"What's the Big Deal About the Bible?"

Many of us are familiar with Yankee Doodle as it was introduced to us as a children’s nursery rhyme, only later to learn that it is a patriotic song with its roots in the American Revolution. The forefathers of this nation were led to declare independence from England after the British crown had imposed a series of policies and taxes that the American colonies rejected. The colonialists desired a representative government so that the voice of the people could be heard and to accomplish this, the American colonies declared their independence from England. And the war that was fought came because the British crown was not willing to give up control and power over the colonies, but I think we all know how that turned out for them.

This isn’t the first time that control and power were an issue for people in England. About 250 years before the American revolution, there was a religious war of sorts all across Europe. For about 1200 years, the Roman Catholic Church had exercised great control and power over the governments and societies in Europe. In 1500s England, english-speaking people would enter churches and the entire Catholic mass was conducted in Latin by the priest or bishop. By a show of hands, how many know Latin? The good news for you is that I’m not fluent in it, but most often, the only Latin reader and speaker in the church was the priest. Complicating matters then was that the Roman Catholic pope had also decreed that the only authorized language of the Bible was Latin. So if you wanted to know what the Bible said, you had to go to a priest and assume that he was telling you what it actually says.

Well, into that situation, there’s a Spirit-led man named William Tyndale who completes a translation of the New Testament in English. The Roman Catholic bishops in England actually made it illegal to possess Tyndale’s New Testament, so to print it, Tyndale went to Germany and the Netherlands. Smugglers had to bring it back in to the country at risk to their lives and the lives of the people buying the bibles. And as it would turn out, most of Tyndale’s english New Testaments were purchased and burned by those Catholic bishops. Tyndale would go on to also translate the Old Testament from Hebrew to English, but shortly thereafter, he was arrested and tried as a heretic. He was convicted of heresy and sentenced to death by strangulation and burning, never knowing if his work would survive.

As it were, Tyndale’s friend, John Rogers, made 1500 copies of the complete Bible in english shortly after Tyndale’s death. I would venture to guess that there are over 100 printed Bibles in the sanctuary this morning and with bibles on cell phones, we have access to the Bible in more translations than we can shake a stick at. We each owe a debt of gratitude to men like William Tyndale for their willingness to endure and suffer for Christ.

Tension

For Tyndale, his life’s work was the book you have in your lap or off to your side. He gave his life gladly without any awareness that almost 500 years later, you and I would joyfully read through Jeremiah 36 in english.

Where I want us to focus our attention on for our next few minutes together is the Bible itself. What is it? What is it for? What do people do with it? What is God’s concern with it?

Text

The Bible has perplexed man for a very long time. From the external, it bears the appearance of any other book that we’ve picked up in our lives. The Bible may be bigger or thicker than most books you’ve read, it may have more words than most books you’ve read, it may have fewer pictures than most books you’ve read, but just upon an outward examination, it looks like another book. It’s not until a person begins to read from the Bible that one can begin to see that it is very distinct from every other book known to man. The first thing we will see is that the Bible is a:

Message Given

I think most of us have had some sort of experience where we’ve found ourself out in nature and have stood just in awe of the scene we are taking in. For me, those moments of transcendence come when I’m in remote areas where I’m surrounded by mountains and valleys or when I look up into the night’s sky, immersed in the wonder of what lays beyond the reach of the human race. Others may be overwhelmed by a sense of something or someone greater when they’re taking in the ocean’s beauty or the interconnectedness of life in the deserts and rainforests of earth. It’s in those moments were we realize that none of that what our eyes can see could have come about by chance, there’s just so much beauty and organization, and we conclude that there must have been a Creator who masterfully designed and creatively expressed himself in the course of bringing all things into existence. This awareness of God through the wonder of creation itself is known as general revelation. In other words, God reveals himself generally or to all through all known creation. Creation tells us something about God, but it doesn’t tell us much.

Take this lectern. It exists. It was designed and crafted into the handsome piece of furniture it is. We can answer many things about it just through observation. How tall is it? How wide is it? How much does it weigh? What is it made from? But what we cannot answer through observation is “who built it?” And, for the sake of argument, say that I was able to give you a name of who built it, there would remain even more questions that we couldn’t answer alone. Why was it built? What was the builder’s desire with it? Or questions of greater intrigue, what is the builder like? Well, it goes without saying that if we were to come to know anything about the builder, the builder would need to tell us about himself. And apart from what the builder of this lectern would tell us, we would have no knowledge of who he is or what he is like.

What makes the Bible unique from this lectern and any other book is who its author is. The Bible is God’s special revelation, the means through which God reveals himself specifically to humankind. It is in the Bible that we learn who God is, what he is like, and what his purposes are. And naturally the question comes, “Pastor Dan, I’m pretty sure human publishing groups made the Bible in my hands. And beyond that, I’ve flipped through this thing and I find the names of plenty of men in titles. Are you sure that this is from God?” And to that question, I answer to you most confidently, YES.

Whomever printed your Bible selected the covering, the weight of paper, the size of the letters and without a doubt, and they certainly charged you for every last bit of it. But when we look at the introduction of this chapter, both concerns and curiosities are confronted as it has to do with the content of the Bible. Yes, the book is known as Jeremiah, a title that’s given because of the human agent through whom this material comes, but make no bones about it, we’ve not read anything that originates from the mind of a man named Jeremiah who lived thousands of years ago. Jeremiah 36:1-2 “this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you...”

In this passage, it is God himself who is speaking to Israel, to Judah and to all the nations as he has influenced and inspired Jeremiah to write this message from Heaven that, as it turns out in this chapter, is a warning to all about their universal disobedience to God. The message given in this chapter is given in mercy as we read in Jeremiah 36:3 “It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the disaster that I intend to do to them, so that every one may turn from his evil way, and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”” We can see from this that out of the depth of his unfailing love, God mercifully calls sinners back to him.

God influenced the writers of Scripture, like Jeremiah, to transmit God’s own revelation of himself and his purposes in writing, as we see the New Testament say about the Bible that 2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is breathed out by God...” The Bible, all 66 books, is the message of God that has been given to us by God.

And because this is God’s own Word, it is also a

Message to be heard

We refer to it in a number of ways… Scripture. The Bible. The Word of God. What God inspired writers in the past to record was never meant to remain as just ink on paper. When God says to write, it’s so that in time it will be spoken so that it can be heard.

Three times in this chapter do we find what God demanded Jeremiah write so that it can be heard. Because Jeremiah had been banned from the places of worship, the task of speaking the Word of God was left to the blessed one, Baruch, who in Jeremiah 36:10 “...in the hearing of all the people, Baruch read the words of Jeremiah from the scroll, in the house of the Lord...”

And did that ever cause a stir among the religious types and political leaders in Judah. They must’ve said to themselves, “Disaster to come upon us? We’re red-blooded Judahites, we’re offspring of Abraham. What need have we to turn away from evil? We’re God’s chosen!” But there was a man named Micaiah who had heard all that Baruch had proclaimed as thus sayeth the Lord and he went to the officials of the king’s cabinet and told them all that had been proclaimed. So they called Baruch in to sit with them and once more the Word of God was spoken… “Repent or face God’s judgement!” Out of fear from what they had heard, they carried the message to King Jehoiakim, who upon his hearing of what God instructed Jeremiah to write, simply cut the pages out and tossed them in the fire.

I’ll come back to the responses to hearing the message of God shortly, but before I do, consider with me the great privilege it is to hear from God. For the three different occasions in this text, there are words of such faithful warning that are mixed with God’s patience and mercy. God had patiently instructed Jeremiah to write and it was not for another year until it was first read in the temple. God’s message itself is one of mercy…turn from your ways and return to Me. God had chosen mercy over opening the floodgates of his wrath that could come with just a snap of his fingers. Yet with privilege comes responsibility because hearing the Word of God demands a response. The king had been given a choice, hear and your soul shall live.

“What are proper responses to hearing the Word?”, asks someone. The first is, repent and surrender to the Lord and his ways. That is to turn from your wickedness and confess that you are a sinner, you need a Savior, and Jesus alone is who is able to save. Someone else asks, “What else is there?” Answer: repent some more. Friends, the Word of God proclaimed rightly will always result in Jesus Christ high and lifted up. And in the light of his glory and grace, we are shown the many ways in which we fail him for which we need repent anew.

And repentance is something we are called to do both individually and collectively. You see, this message from God to Judah came in the face of terrible wickedness by individuals in Judah as well as across the kingdom. The Babylonian army was amassing and strengthening in the north, preparing to extinguish the people God had established to be a light to the nations. Friends, God has not only used pagan armies to render his judgement, he’s used disasters in many forms to call his people to return to him. We look around today and find to our west that fires rage and to our east that floods devastate and here at home there is drought without end. “That’s all because we live in a fallen world, pastor! We needn’t have worry, we’re red-blooded Americans! We love God! If there’s something wrong, it’s with those other people!” Oh, is that so? Tell me this then. This does not get the press it should, but right now in this state, there are more churches looking for pastors than there are students training for ministry. Right now in this state, the majority of men in the pastorate are in their 60s and by the numbers, there are not younger men called by God to take up the mantle. What does it say about the people who God is speaking to if he is unwilling to raise up preachers to proclaim the gospel?

Peter later writes that judgement begins at the household of God and since it does, we must repent for the ways in which we have become unsatisfied with Jesus alone. Scripture and circumstances are calling us to wake up, to repent, because in the droughts and floods and fires of our circumstances, the Lord is calling us to return and be satisfied in him only.

Though the message can be given and it can be heard, this is also a

Message that can be rejected

The third audience to the Word of God proclaimed is the king of Judah himself, Jehoiakim, along with his inner circle. When what Jeremiah was instructed to write had finally made its way to the king, it’s not the messenger Baruch who speaks it to him, but an underling of the king. And as that man read, it says with each completed section of Scripture, Jeremiah 36:23 “the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the fire pot, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the fire pot.”

That’s pretty gutsy, wouldn’t you say? I mean, this is God’s own word and we’re just gonna chop it up and burn it? How is it that these folks could be foolish enough to do that? I’m glad you asked, because the Bible tells us in Jeremiah 36:24 “24 Yet neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words was afraid, nor did they tear their garments.”

I’ll say, how someone understands and interacts with God’s word tells you everything about their relationship with God. And moving beyond that, the decision to obey or ignore his word will impact one’s life in profound ways. If asked, I bet Jehoiakim would have claimed to have been a child of God. In his mind, he was born a Jew and would inherit the special promise of God extended to those people then. But obeying God? Well, where would be the fun in that? The temptation to live according to his own made up truth caused this king to reject the only truth that there is, the very word of God and in so doing, to reject God himself.

I have the privilege of interacting with people, like many of you do. There are a number of folks who are new to this community and when I speak to them, naturally the conversation flows to asking about how I can help them get situated in the community and how I can guide them to a church that proclaims the Word through the teaching of the Bible. It’s a very easy thing these days to find yourself in a church that has an electric feel to it. The music is great by whatever standard of great is to you think great is. And the preacher stands up to declare to you the day’s 7 steps to joy in life or to lead everyone to do anything but give praise to the true and perfect King Jesus who went through the cross and through the tomb so that John 3:16 “...whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

There’s a danger for you and I, friends. The danger comes from our hearts, because they are so inclined to run to what is easy or what attracts. When we have placed ourselves under the preaching of one who says more than or less than the very Word of God, when we are responding to the moral and ethical challenges of our day with I think rather than thus sayeth the Lord, we are in the seat of Jehoiakim, with our knives out, picking apart Scripture, rejecting the Lord.

And with our knives, we may cut and chop and discard, but try as we may, no effort of man can bring ruin upon the Word of God because it endures forever.

Message that is renewed

Another roll was taken and upon it was written Jeremiah 36:32 “… all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to them.”

As if the call to return to God did not carry enough weight, God’s own resistance to the attempts to discard his Word bring even greater force to the message.

How many times do you have to be told “no” before you just give up? When I sold insurance, it was two or three no’s before I’d leave you alone. When we’re in love with someone, we push through a few more spurns with the hope our persistence will change a mind, but even that can continue for so long.

Yet here we see that God will never lower his demands because of the hatred or rejection of men. His nature as love forbids him from giving up. God’s Word is relentless because it is his Word that shows us who he is. As John tells us, 1 John 4:8 “God is love.” And though we may try to reject or destroy the Word, we are never done with it, for it is the same Word who will judge us. Tossing aside the thermometer does as much to change the temperature outdoors as does rejecting the Word of God.

Application

Loved ones, the Word of God endures forever. Our attempts to take knives and pick it apart are vain efforts because we’re taking knives to a sword fight. John is trying to tell us this in the grand prologue to his gospel: John 1:1 “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” You see, John was led of the Spirit with bellowing voice to announce that the Son of God, Christ Jesus, is the very Word of God.

The Roman Catholic bishops in England tried to obscure the Word of God, but the Word of God can not be contained. Jehoiakim tried to pick apart and burn the Word of God, but from the ashes the Word returned. And in the most dreadful attempt of all, humanity laid her guilt on the Word, mocked the Word, tortured the Word, crucified the Word, and with great arrogance and pride, tried to bury the Word permanently, but out of the tomb the Word rose!

What lives forever cannot be destroyed.

Inspiration

What if we took to heart that the Word of God 2 Corinthians 5:15 “… died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”? If we did, we would see the Jesus’ kingdom breaking through among us. And as fragile a thing that it would be, how marvelous it would be to catch just a glimpse of our King and his kingdom that is coming.

Action

What’s the big deal about the Bible? It’s the very Word of God. On every page we find the King of all, Lord Jesus, anticipated, announced, preached, explained and returning. There have been countless attempts to destroy it or contain it, but what can contain the One who rolled away the tomb’s immovable stone? Who can lastingly destroy the One who has returned from the dead? What lives forever cannot be destroyed.

This is why I have asked us to read the Bible through this year and why I’m praying you never stop. Loved ones, no matter where you are, join us in finishing this year strong reading the Bible. Pick up fresh today if you never started or have fallen behind. This single message is not why, but the gospel is why. The Savior whose fingerprint is upon each page and in every word is why. The relentless love of God for you is why.

The Word of God is the power of God to transform your mind. To grow you in the likeness of the Savior. It is the light in the darkness. It is the testimony to the unsurpassed depths to which God will go for you to be able to repent and return to him.

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