Series: Know God?
Sermon: No Basis? When "The Bible Says So" Doesn't Cut It
ICE BREAKER: Who was the first person to ever tell you about Jesus?
REVIEW:
In week 4 of our series, we looked at whether or not the Bible is the Foundation for our Faith. Seeming contradictions in the Bible are one of the most common excuses for young people to step our of the faith they grew up in. As the Church, we tend to not teach our children what the Bible is, How it developed, and what role it plays in our spirituality.
Did you understand what the Bible was growing up?
How did this week's message change your understanding of the Bible?
The Western Church decided it was going to defend the Bible instead of defending the claims IN the Bible. This has been a terrible strategy with serious repercussions. To understand this, we looked specifically at the history of how we got the Christian Scriptures, also called the New Testament.
We first saw that the authors did NOT think they were writing "THE BIBLE" or even scripture. These were men faithfully recording events that had happened. The gospels read like history, especially the gospel of Luke (and his later book, Acts). These documents were also written within a short time period of the events of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.
It took 282 years before all the documents were brought together, bound, and called THE BIBLE. For hundreds of years, Christians and the local churches did not have Bibles in the way that we have them today. Their faith was not based on a book, it was based on the events of Jesus' life and work.
APPLY:
How will changing the basis of your faith from The Bible to the event of Jesus' Resurrection shape your spiritual life?
Many people have left the faith because of confusion about the Bible. Many others see Christianity as just another religion with a sacred book. The true history of the Bible demonstrates that neither option has to be true! You can have confidence in your faith because of Jesus really rising from the dead! With Jesus as the foundation of your faith, you can invest in the scriptures that He inspired.
Here is this week's application question:
How will a proper perspective on Scripture change the way you interact with it?
For many people, step 1 will be to start reading the Bible consistently. If that is you, do not be ashamed! Start in Luke's gospel and read a chapter or 2 a day to learn even more about the life of Jesus!
PRAY:
Thank God for his revelation to us in scripture. Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you as you set about to read the documents in the Bible. Pray for those who have left the faith and that you could be an encouragement for others to come back to Jesus!
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