Biblical
A Home for the Broken and a Hub for Transformation
Good morning, and welcome to The Well Community Church. I am so glad you’re hanging out with us today. If I haven’t met you yet, my name is Brad, and I’m just thankful you’re here. We are in a little bit of a mini-series called All Hands. We made the observation last week that the church is a little less like a cruise ship and a little more like a battleship. This series is a bit of a reset—a reminder for those who have been around for a while as to who we are, and an invitation to those who may be guests to join in the madness that is The Well Community Church. We want you to know exactly what you’re getting into.
Last week, if you missed it, we talked about our namesake, “The Well.” We looked at John chapter four and saw how Jesus showed grace to a woman who was broken and invited her into newness of life through Him. Because of that, we say we are a home for the broken. That’s who we’ve been for almost twenty-five years. We also talked about our purpose statement—the reason we exist. We want to help people connect to God and each other in every neighborhood. Then we gave you a glimpse into our vision: we want to be a hub of gospel transformation in this city, in the valley, and beyond. We want our reputation in this city to be a place where, if you want to walk with Christ, you go there. We hope all churches are doing that, but we are specifically committed to walking out this messy process of life with God together.
Today, I want to shift gears and talk about the first of our five core values: we are Biblical.
What Does It Mean to Be Biblical?
Simply put, we do everything here at The Well through the lens of the Scriptures. When it comes to our kids and students, we ask, “What does the Bible say?” Regarding community life, “What does the Bible say?” Regarding our gatherings, “What does the Bible say?” What about dating, cohabitation, sexuality, gender identity, roles in marriage, divorce, the sanctity of life, stewardship of finances, retirement, or caring for the poor? We ask: “What does the Bible say?”
When you ask that question, sometimes the answer is very satisfying because the Bible aligns with your already decided beliefs, passions, or preferences. Sometimes, however, the Bible is contradictory to what you believe, what you are passionate about, or what you thought. In those moments, you have two choices. You can either say, “If this is what the Bible says, then I will adjust my preferences to it,” or you can try to make the Bible adjust to your preferences. Here at The Well, we submit to the Word of God. The Bible is our authority. Whether we like it or not, we submit ourselves to it because we are Biblical.
I want to walk through five points today: First, we have a self-revealing God. Second, He has revealed Himself in the Bible. Third, the Bible is not an ordinary book—it is inspired. Fourth, the Bible can be trusted. And fifth, we can find hope and draw near to God through His Word.
A God Who Speaks
Thankfully, we have a self-revealing God. Our God speaks. You don’t have to go take mushrooms and sit on a mountaintop to have a vision of Him; He has chosen to reveal Himself. First, He reveals Himself in creation. This is called natural revelation. The heavens are telling of the glory of God.
Psalms 19:1 (NASB)
For the choir director. A Psalm of David. The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.
Romans one reminds us that what is known about God is evident within us because God has made it evident. Since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, eternal power, and divine nature have been clearly seen through what has been made. Therefore, we are without excuse. When you see the beauties of the Sierras, when you drive through the tunnel into Yosemite Valley, or when you watch the sunset over the Pacific, those moments are intended to say: “You are really small, and God is really big.” Natural revelation is sufficient to condemn, but it is not sufficient to save; it is meant to show us that the world doesn’t revolve around us.
Romans 1:19-20 (NASB)
because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
Second, God has revealed Himself in His works. It was God who brought the plagues to Egypt, parted the Red Sea, provided manna in the wilderness, and caused the walls of Jericho to fall. His works reveal His power and glory. Jesus, speaking of the works of God, told His followers that if they didn’t believe His words, they should at least believe because of the works themselves.
John 14:11 (NASB)
’Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.
God has been “flexing” His incredible power since Genesis chapter one, when He spoke the world into existence.
Genesis 1:1 (NASB)
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
He has also revealed Himself in His incarnation. Hebrews tells us that while God spoke long ago through the prophets, in these last days, He has spoken to us in His Son. Jesus is the radiance of His glory.
Hebrews 1:1-3 (NASB)
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Colossians two tells us that in Jesus, all the fullness of deity dwelt in bodily form. He has revealed Himself perfectly in Jesus Christ.
Colossians 2:9 (NASB)
For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,
Finally, He reveals Himself in His indwelling. Jesus promised not to leave us as orphans but to send the Helper to be with us and in us. If you have embraced the Gospel, you are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. God reveals Himself personally through the Spirit leading and guiding you.
John 14:16-18 (NASB)
’I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; [that is] the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, [but] you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. ’I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
Ephesians 1:13 (NASB)
In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation– having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
One Unified Theme: The Hero of the Text
This leads to our second point: He has revealed Himself specifically in the Bible. We know about all those other means of revelation because the Bible tells us who our God is and what He has done.
The word biblia is a plural word meaning “books” or “scrolls.” The Bible is a collection of 66 different books, written by 40 different authors, over a 1,500-year period, in three different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek), on three different continents (Europe, Asia, and Africa). This is why it can feel a bit overwhelming if you try to read it chronologically from page one—it’s an assembly of various types of literature.
Yet, despite all that diversity, there is one unifying theme from eternity past to eternity future: the glorification of God through the person and work of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament is an anticipation of Jesus. The Gospels are the manifestation of Jesus. The book of Acts is the proclamation of Jesus. The Epistles are the explanation of Jesus. The book of Revelation is the consummation of all things in Jesus. From page one to Revelation 22, the hero of the text is Jesus the Christ.
Inspired by God: More Than Just a Good Book
The Bible is not an ordinary book; it is inspired by God. Paul, writing to Timothy, explains that all Scripture is profitable for teaching, reproof, and training in righteousness.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NASB)
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
Now, the word “inspired” here doesn’t mean the way you feel inspired by a beautiful sunset. The Greek word is theopneustos, which literally means “God-breathed.” Its source is divine revelation. God disclosed His mind to human authors so we could understand who He is. Peter explains that no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
2 Peter 1:20-21 (NASB)
But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is [a matter] of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
That phrase “moved by the Holy Spirit” is the same word used for a boat blown by the wind. God didn’t override the personalities or cultures of the authors; He didn’t possess them like a robot. This is why the four Gospels feel so different. Matthew writes to Jews; Mark is in a hurry; Luke writes like a researcher; John highlights divinity. Different personalities, but the same Spirit and the same theme.
We believe the Bible is both verbally inspired and plenary inspired. “Verbally” means every word matters—not just the general concepts. We saw this last week in John 4:4, where the specific word “had” (Jesus had to go through Samaria) and the time stamp of “noon” added incredible depth to the story. “Plenary” means all of the Bible is inspired, not just the “important” parts. Some people think the red letters (Jesus’ words) are more inspired than, say, Leviticus. But all Scripture is God-breathed.
Even genealogies matter. In Genesis 5, the names from Adam to Noah actually form a sentence when you look at their Hebrew meanings: “Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow; (but) the Blessed God shall come down teaching (that) His death shall bring the despairing rest.” Even in a list of names we usually skip, God is whispering the Gospel. Paul thanked the church in Thessalonica because they accepted his message not as the word of men, but for what it really is: the Word of God.
1 Thessalonians 2:13 (NASB)
For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted [it] not [as] the word of men, but [for] what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.
Why We Can Trust the Word
Thankfully, the Bible can be trusted. How do we know?
First, there is internal evidence. There is a famous chart that maps every cross-reference in the Bible. It shows over 63,000 internal references, echoes, and mentions. How is it possible for 40 authors over 1,500 years to stay that consistent unless there is ultimately one Divine Author behind it all?
Second, there is prophetic evidence. In Daniel, we see prophecies of future empires—the Persians, Greeks, and Romans—written when some of those nations were just backwater city-states. Then there are the 300 prophecies concerning the Messiah. The chance of one person fulfilling just nine of those prophecies is like filling the state of Texas two feet deep in silver dollars, painting one red, blindfolding a man, and having him pick that specific coin on the first try. Jesus fulfilled all 300. He didn’t just “arrange” it; He couldn’t have arranged where He was born or how the soldiers gambled for His clothes. It was the sovereign work of God.
The Evidence of History and Archaeology
Third, there is external evidence. The more they dig, the more they find—and the more they find, the more we are proven right. For twenty years, we’ve led study tours to Israel, and the landscape of discovery has changed drastically. They found the City of David, the Pool of Siloam, and the inscription of Pontius Pilate. They found the Dead Sea Scrolls, which proved our modern copies are incredibly accurate to the ancient texts.
We also have historical evidence from non-Christians. Pliny the Younger, a Roman official in 111 AD, wrote to Emperor Trajan complaining about Christians who met on Sunday mornings to sing hymns to a man they claimed was God. Even our enemies confirmed the early church’s devotion.
Regarding the New Testament, the books were chosen based on three criteria: Apostolic authority (written by an apostle or a close associate), Orthodox doctrine (consistency with teaching), and Wide acceptance (used by the early church). This wasn’t a church council “creating” the Bible; it was a ratification of what believers already knew was God’s Word. As Peter noted, even in the first century, Paul’s letters were already being regarded as Scripture.
2 Peter 3:15-16 (NASB)
and regard the patience of our Lord [as] salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all [his] letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as [they do] also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.
Some people worry about “variants” in the manuscripts. Scholars like Daniel Wallace have pointed out that while there are thousands of variants, the vast majority are just spelling differences or word order changes (like saying “potato” vs. “potahto”). Not a single major Christian doctrine is affected by these variants. Our Bible is between 95% and 98% accurate to the original writings. To put that in perspective, we have about 240 manuscripts of Plato and 1,900 of Homer’s Iliad. We have over 5,800 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. We have more data for the Bible than for any other piece of ancient history.
Drawing Near to the Heart of the Author
All of this leads to the final point: we have this book so we can find hope and draw near to God.
Years ago, I attended the Bar Mitzvah of a friend’s son, Itamar, in Israel. It was a beautiful celebration. They put Itamar on my shoulders, and we danced toward the Western Wall. When he opened the scroll to read for the first time, people started throwing honey candy at him. Why? Because Psalm 19 says the judgments of the Lord are sweeter than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.
Psalms 19:9-10 (NASB)
The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.
They were teaching that boy that the Word of God is sweet. It is not a burden; it is where we draw near to our God in love. In Nehemiah chapter eight, when the people found the Bible after rebuilding the walls, they built a wooden platform and read it from morning until midday. The people gave it a standing ovation. They wept and worshiped because they realized this was their very life.
You have this book in your lap. You can open it. You can learn about your God. He is waiting for you, and He wants you to understand His heart. He wants you to adjust your life to His design—not to restrict you, but because He loves you.
Let’s be a people of the Book who draw near to the God who revealed Himself in chapter and verse.
Father, we want to be a people shaped by Your Word. If our hearts are cold, warm them. If these concepts are strange, make them familiar. May the same Spirit that inspired these texts illuminate our hearts so the Word comes to life in us. Thank you for the Scriptures. Help us to not just learn the text, but to know the Author who loves us. In Your name, Amen.