Where did the Bible come from? Why are there differences in translations? Why are there some missing verses or verses in the footnotes?
These are all questions that relate to the complex discipline called Textual Criticism - the study of the texts and manuscripts upon which our translations are based.
I would commend the first half of John Piper's message on John 7:53-8:11 in which he addresses this complex subject very well.
Here are a few notes:
The New Testament was originally written in Greek
The first Greek New Testament wasn't published until 1516 by Erasmus
For 1500 years, manuscripts were handwritten copies
None of the original manuscripts exist but multiple copies are available.
There were four kinds of copies: uncials (large caps), minuscules (small caps), papyri, and lectionaries (sections read in worship)
There are 322 uncial texts, 2907 minuscule texts, 2445 lectionary portions and 127 papyri for a total of 5,801 manuscripts - all handwritten copies
No ancient book comes close to this level of manuscript evidence (for instance, Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars, written between 58-50 BC only has 10 copies)
The copies do not all agree but no major doctrine is threatened by the differences
The number of manuscripts increases the possibilities of differences but it also increases the means of correcting errors
The margin of doubt, according to FF Bruce, in recovering the exact original wording is very, very small
I listened to a fascinating sermon from John Piper entitled "Neither Do I Condemn You" - John 7:53-8:11. It is the story of the woman caught in adultery - "Let him who has no sin cast the first stone..."
It is a remarkable sermon because Piper (for good reason) doesn't believe the story to be part of the inspired record of John's gospel. However, he does believe that the story is true. In other words, the story is probably historically accurate, but it shouldn't be included in the book of John.
In the first part of the sermon, he explains the discipline of textual criticism. In the second part he draws out the lessons from a story that is not actually inspired.
Remarkably, the sermon is both informative and inspiring even though the text isn't inspired!
Here are a few important quotes:
Now the question is: What should I, the preacher, do with this story? Both Don Carson and Bruce Metzger think the story probably happened. In other words, they think this is a real event from Jesus's life, and the story circulated and later was put in the Gospel of John. Metzger says, "The account has all the earmarks of historical veracity" (Textual Commentary, p. 220). And Carson says, "There is little reason for doubting that the event here described occurred" (The Gospel According to John, p. 333).
The most remarkable point of this story is that Jesus exalts himself above the Law of Moses, changes its appointed punishment, and reestablishes righteousness on the foundation of grace. I don't doubt that this is why the story was preserved. It is an amazing story
The story may not belong to John's Gospel. In fact, the story may never have happened. But this point of the story is unshakably true. This is the pervasive message of the New Testament. Jesus exalted himself above the Law. He wrote it! Jesus altered some of its sanctions. He pointed to its main goal of Christ-exalting love. And he reestablished righteousness on the basis of an experience of grace.
There is a great new connection point and ministry resource for pastors and ministry leaders committed to an Acts 6:4 model - "we will give ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word."
"to equip, encourage, and connect pastors toward the priorities of prayer and the ministry of the Word. The 6:4 Fellowship connects pastors, and provides them with practical equipping and regular encouragement in maintaining the heart of Scriptural and supernatural ministry."
Join me in prayer that God would use this ministry to help pastors reclaim their passion for the basics of gospel ministry.
A brief article appeared in The Weekin which Liam Neeson reflected on his experience with grief after the death of his wife, Natasha Richardson, who fell while skiing and died of a brain hemorrhage two years ago:
"...that’s the weird thing about grief. You can’t prepare for it. It hits you in the middle of the night. I’m out walking. I’m feeling quite intent. And it’s like suddenly, boom. It’s like you’ve done that in your chest.”
I have often said that grief is not tame. Here is yet another example of someone who has experienced it's frequent, irreverent, and surprising rage.
Imagine what it would be like to witness the first delivery of the New Testament to a people who have never had their own full translation in the mother tongue!
This weekend College Park Church hosted THINK|11, our annual excursion into the depths of God's glory as expressed in theology. Our aim is to help our people think deeply so that we can live correctly.
D.A. Carson took up the subject of the atonement, and here are a few of my favorite quotations:
"The way you lose the gospel is not by denying it, but by assuming it."
"The wilderness was not just about testing; it was also a season of God's courtship and preparation for his people."
"Students will remember little of what we teach them and nearly everything that we are passionate about."
"In the N.T., faith is validated in part by faith's object."
"Don't confuse the gospel with the entailments of the gospel."
"God is both wrathful and loving at the same time."
"Sin is not just the violation of God's law; it is a violation of God himself"
The entire conference is available online or you can interact at our THINK blog.
This Sunday I preached on Matthew 23, a blistering passage that is Jesus's most significant and thorough treatment of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. The 39 verses include the famous "Seven Woes" of Jesus as he blasts them for their religious shell-game.
I invited our church to a time of self-evaluation in considering the following characteristics.
12 Traits of a Pharisee:
1. They do not practice what they preach (v 3)
2. The give themselves exceptions (v 4)
3. They are focused on appearances (v 5)
4. They love to be respected (vv 6-7)
5. They hind people spiritually (v 13)
6. They are dangerously persuasive (v 15)
7. They are spiritually unbalanced (vv 16-22)
8. They are busy in the wrong things (vv 23-24)
9. They are not focused on the heart (vv 25-28)
10. They are over-confident (vv 29-32)
11. They are under judgment (vv 33-36)
12. They grieve the heart of Jesus (vv 37-38)
Here's the concluding paragraph: "Be watchful - be very, very, watchful - of your heart because the murder of the Son of God came at the hands of religious people who had convinced themselves that they were doing God's will."
This Sunday I talked about the passion of William Carey to reach "unreached" people groups, specifically the people of India. He not only became the father of modern day missions, but he also helped give us global view of evangelism.
Here's a summary: Unreached people are not those who have heard; unreached people are those who cannot hear. The difference is access to the gospel message not receiving the gospel. Unreached people groups are unreached for a reason. They are hard to get to, governments set up barriers, the culture is resistant, etc.
If you are interested in learning more, the Joshua Project details the scope and breadth of the need in our world.
Here is a link to what College Park is doing to reach unreached people.
One of my dreams is to see the Foster Care system flooded with Evangelical believers. Imagine what would happen if 2,000 believers from every State in the Union decided to enlist in providing abused and neglected children a safe and caring home. Imagine what a testimony it would be to the overtaxed, underpaid, and highly vilified Department of Child Services to see this many followers of Jesus live out their faith.
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal cataloged what may be the early signs of a similar movement. It chronicles the recent interest by Focus on the Family, Rick Warren, and Russell Moore from Southern Seminary as an indication that adoption and foster care are starting to get some much needed attention.
The article clearly has a bias: "one wonders how these evangelical adoptive parents overcome their own desire for control, bring a stranger into their home, and then take responsibility for raising him."
But it ends well: "The most persuasive explanation comes from the author of that article, Leslie Leyland Fields, who exhorts her readers: "We are not sovereign over our children—only God is. Children are not tomatoes to stake out or mules to train, nor are they numbers to plug into an equation. They are full human beings wondrously and fearfully made. Parenting, like all tasks under the sun, is intended as an endeavor of love, risk, perseverance, and, above all, faith."
I am always fascinated when I visit other churches, especially well-known churches, at the similarities and differences in forms and styles of worship.
While I've never visited Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., David Crowe in his blog post gives an wonderful summary with pictures, notes, and even a copy of the order of worship.
It is a very helpful play-by-play (forgive the metaphor) of what a Sunday service is like.
Mark Dever, in a message on politics that some have called the best message on politics and Dever's finest sermon, made an insightful comment regarding the "unhitching" of Christianity from national identity. He argued that Christianity, by definition, is international. In other words, we should use caution in identifying it too closely with a particular nation or people.
To make this point memorable he said the following: "Christians are, by God's grace, like cockroaches; we can survive anything."
To read the rest of the sermon, click here: Mark 12:13-17
This Sunday I'll be launching our Missions Emphasis Month with my annual biographical sermon on a missionary. This year I've chosen to profile the father of modern missions, William Carey.
In 1792, he wrote a stirring challenge to his fellow Baptist pastors to consider the plight of the unreached (called "heathen during his day), and the result was the formation of the first missionary society.
"If a holy solicitude had prevailed in all the assemblies of Christians in behalf of their Redeemer's kingdom, we might probably have seen before now, not only an open door for the gospel, but many running to and fro, and knowledge increased; or a diligent use of those means which providence has put in our power, accompanied with a greater blessing than ordinary from heaven."
I'm leaving today for a 10 day trip to Ukraine and the Caspian Region to celebrate the 10-year partnership between College Park Church at Ukrainian Evangelical Seminary. I will be ministering along with Dale Shaw and Nate Irwin at UETS in Kiev, Ukraine. We are leading a spiritual emphasis week under the banner of "Beholding the Beauty of Jesus" which will include a Fresh Encounter Prayer Service at the end.
On Saturday, I'll be speaking at the graduation service and in two churches on Sunday: Salvation Church and House of Prayer. (Be sure to use the Google Chrome feature to translate into English - super cool!)
Then we'll be off to the Caspian region to visit some College Park friends.
Pray that God will bless our ministry and that we'll be a great encouragement to the church in Eastern Europe!
In Matthew 18:1-4, Jesus identifies the definition of greatness. He links true greatness to becoming like a little child - turning from self-sufficiency to dependent, life transforming faith.
Click here to view the manuscript and listen to the audio file.
I found a great quotation of Paul Miller in a recent publication from Life Action Ministries on the connection between prayer and the gospel:
"In the gospel, the Father takes us as we are because of Jesus and gives us his gift of salvation. In prayer, the Father receives us as we are because of Jesus and gives us his gift of help. We look at the inadequacy of our praying and give up, thinking something is wrong with us. God looks at the adequacy of his Son and delights in our sloppy, meandering prayers."
Great hope for meandering, sloppy, and struggling believers who wrestle not only to pray but to pray well.
I was reading an article recently about the amazing number of corporate leaders who had been convicted or fired because of shocking behavior. The piece was entitled “The Corner Office Alters Nice Guys” and it was acknowledging a brutal and scary reality in our power-grabbing world:
“The very traits that helped leaders accumulate control in the first place all but disappear once they rise to power. Once the nice guys reach the top, the headiness of wielding power causes them to morph into a very different kind of beast. They lose their ability to empathize with others, especially lesser mortals and ignore information that doesn’t confirm what they already believe. Most tellingly, perhaps, they learn to excuse faults in themselves that they are quick to condemn in others. Even the most virtuous people can be undone by the corner office.”
Translation? Be sure that you know what true greatness is all about because the world-based, self-focused lure of promotion, advancement, or success can easily destroy you. All you have to do is think like everyone else, live like everyone else, act like everyone else and then think that you did it by yourself, and it will not be long until you are just another body-bag on the road of life. Worse, you could be a personal “train-wreck” with a fish bumper sticker. The gravitational pull of our culture and our flesh is so strong that a follower of Jesus dare not set his or her life on auto pilot. We need a constant re-orientation with the horizon of God’s word.
This weekend is a nostalgic time for me. Part of it is because I just love the Thanksgiving holiday, but for the last two years, there is another reason. It was this weekend that our family visited College Park for the first time to determine if we were interested in entering the candidating process. The anxiety, fear, uncertainty, and prayerful wrestling were very real. Now, two years later, it is amazing to see what the Lord has done in us and at College Park. It creates a deep level of gratitude in my heart to God when I think about those days.
You may have a similar story in your life or you may be in the midst of “the dark side of God’s will.” Regardless, I’d encourage you to take some time this weekend and reflect on how God has demonstrated his care for you in the past few years. Rehearse, remember, and reflect or you’ll soon forget; that is the regular warning from the Word (see Deut 8:1-18, Ps 42:4-6, 77:11, 143.5).
Gratitude must be cultivated or a self-focused, demanding, and proud heart will soon appear.
Tonight we will be gathering for our annual Thanksgiving Service. I’m working today on my devotional for that service and my exposition of Matthew 10:5-33. It has been an interesting combination.
This evening I’ll be sharing 7 statements of gratitude out of Colossians 1:15-20. I recently memorized this passage, and it has gripped me every day for the last two weeks. It is filled with praiseworthy statements about Christ.
When I consider Christ, I am grateful…
1. That he has made God clear and near (Col 1:15,19)
2. That there is nothing on earth over which Jesus doesn’t say, “Mine!” (Col 1:16)
3. That he is the head, the focus, and the source of the church (Col 1:18a)
4. That he is alive, making hope a reality (Col 1:18b)
5. That he is and will be first in everything (Col 1:18c)
6. That he makes peace possible (Col 1:20)
7. That he holds everything together (Col 1:21)
On Sunday, I’m talking about why following Christ is worth it or what keeps you going when following Jesus gets really hard. There are at least 7 promises to which our hearts should cling when following Jesus is painful.
Here are 7 promises from Matthew 10:16-33 to remember when we start to wonder if following Jesus is really worth it:
1. When challenged, remember that God will give you words to say (v 17-20)
2. When your family attacks, remember the value of endurance (v 21-22)
3. When persecution comes, remember that Jesus has been there too (v 23-25)
4. When you are afraid of people, remember that one day everything will be revealed (v 26)
5. When you tempted to be timid, remember who God is (v 27-28)
6. When you are filled with anxiety, remember you are valuable to God (v 29-31)
7. When following him proves costly, remember that nothing is greater than the affirmation of Jesus (v 32-33)
I hope you’ll join me in some focused gratitude this weekend. After all, we have a lot to be thankful for, don’t we?
Here's a great quote from Dale Bruner in his commentary on Matthew that talks about the problem of prayerlessness:
"A creeping death sweeps over the mission of many churches in our time because, quite simply, prayer meetings have ceased. And beneath the death of prayer, at a deeper level, lies the death of real belief…"
Remember WWJD? Remember the bracelets, t-shirts, gym bags, and even a board game? I do. In fact, the entire WWJD phenomenon started in Holland, Michigan! I remember hearing about it soon after I came to the area. The premise of the 4 letters was to remind people to ask themselves – “What Would Jesus Do?” A good question, even if it was way over-marketed!
On Sunday, we’ll be asking a similar question. What would Jesus do in Carmel, Indiana? What kind of ministry would he run? What priorities would he have? Again, some important questions. I’m not sure we can ever be 100% sure, but our text on Sunday (Matthew 9:35-10:4) gives us a pretty clear picture of some priorities.
The passage is a bridge between Jesus’ words (chapters 5-7), works (chapters 8-9), and his mission (chapter 10). It is the launch of the disciples’ ministry under Jesus’ authority. Much of chapter 10 will identify the various challenges that they will face, particularly talking about persecution and opposition. But for now, Jesus simply outlines some key elements to his ministry:
There are four key commitments in Jesus’ vision for ministry:
The Word – He proclaimed (heralded) the gospel of the kingdom
Compassion – Jesus saw the crowds as sheep without a shepherd
Prayer – earnestly seek laborers from the Lord of the harvest
Gifts – he empowered his disciples to conquer the devil and cure the world
It’s almost like Ministry 101. We need all four elements/commitments or the church does really function like Jesus intended.
How easy it is to drift from these. A few examples:
Compassion – How easy it is to see sinful people through the lens of disgust, rigid justice, and fault-finding. But Jesus saw them through a lens. If there was blame, it needed to be partly laid at the feet of spiritual leaders (read Ezekiel 34 for a blistering word about that!)
Prayer – A commentary I read nailed it: “The demise of the prayer meeting equals the demise of the mission of the church because a church that fails to pray fails to believe.” AMEN!
Gifts – 40% of our congregation doesn’t have any area in which they are using their gifts. I’m usually a glass-half-full kind of guy, but I can’t get past just under ½ of our people sitting on sidelines with atrophic gifts.
So my appeal on Sunday will be for each of us to ask ourselves what kind of role we have in making College Park Church a place that emanates what Jesus would do.
I’ll close with a great quote from Kevin De Young. He wrote a great article on how to reach the next generation. His words are not only true – they describe what we are trying to do at College Park:
Grap them with passion. Win them with love. Hold them with holiness. Challenge them with truth. Amaze them with God.
I'm half-way through a great book on prayer by Paul Miller. His simple premise is very refreshing: Prayer is simply the medium through which we experience and connect to God. Miller wants the reader to see prayer as less complicated, more relational, and all-encompassing. In other words, we need to see prayer through the lens of every day communion with God.
Here are a few great quotes:
"Learning to pray doesn't offer you a less busy life; it offers you a less busy heart."
"Come overwhelmed with life. Come with a wandering mind. Come messy."
"You can't build a relationship by sound bites."
Thomas Merton – "Prayer is an expression of who we are…we are living incompleteness. We are a gap, an emptiness that calls for fulfillment."
"Helplessness is how the Christian life works."
"Weakness is the channel that allows us to access grace."
