What is a Bible Study and how do I do it?

There are two main types of Bible Teaching

Topical Teaching - The act of using various “proof texts” in order to teach on a subject pertaining to the Bible.

Expositional Teaching - the act of expounding, setting forth, or explaining a passage in its own context.

“preach the word”

Dangers of a Topical Bible Study

I can do anything I want ()

You do not have to care for your family ()

Baptism saves you not Christ ()

“preach the word”

Give context and exposition for the verse. Support Biblical exposition.

For our purposes we are going to try to stick to the Biblical Exposition method of Bible study in an effort to teach only what the Bible says, and never read-in meanings of our own.

Expositional Bible Study

Overview Goal: the goal of this lesson is to learn how to interpret the Bible through an inductive method of study.

Motivation: What is your motivation for learning to study the Bible? Why do you care and what does it matter?

What is the Method of Inductive Bible Study?

1. Observation and interpretation

Context of the Passage

Context of the Book

Context of the Bible

2. Application

3. Implementation (Plan of Action)

Observation

Observation: What do I see?

Definition: Observation may be defined as seeing and noting carefully what is contained in a passage of Scripture. It uses the questions, “Who?”, “What?”, “When?”, “Where?”, and “How?”

Example:

Who? Young Man

What? Keep his way pure

How? By Guarding it according to Your Word

3. Now practice on your own on

Deve

Who? Son of Man

What? He commands “Follow Me”

How? By not looking back

Interpretation

Definition: Interpretation is determining what the author intended to say to his readers. There is only one correct interpretation for any passage

We can ask, “Why?” to help discover the meaning of a passage. For example, “Why did the authowr describe it this way?”

Example:

Observation Interpretation

Young Man A Young Man can live a pure life by living according to the principles of the Bible

Keep his way pure The Intended Goal of every young person, which cannot be done apart from devotion to the word

4. Now practice on your own on

Son of Man The Son of Man is the authoritative Son of God who deserves to be worshipped and obeyed.

He commands “Follow Me” When Jesus has commands to follow Him, the intended goal should be to drop whatever one has and obey His call.

Application

Definition: Application is determining what things you need to do as a result of learning these truths. There can be many applications for one truth.

2. We can ask, “How does the Holy Spirit want me to apply this to my life?”

3. Example:

Interpretation: A young person can live a pure life by living according to the principles of the Bible

How would one apply this interpretation of ?

4. Implementation

I can live a pure life if I follow God’s Word

I will begin today by determining to know His Word and to obey it.

I will start a regular Bible Study time.

5. Now practice on

Since Christ has commanded me to follow Him, I will follow Him in a way that is honoring to Him.

I can better follow Christ by...

Emphasize the need for each member of the class to have a specific time for Bible Study