Honor Scripture | Matthew 5:17-19
Introduction:
• Jesus’ popularity is increasing with his messages and miracles.
• Jesus just told the people who they already are (identity) because of the kingdom of God in the Beatitudes. In essence, he told them who they are in light of who God is. The Pharisees on the other hand, teachings center on how we obtain a proper identity through strict obedience to God’s law. These ideas look like opposites of one another.
• Pharisees say obedience comes first, then we receive the right standing/right identity from God. Jesus says we receive identity first (as in the beatitudes) and then the expression of our identity is reflected in our obedience.
• So, now there is an attack on Jesus’ teachings because the religious leaders feel that his teachings are new and different, and the focus was accepting sin/sinners as they are without requiring repentance.
“Do not misunderstand why I came”
• He did not come to abolish/eliminate the law. He had no intention of getting rid of the law of Moses (1st five books of the OT) and the prophets (Joshua – Malachi).
• If Jesus came to abolish/eliminate the law then why would he spend so much time upholding the Law and pointing to the Law?
• The Rich young ruler asked Jesus what he had to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus’ response was to fulfill the commandments.
• People went to the Pharisees and hung off their words / traditions / interpretations.
• Jesus did go after bad theology (bad interpretations) and man-made traditions.
“I came to fulfill them.”
Jesus explains his own attitude towards the Word / Law of God by describing two possible relationships:
(1) We can seek to destroy the Law (v17)
a. This is exactly what the Pharisees were doing. They were concerned with outward obedience but their hearts were far from God.
b. Jesus did not teach from authority (he had no theological training) but rather he taught with authority. He understood the Law and could explain the Law.
(2) We can seek to fulfill the law (which Jesus did).
• Two Types of fulfillment
o 1st is to abide by something. (So Jesus fulfilled the Law through perfect obedience). If he did come to abolish the law, why obey it? The Pharisees had more of an issue with Jesus not upholding their traditions than his obedience towards the law.
o 2nd dimension of the word, fulfill, is completing purpose. We love eating avocados in my family but often when we purchase them, they aren’t ready to eat. The outer portion of the avocado is hard and we have to wait for that outer portion to soften before we can enjoy them.
“Not even the smallest aspect of the Law will pass until all is accomplished.”
The OT contained
1. Doctrinal Teachings about God & salvation - which Christ fulfilled by continuing those teachings and brought it to completion through his death and resurrection.
2. Predictive Prophecy – which Christ fulfilled as the prophecies were about him. Jesus continually indicated that the Scriptures pointed to him.
3. Ethical Precepts / Moral Law – Christ fulfilled the moral law through absolute / perfect obedience.
2 Timothy 3:16 - The Reliability of Scripture:
(1) Most people tend to think of scripture as inaccurate simply because it’s an old, old book. Antiquity and inaccuracy have nothing to do with one another.
(2) Reliability measures accuracy and truthfulness.
(3) Ways to view the OT (History, Law, Promise).
(4) Remember: A.C.T.S
Archeology
(1) Archeological finds in the 1920’s confirmed the presences of cities like Ur (where Abram was from), as described in Genesis 11.
(2) Clay tablets dating to 2300 BC have been found in Syria strongly supporting Old Testament stories, vocabularies, and geography.
(3) Ancient Babylonian records describe a confusion of language as described in Genesis (the Tower of Babel).
(4) In almost every culture in the known world, has a recorded flood account because it indicates why the planet is the way it is.
(5) Various cities, political officers, leaders and events as described in the Bible have been confirmed by archeologists and historians.
(6) The Bible itself points to specific days, dates, times and events that can be verified.
Canon of Scripture
(1) The word canon means “standard.”
(2) The canon of scripture refers to councils that were held which verified the writings of both the Old and New Testament.
(3) These councils prayed and debated and discussed at length what writings were going to be included in the Holy Bible.
(4) The requirements for these writings included:
a. Was it from a (OT) prophet? If so, it is considered God’s word.
b. Was the writer confirmed by acts (miracles) by God? This separated true and false prophets.
c. The author had to tell the truth about God’s character and if that was in doubt, the writing(s) were discarded.
d. Was the writing accepted by the people of God?
e. Did the writing have the power of God (Hebrews 4:12) to transform lives?
(5) There were additional writings (apocrapha and Gospel of Thomas) which are not included because they did not pass the reliability test. These writings were only accepted in specific locations and or specific times, no church council included them.
(6) The same measures the secular world uses to measure historical documents is the same for the Bible.
(7) The Council of Carthage established the NT canon in the year 397 AD (approx. 300-305 years after the death of the last living apostle, John).
Text
(1) Written on papyri, scrolls and parchments of skin. A Papyrologist can date a text within 25-50 years.
(2) Manuscripts: One of the overwhelming pieces of evidence we hold are manuscripts. Homer’s Iliad (ancient text) has 643 preserved copies; Old and New Testament has over 24000.
(3) Not one of the preserved manuscripts from the Bible is questioned for validity purposes.
(4) One of the measurements for reliability is the “time lapse” which measures when the writing occurred to when the event actually took place. Writings were not done as they are today. The gospel accounts were all dated within 30-50 years.
(5) 1947: The Dead Sea Scrolls: contained Scriptures dating from 150 BC to AD 70.
(6) The continuity of the Bible:
a. Written over 1500 years.
b. Written by at least 40 known authors.
c. Written at different times, in different places with different circumstances going on.
d. Written by scholars, fishermen, political leaders, kings, judges, tax collectors, warriors, shepherds, poets and musicians.
e. Written on three different continents (Asia, Africa, Europe).
f. Written in a variety of literary styles/forms including: poetry, historical narrative, romance, songs, personal correspondence, memoirs, satire, biographical, autobiography, law, prophecy, and parables.
(7) Despite all of these differences, the Bible presents a single unfolding story: God’s redemption of mankind.
Supernatural
The Word of God is Inspired.
This is a question of who wrote the Bible?
o Camp 1: God wrote the book.
o Camp 2: Man wrote the book.
o Truth: God inspired man so there is dual authorship.
(1) God empowered man to write/work within his skill set (writing style). So what God revealed, man wrote.
(2) God used “progressive revelation.” Which means he revealed his heart towards a topic over time. This is precisely why Jesus calls us to honor all of scripture.
(3) Example: Judge not! But the Bible does call believers to judge other believers for the purpose of growth and maturity.
The Word of God is Infallible (it cannot contain error)
(1) The main attack on the infallible nature of the Bible is that man is limited (specifically in his language/vocabulary) and he is prone to mistakes.
(2) While man is limited and prone to mistakes and human language is never comprehensive and exhaustive in its ability to capture Gods eternal attributes and eternal truth, it is nevertheless adequate to give us truth without falsehood.
(3) The main theme of the Bible is: Jesus and God’s rescuing plan to save mankind from sin. That is the focus of the bible. It is a book about salvation (primarily). So everything in the bible is going to, in someway, point to the reality of salvation.
(4) The attack of man being prone to fall is actually saying that man is prone to lie and while we have sinful nature and we are prone to fall, including lying, that does not mean that we are always lying.
(5) Infallibility thus refers to the Bible speaking on matters related to truth (about God, salvation, history). Its not about grammatical errors which people like to point out.
(6) Example: a man on trial for murder can say “I Ain’t killed nobody ever.” Grammatically speaking, he is incorrect – but there is still truth in his claim.
The Word of God is Inerrant (Without error)
(1) Inerrancy refers to the Word of God as being true and trustworthy.
(2) Remember phone in elementary school? Could someone alter the text? Yes of course…but there were several people copying the same exact text as you! And your work would be verified. So, the only way this works is if multiple people copy the wrong text over and over again; the margin of error is very slim.
(3) Inerrancy says the Word of God is our final authority.
