The Science of Knowing God: Why Study Theology?
Pastor Fletcher preaches from 1 Timothy 4:16, kicking off our other summer sermon series about theology. Discussion points: We are told in scripture to keep watch on our theology or “the teachings”, our creator gives us meaning and purpose, theology fuels our love for God, theology strengthens us for life’s trials.
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Scripture reader: [1 Timothy 4:16] Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Preacher: All right, so I did long announcements, but I made up time in the, in the reading of scripture. that's not really what you wanna do typically as a church. Um. Today we're starting a series called Theology The Science of Knowing God, and this series is rather apt for our neighborhood. According to one Google search, Cambridge has more scientists per capita than any other city in the world. in fact, that single Google search that I did that I did not proof check or check or, fact check at all, but I just say it sounds right. 49% of Cambridge residents aged 25 and older have at least a bachelor's degree in science or engineering. Sounds right, OK, and Somerville in many ways is Cambridge extended. We are Camber-ville, it is now the bedroom community in many ways for Cambridge and many of us here work in the sciences, and we dedicate years of study to our field, but oftentimes those who dedicate years of study to their field might neglect to study. The very truth that lies behind our fields. That though we might understand protons and neutrons, we might not understand the God who created such protons, neutrons, quarks, or whatever else. That theology is actually the study of the foundation of reality.
If you want to understand the things you most appreciate, whether that be science or truth or love, beauty, goodness, or maybe even justice, if you wanna understand these things, you need to understand God because the reason why you appreciate such things is because you are made in His image. And he appreciates and loves goodness and truth and beauty, and he has created you to love and to seek goodness, truth and beauty.
Now I know that a series on theology isn't exciting to everyone. I know that some people in here right now are feeling intimidated. I know that some people in here right now are afraid that they might become bored over the next couple of weeks. Well, let me just assure you. That that's not my goal whether you have a a PhD from Harvard or you dropped out of high school, I think that this study is for you because as we study theology what we're doing is we're getting to study God we're getting to know him and that is the goal that we know God.
First Timothy 4:16 says this, keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by doing so you will save both yourself and your hearers. Let's just look at this first for a few moments. I think that this gives us huge reason where if we call ourselves Bible believing Christians here today, that we would see ourselves as needing to study theology. Because he tells us to keep a close watch on two different things. Keep a close watch on your life and the teaching. The teaching could also be translated doctrine, could also be translated theology. Keep a close watch on your life and your theology because theology is important. And this is a commandment, actually he doesn't just say keep a close watch on this. He says persist in this.
It's not something that you graduate from. I took 3 systematic theology classes in seminary. I'm not done. I still need to continue to persist to keep a close watch on my life and on my doctrine. This is a commandment with a promise. If you persist in watching your life and doctrine closely, what does this say will happen? For by doing so, you will save not just yourself but your hearers, but others. And so if you want to flourish in your faith. You have to watch your life and doctrine closely. And if you want others to respect your faith, and if you want others to hear what you have to say and have success in sharing your faith with other people, you must watch both your life and your doctrine carefully, closely.
The study of theology is honestly nothing new to our church. If you've been here, we've been studying theology week in and week out. While we've never done a series explicitly on theology, we are a church that believes the Bible. And so typically what we do is we open up to a book of the Bible and we work our way through it. Oftentimes verse by verse, oftentimes word by word, and this has a name. It's called exegetical theology. You see, there's lots of different types of theology. And the first one that we might recognize is exegetical theology, one that we're doing every week when we come here. But another type of theology is biblical theology. And a biblical theology that just sounds like good theology, right, for those of us who grew up in the church, you know, biblical is often times a church word for good, so like I started the Boston Center for Biblical Counseling and you know it's just the Boston Center for good counseling, it's the way that not really there's more to it than that, but it's something we use like that.
But biblical theology proper, it means that it looks at the history of God's story and sees the Bible as a narrative and so how does the Old Testament relate to what God does later on in the story? If you've ever heard us teach on the Old Testament, you've certainly heard us teach biblical theology here at the church. Another type of theology is historical theology. It's an analysis of the development of theology over time. And so you might study what they believed in the 1600s, what they believed in the 1700s, what was common in the 1800s, 1900s, and so on. This is often times what they teach in many of the more secular schools around the country, including some of the ones right here. I have friends that have done Harvard Divinity and this is usually the type of theology they teach at Harvard. It's more of an academic study and lastly there is systematic theology and with a systematic theology, what you're doing is you're looking at a specific topic and you're exploring what the entire Bible has to say on one topic. And so you might pick something like faith or you might pick something like forgiveness and say, OK, what does, what did David teach on forgiveness? And how does that square with what Jesus taught on forgiveness and what John taught unforgiveness and what Paul taught unforgiveness and what Peter taught on forgiveness. And as you study it as a whole, you get what we call a systematic theology. So it looks at it topic by topic.
And this series that we're doing leans more into the systematic theology. But if you hear all of that and it still feels intimidating or if it still feels boring, it's going to be short, OK? At least it's short and my vision with this is oftentimes a theology, a, our series we want to launch them at specific times of the year, so like we want to launch a series on the gospel in the fall because there are new people coming, coming to the church, coming to Boston oftentimes in the fall, we want to study the life of Jesus. So we're gonna go to the gospels in the fall. And, but what am I gonna teach between here and there? There's not really time to go through an entire book of the Bible. And so I'm gonna do some of this theology, we're gonna do some Psalms, and the vision with the theology series though is it's something that we come back to. And so over the course of if you stay at our church for 4 or 5 years, you might work your your way through an entire systematic theology book understanding everything that is in there, Lord willing, that would be the vision, but it's not gonna be all in one, you know we're it's gonna be something that we come back to, time and time again. I honestly just needed something to, to teach on, that, that wouldn't take forever and that I could, you know, it's like a loaf of bread you can slice it wherever and it's kind of good, you know, that's what I was looking for.
All right. So, today, I'm going to just focus on for the next just 10, 15 minutes, OK? I'm going to focus on what theology is and why you need to study it. All right? There's no shortage of definition of theology. There's plenty of definitions of theology. I'm gonna give you three definitions of theology. First comes from the great 20th century, theologian who I do not agree with on everything, but he defined this really well. One of the most well known theologians in history. His name is Karl Bart, and he's a neo-orthodox theo.
And this is what he says. Theology is science seeking the knowledge of the word of God, spoken in God's work. Science, learning in the school of the Holy Scripture. Science laboring in the quest for truth, which is inescapably required of the community that is called by the word of God.
Presbyterian theologian John Frame puts it this way. He says theology is the application of scripture by persons to every area of life. And if I was just to make my own simplest definition of it as simple as I can put it, theology is the study of God. Theology is the science of knowing God.
Before someone accuses me of plagiarism, I'm gonna share a few resources. First, a book, this is known as one of the best lay level books on theology, if not the best. It's been out for almost 50 years, maybe over 50 years now. It's called Knowing God by JI Packer. This was one of the very first books I ever read. of a Christian variety, and I read this in mere Christianity. They were like the two first books and really like what a great start. OK, if you're looking for two books to start your Christian, Christian life, knowing God, mere Christianity, you could do worse, and there this is the one, this is actually the same copy I read as a freshman in college, and, there are a few notes in here, more notes in the first chapter I see than I made later on in the book, but it is a great lay level read.
Another one you could look at is the Christian Life by Saint Clair Ferguson. Another one you could look at is You Are a theologian by Jim Wilkin and JT English. I have not actually read this one, but, I love Jim Wilken and will use it as I prepare sermons. so I think that's great. JT English could do without him. Jim Wilkin I love actually, I don't know who JT English is, but I do love Jim Wilkin. there's also big honking systematic theology books. That's a Southernism, OK, honking, that, that means like big, right? Amen, Timothy. All right, we got it. so there's like the, the honking ones, and those are like this thick, and that's like Grutum, frame, Ericson. There's a lot of variety of them. So I'm gonna draw from those books. I'm not gonna plagiarize, but if you feel like, oh that feels very knowing God, it's because it is, OK. 3 points for understanding.
Why we study theology. First, the first, I'm just gonna lay them out and then I'll walk through them. First, theology grounds and guides our life. Second, theology fuels our love for God, and third, theology strengthens us for life's deepest trials.
First, theology grounds and guides our lives. I want you to just imagine with me for a moment. That you got dropped off in a nation that you know nothing about. And as I was trying to think through this, what would this be for me? The, the nation that I thought of was Cambodia. I don't know anything about Cambodia. I don't know what where they. What language they speak is it Cambodian? I don't think so. I think it's something else. There are a few. I'm pretty sure Google says it's not, so I'm, but there are a few Cambodians around the church. You don't take any offense for what I'm saying. I just know nothing about your culture or where you're from. I wish I did, but I. I can't know everything and but if you were to drop me off in Cambodia, I have no understanding of the currency. I have no understanding of the practices like do you haggle for stuff like different cultures do different things with that. I have no, I have no understanding of anything in Cambodia. If you were to drop me off there, I would be a goner. Like, I just wouldn't make it. I'm pretty sure I would just, what would I do?
But many, the point that I'm using this illustration to, to say is that many of us live in a world. that we could we have access to understand everything we need to know about that world, but yet we try to find our own way through it. We live in a world that's been designed, created, that's ruled by God, we live in God's world, and yet we often try to just find our own way through that world. And where does it leave us but oftentimes in a pool of despair, anxiety, depression, heartache, wherever it might be. Our world has a creator and as we get to know him we learn our created purpose, which is the plot of the Barbie movie. If you watch the Barbie movie, you'll see that Barbie is in a world and she does not know what she was created for. She is irrepressible thoughts of death, Barbie. And she's stuck there and what does she have to actually have to do? She has to go to her creator's world to meet her creator to be given her created purpose so that she can live a life of meaning and purpose.
Friends, you have been invited to meet your Creator, to be given your meaning and purpose, and this is the message of the gospel. This is what Christ came to do the Creator came down. To meet you, unlike the Barbie movie, we don't have to go to his world. He has come to our world that we might be able to know him and follow after him. And so as we study theology, we get to know God, we get to know God's world, and it gives our lives meaning and purpose and as a guide and a ground for our life. JI Packer puts it this way, he says, disregard the study of God and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. This way you can waste your life and lose your soul. Whew, it's a big one.
Number 2, theology fuels our love for God. OK, people tend to approach theology one of two different ways. They either approach theology and and the Christian life in general, as all had, no heart, and or all heart, no head. And we put these two against one another. Like you either are a head Christian or a heart Christian. And we dichotomize these two. The people who are the heart Christians. Say, I don't need theology, I have the spirit. He lives within me. Why would I study theology that's just cold and boring. When the head the head Christians would come along and say, I don't need spiritual experience. I have the word, I have the Bible. Why would I need spiritual experience? Hear this, this is not a dichotomy, it should be a fuel for the fire. They should work together. Doctrine devoid of devotion is dangerous. Doctrine devoid of devotion is dangerous.
When I was in seminary, I knew this guy. He would show up to all of his classes and just want everyone to know how smart he is. Have you guys ever seen that person in one of your classes where they just have all the questions to ask and really they're not questions they're more like comments that they want to also teach the class like I have a question, what do you think about and then they share all their thoughts on the topic of the day and then it's like the class then learns and this person is just filled with pride. And arrogance and thought that he was better than other people. And that person was me. In many ways and in many times. And the Lord brought me to humility. And he's used the same grace to bring other people to humility. Doctrine detached from devotion is dangerous.
Let me just give you this. If your study of theology makes you feel bigger instead of smaller, you are doing it wrong. If your study of theology makes you feel bigger instead of smaller, you are doing it wrong. 1 Corinthians chapter 8 says this, This knowledge puffs up. But love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know, but if anyone loves God, he is known by God. The point of theology. It's not that we just know more. But is that we might experience, know in an experiential, intimate way, you know, that when the Bible talks about people knowing one another, they're usually talking about people doing the freaky dikety, OK, like, sorry to put it that way, OK, they're talking about people, my friends from Tennessee are here, all my colloquialisms are coming out. That might be the only time you ever hear freaky dikety in a sermon, OK? they're usually talking about people knowing one another in an intimate kind of way. As we seek to study theology, we are not just looking to know about God, but to know Him, to experience His love and his truth.
And the 3rd, theology strengthens us for life's deepest trials. When Jesus was looking at the end of his life when he knew he was about to be sentenced to death and to be crucified, he gathered all of his closest believers and gave them, teachings that we called the upper room discourse, and he gathered them in the upper room, celebrated the Passover feast together. And during Jesus' time of his most need, where does his mind go? But it soars to the grandest doctrines known in the universe. He soars to the Trinity. He ruminates on what it means that God is triune. He expounds upon this doctrine for his followers. You see, Jesus does not go to this place of looking for quick fixes. He's not trying to change his circumstances. He's reflecting on what he knows to be truth. And it anchors his soul.
Charles Spurgeon at the age of 20 delivered a sermon and said this, wisdom beyond his years. Would you lose your sorrow? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself into the Godhead's deepest sea, be lost in his immensity, and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul, so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief, so speak peace to the winds of trial as a devout musing upon the subject of the godhead. I don't know what you're facing today. I don't know what any of you are going through. And in fact, I would dare to imagine that you might be facing much worse than what you're letting on.
After spending years as a pastor, almost 20 years now, I just have realized that people carry things that they don't share, even the most involved in the church. Maybe you're experiencing a soul crushing weight of grief, a grief that is difficult to put to words. And you know, grief does not work linearly. You can be doing just fine and then all of a sudden your soul is crushed under a car one more time. You could be have a heart that is filled to the brim of anxiety. A fear of the future. You could be in a place, those surrounded by people, where you feel completely isolated and alone. Misunderstood and hurt.
There are no quick fixes to any of these things. I'm not telling you to take two pills of theology and call me in the morning, OK? But I am saying this, that the smaller your view of God, the bigger your problems will seem. The smaller your view of God, the bigger your problems will seem. And big problems require an even bigger God. The God who spoke the universe into existence with his words, he's out there and he's in here. And he wants you to know him. So much so to where he sent his own son into the world that you might know him, that we might study who he is, that we might meet him, and his son paid the penalty for your sin, that your that his spirit might fill you, that you might know him more intimately than those who walked with Jesus on earth. That the Spirit now is interceding for you, that God dwells with all those who call upon His name, and he wants to comfort and strengthen you, no matter what you're facing.
Ultimately, studying theology is all about knowing God. The God who is not just an immaterial being to study and pull apart, but is a real living person, that you get to know and experience his love and kindness. And so friends, my prayer for this series that you might understand who God is, and that you're understanding of God. That as it grows, that you might grow in love and humility for others.
We're gonna take a moment. To recognize that meal on that evening that Jesus was in the upper room with his disciples, he took a loaf of bread and he broke it, and he said, this is my body broken for you. He took a cup of wine and he said, this is my blood shed for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And so each week we participate in that sacred meal, and we're reminded not that Jesus is with us in a real kind of way, even as we take this meal, that the Holy Spirit dwells us, that we know him, and that we are almost being transported to that upper room with Jesus, that we're being reminded that his body was crushed for us, that his blood was shed for us and that it's not our righteousness that gets us right with God, but it's his righteousness on our behalf.
And so if you are a Christian here today, I invite you to evaluate your life, make sure if there's any place that you need to follow God more faithfully, that you do that and commit yourself to it today. If you are a believer calling on Christ today, we invite you to come and receive this meal. If you would join me in standing as we pray and and sing a couple of songs in response to God this morning.
Father, we ask that you will use these messages on this doctrine to enlarge our idea of you, that our view of you would become bigger and bigger, and that our understanding of the gospel would grow deeper and deeper. I thank you for the ones who went before us that have studied and written on these topics. I pray that you would use this work to grow in us, people hungry for you, hungry for your word. God, as we worship and respond to you this morning, will our hearts be glad, and anyone who doesn't know you, maybe this is an opportunity for them to come to saving faith in you this morning, and we ask these things in Christ's name, Amen.