Sabbath School for Adults: Lesson 3: Jesus and the Apostles’ View of the Bible

  Tuesday April 14

Jesus and All Scripture

Read Luke 24:13–35, 44, 45. How does Jesus use the Scriptures to teach the disciples the gospel message?

After the death of Christ, His followers were confused and in doubt. How could this have happened? What did it mean? In this chapter of Luke, we see that Jesus appears to them twice, first to two who are on the road to Emmaus, and then to others later. On two separate occasions, Jesus explains how all has been fulfilled from the Old Testament prophecies: “And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself ” (Luke 24:27, RSV).
Again in Luke 24:44, 45, He says, “ ‘These are my words . . . that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled’ ” (RSV). Jesus then “opened their minds to understand the scriptures” (RSV).
Note the specific reference in Luke 24:27 to “all the scriptures.” This is reemphasized in the second passage as the “ ‘law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms’ ” (Luke 24:44, RSV). This establishes clearly that Jesus, the Word made flesh (John 1:1–3, 14), relies on the authority of Scripture to explain how these things were foretold hundreds of years earlier. By referring to the totality of Scripture, Jesus is teaching the disciples by example. As they go forth to spread the gospel message, they, too, were to expound all Scripture to bring understanding and power to the new converts throughout the world.
Notice, too, how in Matthew 28:18–20, Jesus says to His disciples then (and to us today) that “ ‘all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me’ ” (RSV). But that authority remains rooted in His Father and the entire Godhead, for He says to them, “ ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’ ” (RSV). Then comes the key passage: “ ‘teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you’ ” (RSV). What does Jesus teach and command? His teachings are based on all of Scripture. It is upon the prophetic authority of the Word that He came, and it is in fulfillment of the prophecies in Scripture that He submitted to His Father.

If Jesus accepts all of Scripture, why must we do the same? Again, how can we learn to accept the authority of all Scripture, even when we realize that not everything is still necessarily applicable to us today? Bring your answer to class on Sabbath.