Basics of Bible Study – Time Frame– Four Weeks
Pastor Tom Gardner
SOM CCC
Overview of Course of Study:
Week 1 – Why? - The importance of correctly interpreting the Bible.
The objective of this study is to learn a simple, inductive method of approaching the Bible allowing the student to interpret scripture in context. Students will learn to identify themes in passages of scripture and learn to apply scriptural truth to their lives.
Interactive Teaching
Students will receive interactive teaching each week for four weeks centered around the following themes:
Week One – Why?
The importance of correctly interpreting the Bible.
Week Two – What?
Basics of observing the text of the Bible
Asking the simple questions:
Who?, What?, When?, Where?, Why? and How?
Week Three – So What?
Learning the basics of interpretation of scripture
including rules of context.
Week Four – Now What?
Now that we know what scripture is saying,
how do we apply it to our lives?
Textbook:
Students will daily read and work through
Lord, Teach Me to Study the Bible, by Kay Arthur
which is a 28 day study.
Pastor Tom Gardner
SOM CCC
Overview of Course of Study:
Week 1 – Why? - The importance of correctly interpreting the Bible.
The objective of this study is to learn a simple, inductive method of approaching the Bible allowing the student to interpret scripture in context. Students will learn to identify themes in passages of scripture and learn to apply scriptural truth to their lives.
Interactive Teaching
Students will receive interactive teaching each week for four weeks centered around the following themes:
Week One – Why?
The importance of correctly interpreting the Bible.
Week Two – What?
Basics of observing the text of the Bible
Asking the simple questions:
Who?, What?, When?, Where?, Why? and How?
Week Three – So What?
Learning the basics of interpretation of scripture
including rules of context.
Week Four – Now What?
Now that we know what scripture is saying,
how do we apply it to our lives?
Textbook:
Students will daily read and work through
Lord, Teach Me to Study the Bible, by Kay Arthur
which is a 28 day study.
The work will be done by individual students on a daily basis.
Small Study Groups:
Students will be assigned to small study groups
in which they will collaborate
in the study of the following passages:
John 17
John 3:1 – 21
Luke 10: 1-24
Students will be assigned to small study groups
in which they will collaborate
in the study of the following passages:
John 17
John 3:1 – 21
Luke 10: 1-24
Psalm 23
Psalm 139
Ruth 3
Ruth 3
The small groups will analyze and interpret
one of these passages of scripture together.
Each student will do a short paper on their findings
following the format, What?, So What?, Now What?
This paper is due one week after the final session.
Session 1 Why?
The importance of correctly interpreting the Bible.
It is really important that you know about
and how to handle the scripture.
It is important for you to understand the nature of scripture.
It is important for you to understand
where revelation comes from in scripture.
There are good ways and not-so-good ways
to look at and interpret scripture.
As we work our way through this
we need to be faithful to do the daily homework assignments
so that we become competent in interpreting scripture properly
The assignments are very short and will not take very long.
This approach is not difficult but it is systematic.
We need to have a systematic approach
because the next thing we will be going into
is an Old Testament Survey.
It is a good idea for us to have
a systematic, precise way to look at scripture.
We look at the scripture according to its context,
but we also learn how to interpret scripture on a deeper context;
not just a literary and grammatical and historical context…
but we learn to look at it in the heart context of God.
How many of us know that that is the most important thing.
The scripture is actually something
that speaks the heart of God.
There are three words, and if you learn these three words
you will master this class… I guarantee it.
Not only will you master this class
but you will understand how to handle scripture
in just three words… do you believe that?
The words are:
What?…
So what?… and
Now What?...
I went through years of seminary
and got an undergraduate degree in theology
and a masters in seminary
and nobody ever said those three words to me.
I can’t believe it
You can boil down half of what I have learned in biblical exegesis
(exegesis = a critical explanation or interpretation of the Bible)
into those three words…
I just scraped about two years of education..
just took a bulldozer and scraped it into the ocean.
Now I’m going to teach you an efficient and good way
for you to study scripture.
Every time you look at the Bible
you need to ask three questions. What are they?
What?...
So What?... and
Now What?...
If you grab hold of that
You will be able to preach,
you will be able to share,
you’ll be able to teach,
you’ll be able to understand
and you will learn to ask the scripture questions… right?
When you look at a passage of scripture
you don’t just read the words,
you look at the scripture
and you ask the scripture questions.
Now there is a fancy word
I might use this word more than one time
but it’s called inductive.
That means … inductive…
There are two different ways of thinking
I don’t want you all to get twisted out of sight
as we start here
but two big words deductive and inductive.
Deductive is like I start off with a whole pie
and I eat it one slice at a time…
which sounds like a good idea to me.
Now inductive is I build the pie
one piece at a time.
That’s what were doing we are building something, we are encountering something.
The Lord is inviting us into the biblical text and He is going to show us how to interpret that text in a right way.
It is really important that you know about
and how to handle the scripture.
It is important for you to understand the nature of scripture.
It is important for you to understand
where revelation comes from in scripture.
There are good ways and not-so-good ways
to look at and interpret scripture.
As we work our way through this
we need to be faithful to do the daily homework assignments
so that we become competent in interpreting scripture properly
The assignments are very short and will not take very long.
This approach is not difficult but it is systematic.
We need to have a systematic approach
because the next thing we will be going into
is an Old Testament Survey.
It is a good idea for us to have
a systematic, precise way to look at scripture.
We look at the scripture according to its context,
but we also learn how to interpret scripture on a deeper context;
not just a literary and grammatical and historical context…
but we learn to look at it in the heart context of God.
How many of us know that that is the most important thing.
The scripture is actually something
that speaks the heart of God.
There are three words, and if you learn these three words
you will master this class… I guarantee it.
Not only will you master this class
but you will understand how to handle scripture
in just three words… do you believe that?
The words are:
What?…
So what?… and
Now What?...
I went through years of seminary
and got an undergraduate degree in theology
and a masters in seminary
and nobody ever said those three words to me.
I can’t believe it
You can boil down half of what I have learned in biblical exegesis
(exegesis = a critical explanation or interpretation of the Bible)
into those three words…
I just scraped about two years of education..
just took a bulldozer and scraped it into the ocean.
Now I’m going to teach you an efficient and good way
for you to study scripture.
Every time you look at the Bible
you need to ask three questions. What are they?
What?...
So What?... and
Now What?...
If you grab hold of that
You will be able to preach,
you will be able to share,
you’ll be able to teach,
you’ll be able to understand
and you will learn to ask the scripture questions… right?
When you look at a passage of scripture
you don’t just read the words,
you look at the scripture
and you ask the scripture questions.
Now there is a fancy word
I might use this word more than one time
but it’s called inductive.
That means … inductive…
There are two different ways of thinking
I don’t want you all to get twisted out of sight
as we start here
but two big words deductive and inductive.
Deductive is like I start off with a whole pie
and I eat it one slice at a time…
which sounds like a good idea to me.
Now inductive is I build the pie
one piece at a time.
That’s what were doing we are building something, we are encountering something.
The Lord is inviting us into the biblical text and He is going to show us how to interpret that text in a right way.
Now sometimes people look at the scriptures
or they teach or they read or study the scripture
and they quote things out of context;
or they talk about scriptures in a way
that those scriptures were not intended to be talked about.
For instance if you look at the ‘Songs of the Servant’
in the Book of Isaiah,
there are several servant songs
and Messianic prophecies in Isaiah 53
and-so-on-and-so-forth.
Some of those things pertain to the nation of Israel
and some of them pertain to Jesus.
We need to know which one… it’s important.
We can’t just say “This is my opinion.”
We need to understand that
there are set ways to look at the scripture…
and by-the-way the Bible will interpret itself…
now, you may have other skillful tools available
things like commentaries and all that kind of stuff,
those are all very helpful things but
a commentary is the last thing you should look at…
A commentary is like…
somebody has looked at a book of the bible
and what they have done is
they have written down opinions
about what that (the bible) means.
They talk about the history
and the context and all that kind of stuff.
There’s a problem with that.
That’s very subjective.
That means that somebody
has their opinion injected into it.
or they teach or they read or study the scripture
and they quote things out of context;
or they talk about scriptures in a way
that those scriptures were not intended to be talked about.
For instance if you look at the ‘Songs of the Servant’
in the Book of Isaiah,
there are several servant songs
and Messianic prophecies in Isaiah 53
and-so-on-and-so-forth.
Some of those things pertain to the nation of Israel
and some of them pertain to Jesus.
We need to know which one… it’s important.
We can’t just say “This is my opinion.”
We need to understand that
there are set ways to look at the scripture…
and by-the-way the Bible will interpret itself…
now, you may have other skillful tools available
things like commentaries and all that kind of stuff,
those are all very helpful things but
a commentary is the last thing you should look at…
A commentary is like…
somebody has looked at a book of the bible
and what they have done is
they have written down opinions
about what that (the bible) means.
They talk about the history
and the context and all that kind of stuff.
There’s a problem with that.
That’s very subjective.
That means that somebody
has their opinion injected into it.
You could read a commentary for instance,
from someone who went to
Dallas Theological Seminary
and that person believes that
all spiritual gifts stopped
about two thousand years ago.
Do you think that’s a good way
to look at scripture?... No
For instance,
(I don’t know if there are any people
who are susationists here)
but some folks would, for instance
would believe that those gifts stopped.
And the scripture that they use
to say that those gifts stopped
is in first Corinthians 13 saying
“…but when the perfect comes the imperfect will pass away.”
1 Corinthians 13:10
They interpret that as saying that’s the Word of God
and the Canon was established, and since that is perfection
since that has come, we don’t need gifts anymore.
Hogwash! (That’s a technical term- )
What we need to understand here, about that passage of scripture
If we look at that scripture, in fact open your Bibles for a minute.
Look at First Corinthians 13.
What is the first verse of First Corinthians 13 about?
1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels,
but have not love,
I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
1 Corinthians 13:1 NIV
Now look down through about the next ten verses…
See if there is a particular word that seems to jump our at you.
“Love”
So, what is this scripture about?
(That’s called a dynamic context in fancy terms.)
That’s a paragraph… what is that about?
It’s about love!
How in the world could you use that scripture
to say that the gifts of the Spirit have ceased?
People have PhD’s and say that.
I have no clue how you could possibly get to that conclusion
reading what the Bible itself says.
The Bible will interpret itself.
We need to learn to ask questions of scripture
so that the Bible can still speak to us
the way it did thousands of years ago… Amen?
We’re going to talk about some basics of Bible study.
We’re going to talk about your textbook in a minute too.
Any questions about what I’ve shared so far?
Generally speaking what we’re talking about
when we are talking about ‘what?’
we’re talking about observation.
That’s in your notes but you might want to write that down.
When we’re talking about that word ‘what’
we’re talking about the word observation.
I need to observe something.
If I’m reading scripture I need to observe something.
Say observation…
That’s what ‘what’ is about…
We need to observe, see
The second question, ‘So What?’
is about interpretation.
‘So What?’ means, ‘so what does that mean’…
So ‘What?’ is what you see…
but ‘So What?’ is “what does that mean?”
That “what does that mean?,” by the way,
that interpretation does not come down to
my opinion of what it means.
We need to look at the scripture in the context
and it will tell us what it means.
We get all twisted out of shape sometimes
trying to figure out what the Bible says
and it’s just plain, it’s right there!
We sometimes try to read things into scripture
that are just not there.
So, the first thing we’re talking about is ‘What?’
The second thing we’re talking about is ‘So What?’
which is interpretation and
‘Now What?’ is about application.
How many of us know that the Lord
gave us instruction in the scripture
not just because He had
some extra Spirit that day, some extra breath,
but that he had something He wanted is to What?
To do, to accomplish, to live!
He gave us the scripture so that we would be able to live by that thing.
So we’re talking about again…
‘ What?’ refers to observation
‘So What?’ refers to interpretation and
‘Now What?’ refers to application
how do I walk this our…
how do I live this out….
Is that pretty easy?
What are the three questions?
‘ What?’
‘So What?’
‘Now What?’
What’s ‘ What?...’ about?.... observation
What’s ‘So What?’ about?.... interpretation
What’s ‘Now What?’ about?.... application
See that you’re just half-way there already!
Now we’re going to do just a little exercise right now
Then I’ll talk about this little textbook.
The textbook, LORD Teach Me to Study the Bible,
is going to be something your are basically doing outside of class.
That’s for your own inductive purpose.
I want to say, that when you are done with the class
I’m also going to want to look at that book.
So I want you to put your name in that book,
I’m going to check that book to make sure,
not that I don’t trust you,
but I want to make sure
that you are getting what we are talking about.
Not that I’m sneaking up on you,
but I want to make sure what we are teaching is clear
and that you are getting and understanding it.
There is no grade, it’s just basically “are we getting this.”
If there’s a grade, it’s a grade that I’m receiving,
not a grade that you’re receiving.
I need to get it across to you, O.K?
Here is a little exercise:
How many folks here have a favorite passage of scripture?
Is there a passage of scripture that you’re reading currently?
Here’s what I want you to do,
I want you, individuals,
(this is a quick thing only take five minutes for this…)
Pick a passage of scripture
that’s no more than like a paragraph…
Just read that, and I want you to ask that paragraph of scripture
three questions… and what are they?
‘ What?’
‘So What?’
‘Now What?’
That’s what I want you to do… take five minutes and do that.
I’ll put some music on in the background so that will annoy you.
Now who came up with a passage of scripture?
Do you want to share your passage of scripture?
Student Response: Sure, Psalm 1:1
O.K, Give me the passage…
Student Response:
Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
What’s it about?
Student Response:
It’s about how to live a blessed life…
By avoiding worldly ways…
O.K, now
When you observed that, when you asked the question ‘what?’
What are the things that you observed in that text?
Student Response:
The ‘what was just the idea of being blessed,
and the idea of not being with people
who are wicked, sinful or scornful.
O.K, now what’s the interpretation of that the ‘so what?’
Student Response:
The ‘so what?’ is be careful who you associate with, and what you look at or listen to.
Does that make sense?
Now, ‘Now What?’ what is the application?
Student Response:
The application is to seek the way of God,
not the way of the world.
O.K., does that sound pretty simple?
Now whether you got that far or not, that’s O.K.
You can basically use that approach with any passage of scripture.
We want to ask the scripture those questions.
Anybody else want to volunteer.
Yes back there…
Student Response:
Yes mine was Romans 8:26-27
O.K, go ahead.
Read the passage.
Student Response:
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
We do not know what we ought to pray for,
but the Spirit himself intercedes for us
with groans that words cannot express.
And he who searches our hearts
knows the mind of the Spirit,
because the Spirit intercedes for the saints
in accordance with God's will.
O.K, what’s the ‘What?’ there what do you observe?
Student Response:
The Spirit intercedes for us,
that He searches our heart,
and knows exactly how to pray for everything.
O.K, what is the interpretation?
Student Response:
I wrote down something here,
“It’s O.K if we don’t know what to say when we pray,
God’s Spirit knows exactly what we need
and prays through our noises
and knows exactly how to translate.”
O.K, what is the ‘Now What?’
Student Response:
I put, pray in every way possible,
not just in one certain way…
Is there any way you might sharpen that…
what is the application, what is Paul telling us to do?
Student Response:
I was finishing that up when you called on me.
O.K, what do you think he was calling us to do there?
Student Response:
I think he’s calling us to trust him more…
Trust! Trust is the key word.
Student Response:
And not use many words but to be slow to speak.
Use as few words as possible and get straight to the point.
Trust is the key thin there isn’t it?
Who is it and what is it that we are trusting.
The Holy Spirit
Student Response (in unison with instructor): the Holy Spirit
Yeah, It kind of leaves me ‘off-the-hook’
because is says I don’t always know how to pray…
Right? Isn’t that true?
Now you can approach those two verses of scripture
and get so other type of interpretation of it.
Some folks have used that passage of scripture
as a description about speaking in tongues.
Do you see the word tongues in there anywhere?
Does it have anything to do, even remotely, about speaking in tongues?
It doesn’t really have anything to do with speaking in tongues.
That has to do with the Holy Spirit…
it has to do with the fact that the Holy Spirit
is the One who is interceding.
Now you could go to other places in Corinthians
and find some other scriptures that talk about tongues
like 1 Corinthians, I think it is, 11…
you could look in those areas and see talking about tongues.
That is proper to do that…
but that particular scripture there
is not talking about speaking in tongues.
It’s talking about the Spirit…
If there is any mode of communication being spoken of there
what would it be?
What are the words that describe the mode of speaking
or communication?
Groaning!
Does that sound like tongues to you?
You see we need to be able to interpret what the scripture says by the scripture! Don’t read something into it. Read what it says. That’s very, very important. Especially because you are launching into an area of ministry whether you are teaching or preaching or sharing or ministering or witnessing, whatever it is that you are doing… we need to start off with the foundation that says, “This is what the Bible says.”
We need to be somehow sure of what the Bible says. Right? Everything that we are going to learn for three years (a reference to the length of study at the School of Ministry) for most of the part that you’re going to be discerning and learning, it needs to be subjected to those three questions… it really does, you know?
O.K. lets talk about your text up here for a minute.
from someone who went to
Dallas Theological Seminary
and that person believes that
all spiritual gifts stopped
about two thousand years ago.
Do you think that’s a good way
to look at scripture?... No
For instance,
(I don’t know if there are any people
who are susationists here)
but some folks would, for instance
would believe that those gifts stopped.
And the scripture that they use
to say that those gifts stopped
is in first Corinthians 13 saying
“…but when the perfect comes the imperfect will pass away.”
1 Corinthians 13:10
They interpret that as saying that’s the Word of God
and the Canon was established, and since that is perfection
since that has come, we don’t need gifts anymore.
Hogwash! (That’s a technical term- )
What we need to understand here, about that passage of scripture
If we look at that scripture, in fact open your Bibles for a minute.
Look at First Corinthians 13.
What is the first verse of First Corinthians 13 about?
1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels,
but have not love,
I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
1 Corinthians 13:1 NIV
Now look down through about the next ten verses…
See if there is a particular word that seems to jump our at you.
“Love”
So, what is this scripture about?
(That’s called a dynamic context in fancy terms.)
That’s a paragraph… what is that about?
It’s about love!
How in the world could you use that scripture
to say that the gifts of the Spirit have ceased?
People have PhD’s and say that.
I have no clue how you could possibly get to that conclusion
reading what the Bible itself says.
The Bible will interpret itself.
We need to learn to ask questions of scripture
so that the Bible can still speak to us
the way it did thousands of years ago… Amen?
We’re going to talk about some basics of Bible study.
We’re going to talk about your textbook in a minute too.
Any questions about what I’ve shared so far?
Generally speaking what we’re talking about
when we are talking about ‘what?’
we’re talking about observation.
That’s in your notes but you might want to write that down.
When we’re talking about that word ‘what’
we’re talking about the word observation.
I need to observe something.
If I’m reading scripture I need to observe something.
Say observation…
That’s what ‘what’ is about…
We need to observe, see
The second question, ‘So What?’
is about interpretation.
‘So What?’ means, ‘so what does that mean’…
So ‘What?’ is what you see…
but ‘So What?’ is “what does that mean?”
That “what does that mean?,” by the way,
that interpretation does not come down to
my opinion of what it means.
We need to look at the scripture in the context
and it will tell us what it means.
We get all twisted out of shape sometimes
trying to figure out what the Bible says
and it’s just plain, it’s right there!
We sometimes try to read things into scripture
that are just not there.
So, the first thing we’re talking about is ‘What?’
The second thing we’re talking about is ‘So What?’
which is interpretation and
‘Now What?’ is about application.
How many of us know that the Lord
gave us instruction in the scripture
not just because He had
some extra Spirit that day, some extra breath,
but that he had something He wanted is to What?
To do, to accomplish, to live!
He gave us the scripture so that we would be able to live by that thing.
So we’re talking about again…
‘ What?’ refers to observation
‘So What?’ refers to interpretation and
‘Now What?’ refers to application
how do I walk this our…
how do I live this out….
Is that pretty easy?
What are the three questions?
‘ What?’
‘So What?’
‘Now What?’
What’s ‘ What?...’ about?.... observation
What’s ‘So What?’ about?.... interpretation
What’s ‘Now What?’ about?.... application
See that you’re just half-way there already!
Now we’re going to do just a little exercise right now
Then I’ll talk about this little textbook.
The textbook, LORD Teach Me to Study the Bible,
is going to be something your are basically doing outside of class.
That’s for your own inductive purpose.
I want to say, that when you are done with the class
I’m also going to want to look at that book.
So I want you to put your name in that book,
I’m going to check that book to make sure,
not that I don’t trust you,
but I want to make sure
that you are getting what we are talking about.
Not that I’m sneaking up on you,
but I want to make sure what we are teaching is clear
and that you are getting and understanding it.
There is no grade, it’s just basically “are we getting this.”
If there’s a grade, it’s a grade that I’m receiving,
not a grade that you’re receiving.
I need to get it across to you, O.K?
Here is a little exercise:
How many folks here have a favorite passage of scripture?
Is there a passage of scripture that you’re reading currently?
Here’s what I want you to do,
I want you, individuals,
(this is a quick thing only take five minutes for this…)
Pick a passage of scripture
that’s no more than like a paragraph…
Just read that, and I want you to ask that paragraph of scripture
three questions… and what are they?
‘ What?’
‘So What?’
‘Now What?’
That’s what I want you to do… take five minutes and do that.
I’ll put some music on in the background so that will annoy you.
Now who came up with a passage of scripture?
Do you want to share your passage of scripture?
Student Response: Sure, Psalm 1:1
O.K, Give me the passage…
Student Response:
Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
What’s it about?
Student Response:
It’s about how to live a blessed life…
By avoiding worldly ways…
O.K, now
When you observed that, when you asked the question ‘what?’
What are the things that you observed in that text?
Student Response:
The ‘what was just the idea of being blessed,
and the idea of not being with people
who are wicked, sinful or scornful.
O.K, now what’s the interpretation of that the ‘so what?’
Student Response:
The ‘so what?’ is be careful who you associate with, and what you look at or listen to.
Does that make sense?
Now, ‘Now What?’ what is the application?
Student Response:
The application is to seek the way of God,
not the way of the world.
O.K., does that sound pretty simple?
Now whether you got that far or not, that’s O.K.
You can basically use that approach with any passage of scripture.
We want to ask the scripture those questions.
Anybody else want to volunteer.
Yes back there…
Student Response:
Yes mine was Romans 8:26-27
O.K, go ahead.
Read the passage.
Student Response:
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
We do not know what we ought to pray for,
but the Spirit himself intercedes for us
with groans that words cannot express.
And he who searches our hearts
knows the mind of the Spirit,
because the Spirit intercedes for the saints
in accordance with God's will.
O.K, what’s the ‘What?’ there what do you observe?
Student Response:
The Spirit intercedes for us,
that He searches our heart,
and knows exactly how to pray for everything.
O.K, what is the interpretation?
Student Response:
I wrote down something here,
“It’s O.K if we don’t know what to say when we pray,
God’s Spirit knows exactly what we need
and prays through our noises
and knows exactly how to translate.”
O.K, what is the ‘Now What?’
Student Response:
I put, pray in every way possible,
not just in one certain way…
Is there any way you might sharpen that…
what is the application, what is Paul telling us to do?
Student Response:
I was finishing that up when you called on me.
O.K, what do you think he was calling us to do there?
Student Response:
I think he’s calling us to trust him more…
Trust! Trust is the key word.
Student Response:
And not use many words but to be slow to speak.
Use as few words as possible and get straight to the point.
Trust is the key thin there isn’t it?
Who is it and what is it that we are trusting.
The Holy Spirit
Student Response (in unison with instructor): the Holy Spirit
Yeah, It kind of leaves me ‘off-the-hook’
because is says I don’t always know how to pray…
Right? Isn’t that true?
Now you can approach those two verses of scripture
and get so other type of interpretation of it.
Some folks have used that passage of scripture
as a description about speaking in tongues.
Do you see the word tongues in there anywhere?
Does it have anything to do, even remotely, about speaking in tongues?
It doesn’t really have anything to do with speaking in tongues.
That has to do with the Holy Spirit…
it has to do with the fact that the Holy Spirit
is the One who is interceding.
Now you could go to other places in Corinthians
and find some other scriptures that talk about tongues
like 1 Corinthians, I think it is, 11…
you could look in those areas and see talking about tongues.
That is proper to do that…
but that particular scripture there
is not talking about speaking in tongues.
It’s talking about the Spirit…
If there is any mode of communication being spoken of there
what would it be?
What are the words that describe the mode of speaking
or communication?
Groaning!
Does that sound like tongues to you?
You see we need to be able to interpret what the scripture says by the scripture! Don’t read something into it. Read what it says. That’s very, very important. Especially because you are launching into an area of ministry whether you are teaching or preaching or sharing or ministering or witnessing, whatever it is that you are doing… we need to start off with the foundation that says, “This is what the Bible says.”
We need to be somehow sure of what the Bible says. Right? Everything that we are going to learn for three years (a reference to the length of study at the School of Ministry) for most of the part that you’re going to be discerning and learning, it needs to be subjected to those three questions… it really does, you know?
O.K. lets talk about your text up here for a minute.
Don’t be so shocked or anything it’s O.K. We’re still friends
Now a little book called LORD, Teach Me to Study the Bible,
the instructions are in it.
I’ve already worked through the book,
now it is going to give you some options, somebody…
I’m going to give you some suggestions and recommendations,
you don’t have to do what I do… This is just what I do, O.K?
I am not a guy who uses a lot of highlighters.
I am like ‘Old School’ I use a pencil.
I am an ‘Old School’ kind of a person.
You are going to see when you begin to study this,
when she (reference to the author Kay Arthur)…
by the way this woman here has no degree in Bible,
she has no degree in theology,
she is probably the most widely read author
in every seminary that I’ve bee acquainted with
showing people how to study the Bible,
she doesn’t have a degree, she’s an RN.
She is a nurse for heavens sakes.
That doesn’t say RN- PhD or RN-DMD …
she’s an incredibly anointed teacher.
You know why… she’s learned to ask the scripture questions.
She has a whole series of Bibles, for heavens sake.
She is great, a tremendous teacher.
What she’s going to do here is she is going to teach us
that fancy word inductive…
she’s going to teach us an inductive way to look at the scripture
and find out what it is saying.
Does that make sense?
Very important for us to do.
Now I want you to read through this
and to do the daily questions it asks you to do.
It is not a back-breaker, I did the whole thing in two days.
It is not a big thing.
So basically just read through it and answer the questions.
She is going to give you suggestions,
like you’re going to be going through
various texts in the book itself
that you are going to be doing things
like highlighting or choosing to create
a little symbol for particular words.
I… this is just my recommendation…
My recommendation is for you to use a pencil
and create the symbol.
She will explain what I’m talking about.
My recommendation is that you don’t use a highlighter,
but that you use a pencil and to make symbols.
I forgot to do this, basically
because I have to dig stuff out of my archives.
We moved here about a year ago, moved closer to here
and I have an archive of Bible study things and journals
about that fat (holding his hands about a meter apart)
Basically if I was studying a book of the Bible, for instance
when I was studying the book of Ephesians
(when I was exegesing the book of Ephesians)
I wrote it out longhand five times before I ever studied it.
Like most of the New Testament I wrote it out about five times…
Now a little book called LORD, Teach Me to Study the Bible,
the instructions are in it.
I’ve already worked through the book,
now it is going to give you some options, somebody…
I’m going to give you some suggestions and recommendations,
you don’t have to do what I do… This is just what I do, O.K?
I am not a guy who uses a lot of highlighters.
I am like ‘Old School’ I use a pencil.
I am an ‘Old School’ kind of a person.
You are going to see when you begin to study this,
when she (reference to the author Kay Arthur)…
by the way this woman here has no degree in Bible,
she has no degree in theology,
she is probably the most widely read author
in every seminary that I’ve bee acquainted with
showing people how to study the Bible,
she doesn’t have a degree, she’s an RN.
She is a nurse for heavens sakes.
That doesn’t say RN- PhD or RN-DMD …
she’s an incredibly anointed teacher.
You know why… she’s learned to ask the scripture questions.
She has a whole series of Bibles, for heavens sake.
She is great, a tremendous teacher.
What she’s going to do here is she is going to teach us
that fancy word inductive…
she’s going to teach us an inductive way to look at the scripture
and find out what it is saying.
Does that make sense?
Very important for us to do.
Now I want you to read through this
and to do the daily questions it asks you to do.
It is not a back-breaker, I did the whole thing in two days.
It is not a big thing.
So basically just read through it and answer the questions.
She is going to give you suggestions,
like you’re going to be going through
various texts in the book itself
that you are going to be doing things
like highlighting or choosing to create
a little symbol for particular words.
I… this is just my recommendation…
My recommendation is for you to use a pencil
and create the symbol.
She will explain what I’m talking about.
My recommendation is that you don’t use a highlighter,
but that you use a pencil and to make symbols.
I forgot to do this, basically
because I have to dig stuff out of my archives.
We moved here about a year ago, moved closer to here
and I have an archive of Bible study things and journals
about that fat (holding his hands about a meter apart)
Basically if I was studying a book of the Bible, for instance
when I was studying the book of Ephesians
(when I was exegesing the book of Ephesians)
I wrote it out longhand five times before I ever studied it.
Like most of the New Testament I wrote it out about five times…
why?, because I wanted to get it in my spirit.
Then what I do when I start to write
and want to understand what the Bible says;
I do exactly what we are going to do in this course.
I took the biblical text and I actually copied it,
I didn’t write those things in the Bible.
My Bible has wide margins and lots of other notes,
some books in my Bible has so many notes
that I can’t write any more notes…
it’s time to trade it in and get another one.
Which I really like, by-the-way, I like that new Bible smell.
Basically what I would do is take
the written pages of Galatians or Ephesians or something like that
and do what we are going to do tonight with some passages.
I would take those passages of scripture
and I would copy it and I would put it in a separate notebook.
I studied the books of the scriptures, not all of them,
but I studied most of the New Testament that way…
especially the epistles…
in a way that I created all these little symbols for various things.
You’ll understand that more as time goes by.
So I’m going to suggest that if you get into
a major inductive study of a book of the Bible.
Which is a good way to study by the way;
I would suggest that you get a separate notebook
just like a binder you have there (loose leaf binder)
and that you print the text out
and make all your notes in that notebook.
That way you can do a lot more note-taking on the text.
I like to make mine with double spacing and wide margins
so there is lots of room to make notes.
So this (the text) is for you to do on a daily basis.
It is set up on a daily basis… tomorrow is day one.
So just kind of go through this, I you have questions next week just bring them (to class).
If I can do it anybody can do it.
You will see that it is rather simple but it is very thorough.
It is going to take you through a couple of passages of scripture
in the Old Testament for the most part… the book of Jonah…
you’ll end up with an inductive study of the book of Jonah
by the time you’re done with this book.
You will find out things about Jonah that you never thought.
You’ll see thing that you never new,
and you’re not even going to crack a commentary,
you’re just going to look at the Bible.
You’re going to see what the Bible says about itself.
A couple of those other passages there, 2nd Kings and 2nd Kings 23;1-3,
Then what I do when I start to write
and want to understand what the Bible says;
I do exactly what we are going to do in this course.
I took the biblical text and I actually copied it,
I didn’t write those things in the Bible.
My Bible has wide margins and lots of other notes,
some books in my Bible has so many notes
that I can’t write any more notes…
it’s time to trade it in and get another one.
Which I really like, by-the-way, I like that new Bible smell.
Basically what I would do is take
the written pages of Galatians or Ephesians or something like that
and do what we are going to do tonight with some passages.
I would take those passages of scripture
and I would copy it and I would put it in a separate notebook.
I studied the books of the scriptures, not all of them,
but I studied most of the New Testament that way…
especially the epistles…
in a way that I created all these little symbols for various things.
You’ll understand that more as time goes by.
So I’m going to suggest that if you get into
a major inductive study of a book of the Bible.
Which is a good way to study by the way;
I would suggest that you get a separate notebook
just like a binder you have there (loose leaf binder)
and that you print the text out
and make all your notes in that notebook.
That way you can do a lot more note-taking on the text.
I like to make mine with double spacing and wide margins
so there is lots of room to make notes.
So this (the text) is for you to do on a daily basis.
It is set up on a daily basis… tomorrow is day one.
So just kind of go through this, I you have questions next week just bring them (to class).
If I can do it anybody can do it.
You will see that it is rather simple but it is very thorough.
It is going to take you through a couple of passages of scripture
in the Old Testament for the most part… the book of Jonah…
you’ll end up with an inductive study of the book of Jonah
by the time you’re done with this book.
You will find out things about Jonah that you never thought.
You’ll see thing that you never new,
and you’re not even going to crack a commentary,
you’re just going to look at the Bible.
You’re going to see what the Bible says about itself.
A couple of those other passages there, 2nd Kings and 2nd Kings 23;1-3,
Jonah, so you’re going have some good practice of inductive study.
Let’s talk about scripture for a minute.
Let’s read this scripture
15Be diligent to present yourself approved to God
as a workman who does not need to be ashamed,
accurately handling the word of truth.
2 Timothy 2:15 NASB
Why is it important for us to handle the Word of God accurately?
1. So we will not make other people stumble
2. It’s not about us or our opinion… it’s about God, the heart of the Lord, the Father’s heart; so we need to understand what that’s about.
3. It’s the Word of life
4. We are the workman, but who is the One who is designing it?
Who is the One who has commissioned it, who is the One being revealed in it?
It’s the heart of God that is being revealed to us in the scripture, so there are a couple of key words here…
accurately – that’s really important.
The word there, you don’t have to write this down,
Let’s talk about scripture for a minute.
Let’s read this scripture
15Be diligent to present yourself approved to God
as a workman who does not need to be ashamed,
accurately handling the word of truth.
2 Timothy 2:15 NASB
Why is it important for us to handle the Word of God accurately?
1. So we will not make other people stumble
2. It’s not about us or our opinion… it’s about God, the heart of the Lord, the Father’s heart; so we need to understand what that’s about.
3. It’s the Word of life
4. We are the workman, but who is the One who is designing it?
Who is the One who has commissioned it, who is the One being revealed in it?
It’s the heart of God that is being revealed to us in the scripture, so there are a couple of key words here…
accurately – that’s really important.
The word there, you don’t have to write this down,
But the Greek word is orthotomeō (or-thot-om-eh'-o)
From a compound of G3717 and the base of G5114;
to make a straight cut, that is, (figuratively)
to dissect (expound) correctly (the divine message): - rightly divide.
Which means to ‘rightly divide’ or ‘rightly cut’
literally it means to ‘rightly cut the word.’
Ortho, what’s that sound like?
Orthodontic, orthopedic what’s that mean?
It means ‘straight’.
That’s where the word orthodoxy comes from.
So we are talking about… there’s a reason why we study scripture.
There’s a reason why we need to study ‘how to study scripture,’
or how to look at scriptures,
because we are revealing the heart of God.
For instance, if somebody writes a letter
If you were to write a letter,
let’s say you were away from home
and you wrote a letter to your spouse or your children.
Someone is going to read that letter on the other side.
Don’t you want your spouse to understand
what it is that you are actually talking about?
What is that letter going to do;
it’s going to bring you closer to the heart of your spouse,
it’s going to bring your relationship closer,
well that is exactly what scripture does.
Scripture brings us closer to the heart of God,
and to a greater and more intimate relationship with Him.
What is the Bible.
All Scripture is inspired by God
and is useful to teach us what is true
and to make us realize what is wrong in our live.
It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right.
It is God’s way of preparing us in every way,
fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
Let’s look at some key words in there.
All scripture is inspired by God… Hum
Big word inspired… what does inspired mean?
God breathed! Wow that’s a big word.
That makes it pretty important.
Inspired… give me an example
of something that someone might be inspired to do.
1. paint something
2. climb a mountain
3. write music
4. learn an instrument
Do you have to be inspired to do those things?
For instance if you are climbing a mountain,
if I’m merely motivated to climb the mountain
when I get tired, I quit.
But if I’m inspired,
it doesn’t matter
how big the mountain is,
I’m going to get there.
All right, makes sense?
Inspired means God breathed.
Everything is God breathed.
We are created to live inspired lives
obviously because God breathed into man
the breath of life and he became a living soul.
Book of Genesis… remember that?
So we’re God breathed too, did you know that?
You are God breathed…
You are an inspiration of the Father…
He breathed something very unique about you.
That needs to change the way we see ourselves, doesn’t it?
That passage of scripture that says God actually breathed me.
Here is what it is useful for…
What are the words that it’s useful for:
Its inspired of God and it’s useful:
to teach what is true, verses what is mere opinion
that word true there means to teach what is real and exclude what is not real.
How many of us know
that it is essential to know
what is real and what is not real?
It says here that it will make us realize…
When I see that I have a kind of corny way of looking at it
I see something with real eyes i.e.
I can have “real eyes” (realize) to see what God is all about.
It is inspired by God
Its for teaching what is true
Gives us have real eyes to understand God’s word
Gives us have real eyes to understand what is wrong in our lives.
It straightens us out
That’s the orthopedic thing we were talking about.
It teaches us what to do that is right.
It is God’s way of preparing us in every way
fully equipped for everything that God wants us to do.
Teaching…
Real eyes…
Straightens us out…
Prepares us…
Equips us…
We need to understand what the Bible says and its reality.
We need to understand what the Bible says and its context
We need to understand what the Bible says about the heart of God
Because it does all of those things.
Anything you want to add to that?
Think about this, the Bible was written
over the course of thousands of years
(at least three thousand years).
You think there might be some different styles (of writing).
It’s hard for us to get that biblical context,
but thing of just a thousand years ago…
People a thousand years ago did not speak English.
Just think about that.
A thousand years ago there was no English language as we know it. Just one thousand years ago!
There was a sort of a prototype of the English language,
but not like we have now, right?
Think about two thousand, think about three thousand years ago… that’s a long, long time.
So there were different styles, different input;
so we need to understand
that still the same heart is being expressed in all of that.
The same heart is being expressed.
Think about this, have you ever been to a foreign country?
Have you ever had to speak to somebody in a foreign country?
Did you speak their language?
What did you need?
You needed an interpreter.
What does an interpreter do?
What is the task of a good interpreter?
What does an interpreter do?
I have a lot of stories about foreign countries,
a lot of funny things about…
because I don’t speak for instance Spanish.
I was just Australia, and I felt like that was a foreign language too.
We spent two weeks making fun of one another’s accents.
It was really a blast, really a hoot!
Think about traveling to another country.
From a compound of G3717 and the base of G5114;
to make a straight cut, that is, (figuratively)
to dissect (expound) correctly (the divine message): - rightly divide.
Which means to ‘rightly divide’ or ‘rightly cut’
literally it means to ‘rightly cut the word.’
Ortho, what’s that sound like?
Orthodontic, orthopedic what’s that mean?
It means ‘straight’.
That’s where the word orthodoxy comes from.
So we are talking about… there’s a reason why we study scripture.
There’s a reason why we need to study ‘how to study scripture,’
or how to look at scriptures,
because we are revealing the heart of God.
For instance, if somebody writes a letter
If you were to write a letter,
let’s say you were away from home
and you wrote a letter to your spouse or your children.
Someone is going to read that letter on the other side.
Don’t you want your spouse to understand
what it is that you are actually talking about?
What is that letter going to do;
it’s going to bring you closer to the heart of your spouse,
it’s going to bring your relationship closer,
well that is exactly what scripture does.
Scripture brings us closer to the heart of God,
and to a greater and more intimate relationship with Him.
What is the Bible.
All Scripture is inspired by God
and is useful to teach us what is true
and to make us realize what is wrong in our live.
It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right.
It is God’s way of preparing us in every way,
fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
Let’s look at some key words in there.
All scripture is inspired by God… Hum
Big word inspired… what does inspired mean?
God breathed! Wow that’s a big word.
That makes it pretty important.
Inspired… give me an example
of something that someone might be inspired to do.
1. paint something
2. climb a mountain
3. write music
4. learn an instrument
Do you have to be inspired to do those things?
For instance if you are climbing a mountain,
if I’m merely motivated to climb the mountain
when I get tired, I quit.
But if I’m inspired,
it doesn’t matter
how big the mountain is,
I’m going to get there.
All right, makes sense?
Inspired means God breathed.
Everything is God breathed.
We are created to live inspired lives
obviously because God breathed into man
the breath of life and he became a living soul.
Book of Genesis… remember that?
So we’re God breathed too, did you know that?
You are God breathed…
You are an inspiration of the Father…
He breathed something very unique about you.
That needs to change the way we see ourselves, doesn’t it?
That passage of scripture that says God actually breathed me.
Here is what it is useful for…
What are the words that it’s useful for:
Its inspired of God and it’s useful:
to teach what is true, verses what is mere opinion
that word true there means to teach what is real and exclude what is not real.
How many of us know
that it is essential to know
what is real and what is not real?
It says here that it will make us realize…
When I see that I have a kind of corny way of looking at it
I see something with real eyes i.e.
I can have “real eyes” (realize) to see what God is all about.
It is inspired by God
Its for teaching what is true
Gives us have real eyes to understand God’s word
Gives us have real eyes to understand what is wrong in our lives.
It straightens us out
That’s the orthopedic thing we were talking about.
It teaches us what to do that is right.
It is God’s way of preparing us in every way
fully equipped for everything that God wants us to do.
Teaching…
Real eyes…
Straightens us out…
Prepares us…
Equips us…
We need to understand what the Bible says and its reality.
We need to understand what the Bible says and its context
We need to understand what the Bible says about the heart of God
Because it does all of those things.
Anything you want to add to that?
Think about this, the Bible was written
over the course of thousands of years
(at least three thousand years).
You think there might be some different styles (of writing).
It’s hard for us to get that biblical context,
but thing of just a thousand years ago…
People a thousand years ago did not speak English.
Just think about that.
A thousand years ago there was no English language as we know it. Just one thousand years ago!
There was a sort of a prototype of the English language,
but not like we have now, right?
Think about two thousand, think about three thousand years ago… that’s a long, long time.
So there were different styles, different input;
so we need to understand
that still the same heart is being expressed in all of that.
The same heart is being expressed.
Think about this, have you ever been to a foreign country?
Have you ever had to speak to somebody in a foreign country?
Did you speak their language?
What did you need?
You needed an interpreter.
What does an interpreter do?
What is the task of a good interpreter?
What does an interpreter do?
I have a lot of stories about foreign countries,
a lot of funny things about…
because I don’t speak for instance Spanish.
I was just Australia, and I felt like that was a foreign language too.
We spent two weeks making fun of one another’s accents.
It was really a blast, really a hoot!
Think about traveling to another country.
I went to this one particular place and
I was preaching in this large church in the middle of the city
and as I was preaching… now I speak only a few words of Spanish…
both my daughters speak Spanish, my wife speaks Spanish…
I don’t speak Spanish, I’m a mutton head.
Hebrew and Greek do not help in modern times…
if your walking down the road and speak (la shlom ha)
[Hebrew phrase written phonetically] it usually doesn’t help…
they don’t get that, they don’t know what you’re talking about.
But the fact is I get into this place and I heard…
I wanted to say something about the ‘origin of love.’
The person who was interpreting for me,
heard instead of the word origin,
he heard the word orange,
and said the “orange of love.”
People looked at me like, “What is he talking about?”
Fortunately the word orange in Spanish
was one word that I knew and I said,
“No not the orange of love, the origin of love, you know?”
“The origin, not the orange of love.”
So here’s the thing, if we are going to interpret scripture,
But the fact is I get into this place and I heard…
I wanted to say something about the ‘origin of love.’
The person who was interpreting for me,
heard instead of the word origin,
he heard the word orange,
and said the “orange of love.”
People looked at me like, “What is he talking about?”
Fortunately the word orange in Spanish
was one word that I knew and I said,
“No not the orange of love, the origin of love, you know?”
“The origin, not the orange of love.”
So here’s the thing, if we are going to interpret scripture,
we need to do it accurately – don’t we?
If we are going to interpret something…
this is something that the Father has inspired
for the purpose of teaching and correction
and all those kinds of things…
we need to be able to speak it and interpret it accurately!
One other little thing I’ve added here, my little comment –
If we are going to interpret something…
this is something that the Father has inspired
for the purpose of teaching and correction
and all those kinds of things…
we need to be able to speak it and interpret it accurately!
One other little thing I’ve added here, my little comment –
He wants to communicate the plain meaning of what is said.
What if you said something
and someone was translating it
and added a whole bunch of stuff? You know?
That wouldn’t be a good thing would it?
If your saying something
don’t you want someone to say
what you have said simply… right?
You don’t want a whole bunch added to that
What if you said something
and someone was translating it
and added a whole bunch of stuff? You know?
That wouldn’t be a good thing would it?
If your saying something
don’t you want someone to say
what you have said simply… right?
You don’t want a whole bunch added to that
you simply want that person to translate
exactly what your heart is so that the people get it and understand it.
We will run into these questions as time goes by.
We are going to do a little activity tonight
We will run into these questions as time goes by.
We are going to do a little activity tonight
that I think you will find interesting to do.
Some questions we should ask
if I’m looking at a passage of scripture,
besides these three questions here
[‘ What?’ ‘So What?’ ‘Now What?’ ],
For instance, what did the writer mean to say in the text?
What was the plain meaning?
What was he talking about?
For instance again, Romans 8
Some questions we should ask
if I’m looking at a passage of scripture,
besides these three questions here
[‘ What?’ ‘So What?’ ‘Now What?’ ],
For instance, what did the writer mean to say in the text?
What was the plain meaning?
What was he talking about?
For instance again, Romans 8
when some people interpret that as being about speaking in tongues,
it has nothing to do with speaking in tongues.
There’s lots of scriptures about speaking in tongues – that’s not one of them.
What would the righter mean to say in this text,
what was the purpose of the text?
When he wrote a letter…
for instance with Paul wrote a letter to the Corinthians,
what was that about? What was he simply writing?
He’s writing a letter! In the epistle he’s simply writing a letter.
We have derived a lot of theology from a letter.
It’s a letter! He wrote them a letter.
Now the one thing about that…
(and I don’t know whether you’ll get into that
when you get into the New Testament thing,)
but what we have as First Corinthians
is actually his second letter to the Corinthians, did you know that?
I don’t want to read the first one…
the first one, when they opened that envelope,
flames probably shot out! I mean he was sore vexed.
He was really upset,
I don’t know what exactly happened in that first letter.
There is strong evidence
that the text of First Corinthians
is actually the second letter to the Corinthians.
And Second Corinthians
is actually the third letter to the Corinthians.
I think God purposely deleted the first letter.
I think he said “These people can’t take this,
this letter will knock Christianity off it’s horse
for two thousand years if I let them read this letter.”
So those things were letters,
they were letters that were actually written.
Paul writes in Galatians, for instance,
(which is a rather short epistle,)
he writes it as a way to talk about grace verses the law.
Look at the whole book of Galatians, that’s what it is about.
Look at Ephesians,
you know I did a study of the book of Ephesians
you know I said I wrote it out five times long hand –
you know what I found out
when I wrote it five times long hand?
Twenty seven times the phrase “In Christ” – twenty seven times!
What is that letter about?
Being in Christ!
Just take those twenty seven occurrences
of “in Him” or “in Christ”
and you’ve got a pretty decent daily devotion.
That’ll take you a month just to get through that.
Pretty cool, you know?
But that what that’s about, it was a letter.
It was written with passion. It was not Paul’s idea just to establish theology – that wasn’t his purpose, his purpose was communication.
He was talking to these people about plain and simple truth.
Yet, what happens to us, a lot of times we take these New Testament epistles and we read stuff in it that’s just not there.
It’s just simply not there.
We have two thousand years of experience of doing that.
We read stuff into it that’s just not there.
How did the readers originally hear and understand the text?
We need to know – what did the writer mean
In that text, what did he mean to say?
What was the purpose of that text?
How did the reader originally hear and understand that text?
Does that sound pretty clear?
We need to understand these simple things here or we are going to miss the mark – go pretty wide of the mark in interpreting what scripture says.
We are going to talk about things like context.
I’m going to give you a little exercise in a minute for you to do.
Every story has these faucets:
Something that has happened (action)
If you had a sentence with no verbs it would just be limp.
Stories have verbs - verbs means something has happened, something is moving, something is flying, something is smiting , something is whatever, there is something that is happening; so there is an action that is taking place.
Another thing stories have is characters,
Somebody has to do it…
there is a character that is involved somehow,
there is a character who is doing it,
a character who maybe is receiving that action,
who knows? But there are characters
There’s a time, or a time frame in which those things happen.
We have to know when things are happening.
There is also a setting, something happens in a particular place.
Its for a particular purpose,
something happens in a particular place and time.
Another thing, there’s a purpose,
there is a purpose for that particular paragraph
or passage of scripture.
We want to understand that.
Think about this in talking about the word context.
What does the word context mean to you?
It may not mean a lot to you right now, but what does it mean?
What’s the most common thing you hear politicians say on television?
“Oh they took that out of context!”
I heard something the other day. I saw on the news,
(I won’t say what network),
but I saw it on the news thing
and I heard this politician make this statement verbatim.
The next day this person from this network said,
“This is what you said yesterday.”
He replied, “Oh I never said that you took that out of context.”
They played the whole thing! They played the whole quote!
There is no possible way he took it out of context – why?
Because he had the whole thing.
He knew where it was spoken, he knew what the words were –
all that, there is no possible way he took it our of context.
Context is very, very important.
For instance… now this is going to sound funny to you.
If I used the phrase with you
“I’m going to blow up a balloon.”
That could mean a couple of things:
What could it mean?
I’m going to inflate a toy balloon
Take some of my hot air and employ it in a balloon.
What else could it mean?
It could mean somebody has a big helium balloon
And I’m going to, pull the pin, I’m going to blow it up!
What do I need to know there so I can understand what I mean when I say,
What would the righter mean to say in this text,
what was the purpose of the text?
When he wrote a letter…
for instance with Paul wrote a letter to the Corinthians,
what was that about? What was he simply writing?
He’s writing a letter! In the epistle he’s simply writing a letter.
We have derived a lot of theology from a letter.
It’s a letter! He wrote them a letter.
Now the one thing about that…
(and I don’t know whether you’ll get into that
when you get into the New Testament thing,)
but what we have as First Corinthians
is actually his second letter to the Corinthians, did you know that?
I don’t want to read the first one…
the first one, when they opened that envelope,
flames probably shot out! I mean he was sore vexed.
He was really upset,
I don’t know what exactly happened in that first letter.
There is strong evidence
that the text of First Corinthians
is actually the second letter to the Corinthians.
And Second Corinthians
is actually the third letter to the Corinthians.
I think God purposely deleted the first letter.
I think he said “These people can’t take this,
this letter will knock Christianity off it’s horse
for two thousand years if I let them read this letter.”
So those things were letters,
they were letters that were actually written.
Paul writes in Galatians, for instance,
(which is a rather short epistle,)
he writes it as a way to talk about grace verses the law.
Look at the whole book of Galatians, that’s what it is about.
Look at Ephesians,
you know I did a study of the book of Ephesians
you know I said I wrote it out five times long hand –
you know what I found out
when I wrote it five times long hand?
Twenty seven times the phrase “In Christ” – twenty seven times!
What is that letter about?
Being in Christ!
Just take those twenty seven occurrences
of “in Him” or “in Christ”
and you’ve got a pretty decent daily devotion.
That’ll take you a month just to get through that.
Pretty cool, you know?
But that what that’s about, it was a letter.
It was written with passion. It was not Paul’s idea just to establish theology – that wasn’t his purpose, his purpose was communication.
He was talking to these people about plain and simple truth.
Yet, what happens to us, a lot of times we take these New Testament epistles and we read stuff in it that’s just not there.
It’s just simply not there.
We have two thousand years of experience of doing that.
We read stuff into it that’s just not there.
How did the readers originally hear and understand the text?
We need to know – what did the writer mean
In that text, what did he mean to say?
What was the purpose of that text?
How did the reader originally hear and understand that text?
Does that sound pretty clear?
We need to understand these simple things here or we are going to miss the mark – go pretty wide of the mark in interpreting what scripture says.
We are going to talk about things like context.
I’m going to give you a little exercise in a minute for you to do.
Every story has these faucets:
Something that has happened (action)
If you had a sentence with no verbs it would just be limp.
Stories have verbs - verbs means something has happened, something is moving, something is flying, something is smiting , something is whatever, there is something that is happening; so there is an action that is taking place.
Another thing stories have is characters,
Somebody has to do it…
there is a character that is involved somehow,
there is a character who is doing it,
a character who maybe is receiving that action,
who knows? But there are characters
There’s a time, or a time frame in which those things happen.
We have to know when things are happening.
There is also a setting, something happens in a particular place.
Its for a particular purpose,
something happens in a particular place and time.
Another thing, there’s a purpose,
there is a purpose for that particular paragraph
or passage of scripture.
We want to understand that.
Think about this in talking about the word context.
What does the word context mean to you?
It may not mean a lot to you right now, but what does it mean?
What’s the most common thing you hear politicians say on television?
“Oh they took that out of context!”
I heard something the other day. I saw on the news,
(I won’t say what network),
but I saw it on the news thing
and I heard this politician make this statement verbatim.
The next day this person from this network said,
“This is what you said yesterday.”
He replied, “Oh I never said that you took that out of context.”
They played the whole thing! They played the whole quote!
There is no possible way he took it out of context – why?
Because he had the whole thing.
He knew where it was spoken, he knew what the words were –
all that, there is no possible way he took it our of context.
Context is very, very important.
For instance… now this is going to sound funny to you.
If I used the phrase with you
“I’m going to blow up a balloon.”
That could mean a couple of things:
What could it mean?
I’m going to inflate a toy balloon
Take some of my hot air and employ it in a balloon.
What else could it mean?
It could mean somebody has a big helium balloon
And I’m going to, pull the pin, I’m going to blow it up!
What do I need to know there so I can understand what I mean when I say,
“I’m going to blow up a balloon?”
What kind of balloon is it?
What’s it for?
What is my method?
What if I said, “I’m going to blow up a balloon on Saturday.”
Would that help me?
Not much.
I need to add a few more details here,
I need to know like setting,
I need to know purpose,
I need to know motivations,
I need to know all those kinds of things to understand
am I throwing a birthday party
or am I creating a tragedy.
Those are two differences I could have in that one little example there.
So I need to understand what these particular details are.
That’s called context.
Think about this for a minute.
Take your hand and put it close in front of your face.
Can you see it?
Can you see it very clearly?
You can’t because your hand is too close.
Now start to move your hand away from your face very slowly.
What happens as you move your hand away?
Besides your eyes are crossed -
What kind of balloon is it?
What’s it for?
What is my method?
What if I said, “I’m going to blow up a balloon on Saturday.”
Would that help me?
Not much.
I need to add a few more details here,
I need to know like setting,
I need to know purpose,
I need to know motivations,
I need to know all those kinds of things to understand
am I throwing a birthday party
or am I creating a tragedy.
Those are two differences I could have in that one little example there.
So I need to understand what these particular details are.
That’s called context.
Think about this for a minute.
Take your hand and put it close in front of your face.
Can you see it?
Can you see it very clearly?
You can’t because your hand is too close.
Now start to move your hand away from your face very slowly.
What happens as you move your hand away?
Besides your eyes are crossed -
What happens as you move your hand away?
What do you see more of?
You see more detail, don’t you?
Do you know what this is called here?
(Indicating his hand is away from the face.)
That’s called context.
Perspective.
If I don’t have perspective, I can’t see it.
If I merely look at a word or a passage or a verse of scripture and if I’m only going by that particular thing, I’m kind of rather doing this.
(Indicating his hand is very close to his face.)
I’m not necessarily seeing it.
I need to stand back, to take a look at it.
My professor in seminary
who was the guy who taught us hermeneutics
which is the study of how to interpret scripture,
he talked about having a birds-eye-view verses a…
you know there is such a thing as a birds-eye-view?
Then there is another kind of view
that’s like getting down and walking around the ground
and seeing what has actually happened.
That’s what we are going to try to do,
get on the ground and see what is actually happening
and handle the word of God
and handle the truth.
O.K. so we have to zoom out to see that actual context.
Now I’m going to give you a little thing here that you are going to start to work on, actually this weekend.
There are approximately eight copies of each of these passages of scripture.
Now, I’m going to multiply you into several study groups here is how we are basically going to do this:
He indicated that approximately eight persons
(four at each table) combined with four from an adjacent table
would be working together as a study group.
Text will be randomly assigned to each study group:
John 17
What do you see more of?
You see more detail, don’t you?
Do you know what this is called here?
(Indicating his hand is away from the face.)
That’s called context.
Perspective.
If I don’t have perspective, I can’t see it.
If I merely look at a word or a passage or a verse of scripture and if I’m only going by that particular thing, I’m kind of rather doing this.
(Indicating his hand is very close to his face.)
I’m not necessarily seeing it.
I need to stand back, to take a look at it.
My professor in seminary
who was the guy who taught us hermeneutics
which is the study of how to interpret scripture,
he talked about having a birds-eye-view verses a…
you know there is such a thing as a birds-eye-view?
Then there is another kind of view
that’s like getting down and walking around the ground
and seeing what has actually happened.
That’s what we are going to try to do,
get on the ground and see what is actually happening
and handle the word of God
and handle the truth.
O.K. so we have to zoom out to see that actual context.
Now I’m going to give you a little thing here that you are going to start to work on, actually this weekend.
There are approximately eight copies of each of these passages of scripture.
Now, I’m going to multiply you into several study groups here is how we are basically going to do this:
He indicated that approximately eight persons
(four at each table) combined with four from an adjacent table
would be working together as a study group.
Text will be randomly assigned to each study group:
John 17
Ruth 3
John 3:1 – 21
John 3:1 – 21
Psalm 139
Luke 10: 1-24
Luke 10: 1-24
Psalm 23
This doesn’t mean much to you right now, but it will become meaningful to you over the next few weeks, and you’ll understand where we are going with this.
What you are going to do – we’re going to spend the next few weeks (the next three weeks only), looking at that passage of scripture. We are going to ask it three questions.
What are the three questions?
‘ What?’
‘So What?’
‘Now What?’
And when we ask those questions, what are we talking about?
Observation
Interpretation
Application
Your going to learn in those three in these passages of scripture.
Now, I will say this to you…
If we really want a…
For instance if we were doing a systematic study
This doesn’t mean much to you right now, but it will become meaningful to you over the next few weeks, and you’ll understand where we are going with this.
What you are going to do – we’re going to spend the next few weeks (the next three weeks only), looking at that passage of scripture. We are going to ask it three questions.
What are the three questions?
‘ What?’
‘So What?’
‘Now What?’
And when we ask those questions, what are we talking about?
Observation
Interpretation
Application
Your going to learn in those three in these passages of scripture.
Now, I will say this to you…
If we really want a…
For instance if we were doing a systematic study
in the New Testament of the Gospels,
it is always the very, very best thing to do
and I suggest that you do this…
that you do maybe a couple of books a year and do this.
You take a whole book of the bible and study it
in the method that we are going to learn here in the next few weeks.
Because then… what are you getting a better version of?
How about this… you’re getting better context.
You’re getting more details, you’re understanding who wrote this letter,
why did they write it… etc, etc, etc.
There are other helps, that will be helpful to you
in interpreting scripture after a while
and we’ll talk about those the last week.
We’ll talk about some other kinds of study tools that will be useful for you.
I’m not going to talk about a lot of original kinds of language things in this class,
because guess what?, there’s enough stuff
just in the information you’re going to have to teach you
and give you enough ability to translate the scriptures.
We are not going to need to get into a lot of Greek or Hebrew stuff –
there can be some good study tools for you guys to use –
that would be a good thing,
and I’ll give you a list of some of those things –
actually things that I would recommend that you have.
I have lots of books in my house and to be honest with you
I have lots of books in my house and to be honest with you
I probably use less that five percent of them.
I’ve had a couple of thousand books in my library
and I probably use at the most, these days, ten or fifteen.
That’s about it, I’m getting rid of books –
Not that I don’t like books,
I’m just investing in someone else that wants to read them.
If I have books I’ve already read
and they are sitting on my shelf that’s like a waste.
A waste of time, a waste of a book.
I’d rather give it to you. Let you read it.
Any questions about what we have talked about so far today?
We have talked about a lot this evening so far.
What’s your impression about what we have talked about…
Are you intimidated or are you more excited?
Hopefully you can be excited about that.
When you get through this little class here, hopefully,
you will never look at scripture the same way.
Hopefully, when you look at scripture
you’re going to automatically shift into this gear
that you’re going to be looking at certain things
and you’re going to notice certain things –
maybe even some passages of scripture
that you have read before (maybe even many times).
How many of us know that we can read
a passage of scripture many times
and get something different about it each time we read it?
There are lots of layers to understanding.
For instance, like I gave some of you the chapter on Ruth.
Now, that chapter on Ruth,
if I look at the Book of Ruth in my Bible,
I have more notes there than any other book of the bible.
I’m just fascinated with the Book of Ruth
because the Book of Ruth is about the Bride of Christ
and it’s about Jesus!
It’s David’s lineage, it’s Jesus’ lineage, it’s who He comes from.
Any questions about what we have talked about so far today?
We have talked about a lot this evening so far.
What’s your impression about what we have talked about…
Are you intimidated or are you more excited?
Hopefully you can be excited about that.
When you get through this little class here, hopefully,
you will never look at scripture the same way.
Hopefully, when you look at scripture
you’re going to automatically shift into this gear
that you’re going to be looking at certain things
and you’re going to notice certain things –
maybe even some passages of scripture
that you have read before (maybe even many times).
How many of us know that we can read
a passage of scripture many times
and get something different about it each time we read it?
There are lots of layers to understanding.
For instance, like I gave some of you the chapter on Ruth.
Now, that chapter on Ruth,
if I look at the Book of Ruth in my Bible,
I have more notes there than any other book of the bible.
I’m just fascinated with the Book of Ruth
because the Book of Ruth is about the Bride of Christ
and it’s about Jesus!
It’s David’s lineage, it’s Jesus’ lineage, it’s who He comes from.
Also in the Book of Ruth you have
all three of the feasts of Israel represented there.
And also you have… talking about in a very powerful way you have…
what does it mean to be at rest in the Lord.
You have Naomi who in a sense does what the Holy Spirit does.
Naomi comes from the Hebrew word that means “comforter”
as the Holy Spirit is our Comforter.
Boas (Bo ahz) who is the person who is in charge of everything –
he owns everything, in control, what would you call him?
How about Lord! Who does he represent? He represents Christ,
How about Lord! Who does he represent? He represents Christ,
he called the kinsmen redeemer.
Then you have Ruth who represents the Bride of Christ.
Now you may say,
“Tom you just got done saying that you need to make sure
that you don’t over interpret things… but this is another level,
another level of understanding.
There is a simple level of looking at scripture,
if we get that level then we can begin to understand
how to interpret that scripture in a more “heart context” kind of a way.
Boas means something like “in his strength” – or something like that.
Any questions or observations?
You are not going to do an awful lot with your passage of scripture this week. I am going to ask you this week, and you will actually have a time next week to compare notes with one another. What you are going to do with that passage I just gave to you for the next week – you’re going begin to do things like
Identify the main characters
We are going to talk a good bit about this next week.
In that I’m going to want you to identify…\
You’re going to see this in the book here
(reference to the Text Book – LORD Teach Me to Study the Bible in 28 Days – by Kay Arthur)
Four W’s and an H – [Ed: there are actually 5 W’s]
What are they?
Who
What
When
Where
Why
How
Put those words down there (in your notes)
I want you to just simply observe the text.
We are only talking right now about “What”
‘ What?’ which is all about what? Observation.
We are going to observe something.
What are we going to observe.
We are going to observe the characters
We are going to observe action
We are going to observe places
We are going to observe that kind of stuff.
As you get into the book here
(LORD Teach Me to Study the Bible in 28 Days – by Kay Arthur)
She is going to give you a systematic way
of marking those things.
She is not going to give you all the symbols,
you can make up the little symbols.
As you read that you’ll understand exactly what I’m talking about.
Break
We have talked about some questions that we need to ask
Which I’ll ask you five thousand times…
Then you’ll remember –
‘ What?’
‘So What?’
‘Now What?’
talking about
Observation
Interpretation and
Application
We also talked about some things that all stories have
Just a slide or so ago (reference power point presentation)
We have action
We have characters
We have time
We have setting
We have also purpose
If something is happening there is a why.
We are going to do something extravagantly different.
I like extravagantly different.
Except kangaroo- I didn’t like kangaroo, I didn’t try it.
The guy asked me in Australia – he asked me if I was going to try the kangaroo. I said “Does it taste like chicken?” He said “Yeah.” So I said, “Well, just give me chicken.” You know, I don’t want something I’m going to pet the next day. I was not petting any cows or chickens, the next day that I knew of. That’s how I think about life.
You have a little blurb here on a slide
And it says:
Now what- we’re going to talk about creating a little story.
Don’t you like stories, I like stories…
Here is what you are going to do
You see this little phrase, what does it say?
…“and the door closed.”
Remember when I said I was going to blow up a balloon?
What did I not have?
I didn’t have context.
In that context I didn’t have characters.
I didn’t have action
I didn’t have a time, a setting
I didn’t have a clue whether I was creating
a disaster or a birthday party. I had no clue!
I needed to add all of those details.
I can make up a story, you know and fill in that one phrase there.
Here is what you’re going to do:
You’ll do this by table – were not going to do this in the whole study group but by table.
We need to study together and work together, is that O.K?
Every group is going to make up a different story
which is excessively cute…
You see that little phrase there “and the door closed.”
I want you to write a story
and that’s going to be the last phrase of the story.
What do we need to have in that story?
Action
Characters
Time frame
Setting
and a purpose
Hopefully, what this little exercise will do
Boas means something like “in his strength” – or something like that.
Any questions or observations?
You are not going to do an awful lot with your passage of scripture this week. I am going to ask you this week, and you will actually have a time next week to compare notes with one another. What you are going to do with that passage I just gave to you for the next week – you’re going begin to do things like
Identify the main characters
We are going to talk a good bit about this next week.
In that I’m going to want you to identify…\
You’re going to see this in the book here
(reference to the Text Book – LORD Teach Me to Study the Bible in 28 Days – by Kay Arthur)
Four W’s and an H – [Ed: there are actually 5 W’s]
What are they?
Who
What
When
Where
Why
How
Put those words down there (in your notes)
I want you to just simply observe the text.
We are only talking right now about “What”
‘ What?’ which is all about what? Observation.
We are going to observe something.
What are we going to observe.
We are going to observe the characters
We are going to observe action
We are going to observe places
We are going to observe that kind of stuff.
As you get into the book here
(LORD Teach Me to Study the Bible in 28 Days – by Kay Arthur)
She is going to give you a systematic way
of marking those things.
She is not going to give you all the symbols,
you can make up the little symbols.
As you read that you’ll understand exactly what I’m talking about.
Break
We have talked about some questions that we need to ask
Which I’ll ask you five thousand times…
Then you’ll remember –
‘ What?’
‘So What?’
‘Now What?’
talking about
Observation
Interpretation and
Application
We also talked about some things that all stories have
Just a slide or so ago (reference power point presentation)
We have action
We have characters
We have time
We have setting
We have also purpose
If something is happening there is a why.
We are going to do something extravagantly different.
I like extravagantly different.
Except kangaroo- I didn’t like kangaroo, I didn’t try it.
The guy asked me in Australia – he asked me if I was going to try the kangaroo. I said “Does it taste like chicken?” He said “Yeah.” So I said, “Well, just give me chicken.” You know, I don’t want something I’m going to pet the next day. I was not petting any cows or chickens, the next day that I knew of. That’s how I think about life.
You have a little blurb here on a slide
And it says:
Now what- we’re going to talk about creating a little story.
Don’t you like stories, I like stories…
Here is what you are going to do
You see this little phrase, what does it say?
…“and the door closed.”
Remember when I said I was going to blow up a balloon?
What did I not have?
I didn’t have context.
In that context I didn’t have characters.
I didn’t have action
I didn’t have a time, a setting
I didn’t have a clue whether I was creating
a disaster or a birthday party. I had no clue!
I needed to add all of those details.
I can make up a story, you know and fill in that one phrase there.
Here is what you’re going to do:
You’ll do this by table – were not going to do this in the whole study group but by table.
We need to study together and work together, is that O.K?
Every group is going to make up a different story
which is excessively cute…
You see that little phrase there “and the door closed.”
I want you to write a story
and that’s going to be the last phrase of the story.
What do we need to have in that story?
Action
Characters
Time frame
Setting
and a purpose
Hopefully, what this little exercise will do
is teach us basically again how not any form of literature,
but the bible is a piece of literature.
It is the most popular selling form of literature in the history of the world.
It is the most popular selling form of literature in the history of the world.
It’s the first piece of literature ever printed in the world.
Millions and millions and millions of that piece of literature
in various interpretations and translations have been published
over the last five hundred years.
We need to understand something.
We need to understand how do we get to this place?
Hopefully that will give us a little sensitivity
for how we are going to study a piece of scripture.
We are going to do that and then you will get a chance
We are going to do that and then you will get a chance
to share your stories. Then we will see where we go..
30 minutes
Now what is the point of all that silly little exercise?
What is the point?
Context
You’ve got to understand the context.
The other point is
You can take a little bit of information and create your own context and get a totally different impression about what that was about.
See the danger of trying to interpret
just one little verse of scripture?
That could be a dangerous thing.
So we need to look to see
‘ What?’
‘So What?’
‘Now What?’
We need to ask those questions
We need to look for
Action
Characters
Time frame
Setting
and a purpose
We need to understand that
or we are not going to rightly understand
what the Father is trying to speak to us.
This week, most of your work is going to be in the book.
30 minutes
Now what is the point of all that silly little exercise?
What is the point?
Context
You’ve got to understand the context.
The other point is
You can take a little bit of information and create your own context and get a totally different impression about what that was about.
See the danger of trying to interpret
just one little verse of scripture?
That could be a dangerous thing.
So we need to look to see
‘ What?’
‘So What?’
‘Now What?’
We need to ask those questions
We need to look for
Action
Characters
Time frame
Setting
and a purpose
We need to understand that
or we are not going to rightly understand
what the Father is trying to speak to us.
This week, most of your work is going to be in the book.
Please try to do every day.
I find that if you do that every day it won’t be a big thing.
It will be something that you’ll enjoy.
It will be something that you’ll enjoy.
Try to enjoy it that way, you’ll see that it
is going to open your eyes as to how to look at scripture,
in a very accurate and simplistic way.
Let me pray for you,
Father thank You for Your Word
Thank You that Your Word is true
Thank You Lord that that Word is profitable for us
Not only for all the reasons we said tonight,
but Lord it is profitable because it just reveals Your heart to us,
Lord I pray that we never look at scripture the same way again.
I pray Lord God that we understand exactly what it is
that You are trying to speak to us Lord
and draw us into a place of intimacy and meditation
on Your Word Lord God
that we might come to understand Your heart for us
in an ever deeper and deeper way
We thank You for the Word, we thank You
for all the faithful men of old that put that all together.
We thank you Lord for all the ways that we have received that Word. Now Lord we are going to give You all the glory
for the things that You are going to teach us
in the next two or three weeks… in Jesus name AMen
30
fkj
Let me pray for you,
Father thank You for Your Word
Thank You that Your Word is true
Thank You Lord that that Word is profitable for us
Not only for all the reasons we said tonight,
but Lord it is profitable because it just reveals Your heart to us,
Lord I pray that we never look at scripture the same way again.
I pray Lord God that we understand exactly what it is
that You are trying to speak to us Lord
and draw us into a place of intimacy and meditation
on Your Word Lord God
that we might come to understand Your heart for us
in an ever deeper and deeper way
We thank You for the Word, we thank You
for all the faithful men of old that put that all together.
We thank you Lord for all the ways that we have received that Word. Now Lord we are going to give You all the glory
for the things that You are going to teach us
in the next two or three weeks… in Jesus name AMen
30
fkj
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