WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:03.359 Today's reading starts in Genesis 1 1. 00:00:03.680 --> 00:00:07.360 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 00:00:07.599 --> 00:00:09.439 John 1 1 through 3. 00:00:09.679 --> 00:00:14.640 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:16.800 He was in the beginning with God. 00:00:16.960 --> 00:00:22.640 All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:25.679 Colossians 1, 15 through 17. 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:30.559 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:40.479 For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. 00:00:40.719 --> 00:00:43.759 All things were created through him and for him. 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:48.960 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 00:00:49.679 --> 00:00:52.000 Hebrews 1, 1 through 2. 00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:58.320 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. 00:00:58.479 --> 00:01:07.200 But in these last days he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 00:01:07.439 --> 00:01:08.640 This is the word of the Lord. 00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:09.920 Please be seated. 00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:13.280 Good afternoon. 00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:19.120 Welcome to Redemption Church Denver. 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:20.319 My name is James Rathran. 00:01:20.480 --> 00:01:22.719 I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church. 00:01:23.359 --> 00:01:27.439 Last week I had the week off, which was really wonderful. 00:01:28.079 --> 00:01:30.400 And Ed Ebe spoke for us. 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:31.439 Ed's waving there. 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:34.640 Yeah, that's well deserved. 00:01:35.120 --> 00:01:39.680 So I just wanted to say thanks so much for Ed speaking with us. 00:01:52.239 --> 00:01:58.159 Also today we've we've uh got uh Zach, as you can tell, uh got a haircut. 00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:04.079 Uh Zach is not uh with us today, he's in Canada, I think. 00:02:04.319 --> 00:02:11.919 Um and uh so Alex Drummond is leading worship with us, uh uh, so we're thankful to have him here. 00:02:12.080 --> 00:02:18.240 Uh as well as and Isaac Lusk, uh who plays all the time up here, but we never name. 00:02:18.639 --> 00:02:20.479 That's Isaac, who's playing over here. 00:02:20.639 --> 00:02:21.120 He's great. 00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:27.439 Whenever there's a moment in a song and it's like, that was a cool flourish, or like these are great tones, that's probably Isaac. 00:02:28.159 --> 00:02:31.520 Uh so uh welcome to Redemption Church. 00:02:31.599 --> 00:02:35.120 There are two ways to be connected here at Redemption Church Denver. 00:02:35.280 --> 00:02:44.159 Uh those two are we gather large, which we do on Sunday evenings all together, which you are doing now, and we gather small in each other's homes throughout the week. 00:02:44.319 --> 00:02:47.039 We gather small in what we call redemption groups. 00:02:47.120 --> 00:03:01.360 Uh so those are small groups that meet throughout the year, usually every two weeks in someone's home, and you meet and you have a meal and you go through a study that typically follows along with what we're doing in our sermon series. 00:03:01.439 --> 00:03:11.759 Uh, but it's an important way to get connected in relationships in the church so that we can fulfill those commands that are to love one another. 00:03:11.919 --> 00:03:21.039 And part of loving one another is being known by each other and knowing each other, being in each other's homes and in each other's lives so we can pray for each other, lift one another up. 00:03:21.199 --> 00:03:24.560 Uh so highly recommend joining a redemption group. 00:03:24.800 --> 00:03:28.080 A great time to do that will be this fall. 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:31.199 So redemption groups will launch again in the fall. 00:03:31.360 --> 00:03:35.199 There's kind of we kind of follow a school year type of rhythm as a church. 00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:44.639 So once people stop traveling in the summer, get settled back into a fall rhythm, uh, we'll be relaunching redemption groups with a curriculum that will all join in together. 00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:46.240 So keep your eye out for that. 00:03:46.479 --> 00:03:50.159 The way to do that is to download the Redemption Church app. 00:03:50.319 --> 00:03:58.479 Just go to your app store of choice and download Redemption Church Denver, the app, and you can click connect, fill out that form, and we will take it from there. 00:03:58.719 --> 00:04:02.719 If you do not fill out the connect form, we cannot help you. 00:04:02.960 --> 00:04:05.599 There is no connecting outside of the connect form. 00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:08.719 If you introduce yourself, we will forget your name intentionally. 00:04:09.199 --> 00:04:10.159 I'm just kidding. 00:04:10.319 --> 00:04:12.000 You can introduce yourself to your real human. 00:04:12.240 --> 00:04:14.400 Connect form is considerably easier. 00:04:14.719 --> 00:04:15.599 Alright. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:21.040 Uh this is the beginning of a series that is gonna be short but important. 00:04:21.519 --> 00:04:35.279 And this series is going to close out our summer, take us right into the end of the summer in September, and what we're going to be moving through are the five solas of the Reformation, things that exist. 00:04:35.839 --> 00:04:39.199 So that's point number one: the five solas of the Reformation. 00:04:39.279 --> 00:04:40.480 That's a thing that exists. 00:04:40.560 --> 00:04:41.360 So what are those? 00:04:41.439 --> 00:04:43.920 What are the five solas of the Reformation? 00:04:44.079 --> 00:04:45.920 Well, we'll start with the Reformation. 00:04:46.079 --> 00:05:07.439 In the 1500s, uh the church had become really corrupt in the way that it had presented the gospel, and by God's providence, there is this incredible revival of the true gospel as the Bible is translated into the common vernacular so that ordinary people are all of a sudden able to read the scripture. 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:17.199 The gospel is rediscovered by a few key theologians who, thanks to the printing press and the Holy Spirit, are able to disseminate it to the world. 00:05:17.439 --> 00:05:20.720 And there's a revival that sweeps through Western Europe. 00:05:20.800 --> 00:05:21.519 It's incredible. 00:05:21.759 --> 00:05:28.720 People are hiding out, gathered around the Bible, just reading it together, enjoying the gospel again. 00:05:29.519 --> 00:05:40.560 And a typical way of summarizing the rediscovery of that gospel is to describe it in terms of five commitments or five doctrines. 00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:45.839 And these five doctrines are called the five solas of the Reformation. 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:54.319 Sola is a sort of English way of saying the Latin sole, which means only. 00:05:55.279 --> 00:06:19.279 So these five are sola scriptura, which means scripture alone, sola fide, which means faith alone, sola gratia, which means grace alone, solo Cristo, which means Christ alone, and soli deo gloria, which means to the glory of God alone. 00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:26.639 And so these five tenets, these five doctrines form this foundation of our faith. 00:06:26.879 --> 00:06:35.199 And we wanted to move through a series like this so we could really give ourselves these handholds of these key doctrines of Christianity. 00:06:35.360 --> 00:06:53.920 You know, it can be easy to think, okay, you know, I am a Christian, I go to church, I attend these things, or this is something at least that I'm exploring and I'm interested in right now, perhaps maybe even just to rule out, but it's difficult for me to pin down what exactly are we talking about here? 00:06:54.319 --> 00:07:00.959 And the way or a way to do that is by establishing what are our key doctrines? 00:07:01.199 --> 00:07:08.720 What are those key things, those fundamental tenets of our faith that without these we can't do Christianity? 00:07:09.120 --> 00:07:13.279 When these get corrupted or lost, we're just doing something else. 00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:20.399 We'd have to change the name because the minimum viable product of what Christianity is no longer fits under this category. 00:07:20.639 --> 00:07:32.079 So we're looking at the five solas of the Reformation as a way of clarifying some of the doctrines of our faith that are essential, without which we'd lose it. 00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:41.839 So for this sermon, uh the next five sermons after this one will cover one sola at a time. 00:07:42.079 --> 00:07:46.079 So the next, so next week, stick around because it's sola scriptura. 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:47.839 Sola scriptura is a big week. 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:49.360 People really come out for that one. 00:07:49.439 --> 00:07:51.600 So you're gonna want to get your tickets early. 00:07:51.759 --> 00:07:54.240 Uh, because that one, yeah, that's a real winner. 00:07:54.399 --> 00:07:59.120 Um nothing against sola fide, but you're gonna want to show up for sola scriptura. 00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:10.399 Uh but before we start moving each moving through each of these one by one, uh I wanted to do an intro to doctrine generally. 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:17.439 Because here's the thing: some of you hear doctrine and I've already lost you. 00:08:17.759 --> 00:08:20.959 So this sermon is my attempt to win you back. 00:08:21.199 --> 00:08:27.360 I want to be tearing down some walls that you have built up against doctrine generally. 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:35.679 And uh so we're gonna start moving through and we're gonna be trying to answer some questions, which is uh, doctrine, why don't I like it? 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:45.039 Why is it that when I hear that word, I immediately start to shut down and my faith starts to feel dry and impersonal and oppressive? 00:08:45.279 --> 00:08:54.320 And why is it that the people who seem so obsessed with doctrine are my my least favorite uh types of people to be with? 00:08:54.480 --> 00:08:57.759 So if that resonates with you, this is the sermon for you. 00:08:57.840 --> 00:09:07.039 Uh because today we're going to see why we would spend this time to take a look directly at five doctrines. 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:09.840 Like, don't we just preach through the Bible at this church? 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:12.720 I thought this was a church where they showed up and they preached through the Bible. 00:09:12.879 --> 00:09:14.000 Well, we are. 00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:16.639 But today we're doing some systematic theology. 00:09:16.799 --> 00:09:18.080 So it'll be fun. 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:20.399 You know, for fun. 00:09:22.080 --> 00:09:23.200 Doctrine. 00:09:23.919 --> 00:09:27.519 It is either antiquated at best, right? 00:09:27.679 --> 00:09:30.559 Doctrine was the type of thing that we used to require. 00:09:30.799 --> 00:09:34.639 We used to imagine you needed doctrine to have an established faith. 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:54.960 Or at worst, it is it is regressive, which means that this is something that is not just was a stepping stone in the past, but it's something that to return back to, a time where we needed doctrine and dogmas, is to actually be uh uh out of step with the forward march of history. 00:09:55.279 --> 00:10:02.960 And those are intuitions that I think we share about doctrine because we think of it as something that it needs to be transcended. 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:15.600 You know, you show me your faith, which is an ascent to these five doctrines, and I will show you my faith, which is a personal, deep experience with God. 00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:17.919 And we'll compare. 00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:19.840 Which one do you think is more real? 00:10:20.159 --> 00:10:35.679 The guy who says, here are the five doctrines, I can articulate them clearly and I see it, or the person who we see has this deep, personal, real relationship with God, but it doesn't seem like they can articulate those clear doctrines of the faith. 00:10:35.919 --> 00:10:51.840 I think our intuition, the normal intuition that we have, is that the person who is not so doctrinally intense, but who is much more personal, experiential in their faith, we would say our intuition is this faith seems more real. 00:10:52.480 --> 00:11:09.840 That wasn't always the case throughout history, but I think if we're honest with ourselves and the type of people that we are in the cultural moment that we happen to be in, our intuition is that the personal experiential faith just seems more fundamentally real than the doctrinal one. 00:11:10.080 --> 00:11:15.120 And so what I should be saying up here are things like don't get hung up on the doctrines. 00:11:15.200 --> 00:11:17.840 This is not a religion, this is a relationship. 00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:19.679 And that's true. 00:11:20.480 --> 00:11:24.080 But look, Christianity's a religion. 00:11:24.320 --> 00:11:26.240 Not to, that's point one. 00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:36.480 Christianity, there are things, when we say we believe in Christianity, that means that there's a whole host of things that we aren't believing. 00:11:36.799 --> 00:11:40.799 We are narrowing ourselves by the very admission of that. 00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:48.480 So let's look at why we would even spend time on doctrine like this. 00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:54.159 Why would we zero in on these statements of faith? 00:11:55.360 --> 00:11:56.879 Well, here's some. 00:11:57.120 --> 00:12:01.120 Uh first, I think we need to get clear on what do we mean by doctrine. 00:12:01.360 --> 00:12:04.720 Like what when I say doctrine, what what is it that I mean? 00:12:04.960 --> 00:12:07.279 And uh I've got a definition. 00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:14.080 Um doctrine is sentences that are true about God. 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:17.440 It's a good definition. 00:12:17.679 --> 00:12:21.600 Sentences that are true about God. 00:12:23.279 --> 00:12:58.480 So we have this intuition that when some when a movement or a person becomes too dogmatic, becomes too doctrinal, then we'd say, okay, this person's gone off the rails, they've become an extremist, and they need to come back to a middle ground, and they need to realize that this is something that's personal to them, and that it's experiential to them, and that when they're making doctrinal statements, what they're really doing is they're making statements about their own psychology. 00:12:58.720 --> 00:13:01.519 That's what we tend to think of as doctrine. 00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:11.120 We tend to think that when somebody is making some profound doctrinal statement, our culture doesn't hear it as they're declaring truth. 00:13:11.360 --> 00:13:17.759 What our culture hears it as, they're describing an internal experience in themselves. 00:13:18.080 --> 00:13:23.039 And so what that allows us to do is to say, good for you. 00:13:24.159 --> 00:13:25.200 Good for you. 00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:32.879 You're describing an internal experience with yourself when you say Jesus is Lord, and that's not something that I have to then engage with. 00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:40.240 See, why is it that we have this intuition? 00:13:40.639 --> 00:13:43.279 Because as I said, this wasn't always the case. 00:13:43.919 --> 00:13:52.240 It wasn't always the case throughout history that we would intuit as a people that doctrine is sort of inherently negative. 00:13:54.559 --> 00:14:04.559 I think there are several reasons, but one has to do with that very first word that I used in my definition of doctrine. 00:14:04.879 --> 00:14:09.279 And that first word is sentences. 00:14:11.120 --> 00:14:24.720 Part of our distrust of doctrine is a fundamental distrust that we carry in our culture for a sentence's ability to carry truth. 00:14:25.759 --> 00:14:32.000 That's not a lift that we think our language or our grammar is actually able to do. 00:14:32.240 --> 00:14:39.679 We don't think that our language can get to the heart of the matter and communicate something that is fundamentally true. 00:14:39.919 --> 00:14:42.720 It may be a good pointer, right? 00:14:42.879 --> 00:14:47.360 It may be able to point us towards something that really is transcendent. 00:14:47.519 --> 00:14:56.799 But to say that language, just our words, can say true things about God, well, that just feels like hubris. 00:14:57.279 --> 00:15:01.200 That feels, quite frankly, like a God that's too small. 00:15:01.360 --> 00:15:12.720 If you have a God that you can confine even even some of his actions to five statements, then you have a God that is too small. 00:15:12.960 --> 00:15:15.600 My God is not so easily confined. 00:15:15.840 --> 00:15:18.399 That's the way that we think about doctrine, right? 00:15:18.639 --> 00:15:21.519 I'm not agreeing with that statement, I'm communicating it intuition. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:30.960 That we think, we tend to think that the defining of God into these doctrines is always limiting. 00:15:31.039 --> 00:15:41.120 And we don't think that our sentences, our language, our grammar has the ability to communicate true things about God. 00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:44.639 So we're gonna start there. 00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:51.360 Here's what the Bible says about our ability to say true things. 00:15:51.679 --> 00:15:56.960 So we're gonna start in John 1, uh chapter 1 to 3. 00:15:57.120 --> 00:16:03.840 This is if somebody says uh they want to read the Bible with you and they want to start in the beginning, uh, take them to John 1. 00:16:04.320 --> 00:16:10.320 It says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:13.279 He was in the beginning with God. 00:16:13.919 --> 00:16:21.519 All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 00:16:22.240 --> 00:16:29.440 So John begins his gospel going profoundly gigantic in his scope. 00:16:29.679 --> 00:16:37.600 He doesn't zoom back to, you know, the year zero in, you know, uh some just outside of Palestine. 00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:40.639 Uh it's that he goes to the very beginning. 00:16:40.879 --> 00:16:45.600 And he describes that in the beginning, the word was with God. 00:16:45.679 --> 00:16:50.720 And he'll go on later to explain that the word that he's talking about is Jesus. 00:16:50.879 --> 00:16:53.759 It is Christ, who is always with God. 00:16:53.919 --> 00:16:56.559 He's eternally begotten of the Father. 00:16:56.720 --> 00:17:00.000 That means he never wasn't begotten of the Father. 00:17:00.320 --> 00:17:05.279 And he is true God, he both is God and is with God. 00:17:05.599 --> 00:17:11.200 And the word that John uses to describe this Jesus is the Word. 00:17:11.680 --> 00:17:21.119 And it's the Word that we see already in Genesis 1 that does the creative action of making all of creation. 00:17:21.359 --> 00:17:25.440 John uses this phrase that I love that he uses to describe everything. 00:17:25.599 --> 00:17:32.960 He says, all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 00:17:34.079 --> 00:17:38.880 If it's a thing, then it was made by the word. 00:17:39.359 --> 00:17:43.200 If it exists, then it was made by the word. 00:17:43.680 --> 00:17:48.079 John is doing some incredibly profound work here. 00:17:48.319 --> 00:18:00.720 But one of the things I want us to see, because we could spend probably forever here, one of the things I want us to see is that the Bible proposes this incredibly optimistic perspective between language and creation. 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:11.200 In fact, they are inseparable, such that it is words that it is the words of God that do the creative action of making the world. 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:18.240 And then God gives us language to describe this world in meaningful ways. 00:18:18.480 --> 00:18:23.119 So this is, we're we're starting off with some linguistics, because here's what I want us to see. 00:18:23.359 --> 00:18:30.079 There's this, the we have, I think, kind of a gut level theory of what does it mean, what does language mean, where did it come from? 00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:42.400 And we often think of it as okay, there were two cavemen, and they saw a rock, and one of them was like rock and grunted rock, and the other one was like, okay, all right, rock. 00:18:42.559 --> 00:18:45.759 And then we agreed, okay, that's a rock. 00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:53.440 And what we're agreeing to is we're basically saying, like, look, the caveman steps to the front and breaks the fourth wall. 00:18:54.480 --> 00:18:57.359 Look, we both know this isn't a rock. 00:18:57.519 --> 00:19:05.680 We both know rock doesn't mean anything, but we're all gonna pretend together that we are doing something meaningful with our words. 00:19:05.839 --> 00:19:09.839 Then he steps back and he's like, okay, now let's now let's just keep pretending forever. 00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:16.000 And so we think our language is built on shared agreement about lies. 00:19:16.240 --> 00:19:17.200 Do you get that? 00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:27.839 Our intuition about language is that it's built on a shared agreement that we will all pretend together that these words actually carry real meaning. 00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:32.240 But we know, we we know, right, they don't really carry real meaning. 00:19:32.480 --> 00:19:34.480 That's not the Bible's perspective. 00:19:34.720 --> 00:19:38.799 The Bible's perspective is that it God has given us a language. 00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:44.319 We're created in the image of a creative God who creates by his words. 00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:48.319 One of the first tasks he gives a human is name the animals. 00:19:48.720 --> 00:19:58.319 And so what God has imbued in humanity is this you name something, and you're not doing something fictitious. 00:19:58.559 --> 00:20:03.599 You're actually able with this language to communicate truth. 00:20:03.920 --> 00:20:09.200 Because language and the word and creation, these are not separate phenomena. 00:20:09.440 --> 00:20:22.000 They are all created by the same intelligent God who has imbued us with an intelligence that's able to relate to them in real ways with language that's that we can say is actually true. 00:20:22.160 --> 00:20:33.039 So that there's this element of when when I hold a rock, I should do more prop preaching, like Francis Chan, I need a rope and a kayak if I'm gonna share the gospel. 00:20:33.680 --> 00:20:38.720 We uh I distracted myself with a useless joke. 00:20:39.119 --> 00:20:50.640 If I hold a rock, and I say this is a rock, the biblical perspective allows us to say that's literally true. 00:20:51.759 --> 00:20:54.240 It really is a rock. 00:20:54.720 --> 00:21:03.200 And when I say those words, it has a real life correspondence to reality, to the rock that's out here. 00:21:03.519 --> 00:21:10.079 Which means also when I hold up a rock and I say, that's a tree, it's not true. 00:21:10.400 --> 00:21:12.720 It's literally false. 00:21:12.880 --> 00:21:14.799 It's literally not a true thing. 00:21:15.359 --> 00:21:19.599 So Neil deGrasse Tyson, de Grasse or Degrassi? 00:21:19.759 --> 00:21:22.799 Is it like the show or is it like what grows in the yard? 00:21:23.359 --> 00:21:24.160 Nobody knows. 00:21:24.240 --> 00:21:25.359 So I can do whatever I want. 00:21:25.519 --> 00:21:33.039 Neil deGrasse Tyson is a uh he's like imagine if Bill Nye was actually a scientist. 00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:37.279 That's right. 00:21:37.359 --> 00:21:39.279 I'm trying to start a celebrity feud. 00:21:39.920 --> 00:21:41.680 Neil deGrasse Tyson. 00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:59.759 Uh I I watched an interview with him on uh Stephen Colbert, and uh uh he says that his biggest fear is that the human mind has not yet evolved in such a way as to accurately understand. 00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:07.759 The problems of the universe, or how to accurately describe the phenomena of the universe. 00:22:07.920 --> 00:22:08.799 He's a physicist. 00:22:08.880 --> 00:22:12.480 He's a real-life physicist, but also incredibly charming. 00:22:13.119 --> 00:22:15.920 And here's what I want to explore. 00:22:16.079 --> 00:22:18.480 Here's what's built into that assumption. 00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:58.559 What's built into that assumption is this huge leap of faith that he's already making, which says, my mind, which is just a product of chance and matter and time, just this product of evolution, the leap of faith that he's making is this organism, which the only reasonable thing to say it evolved to do is to replicate itself, by some accident of history, is able to use words to accurately communicate what is there in reality. 00:22:59.920 --> 00:23:05.200 And his fear is maybe it can't do that well enough. 00:23:06.319 --> 00:23:25.279 We see he's already making this huge leap of faith, which is that a system which has no reason to produce a mind that could understand itself, he's saying, well, but my mind can understand it. 00:23:25.839 --> 00:23:32.960 And the words that I use can say things that are literally true about it. 00:23:35.599 --> 00:23:37.440 But maybe just not enough. 00:23:39.599 --> 00:23:48.640 Christianity carries with it no such strange leap of faith, and it also carries with it no such fear of a limit. 00:23:49.839 --> 00:23:59.680 Because Christianity built into our very assumptions are that our the world is created by the word. 00:24:00.640 --> 00:24:02.400 We are given the word. 00:24:03.119 --> 00:24:11.920 And so we can say things that are literally true about not just reality, but about God. 00:24:13.440 --> 00:24:25.039 We can make sentences, sentences that are true about the infinite God of the universe. 00:24:25.920 --> 00:24:35.119 See how Christianity has built into it all the ingredients that you would need to actually be able to pursue doctrine. 00:24:42.079 --> 00:24:50.640 The word for word in our scripture is uh the Greek word logos. 00:24:51.599 --> 00:25:01.200 And uh logos, it we translate it as word, uh, but it's also the root of logic or uh reason. 00:25:02.240 --> 00:25:20.000 And so John is saying in the beginning there's this word, but implicit in that is is there it's reasonable, which means it could be it can be known and understood in a reflective way, it can be articulated and understood. 00:25:20.240 --> 00:25:26.000 It's a reasonable system, there's a whole grammar to it that holds together. 00:25:26.240 --> 00:25:28.720 In the beginning, those things were there. 00:25:29.119 --> 00:25:35.839 So for us to pursue making true statements about God is not a feudal act. 00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:38.240 It's not even an act of hubris. 00:25:39.200 --> 00:25:41.759 It's not even us just being too prideful. 00:25:42.079 --> 00:25:50.160 It's actually us coming into submission to what God has said is true about the world and about us in it. 00:25:52.799 --> 00:26:06.160 So this word logos uh in the 19th century and into the 20th century uh kind of started to dissolve out of our culture. 00:26:06.319 --> 00:26:20.319 And we moved uh uh from a culture that was described as a logocentric culture into a culture which is it uh kind of railing against this idea of being logocentric. 00:26:20.799 --> 00:26:32.799 So uh logocentric means that we uh have a shared understanding that our sentences could carry real meaning and could carry real truth claims. 00:26:33.200 --> 00:26:44.880 Because we had a shared idea that the word began with a God who, excuse me, that the world began with a God who spoke, and that the world was created by his word. 00:26:45.200 --> 00:26:49.200 So we weren't engaging with a feudal task to be logocentric. 00:26:49.440 --> 00:27:03.680 But when that assumption is removed from a culture's you know, baseline uh presuppositions, then we all of a sudden have no reason to trust our own language. 00:27:03.920 --> 00:27:12.640 And one of the first people to spot this and really get there was Friedrich Nietzsche of World Mustache Hall of Fame. 00:27:13.039 --> 00:27:24.160 And he uh he traces this move and uh it's a move that gets right to the heart of truth. 00:27:24.480 --> 00:27:27.279 I think I've used this quote before because it's beautiful. 00:27:27.519 --> 00:27:30.160 It's wrong, but it's beautiful. 00:27:30.799 --> 00:27:33.920 He says, What then is truth? 00:27:34.319 --> 00:27:37.039 Which, by the way, do you recognize that question? 00:27:38.160 --> 00:27:41.440 Just for any of you history buffs out there. 00:27:41.839 --> 00:27:47.200 So what Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, what then is truth? 00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:55.359 He says, a mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms. 00:27:55.680 --> 00:28:11.920 In short, a sum of human relations which have been enhanced, transposed, and embellished poetically and rhetorically, and which after long use seem firm, canonical, and obligatory to a people. 00:28:12.480 --> 00:28:19.519 Truths are illusions about which one has forgotten that this is what they are. 00:28:19.759 --> 00:28:21.279 Remember the cavemen? 00:28:21.920 --> 00:28:24.799 Let's pretend rock really means rock. 00:28:25.039 --> 00:28:29.359 And then time goes by and we just forget that this is an illusion. 00:28:29.680 --> 00:28:31.839 Oh, then rock really is rock. 00:28:33.200 --> 00:28:43.119 Metaphors which are worn out and without sensuous power, coins which have lost their pictures and now matter only as metal, no longer as coins. 00:28:44.480 --> 00:29:00.720 What Nietzsche is doing as he is trying to dismantle this logo-centric worldview, this Christian view of the world, is he's going right at the heart of language's ability to communicate truth. 00:29:01.359 --> 00:29:07.839 He's saying your sentences that you think are communicating these grand truths, they're really not. 00:29:08.319 --> 00:29:12.319 They're just illusions about which you've forgotten their illusions. 00:29:13.279 --> 00:29:15.599 They're just cavemen who made an agreement. 00:29:15.680 --> 00:29:17.359 They're they're what does he say? 00:29:17.440 --> 00:29:20.000 They're the a sum of human relations. 00:29:20.319 --> 00:29:21.200 That's all they are. 00:29:21.359 --> 00:29:24.960 There's nothing really true in them. 00:29:26.079 --> 00:29:39.759 And so what that becomes in our culture, when we see that when we're commute- when we're, we have built into our language this idea that we can say true and false things, that's still built in. 00:29:39.920 --> 00:29:50.079 But now, since we know we can't really say true and false things, then what are we doing when we say something is true or something is false? 00:29:50.319 --> 00:29:58.319 Well, Nietzsche has an answer for that, which is built upon by, of course, the French, Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. 00:29:58.880 --> 00:30:03.839 And they are, they're these French philosophers, which were which were called deconstructionists. 00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:13.039 And the deconstructionists build on Nietzsche's project and they say, look, we know that we can't actually communicate truth with our language. 00:30:13.200 --> 00:30:16.319 So what are we doing when we make truth claims? 00:30:16.559 --> 00:30:21.920 We're only establishing power over another person. 00:30:22.400 --> 00:30:33.279 So when anybody makes a claim of truth because we know that's impossible, all they're really doing is trying to establish power over you. 00:30:33.920 --> 00:30:45.839 So when you assent to a truth claim, when someone says, here's a doctrine, believe it, they aren't inviting you to the truth, they're just oppressing you. 00:30:46.400 --> 00:30:49.359 They're removing what is real about your faith. 00:30:49.599 --> 00:30:56.240 What's real about your faith, it's that personal experience that no one can take away from you. 00:30:57.039 --> 00:31:07.920 But you see, there's a lot of assumptions built into this idea that any truth claim is actually a power play. 00:31:09.039 --> 00:31:28.079 If God really did speak the word into existence, really did give us language, really did give us an ability to articulate true things about reality and himself, then saying here is the truth, assent to it, is not an act of power. 00:31:28.319 --> 00:31:30.319 It's an act of humility. 00:31:33.599 --> 00:31:45.359 So Christianity offers then this very countercultural for us approach to truth. 00:31:46.079 --> 00:31:55.599 Our baseline assumption is truth is only a power play, and to submit to it is just to become an oppressed person. 00:31:57.440 --> 00:32:03.200 The Bible says the truth will set you free. 00:32:04.319 --> 00:32:06.240 It's the very opposite. 00:32:06.640 --> 00:32:13.200 Do you see how our culture and the Christian perspective of truth, they are incommiserable. 00:32:13.759 --> 00:32:16.160 They do not play together. 00:32:18.400 --> 00:32:21.839 So, okay, we've done a lot of work. 00:32:22.319 --> 00:32:25.359 So let's let's kind of try and reduce this. 00:32:26.559 --> 00:32:34.240 First of all, Christianity gives us reason to believe that we can say true things. 00:32:34.880 --> 00:32:39.200 And it gives us reason to believe that we can say true things about God. 00:32:40.160 --> 00:32:53.680 And it also says that in bringing our lives into accordance with those true things, we will not discover a loss of freedom, but we actually discover true freedom. 00:32:54.640 --> 00:32:56.880 So here's an analogy. 00:32:57.759 --> 00:32:59.200 I'm lost in my notes. 00:32:59.279 --> 00:32:59.599 Okay. 00:32:59.759 --> 00:33:00.880 Here's an analogy. 00:33:01.359 --> 00:33:04.720 Uh did any of you see uh Free Solo? 00:33:06.480 --> 00:33:07.200 Yeah, woo. 00:33:07.359 --> 00:33:07.680 Okay. 00:33:07.920 --> 00:33:17.039 So uh Free Solo, it was best documentary last year, and it's about Alex Honnold, who is a he's a rock climber. 00:33:17.200 --> 00:33:21.359 And his deal is he climbs huge rocks without ropes. 00:33:21.519 --> 00:33:24.720 And now I have exhausted my rock climbing knowledge. 00:33:25.359 --> 00:33:32.240 So the they made a movie about it, and he free soloed, which means climbing without any ropes, which means you fall, you die. 00:33:32.400 --> 00:33:41.599 Uh he free soloed at El Capitan, which is this incredibly famous, if it's that famous, you don't have to say anything about it, rock face in uh Yosemite. 00:33:42.559 --> 00:33:49.039 And midway up, that ascent is the most challenging part of the climb. 00:33:49.279 --> 00:33:52.880 And remember, he has no ropes, so if he messes up, then he dies. 00:33:53.359 --> 00:33:56.880 And the most challenging part of the climb is called the boulder problem. 00:33:57.440 --> 00:33:59.599 Uh, because they name these different things. 00:33:59.680 --> 00:34:02.000 Uh so it's called the the boulder problem. 00:34:02.240 --> 00:34:09.679 And uh here's Alex Honnold describing how to move through the boulder problem. 00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:10.719 He says this. 00:34:10.800 --> 00:34:14.800 He says it's a very intricate, it's a very intricate sequence. 00:34:15.199 --> 00:34:32.480 You've got your right hand on a crimp, left hand on a side pull, then you put your right foot onto this dimple thing, right hand is up to a small down point crimp, left foot goes into a little dish, and then you drive up off the left foot into the thumb press. 00:34:32.719 --> 00:34:37.440 That's the worst hold on the entire route, so you get maybe half your thumb on the hold. 00:34:37.599 --> 00:34:46.480 Then you roll your two fingers over your thumb, switch your feet, and your left foot stems out into this really bad black sloping foothold. 00:34:46.719 --> 00:34:53.119 From there, karate kick to an edge on the opposite wall, yada yada yada, there's a lot more that I cut out. 00:34:55.119 --> 00:35:00.239 Now, look, I I'm not exactly what that, I'm not exactly sure what any of that means. 00:35:00.880 --> 00:35:04.159 But here's here's my point about freedom. 00:35:04.719 --> 00:35:15.840 When Alex Honnold is on the side of El Capitan, and he's thinking, I want to be free to make it to the top. 00:35:16.639 --> 00:35:26.960 He doesn't then think, you know what, these i the where exactly my hand goes, it's too constraining. 00:35:28.320 --> 00:35:35.119 Like I don't need that type of constraint, that type of uh oppression in my life. 00:35:35.280 --> 00:35:39.119 I don't need that type of definition for each and every move that I make. 00:35:39.199 --> 00:35:39.440 No. 00:35:39.679 --> 00:35:51.440 To Alex Honnold, in that moment, freedom means bringing his mind and body into as complete submission as possible to the reality of the wall. 00:35:51.760 --> 00:35:55.119 Because you know what Alex doesn't change when he goes up there? 00:35:55.280 --> 00:35:56.880 The shape of the wall. 00:35:57.679 --> 00:36:03.360 He just brings himself into complete submission to it. 00:36:03.679 --> 00:36:09.679 And by bringing himself into that complete submission to the reality of the wall, he finds freedom. 00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:16.079 Our culture tends to define freedom as the ability to do otherwise. 00:36:16.320 --> 00:36:19.920 You are free so long as you have the ability to do otherwise. 00:36:20.079 --> 00:36:24.239 But this is a very immature conception of freedom. 00:36:25.840 --> 00:36:29.440 Because it neglects the idea of purpose. 00:36:31.840 --> 00:36:36.400 How can you know if something is free if you don't know what that thing is for? 00:36:37.039 --> 00:36:41.119 We're foolish to be talking about objects like that, let alone people. 00:36:42.559 --> 00:36:46.639 Alex Honnold makes his purpose to climb El Capitan. 00:36:48.159 --> 00:36:54.719 Therefore, he brings himself in submission to the constraints of that mountain. 00:36:55.039 --> 00:37:00.239 And it's in submission to the constraints that he discovers that freedom. 00:37:01.039 --> 00:37:04.800 So then, for us to say, I would like to know God. 00:37:06.800 --> 00:37:13.440 But then whenever we approach something like doctrine, we say, that's just too constraining. 00:37:14.639 --> 00:37:17.840 It's just it's too specific, quite frankly. 00:37:17.920 --> 00:37:18.960 It's too particular. 00:37:19.119 --> 00:37:23.599 Look at all the different people and the different faith experiences of the world. 00:37:23.679 --> 00:37:26.719 This is just too particular of a thing. 00:37:26.880 --> 00:37:30.320 That's not what God is like, it's not what knowing God is like. 00:37:30.480 --> 00:37:37.440 Sure, that may be what knowing rocks is like, maybe what knowing a wall of granite is like, but not God. 00:37:38.320 --> 00:37:45.599 God is reflects values and he's invisible and infinite and impossible to conceive with our own minds. 00:37:45.760 --> 00:37:55.840 How could these finite statements that I'm making about an infinite God possibly correspond in a way that we could say is actually true? 00:37:58.559 --> 00:38:01.039 Well, I've got good news. 00:38:02.159 --> 00:38:06.719 John continues in this section, and uh this is one verse. 00:38:07.119 --> 00:38:22.480 It says in John 1.14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 00:38:23.519 --> 00:38:30.320 So Jesus is the infinite God. 00:38:32.719 --> 00:38:38.719 And yet, he was born at one particular moment in time. 00:38:39.280 --> 00:38:43.360 He adhered to one location just like you all do now. 00:38:44.239 --> 00:38:49.840 When Jesus was on the earth, you were either touching him or you weren't touching him. 00:38:50.400 --> 00:38:55.440 There was no like, I'm always touching Jesus because he's on the earth. 00:38:56.800 --> 00:38:58.960 He was particular. 00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:07.920 The infinite God became flesh and dwelt among us. 00:39:08.800 --> 00:39:12.880 One individual born in a Palestinian backwater. 00:39:13.519 --> 00:39:17.519 This is horribly particular. 00:39:18.239 --> 00:39:28.159 It is as particular, probably more particular, than a particular, particular, particular, particular, thumb press on the side of El Capitan. 00:39:29.199 --> 00:39:31.280 Think of all of world history. 00:39:31.599 --> 00:39:35.199 One guy was the infinite God. 00:39:35.440 --> 00:39:37.519 This is the claim of Christianity. 00:39:37.920 --> 00:39:39.599 And it's a scandalous one. 00:39:39.679 --> 00:39:47.920 In fact, this concept is referred to as the scandal of particularity because it's the stumbling block that we all trip over. 00:39:48.159 --> 00:39:53.280 Because we say, look, how could all of God be in this one person? 00:39:54.960 --> 00:39:56.800 How could this possibly be? 00:39:57.119 --> 00:40:07.119 God is not the type of thing that would or could ever be particular, that could be known in that way, and yet in Jesus we see that he is. 00:40:07.360 --> 00:40:11.519 Timothy Ward is a theologian, and he says this. 00:40:11.599 --> 00:40:20.559 He says, this philosophical assertion, which is what he's referring to, is the idea that God couldn't be known in a particular. 00:40:21.119 --> 00:40:38.159 He says this philosophical assertion continues sometimes unconsciously and therefore unquestioned, to shape such contemporary, to shape much contemporary rejection of the orthodox doctrine of Scripture as divine special revelation. 00:40:38.639 --> 00:40:47.519 This is often a side effect of the greater rejection of the particularity of Christ as God's ultimate self-revelation in the world. 00:40:47.679 --> 00:40:51.360 Why do we have such a hard time saying that the Bible is the word of God? 00:40:51.599 --> 00:40:58.559 Well, it's tied directly to the same reason that we have such a hard time saying that Jesus is God. 00:40:59.280 --> 00:41:01.280 Because it's like one book? 00:41:01.519 --> 00:41:07.360 You're telling me one book in all the books in the world, this book is God's word. 00:41:07.679 --> 00:41:09.599 And the other books just aren't. 00:41:10.079 --> 00:41:11.679 That's what we're saying. 00:41:12.400 --> 00:41:26.000 Of all the people in the world, you're saying that one in that Palestinian backwater, who lived for 33 years, and if you weren't born within those 33 years, you just don't get to shake his hand? 00:41:26.239 --> 00:41:27.599 Yeah, that's right. 00:41:27.920 --> 00:41:29.280 That's what we're saying. 00:41:29.599 --> 00:41:33.679 This is the scandal of Christianity's particularity. 00:41:33.920 --> 00:41:35.920 And it really throws us off. 00:41:36.079 --> 00:41:37.920 So here's what it throws us into. 00:41:38.079 --> 00:41:46.079 It makes us ask this question: are we so arrogant as to think we could make true claims about God with our tiny little finite minds? 00:41:46.239 --> 00:41:50.880 Aren't we just grasping parts of an elephant and we can't see the whole thing? 00:41:52.480 --> 00:41:57.840 Because of Jesus, the answer is no, we're not. 00:41:58.960 --> 00:42:06.719 Because in Jesus, the incarnate Christ, we see the fullness of God's revelation to us. 00:42:07.039 --> 00:42:14.800 And look, this is our only hope of knowing God. 00:42:16.880 --> 00:42:23.599 Because here's what we're doing when we think God couldn't reveal Himself in that type of particular way. 00:42:24.000 --> 00:42:27.119 You know, it's God, it's the infinite God. 00:42:27.519 --> 00:42:29.519 Yes, you're exactly right. 00:42:29.760 --> 00:42:34.239 It's the infinite God, you finite thing from the dirt. 00:42:34.880 --> 00:42:36.559 You can't know that. 00:42:37.679 --> 00:42:42.480 Yes, you know the concept of infinity, but do you know infinity? 00:42:42.639 --> 00:42:44.159 Let's start counting. 00:42:44.400 --> 00:42:45.840