Most people, if they know anything about the Pharisees, know only that they didn’t like Jesus and Jesus wasn’t very impressed with them. Would it surprise you if I told you that Jesus often agreed with the Pharisees?  He did, especially in matters of theology (correct thinking about the things of God). His big problem with them was that their hearts were wrong, which caused their attitude toward him and their treatment of people to be wrong. But he normally thought their theology was right.

For example, when Jesus said that the Scripture cannot be broken, the Scriptures he was talking about were the Hebrew Scriptures that the Pharisees recognized as the Word of God. He called those scrolls “the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings,” just like the Pharisees did. Those books are what we now call the Old Testament.  When it came to the Law—the five books of Moses—Jesus said that not one letter of it, not even the smallest part of a letter, would ever fail. He was clear as day and hard as granite in his insistence that those Scriptures are the absolute Word of God. The way Jesus put it to the devil, people need the Old Testament more than they need food. Those books must be believed and obeyed.

If you’re a follower of Jesus, you must accept the authority of the Old Testament as Holy Scripture. Otherwise, you’re not following Jesus.

Alright, that much is clear. Now, why do we accept the New Testament as the Word of God?  Why do we take four biographies of Jesus (the Gospels), one brief history of the first generation of the Jesus movement (the Acts), about twenty or so letters from those early Christians (the Epistles), and one severely whacked-out book of what sounds like drug-induced hallucinations (the Apocalypse), and put them under the same leather cover with the holy books Jesus revered? Where did we ever come up with the idea of the New Testament? Where does Jesus speak of it at all, let alone tell us to believe it and revere it as he does the Old Testament? Why should followers of the Hebrew Messiah listen to the Greek New Testament?  That’s what this sermon is all about.

If you’re thinking to yourself, “Well, I’ve never even bothered to ask that question! I frankly don’t care. I just believe the Bible,” then Hallelujah! This sermon is just icing on the cake for you. But if you’re the kind of snot-nosed smart-aleck that I am, always poking under rocks and peering behind doors and asking uncomfortable questions, this could be really helpful for you. And even if you are one of those sweet, simple, straightforward saints of the Lord who just believe his word because you love him, let me ask you to listen anyway. Because there are a lot of people like me in the world. People who have doubts. People who have questions. People who want to know. And if you love those people, learning this today would help you to love them better.

This is almost the last sentence of the first book of the New Testament to have been written, that is, Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonian church.

We pointed out last week the immense importance of what is packed into just these few words. This week we’re going to try to unpack that powerful and crucial truth—the truth that the books of the New Testament were worth studying and copying and preserving end the declaring because they are the inspired Word of God, just as much as the books of the Old Testament.

1 Thessalonians 5:27  

This one brief command opens up a whole world of treasure that God has for his New Covenant people.

4 undeniable observations and 3 inescapable confrontations

the first observation

1. Jesus believed the Old Testament was inspired by the Holy Spirit and therefore was absolutely authoritative in all that it taught

Do you recall that we started off talking about the Pharisees? Let me remind you who they were. The Pharisees and the Sadducees are both mentioned repeatedly in the gospels, and they both are spoken of as powerful people who hated Jesus. We also know about them from secular history outside the Bible. They were the two largest and most influential sects of Judaism at the time Jesus lived.

The Sadducees were members of the priestly families centered in the Temple in Jerusalem. They claimed to trace their history all the way back to Levi, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, and his descendant Aaron, who was the brother of Moses and the first high priest of Israel, and their descendant Zadok, who was a priest under King David. It’s possible they got their name “Sadducees” from him. They were the traditional power establishment. They believed the five books of Moses were divinely inspired Scripture, but not any of the rest of our Old Testament. They did not believe in angels or other spirits. They absolutely did not believe in the resurrection or any afterlife. All they believed in was the Temple and the Law. They hated Jesus, and the Bible never shows Jesus saying anything good about them.

The Pharisees didn’t have quite so impressive a pedigree as the Sadducees, but their influence was way more widespread and far more connected to the people of Judea and Samaria and anywhere else the Jews lived. They were the rabbis of the synagogues in the Holy Land and everywhere else. They believed in the entire Old Testament, and they believed in angels and demons and resurrection and heaven and hell. Jesus clearly agreed with their theology about the Bible and spiritual things. But like I said, he believed that they were mostly heartless hypocrites, preoccupied with appearances and externals and secondaries, cold, callous, and cruel.

In Matthew 22, we find the Lord mixing it up with the Pharisees once again. Watch him clearly identify his Holy Spirit as the divine author behind David, the human author of the 110th Psalm

Matthew 22 ⁴¹ Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, ⁴² saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” ⁴³ He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

⁴⁴ “‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet”’?

⁴⁵ If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” ⁴⁶ And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Of course, the origin of the psalm in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit was not Jesus’ main point. He he was just pointing out to them again how much they didn’t understand their own Bibles. What matters for us is that Jesus clearly agreed with the Pharisees that the Holy Spirit was the divine source of the writings of the Old Testament.

And this is only one example. Jesus clearly, vigorously, and repeatedly both assumed and asserted the absolute authority of the Old Testament.

If you don’t like the Old Testament and you don’t want to listen to the Old Testament, you should either stop calling yourself a follower of Jesus, or start following him by recognizing the Old Testament’s authority over you.

I love you. I’m not trying to offend you or provoke you. I’m not trying to foist my opinions on you, either. I’m just observing what God says.

So I’ll repeat myself. If you don’t like the Old Testament and you don’t want to listen to the Old Testament, you should either stop calling yourself a follower of Jesus, or start following him by recognizing the Old Testament’s authority over you.

the second observation

2. Jesus taught the Apostles that the Old Testament was inspired by the Holy Spirit

At least that’s what Peter shows us.

2 Peter 1:20-21 “knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

If you can imagine that Peter got the idea that the Old Testament was inspired by the Holy Spirit from someone other than Jesus, you definitely have a wilder imagination than I do. Who else would have taught it to him?

Of course, Peter was not alone. All of the apostles taught all of the churches that all of the Old Testament was the word of God. we know this because every writer of the New Testament quotes from the Old Testament as if it speaks with unquestionable authority.

It does. Do you listen to it that way?

Again, I’m not making this up. I’m just noticing what the Bible says and trying to take it with the seriousness with which its authors took it and gave it to us.

the third observation

3. Jesus promised the Apostles they would have the Helper, the Holy Spirit

We all cherish the promises we find in John 14, and we should. These promises do apply to us. We can be sure that the Holy Spirit will help us to remember what our Lord has taught us, especially in moments of intense pressure.

But if you pay attention to the passage, you have the notice that these promises were not originally given to us. They were given to the apostles of Jesus Christ. If you just read the whole chapter, you’ll see both Philip and Thomas asking Jesus questions. This is Jesus talking with his Apostles. The promises you find in this chapter apply first and foremost to the apostles 2,000 years ago, and only secondarily to us. And you can expect that these promises were fulfilled for the Apostles in an absolute and immediate way that may not be fully applicable to us. If you remember that fact, a whole raft of confusions and questions that crop up in this chapter will become clear. For now, let’s just think about what Jesus says to his apostles about the Holy Spirit.

John 14:16-17 “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

John 14:26  “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. ”

When Jesus promised his Holy Spirit in John 14, he was promising a divine Helper who would guide, authorize, and empower the Apostles to do what Apostles were charged to do: to lay the foundations of Christ’s new covenant people, most particularly to write new scriptures, not to replace the scriptures of the Old Covenant, but to complete them and explain them and apply them to God’s New Covenant people.

Our Lord was not coming up with something new here. His Father had planned from the beginning of time:

1. the coming the Son into the world to complete his kingdom and reveal his character and defeat his enemies and save his people from their sins, and
2. the giving of the Spirit to God’s people in the world to indwell and empower those saved saints, and
3. the transforming God’s people from one small ethnicity set apart from the nations into a muti-ethnic army reclaiming the nations from the kingdom of darkness by the power of love, and
4. the completion of one grand metanarrative, a controlling, overarching story, that tells the universe of the glory of the grace of God—the Bible.

That’s why the Apostles were promised the help of the Holy Spirit.

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the fourth observation

4. The apostles recognized their writings as inspired Scripture

Specifically, Paul contended that what he was writing was the word of God, and Peter said that what Paul was writing was Scripture, on a par with the other Scriptures. Let me show you.

1 Corinthians 14:37 If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord.

This is not the only place where Paul insists on the authority of his own writings as basically the equivalent of a word from Jesus Christ himself. I could show you four or five places he does that. This is just the clearest.

And it’s not just his belief in the authority of his Apostolic writings. I have shown you, in the verse we started with today, 1 Thessalonians 5:23, where Paul reveals that he believes his Apostolic authority extends to the specific commands that he gives, not just his general teachings on the right way to believe or live.

But if you think that Paul is just tooting his own horn, listen to what Peter says about Paul.

1 Peter 3 ¹⁴ Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. ¹⁵ And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, ¹⁶ as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 

You’ve already read what Peter says about the authority of the Old Testament scriptures. Now we know what he thinks about the authority of Paul’s writings. Go home this afternoon and read First and Second Peter and judge for yourself what he thinks about the authority of his own letters. Or read John’s letters this afternoon. Ask yourself whether he thinks that his letters are just good advice or whether he thinks that what he’s writing is the authoritative command of Christ.

The apostles recognized their own writings and each other’s writings as the authoritative, Holy-Spirit-inspired Word of the Son of God. Do you?

Can you see that what I am doing is just observing what Jesus and his Apostles say about the Bible?

Yes, I realize that I am looking in the Bible to find out what Jesus thinks about the Bible. Some people say that’s not fair.

I hear you, but I just want to ask you, where else am I going to find any other documentary evidence of what the real historical Jesus thought about anything? The books that we have in our New Testaments, with 1 Thessalonians as one of the earliest of the bunch, are the only documents we have with a legitimate, credible claim to be actual eyewitness accounts from people who knew and spoke with Jesus.

Beyond that, the picture they paint of what Jesus believed about the scripture is completely in line with what the Pharisees believed, and therefore what Saul the Pharisee would have believed before he met Jesus, and what he would have continued to believe as Paul the Apostle. Do you remember what he told Timothy?

2Timothy 2 ¹⁴ But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it ¹⁵ and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Jesus and his apostles believed that the scriptures of the Old and New testaments are the inspired, infallible, inerrant word of God. So should we.

I expect that every one of us in this room, or at least almost every one of us, agrees with Jesus and his apostles about the nature of apostolic and scriptural authority.

But that’s just what we believe. Now let’s talk about how we actually live.

3 inescapable confrontations

the first confrontation

Christian husband, do you live with your wife with understanding?

1 Peter 3 ⁷ Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

Peter says I should live with my wife like I understand her. I should study her. I should listen to her. I should watch her. I may be a dented old tin pan, but she is fine China. I should think about her and talk about her and talk to her and treat her like she is completely equal fellow heir of the grace of God. I should pay very very close attention to her. And I shouldn’t expect God to listen to my prayers if I won’t. Isn’t that what Peter just said?

Do you believe that the Bible is the word of God? People around you will judge what you believe about the authority of Christ and his Word by how you live with your wife, and how you talk about your wife when she’s not around. And they should. Peter has just given them permission to.

the second confrontation

Christian wife, do you respect and submit to your husband?

1 Peter 3 ¹ Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, ² when they see your respectful and pure conduct. ³ Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— ⁴ but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. ⁵ For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, ⁶ as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.

Sisters, Peter says you should submit to your husband, even if he’s an unbeliever, maybe even especially then. Your sweet submission to his headship in your home might be the thing that wins him to Jesus. Make yourself beautiful for your man, but not with makeup or clothing or workouts. Make yourself attractive by your attitude. That’s the way it’s always been and that’s the way it will always be. That’s what Peter is saying.

Do you believe the Bible is the Word of God? Your friends and your neighbors will judge what you believe about the authority of Christ and his Word by how you live with your husband, and how you talk about your husband when he’s not around. And they should. Peter has just given them permission to.

Yes I know those last two things were confrontational. That’s why I called them confrontations. One of the surest ways that I can know that I’m really dealing with the word of God the way God intends me to is this: if I find myself being confronted, it’s more likely to be real. If all the Bible ever does is make me feel good, I’m not dealing with it honestly. I’m being a fake. My Bible is supposed to rebuke and correct me.

Here’s another startling confrontation.

the third confrontation

If you are married, do you practice fidelity? If you are unmarried, do you practice chastity?

I told you from the get-go that one of the most striking things about 1st Thessalonians is what it says about sexual morality. It includes what is probably the most comprehensive and frankly confrontational teaching on the subject anywhere in the Bible. Listen to it again.

1 Thessalonians 4  ³ For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; ⁴ that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, ⁵ not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; ⁶ that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. ⁷ For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. ⁸ Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

If you are married, do you practice fidelity? Fidelity means faithfulness. Are you faithful to your spouse in what you allow your body to do, what you allow your eyes to look at, what you allow your mouth to say, what you allow your ears to hear, and the emotions you allow your heart to harbor?

If you are unmarried, do you practice chastity? Chastity means strict sexual purity. Are you pure in all the arenas that I just mentioned for the married people? It you tell yourself that you don’t have a spouse to be faithful to, I simply remind you that you have a Lord to be faithful to. Your body, your eyes, your mind, and your heart belong to him.

Let me ask you one more time: do you believe the Bible is the word of God. Does it speak into your life with controlling authority? Is your life shaped by what it says? If you call yourself a follower of Jesus, aren’t you expected to follow what he says in his Word?

Throughout 1 Thessalonians, Paul has commanded:

• steadfast faith in the face of persecution
• holiness in heart, soul, mind, and body
• brotherly love
• diligent work
• sexual purity
• Glad hope and the eager expectation of Christ’s return

Why should the Thessalonians obey? Because this wasn’t merely Paul’s advice. It was Christ’s Word to them.

And it is our Lord’s Word to us. I just chose 3 particularly pungent areas of confrontation for those of us who live in this society in the present day. There are of course scores or hundreds of other examples that could be brought out. The question is, do you believe that these ancient writings really are the Word of your Lord Jesus Christ, according to which he rules your life?

Can you imagine that Paul really did have the authority to put the Thessalonian’s under oath to have his letter read to all the brothers? When he tells the Thessalonian’s that those who disregard his teaching on sexual morality are actually rejecting God, do you take him seriously? Do you really believe that the Bible is the Word of Jesus Christ your Lord?

I expect that God has already pointed out one or two things that might need adjustment in your life. Write them down on your listening guide where it says “God wants me to.” Then, when you get home, set about putting together a plan to change your life in those specific ways. If you need some help, I’ll be standing….

I’m also aware that there might be some in the room who can’t imagine how anyone could demand that they change these sorts of things in their lives—even Jesus. Perhaps you don’t even believe that Jesus is real. Or perhaps you just think he was a teacher 2000 years ago who happened to develop a following that just got all out of hand. You know I wanna talk to you, I’ll be standing right there…

Pray with me.

Eternal Father, in this very moment, we turn again from our sin and ourselves to you and your glory,

Trusting only in your Son’s sacrifice for our sins to make us right with you.

We want to shelter ourselves in the shadow of his cross,

Bathe ourselves in the blood that he shed there for us,

Rest ourselves on his redemption

Robe ourselves in his righteousness,

Renew ourselves in his resurrection,

Lose ourselves in his Lordship,

And find ourselves in his friendship.

We want him to become for us, for today and forever, wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and salvation.

For he is the One who suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to you, our Father.