At Work in His Word

February 1, 2024January 17, 2024 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

As we enter February, there will be many new year Bible reading plans that are fading away. Perhaps the challenge of a full work schedule, combined with dark mornings, drains the motivation to be in God’s Word. Or maybe the second half of Exodus and Leviticus is proving too great a challenge. Whatever the reason, many will settle into a rhythm marked more by guilt than regular enjoyment of the Bible.

It is hard to relate to a God we cannot see, hear, or touch. And while we know that the Bible is his glorious gift of communication to us, it can often feel distant and disconnected from our everyday lives. How can we find motivation for a relationship with God that has the Bible at the centre?

The critical issue is right in the question itself. Do we experience the Bible in the context of a relationship? Or have we let the relational aspect drain away, leaving the Bible as an optional tool or merely an interesting document for our fascination with religious history?

In 2 Timothy 3:14-17, Paul gives us a critical passage on the nature of Scripture. In these verses, Paul points to the role of Scripture in our salvation and our growth to maturity. In these verses, Paul clarifies what Scripture is and how it works in us. Let’s look again at these verses and remind ourselves that God lovingly works in us as we are in his Word. To put it differently, the Bible is not just a “past tense” book for our studies. It is a “present tense” gift for our relationship with God. God lovingly works (present tense) in us as we are in his Word and as his Word gets into us.

Entering into a relationship with God, 2 Tim. 3:14-15. As Paul wrote to Timothy to encourage him in the challenges he would face, he wanted him to remember where his ministry all started. It started by coming to know salvation in the first place. Timothy had learned and came to believe in the sacred writings of Scripture from his grandmother, his mother, and Paul himself. His Bible exposure taught him about the wonder of salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Without the Bible, we would only be guessing about God, and our guesswork would never have led us into a relationship with him. God has taken the initiative in our salvation, revealing his character, plans, and great gift. There is no relationship with God if there were no Bible. But since there is, let us not lose the relational nature of our connection to him!

So, what is Scripture? 2 Tim. 3:16a. “All Scripture is God-breathed.” What a way to describe it! It comes from the very core of God’s being. He made sure that the authors wrote exactly what God wanted to be written. All Scripture, every last Word, was as he intended. On a human level, the Bible is astonishing – so many authors, different languages, different types of literature, and yet an incredibly coherent and consistent collection of documents. But the Bible is not written just on a human level – it is “God-breathed!” That means it is unique – no other book is in the same category. It also means it is a loving gift – God wanted it written for his people. It is a purposeful gift – God intended it to achieve something in us.

Based on what we know of God, what might we assume his Scriptures would do? Would God give us a mindless distraction to pass some time? I don’t think so. That does not fit what we know of his character. Indeed, he would want to work in our hearts since that is the core of who we are and the heart of all our problems. Surely, he would want to instruct our minds since God made us incredible thinking beings. And he would want to guide us in how to live since God had a good plan and we have so profoundly rebelled against him. Is it a living communication designed to work in our hearts, heads, and hands? That seems about right.

How does God work in us through Scripture? 2 Tim. 3:16b. Regarding our beliefs, the Bible is profitable for teaching and rebuking. We need instruction to understand God, the world, and ourselves. And since we don’t always think well, we must be rebuked, lest we persist in error and come to harm. How many newcomers to Christianity put information together and end up with errant thinking, only to be corrected as they read the Bible? For example, many think they have solved the complexity of the Trinity by assuming there must be one God who dresses up in three different outfits to suit the occasion. Sometimes, he is a father, but other times, he shows up as a man, and sometimes, what we need is a more empowering Holy Spirit. But then they might read about the baptism of Jesus, and suddenly, they are confronted by all three persons involved distinctly and simultaneously. Oh dear. Rebuked by Scripture. Taught the truth. This correcting rebuke might happen with logical ideas about salvation, eternal judgment, or whatever. If we want “to overcome error and grow in truth … we must turn to the Scriptures!” (John Stott)

Regarding our actions, the Bible is profitable for correcting and training in righteousness. We need to be set straight at times. Perhaps we have drifted into an area of compromise and the Scriptures confront us as a mirror. Or perhaps we have drifted from God and run up against Jesus’ letter to the church at Ephesus. Maybe you have already been corrected by that passage? So much about that church is so impressive, but “this I have against you: that you have left your first love!” It can stop you dead in your tracks. And then, it instructs you to repent and do the things you did at first. A way back to the healthy reality of a real relationship with God. The Scriptures train us in righteousness – growing us up in all areas of character, endurance, maturity, etc. Do we hope “to overcome evil and grow in holiness? Then it is to Scripture we must turn, for it is profitable for these things.” (John Stott).

What is God’s goal as he works in us through the Scriptures? 2 Tim. 3:17. The goal is clear: you will be complete or mature, thoroughly equipped for every good work. We know that God has good works for us in every stage of life. But how can we be ready for them? The answer is easy. Get your nose in the Bible and get the Bible into you, relationally, so that God’s work will be done in your life.

Two Errors to Avoid. Some Christians will come from a background that might be labelled “text-optional” – it is a divine-hotline approach to living, with an eager expectation that God will speak through my thoughts, feelings, and circumstances. The Bible may be sitting there, but so is the red flashing phone that offers direct encouragement along the way. If this is your background, then be sure to recognize that along with all the perceived blessings comes a tendency to leave the Bible sitting there. But the Bible Ais not optional. For a healthy relationship with God, we need to be soaking and swimming in his Word, enjoying the wonder of God at work in us passage by passage, day by day.

Other Christians will come from a background that might be labelled “text-only” – it is the intellectual curiosity approach to living with a Bible. There may be an eagerness to study the Bible and a hunger to learn more and more, but often, there is too little expectation that God will speak to me as I read and study. The Bible is open, and the study is focused, but somehow God is not expected to be at work. If this is your background, then be sure to recognize that along with the blessing of study, there is also a tendency to stop studying before fully responding to God’s Word. We should look at the text and learn what it says and means and consider how it is stirring us to love God and live for God in this world. Engaging relationally is not optional. Again, for a healthy relationship with God, we need to be soaking and swimming in his Word, enjoying the wonder of God at work in us passage by passage, day by day.

Let’s move beyond “what is God saying to me through my thoughts and feelings” and “what is this text saying” to the relational reality of “what is God saying to me as I read or study this text?”

God is at work in us as we are in his Word. What a privilege. A present tense, today, privilege.

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Highlight the Apologetic Value of Details

July 24, 2009July 21, 2009 / Peter Mead / 2 Comments

Sometimes in preaching we will cover details that have apologetic value. This will probably not be the main thrust of the passage, but if time allows, why not note the inference that can be made so that our listeners are strengthened in their view of the accuracy of the Bible? Our churches would be stronger in this day and age if more believers had a fact-based robust evangelical bibliology. We don’t have to wait for the next DaVinciCode-esque attack on the Bible, we can be reinforcing a proper view of the Bible through our preaching.

Consider, for example, Mark’s accurate knowledge of names and languages. The more we study, the more we discover that the gospels have exactly the pattern of names and languages we would expect them to have if they were true. The more common names in Judea/Galilee at the time of Christ have qualifiers added to help the reader know which John (brother of James / son of Zebedee, or the baptizing one) or which Judas (brother of Jesus, Iscariot, or son of James). On the other hand, no information needed to identify the Thaddeus (39th most popular name), or Philip (61st). This may not seem that significant, but at that time, the 2nd most popular name among Jews in Palestine was 68th most popular in Egypt. The writers (especially Matthew and Mark on this issue) demonstrate real accuracy in their choices of names and when to add clarification details – was this sophisticated research leading to accurate fiction, or was it just plain accurate history?

For another example, consider Mark’s knowledge of local languages. In 14:70 he knows local differences in accent. In 5:41 he gives the correct Aramaic for that time and place (see also 7:11; 7:34). In 11:9 he gives the right pronunciation for the locals saying “Hosanna,” rather than the Old Testament “Hoshiana” (in the Talmud the Rabbis apparently complain about the local crowd mispronouncing the “sh” as “s”). Yet at the same time, Mark knows accurate Roman Latin – see 6:27 (speculator); 15:39 (centurio); 12:42 (quadrans) . . . all details, but the kind of evidence you’d expect for an eyewitness testimony written in Rome.

As Peter Williams of Tyndale House, Cambridge, recently stated, “The gospels have exactly the pattern of names and languages we would expect them to have if they were true. The pattern is too complex for an ancient forger to reproduce (it would be a level of sophistication never seen in antiquity!)”

(Thanks to Peter Williams for his great teaching on this subject, and he would point to Richard Bauckham’s book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses as a key source.)

Notice the Details

July 23, 2009July 23, 2009 / Peter Mead / Leave a comment

When you are studying a text and preparing to preach it, make sure you notice the details. No word is there by accident. As I sometimes say, the writers of the Bible were neither drunk nor wasteful. Not drunk means that they were coherent and deliberate in what they wrote. Not wasteful means that papyrus was expensive, so they didn’t waffle for a paragraph or two before getting into it.

Sometimes the details in a passage are helpful theologically. For example, why does Mark tell the reader that the grass was green when Jesus fed the five thousand? Is this mere ornamentation? Or is it part of a larger package of details and tone that are suggestive of Jesus bringing something of the eschatological feasting and abundance? It can be hard to discern the difference between allegorical misreading of Scripture and sensitivity to the original writer’s intent. The goal is not to make it say something Mark didn’t know, but to recognize what Mark intended to communicate both overtly and subtly.

Sometimes the details in a passage are helpful apologetically. In a day when the Bible is roundly mocked, we have listeners who need their trust in the Bible bolstered by our preaching. Thus it is worth noting apparently incidental details that actually under gird a robust evangelical bibliology. For example, notice the difference between names used in speech quotations and the same names used by the narrator. Jesus was the 6th most common name in that part of the world at that time, so naturally in speech his name would be qualified, such as “the Nazarene, Jesus” (Mark 14:67). Yet in the narration, Mark doesn’t need to identify which Jesus he is writing about, so it is just “Jesus” (eg. Mark 14:62, 72). Mark could easily have had the servant girl referring to “Jesus,” but he didn’t. Was Mark phenomenally accurate in making up the story, or is he in fact quoting speech with word perfect exactitude? (Compare the narrator with the speech quotations in Matthew 14:1-11, for another example of this.)

Tomorrow I’ll share a couple more examples of textual details that offer apologetic value for our preaching. (I’m indebted to Peter Williams of Tyndale House, Cambridge, for these apologetic examples.)