One of the things I sometimes struggle with when reading the Bible is feeling a little lost.
It can feel like the first day of school. You open the textbook, look at the material, and wonder, “Where do I start? What is this really about?” Some parts of the Bible are especially difficult. We read the prophets, or some of Paul’s letters, and we know there is something important there, but we are not always sure how everything fits together.
This sermon reminded me of a simple but very important truth:
The Bible is about Jesus Christ.
Lord’s Day 6 asks who the mediator is who is both truly God and truly righteous man. The answer is our Lord Jesus Christ. He came to bear the burden of God’s wrath in His human nature and, through His divine nature, to accomplish what we could never accomplish ourselves.
That is the gospel revealed throughout Scripture.
From the beginning, God promised a Saviour. The sacrifices and ceremonies of the Old Testament pointed forward to Christ. The prophets spoke about Him. And in the New Testament, we see the promise fulfilled in Jesus.
So when I open the Bible, perhaps my first question should not simply be, “How does this apply to my life?”
That is an important question—but it is not the first question.
The first question should be:
“How does this passage reveal Jesus Christ?”
Thomas and the reality of doubt
The afternoon sermon focused on Thomas in John 20.
We often remember him simply as “Doubting Thomas.” But there is more to Thomas than his doubt.
Earlier in John's Gospel, when Jesus decided to return to Judea even though the Jewish leaders wanted to kill Him, Thomas said, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” Thomas was a loyal disciple.
Then Jesus was crucified, and Thomas's hopes were shattered. When the other disciples told him that they had seen the risen Lord, Thomas struggled to believe them.
He wanted to see and touch Jesus for himself.
What encouraged me is how honest the Bible is about the weakness of faith. The disciples were not presented as people who always had perfect faith. They struggled. They misunderstood. They doubted.
And Jesus did not abandon Thomas.
Eight days later, Jesus appeared again and gave Thomas exactly what he had asked for. Thomas then made one of the clearest confessions of faith in the Gospel:
“My Lord and my God!”
Thomas saw Jesus and believed.
But Jesus then pointed beyond Thomas to another group of believers—those who would believe without physically seeing Him.
That includes us.
We have not seen the risen Jesus with our own eyes. Yet we are not asked to believe based on a vague feeling or a random story. We believe because God has given us the testimony of Scripture and the testimony of those who saw the risen Christ.
Faith is not based on a rumour
The sermon used the example of Sasquatch.
Living here in the Fraser Valley, many of us have heard stories about Sasquatch. People talk about strange footprints, shadows in the forest, or things they think they have seen.
But that is very different from the Christian faith.
Our faith is not based on rumours.
The apostles were eyewitnesses of Jesus' resurrection. John wrote about what he had heard, seen, looked upon, and touched. Paul even reminded the Corinthians that Jesus appeared to more than 500 believers at one time, many of whom were still alive when he wrote.
The Christian faith rests on testimony.
And God has preserved that testimony for us in His Word.
“Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets”
One of the most beautiful parts of the sermon was the reminder from Luke 24.
After Jesus' resurrection, He met two disciples on the road to Emmaus. They were confused and discouraged. They had heard the reports about the empty tomb, but they did not understand what had happened.
Jesus explained the Scriptures to them.
Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He showed them the things concerning Himself.
What a Bible study that must have been!
Jesus Himself taught them how to read the Bible.
The Old Testament is not simply a collection of disconnected stories, moral lessons, laws, and historical events. It is part of one great story—the story of God's redemption, ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
The sacrifices pointed to Him.
The promises pointed to Him.
The prophets pointed to Him.
And the New Testament tells us that the One they were pointing toward has come.
Coming to Christ before asking how to live
This also challenged me personally.
It is easy to approach the Bible mainly as a book of instructions:
“What should I do?”
“How should I behave?”
“How should I raise my children?”
“How should I work?”
“How should I live?”
These are good questions. But if we start there, we can miss the most important thing.
The Pharisees searched the Scriptures, but Jesus told them that the Scriptures testified about Him—and yet they refused to come to Him for life.
The Bible is not merely a textbook for better living.
It brings us to Christ.
And only after coming to Christ can our lives truly be transformed.
John tells us why he wrote his Gospel: so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing we may have life in His name.
Faith comes first. Then transformation follows.
Christ gives us His Spirit, and He changes us from the inside out.
A Bible without famine
The sermon ended with a powerful contrast.
The prophet Amos spoke of a coming famine—not a famine of food, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
We do not have that famine.
We have Bibles.
We have God's Word available to us. We can open it whenever we want. We can read it with our families. We can hear it preached. We can study it together.
What a gift that is.
So as we enter another season of studying God's Word, my prayer is that I would not simply read the Bible looking for information or practical advice.
I want to learn to read it looking for Christ.
When I encounter a difficult passage, I can ask:
Where is Christ here?
How does this passage point me to Him?
What does this teach me about the gospel?
And then, having seen Christ, I can ask how His Word should transform my life.
May God give us eyes to see Christ in His Word, faith to believe Him even though we do not see Him physically, and hearts that are continually transformed to become more like Him.
“These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
— John 20:31
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