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Sunday 12 August 2012

'GOD SPEAKS'

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(Podcast of CFRA broadcast on Sunday, August 12th, 2012)
http://proxy.autopod.ca/podcasts/chum/6/8002/good_news_013_aug12.mp3 _____________________________________________________
Rev. George Sinclair
by Rev. George Sinclair                           
 Pastor of the Church of the Messiah, Ottawa, ON.
 www.messiahchurch.ca 

Broadcast Notes:
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(Abridged notes covering discussion on 2 TIMOTHY 3:10 – 17
Part 1 of 2:     (Link to Part 2)
 
God Speaks’

Are Christians arrogant? Why do they think they have figured out God better than anyone else? What makes them think their symbols and images are the best? If God even exists, a God sort-of-like the God Christians believe in, how could any word or symbol ever be adequate? Christians are just following themselves.

Maybe you think this way. Maybe you know people who think this way. The Bible text we will look at today is helpful to sort out what Christians do and do not believe regarding these valid questions.

Please turn in your Bibles to Second Timothy chapter 3, verses 10 through 17. I will be reading from the English Standard Version.

Link to: BibleGateway.com with Footnotes and Cross References:

2       Timothy 3:10-17   - (English Standard Version, ESV)
All Scripture Is Breathed Out by God
10 (A)You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 11 my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me (B)at Antioch, (C)at Iconium, and (D)at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet (E)from them all (F)the Lord rescued me. 12 Indeed, all who desire to (G)live a godly life in Christ Jesus (H)will be persecuted, 13 while (I)evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and (J)being deceived. 14 But as for you, (K)continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom[a] you learned it 15 and how (L)from childhood you have been acquainted with (M)the sacred writings, (N)which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 (O)All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that (P)the man of God[b] may be complete, (Q)equipped (R)for every good work.
Footnotes:
a.     2 Timothy 3:14 The Greek for whom is plural
b.     2 Timothy 3:17 That is, a messenger of God (the phrase echoes a common Old Testament expression)
Cross references:


First, let me just say a very brief prayer:

Loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for this passage of the Bible, and we ask that your Holy Spirit would move in myself and in all who are listening, so that your word will be brought home to us, so that we might know Jesus and know you. And this we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Today I will not prove that the Bible is true. Instead, we will see what the Bible says about itself, and therefore what Christians believe about the Bible. This will help us understand how Christians respond to valid questions. Christians believe certain things about the faith and about the Bible NOT because of rationalism or modernism or any philosophy, but because we have heard the Bible's witness to itself.

Read verse 15. This verse, and all the way through, is referring to the Bible, not any sacred writings. 'Sacred writings' was one of the ways people referred to the Bible.

Note that reading and knowing the Bible has the ability, the power, to bring you to saving faith in Jesus.

Verse 16, “All Scripture” or “Every Scripture”. In the original language of the Bible, Greek, either meaning is a valid translation. In this case, we do not have to decide between 'all' or 'every'. It is an intentional rendering so that we are to accept both ways of reading the text. This means that the Bible as a whole comes from God AND that each small bit of Scripture comes ultimately from God AND every unit in-between the whole and individual words.

The verse says that human authors wrote, but that behind their writing God was at work so that what was written was what God wanted written.

So Christians do not claim that there is something special about the people who wrote the Bible – so that the things they said should be believed. Christians believe it is the words and the Bible itself which is inspired or 'breathed into existence' by God.

You might say, “George, you have not answered my questions about words being adequate or about Christian arrogance”

First, the example of knowing rocks, knowing dogs, knowing a dinner guest and knowing God. The Conclusion – unless God chooses to speak and reveal Himself, we cannot possibly know Him. He is able to choose adequate words. This is what the Bible is.

Using the rock, for illustration; everything we do to learn about a rock comes from the observer, not the rock. The rock can’t contribute anything, interactively; it’s inert and passive.
But, if we move up (in a sense) the scale of “being”, we see that things start to change. It’s a little different trying to get to know a living plant; a flower. We can know whether a flower is living or dead, but the flower is still fundamentally passive.

Now, let’s jump to something like a dog. When it comes to knowing about a dog, most of the direction of knowing will still come from us towards the dog, but now the dog has some degree of ability to resist or aid you or me knowing the dog.  The dog could run away. Or, the dog could bite me and make me want to run away. In fact, the dog has some small role, but as a human being I have a far greater role in trying to know the dog, but the dog can start to resist me.

Now let’s think about our dinner party. At a dinner party, perhaps you’ve had the experience where you have been placed a dinner table where you don’t know anybody and you turn to your left and begin to make some polite conversation. You begin to ask some personal questions, showing that you have an interest in that person. But every question is answered with a one word answer of “Yes” or “No”, and the person rarely takes their eyes off their dinner plate. They completely and utterly resist all of your attempts to know them.  So you turn to your other side and that person is exactly the same way. So, you see, when I’m trying to know about human beings, I have to be active, but they have to be active. Both sides have to be active if I‘m to know anything about the other person, and if they’re to know anything about me. Normally if you’re to know about another person, you have to be open, yourself, if you’re to elicit conversation, and in a sense, encourage them to open up and talk to you.

Now, let’s think about this for a second. If God is to be at all like the God described in the Bible, the difference between God and me is greater then the distance between me and a rock. Both the rock and I are created. God is uncreated. The rock and I are both finite. God is infinite. The rock and I both exist in time. God does not exist in time. The rock and I both depend on an environment. God does not depend on an environment.

So, if in fact, to know another person, I need them to reveal things about themselves, if I am to know them, when it comes to knowing about God, I am more like the rock. I am completely an utterly dependent upon God revealing something of Himself to me.

And, you see, this is the claim that Christians make. It’s not an arrogant claim at all. In fact, it’s the opposite of arrogance. The true Christian claim is to concede with the atheists and agnostics that we can never have adequate symbols about God that come from ourselves. What Christians claim is that God has spoken, and that God has chosen the images and the symbols and the words that adequately describe Himself; and that God has not only spoken, but that He has acted. And He has acted in such a way that key actions are recorded, and what they mean are interpreted.

Here’s another example: I pastured for a long time in a small rural parish, in a tiny community where many people were related to each other. Let’s say you were passing through such a village and you noticed in a restaurant, a young couple in their late twenties. And the man is downcast and all of a sudden he bursts into tears. They have a young child with them. The woman stands up abruptly, slaps him on the face and walks out. You might say “Whoa, what went on there?” Maybe a person would say, “I’m the aunt of the young woman, and my best friend is the mother of the young man. And, what you just saw was absolutely terrible. That woman just treats that man like garbage. She does anything she wants to him and he is such a wuss; she even slaps him in public, and he won’t stand up for himself." On hearing that interpretation you would feel sorry for the man. But maybe, just thinking of the exact same illustration, imagine if someone told you a different interpretation.  They said, “Oh, that is such fantastic good news! That man is such a terrible husband to his wife and she’s never had the backbone to stand up to him." You see, just looking at things, you need an interpretation of them to actually know what’s going on.

So, with the second example, using the scene in the restaurant, the conclusion is that we need God to act and we need Him to provide an interpretation of His acts. This is what the Bible is.

Christians are not being arrogant. We are merely receiving and listening to what God does and says. He acts to save us in Jesus, and He tells us we need to come to Him as our Saviour.

So that’s what the Bible is. The Bible is something that comes from God that both records significant events that He has done through history, that reveal Himself, and it’s an interpretation of those events.

That’s why earlier in verse 15, it says, “…how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, (that’s the Bible), which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” You see, the biblical claim is that God has done something remarkable through the person of Jesus with his death upon the cross and his resurrection. The Bible interprets this as not just being something that Jesus did for Himself, but it’s something Jesus does for us. It’s something He does, to reconcile us to God so that we can become God’s children. And the Bible interprets how it is we are to respond to what it is God has done for us, in the person of Jesus.

He’s not only revealing Himself, He’s revealing the way back to Himself. And the Bible says that we are to have faith in Christ, Jesus, in a way that leads to our salvation. It means people belong to God, that we are reconciled to God, that we can be intimate with God; that we can be His forever. And faith means turning to Jesus and giving your life to Jesus; to trust Him in what he has done for us on the cross.

So, just to remember, as today's program ends, that we enter the Jesus-way, one by one, but we live the Jesus-way with Jesus and others.

Let me just have a short prayer:

Father, Thank you that you have acted to redeem us in the person of your Son; and thank you, Father, that you have spoken, to reveal to us what your Son’s death means and how you want us to respond. Thank you, Father, for this and help us to follow Jesus and follow Him all the time. Amen.

Friends, as we bring this show to a close, please pray for this show, that God will bless this ministry.

Rev. George Sinclair

To listen to the above broadcast, click on the following link:

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