I’ve Never Read the Bible, Where Should I Start?
Chapters
0:02:47 What does gospel mean in the Bible?
00:00:00.000 | Pastor John, here's an email—not an uncommon email—from a listener who writes in to ask
00:00:09.440 | this, "If I've never read the Bible by myself before, where should I start?"
00:00:15.440 | Oh, I would love to talk to such a person, so I hope he or she is listening.
00:00:21.560 | So let's start at ground zero.
00:00:24.640 | Absolute zero.
00:00:25.640 | A few big picture things that'll help my simple, straightforward answer make sense.
00:00:31.640 | The Bible is a collection of 66 distinct books.
00:00:36.740 | These were written by different people over a span of about 1,500 years, which makes their
00:00:43.280 | amazing harmony and unity and development all the more amazing.
00:00:50.560 | But it's important to realize that there were numerous authors, human authors, not
00:00:57.080 | just one.
00:00:58.840 | So these 66 books in the one book called the Bible are different kinds of writing.
00:01:06.440 | Some are history, some are poetry, some is prophecy, some are letters, and so on.
00:01:12.620 | Different styles.
00:01:14.640 | And these are divided into two parts, right, called the Old Testament and the New Testament.
00:01:24.880 | The word "testament" is an old word for agreement or covenant about the way God was
00:01:30.960 | dealing with his people.
00:01:33.120 | The Old Covenant are the books written before Jesus Christ came into the world, and the
00:01:39.800 | New Covenant are the books written after Jesus Christ.
00:01:44.080 | So the Old Testament are books that are preparing for the coming of the Son of God into the
00:01:50.200 | world, Jesus Christ, and the New Testament is about what he did, who he was, how he started
00:01:56.880 | the Christian movement, and how we are to live as Christians in the light of all of
00:02:02.440 | that.
00:02:03.440 | So 39 books in the Old and 27 books in the New.
00:02:09.300 | So where should you start in this big library of God-inspired, true books?
00:02:18.600 | My answer is, since Jesus is the central figure in the Bible, and he explains everything else,
00:02:24.360 | if you understand Jesus, you're going to be able to understand the other parts better.
00:02:28.520 | Then you need to get to know him first.
00:02:31.840 | There are four books at the beginning of the New Testament that give an account of his
00:02:37.040 | ministry, and somewhat of his life, although none of them covers every year of his life,
00:02:44.320 | because what he did in his last three years was all-important, so that's what they focus
00:02:48.920 | on.
00:02:49.920 | And these four books are called the Gospels, the Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
00:02:55.720 | The word "gospel" means "good news," and this is the foundation of our good news, called
00:03:00.720 | the Gospel.
00:03:01.720 | Here's where I'd start.
00:03:02.720 | The Gospel of Mark is the shortest one, 16 short chapters.
00:03:08.320 | I would start there, and here's the way I'd do it.
00:03:10.320 | I would set aside two hours, some Sunday morning or Saturday evening, or sometimes when you're
00:03:16.440 | going to stay awake, and read the whole thing straight through, 16 chapters.
00:03:19.560 | And I say two hours because I'm a slow reader, and I've done that.
00:03:22.800 | I've sat down, read the entire Gospel of Mark straight through.
00:03:27.160 | You might be able to do it in one hour.
00:03:30.360 | And that'll give you an overview of the ministry of Jesus.
00:03:33.480 | It's very fast-paced, clip, clip, clip, clip.
00:03:35.680 | One of the most common words in Mark is "immediate."
00:03:40.040 | And then, the second thing I would do is do the same thing with the Gospel of John.
00:03:45.720 | It's longer, 21 chapters, and they're longer.
00:03:49.400 | Mark is fast-paced, riddled with action, the sorts of things Jesus did.
00:03:54.200 | John is reflective, slower-paced, contains lots and lots of the teachings of Jesus, gets
00:04:01.000 | you inside his mind and heart and being in a concerted and focused way.
00:04:08.320 | And then, when you've read Mark and John, just to get you exposed to what he did and
00:04:13.880 | what he taught and who he was, I would point you in two directions, depending on the kind
00:04:20.400 | of person you are.
00:04:21.960 | If you're a lover of seeing things systematized and organized into a beautiful whole, go to
00:04:29.680 | Romans next, the letter to the Romans, another 16 chapters.
00:04:35.680 | Or if you are the kind of person who loves fast-paced action and want to see what happened,
00:04:44.240 | what happened, how did this movement move on in the world, then go to the book of Acts.
00:04:49.320 | You can hear the very title.
00:04:51.960 | And this is how the Gospel gets from Jerusalem at the death and resurrection of Jesus all
00:04:57.160 | the way to Rome about 30 years later in the amazing works of God to establish his church.
00:05:03.920 | And the last thing I would say is, there's a book in the Bible, right smack in the middle
00:05:09.080 | of the Bible.
00:05:10.080 | If you flop your Bible open to smack in the middle, it's going to open to Psalms.
00:05:14.720 | 150 Psalms.
00:05:17.160 | These are the prayers and the songs of the people of God, many of them written by King
00:05:22.060 | David of Israel.
00:05:23.820 | And they capture all the moods and the ups and downs and struggles of God's people.
00:05:30.440 | And there are a lot of people who love this book more than any book in the Bible.
00:05:33.280 | My wife would say Psalms is her favorite book.
00:05:38.240 | And that's the approach I would take.
00:05:40.120 | It would give you that last exposure, would give you a way to manage lots of the feelings
00:05:44.920 | you're going to have as a new Christian.
00:05:50.280 | But let yourself be caught up in what amazes you.
00:05:54.520 | Don't consider my advice or anybody's advice where you have to read.
00:05:58.320 | It's all God's Word.
00:06:00.200 | It's all inspired and reliable.
00:06:03.720 | All of it's profitable to help you know Christ and know how to be saved from sin and from
00:06:10.120 | condemnation and how to have eternal life and how to live a life pleasing to God in
00:06:16.360 | this world.
00:06:17.360 | So you're on the brink of the greatest adventure of your life.
00:06:22.680 | Amen.
00:06:24.400 | Very well put.
00:06:25.400 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:06:26.400 | And if you'd like to open the Bible and study with Pastor John himself, we recently launched
00:06:29.720 | a series of video tutorials called "Look at the Book."
00:06:33.380 | You can check those out at DesiringGod.org.
00:06:36.400 | Click on the tab that says "Labs" on the top of the screen.
00:06:40.560 | And tomorrow we return with a question about how we can go deeper with Christ and our union
00:06:44.960 | with Christ.
00:06:45.960 | I'm your host Tony Reinke.
00:06:46.960 | We'll see you tomorrow.
00:06:47.720 | [END]
00:06:49.720 | 1.
00:06:50.720 | What is the most important thing you've learned from your pastor?
00:06:51.720 | 2.
00:06:52.720 | What is the most important thing you've learned from your pastor?
00:06:53.720 | 3.
00:06:54.720 | What is the most important thing you've learned from your pastor?
00:06:55.720 | 4.
00:06:56.720 | What is the most important thing you've learned from your pastor?