Let me tell you one of the things that motivated this series. It was actually two questions:
- I took a little time looking around the Christian world as I see it, looking at my contacts, looking at friends I know well and looking at some of the stand-out figures in church history asking “Who are the people whose Christian life really thrives?”
- Who are the individuals who have a lively and intimate relationship with God? Who are the people whom I want to be like? Who are the people I pray that you will be like here at Victoria?
- second question – what makes them different? Why are they above the norm? What is it that helps them to live with such spiritual excellence?
If you can think of someone who comes into that category of a thriving Christian – someone whose life you envy in God, someone you’d like to be like as a believer, who is it? (Write the answer on your notes)
In this series ‘Disciple!’ I want to unpack these aspects of spiritual excellence.
Grace
Grace – God’s grace has impacted your life – you’ve come to Christ and you know it.
God’s grace is made the clearest in baptism (CS last week)
Growth
Growth – every one of us who have come to Christ in repentance and faith were a bit wet behind the ears to begin with. We needed to grow and there are three key habits that I noticed in thriving Christians
Bible – thriving Christians don’t just know it as a text-book, they relish it as their source of spiritual nourishment, refreshment and strength
Prayer – And when they pray they seem to encounter the Lord in a personal and intimate way – they pray ‘in the Spirit’ as the Holy Spirit indwells, infuses and inspires them – and so he does.
These thriving Christians grow through being heartfelt worshippers – and the worship they experience on a Sunday morning (for example), is taken out with them into the rest of the week in whatever part of the world God has put them.
This is discipleship! It’s being like Jesus Christ!
Today’s message: Whenever I look at a thriving believer, the Bible is in their life’s mix somewhere.
So today I want to teach you, to inspire you, to encourage you to feed on the Bible.
Why people don’t get into the Bible
Many people are put off reading the Bible for a whole variety of reasons
Some people don’t read it
because it’s long
It’s 800,000 words and it takes some working through!
On my kindle I can always find out how much more there is left of a book – 4hours 43 mins
- But I was reading my Bible and it said “66 hours 31 mins left” My heart sank!
Some people don’t read the Bible
Because it looks complicated
The Bible is a library of 66 books that were originally written in Hebrew and Greek with snatches of Aramaic. It’s hard to know where to start.
In fact most novices who start at the beginning run aground in about Leviticus! I recommend that if you want to start reading the Bible, start with Luke’s gospel and just read on.
There was once a small boy who wrote a prayer in his group church and he said this: “Dear God, I love your book, but what does ‘begat’ mean. Nobody will tell me.”
Some people don’t read the Bible
Because they think it’s irrelevant
Much of it was written 2000 years ago and 2000 miles away and we might struggle to see the relevance of it.
Some people don’t read the Bible
Because they think it’s mythological
They think it’s full of fairy stories and fascinating but unnecessary myths.
In fact there was a theological movement (which still exists) that tried to ‘demythologise’ the Bible – especially the gospel. They attempted to take out anything that they thought was a myth (including the resurrection of Jesus Christ) to leave us with “the true gospel”.
The trouble with this line of reasoning, they tended to work from their own presupposition that (for example) miracles don’t happen and that the supernatural was largely and invention of mankind to keep himself happy.
What was left was a mere shadow of the gospel.
Some people don’t read the Bible
Because they think it’s inconsistent
… and riddled with contradictions.
This is simply not borne out by the facts >>>
E.g. Gospels & four people’s view of an RTA >>>
So how to feed on the Bible …
Get to know the author better
E.g. IW reading Guthrie’s New Testament Theology. Classic text on NT theology. Many profound insights. The author wrestles with the big questions and treats differing viewpoints with scrupulous honesty and courtesy – and argues his case with stunning clarity.
BUT – Inside the front cover – To Rosalyn and Ian, with love, Dad
I know the author. And every time I read this book I hear his voice.
My friend, if you are a Christian here today, it’s just the same for you with the Bible. You can read you heavenly Father’s book, and every time you read his book you can hear his voice.
This is the word of God in the words of man
Allow your soul to drink in its message
One of the best-known verses about the Bible in the Bible is 2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
That word ‘God-breathes is very telling
Allow it to become your authority
This happens progressively over time as part of the discipling process
- Let your choices be governed by it
Spurgeon – bibline blood! >>>
Remember what it is!
The word of God in the words of man
And the Bible uses pictures to illustrate itself
Milk 1 Peter 2:1-3
It feeds me as an infant. It gives me the basics of walking with the Lord. >>>
But it’s not only new (or at least young) Christians who need the milk of the word.
However,
Many times, when someone has experienced a trauma, a loss or a tragedy, they’ve said to me “actually I’m finding it really hard to read my Bible at the moment”
That’s quite normal!
In that place in life, go back to the milk. Go back the the verses you’ve known and loved, to the places in the Bible that have nourished your heart in the past (and delay the challenging stuff for later!)
Meat Hebrews 5:11-13
If milk feeds the infant, meat energises the adult. – We can’t live on milk for ever.
Hebrews was talking about Jesus being our great high priest
Hebrews 5:11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.
We need to be challenged and stimulated to go deeper into God’s word, to understand it – and therefore to understand Him, much more profoundly than we do.
This was what Hebrews was feeling to sad about. They no longer tried to understand Christ. They were satisfied with a short snippet from the Bible and a blessed thought. – and it’s still true today. Some of us should be feeding our souls on meat but we have contented ourselves with the basic, the light-weight and the easy to understand.
>>>
a sword Ephesians 6
There is no secret here about the reality of the spiritual battle. It’s very tough. When we have to make tough choices, take tough decisions and face tough temptations and challenges in life, we need to sword of the Spirit which is the word of God
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. … 13 … put on the full armour of God, so that … you may be able to stand your ground,
… (amongst other things) 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Notice the Bible is not the sword of the theologian or the sword of the psychologist or the sword of the ethicist or even the sword of the preacher, It’s the sword of the Spirit. (God’s holy Spirit)
When we use the Bible to help us fight the spiritual battle we find ourselves using the power of the Holy Spirit to see us to victory – even if there are a few defeats along the way!
In the first century, the sword was both an offensive and a defensive weapon. And the same it true for us. The Scriptures are an offensive weapon (in the sense that the devils strategies and be defeated by us) and it’s also a defensive weapon designed to guard us against falling for Satan’s tricks.
Todays ‘reading
Psalm 119:9 How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word.
(there are many other pictures we could use to illustrate the Bible)
Probably the most important for us to take away this morning is this: For any thriving disciple the Bible is
a revelation
The Bible is God’s autobiography! It’s the primary route through which God reveals himself to us.
In the scriptures God uncovers himself, reveals himself, breaks the news about himself, divulges himself, exposes himself, explains himself, publishes himself, discloses himself, announces himself, broadcasts himself, declares himself, introduces himself and unveils himself.
Suppose a man goes to a special ceremony in which a plaque commemorating the opening of a building is to be unveiled.
The plaque is mounted there on the wall with its little curtain covering it up, and some famous dignitary is waiting to pull the cord and reveal the inscription. The trouble is, our man is wearing a blindfold.
If he is to see the inscription two things have to take place. Not only does the plaque have to be revealed by the dignitary, but the veil also needs to be taken from his eyes.
And that is what’s needed for us to feed our hearts on the scriptures. The veil needs to be taken from our eyes in order for us to see the glory of God in the scriptures. God has revealed himself in the Bible, what is also necessary is for us to have the blindfold removed. And that is the work of the Holy Spirit.
It happens both at the moment when we come to faith and progressively as we grow in Christ.
So when you come to the scriptures tonight (or whenever), pray ‘Lord lift any residual veil from my eyes so I can see you in all you glory in your word.
I saw an advert on an underground train:
This young man has just received his first love letter. He may have read it three or four times, but he is only just beginning. To read it as accurately as he would like would require several dictionaries and a good deal of close work with a few experts of etymology and philology. However, he will do all right without them.
He will ponder over the exact shade of meaning of every word, every comma. She has headed the letter “Dear John”. What, he asks himself, is the exact significance of these words? Did she refrain from saying “dearest” because she was too bashful? Would “my dear” have sounded too formal?
Maybe she would have said “dear so-and-so” to anybody! A worried frown will now appear on his face. But it disappears as soon as he really gets to thinking about the first sentence. She certainly wouldn’t have written that to just anybody!
And so he works his way through the letter, one moment perched blissfully on a cloud, the next moment huddled miserably on a downer. It has started a hundred questions in his mind. He will feed on its message for many days to come.
The Scriptures are you heavenly father’s love letter >>>
