Why the Bible Matters : Because It Is God Speaking to Us

0:00Hey, it's Pastor Mike. I'll keep this short because I know you want to listen to today's message. You're here because you want to continue growing in your faith and we at Time of Grace want the exact same thing for you. Just visit us at timeofgrace.org and you'll find a ton of resources at your fingertips, like sermons, videos, books, devotions, our blog, and of course more podcasts. See you there. What exactly is the Bible? I'm standing here today in Washington, D.C. in the Museum of the Bible, which in case you don't know is a stunning combination of ancient manuscripts of the Bible, ancient texts, and really modern technology to help us engage with this book better than ever. If you're ever in Washington, D.C., you need to stop at the Museum of the Bible. But why I'm here, I just want to ask really basic and really fundamental on life changing question.

1:01What is it? If I force you to finish this sentence, the Bible is, how would you finish it? Lots of us don't think about that question, but it is essential to figure out the impact that the Bible will have on our life. Some people, for example, say that the Bible is a book written by men that had an agenda. Have you heard this before? Maybe a person who believes it. Religion is incredibly powerful when it comes to controlling people's decisions, and maybe that's where the Bible came from. People came up with this idea of God so they could get the attention, the respect, the power, the money. Do you believe that? Other people would say, no, the Bible was written by men, but they didn't have some nefarious agenda. They were just well-meeting people expressing their spiritual ideas about God. And so they talk about God and heaven. They coped with pain, suffering, and death with the words of this book. Not so other people would say, no, actually the Bible is more than that.

2:05It's not just a book written by men. It is a holy book. In these pages, our evidences of God himself, some supernatural divine wisdom, that's where the Bible has stood the test of time. Take other holy books, the Quran or the book of Mormon. There's something about it that sets it above the average works of men and women. And then still other people, many Christian people would say, actually the Bible is even more than that. It's not just a holy book. It is the holy book. It doesn't just contain some wisdom from God, this book, from cover to cover is the wisdom of God. Every page, every passage, every chapter, every verse it came from the heart, and the mind of God, it's the inspire, never wrong word of God himself. So I'm curious, what do you think? Is the Bible book written by men? Or does it actually come from God? Does it contain the truth of God or is it the truth of God? Your answer to that question has the huge impact on your life.

3:08Now, let me give you a few examples. Imagine you're going through one of those really difficult moments in life. You're sitting in the doctor's office and your doctor drops the seaworth. You have cancer. You have six months. The doctor says, or you come home and life is busy and the kids are crazy. And you think you're getting by until your spouse says that look in his eye. He's not sure if he wants to be married anymore. You're excited to start a family. You're carrying a baby and now you're not. You join the list of many heartbroken people who've been through a miscarriage. Now, you have a child who's who's wandering from what you know is good and right, abandoning your family's values to go their own way. You're going through one of those really difficult moments that most of us go through sooner or later in life. And so you grab a Bible and you open to a page, well, like this one, where it says, God says, do not fear for I'm with you.

4:09Do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. So much comfort in those words, isn't there? God said, I'm going to help you. I'm going to strengthen you. You don't think you have the strength to get through this. Most people don't, but I'm going to be right there with you. Don't panic. Don't be afraid. Don't give in because I am your God. And I will help you with my righteous right hand. But wait, wait, wait, is the question, what is the Bible? Those words of comfort that I just read to you was that just the words that some dude came up with 2,700 years ago in the days of Isaiah. Is this just someone trying to make you feel good with their opinion, their guesses about God and spiritual things or is that actually God trying to communicate you here and now in this situation? You see the comfort of the Bible depends so much on what this book is. Does it come from men or does it come from God?

5:15Or we're trying to figure out, you know, there's really hot topic issues of the day. What do we believe? Where do we stand? People are divided to camps here and here. Let's say one of these issues becomes personal for you. And questions of sexuality and gender and orientation aren't just something that you see online. It's something in your family, maybe even in your own heart. You feel that same sex attraction. Your child comes as gay. What do you say? Or you're married and he didn't cheat or she wasn't abusive, but you're just not as happy as you want to be. Do you have the right to go or should you stay together? What's the right thing to do? There's so many different situations, you know, our heart feels and we would kind of prefer. And so we open our Bible to a passage like this one from the book of Proverbs, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Now the Bible saying, don't follow your heart.

6:18Don't trust your gut. No, trust in God. Submit to him in everything that you do. But before you let this book judge you, the question is, what is this book? There's just some 3,000 year old guy sharing some thoughts in these pages or is this actually God saying, hey, don't give in to what's easy, what you feel is right. No, look to me, look to these pages to find out what's right. Then you'll know exactly what to do. Let's imagine you, you really mess up. It's not just, I'm human, I'm imperfect. Like you do something and you just see how you've hurt people and you know that you've hurt your relationship with God. In the moments when things weren't going your way, when you lost control and the frustration and the stress, like you said something and you just saw the look on their faces, you know it's bad. How do you cope with that? When you feel real conviction and guilt and shame, when there's no rewind button on life to make a better choice, what do you do?

7:22Now, friend, seize you, download. And they send you this incredible passage from the book of Romans. The wages of sin is death. Yes, sin is bad. But the passage says, the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. There's a gift from God. Jesus came to give you the gift of forgiveness, to take that away, to erase that mistake that you've made, that sin that you've committed. It's beautiful, right? The message of salvation. But it brings us back to the question, well, but what was this? Just a guy writing 2,000 years ago who is as right and as wrong as most people are or is this actually God who's always right? And he is never wrong. You see what I'm saying? The comfort of the Bible when we're going through something difficult. The guidance of the Bible when we're figuring out a difficult subject, dealing with sin and shame and guilt, what do we do? It always comes back to this.

8:24What exactly is the Bible? I'm here in Nazareth. Obviously not the real Nazareth. This is called the world of Jesus of Nazareth here at the Museum of the Bible. It's an amazing reconstruction of what life might have looked like for Jesus as he lived in that little village called Nazareth. You can see olive trees, wine presses, painting of the sea of Galilee. But we're here today because we want to answer that big question. What is the Bible? If we could go back in time 2,000 years to the days of Jesus, even further to the days of Moses, what would we have found in that book? The words of men or something more, the various words of God. What's up? I want to take you in here. A reconstruction of an ancient synagogue. Let's think about these ancient texts and where they came from. Follow me inside. We're trying to answer that really big fundamental question here in the synagogue of Nazareth.

9:28And thankfully we have some scrolls to look at. Imagine if we could zip back in time, not just 10 or 20 years, not just 100 or 200, but 2,000 years to the days of Jesus. Imagine if we pulled out an ancient scroll in an ancient synagogue and opened and read its words. What would we find here? And what if the scroll wasn't a copy, but it was the original one that Isaiah wrote or Micah wrote or Jeremiah or Moses. What would those words actually be? There's a big question we're wrestling with. What is the authorship and origin of the Bible? Is it simply a book from men or is it something more a book from God? When Jesus his friend Peter thought about that question, he had a very clear answer. You're thinking about the scriptures and the prophets of the Old Testament. Peter wrote this. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of scripture came about by the prophets own interpretation of things.

10:29For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, no humans, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Those are perspective, life changing words. Did you catch what they meant? Peter said above all, there's a lot of important things you should know. This one is more important than the rest of them. Above all, you must understand. Not it'd be nice if you would understand, no, you have to understand this if you're going to live life right and find a blessing in the life to come. You must understand that no prophecy of scripture, not a single scroll, not a single line, not a single word of scripture, came about by the prophets own interpretation of things. This never really came from Moses's heart or David's heart or Isaiah or Jeremiah or Micah's heart, no. Okay? Then where did the Bible come from? Here's what he says. Prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from

11:33God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Oh, yeah, they spoke and yes, they were human, but it wasn't just that. They were speaking from God. This is if God had sent them an email and they just forwarded it to humanity. God had written a letter to our world, put it in their mailbox and they passed it on so all of us could read these words, answer the question. Prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets spoke from God. As they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. And what Peter says here is exactly what the Apostle Paul says in a passage we recently studied. He said, all scripture is God breathed. It's actually what makes it so useful. It's like breathed out from the very heart of God. This is why some Christians say that the Bible is the inspired word of God. They mean that God breathed into it. It comes from his very heart. And if Peter and Paul won't convince you that this is actually what Jesus himself taught.

12:37And once what Jesus was referring back to the words of King David in the Old Testament, he said this, David speaking by the Holy Spirit declared and then Jesus quotes the Bible. According to Jesus himself, what is the answer to our question? Where does the Bible come from? Is it just David? Is Isaiah? Just Jeremiah? I don't know. These were men indeed who spoke from God. So the simple answer to our question is this. What is the Bible? The Bible is God speaking through men. That men were a part of the process, but the Bible is God speaking. Maybe I could describe it this way. Now this drumstick doesn't date back to the days of Jesus. I borrowed it from my youngest daughter. But just think of how a simple sound works. If I take this stick, make a movement and we hear the sound, four things are happening.

13:38There's me, there's the movement, there's the instrument, and there's the sound. What Peter is trying to teach us in these words, what Paul and Jesus were trying to reinforce, that the process of the Bible was just like that. There were instruments, the writers like Matthew and Mark and Luke and John, but there was a God who was moving to produce the words, the verses, the chapters, the testaments, the Bible. Take God, the initial mover out of the picture, and you have these instruments, but there's no sound. There's no scripture. But if the Holy Spirit, God himself was moving, carrying these authors, then the things that they would write in these scriptures are the very word of God. Now wait, you might object. Okay, that's really me. Make sure I'm following you. You're trying to answer the question, what is the Bible? And you're saying the Bible is God speaking, and your proof of that is the Bible?

14:43What's that called? Circular reasoning? Is that really the best argument to make? I mean, you could sit down, you could grab a pen and say, what I'm writing is the very word of God. Would that make it the word of God? Is there really good questions that I have to ask them to? In fact, next week, I'm going to tackle that head on. We're going to look not just at the origin of the Bible, but is there evidence to back up this big claim that the Bible is God speaking? But if I can ask for your patience, if you can push pause on those questions for one second, let's just assume for today that it's true. That the Bible is God speaking through men. If that's true, what does it mean for you? I'm here in the manuscript room of the Museum of the Bible. Maybe my favorite place in the whole museum surrounded by ancient copies, these manuscripts of the Bible throughout history. We've been looking at the words of second Peter. Right after Peter makes us claim that the Bible is men who are carried along by the Holy Spirit.

15:46He launches in chapter two into this long, concerned, aggressive chapter about people who won't follow God, but instead we're following the desires of their own heart. He calls them proud for doing what they wanted instead of what God wanted. He calls them creatures of instinct who just do what's instinctual instead of what God has said in his word. He says they despise authority. They don't want anyone telling them how to live, what to do, or what's true. Does that sound familiar? We live in a culture that I think that wants to deny this fundamental principle because human throughout history we want to do what we want to do. But if the Bible is God speaking through these authors, then this is God speaking. So when the Bible says something about religion or church, the Bible says let's not give up meeting together some are in the habit of doing let's get together so we can pray for one another and teach one another confess our sins to one another.

16:52When the Bible talks about you having a pastor, a habit, celebrating communion, doing this in remembrance of Jesus when the Bible doesn't just want you to be spiritual, but once you to be organized in your religion. That's not some ancient opinion. That's God. Let's God confronting your worship habits the way that you live your life. It's easy to brush it off. It was just Peter or Paul, but it's not. That's God speaking to you. When the Bible talks about authority, then we should honor and respect it. Whether it's honoring our father or our mother, honoring the governor or the president, honoring those who serve with authority above us. That's God saying that. And I know how easy it is because parents are imperfect to get together with your friends and just, you know, bash your mother or father to disobey and dishonor them. But if this book says honor your father and mother, that's God telling you to do that. And if the Bible says we should honor the governing authorities when you're online or with your friends just ranting about politicians and I know how imperfect they are, this book, if it's confronting you, is God confronting you.

18:07Saying, I don't want you to think like that. I want you to talk like that. Don't brush this off as just some ancient outdated book. This is God trying to correct you. Do you see why this is so confrontational? It means if the book speaks, that's God speaking. And if you don't like the book, it's not the book you really don't like. It's God. Now, what a thing to think, huh? I might know better than God. If I brush off the Bible, I'm stiff, arming the very truth of God and pushing away God himself. And you want to know what's crazy about it? Is that when God speaks to us? It will normally be through a very flawed human being who has this book in their hands. And your mom or dad, your grandma, grandpa are going to come to you. They're concerned with the way you're living your life and they're going to open the book. And it's going to be so easy to dismiss them because you know them.

19:11Right. You know where they're imperfect. You know that they sent to and it's going to be so easy to snap this book shut and just assume it's grandma. It's mom. But if they're accurately quoting this book, it's not just your grandma or your mom. It's God. It's your father in heaven. And when the pastor says it, it's just easy to blow it off as judgment over religion, fire and brimstone threatening you again. And I'm very aware that pastors and churches aren't perfect. But if the pastor is just reading the book, then it's not just the pastor. That's God. The Bible is the most confrontational and dangerous book of all time because of its claim to be written by God. It's not just human opinion. It's a divine revelation. That means if this book judges you, God himself is judging you. He's calling you to change your mind with the Bible calls repentance to agree with him to believe that if he's God and if he's good, then he's right.

20:15And the Bible is God speaking to you. And I pray you don't run from it. Honestly, tons of people do. Tons of people turn their back on the Bible and religion and church because they kind of want to do what they want to do. I think there's a better way to live life. I hope you don't do that. And here's why. Because the Bible, if it comes from God, is not just the most confrontational book ever. It's also the most comforting book ever. It means that if this book speaks hope and forgiveness and salvation and life, that's not just not some guy guessing because he wants to make you feel good. That's actually God reaching out to comfort you when you need it the most. I think this story I read from a pastor in a book years ago. There's a youth pastor who put a big circle of chairs for the teen group at its church. And every chair, he put a little note card with the Bible passage on. And one from Isaiah, do not be afraid for I'm with you.

21:17One from Paul in the book of Romans, the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. You wrote on every passage, put it on a note card in the chair. And then you put one chair right in the middle and you waited for the kids to come. And the kids showed up, they expected soda and pizza, but there was something different that day. Pastor asked them all to find a seat around the edge of the circle. And then he asked one brave student to sit in the middle of the circle. To be honest about what they were going through, what they were struggling with, what sins they had committed. And then their classmates and friends on the outside of the circle could read the passages on the cards and try to comfort them with these words. Well, of course, it didn't go quite like the youth pastor was hoping. No one wanted to sit in the middle. Everyone cracked jokes. No one was willing to be vulnerable or transparent. The whole thing was a wreck. Until one girl, the new girl, raised her hand and volunteered. And she sits in the middle, actually put a blindfold on her so she could just focus on the moment instead of on their faces.

22:22And she she poured out her heart. But all the things she was going through at home, the dysfunction in her family, the friction with her parents, she started to cry. And the awkward silence the kids just stared at her. Until the pastor pointed at one of them who grabbed the no card and he read, but do not be afraid for I'm your God. I will help you. I will strengthen you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. And the girl kept crying, kept confessing. She talked about her sins too. The things that she had said back to her parents. Gilt, she felt shame. The pastor pointed at another student who read, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. She confessed struggle and problem, but passage after passage attempted to comfort her. Finally, she had enough. She took the blindfold off and she looked at the pastor and she said, Pastor, why doesn't God speak to me like that?

23:26You know the very wise pastor said, honey, he just did. If the Bible is the word of God, then when it speaks, God is speaking to you. When it tells you that your sins are forgiven, that's not Paul. That's God telling you that you're forgiven. When John writes in the Bible that God loved this world so much that he gave his one and only son, that's not John. Like wishing for the best. That's God trying to tell you it's just this simple. He loves you so much he gave you Jesus. And Jesus loves you so much he gave his only life and whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. And imagine if God's voice was only up on top of the tallest mountain, would you climb it? I would. But God has made his heart so much more accessible by giving us this book, then allowing us to live in a time where we can print it, screen it, scroll it and engage with it.

24:30So can I urge you today to take that step? Connect with the Bible. Download a Bible app. Reach out to a pastor. There's no one right way to do it, but I hope you do it. I hope you become a person who engages with this word each day. It will confront you, but it'll always bring you back to Jesus, the comforter, the restore, the savior from all of our sins. A couple years ago when my youngest daughter Maya was just in single digits, a Bible came to our home. I ordered a new one online. The mailman had dropped it off. I'd open the package just left it there when I had to run to do other things. I'm a little girl side. I got home. She held up the Bible and she said, Daddy, where did this come from? I said, the mailman dropped it off. I had a little face scowled. She said, Daddy, the Bible does not come from the mailman. It comes from God. You're right. The mailman might have dropped it off, but we know where it really comes from. It comes from the heart and the mind of the God who loves us so much.

25:37So I pray that the next time you pick up this book, you would know that yes, Moses and Matthew and Peter and Paul and James and John, they were involved, but they're not the origin story of this book. No, it comes from a higher place from a greater power. The Bible is God speaking through men. Remember that? And this book will change your world. My parents had me and my younger sister and we went to a non-inominational church. I received a lot of that Christian education, like really cementing, like some of those Bible stories. Maybe you're around 14 or so. I just had a bunch of different things happen in my life where I was like, you know what? This isn't for me. I don't see this great loving God that he's supposed to be. And so I never really stopped believing that he existed. I didn't consider myself an atheist, but I didn't really have faith in God.

26:38At a hard time, like building and keeping good, healthy relationships with people, friends, family. I needed to do something about that, I felt like, because if I just kept going down the same path, and like after all this time, even though things are like getting better, they don't feel like it. I had a friend and she was pretty vocal about going to the church that Pastor Mike is pastor of. And so I had said, hey, you know, like you talk about this and you seem like you really like it. And I think maybe I need to try to find my way back to something that's a little bit, you know, not just what I grew up with, not just where my parents had me and sort of like find that for myself. I had collected several copies of the basics because they give them out at church. And so it was like, oh, it didn't get you free copy. And so I was reading through all the chapters and I'm like, yep, yep, make sense. I remember that. Yeah, that makes sense. This is all solid. This is all good. And the last chapter has a little bit in it about repentance.

27:47And that is when a lot of the big changes start happening. And that's when my friends all, like they did not have a choice. They knew, you know, about me and about my faith. And so over the next nine, 12 months, you know, they saw me like very gradually kind of, you know, like I think you tell something was going on behind the scenes, but maybe didn't know exactly what. Mike, the way that he preaches and exposits the word is just really, it's really balanced. It's really accessible. It's, you know, like plain language. But he's also not afraid to like dig into like the historical background. He's not afraid to like show you the Greek and, you know, tell you like, hey, this is literally what this word means. Even though I still struggle with some things that like my life belongs to God, and I don't want to live it for myself, I think it's worth supporting. You know, any extra one person that, you know, hears about God and like, repents that believes. And so if that's one people or 2000 people or like a million people, that, you know, either way, that's a, that's a net positive.

28:53Thank you. God changed my life like through you, through that book, through the basics. I don't know where it'd be without, you know, that part of my life without coming there with my friend and without, you know, wanting to search and then finding. Time of grace doesn't end here. Visit timeofgrace.org and explore encouraging resources like our Grace Moments devotions. Follow us on social media where you'll find a supported Christian community. Thank you so much for your support. See you next week on Time of Grace.