Calvary Church

“Let There Be Light”

In this series we focus on the power of the Word of God in our lives.

Genesis 1:3
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Psalm 119:130
“The entrance of Your words gives light …”

The Bible is the light that reveals God’s will, God’s work, and God’s ways. Without it, we stumble in darkness.

Message One – “Discovering the Book”

2 Kings 22:1,3-4, 8-11
Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath.

In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the secretary, to the house of the LORD, saying, “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money that has been brought into the house of the LORD, which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people.

And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, “Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the LORD.” Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king.

Many consider the Bible outdated, irrelevant, and untrue. But for all its opponents, the Bible refuses to die. It remains the most published book in the world, bar none.

Studies show that of consistent church goers (by consistent – once per month), only 8% read the Bible once a week. We are not unlike the people of Josiah’s day – familiar with religion but have lost the Word of God.

How did we lose the Book?

1. Some of us have never found the Bible.

You’ll be limited to a second-hand Christian experience until you open the Book for yourself.

2. Some of us are confused by the Bible.

Justin Brierley in “The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God”:

The Bible is … not really a single book at all but a collection of books. The word Bible is derived from the Latin and Greek biblia for books or a library (like bibliography). The sixty-six books of the Bible … were written in three different languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. This collection of books, both Old and New Testament, were brought together over a 1,500-year span, with the origins of the most ancient texts going even further back.

There were many different authors, living in different cultures and epochs of history, writing in many different genres of literature. In this library you will find wisdom literature, proverbs and poetry, prophecy and apocalyptic writing, as well as historical accounts, biographies, and letters.

Yet despite its variety of styles and multiplicity of authors over long periods of time, there is an extraordinary harmony and coherence that emerges from the collective whole. The claim of Christianity is that this is not just a happy coincidence but the work of a divine hand which links this story to the grand story of the cosmos itself…

First and foremost, from Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is a story. The Old Testament is the story of how the one God of the universe saw his good creation turn bad through human rebellion and so chose to call one particular group—the people of Israel—into a special relationship with him. His dealings with them would reveal his grand purpose and promise of redemption and renewal for the whole earth.

The New Testament is the story of how that purpose and promise was fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah of the Jewish people. It documents the early years of the new Jesus movement as it spread from Jerusalem across the Mediterranean with the help of its most famous convert and evangelist, Paul.

Christians today believe they continue to swim in the stream of that grand story … which will yet have its fulfilment as predicted in both the Old and New Testaments—a renewal of all creation in which “he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more…”

3. Some of us lost our appetite for the Bible.

Physically, when you lose your appetite, it’s a sign that you’re sick. Same is true spiritually.

1 Peter 2:2
… like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.

4. Some of us have avoided the Bible.

The Kingdom of Judah lost the Book of the Law because they’d been led for 55 years by a wicked apostate King called Manasseh.

The Bible is a mirror that reveals our condition, which is why some of us avoid it.

5. Some of us are distracted by things other than the Bible

Mark 4:19
but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

Woodrow Kroll
I remind you that God wrote a Book; and He only wrote one. I wonder what we’ll say to Him at the Judgment Seat of Christ if He asks us, "Did you read My Book? I mean one time in your entire life did you read My whole Book?"

What could happen if you started or restarted a habit of reading God’s Word? How might your life change?

Three results when we discover the Book.

1. Repentance

2 Kings 22:10
When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes.

2 Kings 23:2–3
And he [Josiah] read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD. And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul …
As the Word of God was opened, conviction came, and he repented.

Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is alive 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.

2. Reformation

2 Kings 23 outlines Josiah’s reforms. The people of Judah had become so formed by surrounding culture, they were indistinguishable from pagan culture.

When the life, values, and views of a Christian are indistinguishable from secular culture, you know that Christian has lost the Book.

We are constantly being informed by culture, so we must be reformed by the Word.

Centre for Bible Engagement research:

… the life of someone who engages scripture 4 or more times a week looks radically different from the life of someone who does not. In fact, the lives of Christians who do not engage the Bible most days of the week are statistically the same as the lives of non-believers. Someone who engages the Bible 4 or more times a week is:

· 49% less likely to get drunk.
· 51% less likely to engage in sex outside marriage.
· 51% less likely to view pornography.
· 43% less likely to engage in gambling.
· 30% less likely to struggle with loneliness.
· 228% more likely to share faith with others.
· 407% more likely to memorize scripture.
· 231% more likely to be discipling others.

To be formed into the people God designed us to be we must allow God’s Word to bring a re-formation to our hearts and minds.

3. Restoration

In 2 Kings 23:21, Josiah restores the Passover, which had been lost for generations.

The Bible, it builds God’s intended paradigms, practices and patterns into our lives. By reading and applying God’s Word, we restore our lives into God’s intended design.

Charles Spurgeon
A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to a person who isn’t.