 Just waiting for the recording to start. Welcome back everybody. There's our second lecture today on BC 106 interpreting scripture. We're at this moment on another difficult topic which is seeming contradictions in the gospel accounts. Now there are several examples we can look at we just mentioned one about the demonic of Gadar and we look at a few others. So how do we explain how do we respond to somebody who says you know look this is a contradiction because Matthew says there are two people. Two people, Mark and Luke says there's one demon possessed man and so you could say look there is no contradiction because the focus of the gospel writer is different. So Mark and Luke could have focused on the one demon possessed man who was more vocal in that whole interaction. So if we reconstruct what actually happened in the incident we could say this that there were two people for demon possessed living there. So when Jesus came both these demon possessed men came but there was one who was the most vocal the most expressive and so Mark and Luke are recording that what the whole interaction between Jesus and the exchange between Jesus and that one man but the whole story is about two demon possessed men being delivered and of course the rest of the story is all the same the demons went into the swine the swine ran into the river or the sea and drowned. So it's all the same but the emphasis the focus is on Mark and Luke focus on the man the one man who was vocal who was expressive in his exchange whereas Matthew just mentions two of them and summarizes the exchange. So there is no contradiction there is no need to think it's a contradiction it's just the way it's been reported. So like this there will be different examples and I'll just quickly address you know what John pointed out which is one again one example you know so when you look at the gospel accounts of the cross of the crucifixion for instance there can be apparent differences and I'll discover two birds with one stone which is the other instance which I did want to mention was about what exactly was written on the cross. So if you look at the gospel account so I'll just put that also there so I can address both along with John's question and I will come to Brother Manoer's question. If you look at the gospel accounts you know what was written on the cross Matthew says one thing Mark Luke they all give a different thing right so okay so I say look look at look at look at this this is all different you know which one is correct you know this is Jesus the king of the Jews the king of the Jews this is the king of the Jews. Jesus of Nazareth the king of the Jews now somebody wants to pick on it they can pick on it and argue but then we also understand that you know Luke tells us that the inscription was written in three languages Greek Latin and Hebrew so Luke records it says look what was written on the cross was written in three languages Greek Latin Hebrew so each biographer each person Matthew Mark Luke and John is emphasizing something different you know and so we don't need to see this as a contradiction but each one is highlighting something from whatever they were looking at whether it was the Greek or the Latin or the Hebrew so the essence of these four gospels saying what was written is not contradictory but it's just resenting the same thing from a different aspect and the summation of it when you put it all together you can say well what was written was Jesus of this is Jesus of Nazareth the king of the Jews so Jesus of Nazareth telling us who this man is where he came from because that's how they would identify people this is so and so who came from this place so this is Jesus of Nazareth and then what was this the reason for his punishment the reason for his crucifixion he claimed to be the king of the Jews so there absolutely no contradiction it is all fine even though the way it is put down there is different because it was in three languages each one may have stated some part of it or something in full the four gospel writers are not contradicting each other they just giving one aspect of what they saw and if you want to sum it up we understand that the way the the sign was put was identify who the person is this is Jesus of Nazareth identify his crime he claimed to be the king of the Jews so Jesus of Nazareth the king of the Jews that's what was written very simple so in connection to the crucifixion is the question that John also has shared where you know Matthew writes something and John writes something and this has to do in relationship to the Saba wine that was presented to Jesus on a sponge at the time when he said I thirst when he was in pain and agony so again there is no contradiction here because Matthew says that he tasted but he didn't drink so obviously you know you can imagine Jesus on the cross he says I thirst maybe he was expecting somebody to give him water now the only way you can get water up to that person that is to put on a sponge and give it so um you know so they the soldier you know that he used a long read with a sponge and burned it up to the mouth of Jesus so Jesus okay expected it to be water so he was ready to taste it but when he tasted it he realized this was not water but this was something else he refused to drink it that means the normal reaction would be he would draw out of the sponge everything that the sponge contained he just tasted it and he refused whereas John records it as saying he received the Saba wine so for John the fact that Jesus tasted it he thought that okay yeah he tasted it maybe that's all he wanted so he said he received the Saba wine but Matthew is a little bit more specific saying he tasted but he didn't take the whole thing so it's not a contradiction it's just telling us what happened and how these two people perceived it right Matthew recognizes Jesus tasted it but didn't drink the whole thing John says yeah he he received it and maybe that's all he wanted and then he died gave up the ghost so how do we understand it well you reconstruct what happened the sponge came to his mouth he tasted it people some people may have thought he drunk what he took what he wanted or he just wanted to quench his thirst or whatever but Matthew kind of understood that Jesus was not going to taste anymore he he said he rejected it but some people may have thought he had what he wanted and so that's why uh they you know they presented it differently so our conclusion is he didn't drink everything that was in the sponge but he did taste it and why didn't he want to drink everything on the sponge maybe he didn't like the taste of it maybe that's not what he wanted maybe he didn't want to be he didn't feel that would quench his thirst maybe he didn't you know there could be so many reasons the Bible isn't stated so anything we say would just be speculation but we know what happened we know the sequence of events of what happened why he didn't take the whole sponge that's just anybody's guess yeah we we can't say it with absolute certainty why he didn't take the whole sponge does it answer your question john yes mr yes yes thank you thank you so so like this there are a couple of other you know things we just quickly mentioned but let me answer uh by the man who is question here he refers to John 15 16 where Jesus says you know whatever you ask the father in my name he may give you yeah so Jesus taught us to pray and you find this in John 14 verse 13 John 15 or 16 John 16 23 and 24 where Jesus taught us he says when you pray you use my name in John 15 16 John 16 23 24 Jesus you ask the father in my name in John 14 13 he just says whatever you ask in my name he doesn't mention ask the father he says whatever you ask in my name I will do it so what how do we interpret this well we understand that we can pray to the father in the name we pray to the father in the name of Jesus but remember the bible is not about law the bible is about relationship so there's nothing wrong in saying Lord Jesus touch this person oh Lord Jesus we invite you to heal there's nothing wrong or nothing wrong in saying holy spirit come and touch this person or say father I ask you the name of Jesus now that's the way he taught us to pray that's what we do but it doesn't mean that that's the only syntax in prayer you know if you want to be very specific that he taught us to pray so we pray father I ask you in the name of Jesus but does it mean I could not say Lord Jesus please do this oh Lord Jesus you know because he did say in John 14 13 whatever you ask in my name I'll do it he didn't say whom to just what we ask in my name I'll do it so you know we don't want to become law-based we want to be relationship-based and follow the instructions well we follow the instructions given to us in scripture now definitely we know we can't pray to a saint don't pray to somebody else but in our prayer to the godhead to the father the son the holy spirit you know there is that room there is space because of relationship the norm is pray to the father the name of Jesus we would all pray to the father I ask you in the name of Jesus you know do this or please provide or do this that's that's the norm but it's not a sin that you say Lord Jesus I ask you or holy spirit I ask you it's not not sin or something is that okay thank you okay thank you all right so maybe we can just look at you know a couple other maybe two other things so in some cases in the gospel it is referring to two different incidents you know so for instance in Matthew and in John in Matthew talks about the Centurion John talks about the nobleman right now these are two different situations and it's very clear right it's because in Matthew although there is similarity okay it looks like it's a similar incident there are similarities between the two incidents but there is actually these are two different instances why you can easily say one was a Centurion one was a nobleman the Centurion came on behalf of his servant the nobleman came on behalf of his son the Centurion did not say come to my house and heal him he just said speak the word the nobleman's request was please come to my house so the request was different but Jesus just spoke the word and sent him back the Centurion was the location where it happened was different in the Centurion's case Jesus came to Capernaum in the nobleman's case he was in Kena let me just make sure I got that right I think he was in Kena chapter 4 in the nobleman's case okay so um yeah so Jesus was in Kena of this is John 446 right so Jesus was in Kena and the nobleman came from Capernaum right so the location is also different right so there is similarity in that in both cases you just spoke the word but there are also differences so here we say the Centurion the the miracle with the Centurion the miracle with the nobleman these are two different instances or incidents although there there seems to be similarity if you get into the details you will find that there are differences similarly uh there are there are two people who anointed the feet of Jesus and this is one last last one that we'll talk about in in what are seemingly contradictions in the gospels all these are in the notes I will give you the pdf maybe in a week or two once we finish um I'm just okay we're just discussing this so we find that there are two people who anointed the feet of Jesus one is in John 12 one is in Matthew 26 the anointing of the feet of Jesus with the oil there it looks very similar or the people who came in pray it looks very similar but if you look closely into the story you find that two different people and you find that one happened one was Mary who was the brother of Lazarus who had been raised from the dead the other was from uh was an unknown person unknown woman we don't know her name is not there but Jesus said the story will be repeated wherever the gospel is preached one happened in the house of Lazarus and it happened six days before the Passover the unknown woman's incident happened in the house of Simon the leper and happened two days before the Passover so when you read the story or these stories in John and Matthew and Mark uh it seems like hey it's the same thing but if you look at it very carefully both happened in Bethany but there were different people involved the location was different meaning whose house one was in the house of Lazarus one was in the house of Simon the number of days before the Passover was different one was six days one was two days and it was in the case of the woman who came to the house of Simon in Mark's gospel the Jesus said wherever the gospel is preached this story will be told right so uh this is an example where it seems very similar right what happened the anointing of the feet of Jesus seems similar but when you get into the details the details tell us that these are two separate incidents okay so uh what I want to present is in the gospels if anybody says you know how do you explain this or how why is there this difference just look carefully at the details and you know if we analyze it we will see that there is no contradiction but the gospel writers are presenting a different perspective of the same incident or some cases like we mentioned the incidents are actually different incidents even though there seems to be similar or it seems similar but there are actually different incidents and therefore there is no contradiction okay everybody with me so far right so I'm just touching on different topics so first we talked about is Jesus God then we talked about today we talked about the Trinity then thirdly we talked about you know the gospel accounts where it seems you know how do we how do we understand the certain stories which are there or incidents that are there sometimes they some people say it's contradicting or wrong no we have to understand it as uh as the gospel writers are putting it to us okay fine uh so I'm going to I'm going to change topic all right and if you have any questions you know you can always uh bring it up now there are some statements that Jesus made which are quite difficult to understand one is and we will talk about two today before we close one is this passage in John chapter 19 verse 8 to 12 so if we go to John 19 8 to 12 it's a difficult passage because it's all how do we understand what Jesus is saying okay could somebody read this passage for us and then we will write explain it John 19 8 to 12 please John 19 8 to 12 time to read it please John chapter 19 verse 12 am I right pastor 8 to 12 yeah 8 to 12 when Pilate heard this he was more frightened than ever he took Jesus back into the headquarters again and asked him where are you from but Jesus gave no answer why don't you talk to me Pilate demanded don't you realize that I have the power to release you or crucify you then Jesus said you would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above so the one who handed me over to you has the greatest sin then Pilate tried to release him but the Jewish leader shouted if you release this man you are no friend of Caesar anyone who declares himself a king is at his will against Caesar okay thank you so that the statement of Jesus in verse 11 is sometimes a question you know challenging statement you know trying to understand it Jesus is saying he's telling Pilate Pilate see you could have no power against me unless it had been given to you from above so obviously Jesus recognizing that the reason this man is in this place is because God has loved that to happen right as Daniel chapter 4 says it's God who sets up kings he raises up one he puts down another it's God who is in control of those that leadership so he's saying you could have no power against me unless it has been given to you from above the next part of that verse is very difficult therefore the one who delivered me to you has the greatest sin what did Jesus mean by that how do we understand it whom is he referring to the one who delivered me to you has the greatest sin what do you think what what does Jesus mean by that anyone just just say your thoughts so how do we interpret the statement you know because the first part of verse 11 he's saying you could have no power against me unless it had been given to you from above so he's acknowledging what God the Father did but then the second part the one who delivered me to you has the greatest sin how do we understand that can God sin and if God has sinned then God cannot be God so how do we understand the second part of the scripture because yeah so what we must do is this remember all scripture must be interpreted in the light of the rest of scripture so Jesus is saying see pilot you could have no power against me unless it was given to you from above full stop one sentence therefore i want you to know the one who delivered me to you has the greatest sin that means you are not the chief sinner in this whole matter why because you're there in that position because God put you there so this sin is not in your account somebody else is responsible who is responsible who's going to be held great in greater judgment for this not you because you're there because God put you there but the one who delivered me to you so the therefore is not saying God is responsible but the therefore is telling us that that the one who delivered me to you so Judas was literally the one but he was moved by the Jewish high priest so they have the greatest sin not pilot pilot is going to hand over Jesus to the Jews but it's not his he's not going to be now he could have done something but this wrongdoing is not on his hands of people who delivered because pilot you are in your place because goddess let you be there but the people who have brought me here there is the greatest yeah see by the man who is then choose did we all understand it okay so because we have to interpret this in the light of the scripture right can God sin God cannot sin so obviously it's not God is the greatest sinner now but what's he's saying he's saying look pilot you are there because God put you there you have to make a decision but this is not your decision it's the people who brought me the Jewish high priest and through Judas of course they have brought me here theirs is the greatest sin okay so this is difficult worse but if we break it down and try to look at it and understand it then we can interpret it correctly so let's do just one more and in this you know so in in in John chapter 20 Jesus made another statement so this is the next chapter John 20 and he made the statement which is quite quite challenging John chapter 20 and verse 23 Jesus appears to his disciples the apostles they're there they saw the Lord he says peace to you and he shows himself alive and he says as a father sent me I'm sending you he breathed on them received the Holy Spirit and John 20 verse 23 he says if you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven them if you retain the sins of any they are retained whoa what does this mean does it mean that the apostles are authorized to forgive sins I mean what does John 20 23 mean because Jesus told them if you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven and if you retain the sins of any they are retained how should we understand this worse because it's a difficult difficult words to understand you know how do we interpret it can somebody just feel free to share your thoughts it's no right or wrong just just you can you can how do we understand John 20 and verse 23 anyone so let's think about this together every scripture has to be interpreted in in alignment to the rest of scripture that means from Genesis Revelation that's the context so that's how we should interpret John 20 23 okay we cannot take one verse and create a doctrine out of it that would be wrong we learned that so we have to ask the right questions is it is any human person authorized to forgive sin is any human person other than the Lord Jesus Christ other than God God is any human authorized to forgive sin first question so based on the Bible we can say based on the rest of scripture we can say no no human person is authorized to forgive sin no human person so we cannot use John 20 23 and interpreted that well the 11 disciples or apostles can forgive sin that would be contradicting scripture because even the apostles are human people even the apostles are sinners right so we cannot take John 20 23 and interpret it saying the apostles can forgive sins first question second how did the people who heard this understand it remember we talked about context what did it mean to the hearers do did the apostles go around forgiving sins of people and saying I forgive you your sins did they do that did they practice that you know did Peter and James and John did they go around you know standing at the temple and saying I forgive you your sin your sins are forgiven did they practice that in the New Testament they did not when we come into the book of Acts you don't find Peter or James or you know any of the 11 and the 12 later 12 apostles forgiving sins of people you don't find them doing that right so first in the light of scripture we know no human person other than God and Jesus can forgive sin second the apostles didn't go around forgiving sins of people third what does the New Testament teach the New Testament teaches us that sins are forgiven through the cleansing of the blood of Jesus right that's the only way that the only way we all have our sins forgiven is through the cleansing of the blood of Jesus no other way no apostle can forgive so so then how should we understand John 20 verse 23 how do we interpret it we have to interpret it in the light of the rest of scripture so we are looking at the rest of scripture what does the rest of scripture teach very clearly only God can forgive sins the apostles did not apostles did not practice forgiving sins of people the New Testament teaches only the blood of Jesus can forgive sins so what is John 20 20 how should it be interpreted well the correct way to interpret and I see Collins comment also is that we in the context here what is the context John 20 21 22 what is the context the context is I'm sending you empowered by the Holy Spirit right as my father sent me I'm sending you empowered by the Spirit to do what to preach the gospel that's the context the context is as my father sent me I'm sending you to do what to represent Jesus to proclaim the good news of Jesus now you take the other gospels he sent them to preach the gospel to go make disciples so that's the context as my father sent me I'm sending you the Holy Spirit is with you to do what to go proclaim the gospel so John 20 23 must be interpreted and understood in that context that the apostles and from the apostle all of us we can proclaim the gospel to people and the people after hearing the gospel can receive forgiveness of sins if we choose not to proclaim the gospel we are actually preventing them from receiving forgiveness of sins so that's what it means here if you retain it means you are not sharing the gospel with them they can't have their sins forgiven they did there's no way for them right so John 20 23 must be understood like that that we have been authorized to go proclaim the gospel or represent Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit and through the proclamation the gospel people can receive cleansing for their sin or if we with the whole the proclamation of the gospel they will not receive they won't be able to receive cleansing for sin because they they don't hear about Jesus Christ is that okay many questions yeah so we shouldn't use John 20 23 to say that if you are an apostle you're authorized to forgive people sins no only God can forgive right we don't have the authority to do that yeah we can only proclaim the gospel and through the preaching of the gospel people can receive forgiveness for their sins any questions I see Colin's comment there you all with me so far is it clear yeah Colin I see I see your comment I see see the comments of people yeah okay right fine okay all right okay now I want us to understand or discuss three days and three nights three days and three nights so this is again a challenging question and maybe we'll continue it next week but I will just present the question to us today maybe you can think about it also Jesus said that he would be dead three days three nights said as Jonah was in the belly of the whale right uh right there's a Matthew 12 verse 40 Matthew 12 verse 40 maybe I'll just share the scripture here no let me just put this scripture here I guess for you to think about this okay Matthew so here's the problem the problem is Jesus said as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth what did Jesus say three days and three nights and he compared to Jonah he said just like Jonah was in the belly of the fish so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth now somebody will ask us the question you celebrate good Friday then you celebrate resurrection on Sunday so Friday Saturday Sunday Friday night Saturday night Sunday morning Jesus throws up resurrection where is three days and three nights because Friday night Saturday night Sunday morning Sunday morning resurrection we know the first day of the week they go Mary Mary and the others they go they actually go expecting to annoying Jesus so it's not three days three nights how to explain that okay any thoughts we will continue this we will pick this up next class but I want to just present the question to us any thoughts maybe you you you may have the answer Colin please go ahead Pastor I don't know the validity of my argument but there is a book that I read I even have it in my personal library it says that the argument is comes on where actually when actually I think Jesus Christ was crucified if we are going to be historically correct Christ was crucified 1933 AD but 29 AD because when we look his birth date was not first AD or it was around 3rd or 4th AD and if we all agree that historically he was crucified on the 29th in the 29th AD it makes sense because when you read in the Judea name the early how do we call it early he uh early church history history in the first century when we look at Joseph first and other scholars we'll find that there was a special Sabbath on that in that very month I mean in that very year and that Sabbath was a Thursday Monday Saturday as we say so if I that is if that is correct that means that the the true crucifixion of Jesus Christ was not a Friday I would love to end it to their pastor that's good good very good thanks for sharing that so so true true so this is what Colin has shared is one of one of so we will look at two explanations two possible explanations right so what Colin has said is a very valid explanation that there was and we will we'll get into this next week okay but I'll just give a quick idea what Colin was sharing that there was so there is the weekly Sabbath which happens on a Saturday which the Jews practiced Saturday but there's also a high Sabbath which is not the weekly Sabbath but another day of that that was a day of preparation before the day of preparation for the Passover it's a high Sabbath it's like a feast day so one of the possible explanations to this three days and three nights is using the high Sabbath and John mentions John the Gospel writer John mentions high Sabbath so we will look into that the other possible explanation is to understand day and night that means the Jewish day and night so for us day and night is starts at 12 midnight and sorry morning six o'clock daybreak morning 6 a.m. day and goes on so day starts 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and then night but the Jewish day and night the day starts with the evening 6 p.m. cut off the next day begins so we can look at these two possible explanations I will explain it next week and we can understand then what Jesus meant when he said three days three nights okay so we look at both these explanations one that Colin shared and the other one is based on the Jewish day and night to understand what Jesus meant if we go by our literal Good Friday resurrection Sunday then you know we can't explain it but if you understand it from the Jewish perspective then it will make sense all right so we will do it next week take some time to think about it or if you want to do some research or reading you can do it but we will we'll see how to explain what Jesus said okay let's close for today thank you Colin for sharing Colin's for sharing let's close for today I hope you are finding these you know these difficult topics and things useful we have a few more to cover I want to cover some other things like you know about the gifts of the whole the gifts of the spirit can women teach the issue of head covering so some other passages which you know are you know people ask questions people people debate about it so I want to cover that before we finish okay so we'll see if we can finish up next week we'll try to do that okay let's let's close in prayer and then we will dismiss can somebody please pray with us and then we'll dismiss anyone can pray please father we come to the throne of grace lord thank you for this day we have given us lot lot as faster as she's taught us about interpreting the bible lot in the scriptures lot thank you for this course thank you for all the students who have been learning about this lot lot as we are learning lot correct us and give us understanding lot that we can understand each and every aspect of your world your true and living but lord thank you for this day you have given us lot thank you for all your mercies and blessings you have given us a lot in Jesus name we say amen amen thank you everyone for being on the class today I'll see you again next week God bless bye now