Bible Basics

January 2nd 2022

Series: Basics of the Faith

Sermon Title: Bible Basics

Topic: A message on what the Bible is and how to best engage it in our lives. Also on the importance of the Bible in our life and how to study it.

Key Passages: Psalms 119:11, Hebrews 4:12, Proverbs 7:1-3, Psalms 42:1-2, Matthew 23:27, I John 2:3-6

Sermon Blurb: The Bible is so THICK and while we might want to read it…it can honestly be hard to understand sometimes. In this message we will unpack how God brought us the Bible and how we can dive deep into the Word of God.

Sermon:

Family Moment

Happy new year’s Family Church!!!

How many of you have made so New Year’s resolutions that you are hoping to keep for once???

Respond Give an example of one you or your family made here.

PAUSE

If you are new, or newer, to Family Church you probably do not know what we do EVERY January around here….so let me explain.

Every January we spend the month talking about the things HEALTHY followers of Jesus do.

Because it is our goal for everyone at Family Church to be a healthy follower of Jesus.

So maybe, just maybe, you will walk away from church every week this month with some additional ideas of things you can put into practice in 2022 to become a healthier follower of Jesus.

PAUSE

This month we will be talking about Basics of the Faith.

Let me give you the trajectory for the month.

This week we are going to talk about Bible Basics. What is the Bible? How did God give us the Bible? How do we study the Bible? And so forth.

Next week we are going to talk about Prayer Basics. What is prayer? How did God teach us to pray? How do we pray? And so forth.

In week 3 we are going to talk about everyone’s FAVORITE thing!!! Anyone want to guess?

Yes!!! MONEY MONEY MONEY!!!

In week 3 we are going to talk about Giving Basics. What is giving? What is Tithing? How did God teach us to give? And so forth.

In Week 4 we are going to talk about Serving Basics. What is biblical serving? How did God teach us to serve? And so forth.

Then we will wrap this month up talking about Fasting Basics. What is Biblical fasting. How did God teach us to fast? And so forth.

PAUSE

I really hope you will make it a point to be here every week and start the year off right!

Think about this…. You’re here today and that means as of RIGHT NOW……you have PERFECT church attendance!

Let’s keep that trend rolling!!!!

I really do believe it is important you are here as much as you physically can be….because it is important for you, your faith and your kids and their faith.

And yes….it is ok to stay home when you’re sick!

Yes, it is ok to miss church when you’re on vacation…

But I want to encourage you to try and make 2022 the year you REALLY try your best to be in church when you are home.

Let’s not let another year go by without growing closer to Jesus.

Let’s not let another year go by without becoming a more committed disciple of Jesus.

PAUSE

Today, we are going to begin with two common questions I get asked, “How do I study my Bible? How do I understand my Bible?”

PAUSE

My hope is that by the end of this message we will all treat our Bibles with more reverence and that we will ALL leave hungry to study God’s Word.

I think the best way to start that is to begin with some background on the Bible.

I know there are people here who have never opened a Bible; and if that is you today I AM SO GLAD YOU ARE HERE!

I also realize that many of us in the room have been in our church our whole lives but really do NOT know the history of the Bible.

Now you will notice I put a big blank spot in your sermon notes that says Bible Stuff:

The reason for that is because today we are going to being with an overview of the history of the Bible to help us all get on the same page. So that space is for you to be able to write down what you didn’t know or to write down something you find interesting to study further later.

PAUSE

Let’s talk about how God brought the Bible to us.

It started thousands of years ago, somewhere between fourteen hundred and fifteen hundred B.C.

BC means BEFORE Jesus Christ lived…. AKA 2022 + another 1500 years ago would be approximately when all this started!

God started the whole thing when He wrote the Ten Commandments on stone and ascribed these very first words of God in an ancient form of a language called Hebrew. There is a picture of what this would have looked like on the screens.

Over the next thousand years or so scripture was recorded on animal skins scrolls. A scribe might use the animal skin of a deer, or a cow, or a sheep.

Here is a Picture

The very first scriptures which we still have in that form were known as the Pentateuch. The Pentateuch is just a hard way to say, “the first five books of the Bible.”

What’s interesting is, when the entire Pentateuch is found on a scroll, it’s called a Torah. If you saw a complete Torah scroll it would be over 150 feet long!

The scroll was so long that it would often take an entire herd of sheep just to make one Torah scroll. For just 5 books!

PAUSE

Contrast that to my Ipad which has literally a hundred translations of the Bible and countless books in this thin thing!!

PAUSE

By approximately 500 B.C., or about 2,500 years ago, the 39 books that we know today as the Old Testament were completed and continued to be preserved in Hebrew on scrolls.

PAUSE

By the end of the First Century A.D., the New Testament was completed, and it was preserved in the Greek language on papyrus, a thin paper-like material made from crushed and flattened stalks of a reed-like plant.

Here is a Picture of what that looked like

In the year 367 A.D., the Bishop of Alexandria, a guy by the name of Athenasius, wrote his Easter letter and in it, he listed all of the books that you read today in the New Testament.

Then in the year 393 A.D., a group of church leaders gathered, who were called, the African senate of Hippo, and at the time they approved all of the books that you find listed as your New Testament today.

So, you’re talking over 1,500 years ago…

By the year 500 A.D., the Bible was being widely translated into other languages.

PAUSE

People were thankful, because they could read God’s word in their own language. But then, something very unusual happened.

Within the next 100 years, by 600 A.D. the Bible was only allowed in one language. And you might wonder, “why is that?”

Well, the Roman Catholic Church became the only recognized church in the land. So, at that time, they issued a decree that no Bible could be printed unless it was in Latin.

If anyone found a Bible in any language besides Latin, the person holding that Bible could be executed on the spot.

You may be wondering, “Why did this happen?”

Well, unfortunately, the Roman Catholic Church had became very, very corrupt.

The priests were the only people educated in the Latin language so that the common person could never, ever read God’s word.

Which gave the priests ultimate power.

They could teach what parts of the Bible they wanted to, and they could even throw in some things that weren’t in the Bible if they wanted to.

In fact, it was common at that time, for a person to go and to pay for forgiveness.

If they sinned, they’d pay a certain amount of money and the priest would say, “Well, because you’ve paid that, now you are forgiven.”

The Catholic Church also taught about a place called purgatory, a word that’s not found in scripture, but they said if your relative dies, they go to purgatory, kind of a holding place, a place that you really don’t want to be, but for a certain amount of money, you can purchase freedom for your relative from purgatory.

In today’s world, it would kind of be like this: If your grandma dies, for $9,995 you can buy grandma a ticket out of purgatory.

This became part of what is known as the Dark ages and this period of darkness lasted almost a thousand years!

PAUSE

You may be wondering, “How did the church break free from this long season of darkness and corruption?” Well, the answer is simple.

A few Godly people began translating the Bible back into the common language. And the reformation of the church began.

In the late 1300’s a guy by the name of John Wycliffe was used by God to do tremendous things. He was the person that translated the Bible into the English language.

When he did so, suddenly, all these people who before couldn’t read scripture were now able to do so.

At that time in history, it would take almost a YEAR to translate one single Bible!!

Monks sat around like in this picture…translating the Bible by hand!

I am sure you are thinking that was a great thing, but the church labeled him a heretic for doing it! The church wanted him dead.

Some people say that Wycliffe was the true start of the reformation. He was the one that God used to start the ball rolling in the much needed reformation of the church.

PAUSE

In the year 1517, God raised up a man named Martin Luther, who was so fed up with all of the corruption in the church, he believed that God was calling him to help reform the church.

Luther is famous for nailing his ninety-five theses to the door of the church. This was a document with ninety-five claims of heresy against the Church of which he was the Pastor!

God also used Martin Luther to translate the Bible into German. He then took the recent invention of the printing press and mass printed Bibles for all people.

For doing this Luther was also called a heretic. People wanted to kill him, and he lived most of his life on the run.

But God used him to spark major changes in the church and to get the word of God into the hands of the masses.

PAUSE

In the year 1526, William Tyndale, began mass printing the Bible in English.

The bad news was that anyone who was caught with this illegal English Bible would be executed immediately.

PAUSE

Can you imagine if for hundreds of years there was NO BIBLE for you to read, your parents to read, your grandparents to read!

Imagine how much you would want a copy of the Bible in your own language!

Then imagine the joy of having your own Bibles; mixed with the fear of knowing that people would hunt you down and kill you for having it!

Imagine waking up every single morning, knowing that people were hunting you down, wanting to kill you simply because you wanted to help other people read the word of God!

That’s what these men experienced.

Day after day,

week after week,

month after month,

year after year,

Running for your life because people wanted you dead for helping people get a Bible in their hands that they could read!

Countless people died to put the Bible into a language that was understood by the common people. Countless people died to get us a copy of the Bible!

And the reason I took so much time to explain all this is because today, in America, we have more access to the Bible than ever before in history.

Today we have paper bibles everywhere. And anywhere there is a phone or an internet connection you can instantly have a Bible.

The average Christian home in America has 5 Bibles!

The sad part for me is that even though the Bible is so much easier to access and use today…..we do not see people more engaged with their Bibles.

We don’t have more passion for the word of God. We don’t spend more time studying it….we take our Bibles for granted!

And I can promise you church…..

If you take it for granted……

One day that right will be taken away from you.

And you might think that sounds crazy and NO WAY our government would EVER take away our Bibles….

But wouldn’t you have said in 2019 that there was NO WAY our government would ever FORCE churches to close down….and that happened….

Pastors went to JAIL for not closing!

Church’s got water and power turned off for meeting!

Church’s got boarded up by police for not closing!

YES…if we take it for granted….one day it WILL be taken from us…

LONG PAUSE

Keep taking notes…..

The Bible contains 66 distinct books, Psalms, and letters that are divided among the Old and New Testaments.

But it is one book.

The Bible was inspired by God and given through His Holy Spirit to over 40 authors from all walks of life like:

shepherds, farmers, tent-makers, physicians, fishermen, priests, philosophers and kings.

Despite these differences in occupation, and the span of years it took to write it, the Bible is an extremely cohesive and unified book. Which can only be explained by God inspiring all those writers.

Some of you might wonder, “What is the oldest almost-complete manuscript of the Bible now in existence?”

Here is picture of that. The Codex Vaticanus, which dates from the first half of the fourth Century. It is located in the library of the Vatican in Rome.

There are older fragments of the Bible that are still preserved however-- the oldest being a tiny scrap of the Gospel of John was found in Egypt, dating back to the beginning of the second century.

If you are not aware….The Bible you are hold in your hands…..it is still the #1 selling book of all time.

There are more Bibles printed every year than any other book in the WORLD.

The Bible has been translated into over 3,300+ languages.

The second most translated book is the Quran of the Muslim faith….which has been translated into around 173 languages…

Coming in 3rd is Pippi Longstockings!

Then a modern book, Harry Potter!

There is NO other religion in the world that can say those same things I just said. Let’s put it in perspective.

Muslims Quran is almost to .5% of the reach of the Bible.

The Book or Mormon is not as popular as the adventures of Rin Tin Tin.

Kabul is a fast-growing religion but is yet to pass Padding Bear in popularity!

I mean just think about this for a second…..

PAUSE

So, my question is……. “The Bible is God’s gift to you. What are you doing with this amazing gift that God has given us?”

Honestly, do you treat the Bible like the most precious gift ever given to you?

Or as some book that is too boring to read?

There is a man in the Bible named David.

And David was a guy who messed up a LOT in his life…like most of us…. And he said this in Psalms 119:11,“I have hidden your word in my heart.”

David challenges us to imprint the Bible on our heart.

And so many of us say….well I would do that but I don’t understand it….

Let me be really honest with you…

That is an excuse you use to make yourself feel better for not reading your Bible.

Because here is what I know from my own life.

I don’t understand the whole Bible and I am a Pastor!!!

But what I know is when I decided to become a student of God’s word and study it.

When I decided to put effort into finding out what things meant that is when my life radically changed.

When I said:

“I’m going to read more.

I’m going to study more.”

I started listening to the Bible on tapes…and teens I know you don’t know what that means….It is like listening to the Bible on iTunes except way worse…..

When I decided to stop listening to the radio and I just listened to the Bible being read to me while I drove around.

I DIDN’T understand everything; but I listened.

I studied what others said about the Bible….and overtime I grew and grew in my knowledge of the Bible….but I grew even more in my faith in God.

Here is my challenge to everyone….make a choice TODAY to

Make 2022 the year you commit to begin studying the Bible consistently.

I want us to become more than readers.

I want us to intentionally take God’s word and imprint it into our hearts. Allow it to transform us and change us.

I remember growing up in Sunday School; like many of you here.

I remember we always had to learn these songs. Anyone remember the B-I-B-L-E song?

Let’s sing it…..Oh the BIBLE…Yes, that’s the book for me. I stand upon the word of God, the B-I-B-L-E!

For so many of us we are trained from a young age to take God’s word and put it into our lives. But then we grow up right?

And what happens?

We have seasons of hunger, and as we read God’s word, it begins changing us, it begins making us new. It transforms us, and things are rich and we are growing.

But then sometimes we slip into a season of inconsistency, times when we’re not downloading God’s word, times when we’re not setting time aside in your day to study God’s word.

Times when we feel all alone in a desert.

Some of you may be there this weekend. Maybe today it has been a long time since you’ve connected to God.

And here’s what blows me away, and I know most of you know this…. We know that when we dive into our Bibles:

God changes us.

He transforms us.

He makes us new.

Our thinking becomes straightened out.

He picks us up above our circumstances, up above our challenges.

We know this…..so why do we continue to neglect God’s word?

Make a commitment and set aside some time and really dive into God’s word, become intimate with Him and if you do you will discover something amazing!

PAUSE

So let’s wrap up our time today talking about the practical side of how we study the Bible.

Proverbs 7:1-3, it says, “Follow my advice, my son, always treasure my commands. Obey my commands and live. Guard my instructions as you guard your own eyes. Tie them on your fingers as a reminder. Write them deep within your hearts.”

Let me tell you a little about Jewish tradition so we can fully grasp what God is saying here.

Jewish people dedicated their entire lives to mastering the Torah, the Law the Old Testament. What does that mean right?

Well, let’s take a second and compare the Jewish view of training their children up in the ways of the Bible and ours.

By the age of ten, each boy will have memorized the entire Book of the Law. That’s the book of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

And memorized means EVERY word…every verse….

In our modern Christian culture, I doubt most 10 year old’s would even know the names of those 4 books; let alone what is inside them.

From 10-13, they go to another school, and begin to dive deeper and become masters of the text. As a matter of fact, by the time they graduate, by the age of thirteen, they have the entire Hebrew scriptures memorized.

Can you imagine if our children spent that amount of time in the Bible how different they would be?

The Jewish people take this very seriously.

They do what I challenge every parent to do when I baptize their children….

Talk about it at home.

Talk about it at work.

Talk about it with their kids when they were taking them to school, on the way home.

Jewish people incorporate the Old Testament into every part of their life!

I want us to have that kind of passion for the Bible!

So with our time left today I want to give you some practical tips to help you study the Bible.

And this is for everyone.

Let’s start by talking about how to choose which translation of the Bible. There are so many different versions and they come in different shapes, and they come in different sizes.

There is a list in your sermon notes of the top 7 translations:

1. New International Version (NIV)

2. New Revised Start Version (NRSV)

3. King James Version (KJ)

4. English Standard Version (ESV)

5. New King James Version (NKJ)

6. New Living Translation (NLT)

7. Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCB)

The NIV is what we give away to anyone who needs a good study Bible.

In my office I primarily read from the ESV, NIV, NLT, NASB.

But here is the BIG thing I want to suggest.

If you’re not a deep Bible knowledge person.

Get a Study Bible!!!

Because they have all kinds of info under the verses to help explain it.

SHOW EXTRA’S in study bible

How to study the Bible?

1. As you read ask: Who, what, where, when, and why?

Who is the Bible talking about?

What was going on in that culture?

What were their struggles.

Where did this happen?

When did this happen?

Why did God put this story in the Bible?

And when you really begin to understand the who, what, when, where, and the why, God’s word will really jump out of the pages and into your life!!!

This will help reveal a lot of things to you.

How to study the Bible?

2. After you read, use study tools to help provide clarity. Study Bibles, Biblical commentaries, Bible Study websites.

Maybe you’re at a place in your life right now where you’re not spending enough time with God, and maybe you’re reading, but it doesn’t make sense and it’s not connecting.

Maybe it’s time for you guys to really consider picking up some new tools.

God is calling us to take His word with us everywhere that we go, let it saturate our lives with Bible.

Psalms 42:1-2, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?”

David cries out, “When can I go and meet with you, O God?”

Let me ask you a question, “When is the last time that you’ve met with God?”

Maybe you’ve been following Christ for a long time, maybe just a short amount of time.

No matter where you are in your journey, when is the last time that you’ve met with God?

PAUSE

The reason that we want to get deep into our Bibles is not for knowledge, and it’s not to say, “Look at me I AM a BIBLE MASTER!!!” NO!!!! We do it to meet with God. When is the last time that you’ve met with God?

PAUSE

Matthew 23:27, Jesus is talking to a group of people, and He looks them right in the eyes and He says, “Woe to you, teachers of the laws and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside, you are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.”

Jesus looks the spiritual leaders in the eyes, and He says, “Guys, you know what?” He says, “On the outside you look beautiful. You look great. You know all the verses. You know how to hold your Bible. You know what to say.”

But Jesus goes on saying, “As I peer deep into the core of who you are, on the outside you’re great, but on the inside you’re filthy.”

If you were standing in front of Jesus, what would he say about you?

Jesus didn’t beat around the bush…he called it like it was….

So, how about you? Are you posing, pretending?

On the outside, are you putting on a spiritual fashion show? Are you washing the outside of your lives white?

What are we going to see when we peer deep into who you are? What is it that is really going on?

You see, on the outside a lot of us are probably thinking, “I’m reading God’s word every once in a while. My kids are in here every week, and we come to church most weekends…we are doing good.”

That’ s not my question.

My question for you right now is, what’s going on in the inside?

PAUSE

I John 2:3-6 says, “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.”

We know we have come to know God, if we truly obey what it is He’s asked us to do.

But, “The man who says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word,”keyword there is OBEYS.

“God’s word is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”

God is calling you to make your Bible a priority in your life this year. Every one of you. No one is excluded from that.

Here is the last note….

How to study the Bible?

3. Don’t give up! Commit to reading the Bible daily.

We have done challenges to get you all reading your Bibles here before.

For the last two years, Pastor Adam has done a morning encouragement to help keep you reading your Bible.

If you want to jump in on that download our app or like us on Facebook and you will see it!

DON’T give up!

Make 2022 the year you really study your Bible!

Let me give you your life application today…..

Life Application

Make a commitment today to read your Bible MORE than you have in the past. Commit to bringing your Bible to church and taking notes in it this year!

That could mean reading it once a week.

That could mean every couple of days!

That could mean every day….

I just want to encourage you to do it more…

Take your relationship with Jesus to the next level today.

Let’s talk about bringing your Bible to church.

Parents….grandparents… guardians….

Your kids need to see you bring your Bibles to church!

Your kids need to see your Bible get worn because you use it so much!

Your kids need to see your Bible filled with notes!

Because that will teach them how much you value your Bible!

And here is the reality….you want the next generation to LOVE God’s word MORE than you!!!!

So, teach them that you value it!!!!

I will be honest….It frustrates me to see so many mom’s come in with their Bibles….taking great notes and the dad’s sitting there with their arms crossed never taking notes….

THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE TEACHING YOUR KIDS!

You’re teaching them that is not something men do!

Men!!! Be a REAL man….and teach your kids MEN LOVE JESUS!!!!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

Bring your Bibles to church with you because if you cannot bring them to church I know you take them nowhere with you in life and that is NOT good….

So kids…teens…adults make 2022 the year you bring your Bible to church!

Let’s Pray…..