Faith, Hearing, and the Word of Christ

3 Bible Basics

October 6, 2023 | FCBCW AWANA | Romans 10:17

Introduction

The Bible is an incredible book. Let’s see how much you know about the Bible. The Bible is actually a collection of books. This collection is split into two - the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament contains 39 books. The New Testament contains 27 books. This makes for a total of 66 books.

The Bible tells us about real people and real places. God used at least 40 different men to write the Bible from different times and different places. The Bible was first written in three languages - Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. It took over 1,500 years to complete.

What am I supposed to do with all of these facts about the Bible? What is the point?

Three Bible Basics

Let’s read the Bible to see what it says about what we’re supposed to do with it:

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17)

1. Faith

Faith means to trust. We put our faith, our trust, in many things. We trust our parents. We trust our teachers. If you get in trouble, you’ll want to trust the police officers and firefighters. If you get sick, you’ll want to trust doctors and nurses. All of these people - they have authority in our lives.

We can trust the Bible because it is from God. God is our ultimate authority. He is our creator, and he wants us to trust him. God gave us a book so that we can always remember what God says. That is why we memorize verses in Awana. We want to memorize God’s word because it is very important to us, and memorizing helps us trust God more.

2. Hearing

Hearing means to perceive sound. This is interesting. The Bible is a book. There is no sound. There is no voice that comes out of this book. But our verse tells us that we can hear when we read. When you read God’s Word, you are hearing God’s voice. The Bible is God’s message to us, and the written words are just as important as if he said them out loud.

When you come and listen to preaching – when Auntie Katy, Auntie Alice, Pastor Hanley, and I read the Bible and explain it to you - we are sharing what God has said in his word. God has a message and we are sharing that message with you. You can read the message yourself too - you have your Bibles and can read and hear what God is saying. When you memorize verses in Awana, you are hearing from God.

3. The Word of Christ

The Word of Christ are the sayings, declarations, matters of Christ. Specifically, it’s the good news about our Savior, Jesus Christ, that we read in the Bible. So when we read the BIble, we are hearing God telling us about Jesus.

There are many stories and people in the Bible. But what they all point to and what they are all really about is Jesus. When we understand more of the Bible, we understand more about Jesus. We get to know him better and on a deeper level. God does not want us to know him casually or as an acquaintance. God does not want us to know him on a superficial level. God wants us to know him even more than like how we know our best friend. God wants us to know him even more than like how we know our family. God wants us to know him even more than like how a husband and wife know each other. God wants us to know him even more than all of this.

Gospel

And the most important thing we need to know is the Gospel. The Gospel is the good news of Jesus. It is that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross for all of our sins - all of the bad things that we have done. Jesus took the punishment for us, all the way to dying for us, and he came back to life again. If you trust him - if you believe in him - and if you make him King over your entire life - then you are forgiven by God and he will be with you here on earth and will take you home with him to Heaven.

Big Idea

We can trust the Bible because it is God speaking to us about the good news of Jesus.

Application

Spend time reading the Bible for yourself. Ask your parents to help you.

Pray for the people who preach and teach the Bible. Pastors, Sunday school teachers, Awana leaders.

Trust the Bible by doing what it says. Honor and obey your parents. Love your enemies. Come to church. 


Sharing
Can you tell us about a time you trusted God because you heard him speak to you through reading the Bible?

Conclusion

It’s good to know facts about the Bible. But to only know facts about it is to miss the point. The point is that we are to trust what it says. To put our faith in Jesus. This begins by reading it and understanding it and applying his words. It’s as if Jesus is talking to you right now through his word.