Following Jesus is all about being constantly transformed more
and more into the image of Jesus. We never reach an age where this isn’t true.
My Beppe told me just before I was ordained to not let the seniors off the hook
when it comes to being challenged on their relationship with Jesus and growing
closer to him. We’re never finished in our lifetime working on transforming our
minds and hearts to be more like Jesus. She confessed that at the age of 93,
she was still working on patience, forgiveness and trust in God, especially
when it came to her children and grandchildren’s relationships with Jesus.
Last week we reflected on prayer and how prayer is the key
spiritual discipline that draws us close to Jesus and the Father through the
Holy Spirit. This morning we’re taking a look at the spiritual discipline of
study. The discipline of study is one of the main ways that God uses to
transform our minds; how the Holy Spirit works to replace our old ways of
thinking and living with new life-giving habits and ways of living. We come to
Scripture with the expectation of being transformed by the Holy Spirit as we
study who God is, his relationship with us and his call on our lives.
Studying Scripture fills us with
hope as we study
the lives of God’s people in the past and see how God never gives up on them
and how they were transformed by God; sometimes in spite of themselves. We find
that we can forgive ourselves because Jesus already has. We discover that situations
can change, people can change, our lives can change as our stories change as
they are shaped by Scripture. As one blogger writes, “Turn the pages of His Word and your
life can turn around.”
Scripture is where we go to make sure
that the teaching we
hear is true. When Paul flees from
Thessalonica, he ends up in the town of Berea. “As soon as it was night,
the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went
to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than
those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and
examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. As a
result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women
and many Greek men.” One of the things I appreciate about
being your pastor, is how a number of you are willing to talk with me about
what I preach from the pulpit or teach in a class and challenge me on what I’ve
said or how I’ve said it. You hold the teaching and preaching I give up to the
light of Scripture to make sure that it’s true. It reassures me that you’re
engaged in the discipline of study, that you want to be shaped by God’s Word
first, just as the Bereans did.
We see from the Bereans that
studying is different than
the devotional reading that most of us do.
Reading the Bible devotionally is a good thing, but often our devotional
reading is based more on feeling, a quick pick me up, or a quick word of
guidance for the day. Richard Foster describes the discipline of study as “a
specific kind of experience in which through careful attention to reality the
mind is enabled to move in a certain direction.” Study is meant to direct us
repeatedly and regularly to how we think about God and the relationships we’re
part of. What we study shapes our thinking, how we live and what we really
believe. Our thinking shapes our doing and our
character.
What we study forms our habits, the things we do automatically, often without even
thinking. This can be anything from how we respond when we’re tired or angry,
or how we react to stress or temptation. We can respond or react in healthy
strong ways, or in selfish damaging ways. This is why we listen to Paul when he
writes, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble,
whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is
admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it
into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” Paul
calls us to think about, or reflect deeply on what shapes us to be more like
Jesus.
Richard Foster identifies 4 steps when we study of
Scripture: repetition,
concentration, comprehension, and reflection. Repetition helps to
settle scripture deep into us. Reading through a book or a series of stories in
a book multiple times helps us better see how God is at work. The more we read
through the book or stories, the more they become part of us and shape our
behaviour and thought patterns. The second step is concentration. As you read
through the book or stories a number of times and concentrate on what you are
studying, your ability to learn from what you’re reading increases greatly. Pay
attention to phrases, repeated words, movements in the stories or passage, and
to where and how God appears. For those of you who are older, talk to a high
school or university student about how they study and they will tell you that
reading things over and over again, and concentrating on what they are reading
is how they learn things well so that it stays with them longer than simply a
day.
Comprehension
is the next step. There is a difference in knowing
something and actually understanding what we’re studying. Comprehension focuses
on the knowledge of the truth that’s in what we’re studying. We search for
truth so that we know who we are, why the world is the way it is, and who God
is. When we study Scripture, we discover Jesus who calls himself, I am the way, the truth
and the life (John 14:6) and he offers this word of
hope in John 8, “If you hold to my teaching, you really are my disciples. Then you will
know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” What is
this truth that will set us free and what are we set free from? We discover
that this world was made good by God and that sin enters in and twists the good
when humanity chose themselves as gods instead. The brokenness in the world is
the result of choices we make to make ourselves gods.
But
God doesn’t up on us. He promises a savior, Jesus who is God,
who comes to lead us back to God our Father. Jesus gives us a glimpse of what
the kingdom of heaven is like, a place where the blind see, the lame walk, the
sick are healed, and shalom fills the land, and sin has been paid for by Jesus
on the cross as our perfect substitute. Jesus rises from the grave as a sign to
us that sin and death are defeated and that we’re guaranteed eternal life in
the kingdom of heaven. This sets us free from worry, anxiety and fear because
we know that we are children of God and held in the palm of God’s all-powerful
hand. We’re able to go through life with confidence, knowing that we’re never
alone and that no matter what’s happening, Jesus is always with us through his
Spirit. When we put into practice what we
learn, we experience God's presence and peace and begin to understand who we
are, who we belong to, and who we’re called to be as followers of Jesus. Our
identity gets rooted in Jesus rather than our fleeting accomplishments, looks,
wealth, position or any other identities that keep changing and disappointing
us.
With God's words in our ears, we take the last step in studying: we reflect on what we have learned through
our study and allow God to set the pace of our life, guide the course and the
speed we travel through life. Study without reflection, without letting what we
study actually shape and guide our lives, carries little worth. I have friends
who are intelligent and know the Bible better than I do and yet they don’t
believe, they don’t allow the Bible to shape their lives and hearts. The Bible
to them is only a piece of ancient literature. They also live without hope
beyond this life; their foundation in life keeps shifting. One of them wrote in
an email a few weeks ago that he’s tired of always having to change what he
believes about social issues just because society keeps shifting.
As
followers of Jesus, we study the Bible because,
as Ann Voskamp writes, “God is the steady, the consistent, the voice at the ear who shows how to
take the next step, and the next step after that. I don’t have to keep up to anyone else — I simply
have to keep company with God. I simply have to keep close to Him.” Study helps us
stay close to God and become more like Jesus.
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