SPEAKER_01 0:04

If you take the Bible out of context, you can make the Bible say anything you want. And sometimes that's sometimes that's absolutely hilarious. Sometimes it's so trivial. But other times, other times it can be abusive. Um painful. And you know where I see uh scripture out of context the most? On refrigerator magnets. You know what I'm talking about? Like I'm growing up, we had uh these types of refrigerator magnets all over our refrigerator. The refrigerator was this central location in the house. You know, it's where our greatest treasures reside, it's where the food is housed, and it's also where all of the things that we would color would get on this particular part of the house. And it was held there by magnets that a lot of the times had these pithy little scripture verses on usually like idyllic scenes, like these meadows, and there might be a passage like this, like Psalm 118, 24. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Now, I actually growing up had this on a refrigerator magnet. And it wasn't until years later that I found out the exact context of that verse. Did you like ever hear that song too that went with that verse? You know, like the this is the day. This anybody knows? Okay, a couple. Thank you. Okay. I was singing that song once and and and and was one of my youth pastors like, hey, do you know what that verse actually is talking about? And I was like, what? And he was like, it's talking about the day that Jesus is mangled brutal on a cross, bleeding out for your redemption. So this is the day. And it's like, yeah, that doesn't, that doesn't exactly fit the way I thought it did. If you take the Bible out of context, you can make the Bible say whatever you want. Um, we used to have um another passage on a refrigerator magnet. You might have heard this one, um, Philippians chapter 4, verse 13. You know this one? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. You ever heard that before? Well, one of my buddies, uh, his name is Mark, and Mark is a pretty fit guy. And wherever Mark travels, Mark finds a gym. And so he was telling me this story years ago. He was like, Shane, he's like, I'm in the gym and I'm and I'm and I'm I'm I'm standing there getting ready to do my next reps. When I see these, this, like these two high schoolers come in. He goes, one of them was probably a buck 25, the other one not much bigger. And he goes, and they go over to the bench press, which I don't know if you guys know what a bench press is, but a bench press is well, it's a bench, and you lay down on it and you have a bar and you press the weight. Okay. Yeah. Somebody in the back just went like this. I don't know if that was on a hallelujah or if that was a bench press, but that's what it is. So he's like, they go over to the bench press. He's like, Shane, they they stack on like 200 pounds. He's like, so I'm like, I should probably wait to do my set in case I need any of the help or like call 911. He's like, so I wait. He goes, and then the scrawnier of the two goes, lays down on the bench. He goes, and so then his buddy's standing up above him, and they're both struggling just to get the bar like off of the of the part where the bench press is. So he he said he pulls it up and he lets go, and you hear an audible thud on the guy's chest. He's like, then you see the kid squirming and he's moving. He goes, and then, you know, then his buddy does what guys do at gyms. I don't understand this, but he stands behind him, he starts yelling at him, because apparently that helps motivate you lift weight. So he's like, Come on, Johnny, come on, Johnny. You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength. Okay, now we have a theological problem. If Johnny can't lift that weight, we're left with a couple of options. Number one, maybe Jesus actually is strong enough, but he just kind of is mean and wants to watch Johnny squirm. Like, mean Jesus. I mean, that's possible. I don't like it, but that's possible. If Johnny can't lift the weight, maybe Jesus is like, I could help you, but I kind of like the show. Or maybe we have Jesus the liar. He said he could give him strength, but then Johnny calls his bluff, and Jesus is like, oh shoot, I didn't know you were actually gonna like quote that verse while you're lifting weights. Or maybe the third option. Maybe Johnny just doesn't have enough faith. I remember the first time I I had somebody quote this verse at me and tell me that it was because I didn't have enough faith that my mom was dying with breast cancer. There actually might be a fourth option here. Maybe that verse is being read completely out of context and it has nothing to do with this at all. As a matter of fact, the context of Philippians chapter 4, verse 13 is that Paul is writing to this church of Philippi, and he is so grateful that they've actually been able to financially give him a gift for his ministry. But he wants to be very clear. He says, now listen, I've learned how to be faithful to the gospel mission, whether I was well fed or hungry, whether I had plenty or whether I had nothing, because it is Christ that gives me the strength to do my mission. Not the gifts, but I'm grateful. Now, if that's the context that you're quoting the passage in, quote it. Otherwise, maybe, maybe like not. I call this refrigerator magnet theology. When you take the Bible out of the context and you try to make the verse serve you, you try to make the, you you recraft the image of God into your own image by taking the words out of context and doing things with them they were never meant to do. And here's the reality. If you take the Bible out of context, you can make the Bible say anything you want. This happens on the news almost nightly. This happens on your social media feeds daily. This happens on refrigerator magnets all over the place. If you take the Bible out of context, you can make the Bible say anything you want. But if you leave it in context, it might actually change you. It might actually challenge you to be someone different. Now, last week, for better or worse, I was here and we were talking about the question, how can we know the Bible is true? Some of you out there were like, hey, we really enjoyed the sermon last week, and I'm sitting there thinking, I'm gonna let you down. Like tonight, tonight's where where you're not happy. Kind of. Why? Well, I mean, I'm just like ruining all your favorite verses. That's it. But last week we talked about can we know the Bible is true? And we looked up at the evidence, and we saw that the quality and the quantity of the manuscripts that our Bible is actually built from is overwhelming. Like the evidence is startling. And you can have confidence that the original words that the original authors wrote are what we have. But here's the problem. We can take those original words of those original authors out of context and use this Bible for things it was never meant to be used for. For agendas it never was asking to serve. If you take the Bible out of context, you can make the Bible say whatever you want. So here's the question that I want us to ask tonight. If we can trust the Bible, then how do we read it? Like, how do we understand God's word and apply it to our lives? What I want to do is I want to walk through four steps. Four steps that if you use these four steps in Bible study, you will start to develop a greater sense of not just what the original authors wanted to say, but of how they were guiding and instructing you to live your life. So here's step number one. Whenever you come to study the Bible, remember the goal of Bible study is the transformation of you. Like when you go to study the Bible, you're not just there to receive information. Like, I'm a professor, I major in education. I've got five degrees. I school is a hobby of mine. Like I enjoy it, but I hammer on my students consistently that true education is not about receiving information, it's about transformation, becoming someone different. Whenever you study the Bible, the goal is to encounter a God in such a profound way that you are not, you will never be the same after you got done studying the text. That is not just the goal of Bible study. That's the goal that the Bible is actually guiding you to when it asks you to read its word. But the temptation is to actually study the Bible in a way that serves me. Man, it's so it's so easy to do this. It's one of the reasons why whenever I get up to teach or to preach, or whenever I'm just studying the Bible on my own, I remind myself of this central commitment. I want the Bible to transform me into the image of God and not the opposite. We do this all the time. I call this highlighter theology. There was a singer-songwriter in the 90s named Rich Mullins. Have you anybody ever heard of him before? Tragically died in the 90s. His music was prophetic. Rich Mullins had all kinds of hits, but at his concerts, it was what he said in between the songs that was the most profound. He was playing a concert up in Wheaton, Illinois, at Wheaton College. And he's in between songs, he's playing the piano, and he goes, yo, Wheaton College, you guys, you guys like believe in baptism, don't you? And everybody was like, Yeah, yeah. And he's like, good. The Bible says, be baptized. And he's playing the piano and he goes, the Bible also says, sell everything and give it to the poor. But I guess that's why you have highlighters. And then he just goes into his song. And you're like, wait, wait, wait, what did he just hit me? Like, did he just swing? You know, I teach the gospel of Matthew at Ozark, uh Christian college, and every time I come to Matthew 19, I always ask the same question. It's the rich young ruler. And every time we come to sell everything and give it to the poor, I ask my students, do any of you have that highlighted in your Bibles? Raise your hand. Not once. Which is wild to me. That in the richest country in the history of the world, apparently that a verse applies to no one. That's just strange to me. One of the dangers, now I'm one of those where I write in my Bible all the time. But one of the dangers in highlighting your Bible is that you're actually bringing out verses that you enjoy, but you're ignoring the ones that actually are challenging you to be different. So by all means, highlight in your Bible, but make sure you're living by the entire Word of God, not just the ones that you actually find to be highlightable. Because if you take the Bible out of context, you can make the Bible say whatever you want. But please, please, make no mistake. The goal of the Bible is to transform you. So read all of it. Gosh, I hope you still like me after the end of the sermon, but here we're gonna keep going. I'm gonna ruin another verse, if that's okay. How about um, how about Jeremiah 29.11? You know that one? Yeah, some of you are like, oh shoot, please don't, hippie, don't do it. Jeremiah 29.11 says this, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope in a future. And everybody's like, yeah. Now that's a magnet. Like, I'd love to see that one on my refrigerator. It's actually, I mean, it's almost so predictable, it's funny. Every fall, whenever I'm teaching my freshman acts class, I mean, it's usually it's week two or week three. I always will have this really excited, overzealous freshman come up and show me their brand new tattoo, and it's Jeremiah 29, 11. And I always just am like, hey, that's awesome, man. That's great. And I'm sitting there going, I don't know if you, I don't know if you know what that verse really is getting at. But hey, it sounds good, doesn't it? I mean, on the surface, that verse sounds amazing. It kind of sounds like the American dream. You know, God, God, the one that's in control, is like, I have plans for you to prosper. And we're like, sweet, my 401k needs to grow. I have plans not to harm you. Good, because you're kind of like the biggest kid on the block. Yeah, and I only have plans to give you hope and a future. And we're like, this is sounding so wonderful. Until you read it in context. When you read it in context, it doesn't serve you as much as you would think it would. So I know what some of you are probably thinking, you're probably going, like, okay, you keep using this word context, but but like, how do we read it in context? Glad you asked. Step number two. In Bible study, you need to remember that the Bible was written to real people at a real time, going through real issues. It is so amazing whenever you keep this in mind, how it changes how you're reading the text. Like every single book of the Bible was written to a person, from a person, talking about the things that they're struggling with and going through. It's so easy, though, for us to ignore those people or frankly hijack the message that by God's grace we get to overhear. It's like whenever I teach on Revelation, like that's the number one thing I'm hammering. Is like this, John is a pastor writing to his people. It has to mean something to them first. You can't just hijack it, grab it, and use it for whatever prediction thing you want. The same thing is true of Genesis, the same thing is true of Matthew, the same thing is true of Jeremiah. There are real people going through real issues, and they are receiving this letter, this book of the Bible from a real person, which leads me to step number three. Don't just read one verse, but read the passage leading up to and after your verse. Like if you really want to have the Bible transform you, remember this is written to real people, but don't just read one verse. Don't just grab Jeremiah 29, 11 and be like, I knew he loved me. He does, but not in the way you're defining it. Remember that it is written to real people at a real time going through real issues. And if you read it in context, if you read just 10 verses before and 10 verses after, it might change the entire way in which you read that verse. So for example, Jeremiah 29, 11. If we go back to verse 1, we get the context. The context is that it's been about 10 years since Nebuchadnezzar came into Jerusalem and took the nation of Israel into exile. Where do I get this? Jeremiah 29.1. Listen to this. This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent, real person, that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people, real people, Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Real pain. Jeremiah is writing to people that have been ripped away from their homes, have been pulled away from their worship settings, their entire temple and city has been destroyed, and now they are living in a foreign land. And they're being mocked. This is the context of Jeremiah 29. As a matter of fact, the pain is palpable when you read parallel passages like Psalm 137. Psalm 137 is a song that was composed during this exile in Babylon. And listen to the pain. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs. Our tormentors demanded songs of joy. They said, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. But how can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land? Jeremiah 29 is written to people in bondage, struggling in pain. And they it's even compounded because there's false prophets in Jeremiah 29 that have told this struggling people that they will be released from their exile in Babylon in two years. That in two years all of this hell of Babylon will be over. Here's the problem. Jeremiah comes along and says, okay, I know the false prophets are trying to tell you something that you want to hear, but the word of the Lord is actually something more along the lines of this. I know you're hurting, it's gonna be way worse than you ever thought. As a matter of fact, look at Jeremiah chapter 29, verses 4 through 5. It says, This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce. Why? Because you're gonna be here a while. Like you read down to verse 6, it says, Marry and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage so that they too may have sons and daughters. Why? You're gonna be here a while. I know the false prophets have come among you and they said, all you gotta do is wait two more years. That's just not true. And in Jeremiah 29, verse 10, he paints a very different picture than what these false prophets have preached. Listen to this. 29 verse 10, right before our refrigerator magnet, this is what it says. This is what the Lord says. When 70 years are completed for Babylon, then I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. And then the Lord says to him, But listen, I do have plans for you to prosper. And I don't intend to harm you. And we do have hope in a future that's coming. But it's not two years, it's 70. What Jeremiah 29.11 is not doing is promising health and wealth, prosperity to those that grab onto this verse, name it and claim it, and then pray to the Lord, forgive them all that they want. Jeremiah 29.11 is saying this. Even in exile, even in your deepest pain, do you trust me? Do you trust that I will set all the wrongs right? In your isolation, do you trust me? Do you trust that I'm listening to your prayers? Do you trust that I'm fighting for you, even if at times I have to fight you for you? What Jeremiah 29, 11 is saying, in your greatest exile, do you trust who God is? Take the Bible out of context, you can make it say whatever you want. You leave it in context, it might actually challenge and transform you. When it comes to studying the Bible, you have to remember that the goal is the transformation of you, not the serving of you. The text is not there to tickle your ears, it's to call you. You into a deeper relationship with Jesus where you become his hands and feet. The goal of biblical study is transformation of the reader. And the way that you do it is remembering that these are real people that are real time going through real issues. And the process by which figuring out what it says is as simple as just reading the passage in its context. Reading just 10 verses before and 10 verses after, and then doing step number four. Step number four for biblical study is this. Ask the question: what does this text reveal about who God is? And what does the text reveal about what God is asking me to do? When you're studying the text, ask, what does this reveal about who God is? And what does it reveal about what God is asking me to do? Every single verse of the Bible has the goal to reveal God to us. And you want to know why? Because you see, in the beginning, we were created in the image of God. But the problem is that sin came in and death came in and did such a fantastic job of distorting and twisting our ability to see him. That even when he became flesh, our natural reaction was to murder him. Sin has so infested our ability to recognize God that when God became flesh, we were like, I have an idea, let's kill him. Which is to me just mind-boggling. Love became flesh. And our natural reaction was to kill him. See, the Bible was given to us to try to correct this vision that is so wildly distorted about the image of God that we were created in. Because if you don't know who he is, you won't know who you are and you won't know how to act. One of the things that I've taught my kids ever since they were we little lads and lasses, I don't know if I don't, I'm not Scottish, so I don't know if that's right. But I've always told them as I said, listen, your action, your behavior flows from your identity. So every single morning to school, their preschool and their kindergarten, I would always ask them the same question. I'll use my youngest because he's the one that's been most recent. I'll say, Robert, who are we? Wood family. And who's the Wood family? Christians. And what do Christians do, son? Well, they don't lie, they don't hurt people with their hands or with their feet, and you know, they they try to love everybody. And then every time I would end it with saying this, I would say, now remember who you are. Matter of fact, it was so powerful in our family as this mantra that my daughter came to me one day when she was 18, 19 and was like, hey dad, I'm gonna get a tattoo. And I'm like, okay. She goes, but I want it in your handwriting. I want it on my arm just to say, remember who you are. Tears. Here's what I love, though, is our family mantra was born from Bible study. Every verse of the Bible's goal is to reveal to us who God is, so that then you know who you are as a follower of God, as one made in the image of God, as one freed from the sin, the bondage of decay. And then you will know how to live. You will know the things you need to do. It's interesting because typically when I talk about knowing who God is, people like that. But every time I emphasize this, and now what does that mean that you do? People are like, okay. All right, hippie. Like, like you're emphasizing this works thing a little too much. Have you ever heard of the verse, Ephesians 2, verses 8 through 9? Which says, Shane, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. So stop emphasizing works so much, Shane. No, sorry, I'm gonna talk about works. It's weird to me how in the church, works has become a four-letter word. I don't understand this. It's like it's like every time we talk about works, we almost have to like to like apologize or explain ourselves. Where it's like, no, get out there and go do something. We're like, but remember, you don't earn your salvation. No one said you did. Well, you know, I mean, I'm just saying, like, you know, you're not actually earning your salvation because Ephesians 2, 8 through 9, okay. Here, let me be very clear. Ephesians 2, 8 through 9 says, the only work that can save you is Jesus Christ. Amen. But that doesn't mean you don't do anything. It just means that that thing has already been done for you. That's it. He did that thing, he saved you. But for what purpose? You know what's interesting is Ephesians 2, 8 through 9 is written when Paul is in shackles. He is in prison because of his faithfulness to the testimony of Jesus Christ. Paul was put in prison multiple times, wrote most of his letters from prison. How many of us have even had a fist raised towards us for the gospel? Not because you were being rude. That's actually what he's dealing with with the Church of Ephesus, too. Church of Ephesus, which we also see in Revelation, they were really good at truth, but they were just kind of like jerks about it. Matter of fact, Jesus has to tell them in Revelation 2, like, I'm this close to removing your lampstand. Because you've forgotten how far you fell. You've forgot how I treated you whenever I found you broken and bruised. But they are so good at the truth, but they think it's their responsibility to go murder people with that truth. And Paul goes, okay. First of all, you need to understand, Church of Ephesus, how God treated you was through grace, through tenderness, through mercy. I want you to do the same, but but let's just remind ourselves, you don't get to boast whenever you're out there and you're winning your arguments, because that's not actually a part of the equation of salvation in the sense of how you were saved. No, no, no. You were saved by grace through faith. And this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by work so that no one can boast. However, we need to read verse 10. You know, like the next verse. He says this for we are God's workmanship, his handiwork. I love that image. It tells me something about who God is. It reminds me of like a Genesis 2 moment, where in Genesis chapter 2, God scoops his hands into the earth that he created. And from that soil, he fashions man with the fingers of his divinity. And then he breathes life into this beautiful workmanship that he has made. He says, You've been saved by grace through faith. And you are God's workmanship. You are his handiwork. And you were created in Christ Jesus to do good works. Your works don't save you, but you have been saved so that you can get out there and do some work. If the resurrection is actually true, what would I not give up? Like if Jesus really raised from the dead, well then what do I have to cling to? What allegiances would I grasp a hold of? What objects would I try to cling to? If Jesus' resurrection is true, I can give up everything. I can give up everything. Even shackles doesn't hold back the gospel's ability to move me. You see, we were saved by Christ so that we can live like Christ. We were saved by Christ so that we can do the things that Christ did. Because if you claim to follow Jesus, you have to walk as Jesus walked. You have to live as Jesus lived. And the more that I study the Bible, the more I encounter a God that looks nothing like me. Who doesn't think like me, he isn't quick to vengeance or violence, he is patient and he's tender. I don't even see him attacking his enemies. I see him wooing them into moments of transformation. But I know, I know the sin inside me distorts him and it distorts me beyond recognition. The reason why, though, Bible study is so essential is that he uses this word that we can trust to transform him, transform us into the word that saved the world. Will you surrender to the text that desires to transform you? Will you grab your highlighters and you grab whatever tools that you have to twist this word into the image that you that actually serves you? If you take the Bible out of context, you can make the Bible say whatever you want. But if you read the Bible in context and you surrender to its message, don't be surprised. When you start looking like the hands and feet of a crucified king.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

Let me pray over you, Lord Jesus. May we find you, Lord, in your word. Or better yet, may you find us. May we humbly, Father, come to the revelation in which you have poured yourself out, looking for life. May Father your Holy Spirit rescue us from our own tools and our own desires and our own attempts at trying to make this into something that it just isn't. Instead, Father, may that Spirit tenderly guide us into deep, deep moments of new creation. Where we are with you and you are with us. And you are our God and we are your people. And we look like you because you're our Father. And we ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.