The Church and the Nations

THE POWER OF THE OLD TESTAMENT Luke 16:18-36 The parable of Dives and Lazarus gives three platforms for comment - kindness to the poor, death and life afterwards, and the power of the Old Testament. This edition will minor in the second and major in the third. Parables present difficulties in interpretation. How much is allegory, how much imagination, how much a definitive depiction? These questions come right to the surface with this parable. Just how much of the afterlife is Jesus revealing in the description of Dives and Lazarus? For those commentators I consulted, J. C. Ryle is reserved in his conclusions on heaven, Charles Simeon a bit more willing, Nolland comfortable with some, and Randy Alcorn most willing but also cautious. While there ought to be restraint in reading too close a correspondence, some general insights can be gleaned about life after death. For starters we must accept the reality of heaven and hell. There's more. Lazarus has comfort and company in heaven, Dives has neither. Dives lives in constant torment, and a great chasm separates him from the place of heaven. There seems to be some direct continuity in the life they had on earth and their life after death. Dives recognizes that his brothers will be with him in torment unless they are warned. It's the exchange about the warning that brings in the Old Testament. Dives wants a miracle, a real hum-dinger. He asks that someone from the dead (he does not have Jesus and His resurrection in mind) go and warn the brothers. Abraham's reply takes us to the Scriptures. "If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead." (16:31) The clear conclusion from this statement is that the revelation of the mission of God begins in the Old Testament. There is continuity in the revelation of God in the Old Testament and in His Son Jesus Christ. Moses and the prophets - shorthand for the Hebrew Scriptures - point to Jesus Christ and His saving death and resurrection. The intention of God's mercy for all sinners does not emerge only with Jesus Christ but is revealed in the Scriptures that the Jews had before the New Testament. This needs two clarifying statements. First, as with all readers and all of Scripture, the Holy Spirit must open minds to see and understand. We see this when Jesus met with His disciples on Easter day. Luke writes that He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. (24:45) He proceeded to show that it was written that He should suffer, die and rise, and that the Gospel should be preached to all nations. (24:46,47) Second, the Old Testament contains hints, references, shadow truths, and anticipations that are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Take the Ethiopian eunuch reading from Isaiah 53, the greatest of the Servant passages from Isaiah. The Ethiopian couldn't understand to whom this passage was referring. It took Philip, an astute evangelist, to come alongside and explain that the Suffering Servant was, in fact, Jesus Christ. (Acts 8:35) The Spirit, then, opens our minds to understand Jesus and His mission, revealed in all of the Scriptures. THE LEAST EVANGELIZED .... THROUGH THE EYES OF NUMBERS, CHARTS, AND TABLES On my first trip to Nepal the small group I was with had the opportunity to talk with a Tibetan monk who understood English. After our conversation, I presented him with a New Testament. On many occasions after that I wondered how much of that reading would baffle him since he was without the Old Testament. Quite a bit, I am sure. Since then I have appreciated the efforts of translators to give the entire Bible in the language of the people. In the work of Bible translation the editions are divided into four categories - the entire Bible, the New Testament, Portions such as the Psalms, and Selections such as topical verses. Additionally, since a large percent of the world is non-literate, translation includes audiotapes and CDs as well as video like the Jesus Film in several hundred dialects. Translation is not just working with dictionaries and grammars. Wycliffe Translation has produced a computer program that helps to complete the task. It will take 250 key words of a language without a translation, along with certain grammatical rules. Then it uses a language that is first cousin to the one without the translation, with its same 250 words and grammar. Within minutes the program produces a very rough draft of the Bible in the first language. From this the translators can proceed with revisions until its completion. The priority for translation is the mother tongue of the people, then the near language that they might know, then the trade language or market tongue, and finally a second language altogether that has to do until one of the closer translations can be made. Guttenberg came out with his printing in 1450. By 1500 there were over 100 editions of the Bible! The same variety and variation can be found today. At a consultation I attended for the Marwari people of Rajasthan, India, there were three different translators present. Each represented a different approach for a different kind of edition. Their conversations were the most animated of all! Each had a high stake in why his approach needed priority. The Word of God is living and powerful. Translators know this. Missionaries know this. And people who read the Bible for the first time and hear of Jesus for the first time know this. Information above from World Christian Trends, editors David Barrett and Todd Johnson Church Steps . . . Towards the Nations Here's a challenging exercise. If the Old Testament contains the witness to Jesus Chris and His mission for the world, take the Old Testament readings for this week, and search them in prayer for this witness. That would be Amos 6:1-7 and Psalm 146. Sunday Scenes gives a weekly comment on the lectionary for a cumulative perspective on the missionary theme of Scripture. To unsubscribe, reply with "Unsubscribe" in the subject line. Rev. Tad de Bordenave, Founder and Former Director