How to Study the Bible

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Let's start with a word of prayer, sir.
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Father in heaven, thank you for creating us, for saving us and sustaining us.
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In you, we live and move and have our being.
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Thank you, Father, that you think good thoughts towards us, give us a future and a hope.
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Thank you, Lord, that you don't change, and we thank you, Father, that you are our God forever as we consider your word tonight, Lord, I pray you give us ears to hear, hearts to believe, and wills to obey.
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In Jesus' name and for his sake, amen.
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Amen.
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Well, what we're gonna do tonight is we're going to basically do a little primer, you wanna call it, on hermeneutics and how to study your Bible.
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I think it's something that teachers should do, leaders should do at least once a year.
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The reason being is a lot of people forget because they don't use those continual steps every time they read their Bible.
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Me personally, I have a hard time just reading my Bible.
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Just when I say, not that I don't read it, I'm saying just reading through it, like you would just read, because I always go, well, how does this connect to this? And how does that connect to that? And then my mind goes here and goes there.
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So at times it's very difficult for me to just do reading because I'm always wanting to do interpreting.
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I'm trying to figure out how this connects to that and how this is just gonna edit my biblical theology, which will then edit my systematic theology.
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So what we're gonna do this evening is I'm just gonna show you some steps of how to.
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We'll walk through a couple.
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I think continuing to learn to study your Bible is important and I'll share this with Keith one time before.
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I was at another church and a large, a national level men's ministry.
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I had met the guy there and he wanted me to be the point guy for the Jacksonville Northeast area.
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And I met with them to see what their thoughts were.
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And he said, well, we want you to do this book with the men.
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I said, okay, what about after that? He said, well, then we got this other book.
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And I said, all right, well, after that, what are we gonna do? And he goes, well, then we're done.
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And I said, well, you do realize we just went through like 30 something weeks.
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I says, and not one time did you teach these men how to study their Bible? It was just answer these questions.
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They didn't leave that after 30 weeks or whatever it was, leaving how to study their Bible, how to go home and teach their family, how to teach their wife, nothing.
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It was just one program to the next.
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I says, no, I won't do it.
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And that is the reason why.
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And the guy was somewhat shocked.
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I said, we need to teach people how to study their Bible so when they don't have a book or the next program that they can learn on their own.
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So that is my attempt to show you this evening is the steps that I use.
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Two books, well, three.
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One, this is a Bible.
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This is the most important one.
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This is by Daniel Doriani, great book.
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I read this, I think back in 2000, I think it was 2010.
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Excellent book on how to interpret the Bible.
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Easy reads, about 260 pages.
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And then this one is what Keith is using.
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This is the actual workbook, but the front of the books looks the same.
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It's living by the Bible by Howard Hendricks.
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Excellent book as well.
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Now the methods are not different, but the way they coin their steps are different.
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And here's another one too.
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This is a good one as well.
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40 steps or 40 questions about interpreting the Bible.
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Excellent books.
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So first, we need to observe the text.
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That's what we have to do.
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This is how Howard Hendricks would do it.
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He would put, can y'all see over there? Good, everybody see that? Can you see that? Do I need to holler louder, write bolder? No, we're good? Then you have interpretation.
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And then application.
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Most of the time we read, and we want to jump right to here.
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That's a fallacy.
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Because if we don't know what the text says, how are we going to know how to apply it? And these are the steps that he uses.
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And I'll leave these here.
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And then we'll, can y'all see that back there? C-A-P-T-O-R.
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And these are the steps that I'm going to go through.
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And these actually, most of these, fit right here and here.
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Okay, just to let you know.
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So there's no difference.
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It's just the way that it's coined.
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And as we go through each one of these, we'll probably look at a text to pull one out.
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So the first one would be C.
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And this is for context.
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Does anybody know? There are two types of context in the Bible.
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Anybody know? On your mark, get set, go.
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You have literary and historic.
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The literary context is just basically the words on the page.
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It's disconnected from the author.
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It's disconnected from, it's the surrounding of what was going on when the book was written.
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It just strictly deals with the text.
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And you have to do both of these if you want to interpret correctly.
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Then you have your historical context.
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What would be some things that would be in our historical context? Sure, when? What else? Like who was the ruler at the time? Okay, yeah.
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Governmental structure, does that sound okay? We all right with that? All right, the government, that was gonna, what else? Sure.
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Yeah, something was written in Africa versus written in Zimbabwe or some other place.
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They're in the same place, aren't they? Ha ha ha.
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Canada wasn't around, but if it was Africa or Canada, it'd be two different things.
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All right, so anything else that would be important? Well, we could list a bunch, but just, anything else? The author? Yep, author.
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All right, so these are very important, and you have to do this at the beginning.
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If you don't, you're certainly not gonna come to what's called a viable interpretation.
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Hey, you can come up with any interpretation you want, but is it viable? And what's the, well, we'll get to that in a second.
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All right, so our context.
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So, go ahead, just for the, yes, say, because we didn't do literary context, you would be referring to, like, whether it's poetry or something like that, it's structured? Yeah, I was gonna get that, I was gonna do the analysis.
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Yep, yep.
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No, you're fine.
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Then we have the analysis of the text.
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Now, this is linked to a lot of what he just said on part of the literary.
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What type of literature is being written? I would say, and there may be some people that would disagree, but then you get into subsets.
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The Bible ends up being two, narrative, ultimately narrative, and discourse.
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And I would put all the epistolary stuff under here.
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I would put poetry under there.
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I would put law.
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But the majority of what it is, is narrative.
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Anybody tell me what narrative is? Basically, yeah.
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But I'm preaching the Genesis.
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Yeah.
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For the most part.
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Yes, we'll just tell you right now, the Old Testament is narrative, with the exception of some apocalyptic, but even at that, it's stuff that's revealing before telling the future, it's still within the confines of the narrative.
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So, if we were going to, I'm gonna move this real quick, so I'm gonna do two things real quick.
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If we're gonna look at narrative, what would we need to do in a narrative to begin? First, we would do setting.
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We need to know what's going on.
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Hey, now some of these do fall into the context, okay? So, you are doing this.
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The setting.
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Anytime you have a narrative, you have to have a setting.
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Then you have to have characters that are involved.
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Yes, sir.
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Have you ever read Walt Keats' Genesis commentary? Yeah.
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He writes, it's like a play.
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Yes, it is.
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It's a drama, hey, this is a drama.
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And that's the way he outlines it, it's really deep.
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I don't know if you remember when we started doing the, because I got to do the opening week of the God Who Is There, the Bible is a drama.
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It's drama from beginning to end, and it's set up in four acts, creation, fall, redemption, consummation, that is it.
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That's the easiest way to look at your Bible, broke down into four ways.
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So, we have characters that are involved, not fake characters, real dudes, real women, real people.
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Well, in these narratives, there always arises a problem every time.
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And we're gonna look at an example so you don't think I'm just talking.
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You have a problem.
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Well, then, as that problem arises, this problem will then turn to a conflict.
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Then this conflict, I'm gonna go this way, escalate to a crisis, and then this crisis, at some point, you will have a resolution.
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And then, after every resolution that happens, there's always an afterthought or action every time.
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You go, man, I don't really see that.
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Now that you see those, if you write those down or you read one of these books, you'll see those taking place in every one.
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And sometimes you have one that runs right from one right into the other.
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Take your Bible and open up to, let's do John 6.
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And this is the famous feeding of the 5,000.
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It says, I'm just gonna begin reading.
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It says, after these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.
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A large crowd followed him because they saw the signs which he was performing on those who were sick.
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Then Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples.
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And now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, it was near.
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Therefore, Jesus, lifting up his eyes, seeing the large crowd coming to him, he said to Philip, where are we to buy bread so that these may eat? And this he was saying to test him, for he himself knew what he was about to do.
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And Philip answered him, and he said, 200 denarios worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive just a little.
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And one of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, hey, there's a lad here that has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people? Jesus then said, have the people sit down.
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Now there was much grass in the place.
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So the men sat down in number, and about 5,000.
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Jesus then took the loaves, having given thanks, he distributed those who were seated, and likewise also the fish as much as they wanted.
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And when they were filled, he said to his disciples, gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost.
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So they gathered the baskets up, they filled 12 baskets and fragments from the five barley loaves which were left by those who had eaten.
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Therefore, when the people saw the sign which he had performed, they said, this is truly the prophet who has come into the world.
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What was the setting here? Where was this taking place? Said to see a galley on the other side.
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And just name some of the characters that were here.
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Jesus.
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Sure, he's the number one.
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And who else? Some of them, we don't have to name specific names, but go ahead, I'm sorry.
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Somebody said something? Yeah, the disciples.
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Specifically, there was Simon Peter's brother, Andrew, and Philip.
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And who else? 5,000 plus people, right? Some kid with a sack lunch.
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Yep, lad.
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Yep, lad.
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Old King James says lad, doesn't it? All right, so the young lad.
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All right, so we've got all that.
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What was the problem here? They were hungry.
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Yep, hungry.
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Well, then what happens? How does the problem then become a conflict? They're not only hungry, and they don't even have enough money to send them away, to go get some.
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Even if they had enough money, it'd take 200 days worth of work to feed those people.
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So then that problem causes conflict in which he goes, well, hey, there's a young little whippersnapper out there.
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We'll go grab his lunch.
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Hey, you're not missing my mind.
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I don't think that Philip says, hey, little buddy, you wanna share? I think he said, hey, we're gonna need that.
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And he took it.
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So now we have this problem turned into a conflict, and it has escalated.
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How in the world are we gonna feed all these people with this sack lunch? So now the crisis is feeding 5,000 people, right? What was the resolution? Jesus feeds them all.
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It was a miracle.
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Actually, the resolution was a miracle.
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And what does it say the afterthought was? If you wanted to, you could say there was two, but ultimately the afterthought or action is this in verse 14.
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Therefore, and that's how you know that this is telling you about everything that whatever happened before.
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Therefore, when the people saw the sign that he had performed, they truly said, this was the prophet that had come into the world.
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And you see that this narrative, we just went through every one of these were there.
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Now, if you wanted to continue to go on, you're gonna see another problem arise from 15 to 25.
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And we won't do that because you can do that on your own and just go, wow, let me see what happens from verse 15 to 25 and how another problem arises, how in all these take place.
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Some of the setting changes, some of the characters change.
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The problem appears to be the same, but Jesus pinpoints that the problem and the next section really ain't their biggest problem.
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Anyway, just when you on your own time, try to do that.
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It would be good exercise if you would do that on your own as you read your Bible and as you study.
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Now, that's how you do a narrative.
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Discourse.
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What's a discourse? Convert that or someone preaching or someone teaching, or like I said, we'd even put epistolary stuff in there because it would be either someone dictating or reading a letter.
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Let's go to Matthew 18.
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When doing a discourse, I always look for words like this.
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For, therefore, yep, moreover, those type, something that's moving you along.
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Sometimes conjunctions are used as that, that would be a conjunction.
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In this particular text, if, or since, and the one we're gonna use, I wanna look at the if in this one and look at Matthew 18, verses 15 through 20.
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And the reason why I'm using, these are a lot easier.
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I didn't wanna do a hard one.
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It would take up all of our time.
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So let's look at Matthew 18, verses 15 through 20.
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If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private.
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If he listens to you, you have won your brother.
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But if he does not listen, take one or two more with you so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every fact may be confirmed.
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If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.
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And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him or her be treated as a Gentile and a tax collector.
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And truly, I say to you, whatever be bound on earth shall also be bound in heaven.
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And whatever be loosed on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.
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And again, I say to you, that where two of you agree on earth about anything that may ask, it shall be done for them by my Father who is in heaven.
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For where two or three have gathered together in my name, I am there and it's missed.
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Somebody count, tell me how many times the word if is used in there? Five, oh, there might be a trend.
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Okay, okay, we'll use that then.
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Six times if, so that means this if is a conditional clause.
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So now we're understanding this passage not based on where the location was at, not the people that were going on, not that there was an escalated problem, not that there is a crisis, but we're looking at this as instruction based on a condition.
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It says, if your brother sins, go show him his fault in private.
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Now, if, does that mean if your brother doesn't sin against you, you go point out a fault in his life? No, it specifically says if they sin against you, go and show him his fault.
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Then it says again, what? If he listens, what do we do? You've won your brother.
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That's right, you've won your brother.
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So in a discourse, we're looking for conditions, how words relate to one another, how each phrase is connected to the next.
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Hey, if it says here in verse 15, if your brother sins and you go show him his fault in private and he listens to you, does it say you go and tell the church? No, it says it's over.
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So there, in this discourse, there is exact steps and instructions on how to conduct ourselves to a brother or sister who has sinned against us.
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And as we look at that and you go on down, the context is being with inside the covenant group of, with inside the covenant group of people.
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But how many of us have heard from an unbeliever or maybe before our understanding of church had said, hey, well, there's two or three gathered in his name, we're having church.
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How many times have we said that or heard someone say that? This text doesn't allow that.
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So you, some guy and his buddies that want to go sit in a deer stand, three of them and want to shoot deer and say they're having church, this text doesn't allow that because this actually has to do specifically with dealing with an unrepentant sinner within the local assembly.
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When doing discourses, we have to be very careful that we don't interpret one discourse in light of something else that we've heard in another passage.
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That is when you begin to examine is what I'm saying is true.
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So I wouldn't want to take this and say, hey, I really don't need to worry about my brother him sinning, it's no big deal.
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Do we have any passage in scripture that says that? No, we don't.
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Does it say love our brother? Yeah, but it doesn't say love him in such a way that we don't tell him the error of his way.
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Now, I do believe that if I was to sin against Keith or Keith was to sin against me in such a way that love as our friendship, it couldn't be covered under love, then we need to confront one another.
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But I don't think every time we sin against one another, we have to go and drop the hammer, okay? Questions? Yes, sir, you sure can.
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You're referring there, of course, to the love coverage of all.
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Sure.
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I think that's a good thing for us to remember.
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There's one thing, if somebody says something or does something that hurts me, I don't automatically have to make a deal about it.
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I can forget them and it'd be over.
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I think people forget that.
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I think we think every time somebody does something, it has to be addressed.
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And I think there's a perpetualness to that.
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If it's continually happening.
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Oh, well, sure, if I continually sin against Keith, Or any of them.
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Well, I'm just using you because I...
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Then it needs to be addressed.
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Although you don't go to that passage where, oh, well, Jesus said, 70 times 70.
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Well, that just means we continually have a heart bent towards forgiveness.
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Doesn't mean overlook the sin.
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Anybody understand? There's a difference.
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You forgive? Good? I thought he was raising his hand, but it was his daughter standing up.
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All right.
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Okay, so.
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We've done context.
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We've done analyzing the text.
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Now we got to look at every text has some problem.
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I say a problem.
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Something we may already know what the answer is.
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Like we're just saying this guy, the one in Matthew 6, if we were reading that to an unbeliever, would they have known where the Sea of Tiberius was? No, they wouldn't.
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Would they have known who Philip was? No.
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Would they have known who Simon Peter was? So we have to, when teaching and looking at things, we have to go, okay, could this oppose a problem to our hearer or to myself? Let me see if my memory is correct.
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I think it's Acts 13.
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Yeah.
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Let's look at Acts 13 verses one.
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I'll stop at one through three.
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Now there were at Antioch in the church that was there, prophets, teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manahin, who had been brought up with Herod, the Tetrarch, and Saul.
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And while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul.
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They would do the work for which I have called them.
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Then they had fasted and prayed.
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They laid their hands on them and sent them on their way.
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I can tell you, even now, I see a problem with, I see several problems within that text that in my mind, does anybody see anything in there that strikes them as odd to go, but I don't really understand that.
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How did the Holy Spirit speak? Yeah, that's the first thing, first thing to me.
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That was obviously as a new believer, I'm reading through Acts, I don't know who Lucius is.
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We don't know who these people are.
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You don't know who these people are.
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And we honestly, we don't even have any background of really who these people are.
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But the major problem that I see in there is, man, the Holy Spirit said, well, how did he say it? Do we know? Does the text tell us? Was it audible? It doesn't tell us, does it? It doesn't.
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So we just know that in some way, the Holy Spirit communicated to them the people of the church of Antioch that saw, well, here's another one.
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Was that Saul, Paul? Or was that Saul, not Paul? Good question, isn't it? Well, I would say that's Paul before he had his name changed.
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But how do you know that? You have to continue to look and you have to study and to know your Bible.
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So those would be, that's just a quick way of saying what problems are there that we can answer? Now, obligations within a text.
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Oh, I'm sorry, I missed this one.
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Themes, themes.
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And I'm gonna use this because Keith has already been teaching on this passage.
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So we're all familiar with it.
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Let's go to Genesis 22.
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Is everybody tired of hearing me read? Does anybody else wanna read? No? Okay, I'll read.
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Now it came about after these things that God tested Abraham.
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And he said to him, Abraham.
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And he said, here I am.
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He said, take now your son, your only son whom you love, Isaac.
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Go to the land of Moriah.
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Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains in which I will tell you.
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So Abraham arose early in the morning.
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He saddled his donkey.
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He took two of his young men with him and Isaac, his son.
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And he split wood for the burnt offering.
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He arose and went to the place of which God had told him.
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On the third day, Abraham raised his eyes and he saw the place from a distance.
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Abraham said to his men, stay here with the donkey.
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And I and the lad, we will go up there and we will worship and we will return to you.
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Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering.
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He laid it on Isaac, his son, and he took it in his hand and the fire and the knife.
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So the two of them walked on together.
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Isaac spoke to Abraham, his father, and said, my father, and he said, here I am, my son.
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He said, behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.
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So the two of them walked on together.
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Then they came to the place of which God had told him and Abraham built the altar and arranged the wood and he bound his son Isaac and he laid him on the altar and he laid him on top of the wood and Abraham stretched out his hand and he took the knife to slay his son, but the angel of the Lord called out to him and he said, Abraham, Abraham.
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And he said, here I am.
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He said, do not stretch your hand out against the lad and do nothing to him for now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son from me.
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Then Abraham raised his eyes and he looked and behold behind him, a ram caught in the thicket by its horns and Abraham went and he took the ram and he offered as a burnt offering in the place of his son.
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Abraham called the place there, the Lord will provide as it is said to this day in the Mount of the Lord, it will be provided.
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What are some themes? First of all, themes are ideas within the text.
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Just give a couple out of that narrative.
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Sure, sacrifice.
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Substitution.
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Yes, sir.
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In case anybody misunderstands.
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I was fixing to say that.
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Sacrifice, substitution.
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I'll solve this one.
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Worship.
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What else? What other themes do we see? Is there any other things that we could point to? Obedience.
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That's right.
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Obedience on whose part? Abraham.
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And Isaac.
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Man, that's just always baffled me.
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That Isaac got up on...
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Okay, dad.
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We don't have any indication that there was a struggle.
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We don't have any indication that there was...
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Okay.
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All right, pop, I'm gonna get up here.
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As Keith said in his sermon, I mean, we're not talking about a young child.
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We're talking about one that...
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Yes, sir.
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And he just told him that God would provide the popcorn.
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He did.
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When reading that, I go, man, did Isaac forget? Because dad told him, he's gonna provide that.
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He is going to provide it.
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Well, he ain't provided it yet.
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Okay, I'm getting up on this wood and he ain't provided it yet.
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Oh, pops has done got the knife out.
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Uh-oh.
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And then God provided.
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So yes, we see God's provision in that text too.
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So these are all themes.
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That was easy to do, because if you've been here on Sunday, you couldn't have missed it.
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He's spoken on all of those.
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So those are themes within that particular text that we should pick up on.
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Any other theme in there? Theme of pain? Okay.
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I mean, even though it doesn't say it.
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It's an inference though.
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An inference is something that we draw a conclusion, not from internal evidence within a text, but external.
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Hey, there had to be some grief that here it is, Abraham was fixing to offer up his only son.
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And we draw that conclusion, at least I do, from God even telling Abraham, hey, I see you were willing to not withhold your only son for me.
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And he said, you love him.
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And you love him, yeah.
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Yep, and you love him.
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So we see how themes work, right? O for obligations within a text.
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What would we say obligations are when we're reading within a text? The easy one would be a thou shalt not, and a thou shalt.
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That'd be easy.
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The oughts.
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The oughts, yeah.
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These are things where either the to dos, or the not to dos.
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All right, let's see an easy one.
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Sermon on the Mount, that'd be an easy one.
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Chapter five of Matthew, that part of the Sermon on the Mount.
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And verse 21.
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He said, you've heard that the ancients of old said you shall not commit murder.
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And whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.
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But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court and whoever says to his brother, you good for nothing shall be guilty before the Supreme Court.
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And whoever says you fool, he shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.
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Therefore, if you're presenting your offering at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go.
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And first be reconciled to your brother, and then you may present your offering.
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And then he goes on down, and he gives some more of you've heard it said, and he is given an actual Mosaic legislation.
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This is what the Mosaic law said, but he said you missed it.
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This is actually what it meant.
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It had dealt with an internal.
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So in that particular, what was the obligation specifically in dealing in verses 20 through 24? What were the obligations he was giving there? Don't kill.
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Yeah, don't kill.
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That's what he was telling us here.
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Sermon on the mount, do not murder.
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Then he also gives an obligation of, that's right.
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Jesus narrows it down.
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He says, all right, yeah, you ain't supposed to take a knife out and kill your brother or beat him or club him to death.
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You're not even supposed to be angry.
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I'm gonna put it here.
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Does anybody's Bible say without cause? Does anybody say that? Yeah.
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Yours does? But I'm saying to you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause.
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Yep.
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The ESV has a superscript.
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So it's not in the line, but at the bottom.
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Does it? The reason why I raised my hand, what translation did you use? A real one.
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A real one? The entire.
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Oh.
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No.
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New American standard.
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Just, I often want to say that because I know it sounds choppy.
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Every time I get up there to read, because I've had a couple of people have asked, hey man, what translation are you? It's the New American Standard.
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And the reason why I read that is because most translations kind of lean towards one idea or another, and the New American Standard's pretty choppy and it's ambiguous, correct? You would agree? Yeah, I just, you used the term Supreme Court, and I don't remember hearing it that way.
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Yeah.
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And that's what, I knew it wasn't the King James at that point.
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And that's the only reason why I use it.
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I thought it was the New King James for a while.
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I did.
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Yeah, I did.
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Yeah.
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He's fallen away from the true way.
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Yeah.
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Well, the New King James isn't the true way either.
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No.
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Hey, JBL.
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Yeah.
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God in 1611.
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God delivered me from that.
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And it was progressively through the New King James.
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All right, so you're right.
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He says, don't even be angry.
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And don't, it says without cause, meaning we shouldn't just have hatred towards someone.
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Hey, if I do something to Miss Deborah, Mike better be mad at me, and he better have cause to do so, okay? So it means without cause.
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What are some more obligations out of the text there? This one says insults, but yours had a different, what was it? You good for nothing fool.
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Yeah, good for nothing.
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Somebody's, I think it used to be the King James says raka.
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Yeah, raka.
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And actually, if you go, if you do the history of what raka, it's actually an expression.
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It wasn't like going, you raka.
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I mean, it's like, who's going to say that? It was actually an expression of, if Keith was to walk in the room, I'd go.
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What is that saying that I think about Keith? That means I'm being, I have angry, anger and murderous in my heart towards him.
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It's disdain for no reason.
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So, all right, we got, don't be angry.
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And it says, don't call him.
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No name calling.
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Hey, just out of curiosity, does anybody see a problem there where it says fool? How many times in script do we see somebody being called a fool? A bunch.
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A bunch.
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A bunch.
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So while I'm reading this, like I said, this is how my mind operates when I'm reading.
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I go, oh, wow.
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So now we have to read.
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It has to do with disdain and degradation, humiliation towards the person you're speaking to.
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Hey, we would all say a man that cheats on his wife and he becomes poor because of it's a fool, wouldn't we? Why would we say that? Because that's what the proverb says.
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That's what the proverb says.
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So, we don't call someone a fool and make them out on our own standard is basically what it's saying.
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What else are the obligations here? Got to be reconciled to your brother.
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If it's in this particular case, if they were taking an offering under the Mosaic legislation, if they were taking something to the altar, whether it be at a synagogue or at the brazen altar at the temple, and they had ought or a problem or holding an offense towards their brother, it says right there, what are they supposed to do with that lamb or whatever? Leave it there.
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Go straighten that out.
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Then come do that.
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And why? Just out of curiosity, why? Maybe we're interpreting now, but why? That's right.
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The heart is, here it is.
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You're wanting to offer to God.
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Most of those sacrifices had to do with offering to God for forgiveness and here it is.
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This person was holding unforgiveness in their own heart towards someone.
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So Jesus says, don't do that.
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You got to make that right.
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Then that way, when you offer that offering, it'll be pleasing unto the Lord.
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There's weeping and gnashing of teeth in the hallway.
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No.
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Reflection.
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Once we do all these, we do these.
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We find out what the context is.
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As we do the literary, we find out whether it's a narrative, whether it's a discourse.
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Then we do all of our analysis to find out what is this text saying? What are the problems we've addressed? Have we solved them? Do we have unsolved problems? We find these things.
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We find out if there are any obligations within this text that can be applied.
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Then we go to reflection.
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What does it mean to reflect on the text? Yeah, really.
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Think, think.
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The first thing we should reflect on, what does this reveal about God? Hey, the text ain't about us.
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This Bible ain't about you and me first.
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This is about God and how He has revealed Himself.
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So the first and foremost, we should say, what does this reveal about God? Now there's a lot that can be said of what does it reveal? We can say, what does it reveal about His character? Right? So let's just say, let's take for instance, I hope we're not preaching your sermon again, but Genesis 22, what does that reveal about God? What are some things that that text revealed about God? What's that? He was merciful.
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Yep.
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That text showed that God was merciful.
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Okay.
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It shows His mercy.
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The text tells us at the end, remember, you get all these things, and then you have this escalation in the narrative, and then what happens? You have a crisis, and then what happens? It's resolved.
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But what was the crisis? He was supposed to slay His son.
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And what does God do? He intervenes and provides a lamb.
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And what was the last thing it said about God at the end of that narrative? God will provide.
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Does that reveal that God is a provider for provision? Shows that God's provision in that text.
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What else did it show? It showed God's love.
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Hey, all of this is rooted in this right here.
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If God doesn't love, He ain't gonna show mercy, and if God don't love, He ain't gonna provide.
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He keeps His promises, and that's part of that too.
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Sure, yeah.
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He kept His covenant.
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He's covenantal.
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Yeah, He's covenantal.
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Because here's what happened.
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He promised Him that through His seed, through Isaac's seed, all the world would be blessed, didn't He? Well, how did He do that? By not breaking His covenant first with Abraham and keeping His word that He was gonna provide a substitute for His son.
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That's what He did.
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I would say there's one other, and that is the willingness of God to test us, because that's what it says at the very beginning.
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God did test Him.
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We go through tests.
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Yeah.
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We do.
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God test Him to see.
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God didn't need to see if Abraham was gonna be faithful.
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Ultimately, He was proving to Abraham that Abraham was a man of faith and that he was gonna trust God no matter what.
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And did we see times where He, for the skin of His own teeth and worried about Him being killed, He said, all right, that's it.
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We're gonna tell a half-lie.
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So we wanted to say, what does it reveal about God, His nature? And I always like to say, what does this text reveal about Christ? Because who's the main character of the Bible from beginning to end? It's Jesus Christ.
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It begins in Genesis, and He's the main character in the beginning.
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And we know from Colossians that in Him and by Him and through Him, He created all things.
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He is the one.
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John 1.
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In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God.
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And what? The Word was God.
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And then that Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
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And we beheld His glory.
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No, okay, I keep going.
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So how do these texts reflect Christ? Then we can say, what does it reveal about God and His nature? What does it reveal about Christ? And then we can say, what does it say about mankind? What does it say about mankind? If we go back to John 6, what did it reveal about the men in that passage? They were just hungry.
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What's that? Dependency on God.
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They were there for food.
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They were there, they depend, all right, yes and no.
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Yes, they depended, hey, you know what? Here it is, this man, this is the prophet that came into the world and he just fell in our belly.
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You know how we know that he is the prophet sent from God? Because he just took five loaves and two fish and fed 5,000 plus people.
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But if you go on and you read the rest of the text, they realize that this is the one and they wanna make him king because they want more bread.
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And then when they, Jesus walks across the water, however he gets over there, they wake up the next morning and Jesus hang there and they're hungry.
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And they say, hey, you know what? I bet he's over there.
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And what did they do? They got in the boats and they rode over there.
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And then Jesus says, you didn't come here because you wanted me.
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You came here because you wanted your belly full.
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No, no, we want you.
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And he says, well, you know what? It's the work of God that you believe.
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And then he makes some harsh statements.
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It's one of the hardest, you know, the seven sayings of Christ.
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If you don't wanna eat my blood, eat my flesh and drink of my blood, you can have no part of me.
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And it says, every one of them walked away, but the 12.
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And then Jesus looks at them and said, you gonna peel out too? And they says, where would we go? So it reveals two things.
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Yeah, they believed that he was the one.
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The text says it.
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This is the prophet.
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He did what Moses said that person was gonna come and do.
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Give them bread.
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But then it revealed that all they wanted was just the benefit that God offered.
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They didn't want to follow Christ.
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They didn't wanna follow him.
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They just wanted what he offered.
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That's the prosperity gospel in John six, by the way.
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So that's what we do.
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This is what I read, this is what I'm doing.
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That's why it's hard for me to read and just read sometimes.
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I wish that we could get into more detail.
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I wish that we could do a whole text together, but we don't have time.
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My time is fleeting.
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But how do we know that our interpretation is viable? You may wanna test that one.
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If I will verify it.
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The analogy of scripture is true.
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That's part of it.
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What else? What was the author's intent? That's the hardest thing for us to know is what was the author's intent.
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Philippians 4, 13.
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I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.
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It'll hold on one.
53:30
I was actually gonna use something else.
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I like fighting, not fighting people.
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I like, I was into kickboxing.
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I was into Muay Thai.
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I loved all that.
53:39
I'm watching a fight.
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I've told this to Keith one time.
53:41
I'm watching this fight, and this guy gives a one-five combo with a head kick and just cleans this guy.
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No, he gets up at the end, and he's like, you know, I wanna thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Bible, and no weapon formed against me will prosper, and I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.
54:04
How about, I was like, Sybil, did you just hear what that guy said? He's got a head kick that dang near decapitated this dude, and he just said no weapon formed against him will prosper, and he can do all things through Christ which strengthens him.
54:20
I'm like, well, what about the guy that just got his head cleaned? What if he was a Christian? So you see how just wrong misinterpretations of scriptures, you know, that particular passage is dealing with suffering, not being head kicked in the head, and the guy, his opponent was not a weapon formed against him.
54:43
Yeah, is that not funny or what? It's like, you know, let's don't throw Bible verses out to make it fit our particular moment, and if anybody would have heard that and read that, it would go, that's not what Jesus is talking, or Paul's talking about there.
55:00
Paul's talking about time of suffering, and good.
55:04
A lot of people tend to treat the Bible like a fortune cookie.
55:07
Yeah, they do.
55:08
And those little snippets become, you know, Tony Robbins-esque style, get us through the day words, versus grammatical and historical contextual words.
55:22
Right.
55:23
Which have a broader.
55:24
A broader context, yeah.
55:27
That's why I'm not one on calendars with daily verses.
55:34
Yeah, yeah, I'm just not into that.
55:38
I'm just, I think they can be very misconstrued, that, hey, that's a start for someone, and they're gonna start reading there, and it'll make them hungry for God's word.
55:46
Well, praise the Lord that it, you know, helped work them towards that direction.
55:52
But the best thing you do is study your Bible.
55:54
Not just read it, but read it.
55:57
Let it become part of it, become part of you.
55:59
When you're reading, do you ever get into the text? Like, get in it.
56:04
I mean, imagine, I'm not talking about just imagining, so let's do some sanctified imagination.
56:10
I mean, imagine being in Jonah's position, and God tells you, hey, we want you to go to Afghanistan and preach the gospel.
56:20
Well, I want them to be smoked.
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And God says, no, you're gonna go, and you try to go another way.
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I mean, just put yourself in his position.
56:31
He gets a bad rap sometimes.
56:33
He wanted to see God's enemies destroyed, and the Ninevites were God's enemies.
56:37
They were saber-rattling, and they were coming to take over, but he did not have compassion for God's enemies, and he should have, and it took him being swallowed up by a fish, and being a picture of Christ, and being in the belly of that fish for three days and three nights, and then be vomited out for him to hot-tail it to preach the gospel.
57:00
So, any questions? No, we're good.
57:10
Mike, you'll close for us? Holy Father, we thank you that you have given us your word.
57:19
We thank you that we have not been left alone, but through your word and your spirit, we know who you are, and in knowing who you are, we love you.
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We pray, Lord, that we would love you correctly.
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We pray that we would seek your face daily.
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We pray that your word would be before us, and that your praises would continually be in our mouth.
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We pray that you would use even this instruction this evening to grow us in our ability to understand your word, and to have it conform us to the image of your Son, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray and ask all these things.
58:05
Amen.
58:06
Amen.