Opening Illustration.
Turn to 2 Peter 1:20-21 If you were here last week, you know
we began this 4 part series entitled ‘Text’ (touch series logo, video runs
with books/texting from last week). And last week we discussed why
(touch Why? logo from last week that gives way to the screen with: God
has a story to tell and the three images of the curtain, heart, and
compass) we have the Bible. God has a story to tell. He wanted to
reveal Himself, His love for us, and His purpose and direction.
But now this morning we answer the question: How did we get
the Bible? One of the facts about the Bible that most people don’t know
is: How did we get it?”Did it just drop out of the sky? (touch How logo;
inside it are 4 logos: surgical instruments, a sail boat pushed by a strong
wind, an extended outline, a shelter from a storm—these are only
suggestions; need your input )
When we talk about the question: “How did we get the Bible?,”
there are components we have to examine: Human instrumentality,
Divine Inspiration, Logical Organization, and Miraculous Preservation.
Let’s examine those one at a time. But before we do, let’s read 2 Peter
1:20-21 (touch 2 Peter 1:20-21 logo)
When we think about how we got the Bible, there was.
1. (touch instruments logo) HUMAN INSTRUMENTALITY. V.20
“NO PROPHECY OF SCRIPTURE CAME ABOUT BY THE
PROPHET’S OWN INTERPRETATION.”
If you’ve ever seen “The Ten Commandments,” you know the
scene where God writes the 10 commandments on the two tablets.
(touch 10 commandments logo) That’s taken from (touch open Bible
logo) EXODUS 31:18 “WHEN THE LORD FINISHED SPEAKING TO
MOSES ON MOUNT SINAI, HE GAVE HIM THE TWO TABLETS OF
THE TESTIMONY, THE TABLETS OF STONE INSCRIBED BY THE
FINGER OF GOD.” The words on those tablets were included in the
Bible, but that’s not how the Bible was actually written. The Old
Testament writers wrote on scrolls usually made of sheep skin and the
New Testament writers wrote on pieces of parchment.
And who were these folks who were the human instruments of
God? They came from various backgrounds: shepherds, soldiers,
scholars, statesmen, slaves, masters, fishermen, financiers. Obviously,
they came from various backgrounds. 40 different men over a period of
1500 years.
The writers of the OT make more than 2,000 direct claims to be
speaking the very words of God. Over and over again they would use
phrases like, “THE WORD OF GOD CAME TO ME…” GENESIS
15:1…THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME TO ABRAHAM IN A VISION”
JEREMIAH 1:11 THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME TO ME: "WHAT
DO YOU SEE, JEREMIAH?" EZ.36:16 “AGAIN THE WORD OF THE
LORD CAME TO ME” There is little doubt that the prophets of the Old
Testament believed they had received the word of God.
Of course they had to be perfect in their prophecies. If they
weren’t 100% accurate, they would be put to death. So when they said,
“The word of the Lord came to me,” or “This is the word of the Lord”, it
was no empty boast.
So what was the methodology? Did they sit down with a
sheepskin or a parchment roll, take up their quill and say, “All right, Lord,
you speak it and I’ll write it down?” Kind of like dictation? No! If that
was the case, every Scripture would look and sound the same. God
used the individual’s age, background, culture, education, experience,
perspective, and personality to express His words. GOD CLOTHED HIS
WORD WITH THEIR HUMANITY. So when you read the Pentateuch,
you get the flavor of a man, Moses, who was raised in a royal
environment but humbled by being a herdsman for 40 years in the
desert. When you read the Psalms written by David, you get the flavor of
a young, passionate, brash shepherd boy. When you read the gospel of
Luke, you get the straight forward forensic historical analysis of a doctor.
When you read Romans, you get the scholarly exactness of Paul.
But here’s the thing: God used human beings, no doubt about it.
But if that’s our only statement on the matter, then some could conclude
that since the Bible was written by human beings, and since human
beings are flawed, then the Bible must be flawed. But That takes us to
the 2nd critical component of how we got the Bible, and that is:
2. (touch sail boat logo) DIVINE INSPIRATION (touch open Bible
logo) V.21 “NOT BY THE WILL OF MAN, BUT MEN SPOKE FROM
GOD AS THEY WERE CARRIED ALONG BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.”
Notice the 1st part of that verse: “Not by the will of man.” Moses
didn’t just decide to write what he wanted, He wrote what God wanted.
John didn’t decide on his own to start his gospel with, “In the beginning
was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.” God
prompted him to write that. Scripture was not written by the will of men.
God used godly men, men who were walking with Him, men who
were sensitive to His voice, to write the Scripture. They were carried
along by the Holy Spirit. Moved by the Holy Spirit. Inspired by the Holy
Spirit. 2 TIMOTHY 3:16-17 SAYS, “ALL SCRIPTURE IS GOD-
BREATHED AND IS USEFUL FOR TEACHING, REBUKING
CORRECTING AND TRAINING IN RIGHTEOUSNESS, SO THAT THE
MAN OF GOD MAY BE THOROUGHLY EQUIPPED FOR EVERY
GOOD WORK.” Notice that 1st phrase: All Scripture is God-breathed.”
Some translations read, “All Scripture is inspired by God.” The Scripture
is God-breathed; it is inspired by God. The Hebrew word for Spirit is
ruach: wind, air, breath. The Greek Word for Spirit is pneuma and is
translated breath as well. Genesis 1:2 Spirit…Genesis 2:7 breath. Just
as God breathed life into Adam, He breathed His word into the hearts
and minds of the writers of Scripture. God blew them along…again the
use of imagery of the wind and breath. The Scripture is God-breathed; it
is inspired.
Now inspiration is a phrase we toss around in our culture to
describe something very creative. Examples: When Steven Speilberg
came out with Star Wars, many said it was inspired. When someone
listens to a Taylor Swift song or a LeAnn Rimes song, the listener may
claim that the song is inspired. But the concept of biblical inspiration far
surpasses anything like that.(touch Inspiration logo—just the word
Inspiration) INSPIRATION: GOD USED HUMANS TO WRITE HIS
WORD, BUT HE SUPERINTENDED THE PROCESS TO ENSURE
THAT THEY WROTE, WORD FOR WORD, HIS MESSAGE TO US
WITHOUT ANY MIXTURE OF ERROR.
3. (touch outline logo) Logical Organization. (touch open bible logo)
No prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own
interpretation” v.20
Peter, who is writing this, is talking about what we know to be the
Old Testament. When Peter uses the term prophets, he is talking about
those men who heard from the Lord and spoke on His behalf. So that’s
a broad use of the term prophet. Of course, the same principle is
applied to the writers of the New Testament.
(touch library logo>Books on a shelf logo—need 7 books with
names on bindings: Law, History, Wisdom, Prophets, Gospels/Acts,
Epistles, Revelation ) The Bible is organized nicely into four groupings of
writings in the O.T. and in the N.T. Old Testament: Law (Pentateuch),
History (Invasion of the Promised land beginning in Joshua through the
defeat and exile of the kingdom and the rehabitation of Ezra/Nehemiah),
the Wisdom Literature (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon,
Ecclesiastes). Then the prophets (major and minor). In the New
Testament there are the gospels, Acts, epistles, Revelation/apocalyptic).
But how did the different writings actually make it into the Bible?
The process is called canonization. It comes from the word (touch reed
logo) canon: reed (instrument of measurement).
In the Old Testament . . .
In the New Testament, it was a different situation. Rather than a
tightly knit community of faith, in a small nation, writings were popping up
from all over the Mediteranean world, some by authors that the early
church knew and some that were by unknowns. And of course, there
were parchments that bore the name of a Paul or Peter or John, but the
writing style and content of the writings were very different. So you had
3-4 people writing, saying they were the Apostle John or 5-6 people
writing claiming to be the Apostle Peter. So the early church had to
develop a process to test each writing. They stayed pretty close to the
process used to accept Old Testament books. It was a three stage
methodology applied to each writing to measure whether the writing was
to be accepted as Scripture. So here are the 3 TESTS OF
CANONICITY:
AUTHOR: The document required some kind of apostolic
authority. That means it was either written by an apostle who witnessed
the events first hand or by an immediate contact with an apostle. For
instance, Luke was not an apostle, but he served alongside the Apostle
Paul and was a part of the missionary journeys. So he was an eye
witness to the events of the book of Acts and also had access to the
writings and teaching of the apostles in order to write his gospel. Mark
was an early convert and had up close and personal contact with Peter
and Paul.
CALL BAND X 224
INTERNAL CONSISTENCY: Was there a consistency that lined
up with the other books that had been accepted? Did the content ring
true with other books that were considered authentic? Now this is what
really distinguished the real from the pretend. Among some of the
pretenders are the Shephrd of Hermes, the Gospel of Thomas, and the
Apocraphal books, which, by the way, are excluded by all but the
Catholic church because they lack that consistency.
ACCEPTANCE OF THE FAITH COMMUNITY: Was the
document accepted and used by the churches everywhere? Was it
universally accepted by the Jewish community for the Old Testament
and churches for the New Testament as being God’s word?
Now, all of this took time. It didn’t just happen in a few years or a
few decades. Mark’s gospel was probably the 1st New Testament book
written, somewhere about 40-50 A.D., and the last book written was
Revelation, maybe as late as 90 A.D. But those documents and copies
of them were circulating around the churches all through the 2nd century
and it wasn’t until the 3rd century that the church came to a consensus
about which books were in and which ones were out.
Not this leads to the last important truth:
4. (touch shelter logo) Miraculous preservation
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the
Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you
the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not
the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until
everything is accomplished.” Matthew 5:17-18
Closing illustration
