Good morning, everyone. Welcome to St Paul's. My name's Steve. I've never met you before.
! I'm the lead pastor here. In this last couple of weeks, as you probably realise, maybe,
that we've been in our Christmas season here at St Paul's. And I began this season by quoting
the late theologian James Packer, who suggested that what Christianity claims
regarding Christmas is so outrageous that nothing in all of fiction has anything like it. In other
words, what he's saying there is that there is no worldview that comes even close to the outrageous
claims of what the Bible declares around Christmas and other things. And so what we've been doing
in the last couple of weeks is really exploring some of those claims and whether or not you can
actually believe what the Bible says about Christmas, or whether it's just much better just to keep it
as a holiday at the end of the year and with a great deal of light and joy and so on. The claim
of Christmas in the Christian faith is the claim that the infinite God who made all things became
a human being, a limited human being, a Jew, a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare
and wriggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child.
And if that wasn't enough in terms of just the claims of Christmas, the claim that the Almighty became a
baby, but also the fact that the author of life came into this world to die on a cross for humanity.
It claims, the Bible claims that Jesus performed miracles, that he was raised from the dead,
and that he is now present with his followers by his Holy Spirit through his word.
It claims that he will, Jesus will come back to earth one day as universal judge and ruler of all things.
Extraordinary claims.
Not just the claims of Christmas, but extraordinary claims.
And we need some serious evidence to believe any of those claims.
And that's kind of what we've been looking at the last couple of weeks through our Christmas season.
And if you've just joined us, there's a couple of really short resources to do with Christmas and whether or not it's believable.
Just on the other side of the wall, you can take these and continue on yourself.
Extraordinary claims.
And yet, billions of people from all different culture groups and different socioeconomic educational stages of life and other things like that have come to believe those claims.
In fact, some of the smartest people in the world today believe those claims.
And throughout history believe that the claims of the Bible are true and that they are, in fact, not just true, but have authority over my life in every aspect of my life.
And so, as we, you know, come to the close of our Christmas season and, you know, if you're already thinking ahead, if you're like me, people with ADHD, you're always thinking of something else forward.
You know, the New Year's there, New Year's resolutions are there.
And so, I want to put the claims of the Christian faith and specifically the reliability of the Bible in front of us and an encouragement for you to pick it up and to read it as you look into the year ahead and explore those claims and what they mean for your life.
And, in fact, that's really what we're going to be doing as we move into January as well.
Just looking a bit more about the reliability of the claims of the Christian faith, why you'd want to believe it in 2026 and why you'd want to shape your life around those claims.
So, what I want to do today really is just really simply, very quickly propose that the Bible is true and reliable for everything in life and faith.
And I want to say really that the Bible is historically, culturally and personally reliable.
Okay, so that's kind of our journey today.
So, one of the common accusations today is that the Bible and particularly the New Testament accounts about Jesus and what are written there were written by the winners in history, if you like.
The claim that he did miracles, that he was, that Jesus was divine and that he rose again were all written much later in time by church leaders who were trying to get Christianity to spread and to be the dominant religion in the world.
And so, what those church leaders did was they fudged things a little bit to kind of make it, to make it more effective, if you like.
They just sort of fudged a little bit of the accusations, prop Jesus up a little bit more to make him what he was than what he wasn't actually.
Now, there are many reasons why those accusations, people might want to grab hold of them, but also why they fundamentally are not right at all.
But let me look briefly at three reasons why you can trust what the Bible says about Jesus.
And I'm referring here particularly about the New Testament, what it says about Jesus.
Firstly, the New Testament accounts about Jesus were written far too early for them to be legends.
Take the beginning of Luke.
The angels read out to us, Luke chapter 1.
Luke was written as a biography of Jesus and he points out to his readers there in verses 2 and 3,
So here's Luke.
Luke is writing this gospel that Andrew just read out to us.
He's writing it 30 to 40 years, only 30 to 40 years after Jesus.
And he makes the point there that lots of people who saw Jesus are still alive right now.
And so you can check the facts with those people.
And writing even closer to those events than Luke here was Paul.
And Paul wrote his letters only 15 to 20 years after the events of Jesus' life.
And he says this in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 6 about the resurrection of Jesus.
He appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living.
So what that means is Paul could not have possibly written a public document promoting Christianity,
a statement like that, unless it was in fact the case.
Or in Philippians chapter 2, Paul quotes a hymn of Jesus' divinity.
And if Philippians is written so close to the events of Jesus' life,
and Paul is quoting something here that's written earlier about Jesus,
then what it says in Philippians 2 is that the very earliest Christians worshipped Jesus as God.
The very earliest Christians worshipped him as God,
which stands opposed to the claims that Christians didn't worship him as God
until 300 to 400 years later under Constantine.
Absolute rubbish.
They worshipped him as God from the very beginning.
The documents of the New Testament are way too early for people to say whatever they wanted about Jesus,
while thousands of people who witnessed him in person were still alive.
Secondly, documents of the New Testament are too counterproductive to be legends.
Remember, the accusation is that the Bible is what the early,
the New Testament is what the early church leaders wanted people to believe had happened,
because this helped them to consolidate their power
and to grow the Christian faith throughout the Roman Empire.
So imagine you're a church leader living 70 to 80 years after Jesus,
and so what you've decided to do to consolidate your power
is to make up a heap of stories about him.
Would you put in those stories
that Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane
asking the Father to get out of his plan?
If there's any other way of doing this,
please come up with another plan.
Would you put that story in it?
Not in the Roman Empire, you wouldn't.
In fact, it was the Garden of Gethsemane
and the crucifixion of Jesus on the cross
that resulted in the Nazi Party rejecting Christianity
because they would not believe in a God who was so weak.
That was the fundamental issue for Adolf Hitler.
Christianity is about humility and about sacrifice,
and that is weak.
And that's the Roman Empire.
Would you put Jesus on a cross asking God
why he had forsaken him?
Jesus looks weak.
Would you include in your first century stories
that all of your very first eyewitnesses
to the historical fact of the resurrection were women
at a time when women's evidence
was not even permissible, admissible in court
because of their low social status?
And all the gospel accounts say
that the original eyewitnesses were women.
If you're trying to fudge things,
why would you put that in there?
Not only that,
but when you get into the New Testament,
you see the apostles don't come across
as glowing historic, heroic figures in any way.
They're cowardly.
They're slow to believe,
and they are fundamentally self-interested.
So why include any of it
if they were in fact making it up?
They are in fact totally counterproductive
for consolidating power
for the early Christian leaders
of the Christian movement.
And thirdly,
they are too detailed.
The New Testament accounts are too detailed
to be legends.
Ancient myths and novels
were never written like this.
Modern novels might have,
if you like,
familiar characteristics to the New Testament,
but not ancient ones.
The New Testament accounts of Jesus
don't have the form of legends.
They are written too early to be legends,
and they are too counterproductive to be legends.
And so you can trust them.
Now, that's just really brief.
I haven't touched on the Old Testament.
I haven't got time to delve into all of that as well.
But briefly,
if you can trust what the New Testament says about Jesus,
then you can trust what Jesus says
about the Old Testament.
And his view was that the Old Testament,
the Jewish Bible,
was God's word,
it was true,
and it had authority.
Historically reliable New Testament.
Secondly,
it's culturally reliable.
Now,
I think it's pretty much true to say
that modern people
care less about the historical reliability of the Bible
because, really,
in our Western world,
particularly at the moment,
we're more troubled about the cultural aspects of the Bible.
And in our progressive cultural society at the moment,
we consider many aspects of the Bible offensive,
primitive,
and backward.
The Bible offends Sidneysiders in many ways,
in certain ways.
Of course,
the offense might have a long list,
but the offense is a constantly moving offense,
and the list constantly changes.
So here's three considerations
for any bit of the Bible
that you regard offends you right now,
that, you know,
you want to read it with a pair of scissors
and cut that bit out,
keep these bits,
but cut those bits out.
Three considerations.
Firstly,
consider the possibility
it isn't teaching
what you think it's teaching.
For instance,
I could never understand
why some of the great spiritual heroes
of the Old Testament
had so many wives.
until I realized
that the Bible
in no way
was endorsing it.
It was recording it,
not endorsing it.
And in fact,
the Bible
in every instance
in those moments
is actually subverting it.
In every case
where polygamy was practiced,
it goes bad
for those people.
Families break down,
lives are ruined,
physically,
spiritually,
emotionally,
relationally,
in every single instance.
You see,
if the Bible
is a recording of history,
it doesn't just record
the successful bits.
It records
all the evil
and the carnage
and the difficulty
and the sin.
The Bible shows us,
in fact,
how bad it is.
The Bible
wasn't endorsing
what I thought
it was endorsing.
It was simply
recording it.
Secondly,
please consider
the possibility
that you are
misunderstanding
what the Bible
teaches
because
of your own
cultural blind spots,
which we all bring
to the Bible.
in Luke 24
verses 20,
21,
again,
Anne read this out
to us.
On the road to Emmaus,
we see these early
disciples
had misunderstood
the prophecies
about the Messiah.
You see,
as Jews,
they were really
only thinking
about the redemption
of Israel,
currently under
occupation
by the Roman Empire.
They weren't thinking
in terms of the redemption
of the whole human race.
They had a cultural
blind spot
that meant
they misread
Scripture
and therefore
they misread
Jesus.
And the modern person
does the same.
In many ways,
for instance,
a common one nowadays
is that on slavery,
one accusation is
the Bible condones
slavery
and we all know
nowadays
that slavery is wrong.
If it is wrong
on that moral issue,
then it's quite possibly
it's wrong
on every other
moral issue as well.
And I've heard
that argument
played out
even in the press
over the last
five to ten years
on multiple occasions
whenever a moral issue
is raised.
And so does
the Bible
condone slavery.
For instance,
there's parts
of the New Testament
when Paul tells
slaves to obey
their masters
and as soon as
we read that
we go,
well,
there you go.
You know,
there it is right there.
Condoning of slavery.
In fact,
in one New Testament
letter,
Paul is addressing
a relationship
between a master
and his slave
and it's clear
from that letter
it's not the kind
of relationship
that we would
in fact call
modern slavery
at all.
You see,
when we read
the word slave
in the Bible
we automatically
import
17th,
18th
and 19th
century
thinking,
experience,
history
and modern
slavery
into the Bible
which is
in those
the 16th
through to the
19th century
slavery
is race-based
and ethnic
minority slavery.
when we read
the Bible
with those
cultural blinders
on
we are not
understanding
what the Bible
is teaching
and we're not
actually allowing
it to sit
in its historical
context.
In the Greco-Roman
world of the
New Testament
slaves were not
distinguishable
from anyone
else
by their
race
by the way
that they
spoke
or by the
clothing
that they
wore.
They looked
and lived
like everyone
else
and they
were not
segregated
off
as a
different
segment
of society.
Slaves
were often
quite well
educated
and they
held high
managerial
roles.
Slaves
also made
the same
wages
as free
labourers
and therefore
over time
they were
able to
pay off
the debt
that resulted
them being
into slavery
in the first
place
and to buy
themselves
out of that
scenario.
Much like
the very
early convicts
of Australia
who at the
end of their
day
went home
to their
homes
and their
families
and their
houses.
Slavery
was never
a permanent
status.
The average
slave worked
for a master
for about
10 years
and this
is very
different
than new
world slavery
of the past
300 years
or so.
So those
who have
used the
Bible
to defend
their
practice
of kidnapping
and slavery
in the
slave trade
in the past
several hundred
years
have read
the Bible
through their
cultural
blind spots
and those
who use
it today
to reject
the Bible
are you
reading it
through their
cultural
blind spots?
Thirdly,
consider the
possibility
that you're
being offended
by the
Bible
because of
assumption
that your
cultural
moment,
our cultural
moment,
is superior
to all
other
cultural
moments.
Often
that
assumption
has actually
in fact
never been
tested
or
acknowledged.
The reason
we are
offended by
some
biblical
passages
is because
it's
culturally
offensive
in our
own
cultural
moment.
But in
other
cultural
moments
today,
right,
today,
in other
parts of
the world,
and also
historically
in the
past,
they have
absolutely
no problem
with the
same
passage of
the Bible.
On the
other hand,
the passages
that we
think are
totally fine
for us
and appropriate
for our
cultural
moment,
others in
the past
and in
other parts
of the
world
are
fundamentally
appalled
by those
passages.
For
instance,
in our
progressive,
individualistic
Western
society,
what the
Bible says
about
sexual
relationships,
we go,
you know,
like,
that is
pre-1950s,
it's
so narrow-minded,
and you
get on a
plane and
you go to
the Middle
East and
they go,
yeah,
absolutely,
what the
Bible says
about sex,
totally
appropriate.
That's
exactly right,
that's
exactly how
it should
be.
And yet,
we,
in our
cultural
moment here,
we read
what the
Bible says
about forgiveness
of someone
who has
wronged you,
about doing
good for
other people,
and we
go,
yes,
that is
absolutely
appropriate,
it is
good and
it's
right,
and again,
you get
on a
plane and
you fly
the Middle
East and
they say
what the
Bible says
about
forgiveness,
that is
absolutely
offensive,
totally
inappropriate.
We love
forgiveness
and hate
justice,
whereas
14 hours
away on
an
airplane,
and they
love justice
and hate
forgiveness.
If we
are offended
by something
in the
Bible,
why should
our cultural
sensibilities
trump everyone
else's cultural
sensibilities?
Why should
we say
we've got it
right and
they've got it
wrong?
That's a bit
arrogant,
isn't it?
a bit
narrow-minded,
isn't it?
Why get
rid of the
Bible?
Because it
offends
our culture
only at
certain
points.
And if
you haven't
worked that
one out,
bear in
mind that
all of
your
great
grandchildren
are going
to find
a lot
of what
you think
today to
be
incredibly
embarrassing.
where you
think your
cultural
moment is
progressive
and right,
your
great
grandchildren
are going
to think,
my goodness,
my great
grandparents
were
narrow-minded.
don't miss
out on
all that
the
Bible
and the
Christian
faith
has to
offer
you
just
because
you
can't
get
over
one
aspect
of
your
so-called
cultural
truth,
your
cultural
moment,
that in
fact,
your
cultural
moment
will in
fact be
considered
a joke
within
50
years.
If the
Bible
really is
God
revealing
himself
to
his
creation
and
it's
not
just
a
byproduct
of
any
specific
culture,
then what
that means
is it
will
contradict
every
culture
at some
point.
It
will
offend
every
culture
and every
cultural
moment
at
some
point.
And so
if you
read it
and find
some
things
beautiful
and other
bits
offensive,
then it's
probably
true
and it's
from God.
But
lastly,
the Bible
is personally
reliable.
A
completely,
a completely,
that is a
totally
authoritative
Bible
is in
fact
the
prerequisite
for a
warm
personal
relationship
with God.
It is
not the
enemy
of it.
Have a
look there
at Luke
24 that
Anne read
out for
us,
verse 32.
The
disciples
are reflecting
back on
their journey
over the
last previous
days as
they walk
in their
road to
Emmaus
with Jesus
and it
says,
were not
our hearts
burning
within us
while he
talked with
us on
the road
and opened
the scriptures
to us?
So in
the Bible,
the heart
is not
the muscle
pumping the
blood through
the system.
The heart
is the
centre of
the whole
person.
It's the
driving centre
of the
person,
not just
the emotions,
it's the
driving centre
of the
desires of
the person.
And the
hearts
burning
here means
a full
life-changing
personal
encounter
with God.
That's what
it means
here in
Luke 24.
They
experienced
something on
that road
to Emmaus
with Jesus
that they
had never
experienced
before.
When?
When did
they experience
it?
when the
Bible and
its meaning
was properly
opened up
to them.
When they
understood
what it
had meant.
And that
is the
key to
this deep
personal
relationship.
Notice how
it happens.
Verses
20-21,
they say
Jesus died,
but we
had hoped
that he
would be
the one
who would
save us.
that's
what they
had hoped.
Their
cultural
blinders
were on.
He's the
Messiah
of Israel.
We had
hoped he
would save
us.
And Jesus
calls them
out for
being foolish
and so
slow to
believe the
scriptures.
What did
they not
understand?
Keys
verse 27.
beginning
with
Moses
and all
the
prophets,
he
explained
to them
what was
said in
all the
scriptures
concerning
himself.
That's the
key to it
right there.
What Jesus
is saying
here is
that everything
in the
Bible
is about
him.
It's all
about
him.
He
way too
many people
have walked
away from
the Christian
faith and
ultimately from
the Bible
because they've
misunderstood
that crucial
central point.
If we
think the
Bible is
about us
and what
we must
do,
then what
that means
is we
don't need
a saviour.
We don't
need a
Messiah
dying for
us.
All we
need is a
bunch of
rules and
a code of
conduct to
live by.
That's what
it means
if we think
it's about
us.
You see,
there are
only two
ways to
read the
Bible.
Read it
as if it's
all about
me and
what I
must do
or we
can read
every part
of it as
if it's
about him,
God,
and what
he has
done for
us.
And the
whole Bible,
the whole
lot of
it,
Old Testament
included,
points us
to Jesus
and it
explains
Jesus and
everything that
Jesus has
achieved for
us in
dying in
our place
for our
sin.
And the
Christmas
message is
exactly that,
that God
entered
history for
that purpose.
You see,
when the
Bible is
all about
Jesus and
what he's
achieved for
us out of
purely out of
love for
us because
of our
incapability to
do it
ourselves,
that all of
a sudden is
when it
becomes
personal,
relational.
It's when the
Bible starts to
become an
encounter with
him.
Now,
my conviction
from both
personal
experience over
30-odd
years and
also from the
teaching of the
Bible itself,
more importantly,
is that the
most effective
means for
bolstering
confidence in
the Bible is
not to do
what I've
just done in
the last 20-odd
minutes,
giving you
arguments as
to why you
should believe
it.
They have a
place about
its authority
and its
truthfulness and
its reliability,
but in actual
fact, to spend
time in the
Bible, reading
the Bible,
with Jesus at
the centre of
it as a
supernatural
activity.
very simply,
God, if you
exist and
this is your
word, then
you need to
revere yourself
to me.
Let me put it
like this.
I could
tell you
that honey,
which I'm
assuming you're
all familiar
with,
honey is a
substance that
is made by
a species of
insects called
bees, not
by all bees,
but by several
species of
bees.
Bees produce
honey by
gathering and
then refining
the sugary
excretions of
plants and
the secretions,
in fact, of
other insects.
And this
refining
process takes
place within
individual
bees through
regurgitation
and the
enzymatic
activity that
happens in
that process
where they
vomit it and
do stuff
with it.
I could also
tell you that
honey is
sweet.
Like, it's
sweet because
it's sweet
because of
its high
concentration
sugar and
sugar.
It's a
simple
sugar.
It's a
sugar of
fructose and
glucose.
It's about the
same relative
sweetness as
white sugar
interchangeably.
So one
standard teaspoon
of honey provides
around 120
kilojoules of
food energy.
honey.
And I
could go on
and break
down the
chemical
components that
make up
honey and
tell you from
all that
information,
you should be
able to
deduce that
honey is
sweet.
If you're a
chemist.
It's all
true.
but the
best thing I
could do
for you is
not tell you
that honey is
sweet but to
actually get
some onto a
teaspoon and
shove it in
your mouth.
That's when
you go,
oh, I
get what
you're talking
about now.
You see,
and if in
that moment
that I put
it on a
teaspoon and
shove it in
your mouth,
if you don't
get it then
no amount
of explanation,
no more
argumentation
will in
any way
come through
for you
at all.
And so
as 2025
draws to a
close and
we move
forward into
2026,
I want
to do,
to invite
you to do
what
King David
invited others
to do and
to join him
in in
Psalm 34
verse 8,
to taste
and see
that the
Lord is
good in
2026.
You see,
the best way
for you to
build confidence
in the
reliability of
the scriptures
is to
actually read
it.
And to
read it
regularly
and ask
God to
work in
you as
you read
it,
to reveal
himself.
You see,
God himself
promises to
bless the
reading and
teaching of
his word.
The word
of God
itself is
more than
enough to
accomplish the
work of God
in the people
of God.
And there is
no better
way to
understand and
to come to
embrace the
truth of
the Bible
than, in
fact, than
to open it
up and to
let it
into your
life, as
a regular
habit in
your life.
And so I
commend it to
you that
you might
not just
know it,
but that
you might
taste and
see in
2026 that
the Lord
is good.
Amen.