Are the words of Jesus better than his apostles?

I have been inspired to restart my blogging - sorry for the delay those who have spent the last few years awaiting the next blog entry....to quickly update those who don't know I'm now living in Malaysia and will be getting married next week (its been an interesting 3 years)...anyway to answer the question posed....

Are the words of Jesus better than his apostles?

If you go to your local Christian book store and flick through the gospels of some of the bibles on show you will see that many of them highlight the words of Jesus in red or bold. This sounds logical – these are the words of the Jesus the son of God, how can they compare with those of his apostles such as Paul who wrote other books in the New Testament? However if we accept Jesus’ actual words to hold more value than other parts of the bible then we are to say that parts of the bible are not inspired ‘as much’ by God. If this argument holds then huge amounts of the bibles teaching could be discounted with the excuse that Jesus didn’t overtly confirm it. The question asked in the title then is of huge importance.

I propose that the whole of the bible as we have received it today must be accepted as Gods word and to highlight Jesus’ words in the gospel as more important than other parts of the bible is wrong. My reasons are as follows:-

1) Jesus didn’t write the Gospels

The Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – were not written Jesus. They were written by….Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. If the argument is put forward that the apostles later writings are based on their flawed interpretation of Jesus’ words or was limited by the culture they were in then equally you could argue that their memory of what Jesus said and did would be flawed. The detail of the gospels – and the fact that all four written by different authors have no contradictions between them - is incredible. I can’t remember conversations said last week, yet despite being written after Christ ascension the gospel writers show amazing recollection of Christ words.

How can this be? In John 14v26 Jesus says to his disciples:-

“The Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you”

Jesus promised the disciples the Holy Spirit would remind them of everything he had said to them. If we believe the Gospels to show the true words of Jesus then we believe this second part that the disciples were reminded of what Jesus said and did by the Spirit. If we believe this part why do we doubt the first part which says the Spirit will teach all things to the disciples? In effect the teachings the disciples give (as read in other parts of the New Testament) is Gods word inspired by the Holy Spirit.

2) The teaching of the Apostles was authenticated by signs from God.

Today when we hear someone teach we compare what they say with the Bible. What about the apostles? They were writing part of what is now seen as the inspired word of God – why did people at the time believe what was taught by the apostles? (and decide it should become part of the bible)

Hebrews 2v3-4 reads:-

“This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord [Jesus], was confirmed to us by those who heard him. [the apostles] God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will”

We read in the Gospels the miracles of Jesus being used to show the people that he was the Messiah – Jesus himself uses his miracles to authenticate himself when asked by John’s disciples. (Matthew 11v1-6) In the same way as we read the book of Acts we can see how God continues to work miracles through the apostles to again authenticate that their understanding of Jesus teaching, their development of it in passages like Romans is from God not from man.

3) Cultural context does not affect the message

The apostles were all from similar cultural contexts (ie they were all Jewish) – surly that makes any teaching flawed and too warped by their own culture. In some ways it is true that the explanation of the teachings – by both Jesus and the apostles – is affected by their own culture. For example when we hear the phrase ‘If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles’ (Matthew 5v41) we may think Jesus is suggesting a passive response when someone attempts to abduct you. (Providing they don’t take you more than 2 miles from home)

However if we understand the context – where legally any Roman solider could order a citizen to carry his armour up to a mile away – we understand that the teaching is that when we have to do something do it with Joy and enthusiasm so as to win the other person over rather than do it bitterly.

It is important to understand the culture – explaining the cultural is often part of a good sermon – but it doesn’t make the teaching wrong. We are at fault as 21^st century readers for not doing our homework if we don’t understand the cultural meaning in some of the bibles teaching. Our duty is to understand the culture of the time to understand what the message the author originally intended is.

Also remember that Jesus was the promised Messiah to the Jews, prophesied numerous times in the Old Testament. The fact that the disciples were all Jewish is an advantage.