How to Study the Bible, Principles of Interpretation II: From Facts to Meaning
Vern Peterman · Dec 16, 2007
How to Study Bible (2007), No. 11
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926047101145

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Today I'm going to go over what we didn't cover last week. So just a little review. We were talking about, we're trying to get a single meaning out of these scripture passages. It's on page 37, right? It's on page 37, that's true. But we'll go back to page 36 here. There's three bullet points that I want to kind of review. Remember what we went over.

These observations need to be complete with no missing information. The observations should not include any misinformation. And these observations do not include any information outside the context of language, history and culture. So this next section, we proceed by logic to one correct interpretation of those objective observations. So, from a complete set of accurate observations, we can then logically draw out one correct interpretation for a passage which was the author's intended meaning.

And we need to keep this biblical. There's a tendency for people to add to scripture. We have the Bible and our traditions. We have the Bible and this authority. The Bible should be able to stand alone, and it can. Once we have our observations, we move on to interpretation. When we hone in our observations, we're more likely to There should be a little more consistency between interpreters.

This could help us to, as Paul said, say the same thing in 1 Corinthians 1.10. It helps to restore or heal doctrinal differences, or even better, to head them off before they occur. And we need to be in the unity of the Spirit, which doesn't mean allowing variation and tolerating interpretations that aren't correct, but it's the unity and the one faith of Jesus Christ.

And 2 Peter 1.20 says, but we know first of all that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation.

And basically this means interpretation is not up to one single person and it's not kind of a secretive process that a certain group has and then they just dictate to their followers. But it should be open, verifiable and consistent. You know, God used about 40 authors to convey a message and he didn't want that message to be hard to understand. That's not to say that there aren't passages that are hard to understand, there are.

But the purpose of the Bible is to convey a message and we need to be consistent in our interpretations. Romans 15, 4-6 says, For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Jesus Christ, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And we can see with these footnotes, of the same mind is singular, and it's the same word used in 2 Corinthians 13.11. That's a typo there. It should be 13.11. In the footnote. In the footnote, yeah. Where Paul says to be like-minded. It should be 13.11.

Yeah, 2 Corinthians 13.11.

And where it says, with one accord, that word is homo thumadan, the same word that's used to describe the unity of the apostles in acts. And that you may with one voice is literally that you may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, that was last week's, and now we'll go on to Principles of Interpretation, Finding Facts, or From Facts to Meaning. This is an important section because we need to understand that our interpretation needs to be consistent with the rest of Scripture. Yes, and be practical. Our understanding of Scripture should fit within the context of the rest of Scripture. And context is key in interpreting the Bible.

I mean, did you know that the Bible says there is no God? We should all go home. Psalm 14.1 says there is no God. Well, in the context, it says the fool in his heart says there is no God.

So, I mean, you can make the Bible say whatever you want by taking out a context or various other things. But in reality, the scripture originates in the immediate context and then grows out of that. And we have a chart here, the scales of context in the Bible. And we use the example of John 1, In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God. And the immediate context of that is in the book of John. So we compare what we read in a certain passage with the rest of the book, and then John is obviously a gospel, so we compare that with the rest of the gospels, and then we broaden our context to the entire New Testament, and then we broaden our context to the entire Bible. And, I mean, this is just an example.

Can anyone think of another kind of grouping that could be added to this? Yeah, the creation account. What do you mean exactly? His teaching, what he started. Right. So like the progressive revelation kind of thing? Yeah, if you look at it, like she mentioned going back to Genesis, which in the beginning, yeah, that fits. But that's part of the whole Bible. And then all gospel, that's part of the rest of the New Testament context. Right. Yeah. So, I mean, did John write any other books? Yeah, Revelation. 1st, 2nd, 3rd John. So we could make a grouping here, maybe after the Gospel of John, include all of John's writings, and then go back to all the Gospels and all that.

You know, you can kind of just figure that out for yourself. Take, for example, Matthew. It's a very Jewish book. Can you think of any other books that would be good to study alongside with Matthew to get a broader context? Hebrews is a good one. Very Jewish. Any others? Greg and Jessica? James, which we're studying on Thursday, that's got a very Jewish flavor to it and makes a good subcategory. When I was talking to Vern about this, he brought up one that I never would have thought of, which is figure out what churches Paul wrote to that had large Jewish populations, because you can kind of get a feel for what's going on.

I'm going to hand this off to Vern now. He'll tell us about how can I tell if something is to be taken literally or figuratively. Okay, we're at the bottom of page 38 here. And so how can I tell if something's been taken literally or figuratively? Have you got a theological dartboard? Is that how you do it? A special set of dice or what? What's that? Yeah, I think, you know, the thing is, there are indicators, aren't there? Let's ask this question.

When you're in a conversation with someone and someone uses a figure of speech, and sometimes that even escapes us that they've used one, do we struggle to figure out whether they're speaking figuratively or not? Sometimes it can happen. Occasionally it can happen. But most of the time we use figures of speech because they're a handy way of making a point and communicating something.

And it is typically made because it's understood. If I say, oh, that drives me up the wall. You aren't looking around and figuring out where the car is. Which wall does it drive you up? That's not what you're thinking, right? You understand the figure of speech. Yes, and that's one thing about figures of speech. Some figures of speech are cultural and very specific to a time, and others are not. And that's one of the reasons I always say language, history, and culture, because culture can be an important thing. We had Years ago, I was about 10 years old, we had a fellow who had been the treasurer of the Catholic Church in Argentina.

I won't get into it, it's too complicated, but he actually had to escape from there because they were hunting him down. He told them that they weren't teaching the Bible. Anyway, he stayed with us for several weeks. His name was Jaime Pellicer. I contacted him just within this last year. Anyway, Jaime was very interested because while he was a very well-educated fellow, he had never spent much of any time in the United States.

And so Jaime went up to the refrigerator and he said, hot point refrigerator. He opened it up, put his hand in, and it just made no sense to him at all. Well, to add further to confusion, Jaime was greatly baffled to look at the stove and see that it was a cold spot. This was really bad.

Okay. So anyway, we had quite a bit of confusion. That's cultural, isn't it? That's something cultural. You'll find in scripture that there are figures of speech that are cultural. You have within your handout for today, there are three appendix items. There's appendix item 7, appendix item 8, and appendix item 9. Let's take a look here at appendix item 7.

I don't intend to go through it in detail, but other than it is a handy chart to tell you whether figurative language is being used. What we want to do is to interpret things literally, and if it is figurative, if the language in a particular passage or verse is figurative, we want to understand that. But let's ask this question.

If someone uses a figure of speech, do they intend to confuse what they're communicating. No. If someone uses a figure of speech, they in fact mean a literal meaning. The ultimate meaning is literal. So we say interpret literally. That includes understanding what the figure of speech means literally.

If I tell you I'm speaking off the top of my head, I'm not telling you that I have an anatomical problem, that my mouth has been relocated to the top of my head. That's not what I'm speaking of. I do have a figure of speech that has a literal meaning though. And so what I need to do is use the figure of speech. Matter of fact, here's one that he brought up earlier. Chris brought up earlier for us.

And it is that Paul wrote to the church at Rome to speak with one mouth. Now, did he mean for them literally to all have one mouth anatomically? No. What was he saying? He wants them to say the same thing. It's the same message that he gave to the church in Corinth, 1 Corinthians 1.10, but said with a figure of speech. He did not intend that they all go for plastic surgery and become one body with one mouth.

Now, what you see here in this chart is Appendix Item 7. And by the way, the appendix items go behind the colored sheet. and numbered in sequence, except for the first one, they're all numbered. And the appendix item there, Appendix Item 7, gives you six points to use to indicate whether you've got a figure of speech, including number three is the one that Sue brought up, like or as.

And by the way, that's one of the Apostle John's favorites in the Book of Revelation. The Book of Revelation, as we taught, you know, five or six years ago, is one of the easiest books in the Bible to interpret. I know that'll blow most people's circuits to hear that. It's one of the easiest to interpret.

And one of the reasons why it's easy, the very point that Sue pointed out, he uses like or as several dozen times, somewhere around 50 times. but a frequent figure of speech. So anyway, this chart you'll find really helpful because there are particular ways you can look at a passage and say, now is this a figure of speech? And then this will give you six indicators to make that a little more systematic and make sure you've thought everything through.

OK? All right. So back to our passage here. The principle that applies is that the very bottom of page 38, was one that was developed by David L. Cooper. And Cooper was an author, he's now home with the Lord, but he wrote something, it's quoted on the top of page 39.

When the plain sense of scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense. Therefore, take every word in its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the fact of the immediate context studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths indicate clearly otherwise. I've heard it paraphrased this way, when the plain sense of Scripture makes sense, seek no other sense or the result will be nonsense. The point is that even when we use figures of speech, even when we have an allegory, and scripture, by the way, identifies the allegories, so you don't have to go allegorizing everything as they once did. Scripture identifies the allegories, but even if you have an allegory, if you've got a figure of speech, if you've got a symbol, there's always a literal intended meaning.

Always a literal, intended meaning. That's what we're aiming for. On page 39 there, right underneath our quote of David L. Cooper, simply put, this law states that all biblical passages are to be taken exactly as they read unless there is something in the text indicating it should be taken some other way than literally.

If I tell you, you know, oh, last night I ate way too much. I ate like an elephant. I'm not telling you I'm an elephant. I'm not telling you there's an elephant beside me or inside me. But I make a comparison, a figure of speech. If I said that I've been eating all this last year way too much and that because of that I'm an elephant, you're not figuring that I'm changing species or something, right? I'm using a figure of speech.

Now, here's the other thing, and you see this in bold, compare scripture with scripture using clear passages to interpret one that is less clear. This is an extension of the very principle that Chris taught. It's context, isn't it? All of Scripture is a context. All of Scripture is a context.

Now... Yes. Yes. Okay. And what do you mean by interpretation and identification? What do we mean by that? Okay. In other words, it is God's intent that you understand what's being said. Yeah. It's God's intent that you understand what's being said. What is astounding is that people will do, as Chris alluded to, will superimpose something on scripture contrary to its multiply stated intent.

Example. Romans 7, first six verses, you died to the law. Galatians 2, 19 and 20, you died to the law. Ephesians chapter 2, last half of the chapter, says that Christ died on the cross to put the law out of commission relative to us who are in the church.

And lo and behold, I mean, this is mind-boggling. There are folks that say, oh, but you've got to have some law. What? Where'd you get that? Well, you have to override the intended meaning. And I don't understand what the word death is. Yes, there's another one. Death is separation. Rather than reading what the scripture repeatedly say about what death is, including the Roman 7, 1 through 6 passage it's made reference to, rather than understanding that death is separation, which the New Testament keeps telling us again and again, They assume, oh, death means that you're out on a slab cold dead, unable to respond.

And they go through this logical system, the tulip system. Those are called the doctrines of grace. And all of a sudden, grace is redefined. And I don't think a guy can understand that until he understands what Christian love is, which is relationship. Yes. And what happens is people get really into a logical system. that they superimpose upon the scripture rather than saying, what does scripture say? And you're right.

Scripture ultimately is intended to go upon our relationship with the Lord. And in that sense is very practical, very practical. Here's another scripture that provides us with the whole counsel of God. Altogether, scripture provides us with the whole counsel of God, the whole context, all of what the Bible says, not what can I pick out of it? that makes it say what I want it to say. But we can use the truth taught in one passage of scripture to clarify and expand upon the true state in another. And that principle will help us in many different scales. Here's an example. Paul uses the word mystery a number of times in scripture. this word mystery. Now, what do you think of when you think of the word mystery?

What do you think of? Marriage. Pardon? Okay. Marriage is a mystery in Mike's mind. Okay. What else do you think of? Unknown. Unknown. We think of something unknown. Okay. What else gets conjured in your mind when you think of this word mystery? Trying to figure it out. Hold on. What's that? Putting together facts to figure out. OK. There's something you haven't got quite figured out, but you're working on it. OK. Yeah.

It's a modifier. A modifier. What do you mean? It modifies something. OK, if you look at it, he's going to say that this is a mystery or that's a mystery and use it in a context to describe. Sue, did you have another thought? OK. Ultimately, though, when we look at it, we oftentimes think of a mystery as something still unsolved, still unknown, still foggy or in the mists, as we would say figuratively. Right. And now, But here's what we get to.

Paul says in Ephesians 3, 1 through 7, you notice I bolded it. He uses this word mystery. What was made known to me, the mystery. So there was a mystery that was made known to him. As I wrote before in brief, this is some reading starting in verse 4 of Ephesians 3. By referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ. The word mystery is often used in the New Testament, but actually what we find is Paul explains his use of the word mystery and it was different from the way we often use the word mystery. It was different from the way it was used in the culture. In Colossians 1, 25 through 27, he says this, of this church, this is the body of Christ, I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the Word of God."

That is, here it is, the mystery. What's a mystery? Something that was hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to a saint. We think of a mystery as something that remains hidden and remains unknown. and remains foggy and out of focus. Paul's definition, and he gives it here, is it is something that in the past was unknown and unrevealed, but now is understood.

Now is clearly revealed. Do we see that? The word mystery, as it is used in the New Testament particularly, and frankly throughout the whole Bible, all the way back to Job, The word mystery means something that is now revealed, not has been kept concealed.

So scripture itself, this Colossians 1 is case in point, gives us the insight that we need to understand. Scripture will explain a great many things that remain foggy to people. One of the things that we brought out in the book of Revelation The thing that Sue pointed out is like or as, but there's also a great number of places where he says this means this. He tells you what it means right in the context. You say, oh, heaven, what does that mean? Well, he tells you a bunch of times. I filled up the whole page, two columns with all the references, places where he says this means this in Revelation.

So scripture will often reveal and explain itself. You've just got to look for it. Like Colossians 1 is explained by Colossians 2. Colossians 1 is explained by Colossians 2? Yes, there are further insights between those two. The last paragraph there, for many names that are found in the New Testament letters, we can go to the book of Acts for clarification. Acts will often reveal for us who someone is and what is their personal history. If you were to start looking, let's say you didn't have the book of Acts, and you go from the Gospel of John, and the next thing you look at is Romans. First thing you'd ask is, who's Paul? Yeah? And the next letter, what would you ask? Who's Paul? You would be asking who's Paul over a dozen times, at least, because you wouldn't know. But you'll get the whole history on the guy, or at least a lot of history on the guy, enough to be able to answer that question.

And then things start to make sense. So the Bible itself will be an excellent and first order resource for studying the Bible. because the information you need is going to start right there. What about the other dispensational groups, including bakers? Yes. Those who claim that the mystery is the whole, everything that Paul wrote. Ah, okay. Here's the, John's making a point here about, you're talking about groups that are sometimes called ultra or hyper-dispensational groups, and they will have teachings, and these teachings vary.

They will say that the church did not actually begin until Acts chapter 9. After all, Paul was a believer only at that point, and he was the one that revealed a number of things uniquely, and that's true. But also then there are others who will say, no, it wasn't chapter 9, it was chapter 13, because that's when he went off on his missionary journeys. And there are others still that will say, no, it was Acts chapter 28, because that's where he's in Rome.

And they'll say that that early group, that was the Jewish church, or some other term. And then they'll end up having variations between them about, we're supposed to observe the Lord's Supper, but not baptism, or baptism, or not the Lord's Supper, or neither one. And they'll have things like that. And so I think that's what you're in reference to.

It's a topic a little more than we can tackle entirely, but let me say a couple of things. One is in Acts chapter 10, and by the way, I would argue for if you're going to make a dividing line, that's where you should make it. They all pick the wrong one. If you were going to pick a dividing line, and I don't think it's correct, But if you're going to pick one, it would be Acts chapter 10.

Why? That is the point at which Gentiles are introduced to the gospel. So they picked the wrong one. But then what happens? Peter, who goes there in Acts chapter 10 to the house of Cornelius, Then after that comes back with a group of other Jews who had been with him at the house of Cornelius, Acts chapter 11, the leaders in Jerusalem say, hey Peter, you got some explaining to do, right? Because you went and just violated all of our Jewish traditions and went and stayed and ate with these Gentiles and you got a problem.

You better start talking here. In that chapter, that's where Peter says, It was with them there in Caesarea at Cornelius' house, as it was with us, get the phrase, at the beginning. At the beginning. Where was the beginning? With us? Back in Acts chapter 2. Yes. Yes. OK. Some people think Acts chapter 2 is where it was. Uh-huh. And I believe that's where it is. Yes.

You're still Old Testament saints until that time of the beginning. If you look, Christ pointed forward to that time when the Holy Spirit would come. And Peter in Acts 11 pointed back to that time and called it the beginning. Christ said, wait until that time. And then the Holy Spirit would come. And then you'll be My witnesses. Peter looked back to that time in Acts chapter 2 and called it the beginning.

There are more reasons we could look to, but to me, both of them are pointing to that time. Okay, let's look at on here, that's the end of the page numbers that we have, but we have more appendix items to look at, and we'll see what we have time for here.

You have in appendix item 8, this is Old Testament references to Balaam. It's printed out in color, black, blue, and red. And if you were reading in the book of Numbers, you would find out just in the book of Numbers what happened in the original events with Balaam. This is one single sheet. It's Appendix Item 8. It's printed out in blue and red and black lettering. Everybody with me?

You'll notice the first two references in the Book of Numbers give the original history, but what you have is throughout the Bible, and as I'll make a point of right at the bottom there, and an archeological discovery, but throughout the Bible further insights into Balaam. So, again, it's a point where the Bible helps explain itself, okay? If you say, well, what does this Balaam thing mean? Who is this guy? What's the significance of this? What is astounding is the Bible keeps talking about him.

We'll see one example here, Numbers 23, 4, and 5. Balaam has already done what he has done. This is the event with the donkey and all that. He has been killed, as recorded in Numbers 31, before the Jews enter the promised land. Moses brings up this Balaam guy again in Deuteronomy 23, verses 4 and 5.

He briefly summarizes that earlier event in Numbers 23 through 24. After the Jews have entered into the promised land, guess what you find in the book of Joshua? Repeated reference, a summary again of that numbers 22 through 24. Joshua 13 and Joshua 24, two passages that again make reference back to this guy.

What happened to this guy is not to be just, okay, let's just pass on it, that's history and let's move on. Instead, what you notice is that the leaders of the Jews keep pointing back to that and talking about it and bringing up the point from one generation to the next generation. By the way, the people in Deuteronomy 23 and in Joshua, those two passages, was that the same people that were there when Balaam was around? It was a new generation, wasn't it? So they had to be reminded and given that piece of history.

Then you have in Nehemiah, centuries later, practically a thousand years later, Nehemiah 13.2, a brief summary of Numbers 22 through 24, again brought up. And then finally in Micah, which was the book that we looked at this last Thursday night in our Thursday night home study. A call to remember, Numbers 22-24. Scripture keeps pointing back to it among the Jews.

A key point. It says, when you find something repeated like that, what does that tell you? It's important. They keep being reminded about it. We have something kind of like that in our own culture. Do you ever hear this? Remember the... Remember the Alamo, remember Pearl Harbor, whatever it is. And this is a lesson not to be forgotten, folks. When we get to the New Testament, very interesting. So here it is in the time of the church, and every single passage is addressed to the church. You still go back to Balaam three times. But what's interesting, there's a nuance at each point.

The way of Balaam, here's 2 Peter, the error of Balaam, Jude 11, and the doctrine of Balaam, Revelation 2.14. See what I mean? When you look at something, here's this Balaam guy, and it could have been one of those things where here's Balaam, he's mentioned, and you never hear about him again. That's not what happens, is it?

What you find instead is this original event up to the time of the Book of Revelation 1,500 years. 1,500 years later and they're still bringing the guy's name up and still talking about him and still telling people learn from his error. Learn from his error. This is critical stuff.

And so what it amounts to is numbers is in that original collection of books called the Law. The first five books. If you look at it, originally that was one book. From that standpoint, from the first book, including the Torah, that first five books as the first one, to the last book, Balaam continues to be brought up.

See that? It's important, it's important, it's important. Remember the, remember the, remember the Balaam. See that? So scripture continues to explain things, continues to give insight, continues to get understanding, not just repetition of the historical events, but insights as to what the problem was. Yes, Marilyn. Yes, Marilyn's point, and this is a good one. Sometimes you will hear this. And I've heard this off and on over the years.

Well, Jesus didn't say this or didn't mention that. Therefore, it's not important. What's wrong with that? Okay. He didn't have to mention it. Alright. And that's one thing. Good. And what else? Ah, yes. We can make the mistake of thinking if it isn't in red letters, it's not important. But what do we know about Scripture? All Scripture is inspired. Okay? Yes. All Scripture is inspired. So that would be one very important point.

Thank you. There's another point, and that is, did Jesus Himself refer to the Law? To the first five books of the Bible? Numerous times, numerous times, repeatedly made reference to those books so that if he didn't explicitly name Balaam, he did explicitly make reference to those books as being inspired in God's Word and valuable, right? So yeah, thank you.

That's a good point. People will oftentimes, you know, look at those red letter items in the Gospels of what Christ said as if that were the only inspired content. No. All Scripture is inspired. Every last point. All Scripture is inspired by God's intent. And here's one more thing.

In the Old Testament, and by the way, when Jesus was His ministry, there was only the Old Testament, right? The phrase that was used by Christ Himself was the Law and the Prophets. Why does He say that? The Law is the first part. The Prophets is the last part. It is a rabbinical way of saying everything. The first and the last. Christ said, I'm the first and the last.

It includes everything in the middle. We have a similar figure of speech, A to Z. Does that mean we only use A and Z? I don't think so. It means everything in between. And Christ made repeated reference to the entire Old Testament. As a matter of fact, he even told an account, if someone doesn't listen to the Law and the Prophets, the whole thing, then they won't listen if somebody comes back from the dead. So he meant, he intended, thank you for bringing that up, he intended that they listen to and receive, as God's Word, the whole thing. Everything.

Okay, we have one more thing, and this is Appendix Item 9. It's a one-single-page chart. And this is just to kind of give you a graphical idea. Say, Doug, Doug, let me pull your hand away there. You're getting some sing-song from here. Yeah, thank you. This is a graphical picture to give you the idea. Here we are. We are the ones looking at the text. And then notice what you have there.

The next part of the graphic is history and culture, and the text is language, right, in that center part of this diagram. By the way, I think the bottom footer may have gotten cut off in the copying. It may not say Appendix 9. But anyway, you have historical context, text, and cultural context. That's the language, history, and culture aspects.

Okay? From there, what are we aiming towards? The truth. What is the single intended meaning? Okay? So the idea is to give an illustration that carries out the same point. We are aiming for what did God intend to say? One of the things that happens, and I've noticed it in courtroom situations, opportunity when I was in engineering to, very interestingly, I never had to actually testify, but I involved with attorneys and insurance companies. And one of the favorite things that attorneys will do with the documents or what somebody says, they will say, well, could you say that, you know, could this mean And so what they're looking for is can this be manipulated in some direction. That is not our point with scripture. Our point is to ask what did God intend to say, not what can we make it say or what could it possibly be distorted to mean. But what was God's intended meaning?

That's the point here. Okay. That's what we want to understand. And not so weak, just because we're real sticklers on being correct. And not because we're nitpicky, but because God intended it to be lived out. See, the Trinity is not just a doctrine, is it? God intended that we live the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So it's not just something hypothetical.

It's not, boy, that's a nice piece of doctrine and we'll put it on the shelf here. Okay? But instead, intended to be lived out. And that's what this whole process is about. That's why we say, you know, how to study the Bible and it isn't just, hey, let's get academic. But it's for everyday life. It's for how we live every single day until the Lord takes us home. Okay? That's what it's for. And that's why that's why we look at how to study the Bible, because we want to know exactly what God had in mind to tell us. Yeah, that's great stuff. Questions? Comments? Exasperations?

I had something I read this past week stating, and it's here in our passage on John 1.1. Yes.

John 1-1 goes farther back than what Genesis 1-1 does. It comes from the foundation of the Word. Thinking about this, let's go back to the page that Chris was teaching on in the middle there. By the way, it should be John 1-1-3. I just noticed a typo. John 1-1-3.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Now, has anything, this is on page 38, this is on page 38, okay? I'm trying to respond here using the pages we've got here. So, on John 1, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Has anything been made yet? No, that's right. So actually, you're correct.

John 1.1 goes earlier than the creation. Yes, exactly right, John. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Pure and simple. Nothing's been created. Now, He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being. There, in verse 3, is where the physical creation comes into being.

So John, that's a correct observation. Yes? Yes Yes, let us make man. Yep Yep. Yeah, excellent. Yeah, excellent point. Here's the us and the we and that's exactly the passage We're going to be looking at upstairs here Yeah, it gives insight to that and and this is special stuff and by the way, John is correcting in those first few verses He is correcting an understanding, because he wrote this in Greek, right? And he wrote it at a time probably after a lot of the apostles were gone and he was living in a land that was dominated by the Greek language and Greek culture. The Greeks believed that the material universe was first. and the gods came afterwards and even some of the dying gods became some of the mountain ranges. So, in revealing this truth here, he was substantially correcting their understanding of the physical universe and what came first.

See, it's big. When the people from the Greek culture are reading this, they're going, what? Let me think about this a minute, see? They're mind-blown at this stuff. This is a radical overturning of what they had been grown up to think. This is great stuff and wonderful news.

And that's one reason why we mentioned upstairs Acts chapter 13 and 14, Paul's first missionary journey. Acts 17, Paul's second missionary journey, both times He underscores creation both times. He goes back to Genesis 1 because God was there first. Just the points you made here out of John 1, 1 and 2. God was there first. God created the physical universe. The physical universe was not there first and then God came afterwards.

Huge difference. Really big difference. And to make an understatement, it's all the difference in the world. Let's pray. Lord, we do thank you. You have revealed wonderful, marvelous things in your word. You revealed great, deep truths, truths that every human being needs. And we need not just for things here, but for forever. And we just thank you for the insights that we have from your precious word. And we thank you for your living word sent because you love us. In Jesus' name, amen.