Speaker:
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Bibelglimt med mediepastor
i P7, Ingvald Korve.
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8, verse 35.
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Then Philip took the word.
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He began with this scripture, and
proclaimed the gospel of Jesus to him.
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At the beginning of a new
year, many people come up
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with a new Bible reading plan.
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Maybe they've made a decision
that this year they're going
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to set some specific goals.
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It could be to read the
whole Bible in one year.
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It could be that I'll spend a lot
of time on some parts of the Bible.
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I don't know what your Bible
reading routine is, and what you're
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thinking about this new year,
and where you can read the most.
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But I think a lot of people
can get into this experience.
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Especially if you start spending
more time on parts of the Bible that
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have previously been little read.
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That you don't have a
lot of knowledge about.
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Then it can be pretty heavy.
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Today's text is a text that is about
someone named Laz in the Bible.
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There was an Ethiopian hoffman.
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He had been to Jerusalem to offer.
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He clearly believed in God.
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And now he's in his wagon, on his
way back to Ethiopia, reading.
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And he's reading from Isaiah, chapter 53.
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He's reading as if he's being led
to slaughter, like a lamb that's
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being cut when it's being cut.
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And then Philip comes up to Sio.
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On the side of the wagon, he asks, Do
you understand what you're reading?
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And this Ethiopian shepherd
replies, How can I read that,
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when no one is teaching me?
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He needed help.
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He needed some keys that
could unlock the text for him.
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And so it's like today's Bible verse.
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There is a Bible verse about exactly
that key that Philip puts into the lock,
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and that he is given, so that the Bible
becomes open to the Ethiopian prince.
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If we read the New Testament, we
can see that the New Testament is
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full of Old Testament references.
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Side up and side down.
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There can be references
to specific quotes.
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There can be allusions, so that
it's a bit below the surface.
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And then there can be something
that's called echo, where you just
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faintly, faintly, faintly hear
a dissonance of something that
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was written in the Old Testament.
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Yes, the New Testament is a
copy of the Old Testament.
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And at the same time, there is another
thing that the New Testament is a copy of.
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And that is the apostles conviction
that Jesus is the one that the
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Old Testament points towards.
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He is the goal of this story.
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He is, in many ways, the light
that lights up the whole story.
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Have you ever gone back and seen a
movie, or read a book, a second time?
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The first time you read a story, or watch
a movie, or a TV series, or whatever it
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might be, then it might be that you have
some thoughts about where things are going
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to happen, who are the good guys, who are
the bad guys, and you have these thoughts
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about where things are going to end.
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But then, it's not always that your
thoughts become As the series progresses.
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Then you come to the conclusion,
and the bag is crumpled together,
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and you get an accurate answer
that this is what it's all about.
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My point is, if you then go back to
the same story, to the same book, to
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the same movie, to the same series,
and then you have with you in your
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backpack that you know where everything
ends, you know where this story is
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going, you know where it's going.
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Yes, I'll give you something with which
you can read and understand everything
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that happens before the solution comes.
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My point is, we know where the story ends.
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If you start in 1st Moses
chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3.
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If you read the lamentations in
Isaiah, in the book of Psalms
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or the Psalms of Solomon.
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No matter where you read in the Bible, we
know what is the great story in the Bible.
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Amen.
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Namely, the story of God who created
this world, and who sent his Son,
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Jesus Christ, to save man from our sin.
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Our sin, which we ourselves are guilty of.
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It is the story of God's plan
of salvation, which he plans,
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which he fulfills, and which he,
in glory and in eternity, will
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let spring forth in full bloom.
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It is the story of God's
salvation in Jesus.
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And that is my second point,
connected to the New Testament.
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Yes, there is a part of the Old
Testament, but there is also
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a part of the consciousness
that Jesus is the main person.
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He is, as Christians throughout
history have called, the core of
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Scripture, and the star of Scripture.
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The point is,
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When Philip now stands face to face
with an Ethiopian priest, it is in that
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direction that Philip will draw his gaze.
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He will help him to see that
when he stood in Isaiah 53, it
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was not primarily about Isaiah.
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It was not just an isolated
story about something that
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happened a long, long time ago.
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No, it was a part of God's great
story that was not in the good news.
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Jesus Christ.
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This is the big story
line for you as well.
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You who read the Bible.
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There can be a lot that is
difficult to understand.
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There can be many texts that
we have questions about.
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What does this mean?
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What did the authors really mean?
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But it can often be of great help
to have the big picture with you.
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Look at the text you have in
front of you, which is a puzzle
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game, in the great puzzle game,
which puzzles Jesus Christ for us.
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Let him be the one that all Bible
texts have been waiting for.
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For he is the core and
star of the scripture.
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Han er den store.
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Which has come, and which
we believe will come again.
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Let's read the verse one more time.
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Acts chapter 8, verse 35.
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Then Philip took the word.
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He began with this scripture, and
proclaimed the gospel of Jesus for him.