How to Study the Bible - Week 3 Session 2

Now to study purposefully: determine the genre, decide what questions you will ask, then read the text carefully, repeatedly, slowly, and meditatively, looking for the answers.

How asking the right question of a passage opens up what the Bible reveals about God, about Jesus, and about us.

Timeline Resources for Seeing the Whole Story

As you study through the Scriptures, it helps to see a snapshot of how they lay out. At pastormiles.com/NT-timeline you'll find a timeline of the book of Acts that I created years ago, running from about 30 to 70 A.D. It shows where each New Testament letter lines up with the events of Acts—the books across the top and bottom, and key events like Paul's journeys along the way.

This helps you see, for instance, that during Paul's second missionary journey, Galatians, 1 Thessalonians, and 2 Thessalonians were written; and at the end of his third journey, 1 and 2 Corinthians and Romans were written, and where they were written from.

The other resource is pastormiles.com/OT-timeline. You'll have to zoom in on this one, but it breaks down from Genesis through Malachi—where the different kings reigned, where the books were written, and some contemporary world history. The Old Testament runs from the time of Abraham, born around 2166 BC, through his call (Genesis 12), the covenant (Genesis 15), the birth of Ishmael (Genesis 16), then Isaac, Jacob, and on to Moses.

You can follow the Exodus around 1446 BC, the wilderness wanderings, Deuteronomy written just before the conquest, then the period of the Judges, and then 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles—the united and divided monarchies, with King Saul, David, and Solomon, and then the divided kings of Judah and Israel. It's hard material, but as you go through it systematically it gives you all the details. Both timelines are free on my website.

Reading the Bible With Purpose

Everything I'm going to show you on the screen tonight is on a sheet of paper I'll hand out at the end of class, so you don't have to copy it all down. How do we study the Bible with purpose? We use comprehension questions as we go through the text to understand what the Bible teaches about specific things.

Remember the two phases. Phase one is to determine what kind of literature you're reading and what way you're going to study that passage—what questions you'll ask. Then you simply read the text carefully, repeatedly, slowly, and meditatively, looking for the answers to those specific questions.

Questions That Reveal God (Job, Psalms, the Prophets)

What kind of questions? How does this passage describe God? What names for God are used? What are His character traits or attributes? Does the passage describe any aspect of God's emotions or personality? What are God's motivations and objectives—what is He doing? How does the passage describe God's relationship with mankind and His attitude toward us? How does God describe Himself, and what does He want us to do?

These work best with Job, Psalms, and the prophets. When you read Isaiah—66 chapters covering about 60 years of Israel's history—it can be hard to grasp what's going on. But if you read it purposefully asking, "What does this passage reveal to me about God?"—that's a theocentric focus. Back in 2012 I took a class on the book of Job, and the assignment was to go through every chapter with a theocentric study, simply asking what each chapter told me about God. By the end I had about forty pages of notes from that single question.

Questions That Reveal Christ (the Gospels)

For the Gospels, ask: Who is Jesus? Is He divine? Is He human? We already have theological answers—Jesus is fully God and fully man—but that systematic theology is built on a biblical theology drawn from the text. In the Gospels Jesus reads people's thoughts, which is a divine characteristic; yet He hungers, thirsts, and grows tired, which shows His humanity. Is He equal or inferior to the Father? Was He created? What kind of man was He—outgoing or private? What emotions did He display?

If you read through Matthew asking only what it reveals about Jesus, you'll find it emphasizes things differently than John—not contradicting, but because Matthew wrote predominantly for a Hebrew audience and John more for a Greek audience. As you read all four Gospels asking, "Who is Jesus according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?" you're doing a christocentric study.

Does this take time? Yes. You could spend a year going through the Gospels discovering who Jesus is. I'd recommend keeping a journal—call it your "Jesus journal"—and writing down what you learn about Him. By year's end your understanding of who He is will grow beyond what you could imagine. Other questions: How did He treat women? How did He relate to men, to religious leaders, to Gentiles, Sinners, and tax collectors?

Questions for the Epistles and Salvation

For the Epistles: How does the passage describe the unsaved? What words are used for sin or its power? What is the consequence of sin for the unsaved? And how does it describe the saved—what words describe believers, what is their relationship with God, how is a person saved, and what are the results of salvation? That's a soteriological study.

What exactly does it mean to be saved? Many people couldn't answer that. But if you take time to go through Ephesians, you'll learn a great deal, because salvation is one of its major themes. Ask: What is salvation? Saved from what? Is salvation permanent? How does one get saved? What is the role of the law? What role, if any, do good works play? Why did Jesus have to die? What is faith? What is the importance of the resurrection?

Some of you would like to know the answers to those questions—or worry you couldn't answer them if asked. Pray and ask God to open your eyes to behold wonders from His Word, ask the Holy Spirit to direct your study, and then systematically work through Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. You'll answer many of these questions, and you'll discover new ones along the way.

How I Learned the Bible

In all honesty, this is how I learned the Bible. I attended one semester of Bible college after high school, then came on staff at this church. Over the next ten or fifteen years I learned everything I know by studying the Bible on my own—reading commentaries and books, listening to Bible teaching, and teaching others, which forces you to find answers to the questions they'll ask.

It wasn't until 2018 that I earned a seminary degree, and I don't say this boastfully, but I didn't learn many new things there, because I had spent the previous twenty years studying the Bible for hours every week. I became good friends with old, dead commentators—Charles Spurgeon, D.L. Moody, Matthew Henry—and listened to teachers like Martyn Lloyd-Jones, David Guzik, Skip Heitzig, and J. Vernon McGee, whose Thru the Bible ministry still reaches people worldwide as if he were alive. You have the ability to listen to these teachers on your phone, but so much of it comes down to reading the Bible systematically, slowly, and carefully, asking these questions—and when you can't find an answer, keep reading until you do.

Questions for the Historical and Prophetic Books

For the historical and prophetic books—Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings—ask: Why and when do people pray? How do they pray? How does God respond? What habits sustain godly living? What are the early warning signs of trouble? What mistakes do the characters make? The Bible is filled with the mistakes of Abraham, Isaac, David, and others, and you learn how God works in people's lives through their failures. What are the consequences of their failures—and if a character remains faithful, what are the consequences of that faithfulness?

The Class Exercise: Same Passage, Different Questions

We then handed out four colors of paper, each with a Scripture passage and a question at the top. The instruction was to spend ten minutes alone, using only that single sheet—no concordance, no phone, no other Bible—reading the passage repeatedly and answering only that question, then to gather with others who had the same color and compare notes.

Two groups had **Mark 10* with different questions. The blue group asked, How did people react to Jesus?* They found that the Pharisees wanted to test Him because multitudes were gathering to Him and the attention wasn't on them; that the multitudes followed and ran after Him, yet after His teaching were often sad, confused, sorrowful, or perplexed; and that people were astonished, afraid, and greatly displeased—coming to Him hoping He'd affirm their beliefs, which He did not.

The yellow group asked, How did Jesus treat people? They found He came to the region—He came to people; He taught them and answered their questions; He took the children up in His arms, laid hands on them, and blessed them. He was authoritative and explanatory, looking around as He spoke, and at times gave a kind but blunt rebuke about the truth.

Two groups had **Colossians 1:1–23*. The green group asked, Who is Jesus?* They found He is the Son of God, the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation; that He is before all things and in Him all things consist; that He is the head of the body, the church, the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; and the reconciler who presents us holy and blameless. In short: Lord, Son, firstborn, head of the body, blameless.

The salmon group asked, Who are we? They found we are brethren in Christ, fellow servants, redeemed and reconciled; delivered from the power of darkness and conveyed into the kingdom of the Son of His love; redeemed through His blood; and created by Him, through Him, and for Him.

The exercise showed how the same passage, approached with different questions, yields more from the text—not contradictions, but distinct truths about Christ and about us. And yes, what is said of the Colossians is true for us: we too have been redeemed and rescued from darkness.

This Week's Homework

Your homework is a **theocentric analysis of Isaiah 51**. Read the chapter in whatever version you like—better yet, in two or three versions—slowly, carefully, repeatedly, and purposefully. Answer two questions, but on two different days, looking through one lens at a time.

The first question: What is God like? Find everything in the passage about His character—is He merciful, just, vengeful? Go through it multiple times and write down everything you find. On another day, the second question: How does God treat us? Write down what the passage reveals.

I'm going to ask you to turn this in, so write it legibly on paper or type it. At this point in week three, all you need is a Bible, a pen or pencil, and paper—no concordance, no Blue Letter Bible, no other tools. (And please, not in crayon.) Next week we'll cover tools for studying the Bible; the following week we'll get into inductive Bible study using those tools.

Will We Reach Wrong Conclusions?

A good question came up: How do we avoid wrong conclusions when reading bits and pieces? In the multitude of counselors there is safety, as the Proverbs say. This is why it's important to study with other people—iron sharpening iron. You will sometimes reach wrong doctrinal conclusions; one of the checks we use is commentary, which we'll discuss next week.

Over my twenty-five years of study and teaching, I've many times reached a conclusion that, on further examination, I had to adjust because another passage showed it wasn't in line with Scripture. We rely on the Holy Spirit, the multitude of counselors, and the challenge of studying with others. But remember: the text cannot mean what it does not say. Observation is crucial, because people sometimes draw meaning from the text that simply isn't there—and become bold about a stance the text explicitly doesn't support. At that point we need to come to the Scriptures humbly.

I'll post these documents and the timelines on the blog at pastormiles.com. There are many similar Bible study resources online with comparable questions, lenses, and filters for various books—the same thing we did tonight: asking what the text says about a given topic.

Next week we'll talk about tools—concordances, Bible dictionaries, word-study tools—some of which are free and absolutely astounding. Make sure you pick up the papers and write down those two purposeful questions for Isaiah 51: What is God like? and How does God treat us?

Closing Prayer

Father God, I pray that You would open our eyes to behold wonders from Isaiah chapter 51, and Lord, that we would learn some great things about what You are like and how You treat us in this passage. And Lord, that through that You would bring us into a deeper fellowship and relationship with You. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.