This morning, we come to the third mark of the church that is found in Romans chapter 15 verses 1-6. Verse 4 reads, “4For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.” This shows that one of the significant marks of the church is that it is rooted deeply in the Bible–it takes the scriptures very, very seriously.
Now, you may think at this moment, “Well, no kidding. Doesn’t every church take the Bible seriously?” The answer to that question is: yes and no.
You see, I remember one of the things I did my first week in college. I attended a Bible study slash gathering of college Christians. The group was called Koininia. For our first gathering, we sat in a circle, and we hand introductions and the like. Now, I can’t remember exactly what led up to the next moment, but I remember it vividly. There was a sophomore student sitting in our circle who was studying to be a pastor. I can’t remember if it was part of the introduction or part of the discussion, but he slammed his Bible on the ground and stepped on it. He said something to the effect of, “This book is just a book. I take what I need from it, and that’s it.” I was a bit shocked, and yes, this guy went to seminary. Now, you could argue that he did take the Bible seriously–but it was only the parts that he liked that he took seriously.
That’s not exactly being rooted and grounded in Scriptures.
Neither is simply randomly picking things out of the Bible as little inspirational quotes. This too is dangerous. There is the story about the guy who was looking through the Bible to find out God’s will for his life. He flipped through the pages, closed his eyes and put his finger down. The verse that his finger fell upon read, “And Judas went out and hanged himself.” The guy thought, “That can’t be right.” So he flipped through the pages once again, closed his eyes, and put his finger down. This time the verse read, “Go and do likewise.” The guy was thoroughly perplexed and knew this couldn’t be right, so he flipped through the pages one more time. He closed his eyes, put his finger down, and read the verse. This one said, “Whatever you are going to do, go and do it quickly.”
Okay, that’s a joke, maybe a really bad one, but there is a point to it. The Bible is not simply meant to be a book of advice telling you how you should live. Oh, many of us love that aspect of the Bible. We love to pull out quotes that give us inspiration–that give us joy–that give us a sense of power and hope in our lives. Some churches build their congregations on those sayings, and some of those churches do very, very well.
And why wouldn’t they?
• “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three. And the greatest of these is love.”
• “But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
• “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”
• “If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.”
• “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”
• “What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”
• For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Who isn’t inspired by such things? Who doesn’t feel those statements deep within their soul? They are heart warming. They are affirming. They make us feel really, really good about ourselves.
So, what’s wrong with simply quoting these things over and over and over again? What’s wrong with simply focusing on these quotes and others like them? Well, as the great Bible Scholar Dwight Moody said, “The scriptures were not given for our information but for our transformation.”
And that, my brothers and sisters and neighbors is why a church must be deeply rooted in the scriptures. That, my brothers and sisters and neighbors is why we must be deeply rooted in the scriptures. The Bible, with everything that is in it leads us towards transformation–it leads us to become different; it challenges us in our status quo, makes us see that we fall far short of what we should be, and then gives us the avenue towards becoming the people God has intended us to be. If we simply read the parts of the Bible that we like, we will never be challenged; we will never discover our sinfulness; we will never truly meet Jesus and find the fullness of His grace.
Consider this, my brothers and sisters and neighbors, the Bible consists of 66 books written by 40 authors over a span of 1500 years. In nothing short of a miracle, those 40 authors over all those years were telling one consistent story–the story of how God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that all those who believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life. It is the story of how God could have condemned the world, but instead sent the Son to save it. Nothing must be read outside of the context of that story. Nothing must be omitted. Nothing must be cast aside as superfluous. This book is God’s revelation of Himself to us!
Last week, I told the parable of the blind men and the elephant. Some of you were here and remember. Others might not have been, so let me go through it once again. A group of blind men stumble upon an elephant in the jungle. They all want to figure out what the elephant is like, so they each touch a piece of the elephant. Afterwards, as the men continue their travels, they begin arguing what the elephant is like. One who touched the tail argues, “The elephant is like a rope, long and stringy.” One who touched the torso says, “The elephant is like a wall, solid and strong.” One who touched the tusk says, “The elephant is like a spear, long and with a sharp point.” One who touched the leg says, “The elephant is like a tree stump, short and stout.” And on and on it goes as the men argue with one another what the elephant is like. As I said last week, this parable is usually used to talk about religion saying that each religion has part of the truth, but none has the full truth. I also said, don’t get too comfortable with that conclusion–it’s easily refutable.
And for us as Christians, one of those refutations comes in what Pastor Kevin DeYoung said–the question he asked. “What if the elephant could talk?” What if God could talk? What if we didn’t have to wonder about who God was and what He could do? What if God could communicate with us?
Well, the answer is: God did. God communicated with us. God spoke to the people of Israel. God spoke as Jesus Christ. The writers of the Bible were so infused with the Spirit of God as they wrote it was as if God Himself were communicating with us. This book that we call the Bible is
nothing less than God’s revelation of Himself to you and to me and to the world.
And so, the more and more we study the Bible, the more and more we know who God is. The more and more we study the Bible, the more and more we understand who we are. The more and more we study the Bible, the more and more we see that there is much more than information and trite sayings that make us feel good about ourselves. No. Instead, we are led to admit as St. Paul did in Romans chapter 3, that all–meaning everyone, including ourselves–all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. This is terrible news. This is awful news. We have not done what we should have done. We have not become who we should have become. Yet...yet, the news does not stop there. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but we are now justified–made right; declared innocent–by grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God set forward as the sacrifice of atonement effective through faith. God has acted through Jesus Christ to bring us into a right relationship with Him. God has acted through and in Jesus Christ to bring us forgiveness and wholeness. God has acted through and in Jesus to ensure that even though we die, we will live with our heavenly Father forever. This is the good news!! To quote Dr. David Jeremiah, “The Bible began with God, and it solves the human’s most pressing need: how to know God and be reconciled unto Him.”
The Bible is God’s love letter to you. A love letter that tells you how much He loves you and what He is willing to do to make things right between you and Him. This letter is meant to transform your heart and soul so that you find joy in Christ. It is a letter to be read over and over and over because the more you read it, the more deeply in love you fall; and the more and more Christ-like you become. And if this is the goal of the Christian life, the church and we must be deeply rooted in the Bible. Amen.
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