Getting Our Hands Dirty

How to Study the Bible March 25, 2015

Getting Our Hands Dirty

Time to Cut Straight Page 1

Homework Check In

In the book of Romans, what does Paul pray for?

Prayer shows up as a word only ______times in Romans

Pray only shows up ______

Yet in this book we learn about Paul and what he prays about

He starts with prayer in 1:7 and before he is done, he makes a total of ______references to prayer.

After the gospels and the Acts, prayer receives more mention than in any New Testament book except the Revelation.

James E. Rosscup, An Exposition on Prayer in the Bible: Igniting the Fuel to Flame Our Communication with God (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2008), 1974.

First off Paul is praying, asking for grace and peace for those who receive this book

By the way, he does that in almost all of his lettters

1:7-12 Paul ______for the church in Rome

5:2-3,11 Paul talks of praise filled exulting before God regarding the Roman believers

6:17 Paul is thankful for their ______

7:25 Paul thanks God for setting him ______

8:26-27 Paul explains how the ______intercedes for us and helps to make our prayers effective

10:1 Paul prays for the ______of the Jews

10:13 Paul says whoever calls the Lord will be ______

11:33-36 Paul praises the Lord

12:12 We are to be ______to prayer

15:13 He prays for believers to be filled with joy, peace, hope and the power of the Holy Spirit

15:30-32 Paul ______for prayer

16:25-27 More praise

Romans 1:9–10

“For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you.” (NASB95)

Unceasing – adialeptos – constantly, unceasingly, like a cough

Ἀδιάλειπτος 88 (Roman period) of a cough.

James Hope Moulton and George Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1930), 9.

Unceasing, continual, without intermission. This, however, must not be taken as referring to unbroken continuity.

Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2000).

Think of a pilot light for a gas stove, always on and ready to go when needed

Page 2

Key Points

Prayer is ______

Consistent and constant intercession is job one. It must be at the ______of our mind.

The Holy Spirit intercedes for us to help make our prayers effective

We all ______

Praise is ______

What we just did is a called a ______.

We took the theme of prayer, specifically as it relates to Paul and then traced it in only one book.

This is actually an expansion on what would be a word study

For a thematic study regarding prayer with Paul, we are not just looking for the ______

The key word is pray or prayer, but now it is more expansive

How would prayer be referred to in the text?

Once you determine the list of those words, unless you want to read through the entire text looking for all the key phrases and words, you would then refer to a concordance and begin the process of looking each one up

I Looked Them Up, Now What?

Each verse says something about prayer

Go back to the high level list I provided earlier

I just referenced items at a high level, but there are ______in each separate scripture

Romans 1:9-10

I began the process of digging in

Know it

4-1-21-1

What type of communication is Romans?

Work it

I was in this area with the additional searching in Romans 1:9-10

Let’s look at it again

Romans 1:9–10

“God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you.” (NIV)

Romans 1:9–10

“God knows how often I pray for you. Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve with all my heart by spreading the Good News about his Son. One of the things I always pray for is the opportunity, God willing, to come at last to see you.” (NLT)

Romans 1:9–10

“For God, whom I serve in my spirit by preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness that I continually remember you and I always ask in my prayers, if perhaps now at last I may succeed in visiting you according to the will of God.” (NET)

Page 3

Observation

What do you see here?______

What jumps out at you?______

Remember – the theme is prayer

Background – at this point, Paul has never been to Rome, but wants to go there

This is a letter he is writing to introduce himself and his teaching and to build up the church in Rome

Romans 1:9–10

God

______

In my spirit

In the preaching of the gospel

______

Is my witness

Unceasingly I make mention

______

Always

______

Making request

By the will of God

I may succeed

______

We now know that Paul was heavily burdened for the church in Rome, so much so that they were always heavy on his heart

He was driven to see them, driven to be with them, driven to share with them, so much so he writes a letter

Yet he prays, constantly working and waiting

Live it

How?

What is it that God has laid on your heart?

What is it that you need to be praying about, daily

Paul’s prayer is about a who in order to share about Him

And this is just looking at one phrase out of over 20 in the book of Romans on the theme of prayer.

How Not to Study the Scripture

1. Take the text ______

Genesis 4:9

Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” (NASB95)

Out of context, don’t bother yourself with the welfare of others.

Don’t be a busybody.

Page 4

The Context

Genesis 4:8–10

“Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.” (NASB95)

2. Interpret poetic imagery in a ______

Psalm 93:1

The LORD reigns, He is clothed with majesty; the LORD has clothed and girded Himself with strength; indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved. (NASB95)

Used by the Catholic Church to justify the demand for Galileo to recant his theory that the earth is not the center of the universe

Interpret poetry as ______

Psalm 91:4

He will cover you with His pinions, And under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark. (NASB95)

God does not have wings. But the use of metaphor and anthropopatheia in poetry is common

3. ______a verse

“…money is the root of all evil.”

But the verse actually says:

1 Timothy 6:10

For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. (NASB95)

Get it right

4. Only quote ______

…render unto Caesar the things of Caesar…

Used many times to talk of the Christian’s responsibility to government

Matthew 22:20–21

And He said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” Then He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.” (NASB95)

Oh, we have a responsibility to God

Quote the whole verse, understand ______too.

5. Study only the verses that make you ______.

Page 5

Philippians 2:9–11

“For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (NASB95)

Study the full counsel of God, including the ______verses

1 Corinthians 11:27–30

Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread anddrink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.” (NASB95)

6. Getting bogged down in the ______

Leviticus can be daunting

That is where I stopped the first time through the Bible

Then someone told me about the ______

First time through the Old Testament, stick with the ______

When you are ready for the meat, then dig in

We are here to help as we are going through every book, and yes we did go through Leviticus

7. Starting off as a new believer by reading the book of Hebrews or Revelation in the NT

It might be better to start off with John or Matthew

Get some background, then dig in

When I first started translating from Greek to English, we started in 1 John, easy, not 1 Peter

8. Not taking action when you read a command.

Know it

Work it

______

James 1:22

“But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” (NASB95)

9. Using the Bible as a battleground for ______

Medieval scholastics reportedly argued over how many angels could dance on the head of a pin.

C. Fred Dickason, Angels: Elect & Evil (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1995), 89.

Who Cares?

Titus 3:9

“But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the Law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.” (NASB95)

Proverbs 26:4–5

“Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will also be like him. Answer a fool as his folly deserves, that he not be wise in his own eyes.” (NASB95)

Page 6

Questions to Ask

What have I learned about God the Father?

What have I learned about Jesus?

What have I learned about the Holy Spirit?

Did I find a good example to follow?

Is there a promise to believe in the passage?

Is there a command to obey?

Mark Water, Bible Study Made Easy, The Made Easy Series (Alresford, Hampshire: John Hunt Publishers Ltd, 1998), 9–10.

Canonical Study

We are doing that here on Wednesday nights

We are going through the entire Bible, chapter by chapter verse by verse from Genesis to Revelation

Up next is Judges

You can choose to do this as well

Usually it involves a ______to read every book

A study of the entire Bible, simply reading through all 66 books, will change you

Who is it that reads it through from cover to cover?

“The gospel is not a book; it is a living being, with an action, a power, which invades every thing that opposes its extension, behold! It is upon this table: This book, surpassing all others. I never omit to read it, and every day with some pleasure.” Napoleon

“I am busily engaged in the study of the Bible. I believe it is God’s word because it finds me where I am.” Abraham Lincoln

A U.S. Army officer told of the contrast in his pupils during two different eras of teaching at the artillery training school at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. In 1958–60 the attitude was so lax that the instructors had a problem getting the men to stay awake to listen. During the 1965–67 classes, however, the men, hearing thesame basic lectures, were alert and took copious notes. The reason: these men knew that in less than six weeks they would be facing the enemy in Vietnam.

Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 32.

Canonical study is of value

It is the beginning of a basic ______

It is something we need to do as well as memorizing scripture

Remember – ______can quote scripture too.

What provided Jesus His ammo against Satan, the fact that He KNEW scripture.

Book Study

This is where many begin

I never tell new Christians to read the entire Bible

Rather – pick a book and read it

For us – to grow – pick a book and study the dog out of it

For our example – ______

Page 7

Know it

So what do we know about Zechariah?

5-12-5-5-12

Where does Zechariah fall?

What is the theme of the book – ______

What other background is there?

Remember – scripture is the best commentary on scripture

Zechariah provides us with several precise dates for his ministry, all connected to the reign of Darius, the powerful king of Persia. These dates place Zechariah’s ministry in the years 520–518 BC and make him contemporary with Haggai.

J. Daniel Hays and J. Scott Duvall, eds., The Baker Illustrated Bible Handbook (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2011), 448.

He is a prophet

The son of Berechiah

The grandson of Iddo

Is he referenced elsewhere in the scripture?

______

Who was Iddo?

Ezra 8:17 tells us he is in exile serving as a priest and is faithful

Ezra 8:15

“Now I assembled them at the river that runs to Ahava, where we camped for three days; and when I observed the people and the priests, I did not find any Levites there.” (NASB95)

Do we know what happened to Zechariah and his ministry?

Matthew 23:34–35

“Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.” (NASB95)

So Zechariah was a prophet who was also a Levite

He ministered to the nation after the return from Babylon and was a contemporary of Ezra and Haggai

His message was not one that was easily digested by the people as they eventually murdered him between the temple and the altar

Zechariah 1:2–4

“The LORD was very angry with your fathers. Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Return to Me,” declares the LORD of hosts, “that I may return to you,” says the LORD of hosts. “Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Return now from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.”’ But they did not listen or give heed to Me,” declares the LORD.” (NASB95)

Page 8

So, as part of a book study of the book of Zechariah, we now know the background of the book and a bit about who is doing the writing

This is a book of ______

Since we know the temple was completed in Feb/Mar 515 BC (Ezra 6:15) and we know where he was murdered, we now have more background.

Handbook Outline

Zechariah’s Night Visions (1:1–6:8)

Crowning of Joshua the High Priest (6:9–15)

Two Oracles Concerning the Coming Kingdom (7:1–14:21)

David S. Dockery, Trent C. Butler, et al., Holman Bible Handbook (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 1992), 495.

Know it – on our way there

Work it – That is next

Live it – Coming up

Work It

Observation

Reading

Interpretation

Language – Hebrew, Priest,

History (Culture) – Post exile, Oct/Nov 520 BC – 515 BC

Literature - Prophecy

NPPL

Narrative-Nope

Poetry - Nope

Prophecy- Yep

Letters-Nope

Your Task

______

In this book we will learn of several prophecies concerning Jesus Christ

His first coming

His second coming

We get a physical description of the antichrist

What prophecies are for the first coming?

What prophecies are for the second coming?

How does prayer fit into all of this?

Since the speaking is to God the utterances are in essence prayers. They illustrate prayer’s aspect that is a respectful appeal for God to explain or to do something.

James E. Rosscup, An Exposition on Prayer in the Bible: Igniting the Fuel to Flame Our Communication with God (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2008), 1412.

Past teachings, study notes and slides of

“Through the Bible” with Pastor Ken Brown

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