“The Bible Says…”

Introduction/Scripture

2 Timothy 3:16 NIV

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,

Pray.

I am really a mixed bag when it comes to this book. Don’t get worried yet, here is what I mean.

I grew up around Christians in the Bible Belt. My dad’s parents taught sunday school for decades in a Southern Baptist Church.

Jesus loves me this I know, for the …..Bible tells me so.

The bible was just understood to be special. And it was taught to me to be fairly simple and straightforward at it’s purpose and meaning.

But I am also a millenial. I kind of dont want to accept anything because I am supposed to from parents or grandparents generation.

I am skeptical by nature.

A little anti- institutional. Well maybe a lot.

Around my prodigal years, I found that anyone that simply refers to the bible to prove something is not really very compelling.

By the way, have you thought about that? When you are sharing faith with someone who rejects the authority or inspiration of Scripture, referring to the bible to prove something is kind of silly. Anyways, that is another sermon.

The question is…. what do we believe about this book?

This book written over a millenium

this book: 66 books

This book, which the content was argued over for 4-5 centuries after Jesus

Well, we have limited time today to answer this fully. I have taught a 10 week class on this question alone.

So allow me to make the three most important points today:

The Purpose of Scripture is for Salvation

This book is revelation. Look at your neighbor and say, this book is revelation.

Revelation is the noun for something that is revealed. What is revealed?

David Watson puts it this way….

“…the Bible is a form of divine communication meant to lead us more fully into the life of God. Put in theological terms, we might say that through the Bible we receive divine revelation, the purpose of which is soteriological. In other words, the purpose of God’s Word is salvation for the world.” -David Watson

What is revealed is that Yahweh, the God of Israel created all things, created you and me, and when humanity chose to play God, God set out to make things right, first with the Hebrews, then to the whole world through Jesus Christ, and God is still redeeming through the power of the Spirit and the church, until Jesus returns.

It contains all that is necessary for salvation.

It is not a life manual. Though it instructs our life.

The Bible is uniquely inspired

Inspiration

What do you think of when I ask you about inspiration? What does it mean to say the Bible is inspired?

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Bible, Inspiration of The

Bible, Inspiration of the. Theological term for the influence God exerted on the writers of Scripture, enabling them to transmit his revelation of himself in writing.

If we believe that Scripture is a gift from God to lead us into salvation, it only makes sense to say that God has guided the writings of Scripture in order to provide us with the teaching we need. Christians, therefore, affirm that the Bible is divinely inspired.

David F. Watson. Scripture and the Life of God (Kindle Locations 341-342).

There are many theories of inspiration. How did the Holy Spirit inspire and work through these authors. The early church used certain “rulers” to determine inspiration.

Me: I do not believe God guided their hand and wrote the words. I do not believe that God handed over manuscripts to these prophets. I believe in something, I think much more beautiful. God used historical context, God used generations of culture and beliefs and idiosyncrasies and human brokenness and all of who the Israelites to work, reveal and inspire these writings. When and if Moses is writing the first books of the Bible he is telling the redemptive story of God working with all the bad.

The Bible is less concerned with theories of inspiration and more concerned with telling us the purpose of its inspiration......

2 Timothy 3:14–17 NIV

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

We learn about salvation and redemption and ourselves or the brokenness of our own hearts. It is not just trying to convince you that you are broken, but it is coming to the knowingly broken person, as Paul puts it....ugh why do I do what I do not want to do and cant do what I know I should do?!?! Well scripture walks through that.

Ok let me say a quick word about unique inspiration.....

Unique Inspiration:

Occasionally one comes across notions of inspiration that diminish Scripture’s role as a standard for sound teaching. For example, Adam Hamilton, in his book Making Sense of the Bible , argued,

[T]he Bible’s authors were inspired by the Spirit in the same way and to the same degree as many contemporary preachers and prophets and even ordinary Christians have been inspired by the Spirit in every age. You’ve likely felt moved by the Spirit, and you’ve likely heard God speak to you as you listened to a sermon or a song, or read an inspirational book. I believe the inspiration experienced by the biblical authors was not different from our own experience of inspiration. 11

Why do you think this statement is problematic?

Taking this approach, there is no theological reason that the witness of Scripture should carry more weight than experiences of the Spirit that you or I might have. In other words, from this perspective, the Bible is inspired, but not uniquely inspired. Hamilton’s notion of inspiration represents quite a departure from some of the important claims that Christians have made about Scripture through the centuries. Throughout almost every branch of Christianity one finds the belief that, in our Scriptures, we have a unique self-revelation from God. It was given to guide first Israel and then the church in the ways of truth and righteousness. From the early centuries of our faith, Christians have held that the Bible serves as a standard—a measuring rod, or canon—against which we can assess what is taught in the church, as well as individual thoughts, words, and deeds. We have held that the Bible has unique authority because God has given it to us in order to function in this way. If the inspiration of Scripture is no different from the way in which you or I might be inspired today, it is difficult to see why we should consider Scripture to be a standard at all.

David F. Watson. Scripture and the Life of God (Kindle Locations 394-398).

The Bible is authoritative

Ok what comes to mind when you think of authority?

Can I just claim to have authority in anything? I might claim to be an authority with the Bible. What would make that true, hypothetically?

credibility?

time invested?

knowledge?

given authority? (think ordination or FMC)

Authority is important and it is one that we have to discuss. Many across the denominational spectrum and many in our church are lost on authority or they are not sure what they think about authority. We live in a time that is highly individualistic and anti-authoritarian really.

Two meanings of authority:

Invested authority

Earned Authority

Invested authority first:

If someone has authority it has been invested to them. So think about me as a pastor. When I was hired as your pastor and when I was ordained then I passed through certain filters and the institution invested authority in me. A church gives me authority just by naming me pastor.

A teacher, has authority to give assignments and tests and set a syllabus for credit for students because of the institution behind the teacher.

Earned authority:

Authority also comes from competency. For me, it is long deep study of scripture. it is hopefully a life lived out in the way that I am supposed to aim and leading you.

For the teacher, it is because they spent 10+ years studying that one thing. They have researched and written about the topic. They have a knowledge that makes them credible.

Authority of scripture: The institution backing the Bible is God. The power of God, the authority of God, the trustworthiness of God, the inspiration as we have already talked about.

And

God is a credible source. The Bible is a valid source of teaching about God, human beings, and the world in which we live. It can teach us about life because it is from the source of life.

These two aspects of authority are important because....

The Bible has authority and speaks with authority....it has binding claims on our life.

Closing:

Here is my fear in the church. We have put this book in a precarious place. In our postmodern experience, we have either, not submitted to it’s authority and inspiration because to do so would, in our minds, be too self-limiting.

You are still Lord.

Or we have allowed it to be a book that is inspiring, or somewhat authoritative unless it is inconvenient. Its a book of meaning, but ultimate meaning?!?

You are still Lord.

Jesus will not compete with you.