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We are in a series called “Sword Sharpening” and looking at how to make the most of your time with the Bible. We are ending this series today by looking at a verse we started with and said we would come back and look at it in context.

Mark 12:24 (NIV)
24 Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?

Before we get to the verse I mentioned in the intro, let’s do a quick wrap-up of the main points of this series. We started the series by saying:

The Bible is pointing to Jesus. The Bible is a library, not just a book. The Bible is written for us but not to us. Never read a Bible verse. Context, context, context. (We reviewed these, which you can view in Sword Sharpening Part 14.)

Then, we broke the Bible storyline into eight sections.

Kingdom Revealed. Kingdom Rebellion. Kingdom Covenant. Kingdom Foreshadowed. Kingdom Coming. Kingdom Incarnate. Kingdom Tension Kingdom Consummated. (We also reviewed this in Sword Sharpening Part 14.)

Then, over the last few weeks, we have added these ideas:

Everything we do must be grounded in and founded on love as we learn to love well. Then, we looked at a flow chart to help us see how His Story fits into history. (You can see this in Sword Sharpening Part 15.)

Then we talked about how we need to deal with hard Bible verses in context by being like the Bereans and digging into the hard-to-understand verses and not like Marcion by just taking the parts of the Bible we like and getting rid of or ignoring the rest.

That wrap-up contains what we hoped to convey in this Sword Sharpening series. As we end the series, let’s go back to the beginning and look at the verse we have promised to return to since we started the series.

Mark 12:18–27 (NIV)
18 Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 19“Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 20 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21 The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. 22 In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23 the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?” 24 Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25 When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 26 Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”

In this passage, Jesus is asked questions from the Sadducees, attempting to trap Him in His words. The questions were not even honest because the Sadducees denied the reality of a future resurrection (which is why they are sad, you see). They also didn’t believe in angels. Jesus’ response not only answered their question but also confronted their error concerning the future resurrection and the existence of angels.

Mark 12:24–25 (NIV)
24 Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25 When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.

He proceeds to prove, from the Scriptures, that there is life after death and there will be a resurrection. Quoting from Exodus 3:6, Jesus says:

Mark 12:26–27 (NIV)
26 Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!

Jesus points to God identifying Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Since God said, “I am” their God (present tense), and since “He is not the God of the dead but of the living”, the patriarchs are still alive, and God is still their God.

People will not marry or be given in marriage in the new creation, but that does not mean people will not remember their earthly relationships. Also, being “like the angels in heaven” does not mean that people will become angels, only that they will be like angels regarding marriage. We will look deeper into this passage this weekend at Keys Vineyard Church, so please join us in person or online.

We hope this series has encouraged you to spend time with the Bible. Spending time doing other things is easier, but we need to know what is in the Bible. The world needs us to understand what is in the Bible and to be able to talk about it.

2 Timothy 3:14–17 (NIV)
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Steve Lawes is a Church Consultant and also provides coaching for pastors, churches, ministries and church planters.

We are in a series called “Sword Sharpening” and looking at how to make the most of your time with the Bible. This week, we continue discussing how to deal with difficult Bible verses. When you read the Bible, you will find some things that are not always easy to deal with.

Sometimes, as people read the Bible, they are turned away from, not toward God. This often results from not understanding how His Story ties together and how to look for context. When you read a difficult passage, you must consider the context. I suggest always holding in tension what we learned when we looked at the Kingdom Revealed section of this series.

In the garden, everything was perfect. There was relational harmony. There were no problems of any kind. This is the heart of God. An ideal place on the planet where heaven and earth meet and where God dwells with his divine and human families. Everything that comes after the Fall is not what God wanted. After the fall, God is dealing with the consequences of human depravity. All of the evil and brokenness result from us choosing to go our own way. You must hold the idea of free will in tension as you read the problematic parts of the Old Testament.

God gave us free will. The ability to make choices. Why? He wants to be in relationship with people who want to be in a relationship with Him. Not because they have to but because they choose to.

As a result of our choices, the planet is in the shape it is in. Rather than take in the reality that the brokenness is our fault, we find it easier to blame God. People often ask, “How could a loving God do or allow that”? It was the height of love to give us the ability to choose. We choose wrongly, and the brokenness, the evil, and the depravity are all on us. None of it is what God wanted.

Part of the underlying story is that we are hard-hearted and keep going our way instead of His. We need heart transplants. And that is what is accomplished when Jesus comes the first time and defeats the power of sin and death. When He sends the Holy Spirit, we can now change.

Ezekiel 36:26–278 (NIV)
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

Don’t give up on the Bible because you find it hard to read or understand why God does things or allows things that don’t seem to fit how you think God should be. Instead of turning away from the Bible, dig deeper into it. Look for the context of the hard verse and think about how it fits into the whole story. This verse from the Psalms captures the heart of God and the idea is repeated many times in other verses in the Bible:

Psalm 86:15 (NIV)
15 But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.

Another thing to remember is that Jesus loved the Bible. The Bible is central to His life and ministry. We see Jesus pointing to and drawing from the Bible throughout the gospels. Jesus is highlighting the truthfulness and authority of the Bible as He uses it to change people’s lives.

We will add much more to this at Keys Vineyard Church this weekend, so join us in person or online.

Steve Lawes is a Church Consultant and also provides coaching for pastors, churches, ministries and church planters.

We are in a series called “Sword Sharpening” and looking at how to make the most out of your time with the Bible. This week, we continue discussing how to deal with difficult Bible verses by understanding how His Story fits into history.

John 3:16–18 (NIV)
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

Last week, we reviewed a flow chart showing how His Story fits into history. We talked about how, in our world today, many different religions developed in other times and places. I also said that religions often share some common ideas but vary significantly in how they view God, Jesus, and the afterlife.

As Christians, we believe in one God. Christians also hold to the idea that God has promised, back in the crimson thread of redemption (Genesis 3:15), that someone is coming and has already come, who will make a way for people to be reconciled back into a relationship with God. At the core of Christianity is the understanding that the world is broken and that we caused the brokenness. We can’t fix the brokenness. Only God can fix the mess. It’s a work that only God can do, and there are no other options. All of His Story is consistent on this point. This is not about Christians being arrogant; it’s simply understanding this ancient story that starts in the creation, a story of One God who sent One Savior, Jesus, to be the One way to relate to Him and be restored in relationship with him.

At least in some of the services, I also said that this idea often pokes people the wrong way. They reject the idea that there is only one way and suggest that it is arrogant to believe that. I commented that we should be happy that there is a way back after constantly telling God we will go our way.

We looked at several verses last week, but I want to emphasize the importance of context, so let’s go a little deeper into the context of 1Timothy 2:5:

1 Timothy 2:5 (NIV)
5For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,

This passage emphasizes that there is one God and one Savior—Jesus. As you look at the passage in context, I think it demonstrates the love of God for the world:

1 Timothy 2:3–6a (NIV)
3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people.

The idea that Jesus was considered a ransom is so essential. A ransom is a payment made to rescue someone. We see in His Story that all people need rescue. The enemy has, in effect, kidnapped us. This verse speaks about God’s heart to rescue people from harm and death. Understanding this verse in the context of His Story shows that this is far from an arrogant verse; it is a loving and beautiful one.

But what about? There are always a lot of what about questions. What about this situation? What about…Three things that we will dig into to try and address the what-abouts:

a) God loves people

b) God is the ultimate loving judge

c) God created us for mission

Because God wants people to know Him, He created us for mission.

Acts 13:47 (NIV)
47For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

We will look deeper into these ideas at Keys Vineyard Church this week, so plan to join us in person or online.

Steve Lawes is a Church Consultant and also provides coaching for pastors, churches, ministries and church planters.