In 1551, Bishop Hooper of Gloucester examined his clergy.
168 of 311 could not list the 10 commandments.
39 could not find the Lord’s Prayer.
34 did not know who the author of the Lord’s Prayer was!
Session 1: The
Bible as the Literary Word of God
An encouragement to re-engage with the details of the
text
The more seriously we take the Bible as the literary word
of God, the more we will speak it as the living Word of God because the Bible
is a literary word
Stott was once asked, “What do you feel when you’ve
finished preaching?”
Stott replied, “Ashamed!”
The Bible not just like another ancient near Eastern text
but a divine text
The origin and interpretation of the Bible are not merely
naturalistic
A single divine author, an inherent unity, the meaning of
which is only fully apparent in the light of the whole
Not simply seeking to know what the original human author
meant but what God means
The human author sometimes unknown
The divine mind is revealed and expressed in the words of
the text given in a context
Poythress – the same textual evidences will be there when
weighing divine meaning. God of course understands the historical context even
better than humans do. God takes all circumstances thoroughly into account
because he is all wise
We must not get lost in the detail, always micro-focused.
We must see the details as part of the big picture. The literary nature of the
Bible includes its big structures and the tiny details.
The pressure to give people something concrete to go away
with – a hurry to get to the application / summary / one thing
The temptation to hurry to Christ bypassing the detail of
how this text proclaims him
Jn 21:25 – the Bible very selective – everything is there
for a reason
The green grass, 153 fish
The Spirit does not record any trivialities
Details not just window dressing
Arguing from single little letters – My Lord – one yod of
the Hebrew text
Jot and tittle inspiration (John Murray)
How the detail of
the text makes a difference to how we hear it:
(1) The details of a text can locate the events in the
text in the big context of Biblical theology / redemptive history / covenant
theology
2 Samuel 11:2-5 – David saw Bathsheba was very good /
beautiful and he took – like Eve who saw the good fruit and took it – a king in
a land with a law to keep – David and Adam – a woman tempting him – his 2 sons
come into conflict with one another and one goes into exile
David is both, like Adam, a unique king and Everyman,
representative
David is not The King, the Last Adam
(2) The details often explain the nature of the events
themselves
Genesis 11:1-9 – chiastic structure – repeated
vocabulary: earth / language / bricks / one another etc. God’s action in the
second half of the narrative mirrors their sin; God reacts to their sin,
reverses it, undoes it. God’s action answers their sin – pay-back, return,
retribution – sin as an attempt to invert the created order – sin makes a wrong
claim about God, God answers it.
(3) The detail can show us something of the character of
God himself
Genesis 11 shows us the justice of God – God answers sin
point for point. He deals with it comprehensively and fittingly – gathering
answered by scattering; they reach up and are cast down; They try to make a
great name and God gives them a name, “Confused!”. An eye for an eye
illustrated.
This should be exciting not crushing
It is a corporate endeavour – make use of the books!
It should keep our preaching from being dull. Not just a
repetitive burden of preaching by numbers, wheeling out our system. Not
formulaic, predictable, samey preaching. There is great variety in the text.
We need such a wonderful book to describe such a
wonderful, infinitely rich and perfect God.
Session 2: The
Bible as the Living Word of God
It is vital that the literary Word of God and the living
Word of God are held together. Treating the Bible as the literary Word of God
should not kill the sense of it as the living Word of God.
The sermon should not be a lecture. Pastors must do more
than teach / explain the Bible. The pastor can never really grasp Galatians or
have Exodus under his belt. A love for literature, even the Bible as
literature, or the ability to speak about the Bible as literature, does not constitute
a call to the ministry.
A facility with literature is helpful to the preacher but
it is nowhere near enough.
When studying Corinthians, we must go back to Corinth.
The words mean what the meant. And we must also go to all the other places in
Scripture where this text takes us. 1 Cor 10:1-13 leads us back to Exodus 32
too. But all of this is still history – the Bible as literature. We cannot stop
there. We go back to Corinth in order to return to the present. Our study must
be ancient so as to be contemporary, but some never make it back to today. The
dominance of the historical-critical method encourages us to leave the text in
the past.
How big is the hermeneutical gap? Is there a gulf between
the text in the past and the church today?
John Webster, The
Domain of the Word, attacks the idea that the text is primarily alien and
from the past. It does not somehow manage to speak to the present despite
itself. Scripture is primarily the living oracles of God speaking today.
Heb 3:7 – “Therefore as the Holy Spirit says…”
But there are wrong ways of saying the Bible is the Word
of God today:
A wrong liberal way: the community conveys authority on
the text by the way the community uses it – a projectionist account of biblical
authority.
Karl Barth – the Bible becomes the Word of God when (in
existential crisis) God uses it to speak into a person’s life – God makes the
Bible his Word in the moment. It has no abiding, permanent character as the
Word of God, his living voice
Who are the primary addressees of Scripture?
Chronologically the first recipients (e.g. the Corinthian church) but in the
plan and purposes of God, the Bible is intended primarily for the church in all
ages
1 Cor 10:6 – even the events the texts speak of happened for us, for the church
V11
When we read 1 Corinthians we are not eavesdropping on
God’s Word to the ancient Corinthian church
Reading the Bible is not like reading your parents’ love
letters!
The Living Lord of
the Church, the Risen Lord Jesus, speaks the Scriptures, the Living Word of God
to his church today
Rev 1:16-18
We can say that preaching is the Word of God since
Scripture is the written living Word of God. In preaching Jesus speaks because
the Bible is the Word of God
Acts 26:23 – he would proclaim light to the Gentiles
Ephesians 2:17 – he came and preached peace – when did
Jesus go to Ephesus?
Romans 10:14 – Jesus must speak by his Spirit if people
are to believe
6 wonderful and
challenging consequences of the Bible as the living Word of God:
(1) The wonderful genius, power and providence of God
that this diverse and particular set of texts perfectly and sufficiently meets
the needs of the whole church throughout the ages
(2) The living word of the risen Jesus is present to all
times
Hugh Martin, Abiding Presence – are the gospels
biographies? No, they are not the memoirs
We have not the record of the past but the presence of a
risen Saviour. The gulf of time between the Jesus of the gospels and us is annihilated.
The element of time is got rid of and cast out. Jesus is with us and we are
with him in all the permanent efficaciousness of his work.
When is Scripture the Word of God? Not trapped in past
nor only in the present but always on the lips of Jesus. Every day is today.
Bavinck: Scripture is the on-going rapport between heaven
and earth, God and his children. Divine inspiration is a permanent attribute of
Scripture. It is God-breathing. The Bible is inspired.
Jesus still says the things he said. The promises of God
stand today with his power.
Great feats of hermeneutical gymnastics are not needed!
(3) The risen Jesus is present to us now in all the
fullness of who he is.
Hugh Martin: Jesus is present to us in all the accounts
in the gospels
And also as the serpent crusher of Genesis 3
He is present in all the aspects of who he is to all his
people. He calls repent and believe. He reassures son, your sins are forgiven.
He challenges, take up your cross and follow me. He promises I am with you
always.
The Bible is all Christ’s living Word.
Gal 3:1 – the preaching of the cross publicly placards
the crucified Christ before the eyes of the believer
The variegated splendour of Christ!
(4) Where Jesus is, Satan will also be
(5) We should preach the living Word of God in a way
which fits its character
Exegesis is not enough. Do not get lost / stuck in
Corinth.
Speak it boldly as a word of God for us today. Speak to
his hearers. Not just reflecting together on what it might mean or how it might
apply. In the name of the living Lord Jesus, I say to you, “Repent and believe!”.
Do not try to tame the Lion and keep it in the cage to be
scrutinised.
(6) Do our church gatherings reflect the nature of the
Bible as God speaking? Our gatherings are truly momentous occasions. It is like
gathering around Sinai – more momentous than that! The Lord’s Day should be the
most dramatic day of the week.
The serious, solemn character of the Word of God
Are our gatherings exciting?!
Michael Horton, A better way – on the Sunday gathering –
a sense that something important and dramatic is happening as we gather before
God
Are our meetings dull and cold and unfriendly, rather
dead and unexciting? Very super controlled / reserved? Joy?! Vibrancy
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