Who is Jesus?
 What sort of “faith”?
 Historical evidence
 Reliability of the Bible
 Was He only human?
 What Jesus claimed
 His teaching, works
character; prophecy
 The problem of the
resurrection
Why did Jesus die?
 The pollution of sin
 The power of sin
 The penalty of sin
 The partition of sin
Pictures from …
 the Law Courts (justice)
 the Market Place (debt)
 the Temple (sacrifice)
 the home (relationship)
How Can I Be Sure of my Faith?
 the philosophical question!
 faith = decision to trust based
on evidence
 difference between fact and
feeling in a relationship
 the promise of the word of God
 the effect of the work of Jesus
 the witness of the Spirit of God
Why and
How
Should I
Read the
Bible?
Why and How
Should I Read
the Bible?
A unique book
A love letter
from God
A manual for life
Why and How
Should I Read
the Bible?
The Bible … a
unique book
“An inspired and authoritative written record
of God’s care for His children”
A Unique Book
Why and How
Should I Read
the Bible?
With other books,
you search within …
With the Bible, you
are searched
With other books,
you find out …
With the Bible, you
are found
A Unique Book
Why and How
Should I Read
the Bible?
“Blessed are those who do not walk in the
counsel of the wicked, or stand in the
way of sinners, or sit in the seat of
mockers. But their delight is in the law
of the Lord, and on his law
they meditate day and night.
They are like trees planted by
streams of water, which yield
their fruit in season and whose
leaves do not wither.
Whatever they do prospers.”
Psalm 1 1 - 3
A Unique Book
Why and How
Should I Read
the Bible?
Uniquely Popular:
44 million Bibles sold each year
6.8 Bibles in each American household
1,250,000 Bibles and Testaments sold in
the UK each year
53% of people in the UK own a Bible; 72%
have a Bible in their home
“Forget the modern British novelists and
TV tie-ins; the Bible is the biggest -selling
book every year” The Times
A Unique Book
Why and How
Should I Read
the Bible?
Uniquely Powerful:
“The Bible is high explosive. But it works
in strange ways and no living man can tell or
know how that book, in its journey through
the world, has startled the individual soul
in ten thousand different places into a new life, a
new world, a new belief, a new conception, a new
faith”
Stanley Baldwin (Prime Minister), 1928
A Unique Book
Why and How
Should I Read
the Bible?
Uniquely Powerful:
In a world with rising interest in
the occult, the offer of meeting with
the living God is more thrilling, more
satisfying, and much wiser
The teaching of the Bible and the
words of the Bible exercise
power over occult forces
A Unique Book
Why and How
Should I Read
the Bible?
Uniquely Precious:
Immensely valued where it has been
forbidden by law
“People do not live on bread alone, but
on every word that comes from the
mouth of God” Jesus: Matthew 4 4
A Manual for Life
Why and How
Should I Read
the Bible?
God has spoken to us through His son,
Jesus
Hebrews 1 2
The main way we know about Jesus is
through God’s revelation recorded in the
Bible
(God has also revealed himself through
creation and speaks directly through his
Spirit)
To know God, we need to know Jesus; to
meet Jesus, we need the Bible
A Manual for Life
Why and How
Should I Read
the Bible?
“All scripture is
God-breathed and is useful
for teaching, rebuking,
correcting and training in
righteousness, so that
100%
God’s servant may be
human
work
thoroughly equipped for
every good work”
100%
2 Timothy 3
16, 17
inspired
A Manual for Life
Why and How
Should I Read
the Bible?
“All scripture is
God-breathed and is useful
for teaching, rebuking,
correcting and training in
righteousness, so that
For Jesus,
God’s servant may be
what
thoroughly equipped for Scripture said,
every good work”
God said
2 Timothy 3
16, 17
A Manual for Life
Why and How
Should I Read
the Bible?
“The Scriptures are perfect”
Irenaeus, c 130 - 200 AD
“Scripture which has never erred”
Martin Luther 1483 - 1546
“… written under the inspiration of
the Holy Spirit … have God as their
author”
Vatican II
A Manual for Life
Why and How
Should I Read
the Bible?
Inspiration doesn’t mean
it’s all easy to understand!
Peter found some of Paul’s letters “hard
to understand”!
2 Peter 3 16
The Bible was written over 1500 years by
at least 40 authors, in a whole range of
genres (historical, narrative, poetry,
prophecy, letters & apocalyptic)
Every great doctrine has its difficulties,
e.g. suffering
A Manual for Life
Billy
Graham
Why and How
Should I Read
the Bible?
“… I went back and I got my Bible, and
I went out in the moonlight. And I got
to a stump and put the Bible on the
stump, and I knelt down and I said, ‘Oh
God; I cannot prove certain things. I
cannot answer some of the questions
…but I accept this book by faith as the
Word of God’. I stayed by the stump
praying wordlessly, my eyes moist … I
had a tremendous sense of God’s
presence. I had a great peace that the
decision I had made was right.
A Manual for Life
Why and How
Should I Read
the Bible?
If we accept that the
Bible is inspired by God,
then its authority
must follow
A Manual for Life
Why and How
Should I Read
the Bible?
Jesus’ supreme authority
Mark 7 1 - 20, 12 18 - 27
(above church leaders of his time, and above the
opinions of others)
Our authority for what we believe
(tells us what God has said)
Our authority for how we act
(the Ten Commandments; at work; under pressure;
sexual morality)
Rules that bring freedom
(driving on the left - break the rules, you get hurt!)
A Love-letter from God
Why and How
Should I Read
the Bible?
The Bible is more than
a manual God spoke then,
but God also speaks now
“You diligently study the scriptures because you
think that by them you possess eternal life. These
are the scriptures that testify about me, yet you
refuse to come to me to have life.”
Jesus: John 5 39, 40
A Love-letter from God
Why and How
Should I Read
the Bible?
“Scripture is the manger
or ‘cradle’ in which the
infant Jesus lies. Don’t let
us inspect the cradle and
forget to worship the
baby.”
“The Bible is alive, it
speaks to me; it has feet,
it runs after me; it has
hands, it lays hold on me.”
Martin Luther
1483 - 1546
A Love-letter from God
Why and How
Should I Read
the Bible?
In the Bible, God speaks to those
who are not yet Christians:
David Suchet
as Poirot
“From somewhere I got this desire to
read the Bible again. That’s the most
important part of my conversion. I
started with the Acts of the
Apostles and then moved on to Paul’s
letters - Romans and Corinthians. And
it was only after that I came to the
gospels. In the New Testament I
suddenly discovered the way that life
should be followed.”
A Love-letter from God
In the Bible,
God speaks to
Christians
Why and How
Should I Read
the Bible?
As we study the Bible, we
come into contact with
Jesus
He brings us joy and peace
The Bible gives us defence
against spiritual attack
“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” Hebrews 4 12
Some practical matters …
Why and How
Should I Read
the Bible?
Be realistic about time
Get alone if you can
Take diary, notebook, coffee!
Ask God to speak to you
Start with something like the gospels
Ask: What does it say? What does it
mean? How does it apply to me?
Put it into practice
Some practical matters …
Fruit … perseverance … prospering
Why and How
Should I Read
the Bible?