This sermon is part of a series called "Back to the Basics" and focuses on the importance of reading and meditating on the Bible as a fundamental practice of faith.
Welcome church! Today we’re going to continue our 4-week series called, Back to the Basics. It’s a series about the basics...the foundations of our faith. And, if you were with us last week you’ll recall that we began with the practice of consistent and bold prayer.
Our journey continues today with the very word of God, the holy scripture. It may seem like such an obviously important part of christian faith and yet for some reason, the Bible is all too often overlooked or ignored in the hustle and bustle of our daily lives.
The simple truth is that the Bible is anything but unimportant. As we’ll learn today the word of God is living, active, and profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training. And that’s just scratching the surface! The Bible is full of wisdom and surprises.
For instance, the Bible actually consists of 66 smaller books, divided into 2 major sections; the Old and New Testament. Another way to think about it is that the Old Testament is everything that happened before Jesus and the New Testament covers about 70 years of time including the birth and ministry of Jesus along with the beginning of the early church. For our study today, we’ll primarily be in the New Testament, learning from Jesus and some of the original apostles.
Another interesting fact about the Bible is that it is the all-time best selling book in the history of the world and has been translated into 704 different languages. (As of Sept. 2020) And there are entire ministries, like Wycliffe Bible Translators, whose aim is to translate the Bible into every language on earth.
I think we would all agree that it’s important for everyone on earth to have access to the Bible. As I mentioned before, it is living, active, and profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training.
Basically, the Bible is amazing. What an incredible gift God has given us. Let’s see what we can learn about the word, from the word.
The simple truth is that the Bible is anything but unimportant. As we’ll learn today the word of God is living, active, and profitable for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training.
Have you ever read the Bible and something just JUMPS out at you? As if the Bible knew what you needed at that moment? Or have you ever just randomly opened to a passage that spoke so clearly into your life, it seemed uncanny.
If you’ve felt either of those things before, then you’re right. And actually the writer of Hebrews describes the words of scripture as both alive and active.
Living & Active
“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to divide soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” - Hebrews 4:12
Wow! That one verse says an awful lot about scripture. But for starters let’s take a look at these 2 words; alive and active.
To be alive in this sense means to be counted among the living, not the dead. The point being here that the writer of Hebrews very much counts the words of scripture among the living just as other human beings, animals, etc… would be. The word active also means effective and productive in it’s work.
For those of us in the room who’ve been reading the Bible for some time, I think we can all agree that the Bible is both living and effective ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium
Jesus is the word and the word is Jesus.
What if Jesus wasn’t just talking about french loaves and baguettes. What if He was talking about the bread of life? What if He was instructing the disciples to pray for Him? And what if God gave us daily access to Christ through scripture?
Sermon Central