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10.11.09

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

SERMON SERIES: QUESTIONS FOR GOD

SERIES 5: SACRAMENTS AND THEOLOGY

PART 1: WHY BELIEVE THE BIBLE?

DEUTERONOMY 8:1-5; 2 TIMOTHY 3:14-4:5

• A Wealth of Knowledge
• Bookstore Browsing
• Browse through any bookstore and you will not help but notice a preponderance of books on a wide variety of different subjects—from history to religion, from romance to science fiction, from car repair to computers, from cooking to gardening
• Anything you might ever want to know, you’re likely to find a variety of books on the subject, many of which have been written by experts in the field, and just as many written by self-proclaimed experts
• What you learn from your reading is based upon the source from which you get it, and the accuracy of the information is based upon the reliability of the author
• As you continue to browse through the store, you can’t help but notice the ever-enlarging section of “self help” books on topics such as marriage and family relationships, personal improvement, business management, diet and exercise, sex, and religion
• Anybody who knows anything about any subject is likely to write a book about it and tout themselves as an “expert”
• The problem is that these so-called “experts” don’t always agree, so it’s often difficult to sort out what you can believe and what you can’t
• An ever-growing section of the self-help book genre is the “For Dummies” series of books
• Those books usually have a very identifiable yellow and black cover, and you can get them on a whole host of topics
• When I Googled “For Dummies books” on the computer the other day, I quickly had a list of fifty different “For Dummies” topics
• I’m sure I could have found many more if I continued to search
• The topics covered in that list of fifty books included such things as foreign languages, investments, finance and taxes, hobbies such as photography and knitting, musical instruments, the computer, math, science, history, electronics, diabetes, Robert’s Rules of Order, card games, grant writing, and auto mechanics
• If I discovered that the mechanic working on my car relied upon “Auto Repair for Dummies” to fix my car, I’d be out the door in an instant!
• Biblical Illiteracy
• My favorite book on the “For Dummies” book list is entitled “The Bible for Dummies”
• My son and I were browsing through a Borders Bookstore one day when I first came across that book, and I joked to him that maybe was a book I needed for my office
• While I make light of the fact that such a book exists, the fact that it does exist highlights a significant deficiency in our culture
• Many people, and that includes many who are actively involved in church and attend worship on a regular basis, are functional illiterates when it comes to the Bible
• While the Bible continues to top the best-seller list far above any other book, the vast majority of people have little idea of what the Bible says
• While they may own a Bible, they rarely, if ever, read it
• It is quite natural, then for the question to come up “Why believe the Bible?”
• Many critics over the centuries have sought to discredit the Bible, and many a modern thinker will label it myth or legend, and some will go so far as to say it is an outright lie
• While science often seeks to discredit the teachings of the Bible, history, archaeology, and even scientific discovery have gone a long way to validate the stories contained in it
• One thing that none of these will ever be able to prove or disprove, however, is the power of faith to change a person’s life
• The power of faith is the power of God, and no human can ever fully understand the power of God
• The Centrality of Scripture
• As Presbyterians, we believe that the Bible becomes God’s word to us through the power of the Holy Spirit working in us
• The writers of the Bible ( and there were many) were inspired by God to write what they wrote, and the writer’s own personality and bias, along with the culture of their day are evident in what they wrote
• So it is important for us today to understand as best we can the cultural context of what we read so that we might apply God’s word to our life today
• Yet, without the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in us, the Bible is just another book
• It’s merely a collection of classic literature unless the Holy Spirit is present to illumine our eyes through faith and open our ears to hear God speaking to us through these words
• The Bible is the textbook of the Christian faith
• While God reveals himself to us in many ways, the primary source of God’s revelation is in the pages of the Bible
• The Bible is the historical record of God’s interaction with all of creation, especially the human race
• What it reveals is God’s love and grace, and God’s patience with us, and it compels us to believe that because God has acted with love, grace, and patience in the past, God will continue to do so in the present and in the future
• While many have contended that Christians are “people of the Book,” that is not entirely true
• Our faith is not founded on a book; instead it is founded on a living person, Jesus Christ
• Yet, the fact remains that nowhere else in the world will we find a first-hand account of his life and teaching other than in the pages of the New Testament
• Therefore, it is absolutely imperative that we study its pages so that we might know Jesus Christ, and through him come to know his Father, who has created us and loves us all
• Getting to Know God
• The Power of God’s Word
• In his second letter to Timothy, a young pastor in the early church, Paul lifts up for him the value of Scripture
• Timothy lived in a multi-religious society, not unlike our own society today, and there were a lot of religious writings out there claiming to be Scripture
• But Paul encourages Timothy to be very careful in what he considers to be the Word of God
• It is only God-inspired Scripture that is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that we might be fully equipped for every good work
• So Paul urges Timothy to preach the Word diligently, and admonishes him to remember that his preaching will cause conflict
• People don’t always want to hear what God has to say
• God’s Word, rightly understood, convicts us of our sin—and none of us like to hear or admit that we are sinners
• But God’s Word, rightly understood, also reveals to us that God is also a God of love and grace and forgiveness so that we may not become lost in our sin, but find new life and hope through faith in Jesus Christ
• Some “religious” teaching tantalizes our senses and makes us feel good, but it does not proclaim the truth of the Word of God
• Anything that teaches things that are contrary to God’s revealed will for us ought to be avoided
• The test of any teaching is whether or not it is compatible with the Word of God
• Nourishment For Our Soul
• The value of Scripture is also lifted up by Moses as he prepares the people of Israel to enter the Promised Land
• In this sermon, Moses reminds the people that “man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (v. 3)
• While bread is necessary to nourish the body, the Word of God is just as necessary to nourish the soul
• Moses’ point is that we are not just physical beings, we are also spiritual beings created to live our life in relationship to God
• In order to have a relationship with God, we must know what God has to say
• Our spiritual life is of much more value than our physical life, so we must not simply live to satisfy the desires of the body, we must live to understand and do the will of God
• Notice the context in which Moses sets these words
• He sets them in the context of Israel’s wilderness experience
• It was only through faithful obedience to the Word and the will of God that Israel survived their 40 years of wandering
• They arrived at the shore of the Promised Land through no effort of their own
• They were about to inherit the promise of God because they listened to and followed God’s Word
• And God was faithful to God’s own Word because God promised that he would bring them safely to this place, and God did
• This story speaks to the value of Scripture as we face the wilderness journeys of our life
• There are many times when we feel lost, when God seems distant, and we don’t know which way to go
• Our guide through those dark times must always be the Word of God
• “Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path,” says the Psalmist (Psalm 119:105), and John identifies Jesus as “the Word made flesh,” and “the light that shines in the darkness” (John 1)
• So it is only the light of the Word of God that can help us find our way through the darkness of our life
• If we are faithful in studying it, it will reveal to us God’s path, and God’s path will lead us into the light and truth of God’s love

• The Bible—Both Human and Divine
• In many ways, the Bible is a human book
• It was written by humans over many centuries and these various writings were collected and compiled into the canon of Scripture by a human assembly
• The Old Testament came into being in its present form between 12 BC and 2 BC, and the New Testament came into its present form between AD 117 and AD 138
• The word “canon” means “to measure”
• In collecting these sacred writings, the human councils “measured” their content to determine whether they were authentic and whether they taught the truth of God
• While these 66 books were written and compiled by humans, God had a hand in their work through the presence and power of the holy Spirit, both in their writing and in their selection
• Just as our ancestors measured the books’ contents in order for them to be included in the Bible, so must we measure our life in accordance with their teaching
• Why believe the Bible?
• We believe the Bible because it is the only book that has survived throughout the eons of history
• We believe the Bible because it reveals to us who God is
• We believe the Bible because it reveals to us God’s love and grace
• We believe the Bible because it reveals God’s presence in human life
• We believe the Bible because it shows us the way of salvation
• We believe the Bible because it shows us how to live
• We believe the Bible because it is as relevant today as it was when each of its books were first written
• We believe the Bible because it is the Word of God
• The Bible is the textbook of our faith, the cornerstone of what we believe
• Its pages reveal to us everything we need to know about God, about Jesus, about the Holy Spirit, and about how to live a life that is pleasing to God
• We discover the truth of God’s Word as it is revealed to us by the power of the Holy Spirit
• It is a must read for every believer and for non-believers as well
• How can non-believers determine the truth if they never read the Bible, and how can we, as believers, understand and do God’s will for us unless we know what God has to say?