How To Study The Bible

Let's see. A bunch of things to cover here. One thing I wanted to catch up on was a few weeks ago. What's that? A few weeks ago, Joanne was asking, what is this Taze worship that I see? Signs around town. Well, I had never heard of it. I hadn't seen the right signs, right? So anyway, I went and checked on it. Apparently Taize is some place over in France and there's some sort of an informal worship style that's been developed there and somehow spread around from that place. I don't have lots of...

What's that? Yeah, maybe. Yes, it's gone around to other denominational churches. So anyway, that's what it is. I don't know a lot about it. I see one thing that says, come as you are. a service of meditative common prayer and singing every first Wednesday of the month through May." Here's a little poem about prayer and it's written by Brother Roger of Taze. That's what it appears to be about.

You can take a gander at it after a bit here. Now, you seem somewhat familiar with it. Have you? Yeah. I've heard about it. You've heard about it. Okay. All right. Because I had never heard about it before. No. Okay. All right. So, anyway, that was one item.

The other thing that Joanne had mentioned last week was, you know, she was finding in various It seems like one Greek text would say believe in Christ and the other would talk about believe into Christ. The truth is that different texts have one or the other. As I look through different New Testament passages that talk about believing in Christ, some of them will have in and some of them will have ice and they will use it almost interchangeably. It's like it doesn't For some cases, the word usage seems to matter. For example, are we in the room or are we going into the room? That might make a difference.

In this particular case, Scripture doesn't seem to see a big difference between believing into Christ, which ends up leaving you in Christ, or simply believing in Christ. Scripture doesn't seem, as you look through the various contexts, to make a differentiation. If you think about it, the ICE, the into preposition, is focusing on the verbal circumstance you're going into, and the other is more of a state. Ultimately, ICE is going into There are, in fact, actual differences, but the translators haven't seen that it makes any difference in terms of how they brought it across.

We're going to be looking at that a little bit more this morning because in the next passage we'll see that the translators have tended to translate this word a little bit differently in different situations. Frankly, I'm not so sure that they should, but we'll take a look at that.

Before we get there, we were looking last week at John 3.16. Isn't that amazing? We actually got there. Let me distribute this here. I won't say I'll pass it out because I pass out too much. Okay, here we go. Let's see. I wrote this up about a week before Hal called me, I think, last year. We're working on some Greek translations. I thought I'd bring it up, even though it's outside of the passage, because it zeroes in on a few words that are helpful in our understanding.

This is John 3.16, and the character of what believing is, and what the consequence of belief is.

This is John 10.28, where Jesus is talking with the scribes and the Pharisees, and he keeps talking about he being the shepherd, This is the passage where he says, I am the door, I am the shepherd.

He says there in John 10.28, and much more, I mean much more comes out of the Greek than is typically brought across in most English translations. Let me read between the Greek lines here. This is reading between the lines.

I am constantly giving them life eternals. I think the English translations just say, I give them life. But this is, it's actually, I am constantly giving them life eternal. In the next line, it is not even remotely possible for them to destroy themselves into the eternity. See that? It's not just, you know, the English translations say, and they shall not perish.

We're taking a side trip here into John 10.28 to get some insights into this John 3.16 passage. It is not even remotely possible for them to destroy themselves into the eternity.

Where it says, shall not perish in John 3.16, this is the insight we're getting from it. They're not going to perish, we hope, or they might not, or something like that. Instead, it's not even sort of possible, not even kind of going to happen. It is the strongest Greek word combination that you can use to say, no way. It isn't going to happen.

This word translated destroy here is the same one that shows up in John 3.16 for perish. And furthermore, the last line there, nor for any to steal them by force out of the hand of me, out of my hand. It says I am constantly giving them life and they aren't going to lose their salvation of their own doing and nobody else is going to take them out either. That's the character of this belief. So let me read the paragraphs down there before.

The same root translated destroy above is used in Matthew 10.28, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. So the destroy is not just some vague figurative term.

It's a term that is used for destruction of the soul in hell. is used in the middle voice in John 10.28, they cannot destroy themselves. Isn't it interesting, the Lord desires that we take the step of belief, the step of unbelief, cannot be done so as to impact our salvation. It's like there's a one-way valve on this belief thing. Isn't that interesting? You can go in, but you can't come out.

At one point in time, our second son, Ed, he has a different attitude now. Remember, he sat down with Nancy and I, and he was actually mad that he couldn't reverse his decision. He's since glad that he can't. But at that point in time, he was at his peak, in the apex of teenagerdom, and he just was livid that he couldn't change his mind. I mean, I can't change my mind and back out of this thing?" He said, sorry.

But notice, the Lord says, and I am constantly giving them life. This is something where this is kind of a precursor to Paul's teaching in Colossians 3. Christ who is our life, Jesus himself says, and I am constantly giving them life. Why is it, why is it that we don't perish? Because the one who created the universe, who paid the price that we could not pay, is the one constantly giving us life. That's why. It doesn't depend on me, it depends on him. Isn't that neat?

So that's what this John 3.16 is about. God gave his only son, and what did the son say? I'm constantly giving them life. That whoever believes will not perish, not even reversibly, will not perish, but have, and that word have is not just sort of hold loosely in your hand, it's just to have it in possession. Will have in possession life eternal.

Isn't that neat? Good stuff. I mean, I think it's rich. I think it's rich stuff. I think it is valuable to take a step to the side and take a look at a passage like this. This passage is so potent. As a matter of fact, various people have asked about how they can be assured. I send them a copy of this and email it or mail it to them because this is a verse that just nails the issue. It doesn't just deal with Can I lose my salvation? It talks about where life comes from and who it depends upon. So that's a marvelous thing, isn't it? Okay. Okay. Now, with that, let's head off into the next verse there.

17. Can you believe it?

We've actually gotten to verse 17. That's just phenomenal. Now, when he gets into verse 17, See, verse 16 is by and large just kind of stating the positive fact. Verse 17 is trying to keep our minds from heading into the wrong direction. He wants to make sure we don't mistake God's purpose here. So let's take a look at it. Verse 17, For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." What does that tell you? Just reading it at face value, what's it saying? Let's make sure we get the big picture here before we look at the details.

Okay, right. He's saying it's not for this purpose, not for the judging, right? That's right. But instead it's for this. Have you noticed that that the Scriptures frequently put it this way, and Paul often writes this way, not this, but this. Not this, but this. You'll see that frequently in Scripture, won't you? And this is a case in point. God didn't do this, he did this. So this is that kind of a statement. Now, let's take a look at the words here. We've talked about four.

Remember, what's that four for? Remember what the four is for? There's only one for. What's the for for? That's right. This is a because kind of statement. This is a statement that's building on what's already been said. Good point. This is for God, and we've noticed before, and this is also, this God has the article in front of it, and what's that telling us? This is for THE God. Not just one of them. For THE God. And what does this THE God do?

He is different and separate from the others. And what's the verb that we see that follows? That is sent. Now when you think of sent, what do you picture in your mind? word generate to you? Somebody asked me to go for it. Okay. There's somebody who is going somewhere. Someone told him to go there. And someone told him to go. Okay.

Now, it's interesting. There are two words for sent in the Greek. That doesn't surprise you, right? The Greek frequently has multiple words. The one word that is here is very specific. There's sort of a general word sent that that has a kind of, yeah, I'm going to send you it, but it's not on something specific. This is one that is specific.

Let's take a look at it. Apostello. What does that sound like? Apostle. Yes. And the word apostle means a special messenger. And the special messenger has a mission, in other words, You have something you're intended to accomplish. There's a specific mission. Something else about the special messenger, he carries the full authority of the one sending. How about that? With regards to that mission, a special messenger carries the full authority of the one sending. So this word apostello is definitely related to the word apostle. This is the verb. Apostle is the noun. So they're related.

Basically, he didn't just sort of send us on this sort of like, hey, go there. What did he do? He sent them, and what are the characteristics of this word apostolo that kind of narrow down the scope and make specific what he was sent for? What are the things that you can think of? One of the things, he had a mission. So as this word apostello implies not just a general, hey I'm sending you, but there was a specific mission that he was sent for. And it is not in fact John describing what that mission is in this verse. He's saying it's not this, it's this. So he is using the word apostello and not just leaving you in the dark.

The two things about apostello is one, there's a mission and two, the person being sent has full authority, and John is telling you the answer to what, who is giving him full authority? God. And what's his mission? To save, and he's correcting any possible misunderstanding not to condemn.

So he's telling you the content of that word apostello. Apostello implies the mission, it implies that he's coming with the authority of the one sent, and he's telling you in that verse who the one sending is, and he's telling you in that verse what the mission is, and he's telling you what the mission is not. So it's very specific, isn't he? He doesn't leave, and we'll see, he does not leave anything to chance in these verses.

He nails it. Okay? And we'll see that in just a minute. And you're right, as a matter of fact, you'll see you're doubly right. Okay? Okay. Now, So, let's get this back up. Are we okay? Yeah. Okay. And it's interesting, the order that comes across, God sent not His Son, and what is this here, this little ART, what's that telling you? Article, and that is His THE Son, okay? His THE Son, okay? And that gets reinforced again right here at the end of verse 18. We'll get back to that if we have time today. He sent not his son, and what is this?

1519 is ice. Remember, we look at our prepositions. Into the world with the result that he is in it. So it's this preposition here, ice. He sent not his son into the world. Now interesting, what's the character of this world? We studied that last week. Who is this world he's talking about? Fallen people. He sent not his son into the world and he's going to say what not and what for, right? But he didn't send his son into the world. Now notice he didn't just kind of send him around alongside Because there are Greek verbs for those. Para would be kind of alongside.

The Greek preposition. Or about or above. Into. Right alongside human beings. Into the world to condemn. This word condemn. We better take a close look at that. I notice this word condemned has ASBA after it. What does that stand for? If it's eris, what does that tell us? At a certain point in time. Right, at a certain point in time.

The eris generally has the implication of past, to have condemned, and it's active means means that he would be the one doing it, right? But then, this word condemn, what does that mean? It means to judge in an official sense. To judge in a judicial sense, in the sense to pass judgment upon, to condemn.

It's spoken specifically here of Jesus in John 3.17. God did not send his son with a mission, having the full authority of himself, in order to pass judicial judgment upon the world. To condemn the whole world, when he talks about the world, that's everybody, right? He did not send his son to say, okay guys, you're all cooked, you're all crispy critters, you're done. That's not what he came to do.

And what is this? This says but, but what's 235? What is that? Remember there's two forms of the word but in the Greek? Allah. The one is day and it's a very soft form. It's almost a connective. This one, Allah, means sharp contrast. He did not send his son to condemn the world, but in sharp contrast, that's that word Allah, In sharp contrast with that, in sharp contradistinction, that, or we might say in order to that, the world, is that the same world as the other one? It's the same one.

God's intent was that the world, now here's another one of these prepositions. The Greek word, put this prepositional diagram in there, dia, the world through him, by means of him. That's the thought there. The world by means of him might be saved. Here's my pet peeve again.

Might does not mean possibly. that if you were to really bring this across so that the certainty is stated in the real intent, but in order that the world through him will be saved or would be saved, would bring the idea across without implying the possibility idea that the word might implies. Let's look at this word might be saved. What do you notice about that? What are those green letters telling us?

All right. That's one. That's right. We might be saved. It's all one word. That's one good point. What else do we know about it? Yes. It starts off with the A, which is clearly an Aorist tense. The general implication of the Aorist is actually a past. Right? But let's go beyond that. What's the letter at the end of the... It's passive. And what does that tell us about the salvation?

It's not our job, right? It's not up to us. That the world might, through Him, might be saved by God's doing. By what God does and not what we do. Some cults and different religious groups will tell you that Christ died so that you can earn your salvation. What is this telling us? That Christ came So that through him we might be passive voice, not middle voice, not saved of ourselves, but that we might be saved passive voice by God's doing. All his, not ours. Let's go back to Mike. Okay, go ahead. Well, you know that Christ died for all men. Yes, yes.

So would they know that this has been targeted at them? You know, the Calvinists and the Armenians... want to sit there and resolve this thing such that we have some sort of intellectually comprehensible understanding that this is all God is doing, is the Calvinist statement, and that therefore we've got absolutely nothing to do with it, even the choosing. The Calvinists would even narrow down that word world to include only those that were elect. When they say, did not send his son to condemn the world, they would say that the world includes only those who are elected. Because those who are not elected, they would say, were indeed intended to be condemned.

That's their understanding of that. But that would appear to be a misinterpretation of the word cosmos. Yes, and not only that, it doesn't say that. It repeatedly uses that word cosmos and doesn't provide anywhere in the context that sort of a narrowing down.

I think the thing is, it's in order that is the intent there. What this subjunctive is intending to convey is that Christ is providing the means by which salvation can take place. Unless one supplements this with additional words, it doesn't answer the question Is it some particular group and just those and the rest are going to hell? Or you all have to believe and then God is going to respond. It doesn't answer that Calvinist and Arminian question. What is the focus? The focus is that the Lord desires that we be saved. The focus is that the Lord desires that we believe. The focus is not to answer our intellectual questions. The focus is not to satisfy our intellectual curiosity.

Does that make sense? The way I put it to one person recently, as I said, what happened about 400 years ago is that the Calvinists and the Arminians started doing this tug-of-war and they were pulling on the rope. God's word does not pick up the rope. Drop it.

Essentially, if you look at God's word you believe, and later on in eternity the Lord can explain how all this thing works. But right now there is no question but the Lord is saying believe. That's what's being conveyed here, not an answer to some intellectual question that showed up more than one and a half millennia after John got through writing this. This word saved, let's think about that.

Does he mean just saved, like you're just saved initially, that time when you say, you know, Lord, I place my trust in you for salvation. I place my faith in Christ for salvation. Is that what he's talking about? What does he mean when he uses... How big is this word saved, I guess is what I'm asking. How big is it? Okay. Let's think about this.

We won't find it in this context per se, but as we look in Scripture on what the rest of Scripture explains about that word saved, we like to quote Romans 8.28, which tells us what? All things work together for good. Okay. For who? For everybody? For those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. And then what does verse 29 say?

Ah, that's the key. You see, if we don't see the next verse, what's going to happen is we're going to see the circumstances we get into and say, how can this be good? This isn't good. This isn't on my list of good in the Lord. Right? But the idea is not that you're going to like it. The idea is that the Lord is going to use whatever these things are. The Lord is going to use all these things to conform us to His image. That's the good.

And then He goes in a sequence that goes all the way from calling and justifying and everything else all the way to being glorified. When we talk about saved, we're not talking about I just walked up to the altar and said amen. It's a salvation that is initiated at that point, but this thing includes everything that is carried all the way through, all the way to the point of Ephesians 2, 6, and 7. You've been seated with Christ. And then verse 7, where it says it's going to take eternity for him to reveal all that he has for us.

That's what saved means. Wow! There is a lot in that. As a matter of fact, at Holly Hills we spend lots of time learning what saved means, don't we? Important insight, because I think as we read that word it can be, if we're not careful, limited to some little tiny small thing.

That's why I ask the question, how big is salvation? It's so big that after 10,000 years has gone by, and those numbers, years, is probably inappropriate, but just to give us an idea. After 10,000 years has gone by, the Lord will have just begun to reveal what he has for us. That's how big salvation is. So we need to be careful we're not treating it real little. It isn't little.

It is incredibly big. to the point where all the studying of God's Word that we can do right now just gives us a glimpse of what's to come. Too many churches are putting out, if you're saved, you'll go to heaven. That's as far as it goes. Saved, you go to heaven? It's good fire insurance, but that's the least of it.

Can you imagine If a store, just to take an analogy, let's say a store where you go in there, I want to buy some clothes. And they look at you and they, well, we've got some thread over here. No, no, no, I want some clothes. And they look at you, we've got some thread. And you look at them, they've got little pieces of thread laying out on the shelf or something. And you say, what is this you're showing me? I want clothes. There is so much more than just the little tiny bits and pieces we sometimes look at and call salvation. Yeah, key point. And unfortunately a great portion of Christendom is all zeroed in on trying to sell threads.

Okay, let's look at verse 18. He goes at and he states positive statements by stating nots. Look at what he says. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Let's step our way through that. He that believeth. Is there anything we need to take note of that? Yes, yes. And notice, look at the green letters that are after believe us there. It's the same word, but what do you notice about that? What are the green letters telling us? What's the first set of green letters there? They have an article, okay. And then this is as a present active participle.

So this is kind of a combination noun and verb. It has this meaning. He that is the one believing. He that is the one believing. That's the way he's written it. That's what that A-R-T comma P-A-P is telling us. He that is the one believing. Now notice it says on him, but what do you notice about the number? It's translated on, but guess what? It's this. I think this is the case where the translators are trying to smooth it out in English, but it's really, he that is believing into him, he that is believing into him is what that really is saying, is not condemned, This is the same word condemned up here, okay?

But notice, what are the green... Yes? Sure. Yes. Yes, yeah, I think that's a good point. This into is, this is an entering, not just a superficial thing. And I don't just believe something about him. I don't believe something sort of superficially on top. But my belief is deeply entered into.

So good point, Tom. Good point. Now, how about this word condemned? It has those green letters afterwards. What are those letters telling us? Right, yes. And there's a reason why that's there, and it explains why he goes into the next phrase. Because, he that believeth on him is not present indicative is right now, is not right now continuing to be condemned. So what does Paul say? There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, right? He is right now continuing to be condemned. It's passive, since the condemnation isn't something we do. You ever condemn yourself? He says, God's the one that would be doing it, but he isn't.

Okay? So it's passive voice. But, and now notice, different word but. This is the day, which is a softer, more of a connective. So he's not so much contrasting as continuing the idea. But he that believeth, and it's the same one as up, he that is the one believing, believing not, is condemned. Now here's why I said, you know, you're double right. It says, is condemned already. He doesn't actually need to put the already in there because this word condemned, and it's the same word we've been looking at before, right? Same numbers in the superscript?

What does PFIP stand for? We got the PF, which is perfect. When you see the PF, it's perfect, right? It is the perfect tense, and what's the classic statement of the perfect tense? Completed past action, continuing future results. So what is he saying about this? He that doesn't believe has already completed past action, been condemned, and that condemnation is passive, God has already completely condemned that person who does not believe, it's a completed past action, and the result of that condemnation will continue on into the future. See that? It already says already, right? But what does he do? He adds another word that says already on top of it. It means that the person who is condemned is condemned already already. He is completely condemned already if he doesn't believe.

In the Greek it's a double emphasis by using not only the verb form, the perfect tense, but adding this word already on top of it. I like the difference between being called out and being ejected from the game. Yeah, this is a very final action, isn't it? It is completely and totally done. In terms of the past tense, it has already happened.

And in the Greek, you could hardly say it more emphatically. So the already is what changes the tense of it. it already adds to the perfect tense statement. You could leave off the word already, and the Greek verb form already says that, but by adding already to it, he is doubly emphasizing that. That's why I said you're double right, because it double underscores that condemnation is 100%, it's done, it is completely in the past. That's what he's underscoring here.

Okay? Make sense? And why not? What's the problem with this person? He hasn't believed. If he hasn't believed, there is no hope. That's the bottom line. That's the message that's been brought across here. Because he has not believed. And guess what? He that believes it not is condemned already because he hasn't believed. Even the believing issue is underscored twice, right? That not believing is a big problem. It's a big problem. He hasn't believed what? What's that?

Yeah, hasn't believed in, and what do we notice again? Okay, this is, hasn't believed into, okay, the name of the only begotten. I want to mention this only begotten. The intent there is uniqueness. He is the one uniquely begotten. It isn't like there's a bunch of sons and you just gotta pick one. This is the unique son. That's the focus here on the Greek.

Why does he talk about the name of? Why didn't he just drop that? Why did you put that in there? Is that superfluous or is there a meaning for that? Because of what's embodied in his name. Okay, alright. You're onto an important point there. Because of what's embodied in his name.

In our culture, we tend to put a name as a sort of an attack on, right? But in the culture in which this was written, the name was very powerful and important. The name referred to the very person and character that was integrally part of who somebody was. It's interesting, for example, even to just look through a Bible dictionary and look at what all the biblical names mean, because in a great many cases they're not just incidentally tacked on, but they have great significance. You could substitute the word into the very person and character of the unique Son of God.

Notice what he has done here. He has underscored how important believing is. Notice how he just keeps coming back at that believing. He keeps talking about this condemning and condemnation issue. He's underscoring that, coming back to that condemning issue.

He's talking about that's not why the Son came, that he who believes is not condemned, but that he who does not believe is condemned already, already. He's already there. The condemnation is not something God adds on. It's already a done deal. The condemnation is already a done deal. So the believing is the means out of it, and that is through His Son. So you can look at this, notice how many times that preposition ice shows up. Notice that word condemned showing up. Notice the word believe showing up. And between His Son, Son of God, and Him, notice how often that shows up.

This is a tapestry that the Lord has woven in words. Okay? Well, let's call it good, okay? Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. And Lord, as we look at this salvation that we have because of the believing, we just pray that we would understand more and more what it is that you've included in that short, small word. We just thank you that that comes because of the immense love. It is the way that you loved us. We just thank you and give you praise. In Jesus' name, Amen.