Northside Church - Sydney
Ditto Week 5: Read as Jesus Read
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Well guys, no prizes for guessing, we're talking about the Bible tonight, we're talking about Bible reading and I was thinking of a way to kind of introduce the topic of the Bible. Now the Bible is a precious book as we know, in some countries where people are being persecuted and it's illegal to have a copy of the Bible, it's a really precious book. But in terms of dollars, some forms of the Bible are really precious. Let me take you back in history, to the year 1450. And the first book to ever be printed on a printing press was the Bible. It took place in the German city of Mainz in 1450. And the gentleman concerned was Johannes Guttenberg. And he invented the first printing press and the first book he printed was the Bible. Up until then every book had been handwritten, including the Bible, which would take a whole team of people several years to complete one copy and they were priceless. So the Guttenberg Bible is world renowned as a priceless object and there are around about 42 original copies or parts thereof in the world today. Now the last one to exchange hands, these aren't sold very often. The last one to exchange hands was in 1987, 25 years ago. Does anyone want to hazard a guess as to what that's sold for? It wasn't even a whole Bible. It was the Old Testament only, but it was an original Guttenberg product from the mid-1400s. Does anybody have any idea what that might have sold for? Any guesses? Come on. Audience participation. Call it out. Anybody? $1 million. That's high coal. Anybody else? Anybody? Twenty-five years ago, it's a long time. Sorry? Six hundred thousand. Six hundred thousand. Ian, thank you for that. Do I hear more? No, sorry. It's not an opportunity. Sorry. Sorry. I thought it was giving to the church. No, it's not. Sorry. Sorry. I'm going to mindset. You know what? Twenty-five years ago, a Japanese dealer bought a Guttenberg Old Testament, twenty-five years ago, $5.8 million. That was the price. They say that today, if you could get your hands on a Guttenberg Bible, which is most unlikely, last one exchange, twenty-five years ago, people just don't give these away. Most of them are in museums, very, very few in private collections. They estimate that it would cost somewhere between thirty and sixty million, even if somebody was prepared to sell it to you. I've had the privilege of being in the city of Mainz, and I've seen an original Guttenberg. They have won the on display, and the security is unbelievable, not dissimilar to seeing the crown jewels in the Tower of London. It's that sort of security. There it is. First book to be printed was, in fact, the Holy Scriptures. The question tonight is, how did Jesus read the Scriptures? What can we learn from His example in our quest under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to be like Him? In my mind, it raises a number of questions. The first question is, well, which Bible did Jesus read? How important was that Bible in His daily life? To what extent did it affect His attitudes, His expectations, His perceptions of life? How did it shape His mission, His theology? I mean, these are the questions we need answered if we are going to have any chance of using God's written word in the same way that Jesus used the word that was available to Him. Well, guys, we do know about the Bible that Jesus read. Of course, we do, it was described in Luke chapter 4 tonight. There was a copy of the Scriptures, albeit in scroll form when Jesus Christ walked this earth. He's only recorded as having read from it publicly once, and that's that reading, but he quoted from it all the time. And if you approach the Scriptures from that perspective, it is amazing how many times Jesus quotes the Scriptures. The Scriptures which Jesus used and the ones He was intimately familiar with, the Old Testament, 39 books, 39 books, Genesis to Malachi. These books, this body of sacred material, was at the centre, and some of you have heard me talk about this before, was at the centre of the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th century, as far as Christians are concerned. That discovery involved hundreds of these, hundreds of these simple, urban-wear pots. And each one of them contained many, many scrolls, and of course, those of you who know what I'm talking about know that I'm referring to the Dead Sea Scrolls. And these jars were discovered in Israel in 1947 near Qumran, or at a place called Qumran, which is near the Dead Sea. And these scrolls date back to several hundred years before the time of Christ. Not all the scrolls are complete, but as scholars have pieced together the different fragments, they have managed to put together the entire Old Testament, word for word, just like we've got it in our Bibles, except for the Book of Ruth. The longest scroll is the Isaiah scroll, it's the Book of Isaiah intact from beginning to end, it is seven metres long, it is housed in a museum in Jerusalem. And even that is just a second copy of it. The original is in a secret location, I believe, only top-ranking Israeli government ministers know about. It's just that priceless, you just couldn't put a figure on that. And so the Dead Sea Scrolls, when they were discovered by the shepherd boys in 1947, and the fact that they could be traced back to 300 years before the time of Jesus, and their word for word what we've got in our Bibles. I had the privilege of going to Qumran in 2001, and I've got to tell you that was a spine-tingling experience. You stand in this little community, which was the site of an exclusive Jewish sect that existed around the time of Jesus, and just a little bit before. You go into all the detail, they have stacks of what they call mikvaz, and mikvaz are the ceremonial wash pools for the ancient Jews. They were obsessed with keeping clean. Maybe that's why I identify so strongly with them, they were great hand washers, and I'm a great hand washer, I love washing my hands, I'm sure it's one of the ways I manage to stay clear of all the germs that float around the place. But they were washing the morning, they'd wash at lunchtime, they'd wash in the afternoon, it was amazing, their obsession with washing and with water, it's all there at Qumran. It was a spine-tingling experience for me, because I can't believe people still have doubts about the authenticity of this word. I mean if it was a round word for word several hundred years before the time of Jesus, that's got to mean something, if that's the book he read from from the synagogue two thousand years ago, it's in the gospels. I mean this has got to count for something to me, it just dramatically authenticates the gospel. And so Jesus, as a young Jewish boy, he would have been schooled in these scrolls, he would have been taught the ins and outs of the ancient Jewish law, and they would have been considered highly valuable within his family and within his circle of friends. And as his ministry began, he starts to quote from the scriptures. And you get a very clear impression that all that teaching that Jesus had, all that learning, all that education at the feet of the Pharisee, at the feet of the rabbis and the Pharisees in some cases, that would have been just goal for him. It was goal because he was able to quote scripture exactly when he needed to. And guys, Jesus referred to the scriptures constantly. I want to highlight several occasions tonight, and as we do so, I want you to see the application, you work out out what this could mean for you in your Christian life, or you as you're discovering more of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Because see, we've got to understand how Jesus used the scriptures in order to increase the effectiveness of our own walk with him. We've got to draw deeply on the example that he said. First of all, Jesus used his Bible to clarify his mission. There it is in Luke chapter 4. He said it's in his hometown of Nazareth, he was born and raised in Nazareth. And here he is talking to his neighbors, really, he's friends and neighbors, he's attending the synagogue, it's early in his ministry, somebody said, "Let's get Jesus to read the scriptures." We all know Jesus, he's the capital of his son, turns out a pretty good table, not a bad repair man. "Let's get him to read the scriptures." Little did they know that he would declare himself to be the centerpiece of this particular passage. But he sets out his mandate for ministry. The spirit of the Lord is upon me, I'm here to bring good news to the poor, liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind. I'm here to free the oppressed, he was saying, "Guys, this is my mandate. This is why I'm in business. This is what my Messiahship is going to be about." They couldn't handle it. They threw him out of town. Jesus also used the scriptures to resist temptation, Matthew chapter four. You can check these out at home, Matthew chapter four, one to 11. It's the temptation scene, not long after Jesus' baptism, very early in his ministry. And if you know that incident, his temptation revolved around three things. Number one, the devil said, "Look, turn these stones into bread. Come on, if you're the son of God, look, the people will love you." There's a lot of poverty in this area, Jesus, if you hadn't noticed. You know, people on welfare doing it tough. If you can appeal to their stomachs, imagine how popular you'll be. You'll just go like that. And Jesus used scripture and he said, "You know, the scripture says, 'Man shall not live by bread alone.'" That's the way he rebuked the first temptation, but Satan wasn't finished. And Satan comes back at him and says, "Oh, look. People love a spectacle. You know, we all love a good show." And Jesus, if you're too popular, look, get on the highest point of the temple and we'll get a crowd together and just at the right moment, jump off and you'll float and then you know, like Batman or Superman or something, I love it and I go, "Oh, yeah, we'll follow you." It was very appealing. You get the drift by how these temptations were so powerful for Jesus. And Jesus says, "The scripture says, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" So he rebukes the second temptation on the basis of scripture. He didn't say, "I've got to feel like it." He didn't say, "I've got to go to work." No, I think you're trying to con me, no, no, no, scriptures say that's wrong. And the third point of the temptation was when Satan showed Jesus in some mystical way, that he's all the kingdoms of the world, look at that, everything, all the rooftops glistening in the sunshine, Jesus, they're all yours. Forget this poverty, servant stuff, just go straight to the top. There's a throne room waiting for you, come on, just, you know, it's all there, they'll just bow at your feet, they'll love you, you're the king, you're number one. What was Jesus' response, no, no, no, the scripture says, "You will worship the Lord your God, and him only," will you, sir? Guys, it's amazing how Jesus rebuked every one of the temptations of the devil on the basis of scriptures. He knew them well, he knew the scriptures well. There's a third instance where Jesus used his Bible to tackle injustice. And this comes in Mark chapter 11 verses 15 to 19. It's the scene where he overthrows the money changes in the temple. Now to get the background of this, I've got to ask you a question. Because of you who travel, has anybody ever felt kind of ripped off by those money changes? You know what I'm talking about? You go to some airports, bad enough in Sydney, but some of those up in Asia and other parts of the world and exchange your money here. And you've heard on the news that the dollar's doing pretty good and you look at their chart and it looks like they're taking it back to the 80s or something like it looks nothing like what it is. There you go. Is this for real? You know all our commissions and stuff, you know? And you feel like you're kind of getting ripped off, right? The idea is go to your bank before you travel, get a card, transfer it straight out and except if you go to Shanghai with a machine, you'll eat your card. As you know from don't do it, don't do that. Well look, this was the thing. You see, before you could present your offering to the temple, the ancient priests, they had it all worked out. They were smart. You couldn't use your own money. You had to transfer it into temple currency. How's that for a scheme? So you had to present your, say you want to give you $30, $50 over to the money exchanger and he would give back what? Well, if you were lucky, you'd get exactly what you put over but the system had become so rotted, so corrupt that people were getting short chains left, right and centre. Jesus knew it and He came in and as an expression of His humanity, He overturned the tables. He fashioned a whip out of some cords. It's a pretty frightening, you check it out in Mark 11, it's pretty frightening. It's Jesus really getting stuck into a situation of great injustice, not against the people but against what they were doing and He, that's where His divinity kicked in. Unlike us where we find it very hard to separate the person from the action, Jesus had those guidelines very clearly worked out. And what did He say? He said, "My temple." The Scripture says, "My temple will be called a house of prayer for the nations." Not a rip-off joint and He's quoting Isaiah 56 verse 7. See, I just use the Scriptures all the time. What about when He used His Bible to find strength in suffering? Let's go to the cross. His dying moments and the scene is in Matthew 27, 45 and 46 and what does Jesus call out? His last dying breath, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" In that moment, He understood the reality of what was happening, bearing the sin of the world, His loving heavenly Father, with whom He had such intimate contact at that particular precise moment of time had to turn away because He could not look at the sin of the world because a holy and pure God could not do that except in the person of Jesus, but He turned away and Jesus felt it in His spirit for the first and only time His Father was turning away. So He identifies, what does this is something He thought of in the spirit of the moment? No. He is quoting directly from Psalm 22 verse 1, "Where David in the midst of one of His huge crises cries out, 'You can check it, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?'" So Jesus is drawing on the example of His ancestor David in His own moment of pain and anguish and you think, "Well, what could that do?" You're in pain and anguish and you're just referring to somebody else who was in pain and anguish. Well, I think for me it was all part of a package because Jesus knew His scriptures so well, which psalm follows Psalm 22, Psalm 23, do you reckon Jesus would have known that one? I reckon He would have. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Jesus would have been processing all of these scriptural quotes and these sources of encouragement all the way through right to the very end. And what about the final usage of these other scriptures I want to share with you tonight? Jesus used the Bible, His Bible, to explain the good news. It's one of my favorites. It's the day of resurrection, a couple of His followers are heading to the little township of Emmaus and they're shattered. These guys are. They're finished. They had placed all their hope and faith in Jesus and they'd sit Him hang on the cross. They'd seen the life just evaporate from this dear friend. He died along with the other two guys that day. Their world was over and they're walking back to Emmaus and they're kicking the road, kicking a coke can or whatever you imagine them doing, just totally dejected and a stranger appears. And of course it's Jesus. But they're too preoccupied with grief and pain and loss to recognise that help is standing by. Isn't that part of the human condition? You can be in the midst of deep pain and disappointment and loss and people are trying to reach out to you, but you're so preoccupied with your own situation. You don't even recognise that people are trying to reach out. I think part of being part of a church family is you've got to sharpen your awareness that when people are trying to reach out because in a caring church like Northside, there's generally never any shortage of that if you stick around long enough and get involved visibly enough for that to happen. Well the stranger appears and he starts to, he's actually a bit dumb. Guys, what's wrong? That's a beautiful day. What's the problem? Are you kidding? Are you the only guy around here who doesn't know what's happened? The things that have happened back in Jerusalem, and Jesus is still playing dumps, well what are you talking about? Well you don't, Jesus of Nazareth, he promised so much and we believed in him, we thought it was going to change the world, but he's dead. And Jesus starts to engage them in some conversation and then follows the greatest Bible study in the history of the world with Jesus as the group leader. I know some of you think you've got pretty good connection group leaders and you have. We'll get some great leaders here, but there's nothing compared to this study. Verse 27, look at this from Luke 24, and Jesus, look at this, Jesus explained to them what was said about himself in all the Scriptures. Let's get that. In all the Scriptures, beginning with the books of Moses and the writings of all the prophets, what a Bible study. That would have been, you see there's a logical progression with the Bible. It makes sense, and once you get through some of the cultural complexities, Leviticus that's a bit weird, but you know if you get the whole thing and it's an entirety, you know God had a plan, humankind very early in the peace, through God's love back in his face said, "No, no, sorry, we want to do it our way." And then God relentlessly pursues his creation, he sends prophets, he sends people, as soon as they turn, turn, turn, they don't turn, he finally says, "I've got to send my son, I was part of my plan anyway," they'll listen to him. So the Bible makes sense, so look, guys let's wrap this up, readers Jesus read, well, yes he had a Bible, but can I say reverently, nothing like the Bible we have. Jesus had a Bible, the Old Testament, but nothing like the Bible we've got, we've got the whole story including his, our Bible is so much better than the one that Jesus Christ had and the people of his day, it's our source book, it's our manual, it's our rich treasure of spiritual truths and practical life principles. It's a fantastic book like Jesus, we can discover our mission in this book, like Jesus we can resist temptation, through the knowledge of this book, like Jesus we can develop a keen awareness of social justice issues, we can get a sharper awareness of what's right and what's wrong and we're going to address issues in our society based on the teachings of this book about fairness and equality and lifting up the struggle. Like Jesus we can find strength in suffering because this book is a reservoir, a rich treasure of incidents and stories of people who suffered greatly but who came through in the strength of God and this book can certainly be used to explain the good news. It's a very tricky situation to try to explain Christianity totally independently of this book, eventually you've got to sort of refer to this book and you've got to start taking people through and that's why we have Christianity explained, you can chat to people, raise their awareness but eventually it gets to the point where you've got to say you know what I need to show you a couple of passages or you need to come to my church, it'll make a lot more sense when you hear the Bible explained, you've got to get to that point. You know guys we're so blessed today, look at the Bible in so many different forms haven't we? I mean in the times of the Bible, in Bible times like the people would gather and they'd receive a copy of Paul's, like in say Corinth, they'd receive his letter, one scroll, he's led it to the Corinthians and they'd gather around and they'd hang on every word while somebody read this thing out to them and then they'd wrap it up and they'd put it in some secure spot to bring it out again, what's Paul say about divorce, what's he say about spiritual gifts, oh yeah some here somewhere, a precious gift that only a few people got to read it, the Gutenberg Bible, you know prior to that people would line up in rooms, the monks would line up in rooms and write for years to take the words from the scrolls and write them into books, you know that's why only the priests had the Bible in the Middle Ages because the only ones who either went to many copies in B, it was only the church that could afford to pay for that sort of privilege, today we've got them on their shelves, we've got them on MP3, on the iPhones, on the iPad, the Bible is so accessible and here's the thing, we can read like Jesus and we can draw strength and inspiration from the Bible for every circumstance of life, my word to you, my word to me this week is get into the Bible, like don't see it as a mysterious book, people have copies of the Bible, you know family Bibles on the shelf for so like a good luck charm, I go into homes where I say oh there's a family Bible, that's oh yes that's which grandma's, hey that's interesting, like oh gee, oh you know that's fine, oh yes we just have it there, it's kind of reminds us of her, you know, like we've got these weird ideas about it's a good luck charm to have the Bible around, particularly for grandma's, that's a good thing, or in my day growing up when we didn't have the Bible and I find you that the bigger the Bible, the more spiritual the person, and if you can go to a Bible study and drop a big Thompson chain reference on the table, whoo, this person must know what they're talking about, look at all those little index points here, you know, like you know it's just a good book, it's just a great book to get into, so guys let's have a fresh look at the Bible starting John's gospel, if you've let the Bible kind of gather, if yours is gathering dust, or if you haven't put the Bible app on your iPhone or your iPad get it on there, get a record version, but let the Bible start to speak to you, it's a treasure of practical principles for living, you know something else, it's a love story, and we all love love stories don't we, you know, it's a love story, it's God saying you matter to me, I'm intensely interested in you, I sent my son Jesus Christ to die for you, I want you as part of my family, please don't be estranged forever, the other thing about the Bible is it's an invitation and we all love to receive invitations don't we, did you get yours, no did you, you know and Facebook, am I in or out of my, in the private section, we all love an invitation, this is an invitation to enter into life as life is really meant to be lived, this book is God's personal invitation to you and to me to start living abundantly, to start getting strength and coping mechanisms not to solve all our problems necessarily, but to give us the strength and tenacity to face anything life throws at us, you know, this book will inspire you, this book will encourage you, this book will change you, this book will be your guide, this book has sold more copies in the world than any other book, this book is one that somebody was prepared to pay $5.8 million for 25 years ago, or be it in a different form, guys, if you know Jesus, get into the Bible this week, if you don't know Jesus, get into the Bible, start with John's gospel, it's a love letter, it's an invitation, have you responded to God's invitation tonight, I know many of you tonight are still on the edge of wondering what this is all about, you saw baptism's last week, some of you, you're getting a picture of what this is all about, you need to step out, you don't have to know this from beginning to end, that's one of the misunderstandings, oh, I've never read the Bible, I don't really understand, look, you don't have to have read the Bible to make a decision for Jesus Christ, you just got to take a step of faith, start reading it and things will start to happen, and if you're part of a caring church family like Northside, there are study groups and connection groups and it's teaching every Sunday which helps to put the whole thing together anyway, where are you tonight, as far as Jesus is concerned, tonight 15th of July 2012 could be your turning point, you can start using the Bible as Jesus did, reading the Bible like him to transform you into a whole new sphere of existence, that's his invitation to you tonight, let's pray, well Father God we thank you so much, but Jesus Christ used the Bible, his Bible, every single day in some cases every moment of the day, he saturated himself in its teachings, he knew it back the front, he knew the prophets, he knew the Psalms, he knew how to rebuke temptation, he knew how to declare his mission, he knew how to speak to justice issues, he knew how to find encouragement, he certainly knew how to share the good news, all because of his knowledge of the Bible, Father help us to get a fresh understanding of this book and what it means, and for those tonight who need to step out and embrace the Jesus of the New Testament, embrace the gift of love found in him, please give courage for them to do that, may there be those who step out and receive Jesus tonight, for those who need encouragement, for those who need prayer ministry, for those who need a special touch from you Lord, may they also have the courage tonight to step out, we may never get a better opportunity than tonight to have someone pray for us, to have someone pray over us, to have someone with whom we can share a need, or share a joy, whatever it is, Lord, please continue to move among us in these closing moments tonight through Jesus Christ our Lord be pray, Amen. (gentle music)