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Good morning my dear “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Of all the books you’ve ever read, in your entire lifetime, which would say was the best, by whatever measurement you care to use? And why? What makes that book so powerful and impactful in your life?
For me this question is an easy one. No book has impacted my life more than the Bible. I have several translations of it, for which I’m grateful. You probably do also. Several are particularly special to me for different reasons. Some are literally falling apart, well worn and marked all over. Some are in other languages, and were gifts to me, some were my father’s and have his notes. I wonder. . . what does your Bible look like? Perhaps you know the Bible is by far the single book which has been printed in more languages and more copies than any other book.
We’ve been spending some time with a man named Timothy in the year 66ad, in the city of Ephesus. He has recently received a second letter from his mentor the Apostle Paul who is in prison in Rome. The letter he’s reading is part of our modern Bible, and today we’re only looking at a few verses in chapter 3. “…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.” (2 Timothy 3:15-17)
Only three verses, but I’m sure you would agree very powerful! We know that Timothy had a Greek father and Jewish mother who came to believe in Jesus. Both his mother Eunice and grandmother Lois were women of great faith and clearly they had a significant impact on Timothy as a boy. (2 Tim. 1:5) He was from the town of Lystra and Paul first met Timothy on Paul’s second missionary journey (Acts 16). We don’t how old Timothy was then, but evidently Timothy left home and joined Paul’s traveling team.
For most young Jewish boys, they would begin Synagogue school very early in age, learning to read and write with teachers who used the Old Testament as their primary teaching books. Timothy likely memorized large portions of the Torah, and thus Paul speaks of Timothy’s familiarity with the Scriptures from his infancy. “The Scriptures” Paul mentions, would have been the Old Testament, particularly the Torah, the Prophets and the Psalms. What we know as the New Testament was being written during Timothy’s lifetime but Paul’s letters, the Gospels and other books of our New Testament would not have been formally added to the Old Testament to comprise what we call “The Scriptures”, or the Bible, until many years later.
You’ll notice Paul calls them the “Holy Scriptures” in vs 15, and in vs 16 Paul claims they are “God breathed”. What do you understand that to mean? Do you think that describes any other book in existence?
About this same time, Peter, that’s the Apostle Peter who was one of Jesus’ disciples, was writing his two letters to Christians scattered across the Roman Empire, and Peter writes: “Above all you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. 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 1:20,21) This matter of a human being speaking or writing words that he or she claims have come from Almighty, Holy, Creator God is a big deal, a very big deal! Peter wanted his readers to understand that Scripture is authentically God speaking to humanity through human beings He has chosen and led to write what He wants us to know. When you combine together these words with those of Paul in 2 Timothy 3:15,16 do you see why the Bible, Scripture, is unique from all other books in the world? Do you see why most Bibles have the words “Holy Bible” on the front cover?
Now let’s consider these additional truths about this precious book we call the Bible. First is Hebrews 4:12 “The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Do you see the miracle? Words on a page come alive in our minds and hearts, and actually do work in us. How does that happen? It’s the work of the Holy Spirit, taking words He has inspired into the minds of authors, who obediently wrote what God inspired them to write! Empowered by the Holy Spirit, these words convict us of sin, they teach us truth, they guide us in choices and decisions, they instruct us in how to live God honoring lives, they warn us of danger in life. Is that what happens my friends, when you read the Bible?
And let me add these words of Jesus, spoken when He was with His disciples in the upper room the evening before He went to the cross. He was explaining to them about the Holy Spirit and how He would help them in Jesus’ absence. He said “The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:26) This explains the miracle of how Matthew and John wrote their Gospel accounts, remembering their time as they had walked with Jesus.
Then Jesus said “When He (the Holy Spirit) comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin, righteousness and judgement. In regard to sin, because men do not believe in Me. In regard to righteousness because I am going to the Father. In regard to judgment because the prince of this world now stands condemned.” (John 16:8-11) In truth, Jesus’ disciples did not fully understand what Jesus was saying here, but as the Holy Spirit taught Paul, and then Paul taught and wrote, especially his letter to the Romans so full of doctrine and theology, then even the disciples who’d been with Jesus, were led by the Holy Spirit to understand.
Jesus goes on to say “When He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own, He will speak only what He hears (from the Father), and He will tell you what is yet to come.” (John 16:13) This explains how John the Disciple wrote the book of the Revelation, the last book of the Bible, which speaks of future events yet to come.
And Jesus continued saying “He (the Holy Spirit) will bring glory to Me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.” (John 16:14,15) This explains how Paul, moved by the Holy Spirit, wrote his letters explaining the Gospel of Jesus Christ and instructing people how to live as followers of Jesus.
Now my friends, do we begin to understand the magnitude of the miracles of the Bible? 66 different ‘books’, written by more than 40 different people, over a period of more than 1500 years… that’s our Bible. Moses wrote the first five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy probably between the years of 1450bc and 1400bc or so. John the Disciple wrote the last book, the Revelation around 90ad or so.
Some of the books are letters, as we’ve been reading lately. Some are historical chronological books like the Kings & Chronicles and I & II Samuel. Some are great prophetic books like Isaiah and Ezekiel. One is primarily prayers or songs to God which have risen up deep from within the soul of authors in very emotional times. It’s called The Psalms. One is wise sayings, hundreds of them, it’s called The Proverbs. Four tell us the story of Jesus’ life on earth, they are called the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. One tells the history of what happened after Jesus returned to heaven, that’s Acts. And of course all together it’s God’s story of His relationship with humanity, His love for us and His plan for us to know and love Him, experience deliverance from our sin and spend eternity in relationship with Him. In the Old Testament that story is primarily focused on the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the people of Israel. In the New Testament, that story focuses on how Jesus, His life, His death and resurrection, and His Gospel spread across the Roman Empire and followers of Jesus became known as Christians.
Now here we are in 2020, and here’s the latest information from our friends at Wycliffe Bible translators, the world-wide experts in Bible translation:
The Worldwide Status of Bible Translation:
- More than 1,500 languages have access to the New Testament and some portions of Scripture in their language.
- More than 650 languages have the complete translated Bible.
- At least 7,000 spoken or signed languages* are known to be in use today.
- At least 1.5 billion people do not have the full Bible in their language — that’s more people than the entire continent of Africa!
- More than 2,500 languages across 170 countries have active translation and linguistic development work happening right now.
- Approximately 2,000 languages* still need a Bible translation project to begin
That last statement includes some languages spoken by relatively few numbers of people, most of which are not even written languages.
Now let’s sit with Timothy for a moment, as he reflects on what Paul has written… “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.” (2 Timothy 3:16,17) And that my dear friends is why we do “Walking with Jesus” every day. So you and I keep growing in our understanding of God’s Word, His truth for life, as His Holy Spirit teaches us, rebukes us, corrects us and trains us SO we are equipped for living life in a God honoring way, everyday! It’s a miracle my friends, each day as you and I open God’s Word together and the Holy Spirit of God speaks into our minds and hearts… God talks to us, everyday! Then, after we pray, we step out into our day, and we each walk with Jesus as He leads us through the day. That’s miraculous living!
Oh God, how do we thank you for the miracle of our Bible? How do we thank you for those who have dedicated their lives into translating it into the languages of people who have never had it before? We ask you please, Holy Spirit, to keep teaching us all, the great truths of God, and penetrate those truths deep within us so You can use them to change us more and more into God honoring people!
Attachments:
Click here to go: Wycliffe Bible translators
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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