Foundations: Who are we, what do we believe, and HOW DO WE LIVE in line with THOSE BELIEFS?
As we are being formed into a RESILIENT COMMUNITY of RESILIENT DISCIPLES walking out a RESILIENT FAITH, we must HEAR AND FOLLOW the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:24-27. Jesus says, “Therefore, everyone who hears these words (teachings) of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words (teachings) of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
It’s TEACHINGS + PRACTICE that Jesus is calling His followers to.
My task today is to invite you into the practice of daily reading and meditating on Scripture. However, before we get to that invitation, we must first acknowledge the unique relationship each of us has with Scripture. Some of us read it with appreciation, love, and a settledness. In contrast, others approach it with suspicion because they have been hurt by people who have misused the Bible or treated it flippantly—mishandling Scripture and your heart in the process. Some come with real doubt, confusion, and skepticism as lots of legitimate and unanswered questions keep popping up. Some, meanwhile, don’t read Scripture at all and have become what some have called “Post-Bible Christian” – “believers” who have a relationship with Jesus, but don’t read the Bible, causing their version of Jesus to slowly become more and more like them, rather than the other way around.
What is your relationship with the Bible? No guilt or shame implied or intended. Take a moment to have an honest assessment of your “practice” of daily reading and meditating on Scripture.
As a pastor of Living Waters, I long for you to have a rich, formative, consistent, and daily time with Jesus in the pages of Scripture. Not a task, but for transformation. Not to check a box but to check our hearts. Not to just read it, but to let it read us.
This beautiful collection of writings and letters written by the Holy Spirit (Paul calls it “God breathed”), through human agents; This story of God’s love, pursuit, and redemption; if we call ourselves followers of Jesus, this is our salvation story, our adoption story, and our family story. It is the revelation of Jesus, and once you see Him, you will find him in every book and story, weaving humanity toward redemption.
In our Sermon on the Mount series earlier this year, we studied in depth what Jesus taught. But today we ask the question, what did Jesus do? Not to copy the popular bracelet saying, but we should strive to do the things Jesus did, correct?
What was Jesus’ relationship with Scripture?
Luke 2:41-52 says, “Every year, Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. 42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. 43 After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. 44 Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they could not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. 46 After three days, they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”
49 “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” 50 But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
51 Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.”
What can we learn about Jesus’ actions from this passage?
In this passage, we are reminded that even as a child, Jesus would have been trained in the Hebrew Bible, memorizing much of the Torah (Mosaic books) and Psalms, as well as the Messianic texts. His familiarity with Scripture and understanding of it were noted by teachers of the Law, even at age 12!
The Hebrew Bible was the foundation of his life and teaching.
Jesus quoted from the Hebrew Bible (what we call the Old Testament) approximately 78 times across the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). He used Scripture as a tool to bring the message of the Kingdom and Salvation to the world.
Now jump with me to the wilderness with Jesus, where Kate brought us last week.
Luke 4:1-13 tells the story: “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them, he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.'” (Deut. 8:3)
5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'” (Deut. 6:13)
9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written:” ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; 11 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'” (Psalm 91:11,12) 12 Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'” (Deut. 6:16)
13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.”
What was Jesus’ relationship with Scripture?
In this story, we see Jesus’ model silence, solitude, prayer, fasting, and Scripture.
I love that he uses Deuteronomy to defeat the devil’s temptations, because the Book of Deuteronomy recounts Israel’s wilderness testing, where they failed (e.g., hunger, idolatry, testing God). Jesus quotes Deuteronomy to succeed where Israel faltered, using Scripture as a weapon against temptation.
In these passages from Luke, we see how Jesus studied and knew Scripture as a child. We also see Jesus relying on Scripture to overcome temptation. From Jesus’ life, we know that He used the Hebrew Bible as the foundation of all His teaching and as a means to overcome darkness.
What, then, should Scripture be for us?
There are so many ways I could answer this, but the simplest is, as always, the most relevant to our conversation: To KNOW JESUS, and to understand the Gospel story of redemption and our place in it.
In Luke 24:13-49, it says, “Now that same day two of [the disciples] were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.
17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
19 “What things?” he asked. “About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. Moreover, it is the third day since all this took place. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning, 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”
25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
How incredible it would have been to be there in that moment as Jesus showed how all of Scripture pointed to Him – the Way, the Truth, the Life, the only true Salvation, the source of our hope and redemption! His understanding and teaching of Scripture caused “their hearts to burn”! I wish I could have been there, but as I study Scripture with the Holy Spirit, the same thing can take place!
My personal story is simple: I love the Bible because without it, I wouldn’t know Jesus to the depths that I do. To see and know Jesus is the gift of the Bible. As a boy, I grew up reading the Picture Bible over and over. As a young man, I saw my dad read his old, green Living Bible in the corner of our living room early in the mornings. As a teenager, I was blessed with mentors who taught me to read Scripture, journal, and memorize it. For years, I studied it to teach, and it all boils down to one simple thing: Jesus.
The Bible is how I am being “transformed by the renewing of my mind” (Romans 12:1). It is how I am learning to “fix my eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of my faith” (Hebrews 12:2).
Phil. 3:7-12 – “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” – Paul.
Jesus learned and studied it. He wielded it to overcome darkness, taught the story of redemption (gospel) from its pages, and invites us to it with the Holy Spirit as our guide to know Him, and be formed by Him as we read, meditate, and receive the “spirit of wisdom and revelation” upon our minds and hearts, who will “lead us into all truth”.
John 16:12-14 – “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.” – Jesus.
Eph. 1:17-19 – “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” – Paul.
PRACTICE – How can you begin this practice? Keep it simple with a daily reading practice of formation and transformation:
Lectio Divina, a Latin phrase meaning “spiritual reading,” is a way of reading Scripture slowly and prayerfully, waiting for God’s word to come to you.
- Read the passage slowly and pay attention to any words or phrases that stand out or touch you emotionally.
- Reflect by rereading the passage, lingering over the words or phrases that feel highlighted, and thinking about what God may be saying to you.
- Respond by praying those impressions back to God.
- Rest in God’s loving word to you, that He is at work in the things He has shown you in your reading, meditating, and prayer time.
If you don’t know where to start, why not start where we spent some time today, the book of Luke? After you’re done with Luke, please come and tell me, and we can discuss which section of Scripture to read next.
Love you all!
Ryan
Responses