Open the Bible

Colin Smith: Jesus is the message of the Bible. The law tells us that he is needed. In the prophets, he is predicted. In the Psalms, he is worshipped. In the gospels, he is described. In the Acts, he is proclaimed. In the epistles, he is explained. And in the book of Revelation, he is unveiled in all of his heavenly glory.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I know that here at the ministry we like to talk about the fact that the Bible is one story, one that begins in a garden, it ends in the city, and the whole way through it points to Jesus. You just summarized that so beautifully for us, but admittedly, I think there are times where we open up the Bible, we get into it, and we say, "Where do I see Jesus in Leviticus? Where do I see Jesus in some of the minor prophets? How can you say that the entire Bible is all about Jesus?"

Colin Smith: That is a great question. The reason to say it is that that is what he himself said. He is sitting down with the Pharisees and he says, "Now you study the scriptures, well these are the scriptures that testify about me," and he is talking about the Old Testament. Of course, with the confused disciples on the road to Emmaus, he opened up all of the scriptures and showed them the things that were concerning himself.

I would love to have heard that message from Jesus, I really would, because that would have answered the question that you are asking. But I find it very helpful then on that basis, when I am reading Leviticus or I am reading Deuteronomy or whatever, to be saying, "Now how does this that I am reading relate to Jesus Christ?" because I know it does, because he said so.

Typically in the Old Testament, it is often showing us our need for Jesus, or it is putting something in place that when Jesus comes will help us understand him. For example, how could anyone understand a sacrifice being made for sin when Jesus dies on the cross unless we had the Old Testament and the whole system of sacrifices in order to create a mindset that could comprehend what was actually going on at the cross as being the sacrifice to which all this other stuff pointed? God knows exactly what he is doing in making this wonderful revelation that is about his Son, and we need every part of it, but it is all pointing to him.

Steve Hiller: Today, the part that we are going to be looking at is found in the book of Second Peter. We are in the first chapter, so I hope you will open your Bibles and join us there as we begin a message entitled "Everything You Need for Faith." Here is Pastor Colin.

Chapter one and verse three: "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." Wonderful promise, that in knowing Jesus Christ, God has given to you everything you need for everything you will ever face in any day of your experience of life in this world. It is categorical, and it is an amazing promise.

Christ is with you by the Spirit. You have been delivered from the grip of evil. Sin is your enemy, but it is not your master. For this very reason, verse five, we can act. We should therefore make every effort to add to faith goodness and knowledge and self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. In this way, Peter says, your Christian life will be fruitful, verse eight, and it will be productive, which is what we want. More than that, verse 11, on the last day, you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

That is the message of the book. It is about the sufficiency of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, not only for faith, but for everything that you need for life. It is in Jesus. Now, that raises an obvious question. Everything we need for life is in the knowledge of Jesus, but how do we have the knowledge of Jesus? Answer: through the Bible. Well then, how do we know that the Bible is reliable? How can we be sure that we have a true knowledge of Jesus? If everything we need for life lies in knowing him, how do we know that we know him truly? Can we, in other words, trust the source of that knowledge, which is through the Word of God?

You will see then that that is why very naturally, Peter comes in verses 12 to 21 to address this whole issue of scripture. This is one of the most important passages in the New Testament with regards to what we believe about the Bible. Just to give it a quick frame in our minds by way of overview, Dr. Wayne Grudem, who taught for many years at Trinity University, has identified four things that we need to know about the Bible and that the Bible claims in regards to itself. This is a good little overview that might be worth keeping in mind for you.

First, there is the authority of scripture. It is interesting that right here, Peter speaks about how men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. The authority of scripture is that it is the word not simply of men, but it is the word of God, and Peter states that clearly here. Secondly, the sufficiency of scripture. That is, scripture has all that we need for knowing Christ, who has all that we need for living life. That is the whole point that Peter is making here in this first chapter. God has given us everything we need for life in knowing Jesus, and he has given us everything we need for knowing Jesus in the Bible. These two things obviously must go together.

Third, the clarity of scripture. In other words, God has spoken in the Bible in a way that we can understand. Notice how in verse 19, Peter picks up this theme when he says that the scripture is like a light shining in a dark place. In other words, you must never think of the Bible as an obscure kind of book that only scholars or priests could understand. The Bible is God's revelation of himself. It belongs in the hands of the people because God has spoken clearly, and if you come to the scripture humbly with an inquiring mind and seeking the help of the Lord, you can understand it and you can learn from it.

Not everything in the Bible is equally clear. It is interesting, if you just turn over a page to chapter three and verse 16 of this letter, you will see that Peter acknowledges that there are some things in Paul that are hard to understand. Extraordinary statement in chapter three and verse 16. It helps a lot to know if even Peter thought there were some things in Paul that were hard to understand. That makes the rest of us feel better if we find some things that are hard to understand too.

But granting that there are some things that are difficult to understand, what Peter wants us to grasp is that that which is most important is most clear. The Bible in its essence as a whole is not an obscure book. God has spoken clearly in such a way that ordinary people can come and find a knowledge of him in his word. Then the fourth thing is the necessity of scripture. What would we know about God if we did not have the Bible?

I had a conversation right here just a few months ago now with a father who said to me that he was telling his son, who is in one of our classes, and the father just visited the church, he said, "I am telling my son that you do not need the Bible for faith because even if you never had the Bible, it is just all around you, you would just have this faith." So I said to him, "What exactly could your son believe if he did not have the Bible?"

If he did not have the Bible, he could not know who Jesus was, could not know that he died on the cross, could not know that he was raised from the dead, could not know that he is coming again in power and glory, could not know anything about the gospel at all. If we did not have the Bible, we could know that God was great and glorious and eternal, we could discern that from creation, but that is about all we would know. You would never even get as far as to know that he was love. You would not get that simply from looking at the universe with all of the contortions that are within it as a result of the fall into sin.

The necessity of the scripture reminds us that God has given us this revelation so that we may know Christ in whom we find everything we need for life and godliness, because apart from the Bible, you simply would not have a knowledge of Jesus Christ. What would you know if it was not from the scriptures? Therefore, our confidence in the Bible and in the reliability of the scripture is a very important issue for us, and that is what is before us today.

There are obviously two parts in the Bible: the Old Testament, which was complete at the time when Peter was writing, and the New Testament, which obviously was not, since Peter's letter which is in the New Testament was being written at the time he was writing, if you see what I mean. It is interesting though to notice that even at the time that Peter was writing, some of the letters of the apostle Paul were already in circulation among the churches and were regarded by Peter, and evidently being received by the churches, as on the same level of inspiration and authority as the Old Testament scriptures.

You will find that in chapter three and verse 16 of this letter. A very important little reference there where Peter says that Paul's letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, then notice this, "as they do the other scriptures." The other scriptures. So Peter as an apostle is already affirming the letters of the apostle Paul as scripture, to be placed alongside the Old Testament canon that was already complete. Old and New Testament together.

What Peter wants us to know, and you will see it very clearly in this passage today, is that you can trust both the witness of the apostles to our Lord Jesus, that is the essence of the New Testament, and he speaks about that in verses 16 to 18, and you can trust the word of the prophets which was about the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the subject of verses 19 through 21. The witness of the apostles and the word of the prophets, put these two together and you really have the whole Bible. "Apostles and prophets" is a shorthand way of referring to the whole Bible. You find that, for example, in Ephesians chapter two and verse 20, where the apostle Paul speaks of how the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. So prophets, Old Testament, point forward to Jesus. Apostles, New Testament, bear witness to Jesus. These two together being the sum of all the scripture.

Steve Hiller: You are listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called "Everything You Need for Faith." We are going to continue this message in just a minute. Open the Bible is a listener-supported ministry. We are able to do what we do and bring you Pastor Colin's teaching each day because of your generosity. As you give a gift of any amount this month, we are going to send you a copy of Pastor Colin's brand-new 30-day devotional book called *Grow in Love*. Colin, who is this book for?

Colin Smith: Well, people have very different experiences of love. Perhaps you knew what it was to grow up with a godly mother, a godly father who loved you well and you have had all the benefits of that, but you still find now you have come to adult life that you want to know how to grow in love yourself. If that is where you are at, this book is for you. But there are other folks who have not had the blessing of being loved well, and if that has been your experience, you may find that you struggle with some real questions. What does it mean to love another person? What does real love actually look like? Where are you going to find it? Well, you are not sure that you know. This book is for you. It is going to show you how receiving love from God through Jesus Christ can put you in the position where you are able to give love and receive love from others well.

Steve Hiller: Well, we would love to send you a copy of Pastor Colin's new book. It is called *Grow in Love*, and it is our thank you for your financial support this month. You can find out more or give online at openthebible.org or when you call 1-877-OPEN-365. That is 1-877-673-6365 or openthebible.org. Back to the message. Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: As we come to what Peter has to say about these things, I have got a very simple outline that will be easy for us to follow. I want us to look first at what the apostle saw, that is the apostolic witness to Jesus in the New Testament. Second, the words that the prophets spoke and how these words came to them, that is the prophetic witness to Jesus in the Old Testament. Then thirdly and most significantly, our calling to remember, which is where all of this becomes practical in our own lives.

So let us begin then with the apostle's witness to the Son of God, verses 16 to 18. Because this is our second memory verse here, let us just read aloud verse 16 together if you would with me: "We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty." Now when Peter talks about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus, he is not talking about the first coming here. He is talking about the second coming, when he comes in power and in glory. It is part of the gospel that we look forward to the day when the risen Lord Jesus Christ will return, bringing those who are already in his presence with him, and we will see his power and we will see his glory.

Now Peter says, "When I talk about Jesus in power and glory, you need to understand I am not making this up, and this is not some kind of cunningly invented story. I know about Jesus' power and I know about Jesus' glory because I have already seen it. I saw it on the Mount of Transfiguration when Jesus took me along with James and John up to the top of that mountain and Jesus was transfigured. We saw his glory, we saw him as one day every Christian will see him, and we heard the voice of the Father from heaven affirming him as the Son in whom the Father is well pleased."

Notice the word "eyewitness" here that is very important. The New Testament gives to us the witness account, the apostolic account from the up-close and personal knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ that was trusted to these men. You find this throughout the New Testament. John puts it this way: "The Word became flesh and lived among us and we, that is the apostles, beheld his glory." We saw his glory. Peter says the same thing in verse 16, "We were eyewitnesses of his majesty." Verse 18, "We heard the voice that came from heaven and we were with him on the sacred mountain."

So what you have in the New Testament is not a collection of vague thoughts about Jesus. It is the eyewitness account superintended by the Holy Spirit, as we are going to see in just a moment, coming from those who up-close and personal over a prolonged period of time were able to bear witness to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This reminds us, of course, that the whole Bible is about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the apostolic witness to him in the New Testament, the prophetic word about him in the Old Testament.

Jesus is the message of the Bible. The law tells us that he is needed. In the prophets, he is predicted. In the Psalms, he is worshipped. In the gospels, he is described. In the Acts, he is proclaimed. In the epistles, he is explained. And in the book of Revelation, he is unveiled in all of his heavenly glory. This is what the Bible is all about. That is what the scripture is, this prophetic and apostolic witness to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That is what it is.

Now, the question that flows from that, of course, is, well, but how did it come to us? How did we get it? By what means has the scripture come to us? Peter addresses this very clearly in verses 19 through 21, where he speaks about the prophetic word, and here we come to some statements that are very important for what we believe about the inspiration of the scriptures.

Notice in verse 21 that Peter speaks about the origin of prophecy. In other words, where did the Old Testament scriptures come from? How did they actually come to us? Peter answers this very important question in two ways: first negatively and then positively. Let us look at the negative first, verse 20. He tells us how the scriptures did not come: "No prophecy of scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man."

Notice that Peter here is talking about prophecies of scripture. In other words, he is talking about the Old Testament, and he is distinguishing the prophecy of scripture from every other word that may claim in any way to come from God. It is very easy to get up and to claim that you have a message from God. Anyone can do that. Though frankly, if you had lived in ancient Israel, you would have thought twice before you did, because if you got up and claimed that what you were speaking was from God and it was found and judged by the elders of the community simply to be you spouting your own ideas, you know what the penalty for that was in ancient Israel? Stoning. Not that many things for which you could be stoned in ancient Israel, but this was one of them.

The severity of the penalty was to create a control within that community so that all the people understood that God's word is God's word and the rest of us do not go around trying to claim that what we are saying and what we are thinking is somehow invested with the authority of God. That is just an interesting thought for Christians who might be inclined today to very easily walk around saying, "The Lord told me this and the Lord told me that and then the Lord said to me..." I hear this sort of thing on Sunday mornings. Some of us talk like that. Well, if you were in ancient Israel, you would have been up before the elders for saying that, and if they judged that basically what you were saying was your own thoughts, then you would not be saying that sort of thing very much longer, if you see what I mean.

We are not ancient Israel, you understand, but it does make you think. In ancient Israel, God's law was structured in such a way that no one was in any doubt that the Word of God was one thing and the words of men were entirely another. There is all the difference in the world between the two, and everyone in ancient Israel understood that huge distinction. We desperately need to understand that distinction, that difference today as well.

You go into Borders and Barnes & Noble and what do you see? Hundreds and hundreds of books. I go in there way too often. I love it. Marvelous. You browse around and you ask the question, "How did all these books come to be written?" The answer is that in each case, the author felt that he had something to say. He thought it was really important, and so he wrote it down in a book. The book, in other words, came from man's will. It came from man's insight, it came from man's initiative, and it came from man's creativity, and women's too.

Postmodernism, and here is a point where postmodernism is right, postmodernism has recognized that the world is full of ideas and values and opinions that people want to push on us, and postmodernism is increasingly saying, and we are tired of it as well. The history of the world is littered with interpretations of life and truth that various people at different times have wanted to push upon everyone else. So there is the communist view, there is the fascist view, there is the Islamic view, there is the New Age view, there is the environmentalist view, there is the liberal view, there is the conservative view, and on and on and on.

What Peter is saying at its heart is just this: you need to understand the scripture is not like that. The Bible does not belong in this lineup. It is not another bunch of men trying to push their view of life on us. Do not, whatever you do, Peter is saying, put the Old Testament prophets in that long list of interpretations of God and of life and of meaning and of existence that people around the world will continue to produce in every generation. The Old Testament prophets, the scriptures, do not belong there. They are different. They are different from every other book that has ever been written. No prophecy of scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man.

You say, "Okay, I see that he's making this point that somehow this is different, but how is it different?" Now let us come to his positive answer, verse 21. For prophecy of scripture never had its origin in the will of man, how did it come? "But men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."

Steve Hiller: You are listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called "Everything You Need for Faith." Unfortunately, we do have to pause right here, but we will continue next time. Our message is part of a larger series called "Everything You Need for Life." In this series, we are diving into the book of Second Peter and discovering why the apostle believed this extraordinary claim about Jesus and why you can too. If you are interested in getting a copy of this series, call us at 1-877-OPEN-365 or you will find ordering information online at openthebible.org.

It is Friday and the weekend is coming, and I want to encourage you to get to church on Sunday. If you live in the Chicago area and you don't have a church home, I'd love for you to join us at The Orchard. There are six locations in the northwest suburbs. For more information, go to theorchard.church. That is theorchard.church. Thank you for listening. I am Steve Hiller and I hope you will join us next time. This program is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

Colin Smith: A single conversation can change your life, and that happened to me at a conference many years ago. Over lunch, I sat next to a pioneer missionary. He told me the story of how he had made contact with an unreached tribal group in Northern Thailand. How the tribal chief had invited him to make his home there, how he built his own home and then learned the tribal language and began to serve these people. It was jaw-dropping stuff. At one point in the conversation, I asked him, "Where do you begin in explaining the gospel to people who don't even know who God is?" And he said, "We tell them the Bible story."

I am convinced that we need to learn from the approach of pioneer missionaries in reaching lost people today. That is why I wrote *Fly Through the Bible*. *Fly Through the Bible* is short, simple, and shareable. It is a place where someone in your life can begin. So who is there in your life who needs to know the God of the Bible and might be willing to open the Bible with you if you asked them? For more information, visit openthebible.org/fly. That is openthebible.org/fly.