Not Enough Time

I hear that sometimes.  I have said that sometimes.  Usually in a situation where I have not or someone else has not finished their Bible study.  I was thinking about that some this morning.  A couple of thoughts

There are two things that Jesus said that makes my excuse of not having enough time to study His Word fall incredibly short.  First in Matthew 6:33, He commanded that we see first God’s kingdom.  That wasn’t a suggestion, the verb is imperative.  We are to seek Him and His kingdom first.  Not after we have everything else taken care of, first.

The import of that on our lives is huge.  If we were to take Him seriously, it would impact how we approach everything in our lives, would it not?  Perhaps it would inform what kind of work we choose to do, and how much time we invest in that work.  It might alter our ambitions.  But that is not all…

In John 15:7 Jesus tells us that we should be abiding in His Word.  That impacts our prayer and by extension in the context, our fruit.  This is a conditional structure in the Greek.  It is the type that is undetermined in the sense that we may or may not abide in His word.  The result if we do is more effective prayer.

It would seem, based on these verses that we have the time.  Better, we have direction from the Lord on how we should be using our time.  If we do not seek His Kingdom first and abide in His Word, it would seem like He may have an opinion about that…

Struggling

I mentioned the other day that I am reading through Chafer’s Systematic Theology.  At the same time for some different reasons I have been listening to messages from several other speakers.  Some of those speakers, if you are engaged in any way in Kingdom work, you would know, some you would not.

However there is a relatively consistent theme in Chafer’s preface as well as the messages of both the well know and not so well known speakers.  That theme is the elevation of the “preacher” and the centrality of “preaching” to the Christian life.  I have those two words in quotes because it seems that most of our Bibles have mistranslated κηρύσσω (kerusso).  As I have written previously that word has carried the idea of a “herald” for a king who “proclaims” the kings message.  It is in our Bibles that the word family is rendered “preach” or “preacher”.  I heard one of the men to whom I have been listening refer to “preaching” as a spiritual gift.  I have rechecked 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 4, neither in Greek or English does either κηρύσσω or preach appear in those lists.

Another said that it was imperative for believers to come to the community to listen to the sermon because in the community there is a different spiritual experience when the sermon is heard in that way.  I have a tremendous amount of respect for this man, but I cannot find any Biblical support for that statement.  Further, the import of the statement is that experiencing a sermon in this way was life changing and a primary means of growth.  To say that I disagree would be – well I do.

As believers we are exhorted by Christ to abide in His Word, John 15:7.  We are told that it is the main way in which we are to grow, 1 Peter 2:1 – 2.  We are told that the Word of God is living and active, Hebrews 4:11 – 12.  It is the expectation that all of us are teachers, Hebrews 5:12 – 14.  We are told that it is the Word of God that makes us adequate in the Christian Life, 2 Timothy 3:14 – 17.  We are told that it is our responsibility to handle the Word of God accurately, 2 Timothy 2:15.

There are those who might say that those passages are aimed at leaders, pastors, etc.  The problem with that is Christ’s command.  In Matthew 28:18 – 20, He commands that disciples, followers of Jesus, are to be taught ALL (emphasis added) that He commands.  Not just those who pay tuition at seminaries.  Not just those who are “ordained”.

Further, in Ephesians 4:11 – 16, Paul explicitly says that the role of leadership in the communities is to equip those in the community.  That continues a theme that he wrote to Timothy, who he sent to Ephesus.  Timothy was to find people he could train to do what Paul trained him to do.  Those people were to do the same, 2 Timothy 2:2.

I do not understand – I am struggling greatly with this – how men who are steeped in the Bible can elevate their 20 or 30 minutes behind a pulpit as more important than those in their care being equipped to dig into the Word of God for themselves.

This has to change.  Those of us who have been through the halls of seminaries have been given much.  Much will be required of us.  It is more important that we equip men to study, and study well, than to tell them what we got out of our study.

It is much harder work to do so.  But it is, at this point, what Ephesians 4:11 – 16 directs.

If I am missing something please let me know.

More on Body Observations

It happened again this morning.  Although a couple of the men could not make it, the three of us dove into Acts 20.  Something that looks like a banal travel log at first glance with the application of observation and discussion yielded some life changing application.

Again the men around the table had prepared.  We are not coming to the table cold; that is not having engaged in the text at some significant level.  But for the past two weeks the discussion has yielded more insight for me than my personal study.

One of the men saw a repetition that I missed.  In Acts 20:21 – 26, the phrase solemnly testify occurs three times, if you add testify, which has the same Greek root, it is four times in those six verses.  But the key to that observation was in Acts 20:22, there Paul states that he was bound by the Spirit.

The observation was that this is nearly identical to what Jesus said.  Jesus only did what His Father told Him to do.  Here Paul is bound by the Spirit to do what the Spirit leads him to do.  Further earlier in the chapter, Acts 20:4, we read the list of men who are traveling with Paul.  That mirrors Jesus’ ministry as well.  Look at Mark 3:14.  Like Jesus, Paul recruited men to follow him, to see his ministry.

Finally, in Acts 20:25 – 35, Paul commits the ministry in Ephesus to the elders there, warning them about false teachers that will come both from in their midst, as well as from outside.  Peter shares the same warning in 2 Peter 2:1 – 3; 3:14 – 17.

What I am learning is that when men dig in on their own, then come together to share what they have found, richness emerges.  If you are not in a group like this, do whatever you have to, to find one.