Acts 1:1-3; Luke 4:16-21, Special Revelation (7)

We have been talking about God’s Special Revelation to Man, communicated through the prophets in past times and then by His Son in these last days.  But now we need to turn our attention to the Bible.  By definition, “Scripture” refers to a collection of “sacred writings.”  In the case of the Bible, these sacred writings are “the word of God.”  It is God speaking, and thus is “Special Revelation.”  To be more specific, the Bible is the written record of God’s special revelation through the prophets and by His Son.  This includes the writings of Jesus’ Apostles who recorded His life and ministry during His earthly life and in His continuing ministry through those Apostles.  As Dr. Luke put it, in the gospels he wrote “of all that Jesus began both to do and teach” (Ac. 1:1-3).  In other words, Acts records Jesus’ continuing ministry through the Apostles after He had ascended to heaven.  We need to be mindful, as Peter put it, “of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior” (2 Pt. 3:2).

Why would God deem it important to put His revelation in writing?  Consider:

·       Language is the basis for culture (one generation to the next, one culture to another).

·       Language is the basis for community.

·       Language is the basis for knowledge (inc. knowledge of God).

·       Language is the means of sharing the inner life.  Bernard Ramm put it this way:  "Although there are many media by which man may share his inner life [dance, pantomime, sculpture, music, painting], the richest and most flexible is speech: 'it is the language that permits a person to place his thoughts at the disposal of another.'"

·       More specifically, written language achieves the attributes of...

o   Durability (dependence on memory is eliminated, etc.).

o   Universality (it can potentially achieve universal distribution as it is repeatedly copied).

o   Fixedness & purity (makes sure what was actually said, then keeps it pure).

The Bible itself contains various terms that relate to this “written” revelation.

·       biblion: book or scroll.  Jesus read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah (Lk. 4:16,20).  The OT is referred to as “the Book of the Law” (Gal. 3:10). John was told not to seal up the “words of the prophecy of this book” (Rev. 22:10).

·       biblios: book, sacred book. The genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1 is a record (Mt. 1:1; i.e. a written record).  The story of the burning bush is in the book of Moses (Mk. 12:26).  Peter quoted from the book of Psalms (Ac. 1:20).  In Acts 7:42 God’s dealings with Israel were recorded in the book of the prophets.

·       graphe: writings, Scripture (always in NT of Sacred writings).  This term is 48 times in the NT.  In the Gospels Jesus frequently referred to “scripture” (e.g. Mt. 21:42; 22:29; 26:54).  Scripture includes Moses and all the Prophets (Lk. 24:27).  Jesus affirmed the Scriptures of the OT, saying that they cannot be broken (Jn. 10:35).  This term then became widely used by the Apostles (Ac. 8:32,35; Rom. 4:3), including in reference to NT writings that were beginning to appear (1 Cor. 15:3-4).  All Scripture is God-breathed (inspired by God, 2 Tim. 3:16).

·       grapho: to write. The verb form is primarily used to introduce quotes from the OT, as in Mt. 4:4: It is written: Man does not live on bread alone.

To have God’s Special Revelation passed on in written form is a true blessing.  The work of many missionaries to translate the Bible into local languages makes a lot of sense and blesses those communities.