This past Sunday Luke started our surprised by scripture sermon series for the month of February! For those of you curious about the title of the series it’s based on a book by a theologian of the name N.T Wright who is a highly influential theologian who has a big influence within Vineyard circles due to his theology of the Kingdom of God. If you can, definitely pick up his book!
Anyways, Luke unpacked quite a bit with us, but I wanted to bring up three things that stood out to me the most!
- The Bible is a foreign land: Luke spoke about how the Bible is not a modern text written to 21st century Americans. It’s actually composed of letters and scrolls addressed to 1st century Jews and gentiles, and that’s just the new Testament! It’s important for us to put ourselves in their shoes as much as possible to get a better understanding of what the authors were trying to say! This leads me to the second point that impacted me the most..
- Context matters: It’s really easy for us to read a passage of scripture and apply incorrectly to our lives. Luke spoke about the need to see the context in which the passage of scripture was written. Who it was addressed to? what was happening during that time? What time period was it written in? Who was the author and how does the passage fit in with the rest of the book? Answering these questions will help us better understand the passage and how we can apply it to our lives.
- Scripture always points to Jesus: I love this point because when we do come across pieces of scripture that just seem impossible to unpack or understand, we know Jesus is the end game. We can look to the person, words and works of Jesus to find a more holistic understand of what the Bible is trying to tell us! The end game is Jesus and there’s something so comforting and beautiful about that!
I personally can’t wait to see what the next couple of weeks have in store for us! Luke’s going to be going through an overview of the old Testament this Sunday, an area of the Bible I know we all struggle to grapple and read through! So be sure to bring yourselves and a friend, especially if you know they have a hard time understanding the old testament!
See y’all this Sunday!
