Setting the Table
“Eat This Book” comes from the title of a great Eugene Peterson book of the same name and Scripture about the Word of God being like food, from Jeremiah 15:16, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name…”
God’s word is like food: we need it daily to sustain us. As a church, we will be taking three weeks to explore the Bible’s importance: why do we need it and how should we interact with it? Join us and let’s eat.
More from Eat This Book
Teaching Notes
Why is the Bible Important?
“…man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
-Deuteronomy 8:3
"Your words were found, and I ate them,
and your words became to me a joy
and the delight of my heart,
for I am called by your name..."
-Jeremiah 15:16
This God—his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.
-Psalm 18:30
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
-2 Timothy 3:16
So much so that he chastised religious leaders of the day:
39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
-John 5:39-40
25 And he said, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
-Luke 24:25-27
The Bible is NOT the point, but it points to the point.
The Bible is important because it is a unified, definitive story with unmatched wisdom that all reveals Jesus Christ as the savior of the world.
1.The Bible tells the definitive story of life
The Bible’s story is universally accessible
2.The Bible gives a transcendent message to humanity
Transcendent in wisdom
Transcendent in revelation
For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty…And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place.”
-2 Peter 1:16, 19
3.The Bible exists for a profound purpose
27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
-Luke 24:27
32 They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”
-Luke 24:32
"Christians do not read the Bible in order to learn about God, though of course it can be done in this fashion! Rather, we read Holy Scripture in order to enter into the Divine Presence, to walk before Him, to draw near. This is the dearness of Scripture, its intimate charisma, its lovely familiarity. Christians do not understand or embrace or rest at ease with every last verse of Scripture; it remains a strange book, sometimes an alien and terrible one. But to hear the history and song and parable and law book of Holy Scripture is to come into the penumbra of a welcome Light, to touch a lovely garment, well-worn, and to love a token, a remnant and sign, of the One who irresistibly calls us to Himself."
-Katherine Sonderegger, Systematic Theology Vol. 1