Greenwood Bible Class - 3/31/26

James H. Cosentino II

Sermon • Submitted 8 days ago • Presented 8 days ago

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Introduction

Introduce myself.

Encourage the kids for their desire to study the Bible.

What is the Bible?

Ask, “What is the Bible?”

The Bible is the collection of 66 books, written over 1500 years by over 40 different human authors. And yet, they all have one main author working through those human authors.

But the Bible is not simply a collection of varied stories.

It is actually one unified story telling us first and foremost about who God is. It does have things to say about us, but to properly understand the Bible we must first let it speak to us about God, who He is, and what He has done.

Genesis 1:1 ESV

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The very first person we see in Scripture is God Himself. It’s not us. It’s not anybody else. It’s God. And it is God that we see at the very end.

Revelation 22:20–21 ESV

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.

The Bible tells us of who God is, who we are, what God has done, what we have done, and what God has done to rescue us from our sin and to restore us into right relationship with Himself.

The Inspiration of the Bible - God has given us His Word

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

The Inerrancy of the Bible - If God has given us His Word and God is true, then His Word is true

John 14:6 ESV

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

If God is truth, if God cannot lie, then His Word cannot lie. We either take His Word as truth or none of it can be trusted.

When the prophets spoke, they would claim to be speaking for God. But God held them to a high responsibility. If they ever spoke something that was not true or did not come to pass, they would be put to death because they claimed that God said something He never said. God took the truthfulness of His Word very seriously.

Therefore, if something has been shown to be His Word, we can trust it to be truthful.

The Authority of the Bible - The Bible demands our allegiance and submission to who God is

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

If the Scripture is God’s Word given to us, then we are obligated to submit ourselves to God and obedience to what He has commanded.

To disbelieve or disobey Scripture is to disbelieve and disobey God Himself.

The temptation of the serpent in the garden.

The Sufficiency of the Bible - The Bible alone is enough for what we need

The Bible is all we need for salvation and godliness.

This does not mean there are not other good and useful books and resources to have. God has given us good books, good preachers and pastors, good teachers, etc. But those things should support what God has already said. We do not need a new word from God because everything we need is in there.

Hebrews 1:1–3 ESV

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

Scripture reveals Jesus to us and all we need is in Him.

But if all we had was His Word, it would be enough be it reveals Jesus to us.

The Power of the Bible - Scripture is enough to lead us to salvation in Christ

Romans 1:16–17 ESV

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Psalm 119:105 ESV

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Why Should I Study the Bible?

If the Bible is about God and shows us who He is and what He has done, then we should want to study the Bible because it helps us get to know God. And we want to know Him as He truly is and not the way we want Him to be.

Illustration of my wife or my son.

I cannot claim to know someone if I do not accurately know what they are like. And I don’t get to make up things about them. There is an objective truth about who they are and I can know what they have shown or revealed to me. It is then my responsibility to know them accurately based on the information they have given.

In the same way, God has revealed Himself to us. It is our responsibility to listen and to learn about who He really is rather than making Him up in the imaginations of our minds.

And as we get to know God in His Word, it should lead us to joyfully want to learn and study it all the more.

How Should I Study the Bible?

There’s a lot we could say about this, but I really want to focus on three things to look at as we read and study the Bible.

CIA - Comprehension, Interpretation, Application

Think of it like your alarm clock in the morning.

Your alarm starts going off. You might first think the sound is part of your dream.

But then you being to comprehend what it is. It’s your alarm clock going off. Not a part of your dream, not the fire alarm, not a sound off in the distance, but your alarm clock.

Next, you interpret what that sound means. it means its 6 AM. It’s not going off because it has run out of batteries or someone is playing a trick on you. There is a meaning associated with knowing its your alarm.

Finally, you apply what your mind has comprehended and interpreted about the alarm clock. Knowing that its 6 am, it means its time to get up and start the day. Time to get showered, dressed, teeth brushed, and ready for school.

We do this CIA in all kinds of ways.

Comprehension

First we have to properly understand what we are reading. It is possible to read something and not really get what it is trying to say.

Comprehension asks the question, “What does the text say?”

This is where we want to spend some time reading and re-reading the text to make sure we understand what it is truly saying.

Have you ever had a conversation with someone and they misunderstood what you were trying to say?

If you were on the phone or texting someone, like a friend or parent, You could ask the question, “Where are you?”

Now, you just want to know where they are, or what are they currently doing?

But say they misunderstand what you are asking. They think you’re upset they are not at home or with you. They could potentially think you are trying to influence some kind of control over them with that question, like “Where are you? Why aren’t you here right now?”

They have failed to comprehend what it was that you were asking.

We can do the same thing with Scripture. We might think it is saying one thing, and instead its saying something different. We need to read and re-read to make sure we get what it is really saying.

This includes paying attention to all the small details.

Genre

Narrative

Law

Poetry

Prophecy

Instruction

Setting

Characters

Grab an English dictionary to look up words you may not fully understand.

Also use different translations. A few translations can help us get a fuller sense of what is going on.

Interpretation

Next, when we think we know what it is saying, we move into interpreting what it means.

We want to ask the question, “What does this text mean?”

If you have a good study bible, it will have notes and resources to help you make a good interpretation.

Cross-references

Cross-references are the small letters pointing you to another verse or passage in the Bible that relates to what is going on in this passage.

If we want to properly interpret the Bible, we must interpret it in light of what the rest of the Bible says. We should not just take one verse and make it say what the rest of the Bible does not say.

Paraphrasing

Study notes or commentary

Application

Finally, once we comprehend what it says and interpret what it means, we want to apply what we have read.

This is where we ask, “How should this text change me?”

We need to ask three subquestions along with this:

What does this teach me about God?

How does this aspect of God’s character change how I view myself?

What should I do in response?

Examples:

Creation -

What it says - God created in seven days and in a specific order

What it means - God works in an orderly fashion. He is a God of order and He brings order out of chaos.

How should it change me - If God is a God of order, then I need to live my life in an orderly fashion as I seek to follow and obey Him.

Jacob Deceiving Isaac -

What it says - Jacob tried to fulfill God’s promise on his own. This was not what God wanted for him, but God will use it to accomplish His will.

What it means - Jacob was selfish and stepped outside of God’s plan. There are consequences for our sin and selfishness, things Jacob could have avoided if he had waited patiently for God to act. Yet God is still sovereign and will continue to fulfill His plan in spite of Jacob’s disobedience.

How should it change me - While God is sovereign and will accomplish His plans for us, we would do well to trust and wait on Him. But we can also trust Him to forgive us when we step outside of His will if we will repent and turn back to Him in faith.