Transcript
Let us all pray Lord we thank you for this song we thank you for these wonderful texts we've heard from the book of Isaiah from the gospel of John we thank you for this great hymn come now Almighty King and now Lord may the words of my mouth the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight Lord our strength our strength and our Redeemer Lord bless us and bless all the ones we love as we
endeavor to be students of your word and to grow together in grace and in truth in Christ's name we pray amen thank you Eunice McGarahan and also Michael Dannem for leading us in this time of worship and it was just the most wonderful and moving to hear that that's final the final solo it was just so moving to thank you and thank you for coming what it what an amazing just the table I was surely I'm
and I were able to sit at we had two young Methodist women who are in Methodist youth workers committing their lives to youth and a young pastor in Connecticut who's serving in a church and then a pastor from near Pittsburgh and then a young pastor from Southern California I mean this is just our table it was just it made me as the joy of feeling in the privilege of being able to be with you and to
have this chance to think with you and also to get to know a lot of you some of you I already knew we that's been a joy to to see and have reunion with some of you that that have meant a lot to me in my life and have been mentors in my life and then of course to meet brand new people it's just it's just going to be a joy thank you so much I want
to focus on the joy and and the exciting task of expositional preaching and teaching there's something joyous in seeing for yourself a text that opens up text of the Bible that opens up and discovering what it says and what it means and then especially what it means to me and that amazing experience of having that that joy yourself and then to be a pastor or a teacher or a youth worker and see it happen in the
face of a young boy or girl or an older man or woman that they see the point before you said it you know it's one thing that to believe in the love of God for you but to read a text to see it in the text in a teaching of Jesus to see it in st. Paul or st. John and to watch that unfold and to look into the face of a person in a parish or
a church or in a youth meeting and then it dawns on them that they see it before you said it and it's not that I told them that God loved them they saw And that is the wonderful excitement of discovering a text and discovering what is being what is the message what is the what is enacted and what's happening in front of you and then to see it before it's said to him by somebody else and
I just love that so that that is the joy of exposition when that can happen and I have decided to to tonight use one text just one sentence to sort of demonstrate a little bit of the excitement of exposition when we see a sentence and the sentence comes alive to us and then tomorrow morning and all day tomorrow I've decided to zero in on a case study of one short book it happens to be the final
book that st. Paul wrote and it's second Timothy in fact we have published the entire text of second Timothy with a lot of space on all sides and I put on the cover of that of that manuscript text for you the marvelous Rembrandt von Rijn painting of st. Paul in prison I love that painting and that is that is my st. Paul he's in prison he wrote this book in prison he wrote it to a young
man I told my my table today of youth workers this is a youth workers book because this book was written by Paul Paul's he's an old man now I don't know how old he was but he is writing to a young man he calls him son he uses the word tech knob for young youth and he's writing to a youth and it it's just a wonderful investment of Paul's life in the life of this young man
Timothy and we get to read that book and I'm going to do a four-part study of it it's four chapters so we'll do a four-part study of it and then I've chosen some very outstanding people to respond to it too I have a responder for tonight with my opening study and that'll be Michael Denham who you've already met and but in during the day we have four different responders Darryl Armstrong who's a friend of
mine pastor in Shiloh Baptist Church in Trenton one of one of our the trustees here in this seminary and I've just come to love him being a trustee with him and he is agreed to be the responder at the first and then of course Nancy Ross a young associate professor here in this school I have so much respect for her and then Rick Osmer who's professor of mission in in this school and he is going to
be a responder and then a layman for the final you've got to have a layperson give the final response and that's Tony Watley a friend of mine from Seattle who is going to be the final responder and then the next day the final day together tomorrow night by the way you're on your own that's why they've published a whole list of restaurants famous restaurants of Princeton that you can pick and choose and have just a so
they don't want to overwork you that's tradition here at Con Ed not to overwork you the second night but we will work you tonight but not tomorrow night and so you're on your own to just fellowship and eat then the final morning Friday Michael Denham who has written a doctoral dissertation that I hope is going to become a published book called the reverberating word the case for expositional worship where worship should be expositional just like preaching
we're gonna hope in these next days to make the case for preaching as expositional but what about worship itself should worship surround a text and make a text come alive when you have a worship experience and so Michael is going to give a his thoughts on that subject and the responder will be Craig Barnes the president of this school a great friend of Michael's and one of my great friends too but he is going to give
that response then I get to give the final study which will be from the gospel of Matthew Jesus teaching and the and that will be our final session and we'll end that with worship so there you have it that's what we're gonna do and it's in your hands too because as dick stop by good friend he's a little bit outlandish a little bit reckless sometimes but dick stop is going around with the mic after each of
these sessions he'll do it tonight too to give you a chance to make comments and ask questions and it is true that they're filming us tonight so that if you ask a question or make a comment you're gonna be on film too because we didn't we didn't want questions written and then somebody reading a question that so somebody has this question if you had a question or a comment we wanted you to be able to make
it so the mic will go to you he'll guard to make sure you don't go too long maybe but you get the you get to say what you want to say and then we can respond either the responder can respond or I get to respond to what you say so it's gonna be kind of a hopefully a organic and a joyous fun experience as well as a time when we think and and and learn too all
right I have a single sentence for you and the sentence is in fact oh by the way my tradition in Bible teaching I do it with youth I do it now wherever I teach what everybody asked me that would you come and do a series of studies on Philippians or a series of studies on on even when I did the book of Revelation with some some folks not long ago I had the new RSV text of
the book of Revelation printed out and and and then with space on the side that's what we've done with second Timothy space on the side so that people could make notes while they they because remember garrison keillor's got that wonderful line and one of this one of his little pieces where he was trying to silently write a check in church and then mrs. Tolleson saw him he was trying to write a check for the offering quietly
and she she looked at him and she was very disapproving because like garrison keillor says you're not supposed to write in God's holy word and she even a sentence like that's a good sentence Paul or Paul that a boy Paul you're not supposed to do that then you're contaminating God's holy word so she thought I was writing in the text and so ever since then I realized garrison's onto something you shouldn't write in your Bible too
much it might though I'm not against that at all and I don't yellow marker it though I hate that but so that's why I've printed the text for you and you get it and you can doodle I do that with youth I said do you draw pictures while you're doing this Bible study with me but you can write whatever you want it's yours to keep and you don't have to show it to anybody but I'll give
you a word study you have a chance to circle it and write it down and it'll be fun it gives you a whole new way of engaging the text and it's written out for you in in in your hands so that's what we're going to do for our time I have one simple sentence today it kind of is a good sentence for the whole three days we have together it's from st. Paul's second letter to Thessalonians
you know we think in the New Testament that the very first book of the New Testament many scholars believe is first Thessalonians Paul has gone to Athens and he started church in Philippi and started sure that's the beginning of the Christian movement in Europe and he goes to Thessalonica then he goes up to Athens and he writes a letter to the Thessalonians isn't interesting the first letter in the New Testament deals with the second coming of
Christ you think well that would be coming later no no eschatology is the first subject in the first letter makes sense so a lot of people think when's Christ coming back he's going to come back right away isn't he you know and so Paul addresses it in Thessalonians and so he writes first and second Thessalonians to the those folks and there is this one wonderful sentence that appears that I'm gonna read to you I will read
just a line before he gives the sentence that we have he has been telling them how how good and how marvelous is the gospel and he says our Lord Jesus Christ himself is God our Father who loved us and through grace has given us eternal comfort and good hope and comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word little Barth line word and work Barth wanted everything to be word and work and he
said God wants you to to worship God with word and work and that's how he ends the second chapter and now the third chapter he asks them to pray for him and this will be a text for us for these three days finally brothers and sisters now you can look at the text I printed for you the new RSV finally brothers and sisters pray for us so the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be
glorified everywhere just as it is see he's just honored them for the fact that they have discovered Christ's love now I want that to spread and so pray for us brothers and sisters that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be glorified everywhere just as it is among you I always say in Bible study and this will be one of my guidelines for exposition always be curious first curiosity is the first beginning step of
any kind of important Bible study develop a curiosity develop questions questions right away it's Paul's Socratic method he does it all the way through the book of Romans he's always asking a question and speaking to it remember after one of his greatest sentences where sin increased the grace of God increased more wow that's one of the greatest lines in all of the Bible and then right after it a question well then shall we sin more to
get more grace see he's wondering does that mean sin more to get more grace and then he says no no we don't I don't mean that so then he goes on and then when he gets to the eighth chapter if God is for us who can be against us question well Nero is the Emperor I can think a lot of people think who's against them so he raises a question and and then speaks to it this
is Paul in his great classic book Romans so I think using that Socratic method where you ask a question speak to it ask a question wonder about it that's a good beginning in all of Bible study so when you see a sentence like this you want to ask a question finally brothers and sisters pray for us so the word of the Lord may spread rapidly I don't know about you but I became fascinated with spread rapidly
what does he mean that this good news will spread rapidly how is that so what is the implication there the gospel must be very powerful if it can spread rapidly so he said pray for us that it'll do that and be glorified boy the word glory is such a big word in the Bible usually used as a noun but here's being used as a verb noun glory doxa verb glorify what does he mean by that so
that it'll be glorified everywhere just as it is among you and so I was intrigued by this this sentence in Bible study I don't think you need to say that first you have to get a lexicon out and learn all the Greek words and see what they mean and work that way that's not a bad idea and if you know Greek or Hebrew it will definitely help you and lexical use I'm going to make a case
of that tomorrow when we're in the book of a lot of word studies the understanding the Greek words that st. Paul uses are very very helpful and very interesting because he uses some marvelous ones in that book but you don't even need to know that Greek you don't need to hear we're got a Greek sentence you don't need to know first century Greek to do good thoughtful Socratic Bible study curiosity Bible study one thing that we've
got going for us is that many translations are now available to us and I have said to young people and older people I said in doing Bible study the first rule of thumb I would say to you is get a big table and use a lot of paper but get a big table and get about five or six translations in front of you do that right away don't worry about knowing Greek or anything just get a
bunch of translations and see if the translators themselves alert you to key words alert you to key ideas that have got you going in a sentence so do that right away and of course we are so fortunate we I don't want to I don't want to play a trivial pursuit with you but think of all the translations that are available to you right now the old King James of course and then you've got the ASV you've
got the RSV you've got the new RSV off that's getting good now you've got you've got Ronald Knox wrote it you've got the you've got the Jerusalem Bible you've got the two great Roman Catholic editions the new Roman Catholic edition of the Bible you've got the old Roman Catholic edition of the Bible you've got all these different editions of the Bible that are in you can put in front of you and it doesn't take a lot
of money because most of them are in paperback and you can get translations and spread them out on a you could have a wonderful time being alerted to words just from English translations and I wanted to prove it to you with this look at that one sentence with just one two three four translations here's four translators working with one simple sentence and you tell me if they don't stir you up the first one is the James
Moffat it's interesting the James Moffat translation is called a new translation that was published in 1924 so it's called the new translation the new translation of the Bible James Moffat finally brothers and sisters now they both say that so there's nothing new there pray for us that's the same as the as the RSV that the word of the Lord may speed on and triumph now there's two words that are changed he changed glorify to triumph and
he changed spread rapidly to speed on wow is Jay is James Moffat up to something has he discovered a word that the RSV didn't know about well let's see I love it though do you like that translation that the word of the Lord may speed on and triumph as in your own case okay he honors him just like the RSV did now we come to Eugene Peterson now you have to realize Eugene Peterson you never take
him cum grano salis I don't think you ever take James Peterson with a grain of salt but he is a free translator so you have to he's not an authorized translator one word for one word he has fun with every text the good thing about James Peterson I love the guy Eugene Peterson is that he knows Greek and Hebrew very well so he rarely leads you astray I will say that about the but still you're getting
a free translation so be careful when you're you you don't probably write a hymn from the the Eugene Peterson text you write a hymn from the RSV or the King James but not the king nothing but look at Eugene Peterson I love it he says one more thing friends that's a nice way of saying finally pray for us that's the same pray that the master's word that's the way he describes word of the Lord that the
master's word will simply take off and race through the country to a ground swell that's his word for glorify to a ground swell of response as it did among you how do you like that look what has happened in this those three translations those three translations have alerted you to two key words haven't they the word that was translated by the RSV spread spread wrap spread around and speed on and now take off and simply take
off and race see James Peterson takes liberties he doesn't translate one word for one word like an authorized translation is to do he gives you several words for one word sometimes to make the point and now the beloved King James you know over and over again the sheer beauty of the King James English wins out over and over again always read the King James Bible it always will from an artistic standpoint well and often since people
know that text often in in the King James Bible it'll often win out with an insight that the others maybe like Eugene Peterson catches Moffat catches the RSV catches but the King James will often take your breath away listen to this the King James says finally brethren pray for us by the way the word brethren brothers in Greek they're all correct means both male female so that's why they were all correct to make sure it's not
just men or brothers the plural means men and women brothers and sisters so finally brethren pray for us notice that's the same they're all saying the same thing on pray for us they don't give us a they don't give us much insight into pray do they you're gonna have to read other places to see more insights into what's the dynamics of prayer because Paul's assuming we know what he means when he says pray and if you
look at other parts of Paul's very Thessalonian letter he will help you pray so don't expect every sentence to teach you every truth this sentence is not going to teach you new things about prayer because it just assumes you know what we mean by prayer that means okay I wouldn't have to read Paul in other places or our Lord or James James helps a lot with prayer or some other writers to help me with pray but
now these three four translations don't add new things there finally brothers and sisters brethren pray for us that the word of the Lord same as the others had may have free course free course you're a poet how do you like that that's sheer poetry free course may have free course and be glorified now there he doesn't add a new word he just goes with the original word doxa and be glorified even as it is with you
he makes it present tense the King James makes the present tense Eugene Peterson put it past tense as it did among you James Moffat leaves it present tense as in your own case present tense and the new RSV said may spread rapidly and be glorified just as it is among you so those three capture the present tense just like the King James as it captures the present tense but there you have it well you know now
I'll give you a word study there is a word that Moffat caught and the others caught the text does say and I think I have to I love the RSV and I love the new RSV but the new RSV in my opinion did not help us with this word the word they they translated spread rapidly they translated the word trexo I'll make it looks like in English trexo or oh trexo is the Greek word that's
used here now the interesting thing about this Greek word if you are doing a Greek word study that helps you is that this word is only used two other places in the New Testament those are fun if you can get a hapax legomena the only place where it's used that can sometimes cause you a lot of trouble because that's the only place it's used but if you can get a word that's used about two or three
places then you get to see how it was used in other places and this word is used in two places in a very instructive way in Matthew 28 we're told when the women went to the tomb and they saw that Jesus was not there and the angel said why do you seek the living among the dead he's not here go and tell the disciples and that he'll meet them and they ran to the disciples trexo that
and the RSV gets it right they ran they didn't spread rapidly they ran I think spread rapidly is a whole different idea they ran and the same place it's used also dramatically in one of my favorite passages Hebrews 12:1 & 2 because since we were surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us run the race that is put before us let us run Christ is running ahead of us he's ahead of us but
let us run and it's word trexo so it's isn't it interesting what I've just done with you a little bit is to kind of whet your appetite for how exciting Bible study can be when a text is allowed to explode when a text is allowed to make its own point and sometimes you don't need no Greek at all you just need to know that James Moffat said speed on and then that should stir up your mind
speed on how does the text speed on what is there about the gospel that makes it speed that gives it Martin C.S. Lewis has that great line about joy from Screwtape Letters that joy is is in a kind of energy it's a kind of amazing movement no he's where acceleration I had to think for a minute because Screwtape reverses everything Screwtape is making fun of joy and he says joy is a meaningless acceleration
in the rhythm of a God's relationship with us with and of course Screwtape is mocking that but Lewis means it reverse joy is the meaningful acceleration of our relationship of our the relationship we have with God the meaningful acceleration that comes from knowing that we're loved knowing that Jesus Christ knows your name knowing that Jesus Christ has redeemed you that creates according to Lewis a meaningful acceleration that is this speed on see it's an acceleration
word it speeds on the gospel will speed on and it will change everything now the RSV did get that partly right when it said that it will spread rapidly but it does speed on and and then it glorifies where I lost my my my my I've lost my text it oh no here it is it fell behind speed on Moffat got it that this speed on and triumph now that's interesting too do you know that that
handling of glory is very Pauline Paul will do the same thing with glory doxa is a verb and noun in second Corinthians in second Corinthians he will start in chapter four talking about that there is a glory in judgment in the judgments of God is there's a glory in fact Moses had to cover his face when he met the law because the glory the shekinah glory of the Lord bothered the people and they would they would
be badly bothered by it so he had to cover his face because of seeing the Lord high and lifted up when he went on Mount Sinai and got the law of God and there's the glory of the law and Paul he pours it on you can see line after line pouring it on about the glory of judgment the glory of the law the glory of God's truth that dawns on us okay and then Paul pulls a
trick on you he says but if that's glory there's a greater glory and as a matter of fact Moses shielded his face not to protect the people from the glory but so they wouldn't see that that glory was fading that's how Paul interprets Moses that glory was fading on Moses and he knew it and so he put a cover over his face who the people wouldn't see how it was fading because maybe Moses didn't know it
then but he's sure gonna find out there is a greater glory and that's the greater glory of redemption it's a greater glory when God redeems us if it's glory that God judges us and that his truth breaks on us is a greater glory when he redeems us and sets us free and in fact he ends that great passage in chapter four to say as a result of that glory we have an eternal weight of glory by
the way the word weight is the Hebrew word for honor see to honor your father and mother literally means way heavy your mother and father there is heavy weight with glory and so the st. Paul ends that whole section by saying there is an eternal weight of glory it's boros which is the word for weight doxa boros doxa weight of glory by the way in 1941 I don't want to bore you with this but C.S. Lewis
gave his greatest speech at old st. Mary's Church in Oxford during the blitz of of Britain and the name it guess what the title of the speech was the weight of glory that amazing moment when it dawns on us that God loves us that amazing moment when we realize that's the great glory if there's a glory in God's justice there's a greater glory in God's redemption and that's poor but notice it's interesting Moffat and and Eugene
Peterson they're catching this they see it too notice that it may spread rapidly and be they help you understand glorify and Moffat said that it'll speed on and triumph as in your own case it's a glory that wins the glory of the law does not win the glory of the law punishes us or makes us like a mirror makes us see our sinfulness it doesn't win it doesn't redeem us it gets us ready for redemption but
it doesn't redeem us and that's Paul's point now Moffat captures that a little bit no the word of the Lord may speed on and triumph what's the triumph then of the word of God what is the triumph that Paul that he's talking about and Eugene Peterson again he decides to even make it as clear as he can pray that the master's word will simply take off and race to the country to a groundswell of response when
we respond to that then we experience the glory when we respond to his glory and we respond to his love and realize it's for us when it dawns on us that that love is for us okay now I