BIBLE INTERPRETATION SERMON SERIES
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3. We Must Be Open-Minded
In our first sermon on Bible interpretation we said that we should pray to God for help in understanding the Bible. The Holy Spirit of God is the true author of Scripture. It is God who guides us into truth.
In the second sermon we learned that we must be willing to obey the instruction of the Bible before we can expect God to reveal truth to us. Those who read the Bible with no intention of obedience cannot understand the Bible properly.
In this third sermon I wish to point out that we must be open-minded. We must be prepared to give up previously held ideas when we are shown truth. If we think that what our teachers, what our parents or what our society told us is infallible truth then it is impossible for us to learn anything else. What if our teachers taught us something wrong? What if our parents received an error from their parents? What if the society we grew up in didn't have the truth? If that is so, then all we can inherit from them is error. It may be error mixed with truth but it is still error.
My teachers taught me that we evolved from single cell organisms and our ancestors are apes. That isn’t true. We are beings created in the image of God. My mother and father taught me that there is no God. That isn’t true. What if I had listened to them?
History is full of examples of errors being perpetuated for centuries. And some of them are real surprises. Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions) states that "Medieval Europeans did not believe Earth was flat; in fact, from the time of the ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle, belief in a spherical Earth remained almost universal among European intellectuals. As a result, Christopher Columbus's efforts to obtain support for his voyages were hampered not by belief in a flat Earth but by valid worries that the East Indies were farther than he realized. If the Americas had not existed, he would surely have run out of supplies before reaching Asia." Well I grew up believing that medieval Europeans believed the earth was flat. I had always heard that. Well, you can't always believe what you hear.
The same website writes Napoleon Bonaparte was not short. He was actually slightly taller than the average Frenchman of his time. After his death in 1821, the French emperor's height was recorded as 5 feet 2 inches in French feet, which is 5 feet 7 inches (1.69 m).
What does this have to do with the Bible? Myths and legends can be perpetuated for decades or centuries and we won't know the difference unless we take time to investigate and be open-minded. Now I still don't know if Medieval Europeans believed the earth was flat or not. It is just a conjecture I read on Wikipedia. If I really want to know, I need to go the sources cited and investigate it for myself. But if I do investigate I need to be willing to give up my previously held ideas if the facts prove me wrong.
But the reality is that people love the errors they believe.
Revelation 22:14-15 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. 15 But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.
There it is. Some people love lies.
John 8:43-47 "Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. 44 "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. 45 "But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. 46 "Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? 47 "He who is of God hears God's words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God."
The scribes and Pharisees had a lot of pre-conceived ideas. Jesus came and taught saying that many of their ideas were wrong. But they would not listen to Jesus. They were not willing to admit they were wrong. They were not willing to listen to anything but their own ideas. This is the most dangerous spiritual condition to be in.
Stephen said to the Jewish leaders:
Acts 7:51 " You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.
The Holy Spirit was convincing the religious leaders that they were wrong. But they resisted that idea. They were not open to truth.
It was not just the scribes and Pharisees that had difficulty to accept new ideas. The disciples of Jesus were very confused because of the teaching of the Rabbis. The disciples, like most of the people, expected that the Messiah would lead the armies of Israel to overthrow the Romans. When Jesus did not do this, they were perplexed.
John 6:14-15 Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, "This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world." 15Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.
The irritation of the disciples is manifest in the fact that they were fighting among themselves over who was going to be the greatest in the new kingdom. And this dispute took place just after Jesus said He would be killed. The disciples just couldn't get the teaching of the religious leaders out of their minds.
Mark 9:31-37 31 For He taught His disciples and said to them, "The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And after He is killed, He will rise the third day." 32 But they did not understand this saying, and were afraid to ask Him. 33Then He came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, "What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?" 34 But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest. 35 And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all." 36 Then He took a little child and set him in the midst of them. And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them, 37 "Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me."
Therefore I say to you that for you to put aside your pre-conceived ideas and be open to new ideas may be a struggle for you. But you must be as humble as a child.
Paul went to Thessalonica to preach the good news of salvation in Christ. How did the Thessalonians receive him?
Acts 17:4-10 4And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas. 5 But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. 7 "Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king -- Jesus." 8 And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. 9 So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. 10Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea.
Many rejected the message and basically chased Paul and Silas out of town. But what happened in the place they went to?
Acts 17:10-12 When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. 12 Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.
The Bereans were open minded. They were willing to investigate and to learn. They were willing to advance in their understanding.
What is your attitude? Are you closed minded? Do you think you already have all truth that is necessary for salvation? So did the scribes and the Pharisees but they were completely wrong.
Are you open minded? Do you realize that there is much more that you can learn? Are you willing to search the scriptures like the Bereans and see if what is being taught is truth? If you want to know the scriptures and the way of life, you need to be open minded, ready to learn new truths and to abandon errors of the past.
May God give the ability to overcome all preconceived ideas and the desire to search the scriptures to see for yourself what is truth.
In the second sermon we learned that we must be willing to obey the instruction of the Bible before we can expect God to reveal truth to us. Those who read the Bible with no intention of obedience cannot understand the Bible properly.
In this third sermon I wish to point out that we must be open-minded. We must be prepared to give up previously held ideas when we are shown truth. If we think that what our teachers, what our parents or what our society told us is infallible truth then it is impossible for us to learn anything else. What if our teachers taught us something wrong? What if our parents received an error from their parents? What if the society we grew up in didn't have the truth? If that is so, then all we can inherit from them is error. It may be error mixed with truth but it is still error.
My teachers taught me that we evolved from single cell organisms and our ancestors are apes. That isn’t true. We are beings created in the image of God. My mother and father taught me that there is no God. That isn’t true. What if I had listened to them?
History is full of examples of errors being perpetuated for centuries. And some of them are real surprises. Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions) states that "Medieval Europeans did not believe Earth was flat; in fact, from the time of the ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle, belief in a spherical Earth remained almost universal among European intellectuals. As a result, Christopher Columbus's efforts to obtain support for his voyages were hampered not by belief in a flat Earth but by valid worries that the East Indies were farther than he realized. If the Americas had not existed, he would surely have run out of supplies before reaching Asia." Well I grew up believing that medieval Europeans believed the earth was flat. I had always heard that. Well, you can't always believe what you hear.
The same website writes Napoleon Bonaparte was not short. He was actually slightly taller than the average Frenchman of his time. After his death in 1821, the French emperor's height was recorded as 5 feet 2 inches in French feet, which is 5 feet 7 inches (1.69 m).
What does this have to do with the Bible? Myths and legends can be perpetuated for decades or centuries and we won't know the difference unless we take time to investigate and be open-minded. Now I still don't know if Medieval Europeans believed the earth was flat or not. It is just a conjecture I read on Wikipedia. If I really want to know, I need to go the sources cited and investigate it for myself. But if I do investigate I need to be willing to give up my previously held ideas if the facts prove me wrong.
But the reality is that people love the errors they believe.
Revelation 22:14-15 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. 15 But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.
There it is. Some people love lies.
John 8:43-47 "Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. 44 "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. 45 "But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. 46 "Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? 47 "He who is of God hears God's words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God."
The scribes and Pharisees had a lot of pre-conceived ideas. Jesus came and taught saying that many of their ideas were wrong. But they would not listen to Jesus. They were not willing to admit they were wrong. They were not willing to listen to anything but their own ideas. This is the most dangerous spiritual condition to be in.
Stephen said to the Jewish leaders:
Acts 7:51 " You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.
The Holy Spirit was convincing the religious leaders that they were wrong. But they resisted that idea. They were not open to truth.
It was not just the scribes and Pharisees that had difficulty to accept new ideas. The disciples of Jesus were very confused because of the teaching of the Rabbis. The disciples, like most of the people, expected that the Messiah would lead the armies of Israel to overthrow the Romans. When Jesus did not do this, they were perplexed.
John 6:14-15 Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, "This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world." 15Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.
The irritation of the disciples is manifest in the fact that they were fighting among themselves over who was going to be the greatest in the new kingdom. And this dispute took place just after Jesus said He would be killed. The disciples just couldn't get the teaching of the religious leaders out of their minds.
Mark 9:31-37 31 For He taught His disciples and said to them, "The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And after He is killed, He will rise the third day." 32 But they did not understand this saying, and were afraid to ask Him. 33Then He came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, "What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?" 34 But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest. 35 And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all." 36 Then He took a little child and set him in the midst of them. And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them, 37 "Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me."
Therefore I say to you that for you to put aside your pre-conceived ideas and be open to new ideas may be a struggle for you. But you must be as humble as a child.
Paul went to Thessalonica to preach the good news of salvation in Christ. How did the Thessalonians receive him?
Acts 17:4-10 4And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas. 5 But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. 7 "Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king -- Jesus." 8 And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. 9 So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. 10Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea.
Many rejected the message and basically chased Paul and Silas out of town. But what happened in the place they went to?
Acts 17:10-12 When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. 12 Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.
The Bereans were open minded. They were willing to investigate and to learn. They were willing to advance in their understanding.
What is your attitude? Are you closed minded? Do you think you already have all truth that is necessary for salvation? So did the scribes and the Pharisees but they were completely wrong.
Are you open minded? Do you realize that there is much more that you can learn? Are you willing to search the scriptures like the Bereans and see if what is being taught is truth? If you want to know the scriptures and the way of life, you need to be open minded, ready to learn new truths and to abandon errors of the past.
May God give the ability to overcome all preconceived ideas and the desire to search the scriptures to see for yourself what is truth.