Jack Graham - The Jesus Book
- Watch
- Audio
- Donate
- Prayer Request
LIVING HOPE IN A HOSTILE WORLD. That’s because we are born again according to Peter unto a living hope because of the resurrection of Jesus. In my book The Jesus Book I have a chapter on the Bible and world view, because what this really is, is a war of world views; a biblical world view and a secularist world view. That’s the battle that’s going on in our world and in this culture. A war that is a spiritual war. Supernatural things are going on here behind the scenes. And the battle is really not against Republicans or Democrats or denominations or various kinds of cultures; it is a battle between truth and untruth; a battle between truth and lies.
Prestonwood Church is founded and grounded upon this Book, the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I’ve showed up here for the past 35 plus years with a Bible in my hand and the Word of God in my mouth. And what God has chosen to bless in this church is the proclamation in this Gospel, this good news of Christ and the teaching and the truth of God’s Word. Last week we preached on the blood of Christ from 1 Peter and it occurred to me what the old preachers used to say, we were built on the blood, the Book and the blessed hope of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s what 1 Peter is about, the blood and the Book and the blessed hope of Jesus Christ. I’m calling this sermon «The Jesus Book» because Jesus and the Bible, though not the same, are one. And the more you get to know your Bible, the more you get to know Jesus, who He is and what He can do to change your life.
This Book, beyond the Book, the living, breathing Word of God. And no penny ante politician can destroy this Book. They can defame it, they can deny it, they can dilute it, but they cannot destroy it. Because as we’re going to see in this message, the Word of God… Well, let’s just look at our text. It says «Since you have been born again», verse 23 in 1 Peter 1, «Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the Lord remains forever».
And this word, what is this word? This word is the good news that was preached to you. The good news that Jesus is Lord; that Christ is King; that He died for you; that He rose again; that He’s coming again to receive all who trust in Him. And there is no grave that can hold Him back and there’s no grave that can bury this Book! Because this Book is alive forevermore. What this country needs more than anything is a revival of the Bible, a revival of the Bible, and it starts in the pulpits across this nation and with Christians.
I heard about a little boy who went to Sunday school. His parents didn’t go with him for some reason on this occasion but when he was in Sunday school, he heard about the revival that was going to be at the church. There were going to be some meetings, revival meetings and he went home and his mother said, «Well, what did they teach in Sunday school today»? «Well», he said, «I learned that we’re going to have a re-bible at the church». She said, «A re-bible». He said, «Yes, we’re going to have a re-bible». Well, I think he was close to what we really need. Revival is a re-bible. We need a rebirth of the church and a renewal and a revival of the Bible, God’s Word.
Our church stands upon this truth and it will stand forever as long as we stand on Christ, our Cornerstone, Chief Cornerstone and the Christ of the Bible. And so let’s give thanks to God for His Word. And let’s never, never be ashamed or afraid to stand for truth even in a hostile world. Francis Dixson, the Bible teacher said, «It has been hated», talking about the Bible, «It’s been hated and hounded as no other book has ever been and yet indestructible, despised and yet honored, derided and yet highly esteemed, declared dead and yet alive. Mighty emperors and kings and queens has shunned, no toil and no guilt in order to exterminate it. Wise and scholarly men have thoroughly refuted it and now that higher criticism lords over it and science has done away with it, it is spreading still over the whole earth and millions of copies in hundreds and hundreds of languages. You can’t stop the Word of God. It is indominable, it is indestructible, it is unstoppable. Why? Because it is the living, breathing word of God».
Let’s talk about it for a few moments. The total perfection of God’s Word. We are told that this new birth of ours comes as a result of not a perishable seed, but an imperishable, a living and binding word of God. The imperishable seed is the seed of God’s Word. And just as the seed of man coupled with the egg produces life, the Word of God when it arrives in the power of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of men and women, it produces life. Martin Luther said, «The Bible is alive; it speaks to me. It has feet; it runs after me. It has hands; it lays hold of me. The Bible is not antique or modern; it is eternal». In fact, the psalmist said, «Your Word, O Lord, is forever settled (fixed) in the heavens».
In eternity past and eternity future the Word of God lives! Before Moses ever laid down the Law, before the psalmist ever wrote a hymn, before Jesus ever walked on the earth, before Peter or Paul ever wrote a letter from prison, the Word of God was formed and fixed in the heart of God forever and ever! This Book is inspired, meaning it is breathed out. You’ve heard of John 3:16: «For God so loved the world». That’s the Bible in a sentence. «For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life». That’s John 3:16. And John 3:16 is coupled with 2 Timothy 3:16, another great verse in the Bible, which says, «All Scripture is given (It’s a gift from God, what a gift!) is given by inspiration of God».
That is, the Word which means to breathe out, breathe out. God breathed out His Word. The breath of God is in this Book and cannot, therefore, cease to exist no more than God Himself can cease to exist. God has preserved and protected His Word through the generations. Truly amazing. And in the inspiration of the Bible, the Book is not just an inspiring Book. There are many inspiring books and inspiring stories. And you can listen to inspiring sermons. I hope this is one of them! But the Bible is inspired in a different sense, not inspiring as in human inspiration, but divine. Divinely inspired, breathed out. Just as I am speaking, out of my lungs comes breath. And through my larynx and my vocal cords, the breath comes and over my tongue words are formed and my breath therefore, creates these words and what you’re hearing today.
And so it is when God breathed out His life into this Book. We have the veritable very Word of God. The Word of God is perfect and it is pure, every word of it. I believe in what we call the verbal plenary inspiration of the Bible. You say, «what does that mean»? Verbal — that obviously means words. So the Bible is not just inspired in parts or paragraphs, but in words. You can’t have mathematics without numbers and you can’t have truth without words. You can’t have the Bible without words. It was, when it comes to the Word of God, Jesus said, «Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every (what?) word that processes out of the mouth of God». It is foolish to say that the Bible was inspired in just the big picture kind of way. No, the Bible is inspired, truth without any mixture of error. It is a verbally inspired Book. The Word of God says, over 2000 times in the Bible phrases like «And God said,» or «The Word of God said».
And then, of course, the Bible as the Word of God. My favorite term for the Bible these days is the Jesus Book. And the reason I say that is because all of the Bible, the verbal plenary (and that word plenary means all of it) Inspiration means God breathed. The verbal plenary inspiration, the Bible. But it has one theme. Though it was written over a period of 1600 plus years, 40 different human authors breathed upon by God, led by the Spirit to write. And yet, one central theme. There are many subjects in the Bible.
So many subjects. I’ve spent a lifetime preaching on the various themes and subjects of the Bible! But there is one central theme, and that theme is that God loves you. And yet man sinned against God and broke God’s commandments. But God had a plan and that plan was to redeem us. And so through the centuries God was working out His plan in order to deliver us His Son, the Savior, Jesus. And all of the Old Testament in preparation for the New Testament message of the Apostles, all of that was written so that you can know God, so that you can know God! And the way you know God is through the message of the Gospel He said which is the message of Jesus.
One day after the resurrection, shortly after the resurrection two people were walking on the road to Emmaus, their hometown, having been in Jerusalem. They were despondent and hopeless because they thought it was all over. They had believed in Christ the Messiah, but now He appeared to be dead and gone forever. Jesus came out of the grave and He’s walking with these two. They didn’t recognize Him. We don’t know exactly why they didn’t realize they were walking with the risen Redeemer. But Jesus asked them some questions about what was going on and why they were so sad. And they said, «Haven’t you heard»? And they said, «We thought He was the Messiah but He wasn’t». And then it says, «Jesus began with Moses and the prophets».
Moses is the human author of the first five books of the Bible. We call it the Pentateuch, the five books. And then the prophets which carry on the message of the Gospel in the Old Testament. So patriarchs and prophets. Jesus began with Moses and the prophets and showed them in all the Scriptures those things concerning Himself. He walked with them, talked with them and explained to them. Can you imagine this Bible study? He explained to them those things in the Old Testament that applied to Him. He, no doubt, took them to the Garden of Eden and spoke of Adam and Eve’s sin and the animal that was slain that covered their shame, and the blood that began to flow. He, no doubt, would have taken them to Mount Moriah with Abraham when the hand of God stayed Abraham from taking his son, and a ram was provided in the thicket.
He, no doubt, took them into Egypt and spoke of the Passover and the blood. He, no doubt, took them to Isaiah 53 when He spoke of the Suffering Servant. He walked, He talked, He showed them in all the Scriptures. It doesn’t say He showed them all the things in the Scripture concerning Himself or they’d still be out there walking! But it says «in all the Scriptures». And again, this is the Old Testament scriptures. If you’re missing Christ in the Old Testament, you’re missing the meaning of the Bible! Because Christ is present always on every page in some way in type, in symbol, in form, in prophecy, in teaching, in truth. And the Old Testament is saying someone is coming.
And the New Testament, the Gospel says someone has come. And the New Testament book of Acts shows us how to get this Gospel to the world. And then the Epistles, the letters that are written tells us who Jesus is and how we are to grow in our faith. And then the Revelation that Christ is coming again. Yes, this is the Jesus Book. And as I said at the outset of this message, the more you get to know your Bible, the more you get to know Jesus. And that’s the goal. As the Apostle Paul said, «To know Him and to love Him more and more». So there is this perfect Book, God’s total perfection. And then there’s the saving purpose of the Bible which really, I’ve already talked about, but verse 23 says, «since you’ve been born again by the living Word of God». We have new birth because the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus has transformed our lives. «Faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17) and hearing through the Word of God».
Now I have loved the Bible since I was a little boy. I really have. And the reason that I have known the Scripture like Timothy, since I was a child is my parents, my older brother, but my grandfather taught me the Scripture as a child. In fact, I learned how to read reading my Bible as a little boy on my grandfather’s lap. Virtually every evening I would crawl up in his lap and he would read the stories of the Bible or read the Bible itself. I didn’t learn to read with Dick and Jane and Spot. I learned of Moses and David and Goliath and Samson and I reveled in those Old Testament stories, I loved them, all the adventure.
If you think the Bible is boring, you must not have read it. I think you’re boring if you think the Bible is boring. It’s not the Bible; it’s you that boring. Because the Bible is so exciting and so full of adventure and excitement. But at some point in my life, like those two walking along with Jesus on that road to Emmaus, Jesus stepped out of the pages of those stories and the message of the Gospel, the Good News became real to me. And that’s the reason as a small boy I professed my faith and confessed myself to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
Now flash-forward to seven decades later. Dr Jeremiah Johnston and I, along with our two sons, Jason and Josh, We were in England and for the first time I got to go to Oxford to see that. And because Dr. Johnston had studied at Oxford, he still had his library card and he still knew the librarian. You’re not surprised by that, are you? And so he got us into the bowels of the library, down deep where they kept the most precious artifacts and books and materials. And we’re there, waiting as the librarian, the specialist in the archives came forward with a piece of plastic, and in that plastic were fragments, four pieces of parchment penned in letters of Greek. This piece here, there, there, there. It was the Gospel of Matthew, a portion of it. It’s called the Jesus fragment because in it are the words of Jesus in this portion of God’s Word.
And I looked at it, held it in my hands, and it was a very moving, emotional moment for me because I truly did just flash back to my grandfather’s chair and how I read the Word of God and learned to love God’s Word as a little boy. Now here I am all these years later, not just still believing, or barely hanging on, but believing God’s Word now more than ever! My childhood faith is now matured over a lifetime of study and devotion and commitment to understanding what this book is talking about, what this book is saying. And as my friend and mentor Adreian Rogers used to say, «I’m not finding hidden flaws in the Bible; I’m finding hidden beauties»!
What a beauty that was to hold that ancient fragment in my hands and remember this is the Jesus Book. This is what the Bible is all about. It’s the Word of God that brought to me and to you the salvation in Jesus Christ. And then the transforming power of God’s Word. Talk about that. It is the Word of God which satisfies us. It is the Bread of heaven that meets our deepest needs; it strengthens us for the daily challenges of life. It is God’s Word that saves us, strengthens us, satisfies us. It’s the Word of God stored in our hearts that meets our very need.
So how should we respond? Number one, let’s start with: You are to hear God’s word, hear the Word of God. That’s what you’re doing right now, isn’t it? That’s what you’re doing, those of you who are watching online. You connected so that you get worship and then hear the Word of God. And so throughout the Bible you have instances in which people gather to hear the Word of God. When Jesus would gather people, He said, «He who has ears, let him hear». So it starts there; it starts with our opening our ears and hearing with the ears of our heart the Word of God. And in hearing the Word of God, that’s just, there’s power in simply hearing it, just hearing it. That’s why you showed up today.
You know, a lot of reasons to come to church, a lot of good reasons: the community, the connection, the family, the friends, the worship. And we do all of these things. But the one thing we do is to stand in this pulpit and teach and preach the Word of God. And that’s why God has chosen to bless this congregation! That’s why God has chosen to keep this church going and growing with the message of hope to the world! It’s all represented by what stands here, the pulpit, the proclamation of the Gospel, so that you come and you hear the Word of the Lord! Then read the Word of God for yourself; read the Word of God. We’ve got all kinds of Bibles and Bible translations and yet unfortunately too many Christians don’t read their own Bibles.
You might admit to yourself, «I just don’t read God’s Word». I can tell you that reading the Word of God has been the secret of life for me. Reading it every single day. Because in reading the Word of God, the Spirit of God begins to move in your life in ways that you could not expect. Hear God’s Word; read God’s Word, and then meditate upon God’s Word. Memorize and meditate upon the Word of God. I can tell you the most important discipline in my life and I did this before I was a preacher, not just because I’m a preacher, and I’ll do it for the rest of my days, and that is to memorize the Bible, portions of it, passages in it, scriptures, text. And the blessed person, according to Psalm 1, is the person who meditates on God’s Word day and night. So memorization. You say, «Well, you know, I’m really not that good at memorizing, especially now that there’s a lot of diet coke over my life and I just don’t remember things like I used to remember things».
I guarantee you if I gave you $100 for every scripture you memorized, you would be a memory machine. Yes, you would, you know you would. It’s all about motivation. And so I’m always motivated to memorize scripture. And you can write them on little passages on cards, or do it online, all kinds of ways. But just do it. And so when you meditate upon God’s Word, you will discover that the Word of God fills you and flows in you and through you. And the final thing is we are to share the Word of God, proclaim the Word of God because this is too good to keep to ourselves. This is why we proclaim God’s Word, this is why we teach God’s Word. So love God’s Word. Lean upon it hard by faith. Love it, learn it, live it and you will find that your life is full of Jesus. At the end of the day the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus will transform you and in heaven we will have eternity to celebrate the living, eternal, abiding Word of God.