Article 4: Scripture – the living word of God
September 19, 2010
BMC- Is. 55:10-11 & II Tim. 3:14-17
Introduction: Bible Quiz[1]
One of the fixtures in our area when it comes to the Bible are the quiz teams. It seems that Bethel has had a long and it sounds like fairly proud history when it comes to competing in these events. While we don’t currently have a team of our own that I am aware of, we do still have youth and members that participated this last year.
I know that it is a bit out of season for this and we won’t be following the standard rules or format; but since our topic for today is scripture, I thought that we might begin with a bit of a Bible quiz. Could I have two youth or Jr. High youth volunteer to help me out with this? {take volunteers}
To do this, we will go back and forth. I will ask one of you a question. If you get it right, you get a point. If you miss it you don’t. Then I will ask the other person another question. Again a right answer scores a point. The one with the most points at the end wins. Any questions?
First question: “How many books are in the Bible?”
First answer: 66
Second question: “How many books are in the Old Testament?”
Second answer: 39
Third question: “How many books are in the New Testament?”
Third answer: 27
Fourth question: “What’s the shortest book in the Bible?”
Fourth answer: 2 John
Fifth question: “What’s the longest book in the Bible?”
Fifth answer: Psalms
Sixth question: “How many chapters are in the Bible?”
a. 789 b. 1189 c. 1,234
Sixth answer: b. 1189
Seventh question: “What is the shortest chapter in the Bible?
Seventh answer: Psalms 117
Eighth question: “What is the longest chapter in the Bible?
Eighth answer: Psalms 119
Ninth question: “What is the shortest verse in the Bible?”
a. Gen 1:1 b. Prov. 3:5 c. Jn 11:35
Ninth answer: c. John 11:35 “Jesus wept.”
Tenth question: “What is the longest verse in the Bible?”
a. Lev. 19:18 b. Esther 8:9 c. Ps. 119:119
Tenth answer: b. Esther 8:9
“At once the royal secretaries were summoned—on the twenty-third day of the third month, the month of Sivan. They wrote out all Mordecai's orders to the Jews, and to the satraps, governors and nobles of the 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush. These orders were written in the script of each province and the language of each people and also to the Jews in their own script and language.”
Eleventh question: “What is the center verse of the Bible?”
a. Ps. 118:18 b. Prov. 18:18 c. Ps. 118:8
Eleventh answer: c. Ps. 118:8[2]
Twelfth question: “How many words are in the Bible?”
a. 773,692 b. 144, 144 c. 1,000,001
Twelfth answer: a. 773,692
{Give prizes} Thanks for your help.
Used and applied daily
Now I find this to be an interesting exercise in knowing about the Bible, but in the end what does this type of knowledge gain us? If I know that there are 66 books in the Bible, how does that draw me closer to God or deepen my faith? If I know that the longest verse in the Bible is Esther 8:9, how does that empower me to spread the gospel to others or to live my life more like Jesus?
It doesn’t. That is not to take away from our efforts to study it and know it more completely. Yet the Bible is so much more than mere facts or stats. It is so much more than mere words on the page. It is so much more than a history of the people of Israel and it is so much more than an instruction manual. It is all these things but it is also so much more. It is the living word of God and we need to take seriously our use of it in our faith journeys.
Amazon Explorer[3]
“The story is told of the explorer who some years ago had just returned to his country from the Amazon. The people at home were eager to learn all about the vast and mighty river and the country surrounding it. How he wondered, could he ever describe it to them - how could he ever put into words the feelings that flooded into his heart when he saw the exotic flowers and heard the night sounds of the jungle. How could he communicate to them the smells that filled the air and the sense of danger and excitement that would come whenever he and his fellows explorers encountered strange animals or paddled through treacherous rapids?
“So the explorer did what all good explorers do - he said to the people, "go and find out for yourselves what it is like", and to help them he drew a map of the river pointing out the various features of its course and describing some of the dangers and some of the routes that could be used to avoid those dangers.
“The people took the map and they framed and hung it on the wall of the local science museum so that everyone could look at it. Some made copies of it. After a period of time many of those who made copies for themselves considered themselves experts on the river - and indeed they knew its every turn and bend, they knew how broad it was and how deep, where the rapids were and where the falls. They knew the river and they instructed others in what it was like whenever those people indicated an interest in it.”
But these so called experts had never gone there. They studied this map and knew it well, but they never used it for its intended purpose. To them the Amazon was nothing more than a map that hung on the wall. There was no life in it and there was no application of its knowledge. We can be tempted to treat scripture in similar ways as a stale relic to be studied and displayed. But instead, scripture is the living word of God that is more than a map to be displayed or studied. It is the word of God that breathes into our lives, that speaks to us today and that needs to be lived out in our daily tasks and interactions.
This is the first thing that I would invite us to keep in mind this morning about scripture. It is to be used and applied to our daily lives. It is not merely something to be studied or displayed.
Scripture is not god
The next thing is that we are making a subtle, yet important move this morning. We move from the first three articles, which reflect on the persons of God, the trinity, to a tangible representation of God. Scripture is our primary means for learning about who God is and through reading it, we are drawn closer to God, and yet while we must not merely display it on a table like that map on the wall, we must also be careful to remember that scripture is not god.
We do not worship the Bible. That would be idolatry. In the end for all its importance to us, the Bible is still a book. We worship the God that the Bible points us toward, not the Bible itself.
Isn’t that the trap that the Pharisees were falling into? Religious leaders who took the word of God so seriously that they created minute detail as to how it should be applied. They focused so hard on what the scripture said in a very literal way, that they lost sight of what the scripture meant. They lost sight of the God that the scripture points to.
This may seem obvious, and yet I often hear people raising scripture up rather than raising God up. I hear people abusing scripture for their own personal gains or agendas. I hear people exalting scripture with words that scripture does not itself use to describe scripture. I hear people determined to defend the word of God when the word of God is not God and is fully able to defend itself.
The Bible is a holy book that is central to our faith as believers and as a congregation, but that is not because scripture is itself god, it is rather because scripture is the living word of God. It is because scripture serves as a signpost that points us to the God of the universe. It is because scripture provides the spiritual sustenance and nutrients that we need not only to spiritually live but to spiritually thrive.
Instruction and Training
Next as our article declares, scripture is also for instruction in salvation and training in righteousness. In reading the scriptures, we read of God’s plan for salvation through Jesus Christ. We also receive training for how live righteous lives in God’s sight. Our Second Timothy passage for this morning addressed this as well.
Paul writing to Timothy says, “the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, correcting and training in righteousness.” The scriptures guide us to salvation and then train us in living godly lives.
Fully Reliable and Trustworthy
Our article also states that scripture is fully reliable and trustworthy. And we see this in our Isaiah 55 passage for this morning. As the rain and snow come from heaven to water the earth and make the seeds bud and flourish, so it is with the word of God. “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” God’s word is fully reliable and trustworthy. It will do what it says.
Authoritative Source
Scripture also is the authoritative source and standard for preaching and teaching. I remember early on in my ministry here, Steve Lapp said to me one Sunday, “You have a high view of scripture, don’t you?” I replied, “I don’t know that I really think of it that way; but yeah I guess I do.”
As I have taken on the role of full time preacher and pastor, my view of scripture has only gotten higher. Scripture serves not only as a tangible revelation of whom God is, but also as a central anchor for whom we are, what we believe, and how we should live together and in the world around us. Without scripture to ground us, we would be a ship tossed about in the sea.
We learn about faith and can experience God through our traditions, culture, experiences, reason, and political powers but these need to be tested and corrected by the light of Holy scripture. The myriad of traditions throughout the Christian church, cultures throughout the world, experiences of each individual, reasonable arguments written down, and political powers exercising their might must be tested and corrected by the standard of scripture, by our consistent and God inspired standard for what it means to be a people of faith.
The fourth commentary after the article also addresses this. It reminds us that we look to the scriptures to be our standard for ethics, the relation of the church to society, and for church polity. Scripture serves as the standard for these realities.
Still speaks today
And scripture is the living word of God. It is the word of God written down that continues to speak today. How many of us have found ourselves struggling, turned to scripture and experienced a passage as the voice of God speaking to our circumstances in that very day? I have.
I also remember an experience in college in which I was experiencing a broken relationship and when to talk with a friend about it. I felt like there was no hope and that there was nothing that I could do. As we talked, the verse from I Cor. 10:13 came to my mind and I was reminded that God would not give me more than I could handle and that he would provide me a way out.
The scriptures are alive which is why a Bible that is beyond further use is not discarded in the trash or burned in a fire. What do we do with Bibles that have reached the end of their lives? As RBC ministries suggests, a Bible that has reached the end of its life is buried in the ground as we would bury any other loved one.[4]
And because scripture still speaks today and because of our own human limitations, we seek to interpret scripture through the gathered community of believers. Knowing that where two or three are gathered, there Christ is as well we gather corporately to hear scripture continue to speak today. We trust that as we come together, the spirit will meet us and guide us in our interpretation.
As Mark Twain said "Many people are bothered by those passages in scripture which they cannot understand; but as for me, I always noticed that the passages in scripture which trouble me most are those which I do understand." We need to community not only to help us understand what we do not, but also to hold us accountable to live out the ones that we do understand.
Revelation of Christ
Finally scripture is the living word of God; but unlike Jesus who was the word of God incarnate, scripture is not god. While Jesus was the perfect and full revelation of God in our midst, scripture is only a representation of that revelation. An indispensible representation for without scripture our knowledge and understanding of Jesus would be nothing more than an image projected by a lense that is out of focus.
As such, scripture is bound by the limitations of the Holy Spirit who guided the hands of its writers to be consistent with the reality of Jesus, the word incarnate. We believe that the scriptures that we read must be in line with the son of God who revealed God most clearly.
Conclusion
This morning as we consider Article 4 of the Confession of Faith and what scripture means to us, let us keep it in the proper perspective as pointing toward God and applying it to our daily lives. Let us look to scripture for instruction in salvation and training in righteousness. Let us trust in it as fully reliable and trustworthy, our authoritative source and standard for teaching. And as we experience Christ revealed more fully through reading it, may we continue to allow the words to speak to us even today, knowing that it is the living word of God. May God empower and guide us through His living word as we continue to read and study it.
Amen.
[1] http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-stats.html
[2] http://www.whatsaiththescripture.com/The.Holy.Bible/Interesting.and.Unusual.html
[3] ChristianGlobe Illustrations, Richard Fairchild, ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc. www.esermons.com
[4] http://www.rbc.org/questionsDetail.aspx?id=60536
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