The Greatest Story Ever Told

Have you ever heard The Greatest Story Ever Told? Today, you can on this episode of the Grafted Podcast… The Greatest Story Ever Told.

We have entered the season of Advent! It is the time of expectant waiting and preparation to celebrate the Nativity of Christ for Christmas, and the return of Christ at the Second Coming. Because of this, we are going to take a break from our study in Romans. Instead, we are going to hear the first part of the Greatest Story Ever Told. This episode is good for the whole family. So gather your family, enjoy a hot cup of coco, and enjoy this story.

“The Greatest Story Ever Told”

Matthew 1:18-2:23 & Luke 1:26-2:40

An original adaptation, compiled and paraphrased by Adam Weatherly

 To tell the greatest story ever told, we have to go back in time, over 2000 years ago. It's a dark starry night in a vast desert wilderness of the East known as Persia. There, a group of wise men, people called Magi, studied the stars. On this particular night, they witnessed an astronomical phenomenon in the sky. “Look! A new star has appeared,” one of them said. The Magi started discussing this rare phenomenon. They knew something special had happened. As they interpreted the meaning of this new star, one of the Magi addressed the group, “this must be a sign from God.” They noticed that the star appeared over the land of Judah, which meant that the new Jewish King had been born. Not only that, but the birth of a new star revealed this new king was special. He would be the King of all Kings. “We must go and worship this great and mighty king,” a third Magi declared. So that night, they set out on a journey heading west as they followed the star. 

That very same night, in a small town named Nazareth, sat a young woman named Mary. She was engaged to a hardworking carpenter named Joseph, who just so happened to be the 26 times great-grandchild of King David. Mary was pure and innocent and waited for Joseph to become her husband. That night, Mary sat at her window, staring at the stars, dreaming of the life that she and Joseph would have together. All of a sudden the room began to shine with a bright light. Mary turned to see an angel of the Lord standing next to her. He wore a white tunic, elegantly decorated armor, with a sword hanging from his belt, and a trumpet made of horn at his side. The glory of God shone all around him, illuminating the room.

“Greetings favored woman. The Lord is with you,” he said. Mary was shaken up a little and didn’t know what to think about this weird greeting. She wondered why the angel had come to her. Then the angel spoke again saying, “Don’t be afraid, Mary. I am the Guardian Angel of Israel, Gabriel. The Lord has sent me to speak with you. God has chosen you to be blessed. You will become pregnant and will give birth to a baby boy. You will name him Jesus. The boy will be very great and will be called the Son of God. God will give him the throne of King David, he will rule over Israel forever, and his kingdom will never end.”

After hearing all that Gabriel said, Mary thought, “How can this be?” Then she asked Gabriel, “How exactly is this going to happen? I’m not married yet.”

Gabriel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of God the Most High, will overshadow you. This is why the baby will be called the ‘Son of God’. You see Mary, with God, nothing is impossible.”

Mary believed what the Angel Gabriel had told her and responded, “I’m the Lord's servant, and am ready to serve. Let it happen just like you say it will.”

A few months later, Mary’s belly began to grow. When she couldn't hide it any longer, Mary told Joseph, “Joseph, I need to share something with you, and you may want to sit down.” “Okay,” Joseph replied. Mary dropped the bomb, “I’m pregnant.” She told him everything that the Angel had said to her, but Joseph did not believe her. Because Joseph was an upright and moral man, he decided to take care of the situation secretly so that Mary wouldn’t be humiliated.

During the middle of the night, Joseph tried to figure out how to handle the news of Mary’s pregnancy. Frustrated and exhausted he fell asleep. As he drifted into a deep sleep, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him. “Joseph, son of David. Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife!” the angel said. “The child she is pregnant with has come from the Holy Spirit. The baby will be a boy and you should name him Immanuel — which means, God is with us. This baby will save His people from their sin to fulfill the message of God’s prophets that said, 'watch for this sign, a virgin will become pregnant and will have a son, who will be named Immanuel.'”

When Joseph woke up the next morning, realized that the dream was a message from God. So he did exactly what the angel had said in his dream. He married Mary but he vowed to not embrace her until after the baby was born.

Around that same time the Roman Emperor, Caesar Augustus declared that a census was to be taken. This meant that every family needed to travel to their father's hometown. Because Joseph was the 26 times great-grandson of King David’s royal line, he packed up his very pregnant wife on a donkey and walked a full day (about 6.5 miles) from Nazareth to the small town of Bethlehem in Judea.

As they arrived in Bethlehem early that evening, it was time for Mary to give birth. There was only one place for travelers to stay, a small Hotel. Joseph went inside to the Hotel owner. “Do you have an available room for my wife and I, so we can be counted in the census?” Joseph asked. To which the owner replied, “There are no rooms left in the Hotel.” “But sir!” Joseph argued. “Can’t you see my wife is about to give birth!? We need a place to stay!” “Mister, I’m sorry, but we have no rooms left. You’ll have to find someplace else.” the Owner sternly replied. Then Joseph begged, “Please. It’s dark outside, and we have no place to go. Surely you have something somewhere. Anywhere.” “Okay, Okay.” the owner answered as he saw the desperation on Joseph's face. “There is one place left, but you're not going to like it.” Joseph said, “We’ll take it!” “There's an empty stall in the stable. It’s around the back. Stay there if you want.” “Oh, Thank you,” Joseph said as he signed with relief.

Mary and Joseph walked around the hotel and saw a stable that was built in the opening of a small cave. It wasn’t ideal, but it worked. It was better than nothing. As they got settled in the stable, Joseph built a small fire to keep them warm and provide a little light. About that same time, Mary went into labor. "Joseph!" Mary shouted. "It's time. The baby is coming!" she said. Joseph grabbed all the blankets he could find and brought them to Mary. It was there, in that dark and dirty stable where Mary gave birth to her firstborn child. A baby boy. Mary swaddled the baby snugly in one of the blankets and nursed him. Joseph lined an empty feeding trough (manger) with blankets. When Mary was finished feeding the baby, she laid him in the feeding trough.

Not too far away, in a field just outside of Bethlehem, there were some shepherds. They sat under the stars next to a crackling campfire watching their sheep. Suddenly a bright light appeared, and an angel appeared out of nowhere and stood in front of them. He was wearing a long flowing white tunic, and the light of God’s glory shone around him. The shepherds were frightened.

“Don’t be afraid,” the Angel told them. “I’m here to give you good news that will bring joy to the whole world. ‘The Messiah was born tonight in Bethlehem. Go, look for the baby. He is wrapped in a blanket and lying in an empty feeding trough.”

As the Angel finished speaking, a choir of angels appeared behind him. They were all dressed in long flowing choir robes, and shining with the Glory of the Lord. They began to sing a heavenly hymn with their voices that brought praises to God. They sang the chorus, “Glory to God in the heavenly heights. Peace to all people on earth who please him.”

When the Angels ascended back to heaven, the shepherds looked at each other in awe. "Umm, did anyone else see that?" one of the shepherds asked. "YES!" the others all said at the same time. “We must go and see this baby,” one of them said. Another shouted, “Yes! We must go and worship this Savior!” “I think I know where he is,” another one proclaimed. They all jumped up and ran as fast as they could to find the baby in Bethlehem. When they arrived at the stable, they saw Mary and Joseph and stared in awe at the baby lying in a feeding trough. The shepherds believed what the Angel shared with them, and they began to worship the baby. Later in the evening, on their way back to their camp the Shepherds praised God for what they had seen. They told everyone they met about the child and what the angel told them. The people were captivated by what they heard.

Over the next week, Joseph found an acceptable place for Mary and the baby to stay. He also registered his family for the census. On the eighth day, early in the morning, Joseph and Mary took the baby to the temple in Jerusalem. They went to present the baby to the priest according to the Law of Moses.

As they entered the temple, a man named Simeon was waiting for them. Simeon was a good man, old in age, and was full of the Holy Spirit. Simeon constantly prayed that help would come to Israel. Earlier that day, the Holy Spirit fell on him. The Holy Spirit showed him that he would see the Messiah before he died, and led him to the temple. With a big smile on his face, Simeon took the baby from Mary. He held the baby tight in his arms as he began to praise God. Simeon prayed, “O Lord, I can now live out my days in peace as you promised. Now, I have seen your salvation, that you have given for everyone. He is the light that will reveal you to the nations, and is the glory of your people.” When he finished praying, Simeon looked at Mary and Joseph. He blessed them saying, “This child has been destined to cause many to rise and many to fall. He is the sign from God, but many will stand against Him. Because of this, the deep thoughts of many hearts will be discovered. And a sword will pierce your very soul.”

When Simeon finished speaking to Mary and Joseph, an eighty-four-year-old widow walked in. She spent her life worshipping God by praying and fasting day and night in the temple. Her name was Anna and she was a prophetess. Anna cherished the baby and began praising God. She shared about the child with everyone in the temple.

Mary and Joseph treasured everything that had been said about their baby. Now it was their turn to present the baby to the priest in the Temple. “Who is presenting this baby in the presence of the temple today?” the priest asked. “His mother, Mary, and I do,” Joseph replied. “And what is the name given to the child?” asked the priest. Joseph answered, “His name will be Jesus.” The Priest took Jesus, circumcised him, and said, “It has pleased God to give Joseph and Mary the gift of this baby who is called Jesus. We dedicate and set Him apart as being holy to God as the firstborn child. We give thanks to God for this child.” At the end of that day, after fulfilling the requirements of the Law, they returned to Bethlehem.

Two years passed and the Magi, from the East, were still following the star. On their journey, the star led them to Jerusalem. When they entered the city they asked, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We witnessed his star appear from the far-off eastern lands and have followed it so we can worship him.” Herod had become king of Judea at the time. But there was a problem, he was not a descendant of King David. The Jews didn’t like him, and they did not fully accept him as king. When Herod heard the rumors about what the Magi were asking, he knew his job was in danger. He thought that another king had come to take over, which made him extremely upset. Herod would do anything to stay king, so he called all the priests and scribes to look into where this newborn king was to be born. One of the priests spoke up quoting from the prophet Micah, “And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are not least among the ruling cities of Judah, for a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.”

King Herod summoned the Magi to a private meeting, and he pretended to be a devout believer. “When exactly did this new star first appear?” Herod asked. The Magi answered, “We first saw the star two years ago.” Next, Herod revealed the prophecy from Micah to the Magi and sent them on their way to Bethlehem. On their way out of the palace, Herod said, “Send a messenger back to me when you find the child, so I can come worship him too.”

The star appeared again as the Magi set out towards Bethlehem. It led them straight to a little house in Bethlehem where Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus were living. "KNOCK, Knock, knock." "Who could that be?" Joseph thought as he went to answer the door. "Can I help you?" Joseph asked the wise men. "We are from the East," one of them said. Another said, "Two years ago, we saw the star of a new king appear." "We have been following the star for two years, to worship and give presents to the new king," the third Magi said. "The star has led us here, to your house. May we come in?" The first Magi asked. Joseph remembered what the Angel who appeared to him in the dream had revealed. Joseph said, "Please come in."

As they entered the house, the Magi, they saw Mary holding Jesus. They bowed down in front of Jesus and worshipped him. The first wise man opened his bag and pulled out a beautifully carved wooden box. He opened the box as he sat it in front of Jesus. It was inlaid with purple cloth and filled with gold. The second wise man sat an ornately forged circular metal container in front of Jesus. He opened the metal container to reveal frankincense. Finally, the third Magi unwrapped an ornately painted bottle. As he sat it in front of Jesus, he pulled the cork out which allowed the sweet smell of myrrh to fill the room. Each gift was costly, luxurious, and suitable for celebrating the birthday of a new king. Mary and Joseph were amazed by what the Magi had brought.

Late that evening, after the Magi had left, everyone had fallen asleep. The Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a second dream. “King Herod wants to kill the child.” the Angel warned. “Get up now and take Mary and Jesus to Egypt. Stay there until I come back to you.” Joseph sat up startled. He woke up Mary, and they set out that night to take Jesus to Egypt.

Early the next morning, King Herod heard that the Magi disobeyed him. In a fit of rage, Herod called his soldiers. “Go to Bethlehem, and kill all the boys there who are two years old and younger!” he ordered them. The soldiers went to do as the king ordered. This brutal action fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah. “People will cry out in Israel, weeping for their children, because they were killed.”

Several years had passed since Joseph moved Mary and Jesus to Egypt. Late one evening the Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a third dream. “Get up!” The Angel said. “King Herod has died. It is now safe to take Mary and Jesus to your home.” Joseph woke up the next morning. “Mary! Mary!” He happily shouted. “Well, you sure woke up in a good mood,” Mary said with a little laugh. “The Angel of the Lord came to me in a dream last night. Guess what he said.” Joseph said. “I don’t know,” Mary replied. “What did he say?” Joseph excitedly said, “We can go home! The Angel said it was safe to return to Israel!” Mary and Joseph were excited that they could take Jesus to their home in Israel. So they packed up all their belongings and returned to their home in the small Galilean town of Nazareth. It is there where Jesus grew up. He became strong and was known for wisdom beyond his years, and God poured out his blessing on him.

I hope you enjoyed hearing The Greatest Story Ever Told. My prayer is that each of us has an amazingly blessed Advent Season as we celebrate Christmas and prepare for Jesus to come again.

God Bless & Merry Christmas

Cover of a Souls

We have all heard the saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” If the cover of a book looks interesting, chances are someone has their eye on it. Think about it, what is the purpose of a book cover? It’s supposed to visually show what's in the book to make the reader pick it up and buy it. The front cover attracts people to look at the back cover. The back cover educates about what's in the book, and the flap shares about the author. These are all parts of the cover that help “sell” a book. With over 700 million books sold every year in the United States, each book cover must stand out from all the others. The inside of the book needs to be just as good if not better than the cover. If the reader buys the book and doesn’t like it… it's game over. This is similar to how some people think about salvation. Many churchgoers believe that their outward cover of religion is what secures their passage into heaven. But their cover needs to be a reflection of what's on the inside. That's what we’re looking at in this episode of the Grafted Podcast…The Cover of a Soul.

Historical Context:

Once again, Paul is speaking to the flawed theology of Jews in the Roman church. They believed that their salvation was guaranteed due to being born a Jew. To them, circumcision was part of their identity, and they wore it like a badge of honor. Pride invaded their hearts, and they sought after the praise of men rather than God. In their arrogance, they forgot that their circumcision was in response to Abraham’s faith. The outward appearance became more important than their decision to believe in God and follow after him. 

We need to remember that Paul himself was both a Jew and a Roman citizen. He was educated not only in scripture but also in the law and culture of the day. What Paul writes from verses 12-27 leads up to the verses we are going to look at in this episode. 

In verse 13 he speaks against the thought that because they were Jews, they were automatically righteous before God. Paul told them, “For merely listening to the law doesn’t make us right with God. It is obeying the law that makes us right in his sight (NLT).” This is a continuation of what Paul talked about from Romans 1:28 through 2:12. The Jews knew what was required by God’s law, but they chose not to live by it. Then they Judged others for doing the same things that they were doing. Because of this, they were going to either suffer God’s wrath or spend eternity with him based on their deeds. In verse 23 he tells them, “You are so proud of knowing the law, but you dishonor God by breaking it (NLT).” He even said that because of the hypocrisy of the jews, the Gentiles denounced God.

Talk about a slap in the face for the Jewish believers! Now let's look at our key verses.

Romans 2:28-29 (ESV)

For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. 

Outward Jew

Paul drew a harsh distinction between being a Jew and a true follower of God. Verse 28 talks about the Outward Jew. He says…

“For you are not a true Jew just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the ceremony of circumcision. (NLT)”

A person's heritage doesn’t mean that they automatically stand right with God. This is what many of the Jews believed. They thought that they were automatically given salvation because they were born into a Jewish family, and they didn’t need to follow the law. They also believed that their circumcision was a badge that represented their guarantee of Salvation. What Paul was getting at here is that the outward signs of being a Jew are meaningless when it comes to salvation. It didn’t matter that they were born a Jew and went through the ceremonial circumcision or not. Many Jews followed God’s laws while they were in the public eye, but when it came to their hearts, they were not right with God. They had put on an outer cover to show their place as God’s chosen people, but their hearts didn’t match up on the inside. 

Paul teaches about this further in Romans 9:8 where he says, “This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.” Paul is referring back to the original promise of Abraham that led to the sign of circumcision. Abraham had faith in God and was accepted by God long before he was circumcised. Circumcision came as a sign of the Covenant God had with Abraham because of his faith. The Jews that Paul was talking to forgot about this. Instead, they were dishonoring God by breaking the law, while at the same time they bragged about God’s law in public. 

These outward appearances of the Jews did not represent the inner faith of a true believer. 

Today, we see this similarly played out all the time with social media. Everyone has their social profiles that make them seem like they have everything together and are living the dream. The outward appearance we see on social media doesn’t show us is the inner turmoil that is going on in a person's life.

The same is true for many churchgoers today. There are a large number of people who put on a Christian persona. They attend church and know christianese. They believe that being born into a Christian home, going to church, or even being baptized is what saves them. In fact, there are some Christian groups that delay baptism until the end of life to make sure all their sins are covered and washed away. They put on a good show with outward appearances for church, but their hearts don't reflect true Christian faith or character. We see this all the time in Spain when we are talking with people. We will ask someone if they are going to church. They will say something like, “Yea, I’m Catholic and attend mass,” but in the same sentence say “I don’t believe.’” They believe that the outward appearance of religion is what will get them into heaven. Many people think that simply having the outward appearance of being a Christian through religion is their ticket to salvation. But this is what Paul was teaching against.  

Just like there is a difference between being a Jew and a true follower of God, there is also a difference between calling ourselves a Christian and being a true Disciple of Christ. 

Inside

Paul is teaching the Jewish believers in the Roman church about what God looks for in a true believer. God values faith and obedience on the inside more than the outward appearance of circumcision. 

Romans 2:29 (ESV)

But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. 

Paul makes the switch from talking about outward appearances to what God sees on the inside of people…the heart. The Jew that is right with God in their heart is the true Jew. Peter also teaches about this in 1 Peter 3 when he is talking about how wives and husbands are to treat each other. The people of the church are the “bride” of Christ, which makes Christ the head of the church. 

1 Peter 3:3-4

Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— 4 but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.

God doesn’t want his church, his bride, to be an just outward sign. Not at all! God wants his church to be right with him in their heart. When the heart is right with God, so are the outward appearances. That is what Paul was referring to as circumcision being a matter of the heart. 

Just like circumcision was a sign and a seal of the covenant God made with Abraham, Circumcision of the heart is a sign of a true believer's genuine loyalty and obedience to God. Paul is referring to the prophecy to the people of Judah in Jeremiah 4:4 that says,

Jeremiah 4:4

“Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O man of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.”

Being a true believer isn’t a matter of following a religious structure, or just “doing” the law like many of the Jews believed. For Paul, being a true believer is a matter of becoming a new creation through faith in Jesus. Circumcision of the heart happens as a true believer allows the Holy Spirit to change them. This leads to the believer separating themselves from the world and dedicating their life to God. This is what the Baptism of a true believer is all about. Baptism represents that the believer has accepted Christ, made the decision to die to the world, and raised to a new life in Christ. It is the outward expression of an inner change of the believer's heart.

Praise

The Jews Paul was talking to looked for the approval of people. They wanted others to see what they were doing in public and applause them for it. Paul tells them that this is the wrong place to seek approval.

Romans 2:29b (ESV)

His praise is not from man but from God.

As believers' hearts are changed through the leading of the Holy Spirit, and they have devoted their lives to following God, something else happens. They start seeking approval from God. Paul teaches both the Corinthians and the Thessalonians about this. 

2 Corinthians 10:18 (NLT)

When people commend themselves, it doesn’t count for much. The important thing is for the Lord to commend them.

1 Thessalonians 2:4 (NLT)

For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts.

Seeking the approval of God is what Paul wanted the believers in the Roman Church to do. When people seek after the approval of others they are upside down in their theology and faith. But when people seek after the approval of God, they may not be popular with others, but they will be right with God. Which is way more important. 

Application

How does this apply to us today since many of us aren’t Jewish believers?

If we rephrase this verse for us today it might read more like this:

Romans 2:28-29 (Adam’s modern paraphrase)

For you are not a true Christian because you were born into a Christian family, or because you have gone through the ceremonies of confirmation or baptism. No, a true Christian is one whose heart is right with God. And true baptism represents not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it shows a change of heart that has been produced by the Holy Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.  

Going to church and practicing religion is not what makes us christians. 

When I was a teenager, I attended the United Methodist Church. When I was 17 years old that meant that it was time for me to go through Confirmation. For the Methodist Church, Confirmation marks the first time a baptized Christian publicly "confirms" their intention to be a professing member of the local congregation. For me this was several weeks of classes with my pastor. I learned about church history, sacraments of the church, special days and seasons, and about church doctrine. Basically I learned what it meant to be a Methodist.  

When this class was over, there was a special service for me and others who attended the class. We were presented to the church. Our pastor asked us questions like, “Do you renounce evil?”, and “do you commit to Jesus Christ?” to which we all answered “I do.” Then I was baptized by sprinkling. Then the church accepted all of us who took the class as members of the Church. 

For me, this was simply just something that everyone who went to the church did. It was part of the act of religion. Going through all of this did not mean that I was a true Christian. My heart wasn’t in it at all. People who looked at me saw my outward appearance, my cover of religion, but they didn’t know what was inside my heart.  It was 3 years later, when I was 20, that I had a true change of heart to follow Jesus and was baptized by immersion.

I believe that classes like the confirmation class I went through are very important. I believe that as Christians we need to know about the things that are learned in these classes. But just because we go to these classes and learn these things does not mean that we are true Christians. What makes us true Christians is based on our confession of faith, and our new heart that shows the work of Jesus in our lives as we become doers of God’s Word. If we were books, our outer covers accurately represent the pages of our inner hearts. 

In God’s eyes we are an open book. He sees all the secrets in our hearts and lives. He isn’t impressed with how religious we are, but he looks to see if our hearts have truly been changed by the Holy Spirit. If your life was a book on the shelf at your local bookstore, and God was browsing the shelves, would your cover represent the story of a changed heart that He wants to read?

Growth Point Questions:

1. If your life was a book, would your outer cover match the story written on inner pages?”

2. Did you grow up in a religious environment? What was that experience like? Was it good or bad?

3. When was your heart circumcised, and what was your life like before and after you became a new creation?

4. How can other people tell that God’s Word is written on our hearts?

5. What is the defining characteristic of a true Christian?

Good Deeds

Romans 2:6-11 “Good Deeds”

Last episode:

On the previous episode, we talked about the topic, “Who are you to judge” based on Romans 2:1-5.  About how as Christians, we are supposed to have a higher standard of living that includes our morals and ethics. But, we need to be extremely careful that we don’t become self-righteous and start judging others when we know that we are sinners and mess up too. Because there isn't one of us who is guiltless, when we speak out against sin, it needs to be done with a humble heart. We are to show people the same kindness, tolerance, and patience that God has shown to us in our own wrongdoing. 

Objective:

In this episode, we are looking at how God will judge everyone based on their deeds. We will contrast Righteous vs unrighteous believers, and God's judgment through what the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 2:6-11. The title of this episode is “Good Deeds”

History/Context

Paul’s audience is still those High Moralists in the church who think they are better than everyone else but were still practicing the same immoral acts as the unbelievers. In chapter 1 verses 18-32 Paul gives us a list of the things they were doing. This group mainly consisted of Jewish believers. More than likely, there were a few Gentile believers in the mix as well. After warning them about passing judgment on others, Paul warns them in Chapter 2:6-11 that they are going to be judged by God according to what they have done in life. Let's look at these 6 verses. 

Verse

Romans 2:6-11 (ESV)

He will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking (contentious or quarrelsome) and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality. 

Point 1: God Judges according to what is done in life. 

Some people may look at verse 6 and think, “Wait a second, salvation comes through faith in Jesus and not by works. Isn’t Paul contradicting himself here?” The answer is “No.” Paul is not contradicting himself. We know through other verses (like Ephesians 2:8-9, Galatians 2:16, and Titus 3:4-5) that Paul teaches that salvation comes through faith and not by works. What Paul understood was that the condition of a person's heart could be seen through their habitual conduct, whether it was good or bad. 

Jesus teaches on the point that Paul is trying to make in Matthew 16:24-27 (NLT)

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father and will judge all people according to their deeds. 

The people Paul was talking to are the people who believed in Jesus, but they didn’t want to give up their old ways. They hung on to their old life and continued in the sins they were committing. In the process of going after the world, they ended up forfeiting their souls to Hell. It is the deeds that people do, that proves whether their allegiance is with God or the world. 

The Jews had been warned about this before several times. Once was in Job 34:11(ESV) “For according to the work of a man he will repay him, and according to his ways he will make it befall him.” And another time in Jeremiah 17:10 (ESV) that says, “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” 

These Jewish believers didn’t think that these warnings applied to them. So Paul had to bring these “Higher than Thou” moralists down a few notches. 

Today, we need to realize that we are going to be judged by God at some point. We are not saved by good works. But, when we fully commit our lives to God, we want to please him by obeying him. When God judges us, He is going to take into consideration our actions and how well we have obeyed him. 

Point 2: Eternal life for those who seek God

Paul uses verse 7 to encourage people to patiently seek to do good works as they follow Christ. 

Verse 7 (NLT):

He (God) will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers. 

By seeking to do good, it shows the results of a new life in Christ, and that a person's heart is redeemed by God and they now have eternal life. The true faith of a believer generates good works. These good works that believers do, show others along with God that they are also seeking after what God offers in the forms of glory and honor and eternal life. They are choosing a life of righteousness.

While teaching about what the Parables mean, Jesus talks about the seed that falls on good soil saying in Luke 8:15 (ESV),

“As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.”  

As Christians we must hold onto what God says through his word, continually seeking God's will in our lives, and looking for ways we can do good in order to live out our faith. 

Point 3: Seek the world brings God's wrath.

In verse 8, Paul starts to bring the hammer down as he contrasts what happens for those who don’t seek after God with a warning. 

Verse 8 (ESV):

but for those who are self-seeking (or contentious) and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 

In verse 7, eternal life is promised to those who are doing good and following after God. But here in verse 8, God’s wrath and anger are promised for those who have turned away from Him. Especially those who are claiming to have a special place with him. These people are self-seeking and only live for themselves. The phrase, “By living for themselves,” means they are rebelling against God which is unrighteousness. They prefer to live according to the pleasures that they find in the world. This pushes God away and neglects the truth. These are people who won’t apologize and turn from their worldly ways. 

Jesus talks about the seed that falls on bad soil in Luke 8:14 (ESV),

“And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. “

Those who are not seeking after and obeying God end up not doing good deeds. Their deeds are based on their unrighteous sinful actions. 

If we start to ignore what God is saying and start living the way we want to live, participating in worldly sin, then we are going to be in trouble. Eternal life is only promised to those who have faith in Jesus and follow after God’s will for their lives. When we live for the pleasures of the world, and push God away we will be repaid for what we have done. Our actions will eventually show whether or not we are truly living for God. 

Point 4: The Payment for Deeds

Now, we see that Paul has mentioned two groups of people. The first group are those who seek after God, and the second are those who seek after themselves or the world. Each one of these groups will receive a payment based on their actions. 

Verses 9-10 (ESV) say,

“There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil,…, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good,….”

Paul starts with the second group of people. Those who are the thorns. They live for themselves and care more about the riches and pleasures of life rather than God. And they never produce good fruit. Their wicked deeds will be repaid with the wrath and fury of God’s anger. Upon their judgment day, because of the choices they made, even though they know who Jesus is but did not follow him, they will be repaid with an eternity separated from God. Paul says that the payment for those who do evil will be tribulation and distress. There will be suffering and affliction both here on earth and in eternity for those who reject God. 

Then in verse 10, Paul ends with the first group of people. Those who are good soil. They heard the word of God, they held tightly to it with a good and honest heart. Because they followed and obeyed God, they produced good deeds. When they stand before God on their judgment day, God will pay them for their good deeds in the form of glory, honor, and peace which includes eternal life in heaven with God. 

Quick side note: Many people misread vs 10 where it says, “everyone who does good.” They misread it to say “everyone who does the best they can.” This compares various human behaviors and creates a scale of good and evil which is not good theology. God’s ways are Black and White with no gray. His perceptions see straight through what we may perceive as gray areas. Sin is dark, evil, and no good…it is unrighteous. Good is light, pure, and does good… which is righteous. 

Point 5: No Favoritism

In verses 9 & 10 I left out something that Paul said, because I want to look at it with verse 11. Two times Paul said “for the Jew first and also the Greek,” some translations use the word Gentile.” and then in verse 11 he said, “For God does not show favoritism.”

God does not favor the Jews over the Gentiles like the Jewish Christians believed. This isn’t the case at all. The Jew and the Gentile are both loved equally by God. Paul is addressing the thought that many Jews believed, which is that their religious heritage is what guarantees their salvation. But this is not the case. Paul wanted to drive home the fact that with God, there is no place for prideful superiority amongst Christians. That is why He looks at the deeds of each person to see if their heart is following and obeying Him or following after the world. 

After Jesus came to the Apostle Peter to teach him about reaching people who were not Jews, Peter said in Acts 10:34-35, 

“Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to Him (God).”

This is a reminder for us that our family, national, or cultural faith does not mean that we are Christians. Many people in the United States claim Christianity because they believe that the faith of their forefathers is good enough for them to call themselves Christians. But this is far from the truth. To be a Christian, it requires a person to have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord, God, and Savior. If they haven’t made that confession of faith, then they are not a Christian.  

Two Types of Workers

Everything that we’ve looked at in Romans 2:6-11 reminds me of the way people see their jobs. 

We’ve all worked with two types of people on the job. The first type is the team player, they do their part but also are happy to help others. They are making sure the job is getting done, eager to learn new things and are helping the team succeed. The second type of person is showing up late, leaving early, not holding to their own deadlines, unwilling to work outside their job description, and just working for the weekend. When it comes time for a promotion, who do you think will be chosen? What if downsizing needs to happen? 

In our lives who would we rather be? The contentious one only looking out for ourselves, as scripture put it? Or doing good? Where we are promised peace and honor?

Side Note

So I want to take a second to explain something. When my wife looked over this message, she mentioned that there may be some who hear it and think, “Great! The Scales are not weighted in my favor. There is no way I can be good enough.” Here's the deal… When we have faith in Jesus and repent of our evil ways, all of our past sin is thrown out as if they never happened. Hebrews 10:14-18 is a great example of this:

For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy. 15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies that this is so. For he says, 16 “This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” 17 Then he says, “I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.” 18 And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices. 

Jesus, by dying on the cross, became this final sacrifice for sin. Even after our confession of faith that cleans us from our sin, if we sin again all we need to do is ask for forgiveness and do our best to change our ways with God's help. 

Conclusion

In looking at Romans 2:6-11 we have seen how God will judge us through our actions, that through our actions we prove whether or not we are truly following Christ, and we have seen the payment we will receive. Similar to the illustration of Tim and Doug working for Mr. Rands, we will eventually have to stand to make an account for our actions. God will judge us based on first our faith in Jesus, and second through our actions that prove where our allegiance truly is. 

Growth Points

1. What are some of the things that you had to give up to follow after Jesus?

2. In what ways can we seek to do good that honors God?

3. How do people tend to “choke out” the truth in their life?

4. What are some actions or deeds that show whether or not a person is living for God?

5. How can we hold tightly to the Word of God?

Who Are You To Judge?

When I was in 9th grade, I was the new kid to the school that year. It had been several months since school started, and other students were still trying to figure me out. Then one day one of the students in homeroom asked me, “Are you a Christian?” And I said, “No.” Then he along with others sitting around me, started judging me and talking about all the sins they thought I might have possibly committed. I remember thinking at one point, “Who are you to judge me?” and said to them “Why should I be a Christian if you're not living the way you're supposed to?” Then the bell rang, and it was time to go to the next class. What they didn’t know was that, while I wasn't a Christian, I did go to church. The students who sat around me judging were known for doing things they should not have been doing. These students had mouths worse than sailors, they were gossips, they were disobedient to their parents, foolish, and there was one girl who was known for being promiscuous. That was in 1999. I didn’t accept Jesus in 2004. 

Last Episode Recap

Thanks for tuning in to this Episode of the Grafted Podcast. I just want to say a quick thank you for everyone that has been praying for our family and supporting our ministry. We just hit 80% of our monthly missions budget and have started the VISA process. We have $1800 left in monthly support to raise before we can go back to Spain. Our goal is to be finished fundraising by December, and if the Lord wills to move to Madrid by the end of December. Thank you again for your prayers and financial support. To find out more about how you can become one of our ministry partners please visit our website www.showingtheworld.com and click on the Donate Now tab. 

Last episode we looked at Romans chapter 1 vs 28-32 and what happens for those who don’t acknowledge or have faith in God. Through Paul's example, we saw how God never gives up on anyone, but he will, however, allow them to go their own way, and to live the way they want to live. Today that relates to people living the “You do you” lifestyle, then to help themselves feel better they encourage others to do the same things they were doing. Eventually, this leads to suffering the consequences of their actions. As Christians, we should use Paul's example to live for Christ, stay on the right track with God, and do our best to live up to his standards through our faith in Jesus. 

Intro

In this episode, we are looking at Romans 2:1-5, Who are you to judge!?

Remember Paul is addressing the Church in Rome which was made up of both Jewish and Gentile believers. There was a small group of Jewish believers that Paul is calling out here. This group considered themselves to have the highest of morals. So they looked down on and judged others because they had higher standards of living than the other people living in the community. They also believed that God’s condemnation did not apply to them. 

So let's look at these first 5 verses of Romans chapter 2:

“Therefore you have no excuse, O man, everyone of you who judges. For in passing judgement on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgement of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgement of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgement will be revealed.”

Before we dig in, I want to point out two things. First, while Paul is talking about judging, he is not talking about judging for Church discipline. There is a time and a place for church discipline to happen. This typically happens when a believer has had what is considered a moral failure and is unrepentant. At that point, the pastor, church board, deacons, elders, and other church governing authorities step in to judge and discipline. This is Biblical and each Christian denomination has their own set of bylaws that helps guide this process. As an ordained Assemblies of God Minister, I have witnessed church discipline, and it is not fun for anyone or any side that is involved. BUT, this is not what we are talking about in this episode. 

The second thing I want to point out is that Paul is not talking about judging our fellow Christians as a form of accountability. This is where one Christian notices another who is struggling in an area that may be known or unknown. When a Christian sees another doing something they are not supposed to, they are to judge as in, calling into question the situation. But this is not to judge, as in condemning the person, but instead to gently help them stay right with God. Again, not what we are talking about in this episode.

Now that we have that out of the way, we can look at what Paul is really talking about. 

Calling Out the Judges

Paul starts chapter 2 by saying, “You have no excuse! You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad.(NLT)” He is directly referring to what he said in Chapter 1 verses 28-32 where God let people go to live their own way and to do what should not be done, and then he gave a list of the things they were doing. The small group of Jewish believers we talked about earlier along with other believers were judging people for their ungodly living. 

The issue with that is that the same people who were judging non-believers, were doing some of the same exact things. While they believed in Jesus Christ, they were still actively involved in sinful acts such as gossiping, slandering, boastful, heartless, and being envious and deceitful. While they know the rules, they thought that their faith would allow them to still practice these things. But that was not the case. 

Paul calls these judgy people out by saying “When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things. (NLT)” These believers were caught red-handed! There is a story in John chapter 8 where the Pharisees brought Jesus a woman who had been caught in adultery. The believers Paul was referring to, were acting just like the Pharisees. Romans 2:1 was Paul’s way of saying what Jesus said in John 8:7 “Let those who are without sin be the first to throw a stone…(mixed translation)”

The Thought Process

Paul knew about the two thought processes that these people had in the back of their mind who thought they were better than others. 

First thought

Their first thought is that they had Escaped God’s Judgment. This is found in verse 3. 

“Since you judge others for doing these things, why do you think you can avoid God’s judgement when you do the same things?”

They thought that because they had faith in Jesus, that they would escape the judgement of God. They also forgot who the judge, jury and executioner actually is, so they began taking it upon themselves to be those three things. And they showed absolutely no mercy to those they were judging. Paul insisted that they were condemned because they were doing the same exact things they were judging others for. He knew that someday every one, including us today, will appear in our true character and stand in judgement before Jesus. When we do, we will receive what is due to us (our reward or punishment) based on the things we have done while living. Paul suggests that when believers judge others for something they do also, that they are going to be judged the same way. 

Jesus talked about judging others in Matthew chapter 7. In verse 2 he said,

“for with the judgement you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” 

This is judging in the sense of sentencing someone or condemning someone for their actions. There is a difference between wondering if  someone is going to Hell because they don’t have faith in Jesus, and condemning someone to hell because of their sinful lifestyle. 

In 1 Corinthians 4:4b & 5 while talking about the ministry of the Apostles Paul said,

“It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.”

The Second Thought

The second is that they took for granted what God had done for them. 

We see this in verse 4 where Paul said, 

“Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin? (NLT)”

These Judgy believers had grown arrogant and entitled. They had a false sense of security believing that since they were Jewish believers, they had possession of God’s law. They became self-righteous. This caused them to take for granted that God was patient with them, and how He gave them time to turn from their evil rebellious ways. In the way they were judging others, they became ignorant of what God did for them. 

Paul was concerned that their overconfidence in their “special” status with God, and their unwillingness to repent of sin, showed disrespect for God’s blessings. So he reminded them that God’s purpose is to lead people toward repentance and to return to Him. This happens through God's kindness and His patience. 

Peter teaches in 2 Peter 3:9

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

Instead of showing people God in a positive light, these Jewish believers were judging others in a way that showed contempt for the kindness, tolerance and patience of God. 

Paul’s Warning

So now that Paul has called out these two through processes, he brings down the hammer on the arrogant believers with a warning in verse 5. 

“Because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. For a day of anger is coming, when God’s righteous judgement will be revealed.” 

Paul was enforcing the idea that because they were judging others for the same things that they were doing, they were throwing judgement and condemnation on themselves. This was his way of telling them they need to ask for forgiveness and turn from their sin or there will be consequences when the day Judgement comes. 

Even Jesus mentions this in Matthew 7:3-5. 

“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? 4 How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye. (NLT)”

Application

While Paul was calling out high moralist believers in the Church in Rome, today we can learn from their mishaps. What we learn from this is that we need to be extremely careful in judging other people. Especially if we are judging someone else for doing something we are guilty of doing ourselves. 

It's probably safe to say that we all know someone who is guilty of being like the people Paul was referring to. We may even be putting ourselves in check thinking about it. 

My family studies Brazilian Jiu-jitsu together. It’s fun, it’s a great heart pumping exercise, and it's a great thing to do as a family. If you have ever been to a martial arts gym, there are all kinds of people from just about every walk of life. Some are Christian, some are from other religious backgrounds and lifestyles. There is a lot of ministry that can happen on the mats. About 6 months or so ago, there was a mixed martial arts fighter at our gym that everyone knew was Christian and attended church. Now the people in this story are people that I personally know and respect, and they could kick my butt, so I’m changing their names. We’ll say his name is Andy. He was an outspoken Christian. One day he was talking to one of the lady mma fighters. We will say her name is Kelly. During that conversation, Kelly let the “F” word slip out. Andy completely lost his mind, started yelling, and raked Kelly over the coals. He told her how she was on a path straight to hell because of her foul mouth, and that she needed to apologize to him for cussing in front of him. Wow, thanks Andy for showing God’s kindness and passion there. Come to find out by looking at Andy’s social media accounts, he was involved in some questionable lifestyle choices himself. He just chose cussing to be the mountain he wanted to die on that day. And in the process, he ruined his reputation as a Christian at the gym. I don’t know if Andy was having a bad day that day, if he was being a little on the self-righteous side or if he used to cuss like a sailor or something. But For whatever reason he decided to judge someone else when he knew his lifestyle didn’t fit with Gods standard as well. 

As Christians, we are called to a higher standard of living which includes our morals and ethics. Where we need to be careful is that we don’t become self-righteous and start judging people when we know that we mess up too. There isn’t a single one of us who is guiltless. While we are supposed to speak out against sin, we need to do so with a humble heart. 

When we find ourselves justifiably upset about someone else's sin, we are to show that person the same kindness, tolerance, and patience that God has shown to us in our wrongdoing. That doesn’t mean we are giving approval of wrong living, but instead we are being gentle and prayerful of how we handle the person. More often than not, the sins we see most clearly in others are the ones that have taken root in us the most. Before attending to someone else's issues, we need to evaluate ourselves first and remember what God has done for us.

Remember, God shows us his kindness in allowing us to live and enjoy life, he is tolerant as he bears with us as we don’t live up to his standards, and he is patient with us as he postpones his judgment and punishment so that his kindness will lead us and others into repentance and a relationship with him. 

Growth Points

There are two parts to the growth points for this episode. First are to help us examine ourselves, and the second set are for discussion. 

Self-examine:

1. Have you ever found yourself judging or looking down on someone else? If so, why?

2. What ways have you experienced God’s kindness, tolerance, and patience in your life?

3. Have you ever taken what God has done for granted? If so, how?

4. Are there currently things in your life that you have tried to hide in darkness that you know will be revealed during God’s judgement? If so, what are they?

Discussion:

1. Have you ever experienced someone else judging you for something? 

2. We all know judgemental, self-righteous people. What type of things do they tend to judge others for?

3. What excuses do people make to defend their reasoning for judging someone else?

4. In what ways can we show others God’s kindness, tolerance, and patience?

You do you and see what happens

You do you and see what happens. 

08 Romans 1.28-32

Have you heard the term, “You do you?” Man, I have, and in today's world, we hear it all the time. A Lot of times we hear it said, “You do you and let me be me, and we will all be happy.” When we live this way, most of the time we will fail to live God's way. What happens when we don’t live God’s way? Find out on this episode of The Grafted Podcast… You do you and see what happens. 

The last episode we talked about Romans 1.16-18. About how we should not suppress the good news, but instead, we need to embrace and be shamelessly confident in it. This is because it’s the power of God, and it brings us into a relationship that leads us into eternal life in heaven. 

This episode we are looking at Romans 1.28-32 and what happens for those who don’t acknowledge or have faith in God. 

Verses 19 - 27 talk about how God has made himself known to everyone through the very beginning when He created the world and made everything. Specifically, with the Jews, who knew God, they decided in their heart that honoring and thanking God was foolish. They started following after idols, dishonorable passions and gave up the truth of God for a lie. Being the chosen people of God, the Jews had no real excuses for turning their back on God.  

This is where we pick up in Romans 1:28-32

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Remember we talked about the wrath of God that was revealed against ungodliness, unrighteousness, and for those who suppress the truth in verse 18. Three times Paul mentions how God gave them up in verses 24, 26, and 28. I believe Paul mentions this the way he does, to help remind the Roman church that they can have a relationship with God because the Jews turned away from Him. 

The Jews failed to acknowledge, give recognition to, and follow after God. Instead, they chose to challenge the qualifications of God to see if He was a god of their liking. They got too big for their britches when they decided to put themselves above God. They chose to reject God saying, “God, just let me be me.” Therefore, God allowed them to do it and gave them up to their own ways. 

God gave them up…

Now, I know there are a lot of people out there who read this verse and get hung up on where it says, “God gave them up….” or where The New Living Translation says, “He abandoned them.” Many people read this part and think that God gave up on or abandoned the Jews. This does not mean that at all. God never gave up on the Jews, nor does He abandon anyone. He does, however, allow people to go their own way. These words “gave them up”, or as the NLT says “abandoned,” are actually one Greek word, paradidomi. Paradidomi actually means to hand over, yield up, surrender, give over, and deliver. The Jews basically said, “God, we can do this on our own and we don’t need you.” So, God allowed them, and many people today, to follow after themselves because He has given everyone free will. “Free Will” is a theological topic that we are not going to get into on this episode because it's a theological can of worms that we will save for a future episode. 

We know that God hasn’t given up on the Jews or anyone for that matter, because if he did, He would not have sent Jesus as the final sacrifice for sin. 

Think about this from the standpoint of the Parable of the Prodigal Son. It is found in Luke 15:11-32. A father had two sons. The younger of the two asked the father for his part of the inheritance. So the father divided the inheritance between the two brothers and gave the younger his share. When he received his share, he packed up and moved away. He ended up gambling all his money away on wild living. Then a famine came and the young son began to starve. He started looking for odd jobs and became a farmhand. He noticed that the slop he was feeding the pigs was better than what he was eating, or even getting paid for that matter. When he came to his senses, he realized that his father’s servants have plenty of food and are taken care of, but he was dying of hunger. So the young son returned home to ask his father to hire him as a servant. But his father, when he saw him, was filled with love and compassion and went out to meet his son. The son, knowing all he had done in separating himself from his father, asked his father for forgiveness and if he could be a servant in his father’s house. But instead, the father reinstated the young son, not as a servant, but back into the family. The son went from being lost to being found and was fully restored back to his rightful place in the family.

That is kinda what God was doing here with the Jews. God protected the Jews not only from themselves but from others as well. But when they chose to reject God, He allowed them to go away to do their own thing and to live the way they wanted. He gave them over to the way they wanted to live. But what did they do to make God hand them over to themselves?

What did they do?

What did they do that was so bad? What made God want to let them go their own way? 

I believe the key to this is found in verses 21 - 22, & 25.

Vs 21-22: For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,

Vs. 25: because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator,

This leads us into the first part of vs 28, 

“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God,”

This is what is scary about the “You Do You” culture. It's a slippery slope. Where is the line drawn? Is it God’s law, governmental law, cultural norms, or ourselves?

The Jews knew God and were not ignorant. After all, God chose them as His people and showed himself to them. Even while knowing their own history of how God brought them out of slavery to become a mighty nation, they chose to go their own way. They traded their knowledge and relationship with God, to follow their own dishonorable passions. Instead of following the ways of God, they chose to follow the ways of the world. Basically, they wanted a God that they could control, who would approve of what they wanted. Their decision led them to have debased minds which meant they did what should not have been done. They failed to live up to God's standard, so they disqualified themselves.

As they rejected God, their thinking and behavior also changed. They became unethical and immoral as they violated God’s standards. They lost their ability to distinguish between right and wrong. 

The Jews didn’t turn away from God all at once. It was a progression over time. They all started with the knowledge of God. But over time, they became entitled to what they were given, and eventually stopped acknowledging God as the one who provided for and protected them. 

This led Paul to introduce a list of behaviors that people were doing that was against God’s standard. These weren't just things the Jews were doing but were things that were going on around the entire Roman empire at the time. 

• They changed their thinking which caused their hearts to become dark (v21)

• They traded the true God for false idols (v22)

• They had impure hearts and dishonored their bodies (v24)

• They exchanged the Truth of God for the lies of the world (v25)

• They practiced homosexuality (vs 26 & 27)

• They filled themselves with every kind of ungodliness which 21 of those things Paul listed in vs 29 - 31.

  • Unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice, envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 

All of this sounds a lot like what’s going on in the world today. Just spend 5 minutes watching the news or looking at social media and we can see all of these things that Paul mentioned. 

Let their Conscience be the Guide

Now let's look at the first part of verse 32:

They know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die.

For the Jews, they knew God’s laws. And they knew the consequences of breaking those laws. This is something they were taught from a very young age. Many of the things the Jews were doing that Paul listed, broke the law and the penalty was death. Paul listed some of them which include Idolatry (Deut 17:2-5), encourage others to go after other gods (Deut 13:12-15), disobedient children (Deut 21:18-21), homosexuality (Lev 20:13), adulterers (Lev 20:10), and Murderers (Num 35:16). This is just to name a few. Many of these things people today see as being a minor offense, or no offense at all. But what we should note is that the penalty in the Old Testament was death for committing some of these offenses. That means that God must take them a lot more seriously than we do today. Even Paul himself was guilty of some of these things before becoming a Christian when he was a pharisee. Paul even testified against himself in the stoning of Steven in Acts 22:20 for approving and watching as Stephen was stoned to death.  

Giving Approval

This leads us into the second half of verse 32. 

“…, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” 

Rebellion from God quickly becomes a lifestyle for people who continue in it. Like with the things Paul mentions in these verses. That is what happened with the Jews. Their conscience became perverted. If they began to agree at all with God’s standard for their lives that would mean they would have to change their ways and repent. So what did they do? They encouraged others to live a life contrary to God’s standard. They couldn’t silence their own conscience, so they made themselves feel better when they approved of others doing what they were doing. This also increased their sense of security.  

This reminds me of when kids get caught doing something they know they shouldn’t. For example, My wife, Bethany, used to babysit. One time she was babysitting two boys. Their mom told them they were not allowed to have any more gummy bears, and she told Bethany that as well. Bethany was sitting on the couch when she saw the reflection on the tv of the boys running behind her into the kitchen. As they were getting into the gummy bear jar one of them whispered loud enough for Bethany to hear, “Bethany is going to catch us!” And the other responded, “No she won't.” Then with their hands full of gummy bears they ran behind the couch again, when Bethany quickly popped up and said, “CAUGHT YA!”

As humans, we inherently know when we do something wrong. When we do something wrong it brings a sense of guilt and shame. But when it becomes a lifestyle for us, we don’t want to change or stop what we are doing. When it comes to living a lifestyle that is against God’s standards, it results in going down a spiritual path that leads to eternal destruction. And will be found out when we stand before God on the Day of Judgement. 

When we make choices, whether good or bad, we usually want to reinforce that decision. What happens when we urge others to make the same choice, even when we are not 100% sure about our decision. That is what helps us feel secure about what we decided to do. 

Think about it. I bet all of us have made a choice of some sort, good or bad, that we were not 100% sure about. I know I have. Just to keep things on a level playing field, let's use getting a new cell phone carrier as our example. You used one carrier, but they changed their prices, don’t have good coverage in your area, or their customer service is just horrible. So you start looking for a new carrier. You ask around and do your research. There are mixed reviews about each carrier, pros and cons, and you end up picking the one with the best offer. Once you make that decision, you mention to a few people that you changed carriers. You might even know someone looking to switch so you tell them about which carrier you chose. 

This happens with a lot of decisions we make in life, especially when we are looking for places to live, where to go to school, what car to buy if we should look for a new job, who to marry, what church we go to. There are so many times we make decisions and choices. 

Some people even make extremely dangerous decisions for the sake of “fun.” They say to themselves, “I know it’s dangerous, but it’s worth the risk.” Like those parkour guys who jump from one rooftop to another in the most creative way possible. At any moment, they could mess up, fall, and get hurt or even killed. 

Where the real issues start happening is when we are starting to make life decisions that go against God’s standards. Some of which Paul mentions here in vs 18-32, you can read those for yourself. This is when people start saying, “I know it's wrong, but I really want to.” For some people, knowing that it's against God’s law, the morals of the community, or against common sense makes it all the more fun. 

When people start using their own sense of right and wrong, they become fiercely defensive about their ways. People who are rebelling against God have a lot at stake. If they agree in any way shape or form with God in their lives, it would require them to repent and change. So they go running the opposite way and forcefully, sometimes destructively, defend their actions.

I know this lady who grew up in a somewhat of a Christian home. Her parents claim Christianity and she has some knowledge of God. But when she got to the age where she could make her own decisions, she decided to go down her own path in life. She has turned away from God, drinks heavily, smokes pot, is active in the LGBTQ community, she practices tarot card reading and witchcraft. Here decisions have hurt her own family and friends. So to make herself feel better about her decisions she encourages others to do the things she is doing. And anyone that doesn’t agree with her lifestyle, she immediately cuts them out of her life and calls them Bigots. This is funny because the definition of Bigot is a person who is utterly intolerant of any differing creed, belief, or opinion. Of which she is exceedingly intolerant of anyone who has any different beliefs, values, or opinions from her. She has turned her back on God to go her own way, and she believes that only her way is right. And essentially, she has traded her soul for the world, and if she doesn’t turn to God she will end up spending eternity in a place she doesn’t want to go. This is the danger of the "you do you" culture that we live in today.

The Good news

Now, I know this episode seems to be doom and gloom so far. Where is the encouraging part about all of this?

The encouragement comes when we realize that nobody is ever too far away from God. Regardless of how far from God a person is or what all they have done, if they turn to Him, ask for forgiveness and have faith in Christ, they will be accepted into the family of God with open arms. Just like with the Parable of the Lost Son. It doesn’t matter if a person has broken every last one of God’s laws, if they come to God as the lost son did with his father, God will throw their sins as far as the east is from the west as he forgives them of all of their offenses. 

We will look at more encouraging aspects of Paul’s letter to the Romans in upcoming episodes. 

Review

So let's recap. While God will never give up on someone, he will however allow them to go their own way, and to live the way they want to live. Looking at the example Paul used, through the Jews actions, we see that they decided to go their own way, follow the ways of the world which would eventually lead to suffering the consequences of their actions. They lived the “You do you” lifestyle. Then to help themselves feel better they encouraged people to do the same things they were doing.

Today as Christians, we should be using Paul's example in Romans 1:28-32 to live for Christ, stay on the right track with God, and do our best to live up to his standards through our faith in Jesus. 

Growth Points

1. Was there a time in your life where you failed to acknowledge and follow after God? 

2. Have you ever had to let someone learn a lesson the hard way, almost like you had given up on them? If so, Why? Was it because you stopped caring, or because you stopped hoping that change was possible, or simply because you knew they had to find out for themselves? 

3. Does life without God look like freedom to you?

4. Think of people you know who are not living up to God’s standards. Take a few minutes to pray for them. Ask God how you can impact their lives and help them see that God’s way is the only way. 

Don't Suppress The Good News

Don’t Suppress the Good News

The Good News is being censored. Every last news channel has been ridiculed for being one-sided and suppressing the truth. Their biases tend to get in the way and they blind people from seeing every side of the story. Many times the good that goes on is concealed in favor of showing the bad.

Sometimes that bad news is even portrayed as being a good thing. This is what the enemy tries to do with the gospel. He tries to convince people to suppress the good news of the gospel. That's what we're talking about on this episode of the Grafted podcast…Don't suppress the good news.

Welcome to the Grafted podcast. I'm your host, Adam Weatherly. I want to help encourage you to have an act of faith, to engage in God's word, and to discover your purpose in life. In each episode we will examine verses from the Bible, find their original meaning, and apply them to our lives today. Each message will end with growth point questions for us to think about. Let's dove into this installment of the Grafted Podcast.

How's it going, everyone? Welcome to the Grafted podcast, where we help you develop your faith through God's word. I'm your host, Adam Weatherly. And today we are starting a new journey together in the book of Romans. This episode is called Don't Suppress the Good News. Now, before we dig into the book of Romans to our lesson for today, I want to give you a quick overview.

Romans… A Quick Overview

The book of Romans, it was a letter that was written by Paul during his third missionary journey. Paul had never ministered in Rome, and so he wanted to write them and ask them to come and minister there. And he did that while he was on his three month stay in Corinth.

He wanted the church in Rome to be his launching point. He was looking to take the gospel westward into Spain, and he hoped that the church in Rome would consider helping to sustain his ministry while he headed out west.

Man, Paul was a missionary. And this is one of the things and one of the reasons why missionaries itinerate and fundraise the way that they do today. The church in Rome consisted mainly of gentiles, but it also had some strong Jewish believers as well.

Paul had heard that there were some squabbles over cultural issues between the Jewish and the Gentile believers. This also led to several problems where unbiblical ideas were being taught that needed to be corrected. Paul wanted to help unify the believers in Rome and did that by presenting them with some of the most in-depth theology that he had

ever written. We're going to start our study in the book of Romans in Chapter one verses 16 through 18. The first part of Chapter one in verses one through 15, Paul is introducing himself and his ministry to the leaders of the Roman Church.

And he shares about how he wanted to come and visit and encouraged them. Now, I do want to say through this journey, through the book of Romans, I'm not going to cover every verse going verse by verse. I'm going to pick out what I feel like are key verses that we need to learn from.

And so I encourage you to go and read the book of Romans for yourself from beginning to end and study it for yourself. And I'm just here to help guide that study through what I feel like are important issues that we need to talk about.

Romans 1:16-18

So Romans Chapter 1 verses 16 through 18 says,

for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek for the righteousness of God is revealed from start to finish by faith as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all, and godliness and unrighteousness of men who, by their unrighteousness, suppress the truth.

Main Idea

The main idea in these verses is don't suppress the truth. The good news of Jesus Christ is nothing we should be ashamed of or embarrassed about. Instead, we should be shamelessly confident in it. It is through the gospel that the power of God makes us right. And through our faith, it brings us eternal life. As we live out our faith, we will experience the power, wisdom, and goodness of God.

Part 1: Not Ashamed

Paul starts off by saying, I am not ashamed of the gospel. I think it's safe to say that every last one of us have done something at one point or another that we are ashamed of or embarrassed about.

Some of these things are because we were being stupid, like the kid at the swimming pool who jumps off the high dove and loses his swimming trunks because he refused to tie the waistband. Other times, we're ashamed of things due to cultural experiences and expectations.

This is like when everyone in their dog is watching the newest Netflix series. It may be extremely well written and well filmed, but you don't watch it because it's rated TV, M.A. And you know, there's a ton of gory violence, foul language, graphic nudity, and things that you just don't want to see.

This happened to me when everyone was watching Game of Thrones. I had a coworker that said she knows of other Christians who are watching it. So I needed to quit being so prudish, chill out and watch it anyways. To this day, I still have not seen a single episode of that series because of my personal convictions.

When Paul wrote the letter to the Roman Church, when somebody accepted Jesus during that time, it meant that they might bring shame to their families and possibly their community that they lived in.

Sometimes this meant being thrown out of the family and even put to death. Christians were afraid of what might happen to them if others found out about their beliefs because of this, they suppressed the good news in their faith.

Now, why exactly was that for the Jews? This was viewed as putting aside or even rejecting their culture and family. For the pagans, it was the same, but it was also rejecting the ancestral family gods. It had a bigger impact than what it does on our culture today.

Today in America, someone may ridicule you or think that you have fallen for something that seems foolish. But back then, it was viewed as disrespect and rejection.

There was a Muslim woman who moved to Spain while we were there with her family when she first moved in. She had the cable guy come to install TV into their apartment, and he asked her what all stations that she wanted. And so she said she wanted all of the Arabic language channels. There were only two or three of these channels, so it was really easy for the technician. One day, as she was flipping through the TV channels, the only station that had anything playing on it was a Christian channel. So she began watching the station during the day when she was at home because it was the only thing on that she could actually understand. It was in Arabic. She didn't dare tell her husband or her two adult sons who were living there as well. After several months of watching all the Bible studies and sermons on the Christian Channel, she responded to a presentation of the gospel and accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord, God, and savior. One day she forgot to change the channel before turning the TV off. And when her husband came home, he turned on the TV and he couldn't believe what he saw. There was a Bible study going on and it was on a Christian channel. He confronted his wife about it, so she told him everything she had been watching and about how she became a Christian. Due to her newfound faith in Christ, her husband humiliated her by taking away everything that she owned. He divorced her and threw her out on the street. Her own two sons wouldn't even help take care of her, and they disowned her as well. She had nowhere to turn but the church, and it was the church who helped her get back up on her feet. And today, she's living and serving God in her local congregation.

Paul used the word ashamed to mean humiliate or put to shame. Paul endured persecution everywhere he went because he told the truth about Jesus to everyone. Paul boldly stated that he would continue sharing the whole gospel regardless of how he was treated.

He wanted the church leaders in Rome to know that he was bold in his faith and he was not going to suppress the good news of the gospel. And he wasn't afraid of the shame, ridicule, or disapproval of others that came because of the gospel.

Paul also knew that Jesus said in Mark Chapter 8 verses 38, for whoever is ashamed of me, in my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation of him, will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels?

You see because Paul loved Jesus and the good news of the gospel so much. There was no reluctance for him to preach the full truth of the gospel. One thing that Paul understood is that the power of God is shown through the good news of the gospel.

We may not face the same kind of persecution that the woman in our story faced or even that the people were facing in Paul's day. More than likely, what will come up against is the question in the back of our minds, what are others going to think if they know I'm a Christian?

Part 2: The Power of God

Verse 16, the second half of it says,

For the power of God is salvation to everyone who believes the power of God is shown through Jesus being raised from the dead in order to conquer not only death, but sin and hell as well.

This is the power of God to save people from their own demise, from their own wicked human nature. This is why it's called good news. People who believe and have faith in Jesus will enjoy the benefits of God's power in their lives.

First Corinthians chapter 1, verse 18, says,

for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved. It is the power of God. The power of God saves us from our wicked human nature.

The power of God saves us from our wicked human nature. God's power in the gospel is the life-giving message to a lost and dying world. This was a problem for the Jews and the Gentiles. The Jews thought the Messiah would reign as an earthly king during their time for the Gentiles.

This power was offensive because it turns people away from their pagan gods. But for those who believed in the good news of Jesus Christ, the power of God came in the form of salvation and being made right with God before I became a believer.

I thought going to church, singing worship songs, and listening to his sermon was totally foolish and a waste of time. But now, today, I understand what Jesus did and what he saved me from. He saved me from my own wickedness today, believing in Jesus. For me, it's extremely logical in something that is worth doing.

Part 3: God Makes Us Right!

You see the good news. It shows us how we all fall short of God's standards. And this is seen in verse 17 that says,

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from start to finish by faith, as it is written,

By faith, God's righteousness is revealed through the gospel. Righteousness here refers to God being holy right. And just. It shows that God is honorable and morally just in his actions.

The gospel shows us the character. Of God in how separated we are from him. This means that in our human nature we are guilty, unjust, and wicked. This is otherwise known as being sinful by sin from start to finish, by faith.

Paul challenges the Jewish thought process that righteousness only comes by keeping the law. The Jews were the first to believe in the one true God. But they became so legalistic that they tossed their relationship with God out the window.

Now, Paul isn't referring to living a perfect life like the Jews thought. In fact, that is impossible. Instead, he is referring to having a right relationship with God. This is why salvation is both for the Jew and the Gentile.

God makes us right in his eyes through the good news of Jesus Christ. This relationship begins as we respond in faith to the good news. Our response in faith is a process that continues throughout our entire lives. My response to faith happened on April 4th of 2004.

That was the day that God made me right in his eyes. Ever since then, my life has been an ongoing process of growing in faith. Now, I'll admit that there was a short time where I was so legalistic that I neglected my relationship with God.

But thankfully, God pulled me out of that. And now my relationship with him is stronger than ever. And it has been growing ever since.

Part 4: The Righteous Live By Faith

Once we've heard the good news and believe in the gospel, our faith begins to mold our behavior.

The second part of verse 17 says,

as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

Paul is directly referring to Habakkuk, chapter 2, verse 4, where it says, “Look at the proud they trust in themselves and their lives are crooked. But the righteous person will live by faith.”

This sounds like a lot of people that we know today. It's also a major part of the secularist movement that's happening around the United States in Europe today. People are extremely arrogant. They only trust in what they can do for themselves and they end up living outside of God's will for their lives. For those of us who have faith, we get to experience complete trust and confidence in the power, wisdom, and goodness of God.

People who truly live by faith are not proud. They don't trust themselves. And their lives are not crooked because they have aligned themselves with God and his word. Faith in God leads us to put our faith in action by obeying God's word, especially in obeying what Jesus taught about the greatest commandment in Matthew Chapter 22 verses 36 through 40. The sweetened condensed version is simply to love God and love people. As we continue to live by faith, we will continue growing in maturity from one level to the next. This means that we won't suppress the gospel.

We do not suppress the good news. But instead, we grow in faith as we obey his word and do what we can to live up to his standard. However, God's wrath is revealed for those who choose to live outside of God's protection.

Part 5: Wrath Revealed

Just as God revealed his righteousness to us, He also revealed his wrath against evil. Verse 18, says,

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who, by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Paul shares with the Roman Church that not only is he going to share the full truth of the gospel when he gets there, but he

will also share in the consequences of it as well. He reveals that the gospel is two-sided on one side. It's good news for those who respond in faith, but on the other. Well, it shows the wrath and the judgment of God for those who don't.

People who don't respond in faith to the good news, they continue in the opposite direction. Directly opposing God, God's wrath or punishment is not an emotional judgment like a lot of people think. It's actually a rational decision based on a person's decision to willfully choose to separate themselves from God.

Colossians chapter 3 verses 5 through 6, it mentions a few things that separate people from God and brings his wrath. These are things like sexual immorality, impurity, evil, desire and greed, just to name a few. Ephesians chapter five, verse six points out that the wrath of God will come on those.

Through their disobedience to God, whether it's through being hard-headed or having a hard heart when God's righteous judgment is revealed, those who are not believers will end up facing the wrath and anger of God, and they'll be punished consciously.

People still know the difference between right and wrong, but they encourage each other to abandon godliness, or, like verse 18 says, “to suppress the truth or suppressing the good news.” Because of this, people have become hostile towards God and they are ignorant of his ways.

They will eventually suffer the wrath and right judgment of God. I think that we all know people who are on a path that they really don't want to be on. In fact, I bet while you were listening to this last segment, a specific person came to mind.

We know that they're on their way to facing the wrath and the judgment of God. You see, we all have a decision to make. Are we going to respond to the good news of Jesus Christ in faith or are we going to suppress the truth and face his judgment?

Review

So to sum everything up, we should not suppress the good news. The good news of the gospel is something that we need to embrace and be shamelessly confident in. It's the power of God. It reveals our faith in Jesus Christ that brings us into a relationship with him and gives us eternal life in heaven.

From our first response to the good news in faith, God makes us right in his eyes and begins the process of maturing our faith for the rest of our lives as we grow closer to God. We will experience his power, his wisdom, and his goodness.

But on the other hand, if we choose to suppress the truth, well, it ain't going to be good for us.

Growth Points

So after everything that we've talked about today, I want to send you away with some growth points or some things to think about to help you grow in your faith. There are six of them for this episode.

1. Have you seen or heard the good news being suppressed?

2. Have you ever been in a situation where you have been ashamed of or embarrassed because of your faith? If so, what was the reason, and what was the outcome?

3. What types of things did the power of God save you from?

4. In the process of growing in faith and becoming closer to God, what changes have you seen God make in your life?

5. Think about the ways you have experienced the power, wisdom, and goodness of God. What are some of the situations that come to your mind?

6. Who are people that you know of who are hard-headed or hard-hearted towards the good news of Jesus Christ? What are some of the ways you can help them see the power and the salvation of God?

I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Grafted podcast. If you did, please help more people find it by liking, sharing, commenting, and subscribing.

My family serves as Assembly of God world missionaries, and our ministry is sustained through prayer and financial support from pastors, churches, and individuals like you. For more Bible teaching and to find out how you can become a ministry partner, please visit our website showing the world dot com.

And don't forget to follow us on social media. Until next time. Thanks for listening.

The Answer to the Question

Do you know why you believe what you believe? If someone were to ask you today what you believe, could you tell them why you believe it? Answering, “this is what the church says, so I believe it” isn’t a good answer.” So what's a good answer? Peter the Disciple speaks to this, and that is what we are going to talk about on this Episode of the Grafted Podcast, The answer to the question. 

Changes

How’s it going, everyone! Thanks for tuning in. Before we dive into this episode, I wanted to share some quick updates with you. I’ll be making some changes as the needs arise to help make this podcast better. 

• I have started a new Facebook group for our podcast called The Grafted Podcast. This is to help create a community that we can grow in our faith and learn together. www.facebook.com/groups/thegraftedpodcast

• You can also follow us on Twitter @thegraftedpod.

• Of course, you can also follow along on our website showingtheworld.com/podcast

We will begin a new study in the Book of Romans that will start with the next episode. The Book of Romans is full of rich teaching to help us grow in our faith. I will also be intermingling other topics and studies as they come up to help break up the study a little. 

Missions

A few people have asked if we are still Missionaries, Yes we are. As soon as we raise our full budget we will return to our ministry in Spain. As of this episode, we still need to raise $3200 in monthly financial support and $5000 in our cash budget before we can go back to Spain. If you would like to become a ministry partner that helps sustain our ministry through a one-time gift or a recurring monthly pledge, please go to our website showingtheworld.com/donate-now and click the Donate button to find out how you can become a ministry partner. 

Study

Let's get into the topic of this episode: The Answer to the Question. We are going to be looking at Peter's first letter.

Background of the verse: 

Peter wrote this letter to the believers who were in Asia Minor, which is modern-day Turkey. Peter refers to these believers as “Exiles of the Depression” to remind them that, as Christians, they live in a world that is hostile towards Jesus. This was his way of letting them know that they needed to expect opposition and persecution because of their faith. This letter was Peter's way of encouraging them about their eternal inheritance, and the purpose of their earthly lives. 

Today I want to zero in on 1 Peter 3:15. This verse picks upright in the middle of Peter speaking about “Suffering for  the sake of Righteousness.” He talks about not repaying evil for evil, and instead of blessing those who do evil toward you. He mentions that if you want to love life and see good days, to turn away from doing evil, and instead seek peace. 

Verse

1 Peter 3:15 says, “in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,”

There are two parts to this verse. 

Put Christ as Lord of your Life

During the time of Peter's writings, because of the persecution of Christians, some people practiced Christianity at home but lived contrary to their faith in the public's eye. This happened so they wouldn’t have to deal with the persecution. Peter spoke against this practice. He taught them to live out their faith by doing good, turning away from evil, and seeking peace. They were not supposed to be afraid of people who came against them, but instead, they needed to focus on Jesus. 

Peter said in verses 13 & 14, “Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,” This is where verse 15 pick up and the point we just spoke about, “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy,” When believers set Jesus as Lord over their lives, seeing Him as being holy and in their hearts, they know that He is in control as the true reigning  King and that eventually, everyone will answer to Him. 

Prepare your answer

Now, this is where I really want to focus the majority of our time. It is the second part of vs 15, “always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you;” 

When Peter says to “be prepared to make a defense…” he is talking about having an answer to defend your faith. This is defending a personal faith, not defending Jesus. After all, Jesus has already conquered sin, death, Hell, and the grave. He doesn’t need anyone to defend him, what he wants is for believers to defend themselves through being able to give an answer to why we have faith in him. Christians need to give a reasonable account about why we believe what we believe. This doesn’t mean saying something like, “I believe it because the Church believes it.” That's a copout that really doesn’t help and actually turns people away from the possibility of believing. 

Faith is believing on evidence. Hebrews 11 is a full chapter that is devoted to “faith.” Verse one starts off by saying, “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.” This chapter gives 15 examples of how people in the Old Testament earned a good reputation through their faith in God and teaches about how Christians should have that same kind of faith. 

I don’t believe that the people that Peter was talking to were eyewitnesses to the life of Christ. They were not like the 12 Disciples who were there. Instead, they were people who heard about what happened and decided for themselves to follow Christ. Some of them may have been some of the 3000 who accepted Jesus in Jerusalem when Peter preached his first message. Many of these people weren’t there and came to faith through the preaching and teaching of others. This means that they had to have faith in something that they had not personally witnessed. Instead, they believed because of the witness of others, and the evidence that was known through the public event of Jesus' crucifixion. 

Peter called every believer to have an active faith, and to be ready to speak out or give an answer for their Hope. Many times this defense was needed when believers would be arrested for their faith to be put on trial. Because believers were promoting good and pursuing peace, the only thing that unbelievers could charge them with was the “Hope” they had. These believers had to be ready to give a reason for their Hope. We can see the type of trial that some of these believers went through in the book of Acts. Specifically, when Paul was put on trial in chapters 22, 24, and 26. When Paul was arrested, there was no reason that they could find other than the Hope that he had. He gave an answer to the people, governor Felix, caesar, and King Agrippa. Each time he shared his answer he spoke about his life before Christ, his encounter with Christ, and his life after Christ, which leads to the hope he had. 

This is what Peter was talking about in this verse. Being ready to always give an answer. Today around the world, there are many places where Christians are persecuted, put on trial, and forced to give an answer. Sometimes this leads to imprisonment, it may lead to torture, and other times it leads to death. I have a friend who is from Iran, and she was arrested, thrown in jail, and tortured for her faith in Christ and for distributing Christian materials to churches in Iran. She had to give an account for her faith in Jesus to the Iranian government which is Muslim. 

At the same time, there are many places around the world that these extremes don’t happen. But people still face hardships at work, school, and other places because of their faith. For a lot of Westerners, this could mean unwanted reputations or biases that can lead to social consequences such as loss of jobs and relationships. The God’s Not Dead films are great examples of this. They are dramatizations based on real-life events. Even in “Safe” areas of the world, Christians must be able to give a reason why they believe what they believe. And saying “I believe because the church believes this” isn’t a good answer. 

But what is the answer?

But what is the answer? Peter gives the gist of the basic answer in 1 Peter 3:18 “Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit.” The reason Jesus came was to give his life as a ransom, as a sacrifice, which paid our debt for our defiance towards God. 

The Apostle Paul says in Romans 8:3-4, “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Both verses are good examples of giving an answer. But, people tend to want to know more. People love hearing stories, especially true stories, and they want to know about how having faith and hope in Jesus has affected the life of the believer. Your testimony belongs to you, no one can argue with what happened to you, like they might with the bible or theologies. This is your story, and you are the expert on your story. This should give us the confidence to share it.

It’s important to know that believers don’t have to be apologists or theologians to give an answer. Christians must simply know why they have faith. This is where a testimony comes in as part of giving the answer. A testimony is a believer's declaration of what Christ has done for them. This definition comes from my friends and evangelism mentors, Jacob Bock and Kevin Prevost, at On The Red Box. On The Red Box is an evangelism training facility based in Madrid Spain with training centers all over the world. Part of their evangelism training is helping Christians write out their testimony to share the way Paul shared his testimony in the book of Acts. 

Testimonies can be as short or as long as they need to be. This is based on each situation that a testimony may be shared in. Jacob and Kevin teach how to share your testimony in 5 minutes or less for street evangelism, but there are other scenarios where a testimony maybe 30 minutes long. I have my story where I can share it in a time frame of 3 minutes up to a 30+ minute. The amount of time it takes and the exact details I share are based on the situation I’m sharing it in. There are times where its short and to the point where I am vague about my story when I am doing street evangelism, and there are other times where I share detailed parts of my story as they necessary to the person or group I’m speaking to.

My Story

To give an example, I want to share my testimony with you. 

I grew up broken. I was the weird fat kid that very few people wanted to be friends with. The year I turned 7, was the year that broke me. This was the year that both my parents were working all the time, my baby brother was born and seemed like he was getting all the attention, I had an extremely abusive babysitter, and I was diagnosed with one of the worst cases of dyslexia that the state of Oklahoma had seen up to that point. All of this happened in the same year. I remember sitting outside the conference room door where the School board told my mom, “He won't amount to anything. He’ll end up dropping out of school before he turns 16 to become a grease monkey somewhere.” Because of dyslexia, I had to go to special ed and LAB classes. In reality, these classes, just got me bullied and made fun of. All of these things drove me into a life of hate, anger, and distrust. I was truly broken, and an outcast. I ended up turning to art and looking at things that I should not have been looking at as a way to cope with everything that was broken.

Thankfully, my parents refused to believe what the school board said, and they pushed me in school. Even with me kicking and screaming at times. I ended up graduating from high school, still not really being able to read. But graduating high school wasn’t good enough, they wanted me to go to college. With all of my horrible testing scores, I ended up at OSU Tech where I was able to study Graphic Design. This was mainly a project-based program. Even with that, there was still a fair amount of reading and tests, so I had to go to disability services to have them read everything to me. Talk about embarrassing. 

My freshman year at college, I was invited to go to a back-to-school party at the beginning of the year. So I went, thinking it was going to be a typical “College” party. You know, the kind you hear about in High School and see on tv. But it wasn’t. Talk about bait and switch. It was the Campus ministry party. There was food, games, and a sermon! YUCK! I wanted to leave and never return. On my way out of the door that night, there was a group of guys playing video games in the front room of the ministry center, they invited me to stay and play games. We ended up playing those games until 3 in the morning. This led me into relationships with people who started showing me what being a Christian was all about. They actually accepted me for who I was… a broken mess of a person. I started going to church with them and got involved with the campus ministry. At the end of freshman year, the campus ministry invited me to go to a campus ministry leadership retreat. I guess I had put on a good enough show for them that they thought I was a Christian. So I went. 

At this retreat, I saw all of these Christians come together to worship God and learn how to serve him better. I remember thinking, “if they only knew how broken I am they wouldn’t have let me come to this.” On the last night of the retreat, I was in a service with hundreds of other college students. A worship leader by the name of Dennis Jernigan shared his testimony. I thought it was interesting because his situation was really similar to mine. He too grew up as a broken mess. It was then that I realized that maybe there actually is something to Christianity, and I couldn’t be good enough to go to heaven on my own.

While everyone was worshiping, I just stood there watching. Then I heard someone say my name. So I looked around, and everyone was worshiping. Again I heard my name, this time I thought one of my friends was messing with me, but they weren't, they were all worshiping. Finally, I heard my name a third time. But this time was different. I heard my name so loudly that it pierced my ears and hit my heart and I heard the voice of God. He said, “Adam, it's time. Get off the bandwagon and come follow me. And I will make you a fisher of men.” I knew then that God didn’t care how broken I was, he just wanted me to say “Yes” to Jesus and follow him. On August 4th, 2004, I gave my life to Jesus believing in him as my Lord God and Savior. 

Almost immediately I started noticing changes in my life, the way I acted, the way I talked, and the way I learned. On May 31st, 2004, I was baptized, and then it was like a light switch was flipped in my brain. God had opened my mind to where I could read and understand the Bible without any help! And by the time my sophomore year rolled around, God continued to heal my mind where I could read all my books, and take all the tests by myself. I no longer had to go to disability services. 

A month later, in June, I found myself in Springfield Missouri attending another college ministry retreat. This time with a changed heart and mind. At this retreat, I felt God calling me to use my talents for ministry.

I ended up finishing my first degree in Graphic Design. And going off to another college to work on a photography degree. It was there on Valentine’s day of 2007 that God filled me with his Holy Spirit and spoke to me again at another college ministry retreat. This time God said, “Go talk to the pastor about where he went to college.” So I did. When the pastor mentioned Central Bible College, God said “that’s where you need to be.” So I left Photography school and moved to Springfield Missouri where I earned a degree in pastoral ministry and the Bible. 

Today, I am a Spirit-filled believer in Christ. Jesus took the brokenness of my life and turned me into a new creation, healed me, and changed my heart. Now I have 2 different degrees, I’m looking to start a master’s degree in the next few years, and am serving as a full-time general appointed Assemblies of God World Missionary who works and teaches at a Christian University. 

Has my life been perfect since accepting Jesus…no. I have still faced many challenges in life since then. But, my life has been radically changed because of faith in Jesus. 

Peter teaches us to always be ready to give an answer to the question. Paul is our example of how to do this by using our own story to share the Gospel.

Assignment

How are you going to answer the question?

1. Take some time to write out your testimony:

   1. What was your life like before Jesus?

   2. How did you encounter Jesus?

   3. How has Jesus changed your life?

2. Over the next week, look for ways to share your testimony:

   1. Who are 3 people you can share it with?

   2. Practice sharing your testimony with yourself in the mirror, or with a friend

   3. What are some creative ways to share your testimony?

   4. If you're willing, share a 3 minute or less video testimony on our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/thegraftedpodcast. 

3. For more resources on sharing your story, go to www.OnTheRedBox.com and check out their free online evangelism training. 

Missing the Mark

Missing the Mark

On this episode, we are going to talk about what separates people from God… sin. We are going to look at what sin is, the origin of sin, who sins, effects of sin, and redemption from sin. So sit back, buckle up, let's go for a ride. 

Definition of Sin

There have been many suggestions to the essence of sin: unbelief, pride, selfishness, rebellion, moral corruption, a struggle of flesh and spirit, idolatry, and combinations of the preceding. When we dig down deep, these really don’t properly define what sin is. Sin is part of the nature of our condition as people. Saint Augustine suggested that we were born as sinful beings. He taught through the analogy that sin is a disease, a power, and a guilt. As a disease, its passed down from one generation to the next, as a power it has a grip that is unbreakable by ourselves, and as guilt from a judicial standpoint. From the perspective of most of the early greek writers, sin came from the abuse of the human free will, which we will talk about in a few minutes. 

Some people have the misconception that sin is simply selfishness. However, some people sin through extremely selfless ways as they act on behalf of religion, secular and humanistic educational goals, or political affiliation. While these can lead to very serious sins, like hatred of God, idolatry, and unbelief, these are not necessarily based on selfishness.

Ok, so let's get to it. I think the best definition of what sin is can be found in 1 John 3:4 “4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.” God is the one who created everything, which means he also created the law that sets the limits to what people can do. God’s law is the “standard for human behavior.” In both Hebrew and Greek, the root word for sin means “to miss the mark.” At its heart, sin, is missing the mark of God’s heart and law. 

In the Old Testament, there are 613 Laws. That is a lot to have to follow. These laws are broken down into Moral Laws, Ceremonial Laws, and Civil Laws. These 613 laws came out of the 10 Laws that God handed to Moses in Exodus 20, known today as the 10 Commandments. The other 602 laws were given by God to Moses and other leaders to persuade the nation of Israel to keep God’s moral law. God’s moral law is found in Exodus 20:1-17 and in Deuteronomy 5:6-21.

1. Have no other god’s other than God. 

2. Have no idols

3. Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain

4. Remember the sabbath and keep it holy

5. Honor your parents

6. Don’t murder

7. Don’t commit adultery

8. Don’t steal

9. Don’t lie

10. Don’t covet (desire) things that don’t belong to you. 

We’ve already covered that Sin is lawlessness. These 10 moral laws of God are the guideline to stay in good standing with the morals God has set for those who believe in him. God gave the law to Moses as a standard of living, and when we violate this law or fail to live up to it, we sin. That sin is what breaks the relationship between God and people. We see through God’s Word that he went through great lengths to restore that relationship. But before we talk about that, let's look at the origin of Sin. 

Origin of Sin

A big question that gets asked a lot is, “where did sin come from?”

Genesis chapter 1 teaches us that God created all things “Good.” In Genesis 2:17 God makes a clear distinction between sin and death through the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And in chapter 3 of Genesis, we see that sin enters the world through the misuse of God-given  freedom through the disobedience of people.

I want to point out that there is something else at play here… temptation. I believe that Adam and Eve seemed to be perfectly fine with the fact that God said not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. There wasn’t an issue for them. They were happy with their relationship with God and with their life. All things were good for them. It wasn’t until the serpent, aka Satan, entered the story in Genesis 3:1. He used God’s own creation to attack God by raising questions about God’s motives and the truth of his word. At this point in time, Adam and Eve really didn’t know not to trust the serpent, so when he tempted them, they chose to act on what he told them, instead of listening to God. Because of that, sin came into the world and now acts as a curse on humanity. 

When it comes to Satan, the Bible teaches us a lot about him. He has several different names throughout scripture such as Lucifer, Beelselbub, Satan, the evil one, and the enemy just to name a few. Isaiah 14:12-14 tells us that Satan was thrown out of heaven, because he tried to make himself greater than God. Now, as an outcast, he acts as a direct adversary to God.

We see through Satan tempting Adam and Eve, that the 5th commandment to honor your father and mother is broken. God is the Father and creator of Adam and Even, therefore when they ate of the Tree, they were not honoring Him. This is also the first commandment with a promise attached to it. And now because of their deliberate act of disobedience, now death entered into the earth as well. When we read the Bible from this point on, we see that sin is now part of human nature, and the result is being separated from fellowship with God. 

Who all sins

The Apostle Paul has a lot to say about who sins. Especially in his letter to the Romans. Romans 3:23 he said, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and 5:12 “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man (Adam), and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” Basically what Paul taught was that every person who has ever lived, has sinned. That applies to us today. (stick with me guys, we actually have more to look forward to… its not over… there is hope.)

Romans 3:10-16 Paul quoted from Psalms 14:2-3 and went further by saying, ““None is righteous, no, not one; 11no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13“Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps (snakes) is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

This sounds a lot like the world we live in today. Very few people are actually seeking after God. In fact the world is going in the opposite direction. 

Righteousness is being right in the eyes of God. Doing what is right before God. When sin happens, it separates people from God, therefore they become unrighteous. 

Jesus taught that sin is a condition of the heart. 

He looked at sin based off the inner motives of a person. So the action of sin is essentially the visible representation of the motives of the heart. Jesus went deeper than just looking at the 10 commandments. For example Matthew 5:21-22 Jesus said that anger is the same a murder; Matthew 5:27-28 lust is the same as adultery, and John 3:18-19 & 16:8-16 revealed that unbelief is the resistance of God’s truth.

1 John 1:8 says, “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Paul said in Romans 1-28-32, “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Every single last one of us has sinned, failing to live up to God’s perfect standard of life. If we look back on our own lives, comparing our actions to the 10 Commandments and what Jesus taught about our inner motives, it's easy to see where we have severed our relationship with God at some point or another. Once again, God has gone through great lengths to restore a right relationship with us. Again, we will talk about that in a few minutes. 

Consequences of Sin

When we look at the consequences of sin, there are a lot of them. We have to consider guilt and shame, being slaves to sin, being deceived, and many other things. But for today, we are going to look at what I think are the five big consequences. 

The first consequence of sin is death. In Genesis 3:17-19 God told about the curses that fell on people because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience. One of those curses is death found in 3:19b “till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” In the words of Paul from Romans 6:23a, “the wages of sin is death.” Now because of sin in the world, death is part of life. Meaning, all life will come to an end. 

A second consequence of sin is the loss of a perfect relationship with God. Gen 3:23 God banished Adam and Eve out of the garden. Before they made their choice, God literally walked with them in the cool of the evening, and they had a literal present relationship with God. Now, they now lost that favour of God and communion with him; and their whole nature became corrupt. God cannot tolerate anything that violates his righteous character. Therefore, sin creates a barrier between God and people.

The third consequence of sin is pain and trouble in life. This is seen in Gen 3:16-19. God’s curse on them meant that they would now experience hardships and struggles in life. When Adam and Eve were in the garden, everything was given to them. The things they needed such as food and water were provided for them. But now that they were kicked out of the garden, they had to work for food, water and shelter. Jesus taught in John 16:33, “In this world you will have tribulation (affliction, distress).” 

Consequence number four is illness. Augustine viewed our sinful nature as a position of being seriously ill, unable to diagnose our own illness adequately, and not able to cure it. Part of what Jesus said in Mark 2:17 was, “those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” This was in direct reference to what people thought of Jesus as he was eating with people who were known sinners. Like an alcoholic, when we are tempted we are lured and enticed by our own desire. That natural desire is to sin. And in order to overcome that temptation or desire, we need help. Just like an alcoholic needs to go to rehab to get help, we need to go to the great physician to get help. 

The final Consequence of sin we are going to look at is Judgement. Because of our sinful nature, we are all separated from God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” Remember what sin is? The failure to live up to God’s good standard. Which is impossible for us to do on our own. One of the nicknames for God is the Great Judge. And rightly so. He is the Lawgiver, and has set the limits to the freedom of his creation. Overstepping those limits are essentially breaking God’s law. One day, we will all have to stand before God, as he sentences us based on the things we did in life and if we followed his standard of living.

When we look back at sin, how it relates to God’s law, and the consequences it has in life we are supposed to see how we need to rely on God. The ideal life that God has in store for his creation is that we would have fellowship with him. But because of sin, that ideal relationship has been severed. Now we can dive into how God has restored that right relationship. 

Redemption from Sin

So far this episode has been extremely heavy, and not very encouraging. The good news is that with everything that we do to separate ourselves from God, he still wants to have a relationship with us. He still wants to walk with us, lead us, have fellowship with us. Because of this God has made a way. 

Paul teaches in Romans 5:8, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Leviticus chapter 4, spells out what must be done when people sin. There must be sin offerings that include the slaughter of animals. The animal that was sacrificed, had to be without any blemishes, meaning it was whole and healthy. Different kinds of animals were used for different kinds of sin. These sacrifices were a type of payment to reconcile people back to God. 

In Luke 7:40-50, Jesus taught a lesson to simon about sin using the illustration of a moneylender and debt. The moneylender gave one person 500 denari, and another 50. When he went to collect the money back, they could not pay, so the moneylender forgave them both of their debt. Then Jesus turned the story from money debt to talking about the lady who washed his feet with her tears, about her sin, and then forgave her of her sin because of her faith and love for him.

Our sin has created a debt that we could not ever pay back. It would be impossible, there isn’t enough money or enough spotless animals to cover that sin debt that we owe.  

This is where Jesus helps. Matthew 20:28, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus came to save us from the evil of sin and to pay the price necessary to make us in right standing with God. Because Jesus was spotless, sinless and God his blood was strong enough to cover all sins.

There are a set of verses known as the Roman road to salvation that helps us understand this hope that is found in Jesus. 

Romans 3.23 - For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

Romans 6.23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Romans 5.8 - But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

Romans 10.9-10 - If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.

Romans 3.24-26 - Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus. 

Here are some other encouraging verses for those who have faith and believe in Jesus.

Psalm 103:12 - He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.

1 Cor 10:13 -  No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. 

1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 Peter 2:24 - He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

Well, there we have it. The answer as to what sin is, where it came from, its effects, and how we have been redeemed from it. 

Is the Bible True?

04_Is the Bible true?

Here are 9 pieces of evidence that prove it is. 

A few years ago, I worked with a guy who said to me, “the Bible was just a book full of allegorical stories, like old fairy tales to tell young children, and that none of it could be proven.” I tried to reason with him and share more about the authenticity of the Bible, but he just flat out refused to listen. Do you ever wonder if any of it actually happened and if it can be trusted? If you are like my coworker, for the next 30 minutes put your biases aside, have an open mind, and explore that with me.

Over the last two episodes of the Grafted Podcast, we have talked about where the Bible came from, and how to choose a good translation of the bible to study. After listening to those two episodes, my friend and church planter Michael Coppock pointed out that there are some theories, that people believe, that says that the Bible is not the true authoritative Word of God. That brings up the question, “How do we know the Bible is true?” That is what we are going to talk about on this episode: Is the Bible true? 

If you were to start digging in on this topic, you would find many different theologians who have written books upon books proving that the Bible is the authoritative word of God. The problem with most of these books is that they are written by theologians for theologians. They use terminology that the majority of us wouldn’t be able to understand unless we have degrees in theology. Which in our case isn’t helpful. There is, however, one book that I found incredibly helpful for us normal people to read and understand. Global University’s “Christian Life Series” by Missionary L. Jeter Walker is this book. Most of this episode is derived from this book. Lesson 6, titled Your Bible, specifically talks about 9 clues that help prove the Bible is true. I’ll put a link to this lesson in the description. http://www.globalreach.org/english/images/L2120ENE08_L06.pdf

Walker uses a 9 letter word as an acronym to give evidence that the Bible is true. That acronym is the word E•V•I•D•E•N•C•E•S. 

Now, as I mentioned earlier, there has been so much research done on this topic I am unable to go into full detail about each part. Because of this, I am going to try and give a good synopsis of the topic to stay within the time parameters for this episode. So here are the 9 evidences. 

1. E = Effects of Scripture

The effects of scripture are miracles. In his book “Systematic Theology,” Wayne Grudem says, “when miracles occur, they give evidence that God is truly at work and so serve to advance the Gospel.” In other words, miracles help to authenticate the message of the Bible. When miracles happen, God used them to bear witness about himself as he sparks people’s interest with awe and wonder. This could be through some sort of physical healing, deliverance from addiction, answers to prayers, or many other miraculous things that God does to transform lives. These miracles are the Effects of Scripture, and they prove that God is alive and active, making his word true and authentic.

2. V = Variety and Unity

In episode 2: Where did the bible come from, we looked at how God used 40 men over 1500 years to write the Bible. God used everyone from Kings to peasants, from politicians to religious leaders to record his word. The law was written by Moses 1500 years before Christ, and Revelation was written about 100 years after Jesus’ birth by John. The thing that unites each writer is that each one wrote about the relationship between God and humanity as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit. Charles Chandler wrote, “‘The Old Testament prepares you for the New, and the New explains the Old.’ ‘Jesus is the subject and is basically the red line, the crimson line of blood, that runs throughout all of its books. He’s really the message of the entire Bible—not just the New Testament.’” Each writer carried out the same theme and harmony that is found throughout the entirety of the Bible. This is evidence that each writer, who wrote hundreds of years apart from each other, received their inspiration from God. 

3. I = Inerrancy

The inerrancy of Scripture means that the Bible in the original manuscripts does not confirm anything that opposes fact. The Bible is free from mistakes. It is an accurate historical record of events, people, places, genealogies, social customs, and many other things. If you look at your text books from school, as we learn more about any given subject, the text books change to reflect that research. But when we look at the Bible, it does not change. The writers were exposed to all kinds of mistaken beliefs, but God kept them from writing about them in the Bible. The writers also never contradicted each other. The Bible was written to show the facts in an impartial and accurate way. We see this by reading the records of people who were righteous along with people who failed and sinned. The inerrancy of the Bible is known because it does not try to hide anything. 

4. D = Discoveries

Many of the Bible’s historical accounts have been proven true through archaeological discoveries. In his article “10 Crucial Archaelogical Discoveries related to the Bible,” John Currid talks about some of these findings. He includes the Rosetta Stone which is used to decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics; the dead sea scrolls that contain over 800 Hebrew writings including 190 biblical scrolls; The Epic of Gilgamesh contains the story of Noah. These are just 3 of the 10 listed in his article, and there are still many others archaeological discoveries that prove the authenticity of the Bible. These discoveries help give the skeptic plenty of evidence that God’s word is true and worth taking a look at. 

5. E = Excellence in Scripture

Excellence in Scripture is referring to the teachings found in the Bible. The bible is a book that Children can read and understand, while at the same time theologians cannot fully unpack its truth. We can read it many times from cover to cover, and each time we read it find something new. God uses his word to continually speak to his people. If we really think about it, many of the laws we have today are based off of the Laws that God gave Moses like do not steal, dont murder, etc. On top of that the Bible is so excellently written that even university scholars have recognized it because of its example of what good literature should have in it. Because of its excellence, it is the most high-caliber book ever produced, which leads us to believe that its ideas and theories are from God. 

6. N = Name of Author

While there were 40 individual writers of the Bible, God is the author. Each writer was inspired by God to write and record the Bible into human words. There are many different verses through out scripture that name God as the author. Here are three of many examples:

Deut 18:18 “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.”

Jeremiah 1:19 “Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, ‘Behold, I have put my words in your mouth’”

Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

Even though these words are spoken in ordinary language, the authority and truthfulness still show that they are completely God’s word’s.

7. C = Completion of Prophecy

The ancient Jews were very carful when it came to prophecy. Moses set an extremely high bar for anyone who was considered to be a prophet. Deuteronomy 18:22 (NLT) “If the prophet speaks in the Lord’s name but his prediction does not happen or come true, you will know that the Lord did not give that message. That prophet has spoken without my authority and need not be feared.” Moses knew that prophecy was evidence that God was at work in the prophet, and gave him insight to something that only God knew about. Many of the prophecies were warnings of punishment but were also promises for those who changed their ways like with what happened when God sent Jonah to Ninava. (give the reference…)

God used prophets to tell about many things that were going to happen. For example Jeremiah said that Babylon would rule over Judah for 70 years in Jer. 25:11-12, and it was fulfilled approximately 50 years later. He also said that the Jews will survive the Babylonian Rule and would return home in Jer. 32:36-37, and it was fulfilled in 536 BC. There are many more prophecies from the Old Testament, which all of them came true. In the New Testament, there were over 300 Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled through Jesus Christ. The prophecies that are found in the Bible reaveal that it was the inspired word of God. This was because they were all true, and they always pointed people towards a relationship with God. 

8. E = Elimination of Alternatives

WhWt are the Alternatives to God insparation? The writers could be writting of their own thoughts and ideas, or it could be inspired by Satan. We know that the writters where not writting thier own thoughts because they pointed out thier own sin, thier own unholiness, and their own shortfalls as they shared what God asks of us. If a man in his own right was going to write something to change the mind of the masses it is human nature that it would be for his own benifit or to make him look better, not to better others while also showing the weakness in himself. 

These men were not inspired by Satan because they combated agains evil and condemned Satan. They even predicted Satan’s future failure and punishment. Without the inspiration of God, the writers could not have acurately forseen and predicted the fulfillment of prophecy. There are many Alternative (different) thoughts about how the writers came up with what they put in the bible. But, when we logically examine scripture, looking at the lives of the authors and how the message of all the authors was the same, these alternative possibilities can be eliminated. This leads us to the conclusion that God inspired these men to write and record what they did. 

9. S = Survival

For most books, time is the worst enemy. Over time books become outdated, warn out, the pages turn yellow and ink starts to fade, fewer people read it, and eventually it disappears. But, this is not so with the Bible. The oldest parts of the bible are over 3500 years old, and the newest are 1900 years old. The fact that the bible is this old shows that God cares for both his word and his people. There is no book in the history of earth that has been copied, translated, and printed more than the Bible. There have been some, like world leaders, who have tried to destroy every Bible that they could, put bible readers to death, and attacked the bible mercilessly. Even with all that, the Bible has stood the test of time, and is read more now than ever. It has even made its way to being the all time best selling book in the world. The Bible has outlived every enemy who has come against it. The Apostle Peter wrote in his first letter chapter 1 verse 24-25a for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25but the word of the Lord remains forever.” With everything that has come against God’s word, this verse has proved its self true time and time again. 

There you have it… Nine evidences that prove that the Bible is the authoritative and true word of God. 

God inspired the writers of the Bible to give a good picture of God’s holiness and love towards us, to show our rebellion against him, and for us to see his amazing plan to rescue us from our own sin and death inorder to restore us to eternal life with Him. If we allow it to, the Bible will transform our lifes, and we will be way better off for it.

I hope that this episode has helped you see that the Bible is a very special book that can be trusted. Because it can be trusted, we should read and follow what it says.

The Insiders Guide to Choosing a Bible

Did you know that there are over 900 different translations of the Bible!? That is a crazy amount of translating. But not every translation is created equal. Which begs the question, “Which Bible translation should I use to read and study from?” That’s what we are covering on Episode 03 of the Grafted Podcast…The Insiders Guide to Choosing a Bible.

Have you ever gone to the store, and on your list it says you need more cereal? As you walk down the cereal aisle there hundreds of boxes with all kinds of cereal. There’s the old people’s cereal that has bran and shredded oats, there’s kids cereal that is loaded with chocolate and marshmallows, and then there are all kinds of toaster pastries filled with gooey goodness. Now you have a decision to make. How are you going to choose which one to get?

Believe it or not, choosing a Bible is a lot like choosing a cereal. It can be a little overwhelming. There are just as many if not more options to choose from, and it isn’t as simple as you might think. You could go to your local bookstore, head over to the Christian section, and buy a bible. While there is only one Protestant Bible, there are many different translations that are on the shelf. And not all of those translations are created equally. In this episode, we are going to talk about how to choose a bible to read and study from?

Why do we need a Bible?

As Christians, it’s extremely important for us to continually learn about God, grow in our faith, and act on what we believe. This happens as we spend time with other believers, in prayer, and by studying God’s Word. In studying God’s Word, we need to have our own Bible to study. Through reading God’s Word we learn and understand who God is, about his law, and His purpose for our lives. If we read and study the Bible properly, it isn’t just another obscure book, it brings purpose and meaning into our lives. The problem isn’t just with us understanding it, in reality, the problem lies with how we obey what God says and we put His word into practice. We’ve all heard the saying, “you are what you eat.” Well, it’s the same as what we put in our minds. If we read and study God’s word, it becomes part of who we are and what we believe. Our goal in studying the bible is first to grow closer to God, and second to allow it to change our lives from the inside out. Studying the Bible is how we hear God’s Word for us. 

Marketing

The first thing we have to do is get past the marketing. Just like with cereal brands, there is a ton of money spent on marketing and selling Bibles. With so many different options on the table, both seasoned and new believers often wonder which Bible translation is the best to buy. They come in every shape, size, and variety you can possibly imagine. There is everything from serious intensive Bibles for studying to trendy editions for culturally relevant issues and themes. There are endless options that Bible publishers add-in which really can make choosing a bible difficult. These add-ins are things like commentaries, maps, graphs, concordances, devotionals, bible reading plans, journaling areas, and all kinds of other things. All of which are marketing tactics to make you want to buy one Bible over another. They are not part of the translation of the original text. That’s why we have to look past the marketing and format of a Bible, to learn what translation is being used. Now, these extra add-ons are not bad things. In fact, some of them are extremely beneficial. But when choosing a Bible, this must be the last thing we look at. So we will circle around to this later.

Why So Many Translations?

According to the American Bible Society, “There are so many different versions of the English Bible that no one can give an exact number.” Why? The answer is simple, languages change. Translations are essential for people who don’t read the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek languages that the Bible was written in. If people are going to be able to understand what God is saying through his word they need to be able to read it in their lanaguage. There are two parts to this. 

The Scale

First: on Episode 02 of the Grafted Podcast, we talked about where the bible came from, and who decided what would be in it. We know that God is the author of all scripture, but he used humans over 1500 years and three different languages. These three languages don’t translate perfectly into English. So translators must make a few decisions on whether they want to convey the exact words or the central idea of the original text. Some translations are literal word-for-word translations, others are thought-for-thought translations, and there are a variety of mixtures between the two. There is even a category of “Freestyle” or paraphrase translations. These different translation philosophies created the “Bible Translation Continuum” that we will talk about in a minute. 

Revised Translations

We can see the second part pretty easily if we look at texting over the past two decades. When texting first became a thing, we used the T9 keyboard using the number keys on our phone to text every word. Then we started abbreviating certain sayings like “Laugh out Loud,” to LOL and today with a full keyboard that we don’t really use much we send emoji and gifs. It’s the same with the English language. The way English was, the words, punctuation, grammar, and idioms of 1611 when the King James Version was published were way different from today’s English. Therefore when the language becomes outdated and difficult to understand, it needs to be revised or updated for the modern everyday speech. Older words need to be replaced with newer ones. The goal in creating revised versions was not to change the meaning of the Bible, but instead to use modern language to convey the exact same meaning that was in the original languages. 

Science of Translation

When it comes to translating the Bible there is actually a science that is behind it. Translators must look at two different areas: Textural and Linguistic. 

When they look at the textural side they are looking at the character, quality, and age of the manuscripts, as well as at the different kinds of issues and errors that happened as the bible was copied. For example, the King James Bible was translated from the Septuagint or the Greek Bible. The problem with this comes with the Old Testament, which was originally written in Hebrew. When the reformation happened it was noticed that there were a few problems that happened in translating from Greek to English. These problems were solved when translators translated from Hebrew to English. Another issue is that the manuscripts were copied by hand many times. And just like playing the telephone game, there were differences and issues that showed up. This is why it is important for translators to use the oldest known manuscripts in the original language instead of newer translations like the Septuagint or Vulgate. 

On the linguistic side, they look at the verbal and grammatical parts of the original languages and how to transfer those words and ideas from one language into another. In their book “How to Read the Bible for all its worth,” Gordon Fee and Douglas Stewart say, “the best theory of translation is the one that remains as faithful as possible to both the original and receptor languages, but when something has to ‘give,’ it should be in the favor of the receptor language — without losing the meaning of the original language.”

Bible Translation Continuum

Each translation of the bible has differences in its purpose and writing style. There are different translations created to reach people with a variety of literary backgrounds and tastes. For example, the New Living Translation is simpler to understand than in the New American Standard Bible which is more complex. There are some Bibles like the New International Version that are found somewhere in between. This is where the Bible Translation Continuum comes in.

The Bible Translation Continuum is a tool to see where a translation is at on a formal or a functional scale. This tool is also known as the Formal or Functional equivalent and historical distance scale.

The Bible…Where does it come from?

Ahh, the Bible. It’s by far the most sold book of all time and is illegal in 52 countries. Some people call it our Instruction manual. After all, the word Bible is the acronym for basic instructions before leaving earth. If it’s our Instruction manual for life, we need to know where it came from and who decided on what should go in it? 

As Christians, we believe that the Bible is the infallible and all authoritative Word of God. If this is true, then we should at least know a little bit about where God’s Word comes from. We need to look into how it was decided which books went into the Bible we read today, and why other books were left out. This is what we are going to try and cover in today’s episode. 

Before we get started I want to make a little disclaimer. While I did a fair amount of research on this topic, this is one that has been debated for centuries, has been the cause of fights within the church, and part of a major church split a few hundred years ago. There are people today who have devoted their entire lives to studying the History of the Bible, and have earned many doctoral degrees from various religious and educational institutions. My goal today is to give an informative overview of the way I understand things to have happened. 

Let’s jump into Episode 2 of the Grafted Podcast. Where did the Bible come from? 

Both Divine and Human

It is said that the Bible is both Divine and Human. 

It is divine because it is God’s message to humans that gives eternal relevance to every culture and throughout every age. God chose to speak His eternal truths through particular circumstances within the events of human history. It is human because God chose to speak through human words that needed to be recorded throughout history. This makes the Bible a historical book. It is because of these two facts, that today we must both listen to and obey the words of the Bible.

I know, it’s way easier said than done. Right?

I believe that because God chose to speak throughout real human history, these same words will speak again and again not only to us today but also in the future. Just like they have throughout the history of God’s people. 

It took over 1,500 years and approximately 40 different authors whom God inspired to expressed and recorded the 66 books of the Protestant Bible we have today. 

Through each of the 40 writers, God used just about every form of communication there is. He used everything from narrative history to laws of all kinds, and from poetry and proverbs to apocalypse. There is literally something for everyone to enjoy reading. 

Something I find interesting is God didn’t use people that would normally be thought of to write these books. He used everyone from Kings to peasants, and from politicians to religious leaders to record His word. Each writer came from a different place, with various styles of writing, interests, and backgrounds. The thing that unites each writer is that each one wrote about the relationship between God and humanity as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit. 

We use the term “Inspired,” to define the process in which God directed people to produce his message/word. This comes from 2 Timothy 3:16 that says, “All scripture is God-breathed (or inspired)…” and from 2 Peter 1:21 “For prophecy never has its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” 

These 66 books are divided into two testaments. The word testament means treaty, pact or covenant. And these two testaments are based on the covenants God has made with mankind. We know these as the Old Testament and the New Testament. 

Old Testament 

Let's look at the Old Testament first. It consists of 39 individual books that were written between 1445 B.C. and 400 B.C. Jews refer to the Old Testament as the Tanak. Tanak is actually an acronym for the three-part division of the Jewish Bible: Ta for Torah which is the first five books, Na for Nebi’im or the prophets, and Kh is for the Ketubim known as the Writings. This collection covers the history of God’s relationship with humanity from the Creation to the coming of Jesus. These three parts, together,  reveals God’s plan for humanity and was a temporary covenant until Jesus would come to establish the permanent covenant. It even contains over 300 of prophecies that are fulfilled through Jesus in the New Testament

God chose the Jews (also known as Hebrews or Israelites) to receive his truths, write them, and teach them to others. These stories and writing cover the history of God’s relationship with humanity from creation and prophecies of the coming messiah, to the coming of Jesus who would establish the new and permanent covenant. 

The Old Testament was written in Hebrew because it was the language of the Jews. That is with the exception of the Book of Daniel, and two passages in Ezra that were written in Aramaic. I believe this was because these were written during the time of the Babylonian rule. 

The first 11 chapters of Genesis were passed down orally for thousands of years. Everything from God creating the earth to the flood of Noah, even through to the exile of the Israelites from Egypt, these stories were passed down orally from generation to generation. Until Moses came along. God inspired Moses to start recording his teachings, laws, and instructions known as the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible). This happened between 1445 to 1405 B.C.. 

The second major division of the Bible is the Nevi’im or Prophets. Prophets in the bible are literally spokesmen for God. These books are divided into Former Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings), and the Latter Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the 12 minor prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos Obadiah, Jonah, Micha, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi). I’ll spare you the reading of these lists. 

The third major division is the Ketuvim or writings. This part includes homilies, poems, prayers, proverbs and psalms. The Jewish bible consists of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Ester, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah and 1 & 2 Chronicles.  

The Old Testament of the Christian Bible includes the full text of the Jewish Bible. The difference is in the arrangement of the books. Instead of three major parts, the Christian Old Testament has five: the Pentateuch which is the first five books, the historical books from Joshua to Esther, poetry that includes Job, Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes; The Major Prophets (Isaiah through Daniel); and finally the Minor Prophets (Hosea to Malachi). 

The Jewish Bible was completed by the year 400 B.C. (Before Christ), and was fairly well established as authoritative scripture. From 200 to 100 B.C. the Greek translation of the Jewish Bible was made. This translation is known as the Septuagint. It was made at the request of King Ptolemy so that it could be included in the Library of Alexandria.

At the same time the Septuagint was being translated, there were other Jewish theological works written in Greek as well. Many of these writings/books were read, circulated, and highly respected among Jewish synagogues, but they were never accepted by the Jews as equal to the authoritative books within the Tanak. They were similar to modern-day commentaries. These books were known as the Apocryphal books. Some of these books were written in Green and even made their way into the Septuagint. We will talk more about this debacle in a few minutes. 

New Testament

This brings us to the New Testament. The new testament is made from a collection of 27 books. These writings were originally written in Greek. Which was the most commonly known language of that day. Nine different authors wrote these books between about 45 and 96 after Christ. This testament shares the conditions of the New Covenant between God and anyone who accepts his son, Jesus Christ, as Lord, God, and Savior. The New Testament is broken into 4 parts: the Gospels, Acts, the Epistles, and Revelation. 

The Gospels are the first four books of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. they tell the story of Jesus’ life and also include many of his teachings. “These books stand side by side because at one and the same time they record the facts about Jesus, recall the teachings of Jesus, and bear witness to Jesus. 

After the Gospels is the book of Acts. Also known as the “Acts of the Apostles.” The author is Luke, who also wrote the Gospel of Luke. He wrote Acts as a continuation to his first book. It was written to record the history of the early church and to describe what Jesus continued to do and teach — through his followers — after he returned to heaven. Acts shows how God's power and purpose work through human endeavors. 

The third part of the New Testament is the Epistles. Epistles are letters that were written by Paul, James, Peter, John and Jude. These letters account for 21 books of the New Testament. All of which were written in the first century to address specific situations. These situations were from behavioral or doctrinal issues that needed correcting, or to clarify a misunderstanding.

Finally, the last part of the New Testament is Revelation. Revelation is written by John and is a combination of apocalypse, prophecy and letters. This book looks forward to the time when God will finally judge the evil in the world. John was inspired to write this book based on dreams and visions that he expressed through cryptic and symbolic meanings. As Christians, we believe that Revelation is a prophecy about what God is going to do in the future. 

During the first and second centuries after Christ, there were quite a few different writings and letters that popped up. Some were circulated around Christian Churches. Over time, it was found that some of these writings were fake and written by third-party separatist movements. These Heretical groups threatened good relationships within the church. Paul speaks about heretics who stir up quarreling and dissension within the church in 1 Corinthians 11:18-19, Galatians 5:19-21, and in Titus 3:9-11. Peter talks about the false prophets who have denied the true teachings about Christ in 2 Peter chapter 2. Ignatius, an early church leader in the second century, wrote about these false writings referring to them as Gnosticism. Another early church leader, Irenaeus, sought to correct these false writings through writing a multivolume book called Against Heresies.

Eventually, it became apparent that there was a need to have a defined list of inspired scriptures. Many people think that the bible was assembled in 325 A.D. during the Council of Nicea. This idea comes from Dan Brown's book, “The Da Vinci Code.” In reality, it was a much longer process. Scholars have evidence that different church leaders and theologians made arguments for which books belong in the canon of scripture. This evidence is found through letters, church history, and theological disclosure. 

Early church leaders and theologians ended up creating three lists: Recognized books, disputed books, and false or heretical books. The books that make it into the Recognized list are what made it into the Bible. But how was it decided which books made the list? There had to be a set of criteria that was made and based on specific questions. This criterion was found through a list of questions: (1) Who was the author? Was it written by an apostle, by Paul, or by someone close to them? (2) How old was the text? The older writings took priority over newer ones. (3) Was it orthodox? Meaning did the text agree with older writings from the Apostles and did it align with known Christian teachings. (4) Did the text contradict other recognized writings? If it was truly from God, it wouldn’t contradict other texts, because God does not lie or contradict himself. (5) Did the writing come with the power to change lives? If it couldn’t change lives then it was apparent that God was not behind its message. (6) Was the writing followed or confirmed by miracles of God? True and false prophets were separated by performing miracles. 

Because of the criteria, the Bishop of Alexandria (Athanasius), provided a list of the 27 New Testament books by 367 A.D.

The List is complete. 

It wasn’t until the 4th century that the church recognized the full canon of scripture. It was then that Bishop Augustine wrote that only 66 books, 39 Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament, were considered canonical and were able to be used in Church. It was then that the books and writings that didn’t make it in the list of Recognized writings were thrown out. Today these books that were thrown out are known as the Gnostic Gospels. 

Latin eventually became the major language of theology in the 4th century. There was a need for the bible to be translated again. This task fell on Jerome of Stridon when Pope Damasus commissioned this new translation to be made. Jerome took the 66 books Augustine approved, along with the fifteen books of the Apocrypha, and translated them into Latin. The 15 extra books of the Apocrypha were left in because Jewish Rabbis through they were helpful. They were considered to be similar to modern-day study notes or commentary. Especially about historical information from the 400-year gap between the Old and New Testaments. Jerome clearly noted that the Apocryphal books were not to be viewed as authoritative scripture. Over time, these notes dropped out causing some new Christians to assume that these books were part of the accepted bible. This Latin bible became known as the Vulgate. 

The Canon of Scripture was set… Kind of. 

While the main editing of the bible ended in Augustine's day, the debate about which books legitimately belonged in scripture remained. This debate lasted into the 16th century. Along with Luther's Ninety-five Theses, this was part of what caused the largest church split in the history of the church. This split was known as the Protestant Reformation. The Protestant movement sought to return to more biblical beliefs, which caused scripture to once again be translated.  This time the translations were into the modern languages of Europe (English, German, French, and some others). These translations were directed by serious regard for Hebrew and Greek, because they were the original languages scripture was written in. Because of this, the Vulgate was ignored, and only the original manuscripts were used. 

During the translation process, it was noticed that the Apocryphal books were not in the original Hebrew manuscripts. The translators found that the Jews never accepted them as scripture, it never claimed to be inspired. In fact, the book of Maccabees chapter 9 verse 27 actually denies being inspired. Jesus even implies in Matthew 23:35 that the historical scripture of the old testament was concluded when Zechariah died which was around 400 B.C. Due to these findings, the translators and theologians decided to reject the Apocrypha, and the decision was made that it would be included in the appendix or be left out altogether. This made the new bible which includes the 66 books of the Protestant Bible we have today. 

In response to the Protestant Reformation and this new Protestant Bible, the Catholic Church had to get its ducks in a row. So Pope Paul III called a meeting in 1545 known as the Council of Trent. Not only was the Catholic thought and practice clarified, they took a stand against their new protestant opponents. It was here that Pope Paul III and the Catholic leadership declared that the Latin Vulgate was the official Bible of the “True Church.” This Bible included the apocryphal books as part of the authoritative scripture. This gives the Catholic Bible 73 books, 7 of which are from the Apocrypha. 

Today, there are actually three versions of the Bible. The 81 books, Ethiopian Orthodox Bible; the Catholic Bible with its 73 books; and finally the Protestant Bible containing only Augustines 66 approved books. You may be asking, why is there an Ethiopian Orthodox Bible and why is it different from the Catholic Bible? That is a really good question for someone else to do a podcast about. For me, I agree with the theories of the scholars and theologians of the Reformation, who went back to the original manuscripts to have more biblical foundations in their belief system. I also agree with the Jewish Rabbis that said the Apocryphal books are not authoritative or inspired, but they are helpful in providing information about what was believed and undertook between the 400-year gap of Zechariah and Jesus.

There we have it… the Bible. Not a single person or the church created it. It didn’t come to us in a bolt of lightning, and there was no single date that we can say that it was written. Instead, God inspired men, through the Holy Spirit, to record his eternal truths and His plan for humanity throughout historical events. It is through the church and many councils, who gradually accepted the lists of recognized books based on experience, evidence through scholarly research, and mutual agreement that we have the Bible today. The fact that each author and their books build off of the previous books keeping the same message for over 1500 years and the fact that the writings that the bible is made of have been preserved for over a millennium is a miracle in itself. These same words, known as God’s Word, that spoke to Jews and the early Christian Church are still speaking to us today and will continue to change lives in the future. Based on the way the Bible was created and preserved, we all have good reason to consider reading and obeying what God speaks to us through his word… the Holy Bible.  

Amen, What Does It Mean?

So this year, I’ve decided to start something new. I love teaching media and God’s word. So I’ve decided to use media to teach God’s Word through Podcasting. That’s right, Podcasting. When I look into visually teaching like on youtube or other visual sources, I get way too bogged down with the details. This means that I need to do something where all the visual details are thrown out the window. Which leaves the audio experience through Podcasting.

I decided to base this podcast off of Romans 11:23-24

“And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.”

These verses are talking about how Jesus came to save the Gentiles too, not just the Jews. The Gentiles being not from the Jewish background, culture, or faith are still accepted by Christ if they don’t continue in their unbelief.

This podcast is intended to be a discipleship tool to help strengthen the branches that are being grafted into the tree of faith. Whether listeners are wanting to learn more and deepen their faith, or if they are just curious about what Christianity is all about is what “The Grafted Podcast” is for.

I am committed to producing One (1) episode per month for the duration of 2021. The first episode is “Amen! What does it mean?” It’s live now on Anchor.fm, Spotify, and Pocket Casts. Other Podcasting platforms are coming soon.

In February we will be looking at where the Bible came from, and in March we will dive deep into which Bible translation is best for you.

After that, I want to hear from you. What types of topics do you want to hear more about. Let us know in the comments below.

I hope you enjoy this first episode. If you do, please share it with others, as well as liking it and commenting on it.