Where does the Bible come from?

Can we trust the Bible? Why should we believe that it’s true? These are questions that are often put to Christians, and for which Christians should have a ready answer.

One of the ideas out there today is that a group of church officials at the Council of Nicea (AD 325) arbitrarily chose the books they wanted to put in the Bible, and in the process invented the religion of Christianity. This is the view presented in the Da Vinci Code book and movie. But despite the fact that this book admits to being fictional, many people have accepted it as a fact. So is this what really happened?  Not even close. So what did happen? Where do we get our Bibles from?

Hebrews 2

Last week, in Hebrews chapter 1, we saw how the book of Hebrews begins:  by identifying Jesus as the Son of God, who is the “character”—the impress or exact likeness—of the Father.  Because of this, he is infinitely greater than any of the angels.  And to prove it, Hebrews quotes verse after verse from the Bible, to show that Jesus is far greater than the angels.  The angels are spiritual servants, but Jesus rules and reigns at the right hand of the Father in heaven.

Hebrews 1

This is a quick draft of Sunday's sermon.  Hopefully I'll eventually replace it with a more polished version.

It’s always interesting to me that so many people talk about having a relationship with Jesus.  This is a relationship that’s often presented as the means of salvation:  that we are saved by having a relationship with Jesus.  Right?  Have you heard that?  Of course.  But what kind of relationship with Jesus is the Bible actually talking about?  I would think that would be a very important question.

Leadership 3

Ritual Bath (Mikveh)

We’ve been talking a lot about leadership in the church.  And the simple reason for that is that we need to establish some kind of structure in order to be a church.  But for that to work, we need to be in agreement with the Bible’s plan for leadership.  We need to agree with Jesus’ instruction that he alone is the head of the Church, and that all the rest are brothers—all the rest are equal under him.  He alone is our rabbi and leader. 

Jesus taught us that to be great in the Body of Messiah, you must be a servant to everyone else in the Body.  He said, “It will not be this way among you; rather whoever wants to be great among you will be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you will be your slave” (Matt. 20:26-27).  Why?  Because God’s plan is for us all to submit to each other.  God’s plan is for us all to serve each other.

We’ve also seen that a key part of the structure of the local church is the elders of the church, who are pastors to the others—they help and serve all the others.  But why does the Bible say that elders should be men, and in fact married men (“It is necessary therefore that the overseer [another name for an elder] be above reproach, a husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,” 1 Tim. 3:2)?

Leadership 2

Last week we looked at God’s plan for leadership in the Body of Messiah.  And we saw that Jesus’ ideas about leadership are completely different than the world’s ideas about leadership.  In fact, Jesus’ plan for leadership in the Body of Messiah is just the opposite of the world’s way of leading.  He said that to be a leader in the Body of Messiah, you must be a servant; and to be the first, you must be a slave to all the others.  Since he, the Lord, acted this way, there is none of us that is above being a servant, because none of us is above Jesus. 

We got into this topic by talking about God’s plan for leadership in the local church.  So far, we’ve seen that of the five ministry gifts, pastors and teachers were local ministries, while the others were usually travelling ministries. 

We also saw that there was no single pastor in Bible days like there is in so many churches today.  Rather, the word “pastor” was used to refer to the elders, of which there were several in each church.  These elders were involved in teaching, since one of the requirements for being an elder was being “able to teach” (1 Tim. 3:2).  But not all the elders were equally involved in teaching and preaching. 

Leadership

An Ancient Synagogue in Israel (Baram)

Last week we talked about the special ministry gifts that God uses to activate and empower the gifting in each and every believer (Eph. 4:11:  “He himself also gave some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers”).  Paul tells us that they are like ligaments, holding the Body together. 

In New Testament times, the first three, apostles, prophets and evangelists, were mostly traveling ministries.  They moved around from place to place and from church to church.  But the last two, the pastors and teachers, were local ministries.  These were people who were members of the local church.  But as I briefly mentioned last week, the meaning of the name of some of these ministry gifts has changed over time. 

God’s Vision for the Local Church

So what is God’s vision for the body of Christ?  How does he want us to meet together?  What does he want us to do?

The authority for the Christian church comes from Jesus himself, in his final words before his ascension, often called the Great Commission.  Jesus said, “Therefore when you have gone, make disciples of all the nations (all the Gentiles), baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19).  We are to go into all the world making disciples.  But what does it mean to be a disciple? 

We’re Not Under the Law of Moses

The Old City of Jerusalem

Last time, we started by observing the Biblical truth that as Christians we are not under the Law of Moses.  This is stated clearly many times in the Bible (“For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace,” Rom. 6:14; also Gal. 5:18, etc.).  But as we saw, many Christians have misunderstood this saying, and in part due to a history of anti-Semitism in the Church, they think that this means the Law is bad or even evil, and that Jesus came to set us free from this evil Law.