6 EASTER 07 C

“If you love me, you will keep my words.” These words of Jesus can leave us perplexed and maybe even feeling condemned. I know I love Jesus, but I don’t always keep his words. So, what am I to do?

First of all we must ask, “Just what are the words of Jesus?” I mean if we are to keep his words doesn’t it make sense that we should know what words we are to keep?

Do you know that Jesus taught on over 450 different subjects like abstinence, adversity, backsliding, bigotry, character, compromise, conversion, unbelief, divorce, faith, generosity, hell, insincerity, the Law, prayer, righteousness, self-control, tithing, truth, witnessing, and the list goes on and on.

Now, if we look at trying to keep Jesus’ words in all of these areas we can feel overwhelmed and just think, “What’s the use. I can’t keep all these. I’ll just try to do the best I can;” which usually means we don’t give it another thought.

Well, then, how can we keep Jesus’ words? Let’s start with a premise first – IN ORDER TO KEEP HIS WORDS, WE MUST KNOW HIS WORDS.

Brother Anthony was charged with training the other monks in the art of copying precisely by hand the Holy Writings. An eager new scribe, Brother Jonathan, asked if anyone had ever made a mistake.

“Oh, no,” Brother Anthony said. “These words have been correctly copied from generation to generation. I will show you the first volume ever written.” And he shuffled off toward the monastery’s library.

Hours later, Brother Jonathan found the elderly monk sitting alone in a candlelit corner, tears running down his wrinkled cheeks.

“What’s the matter?” asked Brother Jonathan.

“I can’t believe it,” said Brother Anthony, “The word is celebrate. Cel-e-BRATE!”

There are a lot of people who think they are keeping Jesus’ words, but who really don’t know his words, or who may have a mistaken idea of what his words are.

David said in Psalm 119, “Your word have I hidden in my heart so that I might not sin against you.” Listen to what St. Paul says to Timothy in his second letter, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man or woman of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Elsewhere Paul tells Timothy, “Study to show yourself approved by God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

All of these verses point to a need to know the words of Jesus.

The temptation for us is to simply focus upon the words of Jesus found in the Gospels. But we must remember that Jesus said (in our lesson today) that he would send the Holy Spirit to help the Apostles remember all that he had said. That is how the Apostles were able to remember what to write down when they wrote the New Testament.

In other words, Jesus’ words are contained in both the Gospels and the other New Testament writings. So in order for us to fully keep the words of Jesus, we must look at the whole of the New Testament.

But wait a minute, if Jesus is God in human flesh, then that would mean his words are contained in the Old Testament as well. Jesus would never contradict the express word of God given in the Old Testament. He did bring out the full meaning of some things that were merely shadows of a future reality. As a result we need to read the Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament in order to get the best understanding of the words of Christ.

What does that tell us? It tells us that if we are to keep the words of Jesus we must begin to study the Bible for ourselves.

It is a shame that many people depend solely upon me or some other theologian to tell them what the Bible says. You might hear or read of a theologian saying that the Bible is full of errors,” and you just take his word for it without looking into it yourself. Or you hear me say the Bible is the inspired, authoritative word of God and you might reject that because it doesn’t sound right to you or it goes against some other speaker you might have heard. You might dismiss my views out of hand without looking at the evidence contained in the Scriptures.

That doesn’t mean that it isn’t helpful to have someone teach the Bible, but we should always compare what is being taught with what is clearly taught in Scripture.

So, if we are to keep Jesus’ words it would make sense to try to get to know them we know them by studying them. We have Bible studies going on Sunday morning, Thursday nights, Tuesday afternoons and evenings. Our Alpha course has a lot of good Bible teaching on it. There are also individual Bible studies that you can do.

The second thing which we can do to help us keep Jesus’ words is to have the Holy Spirit. How does one know if one has the Holy Spirit? The New Testament says that when we believe in the Jesus of the Bible and trust in what he has done to gain our salvation, then the Holy Spirit is sent to live inside of us. The Holy Spirit begins to work with our sinful human spirit to transform it and make it more like Christ. It is at this point, when the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us, that we are what Jesus called, “born again.”

St. Paul wrote that the Spirit himself tells us, by helping our spirit to come alive, that we are children of God; that God accepts us into his kingdom and that we belong to him forever.

The Holy Spirit inside of us helps us to begin to understand Jesus’ words. The Scripture says that a person without the Holy Spirit cannot really understand the words of Jesus. That’s one of the reasons why so many people have trouble understanding the basics of the Bible.

If we have the Holy Spirit inside of us helping us to hear and understand the words of Jesus, how are we as individuals to interpret the Bible correctly? In our tract rack outside in the hall way I have put together an article entitled “That’s just you’re interpretation.” It has some helpful insights into the art and science of Biblical interpretation.

Another thing which I have found helpful is an acronym developed by a leading researcher to help in interpreting the Bible correctly. The acronym is LIGHTS and it is listed in your bulletin insert under the section Sermon Notes. Just remember that the science of Biblical interpretation “LIGHTS” your path as you walk through the Scriptures.

The L in LIGHTS will serve to remind you of the literal principle of biblical interpretation. In simple terms it means that we are to interpret the Word of God just as we interpret other forms of communication – in its most obvious and LITERAL SENSE.

Most often, the biblical authors employed literal statements to communicate their ideas. When the New Testament writers said that Jesus rose from the dead., we are to take that in its most obvious and literal sense.

Where the biblical writers express their ideas in a literal sense, the interpreter must take those statements in a literal sense. In this way, the interpreter will grasp the intended meaning of the writer.

Of course, this is not to deny that Scripture employs figures of speech. In deed, the biblical writers often used figurative language to communicate truth in a graphic way. And in most cases, the meaning of such language is clear from the context. When Jesus says he is “the door” for example, it is obvious that he is not saying that he is composed of wood and hinges. Rather, he is the “way” to salvation.

The I in LIGHTS will remind us of the ILLUMINATION of Scripture that can only come from the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of truth not only provides insights that permeate the mind, but also provides illumination that can penetrate the heart. “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” says Paul in 1 Cor. 2:14.

If you do not have the Holy Spirit living inside you, then you will have a much more difficult time reading and understanding the Bible. The Spirit brings the Bible alive to the believer. He brings illumination.

The G in our acronym LIGHTS will remind us that the Scriptures are to be interpreted in accordance with typical rules of GRAMMAR – including syntax and style. For this reason, it is important that the student of Scripture have a basic understanding of grammatical principles. It also can be helpful to use resources that are available in book form and on line to help gain a better understanding of the Greek and Hebrew words that are being used.

An example of this is seen in the verse from 1 John 1:7, which reads:

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” That word “purifies” in the Greek language means to keep on purifying us from all sin. The rules of grammar can help us to get the full meaning of Scripture.

The H in LIGHTS will remind us that the Christian faith is Historical and evidential. The biblical text is best understood when one is familiar with the customs, cultures, and historical context of biblical times. Again there are many resources that can help you understand the historical context in which the Bible was written.

For example, St. Paul in 1 Cor. 14:34 says “Women should remain silent in the church.” If you didn’t know the historical context of that verse you would not be able to explain what Paul meant. I had the privilege of going to Israel and Greece and to visit the ruins of a Jewish synagogue. One I visited in Greece was the ruins of a two story synagogue. We were told that the women were seated in the balcony and the men on the floor. As the men were talking the women, because of the bad acoustics could not hear what was being said and would shout down to their husbands to try to find out what the speaker was saying. The husbands would speak back to the women causing chaos in the synagogue. In the very early church the custom of separating the men from the women continued and could very well have caused the same problem which is the reason why Paul said in the next verse, “if they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home.” If you didn’t know the historical context of this verse you would think that Paul was against women and forbids them speaking in church.

The T in our acronym LIGHTS will remind us that even though the ultimate illumination of Scripture comes through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, God has also provided the church with uniquely gifted human TEACHERS as well. Of course, we should follow the example of the Bereans in the book of Acts who were considered of more noble character than the Thessalonians because, it says, “they examined the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul was saying was true.” We have a wealth of teaching from the Early Church fathers to present day gifted teachers. They can help us better understand what Scripture is saying, but every man and woman’s teaching should be held up to the standard of the Scriptures in light of the Tradition of the church. Teachers are helpful in our understanding of the words of Jesus, but they are not infallible.

The S in LIGHTS will remind us of the principle of SCRIPTURAL HARMONY. Individual passages of Scripture must always be in harmony with Scripture as a whole. The biblical interpreter must keep in mind that all of Scripture – though communicated through various human instruments – has a single author (God). And, of course, God does not contradict himself.

For example, Deut. 6:4 talks about God as one. And yet in the New Testament we see the Father described as God, the Son described as God and the Holy Spirit described as God. If a person were to follow this principle if Scriptural Harmony then the conclusion would be that there is one God manifested in three separate and distinct persons. If a person were not to follow this principle then the conclusion might be that the New Testament is describing three gods.

Studying the Bible is the noblest of all pursuits, and rightly understanding it, the highest of our goals. This acronym LIGHTS can help you in these pursuits.

But, it is not enough to study the Bible. We are to be, as James says, “Doers of the Word.” Today we are celebrating Mother’s Day. It is a day in which we honor our mothers who have been known in many cases to tell us what to do. My mother would tell me a number of things, I’m sure to try to teach me something. For example,

My mother taught me RELIGION: When I spilled grape juice on the carpet, she instructed, "You better pray the stain will come out of the carpet."
My mother taught me LOGIC: From her decisive words, "Because I said so, that’s why."
My mother taught me FORESIGHT: "Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you’re in an accident."
My mother taught me IRONY: "Keep laughing, and I’ll give you something to cry about."
My mother taught me about STAMINA: "You’ll sit there ’til all that spinach is finished."
My mother taught me about WEATHER: "It looks as if a tornado swept through your room."
My mother taught me THE CIRCLE OF LIFE: "I brought you into this world, and I can take you out."
My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION: "Stop acting like your father!"
My mother taught me about ENVY: "There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don’t have a wonderful Mom like you do!"
THANKS, MOM!

Jesus’ mother was not much different. We don’t have many recorded words spoken by Mary after Jesus’ birth. One of the instances in which she did speak she gave a profound order. At the wedding in Cana of Galilee which we hear about John’s gospel, where Jesus turned the water into wine; before that happened we are told: “When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine." "Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My time has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." That is a profound order, and one we should follow today.

The only way you and I can do whatever Jesus tells us is to make it our aim to keep or do his words. The only way we can hope to keep or do his words is by exposing ourselves to them in the pages of Scripture, learning them, paying attention to them, and seeking with the help of the Spirit to do them.

Do you love Jesus? Keep his words. Think of ways this week that you can keep his words. Love one another. Forgive one another. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And the list goes on and on.