Sunday
Morning Bible Study
September
13, 2015
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it address the person who is: Empty, lonely, guilty, or afraid
to die? Does it speak to the broken
hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision
Is the church loved? Regular: 2900
words Communion: 2500 words Video=75wpm
Today is our super baptism extravaganza.
Luke was a doctor and a travelling companion of the apostle Paul.
He wrote this book while Paul was in prison.
In writing his book, Luke made use of other older documents like the Gospel
of Mark, as well as extensive eyewitness accounts.
Jesus’ ministry has begun, and the people have been amazed not just at the
things He’s been teaching, but the things He’s been doing.
8:16-18 Lamps
:16 “No one, when he has lit a lamp, covers it with a vessel or puts it
under a bed, but sets it on a lampstand, that those who enter may see
the light.
:16 lamp – luchnos
– a lamp, candle, that is placed on a stand or candlestick
:16 has lit – hapto
– to fasten to, adhere to; to fasten fire to a thing, kindle, set of fire
It is also used in:
(1 Corinthians 7:1 NKJV) Now
concerning the things of which you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.
Some have suggested that in
Corinthians it’s the idea of “touching” that leads to being “on fire”.
:16 covers – kalupto
– to hide, veil; to hinder the knowledge of a thing
:16 vessel – skeuos
– a vessel; an implement; household utensils, domestic gear
:16 bed – kline
– a small bed, a couch
:16 lampstand – luchnia
– a (candlestick) lamp stand, candelabrum
:16 may see – blepo
– to see, discern, of the bodily eye; to discern mentally, observe,
perceive, discover, understand
:16 sets it on a lampstand
We often look at this verse as the basis to “let our little light shine”.
We think of it in terms of letting others know that we are believers.
Jesus said,
(Matthew 5:14–16
NKJV) —14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill
cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a
lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your
light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your
Father in heaven.
I’m just not sure that’s what this
passage is about.
Lesson
Closet light
Jesus is talking about turning a light the shines inward, to examine what’s
going on inside of us. It’s like turning
on a light in a dark closet.
Jesus will repeat this same parable at other times in His ministry,
including:
(Luke 11:33–36
NKJV) —33 “No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a secret place
or under a basket, but on a lampstand, that those who come in may see the
light. 34 The lamp of
the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is
full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full
of darkness. 35 Therefore
take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness. 36 If then your
whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body
will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light.”
Here Jesus is talking about the lamp being what lights you up on the
inside.
How can a “light” be “darkness” (vs. 35)?
The word “lamp” can also refer to windows. In ancient houses, windows were open holes in
the walls of the house, and they were not covered with glass.
Architects today still call windows “lights” because they
bring light into a dark room.
If your “window” (your eye) is dirty, it only lets in
dirty light, your house is going to be pretty dark.
In Jesus’ day, houses didn’t have electric lights. When the sun went down, your house was in
complete darkness.
Suppose after sunset you dropped something important like a valuable coin,
or your Gameboy?
You’d have to light a candle or a lamp in order to find
it.
Jesus said,
(Luke
15:8 NKJV) “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin,
does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?
It’s not so great when you can’t see in a dark room.
What if you’re walking through your house in the dark and you stub your toe
on something? How do you find the thing
to take care of it? Be sure to turn on a
light, the right kind of light.
The world has lots of different kinds of “lights” that might mislead you.
If you know something is wrong inside you, but the light that the world
offers you tells you that you were just born that way and nothing needs to be
fixed, you’re going to stumble.
The Psalmist wrote,
(Psalm 119:105 NKJV)
Your
word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.
(Psalm 119:130 NKJV)
The
entrance of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.
The best light that can help you fix what’s broken is
right here in God’s Word.
:17 For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything
hidden that will not be known and come to light.
:17 For …
This is a conjunction that connects
the previous verse with the idea of this verse.
When you set the lamp on the
lampstand, secrets in the room are revealed, they are lit up.
:17 secret – kruptos
– hidden, concealed, secret
:17 revealed – phaneros
– apparent, manifest, evident, known
:17 hidden – apokruphos
– hidden, secret; stored up
:17 known – ginosko
– to learn to know, come to know, get a knowledge of perceive, feel
Future, passive, indicative
:17 light – phaneros
– apparent, manifest, evident, known
:17 nothing is secret that will not be revealed
Lesson
No More Secrets
It is possible for a secret to stay hidden.
But Jesus said that one day every secret will be revealed.
When you put God’s Word on the light stand in your heart instead of hiding
it, it will bring things “to light” and expose things to you.
(Luke 8:17 The Message)
We’re
not keeping secrets; we’re telling them. We’re not hiding things; we’re
bringing everything out into the open.
I imagine that some of you this morning are thinking about some of your
darker secrets. We all have them.
The contrast of light and dark in the scriptures is a picture of the contrast
between good and evil. John wrote,
(1 John 1:5–9 NKJV) —5 This is the
message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and
in Him is no darkness at all.
There is nothing evil or sinful in God. He is pure goodness. He is pure light.
6 If we say
that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not
practice the truth.
If we claim to be friends with God, who is “light”, yet
our lives are continually filled with the darkness of sin, then something is
wrong. We’re not being honest about
knowing God.
7 But if we
walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Walking in God’s light will not only connect us to others
who are also walking in God’s light, but ultimately we’re going to find
cleansing for our sin.
Walking in the light doesn’t mean that we live perfect
lives.
Walking in the light means that when we sin, we don’t
cover it up and pretend, but that we expose our sin and find God’s cleansing.
8 If we say
that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Some people pretend they don’t have a problem. Others claim they no longer sin at all. Both are false. We will still sin.
9 If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Walking in the light means that we are learning to be transparent.
When we confess our sin to God rather than hide it, we
will find forgiveness and cleansing.
It’s also the path to finding victory over sin.
When we cover up our sin, it will maintain its grip over
us.
We will struggle with guilt and shame.
Secular researchers are beginning to find out that the truths we see in
God’s Word actually work.
For all the good of their work, the one thing missing from secular research
is Jesus. Jesus needs to be the center
of all this if you truly want to find freedom.
Brene Brown is a researcher who has done extensive work in the area of shame.
I want to show you a clip of her
talking with Oprah, not because I endorse Oprah in any way, but that the truth of what she’s talking about is still
truth.
Some of you are
going to need to put away your dislike for shows like Oprah’s to listen to the
truth here.
Video: Brene Brown - Stopping the Shame Spiral
Brene suggests that we can break the spiral of shame when we …
Reach out to
someone you trust
Hopefully the first person you talk to is Jesus.
He knows what you’re going through and has compassion. He is the one who has “empathy” for you.
(Hebrews
4:15–16 NKJV) —15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our
weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet
without sin. 16 Let us
therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need.
Tell your story
We call that “confession”.
You need to confess your junk to Jesus. (1John 1:9)
You may also find it necessary to confess your junk to
another person you can trust.
(James
5:16 NKJV) Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another,
that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails
much.
That’s where it may be necessary for you to find others
who can support and help you through this process.
It might be a counsellor.
It might be a men’s or women’s group.
It might be a twelve step program.
Look what happens when you have no more secrets before Jesus. (John 8)
Video: The
Gospel of John – the Adulterous Woman
Shame and destructive behaviors have a hard time surviving
in this kind of light.
Lesson
Exposed
You can either learn to uncover your secrets now and work on them, or wait
until God does it for you.
Eventually, all secrets will one day be revealed.
You can’t hide from God.
Jesus will use the lesson of vs. 17 in another context:
(Luke 12:1–3 NKJV)
—1 In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had
gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His
disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is
hypocrisy. 2 For there is
nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. 3 Therefore
whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you
have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.
The Pharisees were characterized by hypocrisy.
They told people to live one way, but they lived another
way.
They might be nice when they are in front of people, but
when they were alone, the mean person came out.
The Bible tells the story of a man who tried to keep his sin secret. (2Sam.
11-12).
In those ancient days, there was a time during the year when men didn’t go
out and play football, they went to war.
One year King David decided to stay home during “war season”.
He ended up committing adultery with a friend’s wife, her name was Bathsheba.
She even got pregnant.
David tried to cover the whole thing up.
David went so far as to have his friend killed so he could marry
Bathsheba.
Even though others didn’t know what had happened, God
knew.
David wrote,
(Psalm
32:3–4 NLT) —3 When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I
groaned all day long. 4 Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength
evaporated like water in the summer heat.
Finally a day came when Nathan the prophet was sent by God to tell David
that God knew exactly what had happened.
David finally confessed his sin and found God’s
forgiveness.
For some of us, it wasn’t that long ago when our president, much like King
David, was unfaithful to his wife.
Listen to the pain it caused the “other woman”, Monica Lewinsky.
What if your sin were exposed like this to the world?
Last month, a hacker group known as the “Impact Team” attacked the website
“Ashley Madison”.
The Ashley Madison website’s motto is:
“Life is short, have an affair”.
The hackers released 25 gigs of stolen data including users’ account
information.
32 million people had their “secrets” exposed.
Even if you make it to the end of your life with your secrets intact, you
will face God one day.
There is no hiding from God.
I dare say the only reason God hasn’t allowed you to be exposed yet is
because He is gracious and wants you to deal with your sin.
Get the monkey off your back. Find
the forgiveness and freedom that Jesus offers.
This is why Jesus came and died.
He died to pay for your sin so you could find God’s
forgiveness.
But you need to be willing to admit you are a sinner and
ask Him for help.
(John
3:16 NKJV) For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Commentator R.C. Sproul wrote in
his commentary on this passage in Luke:
The expression, ‘a skeleton in the closet’, is a figurative way of
referring to things that we have done in our lives, that we are embarrassed by
and ashamed of and would rather nobody knew about. We are very careful to whom
we confess our secret sins, and in some cases, we confess them not at all. But
we must be clear that nothing is secret from God.
R.C. Sproul is the chairman of the
board of Ligonier ministries which among other things runs the Reformation
Bible College.
His son, R.C. Sproul Jr. taught at
the college and was the chair of philosophy and theology, until last month.
In August (2015) a hacker group
known as the “Impact Team” attacked the adultery matchmaking website “Ashley
Madison”, and released 25 gigabytes of stolen data including millions of users’
accounts information.
R.C. Sproul Jr. was one of those
users.
Sproul has been suspended from his
duties for the next year. He has since written,
“The grace of
God’s judgment bore its fruit, and by His grace I repented of my sin. By His
grace, I have also received His forgiveness, the outworking of His love.
Prophetic providence had done its good office. Jesus died for this sin, but
there are still earthly consequences.
“With the
revelation of the hack has come the revelation of my sin. I recently informed
the board of Ligonier Ministries, which has handled the matter internally,
having suspended me until July 1, 2016,” he wrote. “I also informed my presbytery
which is also handling the matter internally. And now the world is informed. My
sin, sadly, has impacted those who are innocent—my colleagues, friends, and
family. I have and will continue to seek their forgiveness. I covet your
prayers.”
After the hackers had first
released their stolen data, but before his name was uncovered, he had written,
“The reality is
that we all sin before the eyes of the watching God of Heaven and Earth. Not
only that, but all of our sins will one day be publicly exposed. On that great
day of judgment, there will be no delete; there will be no erase; there will be
no way to hide all that all of us have done. It is my hope that this kind of
cyber assault might wake us up to that reality.”
What’s my point here?
Covering up your sin will only
cause you to be more caught in its grasp.
God wants you to learn to deal with
your sin now.
:18 Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more
will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken
from him.”
:18 Therefore – There is a logical conclusion to these
truths
:18 take heed – blepo
– to see, discern, of the bodily eye; to discern mentally, observe,
perceive, discover, understand
This is the same word translated
“may see” in verse 16.
:18 – akouo
– to hear; to give ear to a teaching or a teacher; to comprehend, to
understand
Jesus switches from the visual to
the audible.
Ultimately it goes beyond visual
and audible to mental – how you “understand”.
:18 has – echo
– to have, i.e. to hold; to have i.e. own, possess
:18 given – didomi
– to give
:18 seems – dokeo
– to be of opinion, think, suppose
:18 taken – airo
– to raise up; to bear away what has been raised, carry off
Future passive indicative
:18 whoever has, to him more will be given
Lesson
Use it or lose it
If you “own” God’s Word in your life by understanding and doing it, then
more understanding will be given you.
If you don’t make God’s Word your own, even though you may listen to it and
even be able to quote Bible verses, it will be taken away from you. It will lose its power in your life.
Illustration
A couple of hunters are out in the
woods of New Jersey when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn’t seem to be
breathing; his eyes are rolled back in his head. Terrified, his friend whips
out his cell phone and calls the emergency services.
“My friend is dead! What can I do?”
he cries over the phone.
In a calm, soothing voice, the
operator says, “Just take it easy. I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s
dead.”
There is a moment of silence, and
then a single shot is heard.
The guy’s voice comes back on the
line: “Okay, now what?”
Oops … not that story …
Illustration
Three friends decided to go deer hunting together: a lawyer, a doctor, and
a preacher. As they were walking, along came a big buck. The three of them shot
simultaneously. Immediately the buck dropped to the ground (no actual deer were
harmed in the filming of this cartoon) and all three rushed up to see how big
it actually was. When they got to the buck, they couldn’t figure out whose shot
had actually killed the deer.
As a heated debated ensued, a few minutes later a ranger came by and asked
what the problem was. The doctor told him that they were debating who shot the
buck. The officer took a look at the buck and within a few seconds, he said
with much confidence, “The preacher shot the buck!” They all wondered how he
knew that so quickly. The ranger said, “Easy. The bullet went in one ear and
out the other.”
So … when the preacher speaks, does it go in one ear and
out the other, or are you letting it affect what you do?
(James
1:22 NLT) But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says.
Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.
Illustration
Erik Weihenmayer is blind, yet on May 25, 2001, he reached the peak of Mt.
Everest. Suffering from a degenerative eye disease, he lost his sight when he
was 13, but that didn’t stop him. On a mountain where 90 percent of climbers
never make it to the top—and 165 have died trying since 1953—Erik succeeded, in
large measure because he listened well.
He listened to the little bell tied to the back of the climber in front of
him, so he would know what direction to go.
He listened to the voice of teammates who would shout back to him, “Death
fall two feet to your right!” so he would know what direction not to go.
He listened to the sound of his pick jabbing the ice, so he would know
whether the ice was safe to cross.
When we take a perilous journey, listening well can make all the
difference.
Jesus said,
(John 14:23 NKJV) Jesus
answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My
Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
Learning to not just hear Jesus’ words, but actually let
them guide your steps in life – that brings greater intimacy with God.