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"Jesus lived the Bible’s eternal principles"
Thursday, 17 August 2017
Matthew 4:1 Then the Spirit led Yeshua up into the wilderness to be tempted by the Adversary. 2 After Yeshua had fasted forty days and nights, he was hungry. 3 The Tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, order these stones to become bread.” 4 But he answered, “The Tanakh says,
‘Man does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes from the mouth of Adonai’”[Matthew 4:4 Deuteronomy 8:3]
5 Then the Adversary took him to the holy city and set him on the highest point of the Temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “jump! For the Tanakh says,
‘He will order his angels to be responsible for you. . . .
They will support you with their hands,
so that you will not hurt your feet on the stones.’”[Matthew 4:6 Psalm 91:11–12]
7 Yeshua replied to him, “But it also says, ‘Do not put Adonai your God to the test.’”[Matthew 4:7 Deuteronomy 6:16]
8 Once more, the Adversary took him up to the summit of a very high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in all their glory, 9 and said to him, “All this I will give you if you will bow down and worship me.” 10 “Away with you, Satan!” Yeshua told him, “For the Tanakh says,
‘Worship Adonai your God, and serve only him.’” [Matthew 4:10 Deuteronomy 6:13–14]
11 Then the Adversary let him alone, and angels came and took care of him.
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Jesus was tempted to make choices that would have derailed his saving mission. In one case, the tempter tried to mislead Jesus by quoting a single Bible verse. But Jesus grasped the Bible’s overall message, met every temptation with a verse that embodied a deep Bible principle, and no doubt knew that the verse the tempter quoted was a poetic image, not a literal pledge. As we read the Bible, we may find things we question, and some historical puzzles. But like Jesus, we can prayerfully seek the principles that will guide our lives right.
• In verse 6, the tempter quoted from Psalm 91. Jesus didn’t just say, “From the Bible—must be right.” Scholar Scot McKnight wrote that at times we “read the Bible as a collection of… sanctified morsels of truth…. the blessings and promises of God in the Bible emerge from a real life’s story that also knows that we live in a broken world and some days are tough.” * What steps can help you discern the Bible’s core truths? How can it be spiritually (as well as physically) unsafe to take all Bible verses literally, as the tempter urged?
• Our culture tends to keep (and add to) the medieval idea of a horned devil in red tights. Do you think such a figure would have had any appeal for Jesus? Has temptation ever come to you, not as a big “devil” figure, but as a tiny inner whisper urging you to choose a path other than God’s? How can the Bible help you resist that whisper?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, guide me to read the Bible with discernment, as you did. Use it to guide me and armor me against temptations to veer from your path. Amen.
* Scot McKnight, The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008, pp. 46-47.
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Darrell Holtz
Darrell Holtz serves as Program Director for Adult Curriculum and Writing at Church of the Resurrection. He has two adult children, and two smart, handsome grandsons.
(Travel plans kept Evan Palmer from writing for today. Darrell Holtz first wrote this post about Jesus' temptation in 2010.)
One of the parts of the story of Jesus' temptation I find most intriguing is Matthew 4:6. It's as though, having heard Jesus answer the first temptation with Scripture, the tempter said, "I can quote Scripture, too." So he quoted from Psalm 91:11-12 to support the idea that, if Jesus jumped off the pinnacle of the Temple, God would guarantee him a safe landing. This was a temptation because, based on Malachi 3:1 ("suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple"), some traditions in Judaism said the Messiah would make a dramatic, sudden arrival at the Temple. So if Jesus accepted the challenge to make that amazing "high dive" and landed safely, it would give him a road to easier acceptance as the Messiah in some influential circles.
What's more, at a surface glance, Psalm 91 did seem to promise God's protection from all physical peril. The tempter was "pioneering" the approach to the Bible that's sometimes called "claiming God's promises" today. One reason Jesus' response is so important is that he gives us a much broader picture of what it means to read the Bible "in context."
Jesus did not quote another verse from Psalm 91 in reply to the temptation. He went clear back to Deuteronomy 6:16, saying "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" Jesus modeled for us the truth that, ultimately, the context of any verse of the Bible is the entire Bible. God's message comes to us, not in bits and pieces, little snippets scattered here and there, but through the entire sweeping saga of Scripture. In that light, it became clear that Psalm 91 did not mean that, even if we deliberately put ourselves in harm's way, God promised to protect us. Instead, it spoke to God's concern for his children's eternal well-being. In that broader sense, even God's faithful servants who died martyr's deaths were still under the divine protection promised in Psalm 91.
Jesus showed us why it's so important to our spiritual well-being that we have a grasp of the overall structure and sweep of the Bible's story, rather than just a collection of favorite verses. Someone once spoke of times when Christians disagree as a process of "lobbing our chosen verses at one another like hand grenades." Though we may still see some matters differently, we'll be much less likely to fall into the tempter's pattern if we get to know the Bible as a whole, and not just little selected chunks of it.
Two good options for learning the sweep of the Bible as a whole are “Meet Your Bible” (click here for more information) and Disciple 1 Bible Study (click here).
-------
"The apostle Paul’s thoughtful quoting of the Bible"
Friday, 18 August 2017
Romans 15:1-13
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The apostle Paul urged Roman Christians to stay united despite their differing Jewish and Gentile backgrounds. How did choose the verses he quoted to them? He read the Bible as a sweeping story, not a set of free-standing verses of equal truth and weight. Though some Old Testament verses might sound as if God loved Jews more than Gentiles, Paul chose verses that said God wanted to reach all people, including Gentiles. He’d thought and prayed hard about the Bible, and traced the directional arc of God’s purpose, not just isolated verses.
• Pastor Hamilton wrote that as we read the Bible, we need something like “a kitchen colander or strainer, holding the important things while the less desirable are rinsed off.” He suggested that one of the best “strainers” is “What is the heart, character, and will of God that Jesus reveals?” So, he concluded, “It is Jesus who serves as the final Word by which other words of scripture are to be judged.” * In what ways can you see Paul using that “strainer” principle in his choice of verses to guide the Roman Christians?
• Paul was living out God’s great purpose, shown in Jesus, to extend love and grace to all people. On that basis, Paul bypassed places where the Bible sounded exclusionary. Have you ever known someone who rejected the Bible because of violent or sexist verses that don’t fit with Jesus' teachings? How can thoughtful Bible reading help you honor God’s inspiration while recognizing human and time-limited parts of Scripture?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, lead my heart beyond theories, abstractions and rigid systems. Meet me as I come to the Bible, and speak your life-giving word into my heart. Amen.
* Hamilton, Adam. Making Sense of the Bible: Rediscovering the Power of Scripture Today (pp. 176, 177). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
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"Jesus: God’s final word"
Saturday, 19 August 2017
Hebrews 1:1-4, Luke 24:13-32
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A key guiding principle for Disciple 1 Bible study is, “The Word of God is Jesus Christ, and the words of the Bible tell us about that Word. Therefore, when we study the words of the Bible we always look behind, in, and through the words for God’s Word—Jesus Christ.” Luke said that was how Jesus himself explained the Bible to his followers. The letter to the Hebrews said God’s greatest revelation, God’s final word, was not a book, but a person: the person of Jesus: “The Son is the light of God’s glory and the imprint of God’s being.” That’s why only through the Son can we rightly understand the rest of God’s story the Bible unfolds.
• Scholar N. T. Wright said, “The Jewish law told a story which came to its climax in [Jesus]. It pointed to the ideal for human life, and to God’s provision of sacrifice for human sin, not so that people could boast of how successfully they’d accomplished it all, but to point to the Messiah, the truly human being (see John 19:5), the lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. Jesus’ charge against his contemporaries [in John 5:39-40] is thus that they have been looking at the right book but reading it the wrong way.” * How can you study the Bible, not just as a cerebral task (though it calls for all your mental firepower), but to come into Jesus’ presence and learn from him? In what ways does making him the standard of all truth cast a clearer light on many of the Bible’s difficult parts? How have you learned to look “behind, in and through” the Bible’s words for Jesus?
Prayer: Loving Jesus, I don’t just want to read the right book; I want to read it the right way. Help me know how to look behind, in and through the Bible’s words for you, my Savior and Lord. Amen.
* N. T. Wright, John for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1–10. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p. 69.
Family Activity: To fully live into God’s wisdom and grace, it is important that we know Scripture. Create a stack of Scriptures for your home. Gather and distribute colored index cards and pens or pencils along with a Bible to each family member. Ask each person to choose 3-4 favorite Bible verses and write them on his or her index cards along with his or her name. Collect the cards and keep them on the dining table. Before each meal, select a card, read the passage and pray for the person who chose it. Place that card on the bottom of the stack. If you have young family members, invite them to draw pictures describing the verses or to help other family members. Keep adding to your family’s stack throughout the year and see how many verses you can memorize!
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Prayer Requests – cor.org/prayer Prayers for Peace & Comfort for:
• Amy Harris and family on the death of her husband Heath Harris, 8/7
• Delmar Ferguson and family on the death of his son Steven Ferguson, 8/6
• Rhonda Scofield and family on the death of her brother Steven Ferguson, 8/6
• Brenda Sanders and family on the death of her father James Earl Mills, 8/4
• Marian Smith and family on the death of her husband Charles W. “Chuck” Smith, 8/1
• Allison Ewing and family on the death of her father Charles W. “Chuck” Smith, 8/1
• Shanda Clayton and family on the death of her mother Dolly Southgate, 7/31
• Jane Millard and family on the death of her son Thad Stewart Millard, 7/24
• Stacie Wells and family on the death of her mother Janice Remele, 7/23
• Caroline Wells and family on the death of her grandmother, Janice Remele, 7/23
"Jesus lived the Bible’s eternal principles"
Thursday, 17 August 2017
Matthew 4:1 Then the Spirit led Yeshua up into the wilderness to be tempted by the Adversary. 2 After Yeshua had fasted forty days and nights, he was hungry. 3 The Tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, order these stones to become bread.” 4 But he answered, “The Tanakh says,
‘Man does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes from the mouth of Adonai’”[Matthew 4:4 Deuteronomy 8:3]
5 Then the Adversary took him to the holy city and set him on the highest point of the Temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “jump! For the Tanakh says,
‘He will order his angels to be responsible for you. . . .
They will support you with their hands,
so that you will not hurt your feet on the stones.’”[Matthew 4:6 Psalm 91:11–12]
7 Yeshua replied to him, “But it also says, ‘Do not put Adonai your God to the test.’”[Matthew 4:7 Deuteronomy 6:16]
8 Once more, the Adversary took him up to the summit of a very high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in all their glory, 9 and said to him, “All this I will give you if you will bow down and worship me.” 10 “Away with you, Satan!” Yeshua told him, “For the Tanakh says,
‘Worship Adonai your God, and serve only him.’” [Matthew 4:10 Deuteronomy 6:13–14]
11 Then the Adversary let him alone, and angels came and took care of him.
-------
Jesus was tempted to make choices that would have derailed his saving mission. In one case, the tempter tried to mislead Jesus by quoting a single Bible verse. But Jesus grasped the Bible’s overall message, met every temptation with a verse that embodied a deep Bible principle, and no doubt knew that the verse the tempter quoted was a poetic image, not a literal pledge. As we read the Bible, we may find things we question, and some historical puzzles. But like Jesus, we can prayerfully seek the principles that will guide our lives right.
• In verse 6, the tempter quoted from Psalm 91. Jesus didn’t just say, “From the Bible—must be right.” Scholar Scot McKnight wrote that at times we “read the Bible as a collection of… sanctified morsels of truth…. the blessings and promises of God in the Bible emerge from a real life’s story that also knows that we live in a broken world and some days are tough.” * What steps can help you discern the Bible’s core truths? How can it be spiritually (as well as physically) unsafe to take all Bible verses literally, as the tempter urged?
• Our culture tends to keep (and add to) the medieval idea of a horned devil in red tights. Do you think such a figure would have had any appeal for Jesus? Has temptation ever come to you, not as a big “devil” figure, but as a tiny inner whisper urging you to choose a path other than God’s? How can the Bible help you resist that whisper?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, guide me to read the Bible with discernment, as you did. Use it to guide me and armor me against temptations to veer from your path. Amen.
* Scot McKnight, The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008, pp. 46-47.
-------
Darrell HoltzDarrell Holtz serves as Program Director for Adult Curriculum and Writing at Church of the Resurrection. He has two adult children, and two smart, handsome grandsons.
(Travel plans kept Evan Palmer from writing for today. Darrell Holtz first wrote this post about Jesus' temptation in 2010.)
One of the parts of the story of Jesus' temptation I find most intriguing is Matthew 4:6. It's as though, having heard Jesus answer the first temptation with Scripture, the tempter said, "I can quote Scripture, too." So he quoted from Psalm 91:11-12 to support the idea that, if Jesus jumped off the pinnacle of the Temple, God would guarantee him a safe landing. This was a temptation because, based on Malachi 3:1 ("suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple"), some traditions in Judaism said the Messiah would make a dramatic, sudden arrival at the Temple. So if Jesus accepted the challenge to make that amazing "high dive" and landed safely, it would give him a road to easier acceptance as the Messiah in some influential circles.
What's more, at a surface glance, Psalm 91 did seem to promise God's protection from all physical peril. The tempter was "pioneering" the approach to the Bible that's sometimes called "claiming God's promises" today. One reason Jesus' response is so important is that he gives us a much broader picture of what it means to read the Bible "in context."
Jesus did not quote another verse from Psalm 91 in reply to the temptation. He went clear back to Deuteronomy 6:16, saying "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" Jesus modeled for us the truth that, ultimately, the context of any verse of the Bible is the entire Bible. God's message comes to us, not in bits and pieces, little snippets scattered here and there, but through the entire sweeping saga of Scripture. In that light, it became clear that Psalm 91 did not mean that, even if we deliberately put ourselves in harm's way, God promised to protect us. Instead, it spoke to God's concern for his children's eternal well-being. In that broader sense, even God's faithful servants who died martyr's deaths were still under the divine protection promised in Psalm 91.
Jesus showed us why it's so important to our spiritual well-being that we have a grasp of the overall structure and sweep of the Bible's story, rather than just a collection of favorite verses. Someone once spoke of times when Christians disagree as a process of "lobbing our chosen verses at one another like hand grenades." Though we may still see some matters differently, we'll be much less likely to fall into the tempter's pattern if we get to know the Bible as a whole, and not just little selected chunks of it.
Two good options for learning the sweep of the Bible as a whole are “Meet Your Bible” (click here for more information) and Disciple 1 Bible Study (click here).
-------
"The apostle Paul’s thoughtful quoting of the Bible"
Friday, 18 August 2017
Romans 15:1-13
-------
The apostle Paul urged Roman Christians to stay united despite their differing Jewish and Gentile backgrounds. How did choose the verses he quoted to them? He read the Bible as a sweeping story, not a set of free-standing verses of equal truth and weight. Though some Old Testament verses might sound as if God loved Jews more than Gentiles, Paul chose verses that said God wanted to reach all people, including Gentiles. He’d thought and prayed hard about the Bible, and traced the directional arc of God’s purpose, not just isolated verses.
• Pastor Hamilton wrote that as we read the Bible, we need something like “a kitchen colander or strainer, holding the important things while the less desirable are rinsed off.” He suggested that one of the best “strainers” is “What is the heart, character, and will of God that Jesus reveals?” So, he concluded, “It is Jesus who serves as the final Word by which other words of scripture are to be judged.” * In what ways can you see Paul using that “strainer” principle in his choice of verses to guide the Roman Christians?
• Paul was living out God’s great purpose, shown in Jesus, to extend love and grace to all people. On that basis, Paul bypassed places where the Bible sounded exclusionary. Have you ever known someone who rejected the Bible because of violent or sexist verses that don’t fit with Jesus' teachings? How can thoughtful Bible reading help you honor God’s inspiration while recognizing human and time-limited parts of Scripture?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, lead my heart beyond theories, abstractions and rigid systems. Meet me as I come to the Bible, and speak your life-giving word into my heart. Amen.
* Hamilton, Adam. Making Sense of the Bible: Rediscovering the Power of Scripture Today (pp. 176, 177). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
-------
-------
"Jesus: God’s final word"
Saturday, 19 August 2017
Hebrews 1:1-4, Luke 24:13-32
-------
A key guiding principle for Disciple 1 Bible study is, “The Word of God is Jesus Christ, and the words of the Bible tell us about that Word. Therefore, when we study the words of the Bible we always look behind, in, and through the words for God’s Word—Jesus Christ.” Luke said that was how Jesus himself explained the Bible to his followers. The letter to the Hebrews said God’s greatest revelation, God’s final word, was not a book, but a person: the person of Jesus: “The Son is the light of God’s glory and the imprint of God’s being.” That’s why only through the Son can we rightly understand the rest of God’s story the Bible unfolds.
• Scholar N. T. Wright said, “The Jewish law told a story which came to its climax in [Jesus]. It pointed to the ideal for human life, and to God’s provision of sacrifice for human sin, not so that people could boast of how successfully they’d accomplished it all, but to point to the Messiah, the truly human being (see John 19:5), the lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. Jesus’ charge against his contemporaries [in John 5:39-40] is thus that they have been looking at the right book but reading it the wrong way.” * How can you study the Bible, not just as a cerebral task (though it calls for all your mental firepower), but to come into Jesus’ presence and learn from him? In what ways does making him the standard of all truth cast a clearer light on many of the Bible’s difficult parts? How have you learned to look “behind, in and through” the Bible’s words for Jesus?
Prayer: Loving Jesus, I don’t just want to read the right book; I want to read it the right way. Help me know how to look behind, in and through the Bible’s words for you, my Savior and Lord. Amen.
* N. T. Wright, John for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1–10. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p. 69.
Family Activity: To fully live into God’s wisdom and grace, it is important that we know Scripture. Create a stack of Scriptures for your home. Gather and distribute colored index cards and pens or pencils along with a Bible to each family member. Ask each person to choose 3-4 favorite Bible verses and write them on his or her index cards along with his or her name. Collect the cards and keep them on the dining table. Before each meal, select a card, read the passage and pray for the person who chose it. Place that card on the bottom of the stack. If you have young family members, invite them to draw pictures describing the verses or to help other family members. Keep adding to your family’s stack throughout the year and see how many verses you can memorize!
-------
-------
Prayer Requests – cor.org/prayer Prayers for Peace & Comfort for:
• Amy Harris and family on the death of her husband Heath Harris, 8/7
• Delmar Ferguson and family on the death of his son Steven Ferguson, 8/6
• Rhonda Scofield and family on the death of her brother Steven Ferguson, 8/6
• Brenda Sanders and family on the death of her father James Earl Mills, 8/4
• Marian Smith and family on the death of her husband Charles W. “Chuck” Smith, 8/1
• Allison Ewing and family on the death of her father Charles W. “Chuck” Smith, 8/1
• Shanda Clayton and family on the death of her mother Dolly Southgate, 7/31
• Jane Millard and family on the death of her son Thad Stewart Millard, 7/24
• Stacie Wells and family on the death of her mother Janice Remele, 7/23
• Caroline Wells and family on the death of her grandmother, Janice Remele, 7/23
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Or download this week's printable GPS.
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©2017 Church of the Resurrection. All Rights Reserved.
The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, Kansas 66224, United States
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Or download this week's printable GPS.
-------
©2017 Church of the Resurrection. All Rights Reserved.
The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, Kansas 66224, United States
-------
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