II Timothy 3:16-17     What Is the Bible?       June 3, 2007   

      I remember when I was eighteen years old that I had a crisis of faith.  I felt that I could no longer believe the Bible to be true.  I did not understand this book which seemed so old.  What did it have to do with my life?  And so while I was away at a youth camp in the North Carolina mountains, I told the head counselor that I was not sure what I believed at all.  I expected him to tell me that I was a bad person.  Instead, he told me it was okay to have questions, but that I should also be willing to seek seriously for some answers.  One of the scriptures which raised serious questions was right here in these verses of II Timothy where we read…..      This passage makes two very serious claims about the Bible.  What are those claims?  One, that all scripture is inspired by God, and, secondly, that scripture teaches and trains us in how to live life.  Those are powerful claims, and so at eighteen years old, I set out to evaluate those claims. 

      How about you?  Have you ever questioned if the Bible really had anything for your life?  Is the Bible really inspired by God and useful to teach us the right way to live?  And how would you go about evaluating these claims?   I know that many of you have had questions about God, the Bible, and life.  As teens, we often become a bit of a philosopher as we become more independent.  It is only natural that we have questions about what we have been taught as children.  Then as adults, as we make our way into work, family, bills, and responsibilities, we may wonder about where we are going and what we are doing.  Later in life, we all face tragedies, the death of loved ones, and we again ask questions.   At some point, we all ask questions and we wonder about our faith.  All of us do that.  But the funny thing is that most of us think that we are the only ones.  We have these secret questions and we feel like no one else has ever had such thoughts or ideas. 

     The new Spiderman movie debuted recently and seems to be as popular as the first two.  It is funny to talk to small children about Spiderman.  They are all excited.  They tell you about the villains and the action.  And at some point, small children will lower their voices and in a very serious whisper tell you, “Spiderman is really Peter Parker.  But do not tell anyone.”  It is really fun to talk to these children.  In their minds, they have this secret that no one else knows.  And they are so proud to whisper it to you alone.  Peter Parker is Spiderman.  But do not tell anyone else.

     The really funny thing is that many people, especially in their young adult years, have these questions about the Bible and they really believe that no one else has seen this as they do.  It is like an exciting secret that they have uncovered.  They have figured out the secret identity about the Bible—that it cannot be true—and no one else has seen this but them.  This kind of thinking is why books and movies such as “The DaVinci Code” are so popular.  People feel they know a secret that no one else knows.  In reality, of course, many people throughout history for thousands of years have had these same questions.  Around AD 390, Saint Augustine in his book “Confessions” tells of his own  secret struggles with the Bible.   But here is the real secret.  Listen.  Those people who ask such questions and work hard to find answers discover an amazing thing.  The scriptures are inspired by God and teach us the right way to live.  During the next few weeks, I hope to help you begin to explore how the Bible is inspired and how it teaches us about living life.  I hope over this summer that you will be motivated to want to know more about this book and what it can give to your life.

     So let’s take a look at this book called the Bible.  For this morning, I want to give you a quick overview of just what is the Bible.   I would like you to open your Bible right now.  This summer, we are emphasizing the idea of bringing your Bible to church with you.  If you are here to be trained in the Word of God, you need your training tool.  You would not go to the tennis court without your racket.  You would not go to the golf course without your clubs.  You would not go to the mall without your credit cards.   Well, you should have your Bible at church so as to be ready to learn and grow.  So look in your Bible right now in the front at the table of contents. 

      So what is this book about?  Notice that the Bible is divided into two major sections—the Old Testament containing 39 books and the New Testament containing 27 books.  You see the Bible is not one book but actually an entire library of books.  It was not written by one person in one place in one lifetime.  The Bible was written by dozens of people who lived in different countries and it required over one thousand years to write.  And yet, there is a unique unity to these 66 books.  We certainly see the individual personalities of each writer.  Matthew does not write like Luke and Mark does not see things just as John.  Yet, all of them speak to us the same message.  What is that message?

      If you opened your Bible and read the very first chapter of Genesis and then turned to the back and read the very last chapter of Revelation, you would see one clear message.  God is the beginning and end.  First and last.  And God will fulfill His eternal plan of goodness for humanity and all creation.  You see, the Bible is about God’s plan, God’s love for all He has created, and how God’s work will be completed.  Now the Bible is also about how that plan and purpose has met a big problem due to sin and evil.  The Bible is about how we people have forgotten how to really live our lives.  But not to worry.  God has everything well in hand.  God has made a way forward.  And all things will work out in the end. 

      Look back at your Table of Contents.   In the Old Testament, first you find the five books of Moses, the Pentateuch.  These books tell of God’s creation and how that creation fell away from God’s plan.  But these five books also tell how God found a man named Abraham and how through his family, God would save the world.  The fifth book, Deuteronomy, shows us Moses reminding the people of Israel if they will remember what God has told them and live right, then they will become a great people and bring blessing to all the world. 

       The next twelve books are known as the historical books.  They tell the history of Israel from about the year 1200 to about 500 BC.  Mostly, it is a history of failure.  Israel does not remember and they do not live rightly.  There are a few shining lights but most of the leaders of Israel are more concerned for their own power and wealth and care little about blessing the whole world.  This honest reporting of failure is unique from ancient literature.  If you read ancient literature from Egypt or Babylon, you read of the glories and victories of the Pharoahs and kings.  Even today, it is hard to get an honest report about high leaders.  That is why Napoleon famously said, “The winners write the history books.”   Yet, here in the Bible, there is a brutal honesty.  These leaders failed to live up to God’s plan.  And the nation of Israel suffered for it.

     The next five books are poetry—Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon.  These books, especially the Psalms, are among the favorites of the Bible.  The Bible tells us honestly about the failure of Israel and the hardships of life.  And for three thousand years, men and women have turned to the poetry of the Psalms to find comfort in hard times.  Can you think of times when you have gone to the Psalms? 

      Finally, the rest of the Old Testament are the Prophets.  These are the men who spoke and wrote against the leaders and the nation of Israel.  Much of the prophets are a warning and a calling back to God.  Many of these men were executed or imprisoned. And yet, these prophets also speak of hope.  They remind us that even if Israel fails completely and was finally destroyed by Babylon in 586BC, God’s plan will continue.  God will find a new way through this family of Abraham and God will fulfill His loving plan for the world.  These prophetic books bring great hope also to us.  In the midst of our hard times, we can know that God is still at work in our lives to bring fulfillment.  These prophets reach a high point in Isaiah and tell us that God’s perfect servant will finally come.  He will do God’s will in every way.  He will suffer at the hands of this evil world.  But in His defeat, there will be the victory of God.  All this is foretold in the Old Testament over 500 years before the coming of Jesus.

Look at your Contents at the New Testament.  These books appear after several centuries of silence.  Nothing was written after about 300 BC.  Then suddenly, in a period of a few decades these 27 books of the New Testament appear.  These books have changed the world and touched the lives of millions of people.  When history is so fantastically altered, scholars ask, “What event occurred to set off such a chain reaction?”  The coming of Jesus Christ.  The New Testament tells his life story in the first four books which are called the gospels.  The next book is the Acts or actions of the Apostles after Jesus was no longer physically with them.  The remaining books are letters written by those first Apostles, those eye-witnesses of Jesus, to tell us about how to live the life of God.  The Bible ends with a letter entitled Revelation for it reveals to us that in the end, God’s plan will be fulfilled.  God will be with His people and we will be with God.  All of life will make sense.  There will be no more sadness or death or evil.  All will be joy in God.

  Well, that was a whirlwind tour of a library of books.  Many books written by many people who lived in many nations over a thousand years in time.  Yet, they all tell us about a God who has made us for a reason.  These books all tell us that God has long been at work to fulfill His plan.  They tell us that even when all humanity failed to live up to God’s plan, God did not leave us.  Instead, God sent His own son, Jesus Christ.  And the Bible promises us that God’s plan for all creation will be completed and fulfilled in joy.  What does this book have to do with you and your life?   Well, it is the inspired story of God at work in the world.  And it is the book which can show you how to live your life in a way that leads you to that joyful completion promised by God.  If you want to know how to live a life that is on a journey to completion, wholeness, and joy, then this is the book for you.  We will learn more over the next few weeks.  I hope today, that you have a little taste for this book and what it has been at work to do in the world for over three thousand years.  This book which has touched millions of people and which can touch you.  Amen.