God morning.  As we continue our 3:16 series today, we come to a topic that we have hit on before.  So, today, this is going to be more of an information type of sermon. 

The importance of proper vehicle maintenance is no secret.  Every owner’s manual has a section entitled "Maintaining Your Car," which provides an upkeep schedule designed to assure optimal performance and longevity.  Periodically, the oil and air filters should be changed, the tires rotated, and various parts routinely replaced.  The list goes on and on, and people who want to maintain their cars conscientiously heed such advice.

But maintenance is the key to more than optimal car performance.  It’s also essential to optimal human performance.  And if a car needs an owner’s manual to define proper maintenance, so do we.  Lucky for us, we have one - the Bible.  This owner’s manual provides a "Maintenance Law" which tells you how to maintain a level of peak performance in your lives through a wisely designed upkeep schedule.

But the problem is that many people do not take advantage of its direction.  The Barna Research group says that 93% of Americans own a Bible, but only 12% read it every day.  Only 1 in every 7 read it at least once a month.

It’s funny how goldfish eat.  If you put too much food in the tank, they’ll eat until they explode.  And if you put too little, they’ll stop eating all together.  You have to be consistent, feeding them the right amount each day in order for them to remain healthy.

We’re much like goldfish when it comes to God’s Word.  We need a consistent diet of it every day to stay healthy.  It does no good to starve ourselves for a whole week and then try to fill up on Sunday.  And if we don’t study God’s Word consistently, we won’t want it anymore at all.

If you want to turn with me to Psalm 1:2-3 we read something about this.  Here in Psalm 1:2-3 it says, “1”

A couple of quotes that I have about the Bible are rather interesting.  “God’s word is like salt in the back of your car in the winter.  It’s a lot more useful when you take it out and apply it.”  And then, “We get more out of the Bible when we let more of it get into us.”

This book contains 6000 years of recorded history.  It tells the stories of the Jewish people, of the Messiah Jesus and of the early church.  It’s not just one book it’s a collection of many books, written by many authors.  Authors who we believe were working under the inspiration of the almighty God.  But those many books make one book; a book that we believe was preserved for us by God for instruction, information and edification.  And we are going to look at it all in 25 minutes so hold on tight.

If you take away the Bible, and you’ve taken away the entire Christian message.  Yet a lot of confusion exists today about the Bible.  According to a 1996 Barna survey, 42% of Americans say they believe that the Bible is the literal word of God. 

Yet almost 1/2 of Americans believe that the Bible is too hard for them to understand, so on a given week very few people actually read the book they claim to embrace as God’s literal word.  Clearly there’s a difference between what we say we believe and our true beliefs as demonstrated by our actions.

To start, let’s look at what the Bible is.  The word "Bible" means a book or collection of books regarded as authoritative on a topic.

No other book is more authoritative on the topic of the Christian faith than the Christian Bible.  The Christian Bible is a collection of 66 different books divided into 2 sections (Old and New Testaments).  It has been written by over 40 different authors over a span of 1,500 years in 3 different languages.  Yet it presents a unified message of God’s plan and purpose for humanity. 

39 books make up the Old Testament, which was written between around 1,500 BC and 400 BC, starting with the book of Genesis and ending with the book of Malachi.  The Christian Old Testament and the Jewish Bible contain the same 39 books, though they’re listed in different order.

The Roman Catholic Church also includes 15 other writings in their Old Testament called the Apocrypha which means "hidden books."  The Roman Catholic Church added these books in their Old Testament about 500 years ago at the Council of Trent, but for the first 1,500 years the Apocrypha was considered good devotional literature, but not part of the Bible.

The 27 books that make up the New Testament were written over a 50 year span, and they deal with Jesus Christ’s birth, life, death, and resurrection, the beginning of the Christian church, and instruction about how to live as a follower of Jesus Christ.  The Old Testament is written primarily in Hebrew, with a little Aramaic, and the New Testament is written exclusively in Greek.  Yet these diverse authors each in their own way present a unified portrait of God’s plans and purposes in our world.

The Bible consists of many different kinds of literature.  The Bible contains history, poetry, humor, prophecy, romance, letters, biographies, songs, journals, advise, laws, and stories.  So the Bible is an entire library of different kinds of literature.  The Bible was also the first book ever printed on the printing press, it’s the best selling book of all time, and portions have been translated into over 1,946 different languages.

Now as Americans, we have many different Bibles.  We have over 30 different English translations of the Bible available to us.  In fact, a study was done that showed that 24% Americans own at least 5 Bibles.  I counted the other day and counting the Bible I have on my computer, I have 20.

So, let’s look at Genesis to Revelation in what time we have this morning.  There are 1,189 chapters in the Bible: 929 in the Old Testament and 260 in the New Testament.

The Longest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119 with 176 verses.  The shortest chapter is Psalm 117 with 2 verses.  Psalm 117 is also the middle chapter in the Bible.

The first 5 books of the bible are called either the Pentateuch which is Greek for “Five scrolls” or simply the Torah which means the law.  This section includes Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.  Tradition tells us that Moses was the author of these 5 books, however during the past 100 years some scholars have come to the conclusion that there were several different authors.  However, they don’t have any concrete proof of that theory.  The reality is that Moses could have written them.  We are told that he was educated in the Pharaohs court and from scripture we know that Moses was able to write.  He was the leader and organizer of a movement that he believed would last for many generations so it’s likely he would have wanted to record their history for future reference.

The next section of books is referred to as the Historical Books by most and as the Early Prophets by others.  It includes the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.  These books cover about 900 years in the history of God’s chosen people.  Several authors wrote these books, including Joshua and the Prophets Samuel, Ezra and Nehemiah between 1390 BC and 480 BC.

The next group of books are called Poetry & Wisdom Literature.  This section contains the books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs.  They are exactly what they are called, books made up of poetry in the case of the Psalms and Song of Solomon and the wisdom included in the books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes.

We don’t know who wrote the book of Job.  The Psalms were primarily written by King David, we know that he wrote at least 73 of them.  Other writers include his son Solomon, Moses, and several others whose names you won’t recognize.  The book of Proverbs was written by King Solomon with a couple of additional contributors.  Solomon was thought to be the wisest man who ever lived, and if you’ve taken the time to read the proverbs you’ll understand why.

Traditionally we have been told that Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes but we don’t know that for sure, the author only identifies himself as “The Teacher”, “The Preacher” and “The Leader of the Assembly.”  Likewise tradition tells us that Solomon wrote the beautiful love poem called the “Song of Songs” some people even refer to it as “The Song of Solomon” but we don’t know that for certain.

For the most part these books were written during the reign of David and Solomon around 1,000 years before the birth of Christ.

The rest of the Old Testament is made up of the Prophets.  It has been divided into 2 sections, the Major Prophets and the Minor Prophets.
The Major Prophets include Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel.  The Minor Prophets are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

The authors are named in the title of the individual books.  Now, some of these guys were professional prophets and others were called to be prophets for a specific period of time.  Unlike the priests of Israel who came upon their position by birth, the prophets were specifically called of God to present their message.

Wow, that’s the first 39 books, you ready for the next 27?

Between the last book of the Old Testament, the Prophet Malachi and the beginning of the New Testament story was a gap of about 400 years during which the Jewish people anxiously awaited the Messiah to deliver them from their oppressors.  The first 4 books of the New Testament tell the story of Jesus.

These 4 books are called The Gospels and they are comprised of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  Each of these books is named after its author.  It is in these books that we read the story of Jesus, from his birth to his death and resurrection.

The next book in the bible stands by itself and it is the book of Acts.  The gospels began with Christ’s birth and ended with his resurrection and the book of Acts begins with the resurrection of Christ and records the life of the early church.

The author is the same Luke who wrote the third gospel.

The next section of books was written by the Paul who we read about in the book of Acts.  Specifically these are called the Pauline Epistles or letters of Paul and they include: Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon.  Some scholars feel that there isn’t enough evidence of Paul’s authorship to include the book of Hebrews in this group and have suggested that it might have been written by Barnabas, Apollos or possibly even Luke.  However, because tradition assigns it to Paul we’ll leave it here.

Understand that these books were originally letters to specific churches dealing with specific issues, it’s like we are opening someone else’s mail and reading it.  We have to keep in mind that the first people who read these letters had inside knowledge that we don’t have about what was happening in their particular situation.  However God in his infinite wisdom chose to preserve these specific letters for the entire church.  So even though they were intended for a specific audience they are for us today as well.
There are seven other letters in the New Testament that were written by others and these are often referred to as the General Epistles.  This category includes the books of James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1, 2 & 3 John and the book of Jude.  These were written for the same reason as the letters of Paul were written, to encourage and instruct local churches.  These letters were written by 2 of Jesus’ brothers James and Jude as well as the apostles Peter and John.

And here we are at the end, the book of Revelation.  Did you catch that, there’s no S, it’s not many revelations.  Sometimes it’s called The Revelation of John, but actually it’s the Revelation of God to John.  It says that in the first verse and so I guess that makes the Author God.  The human author or the person who wrote it down is identified as John.  He then sent it to the seven churches in Asia.  Although we don’t know exactly which John this was, tradition holds that it was John the Apostle who wrote this book while an exile on the Island of Patmos which is located in the Aegean Sea just off the coast of modern day Turkey.

So, that’s it, Genesis to Revelation in less than 20 minutes.

So, what can we learn from today?  Turn with me if you would to II Timothy 3:16.  Here in this passage it says, “2”

The main thing that we can learn today about the Bible is The Relevance that the Bible has.

Here we’re introduced to another word that describes the Bible, and it is the word "scripture."  This word "scripture" means "sacred writings."  Other religions have their own sacred writings, for instance Islam has the Koran, Mormonism has The Book of Mormon, and Hinduism has a book that I can’t even come close to pronouncing.  But the Bible is the Christian faith’s sacred writings--or Scripture.

These sacred writings are said to be "God breathed."  What Paul is saying here is that the fundamental characteristic of scripture--what makes these writings sacred writings--is the fact that God breathed them out, that they have their ultimate origin with God himself.

Now this fundamental characteristic of being God-breathed makes the Bible “useful."  This word means "practical," and "beneficial."  I think the word "relevant" captures the meaning here, because of the Bible’s source, it has relevance for our lives today.  Unfortunately, we tend to not use this powerful source in our lives.

During Superbowl 37, FedEx ran a commercial that went with the movie Castaway, in which Tom Hanks played a FedEx worker whose company plane went down, stranding him on a island for years.  Looking like the shipwrecked Hanks in the movie, the FedEx employee in the commercial goes up to the door of a suburban home, with package in hand.

When the lady comes to the door, he explains that he survived 5 years on a deserted island and during that whole time he kept this package in order to deliver it to her.  She gives a simple, "Thank you."

But he is curious about what is in the package that he has been protecting for years.  He says, "If I may ask, what was in that package after all?"

She opens it and shows him the contents, saying, "Oh, nothing really.  Just a satellite telephone, a global positioning device, a compass, a water purifier, and some seeds."

Like the contents in that package, the Bible is our package, the resources for growth and strength are available for every Christian who will take advantage of them.  All we have to do is open it up, and put them to use.

So, what is the Bible for us?  I have shared this with you before, but the Bible is BASIC INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE LEAVING EARTH!

The late Supreme Court Justice Oliver Holmes was on a train when the conductor came through collecting tickets.  Holmes couldn’t find his ticket and became rather distraught.  The conductor tried to console him by saying, "Mr. Holmes, don’t worry.  When you find your ticket, just mail it in.  We trust you."

Mr. Holmes responded in frustration, "My dear man, that’s not my problem.  I need my ticket to tell me where I’m going."

This morning, we need our tick and our owner’s manual in order to help us find our way as well.

In closing I would like to read a section out of Our Daily Bread.  The verse that it used was, “3”

So, out of all the Bible, What is the most important part of the Bible?

Well, the answer to that question is simple.  It is whatever part leads you into a relationship with God.