rightly dividing the word of truth part 8
I love math. It has always been my favorite subject. Do you remember your first math class? I remember mine. It was the first semester of kindergarten and
I took a trigonometry class, then in the second semester it was pre-calculus. Then the next year, in first grade it was
calculus. Then, in the second grade we moved
into arithmetic to kind of fill in the gaps.
You can probably all relate?
I’m being facetious!!! You don’t learn trig and calculus before you
learn arithmetic. They wouldn’t make
sense. In order to solve trigonometric
equations, you need to understand how equations work, thus you need algebra,
and in order to solve equations, you need to know how to add, subtract, multiply
and divide, thus you need arithmetic. It
is important to set a foundation in math and then build on it properly. First you learn numbers and their
significance and then how to add them and subtract and multiply and divide. Then you learn about equations and solving
for variables and geometry and then trig and calculus. Math builds in that way.
The same is true of
the bible. Much like the folly of
learning trig before arithmetic, I used to tell people that the first book of
the bible they should read is the gospel of John in the NT. It’s not the worst recommendation I’ve ever
made, admittedly, but today, I don’t think I would make the same
recommendation. I think I would tell
people today to start in Genesis – to begin in the beginning. Just like I don’t want to start math in trig
because it won’t fully make sense without arithmetic, I don’t want to start the
bible in the NT because without the OT it won’t fully make sense.
Consider my advice to
start in John’s gospel, the 4th book in the NT.
John
1:36 lamb of God (no OT, no Law, don’t get that lamb is sacrificial animal whose blood
atoned for the sins of the people) This is like
doing trigonometry before arithmetic.
John
4:19-24 woman at the well (no OT, no 1 Kings 12, don’t understand divided kingdom and significance
of worshiping in Samaria vs Jerusalem) This is like
doing trigonometry before arithmetic.
John
8:58 before Abraham was born I AM (no OT, no Gen 12-17, don’t know Abraham, no Exodus
3:14 miss significance of I AM) This
is like doing trigonometry before arithmetic.
None of these things
will make sense apart from the OT.
I started here this
morning because I don’t want you to get the wrong idea about the NT. Last week we started looking at the principle
of genre analysis and we emphasized it in the OT; this morning we are doing so
in the NT. It would have been too much
to do it all in one day, so I split it into two parts, but I don’t want that
split to communicate some sense of disconnect between the OT and NT. Just as high school math uses and has
everything to do with elementary school math, the NT uses the OT and has
everything to do with the OT.
Milton Terry in Biblical Hermeneutics (p18) “In the
NT we have, first, the four gospels, a record of the life and words of Jesus
Christ; then the Acts of the Apostles, a history of the beginning of the
Christian Church; then the thirteen Pauline Epistles, followed by the Epistle to
the Hebrews and the seven General Epistles; and, finally, the Apocalypse of
John. Inasmuch as these two Testaments
differ in form, language, and historical conditions, many writers have deemed
it preferable to treat the hermeneutics of each Testament separately. And as the New Testament is the later and
fuller revelation, its interpretation has received the fuller and more frequent
attention. But it may be questioned
whether such a separate treatment of the Old and New Testaments is the better
course. It is of the first importance to
observe that, from a Christian point of view, the Old Testament cannot be fully
apprehended without the help of the New.
The mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known unto
men, was revealed unto the apostles and prophets of the New Testament (Eph
3:5), and that revelation sheds a flood of light upon numerous portions of the
Hebrew Scriptures. On the other hand it
is equally true that a scientific interpretation of the New Testament is
impossible without a thorough knowledge of the older Scriptures. The very language of the New Testament,
though belonging to another family of human tongues, is notably Hebraic. The style, diction, and spirit of many parts
of the Greek Testament cannot be properly appreciated without acquaintance with
the style and spirit of the Hebrew prophets.”
The OT is absolutely
foundational for understanding the NT; it is the basis. Just as you don’t start math in trig or
calculus, but build an understanding with a foundation of arithmetic, so also,
the foundation upon which one understands the NT is the Old.
This goes the other
way too. It is through the inspired
revelation of the NT that we fully apprehend that which was contained in the
old.
To put it succinctly: the Old contains the New. The New explains the Old.
To put it another way:
The New is concealed in the Old. The Old is revealed in the New.
One important
hermeneutical consideration when looking at the relation of the OT & NT, is
Types and Shadows. In the OT
there are people, places and things that foreshadow greater realities in the
NT. The types really happened, but they
represent spiritual realities called antitypes.
One example is
Gen 28:10-13 10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. 11 When he
reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set.
Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.
12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway[d] resting on the earth, with its
top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on
it. 13 There above it[e] stood the LORD, and he said: “I
am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give
you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.
John 1:51 He then
added, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Jacob’s ladder is the type. Jesus is the antitype.
The next hermeneutical
consideration for relating the OT & NT, I’d like to share with you goes
something like this.
I’m thinking we do
dinner tonight. What shall we do? I know.
We will “Dial 4-5-9 – 22-22…” Mr
Gatti’s Pizza. YES. How did you know that? I only said the first part.
That is exactly how
the NT authors used the OT.
Tom Holland, Contours
of Pauline Theology, p27, “The mere quotation
of a short text had the affect of alerting the reader to the OT passage from
which it had been taken. In this way these texts had a far greater for the
first readers of the NT than is normal today. Their knowledge of these passages
meant that they automatically understood the passage of the NT that they were
reading in the light of the OT passage out of which the quotation was drawn.”
Holland, Contours, 46, citing Dodd, says that the early church knew the OT so
well that when NT writer used a key word or two that “the theology of the OT
passage that the text (or words) was originally in was brought over into the
passage in which it was now quoted.” In other words, partial quotation of OT
prophecies included the entire OT context.
So my encouragement to you is that when you are reading
the NT and you come across an OT quote, go to that OT passage and read the
whole passage. Then bring the
understanding of the entire context of OT passage back into the NT text.
Next question you should ask is how do I know when NT
is quoting OT?
·
NASB = ALL CAPS
·
Others = footnotes
Both Old and New
testaments are important and shed light on the other. They are inextricably linked! Let’s not think of these two testaments as
being two different books, but two chapters of the same book. When you read a book, you don’t skip the
beginning of the story. You read the
story from the beginning and watch it unfold from beginning to end. Genesis is the beginning of the story,
revelation is the end. The bible is a
unit.
Though it is a unit,
to be thought of as ONE volume, it does indeed contain various genres.
As we began to
delineate last week, an important hermeneutical principle is genre analysis:
passages must be read and understood in light of their literary form.
Turn with me in your
Bibles to the table of contents.
Recall that last week
we saw that the OT was arranged in a way that keeps the primary literary genres
together. All the books of the law
reside together (Gen – Deut). All the
historical narratives are together (Joshua – Esther). All the poetry and wisdom are together (Job –
Song) and all the prophets (Is – Mal).
The same is true of
the NT. The genre of the first 5 books
of NT is historical narrative (Matt – Acts).
The next 21 books that follow are epistles (letters) and the last book,
Revelation is primarily apocalyptic and prophetic, but its first three chapters
are primarily in the form of epistles.
That’s the broad overview of the NT.
Now let’s take a closer look at each section with some special
considerations.
GOSPELS
The first 4: Matt,
Mark, Luke, and John are all called gospels.
These are all accounts of the life, ministry, death, burial and
resurrection of Jesus.
I remember when I first began reading the bible, I read through Matthew, then I read into Mark and I was confused because Matthew
already said that stuff. I was expecting
Mark to be a continuation of the story.
But it was a reiteration of the same story from a different
perspective. That’s what the 4 gospels
are: the same account of history shared from 4 different points of view. Imagine the 4 gospel writers as journalists
writing the same article from different perspectives.
Matt – Luke are called
synoptic gospels, in that they are very similar. Synoptic means taking a common
view.
Their gospels are very similar in content and you will find many of the
same things in them, in some cases word for word.
John is like a lone
ranger. Though John also speaks of the
life, ministry, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, his gospel contains
many of the things that the Synoptics do not and lacks many things contained in
the Synoptics; for example, John goes in depth to describe the event of the
Last Supper and contains Jesus’ intimate conversation with the disciples at the
Last Supper. But John’s gospel doesn’t
record Jesus’ exorcisms in which he drives out demons; off hand, I don’t recall
a single account of demonic activity in John’s gospel.
The gospels differ in
content depending on the purpose of the author and his audience.
How do we approach the
gospels and what interpretive considerations shall we apply to them?
First and foremost, GENRE ANALYSIS: the GOSPELS belong primarily
to the genre of HISTORICAL NARRATIVE. Similar to the OT narratives, the 4
gospels and Acts read primarily as a story. This means that the
nature of the gospels is descriptive not prescriptive. They teach
HISTORY. They tell what happened.
So, first and foremost, recognize that the gospels are
historical narrative.
The next hermeneutical consideration for the gospels
essentially stems from our previous principles of audience relevance and
historical cultural analysis. I am
finding more and more that an understanding of the OT & Jewish culture
& political condition of Jesus’ day is crucial to getting the most out of
the gospels.
Though the gospel
accounts are primarily historical narrative that reads like a story, within
the gospels we do have several discourses,
teachings and sayings of Jesus. Keep in mind: the Words of Jesus
were not spoken to us. As we read the teachings and discourses of Jesus,
we have to remember that we are eavesdropping in on what Jesus said every now
and then a Roman Centurion or a Samaritan woman but primarily to those under
the OC nearly 2000 years ago.
For example, in Matt 8 Jesus cleansed a man with leprosy and then tells him to go
and show himself to the priest and
to offer the gift Moses commanded. He
healed him. Why tell him to go do what Moses commanded in the Law? He’s
speaking to someone who is under the Law.
A prominent feature of the gospels is the
parable. Parables are stories that teach
spiritual truths. This seemed to be
Jesus’ favorite way to teach. People
like stories. They are engaging and
fun. Even kids are engaged in stories.
I have one hermeneutical consideration for you with
regards to parables: Parables have a primary point. I would suggest
that you keep it simple. We can get carried away by trying to assign
a specific meaning to every element in a parable and make it so complex
that we miss the primary point. They are usually told to make a primary
point and we don’t want to miss that point. Not everything mentioned in a
parable necessarily represents something. Identify the few key points
of reference and don’t get carried away by trying to assign a meaning to
everything. You will miss the forest because all you can see are
these trees. Keep it simple. Don’t
miss the parable’s primary point.
ACTS. The book of Acts, like the gospels
reads like a historical narrative. The author is Luke and Acts is really
the sequel to the book of Luke. Acts should be read in light of its
purpose. Luke states his purpose in writing his accounts.
Luke
1:1-4 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us,
just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were
eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated
everything from the beginning, it seemed good also for me to write an orderly account for you
most excellent Theophilus, (note the audience) so that
you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. In
the time of Herod king of Judea…and he launches into
historical documentation. Luke’s purpose was to document history.
Then in Acts
1 In my former book, Theophilus, (same author – Luke, same audience
- Theophilus) I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day
he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to
the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he showed himself
to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He
appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of
God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them
this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father
promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized
with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy
Spirit.” So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you
at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to
them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his
own authority. But you will
receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses
in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Nowhere does Luke say, Theophilus, in my former
book I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach, but in this book, it is my purpose to
write the official church handbook for all churches in generations to come. Luke
continues to document history as he draws up an account of the first century church.
Acts should be read in
light of its purpose. The purpose of the book of Acts as Luke records it is to
show the spread of the Gospel by the Spirit empowered apostles from geo-centric
Jerusalem to all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth just as Jesus
told the disciples in Acts 1:8.
We see this progression of the spread of the
gospel outward from Jerusalem to the nations as we read Acts from start to finish as the book opens
with much discussion of the 12 apostles, the pouring out of the Spirit on them
in Jerusalem at Pentecost ch 2,
and then Philip’s sharing of the gospel with Samaritans and the pouring out of
the Spirit on them ch8,
followed by Peter going to Cornelius in Caesarea and the pouring out of the
Spirit on them ch10.
We see the unfolding of
what Jesus declared – the spread
of the Gospel and the receiving
of the Spirit starting in Jerusalem
and working outward to the Gentiles. The rest of the book of Acts
records Paul’s missionary journeys in bringing the gospel to the nations (ie
the ends of the earth).
Regarding the book of Acts the main
hermeneutical consideration with which I would caution you is to be careful not to make the book of Acts the
official church handbook simply because that’s not what Luke declared it to
be. Luke declared that his
purpose was to give an orderly account.
Gospel – Acts are historical narratives to be read like
stories. These are awesome books and some of my favorite to
read. The life and
ministry of Jesus – his words, his miracles,
his fulfillment of prophecy,
the Spirit empowered life
and ministry of the Apostles and
the extraordinary and miraculous things
God did through them, Paul’s conversion and the inclusion of the Gentiles into
the people of God. Amazing
accounts that show the unfolding of the plan of God and the redemption of His
people.
Descriptive, not
prescriptive. Why is this so important?
NEXT SECTION: ROM – JUDE = LETTERS
These should be read
like letters. Pretty simple. Let’s keep in mind, though
that these letters weren’t written to us; we are reading someone else’s
mail.
As a general rule of thumb (and this probably
isn’t bulletproof), but as a guideline, I would suggest reading the letters
with the mindset that as a NC believer in Christ, we can usually make immediate
and direct application, the exception being when there is something historical, cultural or otherwise
contextual that would prevent
it from being immediately applicable. For example, Paul
writes to Timothy in 2Tim 4:13 When
you come bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls,
especially the parchments. I can’t do that; I can’t bring Paul
his parchments. For the life of me, I don’t know where they
are. There are some verses like that, where it isn’t immediately
applicable.
However, there is a multitude of other verses
throughout these letters that have immediate application. Just as
one example, Eph 5:25 Husbands love your
wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Am
I a husband? Yes. Is there anything cultural, historical
or otherwise contextual that would prevent me from making immediate
application? Not at all. I’m a NC believer in Christ; I’m a
husband; I am to love my wife as Christ loved the church; I am to give myself
up for her.
But keep in mind, these letters are primarily
occasional, not written TO you and I.
How to… in
their chapter on Epistles (p 58) “They are
all what are technically called occasional documents (i.e., arising out of and
intended for a specific occasion), and they are all from the first
century. Although inspired by the Holy
Spirit and thus belonging to all time they were first written out of the
context of the author to the context of the original recipients. It is precisely these factors – that they are
occasional and that they belong to the first century – that make their
interpretation difficult at times. Above
all else, their occasional nature must be taken seriously. This means that they were occasioned, or
called forth, by some special circumstance, either from the reader’s side or
the author’s. Almost all of the New
Testament letters were occasioned from the reader’s side (Philemon and perhaps
James and Romans are exceptions).
Usually the occasion was some kind of behavior that needed correcting,
or a doctrinal error that needed setting right, or a misunderstanding that
needed further light.”
Again, they are occasional, which means that the
occasion needs to be considered when attempting to make application; our
situation must resemble that original occasion.
Within the epistles, there are
subcategories. There are different types
of epistles. If you look in your table
of contents, you can see that the epistles begin in Romans.
The first section of epistles contains letters
to churches. Romans – 2
Thess. Some of these letters to
churches have a wide range of application and are considered circular letters,
such as Colossians. Col 4:16 After this
letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the
Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea. This is a circular letter in that it was
intended to be circulated among churches.
That means that its application is clearly broader than the letter that
is not circular. In other words, a book
like Colossians is likely to have more points of application for more people
than one like 1 Corinthians which was a response to a letter from the
Corinthians. Paul is answering the
Corinthians’ questions with regards to their congregation. Subcategory #1: Rom-2Thess =
letters to churches.
1Tim – Philemon =
letters to individuals. Within those Tim &
Titus are called Pastoral Epistles because they are written to those
who are overseers of churches and contain instructions specific to that
pastoral role. These letters to
individuals are named after those TO WHOM they were written.
Hebrews is
written to Hebrews so this is a book that will ONLY make sense if you have read
the OT, especially the Law. To sum up
the book of Hebrews in 1 sentence: “The NC is way better
than the OC.”
James – Jude are
called general epistles because it is believed that their intended audience
seems to be Christians in general rather than specific individuals or churches
(except 2 & 3 John – lady and Gaius).
While these are considered general epistles, keep in mind that there is
a very Jewish flavor among these letters.
Consider who wrote them. Unlike
the letters to individuals these are named by the author. James, Peter, John, etc. These were Jews and their ministry was
directed toward Jews. Gal 2:9 James,
Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars gave me and Barnabas the right hand
of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles
and they to the Jews. Peter, James and John
ministered to the Jews and their books reflect a Jewish flavor. As an example, James 1:1 James a
servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes scattered among
the nations. This letter is to the
dispersion of those who belong to the 12 tribes of Israel. (audience relevance) This makes sense of
James’ emphasis on the Law among other things.
So
James, 1&2 Pet, 1,2,3 John=general epistles but very Jewish flavored.
Rom – Jude, are
EPISTLES or letters, read them like letters written to NC believers in Christ, keeping
in mind their occasional nature, remembering that though for us, were not
originally written to us; we are reading someone else’s mail.
FINAL SECTION: REVELATION What is its literary genre? The first 3 chapters are primarily epistle to
be read as a letter from John on behalf of Jesus, to the 7 churches in Asia
minor. The rest is primarily apocalyptic
and prophetic and also contains sprinkles of poetry.
Now, the book of
revelation is extremely difficult to interpret and it’s really scary, so we are
just going to stay out of it and avoid it altogether. Let’s pray.
I’m just kidding. Next week we will spend an entire message
dedicated to eschatology and the book of Revelation in particular.
www.ncfgeorgetown.com Church in Georgetown, Texas. Reformed church
Georgetown, Texas Preterist church Georgetown Texas. Pastor David Boone. Sermon
audio mp3 sermon download Full Preterism. Covenant Eschatology. New Covenant
Fellowship Georgetown. Page House 10:00 am Loving God. Loving Others. Realized
eschatology fulfilled eschatology
Preterist church Austin Texas.
Bible church Austin Texas Second coming of Jesus Christ churches in
Austin area. Churches in Georgetown TX
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