3-5-2012

HINDSIGHT

I want to explain further what I talked about yesterday in terms of finding the point of a story in the middle of the story. I told you Jewish people, in the Old Testament and through the first century AD, told stories in a bell shaped curve. 

The first thing you have to do is be OBSERVANT, sounds like one of the 4 steps of Bible Study doesn’t it?  The reason you have to be observant is that you have to look for word repetition.

Let’s take the sermon Jesus gave in John 14-16.  Notice that I’ve arranged the material in a pyramid to try and demonstrate the bell shaped curve.

                                                15:8 glorify Father

                                        bear fruit & prove discipleship

                        abiding in Jesus 15:1-7            loving like Jesus 15:9-17

                   Jesus known 14:22-31                              Jesus unknown 15:18-16:4

            Jesus promises H.S. 14:15-21                        Jesus promises H.S. 16:5-16

      Jesus goes to Father 14:2-14                                         Jesus goes to Father 16:17-32

Believe and don’t be troubled 14:1                                              Even tho troubled, peace 16:33

What does this tell me about my Bible?

#1.  It was carefully constructed by God through the supervision of the human authors so that what they wrote was the Word of God.  The Apostles and authors were obedient servants of the Lord when it came to recording His message for His people.

#2.  It takes time to understand the Bible!  As you read these three chapters again and again you’ll start to see more connections.  This IS NOT a secret formula but a normal way of writing and speaking for Jewish people throughout the Old Testament era and into the early church.

#3.  God and Jesus Christ are ALWAYS the center of the conversation!  Jesus great concern through this whole passage is that He would glorify God with every atom and DNA particle of His being.  How He represented God and honored his name was the primary concern of his life.  He saw the very mission for which He was sent as including suffering, pain, discomfort and what some would call tragedy 

#4.  Abiding in Christ can help me with my perspective when trauma comes.  I won’t and don’t get all the answers for “why?”  But the connection with God to wade through trauma is available in abundance and is promised to be delivered by His Spirit.