May 26 2019 How to Read the Story of the Bible

We are closing down Luke – if there is time – we might be able to answer some questions.

We are going back a few weeks to the Good Samaritan Story week –

The Road to Emmaus -

Luke 24 22 “Some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning, 23 and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive. 24 "Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said; but Him they did not see." 25 And He said to them, "O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 "Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?" 27 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

Jeff said to me – “If I could go back in time for any conversation - this would be the one!”

Look at this! And this! Jesus was having a conversation with an expert with a Lawyer – more literally, a Bible Scholar.

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Luke pulls back the curtain on how the Scriptures work. You are looking at it wrong (you have heard it said…, but I tell you).

This was my primary purpose in my studies – how does this Bible thing really work?! There are ways we’ve always understood the Bible that are not the best – and changes have to be made. We have held to something so long… like men who have a t-shirt with lots of holes – it means so much to them that they can’t give it up – even if it no longer serves us…

John 1:45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."

Acts 10:43 "Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins."

Luke 10: 25 Now an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus, saying, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 He said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you understand it?" 27 The expert answered, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself." 28 Jesus said to him, "You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live." 29 But the expert, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

How do you understand it? In their day, as in ours, there were different schools of interpretation – ways of understanding the passages, and Jesus knows the way this guy is approaching it – and this is not exactly correct. Today, as you listen to people teach the Bible, there are numerous schools of how to do this – and that is why there are so many opinions on how to interpret the Bible. Each school thinks they have the most accurate way of doing this. Each of us privileges our way of reading the Bible. The person you are disagreeing with thinks they are doing it right.

Let me give an example – Predestination. Every Christian believes in Predestination.

There are verses about predestination in the Bible. What is the meaning of it? That is where the disagreement comes in.

We are going to go through the stories of the Bible to discover the nature of what it is.

The Bible Scholar – the lawyer – saw the Bible as a set of rules or commands to be applied to life. That is true – but that is not what the Bible is – it is NOT a book of rules and commands. But if you view the Bible as that, you are like the lawyer in the story.

Some call it – I have called it – a blueprint for life – or the owner’s manual for life – and there is some truth in that – but the problem – that makes the Bible all about US – and the Bible is really about God – and Jesus becomes the core and focus of that.

The story of the Bible is one of God and His work in creation. Jesus tells them, on the road to Emmaus – that the front and center of that story is Jesus Christ. We’ll look at how that happens this summer in the Bible.

But we don’t want to get into a Where’s Waldo scenario of where is Jesus hiding in every passage of the Bible?

My analogy is that of a great river – a current moving everything to the sea – Scriptures flowing into Christ and carrying everything with it – but there are many smaller stories in the bible that are like the tributaries and streams that fill this great river – they enlarge the big story.

There is a study called The Story – Max Lucado and Randy Frazee

The Bible consists of an upper story – the grand narrative that culminates in Jesus Christ. Adam and Eve and the serpent – Eve eats, Adam eats – naked and ashamed – and God comes down and talks to all three of them – there will be conflict between you (the serpent) and humanity forever. You will bruise his heel but he will crush your head. The upper story is that one is Jesus – and there will be harm done to Jesus, but Jesus will destroy evil forever.

Then there is the lower story – Adam and Eve and temptation and sin – and how all that works – and we are in that story.

There is a third level that I would add – having to do with these smaller stories – there are stories that seem to contradict – when you are reading through the Bible – you think – this doesn’t agree with the rest – protest and divergent stories – and they play a key role in understanding the great story.

How the Bible relates to us – what does it mean to us? When we focus on that we forget the upper story. Like the lawyer – so wrapped up – who is my neighbor? How far does this go? How can I limit this? But Jesus comes back to the upper story – everyone is your neighbor.

Slavery in America – there were preachers who were promoting it – slaves were coming to Christ in droves – and they would say – this is your lot in life – slaves obey your masters! But they forgot the upper story – God freeing people from slavery! They missed the point of the Bible entirely.

Paul, who wrote those verses and gets blamed for all this – wrote about slavery – and had NO political influence in that world – he could do nothing about it – what do I do, as a Christian – about this? Paul writes a divergent, protest story. Philemon – A Christian master and a Christian slave. With the Christian – there is never a reason for slavery – because you are equal in every way – and the master is to see the slave as better than him and we should become the servant of the slave.

Video – Bible Project – Story of the Bible -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_CGP-12AE0

When Nineveh was destroyed, there was a prophet – Nahum – after the destruction – think of Hitler’s Germany or Idi Amin – brutal people – awful – not just conquering, but torturing and killing people.

Nahum writes a poem – praising the destruction.

And then we know of Nineveh because of Jonah – because of the whale! – but Jonah went the opposite direction. He did not want to go there because he knew if they went that God would have compassion and forgive them – and he didn’t want that!

There is this last parable – now some would say it is not a parable, but an actual story.

Luke 16: 19 "Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. 20 "And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, 21 and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man's table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. 22 "Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. 23 "In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.

This – I think what Luke is doing here – is culminating a lot of what he has been saying – especially about the rich and poor. The rich man is dressed in purple – the most expensive garments – so he dressed only in purple. Like the rich and famous in Hollywood on the red carpet – and linen – we would use the term underwear – but Lazarus – only crumbs – covered with sores – and dogs licking his wounds – might be a contrast of the kindness of dogs compared to the rich man’s “kindness”

24 "And he cried out and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.' 25 "But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. 26 'And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.'

What we have here – what Jesus does in this parable – He goes back to the great story of the Bible – the concept of a great reversal. Going through Luke – going to the beginning – back to the first week of Advent in December – Mary’s Magnificat – How He will fill the hungry and leave the rich empty – and He chooses shepherds – the lowest to witness the Christ child.

Poverty was associated with unrighteousness – but Jesus is reversing this.

27 "And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father's house-- 28 for I have five brothers-- in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' 29 "But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.' 30 "But he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!' 31 "But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'"

What Jesus said on the road to Emmaus – It has always been there – hidden deep within our Old Testament is the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.