the Story of the Bible (09/22/24) | “the way” series SY24 @ PUNLA CoffeeTable

Episode 24S37 the Story of the Bible ( 09/22/2024 written by Dr. Kip Wehrman)

If you don’t know who Big Daddy Weave is, he has some great songs.  The lyrics are great. Checkout the link above to the song Overwhelmed.

I am overwhelmed by God.  Why me? Why You?  I’m just very grateful for the gift I’ve been given. To know the creator of everything is a gift.  I’m overwhelmed by God.

I hope you are doing well today.  I hope you read your homework. 

Did you define Truth?  Keep your definition in mind as we read our scripture for today.

Let’s read some of Chapter 14 form the Gospel of John to start today.  If you have your Bible, turn to John 14:1-14. 

But before we read, we should always think about the context of a scripture,

First the Gospel of John is one of the four gospels in our Bible. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, then John.

The gospel of John is thought to have been written by the apostle John.  Most scholars agree John is trying to demonstrate that Jesus is God.  This is a focus on the Deity of Jesus.  That is the Main theme. We get this from the beginning verses of John.

John 1:1-5 (NIV) ¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning. ³Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Jesus is the word, Jesus is God.  Also we know that John’s gospel was probably written after the other three gospels but before the siege and destruction of Jerusalem in 66-70AD.  So, most scholars and historians believe it was written in the late 50’sAD to maybe early 60’sAD.  There are other opinions, but the contents seem to place it in this time period.  Christians were being persecuted by the Jews primarily, but roman persecution was close if not already happening.

This Gospel was written to believers, Christians.  Who is uncertain.  But it would have addressed many of the common concerns and criticism by both Jews and polytheistic pagan Greeks.

What else do we know that will help us understand this passage.  Okay, this is part of the last supper narrative. This same time period is written about in Matt24-25, Mark 13-14, Luke 21-22. This passage takes place very near the Crucifixion if not just hours before Jesus is to be arrested.  Jesus has washed the disciples’ feet, predicted His betrayal and Peter’s denial.  Now Jesus is comforting them and encouraging them with these words in John’s gospel John 14:1-14 I want you to hear it. there are links for the English NIV and Tagalog TCB versions below.

Sometimes when I read the scriptures, I’m so thankful for the disciples.  They say stupid things just like me.  Philip is asking the question that I think a lot of us ask. “If I could only… see God …then I would believe.”  I’ve said that before in my life.  What we miss is God has revealed himself to us in so many ways.  Our problem is we are not looking for the right things.  We have the Bible and Nature to point to God.  If you can look at a starry night or rainbow or sunset over the ocean and not see that there is a God, then you aren’t looking for the right things.  The bible is God’s word given to us, so we can see God more clearly.  But we allow ourselves to get confused and give up or stop looking or miss the picture God is writing with His words.  The Bible reveals truth if we are only willing to see it.

Our Focus was John 14:6 (NIV)  ⁶Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

So, I hope your definition of truth is the same as Jesus.  Keep thinking about how we define truth and how that definition affects how we live our lives. And how it affects how we see and read the Bible.

Let’s Pray. 

I want to talk to you about the Bible.  I have a few of my Bibles here on my table.  I have a NIV.  Big Letter Bible to read easier, now that I’m old.  I Have King James.  A New American Standard.  I have small ones, and I have big ones.  I have Bibles with more than one translation. Like this one which is 4 Bibles in one book. 

The Bible is unlike any book ever, but it is also like other books.  The same but different.  It was written long ago but it’s supposed to apply to me today.

People have a lot of questions about the Bible but how many answers do we get. 

I know that for most of my life, I thought this book was impossible to read and understand.  When I was in college and I needed to sleep, I would read my Bible. Boom sleep.  Why is that?  I did not understand the Bible.

So, over the next few weeks we are going to look at the Big Picture.  What is this book? How & why was it written?  Why does it seem strange to us sometimes?  What’s with all the symbolism?  I’m an engineer, I like straight talk but that is not how the Bible was written. 

We have to understand what the Big Picture is, if we have any chance to truly understand the details of each story.

I’m going to introduce you to a group called the BibleProject.  The founders are Tim McKee and John Collins.  I think you are going to love these guys.  The main objective of the Bible Project is to help people like us to experience the Bible as the Unified Story that leads to Jesus.  The Big Picture.

I want you to have a few “take aways” from this video.

Bible Canon or the books in our Bible.  All these books work together to tell of the story of the Bible.  They all have a consistent over arching message from the Beginning to the End.  Genesis to Revelation.  The writings are in the Bible for three primary reasons. 

1) Old testament books were considered scripture by 1^st century Jews, so we consider those writings part of our scripture, 

2) New Testament writings that the early church considered to be a continuation of the Bible, Apostolic authorship or connection, Consistent teaching with the gospels and old testament, and widely used in the early church as scripture.

 This means in the letter from early church fathers these writings are quoted as scripture. 

3) Other writings from time period might be considered by some as useful but not inspired by God.  This includes Apocrypha books written between the old testament and new testament and 1^st & 2^nd century pseudo Christian writings or other letters.  These are either not consistent with the teaching in the gospels and old testament or where just correspondence between Christians but not considered to be inspired or scripture.

Styles and Genres.  Every time period has a style of writing.

Like today in the information age we use texting short cuts.  Like the letters u and r.  or semicolon backward brackets.

UR is short for “you are” or 😉 is an emoji for a wink.

If I showed either of these to my 88 year old parents, they would have no idea what we are talking about. 

What about this.  A smartphone.  If you had shown me something written about this when I was your age, I would have had no idea what you were talking about.  In the 1980’s we barely had mobile phones, and they were huge.

So, time period is important.  It makes understanding the Bible so much easier if we remember that it was written a very long time ago.  The people then viewed the world differently and used different ways to convey those views.

Genres.  Are just types of writing. We all know a poem is different than something like a weather report.  Once we understand this and the reality that the Bible has these different types of writings, then we can find them.  then understanding them Reading the Bible becomes less frustrating.

I really like how they make the overall story simple and easy to understand.  God made everything and it was good.  And God made you and I in His image.  We have free will to choose.  Freewill is good.  The ability to choose is good.  God loves us, that’s why we have choice.  You can’t force someone to love you.  They must have a choice, if there is going to be love.  So, giving us a choice is God’s love for us. 

BUT We all blow it. We normally choose ourselves over God which is sin.  This results in Human Rebellion which is pretty much the entire history of man.  But throughout the Bible story we see God’s character.  God’s Love.  God’s kindness.  God’s patience. God’s mercy. And God’s justice.  God is good and right and perfect, and we are unfortunately not those things.  Unless we focus our lives around Jesus, then God’s character traits can begin to be seen in our lives.

God has a plan.  God always had the plan. It is God’s bigger, better plan for all of us.  Humans decisions are not shocking to God. But rather God is willing to allow us to make bad choices because He knows some of us will see it as empty and look toward God.  Place our faith in God. Love God.  The perfect thing God had planned from the beginning.  Our loving dependence on God.

Have you ever thought about the Bible this way.  It changed my life when I finally realized that style matters.  It makes reading and understanding the Bible so much easier.  It opens the Bible to us.  The pictures that the God is painting with the stories in the Bible are epic.  We must understand that the ancient world thought about things in terms of mental pictures.  The Oral tradition was an listener experience, not the like the cold black & white written word.  These words in our Bibles are meant to bring all our senses into the story.  We should use our minds to see, feel, smell, hear and touch these stories.  The Bible stories are meant to be experienced not just read.  They should invoke emotions. That is partly why so much is left up to us to imagine.  The key issues and concepts are what is in the Bible, all those other things are secondary.  Next time you are reading the Bible think about the scene the authors want you to be part of.  Then let your senses experience the story.  Let your emotions experience the story.  It’s a beautiful thing.

Pretty cool huh.  I love this stuff.  They are so right, If you don’t understand something in the Bible. It’s okay.  There are probably a lot of Christians that don’t understand it.  We just need to Talk about it.  Ask questions about it.  If someone acts like they know everything, they probably don’t.  The Bible is a lifetime learning experience.  We are all on the journey, maybe at different places in our journey but we are all on the journey.

The Bible teaches me something new every time I read it.  God is merciful to us this way.  If all the truths of the Bible were to be dropped on us instantly we would be overwhelmed and probably fail.

God want us to succeed.  So the Bible is designed by God to reveal things to us as we can understand them.

So, if you don’t understand It’s okay but don’t stay there go figure it out.  The original church groups would get together and read scripture together, then talk about it.  How it made them feel.  What they did not quite understand.  Differing views and perspectives.  Healthy learning discussions centered on God’s word. 

I wish our modern churches would get back to this more.  Instead of an impersonal lecture why not a personal conversation? Open public reading of scriptures with lively active discussions which encourage everyone to participate not just listen.  What if….

It is a dream of mine for all Christians to Read the Bible understanding the context, literary styles, and intent.  Reading it outload together in our Christian community or church.  Then sharing applications of the scriptures for our lives. That is practical ways to apply the wisdom of the bible in our lives.

 In essence the Scripture is revealing God to us.  How we should live and what we should do and should not do. 

We do not have a religion of “you can’t’s”  that is what the world says.  Our belief is about the  “can do”s and the better to do’s   The way God wants us to live is the best way to live.  Best for us and best for everyone we live with and around.  That is God’s bigger better story.

Don’t forget if you do have questions, you would like discussed email me at questions@punla.org.

Let’s close and pray. 

Let me leave you with this. Truth is a person, Jesus.  Whatever God says is true, is true.  The Bible can show us what God says is true.  Reading and understanding the Bible is meant to be simple but it still takes time and effort.  It’s not easy.  It is a lifetime learning experience.  But when we live our lives based on what God says is best, our life is better. The people we live around have better lives.  It won’t be easy.  We still face problems and eventually we all die.  But we have hope and assurance.  We have joy no matter what is happening because we trust in Jesus.  We know the truth.  And we know that this life is not all there is.  God is worthy of our focus because He made us, and He knows what is best for us.  And when we think the bad things, we face are not fair, read the Bible stories.  People faced worse and God still had a plan for good.  Our job is to make the right choices, then leave the rest up to God.  His Bigger and Better plan for our lives.

One last thing.  If you are confused about what a scripture is saying or means.  Scan back a few verses until you can find the beginning of the section.  This could be a chapter or so before but that way you know what is happening, who is being talked to.  Then the specific passage should make more sense.  But if it still doesn’t, try to discover the big picture message. Now ask yourself if the big picture message can be understood even if these specific words are still confusing.  If you do, then don’t beat yourself up about the specific words.  There are Bible scholars who have studied the Bible for years that still disagree.  If it’s not important to understand the big message, then don’t get discouraged.  God will reveal the meaning when He thinks you are ready but keep studying and learning and who knows maybe you will be the one to give clarity were there is confusion.  Lifetime learning is an amazing gift from God.

Remember If you want to see any of these videos again, go to BibleProject.com and look under the watch tab for How to read the Bible series.

Don’t forget to do your homework for next week.  Read Proverbs 3:5-6 and Proverbs 9:10-12 and Define Wisdom.

I want you to know I’m proud of you.  And we love you.  I’m so thankful for each of my kids in the Philippines.

We are going to end with a song by Laura Story called Grace (the link is at the top of this page).  If you know it, please sing along the lyrics should be on the screen.   God’s grace is enough for us. Thank you Jesus.

Until next week, God’s Blessing my friends.