Reading the Bible to Meet God

John 1:1–18 NIV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ”) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

Introduction:

Here is Annie: New Believer, Super Smart. College Degree, Passed Organic Chemistry. New Year’s Resolution - Read through the Bible in a Year.

“At that time Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of

Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations went to war

against Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of—

huh?

Okay. she decides she will just skip a few verses. (Trying again)

“Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. Now he was

the priest of the Most High God. He blessed Abram, saying, ‘Blessed be

Abram by the Most High God, Creator of heaven and earth. (Closes the

Bible and smiles, proud of her achievement. Then her smile suddenly

disappears) Wait. What? Who’s Abram?

The Holy Spirit shows up and asks her how she is doing?

I don’t get it. I have a college degree etc...

What do you think it means?

Well, God created everything, and then there was the Fall, and the

Flood, and then everyone built this tower and… God got mad, I think,

so then Abraham came and saved everyone from the enemy kings, and

now he’s eating dinner with the milkman.

The Holy Spirit: Huh?

Annie: I don’t know, the milk guy. Milk-iz—Melkiz-

What is the Bible Not?

What are the common views of what the Bible is?

- Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. - We will use the Bible as a guide for our life. A self-help book of sorts. The focus is on us and the things we need to do. - To be sure their are material like this in the Bible - Proverbs, the instructions at the end of Paul's letters - But the instructions are implications of something bigger that is being communicated.

- A Book of Rules -

- A book of fables - stories told to get some sort of moral lesson from

- A book of myth

So what is the Bible?

The Bible is the Recorded Story of God.

So that we may know this God, understand who we are in relationship to God, and therefore how we might live life with this God.

1. God reveals himself to humanity through two primary means: words and actions. In the Bible, both of these mediums of revelation work together and are interconnected. For example, God has revealed himself in human history through his mighty deeds and works, and these actions have been recorded and written down in Scripture. God also speaks directly to and through prophets in the Bible, which is documented in words within the canon of Scripture.

And So in this sense we read our Bible to Meet God, and grow our relationship with God.

When you get to this passage in the Bible there is a major shift in the book. Like a New Chapter. We are introduced to a Jesus, and one of the first things John wants us to see is...

Meeting Jesus in the Bible is Meeting God.

Even the O.T. Scripture was not enough to fully reveal God to us, as John alludes to at the end of his Gospel: “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (21:25). The Word had to become flesh. God’s greatest and clearest revelation of himself is found in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

1. There are many different mediums of human communication in the modern world: physical mail, email, phone calls, voice mail, voice messaging, text messaging, social-media communication. It is commonly understood, however, that old-fashioned face-to-face, in-person communication is still the most effective. Similarly, God’s face-to-face, in-person revelation of himself to us in the person of Jesus was the most effective way for him to speak to make himself known to us.

- Relationship Building. from knowing about Jesus - to Knowing Jesus, from knowing about God - to Knowing God. Every relationship moves from simpler knowing about, to more dynamic knowing deeply a person. - It takes time, and it takes multiple interactions, and it takes a life time of growth. -

1. The Bible is a means to knowing God himself. The goal of personal devotions is to grow in our relationship with and love of God. It is possible to possess great knowledge of the Bible but still lack a redemptive relationship with the God of the universe; it is possible to possess intellectual knowledge of God through Bible study without transformative knowledge of God though a living, breathing relationship. In addition, if we want to know who God is and what Christianity teaches, we should look no further than the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the self-revelation of God himself. All Bible study should revolve around Jesus, lead to Jesus, and end with Jesus.

We will talk about how reading the Bible is one facet of meeting Jesus. We will want to also include prayer, and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, but today we are focusing on reading the Bible.

So I want to talk about

How to Read the Bible to Encounter God.

1. In becoming flesh and dwelling among us, God is accommodating to us, speaking to us in human terms—in a language that we can appreciate and comprehend. In the film Arrival (directed by Denis Villeneuve [Paramount Pictures, 2016]), Amy Adams plays a linguist (Louise) who is hired by the military to learn how to communicate with alien life forms that have arrived on earth out of the blue. In order to do this, Louise must figure out how to accommodate to the understanding of an alien species, contextualize her message, and speak to foreign creatures on their terms. God does something similar in his communication with us in and through the incarnation.

I was talking to Ben about this. How do Adults communicate what they do for a living? -

And so what do we have. A book that communicates in one way the simplest message of Good News. We can know God from this book, and it can be communicated to us as a child. But it was also written in ancient cultures with genres that are very foreign to us (they would have made more sense to the original readers) which means we could spend a lifetime growing in our knowledge of such a complicated God who created the universe.

Illustrate the simplicity, and complexity of this Passage. Notice that mirrors the simplicity and complexity of the Entire Bible. - Simple - vs. 12 Jesus gave people who believed in him the authority to become children of God. vs. 17 Jesus gives us grace and truth. vs. 18 Jesus is God's son who makes God known. Generally, you might get the sense that Jesus is somehow God, came to our world and became flesh and lived with us.

- Complexity - The Word - Genesis, God created by just speaking.

- The Trinity - God the creator, through his Word the Son, The Spirit Hovered over the face of the earth.

- Life - Takes us back both in the giving of life - Spirit breathed on humans, and the tree of life. -

- The Light - first thing God spoke into being in creation. Also, a tie into imagry of the tree of life eminating light - burning bush, and God leading the Israelites by his presence through a cloud by day, but a pillar of fire by night (light).

- "Dwelt" is the word that is used for tabernacling with us. Takes us back to the tabernacle, where God's presence was in the O.T.

- So this text is saying a lot about who Jesus is as an introduction. The Simple answer is Jesus is God's son, fully God, fully man, who came and dwelt among us. He came to give us grace and truth, and as he did he showed us who God the Father truly is. If we believe in him, we can become children of God (salvation). But there is soo much more as we go deeper - both in this passage, but also throughout even just this book of John. John will take deeper in our encounter with Jesus to "flesh" out who he is. - So be patient with yourself, take your time, read it with friends and read the Bible with helps.

- It’s like meeting a new friend. It takes time to build the relationship. You meet them for the first time, and you will get to know a few things about them. As you continue to interact with them in life you learn new things, in fact you will likely not stop learning things about them for the entirety of the relationship. Even still there will come a time when it seems like you “Know them”, not just “Know about them.”

Questions I like to ask when reading a passage of scripture.

who wrote it? who was the original audience? when was it written? what is the message of the book or the purpose for which it was written?

How does this passage fit into the overall structure of the book?

How does this passage fit into the context of the overall story of Redemption?

- Share the Gospel Story Symbols.

What does the Passage actually say?

- Outline the structure of the passage.

Conclusion: