What is the Bible?

Sunday, 12 October 2025 by

Bernard Gabbott - Sunday, 12 October 2025

What is the Bible?

What is the Bible? What makes it so special? What use is it? Why do I, do we, need it? As we have been hearing – in this brief interim between sermon series – from Psalm 119, it struck me that these basic questions are questions with answers we have assumed. But, how we answer these questions is crucial for how we understand and handle God’s word. In fact, it would be fair to say that these are first principles questions and answers. You see, if we do not understand these questions, and their answers, then the Bible becomes a book of advice, a set of guidelines, a magic formula, something wise, even something man-made. And when we start down this path, we start down the path where we are returned to the centre of the universe, and God is marginalised. So, how would you answer those questions – and what does that actually mean?

Scripture References: 2 Timothy 3:10-17, Psalms 119:113-128, John 1:1-18

From Series: "2 Timothy"

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Sunday, 2 November 2025
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Sunday, 26 October 2025
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from Bernard Gabbott
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I Will Sing the Wondrous Story
from Bernard Gabbott
‘I will sing the wondrous story’ is one of my favourite Christian hymns. In the second verse it has lines that capture the truth of so much of our experience as God’s mob: ‘Days of darkness still may meet me, sorrow’s path I oft may tread’. For anyone of God’s mob, those words ring true – and even more so when the very promises of God – and our good obedience to them – have led us to such a situation. In fact, Jesus could have sung those lines at any moment. God’s mob, at the start of Exodus, could sing those lines in a choir of slavery. But, F.H. Rowley knew the truth of God’s word – perhaps even Exodus 1 itself. That is why the lines just quoted are paired with these lines: ‘but his presence still is with me, by his guiding hand I’m led’. God is not absent in those moments – the continuity and unity of his promises guarantee us of this. Moreover, his presence is not passive but active – and so, in Exodus 1, we have the great battlelines made clear, and God’s people assured. The salvation, and the triumph, is about to unfold!* *Credit to Alec Motyer (‘The Message of Exodus (Bible Speaks Today commentary)) for making this connection for me.