Core Series: Week 1 - The Authority of Scripture

Pastor Jeremy’s Notes:

Before we start building out doctrine, we have to have a base from which we are building

For us, that base is in the Word of God

I debated starting where most normally start with their doctrine, with the existence of God

We’ll get into this later, but there are two ways in which we know about God

General Revelation

Divine Revelation

General Revelation can get us near God, but they can’t get us to the specifics

For that we need Divine Revelation - and for that, we need a foundational source

That source is the Bible

66 Books written over thousands of years - 35-40 writers - One Author

During the Protestant Reformation, one of the key issues ‘sola Scriptura’ - or only Scripture

The split here was that only the Bible is the infallible source of divine inspiration

The Catholic Church, Church of England, and others believed in ‘prima Scripture’, or that the Scriptures are the primary source of revelation. They believe that the key leaders of their church (or the King), angelic visitations, church traditions, etc, can carry divine inspiration in their decrees. The danger here is that their words can be placed on a level playing field with the Word of God…even if they contradict parts of scripture.

We have to be careful here, because modern charismatic movements are trending back in this direction. Anyone with a prophetic word can claim divine revelation and that word jumps up to a priority equivalent to the Word of God. 

It’s one of the ways our individualistic, every one owns their own truth, culture has influenced our walk with God…and it needs checked.

We also see this in the other modern trend to buck the Bible as authoritative altogether.

I recently read one article written by an evangelical minister saying that too many Christians hold the Bible up as an idol.

The Catholic Church has believed this of the protestant and evangelical church for a long time and call it ‘Bibliolatry’

The question is, does the Bible leave this open?

John 1:1–5 (NASB95)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

John 1:14 (NASB95)

14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

And then later in Revelation

Revelation 19:11–13 (NASB95)

11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.

We do have to point out a few key distinctives - the greek here is logos where the greek used in the New Testament for Scripture is graphe

So we can’t draw the conclusion that your Bible equals Jesus.

But we can draw the conclusion that the Bible, being the primary Word of God spoken to His creation, is all about Jesus and therefore is vital to holding our relationship with Him together.

Whether you’re in camp Prima or Sola, I think at their pure root, what they’re saying is right. We have to be careful of the extremes of both though and keep a healthy tension.

We believe a few fundamental things about scripture:

Scripture is inspired - from beginning to end, the Bible was planned and executed by the Holy Spirit

2 Timothy 3:16–17 (NASB95)

16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

This is two-fold - Plenary Inspiration - that the Bible as a whole, it’s messages and themes, is inspired

        and Verbal Inspiration - that every word, every letter, is used purposefully and is also inspired

Matthew 5:18 (NASB95)

18 “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

Scripture is infallible - the Bible is perfect in every way

Psalm 19:7 (NASB95)

7 The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

Scripture is inerrant - the Bible is without error

John 10:35 (NASB95)

35 “If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken),

Because of these things, the Bible MUST be THE authoritative voice in the life of every Christ follower

The word cannon, when we talk about the Cannon of Scripture, the Old Testament Cannon and the New Testament Cannon, actually means ‘measuring rod’. I think because of it’s context we’ve come to assume that it means compilation or collection of books, but it doesn’t.

So the question is, as Christ followers, what are we using as the measuring rod in our lives?

Does the Word of God have that level of authority in our lives?

If we are going to LIVE as if the Word of God has the number one authoritative voice in our lives, this has some major implications:

1. It’s ALL about Jesus - it’s all about the Gospel

   1. Since Jesus is the logos of God, the ultimate reason for existence, that means He has to be the reason for God’s chief communication with man...the Bible

   2. Jesus is the only Teacher of all of the major religions who said “I AM the way” not “this is the way”

   3. the Bible is not a to do list…it’s not a “this is the way”

2. It’s not good advice - it’s good news

   1. This means these commands aren’t optional

3. It’s not our Sword

   1. Sword OF the Spirit - not made of the Spirit…but HIS Sword

Ephesians 6:17 (NASB95)

17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

1. We can never use God’s Word on others if we won’t use it on ourselves first

Matthew 7:1–5 (NASB95)

1 “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. 2 “For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. 3 “Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 “Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? 5 “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

3. We can never use God’s Word as a weapon…we don’t cut to hurt, we cut to heal