Lesson Goal
I hope to eradicate or greatly diminish bad biblical interpretation in churches. To arm both preacher and congregation against the shoddy Scriptural analysis of many in the Christian market place. Let's teach the church how to rightly divide the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).
Lesson Intro
Theologians and other "churchies" can't speak English. They live on some weird planet with other people who only speak with big 50 dollar words and know nothing about the real world. At least that is how I have been described by some over the years. Maybe they are right! On the other hand, theologians have an important purpose in the church. They are the navigators who keep the good ship heading in the right direction. They are trainers and mentors of the Master's assistant shepherds. Two of the theologian's most important tools are exegesis and hermeneutics.
Exegesis comes from a Greek word exegeomai meaning to explain, and is used in Greek writing of the interpretation of sacred things. Hermeneutics also comes from a similar Greek word hermeneia meaning to interpret. Proper exegesis and hermeneutics is not some air-head, sky-pilot process, but is an attempt to speak the timeless words of God to the man on the street in his language. It is therefore important for every preacher to understand.
This sermon continues the topic begun in chapter 7. It teaches how the preacher can begin introducing some deeper principles of exegesis and hermeneutics at the lay level, in order to teach the congregation how to apply timeless biblical truths to their own lives today.
Lesson Plan
We will look at the purpose of interpretation: that it is not to twist the scriptures but to rightly understand them. We will look at some of the dubious methods used to twist the scriptures. We will summarize some of the basic principles of hermeneutics that you should have learned in Bible College, seminary or theology school and give and example of how to preach that in a sermon for lay ears.
Lesson Body
Why Interpret at All
A large number of Christians ask the innocent rhetorical question, why interpret at all; why not just obey what the Bible says? The problem with that kind of comment is that people often do not understand that ALL reading of the Bible is interpretation. We see the Bible through many filters.
One filter is time. We did not live when the writer did and so must learn to understand or interpret his era in order to better understand what he wrote. Another filter is culture. We do not live in the culture of the writer and so must learn to understand or interpret what he means by certain words or phrases. We do not speak the language of the writer on our streets. The Bible has been translated into our language, but words, even the same words, often mean very different things in two different languages. Often there is no exact equivalent and so we must try to interpret what are the closest words in our language to the words used by the author.
Many words in the King James Bible no longer have the same meaning today. For instance, King James "conversation" means "conduct" in modern English, and so on. So we must rightly interpret even a particular Bible translation. We must interpret the dialects of our language. The same word in the Highlands of Scotland, the Great Plains of the American heartland and the forests of Tasmania may mean three different things, so we must interpret what it means in our dialect. An example is the Great Commandment of Christianity, love. When Christians use that word, it often needs correct interpretation, because to someone outside the church it may mean sex, to another it may mean a mushy emotion and to another it may mean charitable deeds.
Dubious Hermeneutics
In his book Hermeneutics: A Text-Book (1988, Standard Publishing Co.) D. R. Dungan identifies a number of questionable ways that people interpret the Bible. A method popular among some we could call mystical interpretation that the correct explanation can only come through a divinely appointed interpreter in the "right" church. This is similar to a method we could call hierarchical interpretation, that only denominational leaders have the "right" interpretation. Another similar method could be called spiritual interpretation and is popular among some who claim inspiration from the Holy Spirit for their twisted analysis of scripture.
A method we could call allegorical interpretation is popular among those who want to read miraculous history such as the parting of the Red Sea or Jesus' healings as mere allegories. Yet another method we could call rational interpretation, that method applied by those who want to rationalize away God's existence or his universe-filling power. Yet another could be called apologetic interpretation, which tries to harmonize the Bible with science and history.
Yet another popular method can be called dogmatic interpretation, which causes the popular divisions and arguments over twigs of non-essentials between denominations. It is fair to say that Christians ought to be dogmatic about essentials, and most mainstream Christians agree on those. A similar form of interpretation among fundamentalists is the so-called literal interpretation, which often reads a non-literal genre as if it is meant to be literally understood. Another questionable method of interpretation is the amateur inductive interpretation, where people sit around in a small study group and brainstorm ideas using personal observations, sentiments, limited facts and limited knowledge, and the results of this kind of bull-session are often just that, bull.
Overview of Good Hermeneutical Principals
In his book God-Centered Biblical Interpretation, Vern S. Poythress (1999, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co.) includes three basic steps in interpretation, summarized as follows: -
Understand what God says to the original audience, the people of the time. Find out about the writer, his words, and his audience.
Understand place of the book in the historical and redemptive developments issuing in the work of Christ and the formation of the New Testament church.
Understand what God says to us now. Assess the ways in which the church as a whole is digesting the message from the book. Assess your culture in the light of the Bible. Respond to what God is saying; apply the message to yourself, your circumstances, and your neighbors.
This is similar to what the Catholic Encyclopedia gives in its article on Hermeneutics, which I paraphrase as: -
Begin by dividing the genuine sense of Scripture into categories like the literal sense and the typical sense.
Next, find the genuine sense of scriptures considering two things: (1) the human angle, language, subject, occasion, purpose, grammar, historical setting and (2) the divine angle, including how God has led the church to understand the passage over two millennia.
Then, present it humbly realizing that it is only our version, paraphrase, dissertation and commentary as we understand it.
The Hermeneutical Timeline
Another way to describe the exegetical or hermeneutical process is as a timeline: -
The Ancient Past: We begin in the past, with the writer, with God breathing into his text a timeless message, yet written with the writer's personality, in his cultural and historical context, with his language and grammar, and considering his limited, human point of view. Our first task then, is to understand the original meaning within its context as best we can, acknowledging the distance and time. The Holy Spirit's task, if we let him do his work, is to illuminate the text to our understanding as much as he allows for his divine purposes.
Time Traveling: We must also appreciate that the message was written for several audiences, the original people, many others throughout history, the latest audience, us and even for future generations. Our next task then is to bring the scripture as we have been given to understand it, and as imperfect as our understanding may be, through time to a modern audience. It must be translated in terms that moderns, who do not ride donkeys, and who do not herd sheep or live in ancient homes, can understand. In other words, as we bring the scripture forward in time, we must ask ourselves some humble questions, (1) what may not change, or what is timeless about the passage, and (2) what must change in order for that ageless message to be relevant to moderns? That may involve speaking of shopping malls, transportation or commerce instead of donkeys and market places, grocery stores or restaurants instead of planting and herding.
Today's Applications: Any application to modern situations must not do damage to God's timeless principles. Sure, few of us herd goats today, or engage in trade using oxen, but God's eternal purpose of salvation still stands, people are still people, honest business is still honest business, and family struggles still involve siblings, parents, children and grandchildren. We also apply unchanging values to modern situations without creating a new Pharisaic legalism of do's and don'ts. We must explain principles and give examples, but those examples must not be elevated to the status of the new law for the church.
Example Sermon
The following is an example of how to teach exegetical and hermeneutical principles to the church in 10 cent street language, rather than 50 dollar theological terms.
Title: "God's Throne"
Goal
I desire to teach people how to rightly interpret Scripture, using Revelation 4.
Intro
What is heaven really like? Have you ever wondered? The Bible does describe God's throne in Revelation 4.
Plan
We will examine Revelation 4 to capture a vision of heaven so that we can pause for a moment every now and again and remember God, that he is on his throne, he is the only one we can ultimately, absolutely trust, that he loves us, that he demonstrated that in Jesus' death on the cross, a death for us. We will see the example of the holy angels who are so overcome with praise and adoration of God, that they worship him repeatedly and unashamedly.
Body
Political Satire
Revelation is an example of the apocalyptic genre, a particular kind of literature which is somewhat like political satire today. In ancient Rome, where they did not have the same freedoms we enjoy, criticizing political leaders might have proven dangerous. Apocalyptic literature protected the writer by picturing world leaders in secret codes or symbols as beasts or other cryptograms. We don't know in every case which symbols they used for whom. Some of these codes we know, but what many of them means has been lost to history. However, when the Holy Spirit inspired the book of Revelation, He was well aware that the code to break many of the symbols would be lost, and so doubtless had some other, more important purpose in mind for us today, such as learning patience while suffering under the beasts of our time in history.
Interpretation
Proper Bible study involves some important steps. We attempt to discover what the original author intended or understood as the Holy Spirit inspired him to write. This means we learn the history, culture and language of the time or learn from those experts who have devoted their lives to such studies. We extract as best as possible, the original meaning as the Holy Spirit allows. Then we take the historic lesson and try to discover the timeless principles or instruction which would apply to our lives today. There are often a number of valuable things we can learn. We are digging for gold, the most precious gold in the world, the secrets of the universe, which are available to all, but ignored by most people, even many Christians.
Revelation
The book of Revelation is interpreted in about 4 main ways: (1) that most of the prophecies are past, (2) that the prophecies were fulfilled throughout history, (3) that most of the prophecies are yet future, and (4) that the prophecies can be symbolic of any harassment of believers at any time in history, such as the persecution of Christians in various countries today. I personally believe that all these understandings have their place and that the book was designed by God to be flexible enough to provide truthful significance and encouragement in all 4 ways.
1. A Door (Revelation 4:1a)
God talks to us in the language and culture of our surroundings, and hence gave John this vision to fit within his ancient cultural expectations about heaven, so he spoke of a door.
2. The Voice (Revelation 4:1b)
The voice that he had first heard is described in chapter one as being someone like a son of man, whom we recognize to be Jesus Christ.
3. In the Spirit (Revelation 4:2)
The Greek phrase "in the Spirit" is sometimes translated "in deep worship" [The Message], "I fell into ecstasy" [New Jerusalem Bible], "I immediately became inspired" [Ferrar Fenton], "inspired by the Spirit" [Phillips] or "I was in a prophetic trance" [Word Biblical Commentary]. If we look at an earlier passage where this phrase is used, where Paul contrasts the phrase with the mind with the phrase in the Spirit. Praying in the Spirit as opposed to praying with the mind seems to imply a trance-like state. Now obviously Paul was also using his mind, because he was able to recall the vision and write it down.
4. The Throne (Revelation 4:3)
It is not clear what particular shade of jasper is intended, or whether linguistic changes could actually refer to what we call diamonds today. The real message is not in the details here, but in the overall intent.
5. 24 Elders (Revelation 4:4)
People speculate that these 24 elders are angels, the 24 patriarchs of the Old Testament, or the 12 leaders of Israel plus the 12 apostles, or the 24 courses of Old Testament priests and so on. God has not chosen to be more specific in inspiring this passage, so it seems clear to me then that this missing detail is irrelevant to the point the Holy Spirit wants to teach us. What is clearer is that these elders were righteous (dressed in white) and had authority of some kind (crowns), which power they willingly gave up to God as an act of true worship.
6. Seven Spirits (Revelation 4:5)
This can also be translated as the seven-fold Spirit of God. Some believe this shows the Holy Spirit in all his fullness giving seven benefits described in the Greek Septuagint version of Isaiah 11:2-3 "wisdom ... understanding ... counsel ... might ... knowledge ... godliness ... fear of the Lord ..." or it is possible this refers to the Holy Spirit's seven roles in the seven churches. Another plausible explanation is the ancient use of the word spirit for an angel, thus meaning the seven angels who stood before God in chapter 8:2. Obviously, because it is not completely explained, God does not consider it to be of major significance.
7. Creatures (Revelation 4:6-7)
When we study angels we need to discern between a vision and what things really look like. People often say that cherubs look like this and seraphs look like that. However, can we really say that a spirit being "looks" like something tangible, or are these visions merely to teach us other things? Angels can manifest themselves to look like whatever they want, but that does not mean they look like that in reality. We may remember that Jesus does not literally have a sword dangling from his mouth (1:16), nor does he literally look like a lamb (5:6), even though he is metaphorically described as the Lamb of God. I don't believe this is a lesson in how angels look, but a lesson in what they do. They are intimately acquainted with God and as we see in the next verse, they worship God persistently.
8. Worship (Revelation 4:8)
Does this mean that these angels worship God constantly, never pausing? I rather doubt that the Greek idiom intends that, even though in our language it seems so, but certainly they worship God regularly.
9. Submission (Revelation 4:9-10)
What a significant gesture, to lay your crown down before God. Again, I doubt that they lay their crowns down every few hours incessantly repeating the same thing over and over again. What is significant is that they submit their own authority and rule to God. They willingly give it up, donating their rule to God alone.
In a world where human leaders disappoint us so regularly, both inside and outside of the church, we may find it difficult to give God our full faith. Even our best human friends are only trustworthy so far. When we speak of trusting a human being, we are not speaking in absolute terms, but in sort of a workable trust relationship. However, when it comes to God, we must learn how absolutely trustworthy he is. We must come to understand how deeply he loves us, gave himself for us and ultimately has only our best interests at heart.
10. Praise (Revelation 4:11)
No human being on the planet except one has ever been worthy. Whether we are speaking of democracy or a dictatorship, every single human being has done two things the longer they have been in office: they have become more efficient and capable, but at the same time they have become more arrogant and corrupt. It is impossible for a human being to be otherwise, and that includes long-time and deeply mature Christians who have the help of the Holy Spirit.
Paul admitted it, saying that he knew that nothing good lived in him, that is, in his sinful nature. He had the desire to do what is good, but could not carry it out (Romans 7:18). Yet, legalistic Christianity leads us to want to defend ourselves and claim that we are not as bad as all that. There is no need to defend ourselves. We have no hope except that Jesus covered our wrongs. That is why we can join in with the heavenly gathering and praise God with joy, because he alone is worthy to receive praise and reverence.
Outro
What then can we take away from Revelation 4 for our daily walk this week? When we are on the job and being abused by our employees or our boss, or are being asked by our company to lie to the customer, or are facing difficulties at school or at home, let's pause for a moment and remember God. He is on his throne. He is the only one we can ultimately, absolutely trust. He loves us. He demonstrated that in Jesus' death on the cross, a death for us. The angels are so overcome with praise and adoration of God, that they worship him repeatedly and unashamedly. Let us consider how we ought to get to know this God better and how worthy he is of our praise and respect.
Suggested Assignment
Take a passage of Scripture whereby you can explain to the church in simple, layman's terms some of the principles of right Bible interpretation, good personal Bible study.
Lesson Outro
We have looked at the purpose of interpretation that it is not to twist the scriptures but to rightly understand them. We have seen some of dubious hermeneutical methods. We summarized some of the basic principles of hermeneutics that you should have learned in Bible College, seminary or theology school and gave and example of how to preach that in a sermon for lay ears. Teaching lay people to rightly interpret scripture will give to them tools for a lifetime of healthy personal Bible study.
