Bible. What is it? Why does it matter?

I - Lila’s Bible

One of my most precious possessions.

When I got it.

what is in it.

Her writing changes. from Steady and precise to a little shakey.

It tells the story of what this book was to her.

Something she kept coming back to. Something that kept teaching her. SOmething she founded her life on.

Looking at what she underlined and wrote about I was encouraged to see that even she had doubts and fears and where she turned to for help

As she wrote in this bible, it is clear that God was writing on her heart.

I hope that can be my story too.

Trans: My grandma and many of you already root your life on the God talked about in this book. But its not always easy to start. And even when we have started we often need a reminder about how to Read this book and why it matters so much. So for the next few weeks we are going to dig into The Bible, what it is, how to read it, and the story it tells together. But lets start at the beginning. What is the bible and why should we read it?

Y -

Trans: It’s clear this book means something to us.

Best seller lists don't include it because it would be the #1 best seller every month.

More than 168,000 are sold or given away in the US every day.

9/10 US homes have at least one. Average is 4.7.

Roughly 1/3 read it at least once a month, 1/3 read it a few times a year, and 1/3 never read it.

Why do we keep buying a book but not reading it? Why....

elaborate

We all have 5 of these at our house. We all know we are supposed to be reading it. But it is hard to understand, discouraging, and often confusing.

We all have 5 of these at our house. We all know we are supposed to be reading it. But it is hard to understand, discouraging, and often confusing.

Even the things that seem easy to apply and straight forward are surrounded by things that don't make much sense to us. And there are vast portions of it that we stay far away from.

This leads to some of us...

1. Not reading the bible much and feeling a little bad about it.

2. Only encountering the bible when it comes contained in sermons and devotional books that spend most of their time explaining short chunks of scripture.

I dont know about you, but growing up, not at all intentionally i dont think but many of us were taught to read the bible like it dropped out of heaven onto our lap.

3. Reading the bible lots and spending lots of time frustrated, confused, and not getting a whole lot out of it.

4. Reading parts of the bible and filling in the gaps and smoothing over the difficulties by making it fit what we already think.

5. Rejecting the bible as a confusing mess better left to others.

It’s almost like there is a part of us that KNOWS what is in here matters, BUT we just cant quite figure out how to get the good stuff out of there.

We buy one, we give it a try, but then we get discouraged and give up.

We know this is important but we have trouble .

So how do we change that. How do we read this thing that we know matters? We believe there i something here for us. How do we get it?

G-

trans: For the next weeks leading up to Easter we are going to explore this book, what makes it so special. But most importantly what we can do to start reading it the way it was meant to be. But let’s start at the beginning.

A lot of us were taught to read the bible like it dropped out of heaven onto our lap.

Today

As Christians we think of the bible as God’s word to us, to the world, to people. But the WAY we think about that can cause problesms

“God said it, I believe it, that settles it.”

And this makes a lot of sense, Right?

It works really well depending on where we start… (letters, leviticus, romans)

We read it looking to pull out, commands, things to believe, promises to trust in, and comforting words.

But the more you read the more likely it is you will find yourself confused, troubled or stuck by something you cant quite make sense out of.

(apparent contradiction, a character that does something wrong and goes unpunished for it, a strange law that doesn't seem right to you)

Or perhaps you start reading a part of the bible and it doesn't seem to be trying to tell you anything and you wonder what is the point of this? You might even discover that large portions of scripture dont seem to have many promises, commands, theological statements, or comforting words.

When this happens it can be very discouraging we think, “I thought this was God’s word for me why is it so hard to understand?” Why doesn't it make any sense.

we think, “I thought this was God’s word for me why is it so hard to understand?” Why doesnt it make any sense

we think maybe were not spiritual enough or smart enough or educated enough to get it. If God wrote it for me why does this part not make sense.

1. Not reading the bible much and feeling a little bad about it.

2. Only encountering the bible when it comes contained in sermons and devotional books that spend most of their time explaining short chunks of scripture.

But the truth is there is a problem with reading the bible this way.

3. Reading the bible lots and spending lots of time frustrated, confused, and not getting a whole lot out of it.

4. Reading parts of the bible and filling in the gaps and smoothing over the difficulties by making it fit what we already think.

5. Rejecting the bible as a confusing mess better left to others.

When we act like the bible fell out of heaven and into our laps. We ignore something that our bible tries over and over again to make clear.

That it is the result of a God-Human partnership. That our bible comes from both heaven and earth.

While the bible REPEATEDLY claims to be God’s word, bread of life, inspired by God, a perfect law, and a light for our path. see psalm 119.

It also REPEATEDLY makes mention of the flesh and blood human beings who are involved in its writing, collection, preservation, and spreading. It repeatedly references human authors in both the old and new testaments. And its books are clearly marked by the different gifts of its diverse group of authors.

Its full of prayers, wisdom, and stories that have a unique and human tone to them.

the bible IS God's word. Holy, Illuminating, helpful, sharp,

BUT

There is an undeniable human element.

-17 puts it like this:

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.

In other words. Our bible with all of its authors, rooted in history, humanity, emerging out of certain people and in certain places is

GOD BREATHED. not God dictated, but GOD BREATHERED

Inspired, by God.

So does the bible come from God or Humans?

YES

Your bible comes from both Heaven and Earth.

It is a Divine human project. Its a little like what we belive about Jesus.

Just like you cant seperate Jesus divinity from his humanity it is impossible to seperate the bible out like that.

Its both the two cannot be separated and you cant understand one without the other.

What is the bible?

Not a book, but a small library of books

One of the most important things to remember when reading the bible is this.

“everything in the bible was written by a person for a PURPOSE besides you and me.”

“So for us to understand this God-Human partnership this miracles we need to recognize that, or we ill often miss the point. We call that context.”

And in the bible the person who is writing or compiling and why they are writing are two of the most important questions.

Our bible is not a book, but a small library of books

66 books written by as many as 40 authors.

And those 40 include some of the last people you or I would pick to write a book about God.

Moses, was a murderer that was afraid of public speaking.

David a king who abused his power.

His son Solomon who was abundantly blessed by God but still turned his back on him

Prophets, most of whom failed to get anyone to listen to their warnings.

Peter, a man who denied even knowing Jesus when times got tough.

Paul who stood by encouraging the murder of the first person to die following Jesus.

To me this is good news.

The bible itself is PROOF that God loves and wants to work in and through broken, sinful, and failure prone HUMAN BEINGS just like me and you.

It was not written by perfect people copying God’s exact words.

But instead it was a MESSY partnership INSPIRED by the HOLY SPIRIT. A partnership between frail and fickle humans + our steadfast patient and ABUNDANTLY loving God.

And Reading the bible should be the same thing. A messy partnership between the church gathers and the HOLY SPIRIT.

(Mostly Narrative and poetry) (but some prose discourse)

Written by at least 40 authors

Over a more than 1,000 years

In 3 languages and on 3 continents

Well preserved through history by the work of thousands of faithful scribes, translators, and scholars.

Well preserved through history by the work of thousands of faithful scribes, translators, and scholars. with thousands of ancient copies it represents the most accurately preserved ancient document we have.Our new testament has copies dating back to less than 100 years from the original writing and the 5600 copies we have are 99.5% consistent to each other. This means that whether you believe the bible or not scholars agree that there is a VERY high likely hood the words preserved in the greek new testament that modern english translations are based on is almost idenitcal to these documents as they were originally composed. OTTaNaK - God speaks through these works to his peopleTell and epic story of God creating the world, humankind constantly turning their backs on God, but God still working alongside people to bring order and beauty out of the chaos in the world, IT concludes with an unfulfilled promise, that one day a leader will come to finish the job. NTJesus appears and continues the TaNaK story forward. I am he.Apostles writeGospelsActsLetters of encouragement

with thousands of ancient copies it represents the most accurately preserved ancient document we have.

Our new testament has copies dating back to less than 100 years from the original writing and the 5600 copies we have are 99.5% consistent to each other. This means that whether you believe the bible or not scholars agree that there is a VERY high likely hood the words preserved in the greek new testament that modern english translations are based on is almost idenitcal to these documents as they were originally composed. OT

TaNaK - God speaks through these works to his people

Tell and epic story of God creating the world, humankind constantly turning their backs on God, but God still working alongside people to bring order and beauty out of the chaos in the world, IT concludes with an unfulfilled promise, that one day a leader will come to finish the job.

NT

Jesus appears and continues the TaNaK story forward. I am he.

Apostles write

Gospels

Acts

Letters of encouragement, correction, an challenge.

Y -Reading the Heaven and Earth Book

TRANS: Over the next wfew weeks we are going to talk about how to Read this God-Human Heaven-Earth book better. How to read it as God intended, and ultimately how to use it to plant our lives in Christ together. So that we can see God’s word in these pages and bu the power of the holy spirit live it out together.

So that we can continue that God-Human partnership reflected in these pages.

But for now here are a few ways we can Read the bible in light of the HUMAN ELEMENT.

0- Plan to Read

1- Expect to be confused sometimes

This book diddn't fall out of heaven, it was written inspired by the Holy Spirit and written by 40 different authors

in 3 languages on 3 continents

over 1,500 years. Each at a real point in history in an actual place. Usually with someone in mind.

The bible as we have it was Finished 1,900 years ago.

Then Checked, copied, preserved and Translated by thousands of people.

IT is a testament to God's work, the power of the Holy spirit, and the faithful work of thousands that we have and that it makes sense it at all.

SO we shouldn't be surprised when its sometimes hard to understand.

Instead of giving up...

2. Start with Questions

What is the CONTEXT?

Who wrote this and who was it written too?

What was happening when this was written?

When was it written?

Where does this fit in the big story of the bible?

Why is this here?

What don't I understand?

You probably wont be able to answer all these questions on your own, but there are some great tools.

3 - Use Good Tools

1. A translation you can understand - It can make all the difference (New International Version and New Living Translation are both excellent modern translations that are very faithful to the original text.)(But there are lots of other good translations too) Consider adding a new translation to the one you like.

2. good bible app and reading plans.

2. good bible commentaries

3. thebibleproject.com is a GREAT website to give you context and history around EVERY BOOK OF THE BIBLE

4.

5 - Expect to encounter God.

Ask God, "What do you want me to hear?"

W

If we are going to read the bible and understand it well we have to be able to hold this idea in our heads. That it is fully inspired and dripping with the words and truth woven in and inspired by the holy spirit. That it is God Breathed.

AND that it is written by, to, for, and in actual historical places and people. That it is not a magic book that fell from heaven nor is it a collection of nice ideas and philosophies, but the product of thousands of years of people following and failing God through in all kinds of places and facing all kinds of problems. People like us in so many ways, but different from us in so many ways. Heaven and Earth all wrapped up together.

We carry book that captures truth about the human experience and life on Earth that even modern people cant deny. And we carry book that contains in it not easy answers or perfect rules to follow but a story of HOPE that shines through the darkest of life's circumstances.

We carry with us a book that is HUMAN enough to make sense to us

We carry book that captures truth about the human experience and life on Earth that even modern people cant deny. And we carry book that contains in it not easy answers or perfect rules to follow but a story of HOPE that shines through the darkest of life's circumstances.

We carry with us a book that contains accounts of people encountering God himself and bringing to the encounter all the very real problems and pains of human life to bear. We carry book that captures truth about the human experience and life on Earth that even modern people cant deny. And we carry book that contains in it not easy answers or perfect rules to follow but a story of HOPE that shines through the darkest of life's circumstances.

The story of a parent who never gives up on their kid. A king … A lender… A boss

A creator who refuses to abandon their creation.

God wrote the bible through messy people like you me and my grandma Lila. Imperfect people with doubt, fear, hurt, who made great sacrifices, were capable of great selfishness, with joy, sorrow, and great worth.

And he wants to join us in reading it through his Holy Spirit.

What an invitation

What an invitation

When take it we get a glimpse of how God worked in their times and places, and how he is still at work in ours.

When we do we get a glimpse of how God worked in their times and places, and how he is still at work in ours.

I promise the more you read this book the more you will find your worries, your hopes, your friends, your problems, your sin, your joy,

YOUR story in these pages. And the more you read this divine human book teh better you will know the kind of God that sends his son to die for you. The more your heart will be transformed by the God who made you, who loves you just the way you are, and who wants to save you transform you into the person he always meant you to be.

Lets pray,