Harbor Church - Mid City

Spiritually Healthy Lives—Role of the Bible

2 Tim. 3: 10-17 Mid-City 3/21/10

We’re in a series on developing a spiritually healthy life and this morning we’re going to look at the role of the Bible in your life. Let me ask you a question that will really help you determine your spiritual health. Is reading the Bible a delight or a duty? If you are reading out of duty, then that is a pretty clear warning light on the dash board that something is wrong under the hood spiritually. And, if you aren’t reading the Bible at all, then that is more than just a blinking light. That means you have a dead battery. To understand why I would say that the Bible is so important in your spiritual life, we’re going to look at 3 things this morning:

1. Opposition to the Bible

2. Teaching the Bible

3. Role of the Bible

1. Opposition to the Bible

Now why would I start a message about the importance of the Bible in your spiritual journey by talking about opposition to the Bible. Because I hope the Bible will become more precious to you—that is more of a delight—when you realize the price that has been paid for you to have it.

Paul: Let’s start with price Paul paid. V10-11, “You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me.” He references here in our text that he runs into some opposition in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. Acts 14 tells us about this reference. Paul and Barnabas were together and healed a man and the crowd thought they were gods and started bringing sacrifices to Paul whom they thought was Zeus. Paul says no way. I am just a mere mortal, a sinner like you. And then the crowd turns on him and they take him outside and start stoning him. He is bloody, has flesh hanging off his bones, gets knocked unconscious and they think he is dead and so they all leave. But like Rocky Balboa coming off the deck just when you think he is over, Paul pulls it together and staggers back into town, not to attack his attackers, but to love them with the love of Jesus. To give them the Bible, the gospel.

Paul reminds Timothy of this incident because he is once again facing death. See Paul is writing Timothy from a Roman prison and he knows that he is about to get his head chopped off, but it is worth it to him to get the life-transforming message of the gospel of Jesus out so more people can meet Jesus.

And such has been true throughout history. Followers of Jesus thought reading the Bible was so important spiritually that they consistently laid down their life to see its message sent to the ends of the earth. Let me give you just a few examples

Around 1520, Jacob Lefevre translated the first French-language Bible and they immediately devoured it in secret in homes so that the church wouldn’t chop their heads off. See no one had their own Bible b/c (1) it was too expensive to have a hand-copied version, & (2) the church didn’t want people reading it b/c they could then function as intermediaries between God and the people, giving them absolute power. A literate group of Frenchmen and Dutchmen started reading it and met Jesus and exploded spiritually. They became known as the “House oath fellows” or Huguenots.

But this began to threaten the power of the church because people wouldn’t do what they said if it contradicted the Bible. They now had a higher law. So they church began to persecute them over a 50 year period, culminating in the gruesome St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in 1572 where estimates are that 100,000 Huguenots were killed in one week. People were dying so fast that they had no time to bury the dead and their rotting corpses were dumped into the rIvers of France and disease began to spread. Eventually, the Huguenots formed the basis of a group of colonists who headed to America so they could have the religious freedom of reading their Bibles because they thought the Bible was so critical for spiritual formation and health.

William Tyndale had the same passion. He translated the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into English—to get the original manuscripts into English and the Bible into the hands of the people so that people could read it and meet Jesus and have the Holy Spirit transform their life. Because of this, they wrapped a piece of wire around his neck and slowly burned him alive at the stake. Do you see the passion that followers of Jesus have had to make sure you can read the Bible.

Interestingly enough, in San Diego the opposition to reading the Bible is real, though different. You most likely will not be burned at the stake for reading it. The opposition, for the most part, comes with a sneer, “There is an intellectual sneer. Hugh, reading your Bible. You must not be a thinking person.” Or there is a social sneer: “Why would you read such a socially regressive book. You must be incredibly narrow-minded” Or there is a personal sneer, “Hugh, I bet you will have a lot of fun if you pattern your life after that book. Friends, don’t let the opposition keep you from reading this book that countless numbers who have gone before you have bled and died so that you can read the Bible & have spiritual life.

2. Teaching the Bible

But if you want to get spiritually healthy, you’re going to need to do more than just read it. You’re going to need to teach it, which is our 2^nd point. Have you ever heard someone say, “You don’t really know something until you can teach it.” It is one thing to get people reading the Bible, but when it really comes alive is when you start teaching it. You see this in Timothy’s life. Look at v14, “because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”

In 1 Tim. 1:5 we learn that Timothy’s mother and grandmother didn’t just read him the Bible, but they taught him the Bible from infancy. It wasn’t Paul. Timothy didn’t meet Paul til his late teens early 20s. His theological instruction was in place. See Timothy’s grandmom read and taught the Bible to her daughter, and then she read and taught the Bible to her son.

Let me talk to moms and grandmoms and future moms and grandmoms. Do you see how critical your role is. My seminary professor put it this way, “ The hand that rocks the cradle shapes the theology of the future generations.” Now I am by no means letting dads off the hooks. According to Eph. 5, you should be a pastor in your home. But I want to take a minute to talk to moms because the sheer quantity of time most of you spend with kids means you will have a central role in spiritually forming your kids. Stay-at-home dads listen up as well.

The hand that rocks the cradle shapes the theology of the next generation to come.

Moms, if you don’t know the Bible, then there is a very good chance your kids won’t either. Because you are their primary teacher. And you can’t teach something that you don’t know and that isn’t playing a central role in your life. Well, this leads to our 3^rd point, which is about the role of the Bible in your life.

3. Role of the Bible

V16” All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

First word of v16—All. All Scripture. Not some, but all Scripture is God-breathed. Gen-Rev: it is ALL his word. Now, if we are honest and if we have read the Bible carefully, every single one of us would admit there are some things that we simply don’t like about it. Why? I’ll give you one reason. V16 says it rebukes us for the way we are living. I haven’t met many people who like rebukes. C’mon—rebuke me. Harder—make it hurt this time.

And so here is what I see people do to avoid the parts of the Bible that they don’t like. They treat the Bible like Thomas Jefferson did. He had his own Bible and literally cut out everything in the gospels that dealt with miraculous or supernatural teaching. He thought Jesus was a great ethicist, but he questioned the miracles of the gospel because they defied logic/reason.

Here is why this won’t work. This approach misses the very point of the Bible which is to bring you into a life-giving relationship Jesus and relationships simply don’t work if you won’t listen to the other person.

Let me explain to you what I mean. Imagine that you are dating someone. You are starting to get alarmed. You have been dating this guy for several months now and you realize that you know very little about him and he knows almost nothing about you. You start reflecting on your dates and you realize that almost every date has been in party type settings, around lots of people, in movies, or in fun social settings that haven’t really been conducive to sharing your heart with one another. Remember, this is a hypothetical. So you ask if the two of you can go out to dinner to just have time for the two of you and he agrees. Over dinner, you figure that you’ll get vulnerable first and you start to tell him about some of the painful things in your life because you figure if this is going to work then he needs to know all of you—good and bad. And as you do, he puts his hands in his ears and starts humming so that he can’t hear you. You laugh, thinking he is kidding, and he pulls his hands out. You resume talking about your life and his hands go back into his ears—hummmmm. Not funny this time. So you ask—what are doing. He says, “Well, I don’t like to talk about hard stuff, so I don’t want to hear about it.” You aren’t sure how to respond to this and think surely he can’t mean that, but you just move on to happier times in your life to fill the awkwardness.

Then, as you finish, before asking him to share, you say, “Oh, and there is just one thing that has bothered me a bit in the way you have treated me.” Fingers back in ears—hmmmmm. You are totally exasperated and are convinced you are dating a relational nitwit. But because you have already invested a few months of your life into this guy, you figure, “I will give him one more chance. It didn’t work so well face-to-face to confront him or talk about hard things, so I guess I need to lay everything out in a letter.” So you do. And you are very honest in the letter, listing both strengths and weaknesses. On your next date, he picks you up and says, “Thanks so much for the letter. It was great. I loved it.” Really. “You’re hopeful.” Then not another word about it and he immediately cranks the radio so that it is virtually impossible to talk, which you put in the letter. Finally you turn down the radio and say, “Did you read the letter? I asked you not to do exactly what you just did.” “Oh, yeah, he responds, “ but I cut out everything in the letter I didn’t like.” At this point you start screaming, his hands go in his ears, but you are screaming so loud he can’t help but hear it.

See relationships don’t work this way. And yet many people I meet try to treat God this way. Anything they don’t like in the Bible about God or about how God wants us to relate to him or we should live in His world—if they don’t like it, they put their fingers in their ears. Cut that page out. Skip it. Just don’t read it. And some actually expect to have a good relationship with God.

But you’ll never know the God of the Bible this way. Why? B/c relationships don’t work this way. See this whole thing—from Gen to Rev—is a love letter written by God. Some of it will be very hard to hear, just like some things that your lover tells you are hard to hear, but the hard things are the very thing you need to hear. They are what makes your relationship sweet. Finally, in Jesus, you have someone who loves you enough not to just tell you what you want to hear, but to love you redemptively, to tell you what you need to hear.

v16 says through the Bible Jesus--teaches us, rebukes us, corrects us, and trains us in righteousness, to equip us for every good work.” He does all of this through the Bible.

But here is the other major, major thing that Jesus does through the Bible. Look at v15 “and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.” From infancy on up, your study and reading of the Bible should be making you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. The Bible—the whole thing—is about Jesus. Faith in Jesus. Developing a relationship with Jesus.

Bradford and I read Bible stories to our kids most every morning. We have little children’s Bibles. And at the end of every story I say something like, “Ford and MIlly, who is this story about?” At first they would say, “Moses, Daniel.” Now, at 3 or 4, they know better. After each story they know what I am looking for and they scream, “Jesus.” Now they can’t always tell me how the story points us to Jesus (neither can I for that matter), but they know it does.

This is huge. See we want our kids to not only know the Bible, but we want them to know the one to whom the whole Bible points. The one that makes the Bible comes alive. The one that brings spiritual life to your heart. Jesus—the protagonist, the hero.

I got to see how the Bible can bring spiritual life when it is taught by one who knows Jesus last night. I was working on this message in my study and Bradford came in and said, “You need to come inside. This will be worth it. Milly wants Jesus to come into her heart.” Here is what happened. She had been reading the Easter story to the kids and they started talking about what Easter means. Ford

Shared that He “sat in Jesus’ lap” last Easter, which is how he understands asking Jesus into his heart. So my wife told Milly to let her know when she was ready to ask Jesus into her heart. She instantly said, with no hesitation, “I am ready to sit in Jesus’ lap.”

You probably think that at this point when I came into the room I launched into a theological exam to see if she understood the doctrine of justification by grace through faith. Wrong. I had the video camera and was videoing a mother evangelist in her element. My wife skillfully asked her in terms a 3 year old would understand. “Milly, are your perfect, or have you messed up, what the Bible calls sin.” She said, “I have messed up.” And so you want to sit in Jesus’ lap. And she nodded.” Then, while I think we both anticipated some form of echo prayer, Milly blurts out, “Thank you God, that I sit in your lap now.” And we both knew an echo prayer wasn’t needed.

At this point, I chimed in and told her about Luke 15 in kid terms. “Milly, do you know the angels are having a party in your name right now and making a cake with your name on it.” She gave me a resounding amen to Lk 15, “Cake and ice cream.” Let’s have some. My wife asked Ford if Ford if he had anything to tell Milly and Ford said, “Happy Birthday Milly.”

See my friends the hand that rocks the cradle shapes the theology of the generations to come. Moms—know your Bibles. Know Jesus—the one to whom your Bible points.

So simple, but yet lots of adults miss this. John 5 gives us a tragic example of adults who missed this. You had a group of pastors and religious scholars who knew the Bible inside and out. And listen to what Jesus said to them, “You diligently study^[c] the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, ⁴⁰yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” You can quote the Bible and be an expert on it, but have you responded to its message like a child. Have you become wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus? Has he given you life? Do you know him?

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