(Slide 1)
A Sunday school teacher asked, 'Johnny, do you think Noah did a lot of fishing when he was on the Ark?' 'No,' replied Johnny. 'How could he with just two worms.'
A Sunday school teacher said to her children, 'We have been
learning how powerful kings and queens were in Bible times. But, there is a Higher Power. Can anybody tell me what it is?' One child blurted out, 'Aces!'
(Slide 2) (Slide 3) Then here are a couple of visual gems
Now, what do all of these humorous stories and pictures have in common? They all refer to a Bible story or character or the Bible itself. (By the way, you know that the disciples drove a Honda didn’t you? As we read in Acts, it says “they were in one Accord.” (Just had to get a good pun in this morning.)
Now I also have two questions that I ask at the beginning of this sermon not to embarrass you but as a way of focusing on our subject for this morning and this month.
Speaking of this month, I am going to be presenting three messages regarding the Bible and I do so to remind us of its importance for our faith and relationship in and with the Lord. Today however, I am going to offer a bit of history along with scripture, as I believe one of the greatest miracles was the formation of the Bible. Then, in two weeks, we are going to have a ‘hands on’ sermon that will allow you to study a passage of scripture in a small group of people (here in the sanctuary) as a way of learning a good study approach.
Now, here are those questions…
(Slide 4)
In your recent Bible reading, what has really caught your attention?
(Ask for responses)
What I have noticed in my recent reading has been the impact of family dynamics on the kings of Israel and Judah. (I have been reading through the Old Testament this year.) The impact of parents and grandparents (unfortunately, bad most of the time) caused a great deal of unnecessary pain and suffering for the people because of their disobedient influence.
(Slide 4a) What is your greatest frustration with reading and understanding the Bible?
• Lack of time
• Lack of a road map to help you get the big picture
• Lack of desire
• Lack of some tools to help you study the Bible
• Something else
(Ask for responses)
I have wrestled with all of these issues (and still do from time to time.) But I also want us to remember that a consistent reading of the Bible will help us move toward, with the Holy Spirit’s help, to a better understanding of it.
Our main text for this morning, that we shall return to later, is Hebrews 4:12.
(Slide 5) “For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are.” (NLT)
The Bible is an important piece to our faith development and relationship with God. We cannot have a healthy and growing faith without reading, studying, and applying it.
But have you ever wondered how our Bible came to be?
To me, it is a miracle because our Bible, whether we read it in the King James Version, the New International Version, The Message, or the New Living Translation, came together, through the inspiration of God working in the hearts and minds of men centuries ago, over time.
(Slide 6) Yet how did the Bible come to be?
This is a challenging question and asking it (as well as answering it) is risky because it requires us to deal with the dynamic interchange between human thought and divine inspiration. In other words, the Bible is God’s word to us human beings who wrote it and compiled it under, we believe, the inspiration and direction of the Holy Spirit. This dynamic interchange has been the subject of much debate over the centuries as to how God inspired the Bible to be written and formed into what we call The Bible.
We now begin to answer this question with some simple facts that we can find in our Bibles. I invite you to take your own Bible or one of the pew Bibles and open it up to the table of contents that list the order of the Old and New Testaments.
Okay, it’s ‘Sunday School’ time!
How many books are there in the Old Testament? (39) How old are they?
(Oops, that’s not in the table of contents.)
As I did reading and research, it appears that much of our Old Testament was in place by the time Jesus was born.
At a very helpful website, crivoice.org, Dennis Bratcher points out it is likely that “the Bible actually began to take shape as Scripture… as the earliest written traditions began to be collected into books about the time of Solomon, around 1000 BC. The Old Testament in roughly the form that we know it did not emerge until after the return from Babylonian exile around 500-450 BC. The first of the three parts of the Jewish canon, the Torah (what Christians would later call the Pentateuch), was authoritative for the community long before the time of Jesus. The Prophets were mostly in place by the second century BC, and the Writings (Psalms, Job, Chronicles…) would achieve that status not long after.”
Now what this means is that by the time Jesus walked this earth, much of what we call the Old Testament today, was already in place and would be considered part of Jewish canon, according to Bratcher (and others that I consulted), by 90 AD. Now here is another interesting word, ‘canon.’
(Slide 6a) Here is how it is spelled ‘c-a-n-o-n’ not ‘c-a-n-n-o-n.’
Canon means ‘a straight rod or measuring reed.’ (From Introduction to Christian Theology by Wiley and Culbertson; Beacon Hill Press.) In other words the ‘canonicity’ of scripture was, as Wiley and Culbertson put it, the ‘publicly approved list of books that might be read in the Church for edification and instruction.’
This list developed over a significant period of time and, we trust and believe, through the guidance of God through His Holy Spirit. The result is what we hold in our hands this morning.
Now that is just the Old Testament. What about the New Testament? How many books are there? (27) How old are they?
From what I have read, the writing of what we now call the New Testament books, took place in a much short period than did the Old Testament books. A period of around 50 years starting with some of Paul’s writing in the time frame of 45 to 50 AD. (Remember that Jesus died and resurrected around 33 AD.) The last of the books were written (probably the epistles written by Peter and John) around 90 to 100 AD.
But, as Bratcher points out, “it took another two to three centuries for the church to begin defining the canon of the New Testament. However, the Christian canon was not "officially" closed until the tensions that erupted during the Reformation led to the exclusion of the Apocrypha by the emerging Protestants, which in turn led to the Catholic Council of Trent in AD 1546 that officially defined the Catholic canon including the apocryphal books.”
How many here are familiar with the Catholic Bible? What is, I believe, in the middle of the Bible? The Apocrypha. What’s that?
(Slide 6b) The Apocrypha means hidden books.
These are books that the Catholic Church have kept in their Bible but the Protestants (that’s us) did not. And the split took place in the 1500’s! Over 1400 years after the final New Testament books were written!
A historical sidenote: The Protestant Reformation was started in 1517 when a German, named Martin Luther, after much study determined that what the Bible taught about salvation (and other things) did not square with what the church in Rome taught. The result was a split in the Christian faith that is still in existence today.
Even then after this, there was debate over which books should be included in the Protestant Bible as people, like Martin Luther, felt that some books (in Luther’s case the book of James) should not be in the Bible.
Now the question remains, how did books like Matthew, Mark, Luke and John get in the Bible and books like Tobit and the Wisdom of Solomon, which are part of the apocrypha, did not?
Several factors mentioned were questionable value and some works being kept secret. Yet, a major reason for the inclusion of the New Testament books we now read and study is due to their apostolic connection, namely the apostles and their closest companions.
Matthew was disciple of Jesus and, after Pentecost, one of the apostles. John was as well. Luke was one of Paul’s closest companions. These persons had credibility in large part because they knew Jesus personally or knew someone who knew Jesus personally.
(Slide 7) So what does this mean for us today? Why should all of this matter? Who cares?
We should care because if the Bible is faulty (and it isn’t) then we have a faulty faith. And what good is a faulty faith?
It matters because understanding that God inspired the Bible to be written and formed gives us an assurance that it says to us what He wants us to hear, understand, and do.
So what this means is that the Bible is an important and authoritative source for our faith in and relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
There are many good books to read that will challenge us from both within the Christian faith and outside the Christian faith. But the Bible, as we have it, is the most important book to read when it comes to having a vital and healthy faith.
One day, I believe, I will meet the writers of this book. I have a sense that God used a very diverse group of men to write the various books contained within the Bible. Some were warriors, one was a doctor, two were Kings, one was a tax collector, one was former enemy of the faith, and one was a fisherman.
Some were probably extroverts and some were probably introverts. Some had power in their hands for many years and others never did. Some had wealth and some lived, as we say today, “from paycheck to paycheck.”
Behind all of these men was a God who died and rose again. He is the ultimate authority behind this vital book.
The Bible is loved and revered; it also hated and despised. But it has stood the test of time and no person or nation has been able to eradicated it from the face of the earth… and they never will. Why? I go back to our main text for today.
(Slide eight) “For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are.” (NLT)
The Bible is the written and authoritative word of God to us and behind it is God and all His power and majesty and work. It is not ‘just a book.’ It is a book that reveals a spiritual power and authority that does what this passage says.
It exposes us for what we really are.
But not to leave us stranded and hopeless but to point us to the saving power and life of God through Jesus Christ.
What are you doing with your Bible these days? Are you reading it… daily? Are you asking God to help you understand it…daily? Are you, to the best of your ability and with the Holy Spirit’s help, putting it into practice…daily?
What is the Spirit saying to you this morning? Let us hear Him and let us obey. Amen.
Sources:
www.crivoice.org ‘The Development of the Bible.’
