Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Word of God, Uncategorized

Word of God – Inerrancy part 2

Hi everyone,

it it was pointed out to me that the blog for this week had a ‘flow’ issue – it didn’t quite make sense in the order I had presented it. I totally see what they meant. I’ve tweaked the blog by simply reordering some bits and adding two headings to clarify.

in addition, I’m including here a link to a PDF that you could just print out and hand to the people in your group as their work sheet. Use the full blog as your own resource.

Inerrancy of Word of God – study questions for growth group

I hope that this helps and I am sorry for those who have already met with their groups.

 

Growth Group tips, Johah, Uncategorized

Jonah 1:1-16 – a type of Christ – plus – how to read biblical narrative

How to read and break down a story in the bible

Before we get to the text of Jonah, I’d like to go over one way to read biblical narratives.

All stories contain a beginning, a middle and an end. It is helpful to go further and look for five parts to a story:

  1. the beginning
  2. the problem
  3. the quest
  4. the closing
  5. the end

This gives us a basic structure of the text to work with. By identifying the problem of the story we are able to uncover what the major theme of the book or section is. We can then look for ways this issue is explored in the story through different ‘eyes’ of the characters as well as the voice of the narrator.

The problem of a story can be anything from finding something that was lost, hoping the hero will make the right decision, will they learn the truth in time, will a disaster be avoided and so on. Once the problem of the story is identified, it enlightens the reader to see the major theme. We’ll step through Jonah chapter one to illustrate.

The Beginning

Nothing actually happens at the beginning of a story. The reader is simply given context. Jonah 1:1 is the beginning of the story. We are told some things about a man named Jonah and that he is a prophet whom God is speaking to. The fact that he is the son of Amittai is unimportant except that we know specificallly which Jonah he is (see 2 Kings 14:23-25).

Theological notes on the beginning:

The story opens with “The word of the LORD came…” Before anything else is mentioned, the word of God is there. We distort the focus of the story if we say it is all about Jonah and what he did. As we go through the story we’ll see that it is all about God’s word and what it is able to do.
The word of God CAME to Jonah. Without pressing this too far, grace is always God acting first. Our relationship with God is not about two persons flirting or beginning dialogue or sharing coffee and a laugh – it begins with God speaking to us – God approaching us – God taking the initiative to begin the relationship and continue pursuing it.
We can’t say how the word of the Lord came to Jonah – a voice? a visitor? a dream? a vision? More often than not, we are not told this details because the fascination is not in the method but in the fact that God speaks.

The Problem

This is where an issue arises that needs to be resolved. Jonah 1:2-3 is the description of our problem. God told Jonah to do this but Jonah did that! Specifically, we are told that ‘Jonah ran away from the LORD.’ Can Jonah do that? The problem is not just that he disobeyed God but that he thinks he can actually get away from Him! Now, you could say that the problem is the storm which comes in verse 4. This may be your initial thought in reading the text and this certainly is a problem for the sailors which is resolved by the end of the chapter. But after reading the chapter a few times, it becomes clearer that a bigger problem surrounds this – who is God and how far does his power stretch?

See the map shared in the previous blog about the world of Jonah:
http://visualunit.me/2011/01/17/jonah-map/

Theological notes on the problem:

We are told that Nineveh is a great city – this is for the reader’s benefit. The size of the city tells us that the size, success and wealth of something is not a sign of true greatness since God wants Jonah to take God’s word to speak against it. 3:1 gives us the same description of Nineveh and when Jonah gets there he sees that it takes 3 days to go through it (3:3).
“Preach against it.” God had a specific word for Jonah to give to Nineveh. I don’t take this as a command for us to go and preach against every evil that we see in the world. Christ instructed us to do two things: tell people the GOOD NEWS and be salt and light in the world.

“But Jonah…” These two words come up a few times in the book (verses 3, 5 and 4:1). It’s a little comical as it provides the wrong direction of the storyline. Try thinking of a narrative where you were the main character and it kept on repeating: “But Simon…” God sent his son to call people to repent and believe, But Roger…But Mary…But Alex….But Denise…

Notice all the detail given in verse 3: where he was headed, which port he went to, he had the funds to get there, he acted on his rebellion and his rebellion is plain: to flee from the Lord. Wow! Have you ever listened to your own thoughts as you plan to sin? Jonah had plenty of time to cool off and think about his rash idea. Joppa was at the southern border of Israel – just getting to there would have been an effort. Reflect on how long it takes us to realise our stubbornness and sin.

For what it’s worth, Joppa was the town where Peter raised a lady named Tabitha from the dead and took the gospel of Christ to that part of Israel (Acts 9:36-43). Peter (who was called Simon at one time) stayed in Joppa with a tanner named Simon – again, just pointing out interesting things that make me smile. I hope it made you smile too.

Not Neneveh but Tarshish. As mentioned in the last blog, Jonah was going as far as humanly possible from God. Little did Jonah know that God would send him even further away still when Jonah goes down to the depths of the earth in chapter 2! But even there, Jonah remembers that God is everywhere. Can you think how to apply this truth today? Do we go on holidays and leave God behind? Do we come to God on Sunday (so to speak) and keep distant from him for the rest of the week? Is there a room, a TV show, a hobby, a community, a sport, a conversation that you enjoy where you think that God is not welcome to come with you?

Finally, it seems to me that the book of Jonah is given us a universal view of God. The word of God is not going to a part of Israel but to a foreign country. Jonah thinks that he can leave God by leaving Israel. The book of Jonah will teach us that, even in the Old Testament, God has his sights on the whole world – because it’s the whole world that he loves (John 3:16). Jonah’s understanding of God which is limited to Israel, the promised land and the temple (2:4) will be stretched. I’m not sure that he fully matures by the end of the book. But he does grow a little.

The Quest

This is the bulk of the story. Many things can take place inside the quest but, along the way, the problem finds a solution. In Jonah chapter one, a great description of the storm takes place but the detail of the story surrounds the panic of the sailors and what they are searching for. Verse 9 is the turning point in the story when Jonah speaks the truth which solves the problem: the God of the Hebrews is the God of all the earth. The quest lasts from verse 4 to verse 15 – from the beginning and end of the storm.

Theological notes on the quest:

The sailors: they saw the strength of the storm and were afraid. They cried out to their gods. Who knows how many they had, it doesn’t many. What matters is that they all remain silent and useless – as we’d expect. BUT, they cried out for help. I recall the cycle of the book of Judges where God sends judgement on Israel and they cry out for help and God hears. Well, God has sent judgement on Jonah, but the pagans cry out for help but don’t know where to find the help. Through their random method of casting lots, they are lead to think Jonah has something to do with this. They plead for Jonah to tell them, who he is, where he is from, what does he do for crust and what people is he from. In effect, they are asking all the right questions to get this prophet of God to speak the words that he is supposed to be doing. The pagans have found the one person who can give them the answers and that person has been reluctant to speak the answers to them. Eventually, the sailors ask Jonah, “what should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?” In effect they are asking the man of God, “What must we do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30). They ask for forgiveness before they throw an innocent man overboard in what they hope is a way of pleasing the God of this storm: the God of heaven, earth and the sea.

Jonah: While the sailors are in fear of the storm and where it has come from, Jonah is in denial and separation from reality. Verse 5b tells us again how Jonah is going against what should be expected of him. “But Jonah…” He has continued his downward journey that began on a hilltop in Zebulun, went south to Joppa and now down below deck and then down into sleep. The narrative shows us how separate from reality Jonah wants to take himself. When the captain got Jonah’s attention and demanded to know who he was etc, Jonah says his first words in the story: I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” (Verse 9). His words totally disagree with what he has been doing. Is the application obvious enough? Christians will have a converted worldview long before their lifestyle is converted. Like Elijah said in 2 Kings 19: if the LORD is God then worship him – if someone else is God then worship them: but stop serving things that are not God (Simon Twist paraphrase). Jonah eventually comes out and offers himself as a sacrifice – his life for the life of the sailors. In God’s wisdom, the truth of God had come to the sailors. Even in rebellion, God was taking his word to the ends of the earth.

The Closing

Better known as the ‘tying up of loose ends’ or the denouement (said with a French accent). This is verse 16. While Jonah had been called to go to Ninevah to take the word of God to them, the word of God was taken and received by the sailors on Jonah’s rebellious mission. Gentiles turned to God through the prophet of God. The storm had stopped and Jonah was stopped from running away from God.

Theological notes on the closing:

The issue was not that a storm had threatened life but that the nature and truth of God was being denied and hidden by Jonah. The word of God had come to Jonah but Jonah hid it.

The Ending

Nothing happens during the ending but there is a clear mark that the story has closed. A ‘happily ever after’ kind of moment. This story ends with silence because it is more like a pause for the next episode to begin. The ending of this story marks the transition to the next where we wonder what happens to Jonah. An ending can be a whole paragraph, a sentence but in this case it is empty. It is similar to the ending of the whole book of Jonah – God asks a question and there is no answer.

Once the problem was identified as “can Jonah run away from God?” the solution points us to a great theological lesson: no you can’t and God is concerned for the whole world.

More observations of the passage

‘He went down to Joppa’. In the story, Jonah starts from the heights of Gath Hephor (a village on a rocky hill, see last blog) and descends to Joppa. Joppa is on the south-western border of Israel. Jonah went ‘below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.’ v5. Notice the descent in this narrative. The sailors eventually ‘took Jonah and threw him overboard.’ v15. He went into the belly of a fish (v17) and into the depths and the heart of the sea (2:3), to ‘the roots of the mountains [Jonah] sank down’ (2:6) to the belly of the earth! 2:6 is the turning point of the descent imagery which is the very point that Jonah was saved by God.

The solution for the sailors was to execute one man to save the rest. Only those who have heard the story of Jesus’ sacrifice and burial for three days before raising to life again would appreciate the order here in the story. To save others, an ‘innocent man’ must be put to death. The man is ‘buried’ for three days and three nights before being brought back to life. Jesus embraced this story as pointing to his own death and resurrection (Matthew 12:39-41; 16:4).

What’s the message?

  • The Word of God is for all nations – the Old Testament God is all about reaching beyond Israel
  • Rebellion from God does not stop his reign and authority
  • The God of the Hebrews is the God of all the earth – who made the sea and the dry land
  • Jesus is the very Word of God who has come down into this world to offer himself for all nations. He fulfils willingly what Jonah illustrates reluctantly.
  • God continues to use us even when we are reluctant to be used.
  • What we believe in the gospel must play out in the rest of our lives – how are we being a light to the world, salt of the earth and like a city on a hill. Do people have to grill us deeply before they hear us speak of God’s love and compassion?

Prayer for the week

Father God, creator of heaven and earth and everything in it, thank you for sending your word to us in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the scriptures. Please help us to live out the gospel and be a beacon for all who desire to be saved. Thank you for the sacrifice of your Son, the innocent one who died so that we could live. Help us to take the message of Jesus everywhere we go in our daily lives. Showing people by our actions and our words that we worship the one true and eternal God. Amen.

Bible passages, Current Series, Prayer, Romans, Uncategorized

Romans 12:9-21 – Keep to the left of evil!

Context

Romans 1:17 told us that ‘the righteous will live by faith.’ Paul took us through the content of that faith in chapters 1-11 to say that we must devote our trust in God fully for our righteousness. Chapter 12:1-2 began the new phase of Paul’s teaching on how to take this faith into the rest of your life. We are to offer God our bodies and our minds. The way that we use both of these parts of us: what we DO and what we THINK are to be given to God and moulded by the truth of faith. God is God and we are his creatures that needed rescuing.

This next section of Romans continues the theme of how to live out our faith around other people. Although God is in the business of saving and forming his church (the body of Christ, verses 3-8) we also need to live in a world which still hates God.

Observations

The NIV breaks these verses up into 3 paragraphs plus an indented quote. The ESV divides the passage into 2 paragraphs only (9-13 + 14-21). It’s interesting to work out where the paragraph breaks should go, if anywhere! Do you see any clear reasons for breaks?

Verse 9 opens with the charge to love and not to take part in evil. Verse 21 wraps up the whole section with a similar sentiment: don’t be swallowed by evil but kill it with the energy of good. So, the whole section seems to lean toward embracing the light side and staying away from the dark! There is a vibe of combating evil with good instead of with evil. As if two wrongs don’t make a right. If evil comes barging up behind you, huffing and puffing and blowing out smoke from its ears, keep to the left and let evil pass!

The section seems to offer a list of examples and areas of life where love is put into practice and evil is left for God to take care of. The message is: don’t take part in it.

So, let’s go through the verses and see what we see.

Verse 9. Remember the binary use of the words love and hate back in Rom 9:13. Love doesn’t refer only to those things that you are passionate about and hate only those things that you are passionate against. You are either for something or against it. Often when reading the scriptures we need to look into the way that the bible writers use words and not rely on our contemporary use of them.

Having said that, we are told that love needs to be more than just ‘an act of your will.’ Verse 9 tells us that love must be sincere. The ESV uses the word, ‘genuine.’ Not faked or pretend but something that you earnestly want to portray and practice. We can’t pretend to be Christians and we can’t pretend to love others. If this is a struggle with you and somebody else, then pray about that. Ask for God’s help as you put your trust in Him to sanctify your relationships.

‘Hate what is evil.’ This shouldn’t be misunderstood as ‘hate those who are evil’ since later (v14) we are instructed to ‘bless those who persecute you.’ But verse 9 must be talking about the practice of evil. Hate and abhor it. The positive reaction to evil is to ‘cling to what is good.’ Paul says elsewhere to focus on things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy (Phil 4:8). Don’t gaze at the negative and try to hate it, but set your eyes on the good things in life – the things that God blesses. Distract evil with good.

Verse 10. I like the way the ESV puts this verse: ‘Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honour.’ It’s great to see family members getting along peacefully and enjoying one another. This may happen too rarley (!) but when it happens, it’s beautiful. We’re not being told to just love your brother though, we’re told to love one another. The way you do that is to put the other person first. Compete to see who can elevate the other higher! Encouraging one another like verse 7 said is a great way to promote honour and respect. How can we put that challenge into action?

Verse 11. Being fervent is to show passionate intensity – hot, burning or glowing! What a description of how to be spiritual! The question is, have you ever been this? We all display emotions and passions differently, so this really is a question for you to ask of yourself: am I passionate about the gospel? Am I 100% for King Jesus. Verse 11 defines zeal and spiritual fervour as ‘serving the Lord.’ Is this a priority to you? At home and at work and on the beach and in the city – do you do all things out of a clear understanding and dedication of your faith. Jesus said to ‘seek first the kingdom of God’ (Matt 6:33). Do you remember the zeal you had when you first became a Christian? Do you remember the passion you had for God when/if you were a teenage or young adult Christian? Has life and responsibility squashed that? The warning of the parable of the four soils will tell us that zeal for the gospel is important, or else the business of life will push it out of our minds and lower on our priority list.

How can you fan the flame of your passion and zeal for God? I listened to a good sermon today online and it reminded me of something I had not thought of for a while – it put a smile back into my faith.

Verse 12. ‘Be joyful in hope.’ I could write pages on these four words! It is hope that ought to give us joy! To think that we would not be joyful in hope is odd but then Paul thinks that this needs to be spelled out. There is no reason why we should think of all the promises of God that we look forward to in the resurrection and not produce joy in us. But, it’s one thing to know the content of the gospel and quite another to know that the gospel is for you! It’s one thing to know that Jesus died on the cross for sins – quite another to know that Jesus died on the cross for YOUR sins. It’s one thing to know that heaven will be a great place (I suppose) quite another to know that Jesus has gone away to prepare a place for YOU and he prayed for YOU while he thought about going to the cross (John 17). Like a child who can’t stop smiling on Christmas eve, our faith, when we meditate on it, when we talk about it, when we hear encouragement from one another about it, our faith is a prepaid eternity of rest and play. There might be a long time to wait for it, but the thought of it should warm our hearts and make us smile.

When afflicted: be patient like a person who knows there is relief coming.

Your prayers: constant, unshaken, trusting in the one who is listening.

Verse 13. Two more aspects of love is to share and to welcome. Both of these things we are simply told to do.

Verses 14-16. I’d like to make a broad statement about these 3 verses. They seem to tell us to embrace everyone. If someone is attacking you: embrace them. If someone is celebrating: cheer on their team. If someone is crying out: give them your shoulder. If someone seems different to you: be a chameleon and become like them. Don’t distinguish yourself from everybody else but sing with them.

Verses 17-20. The sentences on their own here are fairly straight forward and clear – it’s the principle that might be hard to understand. The principle comes down to who the Judge of this earth is – and it is God. Deuteronomy 32:35 is quoted in verse 19 as well as Proverbs 25:21,22. Our job is to be God’s holy people who were called out of darkness to live in the light and be a light to the world. It is God’s business to avenge and he will do it very well. When we show compassion and love and kindness and care in the face of hostility and anger and hate, then, if that person doesn’t repent and turn to Christ, it will be like adding heat to the fire on judgement day. When Jesus told the crowd to love their enemy, he didn’t intend for the enemy to get away with everything. He just meant to leave the justice to God.

Verse 21. It will harm us when we get into battle to fight against evil to try and overpower it. We will be swept up in the same evils. The best tool against evil is to embrace righteousness. Replace evil with good.

Meaning

  • Love, in all it’s forms, is the best weapon we have.
  • Love and hate; light and dark; good and evil; our choice is not to convert the latter but to be the former.
  • Don’t focus on what HATE and EVIL isn’t – focus on what LOVE IS!

Application

  • There are many applications here. The trick is to move beyond the general principle and to put some real examples into place.
  • Cling to what is good. Keep passionate about serving the Lord. Show love to those around you. Practice being good.
    • How do you practice being good in the church and in Growth Group?
    • How do you practice being good in the workplace?
    • How do you practice being good while commuting?
    • How do you practice being good in the shopping centre?
    • How do you practice being good in your own home?

Prayer for the week

Dear Father God, we praise you for the example of the Lord Jesus Christ who succeeded in all the challenges that Paul lists for us this week. We ask for your Spirit to guide us, to teach us and to provoke us toward love and good deeds. Because of the mercy that we have received and learned from you, help us to show love and mercy to everybody we meet. Thank you for the hope you have placed in our hearts. Help us to cling to that hope with all the joy that it brings. Amen.