Let’s turn to John 1.
My middle brother, I have 2, my middle brother was a professional boxer a long time ago. He is now a personal trainer and he trains people by teaching them how to box. Boxing is probably 1 of the most physical, demanding sports around. When you watch people boxing, unless you’ve done it, you have no idea how, what amazing condition it requires. It takes to just hold your hand up for 3 rounds much less 10 and to be getting hit at the same time. So I work out with him but he was, he was in just amazing shape and it was always a very painful experience for me. He runs you know 6 miles, 7 miles all under 6 minutes and just walk in the house and hardly be sweating. Um, ah but he now trains people and most of his clients are um adults, doctors, lawyers, housewives. I don’t know if they’re desperate or not but housewives. And he you know teaches them how to fight and how to punch and it’s an hour constant, constant motion.
And so he’s teaching this little Jewish doctor, it doesn’t matter that he’s a Jew but I, he’s an east coast Jewish doctor, a little guy and when you learn how to fight you start to get a little confidence that you can fight. People cannot fight by the way. If anyone wants to challenge you to fight just know they can’t fight. If you ever watch baseball players, basketball players you know they just hit each other and they hit each other and nothing happens because they don’t know what they’re doing. Um but once you learn how to punch properly, 1 correct punch will knock somebody out or hurt them. You know you’re not gonna (punching sound) like in the movies. That’s not reality if you’re doing it right. So this little old man is learning how to fight, getting a little confidence. So he’s driving down the street, this is a true story by the way. Some of that stuff I tell you is not true. But this is true. He’s driving down the street and someone cuts him off! So he starts beeping his horn, yelling and he follows the guy to the gas station. Now we’re talking about a little old guy. He follows the guy to the gas station, jumps out of the car and says – You want some of this? You want some of this? Little old man and the guy who he followed got so scared he just drove off, like that brother must be crazy. He must know karate or crazy or something like that. And the little old guy after he had realized what he had done, that he’s gonna fight. He’s like 60 years old, he’s gonna fight somebody, his knees were shaking. His telling his wife – What did I just do? So his wife comes to my brother and says – What are you doing to my husband?
He also trains little boys, this little kid who was getting bullied. His parents put him in and he was getting bullied by at school so they put him in to learn how to box. Now he’s not, they’re not really there to fight, they’re there to get in shape but this little boy went to school and a little bully picked on him – Bham, knocked him out, knocked him out cold! He don’t bother him any more.
So when people start saying stuff about the bible that it’s not God’s word, or that Jesus is not the Messiah, that it’s a book of fables and myths, you can say – No, no, no. You don’t understand. It’s a whole, it’s, it’s so different than what you think. And so my encouragement to you is that you would really, every week you come here not only fill out the notes that we’ve given you, but I’m gonna tell you a bunch of stuff that’s not in here. It’s all on the web by the way, on our website. Write down little facts because most people do not know what they’re talking about when they say stuff and if you could just give them a few of these facts I’m gonna give you today for the most part they will shut up and then you’re 1 step closer to them accepting the bible to be true because the bible is an amazing, amazing book, more than I could ever explain in 90 hours of speaking. So we’re just gonna give you highlights and give you some stuff to um go and look up.
Now let’s look in your notes. First thing we’re gonna look at is this quote – the Who is Jesus really series is designed to maximize the ability of the people of the Rock or whoever to understand and defend the identity of Christ as outlined in the bible. Step #1 in this process is to be confident in the reliability of God’s word. You have to be confident that this book we call the bible is God’s word and that there’s no other book even close to being as reliable as this book. I’m gonna say it again – You have to be confident that this book is God’s word and there is no other book close to being as reliable as this book, that every other book is an imposter. It doesn’t mean that all the other books have nothing good in them.
In other words the Koran probably has some nice things: you know love people, no murder, whatever it is it says. I’m not saying you can’t learn anything good from even Buddhism and just mediating or whatever it is but that is not God’s word. You have to understand that, and we’re gonna look at some items today and I’m gonna make some out, maybe to you outlandish statements.
#1-Is that if the bible is God’s word, everything in it that’s scientific is true. If the bible’s God’s word, everything that’s science related is scientifically accurate. Not a guess, it is factual. Everything that is historic is factual. Everything that’s spiritual, factual. Everything that’s theological is eternal and true, that everything is factual, not just the red letters that Jesus said.
So that’s the statement that we’re gonna say that every single one, when the bible talks about the blood and talks about animals and plants and the stars, that these are not just some guys theories about what they think. This is actually God’s word teaching us about those things. That this book from the beginning to end is bonafide truth. Woo!
Now it can’t be anything less than that and be God’s word. It can’t be! You can’t take some of it and not take some of it. It all has to be 100% true. Hmm. Are you with me? You have to believe that and my challenge to you is to study to show yourself approved that you know that and when people start saying stuff like – The bible’s science is wrong. You can say – No, no, no, no, no. The bible science is right and here’s an example and we’re gonna get to that in a minute.
Let’s do a little bible trivia for a minute. How many books in the bible? Everyone say 66. Ok are you guys awake this morning? Ok let’s sit up, put your booty back, take a deep breath. Everyone say 66. How many years did Jesus live? Say 33. What’s 2 times 33? Very good. How many books in the bible? How many books in the Old Testament? Everyone say 39, say 39, 39. Little math question – What’s 3 times 9? Some of you all are like –Man 3 times……. What’s 3 times 9? Guess how many books are in the New Testament? 27. 39 in the Old Testament, 3 times 9 is 27 in the New Testament. Ok? 39 and 27. How many books are in the bible? How many books are in the Old Testament? How many books in the New Testament?
Ok the bible has 66 books. It was written over 1500 period by 40 authors, 3 different continents and 100 topics. What you have to know is when someone tells you – Well the bible was written by a bunch of Jewish guys sitting in a room. That is completely false. The bible is written by over 40 different guys. Some were kings, emperors, doctors, um some were in prison, palaces. Some were beaten. Some were wealthy. Some were poor. Some were depressed. Some were going through hard times. Some were military leaders. Moses was a murderer, a fugitive and a orphan. He killed somebody, he killed an Egyptian. It was written by 40 different people, over 1500 year period on 3 different continents. They didn’t all know each other, obviously. They wrote about hundreds of topics. They have dates, times, places, and peoples names specifically called out. They have things they wrote about that no man didn’t know until hundreds of years after they wrote about it. We’ll get to that in a minute. They predicted the future and it came true. They talk about science. They talk about biology, botany, astronomy, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc. There’s poems, songs, narratives, history, theology, marriage, business. All these different topics are written about in the bible over this 15oo year period by 40 different people and it all agrees.
You can’t even read the paper today and get the same story tomorrow and we got internet. What the bible had was the Holy Spirit. What the bible had was the Holy Spirit.
Now there are 3 different tests that are applied to an ancient document to verify whether it is accurate. An ancient document is any document written before the printing press. So anytime between the 1400, mid 1400s, any document written before 1400 AD, especially BC there are 3 tests that they apply to these documents to prove or verify whether they are reliable. And the 3 tests are listed right in your lesson plan.
Test #1-Is the bibliographic test. Say bibliographical, say bibliographical. Look what it says. Ancient manuscripts are considered authentic if there are 7-10 copies within 1000 years of the event.
Now let’s think about that. The Chargers went to the playoffs last year and they played the Jets and we lost in overtime. Is that true? Did we lose in overtime? Ok. The Chargers played the New York Jets and if 500 years from now, 5 people or 7 people write down the story of that game, 500 years after that, they will consider that reliable. Isn’t that ridiculous. To me that’s – Wow!
When you read about Roman history understand, I’m gonna give you a statistic, one of the major writings of the history of Rome from lit by livvy, we have 1 partial document that is 400 years after the events and after what he originally wrote. That’s what we have. We have 19 works within 1000 years of his original writings and we consider that reliable. Plato wrote in 400 BC the earliest writings they have copies are 500 years later and we believe that to be accurate.
So when you’re reading history or in your history books or learning about history of things that happened before the printing press by the way, you know ancient stuff, understand that we have very, very few writings to verify those things are true.
When you watch a movie, I watched King Arthur the other day, or you watch a movie about the Gladiator and all these old ancient stories, understand a lot of those stories we don’t have a lot of evidence to verify what you’re watching on TV. It’s Hollywood. Ok?
The bible though, ooh-ooh, the bible has and just New Testament now 31,000 documents all within 1000 years and the earliest is 15 years after Jesus died. The, the bible has more manuscript evidence than all the other ancient writings combined.
Now when someone says to you – Well the bible’s not reliable, you have to say – Wait a minute! Did you know that the bible has more manuscript evidence, matter of fact say this with me – The bible has more manuscript evidence than all ancient writings combined. That means that they add up all Plato, Aristotle, all this, all these other books, all these ancient writings about old ancient history, the history of Rome, the history of all these, these ancient cultures. If you took all that and put them together, the bible has more than that combined.
Now you have to understand something about the bible and we’ll get to this in a minute but the whole New Testament was written by eye witnesses. Now, so we have as eye witnesses account. Now we’re not, let me not get ahead of myself.
Bibliographically test: Dead Sea scrolls. The Dead Sea scrolls, this is New Testament, in 1947-1956 in 11 caves, tens of thousands of fragments from about 900 scrolls were found in a cave 13 miles east of Jerusalem in the Dead Sea, near the Dead Sea and they were found in these jars or vases that were hidden away in these caves, preserved. They found writings from every book in the New Testament except 1 Esther, the complete book of Isaiah was found intact word for word of what you read today and it was dated 1000 years earlier than anything we ever had. They’re still decoding these things after, since 1947. They’re still translating these things. They did them away. They didn’t want anyone to see them. It was the biggest archaeological find ever as far as ancient writings ever. 890 manuscripts/scrolls, tens of thousands of fragments from these scrolls. 1 was 26.7’ long.
You have to understand something. When they found this they started to look at the Old Testament and see that what we had was exactly what they had in these jars. Now the book of Isaiah had 66 chapters. How many books in the bible? How many books in the whole bible? Everyone say 66. How many chapters in the book of Isaiah? 66. How many books in the Old Testament? Did you know the first 39 books or first 39 chapters of Isaiah is all about judgment and the last 27 is all about hope? Chapter 53 talks about the Messiah. The Messiah in chapter 53 talks about the Messiah who’s suffering, who was crucified, who was beaten, whose face was so beat you couldn’t tell He was a man. It describes the crucifixion of Christ.
Now you have to understand something, to a Jewish mind the Messiah doesn’t die. He’s a great military leader. To the Jewish mind the Messiah doesn’t resurrect by Himself. All that’s, that’s not Jewish theology. Well in the book of Isaiah that we have today it talks all about what you would say is Jesus, without question. It’s Jesus.
When we were on our, when we were in Israel doing a tour we were going into a museum to actually view the Dead Sea scrolls to see what they look like and to actually see them. And as we were going in our guide who was a Jew who does not believe in Jesus Christ, started talking about Isaiah 53 in the bible saying that we as Jews believe that Christians wrote Isaiah 53 and put it in the bible just to prove that the Old Testament talks about Christ because it so vividly talks about Christ you couldn’t deny that it was Christ because everything it said, Christ did. He was crucified the same way. Then they found the Dead Sea scrolls and guess what was in it? Isaiah 53 just the way you have it in your bible and they went – Oh my God. Thousand years before any, long, 1000 year, a long time before the events happened it was written just like it is in your bible. That’s the Old Testament!
New Testament, 31000 manuscripts just from the New Testament. There is more documentary evidence for the whole bible than all the other ones combined and it is so verifiable because the first tested the bibliographical test.
The next test is the external test. The external tests says is there scriptural support, is scripture supported by outside documents such as archaeology or other ancient historical writings? In other words when the bible talks about the pool of Shalom, was ever one found? Yes. When the bible talks about the well of Jacob, was ever one found where it said? Yes. When the bible talks about the pool of Bethesda, was there ever one found? Yes. When the bible talks about Jesus being on trial by Pontius Pilate, they found a stone pavement with engraved in the stone Pilate’s name.
There’s books on archaeology. Matter of fact we have books in the bookstore we got just for this series where you can just look at all the archaeological finds on and on and on about things verifying exactly what’s in the bible.
Here’s the amazing thing about the bible. The bible tells a story over all these books and it gives dates, times, places, people, who was king, when they were king, what they did on specific days and specific times, and you know what the bible’s saying? The bible’s saying – try to catch me in a lie. That’s exactly what the bible’s saying.
If someone, if someone, if I was on trial and they said, and I was accused of doing something today at this time of the day and I tried to get out of, have an alibi saying – I wasn’t, I wasn’t at PB. I was at Ruffin Rd at 10:30 standing in front of a group of people. But if I couldn’t be very specific and I say – Oh yeah on April 3rd I was somewhere in San Diego doing something at some part of the day. No, no, no too vague but if I said – I was at Ruffin Rd at the Rock church preaching from John 1, which we’ll eventually get to, at 10:30 specifically. Well guess what? That’s either true or not.
You know what the bible says over and over again? This guy was at this place on this day. This guy was at this place on this day. And by the way this guy will do this on this day at this place, and then it happens! On and on and on. The bible’s saying – Hey catch me in a lie cuz the bible can predict the future. The bible’s very accurate and it has to be specifically accurate.
If the bible says there was a king at 606 BC Nebuchanezzar and he said something on a specific day and he was king, we can find out if there was king, if he was king Nebuchanezzar at that time. That’s verifiable because of historical writings.
The bible is, has the ability to predict the future especially in science. I love science as you know. Write these down if you will if you’re taking notes. 1-Circumcision, circumcision. The bible says a little boy should be circumcised on the 8th day. I wonder why the 8th day and not the 7th. It wasn’t like God was saying to Jesus – Jesus pick a number from 1-10, pick a #. Oh 8. Ok that’s the day. Did you know that when a little boy is born between day 5 and day 7 vitamin K is produced in his body for the first time and prothombrin, vitamin K and prothombrin, 2 different things, help with blood clotting and healing. On the 8th day of a little boy’s life he has the highest capacity to clot blood. Well how did God know that? Cuz God made it. Well that’s just a coincidence. I think Abraham just figured that out. Ok.
Leviticus 17:11-12, Leviticus 17:11-12 write down life is in the blood. God tells Moses life is in the blood. Now you would think you and I would assume that everyone knows that. It wasn’t until 1660 AD, 3000 years after Leviticus was written that William Harvey discovered that life was in the blood. 3000 years later! God already told Moses that.
Personal hygiene, write down Exodus 19:10. You’re rally not gonna believe this one. You know we all take baths pretty much every day, pretty much and we assume that everyone take baths and should take.
Little boys don’t really as much. My son when he was a little younger had a friend come over and they took a bath and a, I don’t know how it came up but soap was mentioned and the little boy said – I don’t use soap. He didn’t use soap. Ok? So we’re thinking – Ok whatever, hopefully he does now.
But did you know until the mid 1800s in Europe they believed that taking a bath and washing yourself was bad for your health. They never took baths. Do you know that King James, King James bible, never took a bath his whole life. People would never wash themselves. Ever!
Do you know what God says in Exodus? Take a bath. He tells them to wash themselves. It says – Bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent meeting and wash them with water. He had to tell them that. Fellas you can’t be coming in the holy of holies looking funky like that. Take a bath, what do you mean? Oh ok. He told them to wash their clothes in other portions of Exodus. Why? Cuz they didn’t wash their clothes. It wasn’t, it wasn’t something they did. God was already ahead of the curve.
Another science thing: Round earth. 300 years before Aristotle suggested that the earth might be round. Write down Isaiah 40:22, 300 years before. Man suggested that the earth may be round and not flat. God told Isaiah and it says in 40:22 – It is He, God who sits on the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain.
You know what the bible says He stretches out the heavens? This is gonna freak you out. Do you know that today they believe, astronomers believe that the universe is expanding at the speed of light? I’m gonna say that again – They believe right now that the universe is expanding at the speed of light 186,000 a second that the universe is going like that. Do you know what the bible that we just read? That God stretches out the heavens. He is stretching out the heavens at the speed of light! Ahh! Do you have any idea what that means? That your problems are nothing for Him to fix. They’re small! They’re small.
There is so much science in the, psychology in the bible. Proverbs 14:30, write down Proverbs 14:30. Tell me is this is not true all the time for everybody worldwide. It says a sound heart is life to the body but envy is rottenness to the bones. Someone say amen. Now you may think – Well that’s common sense. Well you know what? You have to understand something. A lot of this stuff is common sense to us now. Looking back, hindsight is 20/20. This stuff was written a long time ago. Before there was scientific disciplines to understand some of these things. Genetic limitations.
Now this is one of my favorite. God said, well let me back up. The definition of science is the gathering of facts through observation experimentation. Science is the gathering of facts through observation and experimentation. You experiment and you observe what happens and you get a, you come up with a theory, ah you come up with an answer. Ok? That’s science whether it applies to biology, psychology, theology, whatever it applies to. The gathering of facts through observation and experimentation.
If God says something in the bible, the best way to disprove it is to perform an experiment and prove that it’s wrong or right. One of the things God said in Genesis 1, the book that most people say is definitely a myth is that God made animals after their kind, that He made plants after their own kind and that only humans can make humans, that fish make fish, that birds make birds, and not only that specific birds make specific birds. Owls make owls. Eagles make eagles. There’s 150 kinds of eagles. That porpoises make porpoises, that sharks make sharks, that bees make bees, that ants make ants, that palm trees make palm trees, that apple trees make apple trees. That’s what the bible says. So what you can do is go out and experiment and observe.
Have you ever seen a palm tree make an apple tree? Have you ever seen a bear make a fish? NO. Have you ever seen an elephant make a bird? No. Now evolution will teach you that sometime that ever happened but you know what? There’s no evidence, none of it ever happening any other way except what the bible says. It’s called genetic limitation, well that’s my term for it. You’re genetically limited by what you can do.
Now so you can only reproduce within your kind. Now we’re humans. We make humans despite what you may think about some of your kids, they are humans. And you know what’s the amazing thing about humans? Whether you are what we call Caucasian humans, African-American human, Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Mexican, Hispanic, Latino, whatever. However you want to categorize yourself based on terms we made up, not the bible, we all can reproduce cuz we’re all the same. Once you take off the skin, everything looks the same. Everyone’s blood is red. Everyone’s intestines are off white or and pink inside. Everyone’s blood vessels look the same, heart’s the same, it’s all the same. Why? Because God made that kind. It’s all in the bible.
So if you observe the bible, when God says something scientifically in the bible, if you can disprove that things are not according to their kind then the bible’s not true. It has to be true. It has to be consistent for God to be God.
Next test: The internal test. The internal test says – did the authors believe they were writing history? The answer is yes. Did Matthew, Mark, Luke, John believe they were writing history? That they were trying to be accurate in what they said? Write down Luke 1:1-4, Luke 1:1-4. Write down Acts 1:1-3, Acts 1:1-3. Write down John 20:30-31, John 20:30-31. And by the way you want to get a lot of notes? Go on the website. A lot of this stuff is on the website.
Very briefly if someone says to you the gospel writers were fishermen and they never could have got it right cuz they weren’t journalists, there’s a couple things you want to say to them. 1-Can you always trust what a journalist writes? #2-They weren’t all fishermen. Luke was a doctor. He wrote the book of Luke. He wrote the book of Acts. Paul was a very, very educated rabbi and trained by one of the best rabbis ever. #3-The power of the gospel is not limited by the education of the writer.
Have you ever been to church, raise your hand if this is true, have you ever been to church and the preacher whoever it is, me or whoever it is where you’ve been or watching even on TV and God speaks to you and you go – How does that guy know my life? Is he reading my emails? Do you ever feel like that? That the guys talking, say amen if that’s true. Well do you really believe that that happens because of the education and training of the pastor? NO! It’s the Holy Spirit.
And in the same way, in the same way that these gospel writers whether they were fishermen and by the way fishermen aren’t necessarily stupid, whether they are fishermen, a rabbi, a doctor, a king, a prince, it was God who wrote it through them just as God speaks through the pastor, or the evangelist, or the bible teacher. God wrote them the same way.
So when you come to church you’re coming to church to experience God. When you read the bible you do it to experience God. The middle man all he needs to be do, all he needs is to be relying on God, submitted to God and then God will take care of the rest. It’s be, you can’t explain that so don’t try. So when people try to put you in a box to explain it, you have to say – No, no, it’s not explainable and you use that example – Have you ever been to church? Well I’ve never been to church. Well why don’t you come with me Sunday and let’s see if it happens? Let’s see if it happens.
Did the gospel writers, let me read something to you Luke 1, let me just read this real to you. Luke says – In as much as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which had been fulfilled among us. In other words many have written about what Jesus did and then it says – It seems, verse 3 – It seemed good to me also having had perfect understanding of the things to write to you an orderly account.
What Paul, Luke is saying is – Listen I know many people wrote about Christ’s life but I’m gonna also write to you a very orderly account. He is saying – I am going to write to you fact. I want to write to you fact.
John said the same, similar things. He says – With these things are written that you may believe in Jesus as the Christ the Son of God and that by believing you may have life. The reason I wrote you these things is so you can believe this to be true, not some myth.
Now the other reason we know that the gospel writers and the bible writers wrote fact, at least they thought they were writing fact is because what they wrote got them killed. You don’t write lies if it gets you killed. What sends does that make? You write it because you believe it and you are willing to lay down your life. Every single one of the apostles including Paul were killed, brutally crucified, burned at the stake, heads chopped off, put, actually John was put in boiling oil and didn’t die. He survived! Can you imagine that?
Imagine you boiling oil, you know how hot oil has to be to boil? Not 100 like water, and he got put in it ZZZZ and came out untouched. That brother was bold after that let me tell you. He told death – Get the heck out of here.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego got put in fire and survived. But all those, all the gospel, all the disciples died brutal deaths. Why? Because of what they wrote and what they believed.
Let’s keep reading, keep going cuz our time is running out. So they wrote, they wrote about things controversial. They wrote about a Messiah that would die, that went totally against Jewish theology. They wrote about God in the flesh, totally opposite of Jewish theology. They wrote about God dying and rising from the dead, totally against Jewish theology. Jewish theology said there’s 1 resurrection and that’s everybody at 1 time. They said – No, no, the Messiah rose by Himself. They said all these things that were all backwards. Why? Because they believed it was true and then they died for their faith. Ok?
Let’s keep reading. Some people say the bible was put together by a bunch of men sitting in a room. It talks specifically about the New Testament. The cannon is a standard, means standard and there was a specific standard for what went into the New Testament and it is going to bless you to know it wasn’t 5 men sitting in a room saying – Put this 1 in, put this 1 in, put this 1 in.
Standard #1-Was that it was used by the church. It wasn’t until 395 years after Christ that they finally compiled the books that were already written. How did they know? Well let me tell you this: The epistles that Paul wrote were nothing but letters to churches and so he experienced Christ. He went around and started these churches and he wrote letters to them. And by the way Christ died, when Christ was 33 years old when He died, right around 33-34 AD, Paul died 30 years later. Paul had already written all his epistles within 30 years of Christ’s death. What does that mean? The whole New Testament was written before AD 90 or so within 60 years of Christ’s life. That means that people that were reading these letters and gospels were eyewitnesses and we’re gonna see in a minute of what happened or associates of eyewitnesses. It wasn’t hundreds of years later. It was people who read these things and believed these things so much they died for their faith.
Why did so many Christians die in the arenas when lion, by animals eating them, burned at the stake, their skin peeled off, they were tortured? Why? Because they believed Christ had risen from the dead and they knew people who saw it or knew people who knew people who saw it. They were alive! This all happened right in Jerusalem during the time it happened. It wasn’t hundreds of years later like these other ancient writings that you hear about.
So criteria #1 was that it was used by the church. They picked books that the church verify this is scripture and they would use it for hundreds of years.
#2-They were authoritative and felt like scripture. They changed their life. When you read the bible it’s supernatural.
#3-They were consistent with the Old Testament. Why? Because the New Testament and Old Testament got to go together. It’s all 1 book.
And #4-This is the best one. The author was an eyewitness or a close associate of one. So when they read something they said – Who wrote this? And they said – Oh some guy. You know he was from a you know a long time ago. No, no, no, no. Did he see Jesus himself? Or did he get his information from someone who was with Jesus himself? Cuz if he didn’t, we don’t want to hear it. That was the criteria.
These aren’t 400-500 years later. These are people who were there, saw it, heard it. The church exploded in population. In the same city these things happened with people who saw it happen and that’s what you have here today right in front of you, those stories, those letters. When you read the book of Romans, Ephesians, Galatians, Philippians, Thessalonians these are letters that the apostle Paul who was a rabbi wrote to churches in those cities to encourage them, to teach them certain things about what they were going through. That’s what they are. They’re not some guy sitting in a room going – Let me make something up. He’s saying –Listen you guys better stop doing this. You guys better start doing this. You got, this is wrong. This is sinful. You’re gonna go to hell because of this. That’s what he was writing. He was telling them gospel truth related to the gospel. Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead. I saw Him myself, Paul said cuz he did. He was knocked off his horse by the risen Savior. He spoke to Him personally. So this is not some mythical thing that we’re talking about.
Let’s keep reading, keep going. The 4th test is the most important test, is the supernatural test: Can the bible change your life? Most important one. Now everyone say logos, say logos. Not lo-gos, lo-gos is the improper pronunciation. Logos means word in Greek. Logos is the rational expression of truth of God or the rational expression of thought or intent of God.
If I say to you, if I say to you – Walk across the street. What I mean is I want you to get to the other side. It doesn’t mean you literally walk in front of cars that are gonna come get you.
God, the logos of God is His rational thought. Not only what He says but what He means, what He represents, His character, His integrity, His truthfulness, His holiness. The logos is God’s expression of His reality. That’s logos. It’s not just the words, it’s the meaning of the words.
Look in John 1. In the beginning was the logos. God’s intent, His intelligence, His wisdom and the logos, the word was with God, and the logos, the word was God. And then look at verse 14 – The logos became flesh or man and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. The logos was Jesus.
Now here’s what’s critical for you to know. Jesus is not just the red letters. Jesus is Genesis to Revelation. Jesus is Genesis to Revelation. The whole bible must represent truth. The whole bible must be spiritual. The whole bible must be true and accurate and consistent and cannot contradict itself. If someone ever comes up to you and says the bible contradicts itself, the first thing you say is – Show me one and prove it to be a contradiction. And if they in your mind do, you say – Give me your phone #, I’m gonna call you back, and I’m gonna show you why it’s not. Because people you have to, sometimes you have to study what. Like sometimes you have to study to show why something’s not a contradiction. It’s not! Matter of fact there are books called bible difficulties. They’re like 500 pages and it goes through and shows you why some of the things that appear to be a contradiction are not.
EG: Jesus died. He was 3 days and the 3rd day He was gonna rise. Well Friday to Sunday is only 2 days! Well in a Jewish culture any part of 1 day is a day. Friday’s a day, Saturday’s a day, Sunday’s a day. That was their mindset. That’s not our mindset. That’s our problem though. We can’t impose our mindset on them and things like that people say are a contradiction. You say – No, no, no there’s a very, very trustworthy answer and you can get books that go through all these difficulties that people have raised and here’s why it’s not a problem. Now some things we just don’t understand because they’re eternal, like how do you have the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? There’s 3 but there’s 1. We’re gonna talk about that in 2 weeks by the way, the trinity. But there’s an answer. Just because we don’t know it doesn’t mean it’s not true.
And so, um the logos is God’s rational thought. In the beginning was God’s word, His expression of truth. The whole bible is true. So when someone says – Did Jesus say something, say – Well let’s look through the whole bible because it’s all His words cuz it can’t not be His words. It’s all the expression of His truth and He represented.
Matter of fact by the way next week we’re gonna talk about who is Jesus really through the whole bible. We’re gonna look at Him showing up physically representing Himself as a man in the Old Testament and the New Testament and then even beyond. When I say beyond, Revelation. And we’re gonna see how He consistently does something all throughout the whole bible. He wasn’t, He didn’t come on the scene when He was born. He just happened to be born. But He was in the flesh in the Old Testament. We’re gonna see that next week. So we’re not limiting Jesus to just the gospels. He’s God’s rational thought. Logos is Jesus Himself #1.
#2-Logos is alive and interactive. Logos is alive and interactive. Hebrews 4:12-13 says – For the word of God is living and active, sharper than a two edged sword piercing even the soul and spirit, joints and marrow. I wonder how they knew about marrow before we knew about marrow. Everyone say God. That’s how. And is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of your heart. There is no creature hidden from His sight. The bible says that the word of God is living and active. What does that mean? That when you leave here today and you get ready to go do something scandalous tonight and a little voice says – Uhm-uhm-uhm. Remember what the bible says. Why? Cuz the word of God is living, because it’s God, logos. It’s not just information. It’s God Himself and whenever you feel guilty for doing something wrong, don’t we know when we do something wrong? The Holy Spirit’s going – Oh you’re grieving me. Oh you’re breaking my heart. It’s God! That’s why when you witness you have to use the bible because it’s alive. It’s like taking this little, this little living thing and just putting it in someone’s head and it just messes with them. You have to speak the word, speak the word because the word will fight for itself. Just speak the word.
Next logos is useful for training in holiness. You want to be holy? Read the word. 2 Timothy 3:16 – All scripture is given by inspiration of God. It is God breathed. It is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work. When you want to be holy, read the book. The book is all you need. God gave us a book to accomplish all His goals. God gave us a book to accomplish all His goals.
And lastly logos is liberating. John 8, Jesus says verse 32 – You will know the truth and the truth will set you free. The bible says in Romans that faith comes by hearing and hearing the logos of God. How many of you want to increase your faith? You know how you increase your faith? Let me tell you very, very simple. Read the bible. Faith comes by hearing. Why? Because faith is always based on fact and the fact is logos. The more logos you have, the more faith you have. Cuz you put your faith or trust in the word. If you don’t know the word you can’t have faith as much as you do if you know the word. Read the bible everyday. Study the bible everyday. Practice doing the bible.
Here’s the thing about the bible, here’s what I love about the bible: The bible will teach you theology, doctrine – Don’t do this. Don’t do this. Trust God. And then it has stories about people doing it. Abraham sacrificing his son and then God says – I was only kidding. Jesus saying – You’ll do greater works than me and then Peter walking on water. When you read that you do – Yeah! And then you go out and try it. I said try!
Faith comes by hearing and hearing the logos of God.
Here’s my challenge to you. We have 6 more weeks in this series. Get the tape. Go on the internet and read the notes. Take the quiz. We have it every week. Study this stuff and make up little answers for yourself so when people start saying this nonsense about the bible and we’ll get to who Jesus is. It’s nonsense. Jesus never said this. Jesus…… Jesus said He was God so many ways it’s ridiculous! It’s ridiculous and in 1-2-3-4 weeks we’ll get there.
Next week we’re gonna talk about Jesus and the whole bible. The week after that we’re gonna talk about Jesus’ part of the trinity and then after that we’re gonna talk about what Jesus really said Himself. You’ll see, even though we touch on that every week because He says it. Every time He speaks, every time He does anything, He is declaring His deity in some way cuz He can’t never not be God because He always is God.
If you follow this through, study the notes, you’re gonna be beeping your horn, jumping out of your car saying – You want some of this? I’m telling you because people just don’t know and you need to tell them.
Lastly I have a friend of mine who’s straight up, he’s, he says he’s a Christian but he’s not a Christian. He says – I’m going to heaven but I’m not gonna be a Christian with you. I’m not going to church blah-blah-blah and the bible is….. I said – Look man, did you know about this, about the bible? Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom 60 seconds just by telling this kind of stuff. And he was silent cuz people don’t know. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist or bible theologian. Just know some of the basic stuff.
You can learn for the rest of your life and you should but don’t think I got to learn all this stuff. Just study the stuff you heard today. Get the CD, listen to it again. Go on the internet. Look at the notes. All this stuff is on the internet and just practice with each other. Oh you’ll be dangerous. And by the way we’re doing this for you to be dangerous or kind of. Your faith is gonna do this and then when you’re reading the bible something that before you wouldn’t have believed or you hear a little small still voice telling you to take a step of faith, you’re gonna go – Ok I’m ready.
Lord thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for your goodness. I pray you bless us. Bless the church. Bless our learning. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
