Key Bible Passage(s):

John 5:24-27; Luke 24:25-27 & 44-45

Tier 1:

The Scriptures are about Jesus; and they are the central feature of His own ministry and identity. And they remain the key means by which we learn about Christ and His ministry. In fact, outside of the Bible we have virtually no access to Christ, or even to information about Him. Christians should have the same view and understanding of the Bible that we see exhibited by Jesus. And when we read it, the first question we should ask is what it teaches us about Him.

Tier 2:

Jesus promises to send His Holy Spirit to enable the Apostles to faithfully remember and represent Him and His teaching into the life of the Church. For some this will mean they are inspired to write and authorise what we now call the New Testament. He anticipated the documents they produced to be in the same category as the Old Testament. And His Spirit authenticated their ministry with miraculous signs and wonders.

Tier 3:

There are profoundly unique aspects to Jesus’ relationship with the Scriptures. The relationship between them is tantalizingly analogous. Both ‘Words’ are fully human and fully Divine. And Jesus learned about His own calling from the Bible, and presents Himself in categories drawn exclusively from the Bible. He handles the Scriptures as if they are an autobiography, and sees Himself repeatedly to be the fulfilment of them.

Resolved: to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.

Jonathan Edwards

Discussion Questions:

last week’s homework included a thought experiment:

How would you preserve the Bible and your relationship with the Bible if you found yourself in a society where it was prohibited?  What did you decide?

Why would it matter that you did so?  What dangers would we / the Church face if we didn’t have access to Scripture?

Last year Open Doors spent over £650,000 distributing Bibles to the persecuted Church.  Do you think that is a good use of money?  Would they not prefer food, or legal aid?

And later in the session:

Read John 5:24-47

What does Jesus believe about His own words? …the words of His Father? …and the connection between the two?

Why can the Pharisees not understand or believe the Scriptures? Do we make the same mistakes today?

How do you think Jesus would respond to the idea that the Bible is unclear, or that it is ‘open to interpretation’, or that it ‘can be made to say anything’? How should that affect how we read it and relate to it?

Homework:

Over this half-term we have been working to memorise Matthew 6:25-34. You will have to keep refreshing Matt.5:1-26, Matt.6:5-15 and Matt.7:7-28 whilst you do this.

(we’ll memorise the whole of the Sermon on the Mount over the 3 years of DTP)

How is your ‘Rule of Life’ shaping up?

(Q&A 252-255) Especially in relation to you relation with and engagement with Bible?

Recommended Reading:

Christ and the Bible, by John Wenham.

The crux of Wenham’s argument is that if one is to be consistent in calling Jesus “Lord” he must submit to Jesus’ view that “what Scripture says, God says”. Jesus held the Old Testament to be inerrant; therefore to truly follow Jesus as our Lord requires us to hold to the inerrancy of the Old Testament. He then builds a strong case for the inerrancy of the New Testament based on how Jesus viewed his apostles, how the apostles viewed themselves, and the role of the Holy Spirit.