Summit Life with J.D. Greear

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today on Summit Life with JD. Greer.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Why do we believe the Bible? Why should we trust
what the apostles recorded? Why should we think of that
as authority from God? Why should we interpret lordship of Jesus?
Why should we interpret that as adherence to what the
apostles taught and wrote down? You ever think about that?

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Welcome to a new week of solid Biblical teaching here
on Summit Life with Pastor JD. Greer. As always, I'm
your host, Molly Vidovich. Did you know that crime scene
experts say that eyewitness testimony is often subject to some
personal interpretation and can therefore sometimes be unreliable. That's a
little disconcerting, isn't it? But today Pastor JD shows us

(00:51):
that the eyewitness testimony of all the disciples all points
to the same rock solid evidence and therefore can be trusted.
It's part of our study in the book of Acts
titled Sin Now. If you've missed any of our previous
messages in this teaching series, remember you can listen online
free of charge at Jdgreer dot com. Let's join Pastor

(01:11):
JD as he teaches us today about the Word of
the Apostles as the foundation of the movement.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Are you surrendered to Jesus's Lord, willing to go where
every tells you to go and do whatever he tells
you to do. I mean, it's easy to kind of
say that, but what does that actually? I mean, does
that mean that if he shows up in a dream
and he tells you something to do, that you will
do that? Well? Yeah, I certainly hope that you would
answer yes to that question. But the way that the
early Church applied the lordship of Jesus. Hear this, The

(01:39):
way they applied the lordship of Jesus is by being
devoted to the apostles teaching. That's the way they applied it.
Remember that phrase a couple of weeks ago from X two.
They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. That's how you
apply the lordship of Jesus is you become devoted to
what the apostles taught. What the apostles taught is called
the New Testament. I want to deal with a really

(02:01):
basic but very important question this week in and not
skip over it, and that is why do we believe
the Bible? Why should we trust what the apostles recorded?
Why should we think of that as authority from God.
Why should we interpret lordship of Jesus? Why should we
interpret that as adherents to what the apostles taught and

(02:21):
wrote down? Do you ever think about that? Sometimes, I'll
be honest with you, I get bewildered when I hear
Christians try to defend why they use the Bible as
their authority, and I can almost understand why skeptics won't
take us seriously. You ask a lot of Christians why
they believe the Bible, and they'll be like, well, because
it's the word of God. Well, why do you believe

(02:41):
it's the word of God? Well because it says so well,
why do you believe what it says? Because it's the
word of God? And you're like, uh, you know you
can those almost hear the skeptics saying, you really have
no reason at all to believe what you believe other
and then that's what your parents tall you. Well, today,
I'm going to try to show you why we believe
the Bible is the word of God and why it
was the teaching of the Apostles that was the foundation

(03:04):
of the movement. I'm going to show you that from
the last half of Acts One. Let me read the
last half of Acts one to you, starting in verse twelve.
Then they returned, They being the Apostles, returned from Jerusalem
from the Mount for two Jerusalem, from the mount called Alive,
where Jesus had descended from. And when they'd enter, they
went to the upper room where they were staying, Peter
and John and James, and the rest of the apostles

(03:24):
and disciples, which whose names I won't mention, minus Judas,
of course, verse fourteen. All these with one accord, were
devoting themselves to prayer together with the women and marry
the mother of Jesus and his brothers. If you ever wonder,
by the way, why we do not believe in the
perpetual virginity of Mary, that is why right there, because
Jesus had a bunch of brothers. You know, they were
half brothers to him, because they were the sons of

(03:44):
Mary and Joseph. But how could he have a bunch
of brothers if Mary was a perpetual virgin duh okay.
So that's why, in case you're curious about that verse fifteen.
In those days Peter stood up among the brothers. The
company of the persons was in all about one hundred
and twenty. So you got elevenoscles on one hundred and
nine other people. And they said verse sixteen, brothers, the
scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke

(04:06):
beforehand by the mouth of David, concerning Judas, who became
a guide to those who arrested Jesus, for he was
numbered among us and was allotted his share in this
ministry Verse eighteen. Now this man acquired a field with
the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst
open in the middle, and all his bowels gushed out
mm in that an HATI fine verse. You want to
put that one on your memorization list. And it became

(04:27):
known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the
field was called in their own language a cheldama, which
in Aramaic means the field of blood, for it is
written in the book of the Psalms, chapter sixty nine
or Psalm sixty nine, to be exact. Me his camp
become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell
in it, And Saalm one ten, let another take his
office Verse twenty one. So Peter said, one of the

(04:48):
men who have accompanied us during all the time that
the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, starting
with the baptism of John, going all the way through
the death and resurrection. One of these men must have
come with us a witness to his resurrection verse twenty three.
And they put forward to Joseph, who was also called Barsabas,
who was also called Justice. Guy's got some name issues here.

(05:10):
Can't just pick one man go with it. But he's
got three names. And then this other guy who has
just one, named Matthias. And they prayed and said, you, Lord,
you know the hearts of all, show us which one
of these two you have chosen to take the place
in this ministry and not this apostleship, from which Judas
turned aside to go as to his own place. And
so they cast lots for them. Means they rolled the dice,

(05:30):
and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered
with the eleven apostles. And the other guy said it
was an honor just to be nominated. Okay, So here's
a question. Why is this story in there? Is it
to tell us how we ought to choose a successor?
Is that? Why is it trying to tell you that, Hey,
if I'm not pastor anymore. You get a couple of

(05:51):
guys roll the dice, which one guy chose. Is that
how you're supposed to pick a girlfriend? He just got
to roll the dice. I I old number seven. That's
the seventh girl met Boom. I gotta ask you out. No,
there's a lot lot of stuff in Acts that we
say is descriptive, not prescriptive. It describes what happened, not
prescribes what we ought to do. There's nowhere in the
Bible anywhere else in the New Testament that tells us
that's how we ought to go about decision making. It's

(06:12):
describing infrat So it's not there to tell us how
to pick successors. It's not there to introduce to us
this pivotical character Matthias, because you know, I know that
he's never mentioned again. Never nowhere in the Bible is
his name ever brought up again. So why is it
in there? I believe that it's in there to show you. Listen,

(06:32):
It's in there to show you how the apostles viewed
themselves and how they viewed the scriptures, both the Old
Testament and what we would now call the New Testament.
The scriptures they would write and it demonstrates for you
right at the beginning of Acts, why the Bible is
going to become the authoritative divine guide for Christians. So
here's what I want to do. I want to show

(06:53):
you four things about this passage that support that. Number one,
I'm going to show you how the Apostles saw Old
Testament scriptures. Number two, I'm going to show you the
authority that the Apostles assumed for writing new scriptures, which
is going to be the New Testament. Number three, I'm
going to show you the resolution to an apparent contradiction.

(07:14):
And then number four, I'm going to give you a
reason for skeptics to consider the apostles bold claims to authority.
So number one, how the Apostles saw Old Testament scripture.
All right, I'm gonna give you two things. Two ways
they saw Old Testament scripture you can see in this
passage Letter A. They saw them as authenticated prophecies about Jesus.

(07:36):
That's how they saw the Old Testament as authenticated prophecies
about Jesus. In Acts one point sixteen, Peter quotes a
song and he says, brothers, the scriptures had to be fulfilled,
which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of
David concerning Judas, and then he goes on to relate
what was predicted about Judas. The apostles saw the whole
Old Testament as a book written by the Holy Spirit

(07:59):
predict in the coming of Jesus. Bible scholars tell us
there are close to, we're not close to exactly three
hundred and twenty two direct prophecies that describe for us
the character and the nature of the Messiah. Details specifically
about his life, his birth, his ministry, his death, his resurrection.
And the fulfillment of these prophecies helped prove to them

(08:21):
that Jesus really was from God. They were like a
divine signature that could not be forged because it was
God's signing beforehand. This is what is going to look like.
Jesus had not sick signs to identify him, but three
hundred and twenty two. Scripture says, for example, in Micah
five to two, that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem.
That happened in Second Samuel chapter seven, that he would

(08:44):
be of the tribe of Judah, and from the lineage
of David. That happened that in Zachariah eleven, he would
be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver, and that silver
would be used to buy a potter's field. That happened,
that he would be be preceded by John the Baptist Malachi,
that happened, that he would would would die by being
pierced through, and that he would be die as a

(09:06):
substitute for other sinners Isaiah fifty three to five that happened,
that he would be raised from the day. And Psalm
sixteen ten that happened. All these things are God's way
of authenticating. That's my guy, That's the one I've said.
I've heard it said before that the mathematical odds of
all that happening by coincidence is something like covering the
entire states of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia in quarters,

(09:27):
painting one of the quarters or two and a half
feet deep, by the way, two and a half feet
of quarters over the entire three states, painting one of
them purple, and then taking a blind man and catapulting
him in from somewhere like in Maryland. The odds of
him picking the one correct quarter out of the entire
three states from two and a half feet deep quarters
in the same odds of all three hundred and twenty

(09:47):
two prophecies happening to coalesce upon Jesus Christ randomly, so
as authenticated prophecies about Jesus. Here's the second thing. Let
her be as words from the Holy Spirit. They saw
the Old Testament as words from the Holy Spirit. Look again,
Acts one point sixteen. Peter quotes a psalm written by David.
But he says it was the Holy Spirit's words. Now

(10:07):
which is it? Is it David's words or is it
the Holy Spirit's words? Yes? How could something you say
simultaneously be the word of God and the word of men?
How could it be simultaneously be David's words and the
Holy Spirit's words. The analogy I've used with you before
is is when my kids were learning to walk, you know,

(10:28):
a toddler, they kind of, you know, the first two
or three steps they're taken, they're shaking everywhere, and they're
falling over. So I would hold their hand and I'm
walking along beside them. It is their feet that is
taking the steps, but it is me that controls where
they go. So in a sense, it's them walking. In
another sense, it's me walking. That's what the Holy Spirit
is doing with the Bible. It is the men who
are speaking, but it is the Holy Spirit that is

(10:51):
guaranteeing that they are saying exactly what he wants them
to say. So how could listen, How could fallible man
produce an infallible document? That's how you see. I hear
a lot of people say this, like a lot of people. Well,
the Holy Spirit inspired the apostles, gave them like God thoughts,
you know. But they were fallible men, so they got
a lot of stuff wrong when they were writing it down.

(11:11):
So the divine parts, the inspiration of the Bible, that's inerrent,
but the human parts, they're fallible. Well, think about Jesus, right,
Jesus was called the Word of God, and Jesus was
what fully God and fully man did. The fully man
part of him make him fallible and sinful, not hardly,
the divine part made him perfect. So that fully God

(11:32):
plus fully man equals fully perfect. Well, the same way
the Bible is fully man plus fully God, and the
product is fully perfect. It's not that the Bible writers
were themselves infallible. They were not. It's because they wrote
under the influence of the Holy Spirit that the product
they gave forth the Bible was infallible. Here's how Peter
said it in Tewod Peter prophecy never had its origin

(11:54):
in the will of man. Not one word of that
came from the heart of man. It all came as
men were carried along Pharaoh in Greek. The word pharaoh
carried along with the Holy Spirit. It was the word
they used when a ship would be being driven by
the wind. So the wind is kind of blowing it
where it's going to go. The Holy Spirit was moving
these men along, so that what they wrote was according

(12:17):
to the exact destination that God had intended. Now, that
didn't mean that the Bible doesn't sometimes speak with human
conventions of speech, estimations, metaphors, figures of speech, just that
awe scripture is given by inspiration of God and is
profitable for doctor and reproof for correction and destruction and
righteous second Tivoty three sixteen that the law of God
is perfect, reviving the soul. The Psalm nineteen that not

(12:39):
one word of it can be broken. John ten thirty
that sooner would heaven and earth pass away, than one
jot or tittle from God's word ever not come to
pass or ever be found wrong. At few five.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
Eighteen, thanks for listening to Summit Life with Pastor JD.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
Greer.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
In case you haven't heard yet, we have a brand
new featured resource for all of our gospel partners and
financial supporters this month. It's Pastor JD's new book, Twelve
Truths and a Lie, complete with a family friendly discussion
guide crafted to help you talk about the book with
those around you. Just like the title suggests, twelve Truths
in a Lie tackles some of the biggest questions we

(13:14):
all face, like how could a good God send people
to hell? And how should Christians handle political differences? And
if God is really in control, then why is there
so much evil and suffering in the world? I mean,
talk about some hot topics. This resource is available to
anyone who gives thirty five dollars or more to this
ministry or joins us as a monthly gospel partner right now,

(13:35):
and remember you'll also receive a family friendly discussion guide
that we've created to help you talk through the book
with someone on a deeper level. So why wait? Join
us as a Gospel partner or give a one time
gift today by calling eight six six three three five
fifty two twenty or by heading to Jdgreer dot com.
Thank you for your ongoing support that makes this program possible.

(13:57):
Now let's get back to today's teaching once again, and
here's Pastor Jading.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
Because the apostles saw the Bible as divine, their opinions
about things cease to matter. They quit speculating about their opinions,
and they started to say, what does the Holy Spirit say?
And because they saw the Bible as divine, they devoted
themselves to it. Here's a quick question for you, is
that how you feel about the Bible. Do you feel
the liberty to put the Bible on trial and accept

(14:24):
certain parts of it and reject certain others. It astounds
me how many believers feel the liberty to just opt
out of like ten percent of the Bible that they
just don't really find convenient for them. If it is
the Word of God, then you adhere to it, all
of it now properly interpreted, yes, but you adhere to
all of it. If Jesus is going to be lord,
he's going to be lord of all. And if you're

(14:44):
the kind it feels like you can pick and choose
what parts of the Bible, you get to follow these ones.
You don't, then I don't think you understand the concept
of Lord. Jimp. Look, it's either from God or it's not.
If it's not from God, then choose your own way.
If it is from God, then you better surrender to
what he says. Right. If it's the word of God,
you devote yourself to it. That's why when I get
up here very little, I'm not trying to tell you
eight things that make the Greer family happy. I'm not
trying to tell you my life's secrets or be your

(15:06):
life coach. I hate it when a pastor calls myself
that life. I'm not your life coach. I'm the guy
who stands up, opens the Bible and yells at you
for forty five minutes. But I'm just trying to tell
you what God's word says, because God is the word
we devoted to, because it is the word of God.
And what you people need is not the word of men.
You need the word of God, right all right? Number two.
Number two the authority the apostles assume for writing new scripture,

(15:28):
so we see how they saw the old stuff. Now.
Number two, the authority they assume for writing new scripture.
Peter says, we're twenty one the men who accompanied us
during the time that the Lord Jesus went in and
out among us, starting with a baptism and John went
all the way through the resurrection and ascension. One of
these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.
Now listen closely. Peter feels like they need to replace

(15:51):
Judas because Jesus had declared that twelve apostles would be
his authoritative representatives. Think Judas was gone because he betrayed,
you know, and left. They needed a new twelfth man
in Texas A and m right there you are. They
needed a new twelfth man. The number twelve was important
because it corresponded to the twelve tribes of Israel these guys,

(16:15):
and these guys were like the new Israel. So these
guys were supposed to be the official authoritative representatives of Jesus.
And the requirement was that they had to have been
with Jesus from the very beginning, from the baptism of
John all the way through to the end. Now you said, well,
where did Jesus say that these apostles were going to
be the official authoritative representatives? Great question several places. I'm

(16:39):
only going to give you two John fourteen twenty six,
the helper of the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will
send him my name. Watch this speaking to the apostles.
He will teach you all things and bring to your
remembrance all that I've said to you. So there's your promise.
It's not going to be these guys sitting around going
what did he say again, I don't know, I can't
remember that. Yeah, that's not no. I'm going to bring
it to you infallibly so that you can write down

(17:00):
exactly as I intended it for it to be understood. Right.
Here's another one. Matthew sixteen nineteen. Whatever you bind on
earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on
earth will be loosed in heaven. These apostles had Jesus
authority to declare his judgments and record them authoritatively, so
that all the books in the New Testament listen. All
these books are either written by an apostle or they

(17:21):
come out of what we call the Apostolic community. What
I mean by that is Mark Luke. These guys are
not apostles, but they traveled with apostles, and their writing
comes out of the Apostolic community, so that the apostles
verified that what they were saying was an accurate record
of what Jesus had taught right. Same is true with Paul. Paul,

(17:42):
you know, whould come along little later Peter would say
this about Paul. Listen, I do my favorite versus things
that Peter ever said. It's right one of the last
things he said in the second Peter, our beloved brother.
Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given
to him, as he does in all his letters. When
he speaks, there are some things in them that are
hard to understand. Didn't make you feel better? I'm like,

(18:04):
oh you too. I mean, I'm to see Peter looking
at you're reading Romans nine, like, what in the world
are you talking about? I feel like that half the time.
And he says, he says, the ignorant and the unstable
twists them to their own destruction, just like they do
the other scriptures. What did he just call Paul's writings scripture?

(18:25):
He's thinking of Paul's words as scripture. Now, that's two
things you gotta learn from that verse One, he sees
Paul's words of scripture. Number two, you got to get
the humor of Peter, Saint Paul is hard to understand.
Have you ever read the Book of Second Peter. There's
a reason I never preached on Second Peter at this church,
and because he's right up there with revelation, like, I
don't know what in the world you're talking about half the time, Peter,

(18:46):
and so I just fine as humorous, that's seminary humor.
Sorry about that. What I'm trying to show you, I'm
trying to show you that at the very beginning of Acts,
the apostles have taken on the responsibility because of the
promise of Jesus speak and write authoritatively on Jesus. And
from that point on, whenever they speak or write about Jesus,
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, what they write

(19:09):
is considered to be the words of the Holy Spirit,
the very words of God. Which is why we trust
this book and it's why we build everything we do
on it because of the promise of Jesus. Number three,
number three, the resolution of an apparent contradiction. Whenever people
say the Bible contradicts itself, my response is always okay,

(19:31):
once you show me an example. And there's this awkward
silence where they're like, well, now, I can't really think
of one right now, but I know there's a lot
of them. I'm like, well, just pick one. And we
stand there for two or three awkward minutes and it
basically comes out they've never found one, they don't know
about one. They just heard that somewhere, and they're just
saying that note. Out of ten times, that's what happens
on that one out of ten times that they actually

(19:53):
produce a contradiction, right, three out of four of those times,
this is the one they come up with. That's in
Acts chapter one. So why don't we talk about it
for a minute. Okay, here's the supposed contradiction. Matthew twenty
seven says that Judas died by hanging himself, but in
Acts one it says that he died by falling off
a cliff and having his bowels burst out. Okay. Matthew

(20:17):
twenty seven says that the money that Judas earned for
betraying Jesus, he threw back into the temple and discussed,
and the Jewish authorities used it to buy a field.
But when Peter retells the story in Acts one, he
says that Judas bought the field with the thirty pieces
of silver. So which is it? Did he die by
hanging or did he fall down to have his bows
burst out? And did he did he give them money

(20:38):
back or did he go buy a field with it?
Clear contradictions, right, Not necessarily. When you hang yourself, you
weren't expecting the more in this church. When you hang yourself,
if your body stays that way for a long time,
the body swells up and evidently eventually the branch broke
and he fell down and his abdomen ruptured and his
guts spilled out. Or I've been to that area or

(21:00):
said that the area is really rocky and hilly, So
maybe the branch that he hung himself on overlooked a
small cliff and when he hung himself the branch broken.
It happened, right, So they both kind of happened. It's
not a contradiction. It's just two different eyewitness accounts of
the same thing. One guy saw Peter's you know, or
saw Judas's body dangling from the branch, and who hung himself.
Another guy found him after he'd done. So they put
the two together and you got a fuller story than

(21:21):
you do with one account. With the money situation. One
writer says he, you know, throw it back, and the
other one says he bought the field. What probably happened
is that Judas threw the money back and the Jewish
authorities brought bought the field with it, like Matthew says.
But when Peter tells the story in Acts, he just
shortens it to say Judas bought the field, since the
money that he earned from selling Jesus was used for
that purpose anyway. So it's not really a contradiction. It's

(21:44):
just different. Whenever you have eyewitness accounts, you put him
together and you get a fuller story. That's what's happening here.
Now that is just one resolution to a supposed contradiction.
But I will tell you that I have looked at
these supposed contradictions for years, one hundreds of them, and
just about every single time, with a little study and
a little work, you find that they harmonize and there's

(22:06):
a plausible way to resolve it. So don't just write
that off and don't believe what you hear is because
people are too lazy to get in there and figure
out what's actually being said. All right, don't be gullible,
don't be naive. Study it out for yourself. A right
number four. Number four A reason for skeptics to consider
the apostles claims to authority. We give you a reason
for skeptics to consider the Apostles' claims to authority. Now,

(22:26):
if you're one of those skeptics who say a lot
of don't believe the Bible because it claims to be
the word of God, a lot of people have claimed
that over the years, Mohammad At Joseph Smith, David Koresh
if you remember that guy, They've claimed to speak the
word of God. So I'm just not going to believe
the Apostles when they say they're speaking the word of God.
If that's you, that's fine, really, because there's another reason
for you to consider their claims. Look at what Peter

(22:49):
claims there in Acts one, Acts one one twenty two.
He says, we got to find somebody who was an
eye witness to the life, the ministry, the death and
the resurrection of Jesus. They can't have heard about it.
He's got to be an high winners.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
These accounts point to something miraculous happening. And be sure
to join us tomorrow. When Pastor J. D. Greer gives
us four reasons we can confidently know that the Gospels
are true. Here at Summit Life, we are always committed
to creating gospel centered resources to help our listening family
grow as disciples of Jesus. And this month we've got
a brand new premium resource for all of our gospel

(23:27):
partners and anyone who gives to support us this month.
It's Pastor JD's latest book, Twelve Truths in a Lie,
along with a bonus discussion guide. Pastor JD wrote Twelve
Truths in a Lie to package together some of the
most frequently asked questions that he hears as a pastor,
big questions about some of the most important topics we
all wonder about in life, like what's my purpose? And

(23:49):
how do I know for sure that I'll go to Heaven?
And we've also put the discussion guide together to help
you unpack the teaching in a book with a friend.
We'll send you this set today with your gift of
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two twenty. That's eight six six three three five fifty

(24:10):
two twenty or give online at Jdgreer dot com. If
you'd rather mail your donation, our address is JD. Greer Ministries,
Pobox one twenty two ninety three, Durham, North Carolina, two
seventy seven oh nine. I'm Molly Vinevich inviting you to
come back tomorrow when Pastor JD continues our study about

(24:32):
the Word of the Apostles and the birth of the Church.
Confidence is brimming as we see God literally create his
church before our very eyes. So we'll see you Tuesday
for Summit Life with JD. Greer. Today's program is produced

(24:54):
and sponsored by Jdgreer Ministries.