How to Use a Study Bible, Part II: Mark Lanier, 01/04/26

SE 053_How to Use a Study Bible Part 2
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[00:00:00] Okay. Thank you for being here. We've got a lot to cover. I've got, kind of a little, voice issue going on. If I go down and out, I told Capes or Pastor Brent that they're up and I, and I'm out. but I hope to be able to make it. I assume if you're here, you've made that great leap from 2025 to 2026.

You've made it here. Congratulations. Then the question becomes, what's next? What does the future hold for you as you stand here right now? I don't know. I got a call this morning. I was a little bit late to church because one of my lawyers, went into the hospital the other day and, he, was battling with pneumonia.

They had to intubate him over the weekend. And, we [00:01:00] just found out that he's gonna be passing away within the next couple of hours, and it's, so we, we don't know what the future holds. He does know Jesus, by the way. but I can tell you this. Without knowing your future, I can tell you that Bible study will make it better.

Yes. If you study God's word, God speaks to you through His word and that will make it better. And that's why we've given each of you, a Baylor study Bible, as a Christmas gift. And uh, I got a text message from Chris Todd saying he was aware of that. he said, how does it compare to the ESV study Bible?

And I said, well, they're both wonderful study bibles. The only thing I can say for certain, since I wrote the introduction to the book of James here is it's better. But other than that, no. Other than that, I can't tell you much. Um, no, it's, this is a [00:02:00] wonderful study book. I hope that you've got it.

Our projection system for it is not working this morning, which is a pity, so we're gonna have to figure out how to make do, 'cause my intention was to show you how to make this not a coffee table Bible. But to make it a working bible, that this is something you should be taking notes in. This is something you should highlight.

This is something you should write in. It's a a, a gym membership. Uh, you can't just watch the video to eight minute abs and get results. You have to actually do something with it, right? So today. I want to continue what we started in December about learning to study our Bibles better because I didn't make it through a lot of the class in December.

So we're gonna go back and we're gonna do this and we're gonna get through a little bit more of it. And then my intention is to start Romans up again next week. But I want to do it the same way we did before. We'll talk about how important it is to warm up. When you're studying the [00:03:00] Bible, you don't just open it up and just start reading.

There's a a process and I want to talk about that, and then I want to talk about some examples, some new examples that we didn't look at before of how to study the Bible and then we'll have some points for you to take home and consider. So with all of that, let's talk about how we start. Spiritual things are discerned spiritually.

We, we are not looking. You can study the Bible. Uh, let me go this way. You can study the Bible and if you're not careful, you'll read into it what you want it to say. You know, you don't want to have a conversation where you're supposed to be listening to God, where you're telling God what he's supposed to be saying to you.

You want to come in and try to hear from God. And so that's why I think anytime you're studying your Bible, you should [00:04:00] start with prayer. And I urged people to write into the front of their Bibles a simple prayer. It doesn't have to be this, but Lord, open my eyes to see, clean out my ears to hear. Soften my heart to understand your word.

Teach me. What you want me to learn today. And, uh, uh, Brad Wagner in our class has a printing company and he printed up bookmarks with that prayer in them and has enough for everybody to have several. You can give them away. Um, uh, but it's, it's just, uh, you can put it in your Bible. It's a reminder that you, you want to do what the Psalmist wrote about almost 3000 years ago.

Where he said, open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of [00:05:00] your law. And so with that prayer, we begin our discussion even with a dialogue. Lord, open our eyes, open our ears, and soften our hearts. Now, the Bible itself is not technically a book. The Bible is technically a library. You've got 66 books in this library and these books span a lot of different types of literature.

We know because we live in a information and education age, know that you read poetry differently, then you read history. And that's no less true. When we read the Bible. The Bible has an entire section of it that deals with the law. These are are books that give stories and have commands. Then there's a bunch of books that are very [00:06:00] historical.

They're narratives. There's books that are full of poetry and wisdom literature. Then there are books that are very prophetic that speak God's voice. It's prophecy in the Bible is considered a speaker where God is, is speaking through the prophet and he's speaking into the current circumstances and the future circumstances, sometimes even the past.

Yeah, there are gospels and we're gonna talk about those today. There's this book called acts, which is kind of the early church history. Um, there are letters that have been written that are part of the New Testament, and there are these writings in the old end, new Testament that we would call apocalyptic, that speak in vivid imagery about the days and things to come.

Now, when we study this bible. We need to always remember that we're reading something old in a new world, [00:07:00] and that can cause problems. Now this, I don't know if you can get a closeup of this. Can we get a closeup? Yeah. That's close. Yeah. Now we're cooking with peanut oil or whatever the expression is.

There we go. So this is an old keyboard, can you hear it? But it actually attaches by Bluetooth to a computer. See, you can use it as a keyboard for your computer, but you feel like you're typing on a typewriter. Those that aren't so young know what a typewriter is. And I thought, how cool is this? This is gonna be my new keyboard.

I saw it on this Korean show. I thought, Hey, that's kind of cool, So I, I got on the internet and I figured out how to buy one. And do you know what I learned? There's a reason that these aren't on computers. They're nearly impossible to type on, so anybody who needs it, it's become at this point just [00:08:00] a talking piece for me.

you, you, you, you can't do something new. You, you gotta be careful. Everything has its time and age, and you gotta be careful when you're reading the Bible that understand the Bible. These books were not written yesterday. They were written in a time and a place, and so we always need to try and understand them in that sense.

And we're not doing them justice if we don't. Uh, I, I know a, a, a preacher one time that I was told, I didn't know him personally, but I was told, he said, look, I'm I, when, if I'm just gonna read it simply and I'm just gonna read it and I'm just gonna apply it. That's it. That's all I need to do. And if when I get to heaven, God says, you just took me at my word too, too, literally.

Then I'm gonna say sorry. And I said, well, my concern is that God might say to you when you get to heaven, you took me at my word too, [00:09:00] lazily. Let's, let's don't be lazy with this. Let's give this our God gave us a brain for a reason. Now, it doesn't mean that our brain alone or our heart or our, our, our, our, that doesn't mean that, that the spirit's not at work.

Here he is, he was at work in putting this together and writing it, and he's at work as we understand it, but it's not devoid of us. So, for example, most of us need a Bible translation. Very few of us can read it in the Greek, the Hebrew, and the Aramaic, in which it was once written. It. This bible that I'm handing out has pluses and minuses, um, in the translation.

Just like every other translation, you can follow it or not follow it, don't worry about it. but those are all important ways that we start. We understand what we're dealing with, the challenges before us, and we prayerfully. [00:10:00] Read and study God's word. Now let's talk about how we do that. The examples of good study.

I really was planning on having this, this morning and it's, uh, curtails our efforts that I can't show you visibly, but, um, this is not working. It's a black screen, and so I can't show you what I, I need to show you. But if you've got a Bible, you can open it and you can see it, and we'll just talk about it.

I'd like to go back to talking about the Psalms initially. Now Psalms, there are 150 Psalms, and they were Israel's primary prayer book and hymnal. They were, its worship, handbook. The word Psalm itself. Comes from a word. The, the Greek word psalm is, is what we have for our title, but it comes from a word that means to sing to instruments and [00:11:00] the Book of Psalms are songs that cover every human emotion.

You can find joy in 'em, you can find anger, you can find confusion, you can find praise, despair. Celebration concern. You can find the whole breadth of human emotions. In those. And if you want to be on a reading program to read all 150 Psalms each month, that's just reading five Psalms a day. And that's easily done.

And I recommend that you do that. And if you're gonna do that, do it in a good order. The way I do five psalms a day when I do it is, you know, and I wrote this last class Sunday, the seventh, you would read Psalm seven. So today's January the fourth. Is today the fourth? Yeah. Yeah. So you'd read Psalm [00:12:00] four and then add 32.

It read Psalm 34 and then add 32 it 64, 32 it 94, 32 at 124. And you've read all five Psalms. Tomorrow it's the fifth. Read Psalm five. Now, when you read these psalms, I urge you to ask four questions, and I like the Baylor study Bible because in the Baylor study Bible, in the Psalms, you will see they give an introduction statement about the Book of Psalms, and the introduction statement ends halfway down the second page.

So there's a lot of white space. I would urge you to write these four questions down in that white space. You can take a picture of these thanks to our wonderful internet people. This class is online and, and so you can go back and get it, but these are the four questions that will really help you study your Psalms.

Number one, what emotion [00:13:00] is being expressed? Number two. What is revealed about God in this Psalm? Number three, what prompted the Psalm? And number four, how can I pray this in my life? Now, if we do that, we can find some wonderful things. That's not the only way to study, and there's in depth study, and I want you to come to class because your, your Hebrew may not be as, as.

Proficient and, and maybe I can help open up some Hebrew ideas and, and I can give you more. But this is wonderful for home study. This is wonderful for my study. And I thought I'd give you another example of this. And I'm, uh, by God's grace, it's up here. Otherwise I would need the camera, but we don't need the camera.

This is Psalm 20. And what we're gonna do is we're gonna read through this [00:14:00] psalm together, and then we're gonna go back and we're gonna ask those four questions. Okay. It's a short psalm. It's got nine verses in English. It's got 10 in the Hebrew. You'll notice up here in the Hebrew, I'll say Psalm 20 verse one, and then parentheses two because it's actually verse two in the Hebrew manuscript, this Psalm has a little tagline that was added about 1000 ad that says a Psalm of David and, and in Hebrew, that's now verse one.

So in English, it's just the title above it. Here's what the Psalm says. May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble. May the name, name in Hebrew means, your character. It's, it is who you are. It's what you do. It's, it's your actions. It's your resume. May the name of the God of Jacob Protect you. May he send you help from the [00:15:00] sanctuary and give you support from Zion.

May he remember all your offerings and regard with favor, your burnt sacrifices? Sah. Sah is a musical term. We don't quite know what it meant. It comes from Sah, which means to lift up, and so it's likely where they paused, uh, or maybe where their voices went up or maybe where the instruments went up. We don't quite know.

If you know your musical history from, 700 BC you, you probably could tell us, but nobody's alive still from that time. May he grant you your heart's desire and fulfill all your plans. May we shout for joy over your salvation, and in the name of our God, set up our banners. May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.

Now I know that the [00:16:00] Lord saves his anointed. He will answer him from his holy heaven with his saving might of his right hand. Some trust in chariots, some in horses, but we trust in the name, the reputation, the resume of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright. Oh Lord. Save the king.

May he answer us when we call Now, you may read through that and it may just be, uh, like Nate Marzi says, where the words just kind of go right through your brain. You don't really understand what you read, and that's okay. Part of bible study is taking something that you don't normally just that you could just read over and say, I couldn't even tell you what I just read and saying, but I'm going to try to figure this out By the grace of God and with prayer.

And so these questions are here to help us figure it out. Now, what emotion is [00:17:00] being expressed? If you're gonna ask that question and you're gonna look back through, I think as you, you read through the psalm again and say, okay, I'm looking for the emotion. What emotion? One of the emotions, there are several, but one of the emotions that's being expressed is concern.

Oh, may God be with you. Oh, oh. Look at, may the Lord answer you in the day of trouble. May the name of the God of Jacob protect you. There's concern here. All right, question number two. What prompted this psalm? Now, the Baylor study Bible will tell you that this is a king psalm, and it is, it's a psalm that.

Was likely written for the king as the king's about to lead people into battle. And so, uh, uh, when you read this psalm, what prompted the psalm? You can get different things, but it looks like someone may [00:18:00] be interceding for the king in a time of war. Um, and, and you see, you know, some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

He, he's using war language there, horses and chariots that tho those were the machines of war. We could read this, uh uh, today, some trust in M1 Abrams tanks and some in F 30 fives, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. So you've got some kind of intercession in the time of war. You've got another passage.

Oh Lord, save the king. Who leads the troops out into battle? May he answer us when we call. So you've got here intercession in the time of war, perhaps, being part of the prompting of this psalm. Now what is [00:19:00] revealed about God? Here is the next question. And one of the things, if you read through that psalm again and, and you're asking, what is this show about God?

One of the things it shows is God really is help. I mean, that's that verse we just looked at. Some trust in chariot, some in horses. We trust in the name of the Lord our God. He's not just a figurehead, he's real help. And not only is God real help, but God does it. You know, they collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright.

And that's the power and the help of God. But not only is, is he real help, he does that help with us. God doesn't just do it on his own. You know, you don't, if someone's hungry, you don't just pray, go and be filled. You give them food. If someone doesn't have clothing, you don't just say, may God grace you with [00:20:00] clothes.

You help them with clothing. If someone has a need, you don't just, uh, pray about that. You pray about it, but you also seek to do what you can to make a difference. God works with us and we see this. May he grant you your heart's desire and fulfill all your plans. There are plans involved. King's not simply gonna rely upon the horses and, or, or, the word of the Lord as apart from horses and cherries, the king has plans and, and, and you, you pray that God will fulfill his plans.

This is God working with us, so reveals certain things about God. And again, how can I, oh, look at this. How can I pray this in my situation? Well, my first question is. Who are you concerned for? You're probably not that concerned about the king heading off to battle. [00:21:00] You're probably not concerned about a number of different things like that, but there are people who are headed off to war, who are fighting their own wars right now, and their own struggles and their own battles.

Some are battling addiction, some are battling, depression. Some are battling worry. Some are battling a tough situation financially, some are battling. You know, there are people that we are concerned about and this Psalm 20 is one that I have prayed over more people than I can count. It is my go-to when I say I will pray for you more times than not.

This is what I go and this is what I pray for you. May the Lord answer you. In the day of trouble, may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. Think about who you're concerned about right now. It may be a concern for yourself, but think about someone else and pray this. May the [00:22:00] Lord answer you in the day of trouble.

May the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May he send you help from the sanctuary and give you support from his holy place. May he remember all your offerings and regard with favor, your burnt offerings? May he grant you your heart's desire and fulfill all your plans. Now, the Psalm itself does a kind of a shift there, and if this was a worship psalm, then it's maybe where the priests started giving a a, a responsive reading.

Or maybe it's the voice of the king, but someone else now is speaking and you can tell it when you really get into it because of the change in the verbs or the nouns, the way it's done, it says, may we shout for joy over your salvation In the name of our God, may we set up our banners. May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.

Now, I know the Lord saves [00:23:00] his anointed. He'll answer him from his holy heaven with the saving might of his right hand. Some trust in chariots, some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They collapse and fall. We rise and stand upright. Oh Lord, save whomever you're praying for. Answer us when we call you.

See how you can then take a Psalm that at first seemed really fuzzy, just reading through it and turn it into something that's rich and meaningful and transforming in your life. We did it with four simple questions. So within the framework of that, who are you concerned for? You get the answer now.

Let me give you a second type of Bible study. These, I'm gonna look at the proverbs because they're a great source of wisdom literature, and if you've got a Bible and you can open it to Proverbs 26, uh, that's where we're gonna start. So Proverbs are. Considered wisdom [00:24:00] literature along with Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon and some of the Psalms and some other places.

But they're short, memorable sayings about how life generally works. They're not promises, they're principles, they're not guarantees, they're general rules. Um, I like to think of them. Like, I think of a, a coach who's telling players what to go out there and do. Um, I don't know if any of y'all were, uh, in deep sorrow over Texas, Texas, orange Bowl game.

Um, several of us were stupid enough to travel to Miami, Florida to watch that live. For reasons I still can't quite figure out. You know, you go [00:25:00] all the way to Miami to watch a football game and you feel like you wanna leave after five minutes and it's just not like anyway. But coaching we're familiar with and there's this whole niche right now of people who are life coaches.

You heard of life coaches. They coach you in how to live. That's what this is. Proverbs are like your life coach. It's having Solomon to be your life coach. Okay, so you got 31 Proverbs chapters. You can read one chapter a day and you're there. I like to ask five questions of the proverbs, and you've got room to write those down on the entry sheet of the Proverbs section in the Baylor Study Bible.

But these are the five questions I like to ask. Or, or five steps I like to do. That's a better way to say it. 'cause these aren't all questions. These are to do steps. First, I like to read the whole chapter 'cause many of the chapters have themes within the chapter. So when I [00:26:00] read the chapter, I look for those themes and then I ask this question, what principle is being taught and understanding that I then ask, how does this apply to my life today?

And my final step is I try to pick one that I chew on for the day. This is one that I just think about during the day. And you do this day, after day after day, you will be a very wise person 'cause you are chewing on the wisdom that God has put into his word. And it's a wonderful thing to do. So, for example, Proverbs 26.

You can look at it and you can read the whole chapter, and I won't do it in the interest of time only, but I will tell you that if you look at it and you're looking for themes, let me just see if you can hear a theme here. Okay. Like Snow and summer, a rain in harvest, honor is not [00:27:00] fitting for a fool. A whip for the horse, a bridled for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools.

Do not answer fools according to their folly, or you'll be a fool. Answer fools according to their folly. Or they'll be wise in their own eyes, like cutting off one's foot and drinking violence to send a message by a fool. The legs of a disabled person hang limps. So does a proverb in the mouth of a fool, like binding a stone in a sling to give honor to a fool.

Like a thorn bush brandish by the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of a fool, like a dog that returns to its vomit is a fool who reverts to his folly. Do you see persons wise in their own eyes, there's more hope for fools than for them.[00:28:00]

Um, it keeps going, but are you picking up a theme here? Fool, fool. That's a good theme here. If you're looking for themes, you will see it talks about life with fool. Now, here it helps to have a little bit of, of background knowledge and, and this is one reason you come to church with a fellow who's got a degree.

In Hebrew. In Hebrew, a fool, castil doesn't mean someone who's silly. It doesn't mean someone with a low iq. It's someone who refuses to live right. It's some, they may know what's right to do, but they just refuse to do it. They may not know what's right to do and they refuse to do it. A fool has a very, uh, uh, it's got a moral component to it.

A friend of mine, great Old Testament scholar, Trumper Longman, has a great commentary on [00:29:00] Proverbs. He says, the fool in proverbs is not mentally deficient, but morally deficient, and that's a fool. So if we're gonna read the whole chapter, we're gonna look for themes. We're gonna see that theme of a fool and understand that's talking about people who are morally deficient, people who aren't choosing to do what's right.

Then we ask what principle is being taught? Well, there's a whole bunch of them being taught through there. 'cause there are a lot of proverbs on a fool. But I wanna bring out one of my favorite passages in the proverbs. Look at this. I'll give you my warning Fools pose. A danger and a problem to the wise people who choose not to live right?

People who are morally deficient pose a danger and a [00:30:00] problem to those who seek to be righteous with God. Here's the passage. It's actually two verses. Proverbs 26 verses four and five. Answer, not a fool. Castil in the Hebrew answer, not a fool, according to his folly. Don't answer him, or you'll just be like him yourself.

But look at the very next verse. Answer him or he'll think he's smarter than everybody else and he'll think his way is fine. Same word, in fact, other than the presence of this knot, these verses start the same way and have the same basic ver Hebrew words. Uh, this is, uh, the same word as this. It's just in a different form.

So you've got the same words in the same order, uh, in Hebrew because the writer wants us to read these together. [00:31:00] And what's it saying? And saying, you can't win with a fool. You answer him. You, you, you run the risk of just being a fool yourself. You don't answer him. You just let him go on being a fool, you can't win.

You mess with the morally deficient people, people you will, you. Um, there is a very. Mel Arkansas expression that I don't know if it's appropriate to say in church, so I'm gonna have to be very delicate here. But I think it is appropriate if I change the words a little bit. You don't get into, um.[00:32:00]

Well, I'm not sure there's a way to say it appropriately.

There are certain contests you don't get into with a skunk because you're gonna lose. You just aren't gonna win. You just aren't gonna win when you mess with a fool. That's just all there is to it. What principle's being taught. Don't try and hang with the morally deficient. Now, how does this apply to me today?

Well, it tells me that I need to recognize sometimes there are some people in this world, I, you're not gonna win at a phone conference, Friday with seven or eight lawyers, and there was one lawyer on this phone call. And when I hung up, I called Becky and I said, I gotta talk to you. And she said, what's up?

I said, I [00:33:00] just have to talk to you. And she said, why? I said, because I just dealt with a lawyer that is morally deficient, in my mind is a fool, and it's just got me in such a foul mood that talking to you is gonna make me feel better. So I'm just talking to you as to make me feel better. She said, well, what do you wanna talk about?

I said, I, I don't care. But let's talk about something. I, you just, there are people that you're just not gonna win with. It's just the way it is. And so you pick on one to chew for the day and you chew it. Now I wanna move forward and I want to talk about studying the gospels. Now. The gospels there are four.

Matthew, mark, Luke, and John. Now I separate those out there. Matthew, mark, Luke, and John, Matthew, mark and Luke are what are called [00:34:00] synoptic gospels. That comes from two Greek words, a compound, Greek word that means to see things the same. Matthew, mark, and Luke tell the stories in in very similar fashion to each other.

John, on the other hand, tells the stories in, in, in, in almost a, um, a, a very different fashion. Now, these are gospels that speak to the life of Jesus, but they're biographical narratives that focus on Jesus. They're not biographies in the way we think of a biography. I started reading a biography, the other day, and it, it was a biography of John Lennon and it started out with his grandfather and it marched through his [00:35:00] grandfather and his parents before we got to him.

And then we get to him and we get to his childhood and we get to, you know, and the biography just charts all the way through and, and that's not what Jesus's stories in the gospels are. Yes. That's why you don't read much about his childhood. You, he, you don't really enter into the scene of Jesus. You've got some nativity in Luke, a little bit in Matthew, but you don't really get into much until Jesus starts his public ministry.

Why these aren't biographies in our normal sense, I, the, the, the phrase that I use for these is theological. Portraits. Now think about that for a moment. Theological portraits, they're paintings with words that have been put together to show us a [00:36:00] picture that states something about God or things about God.

I tried to mimic this in the way we did the. The chapel ceilings. And so this is one of the New Testament wings of the chapel ceilings. But you'll notice in this New Testament wing the the nativity scene where Mary is holding the baby, and you've got Joseph the father here over it, but Joseph is holding an Easter lily.

Why does he hold an Easter lily? That's an artistic expression of the fact that Jesus was born. With Easter in mind, he wasn't born and then his death and resurrection were afterthoughts. They were the purpose of the incarnation. So I thought, let me, let me give you some examples because here's the problem.

A lot of people in our modern mindset will read Matthew, mark, and Luke three [00:37:00] gospels that tell the same type stories about Jesus and say, can't believe the Bible. And Luke, uh, he's got the temptations in a different order and doesn't have all of them that Matthew does. Um, and, and, uh, mark, you've got this, and Matthew's got that, so you can't believe them.

Well, they're, they're theological portraits each painted. To illustrate what is meaningful there, let me give you maybe the most famous painting in the world. This is a fresco at a monastery, Leonardo da Vinci, the Last Supper. it's a, a well-known painting now, Leonardo's painting in the Renaissance Age where.

th there's so much in this painting, and, and what you're supposed to see in this painting is the last supper that Christ had When Jesus says, one of you will betray me. And so you've got [00:38:00] everybody here. Now, let me just be art major for a moment, which I'm not an art major, but I love art. So let me, let me, let me be your museum guide through this painting for a little bit.

Jesus is in the center. He's framed by three windows. That's the trinity, the light in the painting that comes through the, with the trinity. The Father, son, and Holy Spirit, they are behind Jesus. In, in the Renaissance area, uh, uh, era. They really liked. Uh, the ne the they, it was a neoclassical age. They loved to go back to the Greeks and thought the Greeks had figured so much stuff out.

And one of the things that the Greeks taught is that while the world is chaos and amis and askew, there is something that's pristine and pure, and it's generally mathematics in Greek thought. And so you see, Jesus forms what we would call an equilateral triangle here, a perfect mathematical form. [00:39:00] To show his perfection.

Jesus says, one of you will betray me who, the one who dips his hand in the bowl with me. This is Judas. You can see with one hand he's reaching out for the bowl as Jesus is reaching out for the bowl the other hand, clutches his money purse. And he's leaning back away from Jesus. You can see Peter next to him.

Peter's got a knife. Peter's the one who's going to chop off the ear. We'll fight for Jesus. You can see him in groups of three.

You can see John as the disciple whom Jesus loved with his head in a, in a. I mean, Jesus loved him all, but he's so lowed out in that way. You've got, you know, [00:40:00] uh, you, you've got, Hey, is it me? You know, you've got all of these expressions. Now I want to go to Jao, Tores painting. This is done about a hundred years later.

It's the last supper. Look at this one. You know, if you go back, do you see how Leonardo had the table and everything is symmetrical and everything is in order, and you've got the windows. In fact, there's a little arch above here that almost gives a halo effect to Jesus. Look at Retos. He's got the table at an angle.

Everything's a skew. And it's very mystical. Jesus is emanating this great light himself. The other big light is the the lamp, but you can see up in the [00:41:00] heavenlys or in the ceiling, the angels got angels up there too. This mystical moment where Christ says, this is my body and this is my blood. And the church is understanding this and what does it mean?

And, and, and Luther comes in and has his position and, and the church is trying to understand the mystic elements of communion. And so you've got the apostles here as Jesus is blessing the bread and breaking the bread. This is my body. Meanwhile, you've got this lady down here who's got her back to Jesus and her face is in the shadows as she's reaching into this basket where a kitty cat's looking.

The mundane, the every day down here, life in the shadows, the divine Jesus and his apostles have many halos. [00:42:00] She ain't got a halo. Neither does the cat. Sorry, Becky. and this whole thing draws your eye and it, and it goes into darkness. I mean, the, the whole thing just reeks of mysticism. Now those are the same events being pictured here.

Both artists are using the same historical events. They're using paint, the same kind of paint. I mean, maybe not technically the same formula, but you get what I mean. So those three gospels, when we read them, we need to read them and understand Matthew is arranging his gospel. To paint Jesus as the Jewish Messiah who fulfills prophecy.

That's Matthew. Mark is given a rapid fire action emphasizing Jesus is the powerful son of God. And then [00:43:00] Luke is arranging his gospel to paint Jesus as the savior of all people, including the Gentiles. And so when we read the gospels, we need to read them, and these are the questions I like to ask. What does this reveal about Jesus?

What does this reveal about humanity? How do the people respond to Jesus in this story? What is Jesus claiming about? And how does that connect to the larger gospel story? And those questions will help guide you as you study these gospels. You get to Luke chapter 15. Uh, pastor David Fleming was telling me the other day, he thinks that's his favorite chapter in the Bible, and I can conceive why.

Let me give you another artistic example of what I'm talking about and I'm gonna tie 'em together. [00:44:00] This is a very famous painting by Matthias Grunwald. Um, it is Antar piece and it's actually got a, it's a triptych on the sides. It's got a side here and a side there, and it's got a piece down below as well.

Um, but it's a, a mobile alter piece that he painted. Uh, these panels will fold in and, and when they fold in, all you see is Jesus. But if you look at this and you look at what he does with Jesus, it's fascinating. This is shows horrific physical suffering. And you can see the, the pock marks you, you've got the green tinged flesh.

He's, he's got the crown of thorns digging into his b. He's got blood everywhere. You got blood down on the cross, you've got blood all over. Look at the distorted bones. Look at the twist in the body. You've got Mary collapsing in grief over here with the Apostle John holding her. You got John [00:45:00] the Baptist.

John the Baptist over here pointing out by his wounds. We are healed. And that's what's being emphasized here. The wounds of Jesus, Jesus's humanity, Jesus's suffering. It's a very legitimate portrayal of what happened at the cross. Now I wanna shift gears for a moment. I wanna show you Salvador's Salvador Dollies.

It's in Glasgow, Scotland, Christ of St. John of the cross painted in 1951 when Dolly, was, you know, he's still a surrealistic painter. Um, but, but he was embracing his, his faith at this stage in his life. And, you know, the surrealism school of which he is, is the one that can take what's normal and turn it into a dream almost.

But here you've got his Christ of St. John of the cross, and it's very serene. It's beautiful, [00:46:00] it's peaceful. I mean, look at this. It's being viewed from above. Now the surrealism has it balanced over the bay because it's, it's the cause. It's like Jesus is above the world and rules over the world, but it's got this beautiful, peaceful, Jesus viewed from above.

There's no blood. There's no crown of thorns that you can see. He suspended over a bay, that's his cosmic scope, and over the heavens, the clouds because of the big scope of what happened here. And that's a very realistic understanding of the theology in Dolly's life. It's us seeing Christ from his resurrection power.

We look back and we see victory in the cross. Yeah, and both very good, very real paintings. [00:47:00] This is Jesus' divinity and cosmic significance. Now, if we go back and look at this, I think this painting could be done from the gospel of Mark, because Mark is the most brutal, sparse account of the crucifixion.

There are no softening details. Mark has Jesus, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Mark is the one who has the mockers pass by everyone's mocking. Jesus, the chief priests, even those crucified with him, are mocking them In Mark's account. In Mark's account, there's darkness at noon, three hours of darkness.

The cosmic horror, there's an abrupt ending of the first version of Mark that ends at 16 eight with the women fleeing in fear. Not because Mark didn't know of the resurrection, but that's what he was portraying. This is, this is, this is the painting of Mark. [00:48:00] Jesus appears powerless. He saved others, he can't save himself.

And it's a, it, it, it is an emphasis of the humanity and the suffering and the difficulties of the cross. And so we can read that account and we can ask ourselves these questions. I've gotta zip through it. But if that's the case, then Dolly is writing or a painting his more akin to the Gospel of John in the Gospel of John.

It's not the humanity suffering of Jesus as readily as it is the victory of Jesus in the Gospel of John Jesus'. Last words. It is finished. Hey, telli in the Greek. It's not a cry of defeat. It's a declaration of completion. It is finished. It is perfect. You could translate it. It's fulfilled. You could translate it.

Jesus is in control. I lay down my [00:49:00] life in the Gospel of John. No one takes it from me. In the gospel of John, we get pilot's language, the royal language. Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews in three languages. And when asked to change it, Pilate refuses. John's crucifixion emphasis is so different. Jesus is concerned for other.

He's arranges care for his mother. In John's account, you've got the theological symbols of blood and water coming from his side. The sacraments, baptism, the Lord's Supper, they proceed from Christ. There's no cry of dereliction here. It's not Jesus expressing his abandonment in Goss. John's gospel, it's fulfillment language.

I'm thirsty, he says to fulfill scripture. Now, does that mean one's right and one's wrong? No. It means that both have selected the details of the event to paint the theological portrait they're trying to [00:50:00] paint and they're both very valid and we've gotta read the gospels accordingly. Now we're out of time, so I can't tell you about studying Old Testament narratives and it's a really pity, but, uh, I am gonna get us back to Romans or Larry Burgess will quit the class.

So let's do this. Let's, give you the considerations for home. I want you to read through the Bible this year or find a reading plan. You don't have to read through the whole book. But find you a reading plan and stick with it. Do your best to present yourself to God as one who's approved a worker.

Work on this with no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the Bible. That's something we work to do and it's a good thing to do. And before we do it, we pray. Lord, open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things out of your book. And then we make our notes and we apply it because we want to [00:51:00] be doers of the word and not hearers only.

Fair. Alright, we'll get back to Romans next week and we'll be doing this, but I wanted to give you just one more week a chance to, work through your Bible this year. And if not this one, that's fine. Work through another version or another book, another bible. But, you've got one for this, Brent.

What about the people who don't have one yet? Where do we have them for them? In our closet, if you'll meet over at that closet, Becky, don't let our friends from England leave without a Bible so they have like a souvenir from America. Let me bless you before we go, Lord, we, we go in grace and peace that you offer us.

I thank you for the chance to speak to your word today. I pray that. That you will use this class to help people learn more about you in ways that help transform them. And I thank you for the [00:52:00] honor of getting to teach this class and, and to study the word with these folks, both here in class and on the internet.

I pray your blessings on each, in the name of Jesus, our Lord and our Savior. Amen.