1 Thessalonians 4. 15
“According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.”


few years ago Dan Brown wrote “The DaVinci Code”, a best selling mystery in historical fiction. Amazingly, many people began to treat parts of it as non-fiction because he made them aware that there were so called “lost” books of the Bible, which had not been included in the Biblical canon. The book Brown mentioned was “The Gospel of Mary Magdalene”.

This book and lots of others which are not included in the canon are not “lost.” They were rejected and refused by devout Christian leaders over 1600 years ago and judged inauthentic and unworthy of inclusion in the Biblical canon for many reasons.

But whenever something like this surfaces – as it does every few years—it causes a ripple of ridicule and derision against Christianity. Our detractors conclude that some sinister force denied these upstanding works’ inclusion in the canon because the church wanted to protect its interpretation and experience of Jesus Christ.

They always enjoy leaving the impression that the “real Jesus” of the first century must be presented in these “Lost “ books and that the Jesus of the church is a false Savior and Lord.
It goes without saying that the “Jesus” created by these detractors is generally made in their image. That is, whatever agenda they pursue or whatever axe they have to grind with the church is somehow supported by these “lost” books of the Bible.

So today, I want to help us understand the process by which the sixty-six books of the Bible were accepted as authentic. Now this will take a mini-series of sermons to develop in a way that will be understandable for us.

Xxxxxxxxxxx
First of all, what do we mean by a Biblical canon?
A canon is a measuring rod or yardstick which we use to establish the church’s beliefs and practice, faith and behavior. Regarding the Bible, it is the writings accepted by the church as authoritative and binding.

The canon witnesses to this fact: faithful believers across many centuries have heard the voice of God in these 66 books. That is what canon means.

The same faithful believers across many centuries have not heard the voice of God in the so-called “lost” books.
Therefore they are judged to be non-canonical.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Secondly, the early church of the first century (AD30-AD100) found three authoritative sources in which they heard the voice of God. It is these three voices which the church claims that we hear the voice of God which stand behind the canonical books.
They are the OT Scriptures, the words of Jesus and the writings of the Apostles.

A. The first of these is of course the Old Testament.

Following the crucifixion -resurrection-ascension of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit 50 days later at Pentecost the church was Jewish. Peter and James and John and the other 3000 believers on the Day of Pentecost were Jews who had come by the preaching of Peter to believe in Jesus. That made them not just Jewish but Jewish Christians.

Much of the conflict in the church over the next 20-30 years revolved around the issue of the degree to which a believer in Jesus had to remain a Jew.

For example, to be accepted by the Judean Jewish-Christians as believers, must new believers in Jesus who were not Jewish, for example Greeks or Romans, be required to undergo circumcision, since circumcision was the Jewish mark of the covenant given by God to Abraham?

The one thing which was not disputed in the beginning is that the Jewish Scriptures which we call the OT were originally and fully accepted by the church as canonical.

By the time of Jesus the 39 books of the OT were accepted by all Jews as sacred, inspired and authoritative. In this body of literature, the Jews and new Christians found the voice of God.




Though groups like the Sadducees held to the preeminence of the Pentateuch- the first five books of the OT- most of Jewry firmly accepted the Law, the Prophets and the Writings as their canon. So strong is this acceptance that about 65AD Matthew can write of Jesus that he “came to fulfill the Law not to abolish it.”

So clearly – for the earliest church- the OT is counted as authoritative and binding for belief in Jesus and for establishing behavior in one’s life. That is canonical.

Since they are canonical, how were they approached from a peculiarly Christian angle by Jesus and the leaders of the early church? There must be some difference in approach and understanding of the OT for the new believers in Jesus or there would be no reason to break from Judaism.

1. Jesus taught his disciples a way to read the OT which led the reader to the Risen Christ, the experience of his Presence and an understanding of his Purpose and Mission.

The Risen Christ drew near to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”

So a new approach, for Christian believers, is instituted by the Lord himself (Luke 24.27) and it is this: The Jews who were the Lord’s disciples were taught by Him to read the OT as it pointed toward Him- toward Jesus- toward the Messiah- toward the Lord they knew in faith in the church.

2. Secondly, the first documents accepted as NT Scriptures are the letters of the Apostle Paul written between 49AD and 64AD. Paul is extremely careful to inform his churches that his preaching and teaching and writing was “according to the Scriptures;” (1Cor. 15. 3f)
At the time Paul wrote that in I Corinthians, his letters had not yet become accepted as Scripture. Therefore, the Scriptures he refers to are the OT.

3. The authority of the OT Holy Scriptures is confirmed by the Apostle Paul who reminds Timothy that he has known the Holy Scriptures from childhood and they “are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” That is the OT.

Moreover, he continues, “All Scripture (OT) is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the child of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3. 15-17)
That is the OT.

Summary

Now why do I spend this time making thepoint to you that the 39 books of the OT are inspired, authoritative Scripture for Christians?

1. Very simply it is because whenever Christianity is attacked by culture, it usually comes through an attack on the Written Word of God more often than not centered in the OT text. The favorite whipping boys have been creationism in Genesis and holy war in Joshua.

The general attack is how you can worship a God who orders his followers to massacre whole populations in war?

Or you dolt, they imply, how ignorant can you be to believe that the world was created by God?

2. Secondly, there are growing numbers of Christians who doubt the validity and thus the authenticity and authority of the OT. I submit to you this simple statement: It is heretical for a Christian to refuse to accept the canon of the OT and its teachings as authoritative and binding.

This kind of thinking is not expressly stated and adherents sought to advance the cause of ridding ourselves of the OT.
This is the way it is done.

We have reared generations of children and youth and allowed them to be illiterate concerning the OT.
We have taught neither the children nor the adults how to respect the OT as Scripture and how to interpret from a Christian perspective and how to defend the OT from the attacks presented in the popular culture media establishment.
We decry the lack of doctrinal teaching in the mega churches – I’m not sure that is accurate – but the part that is accurate is this: very few preachers use the OT as a source text for preaching anymore.

So while there is no concerted effort, evil advances its attack on the Word of God by the unwillingness of the people of God to teach a whole gospel which includes the OT.

No human being – no system of theology – no system of philosophy- no teacher of the Bible- no professor of Biblical studies or theology – no untrained believer in any congregation in Christendom has the right to disparage the OT as the word of God.

Does that mean that we must first become Jews in order to be followers of Jesus? Of course not.

It means that we study the OT as Jesus taught the early church to do and we make the Person and Ministry of Jesus the focal point.

If you are Christian you need to learn the OT and understand it. Are you willing to do that?

I’ve been teaching an overview for two years now in our Wednesday night Bible Study and we’re still in the OT. Come and join us.