287 ~ ALIVE & ACTIVE ~ PART 2

We welcome you to the Via Zion Sermon podcast.

We are a church based out of Chennai, India.

We are thrilled that you tuned in today and hope that you will

be refreshed, revived, and energized by what you hear.

Our desire is that you will live life with a renewed sense of

purpose that stems from a vibrant faith in Jesus.

We have Jennifer with us today to share why the Bible can be

trusted and used to build 1's life on.

We hope you relish knowing more about God's Word and that it

spurs you on to greater intimacy.

With God Hi Church, It's such a joy and privilege to share the

Word of God today. As a child, I was always scared

to go and talk to the teacher in school, be it to ask for any

doubt or even for permission to go to the restroom.

I was so scared that I'll convey it wrongly.

Stand here and share the Word of God.

Today is an evidence that God can use anybody, irrespective of

their limitation, for His glory. Amen.

We are going through this series alive and active.

Last week we saw what the Bible is, how it was written over

centuries in different continents, over 40 authors, yet

it conveys the same message. This week we are going to answer

the question, can I trust the Bible?

What I hold in my hand and the digital copy of what I see on my

phone is the Word of God. And after confirming that we can

trust this Bible, we are going to move on to the application

part of it. I'd like to read from Isaiah

Isaiah 40:8

chapter 40, verse 8. The grass Withers and the

flowers fall, but the Word of God endures forever.

The grass Withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of

God endures forever. This verse beautifully captures

the nature of the Word of God. It says everything around us may

change, be it people's season, even kingdoms, but the Word of

God endures forever. It stands unshaken through

generations. That's going to be the

foundation for today's discussion.

How can we say that this Bible that we read is reliable, that

it is trustworthy and it is life changing?

How can we be sure of that? To answer that, we are going to

look into the historic credibility of the Bible.

The historic credibility of the Bible, it lies on three main

pillars. Be it any research articles you

take or any theology class that you attend on this topic, they

are going to touch on these three main pillars.

First pillar is the Bible's reliability.

It is based on three factors. We are going to look into

archaeological evidence, manuscript evidence, and

internal consistency and fulfilled prophecy.

When we say archaeological evidence, the Bible describes

about a lot of places. Not just the name of place, but

even how the setting was when the event happened, what was

there. All these details are mentioned

in the Bible. For example, in John if we take

the pool of Bethesda, John describes that it had five

Portico's and for a long time people argued that there was

number such place. This was an imaginary place

until the pool of Bethesda was discovered in Jerusalem near a

church called Saint Anne's Church, just like the way how it

is mentioned in the Bible. Similarly, in 1990s Davidde

house was discovered. Till then people were saying

that there was number evidence for the existence of David and

few inscriptions and scrawls that were found in the house and

so many other discoveries that was found in the last 30 years

proves not only the existence of David, even the lineage of David

we can talk about South, many other evidences, the

archaeological evidence that we have for the Bible, but this one

day wouldn't be enough to share all of it.

Does this Bible need archaeological evidence to prove

that it's trustworthy? No, but archaeology keeps

affirming what the Scripture claims about itself is true,

that God's Word is trustworthy. Let's move on to manuscript

evidence. What is a manuscript evidence?

A handwritten copy of the Bible that is still available.

There are around 5800 Greek manuscripts that are available

for New Testament and totally around 25,000 manuscripts that

are available for in different languages, Greek, Latin and

other language. And I saw a beautiful experiment

which was done by a professor in a class on this topic.

So he had two beakers, one was for new for the Bible and the

other beaker for other ancient books for which the manuscript

evidences are available. And he had a bowl of seed.

He started putting in the seed. Say for example, one seed

represents one copy of manuscript evidence.

And when he finished it, the entire beaker for the Bible was

full. And for other books, just the

layer, the the one layer of the seed was seen totally.

Only close to less than 10% of what is available for the Bible

is there for other books. That is the overwhelming

evidence that we have for manuscript evidences for the

Bible. This overwhelming manuscript

evidences shows how this book was carefully preserved through

years, moving on to internal consistency and fulfilled

prophecy. Last week we saw how Bible was

written by different authors in different continents over

centuries, and yet from beginning to the end it tells

one unified story. 2 Peter chapter one verse 21 says For

prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets

through humans spoke from God as they were carried along by the

Holy Spirit. 40 authors, 3 languages, 1500 years, 3

continents and they say 1 unified story which is humanly

not possible at all. If me and my husband we were to

witness a scene or event and tell about it later, only 50%

will be able to tell it the same way as we saw.

That is the human part of it. But one unified story was

possible only through the work of the Holy Spirit.

I'd like to show you an image. The image that you see has an X

axis and you can see white lines below the X axis.

So those are the chapters. An arc is drawn when a verse

from 1 chapter is mentioned in another chapter and the colour

is varied based on the year gap between them.

It is proved that there are around 63779 cross references

that are there in the Bible. close to 64000 times there are

verses that are internally consistent.

How amazing is that? The next image that you see is

the list of people and places that are mentioned in the Bible.

There are around 2619 in total. If two names are mentioned in

the same verse, then a connection is drawn between

them. If you see there are few names

written in an angle and few names horizontally, the ones

written in an angle are mentioned with less than 40

connections and more than 40 connections are written

horizontally. The sizes are made bigger when

the connections are more. Thanks to all the researches

that the people have done because just looking at this

image, it makes me realise the worth of what I hold in my hand

and read today. With this we are done with the

first pillar by the Bible's reliability, and we are moving

on to the next pillar, the Bible's preservation.

In Matthew chapter 5, verse 18, Jesus says until heaven and

Matthew 5:18

earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least

stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the law.

Jesus Himself confirms the divine authority of the

Scripture. So how was it preserved?

It was through careful copying. In Jesus time there were scribes

who made handwritten copies of the Old Testament Scripture.

They wrote letter by letter and made copies of the Old

Testament. And the word scribe comes from a

Hebrew word sophram. Sopha means to count.

You may think how does it relate counting and someone making a

hand copy of the Bible, but here's the point.

After they finished the project, they moved to the middle of the

Bible and they count letter by letter from the middle of the

Bible to forward and middle of the Bible to backward.

And they knew exactly how many letters were there.

Even if one letter was missed, the entire copy was destroyed.

It was a huge amount of time that it takes to make one copy

of it. And even if one letter was

missing, the entire copy was burnt.

That is how carefully God's people preserved the scripture.

What about accuracy? In 1940s there was a shepherd

who lost his sheep and he was searching for the sheep in a

cave near a Dead Sea. And he just threw a a stone into

The Cave and all that he heard was a jar breaking.

He found that there were so many jars which contained the scrolls

of the Old Testament scripture and it was 1000 years old.

And when they compared the copy that they had with them at that

time, the scriptures where 95% exact.

It had the accuracy 95%. What about the remaining 5%?

It was all minor errors, be it a spelling mistake or the names

were spelled differently, but other than that, there was not a

single biblical principle which was changed.

It was 95% accurate. That is how accurate the Bible

that we hold in our hands to this day is.

The Dead Sea Scroll reminds us that it is just not an ancient

book, but it is a preserved promise with the same words God

spoke to people years back. He's the same God today,

speaking the same words to us. With this, we are moving on to

the next pillar that is the Bible's relevance.

This is the only book that doesn't just give us the

information, but it can transform us.

Today morning we had an activity in our church.

I asked them three questions and even if the answer to one of

those questions was an yes, they can sit down and I'm going to

ask you 3 questions and I want you to answer to yourself first

question. Has at least one words in the

Bible has spoken to you in the last one year?

Has the Bible ever strengthened you or motivated you in the last

one year? Has reading the scripture

refreshed your soul or changed your perspective in the last one

year? I'm sure at least one of the

answer to this question would be yes.

Irrespective of which age group you are, whether you're young or

old or somewhere in between, at least one answer to this

question would have been an yes. This ancient book has spoken,

guided, encouraged you, or changed so many of us personally

in the last one year. That is just not relevance.

It's the living power of this word.

In Hebrews 412 we read for the Word of God.

For the word of God is living and active.

This Bible which was written across centuries, it still

speaks to us today. And the reason is Jesus is the

living word behind the written word.

We often say Jesus is the answer, but have we ever stopped

and thought about what the question is?

The first few chapters of Genesis shows us the original

design of God. Man was created to have

communion with him, to share a relationship with him.

But from Genesis 3 onwards we see that human rebel, run and

hide from God. And we see a God who pursues,

who restores and redeems the mankind through Jesus Christ.

And that is the message of the Bible.

A God who wouldn't stop until he mends this broken world through

Jesus Christ. Romans 15.

Four says everything that was written in the past was written

to teach us so that through the endurance taught in the

scriptures and the encouragement they provide, we might have

hope. I want to share a small story of

a cold case detective named Jay Warner Wallace.

He was an atheist and he wanted to prove that this Bible is

false. Wallace had solved decade old

murder cases through circumstantial evidences and the

forensic report that was available.

And he wanted to use the same technique to the New Testament,

treating that as a crime scene. And he wanted to prove that this

Bible, what it says is not true. But the end of his research he

became a Christian when he was 35 years old.

Saying this gospel has the hallmark evidences to say that

these are true. The eyewitnesses match perfectly

and the differences had genuine detail to it.

Even an atheist detective found that this Bible was trustworthy,

it was life changing and it is true.

And he didn't have an answer why he shouldn't believe in a God

who have. Who has inspired to write this?

Now that we've seen the reliability of the Bible, the

preservation of the Bible, and the relevance of the Bible, we

can say that this Bible is trustworthy, life changing, and

it is reliable. Having known this, what are we

going to do about it? If you have a treasure map in

your hand and you know that it is trustworthy and it has the

way to find the real treasure, what would you do about it?

Will you keep it in the shelf or would you just admire it or just

hold it close to you? Or will you follow it and do

whatever it takes to find the real treasure?

Wouldn't all our answers be we will follow and find the real

treasure? When I was a child, I always

used to sleep keeping my Bible next to my pillow.

I always thought that I will not get bad dreams if I do that.

But the power of the Bible, it is not unlocked by its

proximity. But when we engage with it, how

many times we engage with this Bible?

Why? Why do you think so many people

are using ChatGPT? Because it gives them an answer.

Sometimes it gives suggestions and it gives clarity, more

information than we are supposed to know.

This Bible has all the answers to your question.

Be it any problem that you take, any situations that are there,

we have answers to all our questions.

In this Bible it says God says that our guilt is removed and

our future is secured and our future is guaranteed in him.

But are we engaging with the Bible?

Are we treating it like a treasure?

I'd like to take an example from the Bible who treated the word

of God like a treasure and it is Ezra.

I'd like to read from Ezra Chapter 7 verse 10.

Ezra 7:10

It says for Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the

Lord and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in

Israel. He set his heart, meaning it was

a deliberate choice that he took.

He set his heart to read the Word of God and to follow it so

that he can teach to the people. He didn't treat it like a book

of rules, but he treated it like a treasure.

He followed it part by part. And what was the end of it?

God used Ezra to revive a whole nation that was drifted away.

My first application point to you is that would you engage

with the Word of God? Will you treat it like a

treasure and not a comfort book or book of promises, but follow

what is there in it? Secondly, would you allow the

word of God to have authority over your life?

Don't choose to live in the grey.

The Bible never gives an answer in grey.

It is either black or white. Either it is right or wrong.

You can't justify any sin or anything saying maybe this is

not worded this way, maybe Bible directly doesn't say this is

wrong. We all know the answer.

There's a theologian named Paul Hovey who says men do not reject

the Bible because it contradicts itself, but because it

contradicts them. The Bible doesn't just tell us

what we want to hear, it tells us what we need to hear.

Let's take an example of Daniel. I'd like to read from Daniel

chapter one verse 8:00 and 9:00. But Daniel purposed in his heart

that he would not defile himself with the royal food and wine,

and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile

himself this way. Now God had caused the official

to show favour and compassion to Daniel.

Daniel was taken to Babylon, a place where everything that he

believed in was redefined, be it his culture, his food, his

worship, his name. But though the setting changed,

his standards did not change. He was not ready to compromise

on anything. And when we read in Daniel

chapter one, verse 8, he purposed his heart.

That means even before the temptation came in, he decided

that this Word of God is the one that has authority over his

life. Not the kings, not the rules,

not the ways of the world, but what is written in the Word of

God. Everyone around him compromised.

It's just food, it's just culture, it's just the diet.

But he did not. What are we compromising?

Be it in our workplace, in our families, when no one is

watching? Are we saying is it OK to do

this when the Word of God clearly says it is not what we

have to do? Would you allow the Word of God

to have authority over your life?

Thirdly, this week, would you allow the word of God to change

your life? You may have a perfect devotion

plan or a schedule, but last week we saw when we read the

Bible, it is like a mirror. It reads us, it reveals who God

is. This week as you read, would you

allow the word of God to show you who you really are and who

He really is? One perfect example for this

would be David. Over and over in the Psalms we

see that he cries search me, cleanse me, show me who I am.

I'd like to read few scriptures from the Psalms.

Psalm 139 verse 23 says search me O God and know my heart.

Psalms 139:23

Psalm 5110 says Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a

right spirit within me. These weren't just poetic words,

but it's a prayer of a man who was willing to be changed every

time. David came before God's word.

He did not hide, but he came with honesty.

He knew what it is to live in a fallen world.

He came with a heart like that of a clay.

Asking God to mould him is a heart's hardened today to what

God is telling us, just like how the clay is in the Potter's

hand. Can you submit yourself,

surrender to God in such a way that He can only mould you and

make you? David wasn't perfect, but he was

ready to change. He kept coming back to God's

presence again and again so that he will be moulded.

He will become more like the one who he worshipped even today.

This is just not a book that has information about what has

happened. But this is the only way through

which we can be transformed. This is the only way through

which we can be changed. This week, would you engage with

the Word of God? Would you allow the Word of God

to have authority over you? And finally, would you read the

Bible so that it changes your life?

My trust is that as you read, as you meditate, you will just not

trust the Bible, but you'll trust the God who's behind it.

Can we look to God in prayer? Thank you for the God for this

time. Thank you for the Bible that we

hold in our hands. Thank you, Father God, that it

still speaks to us. So, Father Lord, thank you that

you have preserved this Bible of Father God, Lord, that it is

trustworthy. It is relevant to this day of

Father God, Lord, even now. Father Lord, I pray even as we

meditate on your word this week, Oh, Father God, Lord, it will

transform us. So Father God it will change our

lives, our Father Lord, I pray that we will just not trust the

Bible or Father God, but we will trust the God behind it.

Or Father be with us, guide us and Goddess in Jesus name we ask

and we pray. Amen.

Thanks for. Listening to this message, we

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