Palm Springs Drive Church of Christ

Series: N/A

Service: Praise and Preaching Service

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Brian Messerli

Genesis 3:15-16, 20 - There have been so many incredibly destructive lies from Satan snuck in to our culture through the Trojan Horse of feminism, and one of those lies is that women who choose to have children are less valuable than women who pursue a career because you’re “Just a Mom.”  If you really want to be somebody, you need to go get a career and move up the corporate ladder.  Now, the Bible is not against Mom’s working and making an income outside the home, but this Satanic lie that you’re not important and your life is empty if you’re “Just a Mom” has led countless women to sacrifice their children on the altar of their own personal ambitions, and countless Moms to feel trapped and unfulfilled, like they’re missing out on what life is REALLY all about.

But this is where the truth of God’s Word steps in to expose these lies for what they are, because to God, there’s no such thing as being “just a mom.”  To God, your role as a mother is INCREDIBLY important, and when we go back to the beginning of God’s intention for Moms, we learn that God has built into every mother’s body and soul a maternal mission.  Being a Mom isn’t a hobby, it’s not just a consolation prize because you couldn’t succeed in the corporate world; no, it’s a MISSION!  It’s a calling by God, it’s a ministry of eternal significance, and here in Genesis we see that the maternal mission is to crush Satan’s head by bringing life to the world through suffering in sacrificial love for your children.  Let’s explore this further…

The Maternal Mission

• Earlier in Genesis 3, it was Eve who was deceived by Satan and even though Adam is then one most blamed for this in Scripture because he failed as a leader, technically it was Eve who first brought death into the world through her sin.
  • YET, in an act of tremendous grace and redemption, God promises to use Eve as the conduit through whom He will REVERSE death in the world through life!  One day, one of her seed, or descendants, would crush Satan’s head for good and reverse death’s curse!  Now, Satan would crush her seed’s heel in the process, so he would hurt Eve’s seed, but Eve’s seed would deal a deathblow to Satan.  It’s like if you were to step on a snake’s head, and one of the fangs jabbed your foot in the process.  It would hurt you, but it’s the snake that gets the worst of it!
  • This is the very first prophecy about Jesus in Scripture!  Jesus was a great great great great great great great descendant of Eve!  And when Satan put Jesus on the cross, it hurt Jesus for sure, but it dealt a deathblow to Satan because he could no longer keep us in trapped in sin and condemned to death.
    • And that was all made possible by the motherhood of Eve!  It’s why the name “Eve” means mother of all the living!  Every human being who lived after Genesis 3 came from Eve!  And more than that, every human being who was brought to life spiritually by Jesus’ work on the cross came to life because of Eve who brought life into this world of death through motherhood!  But notice…
      • v. 16a - Part of the curse of sin in this world is that in order for Eve to become a mother, it’ll cause tremendous pain and suffering.  Bringing life into this world of death is going to be really hard and it’s going to hurt a lot.  Now, certainly men are called to suffer and make sacrifices for their children too, but Moms suffer for their children in a way that is FAR MORE physically and emotionally painful than the suffering of Dads.
        • For starters, there’s the birth process itself.  For Dads, the process of making kids is fun and only fun, maybe with the exception of Mom squeezing his hand and crushing his bones in the delivery room.  But for Mom’s, they’ve got 9 months of carrying this child inside them, with all the accompanying morning sickness, hormonal imbalances, fatigue and exhaustion, back pain, nerve pain, joint pain, shortness of breath, changes to their body that are painful physically, but also emotionally because it makes them feel less attractive, and that’s all before the birth itself, which some women have described as every bone in your body breaking at once.  One woman said this, which is actually a great way to describe the maternal mission:  “A woman giving birth is torn open in body and spirit, and yet out of the tearing, new life comes.”  It’s fascinating that God designed the woman’s body and birth process as a physical symbol and enactment of the maternal mission.
        • And of course, the pain of new life doesn’t stop there for Moms.  The nursing process can be physically painful, the sleep deprivation continues to tear at her soul, and then as the child grows and experiences pain for him or herself, Mom feels their pain much more deeply than Dad does.  When the child falls and scrapes his knee, Dad says it builds character, but Mom feels as if her knee was scraped too and her heart goes out to her child in a unique way from Dad.  And this continues for the rest of her child’s life!  Every time her kids take a risk or reach a new stage of life, Dad may beam with pride, and while Mom may be proud too, she’s hurting because her kids are needing her less and less and she’s fearful of the new dangers her kids will face.
        • And we see this maternal mission in the ultimate mother in Scripture, Mary the mother of Jesus.  Now, you would think if any mother was exempt from suffering from her maternal mission, it would be Mary because after all, her kid is going to be the perfect Son of God, so how could SHE experience the pain and suffering of motherhood?  Well, for one she still had to go through the painful birth process, without any epidurals by the way, but look at what the prophet Simeon said to her in…
          • Luke 2:34-35 - When Jesus comes, He’ll bring down the prideful and raise up the humble, and He’ll be a sign from God, but that sign will be rejected and opposed!  He’ll accomplish great things, like exposing the thoughts of people’s hearts!  Things Mary can be proud of, BUT Simeon also says to Mary, “It’s going to cost you.  It’s going to hurt you a lot.”  This is another great summary of the maternal mission.  Through your children, you’re bringing life and hope into this world full of death and despair, so it’s something to be proud of and filled with joy over, but it’s going to pierce your soul in the process.
            • Illustration:  In St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, there’s a famous sculpture by Michelangelo from the year 1499 called The Pieta, and it’s an extremely moving depiction of the maternal mission.  In order for Mary’s child to crush Satan’s head on the cross, this is what it would cost her.  This is what Simeon meant when he said her soul would be pierced with a sword.  Now of course, we know the story didn’t end there, because Jesus was raised from the dead!  But Mary didn’t know that at the time!  She just spent the last 3 years enduring the pain of watching her Son leave home to face new dangers, watching Him be ridiculed and mocked, rejected by His own brothers, put through a sham trial where people slandered His good name, then He was spit on, beaten, scourged, and crucified.
              • Yet in this sculpture, despite the devastating, brutal emotional pain Jesus’ ministry caused her, her face reflects a measure of peace and acceptance that her suffering and the suffering of her Son was necessary to crush Satan’s head and bring life to the world.
• Now, I realize Mary was a special case because her Son Jesus was the ultimate seed of Genesis 3:15 who crushed Satan’s head and saved the world.  But there is a sense in which every mother is meant to crush Satan’s head because Satan is the bringer of death, yet Mom’s are bringers of life, not just through the birth process, but by raising children who love and serve the Lord and who go out and thwart Satan’s purposes in the world by bringing life and human flourishing to their communities.  And while you may not lose your children at age 33 to crucifixion like Mary did, every Mom at different stages in her life feels like she has to let her children go as they get older, and it pierces her soul to do so.  Because as wonderful as being a life bringer is, but in order to fulfill this mission, it’s going to cost you and it’s going to hurt.

Now I realize this pain and suffering stuff sounds pretty scary, but I want to encourage Moms to reframe your suffering.  I didn’t read this book, but I saw a title for a book about Biblical motherhood that I loved and the title was, “Hard is not the Same thing as Bad.”  So I want to share with you 4 ways your suffering as a Mom, though a very hard thing, is actually a very good thing. 

1. Your Suffering as a Mom is a Reflection of God’s Heart

• As a Mom, you feel the emotional weight of sin’s curse in the world in a unique way from Dads, and when you do, you’re just reflecting the way God feels about sin’s curse.
• Genesis 1:27 - In order for God to reflect His heart and character using human images, He couldn’t just make one gender.  The depths of God’s nature and character are FAR too complex to be encapsulated in just males.  So even though God is most often presented as a Father in Scripture, He’s also presented as possessing the qualities of a mother, suffering tremendous pain and emotional agony as He brings life into the world through His children!
  • Isaiah 42:14-17 [Here He’s lamenting the fact that He’s going to have to discipline His people to bring them back to the light] - Another reason emotional suffering is a unique part of the maternal mission is because Moms are more likely to take their children’s disobedience personally than Dads are.  When kids disobey Dad, he sees it as a lack of respect, but if they disobey Mom, she sees it as a lack of love.  Especially when she considers all the pain she’s gone through for her kids, in the birth process and on a regular basis, so when they disobey her, she feels hurt and betrayed!  And that’s what we see with God in Scripture too!
    • v. 13 - Here God is pictured as a man, a warrior going to battle against the enemies of His people!  But then in the next verse He’s also pictured as a woman who’s had to endure the pain of His own people’s disobedience because they’ve trusted in idols instead of in Him!
      • Yet God’s maternal mission was to go through the pain of bringing His children to life again from the dead!  God knows it’s going to be painful for them because He’s going to have to bring judgment on them, and it’ll be painful and heartbreaking for HIM because He doesn’t want His children to suffer, but He knows He has to go through the pain and pay whatever it costs to save them from the darkness and bring them into the light!
      • Moms are especially tempted to be embittered, angry, and resentful toward their kids because of the pain they cause you.  Or even to just be bitter and resentful about life in general because of your suffering.  Instead, embrace the suffering because it’s a natural part of your maternal mission and being made in God’s image to fight against sin’s curse.  And even though it’s painful and costly, teaching your kids and guiding them to the light of God is all part of the process of bringing life into the world and crushing Satan’s head.  Forget feminism, God offers you TRUE female empowerment, that you can be a snake crusher by suffering to make sure your kids flourish!  And the truth is, God suffers every day for US just like mothers do, as He endures the folly of His own children and the pain we cause Him, while He shapes and molds and teaches us to be more like His Son Jesus.

2.  Your Suffering as a Mom is an Act of Grace and Compassion

• Isaiah 49:14-15 - This image is so powerful because 1) it’s emotionally impossible for a mother to forget her nursing baby.  She loves her baby more than life itself so to deprive her baby of his or her most basic needs would be a horrifying thought.  2) It’s physically impossible for her to forget her nursing baby because A) her baby will be screaming to let her know it’s time for feeding and B) Her body won’t allow her to forget.  I won’t get into anatomy on this, but God designed her body so that if she forgets to feed her baby, it’s physically painful for her.
  • And even later in life when the child grows up and is crying out in pain or has some other need, what mother is going to look at her child and say, “Eh, he’ll be fine, who cares?”  Now, Isaiah recognizes there might be some very rare case where an abusive woman forgets her child and has no compassion for their suffering, but he says even IF that were to happen with a human mother, God says it’ll never happen with me.  I’ll NEVER forget you, and I’ll NEVER just leave you crying for help without looking upon you with great compassion, eager to run to your side, pick you up, and take care of you.
    • The sculpture by Michelangelo I showed you earlier is called the Pieta, which in Italian means, “Pity” or “compassion.”  Mary is looking down at Jesus with so much compassion in her heart for the suffering He faced.
      • Now, it’s probably true that most Moms don’t struggle to have compassion for their kids when they struggle physically.  But some may lack compassion when their kids struggle spiritually.  It’s one thing to be compassionate when your kid scapes a knee or breaks an arm, but when your kids give in to sin and they disobey you, it’s much harder to be compassionate because now it makes your life a lot harder, and you’re struggling not to take it personally, and that’s when it’s tempting to lash out at them in anger, instead of showing them grace and compassion.
        • Isaiah 30:18 - Now, to be clear, it’s okay to express anger to your kids for their disobedience.  But that anger should be slow and not easily set off, it needs to be controlled and not flying off the handle, clear about what boundaries were crossed, not used to get revenge on your kids to make them pay for the suffering they’ve caused you, and it needs to be eager to forgive.
        • Isaiah 54:8 - God gets angry at sin, and He tells His people about it clearly throughout the prophets, but He’s slow to anger, controlled, clear, not vindictive, and He longs to show compassion to His children.
          • There’s a book called “Triggers:  Exchanging Parents’ Angry Reactions for Gentle Biblical Responses.”  I wanted to read it before this lesson because it looks great, but I didn’t have time.  However, I watched an interview from the authors and they said as Moms it’s important not to take your kids’ back talk, selective hearing, or disobedience personally because it’s part of their natural wrestling match with their own selfishness.  We all went through it as kids, and we continue to struggle with it now as adults.  But the important thing is to help them work through it without letting them trigger you into losing control.  One helpful quote from the book was:  “If the kids are loud and you’ve not had a moment’s peace, you still have to remain kind and in control of yourself.  Though it’s your trigger, you aren’t allowed to pull it back and wound those around you.  You must learn to control yourself, even on the noisiest days.”
            • And in the interview, they said one of the things they’ve found most helpful with their kids is that if they mouth off or say or do something disrespectful, they say to their kids, “Excuse me?  Do you want to try again?”
              • It’s a great way to offer your kids grace, and like Dwayne talked about a while back, it’s giving them a second chance!  Now of course, if they do it again you can discipline them, and if they need more heavy handed discipline, you can bring Dad in.  But by giving them an opportunity for a re-do (which we all wish we had in life), you’re helping them to take a step back and make a better choice.  You’re empowering them to win the wrestling match against Satan and their own selfishness, and in doing so you’re slaying the serpent with compassion and grace, instead of just anger and punishment!
• Because anger and punishment, while they have their place, only work temporarily, and usually it only works to change their behavior.  What you really want is to change their hearts.  And the best way to do that is through your God-given motherly compassion and grace, which puts yourself in their shoes and understands, “They aren’t sinning against me because they hate me, but because they’re facing their own internal battles, and I need to help walk with them through it, even if it’s painful and costly for me.”

3.  Your Suffering as a Mom Makes You an Amazing Comforter

• As I said earlier, one of the reasons Moms experience so much pain is because they’re so in tune with the emotional pain and needs of their kids.  She’s like a mirror reflecting our emotions back to us, as if our pain were her own.  It started during pregnancy because if her child is restless, she’s restless.  If there’s something wrong with her child in the womb, she knows it, she senses it.  But when all is well with the child, it’s well with her too.  And that continues as the child grows up!  When you come home from school upset about something, Mom can sense it.  She knows something’s off and she’s immediately asking, “Did something happen today?”  If you fall and break your arm, it’s as if Mom’s arm was broken too, and God uses this special emotional bond between mother and child to create a wonderful atmosphere of comfort in the home.  Because when we’re suffering, we just want to know someone understands our pain and hurts when we hurt.  Which is why when we’re hurt physically or emotionally, we typically run to Mom, not to Dad, because she feels and relates to our pain in a way that Dad does not.
  • Isaiah 66:12-13 - God promises in this grand vision that one day He’ll comfort His people as a mother comforts her children.  And here’s my question:  how is it that God has such a deep capacity for comfort?
    • It’s because He so deeply feels our pain.  In fact, this is a prophecy about the time of Jesus, who would come and take all the physical and emotional pain of our sin upon Himself, and God the Father will feel all the pain of living in this sin cursed world as if it were His own because of what it costs Him.  Which leads the apostle Paul to write this…
      • 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 - Paul says the more we suffer in this life, the more we’re able to comfort others because we know what it’s like to be afflicted and in pain.  Well, the same thing true of God.  Certainly God is all powerful and He could comfort us without sending Jesus, but by sending Jesus, God was proving to us that He knows what it’s like to be afflicted and in pain, so He can relate to us, as Isaiah says, like a mother to her children, and offer us comfort beyond our wildest imagination.
        • And because Moms are so well acquainted with pain and suffering, it makes her a tremendous comforter.  One writer said, “A mother is the one you run to when you’re hurt.  Her touch is the balm, her voice is the calm.”

4.  Your Suffering as a Mom Makes the Joyful Moments Even Sweeter

• Up to this point, this lesson may seem like an incomplete picture of motherhood, like it’s all pain and suffering, and it may make her sound like a victim, which is actually how our culture depicts motherhood.  But she’s not a victim, she’s a victor as she crushes Satan’s head, and not only that, if you were to ask Moms, “Is the joy of motherhood worth the pain of motherhood?” they would all say, “Absolutely!”  And in fact, it’s the pain you go through as a Mom that makes the joy that much richer and more joyful!
  • John 16:21 - Again, God designed the woman’s body and the birth process as an enacted symbol not just of the suffering required in the maternal mission, but the indescribable joy to be found in that mission too.
    • When you hold your baby for the first time, when your toddler first says your name, when they run towards you and throw their arms around you, when they’re laughing around the dinner table, when they do a kind deed, when you read to them before bed, when they say their prayers, when they graduate, when they get married, when they have grandkids, God has built in so many joyful moments along the way to remind you as much as it costs you to be a Mom, it’s all worth it to crush the serpent’s head so life can win over death in the end!
      • So Moms, embrace your mission, see the beauty in your suffering, soak in the joyful moments, leave bitterness behind, lead with love, compassion and grace, and remember your maternal mission reflects God’s heart.
        • John 16:22 - Jesus relates the pain of a mother bringing life into the world with the pain of His crucifixion.  Just like a mother in labor, Jesus and His Father in Heaven were going to suffer horrendous pain on the cross, yet in the resurrection, the immeasurable joy of having crushed Satan’s head and brought spiritual life to the world will have made the pain all worth it.
• Isaiah 49:15-16 - The word “inscribe” means to cut into something.  God is saying, “Just so you know I won’t forget you, and that I love you with a mother’s love, I’ll carve your names into my palms.  The walls of your city will be permanently engraved in my hands.”  In His motherly love, He’s willing to suffer and bear scars in His own body as a permanent and visible mark of His love for them.
  • And this was fulfilled ultimately in Jesus who allowed His hands to be pierced through with nails on the cross to show us God’s motherly compassion for His children and crush the serpent’s head by bringing life to the world.
• And if you’re not a Christian, it’s true your Heavenly Father loves you like a Father, but He also loves you like a mother and even though He endured tremendous pain for you on the cross, if you were to become a Christian and be made alive again this morning by faith in Jesus and by baptized into Him, the joy it would bring God will have been WELL worth the pain!

Bonus Example of the maternal mission:  The mother in 1 Kings 4 who was willing to give up her own child to the other woman who was a liar, if it meant giving the child life.  She had to go through the tremendous pain and sacrifice of giving up her child in order for him/her to live.

Series: Life and Character of David

Service: Sun Bible Study

Type: Bible Class

Speaker: Dwayne Gandy

Series: Life and Character of David

Service: Adult Class

Type: Bible Class

Speaker: Dwayne Gandy

Series: N/A

Service: Wed Bible Study

Type: Invitation

Speaker: Joe Rimmer

Series: Life and Character of David

Service: Sun Bible Study

Type: Bible Class

Speaker: Dwayne Gandy

Series: N/A

Service: Lord’s Supper Service

Type: Lord's Supper Talk

Speaker: Brian Messerli

Psalm 48:1-2 [This week, we covered Psalms 47-48 in our Daily Bible Reading, and I made the recording for Psalm 48 longer than the others because it encapsulates the ultimate plan of God in the gospel; it’s this incredibly grand prophecy which pictures God after He has made Himself King over all that nations, reigning from His holy mountain over the whole world] - In order to fully appreciate the significance of what’s going on here, it helps to appreciate the theme of the mountain in Scripture, and I’m grateful for Tim Mackie’s work at the Bible Project for helping me see this.

It starts in the beginning in the Garden of Eden, which was located on a mountain with a river flowing down from the garden to water the land below.  In the ancient world, mountains were viewed as the dwelling places of the gods.  It was the place where heaven and earth overlapped, and I realize we’re from Florida so this may not resonate, but if you’ve ever had the chance to climb a mountain, it makes sense why the ancients would think that.  When you’re high up on a mountain, you’re still connected to the earth with your feet on the ground, but there’s something transcendent about it, the air is crisp and clean, it’s so quiet, everyone and everything down on the ground is tiny, and it feels like you’re risen above the earth in some way.

So in Scripture, mountains were a common meeting place between God and man.  It starts in the mountaintop garden of Eden, then God meets with Moses on Mt. Sinai, and the temple was built on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.  But why was it so important for God to meet people on mountains?

Because the Bible story starts with God reigning as King on a mountain, and His plan was to use Adam and Eve as co-rulers with Him to be conduits through whom the God’s blessings would flow out of Eden to the rest of the world.  They were meant to cultivate the land, to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with God’s goodness and righteousness.  But the problem is, Adam and Eve sinned and were exiled from God’s mountain, cut off from His presence.  And throughout the rest of Scripture, God tries to use other people to take Adam and Eve’s place to be the one through whom blessings would flow out from His mountain to the nations, but the problem is they were all flawed and sinful.  There are a lot of Bible characters who experience times of testing on mountains, and while they may pass some of the tests, they eventually sin.  Noah built an altar to God on Mount Ararat which was great, but then he got drunk.  Abraham offered Isaac on a mountain which was great, but he also lied about his wife a couple times and used Hagar instead of trusting in God.  Moses interceded for Israel on Mt. Sinai which was great, but then he got frustrated with the people and struck the rock instead of speaking to it.  Elijah showed great faith in God on Mt. Carmel against the prophets of Baal, but then he ran away in fear and self-pity.

Psalm 24:3-4 - This is the question at the heart of Scripture.  Who is worthy to ascend God’s mountain and be the conduit through whom the world is blessed?  And the answer we find throughout the whole Old Testament is no one!  BUT…

Psalm 24:7-10 - There’s only ONE person worthy to ascend God’s mountain and bless the world — and that’s the Lord Himself, the King of Glory.

And when we come to the New Testament, we find that Jesus is that King.  Jesus is the King of the Mountain who not only gains access to the mountain Himself, but opens up access to God’s mountain for US.  He blesses us with clean hands and pure hearts so we can ascend back up to God’s presence on His holy mountain, and be a blessing to the world the way Adam and Eve were originally meant to be.  And one of the ways the New Testament makes this point is that in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is shown standing on 7 mountains, and every time He’s on a mountain in Matthew, He proves Himself worthy to be the King of the Mountain.

But before we look at those 7 mountains, we need to see one more prophecy about God’s mountain in…

Isaiah 2:2-4 [Isaiah is prophesying 700 years before Christ came, and listen to the way He describes God’s mountain] - It’s pictured as the highest mountain in the world because there is no one greater than God, many nations or Gentiles will stream up to this mountain to receive blessings from God, God’s teaching will go forth from this mountain, and many people who used to be at war will be at peace and work together.

With all that background in mind, let’s look at the 7 mountains in Matthew.

Mountain 1:  A Place of Testing

• Matthew 4:8-10 - This replicates the temptation of Adam and Eve, because they were so supposed to be co-rulers with God over the world, yet Satan tempted them to think they could be rulers without God.  They didn’t need God, they could be like God themselves!  And Jesus succeeds where they failed!  He knows it’s God’s intention for Him to rule over the earth as King, but not by selfishness and dominance through power which is Satan’s way, but rather through love and self-sacrifice on the cross.  So Jesus proves Himself worthy as King of the Mountain because He’s a king willing to rule God’s way according to God’s image!

Mountain 2:  A Place of Teaching

• Matthew 5:1-2 - The next 3 chapters are called the Sermon on the Mount.  Just like Isaiah’s vision, God’s mountain has become a place out of which His teaching flows!  And Jesus proves Himself worthy as King of the Mountain by teaching people how to be co-rulers with Him in God’s kingdom and how to rule in God’s image like Him so that we can bless the world with God’s goodness and righteousness!

Mountain 3:  A Place of Meeting

• Matthew 14:23 - After Jesus fed the 5,000, He took time alone to be with God on the mountain.  He ascended the mountain away from life below to meet His Father in the place where Heaven and earth overlapped.  He proved Himself worthy to be King of the Mountain because on the mountain with His Father is where He preferred to be more than anywhere else.

Mountain 4:  A Place of Provision

• Matthew 15:29-31 - The awesome thing here is that He’s in a Gentile region, so just like in Isaiah 2, here the nations, or Gentiles, are streaming up to Him on a mountain to be blessed, and not only does He heal them, but then He feeds them in the next section.  The feeding of the 5,000 was the King of the Mountain providing for Jews, but the feeding of the 4,000 was the King of the Mountain providing for Gentiles too!  He proved himself worthy as King of the mountain because He’s not just the King of the Jews, but King of the whole earth!

Mountain 5:  A Place of Glory

• Matthew 17:1-3 - Jesus’ transfiguration happens on a mountain!  And I used to say the reason Moses and Elijah appear with Him is because Moses represents the Law and Elijah represents the prophets, and Jesus is the fulfillment of both.  That could be part of it, but it could be because Moses and Elijah were the only two in the Old Testament who personally witnessed the glory of God on Mt. Sinai!  Now, they couldn’t see His full glory or they’d die, but they caught a glimpse of it, and Matthew is showing us that here that in Jesus, they are once again beholding the glory of God on a mountain!  Matthew is showing us Jesus IS God, and He proves Himself worthy as King of the Mountain because He is the KING of glory from Psalm 24!

Mountain 6:  A Place of Judgment for the Wicked

• Matthew 24:1-3 - Then Jesus pronounces judgment on Jerusalem.  In Psalm 48 where we started, v. 4-5 say that when the wicked see God’s mountain, they’re terrified and they flee in panic!  In Isaiah 2, the reason God’s mountain is higher than all others, is because according to Daniel 2, He’s going to crush all other mountains that stand opposed to Him.  So Jesus proves Himself worthy as King of the Mountain by promising to destroy any wicked mountain or kingdom competing for glory with His.

Mountain 7:  A Place of Spiritual Blessing for All Nations

• Matthew 28:16-20 - This is Psalm 47-48, where Jesus declares Himself King of the whole earth, King of the great mountain city, and it’s so fitting that He makes this declaration from a mountain!  THAT is the good news, THAT is the gospel, that Jesus is King of the Mountain, and now from a mountain, He sends the apostles out to bless the whole world by bringing them this good news!  He sends them out like Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, but in a spiritual sense and to fill the world with God’s goodness and righteousness through the gospel.  Jesus proved Himself worthy as King of the Mountain by resurrecting from the dead, ascending this mountain, then ascending to Heaven to open up access to God’s holy hill for us all.

So now, what was lost by Adam and Eve is restored in Christ and in Hebrews 12 we learn that the church has become the mountain from which God reigns, where Heaven and earth overlap, and in Revelation 21:10, John sees a vision that in the final day God’s holy city will come down from Heaven and rest on a mountain, where we’ll live and reign forever in God’s presence as was His intention all along.  And its all made possible by the sacrifice of the body and blood of the Mountain King.

Series: N/A

Service: Praise and Preaching Service

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Dwayne Gandy

“Whatever you do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” – Colossians 3:17

What does it really mean to do something “in the name of Jesus”? That simple phrase carries tremendous weight. It is not just a habit we tag onto the end of a prayer or a slogan we place on a building. To act in Jesus’ name means to represent His character, submit to His authority, and only do what He has authorized. This lesson explores what that truly means by looking at real-life biblical examples and the implications for our lives today.

In Scripture, names aren’t just labels—they represent the person, their qualities, and often their authority or position. The name of Jesus is above every name (Philippians 2:9-11), and acting in His name is a serious matter.

If we claim to do something "in Jesus’ name," we must be absolutely sure:

• He has given us the right to do it.

• It reflects His character and teachings.

• It is something He would do if He were standing in our place.

The story of Esther provides a vivid, real-world example of delegated authority. When Haman wanted to annihilate the Jews, he didn’t act on his own. He sought permission from King Ahasuerus, who gave him his signet ring—a symbol of royal authority. Haman used it to send out a decree “in the name of the king.”

This shows us several important truths:

• To act “in the name of” someone means you act with their permission.

• That action carries the full authority of the one who gave it.

• But that authority is limited. Haman had broad permission, but only within a specific scope.

Later in the story, Mordecai was given the same ring and authority. However, Esther still double-checked with the king before acting. Why? Because she understood the seriousness of using the king’s name. That’s wisdom we should imitate when we seek to act in Jesus’ name today.

In Genesis 41, Pharaoh gave Joseph sweeping authority to manage Egypt during the coming famine. He gave him his ring, fine clothes, and power to make decisions. But Joseph never abused this authority. He didn’t act selfishly or add personal commands. He used his authority for Pharaoh’s benefit, ensuring that everything he did aligned with the king’s wishes.

Even when Joseph’s own family came to Egypt, he sought Pharaoh’s guidance before giving them land—again, showing respect for the source of his authority.

Back in Esther’s story, Haman abused his granted authority. He lied to the king, manipulated the situation for personal revenge, and acted out of jealousy and pride. When Queen Esther revealed Haman’s true motives, the king was outraged—even though Haman technically had his permission.

This reminds us: Even if we think we have authority, if we use it in a way that contradicts the character of the one who gave it, we are in the wrong.

This is crucial when applying it to Jesus. We cannot say, “Well, I found a verse that kind of supports this,” if what we’re doing doesn’t reflect Jesus’ heart, values, or mission. God will not honor technicalities or excuses. What matters is faithfully representing His will.

So what does this mean for us today?

• Peter healed in Jesus’ name (Acts 3:6), making it clear that the power wasn’t his own—it came from Jesus.

• Jesus said that when we give or serve “in His name,” we are acting as His representative (Mark 9:37, 41).

• When Jesus gave the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18–20), He declared that all authority had been given to Him, and commanded His followers to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

• In Acts 2, Peter responded by teaching people to repent and be baptized in Jesus’ name for the forgiveness of sins.

When we teach, serve, worship, baptize, or pray, we must do so with His authority—not our own. And when we pray in Jesus’ name, it isn’t a magic phrase. It means we are asking for things that align with His will and nature, not our selfish desires (John 16:23; James 4:3).

As the Church of Christ, we bear His name—not just on our sign, but in our mission, worship, and identity. Everything we do should be grounded in His teachings, carried out by His authority, and offered with reverence to His name.

That’s why general or delegated authority matters. God has given us guidance, but He has not micromanaged every detail. Like Joseph, Mordecai, and Esther, we must be thoughtful, honest, and cautious. It’s okay to double-check and ensure we are honoring Jesus in all we do.

In Matthew 25, the man with one talent did nothing out of fear of doing the wrong thing. But fear is not faith. We must not be paralyzed by the weight of Jesus’ name—we must be moved to act, with confidence that if we follow His word, we are secure in His name.

So let me ask you:
Have you been baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins?
Are you living and praying with His authority, reflecting His character?

If not, the invitation is always open—day or night. We’ll baptize you at 3 a.m. if you’re ready to submit to Jesus. That’s how much His name matters.

If you have questions or want to study further, please contact us. We’d be honored to help you understand and walk more fully in the name of Jesus.

Series: N/A

Service: Wed Bible Study

Type: Invitation

Speaker: Aaron McKibben

Series: N/A

Service: Lord’s Supper Service

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Dwayne Gandy

Series: N/A

Service: Praise and Preaching Service

Type: Sermon

Speaker: Brian Messerli

1 Peter 1:22-25 - Here the apostle Peter says that the word of God is life changing, and that it endures forever!  It’s not like the fragile flowers of the field that wither away with time, but that it’s permanent and never fades away!

That sounds great, but there are some problems with it.  1) We just read that in English, but the original language Peter used to write this letter was Greek.  So how do we know if what we’re reading in English is an accurate translation?  What if the original Greek text said, “The word of God does NOT endure,” but whoever translated it into English changed it to say that it DOES?  2) We don’t have ANY of the original writings of the Bible.  They’re called autographs, documents written by the original authors, and we don’t have them.  The document our English Bible was translated from was not the original, it was a copy of a copy of a copy.

So I can understand why one of the most common objections skeptics raise is that we can’t trust the accuracy of the Bible because it’s been copied and translated so many times!  In fact, the religion of Islam claims that the New Testament documents have been corrupted over time and what the original documents said was way different than what we have in our modern translations.

And the reason people raise these objections is because they imagine the copying and translation of the Bible like a game of telephone.  I’d be surprised if kids today still play this, but most of us remember this game.  You’d sit in a circle, and the first person would turn and whisper a sentence in the next person’s ear.  The sentence might be, “I like to read books.”  Then that person turns to whisper it in the next person’s ear, but sometimes the whisper sounds distorted and they might miss a letter or even a whole word, so by time it gets to the 5th person, they whisper, “I like to eat hooks,” and the more people involved in the process, the more distorted the sentence gets, and when it finally gets back around to the original speaker, it’s turned into “I lied about eating bugs.”  And everyone laughs because it’s fun to see that happen!

This is how people typically view the copying process, and also the translation process.  As if the Bible started in Hebrew, was translated to Greek, then from Greek to Latin, from Latin to Syriac, from Syriac to Coptic, and so on to the point where when we finally get to our English versions, the original message MUST have been lost in translation because it was filtered through 10 different languages first!

Well, this morning I’d like to show you why the process of Bible copying and translation was NOT like the game of telephone at all, and that we can know with 100% certainty that the Bible was NOT lost in translation, and in fact, we can be more certain about the accurate translation of the Bible than we can about any other document in history by far.  And that’s due to 5 main factors.

1. The Copies were Written Down

• It’s certainly true we don’t have any of the original documents, mostly because of the materials they were written on.  They couldn’t go down to Walmart and buy a college ruled notebook, and they couldn’t make digital copies and store them in the cloud.  So they mostly used papyrus.  Papyrus was a type of plant that grew near rivers, and in ancient times they would cut the stalks of that plant into very thin strips.  Then they’d soak them in water to soften them, and lay those strips in two layers; one vertical layer and then one horizontal layer on top, and they’d press them together, let them dry, and polish the surface to make them ready for writing.  They could also join them together into one long sheet and turn it into a scroll.  Now, it’s possible if you stored these sheets in a place with very low moisture, they could last for hundreds of years, but most of them didn’t last very long, and so God always instructed people to make written copies of His word so it could be preserved longer than the shelf life of papyrus.
  • Exodus 34:27-28 - Now here’s a case where Moses wrote the 10 commandments on stone.  THAT would be far more permanent than papyrus, but it would be much harder to write on.  It wasn’t like he took a Sharpe and wrote on top of the stone, he would have to chisel these words INTO the stone, and then can you imagine trying to carry your books around with you?  Your library would be like Stone Henge and you’d need a crane to carry it around with you.  Papyrus was much more convenient both to write on and to transport.
  • Deuteronomy 17:18-19 [Here God commands every king of Israel to make a copy of His law] - God wanted him to make a copy not just to preserve His word, but to preserve the soul of the king so the king could lead his people in following the Lord, and thereby preserve the souls of the whole kingdom!
  • Jeremiah 36:4 - Now, I understand skeptics may not believe this claim, but the entire Old Testament claims to be the word of God written down for us by the prophets and/or scribes like Baruch. Then when we get to the New Testament, it makes the same claims!
  • 1 Corinthians 14:37 - Paul and the other apostles and prophets claimed to be writing down the actual words of God, and they expected other people to make copies and circulate these letters.
  • Colossians 4:16 - Paul wrote this letter to the Christians in the city of Colossae, and after they read it, it would be foolish for them to send this exact letter to the church of the Laodiceans.  Because then they wouldn’t have the letter anymore.  So what they’d do is make copies of it, and then send the copies out to other churches.  So in the first century world, you’d have hundreds of written copies of these letters floating around.  And someone may be wondering, “Okay, so what Brian?  How is this relevant to whether it was lost in translation or not?”
    • Well, imagine playing the game of telephone, but instead of whispering “I like to read books” in the next person’s ear, you write it down and then you give them a handwritten note that says “I like to read books,” and then they make a hand written copy of your note and pass it to the next person and so on.  Do you realize how not fun that game would be?  It’d be way too easy!  It’s hard to hear someone whispering in your ear because 1) the sound can get distorted and 2) you only get one chance to hear it.  But if it was written down, there’s no chance for misunderstanding it, and you can look at it as long as you want to make sure you get it right, and you can even double check your work before passing it along.  So chances are, when it gets back around to the original writer, it’s going to be the same message because transmitting something in writing is so much more effective.  And the Bible was written down.

2.  The Copies were Written Down Carefully

• In a game of telephone, if the sentence comes back around to the original speaker and it’s totally different, it’s hilarious and everyone laughs, that’s what makes the game fun!
  • But what if it was a school project and your teacher told you, “If the sentence is different in any way by the time it gets back around to the original speaker, you will all fail this class.”  Now it’s not fun anymore, it’s not a game, the stakes are too high, and 1) you’re probably going to ask the teacher if you can write it down instead of whispering it because that’ll help with accuracy.  2) You’re not just going to be double checking, you’re going to be triple and quadruple checking to make sure you have copied that message letter for letter before sending it on to the next person.
  • Deuteronomy 4:2-3 - Now these aren’t instructions for how to copy God’s word.  He’s talking about living His word, but the two go hand in hand because we can’t live God’s word in a way that doesn’t add or take anything away from it unless we HAVE God’s word copied and preserved for us without any additions or subtractions.  And notice the price of adding to or taking away from God’s word is death!  He doesn’t say like that teacher, “You’ll fail this class,” He says, “You’ll be punished for all eternity if you add or take away from my words.”  And a similar statement is found in the New Testament in the very last chapter of the Bible…
  • Revelation 22:18-19 - So here’s my question.  Do you think the people writing down and copying God’s word would have treated it like a game that’s just kind of fun and if we make mistakes it’s not really a big deal?  No way!  They would have made those copies as if their souls depended on it, and as if the souls of those who would later READ those copies depended on it, because they did!
    • Now, not everyone making copies were professional scribes, but it’s fascinating to consider how the professional scribes approached the work of making copies of God’s word.  The Masoretes for instance, before they even began working on a copy would wash their whole bodies, then dress themselves in full Jewish garb.  They had strict rules like how not a single letter could be copied from memory.  You had to look at every letter one at a time from the original before copying it.  Every line of each column in the copy must contain the same number of letters as the line in the original.  If the copy deviated in any way from the original it would be destroyed and they would have to start all over again.  When they finished making the copy, they would count the total number of letters in the original and compare it with the copy and if it didn’t match up, the copy would be destroyed and they would start all over again.  They would even locate the very middle letter of the original and make sure the middle letter of the copy was the same; if not, it was destroyed and the scribe would start all over again.  If this was what the game of telephone was like, nobody would want to play, because it was grueling, painstaking work, because they were trying to make it as perfect as they could in order to honor God.  In fact, they would never write the name of God before first wiping their pen clean and dipping it in fresh ink, and it was said that “should a king address you while writing God’s name, you must take no notice of him.”
      • This is so helpful to know because some skeptics will accuse the copyists of having false motives, changing the documents to suit their own agendas.  But why would they do that when they know it would cost them their soul and the souls of those who read their copies?  The people who copied God’s word had tremendous respect for and fear of God, so to purposely make changes in the copies would run completely counter to their character.
        • In fact, here’s a quote from Bart Ehrman that’s astounding because he is NOT a supporter of Christianity, in fact he’s been very critical of it, but he’s an expert on ancient textual analysis, and he says this…
        • “It is probably safe to say that the copying process of early Christian texts was by and large a conservative process.  The scribes were intent on conserving the textual tradition they were passing on.  Their ultimate concern was not to modify the tradition, but to preserve it for themselves and for those who would follow them.  Most scribes, no doubt, tried to do a faithful job in making sure that the text they reproduced was the same text they inherited.”  [Misquoting Jesus]

3.  The Copies were Written Down Carefully and Passed Down Multiple Lines

• In a game of telephone, the message from the original speaker is passed down one line of people.  So if you have 10 people playing the game, that’s one line of 10 people.  Even if you made the game bigger and had 100 people playing, that message is still only being transmitted down one line of people, it’s just a longer line.  Now, the truth is the more people you get involved in this one line, the more risk of mistakes being made.  So even if you wrote the message down instead of whispering it, and even if the stakes were high and you’d fail your class if the message changed, if you had 100 people, there’s a chance that maybe 1 person in that group accidentally copies it wrong and misses a letter, so the message changes from “I like to read books,” to “I like to read a book.”  So it’s different from the original message, but very similar in meaning.  Yet they would still fail the class because the message changed.
  • But what if there were 9 other groups of 100 students playing the same game using the same message.  Now, the message “I like to read books,” is not just being passed down one single line of people.  It’s being passed down 10 separate lines of people.
    • So now the responsibility for preserving the original message does not lay with one group, but with 10 groups.  Which means one group might end up with the wrong message at the end and it says, “I like to read a book,” but what if the 9 other groups ended up with the message, “I like to read books.”  What would you determine was probably the original message?  It’s the message the 9 groups ended up with.  It gives you 9 other points of comparison to use for cross reference.
      • So having multiple lines of people is an added layer of protection against errors in the copies.
      • Acts 15:21 - There were copies of Old Testament writings by Moses found in Jewish synagogues in almost every major city.  That’s because there wasn’t just one group of people in one city making copies; there were hundreds of lines of people in different cities transmitting copies of God’s word.  The same was true of the New Testament writings, which we saw in Colossians 4:16 where Paul wrote about churches making copies of his letters and sending them to other churches in different cities.
        • In technical terms, this is what’s called a free transmission of the text vs. a controlled transmission.  A controlled transmission means there’s only one group responsible both for making copies and correcting copies from other groups.  While that may sound like a safer way to preserve accuracy in the copies, it’s a dangerous way to do it.  Because in a controlled transmission where one group is in charge of all the copies 1) you’ll have less copies for cross referencing, so if this group messes it up, it’s hard to tell because you don’t have many other copies to compare it to.  2) The group controlling the transmission process could become corrupt and they could intentionally change the document and insert their own additions or make subtractions to suit their agendas and nobody would ever know.  3) Even if they weren’t corrupt or biased, we’d still have to blindly trust that they got it right since there’s no other groups to compare their copies with.  4) Since there are fewer copies, and they’re all stored in one place, there’s a much greater risk of them being lost or stolen or destroyed.
          • But a free transmission means copies are made by different people in different places at different times completely independently from each other and from any ruling group over them, which means there’s WAY more copies to allow for cross-checking, and if one of those groups happens to be corrupt or bias, it’s very easy to catch the changes they made because we’ve got thousands of other copies from other groups who didn’t make those changes.  And if one group of copies gets stolen or burned in a fire in one city, it’s okay because there are still thousand of other copies preserved in other parts of the world.  The Bible is a free transmission text!
            • And I mentioned earlier that Islam claims the New Testament documents have been corrupted from the originals.  But first of all, no one has the originals, so how can they say what we have now isn’t like the originals?  We just have to take their word for it.  Secondly, it’s ironic because the Koran, unlike the Bible, was copied through a controlled transmission process.  And in 650 AD, the religious leader of Islam, Caliph Uthman, standardized the Koran by making one official version of the text, and then he destroyed all the other copies.  Now, I’m not saying that proves his copy was inaccurate, but I’m saying it’s impossible now to know if it was accurate, and again we’re left with just taking their word for it.  The Bible was NOT treated that way, it was a free transmission so we don’t have to take any one particular person’s word for it, we’ve got thousands of copies from so many different people to cross check between!

4.  The Copies were Written Down Carefully, Passed Down Multiple Lines, and Translated Directly from the Original Language

• So let me ruin the game of telephone again.  Instead of the original person writing down the message and passing it to the next person, then the next person passes to the next person and so on, what if the original person gave their message directly to each person separately?
  • So the original person writes down the message and gives it directly to the second person, then they write it down again, and give it directly to the third person, and so on, until they give it directly to the last person.  So now everyone, including the last person got the message straight from the source, instead of it being filtered through the 9 or 99 people before them.  Again, that’d be a terrible game and wouldn’t be any fun because it’s too easy!
    • But that’s what it’s like when the Bible was translated into different languages.  It wasn’t like our earlier picture of the original Hebrew and Greek languages being translated through 10 other languages before getting to English.  Instead, the Greek was translated directly into Latin.  Then the Greek was translated directly into Syriac.  Then the Greek is translated directly into Coptic, and so on, and yes the Greek was also translated directly into English.
      • • And the awesome thing is, we still have thousands of Greek copies against which to check our English translations!  So when we started in 1 Peter 1 about how the word of God endures forever, if we have any question whether that English translation is accurate, we can go right back to the source and cross check it with the Greek!
          • Here’s the same passage in the original Greek language, and you can go through and compare to see if the translation is accurate!  Now, someone might ask, “But if we have copies in the original language to compare with, how come there are so many different English versions and they all word things differently?”  Well, it’s because some English translations try to translate it word for word for maximum accuracy whereas others translate it thought for thought for maximum readability.  If you translate word for word, it can be harder and more unnatural to read.  For instance, if I were to say “I’m 38 years old” in Spanish, it’s “Tengo treinta y ocho anos.”  If I were to translate the Spanish back to English word for word, it’s “I have 38 years.”  So word for word is an odd way to translate it because we don’t talk like that in English.  If someone asks, “How old are you,” you don’t respond by telling them how many years you have.  So a more understandable way would be to translate the thought, and say, “How do they express the same thought in English?”  The same thing is true with translating the Bible from Greek to English.  But even though the wording may be slightly different in our English translations, the meaning is pretty much the same.
            • 1 Peter 1:25 NASB
            • 1 Peter 1:25 NLT - So it says “remain” instead of “endure,” but those words mean the same thing.  Same with “that” and “which.”  And here the word “preached” in the original Greek means “to bring good news,” so the NLT just added that nuance into their translation.  But there’s nothing lost in the differences between those translations at all.

5.  The Copies were Written Down Carefully, Passed Down Multiple Lines, Translated Directly from the Original Language, and Copied More than any Document in History

• Think back to the point I made earlier about multiple lines of people.  That gives you 9 other lines of 100 people to compare your answer to, and helps you realize that your group messed up.  But what if in this game of telephone, you didn’t just have 9 other groups of 100, but 49 other groups of 100?  Well now, there’s a total of 50 final answers to compare with, which makes it even easier to figure out if your final copy was accurate.
  • But let’s take it even further, because you don’t just have the writings of the 50 LAST people in all the groups.  You have the writings of all 100 people in each of the 50 groups, which means you now have 5,000 documents where people were attempting to copy the message, “I like to read books.”  100 from your group, and 4900 from the rest.  But, with more people involved, there’s more chance for errors to creep in, so out of the 5000 total documents, let’s say 1000 of them wrote, “I like to read a book.”  It’s not the correct answer, but it’s close.  Let’s say another 500 added an apostrophe D to make it “I’d like to read books.”  Still not correct.  But then the majority of them, 3500 have the correct answer, “I like to read books.”  Since that’s by FAR the majority translation, we can usually assume that’s the correct one.  BUT it’s possible the majority got it wrong, and the cool thing is, we actually know which order those documents were written in based on where people were sitting, so we can go back and compare our final answer to the earliest copies that were made, which is going to much more reliable than the later copies because they’re closer to the original.  What’s more, if the final answer for one group is different than all the others, we can examine all the written notes from that group and track down exactly WHEN the mistake was made.  You can see, “Hey this message changed with the 23rd person,” and then that mistake was found in all the copies after it because they were copying the guy who messed it up!  And then maybe the 91st person makes a mistake and it changes again.
    • But do you see how mistakes like these aren’t a big deal because 1) we have all these copies so we can actually tell exactly what the mistakes are and 2) when the message changes, it still doesn’t change the basic meaning.
• This is what’s it like with the Bible.  Because for just the New Testament alone, we have 5,700 manuscripts which are copies made in the original Greek language.  Just to give you some perspective about how amazing and borderline miraculous that is, the ancient work that comes in second place for the most surviving manuscripts is Homer’s Illiad, and it only has 1800.  But then if we include copies of the New Testament translated into different languages, now we have 23,000 copies!
  • Textual scholar FF Bruce:  “There is no body of ancient literature in the world that enjoys such a wealth of textual attestation as the New Testament.”  For the Old Testament, there are around 1500 manuscripts, and thousands more in other languages.
  • And there’s an entire field called textual criticism where scholars survey the thousands of copies we have of ancient manuscripts and use them to re-construct the original.  Because just like in our analogy, they can trace any and all mistakes between the copies and when those mistakes were made.
    • John 7:53 - This is the start to the story about Jesus dealing with the woman caught in adultery.  It’s the famous passage where He says, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”  If your Bible is like mine, you may have a bracket at the start of this verse, or maybe a star or number or special marking of some kind, and then you may have the other half of the bracket or another special marking at the end of 8:11.  If your Bible has footnotes, you may see a note that says, “Later mss or manuscripts added this story.”  That’s because textual scholars, even Christian textual scholars, know for a fact that this section was NOT in the original text of John.  It was in a lot of later copies of John, but it wasn’t found in the earliest copies, which were closer to the original.  Now, I don’t doubt that this story actually happened, but it’s not part of John’s original gospel, and I realize that may make some Christians uncomfortable that something could be in the Bible that wasn’t original to it, but actually it’s the perfect demonstration that because we have so many thousands of copies, we can know exactly what was added or taken away from the original.  Having so many manuscripts gives us the ability to know with nearly 100% certainty what the original documents said.
      • Theology professor Norman Geisler put it this way:  “There are more early manuscripts of the Bible than of any other book in the ancient world. If we reject the Bible’s reliability, we must also reject every other ancient work of literature.”
        • In other words, if we believe the Bible was lost in translation, we have to believe every other book in history was lost in translation too.
        • And let me finish with this, because sometimes skeptics will point out how many errors there are in the copies.  In fact, there are over 400,000 errors, because again, not everyone making copies were professional scribes.  But it’s important to remember most errors in the copies are not like John 7 where there’s an entire passage added.  And even in that case, there’s nothing in John 7 that drastically changes the meaning of the Bible or makes us think differently about Jesus.  But most errors are simple word transpositions like Jesus Christ instead of Christ Jesus.  Or minor spelling errors.  And the numbers are inflated because if one minor spelling error or word transposition gets copied 1000 times, it’s not counted as one error, it’s counted as a thousand.  So overall, there may only be 400 errors, but if they’re each copied 1000 times, that’s 400,000 errors.  It sounds terrible to hear there’s 400,000 errors, like it proves we can’t trust the Bible.  But…
          • Bart Ehrman, again a strong critic of Christianity and a textual scholar said this:  “The vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of textual differences among our manuscripts are completely insignificant, immaterial, and uninteresting... Most of the changes are simply spelling differences.”
• All in all, there are about 40 verses in the New Testament with errors that change the meaning of the text.  But considering the fact that there are nearly 8,000 verses in the New Testament, that’s only .05% that’s problematic.  And none of those problem verses are detrimental to our understanding of God or damaging to our faith in any way.  And what it means is that across thousands of independent, freely transmitted copies, there’s 99.5% agreement!  That is beyond astounding, and borderline miraculous!
• Sir Frederic Kenyon, classical and Biblical scholar, and former director of the British Museum: “The Christian can take the whole Bible in his hand and say without fear or hesitation that he holds in it the true word of God, handed down without essential loss from generation to generation throughout the centuries.”   
  • The apostle Peter was right:  the word of the Lord endures forever, and if he was right about that, he was also right that it’s life changing.