February 11, 2007 Sermon

The Sword
Ephesians 6:10-18

What is the Bible? It seems like a simple question, but the deeper we dive in, the more complexity we discover. C.S. Lewis created a wonderful image for heaven in his Chronicles of Narnia series of books. The main characters enter what appears to be a botanical garden high on a mountainside. Yet as they go farther up and farther in, each part nearer the center somehow becomes larger than the part that had seemed to surround it. So it goes with the Bible. From the outside looking in we can sum up Scripture very simply: the Bible is the Word of God. And so I believe. Yet what does this mean?

God speaks through the Bible. Listen for God in Scripture.

We just read a passage from the Bible that refers to the Word of God. You may have missed it; the reference came at the end of a detailed description of a Christian’s “armor”: “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” So the Bible is the sword of the Spirit, right? The Bible is the Word of God, right? Not so fast. In order to understand this verse we must define our terms. Prayer, the power and majesty of creation, the wisdom of mature Christians, visions, dreams—God speaks through all these, and more. The Word of God comes to us in many ways. The Bible is the most important of these ways.

It turns out that “the Word of God” is a bigger thing than the Bible. The Bible calls Jesus the Word of God. The Bible calls the Holy Spirit God speaking the Word of God to humanity—through Scripture and all those things I listed a moment ago. Think of how many times God speaks to people in the Bible through dreams. Always remember this crucial, crucial point: we worship Jesus Christ, not the Bible. Yet the Bible does speak the Word of God. Every Presbyterian elder, deacon and pastor has said “I do” when asked, “Do you believe the Bible to be the unique and authoritative witness to Jesus Christ, and by His Spirit, God’s Word to you?” The Bible is unique and authoritative. It speaks God’s Word more clearly and powerfully than any other witness known to humanity.

At a pastors’ meeting some fifteen years ago we got into a hot discussion about the Bible. Pastors hesitate to talk about the Bible when we gather for fellowship. Certain topics can destroy that fellowship, so pastors tend to avoid them. I do not recall details of this conversation, but we must have been skating out pretty close to the edge of the ice. We had the Roman Catholic priest, Missouri Synod Lutheran pastors, preachers from the Nazarene and Baptist churches, plus diverse others. We had widely different beliefs about the Bible. But one of the Lutheran pastors stopped the argument in its tracks by saying, “What we believe about the Bible matters. But it doesn’t matter if nobody reads it. Can anybody here say the people in his church are reading the Bible too much?”

Do we read the Bible too much? The Bible reveals the Word of God, Jesus Christ. Does anybody here know Jesus too well? We need to read the Bible. We need to study the Bible. Then we need to read and study it some more. We need to listen for God in Scripture.

A woman who worships with us recently started attending a Bible study class. The teacher had expansive knowledge of Scripture and obvious faith in Jesus Christ. The woman from our church felt blessed. She had grown up a nominal Christian in a part of the church not noted for teaching the Bible. She felt ignorant and had a real thirst to learn. This class satisfied her thirst.

All went well for a number of weeks. But then the teacher began wandering away from a study of the content of Scripture. She started giving her students teachings that came from her church’s beliefs. She began insisting that they subscribe to these teachings and would not move forward until all her students at least said they agreed. The woman from our church began to feel that the teacher had never intended to hold a Bible study per se, but had a larger goal: she had planned the class as a method of making them accept her church’s teachings on salvation. In short, they had to believe what her church believed or else they would be damned by God to suffer eternity in hell. (And lest you think I exaggerate, allow me to report that the teacher made precisely this claim.)

The woman from our church began asking me for help. As I worked with her and—indirectly—her teacher, two primary issues emerged: baptism and the Bible. No more divisive issues exist within the global Christian fellowship. It is ironic. It is tragic. Millions of people around the world suffer and die without receiving the love of Christ because Christians waste their precious energies on arguing baptism and the Bible. With my Lutheran pastor friend I say it again: none of it matters if we are not actually reading the Bible and trying our best to do what the Spirit of Christ calls us to do in its pages.

Jesus made a career out of breaking the rules. Jesus sought out opportunities to irritate the legalists and the literalists. He taught and acted out the message of God, the Word, the Gospel. That message? For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. You might want to look it up in the Gospel of John, chapter 3—and the whole conversation between Jesus and a legalist who was struggling because he knew in his bones that following the rules was not taking him any closer to the heart of God.

Do I advocate that we break the rules just for the sake of breaking the rules? No! Do I teach that the Bible is just one of many wonderful, deep, thought-provoking books? No! I believe that the Bible is God’s unique and authoritative witness to something far greater than the text itself: the Word of God, who is Jesus Christ.

I teach that we need to study the Bible for as long as we live so we can come to know Jesus Christ. Knowing the Bible does not save us. Perfecting our understanding of the teachings of the Bible does not save us. Behaving ourselves strictly according to the teachings of the Bible does not save us. Only faith in Jesus Christ—and him crucified and resurrected—saves us. Read your Bible so you can learn about Him.

Northern Lakes Community Church offers several ways to study the Bible. Get into one of these groups. Reading the Bible in the quiet of your home is an excellent spiritual discipline, but on its own rarely works as well as getting in a Bible study group. So here come the shameless plugs.
Every Sabbath we offer Sunday School. We meet at 9:00 a.m. and offer classes for all ages. We have gifted, veteran teachers. We say this without a trace of sarcasm. Our teachers have all spent years in the calling. Every class opens the Bible every week. Come to Sunday School!

Every Tuesday morning we study the Bible passages on which I will preach the following Sunday. Join us at Clancy’s Kitchen, Tom and Diane Tatar’s excellent restaurant in Interlochen, at 7:00 a.m. Done by 8:00!

Finally, our small groups study the Bible together. There may be no finer way to dive into Scripture than when in the company of fellow believers who seek to grow together. If you are not in a small group, get in one! They offer fellowship and prayer, as well as Bible study.

Can anybody here honestly say they read the Bible too much? Read your Bible. Jesus Christ, the Word of God, waits to speak to you. Listen for Him in the pages of Scripture.