Introduction
Over the next couple months, I’m going to preach about the basics of what it means to be a Christian—and specifically, I’m gonna focus on the beliefs of Christians from a Methodist perspective. We are a Methodist Church, after all. Pleasant Grove began as a Methodist congregation over 170 years ago. Before there was even a building, Christians were gathering under the Pleasant Grove of trees on this property to study God’s Word and worship Jesus Christ. There were Baptists meeting in the area too. In fact, the Baptists at Grove Level and the Methodist of Pleasant Grove worked together to establish Pleasant Grove Elementary School. The Methodists and Baptist appreciated each other and cooperated on many projects, but they recognized there was a difference between Methodists and Baptists. Though both believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, there is a need for two distinct denominations. The spiritual ancestors who established our church were Methodists and we are Methodists.
Methodists believe the Bible is God’s Word. If you believe that, say “Amen.” Amen!
2 Timothy 3:14-17
14 But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. 15 You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.
Meaning
Paul wrote these words to Timothy near the end of Paul’s life. Timothy was a young Christian leader and Paul was his spiritual mentor. By the time Paul wrote these words, Christianity had grown and spread across a vast empire. What started out as the beliefs of a relatively small group of Jews in Palestine had spread south to Egypt, East to Parthia, north to Turkey, and West to Greece and Rome. It was a religion rooted firmly in the traditions and Scriptures of Jewish faith, but it was also the fastest growing religion of non-Jews. Such diversity and rapid growth brought the danger of bad teachings—sometimes the results of inexperienced and uninformed teachers and sometimes cause by false teachers who hoped to use the new religion for their own personal gain.
Paul wrote to his young apprentice, Timothy, to warn him. In 2 Timothy 3:1, Paul said, “You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times.” He goes on to warn him about the evil attitudes of people creeping into the world and even false teachers corrupting the Church of Jesus Christ. And Paul tells Timothy, to remain true to the Scriptures.
Today, we also must guard ourselves and the Church from going astray. We must stay true to the Word of God that has been handed down to us.
The Bible is the Word of God. Paul says all Scripture is inspired by God. The Greek word Paul used is theopneustos, which means “God-breathed.” In other words, God breathed life and spirit and wisdom into the Holy Scriptures.
The breathe of God is sacred and powerful. It breathes life into existence. You may recall from Genesis 1, that God spoke the world into existence. He said, "Let there be light..." and there was light. He spoke and the sun, moon, and star came into existence. And in the story in Genesis 2:7, God brought Adam to life by breathing into his nostrils. In the same way, the words of Scripture are inspired by the breath of God. Scripture is God’s words speaking to us, bringing truth and life when we have faith to hear.
Originally, when Paul wrote this to Timothy, they only had the Jewish Bible—what we call the Old Testament. It wasn’t until later that Christians came to include a few more writings from Christian sources into the authoritative collection of Holy, God-inspired Scripture. The four Gospels, the letters of Paul, Peter, James, and John were accepted as God-breathed and authoritative, along with Revelation. Thus, we now have the 66 books of the Holy Bible, which Methodists accept as the Old and New Testaments--the inspired Word of God.
The United Methodist official Book
of Discipline says, “Scripture is the primary source and criterion for
Christian doctrine. Through Scripture the living Christ meets us in the
experience of redeeming grace… Our
standards affirm the Bible as the source of all that is “necessary” and
“sufficient” unto salvation (Articles of Religion) and “is to be received
through the Holy Spirit as the true rule and guide for faith and practice”
(Confession of Faith).” [i]
So, we believe that both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible are the inspired Word of God that contain everything necessary and sufficient for our salvation. This is a sacred book that God preserved for us and uses to speak to us and lead us into truth and salvation through Jesus Christ. The Bible is the final word for everything we do as a Church and as Christians.
No book has changed the world so
much as the Christian Bible. The very act of reading and writing has been propelled by the Bible. The ancient Hebrews lived in a time when only a tiny minority of people in the world could read and write. Yet because the Hebrews revered the written word of God and wanted everyone to be able to read it, it was a priority for them to teach their children to read and write. Scribes were employed to copy Scripture from decaying manuscripts to the Word could be preserved. Later in the 15th century, the printing press was invented so make affordable copies of the Bible available to everyone. The Bible propelled the printing process that makes all kinds of books available to us today. And study and learning have been valued by Christians through the century because we want people to be able to read and understand God's Word. So education has become the expectation of the modern world.
The Word of God has shaped our modern world. It has instilled Christian ideals in everyone--even those who are not Christians. The idea that sacrificial love is a virtue and that people should love their enemies and pay for those who curse them came from Christ and were preserved in the Word. The idea in the Word of God that all people are created in the image of God has led us to a revolutionary view that we are all equal. Women and men should be treated as equals and no race should be mistreated or enslaved. These values came through the Word of God and have changed our world.
God gave us the Bible, but God also gave us a brain. One of the things I love about Methodist Christians is we are encouraged to use our God-given intelligence to understand Scripture. When we read a Scripture that really challenges us, we ask questions. “What is this really saying?” It can be tempting to just accept the passage at face value. However, Methodists refuse to be lazy about the Bible. We realize these Scriptures are over 2,000 years old. They were written to a specific audience on specific occasions. The poetic Psalms are a different genre than the history books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Thus, different genres must be read and understood differently. The letters of Paul were written to specific groups of people to address very specific problems. So, we must take these things into account. We don’t just read the Bible uncritically.
Furthermore, the Bible is not a weapon we use to prove we are right and everyone else is wrong. At its core, the 2 Timothy 3:16 says the Holy Bible is “useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.” It's so much more comfortable to avoid looking at our own problems by pointing fingers at everyone else. And that's what we often want to use the Bible for. However, Jesus said, "First remove the log from your own eye, then you can see clearly to remove the speck of dust from your neighbor's eye." We must allow the Bible to convict us first and foremost.
So you see, we must be willing to humble ourselves before the Word of God. The natural, rebellious state of the human heart always wants to justify itself. We will either look for a verse in the Bible to prove we are right or we will disregard the Bible and say it’s outdated and no longer relevant to our modern lives. The Methodist way must be the middle way. It takes Scripture seriously, because it is the Holy Word of God. however, taking the Bible seriously also means studying it and delving into it to really understand critically what God is saying to us today. Taking it seriously also means humbling ourselves before God and obeying His Word, even when it runs counter to the mainstream opinions of our culture.
It was Scripture that led Martin Luther King, Jr. to fight for civil rights even though it went against popular opinion. He was arrested, beaten, and ultimately killed for his work. King would not turn away from the Word of God. This is just one example from 2,000 years of Christian history.
People are prone to be ignorant and what society finds acceptable changes all the time. God’s people shouldn't follow the edicts of society. We build our lives upon the solid rock of God’s Holy Word.
ClosingI want to close today with a challenge. I challenge you to read your Bible everyday. You need a challenge to get you started. So I want to be specific. There are 12 weeks between today and Easter. I challenge you to read the Book of Genesis and the Gospel of Matthew. That’s 50 chapters in Genesis plus 28 chapters in Matthew. That equals 78 chapters in 84 days between now and Easter. (That leaves a few skip days.) Read Genesis and Matthew and listen for God’s Word to you. Listen and ask the questions: "What do I need to change? What do I need to do?"