What an exciting turn out to see so many people here on a
Saturday morning to learn how to study the Bible.
Now, here's a conviction behind this one day conference.
And I don't want to be too long winded here because I want to
get straight to the material. But really our desire is as a
church, as a leadership, not just to present sermons and to
provide teachings, but to really equip people and for you to be
able to understand that what you hear on a Friday night or a
Sunday afternoon is achievable. And what I mean by that is not
everybody may have the gift of teaching or preaching, but the
insights and the interpretations and the applications are
something that you can arrive to as well.
And that's a joyful thing, right?
Nobody has a monopoly on those things.
It's in fact supposed to be shared.
And this is going to bring me to my main point now, because for
the subject of studying God's Word, you have many, many
incentives in Scripture. You have many ambitions behind
that goal, but for the sake of time and brevity, I want to just
present one thought and that is from the perspective of the
Great Commission and let's read this.
We know these words very well. And this is new for me.
By the way, I don't use slides. So this is not a sermon because
I have my reasons why I believe that a sermon should be as much
just preaching oratory delivery than visual presentation.
But this isn't a teaching conference.
This is a Bible study conference.
So let's look at this. Go there for and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to
the end of the age. Now there are many ideas of what
discipleship is. There are many clever books that
have been written. There are conferences on
discipleship, but if we just go with Jesus's teaching here, we
know exactly what the primary goal of discipleship looks like.
Besides preaching the gospel, besides baptizing those who do
come to faith in Christ, which is oftentimes what the Great
Commission is limited to. We understand what ongoing
discipleship looks like, and it's what verse 20, teaching
them to observe all that I have commanded you.
So teaching is the primary practice of discipleship?
It's not. Discipleship is not spending
extra time with somebody to do life together.
I heard that when I first came to faith that discipleship looks
like life on life. Now there's not.
It's not necessarily wrong, but what are you guys doing life on
life about? What's that?
Going to hang out, going to the gym together, eating at
restaurants? What do you mean life on life?
And discipleship also looks like more than just meeting with
somebody on a weekly basis to talk about your, you know, your
struggle with sin and your, your marriage and your financial
integrity. It's not, it's more than just
accountability. Discipleship is about the
transmission of truth. And here's how that looks like
practically. If if you want to know you're
being discipled by somebody, somebody who knows more than you
is going to be teaching you something about the Word of God,
about Christ, about the gospel. So being discipled is to submit
myself under somebody who knows more than me and receiving their
instruction and their guidance and their wisdom.
And on the flip side, to disciple somebody is to dispense
and to provide and to share truths that I know that somebody
else may not know. That's all discipleship looks
like. And so week by week here at
Maranatha Bible Church or whatever church you represent,
you are being discipled if that pastor, if those elders are
faithfully expounding the word of God, you know, you're
discipling your children if you regularly and conversationally
expound the word of God to them. So it's much more simple, isn't
it? Like what a relief Discipleship
isn't this big, robust, complicated program.
It's not about all these strange techniques and mechanisms.
It's so pure, it's so simple, and every single one of us are
called to it. In fact, how do we know here
that Jesus's instructions are not just for his apostles?
Oh, by the way, this is a classroom.
So if you want to answer, just lift your hand and I'll point
you out. If I don't point you out, it's
because we have to move forward with the material, OK?
And I know sometimes it's tempting to take advantage of
that opportunity to go on teaching or explaining
something, you know, but we have to reserve as much time as
possible. But I'll ask you this, based on
this Scripture, how do we know that what Jesus is saying to the
apostles are not just to the apostles?
Any idea exactly? Do you notice the last part to
the end of the age implying what?
That this mission outlives the apostles, that this mission is
to be continued through the fruit and the offspring, the
spiritual offspring of these men of God, the church.
And it's to be honored and practiced until the very return
of Jesus Christ. So we're here today to be
equipped for the Great Commission.
This is just one way of looking at why this is valuable for us.
But more than that, I want us to understand that we're not
learning how to teach, we're learning how to dig.
So this is not a session about how to explain the truth.
This is not about how to give a homily or a sermon or a Bible
study. That's for another conference.
This is to set the foundation. So in Colossians 316, you know
this verse very well. The beginning of it says, let
the word of Christ dwell in you. How richly dwell is a word that
speaks about living and abiding. Let the word of Christ make its
home in your heart. And what comes immediately after
that, though teaching and admonishing one another?
You can't teach effectively unless Christ's word dwells in
you richly. You can't.
How can you admonish anybody unless you have created and you
have built a storehouse of truth in your own heart?
The word of Christ's dwelling richly precedes any hope of
fruitful teaching. And today you and I will be
receiving the tools by God's grace of how we can grow in the
word of God dwelling richly in US.
Originally, if you saw the registration, I'd put 10 tools
for deeper study. I, I brought it down to 8, not
because of not enough time or anything like that, but because
I, I condensed some things. And if you really wanted to, you
can you can expound on each of these points and you can make
this a A20 set tool belt, but just for the sake because
sometimes we can be overwhelmed with some of these things.
So I want to make it as concise as possible.
And we're going to consider at least eight tools.
Here's the format for today. We're going to look at the first
few, the first set in the first part, we're going to have lunch.
And then we're going to examine the last part part together
before we close. And in between, if you have
questions, feel free to lift your hand.
I want to be of service to you and I want to I want to help
you. And I hope that this will be
accomplished today. Let's pray one more time.
Lord, we thank you for this time.
Lord, at the end of the gospel, Luke, it says that you open the
minds of the disciples that they would understand the scriptures.
Apart from your enabling, we cannot know what you want us to
say you. We cannot know what you want us
to know. We cannot know what you want us
to to obey. So help us in this moment, guide
this session, and may we sense your presence every step in
Jesus name, Amen. Some of these things, if you
come here to NBC, you probably heard me say these things from
the pulpit as a side point or as a clarifying point.
There will be new things here, but there will be things maybe
that you've heard before and hopefully it'll be fresh to you
or it will be able to just compound in your convictions why
it is important before we talk about anything to do with
studying or how to pick a part of verse.
This is foundational and I will always, always, always share
this and preach this and stand by this.
You need to read through the Bible.
One verse that comes to mind is Ephesians 3-4 where Paul tells
Ephesians, when you read this, you can perceive my insight into
the mystery of Christ. The mystery of Christ in this
context is not something you have to decode or break apart or
only a select few Saints understand.
The mystery simply means something that was once veiled
is now unveiled. And in this context, the mystery
speaks about the inclusion of the Gentiles into the
Commonwealth of Israel. It speaks about how the gospel
now creates a new man, that this wall of separation has come down
through the cross and now there is this new entity in redemptive
history. But notice what Paul says here.
I mean, we can miss this so easily.
He says when you read this, you will perceive my insight.
The medium by which we understand insight, the medium
by which we discover mysteries and treasures, is through
reading. Reading Christians are readers
now. Before I became a follower of
Christ, you couldn't pay me to read.
You couldn't. I would never read books in
English class. I did terrible with reports you
it was just it took so much for me to be able to focus.
I was more of an athlete, not that athletes don't read, but
this one didn't OK. And I just it was not attractive
to me. It was it was more it was it was
a chore. It was almost like punishment.
But when I came to Christ, one of the things that changed about
me was I want to know what God has to say.
You know, when I was working in advertising, there was a another
individual there who was part time and advertising of people
come in and out. It's in and out.
It's a very transient kind of industry.
And I got to know one of these part time art directors, A
freelancer, and I began to witness them.
And one of the things he said to me, I don't remember what led up
to the conversation, but he, he asked why didn't God reveal
himself through a website? Why didn't he provide videos?
Why didn't he provide? You know, he was being a little
cheeky and and sarcastic there and I didn't have all the
answers at the time and I'm not going to explain it now.
But one thing I do know, according to the Bible, God has
always ruled and revealed himself through a book.
I mean that that goes back as early as the book of
Deuteronomy. When you read this, you will
perceive my insight. Here's Jesus's own words in Mark
1314 and speaking about the last days.
But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he
ought not to be, and in parentheses it says, let the
reader understand, then let those who are in Judea flee to
the mountains. So Jesus now not only expects us
to read, this is Jesus, the Lord Jesus, He expects us to
understand what we're reading. You know, I did a little bit of
research into Islam a few years ago.
I had some basic understanding, but I really want to delve
deeper into their philosophy, their theology.
And one thing I discovered about Islam is that there is virtually
no emphasis about understanding the Quran.
The emphasis is on memorizing it.
And there's actually reward for memorizing it.
If you memorize the 99 names of Allah, you have a closer chance
to heaven, all these different promises.
And that's fascinating because I've met many Muslims when I
asked them about their book, many of them even know how to
recite it in Arabic. They don't know Arabic and they
don't even understand what the book says.
And that's why sometimes when especially apologists point out
some of the hadiths and some of the Islamic doctrine to Muslims,
they accuse you of lying because they've never heard such things.
And one of the reasons for that is because they've been taught
there there isn't much value in understanding it.
Just memorize it. Just have a surface level
understanding of it. Don't question it.
We're not like that as Christians, our Lord says, and
He expects us to understand what we are reading.
Now I want to tell you that there are three ways that we can
read it. Well, the first ways to read it
systematically. And what that means is read from
the start to the finish of any book.
The Bible is indeed one book. It's a miraculous book, but it's
a library. It's 66 books.
And you and I are charged to know all of it as much as
possible, at least to become familiar with the themes, the
storylines, the characters, the context of every book of the
Bible. So you know what?
One example that came to mind was the short epistle in Jude,
what Jude put together for the believers.
And look at this. In Jude 11, there are no
chapters in this one verse. Consider something woe to them.
He's speaking about the false teachers, for they walked in the
way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain
to Balaam's error and perished and Cora's rebellion.
In one verse you have 3 references to three separate Old
Testament characters. And what does Jude expect of you
and me? To know exactly what he's
talking about? To have a general understanding
of the profile of Cain? What is Balaam's error?
What is Cora's rebellion? Well, left to yourself, it can
be hundreds of different things. But look at this.
In order for me to understand how a false teacher operates in
the New Covenant, I have to know something about Cain, I have to
know something about Balaam, I have to know something about
Cora. So this is just one example of
how systematic reading is so crucial.
And This is why as a church, we preach expositionally, meaning
we take a book and we go through it chapter by chapter, verse by
verse. Now, many people enjoy topical
sermons where you look at a topic and then you do a survey
throughout the Scriptures to see what the Bible as a as a whole
says about this one thing. But there are many, there are
many holes in that approach. There are many things you're
going to miss. What systematic reading means is
you're going to cover everything.
At least you're going to expose yourself to everything.
I gave this example to a group of students 2 two days ago where
I I was on a flight and I I don't watch movies personally,
not regularly at least. And when I get on flights I try
to use that time to sleep or to do some reading or studying.
But on this particular flight I forget which one it was.
It was it was very long and I had my screen in front of me.
But then I looked over at what caught my attention was the
person in front of me watching his screen, not because of what
he was watching, but how he was watching it.
So as I'm sitting there looking at him, he's watching, you know,
like anybody would. And then he would stop the
movie, close it, go back to the menu and start another one.
And then 15 minutes in, he did the same thing.
He stopped the movie, closed it, and then he started another one.
And then 20 minutes in, he stopped at close it.
He did it like four or five times within the span of an
hour. And I thought, look, I don't
watch movies, but I know that's not how you're supposed to do
it. That's one thing I know that's
not how you're supposed to do it.
And then it hit me, that's how people read their Bibles.
They start in John and then they read 6 chapters and they got,
let me go to Psalms and they read 4 chapters in the Psalms,
Let me go to Ephesians and they barely make it through
Ephesians. They go to Leviticus, they read
the first chapter. Like I'm stopping here, right?
And what you're doing there is, is essentially you're cheapening
your experience because with every book you have to
understand, with every book, there is an authorial intent
that the the author has, he has structure and he he's giving you
clues in the beginning for you to understand things later.
And you rob yourself of those discoveries and you rob yourself
of revelation when you treat it like a you version verse of the
day. And so the Bible is not meant to
be plucked in such a manner where then you create your own
kind of tapestry of sayings or commands or promises.
It's grounded in context. It's grounded in the narrative.
It's grounded with other things that need to be recognized in
order for you to know the depth of that one thing.
So you have to read it systematically.
Now there are many reading plans.
The one that I uphold, the one that I practice and have been
since I first came to Christ is very simple Genesis to
Revelation. You read Genesis and and you
just stay there. Now that doesn't mean that you
can't pause in your daily reading to look at a different
portion of Scripture and that doesn't mean other reading plans
are wrong. I'm just telling you what has
helped me to read it systematically, but not just
read it systematically. I mean, here's more points to
consider. Look what Jesus says to the two
disciples on the road to Emmaus and Luke 24 verse 25.
And he said to them, all foolish ones and slow of heart to
believe all that the prophets have spoken all What was the
problem of these two? They were despondent.
They were discouraged because their hope and Messiah in Christ
were dashed and Jesus rebukes them lovingly.
Why? Because he highlights the core
problem to their sadness. You only focus on some of what
the prophets have said. You magnetize yourself towards
the promises of the Son of David being a ruling, conquering king
politician. So Jesus provides the remedy all
that the prophets have spoken, and beginning with Moses and all
the prophets, he entered into all, all the Scriptures, the
things concerning himself, All, all, all, all, all.
If you want to protect yourself from even what we find here,
anxiety, fear, and doubt, one way to do it is to look at all
of the Bible. Don't be selective, don't be
lazy #2 read it slowly. The Bible is not meant to be
glanced at, it's meant to be enjoyably absorbed.
What did Paul say to the Corinthians and 2nd Corinthians
318? And we all with unveiled face,
beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the
same image from 1° of glory to another.
For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Notice the word beholding there in the original actually means
to stare at, to investigate, to contemplate, and this is how we
should treat the glory of the Lord as revealed in the
Scriptures. And how that looks practically
is it's not a race. People sometimes ask how many
times have you read through the Bible?
And I tell them gladly, I don't know and I don't want to know
because what, what does that do for me to know how many times I
read the Bible? I knew somebody when I first got
saved who entered into this program where they wanted their
students to know the Bible. And one of the approaches that
they had was you have to read the Bible.
I think it was like 7-8 times in six months.
And when I asked them how he benefited from that, he just
looked at me and he went, oh, so you can leave.
They're saying, I read the Bible 7-8 times.
What did you get out of it? How did it speak to you?
Did you understand it? As Jesus said, let the reader
understand. And so we're beholding.
Read it slowly. If you are reading through
Matthew, for example, and you're in the genealogy in chapter 1
and things stand out to you, just if you feel like you're
gaining traction, stay there. It's not a race, it's not a
rush. If you feel like you're not
gaining traction in one particular chapter and you and
you feel like I have more time and I have, I have a hunger for
more chapters, read two or three more.
So read it slowly. You're beholding, you're asking
out to open your eyes to see things.
And, and this can only come when we discipline ourselves to
understand that you've had this experience.
I'm sure you're reading something and then you're you,
you think yourself, what did I just read?
And then you read it again and then laundry list come to mind.
And then I'll have to send this e-mail.
And so don't just check off the box.
Ensure that you at least are familiar with if somebody were
to ask you what you read, you can say I, I don't know what it
means, but this is what I read. Read it slowly, read it
meditatively. So reading think of it this way
gives the bite you open your mouth and you bite into you sink
your teeth into something, but meditation does the chewing.
Now Eastern meditation pushes for emptying your mind, right?
Empty your mind, empty your mind.
That's not what the Bible says about meditation.
It's the opposite actually. It's fill your mind, fill your
mind. I love this command that Paul
gives to Timothy. He gives 3 rapid fire analogies
of what the Christian life is like.
He speaks about being like a farmer, like a soldier, like an
athlete, right? That's the context of of this
portion of Scripture. But he doesn't explain what
those analogies mean. Instead, he gives this charge in
verse seven of Second Timothy 2. Think over what I say, and
here's the promise for the Lord will give you understanding and
everything. When I first stumbled upon this
and studied it, I realized something.
Revelation from God does not just come to readers.
It comes to thinkers. Thinkers, So what does that mean
for me that again, I'm not just reading something in the morning
or at night and then once I finish, I close my Bible and I
go on with my day. There has to be an element of me
meditating on what I read. And meditation looks like
different things. It looks like you musing over it
in your thoughts. It can look like you talking
about it with somebody. It can look like you making it a
subject of prayer. Lord, I need to understand this.
I'm not sure how this applies. I'm not sure how this fits into
this portion of Scripture. Think over what I say and the
Lord will give you understanding and everything.
Now notice Paul didn't promise when the Lord would reveal it.
We want it to be revealed right away, right?
We're not told when, but we're just told it will happen
eventually, and God has many ways of revealing it.
Can He just illumine your mind? Absolutely.
I've experienced that. I'm sure you have as well.
Other times you're going to be coming to a Bible believing
church, Bible preaching church, and there's the pastor going
through a certain book and he's preaching on something.
That's exactly what you needed answers for.
It can come through a council with a friend.
You're going out for a cup of coffee and they bring out a
verse that for the longest time seemed to be veiled and then
they applied or they interpreted in such a way.
We're like, I've never seen it that way and God is giving you
understanding. So read it meditatively, enjoy
it. As one pastor said it, take a
scripture and throw it in your mouth like a spiritual lozenge
and just let it sit there and let the juices flow, right.
Our reward is not just in reading and saying, I read it,
we want to be able to meditate on it.
And that's where true reward will come.
Nobody's in trouble. So my brother, he's a police
officer and he's been to a few departments now.
And when whenever he goes to a new department, he has to do
field training. And one of the things that stood
out to me was part of his training as as you approach
actually patrolling and being sent off, you know, to the roads
is that you need to get in your squad car at one point.
And you need to drive around a certain county or you need to
drive around a certain city. And you need to make a mental
map of the streets, of the major intersections, of ways to get to
a certain key regions faster. Why?
What's the practical reason? Because when 911 is called, you
don't have time to pull out Google Maps.
You can't afford to call somebody for directions.
There should be something in you that instinctively knows this is
where I'm supposed to be, or generally have an idea of a
reference of where I'm supposed to go and hear this.
You can't begin doing what you're called to do here
effectively unless you can pass this part, unless you can prove
that, yes, I have a general understanding of the area that
I'm supposed to be patrolling. And that's what I want to say
about reading through the Bible. You can't know any of these
other tools that we're about to explore unless you set this
foundation. Reading through the Bible is
what creates the mental map for you to be able to make the
necessary connections and for you to arrive at the right
points when necessary. So read through the Bible tool
#2 Ask the task text questions. Now, for the first time, that
clock is not working, so I got to keep my eye here with this
Ask the text questions. NBC members and visitors, you've
heard me say this before. Allow me to say it one more
time. If you want the Bible to speak
to you, what do you have to do? You have to speak to the Bible.
You have to ask the Bible some questions.
And here's some questions that I ask.
There are 8 of them. Number one, who wrote it?
Who wrote it? Who received it?
Why was it written? Now, some books are more clear
than others with these objectives and these answers.
But here's a general rule. And This is why it's important
when it comes to scripture and interpreting, interpreting the
scripture, there is always one interpretation, right?
There's one intended meeting and goal from the author.
Though there can be many applications.
People get this wrong. People have the idea that there
are many interpretations, and though there are some areas that
are not clear, generally the rule is there's one
interpretation and you can make many applications from it.
And what will keep you grounded in the correct interpretation
are those first questions. Who wrote it?
Who received it? Why was it written?
Sometimes the the author will tell you, This is why I'm
writing to you, right? We see that in First John.
We see that even with Jude, sometimes it's not so clear.
And there are codes and there are clues that we have to
discover and put together to understand what this author may
be reaching for #2 what was said before or after the text I'm
interpreting. This is massively important.
This is huge. Where people get into so many
errors is because of that lack of discipline, stumbling upon a
verse and failing to understand the surrounding content that
informs what that verse is trying to say.
So I'm always asking the question, especially when it's a
complicated verse, what came before it, what came after, what
comes after it? And we'll look at some of these
examples in a moment #3 what does this text reveal about God?
If you ask that question you can get an answer in virtually any
part of the Bible, even Leviticus.
If you constantly ask what is this to reveal about God, it can
be simple answers. One of the first things I
learned about God through Leviticus when I first started
reading it was God is very specific.
God is very precise. God cares about the details and
evidently he cares something much more about this system of
worship than creation because there are multiple chapters on
the the Tabernacle and like 2 on creation of the universe.
So he wants me to know something about this and what does it say
about him? He's specific.
Another thing to learn about Leviticus just from a
preliminary level is he cannot be approached lightly.
There are protocols. He is holy, I'm not.
And this is something that we can explore more later #4 what
does this text reveal about man? What does it reveal about me in
Christ? What does it reveal about my
fellow man outside of Christ? What does it reveal about
sinners? What does it reveal about the
righteous? You can also find many answers
if you ask that question #5 what biblical principles does this
text inform or illustrate? Worship, sin, relationships,
etcetera. So what this means essentially
is there are patterns in the Bible principles.
There are general instructions that you find from old to new,
and what you want to ask is how does this part that I'm reading
out inform that principle, or how does it illustrate that
principle? So when you come to Genesis 22,
for example, and it's the first time that you are encountering
the word love, Genesis 22 has to do with what Abraham sacrificing
his son. Maybe there's a connection there
between love and sacrifice. That's just an example.
Number six, how can this be applied in light of the new
covenant? We are new covenant people, and
this is especially important when we go through the Hebrew
Scriptures. The new covenant is your lens.
The new covenant is is your protection, the guardrails that
help you interpret and apply the things that you see in the old.
So we're always asking this, what New Testament truth can
shed light on this? Number seven, what does this
text point to? Or does this text rather point
to Christ in any way? So in Matthew 1113, there's a
fascinating statement that Jesus makes as he is paying homage to
John the Baptist. He says for the prophets and the
law have prophesied until John. Now I understand prophets
prophesying, right? I didn't know the law
prophesied, but Jesus said it does.
So there's even something about the law that foreshadows
something about the law that predicts something about the law
that's pointing. Jesus himself said that the law
prophecies. So how does it point to Christ?
And #8 is there another text that sheds light on this one?
And we're going to expound on that in a moment.
So let's, let's use some of these questions and, and explore
with some examples. Now I'm going to actually ask
this. Luke 638 says give and it will
be given to you. Good measure, pressed down,
shaken together, running over what we put into your lap for
the measure used. It'll be measured back to you.
Luke 638. Here's the question as an
example. What was said before or after
this text that I'm interpreting? Now, before we answer that, can
I ask you how have you heard this text taught?
Anybody have an idea? Yes, prosperity teaching,
tithing. I've heard this text reference
more at the offering time than anything else, right?
If you give, it'll be given to you.
Good measure. Press down, shake it together.
Right. Are we all in agreement here?
Does anybody know what comes before this verse?
Judge not, and you will not be judged.
Condemn not, and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you'll be forgiven. Give and it will be given to
you. Oh, so it's not about an
offering at the church? What is it about the judgement
you give to people, how you criticize, how you assess, how
you confront? So what is Jesus teaching here?
The way you judge, the way you determine somebody's innocence,
the way you determine somebody's guilt.
Listen, that standard will be used against you.
You see, all I had to do was read before that.
Here's another example. Oh, this is a good one.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
What do you think this means? Again, I'm not trying to
embarrass anybody or trick anybody genuinely.
When you just read this verse in isolation, what comes to mind?
I'll tell you what comes to mind.
The reliability of Christ or he's consistent.
Any other ideas? He's faithful is love will never
change. But what does it really mean?
Let's consider what is said after Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday and today and forever. Do not be LED away by diverse
and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be
strengthened by grace, not by foods which have not benefited
those devoted to them. So Jesus being the same is
included in the context of false teaching.
Christ doesn't change. So beware of these new ideas or
extra revelation or teachings that are pulling you away from
what you have known about Christ.
What has been made known about him remains the faith delivered
once and for all to the Saints. And so we understand that this
primarily means that if anything is being introduced to us that
contradicts who Christ has made himself known to be, then we
should be careful. This verse is really interesting
because what comes before it is when the author says, remember
your leaders, those who have taught you the word of God,
imitate their faith, right? And so this is a transitional
verse in some way, though you can't even say that verse 8
inform something back in verse 7.
Remembering your leaders. What does that have to do with
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
At least one point you can consider is leaders come and go,
but Christ remains. Even those pastors who've
inspired you and bless you, Yes, they may go on, but one thing
remains true. Christ is still here.
See how beautiful it is when you consider what's before or after
it? Matthew 18/19/20.
This one is dangerous. Let's look at it again.
I say to you, if 2 of you agree on earth about anything they
ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am
among them. When is verse 20 usually quoted
prayer meetings? Because usually two or three
only show up right where two or three are gathered to encourage
us, and there is encouragement there.
But is that what Jesus is really conveying?
What's the context here in Matthew 18?
Who knows? Let's look at a couple of verses
back verse 15 and 16. If your brother sins against
you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.
If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with
you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of
two or three witnesses. Church discipline.
So when Jesus says in verse 20 for where two or three are
gathered in my name, there I am among them.
He wants to let you know that when a church takes church
discipline seriously, I'm there. And when a church is going to
make a decision upon someone's salvation, if it's genuine, if
it's not based on their repentance, I am behind that
decision. I'm authorizing it, I'm backing
it up. And, and the same context speaks
about binding and losing. Have you heard of that?
How do people apply that? Let's we're going to bind Satan.
That has nothing to do with Satan.
We're going to loose this blessing on the earth.
That's nothing. It's speaking about who is able
to remain in the church and who has to go.
That's binding and losing. So This is why I'm staying on
this. I mean, this is just one of the
eight questions. And the reason why I am I'm
emphasizing is because it's it's the most important one.
Really. This is what's going to protect
you and I when it comes to our understanding of the Scriptures.
But let's consider another question.
What biblical principles does this text inform or illustrate?
And this is something you can see in any book of the Bible.
You can get answers from any passage of Scripture.
This is one that comes to mind in Exodus 2113, giving
instructions about what 1 is to do if they commit involuntary
manslaughter or those who commit intentional murder.
We read here in verse 12, Whoever strikes of Exodus 21 a
man so that he dies shall be put to death.
But if he did not lie and wait for him, but God let him fall
into his hand, then I will point for you a place to which he may
flee. And I highlight the part that I
think is so important. So I'm looking at this text.
I'm looking at this list of rules for a covenant that is not
binding on me. But again, I'm asking the
question, what does this text illustrate?
What does it inform? And here's what I discovered.
God let him fall into his hand. What does it say about God?
Any ideas? Somebody's saying he's
sovereign, that in the context of accidental death, we're
reminded that God was aware of it, that God allowed it.
He's sovereign. And see, see what's happening
now I'm reading through Exodus and I'm, I'm, I'm stirred to
worship like God Let him fall into his hand.
So keep those questions in mind and the more you train yourself,
the more they'll be automatic and it will revolutionize your
reading of the scripture. Let's come to tool #3 cross
referencing. This is commonly known as the
compatibility principle. And essentially what it says is
the Bible interprets the Bible. It is the best commentary for
itself. Now, the compatibility principle
is based on this conviction that God does not contradict Himself.
God doesn't make errors. Therefore, you can expect for
there to be a consistent flow of teaching from beginning to end.
And this encourages us to find more witnesses than the one that
we are facing concerning any truth.
And I want to ask you this question, does the Bible itself
promote this principle? I gave you a hint.
Do we see anything in the Bible that shows us the practice of
using the Bible to interpret the Bible?
Test his word? Yeah, sure, the Bible does tell
us to test the word to examine. But think to Jesus wilderness
experience, when Satan tempted him, what does Satan do?
Yeah, he he said it is written. It is written and he quotes
which passage, Psalm 91, to get Jesus to fling himself off the
temple so that he can prove that there is divine protection on
his behalf. And what does Jesus do in
response to that? Again, it is written.
And then he quotes Deuteronomy in order to counter this
misapplication of Psalm 91. So I bring this up to show that
the Bible itself uses this principle.
That we counter Scripture with Scripture.
That we look at the totality of God's Word and mine on a matter
before we arrive at a doctrine or conclusion.
Jesus himself did this. Now, there are a couple rules to
keep in mind with the compatibility principle #1 clear
passages must interpret unclear ones, and there are unclear
passages at least at face value. And if you're not careful, you
can make dangerous assumptions with those unclear passages.
And I gave one as an example. In first Corinthians 1529, Paul
is speaking about the resurrection.
You had the Corinthian believers beginning to not believe in this
thing called the resurrection. And at some point he he mentions
this. Otherwise, what do people mean
by being baptized on behalf of the dead?
If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on
their behalf? Baptized on behalf of the dead?
So this is how this has caused many people to scratch their
heads wondering what does Paul mean by this?
You know what the Mormons did with this?
They actually baptized on behalf of the dead.
So if you had a relative that didn't profess faith and you can
stand in proxy and you can go through the ritual of baptism on
their behalf so that they can be saved.
And what do they quote to back up that practice?
First Corinthians 1529. Now what does the compatibility
principle teach us? Well, when, when something seems
unclear, zoom out and see what else Scripture has to say.
For example, with baptism, this is there any other place in the
Bible that suggests that you can be baptized on somebody's
behalf? No, especially if they're dead,
even if they're alive. So one thing we know for
certain, Paul's not advocating for this kind of thing.
So then what is he saying? Just in case you're curious.
Well, look at his language very carefully.
Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of
the dead? He didn't say, what do we mean?
So he's looking at an outside practice, a Pagan one actually.
And what he's trying to convey to these stubborn Corinthians
is, hey, if you have such a hard time believing in this concept
of the resurrection of the dead, don't you understand that there
are others out there who are being baptized on behalf of the
dead? So if pagans have a have a grip
on the resurrection, that there are things that take place after
we die, why do you have so much trouble believing it?
You see, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the
dead? And so clear passages always
have to interpret and inform unclear ones.
Rule #2 don't ignore parallel passages.
The amount of times this happens and the reason why we don't do
this is not just so you know, we miss out on clarification, but
also to complement a unique text or an independent text.
So I want to use the example of Mary of Bethany breaking open
the alabaster flask. If you're reading it from John's
perspective, notice what he highlights in verse 4 of John
chapter 12. But Judas Iscariot, one of his
disciples, he who was about to betray him, said, why was this
ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?
Now here's the here's the temptation.
You go through Mark, you go through Matthew and you come to
the same account and you, I've read this before and you just
glance over it. And what this principle says is,
hold on. If this is mentioned elsewhere,
believe every single time that it is there in order to
complement what you are reading. So then again, if we look at it
at math in Matthew, notice what Matthew says in Matthew 26,
eight and nine. And when the disciples saw it,
they were indignant, saying why this waste?
For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the
poor. So wait, John said, now do you
see now how my morning devotion is becoming exciting?
I'm reading John. I'm thinking, I wonder what
Matthew has to say about this. John says Judas, one of his
disciples, he complained. Matthew says the disciples saw
it and they were indignant, indignant, saying, I wonder what
Mark has to say. Mark 14 verse four.
There were some who said to themselves in Dingly, what was
the ointment wasted like that? So now I'm collecting these
things together. Judas said it, then the
disciples. And not only did they see it and
say it, but they said it to themselves.
What truths stand out to you from this?
What applications come to mind? Here's one started with Judas,
perhaps. Then the disciples agreed and
they began to say it. One thing that comes to mind is
complaining is contagious, right?
Started with one and the others caught the bug and they all
began to voice their concerns, supposed righteous concern.
But Mark adds another layer. They were saying it to
themselves and in Jesus and every time responds to this
right. But the fact that they said it
to themselves means that perhaps it was internal to begin with.
And Mark highlights that it was more internal.
It was more confined and then it became public.
But if I'm going to go with that, the danger of murmuring
and complaining, well, Jesus know, even when I'm complaining
to myself, even if nobody else hears it, even if it's in my
heart, even if it's underneath my own breath, Christ is aware
of it. Do you see how things begin to
now pop and light bulbs begin to to go off?
Don't ignore parallel passages. They were designed to give you a
tapestry of 1 scene. So everything that we've covered
up to this point is from the bird's eye view.
Now we're going to the worm's eye view.
These are just general kind of structural ideas and
observations, but as we come to tool #4, this is where it gets
really exciting. Pay attention to the details.
Pay attention to the details, and there are 4 details that I'm
highlighting here. I'm sure there are many others,
but these cover most of them. Locations.
Things such as cities, regions, physical landmarks like
mountains. Time markers.
Is there a year being presented in this text?
Is there a month? Is there a feast?
Remember, so much orbits around feasts in the Old Covenant.
What about even the time of the day?
Is this in the morning? Is this in the afternoon?
Is this at night? Time markers?
Keep an eye out for those objects, items, clothing,
materials like gold, silver, bronze #4 numbers, amount
measurements, numerical patterns.
So you want to be looking for these things, right?
Sometimes we want to go straight to somebody's speech and what
they say, or we want to look at somebody's actions, which are
wonderful, but there are other things included in there and the
Bible wastes no real estate. Whatever is included has a
purpose. However, however, there's a
warning and I'm going to read this.
I put this up there. I know it's a lot of words for
for a PowerPoint, but allow me to read this.
This is so crucial. There are times these details
are included simply to situate the account in the historical
context without necessarily caring literary or theological
implications. So you and I have to be cautious
with that, right? Because there are those who take
this principle and they think that there is a deep meaning
behind every single detail that's found in the scriptures,
and that's where you get into strange ideas and practices.
Readers should be cautious not to over spiritualize the setting
or infer meanings that aren't clearly supported.
Avoid attributing symbolic significance unless there's
strong evidence that the author intended it so.
This is especially prevalent with numbers.
Are there clear numerical patterns?
Absolutely. But there's some instances where
it's just showing you that the author was there or that this is
historically accurate. So one example that comes to
mind is when Jesus appears on the shore of the sea of Tiberius
and Peter and the other disciples are there with him
fishing. And then we see that heart
moment, warming moment where he tells him to cast the the net to
the other side and they catch this huge amount of fish.
And then we read that Peter brings the net over, it's filled
with large fish. And then we're told the number
of fish, 153. Now 153 is not a common number
in the Bible, but that hasn't stopped some people of looking
at some deep meaning behind it. And it, it, it just doesn't feel
right. And there's no ring to it.
It's just forced. And it's it's imposed and it's
personal and it's wild. And maybe you know something
about the 153 number that I don't.
But up to this point, what I know is John wants to tell us he
was there. We counted them.
There was 153. Another thing to learn was Peter
was strong because Pete, it says Peter hauled that net over.
And that says something about Peter, I'm sure.
And, and you can maybe expound on that, right?
He was a strong man. So be careful, be very careful,
be very cautious. Some people think they're deep,
but they're really drowning and nonsense.
So let's look at a couple of examples, shall we?
Time markers. So this is a wonderful example
to look at Genesis 28, verse 10 to 11.
Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran, and he came to a
certain place and stayed there at night because the sun had
set. Taking one of the stones of the
place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to
sleep. Now example, this is an example
of a time marker. So what time marker stands out
from this passage? You got it because the sun had
set right? Meaning what it's getting night
time, it's getting dark. So he pauses and he finds a
stone as a pillow to lay his weary head.
Now Jacob is on his way to his uncle Laban's right.
He was sent by his mom. Esau wanted to kill his brother
for for robbing of his blessing and so he makes his way towards
Laban. Does anybody know how long Jacob
was with his uncle for Genesis 3138.
These 20 years I've been with you, he's confronting his uncle.
Laban was more of a trickster than Jacob was.
Your yous and your female goats have not miscarried and I have
not eaten the Rams of your flocks.
Here's my question. How many times do you think over
20 years that the sunset and rise?
I'm not asking for the actual number, I'm just trying to get
you to think a lot, right? A lot.
And between 28 to 31. We see some mention of mornings
and evenings, but the language of the sun setting only appears
one other time in Jacob's narrative.
Does anybody know when good. He's making his way back?
He hears that he's about to meet Esau or Esau's about to meet
him. And in that wonderful account
where he wrestles with God. What do we read after that?
Genesis 32, verse 30 to 31. So Jacob called the name of the
place Peniel, saying, For I've seen God face to face, and yet
my life has been delivered. The sun rose upon him as he
passed Pennue, limping because of his hip.
So the action of the sun here is only mentioned.
And all of this account when he walks toward and makes his way
towards Laban. Was that a fun period for
Jacob's life? It's very difficult, wasn't it?
He got a taste of his own medicine.
He was deceived, he was tricked, he was being humbled.
He was being LED into a dark season of his life.
And it lasted a long time, 20 years.
And then he has an encounter with God.
And when he has an encounter with God, he receives a new
name. He has a chance to actually give
his true identity. When he was asked, what is your
name and what happens? Look at the artistry of the
Bible. The sun rose upon him.
It's a new day for Jacob. It's a new day for a new man.
Now, you could have made that conclusion just on the fact that
Jacob encounters God, but it goes deeper than that.
The sun had set as he walked into a very unfortunate time
where he would be disciplined and he would be chastised and he
would be, he would be humbled. But when he encounters God, oh,
it's a new day for this man. And he has a different walk,
doesn't he? He's limping too.
When you encounter God, you're going to walk differently.
Time markers. What about objects?
Here's an example from the New Testament.
I mentioned John earlier, John 1818.
Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire because
it was cold and they were standing and warming themselves.
Peter also with them standing and warming himself.
What's Peter about to do in the scene?
The night Christ. Now if you had just read John 18
and you finished it and thought, OK, I'm done with John, I'm
going to go to Colossians, you might have missed the only other
place in the book of John where charcoal fire is mentioned.
John 21, when Jesus encounters the disciples fishing again, and
not only that, he prepared breakfast.
Can you imagine that? The Son of God preparing
breakfast barbecue and it says here in John 21/9 when they got
out on land they saw a charcoal fire in place with fish laid out
on it and bread. Jesus said to them, bring some
of the fish that you have just got.
Only two times in all the book of John is a charcoal fire
mentioned when Peter denied Christ severely and when Jesus
was about to restore Peter. So what does that tell me?
I mean, now I'm thinking there's a symbol now with this charcoal
fire. This is more than just a detail
for the scenery. There's something attached to
this. There are two significant
moments now that are married to the charcoal fire.
And here's one thought that comes to mind.
Christ is prepared to meet us at the most egregious and
embarrassing moment of our unfaithfulness in order to
restore us. See, when we sin, Christ doesn't
want us to hide our sin. I wonder what the smell of the
charcoal fire was like for Peter at that time.
I wonder what the crackling of those embers triggered in Peter.
But Jesus wants to talk about his failure.
He wants to confront it, but look how gentle he is.
He wants to have a meal around it.
He's not going to take one of those coals and put it in his
shirt. Even though he disrobed himself,
I guess when he jumped out of the boat, he didn't want to hurt
Peter. He didn't want to brand Peter.
He want he wants to deal with it, but in gentleness, in
meekness, in conversation. And this chocolate flower for
Peter, I mean, this signifies the greatest failure of his
life. He failed a lot.
But the one thing you commit where Jesus said if you deny me
before men, I will deny you before my Father and his angels.
Talk about regret. Talk about shame.
Yeah. Jesus builds a charcoal fire and
he restores Peter around it. You see?
I mean you. You see this everywhere.
You see it with Jacob. If I can use Jacob again, what
animal did Jacob use to deceive his father to get Esau's
blessing and birthright? A goat, Right?
What kind of blood did Joseph's brothers use to convince Jacob
that Joseph was mauled by an animal?
Goat's blood. So Jacob deceived using a goat.
Now he's being deceived through a goat.
Goats are not good. You look at Genesis 38 and
another goat appears with Judah when he accidentally sleeps with
his daughter-in-law, Tamar, right?
So you see this motif, you see this motif, you see this
underlying principle, and it invites us to make these
wonderful connections. So pay attention to the details.
Tool #5 repetition, repetition, repetition.
Yes, Rather, yeah, yes.
Yeah, I would say so. Why those items?
The Scripture has anything else to say about them?
What's interesting is when you look at a prophecy in in Isaiah,
you have gold and frankincense mentioned as what kings will
bring to Messiah. Right, But but myrrh is
exempted. It's not mentioned, it's
omitted. So there's even undertones of
Jesus's baby boy being Messiah. But in Isaiah it speaks about
his millennial reign, what kings will do when they come to
Jerusalem and bring these items. Whereas what we see with the
kings in Jesus day at his birth is that they added one thing.
And and if you look at what myrrh signifies, what does it
signify? Yes, it signifies death.
So there is this prophetic connection between the other
elements, right? The prophet spoke about some of
the things that they will bring to Messiah, but then why did
they add the myrrh in Jesus account?
Because in his first coming he was going to die.
But in Isaiah's prophecy speaks about his second coming, he's
not going to die anymore. Does that make sense a little
bit, maybe come see me afterwards.
Yeah, I would say look at those materials.
Why these gifts? Is there anything in the Old
Testament that would that would maybe shed light on why these,
these rulers of some sort, these significant individuals are
approaching the Messiah in this way?
Great question. Repetition, repetition,
repetition. Just in case anybody didn't know
what repetition meant, Repetition in the Bible takes a
takes place when the same word or phrase or sentence or picture
or idea appears more than once within a defined context, right.
A definite space. Here's the thing about
repetition. Modern readers perceive
repetition as poor authorship, right?
Get it? Expand your vocabulary.
Use synonyms. But ancient authors didn't see
repetition in that way. Repetition, the way I like to
describe it, is the Bible's internal highlighter.
So it seeks to get the attention of the reader to recognize a
deeper message within within the text or more than one
application in that text. So here's an example of how that
looks in a single verse. Let's go to Revelation 22, verse
17. Near the end of the entire
Bible, we read the Spirit and the Bride say come and let the
one who hears say come and let the one who is thirsty come.
Are the one who desires to take the water of life without price.
What word is repeated there? Yeah.
What does that signify to you? Could any of just said it once?
It's important. What else?
It's urgent if I say something more than once.
I'm trying to get you to understand how important this
is. I'm trying to convince you.
I'm trying to persuade you. I'm, I'm trying to have you
understand just how imperative this decision is.
So come, come. Not just once.
Come. What else?
It's responsive, right? So there's a there's something
that you have to answer to with this invitation.
Sure. Somebody had their hand up.
Yes, yeah, sure. So we had the Verily, verily
concept where something is emphasized to repetition.
It's saying, hey, what I'm about to say is very important.
But within this one verse, is there anything that stands out?
Say that certain, Sure. But look at the tool, the
repetition tool. Let the one.
Did you notice that the spirit of the bride say come and let
the one who hears say come and let the one who is thirsty come.
Let the One who desires to take the water of life without price,
let the one, Couldn't he have said let all?
Why are you saying let the One? Yeah, OK, maybe very few will do
it. Sure.
Individualistic. The invitation is personal you
personal you I'm God is thinking about you.
He's not thinking about humanity just as a whole.
He's looking at you as an individual and he's saying, let
the one you if you hear the invitation of the spirit and the
bride, come, come, come. I want to know you personally.
I'm inviting you personally. Do you see the beauty of this?
Do you see how the Bible repeats as an internal highlighter?
Let's look at an entire chapter. I mean, we went to Revelation.
Let's go to the opposite side. In Genesis, Genesis 1, three and
four, we read and God said, let there be light and there was
light, and God saw that the light was good.
And then you read on and what do you discover?
Verse 10 And God saw that it was good. 12 God saw that it was
good. 18 God saw that it was good. 21 God saw that it was
good. 25 God saw that it was good.
So whatever God is seeing, it's good.
And the Holy Spirit wants us to know.
And these are comments for different days of creation.
And then it climaxes at this point, verse 31.
And God saw everything that he made, he had made, and behold,
it was very good. So what does it tell you that
the Spirit of God in the very opening of Scripture wants to
show us that when God was creating, He was over and over
celebrating what He was doing. Well, just that God doesn't just
commend and rejoice when something is completed.
He rejoices over the progress. He celebrates as it unfolds, as
it develops, as it matures. So.
So God is a God who rejoices over the process.
And now I begin to think when God is working on my life and
I'm not where I want to be, my sanctification is not complete.
I can be assured though, that he, he celebrates what the
Spirit of God has is doing in me and, and how because of my, my
heart, I want to yield and be conformed to him.
I can be assured that he's not looking at me with crossed arms
and a frown. But when I'm introduced to God,
I see that he celebrates the progress.
And that's, that's a word for many of us who are frustrated
with our progress. As long as we're making our way
forward and even if we fall, we fall forward.
We know that there's a God who smiles over us.
Did you notice something else? The word good appears 7 times
and then the 7th time being very good.
So there is an element too of, of a rejoicing at completion.
You know, I read a quote the other day which I'm going to get
to near the end of this whole session.
Someone made the observation that if God rejoices over one
man's repentance, the start of our journey, what will we be
like at the end when we meet him face to face?
It's a wonderful thought, right? So an entire chapter we find
repetition, repetition, repetition.
Now here's a note to keep in mind.
Sometimes when a scene or speech is repeated, it's the
differences that send a message. So it's not the similarities,
it's not the echoing necessarily.
It's what stands out. Now some of you may remember
this from the Book of First Kings when Rehoboam was seeking
guidance and wisdom of how to deal with the request of the
people to be treated better than how his father treated them.
Notice his wording to the older advisors in First Kings 12 verse
6. Then King Rehoboam took counsel
with the old men who had stood before Solomon his father, while
he was yet alive, saying, how do you advise me to answer this
people? Now you read that plainly.
You think, OK, that's a legitimate question.
Does he take the advice of the old men?
No, he takes the advice of who? The young men who grew up with
him. And I want you to notice how he
addresses them in First Kings 12/9.
And he said to them, what do you advise that?
Not you. We.
What do you advise that we answer this?
People who have said to me, lighten the yoke that your
father put on us. What does that show about
Rehoboam? He already identified with the
younger man. Down deep inside, he wasn't
really looking for fresh insight.
He was looking for people that would agree with him.
And do we have the tendency of doing that?
When we see counsel, we may even present ourselves as somebody
who's looking for genuine advice or instruction, even though it
may not agree with us. But down deep inside, we're
fishing for yes men. We want somebody to agree with
us so we can we can have some kind of assurance or confidence
that this is the approach that we should take.
So even if, I mean, he's asking a similar situation, a similar
circumstance, a similar question, but it's worded
differently. And sometimes it's the
differences that send the message, not the similarities.
So repetition is so important. Are you guys ready to do some
homework right now? Ready or not?
How are we doing on time? Lunch is in 30 minutes.
Yes. Good.
I was hoping so. Here's what we're going to do in
the next. Let's give it 10 minutes.
Maybe by yourself, if you want to do with the people you came
with, maybe just one other person.
You're going to open up Genesis chapter 18 and you're going to
read the first 8 verses and you're going to apply whatever
we learned thus far. Remember, we are looking for
repetition. We are looking for details.
Details like location, time markers, objects, numbers, cross
references might be hard at this point, but we're looking for
questions to to be answered. Questions like what does this
text reveal about God? What does it reveal about man?
What kind of principle does an informer illustrate?
How can this be applied in light of the New Covenant?
And though not every question applies with what you heard thus
far, get with your group and I will signal to you when we're
going to reconvene together. Genesis 18 one to 8.
Do we need more time? We're OK.
All right. Let's gather together again.
How was it? Interesting.
Hopefully. That's a good Interesting.
All right. Whoever wants to contribute?
Any ideas, any observations, maybe even questions?
Yes, brother. Yeah.
So the Lord appears to him after that.
So you're asking the question, what came before this?
Very good observation. And there are wonderful
instructions from that point, Yes.
Anything else? Yes, the Lord appears with him
in three. Men.
Yes, he. Recognized that it was the.
Lord Yeah 3. Is symbolically the Trinity.
Yes. So some people do believe it's a
Trinity. The clarification, however, is
when you come next in Genesis 19 where you have two angels who
went to Lot in Sodom. So many who who do think it's a
Trinity have to consider that it seems to be that the Lord
appears as one person, one individual, and the two others
who accompany were actually angels.
But you're not the only one who's made that initial
observation. I would just encourage to
consider the next chapter to see who those members are exactly.
For by doing so, some people that entertain angels.
Without beautiful brother, did you hear the cross reference to
a principle in Hebrews chapter 13 about really hospitality?
Is there a lot to learn about hospitality in the verses we
read? Yes.
Good, great. Thank you brother.
Did you have your hand up as well?
Yeah, there is the oaks of memory.
They appear more than once in Genesis, especially with
Abraham, but I would say that's a great thing that you're
highlighting there. We don't have time to explore
what that means exactly, but you are on to something very good.
Yes, yes, and because of. That his.
Actions corresponds to. God, we're going to quickly.
There's no. Delay.
There's no hesitation. Yes, very good.
Did you notice that that Abraham recognizes and even identifies
himself as a serpent? Now, let me ask you this.
Learning about Abraham up to this point, did we already
discover that he was a wealthy man?
Not just wealthy, very wealthy, right?
Did he have servants? Could he have just asked his
servants to prepare a meal for the Lord and the 2 angels?
Well, what does he do? He puts the apron on, right?
What's that? Yes, exactly.
So he does. He does include others, but he
is also waiting on them. And we'll get to that in a
moment. Yes, Jonah.
I see. A image.
Oh now you're getting deep yes yes, yes we're going to have fun
at lunch we did there is a deeper meaning here our brother
Yona has it. I know it, yes, but those are a
great that's a great point. There is there is a consistency
here. There is a parallel that you can
make between how Abraham treats the Lord under this tree and how
there is another instance where idols are dealt with underneath
the tree. That's a great point too.
That's that's very deep. Yes.
Yeah. They they he wasn't expecting
them when they arrived, right. He was, he seems to be
surprised. Sure, yes, very good.
He is. Do you see that he can move for
a 99 year old, right. Because in verse 14, the Lord's
going to tell them one year from now Sarah's going to have a
child. So how old did he give?
What? How old was Abraham when he had
Isaac? He was 100.
Meaning what? How old is he here?
99? Yes, yes, right here, Brianna.
We'll get to you, brother. That's a great point too.
I mean, you have this, this man who inflicts pain upon himself
in order to obey God, and yet his posture of service is so
strong immediately after, contextually speaking, Yes.
Yes, brother. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,
absolutely. And a couple of people already
made that point. It's true.
There's something about the timing.
Abraham and his house will being circumcised and the Lord making
himself known to Abraham. Yes, somebody had their hand up
here. Yes, Grace.
The quality, Yeah. He, he brought a quality meat
before his guest. Sure.
Yes. Right.
Yeah, sure. I mean, there's this mirroring
picture of humbling yourself. And that's probably one of the
most humbling things you can do is to wash somebody else's feet
at that time. Absolutely.
Right. Yes.
Yeah, yeah.
So now you're sure. So now you're wondering and
questioning and examining. This is good.
Yes, over here and over here. And then we'll look at it
together more. Very.
Good. Did you notice?
That outside, which means he was in a very uncomfortable position
and. Sometimes.
Hospitality can be very uncomfortable and costly, and he
was just sitting out there in that heat in his elderly age,
waiting on God to bring that operation.
Excellent point. Did you notice the time marker?
It was in the heat of the day. We're talking about Middle
Eastern heat. This is hot, right?
OK, we're going to go, I mean, somebody else here, then Joey.
And then Joey, we're going to end with you before we move on.
Yes, So there's many repeated words here.
Yes. And we're going to explore more
of those. Very good, Joey.
I noticed that before he actually served, he was
worshipped. Reminded me back to Mary and
Mark when they were separated here.
And Abraham did it. He worshipped and He provided.
Hospital yes, so there's devotion in the heart and
practical service here. Absolutely you, you all did a
wonderful job. Let's look at some of these
things you already mentioned some of them.
Verse one tells us that it was in the heat of the day.
He meant this is just surface level.
We're not even getting deeper deeper here, just preliminary in
the 10-15 minutes we had. So there's the heat of the day.
So as our sister alluded to already mentioned that this was
probably very uncomfortable for Abraham, right?
It was not a very convenient time, but it was in the heat of
the day. That says something.
He ran. Did you notice that twice we
read that he ran the word quick appears three times quickly,
quick, quickly, quickly, right. So the Lord deserves immediate
obedience. There shouldn't be hesitation
and obedience there should be, there shouldn't be hesitation in
our worship and our sacrifice. Did you notice this in verse 4?
What did He initially offer them in verse four?
Look at it again, I'll read it. He says let a little water be
brought. Notice little water, let a
little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourselves
under the tree while I bring a morsel of bread that you may
refresh yourselves and after that you may pass on since you
have come to your servants. So what does He offer them as a
meal? Just take a snack, a morsel of
bread, right? What does he offer them?
A cow. So what is what is that milk?
And it's a whole feast. So maybe you've experienced this
where somebody knows you're driving by town and they text or
you texted me, say, come over, just come over for a cup of tea,
right? This is especially known among
Middle Easterners, right? It's not just going to be tea.
You know, it's not leftovers. And there's going to be a whole.
It's going to be like Thanksgiving, right?
And you thought you were just coming for tea.
So is Abraham lying here? No, it's not.
He's not lying, but it's showing just he's willing to go above
and beyond for the Lord, right? And so he's trying to convince
them like, look, it seems like you're on your way.
Here's just a morsel of bread. But in reality, once you got him
seated, he says get the best cow we have, right?
And that really brings us to the next point.
It was tender and good. He didn't look for a weekly
sickly animal. He found the best that he can
offer to the Lord. And brother, do you want to get
something before we move on? Doing what was strange, I will
point out that 3 is a a a gimmel which is a symbol of a camel and
helping board a door in the Hebrew letter of the valid and
there's a whole bunch of message in a camel symbolically.
So I think the the scripture is pointing us to the meaning of a
letter. OK, which is?
The letter that is the #3. Yeah, see, this is where this is
beyond my expertise with Hebrew, and this is something we'll talk
about after the lunch break. But this is something worthy of
discussion. Absolutely.
There's something to consider about some of these original
terms and symbols. Notice in verse 8, just because
of the sake of time, we read that at the end of the whole
scene, what's Abraham's posture? Does he sit with them?
What is standing symbolize? Yeah, he's, I served you up to
this point, but I'm ready. If you call me, I will do
anything else. I'm still in the active position
of serving. You know, some people, they
serve, and then I want to take a break from serving the Lord.
You know, that's not Abraham. Abraham, I'm ready to serve
again. And that's even more impressive
when you consider his age. He's 99 at this point.
And more than that, this is something that stood out to me.
What about his attitude? He's 99.
Sure. And what hasn't come yet?
The promise he's going to find out after this that it's going
to be a year from then that Isaac would be realized.
But look at his attitude while he waits on God.
Is he bitter? Does he drag his feet?
Is he huff and puff? Oh, it's the Lord.
The same one that promised me 25 years ago that I was going to
have his son, and that is that. Is that Abraham's attitude?
No, while he waits on God, he is serving with his whole heart.
Are you doing the same? Am I doing the same?
He's a model of faith according to the New Testament, not just
in justifying faith, but in practical faith.
He's waiting on the Lord. And while he's waiting, he's
giving everything he has to the Lord because he loves God, not
just for the promise, but the promise, Sir, who he is, As we
already mentioned, our brother mentioned that one New Testament
application, according to Hebrews 13, is we should, we
should be as people of God, hospitable.
And we have a wonderful model in Abraham.
Yes, brother, you had something else.
While he was serving it at the end, he got provided the tree
for the coolness versus. The sun, Sure.
Yes, yes. Otherwise it would have been
really. Hot, it would have been exactly.
Yes, absolutely. This is just one sample of how
when we do what we just learned, when we ask these questions and
when we we zoom in and we meditate, things begin to
glisten in our Bibles. And this is just the surface.
We haven't even really brought in it.
We could have compared Abraham's hospitality in Genesis 18 to
Lot's hospitality in Genesis 19, right?
There's so many other things that we can explore, but for
now, we're going to eat. We're going to eat just like we
learned here. We're going to have a meal.
Allow me to pray for us and it will return at 1:30.
Lord, we do thank you for this first part.
We thank you for the tangible excitement and the contagious
spirit for the things of God and the Word of God.
We pray now that as we feast together that the spirit of
hospitality would be obvious. We thank you for the hospitality
team that throughout the week have been preparing for this
time. We thank you for the the meal
that we're we're going to enjoy. May it only facilitate the
fellowship that you call us to have.
And Lord, may the rest of this afternoon be to your glory.
In Jesus name we pray, Amen and Amen.
We'll see you back in here at 1:30.
Just make your way downstairs. There's Chick-fil-A and other
snacks waiting for you. God bless you.
We'll see you soon.