Series Big Idea: The Bible, God’s written word, is the story of God and his people. God gave us the Bible so that we can know him, grow in a relationship with him, and hear from him every day.
Message Big Idea: The Bible is made up of 66 books written by 40+ divinely inspired human authors over 2000 years that all tell a variation of the same Story...the Story of God and his people.
Note: The teaching parts of this message are intended to be 20 minutes in order to allow for 2 video elements taking 7 minutes. Communion is included within this message as well.
Let’s start off today playing a little game of “What is it?” Maybe you’ve played this game at a large sporting event as they put a section of an image on the Jumbotron and everyone in the crowd tries to guess what the image is before the entire picture is revealed. That’s the game we’re going to play! So let’s start off with our first image… (Have 3 images and let people guess out loud what they are before revealing the entire picture. Suggested images: Chicago landmark such as the Bean or Buckingham Fountain, Mickey
Mouse. The third image should be a leather Bible. Possibly have these be animated so that you start with the image covered up except for a small square and then the animation opens the square to reveal the entire picture. Could repeat this animation for the window illustration later.)
Sometimes we only see a piece of a much larger picture. Today as we continue in our series, “Word,” we want to try to see the whole picture. Today is about taking a 30,000-foot view of the Bible. Who wrote it?
How is it structured? What is it actually about?
This series is all about hearing from God everyday. Most of us want to hear from God about specific decisions and in particular circumstances, but we get frustrated because often we don’t understand what he is saying. But last week we learned that hearing from God is not as much about informational knowing as it is about relational knowing. Learning to hear from God is more about developing a close, personal relationship with God than it is about turning God into an “Advice ATM.” It’s about coming to know God like we know our spouse or a sibling or our closest friend. As we come to know God relationally, we will be better able to discern what he is saying in specific situations and regarding particular circumstances because we will understand his heart and character and recognize his still small voice speaking to us in our gut.
Everyday God speaks to us in a variety of ways, but one of the most accessible (yet most neglected) ways is through his written Word. In this series we are encouraging and equipping one another to hear from
God everyday through his written Word. (Holding bookmark) If you haven’t yet, we want to challenge you to join us in this 3-week COMMUNITY Bible Reading Plan through the book of James using this bookmark or by signing up for daily emails on-line as we practice the things we’re talking about in this series.
However, today we want to take the big picture view. As I mentioned, today we want to help one another understand this book better by giving an overview of what it is and what it is about.
So let’s start off by talking about what the Bible is NOT.
1

(Circle graphic with line crossing out “Rulebook”) The Bible is NOT a rulebook. Sometimes we make the mistake of approaching the Bible as a massive collection of commands...of “do” and “don’t” statements.
How we feel about our relationship with God becomes dependent on whether we are good at keeping the commands. But the Bible is NOT a rulebook.
(Circle graphic with line crossing out “Fortune Cookie”) The Bible is also NOT a fortune cookie. Sometimes we make the mistake of approaching the Bible looking for inspirational quotes and blessings. We just pull random verses out that make us feel good and look good on Instagram memes while ignoring all that other stuff about sin or doubt or struggle. The Bible is NOT a fortune cookie.
(Circle graphic with line crossing out “Inkblot”) The Bible is also NOT an inkblot test. Sometimes we make the mistake of approaching the Bible looking for things that are important to us. We project onto the
Bible our ideas and our desires. We manipulate the Bible to fit our purposes and defend our arguments.
But the Bible is NOT an inkblot test.
So if the Bible is not a rulebook, a fortune cookie or an inkblot test, what exactly is it? The Bible is a
STORY . The Bible is a STORY. The Bible is to be approached and read as one continuous story…the story of God and his people.
Now, when we say the Bible is a story, we do not mean that it is make-believe or fiction or a myth. We say the Bible is a story because if we read it from beginning to end we discover that it has three features of a story. It has AUTHORS who together tell the story. It has a PLOT from beginning to end. And it certainly has a host of interesting CHARACTERS .
We’re going to talk about these elements of a story, AUTHORS, PLOT, CHARACTERS, as we try to understand the big picture of the Bible. But first, let’s start by taking a look at this short video to understand some basic facts about the Bible:
(Video) Interesting Facts about the Bible ( https://vimeo.com/32110830
) (1:30)
Cats are not mentioned in the Bible. Something we all need to think about. 
But back to the elements of story… Let’s first talk about AUTHORS . Now, most books have one author, some have two or three. But the Bible was written by over 40 divinely-inspired authors over a span of
1600 years! As such, this one book is actually a compilation of 66 different books that all contribute to one continuous story.
Consider this explanation from theology professor Scot McKnight:
“Imagine Jesus reclining at the head of a table at a writers’ banquet. To his right are more than thirty authors, the authors of the Old Testament books. To his left are more than ten authors of
New Testament books. Each of these authors has his (or her) hand raised--not to ask a question but for permission to tell their story of the Story. Each one has a story to tell, or perhaps even better, each one has a way of telling the Story. Before they are given permission, however, Jesus gives them some instructions in the form of a plot to which they are to conform their story...Each author must write their story within this plot, but they are given considerable freedom to tell the
2

Story in their own way. Whether you turn to Exodus or Ezra, Malachi or Mark, or Acts or Hebrews, you must read each book as a variation on this Story.” (Scot McKnight, The Blue Parakeet)
Over 40 authors, but the words they wrote, whether history, narrative, prophecy, proverb or poetry all contribute to one central plot, one larger story.
So what is that plot? Let’s break the plot down into 5 moves or themes. Here’s what we’ll call these themes in the plot:
CREATION
COLLAPSE
COMMUNITY
CHRIST
COMPLETION
See if you can pick up on these themes as we watch an animated version of the story:
(Video) “The Messiah” ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dEh25pduQ8
) (5:30)
Creation, Collapse, Community, Christ, Completion. These are the themes that describe the plot of the story. We can find elements of one or more of these themes in every book of the Bible, but it can be helpful to think of these themes in the structure of the Bible itself.
(Have books of the Bible on screen and add C labels as we talk about each part) Genesis 1-2 tells us about
CREATION . Everything begins with God, who speaks things into existence including the pinnacle of creation, human beings. Now as soon as we say the word “create” it can spark so many debates about evolution and creation, faith and science. We’ve been fighting about that stuff for so long that we end up missing the more important thing…the plot of the story. The theme of Genesis 1-2 is that God designed human beings to experience perfect oneness with himself, each other, and all of creation. This was God’s dream for the world. This was perfection.
But very early in the story, these first humans defy God and everything COLLAPSE S. Genesis 3-11 describes what happens when sin enters the world. This sin destroys the oneness. Sin breaks our relationship with God, with each other, and with all of creation.
The entire rest of the Bible is about overcoming this collapse and restoring God’s dream for the world.
Genesis chapter 12 all the way to the book of Malachi at the end of the Old Testament is about the
COMMUNITY God sets apart as he begins the work of restoring his dream for the world. God makes a covenant with a man named Abraham and promises to bless him and in return use him and his descendants to bless the world. This COMMUNITY is blessed to be a blessing. Later on in the story this
COMMUNITY comes to be known as the church, but first the plot has another twist, the most important part of the story.
The New Testament opens with the book of Matthew as we are introduced to CHRIST , to the person of
Jesus. Jesus is God come in the flesh into our world. He showed us through what he did, what he taught, how he treated people what God’s dream for the world look like. Through his death on the cross, he took the punishment for the collapse that began all the way back in Genesis 3 and continues to happen today.
Through his sacrifice, we can be forgiven for our sins and restored to a relationship with God. Through
3

his resurrection we receive new life so that we can join him in restoring God’s dream for the world through what we do, what we say, and how we treat one another. The rest of the New Testament, all the way up to chapter 20 in the book of Revelation, is about the church working to restore God’s dream for the world.
Which leaves us with just two chapters left in the Bible, Revelation 21 and 22. These chapters describe the COMPLETION of all things. This is the time when Jesus will return and restore everything to be the way it was meant to be when God spoke the world into existence.
Creation, Collapse, Community, Christ, Completion. That is the plot of the story. Just as in our opening
“What is it?” game, every time we read a verse, chapter, or book in the Bible, we need to recognize that what we are reading is part of a larger picture, a larger plot.
(Use the animated graphic from the introduction with a picture of a countryside) Theologian NT Wright describes it this way… When you read 10 or so verses, it’s like you are standing across a room looking out a window. Standing back, you only see a small amount of the countryside. If you move up and press your nose against the glass, you see that small amount is part of a much bigger picture.
Whether we turn to Genesis or Ezra, Matthew or James, we must read each book in the context of the larger plot as that author’s variation of the story.
So we’ve talked about the Authors, we’ve discussed the Plot, which brings us to the last element of a
Story: CHARACTERS .
Before we talk about the characters, I want to shake things up a bit and ask our ushers to come forward and pass out Communion. (Have ushers pass Communion while you continue speaking) As they pass the elements out to you, the bread that represents Jesus’ body and the juice that represents Jesus’ blood, I want you to just hold on to them for a few minutes. While they are passing the trays, let’s talk for a minute about the characters in the Bible.
There are a lot of them. And understand, these characters aren’t like Goldilocks or The Cat in the
Hat…they were real people who lived real lives filled with triumphs and flaws. (Say as much or as little from this list until ushers are done)
 We have Moses who stood up to the Pharaoh and led God’s people out of Egypt, but who also killed a man in his anger.
 We have Rahab, the prostitute, who was honored for protecting two of God’s men.
 We have David who was so faithful he was called “a man after God’s own heart” and so flawed that he was also an adulterer and murderer.
 We have Esther, the beauty queen, who risked her life to save her people from destruction.
 We have Job who was rich one minute, and destitute the next as he struggled to remain faithful to
God.
 We have Mary who was poor and insignificant, but was chosen to give birth to the King of kings.
 We have Peter who was transformed from an impulsive hothead into the first leader of the church.
 We have Judas who followed Jesus for three years only to betray him in the end.
 We have Stephen who praised God even while he was being stoned to death.
 We have Paul who started off murdering Christ-followers and then became their leading evangelist.
4

(Everyone has Communion) The story is full of characters, but at this point in the story of the Bible there are two primary characters…the church, that is us, and the one we are holding.
Understand, the Bible is our story too! We are living in the delay between CHRIST and COMPLETION and our mission, our part in the story, is to help as many people as possible find their way back to God before
Jesus returns. We are a part of helping restore God’s dream for the world of helping restoring the garden.
We are writing this chapter in the story of the Bible.
The challenge to us, as characters in the story, is to learn to view every smaller piece of our lives in the context of the larger story, to take the 30,000-foot view. When we do that, it makes some things rise in importance, other things fall away. The key is to look at all of life through the perspective of the larger story.
At this point in the story, there are two primary characters, the church, that is us, and the one we are holding. He gave us the practice of Communion to remember him and to remember our place with him and with each other in the story.
For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
(Eat the bread)
In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
(Drink the juice)
For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)
Until COMPLETION.
This is the story of God and his people.
It’s our story.
May we live and tell it well.
Let’s pray.
5