Stonebrook Church, Ames, Iowa, Sermons

Please turn to 2 Timothy 3:14-17

Today we’re continuing our series on Stonebrook’s “Pillars”, our core values, or the things we believe summarize a Christian’s life. 

And this morning from this text I want to show you that the Bible is the only source of authority for understanding the spiritual life, and it alone is what is needed to be completely equipped to do God’s will.

Let’s read together:

14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.2 Timothy 3:14–17 (ESV)

The Apostle Paul, who heard Jesus speak to him from out of the sky, and who had many miraculous, revelation experiences tells Timothy that scripture is the training he needed to be equipped for every good work.

What revelation and teaching is necessary to be complete in the faith?  The scripture, and the scripture alone, contains it.  Paul didn’t train his top disciple in how to listen for spiritual revelation, he taught him to cling to, become skilled at handling, and to preach the scriptures.

I want to make a brief comment here that scripture as Timothy would have understood it here, would have primarily consisted of the Old Testament canon. But there is evidence from the Bible and early church history that the writings of the Apostles at the time would also have been included as “scripture”, and we find that within a few decades after the apostles went to be with the Lord, the church was collecting their writings and making decisions about which writings were scripture and which were not. 

The details of this discussion are out of scope for this morning, but I’d love to talk with you about that at some point if you have any questions. For our purposes today, it will work to say that scripture here can correctly refer to the 66 books we have collected today in our Bibles.

And I want to discuss two aspects of these scriptures this morning: their efficiency, and their sufficiency. 

Paul tells Timothy that the scriptures are profitable or beneficial for training in righteousness, which is why I say they are “efficient”, and he says that with them the man/woman of God may be complete, which is why I say they are “sufficient”.

The efficiency of scripture

The Old Testament Prophets

In the first five books of the Bible, called the Pentateuch, we find God dictating history and the His law to Moses. Moses wrote these things in a book (the Pentateuch), and taught these things to the people. At the end of the Pentateuch, Moses says this:

45 And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. 47 For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”Deuteronomy 32:45–47 (ESV)

Moses, who was the high prophet of God’s people, who spoke to God face to face, unlike anyone in history since Adam, or until Jesus, pointed to the Scripture, the written words of God, and said “These are your very life.”

The Apostles 

The Apostles pointed to this same scripture, over and above their revelations and experiences.

Just like Paul, the Apostle Peter, who heard God speak from the heavens says about that experience:

18 we ourselves heard …

Because God sent his Son to die in our place and then be raised from the dead, he proves in the greatest possible way that he is worthy of all our attention and affection. And he calls us to such a devotion toward him. Yet don’t we all know how many distractions there are that can steal our hearts away from him? How can we keep our attention on the most important person in our lives?

Stonebrook Pillars:  Devoted to Christ—Part II

HANDOUT

A few years after Jesus was

crucified, died, raised from the dead, and ascended into heaven, there was a

follower of Jesus, a Jewish man named Stephen.

Stephen is described in Acts 6 as full of faith, full

of the Spirit, full of power, full of wisdom, and full of grace.

I have prayed many times that the Lord would make me

like Stephen.

He was having a great impact as he preached the

message of Jesus.  The impact was so

great that the Jewish leaders were jealous and angry.  They got so angry they arrested him and put

him in a mock trial.

And Stephen rebuked them for their murder of Jesus

Christ.  Well, that infuriated them. 

Acts 7:54–8:3

ESV

Now when they

heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him…they

cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him.

Then they cast

him out of the city and stoned him.  And

the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul…

And Saul

approved of his execution.  And there

arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem… Saul was

ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and

women and committed them to prison.

Just who is this violent,

hate-filled, murderous character named Saul? 

Well, he went on to become the most famous spokesman for Jesus in 20

centuries.  We now know him as Paul.  The Apostle Paul.

What happened to

him?  How

could someone change so radically?

We are in Week 2 of a new series on Stonebook’s

Pillars.  These are our Core Values.  Biblical descriptions of what we want to be.

My fellow pastor, Guang, and I are joining forces

today to talk about the first of those Pillars.  Among other things, we will talk about

Paul.  What affected him so powerfully?

Overview

of all our Pillars

As I said, we are in a new series discussing our

Pillars.  Seven of them shown here. 

In these seven, we have articulated these different

pieces of our DNA.  Our DNA is who we

are.  And to a large extent, who we WANT

to be.  Call these our core values, core

ideology.

These seven have shaped how we see and teach the

Christian life over the years. As a church, our desire is to be Christians who

are described like this.  In a way, there

is a movement through these seven.

From the inward and life-encompassing to our

relationship with the world outside the walls of our home or this building.

Devoted to Christ—this is our topic this morning.

I won’t describe all seven this morning.  On our website, from last week’s sermon is a

handout that gives a brief description of them. 

Let’s start off very fundamentally.   What ought to motivate us to be

devoted to God? 

i.e., WHY be devoted?

Guang:

 It is the life to which God calls us. I

considered men and women of the past, like Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Ruth, David,

Daniel, these are men and women of faith, who had great devotion to God.

Yet, Hebrews 11:39-40 says, “these, though commended through

their faith, did not receive what was promised. For God has provided us

something better for us, that apart from us they would be made perfect.”

So what is this something that is even better than

what Abraham and David had? It is Christ in us. We have been born again, born

from above. We are a new creation from inside out. We are from God. We are

heavenly citizens. We are given the Spirit of sonship. We are the temple of the

living God. We are guarded through faith and surrounded by grace. Therefore God

has a very high expectation on us. He says, my beloved children, be imitators

of me, and live a life of love. It is a heroic life he has called us. 

Brad: 

To you what is devotion?

Guang:

From th…

What is the number one thing we give our lives to? Is that thing or person worthy of such devotion? There is only one person who is worthy of our greatest affection and love: the Lord God and his Son, Jesus Christ. The Lord deserves the rightful place on the throne of our hearts, for he made us for himself and he saves us for himself.

Fulfilling a plan conceived before the world began, God raised Jesus from the dead. This astounding event accomplished many things. It 1) proved that He is the Messiah, the Son of God, 2) showed that His suffering for our sin was sufficient to gain our forgiveness, 3) prepared Him for the day when he will reign as king in the kingdom of God, 4) foreshadowed the coming day when all who believe in Him will also rise from the dead, and 5) anticipated the time when everything in creation will be made new.

Fulfilling a plan conceived before the world began, God raised Jesus from the dead. This astounding event accomplished many things. It 1) proved that He is the Messiah, the Son of God, 2) showed that His suffering for our sin was sufficient to gain our forgiveness, 3) prepared Him for the day when he will reign as king in the kingdom of God, 4) foreshadowed the coming day when all who believe in Him will also rise from the dead, and 5) anticipated the time when everything in creation will be made new.

Fulfilling a plan conceived before the world began, God raised Jesus from the dead. This astounding event accomplished many things. It 1) proved that He is the Messiah, the Son of God, 2) showed that His suffering for our sin was sufficient to gain our forgiveness, 3) prepared Him for the day when he will reign as king in the kingdom of God, 4) foreshadowed the coming day when all who believe in Him will also rise from the dead, and 5) anticipated the time when everything in creation will be made new.

Fulfilling a plan conceived before the world began, God raised Jesus from the dead. This astounding event accomplished many things. It 1) proved that He is the Messiah, the Son of God, 2) showed that His suffering for our sin was sufficient to gain our forgiveness, 3) prepared Him for the day when he will reign as king in the kingdom of God, 4) foreshadowed the coming day when all who believe in Him will also rise from the dead, and 5) anticipated the time when everything in creation will be made new.

That You May Know—The Epistles of John 1 John 4:7-21 –  Love One Another  I’ve been to many weddings over the years, and one of the more common Scriptures read is 1 Corinthians 13.  It’s about love.  The pre-eminence of love.  And a description of love.  A beautiful chapter, really.   “If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” […]

That You May Know—The Epistles of John 1 John 4:7-21 –  Love One Another  I’ve been to many weddings over the years, and one of the more common Scriptures read is 1 Corinthians 13.  It’s about love.  The pre-eminence of love.  And a description of love.  A beautiful chapter, really.   “If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” […]