History II: New Testatment History

Because there was so much distraction last week, I wanted to actually start out with a review on page 23 in your binder there. Just going over and looking at the importance of history in the context of Bible study. There are some just phenomenally awesome charts that have been put together. I have actually tried to do some of that work on the computer, and I'm glad that other people did it first, because it's meticulous and challenging.

Just reviewing on page 23, the first thing that is on here is that God is not subject to time, nor are his knowledge and ability to act limited by time. But history matters in the Bible because, and then there's this list, By God's faithfulness and intent, history is going somewhere. We have a biblical history because God was involved. If you look at Colossians 2, I believe it's verse 7 and I don't have the reference written down, it says that Christ sustains and holds together the universe. That gives God some pretty awesome sovereignty. Other scriptures, even starting in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15, God reveals that he's going to send the Christ, he's going to send the Messiah, and the first prophecy is made. So we have history in a biblical perspective that runs both directions. We look backwards to see what God revealed historically, and so we can look at the scriptural text that direction.

Historically, they were looking forwards. One of the things that, well, let's keep going. Sequence matters. One event follows another. Genealogies, which are included in both the Old and New Testament, are about which person came before another. Monique, we're on page 23. You're welcome. Periods of time and specific points in time matter for various events to take place. Historical reality matters.

The Bible is not truth that is independent of historical reality. One of the biggest arguments that takes place in the archaeological worlds or universities when they deal with archaeology is simply, is the biblical text reliable for archaeological evidence? Does archaeological evidence prove or disprove the biblical texts? And there's constantly articles being written back and forth, volleys are fired, so to speak, to deal with the historical nature of the scriptures. Believers rightfully observe baptism in the Lord's Table by looking back with deepening consideration of what God has accomplished in the past. One of the things that's not in here but I think that's really important is that the scriptures deal with a concept called progressive revelation. Is everyone familiar with the term progressive revelation? Yes? No? Maybe?

Progressive revelation is the concept that God revealed his truth to mankind in a prophetic sense. I'm going to reveal this truth now, this supernatural truth, progressively over history. So history has with it, when we look at biblical history, this idea of what did God reveal at that point in time. One philosophical approach to covenantal reform theology says that Adam and Eve actually understood the gospel. Now, not all Reformed theologians believe that, mind you, but they'll say that Adam and Eve knew the gospel because they don't hold to a truly progressive revelation approach. They think that God revealed the gospel to Adam and Eve. They just happen to not have recorded it in scripture until you get to the New Testament.

That's a problem. So when you talk about history, you have to talk about historical knowledge. You have to talk about historical culture and things like that. So progressive revelation is a term used to describe the revelation of God's truth and character throughout history as recorded in the Bible. Okay, say this again because now I'm sitting here and I'll...

Okay, you're oriented. Alright. Okay, so Adam and Eve knew about... No, they did not. I'm saying they did not. They did not have the clear and express revelation of Jesus Christ dying on the cross, being buried, rising the third day. The most they had was in Genesis 3.15 when God says that a descendant of Eve, a seed of Eve, will crush the serpent's head. Did they even understand that? No. No. Because when one of the sons that they named actually reflects that they thought that that son was going to be the son to crush the serpent's head and they were mistaken.

Not to sidetrack it, then where would the covenant No, it's a philosophical presupposition. They come to the text with that assumption. It's a bit difficult to substantiate in the text. It's just something that they believe philosophically. We're going to talk about some issues in dispensationalism, since we're not covenant or dispensational at Holly Hills. We're going to discuss some of the issues that we have to answer and think through as well.

Specifically, New Testament theology is where it gets emphasized. Well, I think, Randy, it's important to point out that the Bible is a historical book and we trust what the Lord has revealed to us. In terms of chronology and history, we're subject to what has been recorded. Yes, and I think that's the unique nature of it is that it is a recorded historical book and if we're talking about history in the Old Testament or history in the New Testament, you've got to keep that in context. The Holy Spirit inspired the historical document that is the living word that is Jesus.

That God, looking at John chapter 1, this is the living word. present and future. Yeah, I mean there's elements... All of history. Yeah, it's the revelation of God's... It's already written down in the future. Yeah. And there's things that historically took place and we need to keep those in context. There's things that, you know, when we look at the epistles, they have a modern practical application in our lives. The appropriation is there. And then there's things that are still yet to be fulfilled that are prophetic in future tense.

That is a very important I get material from a place that could have been involved. They had just recently uncovered a piece of something or the rock or something to prove that David's temple was Mount Moriah. Wow. Of course, people think that wasn't that.

No, no, no. But actually, 3,000 years Well, and that's the thing where archaeology is constantly battling over what is revealed in scripture and what they can find evidence for. And so there are, on a secular level, we walk in faith that God's word is reliable, but on a secular level there are things that prove the reliability and the historicity of the text. I wanted to, since we're looking at, I'm now on page 26, I want to ask some tough questions and hopefully we can kind of work through these together as brothers and sisters in Christ. One of the things we want to ask here is where does Christ, his earthly, physical being born to Mary and then living his life for roughly 30 years and then being crucified, where does he fall? Does he fall into the Old Testament time? or does he fall into the New Testament time when we talk about the Gospels?

Let's vote. We'll vote just for fun. Everybody has to vote. This is not a democracy, but we're going to ask. I want everybody to attempt to vote. Who says Old Testament? Raise one hand. Who says New Testament? Well, things are revealed in the Old Testament of things to come.

That's a trick question. Here's the problem that has arisen in Christianity historically. We have lumped the Gospels in the New Testament, and everybody says New Testament, New Covenant, New Dispensation, and they railroad the life of Christ into the New Testament, and suddenly the ramifications of that are significant.

For example, did Christ walk by the Spirit or not? I'm asking general questions so we can think through this together, okay? Yes. He walked by the Spirit. In the Spirit. He walked in the Spirit, but by the direction of the Holy Spirit. God, Christ said, I do not do my own will, I do the Father's will. And the Holy Spirit was the one that directed him. And remember, his ministry really started in the River Jordan, right? Sure. And he was baptized. But here's the next question.

Are we called to do the same? Are we called to walk by the direction of the Holy Spirit? Okay. Did Christ fulfill the law as he walked by the direction of the Holy Spirit? Yes. Are we called to fulfill the law as the Old Testament law, as directed by the Holy Spirit? Well, our law is different. It's called the law of Christ. Yes.

So we are not under the same direction. So the problem that we have is when we look at the ministry of Christ, If we look at it as a New Testament ministry, Christ says some very challenging things because he's dealing with Old Testament saints before the event of the cross and the subsequent gospel message could take place. Well, I'm going to emphasize why this matters in the next passage, but what I'm saying is that Jesus lived under the Old Testament system, under the law, and it wasn't until his death, burial, and resurrection and then Acts chapter 2, that the church came into place and the New Testament life and the new believer come into being able to be in existence. Not to go too tangential, but Christ in his life gave us a hint of what was ahead. because when he challenged the law about healing on the Sabbath.

There is an example. I interpret the law a little bit different the way you guys are doing it. By the way, I'm right. So in a sense, there are hints in the Synoptic Gospels, in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. John's a tremendous transition into the church. but still John was still pre-Cross for the most part, right?

I'm going to draw some pictures on the board here just because sometimes visually is the best way. Because the New Testament came into action after death. Yes, the Holy Spirit's work in your life. Prior to the Old Testament the Holy Spirit would work in the life of Old Testament saints on occasion, but not the way that we have the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And so, you know... That's my first question to the Lord. Old Testament people walk by faith, have the Spirit. Historically we have the cross that is the delineation between Old and New Testament saints.

We have the rapture here. We are now currently living in the timeline between the cross and the rapture, or even the rapture will be us going to be the bride. But we have the beginning of Genesis, which I will just put zero there because I don't know. We don't have an exact date. But the idea being that when we look at who Christ is, he came into existence on the earth. This is not to scale, obviously, but let's say this is the birth of Christ.

What we end up dealing with is this time period between his birth and his death and resurrection have caused a lot of issues in theology for saints because when they read the Gospels they look at their what would Jesus do bracelet. Okay, I'm being somewhat sarcastic. But they look at their what would Jesus do bracelet and they say, oh well Jesus did this. How do I deal with that? We have to figure out where Christ was historically and in the order of revelation of Christ. If you'll look with me with, let's see here.

I'm in Luke, chapter 22. I'm sorry, I'm trying to grab the right reference here, because I skipped the wrong chapter. Well, we can go anywhere in Luke really, but when we look at the various parables that were in Luke, or are in Luke, I'm searching, I was going to be in 22, and I think that's wrong. Well, I have that parable of fig tree. It's twenty one, twenty nine. Yeah. Apologies for not having my reference written down. You were saying that the fig tree. Well, that's twenty one. Sure.

But when we look at the parables with Christ, he's talking to these disciples in an Old Testament context and he makes absolute statements that are strong, firmly worded statements that are not reflective of... I think Christ obviously reflects it in Israel, right? Yeah.

The disciple asks about money and he says sell everything, all of your possessions. And apologies for, this was just kind of spur of the moment, but I wanted to bring it out as an example, but apparently I'm not making an example of anything other than lack of preparation.

What did Jesus mean when he said on the cross, it is finished? I've read other parts of the scriptures that the Son of Man has come to save and to seek back what is lost. We're talking about the law. Was it the law that was finished on the cross? What are we talking about? Well, his ministry on earth was finished. The thing is that the ramifications of that statement are significant and probably many. Basically it's salvation. Well, it is finished. His work and his ministry are finished.

He didn't breathe this last and died and the requirement of the righteous perfect God-man dying on the cross was fulfilled and finished and three days later the love and power of God would raise him from the dead and he would then be the firstborn from the dead as Colossians says. That doesn't mean that the law is dead. Well the law, the law dies to the believer. when the believer becomes a believer. When the last act of the will of man is to die, is the death of man.

And I'm sorry I can't find this passage. Mark 10.21. Let's go there because that's a better source. I don't know why I had it in my mind.

Mark 10.21. That's what it was. Anyways, we'll be in Mark 10 for now. Doesn't really matter.

Starting in verse 17 he says, As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to him and knelt before him and asked him, good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother. And he said to him, teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up.

In verse 21 he says, looking at him Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, one thing you lack, go and sell all you possess and give to the poor and you'll have a treasure in heaven and come follow me. In verse 22 he says, but at these words he was saddened and he went away grieving for he was one who owned much property. And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, how hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God. Now, here's what was posited on one blog or website that I was reading.

The guy said, well I have an autistic son and I want to make sure that I've got provisions for my son because when I die I want to make sure he's taken care of by the appropriate people. But Christ says I need to sell all my stuff. What do I do? I'm going to not be able to fulfill the command of Christ because I can't sell all my stuff.

Because he was in love with his stuff. Well, no. The problem is that he was looking at the words of Christ as a command to him and said, well, this should directly apply to me. He wasn't observing, interpreting, and applying, as we've talked about, the systematic process of things. But part of observation is looking historically, when was it written and who was it written to?

We have to keep history in context. or else we could blow it. Because then I have to go home. Yesterday I smashed my thumb with a hammer doing some woodwork because I was installing a microwave. I have to go home and tear the microwave out and sell it because this passage says I need to sell all my possessions. I went all that labor and now I've got to undo it. I've got to sell the house, sell the car, sell the kids.

But if you don't have historical context, you need to understand the intended recipient or the listener. All of those things matter. So when we talk about where does Christ fit in the New Testament or Old Testament timeline, we need to remember where that is. Now here's another question.

Was Adam a Jew or a Gentile? Well, he was a Gentile because he was not a Jew. But the thing is that sometimes we think Old Testament Jews and we kind of slop them all together because why not? Well, the Jews don't show up or Israel as a nation doesn't show up until Jacob has his children and then in Genesis chapter 50 he finally closes things off and blesses them and they become the nation of Israel. If you throw all the Jews or all the people in the Old Testament as Jews in there then God wiped out a bunch of Jews when he did the flood with Noah. Noah wasn't a Jew, he was a righteous Gentile.

So historical context matters significantly. 600 years between Abraham and the 10th man of Israel. And the thing is that there is a significant impact on, you know, when you look at time when the law shows up, that matters. Abraham trusted in God with faith. He didn't have, it doesn't reveal specifically that he had the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. He just trusted God. That's significant. That's one of the things, you know, Bob said, I want to ask God about that. That's one of the things I want to ask God about too. How did they walk in faith without the Holy Spirit? Because if I didn't have the Holy Spirit, I would blow it so bad. You guys would not have Rennie as a Sunday school teacher. I'd come groveling in every Sunday morning, actually.

Yeah, that's optimistic. This could be a conversation that could last hours. Let me make a simple point. I mean, God has asked all of mankind to respond by faith in every point in history. Absolutely, and that's an important point. And faith is based on what God had revealed, right? Yeah. So the principle is the same for us today as it was for Joseph or it was for Ezra.

I mean, God reached man in a different way back then either through the prophets or through direct revelation or through the written text when people could read it but the principle of responding by faith is a grace-based principle and has been from the time of the creation so Bobby that's a really important point and I have an acronym I'm like ah that I used to remember this. The content of people's faith throughout history changes because revelation is progressive. Adam and Eve could only believe what God had revealed to them up to that point. Abraham only up to what was at that point. Content for salvation changed because God had revealed more historically over time.

The object of their faith was always God. Always. It doesn't matter. It's always there. The means of their salvation was always the work of Christ on the cross. They either believed it was coming, the Redeemer was coming, or we believe back that the Redeemer has come. And the basis of salvation was always faith.

So I remember that by comb because it's just an easy way for me to remember it. I don't comb my hair often, but that's another story. I know, it's starting to go away. But the content, the object, the means, and the basis. The content changes, but everything else is consistently and historically the same. So that's a good way to remember. The reason you want to remember comb when you're looking at the historical context is because we remember that at different times different amounts of information was revealed.

If you want to cry go home and read Isaiah chapter 53 and it's the revelation of the Messiah and it almost every time makes me cry because it's just so rich and intense about the suffering of this Messiah who is to come. They believed in this Messiah as part of their faith. But they didn't believe in him in a past tense. It was a coming Messiah. It's important to understand the content of faith historically.

When you read Isaiah, they didn't have John 3.16 or any of the other verses that we like to quote.

They didn't have Romans 3.23, but they had some in the Psalms that revealed the wickedness of man. The thing is that when you look at the historical context, You can look at what did they believe for salvation. You can look at what did they have revealed up at that point in time.

And these charts, by the way, are really, really, really useful. Do not lose them. If you do, email my dad and he'll send you the PDFs or whatever. But these charts are really, really powerful. And I've got the Old Testament one open, but there's also a New Testament one. I've never seen a better chart than this on the Old Testament. This is really outstanding.

It's really easy to follow and see the context of the revealed scripture. And on the New Testament one, you can look and see the order in which the books were written, which gives you a rough idea of what's going on. But the historical context matters significantly to your theology because you're talking about what they believed for salvation. You're talking about what God had revealed about the nature of mankind. You're talking about the type of culture that existed or what was taking place.

Jumping forward to the New Testament again and talking about the church and the New Testament saint, How many of you are familiar with the term hyper-dispensationalist? Hyper-dispensationalist is not young dispensationalist with too much sugar. Which is kind of a joke. Not serious. Hyper-dispensationalism is as dispensationalist we make a distinction between the Jew and the Gentile and the church.

We have the three different people groups. A hyper-dispensationalist says that the church did not start until Paul's ministry. and they argue about where that was. It was either Acts chapter 9 or 13. They argue about it. We're not hyper-dispensational at Holly Hills.

But they say also that the New Testament epistles are the only books that the believer can really get spiritual growth out of, fundamentally. Because they were written to the New Testament church and everything else is either for the future or for the past. Now what's interesting about that is that you get into issues like music. The different denominations that don't have musical instruments in their church often take a somewhat hyper-dispensationalistic approach and say, Paul does not write about musical instruments, therefore we don't have musical instruments in the service. Now I don't believe that's accurate. I think that there's other revelation. You want to share something? Looking at the chart, forgive me. That's okay.

Remember the point that I've made before. most of us agree with, is that if you look at a New Testament chronology, the Gospel of John, but the Epistles of John are the last text before Revelation. And again, back to what you just said, being founded on polytheology in terms of the message of the Church, that allows you to read the Epistles of John, the Gospel of John put in perspective. So this is all purposeful in terms of the way this was all outlined. I think it's pretty powerful. Now, when we look at the sequence of things, the issue of hyper-desensationalism comes up because we need to recognize when things were written and who they were written to.

If you believe that certain things were not written to the church, then suddenly your whole Theology shifts and changes and you can take a hacksaw and cut this part out because I don't believe that anymore because it doesn't apply to me anymore. So it matters when you talk about issues like when did the church start. The stance at Holly Hills here has been that Acts chapter 2 is the first church. There was a transition time period where it seemed people were having to learn about this new church. But that's limited.

Now here's another thing, speaking of history and acts. Is acts descriptive or prescriptive? Is acts historical and describing historical things or is it giving us an example of what we should be doing in the church? Or both? It's primarily historical and we need to keep that in context because a lot of charismatic theology comes from reading Acts as prescriptive instead of descriptive.

And so when we look at the context and say this is history, that's fine. We need to understand that and look at that. It impacts our theology. Again, history is very important as a context when we study God's Word and see those things. The next question I've got on my own private list here is why does it matter when Paul or Peter or John wrote a book? Why does that matter to us? It helps you understand whatever references or statements that they make because it just makes it clearer. Having that context is important.

Now let's talk about the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation, its historical time that it was written in history, is up in debate depending on which theological group you are part of. Because if you make Revelation written at some point in time, then a group called the Preterists will try to say it was written earlier. and they try to make it a historical book and then they allegorize the snot out of all of the imagery in there to make it a historical book that doesn't apply to us today that is really just there as a reference, almost like acts.

Now that's, in my mind, that's crazy. It doesn't line up with... So they try to say that everything in the book of Revelation has already happened. Yes. It's called preterism or amillennialism. They basically don't believe that the millennium the thousand-year reign of Christ will take place because it's all historical. Yeah, it's already happened. And the end of the world will come someday through fire, as Peter referenced, but that's it.

I don't believe that. It's difficult for me to prove, but it's something to be aware of that exists out there. It's where chronology matters. When did John write it? Did he write it at 90 AD or 96 AD? That matters. When the temple was destroyed matters because the preterists say it was written before the temple was destroyed and that has an impact on how you start to interpret the text that talk about the temple. So, chronology and historical context matter and as believers we need to have some rough idea of how that is.

How many of you actually have study Bibles? I don't know if you do. I don't have a study Bible, or at least with me. If you regularly read out of your study Bible Often study Bibles will give you a timeline or a chart if you're studying the Old Testament prophets.

It's kind of nice to know, especially because you're talking about Israel being, at least part of it, Israel being out of the Promised Land. It's nice to know where they were and when the prophet writes some pretty intense things, why? Where are they at? What's going on? The historical context. And obviously salvation and when did the church start matter for New Testament context along the same line. Now let's ask another question. How does history impact prophecy? We know how prophecy impacts history because it tells us where it's going. How does history impact prophecy?

Well it verifies. So a lot of prophecy that And it's verified by outside sources, secular sources, that are separate from the Bible, which also proves that, in fact, it took place. Yeah. Well, the other issue is that in the mountains of the future, I mean, prophecy has been often geared towards, or ultimately So it's an important interpretation of prophecy. Historically, we reflect that some of it's been fulfilled, and some of it is yet to be fulfilled. But often those two concepts are captured in the same piece of prophecy, correct? Many times, yeah.

Especially where the New Testament church ends up being, at least I've heard it described as almost a parenthesis, where some of the prophecies in the Old Testament describe something that is the earthly ministry of Christ followed just directly by millennial scenario or or an end times you know seven-year tribulation kind of scenario and they're they're intertwined but but you have a historical element there that like Margaret said is you you get a proof that this really happened it's an Old Testament reference but but you get to look and see Isaiah prophesies King Cyrus 70 years ahead of his birth. That's significant. That's a short-term prophecy that took place and it's important to see that historically there's reliability.

One of the Old Testament requirements for a prophet, you want to test a prophet? Have him prophesize something and if it comes true, he's of God. If it comes false, stone him. It was a life-threatening thing to say, I'm a prophet. You don't want to screw that up. If you think I'm a prophet, you better wait on God's spirit to move in you because if you start running your mouth.

Or you could prophesize something that's going to happen way in the future. Yeah. So no one will be alive then. Well, but that's the thing. The prophecy, they were to test a short-term prophecy to make that a non-issue. But yeah, you need to fake your way through it, right?

Randy, another thing that comes up to me is this day and age we live in. It comes to my mind and sometimes troubles me because I might as well First is a lot of folks have really studied deeply in the Bible, more so than I have. From what I've read and what I've heard, of course, I'm a pre-millennial rapture believer. That's the way I feel about it. But I see things going on today and I hear about the pre-tribulation rapture and I hear about a mid-tribulation tribulation, rapture.

I don't want to hear about any of those last two at all. I really don't want to attend one. But you never hear that mentioned here in these last days when time is drawing close to where we should be pretty alert to that because there are those that don't know that and haven't got that point across if they even know that there is something coming. It's imminent and they'll have no warning. They'll just tap And I kind of feel in this day it's a highly evangelical period of time. And we as living Christians are not exercising that like we should.

Well, Paul calls believers to encourage one another with the fact of the rapture. But the thing that I think is important for believers on an evangelistic level when it comes to prophecy and things like that is that we we are motivated by the Holy Spirit for all that we do. So He is going to bring us to that point of evangelism. But we look at those things and we feel compassion and love for those around us who are lost.

And instead of... I see evangelism motivated by fear is not evangelism motivated by the Holy Spirit. And if we're afraid of the tribulation... Well, how many times in the ages past have these people come out of churches sit on the mountain top waiting for the Lord to come at any time.

But it was written in Thessalonians so that we might not be ignorant. Yes. Another meaning by that that we should have some understanding if that's what we should understand. Absolutely. Not know the date or anything like that. But I mean, I don't see why. That's why I think it is kind of an issue because I think a lot of people think, well, you don't know what's going to happen. We may not have to go through something, we may have to go through it all.

Well, the order that seems very consistent is the pre-tribulational rapture, but I guess maybe I misunderstood your statement, but I would emphasize that if you're motivated to evangelize due to prophecy, if it's fear that's motivating you, you need to go to the Lord and ask for him to give you the right attitude in your heart and that the Holy Spirit would bring about those opportunities. I've heard Christian teachers, and I put quotes around that, use that as a scare tactic. The thing is that rapture is to bring joy in our hearts and until that time or death we wait on the Holy Spirit to direct us so that we will fulfill a few good works are there for us to do. So if we're abiding in the Holy Spirit, we'll do the works, whether it's evangelism, whether it's seeing a need in a brother's life.

One of the other areas where history and theology come together is tithing. You've heard the term tithing. In the Old Testament, a tithe was a 10% tax for the Levites. And you'll hear believers talk about tithing in the New Testament, and they'll say, well, we need to tithe. God's Word says we need to tithe. In the New Testament, you do not find the principle of tithing. In fact, the best passage for the New Testament is, God loves a cheerful giver. Sure.

And Romans 12 tells us that when you see a brother in need, check your inventory, so to speak, and see if you have the fulfillment for that need. Spiritual growth can happen, and I'm on a little rabbit trail, it's a little soapbox I have. Spiritual growth can happen when the Lord uses us in a state of need as a person who is in need the recipient, or spiritual growth can happen if we're an agent who happens to know somebody else who can fulfill that need, or spiritual growth can happen if we have the thing that fulfills the need. Sometimes two or sometimes three people are involved, but spiritual growth takes place when we have an intimacy, a relationship amongst one another, where that need is fulfilled.

That beats the snot out of tithing every time. You know, hey, I have a need. I need this. In fact, I had coffee with a guy from this body on Thursday morning and it was apparent he had a need. I can't fulfill that need. But if anybody has some financial excess right now, there's a family in this church that needs it. I'm not going to say his name because this is going on the internet. Talk to me after the service. They need some help. Spiritual growth may happen because you have some financial excess in this time of need.

And it's on the internet? You can find it? No, no, I'm telling you, I'm not saying his name. Because this is going up on the internet. If you happen to have some financial resources, talk to me after the service and I'll turn off the microphone and I'll tell you who it is. And if the Lord puts it on your heart and the Holy Spirit moves you, you may consider helping them out. But the thing is that the spiritual growth takes place because there's intimacy.

It's not for your pride. But tithing is not a New Testament principle. The Levites aren't functioning anymore. The temple was destroyed. But if you see a brother in need, help him out. So when you talk about historical context and theology historically in the New Testament, you look at things like daily Christian life. Tithing is part of that. Boy, they pound that. They do.

And you know, that was very controversial when this church quit taking an offering. I mean, it really was controversial in the church. And when Hal and all you elders decided to do that, and the deacons, you know, they had that. And I remember when my mother first came, she said, what do you mean you don't take an offering? How does the church pay for itself? And I said, well, since we quit taking an offering, there's more. because people then are cheerful givers. It's like an oxymoron to most churches. They can't even consider if they don't pass the plate.

Or how about, what was your pledge? Did you pledge? I heard a story that was tied in with tithing that made me really kind of sad. The deacon in the story would always put a $10 bill in the little offering basket before the service started and then he'd pass it around and when it came back around he'd take his 10 out and put it in his pocket.

It was his 10, he was just doing it as seed money to kind of get people to feel generous. At least put a 10 in it. There's a 10, that's the minimum standard. And the thing is that because with a public offering like that you do have psychology. You're messing with people's minds and it's not the Holy Spirit. It's guilt. I've even heard it that Well in the Old Testament it was 10%, but now we have more money so you need to give 20. Oh, amen. And pre-tax. Make sure it's pre-tax, right?

But the thing is that if the Lord causes you to give a certain amount of money, it's the Lord causing you to give a certain amount of money. Ananias and Sapphira and Acts, they were lying about it. If God is only giving you a certain resource, then give that resource. I have heard people say some very legalistic and mean things about tithing. You hate God if you don't give 10%. Or God is going to bless you with material wealth if you give 10% or more. Or any number of things, rather than recognizing that it's all God's.

My buddy Tony called me one day, he goes, dude, God ran into my car. Somebody ran into God's car. That's the way he put it to me. It is God's car. It's God's house. It's God's microwave. It's God's everything. This whole facility is here because God has facilitated it. It's not the church. We're the church. It's a building. But God has used... He's moved in our hearts and minds so that it's there.

If this family that would be blessed by some financial resources gets the financial resources from us, awesome. If the guy happens to get a job that takes care of their needs, awesome. Either way, it's going to be fulfillment in the Lord's time in his hands, but it's not about the time.

We should have an intimacy within one another and I'm totally rabbit trailing, I apologize. We'll get back to the lesson here just a moment. If we have intimacy with one another, then we can share our needs and we can see those needs get fulfilled. If we're the frozen chosen and nobody knows anybody, then those needs won't be fulfilled and people will just keep using the welfare system. Well let me tell you, you haven't lived until you've been in a cold church. Just kidding.

One of the things that's important is on page 27 at the bottom, we'll jump there. It says that the earthly end of each of the apostles in later life of John. There is a list of either recorded or traditional deaths of each one of the disciples. This is historical and there's some notes for each one of them why it might matter when they die because it's based on books or various recordings that we have of the life of the different believers.

Did Peter get to Rome or not? Yeah, I don't have a comment on that. We were just in Rome a couple weeks ago and they sure believe you. They show you the prison where Paul was and they know Peter was there too. It's all about Peter being there. Not about Paul.

It would be awesome to hear some things that you learned while you were there. One of the things that I had a hard time doing and preparing with this lesson was was that I think that the thing that you have to bring in, and this is what we're going to go over next, is culture. When you're dealing with the history, you've got a context for when did it happen, who was around at that point in time, but when you talk about culture, suddenly the text can sometimes become very vibrant and real and understandable and relatable. Because culture brings with it a lot of depth. We're going to be going over Ephesians at some point in time, I think, in the future. And when we go over Ephesians, it's important to understand, and as my dad had talked through it with Colossians, and he was alternating between those books, the culture brings out a lot of life in it.

Paul writes in Ephesians, hey, don't steal. Quit your stealing. Well, duh. Why would you steal? Well, if you have the culture to understand that if you were within 200 yards of the temple, Then it was yours. You didn't steal it anymore. It was yours. It became your possession. So these people had grown up stealing in some cases. And Paul says, hey, you've got to cut that out.

If you've got that cultural context, you'll understand. History is looking at where it fits into the timeline and seeing the grand scheme of things. Next week, we'll start looking at culture. And then we'll start to get into the intimate details of the daily lives.

Who was there? What were they doing? What was normal? They didn't have Nintendo Wii's and the internet and cell phones and all the other stuff. There was no Microsoft or Apple commercials. They had other things. If you had an Apple, it wasn't a computer, you were eating it.

But, let's close in prayer. Hopefully this has kind of planted some ideas in your mind so you can understand the impact of history on your theology. It's one of the areas, we have a recording online of biblical history. that is available. Definitely recommend checking it out if you didn't attend that class or you want a refresher because it takes a look at various topics throughout the historical timeline. It helps you fill in sort of a skeleton, if you will, so that you put the history as a skeleton and you put the culture in as some flesh and bones and sinew and you get a much richer understanding of the Anatomy of Scripture. You look at the painting, but if you think about what happened in that period when that person painted it, you have a better understanding of what happened there. Sure. Exactly. And life becomes rich in general when we understand those things. So that's important.

Let's close in prayer, and then I'll turn off the recordings, and if you actually did want to ask me about who that was, I can tell you. Heavenly Father, thank you for your work in our lives. Thank you for all that you have revealed to us and given us. Thank you for the immense resources that are available for us to learn about the history and the culture and the context for your word. We do want to lift up all the prayer requests to you again and pray that you would continue to bring those to our minds that we may pray throughout the week on those things. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen.