Over the past couple weeks, I think we've gotten a pretty good glimpse

at Jesus' life and his relationship to the scriptures.

We've seen the ways he's used the scriptures in relationship to his teaching,

as he interacts with the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the teachers of the day,

his disciples, and even Satan himself.

And I think there's no doubt in any of our minds, especially after the study we've done,

scriptures played a central and essential role in both Jesus' life and ministry.

Now, maybe you're thinking, well, of course, Bethanyah, he was a rabbi,

so he had to do this for his job, so he knew them and all that.

And I would say, yes, you're totally right because you're brilliant, well done.

But I would also argue that upon closer examination, the study of the scriptures for Jesus

measured far beyond academia or a job he was fulfilling to a more personal and compelling reality.

For Jesus, it seemed scripture was not as much a tool or an instrument or even a weapon

as it was part of how he viewed and interacted with both God and the world.

Both from a historical knowledge of rabbis to the count we're given here in the Gospels,

we see that the integration of scripture in Jesus' life was paramount to the work he did

with his disciples and to those around him, meaning that there was and probably is much more to

this practice of knowing the scriptures than meets the eye.

A quick question for you. How many of you were part of a church from a young age?

You went to church, you were small. You went to the Sunday school where it was, oh good,

good for you. There's a lot more than this morning. And how many of you had to memorize

scripture in your Sunday school class or your Wednesday night program? Some of you are a

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