We just read Acts 17:11-12. Though I am now a pastor, I was quite lost during my university years. If I had to say my family’s religion, we were Buddhists, and no one in my family attended church. I wandered a bit pursuing the meaning of life. When I went to university, many people approached me by evangelizing.

At that time, I was actually searching for the meaning of life, so I asked them a few questions. One of those questions was, for example, “It’s said that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, but it is hard to believe. Do you have any evidence to prove it?” To that, they gave me an answer. What do you think it was? Have you ever had any similar experience? They answered, “It says so in the Bible.” Because I didn’t believe in the Bible, I wasn’t satisfied with that answer. So, I said, “You are Christians who believe in the Bible as a sacred religious book and base your faith on it. But since I’m not a believer, I don’t believe that. Any other proofs?” From memory, I don’t think I ever got a satisfactory answer. Another question I had was, “It says God created heaven and earth, but do you have proof of it?” Once again, the answer I was given was, “The Bible says so.” So, it was hard for me to accept that.

Do you have a Bible with you today? It may be your first time at church today but after some weeks at church you will probably go on doing Bible study. For the people that enjoy reading on their smartphones nowadays, the Bible might seem like a very thick book to read. But the contents of the Bible are not actually that difficult. All you need to do is to obtain what God has put in it.

The Bible consists of two parts. One is the Old Testament, and do you know what is the other?  The New Testament. They are both testaments meaning they are covenants. They are covenants (promises) between God and man. The Old and New Testaments are divided based on Jesus Christ. Unbelievers don’t believe that Jesus is Christ. “Christ” means “the One sent by God” or “the Savior from God.”

Jesus came to the earth roughly 2000 years ago, and the Old and New Testaments are divided based on before and after His coming. Hence the Old Testament was started to be written from about 3500 years ago. It was a book read by people of faith up until the time Jesus came, which was about 2000 years ago from now. And the New Testament started to be written approximately 2000 years ago. Many people have a misconception of the Bible that the whole book was written by one clever person. The people that wrote the Bible from 3500 years to 2000 years ago, all lived at different times over a span of 1500 years. And the number of books in the Bible is 66. Hence it is by different people at different times that the Bible was written.

The Old Testament mainly consists of prophecies. Those prophecies, we believe, are written regarding Jesus Christ. And the New Testament writes about how the One prophesied about came to the earth. It also explains about what He did on the earth and its relation to us in the present day.

But we can find something extraordinary in the relationship between the Old and the New Testament. In the passage we just read of Acts 17, there’s a man named Paul. He was a man devoted to the Old Testament. But one day he realized that the One prophesied about in the Old Testament is Jesus and began testifying about Jesus. As he began testifying about Jesus, he experienced the amazing power of the living God. Furthermore, he started to experience the words promised by Jesus, whom He had never seen the face of, coming to fulfillment upon him. As experienced so many incredible things, he went through various places, preaching about Jesus. We can say that he preached the gospel, for preaching the gospel means to testify about Jesus.

He left the Turkish region and went all the way to Europe. From Europe he went over to the region which is now Greece and then arrived at Berea. When he got there, he met the people who believed in the Old Testament at the time, that is, the Jews. So, he went to where they had gathered and testified about what he had experienced. This passage is where he was speaking to the Jews about his experiences.

He told them about what happened to him in Jerusalem. He told them this: that this man named Jesus was supposedly doing God’s work, but the people had Him arrested and killed Him by hanging Him on the cross. Not only that, He resurrected in three days and was taken up to heaven. It sounds quite silly. If we were to tell this to someone on the streets today, there would hardly be anyone who believes us.

And these people who had firmly believed in the Old Testament couldn’t believe in Jesus either. According to the Old Testament, the Savior of the world was supposed to come as a king. But this Jesus was saying strange things, that He is equal to God, and in the end, He was captured by the people and put to death atrociously on the cross. Hence, it was hard for them to believe Him to be the Savior prophesied about in the Old Testament. And it was about Him—Jesus—that Paul was testifying.

When Paul preached about Jesus, his emphasis was on the resurrection of Jesus. Resurrection—the rising again from death. After listening to what Paul said, the people in Berea showed a different response to the people of Thessalonica. The Thessalonians’ reaction to Paul’s preaching was, “Hey this man is talking strange! He is speaking outrageously about something different to our faith. Let’s kill him!” In this way, they even planned to kill him.

But the Bereans were different. Their response was different. The people of Berea listened to what Paul said, and while it sounded strange and was hard to believe, they checked the Bible which they had. Paul’s preaching was something new to them, and what Paul told them was about something that took place in Jerusalem, in another land far away from them. They couldn’t call someone in Jerusalem to check whether Paul’s words were true. Instead, they checked the Bible they had.

If Paul’s preaching was really true, they believed that what was written in the Bible, which they had been reading since their ancestors’ time for more than a thousand years, would align with the events that which took place in Jerusalem. This was their faith. It’s fascinating. The Bible that they had been studying for many generations since their ancestors’ time coincided with all that took place in Jerusalem. The Bible and a real event corresponded with each other. That was what they were trying to confirm.

Though it seemed quite bizarre according to common sense, the Bereans examined the Bible. When they examined the Bible from the beginning, they found that everything that happened to Jesus was in accordance with what was written in the Bible. And it was not just one or two points that matched. When they heard about what Jesus did and then examined the Bible, they were able to understand even the parts that seemed unclear to them before. They found themselves thinking, “Oh, so this is what it means!”

For example, there is a passage in the Bible that says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way.” The sheep went their own ways, but God had placed our sins upon Him. And He carried our sins like a sheep led to the slaughter. Previously, they didn’t understand what these words meant when they read. But after listening to all that happened to Jesus Christ, they realized that the words in the Bible coincided with Him. Also, in another passage in the Old Testament, it says, “when that day arrives, the demons will be expelled!” And truly, this One called Jesus who came did that unique work of driving out demons.

In this way, the people searched the Old Testament to see how many things that were written about Jesus had happened. Present-day theologians believe that more than twenty thousand prophecies were fulfilled. Thus, those countless records in the Bible are in accordance with Jesus. And when the people of Berea examined the Bible, although they were not scholars, they found that the Bible was perfectly in line with what Paul said. As a result, they believed. “Ah, this person called Jesus, who died and resurrected, He truly must be the Son of God!” They came to have faith. This is the faith of Christians.

Our faith is not just about a burning feeling in our hearts or having some personal experiences. Rather it is about us first confirming that the records in the Bible are actually true. What are the words written in the Bible? That God will send a Savior for humans who have become a sinner. Why send a Savior? Because, without Him, humans are headed for destruction.

Then when we examine the life of Jesus Christ, it coincides with the Bible. That is why we believe the Bible. Since we experienced many of these things—how the words in the Bible are fulfilled, we Christians who believe uphold the Bible and never deny its value. We believe that every word in the Bible will be accomplished.

Therefore, becoming a Christian can be put in this way: Christians are those who believe that the words of the Bible will certainly come to fulfillment. Thus, we read the Bible. We read it during worship and also daily, because we know that those words in the Bible are fulfilled upon us.

After Jesus came, everything that He did and said was also written. That is the New Testament. The words in the New Testament will also come to fulfillment. Just as the prophecies in the past, which said that Jesus would come, were fulfilled, the words that Jesus Himself said will surely be fulfilled upon those who believe in Him. The focus is all on Jesus.

Jesus said, “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”  Now, two thousand years later, as someone who had lived without Jesus for half my life, would it be easy to receive Jesus? I had a lot of resistance towards it. But I held onto the words written in the Bible, the words that Jesus spoke, and I prayed before God like this. “If You are really living God, let Your word be done in me!” And actually, that word came true. Many of God’s words came true to me, and they were the words spoken by Jesus and written by His disciple 2000 years ago which were fulfilled upon me 2000 years later. That’s what’s so amazing about it.

To believe in Jesus means we experience that the words in the Bible come to fulfillment upon us. These marvelous words come true upon us. Believers of Jesus are incredible. For example, I started to experience things I had never imagined before. Jesus said, “If you believe in Me you will see miracles and marvelous things such as this: when you lay hands on the sick, they will get well.” So, I laid my hands on the sick.

Three months after I came to believe in Jesus, I went to serve in the army. When I was a fresh recruit in the army, I had only been a believer for just three months —hardly enough time to be deeply trained in faith.  But isn’t the faith life to undergo training?  When I went to training camp, I noticed that there were a great deal people who were sick. So, just as I believed, just as it is written in the Bible, I placed my hands on the sick. And during those few weeks at the training camp, I had quite a number of experiences. When I prayed for someone with pain the leg, his leg was no longer hurting. When I prayed for another person with a headache, the headache disappeared. So, I told them, “I’ll pray for you, so let’s go to church together!” And they’d reply, “OK, as long as I can get well, I’ll come!” As a result, I brought many people to church.

These things happened from the moment I started believing in Jesus and have continued to occur after that. At first, I prayed for people with headaches and leg pains, but later on, even a blind person came to me. I placed my hands on him, believing as it is written that if we lay hands on the sick, they will get well. Over time, about ten or so blind people came to me. Not all ten were healed. However, two of them were. Even deaf people came, and two of them were able to hear again. A paralytic, a paraplegic, was healed. The things written in the Bible are being fulfilled to us.

Jesus also said, “You will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you..” Even this is fulfilled upon us. Before I believed in Jesus, there were so many things I wanted to do but could not. It was due to a lack of money or worries about the future. But after I believed in Jesus, I gained an assurance in my heart, “Ah, this will be pleasing to God!” So, when I have an urge to do it, I go ahead with it, even if I don’t have the money or my circumstances don’t allow me to. Everything else comes along. I experience extraordinary things in my life. It has reached the point where people around me exclaim, “How do you live like that, doing only the things you want to do?”

Such incredible authority is given to Christians. This is because this intriguing Bible has become ours. Faith life is the life in which the Bible is fulfilled. If you keep the Bible closed up, it will seem worthless. It would be a boring book that only gets dust piled on it. But this book is an intriguing book. God’s promise is there. Whoever believes and trusts this will certainly have those promises will surely be fulfilled upon him. Though it is a book written 2000 years ago or 3500 years ago, it is still accomplished in us today. Why? Because the One who oversees the compilation of that book is God who is still living.

Therefore, when you first come church to start a faith life, you might follow a friend or be drawn by the welcoming atmosphere. But what you really need to start knowing is that the words written in the Bible will be fulfilled in you. You should start experiencing those many wonderful promises in the Bible. I bless you in Jesus’ name that you will be able to lead such faith lives. I’ll pray.

God our Father, thank You for giving us such an intriguing book, the Bible. Help the souls here to love this book written by You, which contains the words that are sure to be fulfilled. Help them to experience the wonder of Your Word. In Jesus’ name. Amen!