Have you ever gone to a movie with one set of expectations and then found out the movie wasn’t at all what you expected? Somebody told you that it was going to be funny, but the movie was really quite serious. Or you read in the newspaper that the movie was scary, but you found yourself laughing at all the scary parts? And you come out of the movie disappointed, because it didn’t meet your expectations. Yet, the funny thing is, if you had gone in with different expectations, you might have enjoyed the movie a lot more. If you had gone in knowing it wasn’t going to be a comedy, you wouldn’t have minded that you didn’t laugh, and could have enjoyed the movie for being a serious drama. The expectations going in make a huge difference in how you experience the movie.
When it comes to reading the Bible, we find that we have all kinds of expectations going in. And those expectations make a huge difference in how we read the message of the Bible. If we read the Bible with the expectation is that we will learn how to cook chicken teriyaki stirfry, we will obviously be disappointed. If we have the expectation that the Bible will tell us how to solve the AIDS epidemic or global warming, we probably won’t find our expectations fulfilled.
The expectations we start out with make a huge difference. Some people think the Bible is just full of names and geographic places that are hard to pronounce, so sure enough, when they get to the first name they don’t recognize, they quit reading.
Some people are simply intimidated by the size. The Bible by itself has more than 1400 pages, and a lot of study Bibles that have notes included push the size over 2000 pages. When the National Endowment of the Arts did a survey that found out that barely a majority of Americans, 56%, read *any* book last year, how likely is it that they’ll pick up a 2000 page book to read? If the expectation is that the Bible is going to be a difficult slog through a really long book, a lot of people just won’t try.
Some people have the expectation that the Bible should answer every problem we could imagine in the world today. Since there are all sorts of scientific and technological and societal issues that we face today that weren’t even in existence when the Bible was written, they figure the Bible can’t meet their expectation and simply dismiss it as an antiquted, obsolete book that isn’t relevant to our lives any longer. Nothing could be further from the truth!
Some people start with the expectation that the Bible is going to be too hard to understand. But sometimes the Bible is hard to understand because we take the wrong questions to it. Sometimes it’s hard to understand because we don’t even know what questions we ought to be asking of it. And it can be hard to figure that out because it was written in another culture, at another time, and in another language. Translating its meaning for us today can be a real challenge.
The good news is that the important questions people were asking back then are, really, the same kind of questions we have now. Who are we? Why are we here? What is life all about? What is our connection to God? Where are we ultimately headed? The Bible is the Word of God, a response to some of those questions.
Now, if we ask it to give us answers it was designed to give us, it can be very helpful to us. If we ask it to give us answers it wasn’t designed to give us, we end up confused, disappointed, and even misled.
Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about.
This last year at Monica’s church, their small group studied the Book of Revelation. And, as we made our way through that book, at every turn, we had to be very careful not to let ourselves be overly influenced by people who treat the Book of Revelation like a crystal ball: as though you could look closely at parts of that book and be able to accurately predict events that are going on today, or explain God’s intention in wars and natural disasters that we see happening right now. Over and over again, for centuries, people have used the book of Revelation like a crystal ball to predict that the world was coming to an end and that Revelation proves that the latest war or earthquake or hurricane is God’s comign judgement on the world. And so, as we studied the book for ourselves, we talked about ways that people treat that book kinda like a crystal ball, telling us our future. We also talked about the fact that, every single time someone has treated the Bible that way, for 2,000 years running, they have always been wrong, disappointed, and generally misled.
The Bible isn’t a crystal ball that tells us the future or helps us manipulate the world around us. It wasn’t made to do that.
But there are some things the Bible was made to do, ways that we can use the Bible that will not always lead to frustration or disappointment.
I think there are two expectations that we can bring to the Bible that will be helpful. The first is that the Bible is sufficient. Are there things that are true that aren’t in the Bible? Of course. Are there things about God that aren’t in the Bible? Of course. But does the Bible contain enough about the truth and enough about God to be trustworthy for the Christian faith and for our beliefs? I believe so. There are all sorts of things we should know and things we need to know that aren’t in the Bible, but I believe that when it comes to our eternal salvation, we don’t need to add anything to the Bible’s message. It already has what we need to be forgiven of our sin and reconciled to God now and for all eternity.
This is a key question that is asked each year at annual conference when the church ordains new pastors. The bishop asks each prospective pastor the same question:
Are you persuaded that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments contain all things necessary for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ and are the unique and authoritative standard for the church’s faith and life?
There are really two parts to the question. Does the Bible contain everything we need to receive the forgiveness of our sins and to receive the salvation that God offers us through Jesus Christ? It’s not just pastors that claim this, but all Christians agree that we don’t need to add extra requirements on to salvation. The Bible contains everything we need for our salvation. The second part of the question asks, "Is the Bible unique and authoritative?" Again, all Christians claim that the Bible is not just another book – it’s not just a collection of information about God – the Bible is the unique Word of God. And it has authority over our lives, as we allow it to guide and direct our lives in a way we let no other book guide us.
I came across a quote from John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, this week that expresses his approach to the Bible. He said:
“I am a spirit come from God, and returning to God. I want to know one thing: the way to heaven. God himself has condescended to teach me the way. He has written it down in a book. Oh, give me that book! At any price give me the book of God.”
Wesley wanted the Bible to show him the way to heaven. Wesley, you see, treated the Bible kind of like a map. A map shows you how to get where you want to go, or, in this case, where God wants you to be.
One of the things that the Bible does for us, when we come with that question: where am I going? How am I supposed to get there?, is tell us where God wants us to be in our lives and how we can get there. A large part of the Bible is meant to help us with that very question. The Old and New Testaments both show us how God wants us to be part of heaven, to be close to God and live God’s way. They also give us laws, stories, sermons, and parables to show us exactly how to do that. The Bible acts as a kind of map for us to get us to where we are going, to get us back to unity with our Creator. The Bible was made to be a kind of map to get us closer to heaven.
This is the first expectation we have when we open the Bible – that it contains the message that leads to our salvation. The second expectation I always bring to the Bible is very straightforward – the Bible reveals the truth. No matter what portion of the Bible you’re reading, no matter whether you’re reading the Bible in a study or for your own devotional time or to prepare a lesson for a youth group session you’re leading – the Bible reveals the truth. Each time we open up its pages, we should be asking ourselves, what is the truth that God is revealing to me in this passage?
Yet, we realize that God doesn’t intend to reveal the same kind of truth on every page of the Bible. Our culture emphasizes facts and information and data so much that sometimes we assume that the only valid forms of truth are scientific and historical truth. Of course, scientific truth is important and historical truth is important, and both are found in the Bible, but those aren’t the only forms of truth either. It is most definitely true that I love my wife, Monica, but it would be hard to come up with scientific proof that shows my love to be true. As Americans, we believe that principles like freedom and liberty and justice are true, yet we can’t say they’re scientifically true. When we read the Bible with the expectation that it will only reveal one kind of truth, we usually find ourselves missing out on much of the truth God intends for us, simply because we’re not looking for that kind of truth!
There are two types of truth that we find throughout the entire Bible. The first is that we discover the truth about God. We learn the truth about who God is, what God does, and what God desires for us and from us. In a way, the Bible is like a window. Windows allow us to see things beyond ourselves that we otherwise couldn’t see. Someone in a car with no windows could travel across the country and only see the things inside the car. Someone travelling in a car with windows could see a million things outside the car during their journey. The Bible can be a window into God’s heart. It allows us to see beyond ourselves, beyond the world we know, to see what God is like. It answers the question: “Who is God?”
The stories and parables are written in a way to open our eyes and imaginations to the ways we can see God in the world. They do that by telling us stories about things God has done and people who have known God. We can then use window to help us see God in our own lives and our own experiences. People in the Bible even say that the rules we have been given about what to do and not do give us an idea of who God is. God is a God who hates murder and injustice and loves to welcome the stranger and the outcast. Galatians 5 tells us that where God is present people are loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, generous, faithful, gentle, and have self-control. Passages in the Bible like that are a kind of window to the heart of God. A window we can look through to see God and the things of God.
If truth about God is the first kind of truth we see throughout the Bible, the second kind of truth is the truth about ourselves. And if a window helps us see beyond ourselves more clearly, a mirror is what helps us see ourselves more clearly. And of course, a mirror helps us see ourselves not only as we wish we were, but as we truly are. The Bible acts as a mirror and helps us see ourselves not just as we want to be seen, but as we are, as God sees us. It answers the question: “Who are we?” Or “Who am I?” The stories we find there reflect human nature, human problems, human issues.
The mirror the Bible places before us shows us how we are made in God’s own image, that we are God’s beloved creatures. It also shows us how far we have fallen from that image.
The passage we heard from Hebrews this morning said: “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” In other words, it’s very good at discerning exactly who you really are.
When we read the Bible, we see ourselves through its words. It’s almost as if we can feel it measuring up our own thoughts and intentions against the image God has placed in us. That mirror the Bible provides for us can be both healing and painful, but it always shows us the Truth about who we are. The Bible was written to provide that mirror for us to see ourselves and be honest about who we really are.
Now, there have also been many times in my ministry with you when I have heard some of you talk about the Bible as a kind of Lifeline. A lifeline is something we use when we are in trouble or can’t find our way. It gives us something to hold on to and trust when everything else around us is unstable. The Bible sometimes provides that Lifeline for us when we are deep in trouble or sorrow or fear. It gives us something we can hold onto and trust in those hard, confusing moments. When we need comfort, we turn to Psalm 23 and read that even in the valley of the shadow of death, "God is with me." When we need reassurance, we turn to Romans 8 and read that "nothing in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." When we feel the trials of life are overwhelming, we remember King David’s words in Second Samuel: "The Lord lives! Blessed be my rock, and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation!"
At many of the funerals I have officiated, someone, usually a member of the family of the person who has died, has said to me, “I don’t know what people who don’t believe in God do when they lose a loved one. My faith is so important to get me through times like these.” Those people are witnessing to how the Bible, and what we learn in the Bible, acts as a lifeline for us in hard times. It gives us something firm to hold onto when life seems to be falling apart around us. The Bible was meant to be that lifeline for us when life gets hard.
In addition to the truth about God we find in the Bible and the truth about ourselves we find there, there are also places in the Bible where we find moral truth as well. Much of the moral truth we find in the Bible is just as valid today as it was thousands of years ago. The basic question we are asking is, how am I to live my life if I want to please God with my actions? What is right? What is wrong? How should I treat other people? In the Old Testament, the Bible provided a major improvement over previous morals when it declared that an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth would be the moral guidance. At that time, other people would routinely kill somebody for knocking out a tooth! In the New Testament, Jesus raised the standards even higher when he would start a teaching with "You have heard it said…" and then conclude the teaching with "…but I say to you." Jesus offered a higher moral truth that set his followers apart from other people.
These moral truths still apply to our lives today. In fact, in these sections of the Bible, it acts as a compass for us, pointing us in the right direction. Just like a compass always points toward the north, the moral truths found in the Bible always point our lives toward God.
When you are searching for moral guidance, some Bibles even have a verse finder at the front to help you find things in the Bible that relate to specific questions that you might struggle with. So, you can look up the word “argument” or “children” or “work” or "money" in the Bible verse finder and it will give you a list of Bible verses to look up that relate to that topic. Those are examples of places in the Bible that can be helpful to you in specific areas of your life and offer you guidance. You might be facing a situation that isn’t exactly addressed by the moral truths found in the Bible, but the Bible can still provide you tools to work with. It may help you find the answer to your personal question in light of what God and God’s people have said about similar situations in the past. When we are faced with a new social problem or a new societal issue, we can often search the Bible for help in answering those questions. It can be one tool we use to discern the path God would have us choose.
Finally, the Bible contains historical truth. In a sense, the Bible contains the history of the Hebrew people and their relationship with God from about 2000 BC until 100 AD. Much of the history was passed down orally for generations before it was written down, yet it is amazing how closely the history found in the Bible matches up with what other ancient sources record and what archeologists know.
But the primary purpose of the Bible has never been as merely a history book. It records the message of God’s love for God’s people, not simply a historical record. At the end of the twentieth chapter of John’s gospel, he explains the reason for writing the book: "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name." This could be said of the entire Bible, that it reveals God’s love to us, so that we may respond by believing in Him and receiving life everlasting.
Instead of a history book like you read in your high school history class, the Bible is more like a family photo album. It captures snapshots of those moments when God’s love was revealed to us. It captures snapshots of the response people had to God’s love. It captures snapshots of the love God showed for us when He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to live among us. The Bible captures snapshots of Jesus showing us what God’s love looks like in the flesh. And finally, it captures snapshots of Jesus showing the full extent of His love for us when he died on the cross and then rose again to new life.
Imagine for a moment that the final page of your Bible is blank. It’s the page of the family photo album where your picture goes. It’s the place where you get to become part of God’s family and part of how God’s love is shown in this world. Christian singer Rich Mullins wrote a song with the chorus:
Jesus
Write me into Your story
Whisper it to me
And let me know I’m Yours
May the Bible be our story. And may we be included fully in God’s story. Amen.
