2 Timothy 3:14-17

“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. 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. 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. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” NLT

With this being Christian Education Sunday and having the blessing of giving the message today, I felt lead to speak about the Bible, The first thing I did was began to pray as to how in 15-20 minutes was the best way to get my point across. How can I take thousands of years of life and summit up in such a short time? Obviously my goal is not to bore you with all kinds of facts relating to the culmination of the scriptures but I do think it is important that I introduce you to three men who made great sacrifice to get the Word of God printed and put into the hands of the common folks like us.

How many of you have ever heard of John Wycliffe, or John Colet or William Tyndale?

Well all three of these men have one very strong belief in common. They believed that the Bible, the inspired word of God should be available to everyone.

In the late 1300’s, John Wycliffe was chosen by his peers to lead the world out of the Dark Ages. You see, the “Protestant Reformation was about one thing: getting the Word of God back into the hands of the masses in their own native language, so that the corrupt church would be exposed and the message of salvation in Christ alone, by scripture alone, through faith alone would be proclaimed again.” (Greatsite.com)

John Wycliffe, was an Oxford professor, scholar, and theologian. He was well-known throughout Europe for his opposition to the teaching of the organized Church because he believed it went against the Bible. Using his followers, a faithful assistant and many scribes, Wycliffe was able to produce the first hand-written English language Bible manuscript in the 1380’s. This became the first of dozens that were translated from Latin. Because copies of the Bible were so difficult to obtain and since the Bible was only allowed to reside in Rome, Wycliffe and his followers were despised by the Pope. To that end, 44 years after Wycliffe had died the Pope ordered the bones to be dug-up, crushed, and scattered.  Wycliffe’s plight did not end there his followers are still translating Bibles today in order for common people of this world to have the Holy Word of God available to them.

John Colet another Oxford professor and the son of the Mayor of London, in 1496 started reading the New Testament in Greek and translating it into English for his students at Oxford and later for the public at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The people were so hungry to hear the Word of God in a language they could understand, that within six months there were 20,000 people packed in the church and at least that many outside trying to get in. Colet was also despised for trying to share the Bible that his life was in danger, but because of his father’s position his life was spared.

If you recall last week in his sermon Pastor Steve told us that about 17% of England consider themselves to be Christian. Well the very Church that John Colet read the scripture from, St. Paul’s Cathedral which was full with over 40,000 listeners, according to a poll taken in 2003 has a typical Sunday morning worship attendance of about 200 people, most of whom are tourists. How sad!

Our third Bible advocate is William Tyndale. He was the Captain of the Army of Reformers and was their spiritual leader. Tyndale is best known for accomplishing the monumental task of actually printing the Bible in English. The problem was though as soon as the Bibles were printed, they were confiscated and burned. This did not stop Tyndale and his friends, they pushed on and eventually a Bible ended up in the bedroom of King Henry VIII. Unfortunately Tyndale was soon put in prison for going against the church and the King by continuing to publish the Bibles. He spent 500 days in prison and was put to death. Tyndale’s last words were, “Oh Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.” (Greatsite.com)

All three of these men and many many others including a woman (Jane Aitkin in 1808) have fought to have the written word of God available to the people of this world. Without their tenacity for this plight the Scriptures may not have been shared and the stories told. So rejoice that God is and was bigger than those who didn’t want the Truth shared.

The first recorded instance of God’s word being written down was when the Lord himself wrote it in the form of the Ten Commandments on the stone tablets and delivered them to Moses on top of Mt. Sinai. Biblical scholars believe this occurred between 1,400bc and 1,500bc. Hear the words of Exodus 24:12-13, “and the Lord said to Moses, ‘come up to me on the mountain, stay awhile I will give you the tablets of stone that I have inscribed with my instructions and commands. Then you will teach the people from them.’ So Moses and his assistant Joshua climbed up the mountain of God.”

The Bible, the inspired Word of God has so many purposes but the ultimate purpose, I believe is to teach. God said to Moses, “write it down…teach my people.”

Our instructions from God himself is to read, to teach and according to David in Psalm 119, “we are to meditate on it (the laws of God) all day long.”

How many of you remember receiving a Bible in a special church service? I do. I remember that feeling of actually holding my own Bible, the Holy Word of God in my hand. I remember telling my mom that I had to read the whole book. Of course that was before Children’s Bibles were published and the font was actually readable.

I do however remember reading and memorizing Psalm 100 and then eventually reciting it to my Sunday School class. “Make a Joyful noise onto the Lord” (Boy did I take that literally!) Serve the Lord with gladness. (That I do.) “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful to him, and bless his name.” Psalm 100 became so special to me because I read it. I got to know it and it is a part of who I am.

I believe God was serious when he breathed breath into the scriptures and brought them to life just as he breathed breath into Jesus. “And the Word became flesh.”(John 1:14) Jesus, the fulfillment of the Old Testament the hope of His people.

I think we would all agree that the Bible is truly God’s instruction plan for our lives but I’m not sure how many of could honestly say that we ‘consult God’s word daily’ or spend time allowing God to speak to us through His word. From Joshua 1:8 the instructions are clear, “This book of Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success.” (NKJV)

Moses, Joshua, David and certainly Jesus made it clear that we are to be in tune with God’s plan for our lives and the way we do that is through His Word.

The three men I referenced earlier made it clear that getting God’s Word out was more important than their own lives.

We sing songs about the Bible and the things that it tells us. “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so…” “The B-I-B-L-E yes that’s the book for me it stands alone on the word of God…” but are we truly convinced that it should be an intimate part of our lives?

As our 3^rd graders receive their very own Bible, my hope is that this is just the beginning of an intimate friendship with Jesus and his life (as you read about Him and His Father and all the truth that rests in these pages.)

God is real and His word is real but we must read it to know it. We should be extremely thankful to those who lived before us who took the necessary risks to see to it that the Holy Book we call the Bible was refined and true and available to each of us. We need to support and thank those who continue to risk themselves in the mission field to get the Gospel “into the hands of the masses in their own native language, so that the message of salvation in Christ alone, by scripture alone, through faith alone would be proclaimed.” (Wycliffe)

During the week of V.B.S. the students were asked to bring in Bibles and Children’s books that could be sent to Anne Langshaw in Germany. Before leaving, Anne made a video of the request before embarking on the second year of her mission work as a teacher. One comment that Anne made truly struck a chord with me. She said, “It is hard to teach children to read from books they do not understand.”

How true. We need to become familiar with the language of the book to understand it. Become familiar with the language of this book and pray to God for understanding.

If you are not sure what version of the Bible to read go to the website BibleGateway.com and look up a familiar passage like John 3:16. You will find it written in at least 10 different languages including Arabic & Croatian.  You can also find it in over 20 different English translations. Find the one that fits you. Our Pastors typically read from the New Living Translation or the New International Version and will occasionally read from “The Message”, which is a contemporary Bible designed to be read by contemporary people in the same way as the original Greek and Hebrew manuscripts were savored by people thousands of years ago. (Biblegatewey.com)

If you have never read the Bible or participated in a Bible study or joined a Sunday School class there is no time like the present. Find a Bible and join one of the many offerings we have right in this church. Our current 11:00 Adult class is studying the book of Romans using the Archeological Bible in an effort to bring to life the actually era and society that surrounds the text. Our children’s curriculum for this Fall focuses on King David using the NIV Bible and we just happen to be offering a very in-depth study of the scriptures through the Disciple program on Wednesday evenings.

Bibles are meant to be used and our job is to use them.

One of the many e-mails I recently received was titled “The Middle of the Bible”. It claims that Psalm 118 is in the center of the Bible and that there are 594 chapters before it and 594 chapters after it and that Psalm 118:8 is the middle passage of the Bible. That verse is “It is better to trust the Lord than put confidence in people.”(NLT)

Good advice don’t you think?

Well a gentleman named Brian Hargis, an Assistant Pastor and Youth Minister at Charity Baptist Church in Beaver Creek, Ohio, challenged his 7^th & 8^th grade Sunday School class to see if Psalm 118:8 was really the middle and here is what he found. From His article entitled “Where’s The Middle” Brian writes.

“Every since I was young I heard and believed that Psalms 118:8 was the middle verse. Of course, we didn't have the computer technology back in the late 70's and 80's like we have today...so not many people took the time to challenge it!  After all, it made for good preaching!

Last year I received an e-mail about Psalms 118:8 being the middle verse of the Bible, so I did some internet surfing to verify it.  I ran into more problems than solutions!  Numerous sites claimed that Psalms 118:8 WAS NOT the middle verse.  Boy, that blew my theory away!  Just trusting their research did not solve the problem.  What if they were wrong?  After all, taking someone's opinion for granted is what got me into this investigation in the first place!  I wanted to know for sure. 

That's when I presented the challenge to my Sunday school class.  I divided them up into three teams.  Each with a researcher, a scribe, and an adder.  Without the use of a computer, they spent 6 solid weeks researching the King James Bible, with piles of scratch paper, and three office calculators.  When the dust settled and the smoke cleared, all three teams came up with the same conclusion...that Psalms 118:8 is not the center verse of the Bible.

There is no single, middle verse, therefore there are TWO middle verse of the Bible...not one.  Research (and our verification) will tell you that Psalms 103:1-2 are the two middle verses of the Bible.

Psalms 103:1-2 has 28 words.  28 divided by two equals 14.  The number is even, so there are two middle words in these verses..."his holy."  the middle quote of the middle verses in the Bible (by verse count) is, "bless his holy name."  That's both fitting and biblically proven.”

That seemed to satisfy Brian’s desire for knowing where the center of the Bible is and we can only hope that it also gave him (and us as well) the reality that scripture is to Bless God’s Holy name.

Do something good for yourself. Look for times to read, study and know God’s Word then pray for guidance as you continue on or perhaps begin a journey of truth & knowledge.

Remember…“All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the truth, rebuking error, correcting faults, and giving instruction for right living, so that the person who serves God may be fully qualified and equipped to do every kind and good deed. (2Tim.3:16-17 NRV)