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The official audio library of sermons preached at Kingstree Church in Sabina, Ohio.
The only reason this book works is because Christ is risen.
There is no reading this if Christ isn't risen.
Throw your Bible away if Jesus isn't risen.
Because it means nothing.
but it still has some good wisdom.
Until you die and there's nothing left.
If Christ isn't risen, there's nothing here.
The following message was recorded at Kingstree Church.
May the Spirit use it to help you see, savor.
And sing the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.
We are returning to Acts.
We're looking again at Acts chapter two today.
So if you recall, last week we began to look at Acts chapter two.
Specifically, we're looking at Pentecost.
So this sending of the Spirit at Pentecost.
And that's where we're going to be again today.
And we're going to specifically be looking at Peter's.
Sermon and how he interprets Scripture.
You might think, oh, okay, what's a whole sermon about that?
But here's the thing.
As Protestants, one of the most essential truths that we stand upon is the supreme
authority of Scripture.
That's down at the very roots of what we believe.
Scripture is the final authority.
It doesn't mean Scripture is the only authority, but it does mean that Scripture is the
final authority.
We believe that this book contains the word of God, the words of God.
And what this book teaches is true.
And that's good.
That's the right thing to say.
That's a wise claim.
Because if this book contains God's speech, then of course it has an authority greater
than human speech.
Doesn't mean we don't care what people say.
It doesn't mean we don't care what tradition has said or what the wisdom of people who've
gone before us has said.
It does not mean that.
It simply means what is found in this book is of a different category.
It is it is the words of God, so it carries a unique authority, an authority that
determines final truth.
That's that's essential to our confession as Protestant Christians.
But if that's our claim, and it is, then it really matters how we come to this book, how
we interpret this book.
Because it's one thing to say the truth is here.
It's another thing to say, and and and this is what it says, because it it entails an
interpretation.
When you read something, you have to interpret it.
You have to understand what it's saying.
And so an authoritative text requires some some kind of authoritative interpretation, some
kind of key, some kind of way of how do I understand what this says?
And that is what we are going to be looking at.
This morning, because you ask yourself, where do I find that authoritative interpretation
of the authoritative text?
Well, in the text itself, we find the Bible interpreting the Bible.
Inside the Bible, you find passages of scripture that interpret other passages of
scripture.
And that helps us to learn: okay, this is how I'm supposed to be reading the Bible.
I look at how the Bible reads the Bible, as it were.
That's what we're going to be doing this morning.
We're going to be looking at how does Peter, an inspired author of Scripture, how does he
read the Bible?
And the goal of doing that is not just, we we, of course, want to see Christ and be built
up.
That happens whenever we rightly unfold scripture.
But the goal specifically today is: I want to see, I want us to see how are the apostles
interpreting scripture?
How are the apostles reading the Bible?
Because then I want to begin to gain that same kind of reading.
I want to see the Bible in that same kind of way.
That's what we're looking at this morning.
And to do that, we're going to look at two of the passages that Peter interprets in Acts
chapter two.
He pulls on two texts of scripture, and that's what we're going to be looking at.
And I should say here at the beginning: when I say scripture, for Peter, for all the
apostles, for the Lord himself, the Bible.
Was what we call the Old Testament.
Their scripture, their inspired scriptures, were what we call the Old Testament.
The New Testament is really their Christocentric interpretation of the Old Testament.
So what the New Testament is, it's their commentary and their unfolding of their Bible,
which was the Old Testament.
And we, coming after them, have both Old and New Testaments.
So we're going to ask ourselves: how did Peter read his Bible?
And the goal is.
Help me learn to read my Bible in a similar way.
Before we look at the text, let me pray for us then as we get into this this morning.
Father, as we come and talk about issues of interpreting Scripture and coming to the truth
that is here, and faithfully dividing and understanding this word, we are completely
dependent upon you.
I am completely dependent upon you.
It is your presence, it is your spirit, it is your grace.
That must go before us, that must open our eyes, that must illumine the text and allow us
to see what is true here, to keep us from imprinting on the Bible our own distortions and
grant us to see even all of our frailty and sin, to see the truth in this text, in this
book.
Lord, wash our eyes and grant us to see more clearly.
Who you are and what you've said and what you've done in Scripture and supremely, Father,
in your Son.
So we pray now for the Holy Spirit to illumine our own eyes, to help us to see, help us to
understand, help us to follow Peter's thought and think his thoughts after him, and to
treasure Christ and obey Christ with him.
Lord, I pray for this grace this morning for me and for everyone here and for the students
downstairs, your blessing, your presence with them.
We pray all these things, Father, in Jesus' name.
Amen.
So the first text we're going to look at comes in Acts chapter two, starting in verse 16
and moving down all the way to 21.
So Peter stands up, remember?
People are confused.
What's going on?
What's going on here?
People are speaking in tongues I don't understand.
Peter stands up and says, Let me explain to you what's going on.
And the way that he explains is by drawing upon scripture.
Specifically, he's quoting Joel chapter two.
So the book of Joel chapter two, Peter cites it here, just like we might say.
Well, just like it says in Ephesians, Peter is citing Joel.
Now, there's something I want us to see before even we get into the Joel text, and that is
that what Peter's doing here is fusing together two different texts.
And you may, it may sound strange.
When I get into it, you might say,
Uh, that's not such a big deal, really.
I mean, maybe he just wanted to change a few words.
But it is important.
He's bringing together a passage from Isaiah 2 and a passage from Joel II, and he's fusing
them together.
And by doing that, he's asking us to interpret these two texts in light of one another.
And again, you're gonna say, Well, aren't you being too picky about this?
Well, just think about it this way.
Remember, his audience is aware of these various texts.
They understand them.
Imagine if I said this: a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there lived a hobbit.
Now, some of you might say, I have no idea what you're talking about.
Some of you might say, wait a second, you just took Star Wars and the Hobbit or Lord of
the Rings and put them together.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, there lived a hobbit.
Now, I didn't have to say anything to you.
You just knew by putting those two phrases together, you just took two whole worlds and
brought them together.
And all of a sudden I'm thinking of elves in X Wings and Darth Vader in Mordor and all
this stuff.
You're confusing, you're bringing together these two worlds.
If you're aware of that, you say, Yeah, I get what you're saying.
Even though I only added four words, there lived a Hobbit.
I added four words, but those words carried enough weight that if you understand what
those two
Statements mean it changed your perception of the whole thing.
That's what Peter's doing here.
He's only using a small quote from Isaiah, but if you understand the text from Isaiah,
he's bringing two scriptural worlds together.
And he's saying, think about these in light of one another.
Think about Isaiah 2 and Joel 2 together.
That's what he's doing.
All right, so let's look at what he does.
He begins by saying, Acts chapter 2, verse 17, he says.
Let me explain this to you.
Let me explain to you what's going on.
This is what was uttered through the prophet Joel.
And in the last days it shall be.
God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.
And then he goes on.
That first part, and it shall in the last days it shall be.
That's not in Joel.
That's from Isaiah.
Okay?
That's his text he's pulling from Isaiah.
I told you you'd think it's small, but it's not.
It brings some big stuff in.
So let's go back to Isaiah, or just listen closely to me as I go back.
Isaiah chapter two, because apparently Peter thought to explain what's happening on
Pentecost, I need to draw on Isaiah chapter two.
And I say, What's going on in Isaiah chapter two?
Well, why did you go there, Peter?
Well, let's go back.
Isaiah chapter two, verses two and three.
Here's what it says: It shall come to pass in the latter days.
There's the part Peter takes.
And
fuses to Joel.
But by doing that, just like when I said there lived a hobbit, you thought of all the
things related to Hobbits and Lord of the Rings, if if you're that kind of person.
So too, just by mentioning this phrase, it shall come to pass in the latter days, I
Peter's saying, think about the whole context here.
So let's look at it.
Here's what it says: It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the
house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains.
And shall be lifted up above the hills, and all the nations shall flow to it, and many
peoples shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house
of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths.
For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
oh
What's going on in this text?
Why would Peter say this has to do with Pentecost?
How is Peter reading this text?
Remember, that's what we're asking.
Well, we see what's going on here.
It's the last days.
Okay, that's one thing.
It's the last days.
What else is going on?
The mountain of the house of the Lord, that is the place where the temple is built,
Jerusalem, Mount Zion, is going to be lifted up and all the nations are going to flow to
that place.
So the last days.
The temple of the Lord in Jerusalem is exalted.
All the peoples come to it.
And then the law of the Lord, the word of the Lord, will go out from Zion, out from
Jerusalem.
That's what's happening in this text.
Last days, temple, nations to the temple, law going out.
That's what's happening in this text.
Okay.
Well, how does that fit with Pentecost?
One thing briefly to say: do you remember what Pentecost was about?
It was about the harvest.
And the giving of the law.
So this passage in Isaiah talks about the nations coming in, being harvested, and the law
going out.
So this is a this is a Pentecost-flavored text already.
But why would Peter use it to describe what's happening in Acts?
Again, remember the question today is why is Peter thinking this way?
How is he coming to the text?
Well, in Isaiah, we see the nations flowing to the end time temple.
The temple of the Lord will be lifted up, the nations will flow to it.
In Acts, what do we see?
We see the nations being gathered to the spirit-filled disciples.
You remember that last week?
All the nations are coming together and saying, What's going on?
What's happening?
The nations are coming together around this group of disciples.
So Peter says, Do you remember when it talks about all the nations flowing to the temple?
That's being fulfilled right now.
As all of you from other nations are gathering to the disciples, to the spirit-filled
disciples, to those, remember, they had the fire descend upon them, just like the temple
did when it was inaugurated.
The disciples are standing there with the fire of the spirit upon them, like the temple,
and the nations are gathering to them.
And Peter says, That's what Isaiah was anticipating.
So Peter reads that Isaiah text, and he doesn't look for some physical building.
In Jerusalem to be built, he says, no, that text in Isaiah is fulfilled as the Holy Spirit
descends on the people and makes them the temple, and the nations come to them in
Jerusalem on the mountain of the Lord as the true temple.
So this is how Peter's mind is thinking.
This is how he's approaching Scripture.
But then what else happens in Isaiah 2 there?
Remember, it says, the law of the Lord.
Shall go out from Zion, for out of Zion shall go forth the law.
And when you hear Zion, think Jerusalem, think the temple, the whole that they're all
connected.
So in Isaiah, the law is going out from Jerusalem.
Well, what about in Acts?
What do we see going out from Jerusalem in Acts?
Remember what Jesus said at the beginning of Acts?
He said, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my
witnesses.
In Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
So in Isaiah, Isaiah is envisioning a day when the temple will be lifted up and the
nations will flow to it and the law of Yahweh will go out from Jerusalem.
And in Acts 2, the disciples are lifted up, the people are coming to them.
And what goes out from Jerusalem?
The witness about Christ.
The witness about the risen Christ goes from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of
the earth.
So when Peter comes to Isaiah 2 and he reads that the law of in the last days, the law of
Yahweh is going to go out into all the world, he realizes that is fulfilled as we proclaim
Christ from Jerusalem into all the world.
In other words, for Peter, Christ, slain and risen, is the law of the Lord.
Is the teaching of the Lord, is the teaching that goes out in the last days and is heard
among all the nations.
Christ is the fulfillment of that.
So this is how Peter is reading Isaiah 2.
Remember, the only reason we're Isaiah, we're in Isaiah 2 is because Peter pulls from that
first part and plugs it into Joel and says, read these two together.
So we looked at this part he takes out of Isaiah and some of the context around there,
some of the way he's reading that text.
He plugs it into Joel.
So let's now look at Joel.
How does why did you take Isaiah, Peter, with all this situation we just talked about?
Why would you do that and connect it to Joel?
What's going on?
What's your what's your mind thinking?
How are you reading your Bible?
Well, we looked at Joel last week, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it today,
but you see what it says.
You can just look at it in Acts, Peter's citation of it.
In the last days, that's from Isaiah, God declares, I will pour out my spirit on all
flesh.
And your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.
Even on the male and female servants, says the Lord, I will pour out my spirit in those
days, and they shall prophesy.
And then look down in verse 21 of Acts chapter 2.
This is still drawing upon Joel.
And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
So if we want to just summarize quickly what's going on in the Joel text, Joel.
Is envisioning a day, end of days, again, the last days, when the Holy Spirit is given,
and the the salvation of God is worked, and every hope of salvation is narrowed down to
one name, Yahweh.
You see that?
I'll pour out my spirit in the last days.
I'll pour out my spirit, and anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
So Joel is saying, there'll be last days.
The Spirit will be given, and only those who call on Yahweh in that day will be saved.
Okay.
Peter apparently reads that and says, that's happening right now.
That's happening right now.
That matters.
Again, Peter doesn't read that and start checking, you know, the news and like, when is
this going to happen?
And let me try to line this up with this up and calculate when this.
He says, no, that happened with Christ.
That's how Peter reads that.
That happened with Christ.
That's here with Christ.
He's reading, as we said last week, that the end days, the last time has come.
And Joel says there will be a spirit-filled people.
And Isaiah said, There will be a temple to which the nations gather.
And by fixing those two texts together, Peter's saying what we've already seen the spirit
filled people is the temple to which the nations will gather.
We looked at that last week.
We're seeing it again here.
I'm emphasizing it because I want you to see Peter's interpretation of the Bible has no
problem with saying the promises of an end-time temple, the promises of God dwelling with
his people, they're fulfilled as the Spirit comes upon the church.
They're fulfilled as we are united to Jesus, the temple in his body.
It's an awesome thing that's been done.
And Peter sees that.
In scripture.
But then there's another thing about this reading of Joel that I really want to emphasize.
We didn't look at this last week.
I want you to see it this week.
Look down in verse 21 of Acts chapter 2.
This is still citing Joel.
Peter finds this to be uh relevant to act to the situation at Pentecost.
He says, It shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved.
We might think, well, that's pretty straightforward.
But in Joel.
That Lord is Yahweh.
Remember, there's a way that the Hebrew text is able to show.
Am I talking about Lord as in like master or sir?
Or am I talking about Lord as in Yahweh, the I am God?
And in Joel, it is referring to Yahweh.
That that is that says, everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh will be saved.
And Peter says.
That moment is happening right now.
And who is the Lord that Peter then says, call upon his name and be saved?
Jesus.
Jesus.
Look, look just a few verses later in chapter 2, verse 38.
That the people hear this, right?
They hear Peter's sermon and they say, What should we do?
And Peter responds and says, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of
Jesus Christ.
For the forgiveness of your sins.
So the name upon which we call to be saved, the name of the Lord is Jesus, the name of
Jesus.
And you see that all throughout the rest of Acts, if we had time, we could look at each
one.
Nearly every instance of name in this book refers to the name of Jesus, the name of the
Lord Jesus.
And so what's going on here is that Peter is saying to us through his interpretation of
the Old Testament, I have no problem.
When it says call on the name of Yahweh, to interpret that as saying, call on the name of
Jesus.
Peter is fine, that's how Peter reads it.
People will say, Where does the Bible say Jesus is God?
Saying Jesus is God in this context is nowhere near as significant for a Jewish audience
as saying Jesus is Yahweh.
Jesus is your Lord.
Jesus is your covenant creator.
That's what Peter is saying here.
Peter's saying,
When I read Yahweh in the Old Testament, I'm understanding that to be fulfilled in Jesus.
How do I call on the name of Yahweh, the I am, the Creator God?
I cry out to Jesus Christ.
I call upon Jesus.
And let me just pause here and say quickly because I know the terminology can be
confusing.
Name here doesn't mean you need like a magical name.
Like I need to pronounce it just right.
It doesn't mean that.
Name means his character.
His person, who he is.
So Peter is showing us here by his interpretation of this text who Yahweh is, is who Jesus
is.
That's what he's saying.
And this means something absolutely transformative has happened in the apostolic mind.
The apostolic mind is the apostles come to read scripture because now when they read the I
am.
The Savior, the covenant Lord, they see the crucified man who is raised up and reigning.
That's what they, that's how they see.
That's how they think.
That's why it can say later on in the New Testament, Jesus led his people out of Egypt.
It can, that's how they're thinking, that's how they're reading.
Now, think about what changes.
This is this is not just, yeah, he's got his theology right.
No, this is transformation of how you perceive reality.
What changes
When you realize, as one of the apostles, the man who was crucified the day before
yesterday is God.
He is the God by whom and for whom all things exist.
He's the one who brought us out of Egypt.
He's the one who laid the foundations of the earth in the beginning.
He's the one who holds the stars in his hands.
He's the one who is light and life.
What changes when you realize, and I saw him die for me?
And rise again.
Everything changes.
Everything changes, including, of course, your interpretation of the whole book that's
about that God.
The whole interpretation changes now because you realize I've met him, I know him, I've
seen him.
So that's Peter's reading of Joel.
Let's move more quickly into Peter's reading of Psalms 16, Psalms 16, verses 8 through 11.
This comes your Bible probably.
sets off the quotations like in a in a little indented paragraph so you can see it as
you're looking here at Acts two.
You can see that first quote from Isaiah and Joel from verses 17 to 21.
And then Peter gives a little bit of commentary.
And then you can see another another quote comes in down in verse 25.
So that verse, that quote starting in verse 25 and going to 28 is a quote from the book of
Psalms, from Psalm
Verse chapter 16.
But where I want you to look is right underneath that, Peter gives his interpretation of
this psalm that he reads.
And here's what he says.
He says, Brothers, I may say to you, and let me let me read you the psalm to give you the
context.
Here's the psalm.
I saw, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be
shaken.
Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced, my flesh also will dwell in hope.
This is David writing about his hope.
In the Lord.
For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your holy one see corruption.
You have made known to me the path of life.
You will make me full of gladness with your presence.
David wrote that about something he was going through.
Peter says, Let me give you the authoritative interpretation of the text.
He says, I may say to you with confidence about our patriarch David that he both died and
was buried in his tomb.
Because that psalm sounds like he's saying,
I'm not going to die.
I'm going to be saved from death.
And Peter says, Well, he did die.
He's buried right here in this city.
He died and he was buried.
Being therefore a prophet, here's how we interpret this text is what he's saying.
Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God has sworn with an oath to him, that is to
David, that he would set one of his descendants on the throne.
He, David, foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ.
That he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.
So Peter looks at this text in Psalm 16 and he says, David is talking about Jesus here.
We touched on that last week.
Let me let me clarify it a little bit for you.
What Peter is saying is that the promises to David are fulfilled in Jesus.
The promises to David are fulfilled in Jesus.
And you may say, oh, that's very basic.
I understand that.
Jesus is the king, he's the Davidic king.
I understand that.
But think about how that changes the way we ought to interpret the text, the way the
apostles interpreted the text.
In 2 Samuel 7, God promises David, one of your offspring will reign forever on the throne.
That's the promise that's given.
And Peter says that's fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Which means in the apostles' mind, whenever scripture talks about the coming king, the
promised king, the great king, the kingdom of God, the way that God will raise up a ruler
to set everything right.
Whenever they read that, and it's all over the place, they say, I know him.
I've seen him.
That one that's being spoken about here, the one to whom the whole Old Testament is
aiming, it's the man who died and rose again.
It's Jesus Christ.
That's how the apostles are interpreting this text.
So Jesus fulfills these promises.
That's how Peter's mind is approaching the text.
But then we can say that same answer in a different way that pushes things forward a
little bit.
Not only does Jesus fulfill those promises made to David, he proves the truth of those
promises.
Think about this.
This has an emotional.
Edge to it, an experiential edge.
Peter highlights the problem for us.
God promises David, one of your descendants will reign forever.
One of your offspring will reign forever.
And David says, You won't let me see Hades.
I won't see corruption.
I'm hoping in you.
But what happens?
David dies, and every one of his children dies.
Everyone dies.
And so the promise was made, but death
Seems to say, that's not true.
Death seems to negate the promise of God.
And imagine how you feel that.
Imagine the Jewish people.
They had all these promises, and here they are, a little embattled people in first century
Palestine.
They're saying, you know, what happened?
What happened to all the promises?
Death, death, death sweeps away these promises.
But then if one is raised from the dead,
If Christ is raised from the dead and becomes the inheritor of all the promises and can
say, Look at me.
Do you want to see them fulfilled?
They're fulfilled in me.
He doesn't just fulfill them, he proves they were always true.
He vindicates them.
He vindicates God.
And he says, It's always been true.
He is trustworthy.
So the promise of a forever king.
Seems to be brought into question because they keep dying.
But when the king is raised from the dead, that allows the promise to work.
It allows the Davidic promise to work.
And as I as I alluded to just a moment ago, this is not just how the apostles read the
Davidic promises.
This is how the apostles are understanding every promise in Scripture.
We can't go into the full pattern here, but just call it up in your mind.
In generalities, God makes promises all through the Old Testament.
King, kingdom, peace, righteousness, union with God, or in in in uh the text from Psalms
here, communion, life, joy, promises.
it sounds great.
Except everyone keeps dying, everyone keeps getting sick, everyone keeps breaking down,
and none of the promises seem to have any staying power.
It's as if the promises are a little pebble and they're thrown up in the air, but the
gravity of death pulls them back down.
And it looks like we're doing well and death.
It looks like the promise is true and death.
Death keeps saying, You can't trust God.
You can't trust him.
He's not true.
He's just trying to make you happy.
He's just pulling the wool over your eyes.
He's just giving you a bunch of good sounding stuff, but grave the grave is where it ends.
That's what death says.
To all the prom all the promises are brought into question because of death.
But when Christ is raised, because Christ is raised, he inherits every blessing.
He inherits every promise.
Every word that fell to the ground is picked up in him and fulfilled in him.
And when he walks out of the grave, everything God ever said.
Is proven true in his flesh, absolutely true in his flesh.
It's like in Christ, those promises that are thrown up, and death says, I got you, I'm
pulling you back down with Jesus.
Promises are thrown up, death says, I got you, I'm pulling you down.
And Jesus punches through the earth, breaks all the way through the earth, breaks out the
other side, and ascends into orbit and is illumined as a star.
He it's this the stone of
Breaks through the death, comes out the other side, and goes up and is illumined and is
proven true.
And death says, I couldn't hold that.
I couldn't keep that.
I couldn't bind that because he shattered me from the inside.
So every promise then is proven true.
Every hope is vindicated.
Every word is secured when Christ is raised from the dead.
That's that's the implication of what Peter's doing here.
But then push it a step further, think about what this means.
If God's promises are not true, then God is a liar.
And if God's a liar, this whole book is worthless.
Everything, all of scripture is a joke if God's a liar.
So the crucified Jesus who rises up again and proves God true in his resurrection.
Not only does it vindicates the Davidic promise, which is where Peter's emphasizing here,
not only vindicates every promise, but vindicates this whole book.
The only reason this book works is because Christ is risen.
The only reason this whole everything we believe hangs together is because the crucified
man who is our God is raised up again from the dead.
There is no reading this if Christ isn't risen.
Throw your Bible away if Jesus isn't risen, because it means nothing.
but it still has some good wisdom until you die and there's nothing left.
If Christ isn't risen, there's nothing here.
But he is risen.
He is risen.
Hear me saying that.
And therefore, this book is true.
God is true.
Hope is true.
His promises are true.
The slain and risen Christ is the linchpin.
Who holds together in himself everything God has ever said.
He's the capstone on the whole arch of scripture, and he's the note that harmonizes the
whole.
And remember why we're saying this, because when the apostles come to this book, that's
how they're looking at it.
They're not looking at it as a string of pearls put together, a number of little wise
things to say.
They're not looking at it as just a story or just a bunch of instructions to tell me what
to do.
They're looking at it as the witness of the slain and risen Christ.
So let's move to the conclusion then and try to pull together what we've seen.
What can we say about how the apostles are reading their Bibles based upon what we've seen
of Peter here in Acts 2?
I think just two very simple things.
Of course, we could say a lot more.
Two very simple things.
The first thing we can say is that when the apostles come to their Bibles, they realize
the story is about.
Jesus.
The story is about Jesus.
And that's just what Jesus says.
That's nothing, nothing radical.
That's just what Jesus says in Luke chapter 24.
Remember, when he talks to his disciples, it says, Then he opened their minds to
understand the scriptures.
Meaning, of course, they did not understand the scriptures until they got this bit of
information.
He opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, Thus it is written.
The Christ should suffer, and on the third day rise from the dead, and repentance of sins
should be forgiven, should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning in
Jerusalem.
So Jesus is saying, You wanna understand this book?
It is about me.
And not just me, me crucified and raised, because that's where God declares his name.
Jesus says, This whole book is about me.
So the apostles, when they come to it, they say,
Everywhere I see God, everywhere I see his work, everywhere I see his promises, I'm seeing
Jesus, the slain and risen Jesus.
That's how they're reading the Bible.
And now, does that mean, well, it doesn't have anything to say about me?
Like, what's it say about me?
it has lots to say about us.
But the key is whatever Scripture says about us, it says about us only in relation to
Christ.
Whatever
Encouragement scripture has for us.
It is encouragement to us as we are united to Christ.
Whatever warnings scripture has for us, it is warnings to us as we are opposed to Christ.
But whatever this book says about us, it comes to us, it speaks to us only in relation to
Christ, because the book is about Him.
Yes, we are the true temple.
We saw that in
Isaiah 2 and the way Peter's working with that.
We're the people who are gathered together.
We're the people filled with the Spirit.
We're the people not abandoned to Sheol.
But we are these things because of who Christ is.
It's the only reason we're those things.
For the apostolic mind, Jesus is not the hero of our story.
Rather, we are supporting characters in his story.
Sometimes you hear Jesus is the hero of my story.
No, that you still said my story.
Jesus, it is his story, and we are characters in that, supporting characters, whose joy is
to orbit the one whom the story is about.
So when I come to the text with apostolic eyes, I ought to come and rather than saying
first, where am I in this text?
Where am I here?
We ought to say, Where is Jesus in this text?
And what does that mean about me?
What does this say about the Lord?
And what does that mean about me?
How has Jesus done this?
And how does that then affect me?
Because it's about Him.
It's about Him.
And the second thing we could say about the apostolic reading of Scripture, not only is
the story about Jesus, but like we just touched on a moment ago, this book does not work
apart from Christ.
So it's kind of a simplistic way to put it, but this book does not work.
Apart from the crucified and risen Jesus, the Bible makes sense and holds together, and
most importantly, is true only as it is read through the lens of the crucified and risen
Jesus.
This book is true only as we read it, as Jesus tells us to read it, in light of him as the
slain and risen one to whom the whole thing points, and of whom the whole thing.
Is speaking.
That's the apostolic mind.
And so my prayer is that we would gain that.
We would grow in that.
Now I'm not saying all of you go out and be just as good interpreters of scripture as the
Apostle Peter.
I'm not saying that.
But I'm saying we want to begin to gain the mind of Scripture, the mind of the Spirit, the
mind of Christ as we're reading about him in the text.
Now, final point for this morning.
Let me transition a little bit into
Applying this to us.
How does this apply to us?
Well, I think one way it applies to us is this way: the true reading of Scripture is also
the true reading of our lives.
And here's what I mean by that.
Just as the apostles read this book, and they say the only right interpretation of this
book is that it is about Jesus, and it is true only in light of Jesus.
So too we ought to say about the book of our own life, the book of our own story.
My story, my life is also about Jesus, and it is true only when I read it through Him,
only when I read it in light of Him.
So if we read this book here as though it is about us, we're going to come to the wrong
understanding.
We're going to deceive ourselves.
If we read this book here,
Without the slain and risen Jesus as our interpretive lens, we're going to misunderstand
what it's talking about.
And we're going to say, boy, it's full of false hopes, it's full of failed promises, and
it ends in exile.
So too, if I try to read the story of my life as if it's about me, if I try to bring my in
if I try to interpret this story as being about me, then the same kind of brokenness is
going to happen.
I'm going to get it wrong.
I'm going to misunderstand, misread the day, the week, the situation, the moment, because
I'm reading it as if it were about me.
And it isn't.
The apostles' approach to scripture shows us the right interpretive approach to our lives.
So my life, just this book is not about me.
My life is not about me.
My life is about Christ.
Jesus is not merely the one who saves the main character, me.
Here's the one who saved the main character.
No, my life.
He is the main character.
In my life, he's the main character.
So a simple way to put it is today is not about me.
This moment is not about me.
This situation that's striking me right now, it's not even about me.
It's about Christ.
It's about Christ, it's about what he's doing.
What he's saying, how he's being shown, how he is being for me what is needful.
So this turn of events, this sleepless night, this frustrating moment, this tiring week,
it isn't about me.
The whole thing, it's not about me.
It's about him.
And the truth of these situations is what they are in relation to him, not what they are
in relation to me.
That takes some.
Category shifting and prayer and laboring to see again.
Or let's look at the other one.
Remember, the apostle said, this whole book only works.
It's only true when we read it in light of the crucified and risen Jesus.
Same thing for us.
If I look at my life through the interpretive lens of stress, busyness, tension, envy,
anger, failure, whatever it might be, if that's the lens I'm reading my life in.
Or or loss.
Of course I'm going to see it as I'm I'm this is full of depression.
This is full of broken relationships, irretrievable losses, and dried up hopes and chronic
pain and bodies and minds that are turning against us and promises that sounded really
great and they never, never were fulfilled.
That's what it'll be if I'm reading my life without the interpretive lens of Christ.
But just as if I come to this book without Christ, it's not true.
I'm not i the Bible is not true if I don't interpret in light of Christ.
So to the interpretation I give of my life, I give of this moment, I give of this
suffering, if Christ is not the lens, that's not the truth.
That's not true.
That's not the final truth of that event.
No, the true reading of your every experience and your life as a whole.
Is what it is in Christ.
The true reading of your life is what it is at it as it is held and healed in his hands.
What is that?
I think we can say this, wrapping up.
I think we can say this, Christian, the defining character of your every moment, if you're
interpreting it in light of Christ, the defining character of your every moment is love.
And the sure end of your every story is.
Is joy.
That is the truth.
That's the truth if we're interpreting in light of Christ.
How do I know it?
Well, listen, my every moment, our every moment is held in Jesus on the cross.
Look at Jesus on the cross.
Every moment of your life is in him.
Every moment you want to see look at Christ and say, this moment's in there.
This grief is in there.
This sorrow's in there.
This is there, my death is there.
And what is that moment?
Love.
Love.
It's love.
And you say, I don't feel that.
We don't feel it yet.
But that's the promise in Christ, interpreted in light of him.
Every moment, Christian, is love, and you will see it.
That's why Paul can say, I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth.
Nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
Interpreted in light of Christ, Christian, every moment is love.
And interpret interpreted in light of Christ, every moment ends in joy.
How can we say that?
Because the end of your story is revealed at the resurrection.
That's the end.
That's where it's going.
God promises it.
And what is the resurrection?
Joy, joy beyond belief, which is why Isaiah can write this: the ransomed of the Lord shall
return, every one of them.
Every one of them.
Loss is over in Christ.
If you're in Christ, the right interpretation says loss is over.
Those losses are not final.
Those losses will not define you.
The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing.
And everlasting joy shall be upon their heads, and they shall obtain gladness and joy and
sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
That's the true interpretation of your life because of Christ.
So let us read this book and this book as being about Christ and true only as interpreted
by
Through the lens of Christ.
Because the only place any verse in this book and any moment in this life is finally true
is as it is orbiting Christ as its center, and as it is held in his hands, and as it is
named by his love.
That's the only time it's true.
And so as we come to this table as Christians, what you're coming to is the interpretive
lens of all reality.
We are called as Christians to interpret everything through this, through this, because
what is here?
This is the witness, this is the proclamation, this is the remembrance, this is the
symbolism of Christ crucified and raised up again.
This is the lens through which we are to read scripture.
Right here.
You are about to eat the lens through which you're supposed to interpret scripture.
This is the lens through which we are to interpret our life.
You're going to take into your body the lens that God says, interpret everything through
this.
Interpret everything through what I've done, through who I am, through this love toward
which everything is moving and nothing can stop.
This is the truth.
What you're about to take into yourself by faith, that is the truth.
So may God give us grace to read every verse of scripture.
And every moment of our lives in light of this table that we're about to come to and
partake in, and to remember the love that is witnessed here.
Let me pray for us and then we'll come to the Lord's table together.
Father, it is so dangerously easy for me to stand here and talk about things.
And the talk is proven in the trenches, in the doing, in the living.
So I pray, Father, for myself and for my brothers and sisters, just as we're about to
physically actually eat this bread and this wine, so too, these things we've considered
today would physically
actually be present in our lives, that we would interpret our lives and act accordingly,
seeing Christ as the one for whom all things are about.
Everything's about Him.
And interpreting these moments in light of Him.
Help us do that.
Help us live that.
Help us love because of that.
And we thank you, Father, for Jesus Christ.
Open our eyes to Scripture
And to our lives to see what is true in your slain and risen Son.
We thank you for him, Father.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Thank you for listening to this message from Kingstree Church in Sabina, Ohio.
To see more of the beauty of God and the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, come worship
with us on Sundays at 10 a.m.
or visit our website at Kingstreechurch.org.