Studying God's Word - Week 1

Opening Questions

What truths about the Bible encourage you as you study?

Are there parts of the Bible that offer comfort? Where?

Are there parts of the Bible that 2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,” ? Where?

Are there parts of the Bible that are difficult for you to understand? Where?

Are there parts of the Bible that people find a lot of peace and comfort in and you scratch your head and question why? Where?

Are there parts of the Bible you just wonder why they exist? Where?

What do you expect God to do when you read the Bible?

What should the answers to all these questions lead you to do?

Foundations

Do you ever wonder while reading the Bible if you are understanding it correctly? Or perhaps you just read a slightly dryer passage of Leviticus and you said you to yourself, “What difference does this make? Who is it helping?” The point of learning to study your Bible better is to be able to answer some of these questions yourself. What we want to do in this study is to gather tools and methods in order to use them as we study passages so that we can get more from our everyday Bible reading, glean more from a Bible study, better understand an expositional sermon, and grow closer to the Lord through it all.

Jeremy Kimball has written a very helpful book called, “How can I get more out of my Bible reading?” and I like his beginning.

Why Read the Bible?

Before we discuss how to read the Bible more effectively, we should at least briefly consider why we should read the Bible. Consider the following truths.

• God exists (Ps. 14:1–2).

• God is perfect, majestic, and awesome in all of his ways (Deut. 32:4; Ps. 66:3).

• God created and sustains all things (Gen. 1:1–2:3; Isa. 45:5–7; Col. 1:15–17).

• God made us in his image to know him, represent him, and live for his glory in all our ways (Gen. 1:26–28; Isa. 43:6–7).

• God has revealed himself to us in Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16–17).

To summarize: the all-glorious God exists; made all things, including us, for his glory; and has revealed himself to us in Scripture. In 2 Timothy 3:16, Paul describes Scripture as “God-breathed” (NIV), that is, coming from the very mouth of God himself. Scripture is God speaking. As God’s image bearers, our greatest need is to hear from him and align our lives with his purposes. We were made for this. We need the Bible.

Hermeneutics

This all starts with some foundational tools and the name for this is Hermeneutics, the process of understanding, interpreting, and applying the Bible.

As we dig into this concept of Hermeneutics we will unpack many tools in order to look at this as well as look at different methods that help. We will be looking at several books that help with this and as I prepare I will try to make you aware of which books are helpful to understand the concepts. Several of the books that I will be using are: Understanding God’s Word by Jon Nielson, “How to Read the Bible for all its Worth” by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, “How can I get more out of my Bible reading?” by Jeremy Kimbell, and “How to Study your Bible” by Kay Arthur.

These three Hermeneutical tasks, understanding, interpreting, and application, done alongside reading the Bible, makes the Bible unlike other book which can be picked up read and the set aside, because if we believe rightly that this is the very WORD OF GOD then the words written there aren’t just words they have God given power therefore and these powerful words need to be understood. The problem here is that we do one of several things with this understanding. 1 we are so caught up in the words being THE WORD OF GOD that we think of them being unknowable to our earthly mind and therefore we don’t try. 2 we don’t give them the honor that they are due and think that God’s Word just says what it says and we don’t have to do much thinking about it past picking it up on occasion. 3 we know that the WORD OF GOD is hard to always understand so we turn to others in order to understand it but never test to make sure they are right. The forth is like the third we just don’t have the time it takes to understand it so we leave it alone and leave it to others to understand and you show up to church in order to get a dose of scripture until next week. We can see how all of these fall way short of actually understanding THE WORD OF GOD.

Next, in our look at Hermeneutics we come to the interpreting. We may have a desire to Understand THE WORD OF GOD but the concept of interpreting also has some problems in many peoples minds. Again all of the previously mentioned problems can also be applied to interpretation but we can add at least one more. The process of interpreting can sound like we are taking God’s Words and putting our spin on them. As though we are reading between the lines or putting words in God’s mouth. This is definitely a concern as it is easy to take passages of the Bible out of context or to make them say what we want them to say. Which is why we need to be on guard against other interpreting the Bible wrongly as well as being mindful of the problems of us interpreting it wrongly as well. A good rule of thumb is this, if you are trying to interpret the Bible so as to find something new you are interpreting it wrong and you are probably dealing with a good deal of Pride. So, to combat this we need to be willing to do the work to read and interpret the Bible for ourselves so that when we hear or read it we can determine based on our own Biblical literacy what is Biblical and what is not. The aim is to get to a plain meaning of the text so that makes sense to your mind and brings application to your spirit.

Lastly when it comes to Hermeneutics we get to the application, and it is here that we find that our understanding of the Bible and interpretation of the Bible is usually not the problem. I like was the author of “How to Read the Bible for all its Worth” Gordon Fee had to say about this. “The problem with such a text as Philippians 2:14 “Do all things without complaining and disputing,” for example, is not with understanding it, but with obeying it - putting it into practice.

Habits

As we struggle to understand, interpret, and apply God’s word we need to make sure we are developing some habits that make the struggle worthwhile. First. We READ CAREFULLY. I know for myself I will either start reading and get sidetracked by a million other things, I will be in a hurry and read to quickly or I will read a passage think I know what it is saying and miss the most important parts. Often when I find that I haven’t read carefully I have to stop myself go back to the beginning and read it again and sometimes I have to do it several times before I get it right.

Next, we need to READ IN CONTEXT. Being the impatient and impulsive people that we are it is tempting to say a little prayer to God, “God give me the right passage that I need today.”, and then you close your eyes, randomly open your Bible, and point to a passage. This tends to get you into more trouble than it is worth. Take the time to really read the Bible, it is not click bait or a good meme it is God’s Word and therefore it needs to be read in context with the passages around it. It also needs to be understood in the culture, audience, genre, timeframe, and who the human author is.

Thirdly we should IDENTIFY CORE TERMS. This is not just the hard words that you don’t know, although you should figure those out as well, but it is the words and phrases that make up the point of the passage. Are there words repeated? That might be a clue. Are there ideas or concepts that the author is trying to get across to the reader? Another clue. Is there a point being made? As we pay attention to these core terms we will understand the passage as a whole better.

Fourthly, We need to IDENTIFY THE MAIN POINT. As we read a passage it is good to think through or write down what you think the main point of the passage is. Don’t just look at the sections heading as most Bible already put what they have determined is the main point of the section of scripture. You can use it to help but determine if you think they are right or figure out why they are right. A good idea here is to try to make the main point into either a statement like, “A believers job is to __________.” or “God wants me to understand Him in ___________ way.”

The fifth habit we should use is LOOKING FOR CHRIST in the passage. In both the Old and New Testaments we should see the hand of God pointing us to his Ultimate savior. If God is the author, which He is, then God has placed Christ as the focal point of all of scripture so look out for it.

Lastly the habit we should espouse is to ANSWER GOD’S CALL. This goes back to application. How does this passage of Scripture point be to God and what am I to do with it in my everyday life.

Foundational Questions

The foundations of Bible study are important as we dig into God’s Word, and we need to ask ourselves a few more foundational questions. Is the Bible coherent? Let me read this from Jon Nielson.

Is the Bible coherent? Scriptural coherence—in the Bible as a whole and even within each individual books—would be surprising if the Bible were nothing more than a human book. After all, the Bible was composed by more than forty human authors over hundreds of years. However, we can be confident about its coherence because of the doctrine of inspiration (see 2 Tim. 3:16). All Scripture, says the apostle Paul, is “breathed out” by God, who inspired the human authors to write exactly what he intended by the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. As Christians, then, we understand that we study a book that was written by dozens of human authors but ultimately by one divine author. That means we can be confident that it is coherent and consistent in the story it tells, the truths it proclaims, the message it calls us to believe, and the responses it demands.

NIELSON, J. (n.d.). UNDERSTANDING GOD’S WORD.

Next is the Bible clear? The problem that most people have with scriptures is that it is so filled with different literary mediums and structures that to just read it can be confusing and hard. But just because this is true doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try. Again let me read from Jon Nielson.

Is the Bible clear? To affirm that the Bible is clear is not to say that it has no difficult parts. Even the best and brightest scholars and pastors still debate—and disagree about—some passages of Scripture that are notoriously difficult to understand. But the doctrine of the Bible’s clarity—or its perspicuity—reminds us that the central truths of Christianity are abundantly clear and understandable for everyone who reads it. There may be debate about the precise meaning of some passages or phrases, but the Bible does not leave us in doubt about who created the world, the sinfulness of man, the divinity of Christ, the need for repentance and faith, the substitutionary death of Jesus and his resurrection from the dead, and the reality of a coming final judgment. No one has to be a trained biblical scholar to understand these truths. One core conviction that underlies this book is that ordinary Christians can study, understand, and apply God’s word faithfully. We believe this because the Bible, God’s word, is clear. NIELSON, J. (n.d.). UNDERSTANDING GOD’S WORD.

Lastly for tonight we need to answer the question of is the Bible able to change you? Truly if the Bible is a book of GOD’S WORD then it isn’t really as question of can the Bible change you but more of will you let the Bible change you? Let me one more time read from Jon Nielson.

As I said just above, if the Bible is merely a human book, we have no reason to assume that it is either coherent or clear. We also have no reason to assume that Bible study—and teaching and preaching—should change us in any way. But the Christian conviction is that because the Bible is God’s inspired word, it is powerful. The Bible doesn’t just tell us about God—it is God’s word, and that means it holds power to change, convict, transform, and build us up in Jesus Christ. Hebrews 4:12 reminds us that God’s word is “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.” In other words, it can “cut” us, wounding us with the painful yet healing truth of God, and call us to repentance and faith in Jesus. Christians should work to read, study, understand, and apply the Bible well because we really believe that God’s word can change us. It is his way to accomplish his saving and sanctifying work in the lives and hearts of his people. NIELSON, J. (n.d.). UNDERSTANDING GOD’S WORD.

I am sorry but we will now take a break and start this up again in January. Sorry. Let’s pray