Whats so special about the Bible?
Notes
Transcript
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Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.
Introduction:
Introduction:
This is the first Sunday of a new year the year 2021. I am excited to see what God will do through us this next year we we serve him with our whole hearts!
I feel like for our church it is important to begin this year with something a little more basic on Sunday nights. So for the next few weeks at least the rest of the month of January we will be studying the Bible.
Whats so special about the Bible?
How did the Old testament fet from God to us?
Which Books belong in the Old Testament?
Can we trust the New testament?
Who created the New Testament Cannon?
How was the NT copied?
Where did the Spanish Bible come from?
We will answer all these questions in this study! As Christians we should not worship the Bible but rather the God of the Bible. However, the Bible should be your buddy!
The Bible is what we conduct or worship and lives by. The Bible is our final authority in ALL faith and practice! that means we live by what it tells us and we worship how it tells us to worship. we read it daily to understand what God wants for our lives!
The bible is something we all should make a critical part of our lives!
But the question in front of us today is simple. “Whats so special about the Bible?”
Have you ever thought something like this: “Wow, This decision i have in front of me is so difficult. I have no idea what choice I should make! If Christ was only physically here with me right now and could tell me what to do it would make things so much better!” or “I wish i could get a visit from God or even just his voice speaking down from heaven sometimes to help me make these decisions I have to make in life!”
anyone ever thought that? I know I have! But lets be honest a personal visit from Jesus wouldn’t make it any easier to follow him. We want to hear the voice of God because our souls were shaped to respond to his voice. Even if we don’t recognize it we were created with yearning for divine revelation. Yet ever since the first humans choose to challenge the command of God, no word or voice from heaven has been sufficient to keep us from rebelling against the reign of God.
God spoke personally to Noah and provided him with plans for a ship to save humanity. And yet, this story of salvation ends with Noah waking up naked in his tent, nursing a hangover and cursing his son
Then the Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation.
And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.
So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. Then he said:
“Cursed be Canaan;
A servant of servants
He shall be to his brethren.”
And he said:
“Blessed be the Lord,
The God of Shem,
And may Canaan be his servant.
May God enlarge Japheth,
And may he dwell in the tents of Shem;
And may Canaan be his servant.”
Abraham glimpsed God’s glorious presence and heard God promise that he would have a son. And yet, Abraham doubted God, lied about his wife, and tried to create an heir for himself with his wife’s servant-girl. You can read this whole story in Gen. 12:1-18:21
God thundered from a mountain so that Abraham’s descendants would obey him forever
And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever.”
So Moses told the words of the people to the Lord.
And yet, within a few weeks, these recipients of divine revelation were dancing in the shadow of an idol. Ex. 32:1-35
The examples we have shows us that a divine appearance or voice doesn’t make it any easier to obey. It’s no wonder then that, thousands of years ago, God called particular people to record his words and has preserved them for us throughout all generations! Even when men tried to destroy it from the face of the earth it is still hear today!
This God-inspired book wasn’t just an afterthought or an accident. before He created darkness and light he decided he would reveal his will to man through written word! The Bible you hold in your hands is the product of his eternal plan!
Forever, O Lord,
Your word is settled in heaven.
The purpose of this study over the next few week is to help you deepen your trust in the Bible by helping you understand how the written revelation of God made the journey from the mind of God to the sixty-six texts in your Bible today!
Now with the introduction done lets get into it!
1. Where the Bible came from.
1. Where the Bible came from.
There have been a few ways God has revealed his special revelation to man throughout history. He reveals his truth to all people at every moment through his creation.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,
But God also chooses to reveal himself in particular ways to particular people. Beginning at least as early as Moses, God began to unveil his truth in written propositions. These written words were so precious that no one was ever to change them.
You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.
“Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.
In the centuries that followed God’s initial written revelation, inspired men continued to write.
for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
Some chronicled historical events. Others penned poems and proverbs and songs. Still others wrote prophecies that called people to return to God’s reign over their lives.
But the purpose of these book are far greater than just recording the work of God in the lives of ancient people!
Throughout all those centuries of revelation, God was inspiring the words of Scripture in such a way that the writers were revealing a greater message than they themselves could clearly see. Every written word of the Old Testament highlighted humanity’s need for a living Word who was yet to come.
You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.
Taken together, all the prophecies of the Old Testament testified in perfect harmony that it was only through faith in a future Messiah that anyone’s sins could be forgiven.
To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”
This Messiah would be God’s greatest revelation, the living Word of God sent to earth in human flesh.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
2. The Word became flesh
2. The Word became flesh
When it was time to send this Word to earth, God announced his arrival through priests and prophets, angels and starry signs splashed across the sky.
You can read this account in (Mat. 1:20-21, 2:2; Luke 1:11-18, 26-38, 67-80; 2:8-15, 25-38;7:24-28)
The living Word of God grew into adulthood and sacrificed his life on a cross, embracing God’s wrath in place of everyone who would trust in him. After he rose to life on the third day, this same Word filled his people’s hearts with his Spirit and empowered them to proclaim his kingdom throughout the world
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
But God’s revelation didn’t stop with the living Word or even with his presence in the lives of his people!
As the message of Jesus multiplied throughout the world, God began to inspire new writings that preserved the truth about Jesus and revealed how to live in his kingdom. During the first decades that followed the resurrection of Jesus, Christians memorized eyewitness accounts about Jesus and wrote letters that applied Jesus’ teachings in the lives of his followers. Soon, these spoken testimonies about Jesus began to be brought together with the teachings of Jesus to produce four “Gospels” written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Christians throughout the first-century churches treated texts connected to apostles and eyewitnesses of Jesus as inspired guides for their lives. Since every authoritative text in the churches had to be linked somehow to an eyewitness, written revelations ended as the first-century eyewitnesses and their associates passed away.
Nearly 2,000 years later, these God-inspired revelations from ancient Israelites and Christ-commissioned eyewitnesses remain the main means that God uses to unveil his truth to humanity. Jesus is the one Word of God, but we also rightly refer to these writings—now gathered together into the book we know as “the Bible”—as “the Word of God.” We refer to the Bible as God’s Word because this one book and only this book bears perfect witness to God’s living Word, Jesus Christ.
2. What the Bible Is
2. What the Bible Is
Because every word of Scripture is breathed out by God, the Bible stands as the full and final authority for God’s people.
The Bible is made up of sixty-six Spirit-inspired writings penned by many people “at many times and in many ways” over many centuries.
God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,
These words from God were given for the purpose of pointing fallen humanity to Jesus, the crucified and risen King.
To gain an adequate understanding of the Bible, however, we must move beyond knowing merely what the Bible is made of.
In a fantasy novel by C. S. Lewis, a character named Eustace looks at a star and points out, “In our world … a star is a huge ball of flaming gas.” Another individual- who happens to be a retired star—corrects him by saying, “That is not what a star is, but only what it is made of.” To understand the stars in the world of Narnia, Eustace needed to know not only what stars were made of but also what they were.
Likewise, to understand the nature of Scripture, we need to explore not only what the Bible is made of but also what the Bible is.
According to the testimony of Scripture and declarations of faith that have been confessed throughout the church’s history, the Bible is:
inspired
inerrant and infallible and
sufficient
Next week will look together at each of these vital characteristics of Scripture.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
I hope that this was a blessing and encouragement to you all. As i mentioned the Bible is not something we should worship but something we should be very familiar with.
It is very important we know what the bible is made of and what it is. So please pray with me as we study this subject that is very important to the Christian faith!
Let’s close in a word of prayer!
Let’s pray:
Father, we thank you for your word! how precious it is to us and how we can use it as a guide for our lives, a lamp to our feet, and a light our path. May we obey your word and be faithful to your teachings! In the name of Jesus, amen.