Eric Simmons: “What’s the Point?”
Easy to get to the end of the Bible and feel like you’re done – asking, “what’s next?”
We can lose vision for the study, discipline, and passion for reading the Bible. Maybe you’re a little bored with it. Maybe the only vision is because it’s a Christian rule, about duty rather than delight.
Whether you are facing that right now or not, I guarantee that in the days ahead this battle will occur – the battle for vision to diligently study the word of God.
The Bible gives us an example of Timothy, who had vision to fight the battle to continue reading and studying the Word.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
Timothy seems to be battling for vision to continue studying the Scriptures. Paul exhorts him to continue in this passage. There were many external reasons for Timothy to battle to study and confirm the Scriptures – he was a young pastor leading a church in one of the most pagan areas of the world, and he was now being challenged by some very subversive false teachers.
Paul is about to die, and he knows it. What does he say to Timothy about the scriptures? “Give up, they only lead to suffering and persecution?” No. “Timothy, no matter what battle you face, keep studying! Continue in the scriptures! Hold on firmly to what you believe!”
We are all susceptible to giving up on the Scriptures, and the command of God to us today is the same as to Timothy 2,000 years ago. Continue in what you have believed. Keep studying. Keep learning the Scriptures.
Three reasons God gives us in this passage:
1. The Scriptures reveal Jesus Christ
There’s one unifying purpose for this book, in verse 15. “You have been acquainted with the Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
This statement defines the central purpose of this book of the Bible. The scriptures are able to make you wise – for what? salvation. The Bible teaches and instructs you in salvation.
Vocab lesson: What does salvation mean in the NT? Deliverance from bondage to sin. The Scriptures make you wise for salvation. They are able to instruct you in the deliverance from bondage to sin through faith in Christ Jesus.
The whole Bible teaches salvation through faith in Christ Jesus!
“You diligently study the Scriptures, because you think that by them you possess eternal life. But these scriptures testify about Me.” How? This whole Bible testifies by penning the story of redemption – how the loving Creator has saved a rebellious people through faith in Jesus Christ.
Who is the main character in the story? Jesus Christ.
“The Bible is a story of salvation, and since salvation is through Jesus Christ, the Bible focuses on the story of Jesus Christ.” – John Stott
Paul knew that he and Timothy needed a savior. The words of the OT and the Gospel revealed who that savior was. He needed to tell Timothy, “Do not forget this! Continue to study this great and amazing Gospel. Believe it firmly. Don’t sway left or right – grab hold tightly!”
Study these scriptures… that is the command for us today – so that you might behold the glorious Savior, Jesus Christ.
Does that excite me? The fact that I get to know Jesus in this book? Does it give me fresh passion? Give me a love and affection for His words?
Piper: “I love the Bible because it gives the wisdom that leads to salvation, and shows me that this salvation is nothing less than seeing and savoring the glory of Christ forever, and then provides me with inexhaustible ways of glorying in and knowing Jesus Christ.”
If you love Christ, then you will love this Word. In it there are inexhaustible ways of seeing and knowing Christ. If you don’t know and love this word enough, maybe it’s because you don’t value Christ like you once did. If the Scriptures become boring to you, it’s because Christ is boring to you.
Your love for the Bible is in direct proportion to your love for Jesus. If your passion for Christ is high, your passion for the Word will be high because this is where you find Him. You love to read about what you love!
I love to read about me. I was excited to hear that there was a book that said good stuff about me. I have never devoured, retained, and read so quickly in my life as I did when I read that book. (It also called Josh Harris slight and short.) I was excited about me and my glory, and it fed a passion to read and study diligently.
That’s called idolatry, isn’t it? I was worshipping something and it wasn’t Jesus Christ – it was myself.
I can tend to come to these scriptures with an idolatrous heart. I look for myself in the pages, and I am often frustrated that these pages have very little good to say about me. It’s all about Jesus. At times because of my idolatrous heart I can lose vision for the Scriptures. Because I’ve found value in something else.
The Word will not submit to my idolatry. By God’s grace it will reveal it. If you come to the word and admit you’re bored, or not really into it, perhaps it’s because you value something else far more.
Daughter Reilly: “Mom, but it’s so BORING!”
Eric realizes he’s said the same thing. What do I do when there’s no passion in my heart for this book? I realize I need to repent. There’s something in my heart that’s more valuable to me in that moment than Jesus Christ who’s in the pages of this word.
Perhaps you’re valuing something more than Jesus. You come to His Word with that idolatry, and the Word suddenly becomes very boring.
But the glorious truth of the Gospel: We’re sinners saved by grace. We are coming to an amazingly loving, faithful, merciful Father who can turn our hearts toward Him and forgive our idolatry. He restores us. You know what happens as a result of that? This Word becomes more and more precious. Jesus is in it.
Why do we keep studying and firmly believing the Scriptures?
2
. The Scriptures give life
“All Scripture is breathed out by God.” God-breathed. What does he mean by that? He’s creating a word picture of God speaking. When we speak, we exhale. Paul is saying that we serve a speaking God. He loves to reveal His mind through words. He breathes out words. God’s breath is life-giving. When God breathes, life happens!
Genesis 1: he breathed creation into existence with words
Psalm 33:6 by the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their hosts by the breath of His mouth.
Genesis 2:7 then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
One other thing God has breathed that is live-giving: the words of Scripture. God is the author of these words. They are breathed out by Him. The word is living and active and breathes life into the believer.
Matthew 4:4 “Man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
3. The Scriptures equip us for God’s mission
God’s intention is to continue redeeming people through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He’s still gathering a people of His very own possession.
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
We are called to reveal that we’re a part of Jesus’ kingdom, and not part of the kingdom of this world. In the mind of God, the Christian’s existence and purpose is thought in terms of serving others for His glory.
All these good works – encouraging others, serving unbelievers, helping poor, serving local church – are what we are called to. This call is humbling and it demands equipping. God has made sure that we will be equipped for this call. “… and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”
How does God equip us? Through the Word – as it teaches you, reproves you, corrects you, trains you in righteousness. Teaches right thinking and right believing, corrects wrong thinking and wrong believing. Corrects wrong sinful living and trains you in righteous living.
We don’t have a call like Timothy’s. Everyone’s call is different. But the temptations are the same, not to pursue Scripture and not to fight for diligent study of it. Sometimes when we lose vision for this, it can be because we’ve lost vision for the mission of God here on earth. When I get caught up in the day to day stuff of life, I can start defining my life by what I have to do next – brush my teeth, feed myself, work. I can forget the mission. I can forget what God wants to do through His amazing gospel.
I can forget that I have a part to play in proclaiming that gospel.
When God, through His holy Spirit, comes in and clarifies that I’ve been bought with a price to the glory of God, and when that mission clarifies my day to day life, it is unbelievable to me how much I need the equipping of this Word. I am desperate for it!
We are the next generation of the church. We want to raise up a healthy church – sound, based on the gospel of Jesus Christ. Proclaiming the glory of the Gospel. In order to do that we need the Word. We need to realize that these words reveal Jesus Christ. They breathe life. They equip us for the mission of God here on earth. Continue in what you have learned and firmly believed!
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