Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for January 8, 2012
Series in Mark
“Contemplate the evil at our core & the goodness from God” – Mark 9:1-13
Only 11 minutes and 39 seconds at the beginning of this audio file are available;
the rest is lost.
2 Peter 1:3
Discussion of Transfiguration is missing.
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for January 1, 2012
Guest speaker: Kevin Dodge
“Jesus conformed to the Law and transformed the Law” – Luke 2:21-39
Theophilus, to whom Luke wrote his gospel, was probably a Roman official. Because Rome was suspicious of anything new in religion, Luke was probably trying to show Theophilus in these verses that Christianity was something that grew out of the well established religion of Israel by showing that Jesus conformed to the Law of Moses in all He did and in all that was done to Him.
Eventually, however, Jesus will transform the Law into something else.
Genesis 17:1-14
Circumcision. Abraham was given a new name as a result of God’s covenant with him.
The Son of God also went from having the name Yahweh to having the name Jesus (Yahweh saves).
Circumcision was not unique to Judaism. It was widely practiced in the middle east. In Egypt we have drawings on caves that probably date back to about 4000 BC that show a circumcision being performed. There is Biblical evidence that all the nations surrounding Israel practiced circumcision.
Jeremiah 9:25 – “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “that I will punish all who are circumcised and yet uncircumcised — Egypt and Judah and Edom and the sons of Ammon and Moab and all those inhabiting the desert who clip the hair on their temples; for all the nations are uncircumcised and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart.”
God, in requiring circumcision on the eighth day, alters the custom of the middle east, which performed circumcision as a rite of passage into adulthood at age 13.
Jesus also changes circumcision from a circumcision of the flesh to a circumcision of the heart.
The eighth day turns up often in Luke.
Luke 9:28 – Luke, in differing with other gospels that have the sixth day, is putting a theological interpretation on the transfiguration that compares it to the transformation Jesus underwent when He was circumcised on the eighth day.
Jesus was resurrected on Sunday and the early church referred to this as the eighth day instead of the first day of the week because His resurrection fundamentally changed everything.
When Jesus ascended 40 days after His resurrection, the early church also refers to this as an eighth day.
Now regarding the name Jesus:
Jesus became a popular name because the Jews living in Babylon were having trouble keeping the people conformed to the Law and Jewish culture and Jewish mothers began naming their sons Jesus to reflect their hope that someday Yahweh would make things right. Jesus Christ answered their hopes by being the Jesus that would fulfill the hope that name represented. Jesus Christ transformed a common name by living an uncommon life, being the only man to live a sinless life and dying on the cross to provide salvation to all.
Likewise, when Jesus calls us into a relationship with Him, we cannot stay the same as we were. We must be transformed.
Galations 6:15
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for December 25, 2011
No class – Christmas Day
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for December 18, 2011
Christmas Message
“Yahweh Saves! / Immanuel!” – Matthew 1:18-23
The Name, Jesus, which is the Latin form of the Hebrew, Yeshua, was originally Yehoshua and centuries later was shortened. For translations of the Old Testament into English, it has been rendered as Joshua. It is associated with the holy name of God in the Old Testament where He is introduced to us as Yahweh which, alternatively can be pronounced Jahweh, from which has come the pronunciation, Jehovah. The letters in the Hebrew are the same, only pronounced in a different way.
Jesus’ name (Yeshua/Yehoshua) means “Yahweh saves.” Jesus pronounced according to Latin rules would be Yay-sus. The name was in common use in the first century AD and before.
Jesus was to be a savior of a particular kind. He is not meant to be, in this life, a savior from disease, bankruptcy, or danger or any other kind of physical trouble; but He is to be particularly a savior from our sins.
Naming Jesus is a fulfillment of a particular Old Testament prophetic teaching and promise. But in what way? His name means “Yahweh saves” but Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14 in which the child is called Immanuel, meaning “God with us.”
Isaiah 1:1-20
(Isaiah has been called the fifth gospel because it contains so many prophecies of the coming Savior.)
In these verses, Isaiah heaps great condemnation on Israel because of her unfaithfulness in sin.
Isaiah 59:1-8
“At the end of Isaiah’s prophecy, he is still overwhelmed as the Lord burdens his heart and gives him words to speak and to write about the sin, the transgression, the iniquity, the evil that characterizes the people that God has chosen as His own.”
“Our basic, fundamental problem is sin.” The Lord could say the same thing about us that He said of Israel.”
“All of the sorrows that humanity knows arises out of a world that is fallen and perverted by our most basic sickness, which is the sickness of sin.”
“So, when the angel appears to Joseph and tells him to name the child Jesus, he is telling him to name the child “Yahweh our Savior,” who will be with us as Immanuel to deal with the problem that is most fundamental and basic to us.”
“In other words, what the prophet is telling us and what the evangelist, Matthew, is telling us is that you are to name Him Jesus, for Yahweh, the God of Israel, will be with you for one basic, fundamental reason. In this life, it may not be to alleviate your sorrows and your heartaches, sickness or the grief of your friends turning their backs on you, or the agony of circumstances that repeat day after day after day. But what Matthew wants us to know is that God has become present with us in the baby born in Bethlehem who is named Jesus. He has become present with us to deal with that which is our great and unyielding enemy, our sins. He has delivered us and He has saved us from our sins. There isn’t a person in this room who has claimed the name of Jesus as his savior who, as Isaiah said in chapter one, has not been washed as clean as snow, who has not been forgiven their sins, removing them as far as the east is from the west, as far as the north is from the south. Their isn’t a person in this room who has claimed the name of Jesus as his savior, whose sins have not been washed away and has not arisen clean, forgiven, and purified in the eyes and sight of God. Because the baby whose birth we honor and remember this season is none other than the eternal Son of God who is by nature divine and who by nature is the Yahweh of the Old Testament, who has become present with us in His humanity and who is now present with us in the form of the indwelling of His Spirit, who has passed on to us deliverance from our sins. We may have to wait until the child returns in the glory of the heavens before we will know freedom from sickness and death and betrayal.”
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for December 11, 2011
Series in Mark
“Becoming a Faithful Disciple is a Process/Feeding of 4000” – Mark 8:1-21
“Mark, more than any other gospel, gives us a glimpse into the faithlessness of the disciples in relationship to the teaching and the miracles of Jesus. Despite witnessing all that Jesus has done thus far, they are still struggling with who Jesus is.”
Mark 8:17-21; 6:51-52; 7:17-18; 8:33; 9:9-10; 10:35; 14:37, 50, 66-68
It is wrong to “demand signs from He who has already manifested Himself to us. The problem is not with the insufficiency of God in providing information about Himself, but the problem is with us; we need our hearts remade. God has already shown us in Jesus Christ everything necessary for faith and Godliness.”
Luke 1:46-55, particularly verses 54-55
God is proved to be a keeper of promises.
Luke 1:68-74
“We don’t need any more signs, because God has already spoken to us in his prophets and, now, in these last days through His Son Jesus Christ; and He has already said to us everything that we need to know. We don’t need Him to part the Red Sea today; we don’t need Him to raise a dead person today; we don’t need Him to heal a sick person today. He does not need to do anything more today because He has already been shown to be faithful to what He has said through His prophets and His apostles and in these last days through His own Son Jesus Christ.”
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for December 4, 2011
Series in Mark
“Jesus teaches how He will suffer, die, and rise from the dead” – Mark 8:27-10:45
Martyr is best translated as “witness.” In early Christianity, witness was born by living as Jesus lived and dying in faith in Christ. For Christians, bearing witness was fundamentally the way in which we live with each other and with the world.
To tell only about the miraculous healings only tells half the story.
With Mark 8, a new phase of the gospel account begins.
Peter’s understanding of the term, Son of Man, is that of a powerful, victorious leader.
But Jesus presented Himself as suffering and dying. Peter then rebuked Jesus and Jesus then strongly rebuked Peter.
We must deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Jesus.
We are never more like Jesus than when we deny ourselves for each other.
Jesus is not only the King of Kings but the Man of sorrows.
Mark 9:30-35
Again, Jesus says that He will be betrayed and killed and will rise from the dead.
If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last and the servant of all.
Mark 10:32-34
Again Jesus tries to correct the disciples incorrect view of Him.
Mark 10:35-45
To be known as a disciple of Christ is to be servant of all.
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for November 27, 2011
Series in Mark
“Judgment comes before Salvation – Syrophoenician Woman – Decapolis” – Mark 7:24-37
Isaiah 35:1-10
God will come with vengeance and divine retribution and save you; then will the earth and our bodies be permanently healed.
Isaiah 34:1-4, 8-10
God’s judgment of the nations.
The heart of a human being is dark and perverted.
The Syrophoenician Woman asks Jesus to cast a demon from her daughter.
Jesus’ term for a dog was a domesticated dog.
God’s omnipresence means that God can accomplish anything in any place without having to be there.
It doesn’t matter what you are or where you are, Jesus can save you.
Jesus while in Decapolis heals a deaf and dumb man.
Jesus told the people He healed not to tell about it because it only tells half the story.
None of the healings He has done are permanent; it remains for the future for Isaiah 35 to be fulfilled.
Before Isaiah 35 is fulfilled, Isaiah 34 has to be fulfilled.
Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for November 20, 2011
Guest speaker: Kevin Dodge
“Foundation for the Inerrancy of the Scriptures” – 2 Timothy 3:16
2 Timothy, according to scholars, is the last thing that Paul wrote. He was in prison in Rome at the time.
2 Timothy 4:9-13
2 Timothy 3:1-5, 8-9
In the context of the inevitable persecutions, reliance on scripture becomes critically more important.
2 Timothy 3:10-17
The reason Timothy can trust the scriptures is that the people in his life who have handed down the scriptures to him are trustworthy.
2 Timothy 1:3
Paul praises the faith of Timothy’s grandmother, Lois, and mother, Eunice.
2 Timothy 3:16
Ultimately, you can trust scripture because all scripture comes from God.
In the same way that the Old Testament scriptures are validated by Paul in the above verses, we can apply the same reasoning to validate the New Testament scriptures as well. You have to start with faith in those who came before us to deliver the scriptures to us.
Throughout the history of the early church, everyone held to the doctrine of the inerrancy of scripture, even the heretics.
Clement of Rome – “You have searched the scriptures, which are true, which were given by the Holy Spirit. You know that nothing unrighteous or counterfeit is written in them.”
Irenaeus – “If, however, we cannot discover explanations of all those things in scripture which are made the subject of investigation, yet let us not on that account seek after any other god besides Him who really exists; for this is the greatest impiety. We should leave the things of that nature to God, who created us, being most properly assured that the scriptures were indeed perfect since they were spoken by the Word of God and His Spirit.”
Tertulian – “What is written cannot but have been.”
Origin – “We must in order to establish the positions which we have laid down adduce (offer as proof) the testimony of the holy scriptures, and this testimony may produce a sure and unhesitating belief either with regard to what we still have to advance or to what has already been stated.”
Hippolitus – “What then? Does the scripture speak falsely? God forbid!”
Cyprian – “For he labors thus because he believes, because he knows that what is foretold by God’s Word is true and that the holy scriptures cannot lie.”
Augustin – “For it seems to me that the most disastrous consequences must follow upon our believing that anything false is found in the sacred books; that is to say that the men by whom the scripture has been given to us and committed to writing did put down anything in these books that was false. It is one question whether it may be at any time the duty of a good man to deceive but it is another question whether it can have been the duty of a writer of holy scripture to deceive. Nay. It is not another question; it is no question at all.”
Anselm – “But remember with what condition I undertook to answer your inquiry visa vie that if I say anything not upheld by greater authority though I appear to demonstrate it, yet it should be received with no further certainty than as my opinion for the present until God makes some clear revelation to me; for I am sure that, if I say anything which plainly opposes the holy scriptures, it is false. And, if I am aware of it, I will no longer hold it.”
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for November 13, 2011
Series in Mark
“Uncleanness of the Heart makes a Man Unclean” – Mark 7:1-23
The monastics were engaged in a radical search for authenticity.
Rationale for the rise of monasticism: When Christians started becoming
complacent and focused on self-fulfillment in the ease of living in the era of
state-sanctioned Christianity, some sought, through self-imposed hardship, to
return to the Christ-centered focus, brought by the hardship of persecution
in earlier times.
Isaiah 29:13
Mark 7:20
It’s what comes out of a man that makes him unclean.
Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for November 6, 2011
Series in Mark
“Jesus: Lord God of the Exodus – Jesus Walks on Water” – Mark 6:45-52
“A hope deferred makes the heart sick.” – Proverbs 13:12
It also brings out what is in the heart.
Exodus 16:4-5 – The Lord provides bread.
Exodus 16:11-16 – The Lord provides meat.
Jesus, in feeding the 5000, showed Himself to be the Lord God who provided the bread & quail to the Israelites in the desert.
Psalm 78:29; 105:40 refer to the above passages in Exodus.
Mark 6:45-52
Jesus walks on water to the boat carrying the disciples and they are terrified.
Psalm 77:19 Isaiah 43:16
These passages each speak of the Lord making a path through the water.
Job 9:8 – “He alone spreads out the heavens and walks on the waves of the sea.”
Job 38:16
Jesus, in walking on the water, again declares Himself to be the Lord God.
Be content in Christ whether you have little or have much or whether you are in the midst of a storm or in the midst of calm.
