“STAY SHARP IN THE SCRIPTURES”

a Christian Education Sunday a

2 Timothy 3:14-17

There are a number of people, well respected and well=educated people, who contend that year-round
education for students in our country is necessary; necessary because during the months of June, July and August,
when our children are outside of the context of the formal education in the classroom, they seem to lose a lot of the
knowledge they had acquired the previous year. For most of our kids, this past week was the first week of the new
school year, and I guarantee that it took a bit for our kids’ brains to be jumpstarted by the teacher, as all the
cobwebs of the summer had to be thoroughly cleaned out before any meaningful learning could begin. I guarantee
you that they weren’t in “mid-school year form” as they started a new year of educational pursuits. It takes a while,
because the days of summer can sometimes dull their minds.
For a lot of us, summer was a very busy time. I know it was for me, busier than I could have ever imagined.
And for some of us, the busyness and business of summer has left us with a bit of a dull spirit. Christian Education
Sunday is like the first day of school - a day to clean out the cobwebs in our hearts and minds, to clean out the
residue that might be left from all of our summer activities, and to once again “hit the book” so to speak...the Good
Book...because as important as it is for children to be sharp in their school subjects, how much more important it is
that all Christians, young and old alike, remain sharp in the Scriptures, God’s knowledge, because so much more is
at stake than just a grade from a teacher...our salvation is at stake – and may it be our collective desire that we all
become masters of God’s salvation wisdom so that we are never unsure of what will happen to us when the Lord’s
calls our name to eternity. On our first day of formal Christian education here at New Hope and St. Paul’s, God
directs us to stay sharp in his Word, in the Holy Scriptures, because 1) they are powerful for salvation and 2) they
are useful for instruction.

I. They are powerful for salvation

I’m sure that you’ve heard it said before that “information is power!” That’s true on so many levels. When
children begin a new school year, they go to gain information, important information that will empower them to
enter a higher level of education and eventually to become competent and important contributors to our society.
And even though the children, many times, don’t realize it as they are sitting in their classrooms reading their
history books, reading over math problems, memorizing scientific terms, what they are reading, what they are
hearing, what they are learning will empower them for the future.
Paul says to Timothy: “14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of,
because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are
able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” The literal translation of the last part is really: “How
from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures (The Word of God) which have the power to give you salvation’s
wisdom...”
Even more so than the knowledge that students learn in the classroom, the Holy Scriptures empower the
recipients with godly wisdom. The Bible is not just a bunch of ink-blots that happen to create words that our brains
understand. The Bible is not just random Jeopardy knowledge. It is God’s master plan for salvation, carefully and
intimately laid out from beginning to end – from Eden to the New Jerusalem, which reveals so much about
ourselves, how desperately we are in constant needs of God’s grace in Christ, and how without Jesus in our lives, we
will be lost forever. It is God’s power that teaches us with absolute clarity who we are under the law – lost and
condemned creatures, and who we are in Christ – rescued and redeemed children of the Heavenly Father who have
been washed clean of all transgression and prepared for the future of heaven through Christ and his suffering, death
and resurrection. “For there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” Paul tells us in Romans 8:1.
The question we have to ask ourselves all the time is, “How do I approach the Bible and its importance in
my life? “ Do we see it as just a bunch of ink-blots on a page that have absolutely no bearing on us personally? If
so, then our actions will reflect that and our Bibles will sit on the shelf or on the coffee table and collect dust, and
the godly wisdom inside, through which the Spirit empowers Christians for the future, will go to waste. Or, do we
approach it as being of the utmost importance in our lives – knowing that our entire eternal existence depends upon
the knowledge that lies within, knowing that on those plain white pages, in plain black ink, in plain English words,
God communicates his unimaginable love to us in powerful terms through which the Holy Spirit works to connect
us to Jesus through faith and through which the same Spirit empowers us for the future.
They say that information is power. How true! God’s divine information, revealed so clearly and concisely
in the Holy Scriptures, has power to create the new life of faith in our hearts and to prepare us for the day when the
Lord will call our name for eternity. Thus, let’s not let ourselves become dull in Scriptural knowledge. Stay sharp at
all times by reading your Bibles, use them!!!, have personal time with your Lord, in whatever way the Spirit moves
you, stay sharp! For we never want to be caught in a position where we are unsure of what God has clearly spelled
out in black and white! We want to be completely confident, as sure as we know what 2+2 is...completely confident
that because of Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross, our sins are forgiven, not from our own works, but by his
merits do we have everlasting life.

II. They are useful for instruction

One of the complaints you will always hear from students is that what they are learning isn’t going to be
useful in the future. Maybe if you were talking about a class in a liberal arts program at a university, one might be
able to legitimize that argument. I had a hard time grasping how a knowledge of the history of the French
Revolution would benefit me personally in my ministry. But on an elementary level, when children are establishing
the building blocks of learning, you could say that just about everything, if not everything is going to be useful to
them in the future, if nothing else than to get them ready for more challenging material when they enter high school
and college and graduate school.
The second chief reason we ought to stay sharp in the Scriptures is because they are useful for
instruction...and the more that we allow ourselves to learn from God’s Holy Word the more we will inevitably see
its usefulness in our lives. Paul says to Timothy: “16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking,
correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Education is profitable! Recently, at least in the last couple of years, there have been an infinite number of
commercials for technical schools and specialized schools that urge people watching to consider their present job,
and how they could be making so much more money if they just went back to school for a little bit and trained to
be a medical assistant or a medical technician.
 Christian education, education in God’s Word in the various forms that it is available, is always profitable,
not in the sense that we can become rich with earthly treasure through it, but because God makes us spiritually rich
with his wisdom. Every time that we take the opportunity to crack open our Bibles, we profit from it. The Bible
isn’t just some random textbook filled with temporary knowledge that is only necessary to reproduce when the
instructor gives a test or an examination. The Bible is “living and active,” establishing what truth is and giving to
us, the readers and hearers the tools to refute falsehood. It has a living quality that is able to shape who we are, to
mold us in the way that God intended, so that our desires conform not to the world around us, but all the more to
the will of a gracious and loving God who loved us and gave himself for us. Oh, how we could never claim that the
Bible is old, dusty, useless information. No! In simple black and white, in simple words, in simple terms, in simple
ways, God trains us, educates us in righteousness, so that we hold on to the truths we have learned, and so that
when God presents us with the opportunity, we will be able to give the reason for the hope that we have in Christ
Jesus.
So, stay sharp! The summer months have a tendency to dull our hearts and minds with all the activities and
special events that we have going on. It’s time to get back to learning, time to “crack the Good book” once again,
not because we have to, but because we have seen the value, the power and usefulness of God’s Word. Stay sharp!
Be master students of the Master’s teaching. Amen.