DaVinci Code Series #3

Answering the Code – The Trustworthiness of the Bible, Part 2

The Bible’s Story

I’ve been addressing some of the assumptions about Christianity and the Bible that some people draw from their reading of The DaVinci Code. Despite being a novel, Dan Brown’s book is having a real influence on the minds of many Americans who confuse fiction with fact. 40 million hard-cover copies have been sold. A paperback edition, recently released, will sell millions more. On May 19, the book becomes a movie that most critics guess will be a block-buster!

Dan Brown, the author of The DaVinci Code, takes issue with historic and Biblical Christianity in the book. He takes issue with Christian beliefs about the origin of the New Testament, and by extension, the authority of the Bible. He implies that the Bible is a human work, a book created to support presuppositions of a few who wanted to create a new religion.

He is wrong! The Bible is a book that is simply too majestic, too wonderful, a gift to us from God Himself! Last Sunday, I talked specifically about the New Testament Gospels and the Spirit-guided process that brought them to us. Today, I want to widen the lens and take a look at the whole of Scripture.

For some of you this is review. Don’t tune me out. Review is valuable. For others, this message will be helpful in gaining a grasp of the unity of the Bible’s message.

Understanding the Bible can be a real challenge for a person opening it to read it seriously. When a person leaves Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - and those universally familiar passages like Psalm 23, 1 Corinthians 13 (the love chapter), and John 3:16 behind the going can get tough! Why?

The reasons for the difficulties in accurately understanding the message and meaning of the Bible are not hard to discern.

The Bible came out of a culture very foreign to us, in a land far from our land, and describes events that happened 2,000 plus years ago! It is written in several different literary styles that require different interpretative skills.

There are historical books.

There are poetical books.

There are the thunderous sermons of the prophets, and

the stories told in the Gospels.

There are passages that are allegorical, and others that are literal.

Some people see all that as too much to overcome, put the Bible on the shelf, and say, “I could never understand it.”

Other’s read it, meditate on it, learn from it and develop a rich love for the Scripture.

“Sure,” you’re thinking, “Pastors, Bible teachers, and seminary professors.”

Actually, there are millions of Christians just like you, who read the Bible and hear God speaking to them. I want you to be one of those people!

Turn with me to the 119^th Psalm this morning.

Read TEXT: Psalm 119 (selected texts)

READ 1-2; 11-12; 18, 65-67; 89-92; 105, 129-130

Those are my declarations! The words of God give me wisdom and understanding and insight. The Bible teaches me how to live, how to make sense of life, and gives me hope. For sure, there are passages that after a half a lifetime of study, still defy easy understanding, there are questions about how to read and understand some parts of the Scripture, but on the whole - from the Word, I receive life!

I agree with Mark Twain, who is alleged to have said,

It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it's the parts that I do understand.

So what is the Bible’s purpose?

-First, to reveal God’s nature, character, and plan to us!

-Second, to instruct us as to the way to know God and to come to eternal life.

As Believers, we cannot hope to truly know God and live to please Him while remaining Biblically illiterate! That is why the Word says –
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. – 2 Timothy 2:15 (NKJV)

There are many ways to organize the Bible for study and understanding.

Today, I would like to point out the broadest understanding of the unfolding of the Scripture,

the progressive way that God reveals Himself and His plan of salvation in the Bible.

My desire that you’ll see how the Scripture builds - line on line, concept on concept – as a miraculous, inspired work that we can trust as a true and accurate message from God Himself.

1. In the first part of the Bible, we find the stories of PATRIARCHS.

God was worshipped in family groups that were headed by the father who served as their priest, the one who spoke God’s truth, thus the term - patriarch.

God, Himself, established the family unit as the basis of human society, thus it is natural that His first work to reveal Himself and His plans, would be in the family unit. In the book of Genesis, we read of His creation of Adam, and subsequently, of Eve. The story moves quickly to telling us about Abraham, who led his family to pursue God’s promises. The rituals of worship in the patriarchal records were in the context of family, generally at an altar built by the head of the family. The stories of Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses show us God at work.

The outlines of the key Bible doctrines of sin and sacrifice begin to emerge even in its earliest chapters. In the 4^th chapter of Genesis, without offering much explanation, the record is of an acceptable offering to God, the firstborn of the flock, made by Abel, the righteous son of Adam. In the 8^th chapter of Genesis, Noah offers sacrifices to God that are said to have pleased God.

Abraham made many sacrificial offerings for his family. Even in the dim light of that patriarchal age, they understood that a holy God stood apart from them and that an offering must be made for their sins.

The books of the Bible that fall into the patriarchal age are Genesis and Job.

In the next part of the Bible, God expands His calling to include an entire people group, the children of Abraham, the Jewish people.

2. The largest part of the Bible is concerned with the calling of a holy people,

and the giving of the Law of Moses, to guide the Jews into lives that pleased God.

Moses, describes God’s promises to and His holy demands of the chosen people.

SEE - Deuteronomy 29:9; 30:8-16

This covenant was not with an individual or even with a family. It was with the children of Abraham, the Israelites, the Jewish people. The family remained important, but the focus shifted from worship in family units to worship as the people of God.

Moses, was uniquely called by God to give the Jews a constitution, called the Law. That Law specified ways that the Jews would be unique.

The mark of being in covenant with God personally was circumcision.

The defining identity of the people of God was

their adherence to just one God,

worshiped on a Holy Day, the Sabbath, and

the observance of the ritual law, especially the Passover which told of their being ‘called out’ of Egypt, given a distinct identity as God’s people, and

the sacrifices that the priests offered on their behalf at specified times of the year.

God’s Presence among His people was symbolized by a holy Tabernacle that was built, where the daily sacrifices were offered.

When the Jewish people settled in the land of Canaan, they were led and instructed by holy men - the Bible calls them judges- for about 200 -300 years. Eventually they insisted on having a king. The king was not allowed to be a priest. So a separate line of leaders emerged and in time, a central Temple for worship was built in Jerusalem. For nearly a thousand years the center of Jewish worship was focused on the Temple.

Under the Law of Moses, the concept of sin became clearly defined. God wanted holy people - people who served Him, and who knew that being holy included living ethically, honestly in the world. His intent for the Jewish people was that they should be a light to the world, a people who made His Presence known.

The Old Testament is mostly the record of the Jewish people and in reading their stories, we find that some of the generations were more successful than others in living in a way that pleased Him.

A pivotal event in the history of the chosen people occurred about 600 years before the time of Christ. Israel, then Judah, the two nations that were home to the Jewish people, were obliterated by invading armies from the north, the Assyrians and Babylonians. The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and their national identity nearly erased!

The prophets, whose writing make up the second half of the Old Testament, men like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the lesser known ones - Amos, Obadiah, Nahum, and Zephaniah - brought their messages from God around that time. They warned of coming destruction that was God’s judgment, resulting from the nation’s failure to love and serve their God. But, they also pointed to the merciful nature of God, promising a restoration of the nation, if they would turn back to God.

Listen to the developing concept of God’s love that Isaiah preaches to the Jewish people.

READ - Isaiah 55: 7-13

With the coming of Jesus Christ, God reached even wider with His gracious calling - to the world - to all those who would respond to His calling faithfully! The message is called the Gospel - the good news - and it is for the whole world!

Jesus summed it all up when he cried out, “Whoever believes in me, believes not just in me but in the One who sent me. Whoever looks at me is looking, in fact, at the One who sent me. I am Light that has come into the world so that all who believe in me won’t have to stay any longer in the dark. John 12:44-46 (The Message)

The final part of the Bible is the New Testament, the Christian era, or the Age of the Holy Spirit.

God started by speaking to a family, expanded by calling a nation, and finally reaches out to the world! Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell us about the Living Word, who came to reveal God, for He is God in flesh. The book of the Acts records God’s reach from Jerusalem and the Jews to the whole World! Peter preached that ‘anyone who calls on the Name of the Lord shall be saved.’

Salvation from sin is not the result of offering animal sacrifices again and again, as was done by the patriarchs and priests. Jesus Christ was the final offering for the sins of the world. His death and resurrection, were evidence of God’s grace and favor for all who will trust in Him and obey the call of the Spirit.

READ Hebrews 10: 1, 5-7, 10-14

The Temple in Jerusalem was replaced by living temples, you and me, where the worship of God goes on day after day. God doesn’t live among a select nation. He lives in His Church; not a building, but us!

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (NLT)
Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? God will bring ruin upon anyone who ruins this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you Christians are that temple.

All Believers are priests, representing God to the world, offering God’s grace to the world. Peter uses the language of the Jewish religion, but reinterprets it into the Christian context. He writes to us that we are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare His praises into His wonderful Light.”

The most wonderful truth for those of us in this Christian era of the Spirit is that we don’t have to go somewhere, to someone, to a holy place - to find God. He lives in us, with us! Because of Christ’s sacrifice, we no longer must live in fearful awe, at a distance from Him. Instead, we are invited to “come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it.” Hebrews 4:16 (NLT)

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Close –

Many, in ignorance, claim that the Bible is a jumble of writings that are incomprehensible, that they were simply fables and legends written down and that we force them into a religion! I see something entirely different.

I see a miraculous unfolding of God’s purposes and plans, across hundreds of years, in a progression that led ultimately to the whole world! The Scriptures are not just a Holy Book for Jews, or European Christians. They are the word of life, the revelation of God, the gift of life and truth to you and me. The Bible instructs people from every nation, from every era, male and female, rich and poor... for though it came to us through the Jews, the people of the Book, it is now the Book of All People.

As you read it, ask certain basic questions....

- Who is speaking and what was the context of his speech?

Was he a patriarch, a Jewish prophet, Jesus, or one of the Apostle of the church?

- To whom is the passage primarily addressed? Is there a direct application or

or is it a passage from which we derive a principle for our time?

- What is the purpose of the passage? Does it instruct, inform, correct, inspire?

Most importantly - allow the Spirit of God who lives in you - to be your Teacher, who guides you into the Truth of the Word! Believer, don’t let the critics, the skeptics, those who tear at the authority of the Scriptures, nor those who mis-handle it with bad interpretation and wrong teaching - ROB the Scripture of it’s power in your life!

Here’s both the warning and the promise –

“The word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are. Nothing in all creation can hide from him. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes. This is the God to whom we must explain all that we have done.

That is why we have a great High Priest who has gone to heaven, Jesus the Son of God. Let us cling to him and never stop trusting him. Heb. 4:12-15 NLT

Amen.

Washington Assembly of God