do 00:15:34.309 --> 00:15:37.590 it? Because something extraordinary had happened. 00:15:37.850 --> 00:15:41.639 One of those accounts... Matthew and we'll begin 00:15:41.639 --> 00:15:45.379 scrubbing through Matthew next week Matthew is 00:15:45.379 --> 00:15:49.279 also known as Levi and at the time that he encountered 00:15:49.279 --> 00:15:52.360 Jesus he worked for the Roman authorities as 00:15:52.360 --> 00:15:55.000 a tax collector something that's interesting 00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:58.419 to me at least about the Gospel of Matthew is 00:15:58.419 --> 00:16:01.460 that it's believed to have originally been written 00:16:01.460 --> 00:16:05.700 in Hebrew And then later versions of the manuscript 00:16:05.700 --> 00:16:08.259 of the gospel account, according to Matthew, 00:16:08.419 --> 00:16:11.659 were then translated into Greek, which at that 00:16:11.659 --> 00:16:13.879 time was the universal language of government 00:16:13.879 --> 00:16:18.139 in the region. Now why is that important? Because 00:16:18.139 --> 00:16:20.379 what we're going to begin to discover next week, 00:16:20.399 --> 00:16:22.379 and we're going to talk about essentially throughout... 00:16:22.730 --> 00:16:26.090 our talk about the gospel according to Matthew 00:16:26.090 --> 00:16:29.110 is Matthew writes his gospel account to a specific 00:16:29.110 --> 00:16:32.529 audience. He writes his gospel account to Jews 00:16:32.529 --> 00:16:37.750 about Jesus being the one that is foretold in 00:16:37.750 --> 00:16:40.809 the Hebrew scripture, right? So basically Matthew 00:16:40.809 --> 00:16:45.029 is saying, hey, my fellow Jewish friends, the 00:16:45.029 --> 00:16:49.350 guy that Isaiah and that Jeremiah and that Hosea 00:16:49.350 --> 00:16:52.269 and Micah, the guy that they're talking about, 00:16:52.669 --> 00:16:56.210 It's this guy, Jesus. And if we go back to Hebrew 00:16:56.210 --> 00:16:58.789 scripture and we look at all of the conditions 00:16:58.789 --> 00:17:01.470 that were set forth by those prophets to make 00:17:01.470 --> 00:17:04.250 sure that this was the real dude, I'm actually 00:17:04.250 --> 00:17:06.970 going to write in my gospel account how he checks 00:17:06.970 --> 00:17:10.589 things off the box. Okay? That's the point of 00:17:10.589 --> 00:17:13.849 the gospel of Matthew is to show the Hebrew reader 00:17:13.849 --> 00:17:17.569 that Jesus is not just some guy who was raised 00:17:17.569 --> 00:17:20.599 from the dead. but actually is the Deliverer, 00:17:20.599 --> 00:17:23.660 the Messiah of the Jewish people. Now, what's 00:17:23.660 --> 00:17:25.960 interesting to me about that is because if it 00:17:25.960 --> 00:17:29.500 was originally written in Hebrew, and it was 00:17:29.500 --> 00:17:32.599 written to the Hebrews, why was the Gospel account, 00:17:32.740 --> 00:17:36.500 according to Matthew, written in Greek? Because 00:17:36.500 --> 00:17:39.099 the story of the Bible was not a story that was 00:17:39.099 --> 00:17:41.779 just for the Jewish people. It was a story that 00:17:41.779 --> 00:17:44.380 was for the whole world. If it was a story that 00:17:44.380 --> 00:17:46.460 was just for the Jewish people, then there would 00:17:46.460 --> 00:17:49.220 have been no reason to translate the gospel according 00:17:49.220 --> 00:17:51.619 to Matthew into any other language. Because if 00:17:51.619 --> 00:17:54.059 you were a Jew and spoke Hebrew and it was just 00:17:54.059 --> 00:17:56.539 for you, then that was all that you needed. But 00:17:56.539 --> 00:17:58.099 the fact that Matthew was originally written 00:17:58.099 --> 00:18:00.720 in Hebrew and then translated into Greek shows 00:18:00.720 --> 00:18:05.339 us a transformation of the relationship of the 00:18:05.339 --> 00:18:08.900 God, Yahweh, and his covenant with the people 00:18:08.900 --> 00:18:11.440 on the earth, the Jewish people, seeing that 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:14.670 transition. Between that covenant extending to 00:18:14.670 --> 00:18:17.190 a specific group of people, to all of the people 00:18:17.190 --> 00:18:21.150 of the world whom hear and believe. Just in that 00:18:21.150 --> 00:18:25.230 little mechanism. So this is a story not just 00:18:25.230 --> 00:18:26.910 for the Jewish people, but for the whole world. 00:18:26.990 --> 00:18:29.970 Now the next gospel account that's written up 00:18:29.970 --> 00:18:33.589 in our Bible is the gospel according to Mark. 00:18:33.690 --> 00:18:35.769 Now Mark is the shortest of all the gospels. 00:18:36.190 --> 00:18:40.309 Mark is the first gospel that was ever recorded. 00:18:41.640 --> 00:18:45.259 There is believed to be the Gospel according 00:18:45.259 --> 00:18:49.339 to Mark and another document called the QL, and 00:18:49.339 --> 00:18:53.660 that's German for source. And there's believed 00:18:53.660 --> 00:18:56.579 to be another version of a manuscript, biblical 00:18:56.579 --> 00:19:00.059 manuscript out there called the QL source. And 00:19:00.059 --> 00:19:04.380 Matthew, Luke, and John all draw from the Gospel 00:19:04.380 --> 00:19:08.180 of Mark and this other document that we know 00:19:08.180 --> 00:19:12.450 exists because... Quotations from it exist in 00:19:12.450 --> 00:19:15.009 the other documents. It's just that we don't 00:19:15.009 --> 00:19:17.349 have a copy of that document. I don't know how 00:19:17.349 --> 00:19:19.130 they figure all of that out. I'm not a biblical 00:19:19.130 --> 00:19:22.410 scholar, but they have shown that there is another 00:19:22.410 --> 00:19:26.210 document that the gospel writers drew upon when 00:19:26.210 --> 00:19:28.369 they were writing their own document. We just 00:19:28.369 --> 00:19:32.029 don't have a copy of it anymore. So Mark is the 00:19:32.029 --> 00:19:34.150 shortest. It's the second that's in your Bible, 00:19:34.210 --> 00:19:37.369 but it's the first ever written. And it's written 00:19:37.369 --> 00:19:40.500 by a guy by the name of John Mark. And does anybody 00:19:40.500 --> 00:19:44.859 know who John Mark is in the Jesus story? Just 00:19:44.859 --> 00:19:48.200 curious. John Mark, the guy who writes the gospel 00:19:48.200 --> 00:19:52.940 according to Mark? Mark wasn't actually a follower 00:19:52.940 --> 00:19:56.000 of Jesus. He was a follower of the way. He was 00:19:56.000 --> 00:19:59.359 a Jesus follower, but John Mark did not encounter 00:19:59.359 --> 00:20:04.880 Jesus in real life. John Mark was a disciple 00:20:04.880 --> 00:20:09.420 of Peter. And as Peter went around and preached. 00:20:09.880 --> 00:20:13.519 his gospel account, and spread the word of Jesus 00:20:13.519 --> 00:20:16.859 in open churches, his right -hand guy was John 00:20:16.859 --> 00:20:19.539 Mark. And finally, somebody said, John Mark, 00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:22.460 you're literate. Why don't you write down what 00:20:22.460 --> 00:20:24.859 Peter talks about in these sermons about Jesus? 00:20:25.059 --> 00:20:28.000 And so the gospel account, according to Mark, 00:20:28.200 --> 00:20:31.640 what that is is a collection of things that were 00:20:31.640 --> 00:20:34.940 transmitted to listeners by Peter whenever he 00:20:34.940 --> 00:20:37.680 gave sermons about Jesus in his life. So Mark 00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:41.640 is the... the oldest of our gospel accounts and 00:20:41.640 --> 00:20:46.119 then finally we get to john the gospel according 00:20:46.119 --> 00:20:49.480 to john we have this account and it was the last 00:20:49.480 --> 00:20:51.740 of the four gospels to written be written and 00:20:51.740 --> 00:20:55.019 the gospel of john was written around 80 to 90 00:20:55.019 --> 00:20:58.559 a .d just before the end of the first century 00:20:58.559 --> 00:21:01.259 and at the time of the writing of his gospel 00:21:01.259 --> 00:21:04.200 account john would have been a very old man We 00:21:04.200 --> 00:21:07.920 also know that John was aware of the writings 00:21:07.920 --> 00:21:11.200 of the other three Gospels, and so one would 00:21:11.200 --> 00:21:14.119 have to kind of ask, you know, John, why bother? 00:21:14.619 --> 00:21:17.920 Well, John tells us why he bothered. At the end 00:21:17.920 --> 00:21:20.720 of his account, we find this in John chapter 00:21:20.720 --> 00:21:25.220 20, and it's verses 30 and 31. John very clearly 00:21:25.220 --> 00:21:28.059 tells us. It's on your handout there. He says, 00:21:28.059 --> 00:21:31.220 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence 00:21:31.220 --> 00:21:33.500 of his disciples. And what John is trying to 00:21:33.500 --> 00:21:35.799 say when he says that is, if you've gotten to 00:21:35.799 --> 00:21:37.680 the end of my book and you've read all of the 00:21:37.680 --> 00:21:40.299 things that I've written that Jesus said or Jesus 00:21:40.299 --> 00:21:44.759 did, please know that is not all Jesus did and 00:21:44.759 --> 00:21:48.059 said. If I tried to write down everything Jesus 00:21:48.059 --> 00:21:51.420 said and did, there's not enough paper in the 00:21:51.420 --> 00:21:54.220 world to do that. And so when John's saying this, 00:21:54.240 --> 00:21:56.990 he's saying, I didn't write down everything he 00:21:56.990 --> 00:21:59.349 said and did, but the reason why I chose these 00:21:59.349 --> 00:22:02.750 stories is because I believe they demonstrate 00:22:02.750 --> 00:22:08.369 to you who Jesus really is, the Messiah, the 00:22:08.369 --> 00:22:15.150 Savior of the world. He says, he did many other 00:22:15.150 --> 00:22:17.009 signs in the presence of his disciples which 00:22:17.009 --> 00:22:19.490 were not recorded in this book. And whenever 00:22:19.490 --> 00:22:21.230 he says this book, he doesn't mean the Bible, 00:22:21.390 --> 00:22:24.359 right? He's talking about his. his document, 00:22:24.480 --> 00:22:26.700 his account, but these that are written that 00:22:26.700 --> 00:22:30.420 you may believe. Well, believe what? Believe 00:22:30.420 --> 00:22:34.180 what? That Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, 00:22:34.339 --> 00:22:36.980 and that by believing you may have life in his 00:22:36.980 --> 00:22:41.359 name. So, at the end of the first century, there 00:22:41.359 --> 00:22:44.539 are hundreds and then there are thousands of 00:22:44.539 --> 00:22:47.579 Jesus followers, but still at this moment, there's 00:22:47.579 --> 00:22:51.519 no the Bible. And these early accounts of Jesus, 00:22:51.640 --> 00:22:54.880 these Gospels, these four Gospel accounts, at 00:22:54.880 --> 00:22:58.839 first there are a few, then there are dozens, 00:22:59.140 --> 00:23:02.599 then there are hundreds of copies of these manuscripts. 00:23:03.420 --> 00:23:06.859 And copies of these manuscripts eventually get 00:23:06.859 --> 00:23:10.420 to become bundled together and then shared amongst 00:23:10.420 --> 00:23:14.019 Jesus' followers. But not just Jewish people, 00:23:14.240 --> 00:23:17.970 far, far from it. These manuscripts were written 00:23:17.970 --> 00:23:20.549 and translated into Greek, and they begin to 00:23:20.549 --> 00:23:24.269 get circulated around the Gentile or the non 00:23:24.269 --> 00:23:27.630 -Jewish world. Now, given what we know and what 00:23:27.630 --> 00:23:30.049 we've already talked about regarding these ancient 00:23:30.049 --> 00:23:32.410 manuscripts and their rarity and their difficulty 00:23:32.410 --> 00:23:36.230 to produce, This copying and this sharing and 00:23:36.230 --> 00:23:39.250 this transmitting shows us something about the 00:23:39.250 --> 00:23:42.509 Bible from the very beginning. That these documents, 00:23:42.690 --> 00:23:46.109 from the very, very beginning, these documents 00:23:46.109 --> 00:23:49.509 were considered by their readers to be valuable 00:23:49.509 --> 00:23:54.690 and sacred. Considered them to be reliable. And 00:23:54.690 --> 00:23:59.269 also considered them to be inspired. Considered 00:23:59.269 --> 00:24:05.069 them to be scripture. but still no Bible. In 00:24:05.069 --> 00:24:10.109 the year 303, the emperor Diocletian, the Roman 00:24:10.109 --> 00:24:13.289 emperor, declared the religion of Christianity 00:24:13.289 --> 00:24:16.990 illegal. Now, this is something that's a little 00:24:16.990 --> 00:24:19.410 bit different than the way that the Romans had 00:24:19.410 --> 00:24:21.809 done things in the past. And basically, what 00:24:21.809 --> 00:24:24.410 they had done in the past was if you will throw, 00:24:24.529 --> 00:24:28.150 we don't even care if you mean it, if you will 00:24:28.150 --> 00:24:31.690 just throw lip service and an occasional grain 00:24:31.690 --> 00:24:35.069 offering at the Roman gods, then you can practice 00:24:35.069 --> 00:24:38.000 whatever religion in your home you want. The 00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:42.319 Roman government just didn't really care. As 00:24:42.319 --> 00:24:45.740 long as you made an appearance to be a loyal 00:24:45.740 --> 00:24:50.099 Roman subject, however you worshipped in private 00:24:50.099 --> 00:24:54.660 is your own business. And that changed in 303 00:24:54.660 --> 00:24:59.539 when Diocletian said, no more Christianity. And 00:24:59.539 --> 00:25:02.279 it's at this moment that Christianity begins 00:25:02.279 --> 00:25:06.539 to experience its worst persecution in history. 00:25:07.559 --> 00:25:12.480 Not only was the religion made illegal, but religious 00:25:12.480 --> 00:25:14.940 houses of worship, in other words, churches, 00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:20.619 were all to be torn down. And all Christian literature 00:25:20.619 --> 00:25:27.140 confiscated and burned. And the penalty for the 00:25:27.140 --> 00:25:29.579 crime of possessing Christian literature was 00:25:29.579 --> 00:25:32.410 death. So countless men and women and children 00:25:32.410 --> 00:25:36.089 lost their lives trying to hang on to these collections 00:25:36.089 --> 00:25:38.769 of letters and documents that we have from these 00:25:38.769 --> 00:25:41.470 writers from the first century. So I said that 00:25:41.470 --> 00:25:43.930 without the resurrection, there'd be no story. 00:25:44.430 --> 00:25:46.630 There would be no one to write down the story, 00:25:46.710 --> 00:25:49.309 and then there would be no story if there was 00:25:49.309 --> 00:25:51.769 no story of the resurrection. And then without 00:25:51.769 --> 00:25:54.430 the gospel accounts, there'd be no Bible. Well, 00:25:54.470 --> 00:26:00.470 how can that be? Why we think that is because 00:26:00.470 --> 00:26:03.289 when we think of the Bible, we think of the Old 00:26:03.289 --> 00:26:06.470 Testament being a part of it too, right? And 00:26:06.470 --> 00:26:09.049 so as we think of our Bible as it exists today, 00:26:09.170 --> 00:26:12.970 and we think, well, if there was no Jesus story, 00:26:13.069 --> 00:26:15.750 then how can you even say that there'd be no 00:26:15.750 --> 00:26:19.809 other Old Testament stuff? Well, the reason why 00:26:19.809 --> 00:26:22.869 we have the Bible is because these Gentile believers, 00:26:24.349 --> 00:26:26.990 Vast number compared to Jewish believers. This 00:26:26.990 --> 00:26:29.890 vast number of believers compared to the Jewish 00:26:29.890 --> 00:26:34.529 followers. These believers became enamored with 00:26:34.529 --> 00:26:36.970 the story of Jesus. And as they become Jesus 00:26:36.970 --> 00:26:40.190 followers, they began to seek out the ancient 00:26:40.190 --> 00:26:44.190 texts that they felt like foretold Jesus' coming. 00:26:45.259 --> 00:26:47.900 Today we call that collection the Hebrew Bible 00:26:47.900 --> 00:26:50.819 or the Old Testament. But at this point in the 00:26:50.819 --> 00:26:53.799 story, these early Jesus followers would have 00:26:53.799 --> 00:26:57.619 called this collection the Law and the Prophets. 00:26:57.660 --> 00:26:59.259 That's what they would have called it originally. 00:26:59.799 --> 00:27:05.440 And these Gentile believers, they believed in 00:27:05.440 --> 00:27:08.700 these texts not because they were interested 00:27:08.700 --> 00:27:14.279 in Judaism. And the fact that they're not interested 00:27:14.279 --> 00:27:17.279 in Judaism, but they are interested in the Old 00:27:17.279 --> 00:27:19.420 Testament, that's actually going to create some 00:27:19.420 --> 00:27:22.240 friction later on in the early church, and there'll 00:27:22.240 --> 00:27:25.140 come a time when we'll talk about that as well. 00:27:25.220 --> 00:27:28.200 They weren't interested in the scripture as Jewish 00:27:28.200 --> 00:27:31.380 scripture, but they saw it as Christian scripture. 00:27:31.839 --> 00:27:35.119 And by the end of the second century, Hebrew 00:27:35.119 --> 00:27:39.339 scripture was being used in religious worship 00:27:39.339 --> 00:27:42.160 services for... christians but there's still 00:27:42.160 --> 00:27:47.099 no bible but we do have collections as parts 00:27:47.099 --> 00:27:49.819 of in parts of collections of these two books 00:27:49.819 --> 00:27:54.200 beginning to be collected together and although 00:27:54.200 --> 00:27:56.859 they couldn't really at this time the what we 00:27:56.859 --> 00:27:59.240 might think of as the proto new testament and 00:27:59.240 --> 00:28:01.900 the proto old testament we probably couldn't 00:28:01.900 --> 00:28:04.799 characterize them in any modern sense as books 00:28:04.799 --> 00:28:08.380 the way we know them We do recognize that the 00:28:08.380 --> 00:28:11.559 two, Christian and Hebrew scriptures, were being 00:28:11.559 --> 00:28:15.099 utilized together by these early followers. And 00:28:15.099 --> 00:28:17.799 how do we know that? Because the writer of about 00:28:17.799 --> 00:28:20.400 two -thirds of the New Testament, a guy by the 00:28:20.400 --> 00:28:25.819 name of Paul, he hid a large portion of his letters 00:28:25.819 --> 00:28:29.420 to these early churches, deals with, in the light 00:28:29.420 --> 00:28:32.140 of Jesus, how do we interpret Hebrew scripture? 00:28:32.970 --> 00:28:36.569 That's what a big part of his letters in the 00:28:36.569 --> 00:28:38.549 New Testament, what they actually talk about 00:28:38.549 --> 00:28:41.230 to these early churches. Given that we believe 00:28:41.230 --> 00:28:44.089 Jesus rose from the dead and that Jesus came 00:28:44.089 --> 00:28:46.829 to perfect the law and Jesus said that the only 00:28:46.829 --> 00:28:48.829 commandments are to love God and to love each 00:28:48.829 --> 00:28:51.349 other. How do we make sense of being Christians 00:28:51.349 --> 00:28:54.390 while we have this too? And that's what Paul's 00:28:54.390 --> 00:28:56.930 talking about with his letters. Not only, but 00:28:56.930 --> 00:29:00.309 that's what he talks about quite a bit. So let 00:29:00.309 --> 00:29:03.039 me just back up. And I want to fill in the story 00:29:03.039 --> 00:29:05.819 just in case you're a little bit sketchy on who 00:29:05.819 --> 00:29:07.940 the Apostle Paul is. I don't want to make any 00:29:07.940 --> 00:29:10.319 assumptions that you know all of this. I'm going 00:29:10.319 --> 00:29:13.279 to very briefly just say that Paul, the Apostle 00:29:13.279 --> 00:29:16.599 Paul, he was originally a guy by the name of 00:29:16.599 --> 00:29:19.180 Saul. And he was from a place called Tarsus. 00:29:19.579 --> 00:29:24.259 And Saul was a Pharisee. He was a Jewish religious 00:29:24.259 --> 00:29:28.000 leader. And not only was he a Pharisee, but his 00:29:28.000 --> 00:29:31.319 job, he was actually tasked with chasing down 00:29:31.319 --> 00:29:34.559 Christians and persecuting them and in some instances 00:29:34.559 --> 00:29:38.420 killing them for what they considered to be apostasy. 00:29:39.059 --> 00:29:42.200 Basically, what that word means is that there 00:29:42.200 --> 00:29:44.619 were Jewish people that said there are people 00:29:44.619 --> 00:29:47.480 out there who have taken Judaism, who have taken 00:29:47.480 --> 00:29:50.160 what the Hebrew scripture says, and they have 00:29:50.160 --> 00:29:53.829 perverted it. to make it seem like that guy Jesus 00:29:53.829 --> 00:29:56.150 is the guy that the prophets are talking about. 00:29:56.289 --> 00:29:59.710 And we can't have that. That is bad for synagogue 00:29:59.710 --> 00:30:03.609 business. Saul, go kill him. And that's what 00:30:03.609 --> 00:30:07.049 happens. And then in about the year 37, there 00:30:07.049 --> 00:30:08.890 are some biblical scholars that actually place 00:30:08.890 --> 00:30:12.710 this date at about 35. I just learned this today. 00:30:12.809 --> 00:30:16.450 I didn't know that there are some out there that 00:30:16.450 --> 00:30:19.430 make the argument that... Paul's conversion to 00:30:19.430 --> 00:30:23.730 Christianity might come around 35 AD, which means 00:30:23.730 --> 00:30:26.470 just a couple of years after the resurrection, 00:30:26.789 --> 00:30:30.750 Paul has been converted. So I think it shocks 00:30:30.750 --> 00:30:33.009 a lot of people sometimes whenever they realize 00:30:33.009 --> 00:30:36.670 that it was very, very quickly after the resurrection 00:30:36.670 --> 00:30:41.710 that Saul, the guy persecuting, became Paul the 00:30:41.710 --> 00:30:44.880 apostle and began promoting. And he writes these 00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:47.160 letters. He begins to start these churches. He 00:30:47.160 --> 00:30:49.920 starts churches in Ephesus and in Corinth, in 00:30:49.920 --> 00:30:53.480 Galatia and Thessalonica. And he starts churches 00:30:53.480 --> 00:30:56.539 in these places. And then they grow up and they 00:30:56.539 --> 00:31:00.460 begin to have problems, as all churches do. And 00:31:00.460 --> 00:31:03.480 they write letters to Paul to tell him about 00:31:03.480 --> 00:31:05.799 the problems that they're having. And Paul writes 00:31:05.799 --> 00:31:08.079 back letters to them telling them how to solve 00:31:08.079 --> 00:31:10.900 those problems. And that's the letters that we 00:31:10.900 --> 00:31:14.140 get in the New Testament. And so that's essentially 00:31:14.140 --> 00:31:18.900 the story of the New Testament. So let me just 00:31:18.900 --> 00:31:21.079 back up a little bit briefly here and talk about 00:31:21.079 --> 00:31:24.880 the history of Hebrew Scripture. Now, the writing 00:31:24.880 --> 00:31:27.259 of Hebrew Scripture started thousands and thousands 00:31:27.259 --> 00:31:31.099 of years ago, somewhere between 1400 and 1500 00:31:31.099 --> 00:31:35.220 BC, when we as Christian believers believe that 00:31:35.220 --> 00:31:38.359 God himself wrote the Ten Commandments on stone. 00:31:39.099 --> 00:31:42.599 and ascribed the very first words of God in the 00:31:42.599 --> 00:31:46.359 ancient form of Hebrew. God gave those Ten Commandments 00:31:46.359 --> 00:31:50.920 to a guy named Moses on the top of Mount Sinai. 00:31:50.960 --> 00:31:55.160 And at that point, God began speaking his word 00:31:55.160 --> 00:31:59.900 to us through his prophets. Years later, the 00:31:59.900 --> 00:32:03.539 very, very first scriptures, they were known 00:32:03.539 --> 00:32:06.000 as the Pentateuch. The Pentateuch, that word 00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:08.980 in Greek is five, right? Penta. So that is the 00:32:08.980 --> 00:32:12.359 first five books of the Bible. So Genesis, Exodus, 00:32:12.500 --> 00:32:15.740 Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Those books 00:32:15.740 --> 00:32:20.799 comprise the Pentateuch. And if you had all of 00:32:20.799 --> 00:32:24.700 those five books written on a scroll, that scroll 00:32:24.700 --> 00:32:29.279 would be about 150 feet long. And it would be 00:32:29.279 --> 00:32:31.700 called the Torah. So you probably have heard 00:32:31.700 --> 00:32:35.160 the term Torah. So the Torah is a collection 00:32:35.160 --> 00:32:38.660 of the first five books of the Hebrew Scripture 00:32:38.660 --> 00:32:43.099 or the first five scrolls of the Hebrew Scripture 00:32:43.099 --> 00:32:46.660 on one scroll. I thought it was also interesting 00:32:46.660 --> 00:32:50.099 to learn that the scroll was so long that it 00:32:50.099 --> 00:32:52.960 would often take an entire herd of sheep to make 00:32:52.960 --> 00:32:58.609 one Torah scroll. So by approximately 500 B .C., 00:32:58.609 --> 00:33:02.130 500 years before Jesus, the 39 books that we 00:33:02.130 --> 00:33:04.269 know as the Old Testament or Hebrew Scripture 00:33:04.269 --> 00:33:09.170 was completed and compiled and continued to be 00:33:09.170 --> 00:33:13.450 preserved in Hebrew on scrolls. By the end of 00:33:13.450 --> 00:33:16.529 the first century where we were with John, the 00:33:16.529 --> 00:33:20.109 New Testament basically had been done. And it 00:33:20.109 --> 00:33:22.930 was being preserved and protected using the Greek 00:33:22.930 --> 00:33:25.730 language, and instead of writing on animal skin 00:33:25.730 --> 00:33:28.670 scrolls, it was written on papyrus, which is 00:33:28.670 --> 00:33:31.289 a thin paper -like material made from the crushed 00:33:31.289 --> 00:33:34.250 and flattened stalks of a reed -like plant. Thank 00:33:34.250 --> 00:33:40.809 you, Wikipedia. In the year 367 A .D., the Bishop 00:33:40.809 --> 00:33:43.470 of Alexandria, doesn't that sound just like a 00:33:43.470 --> 00:33:47.559 definite, I didn't write that. In the year 367 00:33:47.559 --> 00:33:51.200 AD, the Bishop of Alexandria, a guy by the name 00:33:51.200 --> 00:33:55.319 of Athanasius, wrote a letter to his church on 00:33:55.319 --> 00:33:58.599 the celebration of the Easter event. And in that 00:33:58.599 --> 00:34:04.720 letter, Athanasius listed the books of the Bible 00:34:04.720 --> 00:34:07.539 that we know as the Bible today in the New Testament. 00:34:07.920 --> 00:34:13.530 Then in the year 393, The African Senate of Hippo 00:34:13.530 --> 00:34:16.989 approved all of the books that we find in our 00:34:16.989 --> 00:34:20.809 New Testament today as canon. By the year 500 00:34:20.809 --> 00:34:25.289 AD, the Bible had been translated into over 500 00:34:25.289 --> 00:34:32.329 languages. By 500 AD, 500 languages of the Bible. 00:34:32.429 --> 00:34:35.710 But then, then something very unusual happened. 00:34:36.349 --> 00:34:40.449 In the very next century, Within the next 100 00:34:40.449 --> 00:34:44.269 years of having 500 different language copies 00:34:44.269 --> 00:34:47.909 of the Bible, by the year 600 AD, the Bible was 00:34:47.909 --> 00:34:52.610 allowed in only one language, Latin. Why is that? 00:34:53.010 --> 00:34:55.989 Well, the Catholic Church in Rome at the time 00:34:55.989 --> 00:34:58.610 was the only recognized church in the whole of 00:34:58.610 --> 00:35:02.030 the land, and they issued a decree that the Bible 00:35:02.030 --> 00:35:08.400 in any other language was considered to be And 00:35:08.400 --> 00:35:10.780 as a result, the Catholic Church becomes very, 00:35:10.840 --> 00:35:14.079 very corrupt. The priests are the only ones who 00:35:14.079 --> 00:35:16.659 could be educated in the Latin language. So a 00:35:16.659 --> 00:35:19.480 common person like you or I could never, ever, 00:35:19.559 --> 00:35:22.639 ever in our lifetimes read God's word. And that 00:35:22.639 --> 00:35:26.929 gives priests ultimate spiritual power. But in 00:35:26.929 --> 00:35:30.349 the year 1517, God raised up a man by the name 00:35:30.349 --> 00:35:33.750 of Martin Luther, who was so fed up with all 00:35:33.750 --> 00:35:35.989 of the corruption that was going on in the church, 00:35:36.090 --> 00:35:38.690 he actually believed that God was calling him 00:35:38.690 --> 00:35:41.349 to help reform the church. And in fact, it was 00:35:41.349 --> 00:35:46.510 on All Hallows' Eve, Halloween, that Martin Luther 00:35:46.510 --> 00:35:50.789 took what became known as his 95 Thesis, and 00:35:50.789 --> 00:35:54.250 he nailed them to the door in the church in Wittenberg, 00:35:54.469 --> 00:35:58.340 Germany. People describe that event today as 00:35:58.340 --> 00:36:01.079 the knock that was heard around the world. God 00:36:01.079 --> 00:36:04.739 used those accusations of heresy to spark what 00:36:04.739 --> 00:36:07.159 becomes known as the Reformation of the Protestant 00:36:07.159 --> 00:36:10.280 Church. God also used Martin Luther to take the 00:36:10.280 --> 00:36:12.800 Bible and translate it into German, and then 00:36:12.800 --> 00:36:15.500 he took the invention called the printing press, 00:36:15.719 --> 00:36:18.000 the invention of a guy by the name of Gutenberg, 00:36:18.000 --> 00:36:21.280 and he utilized it to now put the Bible in the 00:36:21.280 --> 00:36:24.619 hands of the masses. And in the year 1526, there 00:36:24.619 --> 00:36:27.400 was a guy named William Tyndale who befriended 00:36:27.400 --> 00:36:30.500 Martin Luther, and God used William Tyndale to 00:36:30.500 --> 00:36:33.579 print the very first English Bible. That's the 00:36:33.579 --> 00:36:37.739 good news. The bad news is that anybody who was 00:36:37.739 --> 00:36:40.940 caught with this illegal Bible would be executed 00:36:40.940 --> 00:36:45.019 immediately. You can only imagine what demand 00:36:45.019 --> 00:36:48.300 there would have been for people that read English. 00:36:48.920 --> 00:36:51.619 and wanted to read God's word in a language that 00:36:51.619 --> 00:36:55.079 they could understand. Day after day, week after 00:36:55.079 --> 00:36:58.500 week, month after month, year after year, Tyndale 00:36:58.500 --> 00:37:01.739 was on the run. He was running for his life because 00:37:01.739 --> 00:37:05.260 people wanted to execute him, and sadly, they 00:37:05.260 --> 00:37:07.260 eventually caught up to him and incarcerated 00:37:07.260 --> 00:37:11.460 him for about 500 days before they finally decided 00:37:11.460 --> 00:37:15.190 in the year 1536 to burn him at the stake. His 00:37:15.190 --> 00:37:17.769 last words, though, were a prayer to God, which 00:37:17.769 --> 00:37:20.909 people will remember forever. He prayed, O Lord, 00:37:21.130 --> 00:37:24.289 open up the eyes of the king of England. And 00:37:24.289 --> 00:37:28.250 three years later, in 1539, God answered his 00:37:28.250 --> 00:37:31.750 prayer. Not only did the king of England allow 00:37:31.750 --> 00:37:34.750 the printing of the Bible in English, but he 00:37:34.750 --> 00:37:37.610 actually helped fund it, setting the word of 00:37:37.610 --> 00:37:41.510 God free. Think about this. Remember all of the 00:37:41.510 --> 00:37:44.389 people who died. All of those people back in 00:37:44.389 --> 00:37:47.250 the 300s, all of those people in the Middle Ages 00:37:47.250 --> 00:37:51.150 that died to keep these stories that meant so 00:37:51.150 --> 00:37:54.570 much to them, to keep them alive and help them 00:37:54.570 --> 00:37:58.030 fight with everything in them to keep God's living 00:37:58.030 --> 00:38:02.809 and active word available to you and to me. And 00:38:02.809 --> 00:38:06.409 sadly today, so many people neglect God's living 00:38:06.409 --> 00:38:10.530 word. It's so important for us to engage in God's 00:38:10.530 --> 00:38:14.059 word. And why is that? because this is the word 00:38:14.059 --> 00:38:18.760 of God. It is living. It is active. Scripture 00:38:18.760 --> 00:38:21.000 says that in the beginning there was the word 00:38:21.000 --> 00:38:24.059 and the word was with God and the word was God 00:38:24.059 --> 00:38:27.099 and the word became flesh and made his dwelling 00:38:27.099 --> 00:38:31.579 among us. This is Jesus, the word becoming flesh. 00:38:32.179 --> 00:38:35.559 To know Jesus, to serve him, to follow him, we 00:38:35.559 --> 00:38:39.969 must feed on his word and we must realize. That 00:38:39.969 --> 00:38:42.789 something extraordinary happened in the first 00:38:42.789 --> 00:38:46.469 third of the first century that caused all of 00:38:46.469 --> 00:38:49.489 this to happen. Something that wasn't just written 00:38:49.489 --> 00:38:53.809 down. Something that wasn't just made up or contrived, 00:38:53.809 --> 00:38:57.869 but was actually witnessed by hundreds and hundreds 00:38:57.869 --> 00:39:00.909 of people. And that's how we got the story of 00:39:00.909 --> 00:39:09.860 the Bible. Well, I hope that you could see what 00:39:09.860 --> 00:39:14.159 I see after that discussion, that this idea of 00:39:14.159 --> 00:39:19.880 this holy book, this book that is so significantly 00:39:19.880 --> 00:39:23.639 different, maybe than all other books, well, 00:39:23.719 --> 00:39:26.659 at least for we Christian believers, we'd certainly 00:39:26.659 --> 00:39:31.500 think that, how this book didn't come floating 00:39:31.500 --> 00:39:37.199 down from the sky or riding down some... fiery 00:39:37.199 --> 00:39:42.519 escalator from heaven rather it's created in 00:39:42.519 --> 00:39:49.920 a cooperation cooperation from humans who experienced 00:39:49.920 --> 00:39:53.039 the breakthrough of God in the world in such 00:39:53.039 --> 00:39:57.280 a way that the lives could no longer be different 00:39:57.280 --> 00:40:01.139 that they could not be silenced that they had 00:40:01.139 --> 00:40:05.840 to continue to tell their story Of what they 00:40:05.840 --> 00:40:09.800 had experienced. The peace. The love. The joy 00:40:09.800 --> 00:40:12.920 that is the experience of God. Breaking through 00:40:12.920 --> 00:40:16.360 the world. And they couldn't stop telling it. 00:40:16.380 --> 00:40:20.280 Until that story was remembered. Finally. Being 00:40:20.280 --> 00:40:23.360 memorialized. Written down. And then considered 00:40:23.360 --> 00:40:32.619 amongst readers. Sacred. This book that we have. 00:40:33.710 --> 00:40:40.670 Friends, let us not diminish the role that we 00:40:40.670 --> 00:40:47.949 humans have in this living book. This is a book 00:40:47.949 --> 00:40:53.989 that breathes from the creation until our very 00:40:53.989 --> 00:40:58.250 day and even into the future of a relationship 00:40:58.250 --> 00:41:05.199 in which we share the heartbeat. We share the 00:41:05.199 --> 00:41:13.300 breath of God. And while it may not always be 00:41:13.300 --> 00:41:21.019 perfect, it's always perfect in its truth. I 00:41:21.019 --> 00:41:23.000 hope that you can see that. I hope you can maybe 00:41:23.000 --> 00:41:27.199 see the Bible in a different way. Happy Thanksgiving. 00:41:27.599 --> 00:41:30.900 I hope you'll join us next week as we continue. 00:41:31.579 --> 00:41:36.659 on our third installment of the story of Job, 00:41:36.760 --> 00:41:42.000 which we're calling It's Not My Fault. Happy 00:41:42.000 --> 00:41:46.280 Thanksgiving, friends, and until next week, be 00:41:46.280 --> 00:41:46.659 blessed.