A sermon prepared for Sunday 24 July – Kaikorai Church. Read Deut 31:11-13, 2 Tim 3:1-17.
Today we focus on the Bible – Scripture – God’s Word – why? Simply because we are a people of the Book, and it is important to remind ourselves of this fact.
I believe it is important to remember that this book is God’s in every sense of the word. It is God’s in that God inspired the various human authors as they wrote, God breathed in and through them in such a way that they knew what to include, and what to leave out, and they knew what bits of the story to put together and where things should be separated. And it is God’s story in that by God the Holy Spirit we too are able to read, understand and apply to our lives today: these ancient, collected, translated, oft-misused texts. God the Spirit continues to bring them to life in our lives today.
As Martin Luther the great reformer put it:
The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me.
“Martin Luther–The Early Years,” Christian History, no. 34”
The Bible is God’s story also because it’s a biography and a history, but not a general history but his-story, God’s story as God wanted us to have it.
It is through God’s story that God the Spirit reveals God, likewise as the Spirit leads us through these pages that we discover Jesus the Christ and the wonderful truths of the Cross and victory.
This book the Holy Bible is pure treasure – taonga!
As we heard from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy chapter 31 the Word of God must be taken seriously and clearly taught to all the people. The way in those days was to gather the people and to read it before them. This was in the days before most people could read, before the printing press, way way before radio, TV, the internet, Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
Today with the ease of communicating easily and quickly to a mass audience around the globe and across cultures we forget how vital it was for the Word to be consistently and publically proclaimed.
The people of Israel were told to read the Scriptures to all the gathered people, men. Women and children, and they were not to forget any servants or visitors.
The assumption is that by listening to the wisdom of this written word People would learn of God and come to worship God.
Famous scientist Sir Isaac Newton likewise revered the Bible: he was known to say:
I have a fundamental belief in the BIBLE as the Word of G-D, written by men who were inspired. I study the BIBLE daily.”
Experience of personal lives confirms the Bible continues to have the same impact in our lives: for as we study it with an open mind it continues to do exactly what Martin Luther describes: it speaks to me; it runs after me, it lays hold of me.
There are likewise examples of nations changed by the transforming power of the Bible: our own culture has been hugely shaped by the Bible: we have only to consider hospital care, education, social welfare, justice – the words of Scripture are the genesis behind much of what we take for granted today.
Similarly in a nation like Korea where Christian faith has taken such a hold: the influence of Scripture there is challenging and transforming old cultural norms and producing a society with more justice for the lower classes, greater care of one another, and a vastly different understanding of the place of women in society: from a place of servitude to honoured partnership.
And today in a land that continues to live in tension hotels in Seoul ensure every guest has the essentials for survival: a gas mask and a bible. (Ben Birnbaum-The Washington Times, Wednesday, June 22, 2011)
I find it encouraging that there the bible continues to be held in such high regard, whereas here you’ll be hard pressed to find a bible in hotel rooms anywhere; and as we discovered recently they’re even rare in some hospital chapels – such is the growing trend to lower the place of the Bible in our society.
And while it’s tempting to point the finger and say how terrible it is we Christians actually need to take stock of our own attitude towards the bible.
For if we’re honest in too many lives the Bible has been relegated to a low place – it gathers dust on too many book cases, and as it does so our own spiritual lives become dusty, old, tired – lacking the vibrancy that a regular diet of Scripture provides.
The classic words written to Timothy that were read for us before are worth taking to heart.
Paul warned Timothy of hard times, making it plain that the more people lived for God, the more they lived a holy life then be on guard because you can expect persecution.
This was a sober warning for young Timothy and likewise is for us. Pursuing godliness is no recipe for a quiet life – hard times will come and we will feel like giving up: people will not understand us, some may reject us, others will mock but the answer is not to turn away from what you know is right.
Rather we must push in ever closer, seek God, follow the example of Paul and others who surround us in following Christ.
Paul then makes it clear how we do this – and it is based upon the Word of God (2 Tim 3)
14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, 15and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Notice the word Paul uses here: ‘continue in’ when the troubles come; when others attack, mock, or criticise – then you must stay in the truth, abide in the Word, dig in, bunker down – stay deep within the things you have learned.
What is it that Timothy had learned? The sacred writings; Scripture, God’s Word, the Bible. Verse 15.
Sometimes we’re tempted as a Church to seek to be popular – to find ways to attract people that make it easier for people to accept Jesus and be part of our life – that’s all very well. But whatever we do we must not go away from our foundation of Scripture.
It is this more than anything else that we build our worship on, build our youth work, children’s ministry, even holiday clubs on. It is our understanding of the Word that motivates social work, reaching out, caring for our neighbours, walking across the room.
It is the Word of God that I seek to preach, because God’s Word and nothing else will do.
Colossians 3:16 puts it like this.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Let it dwell in you richly, let it teach you, as Isaac Newton did, let it lay hold of you and transform you: because as you immerse yourself in God’s Word you can be assured you will be changed.
Why should this be?
Timothy is told the answer: remember these verses. We just had Colossians 3:16 now 2 Timothy 3:16
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
And let’s add verse 17
so that all God’s people may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
This is our Book – prepared for us by God, handed down to us by those who’ve gone before us, this is God’s word to us: it is active and alive, it is the foundation of faith it is the revealer of God in all God’s fullness: Father, Son, and Spirit.
Let us treasure this Word, let us know it, and live by it. For as the Psalmist said: Thy Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. (Psalm 119)
Arohanui
Ian
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Then we have the armpit carrier, the dude next door that sets out to impress every Sunday morning. He showers, dresses, put’s his bible under his arm and off he swaggers to his local parish – This is great,
But better still is to carry it in your heart. No need to dust it off, pick it up, find a reference – it’s plugged in and active, 24/7. Kinda like auto pilot in a plane. You just gotta let go of the controls, go with God the ultimate computor programmer.