Qualities
- portable
- easy to remember
- transferable to others
- easily teachable
- doable
Plan for starting Bible study
- How to start
- Master one book of the Bible
- Start with best entry point into Bible study for you
- Significant suggestion: Start with a gospel
- The Bible is bigger than a magazine or newspaper
- We seldom read all of a magazine or newspaper
- We all read those items in a unique way
- We read what helps us where we are.
- Do the same with the Bible
- Make a plan
- Read one book every day for a year
- Read it twice a week for 18 months
- Read it until you know what happens, who are the characters and what are the major sections.
- Mastering one book builds confidence
- When you hear your book cited by the preacher or teacher, you will say, I know about that. I know that story. Yes, that’s right. No, he misunderstood that.
Choosing a Gospel
- Sources:
- http://www.biblecourses.com/English/AllLessons.aspx Written lessons at TFT
- https://ebiblestudy.org/lessons/story-of-the-new-testament Written lessons at OC
- https://choctaw.church/series videos on Matthew, Mark, Luke, John
- Bibleproject.com; videos on NT books
Mark for most people, shortest, easiest to understand
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- 16 chapters by Mark companion of Peter and Paul
- Describes Jesus and how people react to him
- Three parts
- Galilee—1-9
- Who is Jesus? Beloved son, bringer of kingdom, healer, forgiver, power over storms, disease, hunger, opposition
- Parables
- On way to Jerusalem—10
- Who do you say that I am?
- Self-description as a servant
- About to die for his peopl
- Jerusalem—11-16
- Royal entry, authority over temple
- Last supper, crucifixion, resurrection
- Galilee—1-9
Matthew for historically oriented people or people interested in OT
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- 28 chapters by Matthew, the tax collector turned apostle
- Jesus linked to
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- David—genealogy
- Moses—5 sermons of Jesus echo 5 books of Moses
- God—Immanuel
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- Sermons
- Sermon on Mount—5-7
- Sending of 12—10
- Parables—11-13
- Church—18
- End times—23-25
- Many quotations from OT—linking Jesus to past, fulfillment of prophecy
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Luke for people with social concerns and the outcast
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- 24 chapters, by the medical doctor who accompanied Paul, part 1 of Luke-Acts
- Plan
- Jesus in Galilee—1-9
- Jesus on the way to Jerusalem—9-19
- Jesus in Jerusalem—19-24
- Mission
- Good news to the poor–4
- Sermon on the plain—6
- Reversal, God plans upside down kingdom–14
- Parables
- Luke 10 Good Samaritan
- Luke 15 Prodigal Son
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John for people who are philosophically bent who think abstractly
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- 21 chapters by the beloved apostle
- Purpose: 20:31 that you may believe
- John by the numbers
- Deals with 4 Jewish institutions: wedding, temple, rabbi, well
- Deals with 4 Jewish days: sabbath, Passover, tabernacles, Hanukkah
- 7 I am sayings: bread, light, gate, shepherd, resurrection, way/truth/life, vine
- 7 signs: water to wine, sick boy, paralyzed man, feed 5000, blind man, Lazarus
- John 3:16 For God so loved…
- John 1:1 In the beginning was the word and the word was God
Work with a gospel until you master it
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- Know it like you know way to work
- Be able to say something about each chapter
- Have the point of the gospel clear in your mind
- Skeleton on which you can hang all Bible study
- Every new text will connect with one you already know in your Gospel
If you have mastered a gospel, pick where you might go next
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- Criteria
- What does your situation in life call for you to understand next?
- How can what you study next enhance your influence with others?
- Criteria
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- Potential Choices
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- Acts
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- History and pattern of church
- Acts 2:38
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- Romans
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- Roman Road—5 core questions
- Who needs salvation? (all people are sinners)
- Why do they need salvation? (sin leads to death)
- What allows people to be saved? (God showed his love by sending Jesus)
- How to be saved? (faith and baptism)
- What are the results of salvation (no condemnation and transformed life)
- Roman Road—5 core questions
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- Acts
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- Rom 16:16
- Ephesians
- The role of the church
- Eph 4—7 ones
- Philippians—joy
- Genesis—nature of God
- Exodus—nature of God
- Deuteronomy
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- Nature of God
- Role of Grace
- Importance of Children
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- Isaiah
- Nature of God
- Assurance
- Righteousness and justice
- Ecclesiastes—acceptance of cynicism
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- Once you have picked a book to master, start with these two tools
Tool #1: Read the Bible
- The Bible is our entry point to God
- Bible is God speaking to us, reading the Bible is reading words from God.
- Thoughts that were once in the mind and heart of God are now in our minds and hearts
- One of the most fundamental actions you can take with a person who is secular, cynical, resistant, belligerent is to ask them to read the Bible. If they spend fifteen minutes reading, God has their attention for 15 minutes and beyond
- Nothing can replace personal reading of the Bible
- No Bible help, no commentary, no handbook, no You Tube Video, no sermon, no Sunday school class can substitute for a personal reading of the Bible.
- Read the same passage repeatedly
- We listen to the same music and aphorisms repeatedly.
- For instance, most people can tell what song I’m thinking of when I just mention 3-4 words
- Like a bridge over….
- I’m leavin’ on a…
- Dashing through the snow…
- My country tis of…
- Happy birthday to you…
- When the wind comes sweeping…
- For instance, most people can complete these phrases
- Easy come…
- A penny saved…
- Early to bed…
- Finders…
- Haste makes….
- The early bird…
- Two plus two…
- Repetition
- is part of life
- gives good results
- is an acceptable way of living
- When you read a passage 15-20 times somethings change
- See continuities
- See the plot
- Know the point
- Starts to work on your mind & heart
- Passages start coming to mind during day
- Can retrieve a passage when talking to a person
- ALL FROM READING
- Read the same Scripture repeatedly
- Reading a chapter may confuse me.
- Reading it twice entices me.
- Reading it three times softens my heart.
- Reading it four times makes it seem like a distant friend.
- On the fifth time through I begin to see new things
- On the sixth reading, I’m starting to tie one part of the reading to another part.
- When I read it the 7th time, concepts start to open up
- The next dozen times prove to be more fruitful. My enthusiasm grows. My understanding widens. My faith increases.
- Then comes the reading when bells start to ring and sirens go off and God speaks a message to me that has been there all along, but He has only revealed it to me when I had grown to the right point.
- Tool #1—Read the Bible
- For instance, most people can tell what song I’m thinking of when I just mention 3-4 words
Tool #2: Mark what you read with these four symbols *AE?
- Advantages of this system
- Simple
- Gives focus to our reading
- Makes us come face to face with the Word of God
- Gives structure to our reading
- Don’t need a YouTube video, study guide, list of rules, teacher, just a person and Bible
- Calls people to ask what is the Bible saying to me
- Portable, easy to remember, easy to do
- Sustainable
- A sermon is a one-time event, you may remember the points of a great sermon, but for most sermons, it will be difficult to recall details.
- But Bible study is recurring, it’s easy to return to Bible study.
- I have 2,000 sermons in my file which I preached over 30 years. When I go back to reread my notes, I realize I have forgotten what I said.
- People can duplicate this study when they cannot duplicate what you or the preacher teaches them
- Scalable
- 2022 Bible societies distributed 35.5 million copies of the Bible. That’s in one year. This kind of Bible study rides on back of widespread availability of the Bible
- All you need is a Bible and those 4 symbols
- You can do it yourself, use it as a family, share it with a friend, do it with a class, put it on your blog because it is elastic
- Simple
Explaining the tools
- * or Star
- Put a * beside any verse which strikes you as interesting or inciteful or remarkable
- Ah Ha verses
- “Oh, that’s where that is”
- I’m glad I read that verse
- Put a * where you might normally underline or highlight
- A
- Put an “A” beside any verse which applies you to.
- Put an “A” by sentences which challenge you or seem relevant to your life
- This is a verse that applies to me, germane, valuable, pertinent
- I want to come back to that verse
- ?
- Put a question mark beside verses which you don’t understand
- It may be a word that is new to you or a reference to an event or place which you are unfamiliar with
- Point out sentences where you are unsure about the meaning or intent of the words
- Write your question in the margin or on a piece of paper.
- E
- Use the E only for people who are Christians
- Put an E beside the verses that are helpful for evangelism.
- Indicate the verses you would point out when you go over the reading
- How it works?
- With non-Christians
- Make sure they have a readable Bible
- Direct them to what seems to be the most relevant book of the Bible
- Schedule time for them to read and for you to get back together to go over what they have read
- Ask them to put *A? in the margins.
- Ask them to write down their questions.
- When the person you are studying with returns having read the Bible and put the *A? beside their readings, ask them to share some of their questions with you. When they share their questions, here is what you say, “What do you think the answer is?” In most cases, they will be pretty much right on.
- When you get back together after they have had time (week) to read and mark, then just go over their *A?.
- They will have discovered they can study and understand the Bible on their own
- With Christians
- Christians should use *A?E
- Find the most relevant book.
- Repeat the process until you have a firm grasp on what the Bible book is saying
- Read the same Bible book daily for months or perhaps a year
- Note how the *A?E change
- Practice
Read this text 2 times and mark it with *A?E
- Mark 4:1-20 1Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea; and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 And he taught them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 “Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it had not much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil; 6 and when the sun rose it was scorched, and since it had no root it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 And other seeds fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” 9 And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” 10 And when he was alone, those who were about him with the twelve asked him concerning the parables. 11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables; 12 so that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand; lest they should turn again, and be forgiven.” 13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown; when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word which is sown in them. 16 And these in like manner are the ones sown upon rocky ground, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; 17 and they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. 18 And others are the ones sown among thorns; they are those who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world, and the delight in riches, and the desire for other things, enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 20 But those that were sown upon the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
- Discuss
- What did you mark with ?
- What did you mark with *
- What did you mark with A
- What did you mark with E
- What do you think of this method?
Homework
- Read the Gospel of Mark
- Most people can read Mark in about 90 minutes (I read it in RSV in 54 minutes)
- Read Mark
- once in one week—13 minutes a day
- twice in a week—28 minutes a day
- three times in a week—39 minutes a day
- four times in a week: less than an hour a day
- As you read the entire book, mark ?*AE and we’ll talk about it next week.