God's Written Word (2 Timothy 3.14-17)

Introduction

Quite a few of our young people have left home in the last few years to start studies at University. It’s a time of genuine sadness for us, of real excitement for them and of economic ruin for mum and dad who have to pay for it all.

And of course, as well as being a new and exciting time for the students there’s sudden exposure to a whole new world of temptation. Having their offspring living away from home for the first time and with a million and one worldly distractions makes some parents feel a bit nervous.

One mum took her daughter to one side just before she left for Uni and rattled off a long list of things to be avoided. So she said, “Mum, what on earth did you get up to when you were my age that makes you so worried about me now?”

I heard about one mum and dad who gave their son a Bible as a leaving present before he went off to Uni. They said, “Take this. It will be a great help.” Well, after a few weeks, he began sending texts home asking for money. So mum and dad would text back urging him to read his Bible. Read Matthew 20.6. Look up Isaiah 35.1… And he would reply that he was reading the Bible, and that it was really good but a bit more cash would be really useful too.

When he came home for Christmas, his parents asked him how he had got on. He said, “Well, it was o.k., but to be really honest, I have been short of cash all term.” “Well son,” they replied, “if you had only opened your Bible, you would have found £50 notes tucked into the pages of the verses we texted you about!

See how useful this book can be? A Bible in the hand is worth two on the shelf - especially if it’s been on the shelf for a long time. When was the last time you opened yours? Look at this one… When a Bible’s well used, the devil’s not amused. If your Bible’s all dusty your faith will go rusty.

The Wisdom from God’s Word

Probably the last letter that Paul ever wrote was from death row. He’d just had his final appeal hearing. It was turned down and there was no possible way out of facing the death sentence . He knew he wasn’t going to be around much longer. So he wrote one final letter to hand on the torch to a young leader called Timothy. All the things he could have said to him… but right at the heart of 2 Timothy is a passionate appeal to stick to the Bible whatever anyone says.

People everywhere have opinions and ideas. Everywhere you turn people will tell you what they think about life, the universe and everything. People hire lifestyle gurus and personal coaches. Self help books are best sellers. “Forget all that,” says Paul. What has God said?

As for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, 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. 

So God’s written word will make you wise. That’s what it claims here and it delivers. Young people go off to University to become clever and to grow in knowledge – and that’s great. But you don’t gain wisdom for salvation in the lecture theatre. Read God’s word - and live it out - and you will have wisdom beyond your years.

I saw Jackie Pullinger this year when she came to Stockton. She has an amazing ministry of signs and wonders amongst drug addicts in Hong Kong never reads anything – except this book. I read the biography of Smith Wigglesworth last month; he had an extraordinary ministry of healing and deliverance as well including several documented resurrections. He was illiterate until he was in his 20s and when he learned to read, he only ever read this book.

The Inspiration in God’s Word

Another thing it says here is that the Bible is inspired by God. “All Scripture is God-breathed.” (v16) It is breathed out by Him.

I know plenty of people reject this, saying that the Bible contains absurdities and mistakes. The 1631 edition of the King James Bible printed the seventh commandment as, “Thou shalt commit adultery.” I can assure you that is a mistake!

When we say that the Bible is God-breathed, do we mean that every edition of every translation of the Bible is absolutely faultless? No. Modern translations, using the best scholarship, get really close and you can accept it as trustworthy. “God-breathed” means that Scripture, in its original manuscripts, never affirms anything that is not true.

But I’m always hearing people say that the Bible contradicts itself. The funny thing is, that whenever you ask someone to name the five verses they find the most puzzling, they tend to reply, “Oh well, I don’t know that many myself, but that’s what I’ve heard.” Ask them to name the one contradiction they most struggle with, and you will tend to find that hardly anyone can name any at all. The truth is this: most people do not reject the Bible because it contradicts itself. They reject it because it contradicts them.

The Authority of God’s Word

So the Bible makes you wise and it is breathed out by God. What else? The third thing is that Scripture claims to have authority. It says it is useful for teaching. The Bible tells you all you need to know about all you need to believe.

One of the Church of England’s Articles (Article 6) says “The Holy Scriptures containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.”

In other words everything you need to know to have a relationship with God is in here. And if it isn’t in here, it can’t be all that important, so you don’t have to believe it.

The Bible tells you the truth about God – it says that he loves you and created you to know him. It tells you the truth about yourself – it says that everyone has sinned by breaking God’s laws and that has created a gulf between us and him. The Bible tells you the truth about how to get right with God again through faith in Jesus and what he has done on the cross. It tells you what is true.

But not only does the Bible lead you on the path of truth, it leads you off the path of error if you wander on to it. That’s what it means here when it says all Scripture is useful for rebuking. In other words, it points out what is false as well as what is true.

So because of this book, I know that all religions do not lead to God as some people say. Reading the Bible, I learn that Jesus is the one and only mediator between God and every believer; so praying to saints is a waste of breath. Reading my Bible, I find that people are not born innocent as many claim. The truth is we can’t stop ourselves going through life without breaking God’s laws. So we all need a Saviour.

Before I was a Christian I read horoscopes, I used bad language and I gambled money. And much more besides. When I became a Christian, by reading the Bible, I discovered that all that I was living wrongly. The Scriptures are useful for rebuking.

So the Bible leads you on the path of truth and it leads you off the path of error.

What else? It goes on to say here that God’s written word is also useful for correcting. That means that the Bible puts you back on the path of truth if you’ve wandered off onto the path of error.

It’s one thing to say “this is wrong.” The Bible does do that but it goes on to say “So this is what you should now do instead.”

The next thing about the Bible here is that it is useful for training in righteousness. What does that mean? Training is an ongoing thing. It means that the Bible goes on leading us, holding our hand all the way down the path of living right.

There was a native of the island of Fiji who proudly showed off his Bible to a GI during World War II. (Many American troops were posted there after Pearl Harbour). The soldier thought back to his Sunday School days and said rather disdainfully, “Oh, I’ve grown out of that sort of thing.” The islander laughed and said, “If it wasn’t for the message of this book, you’d have been tonight’s supper for the whole village.”

It’s a good point. This is from the Guinness Book of Records: “During the 19th century, the world's most prolific cannibal, Ratu Udre Udre…, reportedly ate between 872 and 999 people… According to Udre Udre's son, [he] would eat every part of his victims, preserving what he couldn't eat in one sitting for consumption later.”

But when the Gospel was preached in Fiji, the Word of God trained the Fijian people in righteousness. And it does the same with us in many much less spectacular ways.

This is an on-the-job training manual for living God’s way. Do you want to know how to live for God? It’s all here. This book is all you need.

Ending

Some of you may be thinking; “that’s all well and good, but everything he has said is a circular argument. The Bible is inspired, true, authoritative and useful for all sorts of things because it says so.

So let me offer as my four-minute conclusion five lightning-quick reasons why I believe you should accept the Bible’s claims about itself.

Firstly, we should value this book because of its amazing worldwide relevance. You can give the Holy Scriptures to an Aborigine in Australia, or a financier in Frankfurt, or a mother of six in Mexico or to a plumber in Preston on Tees and they will tell you that they have been challenged, or encouraged or blessed by reading it. I can’t think of any other book that has such appeal, speaking clearly and with authority to people of every culture, generation and social background.

Secondly, we should treasure this book because it has miraculously endured. It has been attacked through political dogma, humanist philosophy, royal decree and mob violence alike. The Bible has been banned, burned, blasphemed and banished more than anything else in print - and yet it remains the world’s best-selling and most read book.

Thirdly, we should take this book seriously because of its stunning track record of accurate predictions. There are 735 distinct prophecies in the Bible. 596 of them have already been fulfilled. Most of those remaining concern the return of Christ and the last judgment.

Fourthly, we should cherish this book because it was endorsed wholeheartedly by Jesus. He called the Bible “God’s word,” he read it, called people to obey it, taught from it and said that people were in error because they didn’t know it. If it’s good enough for Jesus, it ought to be good enough for us.

Fifthly and finally, we should believe this book because the Holy Spirit testifies to our hearts that it is God’s word. No one can prove that in a laboratory, but any Christian who’s read it can tell you about treasured moments when they encounter the living God by reading this book. When you feel your faith boosted, or your complacency challenged or your mood lifted by reading these words - that’s the Holy Spirit breathing the fresh air of God’s truth to the stale room of your life.

From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that all God’s people may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 20th November 2011

The Church Family (James 2.14-26 and Matthew 12.46-50)

Some churches are decorated with engraved tablets on the walls commemorating former members who have died in wars. In fact, there are some such plaques on the walls here at St Mary’s. We remember the bravery and sacrifice of those (and other) men today - Remembrance Sunday. 'For our Tomorrow, they gave their Today.'

You may be familiar with the story of the vicar who was showing a small boy round his church. He was explaining all the different parts of the building including the memorials on the wall. And he pointed to one particular plaque and said to the little boy, “These are the names of all the people who died in the services.” And the little boy relied, “What, the morning services or evening ones?”

Before my faith came alive, all the associations that I had with church I have to say were bad ones. Church, for me, was not just a place you could expect to die of boredom during the services; it was an institution with more than its fair share of stuffy people and artificial behaviour.

Well, we are coming towards to the end of our little series on how we relate to each other. We’ll be thinking about family life next Sunday, but before we get there what about the church family? Are we boring, stuffy and artificial? (That’s a rhetorical question – you don’t have to answer).

Actually, is “family” even the right word to describe relationships in the local church? The word “family” is used 17 times in the New Testament and perhaps only once at most is it used to describe the church; it’s in Galatians 6.10 and it says this -

“Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

I think that means the church, but it doesn’t say so exactly. So some people might argue that the church isn’t really like a family at all. There are other metaphors in the Bible that certainly are used express what church is. For example, the church is compared to a healthy body, a holy temple, a beautiful bride, a royal priesthood, even a trained army. (And I have to admit I’ve met a few battle axes in my time in the church)!

But when we come into a relationship with God through Jesus the Bible often uses family language to describe what has happened to us. When we come to faith, God is no longer a remote and unfriendly being outside our experience. No, we experience him as our heavenly Father and Christians are called children of God.

And relationships between Christians are given family-like words too. Paul called Timothy his son in the faith.

And in Romans 16, when Paul is saying “hello” to a list of acquaintances before signing off, he says “Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too.”

God does not want us to be on formal terms, addressing one another as Rev. Lambert or Doctor Taylor or Mrs. Palmer-Jones - but as brothers and sisters.

A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds. After explaining the commandment to honour father and mother, she asked, “Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?” Without hesitation one little boy answered, “Oh, yes. Thou shalt not kill!”

But nevertheless, in 1 John 4.19, we are given the vision of church being family. God is our Father; therefore (like it or not) that makes us spiritual siblings.

This is how John puts it in that verse: “We love because God first loved us. If we say we love God yet hate a brother or sister, we are liars. For any of us who do not love a brother or sister whom we have seen, cannot love God whom we have not seen. And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love one another.”

It is a wonderful thing that when we come to Christ, we are born into a family of brothers and sisters. The church throughout the world is my family. It’s an amazing thing, you know, you can travel to any part of the world and there you will find believers in Jesus Christ and you have this filial relationship with them as soon as you meet them.

Even in Wales! I was in Wales on holiday in July and went to the local Baptist church near to where we were staying. Kathie and I immediately felt completely at home. We sing the same worship songs, we read the same scriptures, we love the same God. These people understand me. I remember thinking “I don’t know a soul here but this is my family.”

They say you can choose your friends but you cannot choose your family. Take a look around you this morning. These are your brothers and your sisters!

If you’re not a Christian yet, they are your potential brothers and sisters! I don’t know whether that encourages you to become one or not! I’m sure it does… But we are one big family and the language we speak is love.

Now of course, brothers and sisters sometimes fall out. Most of my childhood was spent persecuting, and being persecuted by, my sister (who was bossy because she was the oldest) and my brother (who got away with murder because he was the youngest). We would watch Tom and Jerry together and totally relate to the violence they meted out on each other.

Christians fall out too sometimes because they are brothers and sisters. Gill Clayton once told the story of a vicar who was grumbling about his congregation. “The only thing that’s harmonious in this church” he said, “is the organ!”

Thank God that I never have to say that here. But we do need to be vigilant. The Bible says that we need to work hard at maintaining the unity of the spirit.

In the world, we talk of big families, small families, dysfunctional families, happy families, single-parent families, extended families, weird families, together families, rich families, poor families and so on. So what should the family of God be like?

Our reading from James suggests that it should be a community that believes and a community that acts. And James paints a vivid picture of what that might look like. Let’s look at James 2.14-18 again:

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if people claim to have faith but have no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?

The preacher and sociologist Tony Campolo tells of the time he was walking down a street when his eyes were met by a tramp looking on from a bench. Dirty old overcoat, long matted beard with bits of food stuck in it, he was covered in grime from head to toe, and drinking from a paper cup... The guy called out, “Hey mister, you want some of my coffee?” “That’s kind of you but...”

Then he thought that’s wrong. So he said, “O.K., I’ll take a sip.” So he drank some of the coffee. Then he said to the tramp, “You’re getting pretty generous giving away your coffee. What’s got in to you?” The man said, “Well, the coffee was especially delicious today. And I think that when God gives you something good, you ought to share it around.”

Campolo thought to himself, “Here I am - a preacher - and this tramp has expressed what Christian love is about more eloquently than 1,000 of my sermons.” So he said, “Well, is there anything I can give you?” He thought the guy was going to ask for £10. The man said, “Yeah. You can give me a hug.” When he said that, Tony Campolo was thinking, “Oh great, why didn’t he just ask me for £10...”

But they put their arms around each other. Then this smartly dressed academic realised that this tramp was not going to let him go. He just held on to him for what seemed like forever. And people were passing in the street, staring at this sight.

And then Tony Campolo said this; “My embarrassment, little by little, turned to reverence and awe. Because I realised that this was not a tramp I was holding in my arms. I heard a voice saying ‘I was hungry, did you feed me? I was naked, did you clothe me? I was sick, did you care for me? I was the tramp you met on Chesterton Street, did you hug me?’ I had Jesus in my arms,” he said.

That’s what God’s family can look like. I think it’s one of the most beautiful things on earth.

We’ll talk about our blood families next week but before we do, and as I close, what about Jesus’ words in our Gospel reading?

While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.” He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

Michael Green, in his commentary, is really helpful, so I'll leave the last word to him.

One of the most painful things in Jesus’ life was that members of his family misunderstood him and even opposed him. John’s gospel reveals that his brothers did not believe in him. Mark’s gospel says that they thought he was mad. We know that that changed after the resurrection and his mother and brothers were amongst those in the upper room at Pentecost.

The incident in our Gospel reading tellingly finds Jesus’ family ‘outside’ while Jesus is ‘inside’. They weren’t interested in Jesus’ agenda. They wanted him to follow them – and that’s the wrong way round. So Jesus used the situation to teach about who his real family is. The truth is this; it is possible to be physically related to the Messiah and still not be part of the kingdom of God.

Every one of us needs to acknowledge who Jesus is and make a settled decision to follow him as Lord and Saviour. That alone is what brings people into a relationship with Christ that is closer than that of a mother or a brother.


Sermon preached at Saint Mary's Long Newton, 13th November 2011.