Breath Part 2

Breath  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  35:25
0 ratings
· 98 views
Files
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
View more →

Introduction

Illustration: Bad breath, breath mints. "If someone asks if you want a breath mint, take it!"
Breath is essential to life. Without it we die. Biblically speaking, it is breath that is the sign of life. It is how life started.
Main Idea: Scripture is immensely valuable to us because it is the very words of God spoken to us.

The Remarkable Origin of Scripture

We asked last week, what is Scripture? Where did it come from? Is it trustworthy?
We also asked, "Is the Bible the word of God?" That's a big question.
It is possible to say that the Bible is the Hebrew and Christian scriptures and that they are reliable historical documents.
But is it quite another thing to say that the Bible is the Word of God.
Here in this letter, Paul says that "all Scripture is God-breathed"
".... theopnuestos means that God actually spoke the words of Scripture. Inspiration, then, means that God takes words of human beings and makes them his own. Hence my definition: inspiration is a divine act creating an identity between a divine word and a human word."
So if the Bible is "God-breathed", then what role does the human writers have in the process?
Other than in a few instances (like Moses on Mt. Sinai); the Bible isn't God dictating to the authors.
The regular pattern, rather, is that God appointed the biblical writers to be prophets, apostles, or associates of the apostles, and those writers wrote what they chose to write. This is why Luke's Gospel is so different in style from John, or Paul.
2 Peter 1:20 ESV
knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.
2 Peter 1:21 ESV
For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
What God does is uses the different gifts, styles, and perspective of the writers to give us not just information but also tone, emotion, and perspective.
Illustration: C.S. Lewis -- some truths you just can't talk about. You have to experience them.
Example: Paul's letter to Philemon. It is an amazing example (in story form) of how the gospel (forgiveness, dignity, etc) works in real life.
But ultimately its a mystery how this exactly works of course. But, come on! We're talking about God here.
The bottom line is that Scripture claims for itself to be the very words of God.
So what does that mean for us?

The Immense Value of Scripture

When we talk about breath, it's hard not to think about bad breath.
Dog breath vs. Puppy breath -- the originator of a breath is really important
If you have halitosis, your breath is going to be bad.
Here's the thing, the "words" of this world, of the enemy have bad halitosis. ... there's no breath mint that can cover that us.
When we talk about God's breath ... what are we talking about? We're talking about life.
Creation, universe, man, love, beauty, creativity ... all that is good
Psalm 33:6 "By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host."
However, not everyone thinks this way about God and his word. No book in history has been more loved or more hated in apposed.
2 Corinthians 2:14–16 ESV
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?
So which one are you? How does God's breath smell to you? Is it "a sweet-smelling purfume" or does it smell like death?
You can't be in between on this.

The Undeniable Claim of Scripture

The Bible claims to be none other than God's very word. "God-breathed"
This leaves us with a tough dilemma. Because if the Bible didn't claim to be the very word of God we could say that the Bible is at least useful for inspiration, wisdom, etc.
The problem with this is the Bible's claim. It claims to be the word of God. Therefore, we cannot just say its a great source of inspiration. Because if the Bible isn't actually the word of God, then the Bible lies. It is dead wrong in its own claim.

Conclusion

Illustration: Junk mail vs. a love letter
Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more