The Words Of Jesus Series

SIMPLY JESUS

THE WORDS OF JESUS

HEBREWS 4:12-13

INTRODUCTION

-I am so glad you are here today. I have been waiting to teach this passage ever since we started the Hebrews series.

-Today we are looking at one of those rare passages where the Scripture actually talks about the Scripture.

-Do you have your Bible…hold them up…let’s see them!

-Every so often, the Bible talks about itself and those passages are fascinating to consider.

-I did a little research this week about the bestselling books in history and I was really surprised.

-The 5 best-selling books in history might surprise you:

5. The Hobbit-Tolkien-English-1937-100 million

4. The Little Prince (1943) a French novel, sold140 million copies

3. The Lord of the Rings (1954), Tolkien, sold 150 million copies

2. Tale of Two Cities (1859), Charles Dickens - 200 million copies

-Those books have sold millions of copies!

-Most of those books are household names.

-But do you know how many Bibles have been sold/given out?

-No one does, because there have been too many to count.

-It’s estimated that somewhere between 2-5 billion copies of the Bible have been printed.

-And at least 10 of those copies are currently in my office.

-The Bible is hands down the most influential, best-selling book in all of human history.

-People from every continent, every country, and almost every ethnic background know about this book.

-People have read it, heard it, bought it, discussed it, wrestled with it, shared it, died for it, and lived it out 4 thousands of years.

-And there is a reason why people today still turn to the Bible.

-And those reasons are revealed to us in Hebrews 4:12 & 13

12 For the word of God is alive and powerful.

WORD OF GOD: WE BELIEVE THAT THE SCRIPTURE IS GOD’S WORD TO US.

-Skeptics sometimes say that the Bible was conjured up.

-The cynics say it’s a book of myths and fairy tales.

-But that’s not the story that the evidence reveals.

-History confirms the reliability of God’s word.

-Archaeology confirms what is recorded in God’s Word.

-The Bible even stands up to the scrutiny of textual criticism.

-You can learn more about the Bible in our new EQUIP class. Apr 7

-2 Tim 3:16 says “All Scripture is God breathed...

-We believe that the Scripture comes from God’s mouth.

-It is his words to our ears. And it is God’s story.

-It’s the story of how God set aside a people, to bring forth a Savior, so that all people who trust in the Savior could have life.

-In the Word of God we found advice, wisdom, and teaching about morality, and ethics.

-In the Bible there are practical guidelines for family, finances, government.

-There is teaching on praying, and serving, and witnessing.

-And throughout the Bible there is a there a theme which has been carefully woven into each page, using authors that spanned 1000’s of years.

-There is redemption through God’s Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

-This book is the message of salvation! God’s Message (His Word)

THE WORD OF GOD IS ALIVE:

-Only people have really spent time with the Word of God can understand what this statement means.

-We aren’t talking about the Bible having some good advice.

-We aren’t talking about heartwarming stories.

-The Word of God isn’t just one of many philosophical books to ponder. It not an interesting literary novelty.

-A living thing interacts with its environment.

-The purpose of all living things is to produce more life.

-And that’s precisely what the Bible does for us; it points all people to eternal life.

-It speaks about the deepest needs in our lives.

-It calls us to reconsider and revaluate and to change our lives.

-It is relevant to our current situation, no matter what our current situation might be…because it’s alive.

-The Library of Congress is in Washington D.C. and within that building there are more than 35 million books.

-There are books on everything you could possibly imagine.

-Novels, poetry, science, selfhelp, nature, kids’ books, biographies…they even Where’s Waldo?

-I like those books with big pictures!

-There are over 3.0 million recordings, 15 million photographs, 5 million maps, and 61 million manuscripts.

-But in the Library of congress, there is only one book that can accurately be called alive…the Word of God.

THE WORD OF GOD IS POWERFUL.

-It’s important that we understands this clearly.

-The Word of God has power to help change and shape our lives.

-The Bible is not a member of the Trinity.

-There are only three parts to the trinity, not four.

-And I don’t see any vacancies in the Trinity coming open soon!

-So we don’t worship the Scripture.

-We don’t consider the Scripture apart from the God who inspired

-Because God is ultimately the source of real power.