HoHum:
Timothy Paul Jones- With high hopes we had moved to a new youth ministry position. On my first Wednesday evening at this church, I received my first hint that this task might be more difficult than I’d imagined. After a couple of games, I gathered the students for some worship songs. Worship didn’t seem to be part of what they expected, but I persisted anyway. At the end of the music, I lifted my Bible over my head, and asked, “OK, how many of you brought your Bibles?” At first no one responded. And that’s when he said it. A senior in high school who had attended this church for over 5 years said, “This is Wednesday night youth group. We don’t do Bibles here. And we don’t come here to sing either. We’re here to have fun.” In the silence that followed his statement, my first thought was simply, “Oh Lord God, what am I going to do?”
WBTU:
Now I’m not against having fun but the Bible should not be excluded from youth group. In fact, the Bible needs to be central to everything we do and teach. Needs to be the heart
The Centrality of the Word- Think about a building where all the rooms open into a central room. Go out the door of the room and in the central room. For a church the Bible needs to be in that central room and it needs to have connection to every other room.
2 reasons that the Bible deserves a place of centrality in our lives.
1. Bible is the only book inspired by God. “For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” 2 Peter 1:21, NIV. As a book that is unique as to its source, it ought to be central to Christians.
2. The Bible deserves a place of centrality to Christians because it is the only book inerrant in content. The Bible is absolutely accurate and completely reliable in every statement it makes. Because it is a unique book as to its character, we ought to make learning and applying everything it teaches the highest priority in our lives.
Thesis: The Centrality of the Word must be shown through...
For instances:
Proclaiming Biblical Truth
“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.” 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5, NIV. Real churches hold to the truth passed down from God’s prophets and apostles. They recognize that the Word “is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness”; therefore, they “Preach the Word...in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage.” There is no season when the Word is not to be preached or at least mentioned. Faithful churches unashamedly proclaim the Word from the pulpit, they teach it in small groups and classes, they rely on it in counseling, and they carefully seek its wisdom when making decisions.
“These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door-frames of your houses and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:6-9, NIV.
NT has the same emphasis on the teaching of the Word. Few people in the ancient world benefited from formal education, and most could not read. Teachers in the church played vital roles. The early apostles placed such value on their teaching ministry that when other areas of service interfered, the apostles designated others to fulfill those ministries so that they could “give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”” Acts 6:4, NIV. Teachers carried so much sway that we have this warning: “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” James 3:1, NIV. Paul listed teachers as third, behind only apostles and prophets, in importance, and included teaching among critical leadership functions.
Daniel Overdorf- A friend told me of a time in his life before he knew Jesus, but when he began to sense a gnawing spiritual hunger. He lived in California. One Sunday he opened the Yellow Pages to find a church. He randomly chose one, and arrived in time to hear the sermon. The preacher delivered a message about how to prepare for earthquakes- no, not spiritual earthquakes, but actual earthquakes that shake California. The preacher never opened the Bible. The message provided helpful information, but my friend walked away still spiritually hungry. May no one ever walk away from this church without having encountered the Word of God. May God’s Word always stand central.
Over the last few decades our culture has been gradually rejecting its Christian foundations. Beliefs that were once part of the bedrock of society are increasingly seen as despicable by the standards of our culture. God’s Word must be at the center of everything we do as a church. However, today questioning scriptural authority is popular. Well known speakers advocate processing God’s Word through the culture of the day, rather than the other way around. We once understood that we don’t stand in judgment of the Bible; it stands in judgment of us. But many today are air brushing the Word of God to make it acceptable to our society. Instead of our being conformed to the image of Christ, we want to conform God’s image, and everything else in Scripture, to our sad conditions. When we are trying to figure out how on earth we can live with confidence in this crazy, chaotic world, we ought to be running to the Bible and not away from it, as so many are doing.
Combating False Teaching
Just a few years after Jesus ascension, false teachings about Christ began to sneak into church. “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” Matthew 7:15, NIV.
“I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.” Acts 20:29-31, NIV.
Toward the end of the 1st century, John- probably the only apostle still living- served as a leader and patriarch for the church in Ephesus and many other churches. He wrote 3 letters to these churches saying things like: “Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist--he denies the Father and the Son.” “I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.” 1 John 2:22, 26, NIV.
John identifies the essence of this false teaching. “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.” 1 John 4:1-3, NIV.
John gives a basic test to identify false teaching. What do they believe about Jesus Christ? This is a basic test even today. If any teaching attempts to corrupt Jesus Christ- that Jesus is the Christ, fully God and fully man, our Lord who deserves our full submission- that teaching holds no place in a Bible believing church.
“he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.” 1 Timothy 6:4, 5, NIV.
False teaching may frighten us. It should because there is much false teaching today. Our fear, however, should only raise our awareness of its existence, and drive us toward Christ and His Word. We need not let the fear paralyze us because, as John taught “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4, NIV.
How can we recognize false teaching? When training someone to find counterfeit money they do not allow them to look at counterfeit money but only allow them to study real money. All they do hour after hour, day after day, is study authentic currency until they are so familiar with the true that they cannot possibly be fooled with the false. This is the way we should be with the Word of God. We know the real deal so well that we can recognize what is false.
In the NT times, house churches were isolated in cities throughout the Roman Empire. No one owned a NT and at best the early Christians only had random collections of letters from the apostles and stories passed down through teachers. Christians in that day were more open to false teaching because they had no standard to see what was true vs what was false. This is not the case now. Today we have the Word of God in our possessions.
