How to Study the Bible - Week 5 Session 1

Tonight, we're going to be talking about something that I think is very important for really digging into the Scriptures and understanding the meaning of the text. We will try to see what the Bible says, what the Bible means, and then what it means for us: observation, interpretation, application.

But before we do that, why don't we pray so we can ask God to give us wisdom and direction into His Word? God, we come before You tonight. I thank You for this opportunity to gather together, not just to study the Scriptures, but to learn how to study the Scriptures. We want to be able to more effectively understand Your Word so that we might know You more fully and enter more deeply into a relationship with You.

God, may Your Word have its powerful and perfect work in us. Transform us by the renewing of our minds. Sanctify and cleanse us by the washing of the water of Your Word. Help us to be thoroughly equipped for every good work, because You have saved us for good works which You ordained before the foundation of the earth, that we would walk in these things.

I pray that each and every person here in this class, and not just in this class but those who know You and are part of this church, would experience a work by Your Spirit and by Your Word in our lives. Make us more like You, transforming us and shining brightly through us. Jesus, it is Your desire that we would be lights to a dark world. Every person here has been called to be a light—maybe on a school campus, in a corporate office building, on a construction site, in their neighborhood, or within a family. Wherever it may be, You want us to shine Your light to others.

So God, do a work in us so that we would shine very brightly, reflecting Your glory to this world. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those agreed said, "Amen."

Well, I've talked about it every single week. I get to be a little bit redundant on this, but why this class? The whole purpose of this class is that we might learn to access the Scriptures ourselves in order that we might make them accessible to others. I've been talking with a number of people who are here and have been taking this class so far, and my aim is that we would be able to access the Scriptures ourselves. It's certainly working, although it's not...

It's not easy; I mean, it takes work. That's why Paul, in his letter to Timothy, says to study to show yourself approved unto God as a worker who is rightly dividing the word of Truth. It takes time, dedication, and effort to go through the Scriptures. However, even if you begin to dedicate a very short amount of time, it can become a habit in your life every single day. I encourage you to try to start doing it in the morning. As it becomes more of a habit, even if you start with just a little bit of time—5, 10, or 15 minutes—over time, you will find that you start to enjoy it more and want to spend more time getting into the Scriptures.

But it is an exercise; it takes time. So far, we have talked about devotional and purposeful Bible study. Devotional Bible study is really that tips acronym. We're looking for the truths to believe and the truths to do. We are searching for doctrines and commands, and we will expand upon that a little bit tonight.

Then, I examine myself in light of those things that we find in the Scriptures. Do I believe these things that I'm discovering? Do I do the things that the Scriptures are telling me to do? When I find that I don't, that's when we move into the area of planning to obey and praying that God, by His Spirit, would help us to do those things. Ultimately, God wants our lives, and yours, to be producing fruit—abundant fruit. That's what He is looking for in our lives.

Many times in the Scriptures, we see that call towards fruitfulness. Anytime I think of fruitfulness, I think of Galatians chapter 5: love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, self-control, and faith—all of those things mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23. May it be that my life is manifesting more fruit over time, and yours as well, so that it is seen by us and by other people. We should be more patient; hopefully, that's the outcome in our lives—more patience, more joy, and more peace in the midst of challenging circumstances.

You can guarantee that as you are growing in Christ, God is going to allow you to be tested and put into situations where we will be challenged in these areas. One of the things you discover as you really start to commit to studying God's Word is that God has a way of putting us into certain situations and circumstances where the things that we are studying or reading come into play.

I remember very clearly one of the early books that I was teaching through when I first started teaching Through the Bible here in the Junior High room, just about 45 feet to the right over there. I taught through the Book of James, and I came to that opening section where James says, "Count it all joy when you encounter various trials." How many of you find yourselves joyful when you encounter various trials? Yes, only Leo.

So, count it all joy. I remember reading through and preparing to teach this passage. It is very clear to me; the memory of this is probably back in early 2000 or 2001. I was house sitting for someone who attended the church at that time, and I was getting ready to teach that passage: "Count it all joy when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience, and let patience have its perfect work in you, that you'll be complete or mature, lacking nothing."

I remember on a Wednesday night, I had just finished teaching whatever I had been teaching. I knew I was looking forward to teaching that the following week. I drove back to the guy's house where I was house sitting, and as I often would do, I walked into his house, took everything out of my pockets, and dropped it on the couch. He had a couple of big German Shepherd dogs and a Rottweiler; he was a police officer.

I went into his backyard to feed the dogs and give them water. As soon as I went into the backyard, the sliding glass door, which was one of those that automatically closed, shut behind me. I heard a click and turned around to see that the latch had gone down; it was locked. I grabbed the door and tried to open it, but it was totally locked. I could see the keys to the house sitting on the couch inside. Instantly, I felt that familiar rush of anxiety, like my blood pressure was increasing.

Now, I found myself in a predicament: this guy was on vacation, he was a San Diego police officer, and I was going to have to try to break into his house. He had two German Shepherds and a Rottweiler, and I thought, "This is horrible." I started going around to all the doors and windows in the house to see if anything was open, but everything was perfectly closed up because, again, he was a police officer.

I had this nagging little voice in the back of my mind that just kept saying, "Miles, just pray." Every single time that little voice would come, I would think, "That's not going to work."

I spent 20 minutes trying to find a way to get into the house. I tried that door multiple times, and finally, after wrestling with this for about 15 or 20 minutes, I said, "Okay, fine." I sat down and prayed, "God, please help. There's no way that I'm going to be able to get into this house. Help me to get into the house."

As soon as I prayed that, I had a strong sense to try the door again. In my mind, I thought, "Come on, that's not going to help," but I walked over, and it opened as if it had never been locked. Immediately, it was as if God was speaking to my heart: "Count it all joy when you encounter various trials, because the testing of your faith produces patience."

God is wanting to do a work in our lives. You can be certain that as you read through the Scriptures and study them, when you encounter truths to believe and doctrines and commands, you will be tested on these things. God's aim in this is to produce more fruit in our lives.

What He often does in those tests and little trials is similar to the image of a refiner taking metal that needs to be refined and putting it into the fire. As the metal melts, the impurities throughout it rise to the surface. That is what happens in my life and in yours. We are like freshly mined pieces of ore that God wants to purify. He puts us into the fire of trials, and the impurities—anger, frustration, lack of love, unforgiveness—come to the surface so we can see them. Sometimes, we are shocked when we see these things and wonder, "Where did that come from?"

It's not that God is shocked; He knew it was there. He needs it to come to the surface so that we can confess it. When we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Confession gives Him the opportunity to begin the work of cleansing and purifying.

However, if we harden our hearts, He simply takes us off the fire, and all those impurities settle back down into our lives. They are still there and still need to be dealt with. You can rest assured that you will go through the same trial again until God begins to refine us. It is a continual process of refining, and God uses trials, His Word, and other brothers and sisters in Christ to aid in this process.

Sisters within the body of Christ, His Holy Spirit is at work in us all. This is to the intent that He might refine us; He wants to refine us, and His Word is the scalpel that helps to do that work. Therefore, it is essential in our lives.

So, let's discuss devotional Bible study tips and purposeful Bible study. This involves looking at a passage through a lens of questions. I gave you a list of questions that you can utilize, and we will look at more of that as we go through tonight. Last week, we talked about different tools for studying the Bible, and you had homework on a word study in John 20:3-10 or John 21:15-17. We are going to look more in-depth at both of these passages this week and next. We will use both of these passages as areas to zero in on as we explore some other tools for studying the Scriptures.

In these passages, you were to look at either the word "saw" in the first section of John 20 or the word "love" in the second section of John 21. You were to examine them in the original language. One of the things we discover is that because this book we read and study was written in other languages, there is often more meaning found when we look at the original languages. You don't have to be an expert in Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic to study these things; you just need to understand the simple tools that are available to begin exploring what lies beneath the surface.

Tonight, we will focus more on the passage dealing with the word "saw." If you completed the homework, please turn it in during the break. I have been reviewing the homework you have been submitting over the last couple of weeks, and you are doing a great job. I am not looking for any of you to do these things perfectly; these are exercises. Just like if you have ever gone to exercise before and had a trainer, you don't know how to do everything perfectly the first time.

My youngest son has recently started doing Taekwondo, and I have a black belt in Taekwondo. I take him to class, and we went there last night. I sat there and watched my son practicing. He looks like he is having a good time, but his moves look terrible. There is a part of me that cringes, thinking, "No, don't do that! Oh, you're going to really hurt your thumb if you hit like that!"

When you start, it is not all perfectly together. I remember he has the same instructors that I did when I started many years ago. He is going to the same school, and I recall my instructor...

I remember getting frustrated when I first started out with this. Something he said to me has stuck with me ever since: "Miles, you're exactly where you should be for the amount of time and effort you've put in." For those of you who have been Christians for a long time, who have read the Bible and participated in Bible Study Fellowship, you may have been involved in various activities. However, what I'm teaching you here is new to you. So, you are exactly where you should be for the amount of time and effort you have put in. Just continue to be consistent and persistent, and it will begin to build upon that. You will find your understanding grows, but you have to be persistent.

If you have gotten to this point, I commend you highly. Looking at the homework you've turned in so far, there are some areas where you may not have quite understood the assignment. That's perfectly fine. I'm just asking you to look into the text through a specific lens or to look for the truths to believe, the commands, the doctrines, and the passages so that you can grow. What we've done to this point has been primarily with a Bible, a notebook, and a pen. When you're doing devotional Bible study or studying the Bible with purpose, you just need a Bible, a notebook, and a pen.

Tonight, we're going to be looking at inductive Bible study. This is a term that you may have heard before; people refer to it as IBS. However, there is also a condition called IBS, so I normally just call it inductive Bible study. Inductive Bible study is one of the core classes at Bible college and at any sort of Bible school or seminary. When you go to a seminary, it goes a lot deeper, and they call it hermeneutics, but it's basically the same thing. You're trying to get into the Scriptures to interpret what the Scriptures say, what that text means, and then what it means for you.

Observation, interpretation, and application are the core three things that we're going to look at. There will be a couple of other things we'll add to this as we go through the process, but observation, interpretation, and application are key. When I prepare to teach a Bible study, I do this every single week. What I'm going to ask you to do as you go through this is to be systematic. You're going through a process, asking certain questions, and following a methodology to go through this.

If you do this regularly on a weekly basis for several months, it begins to be second nature. You will find that you start to read the Bible already thinking like this as you go through the text. You don't need to go through every step necessarily because you kind of understand the process.

What I'm going to show you next week may, if we haven't already, break your brain a little bit. I will show you one of the ways to break down a passage of Scripture into all of its propositions so that you can see the flow of a text and how we branch all that together. Some of you will look at it and think, "I could never do that." I'm not necessarily asking you to do it; I'm just going to show you how I teach students at the Bible College to break down a text so that they can understand it and prepare it into a teaching to share with others.

I will demonstrate how I would teach them to do that. I don't go through these steps every single time I come to a text because I've done it so many times that my brain now thinks in this progression. I want to get you to a point where you see the Bible differently and start to think about the text in a new way.

I was listening to a discussion on a YouTube video the other day about interpreting the Bible. They were talking about post-modernism, which approaches a text with the idea that a piece of text can have an infinite number of meanings. Every person can read it, and it comes down to what it means to them. I think there is real danger in that perspective because I believe that God gave us language to communicate ideas and thoughts.

If words can be interpreted in an infinite number of ways, even when they are structured ideally in a sentence, and every person can interpret them however they want, then ultimately, communication and language have no meaning whatsoever. The reality is that the way we live and the way God made us involves rationality and the ability to piece language together to communicate what we are thinking, feeling, and wanting in a way that you will hear and comprehend.

I am thinking about what I want, and we will talk about this more as we go through our study. We are doing our best to look at the Scriptures rationally to understand what the original author intended to say to the original reader, trusting that God was also working to inspire these things so that His word would come forth through this communication.

We are trying to determine what the original author intended to convey to the original hearer or reader. The meaning structure is not infinite; there is a clear meaning, and we are trying to get to that clear meaning of the text. Sometimes, this is referred to as the historical-grammatical interpretation of the Bible. I would add a historical-grammatical-cultural reading of the Bible, where we aim to understand it in its historical and cultural context. We are also looking at the grammar, how the sentences are structured, and what meaning the original author intended to communicate to the original hearers or readers.

That is our goal, and it is what we are doing with inductive Bible study. There is a difference between deductive and inductive study of the Scriptures. Deductive study is not necessarily bad, although I have heard people criticize it, especially within our tribe, which is strongly connected to Calvary Chapel and the Southern Baptist Convention. Many within Calvary Chapel and the Southern Baptist Convention are very word-focused, and we emphasize this inductive reading of the Scriptures: what does the text say, what does the text mean, and what does it mean for us? What is God speaking through the text? That is more of an inductive approach.

However, the deductive approach is not inherently horrible or bad. It begins with a premise or a proposition, and I will explain what I mean by that shortly. It is a top-down approach that starts with a theory or a presupposition and then moves down to find proof or support for that idea in the text of the Bible. How many of you have ever heard the term "systematic theology"? Some of you may be familiar with systematic theology.

Theology can generally be categorized into five different kinds: exegesis, biblical theology, systematic theology, historical theology, and practical theology. Systematic theology is particularly important because it starts with a concept or idea.

Let me give you a premise: Jesus is God. How many of you here today believe that Jesus is God? It's good to see your hands. Now, keep your hands up for a second. How many of you believe you could prove that statement with the Scriptures? I see the hands slowly starting to go down.

What would you be doing to prove that with the Scriptures? You would be using a deductive approach to Bible study. You would take the premise, "Jesus is God," and "God created all things," and then you would go back to the Scriptures to show that this is provable. That's not a bad approach; in fact, it's a very good thing to do. This becomes the basis for what we would call a topical Bible study.

Topical Bible studies are not all bad, though I've heard within our own tribe, Calvary Chapel, that sometimes people deride them. There are times and places where you need to do a topical Bible study, especially when discussing theology. If I want to teach you about the Trinity—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—I can't go to one single place in the Bible to show you everything you need to understand or comprehend about the Trinity.

The concept of one God existing in three persons—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is perhaps the most challenging and difficult theological concept for people to grasp. It is also one of the most mocked by many, especially Muslims, who often ridicule Christians for their views related to trinitarian theology. This concept is also what the church thought about, wrote about, and argued about the most during the first 500 years of Christianity.

If I want to talk about the Trinity, I must come with a deductive approach. I need to go to the Scriptures and show where we see this concept presented throughout the Scriptures. When you do this, you find that you end up with hundreds of references.

Different passages of Scripture can be analyzed using a deductive approach to determine what the Scriptures teach. Deductive Bible study is not a bad thing; in fact, it is sometimes very necessary. This message, as I said, is not all bad. It is a systematic approach often used in theology. However, I think this method has some pitfalls, one of which is that it can become isogetical.

Isogetical interpretation involves reading one's own ideas into a text, which can bias the interpretation and lead to reading things out of context. This can be dangerous. There are many examples of prime-time Bible teachers on channels like Daystar and TBN who are incredibly skilled at isogesis. They often use Bible passages out of context to support their premises or presuppositions, which may not be theologically sound. They claim that what they are saying is supported by the Bible, but this can lead to significant misunderstandings. Therefore, it is essential to test and challenge these interpretations against what we actually find in the Scriptures.

In contrast, inductive Bible study begins with the text. It starts with a specific passage of Scripture and, unlike the deductive approach, which is top-down, the inductive approach is bottom-up. It observes the text through historical, grammatical, and cultural lenses to determine what the original author intended to convey to the original reader. This is what we will explore as we discuss inductive Bible study. While deductive Bible study can be isogetical, inductive study is exegetical. Exegetical interpretation means that the explanation or critical interpretation of a text comes directly from the Scriptures.

A systematic step-by-step approach is required when studying the Bible. We try to draw out of the text what it says using a historical, grammatical, and cultural lens. We ask ourselves what the original author intended it to mean for the original reader. From that understanding, we can draw our applications.

The deductive approach is different. If I wanted to create a topical message, for example, on marriage, I would sit down and write down the biblical purpose for marriage. I might list five or six different points regarding this purpose. Then, I would go back to the Scriptures to see if those ideas are supported by the text. However, I could have easily taken those ideas from any pop psychology book and then tried to find verses that prove my points. This method involves building points first and then attempting to support them with the Bible, which is not my typical approach when teaching.

There are times when I do teach topical messages, especially at conferences. For instance, I am preparing to speak at a conference in the Philippines in a couple of weeks. Just so you know, we will have class next week, but we won't have class the following week. I will provide the exact date shortly, as I will be in the Philippines.

At conferences, organizers often provide a theme and ask me to speak on a specific topic. I then consider which passage of Scripture would best help me teach that topic. Fortunately, for this upcoming conference, they informed me that the theme is the book of Philippians, which happens to be my favorite New Testament book. They assigned me a section of Philippians. While it may not be my favorite section, I enjoy the book, so I can teach it effectively.

This approach is more exegetical. I take the text first and follow a systematic step-by-step plan to determine what the Bible says, what it means, and what it means for us. The first step is always to pray. We begin with prayer, and almost without fail, I can tell within 20 or 30 minutes of reading through the Scriptures or studying the Bible whether or not I have clarity on the passage.

Started correctly, because the word of God is spiritually discerned. We simply ask God, "Lord, would you help me to comprehend this passage of Scripture? Help me see what is in the text. Help me to grasp what it is that this text says and means." So, step one is always to pray.

Step two is to observe. After we've read, we move to observation. This is where we're going to read multiple times in multiple versions. We want to read the text over and over again in various translations. I've shared with you a number of versions that I think should be at the top of your list when reading through the Scriptures.

I believe it's very important to have as literal a word-for-word translation as possible. The best word-for-word translations in English would be the New American Standard, the New King James, the English Standard, and the Christian Standard Bible. Additionally, I would include more of a thought-for-thought or somewhat amplified version, which would be the New International Version and the New Living Translation.

These six translations are the ones that pop up every single time I open my Bible software, Logos, on my computer. I have it set up to automatically open the New King James, the New American Standard, the English Standard, the Christian Standard, the New International Version, and the New Living Translation. This allows me to go through and read them to see what the text says. Reading it multiple times in multiple versions helps me to see the different ways that this text has been translated by various translators. The language used in each one of these translations is going to be just a little bit different, which helps me really grasp what this text is saying in the passage.

So, first, we want to read the passage multiple times in multiple versions. As we're on this step of observing, read slowly. As I've said before, read prayerfully and read carefully. This is a great time to take notes. For example, I will be teaching here at the church this weekend on Deuteronomy chapter 24. I sat down in my office this morning, read through Deuteronomy chapter 24, and wrote out a very quick outline of the passage. Here are the nine things that are in that passage of Scripture, just a brief outline of what's going on and what is covered.

Have just a general understanding of what's going on here in this section. So, read slowly, read prayerfully, and read carefully. Take some notes. It takes time to do these things. Don't give up; just continue to read through it. If the first few times you read through it, you're having a hard time comprehending what is being said or what's going on in this passage, we'll talk about this more. But maybe back up a paragraph and read a little bit more context. Pray, "God, I'm really having a hard time grasping what is going on in this passage. Help me to see the flow of the text and what's happening here."

Under observation, first, read multiple times in multiple versions. Next, we want to observe, as I said, the context: what is said before and what is said after. Read the paragraph before and the paragraph after. Think about, when you're reading through the text, who it was written by. If I'm reading in the book of Ephesians and I have a study Bible, I can go to the very beginning of it. I can see, okay, this was written by the Apostle Paul. It was written roughly around this period of time and it was written to this group of people.

So, I can see who it was written by—written by the Apostle Paul—and who it was written to—written to the church that was at Ephesus, a chief city in Asia Minor. You can start to even begin to look at some of the context about what the city of Ephesus was and what was so important about that, maybe at that point in time. If you're doing a deeper study in the whole of the book of Ephesians, then it would be really valuable to go back and read the passage in Acts where Paul was ministering in the city of Ephesus and the work that God did with him there during his second and third missionary journeys.

So, who was it written by? Who was it written to? From where was that passage of Scripture written? Where was Paul when he was writing this? I made available to you guys, and you can find it on my website, pastormiles.com, the timeline of the New Testament. It gives you a good idea about where the Apostle Paul was when he was writing the book of Ephesians and what was going on in his life during that period of time.

So, from where was it written? When was it written? What was the period of time? Again, a good study Bible will give you all of this information. Preceding the book of Ephesians, in the first five or so pages, will give you an entire outline of what's happening in this book: what's the general purpose, what's the general outline, and what are the problems that Paul is addressing. All those things are important to consider.

The passage of scripture raises important questions about its purpose and reason for being written. For example, the books of First and Second Corinthians exist together, but there were probably four letters that Paul wrote to the Corinthians, and we only have two of them. In First and Second Corinthians, which are more likely the second and fourth letters he wrote, we do not have the first and third letters.

What was the whole purpose of these writings? In large part, especially in First Corinthians, the book we know as First Corinthians was written in response to questions that the Corinthians sent to Paul. Almost everything he discusses in that letter addresses issues happening in their church. It is akin to a question-and-answer podcast with the Apostle Paul; they sent him questions, and he wrote back a letter providing his answers.

So, why was it written? What was the purpose of this book? A good study Bible will answer many of these questions at the beginning of the passage. It will provide information such as who it was written by, to whom it was written, from where it was written, when it was written, and why it was written. Additionally, it will identify the genre or type of writing, such as law, history, narrative, gospel, poetry, prophecy, or epistle. These distinctions are important, especially as we discuss reading the Bible with purpose.

Different genres of scripture prompt different kinds of questions and approaches. For example, the Gospels, which contain narrative passages, read like a story, while Paul's Epistles read more like an exhortation list, outlining what to do and what not to do. Understanding the type of writing helps us discern the language and structure of the text.

Next, we want to identify various elements when reading through a text. I will conduct an exercise with you in the second hour, focusing on key words and repeated phrases. In John Chapter 20, for instance, the repeated word is "saw." If you go back and read John Chapter 20, beginning at verse 1, you will find that the assignment I gave you started with verses 3 through 10. However, if you read verses 1 and 2, you will see that the word "saw" appears there as well.

In the passage of John chapter 20, verses 1 through 10, the word "saw" is used four times. This repetition suggests that I should look into what is happening in this passage. Similarly, in John chapter 21, the word "love" is repeated multiple times. This should draw my attention, as it indicates that the author, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is emphasizing a significant point that I need to consider.

When studying Scripture, I want to look for keywords and repeated words, as well as theological terms. For example, if Paul uses the word "sanctification," a term that might not be commonly used, I should underline or circle it and ask myself what it means. A good topical Bible or reference book, which can be found for free at Blue Letter Bible, can help me explore that topic further. If I don't understand what sanctification is, I can look it up to gain clarity.

Temporal markers, or time markers, are also very helpful when studying the prophets. For instance, in Isaiah chapter 6, there is a temporal marker that states, "in the year that King Uzziah died." This provides a timeline that I can investigate to understand the context of that passage. By using reference tools, I can look back to the books of Kings and Chronicles to learn more about that time period and what was happening.

In the Psalms, these markers are particularly useful. Many Psalms include headings that indicate the context, such as "A Psalm of David when he was on the run from Saul." This gives me insight into what was occurring in David's heart and mind during that time.

Additionally, when Paul travels through the book of Acts, I can follow his locations. I can refer to the maps in the back of my Bible that illustrate the journeys of Paul. Recently, The Babylon Bee shared a humorous take on how Paul used those maps to determine his travels.

Where was Paul when he was in Galatia? Galatia is not a place necessarily today, but it is located in Southwestern Turkey, which is just a little bit north and west of Asia Minor. Paul goes to Philippi, Macedonia, in northern Greece. It is helpful to look at these locations to identify where he was going.

We have already done this kind of analysis with the tips for devotional Bible study. Are there any commands in the passage? Are there any promises? What conditions exist? We will look at this a little bit more next week when I show you a tool that I teach students at the Bible College to use to break a text apart. You are trying to see the "if-then" placements. This becomes really important in the prophets in the Old Testament and when going through a book like Deuteronomy. Many of the things we see in the book of Deuteronomy are very clear conditional statements: if you will do this, then this is how God is going to respond. But if you won't do this, this is how God is going to respond.

So, look for "if-then" conditions, warnings, and contrasts. You want to observe all these various elements as you go through the text, simply trying to determine what is there and what is happening in this passage. What does it say? That is what we are doing in the observation step.

When you finish this step, after you have read the passage multiple times in various versions and have slowly gone through to determine all the different elements in the text, you should be able to summarize what you just read. This is why it is really good to do this on a paragraph or a chapter at most in your Bible. This is not something you do with five chapters, because then you would have to summarize five chapters in the book of Deuteronomy, and you might find that difficult.

All I am asking you to do is take a paragraph or a chapter and look at it as a whole. Can you summarize it? Could you tell your spouse or a friend what the basic structure is in this passage? What is basically happening in this passage of Scripture?

This moves us to step three. Step one was to pray, step two was to observe, and step three is to interpret. This is where we are trying to figure out what the text means.

When you read anything, you engage with the text and derive some sort of meaning from it. Ideally, that meaning comes straight from what the text says. This is basic reading comprehension.

What does it mean when we apply reading comprehension to interpreting the Bible? There are a few key points I want you to remember. This is very simple but also very important: the text cannot mean what it did not mean. I know some people laugh at this, but I have certainly sat in a Bible study where someone reads a passage and then says, "Well, this passage means to me..." only to share something that has nothing to do with what the passage actually says. I often find myself scratching my head, thinking, "It's nice that you feel that way, but I have no idea where you came to that conclusion. Help me see how you got there."

It may seem strange, but this principle is crucial. We want to seek the author's originally intended meaning, which is referred to as authorial intent. What did the author intend to convey in the passage? The author had something specific they were trying to communicate in the text, and it cannot mean what it did not mean. Our goal is to determine the original intended meaning of the text.

Therefore, our aim here is to let the text speak for itself. What does it say? The meaning will flow directly from what it says. The more you observe in the text, the clearer it will become. In about 15 minutes, we will dissect a passage of Scripture from John chapter 20 about Peter and the other disciple going to the tomb. We will analyze it in various ways. The more time you spend observing, the clearer the text will become, and the interpretation will flow directly from it. It will not be hidden; I am absolutely certain of that.

God wants us to know who He is and what He is like. He has gone to great lengths so that you could have in your possession His inspired Word. He is not trying to hide the meaning from you. This is where I get real concerned. A number of years ago, there was a book going around in our area called "The 70 Meanings of Torah." It focused on the first five books of Moses and presented a rabbinical view that every passage of Scripture has seventy layers of meaning. You have to try to discern the various layers of meaning.

I look at that and say it sounds a lot like a postmodern literature class at Palomar College, but it's not biblical interpretation. You have to be very careful about that sort of stuff. I'm the jerk who, when I'm talking with someone sitting in a Bible study and they say, "Well, this means this," I respond, "Can you show me how you came to that? I don't see where you got that." I play the idiot; I don't see it. I ask them to show me because I'm trying to drive home that what they just said is not there. The text cannot mean what it did not mean. We want to understand what the author's original intent was so that the interpretation flows directly from the observation.

When the plain sense makes sense, seek no other sense. If it plainly pops out, "Well, this is what it means," good, stop there. Don't try to go deeper. Now, I want to be careful how I say this. There is a very well-known Bible teacher who has been on the radio here for many years, and I have really enjoyed this person's teaching over the years. However, he has an amazing way of pulling things out of the Bible that are just clearly not there. It sounds really good, and I know he is very passionate about it, but I just go, "Yeah, that's not there."

When the plain sense makes sense, seek no other sense. Do not interpret the Scripture by your experience. What do I mean by this? This really becomes very important when we get into the discussion of spiritual gifts, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, or issues related to this, because there are some of you here tonight who...

I came out of certain streams of Christianity where experiences conflict with the Bible. Therefore, people interpret the Bible by their experiences, which is the opposite of what we should do. We should judge our experiences by the Scriptures. We have to try to be discerning to determine whether or not what I experienced actually fits with the Scriptures.

I will have much more to say about that in the future when we do a theology class, which I'm sure we'll do at some point. For now, I will leave it at that. When you're talking about experiences, especially those having to do with the phenomena of the Holy Spirit, many times people come up with things that are just not biblical. They either interpret the Bible by their experience or discount the Bible by their experience.

We do not interpret Scripture by our experiences. It is important not to be dogmatic when the Bible is not. This is a hard one for us because we tend toward dogmatism. Dogmatism is a strict and stiff-necked holding of a certain idea that the Bible clearly goes against. We hold on to all kinds of different things.

For example, all the things we believe about eschatology are speculative. They might be very well grounded and based on good exegesis of the text, but there are still people who have also exegeted the same text and come to a different opinion. We need to recognize that it might be really well educated speculation, but at the end of the day, there may be a number of things we believe about eschatology that will make us blush when we stand before Jesus.

When all is said and done, those things are non-essential for your salvation. They are interesting, and I have certainly spent a lot of time studying every different perspective, from Amillennial to Premillennial to Postmillennial, and all the different variants within each of those groups. I have no problem doing a college-level class on eschatology from every different perspective, but I recognize and hold those things very open-handedly with humility. That is how I teach them here at this church, which drives some people crazy.

I think we need to have a very generous orthodoxy about non-essential doctrines that are disputed by those who have good scholarship. We don't want to be dogmatic where the Bible is not dogmatic. It is wonderful not to over-rationalize the Scriptures. There is a danger from our Western perspectives, where we tend to scientifically analyze everything. We cut it apart in every possible way with our 21st-century enlightened perspective, which can lead to over-rationalization.

For example, as we go through the book of Deuteronomy, I did something this last weekend that might drive some people crazy. I said we don't know what this means in this text. Some might argue that we can figure out exactly what it means, but I'm sorry, we can't. You can try to over-rationalize it as much as you want, but when you get right down to it, you have to accept the fact that we don't know all the details about what this means in this passage.

We were discussing this as a staff today. There are plenty of interesting people within the body of Christ, and we need to understand that the church is a big tent with many perspectives. We might even be among those who have some pretty interesting views. I was reading to the staff during our meeting today a letter written by a pastor to the HR department of a certain workplace. The pastor was trying to enforce Deuteronomy chapter 22, which states that a woman shall not wear what a man wears, arguing that she needs to wear a skirt or a dress. I think that interpretation misreads the text.

People can push it too far, so we need to be careful not to over-rationalize or over-spiritualize the text. We can drift too far in either direction. I do my best to find middle ground, understanding that there are spiritual truths in the Scriptures. However, we don't want to over-spiritualize the Scriptures. Within our church, we try to interpret literal language as literally as possible while also interpreting figurative language appropriately.

Figuratively, what do I mean by this? If Jesus says, "I am the door," He doesn't have a handle; He is speaking in figurative language. When He says, "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out," He is not literally asking you to pluck out your right eye. Similarly, if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off; He is not calling you to literally cut your hand off.

We need to interpret figurative language figuratively and literal language literally. It is important to recognize that, as much as many Protestant Evangelical Christians want to read the Bible literally, we should only read what is literally in the Bible literally and interpret the figurative language figuratively. This can be quite challenging for us.

This issue even goes back to the whole matter of genre. The Bible is not a science textbook. This becomes particularly difficult when discussing the first eleven chapters of Genesis. There are many strong Christians with great scholarship who interpret those passages differently than you might have heard them interpreted, especially regarding Creation, the flood, and various other topics in those chapters.

You might be very passionate about the Nephilim being giants that came about by angels having relations with women. If you ask Chuck Missler, he would tell you that is what it means. However, he is in heaven now, so he cannot clarify. There are other scholars who argue that this is not what is being said in that passage of Scripture; there is something else going on, and we need to read it in the context of its genre. Therefore, do not be dogmatic about what it means; perhaps it does not matter at the end of the day.

Lastly, let Scripture interpret Scripture. One of the great places where this becomes important is when you are reading the parables of Jesus. It is easy to read the parables, which are stories that Jesus told with a spiritual meaning behind them, and then try to explain them apart from Jesus's own explanations, which is incredibly foolish.

If Jesus gives a story in the parable of the sower and you try to derive some meaning from it without reading how He interprets it in the very next section, you're missing the point of the message. Let Scripture interpret Scripture. This is where using a tool, like the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, becomes really helpful. By referencing other passages of Scripture, I can gain insight. For example, Paul says something in Ephesians, and I can probably interpret some of those things that are hard for me to understand by seeing how he spoke in Colossians, which was written around the same time and has a lot of common themes.

I can interpret Scripture with Scripture or look at the rest of Paul's books—First and Second Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, and so forth. Realizing that the same author wrote these helps me see how he used language in other places to determine what he is saying. Therefore, letting Scripture interpret Scripture becomes very important.

This leads right into step four, which is correlation. Again, this is Treasury of Scripture Knowledge territory. Correlation involves looking at other passages of the Bible. I showed you that image on our first night, the big rainbow image, which illustrated how the Bible is a hyperlinked text. There are things said in Genesis that are referenced throughout the Bible. The Book of Revelation is nearly impossible to understand if you don't also go back and start to familiarize yourself with Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Obadiah, and the other prophets of the Old Testament.

The writer of the Book of Revelation, John, is speaking in an Old Testament apocalyptic language that comes right out of the prophets of old. Correlating those passages helps us understand what is meant when it talks about the Beast with all these horns and eyeballs. What's going on in this passage? You can go to other places to try to get amplified meaning and understanding, but remember to let Scripture interpret Scripture.

This leads to our fifth and final step, which is application. Observation asks what the text says, interpretation asks what the text means, and application asks what the text means for us. What is it speaking to us? God does want to speak to us through His Word, so we must do our best to seek a primary understanding.

Application from the text should flow logically out of our interpretations, which in turn flow logically out of our observations. There is a clear methodology here: we start with observation, move to interpretation, and then to application. The application comes directly from the interpretation, which is derived from the observation.

In our next class, we will discuss inductive Bible study, which is what we are doing right now. We will then move into expositional Bible teaching. In expositional Bible teaching or preaching, the points of the message come directly out of the inductive Bible study. The points of application and whatever you take from that message come right out of what we studied in observation, interpretation, and application. This process is known as exegesis; it involves drawing out of the text what is already there.

We want to seek a primary application. How do we do this? We ask a number of questions as we go through these texts. What is the text saying to me or us? What did the original author intend for the original reader to understand from this text? It is important to remember that this was originally written to specific readers, so some applications may require us to look for general principles.

As I have mentioned before, the specifics may have had a particular application for the time in which they were written, but there are still general truths that the text conveys to us. What does the text say or mean to us? What is the text saying about me or us? For example, when we looked at some passages in Colossians a few weeks ago, it revealed certain things about who we are. Ephesians chapter 2 states that we were dead in trespasses and sins, which speaks to our condition before Christ. However, by grace, we are now saved, indicating that something different has taken place.

We need to consider our position now. What does the text say about us before we were saved and after we are saved? Additionally, what does the text reveal about God? These are many of the same questions we explored in purposeful Bible study, as we look at what the text communicates.

Revealing what the text calls me or us to do is essential. This draws on our tips for Bible study. What does the text call me to believe? What does the text call me to do? These are various questions I ask as I figure out an application.

I've already looked at all the observations and found the different elements within the text. I've interpreted it to understand its meaning, and now I'm asking these specific questions: What general principles are emerging that call me to act or believe? What does the text reveal about God? What does it say about me, my condition, my position, or whatever it may be?

In the passage, is there a sin to confess? Is there a promise to claim? Is there an attitude to change? Is there a command to obey? Is there an example to follow? I see many people taking pictures of this; feel free to take a picture with your phone.

To summarize, is there a sin to confess, a promise to claim, an attitude to change, a command to obey, or an example to follow? You might want to write down the key capitalized words. I'll provide an acronym for this in a moment; perhaps you already see it. I got this from our good friend to the north, Rick Warren.

The acronym is SPACE PETS. Is there a sin to confess, a promise to claim, an attitude to change, a command to obey, or an example to follow? These are application questions I consider as I look at the text.

Additionally, is there a prayer to pray? Is there an error to avoid? Is there a truth to believe? I should also mention, is there something to praise God for? So, here's your acronym: SPACE PETS. You have to love Rick Warren; he excels at these sorts of things.

In summary, the elements to consider are: a sin, a promise, an attitude, a command, an example, a prayer, an error, a truth, or something to praise God for.

To praise God for space pets, these are helpful ways to look at the text and draw out application from it. After I have observed and interpreted, I then move to application. Do not start with application; take the time to pick the passage apart inductively to draw out what the text says, what that text means, and what that text is saying for us. What's the application?

In this area, other than correlating just to gain understanding about the text, the goal is to stay in that text. I try very hard, when I am teaching a passage of Scripture, to stay in the text as much as possible and to teach the text. My good friend David Guzik told me years ago that if you're ever invited to speak at a conference, which I have been many times since then, he said if you go and speak at a conference, simply speak on whatever it is they asked you to speak on. You will probably be the only one there speaking on that topic, and you'd be surprised how often that is true.

This is sad, but I've been to many conferences where, for example, we are going to talk on the book of Nehemiah, and you get there to find that nine out of the ten speakers gave the message they presented at their own church last weekend, which had nothing to do with Nehemiah. One guy, however, will be David Guzik, who speaks on the actual passage.

So, do your best to stay in the text that you are studying. Avoid, as much as possible, the temptation to leave that text and start studying a totally different text unless that other text is amplifying your understanding. For instance, you may need to understand who Uzziah is in Isaiah chapter 6 and what took place in that context. But try to stay in the text.

When we are doing application, trust me, you can go out on the internet and search for Bible application questions. You will find hundreds of different blog posts from great pastors and teachers who will provide you with dozens and dozens of Bible application questions that are just these basic sorts of inquiries. So, I'll leave this up.

What we're going to do is take about a 10-minute break. When we come back, we will go through the text of John chapter 20, which discusses Peter and the other disciple going to the tomb. We will break the text apart, and I will show you how I look at a text. I don't do this every single time because when I read the text, I see it like this without having to analyze it, as I have done this so many times.

So, let's take a 10-minute break. We'll come back at 15 after. You can check the Padres score and get a cookie. Make sure to sign up on the sign-up sheet; Pastor Mark has it in the back. Please check off your name to confirm your attendance. I am keeping track of attendance. See you in 10 minutes.