Servant School – Bible Study Prep
Servant
School
April
28, 2022
Introduction
Welcome to our Bible Study Preparation Class.
Whether you are someone who hopes to teach the Bible in front of church,
lead a small group Bible Study, or who just wants to know their Bible better,
it is my prayer that this class will help you to sharpen your skills at
studying your Bible as well as growing in how to communicate what you’ve
learned.
Why Study the Bible?
Each week I want to give you a very brief idea to think about. Why do we study the Bible?
It’s the Word of God
This may sound obvious to most of you, but today I just want to remind you
that the Bible is the Word of God.
Paul told Timothy,
(2 Timothy
3:16 NKJV) All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God…
The word translated “inspiration” literally means “God-breathed”.
We believe that God moved by His Spirit in such a way, “breathing into” the
men who wrote the Scriptures so they were literally
writing the very words of God.
Peter described it this way:
(2 Peter 1:20–21
NLT) —20 Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came
from the prophet’s own understanding, 21 or from
human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they
spoke from God.
As amazing as it sounds, God worked through human authors, preserving their
own sense of personality, and yet moved them to record God’s very own words.
Jeremiah lived in a day that was filled with false prophets, all claiming
to have dreams or visions from God. God
told Jeremiah,
(Jeremiah 23:28–29
NLT) —28 “Let these false prophets tell their dreams, but let my true
messengers faithfully proclaim my every word. There is a difference between
straw and grain! 29 Does not my word burn like fire?”
says the Lord. “Is it not like a
mighty hammer that smashes a rock to pieces?
There is nothing like the very Word of God.
People may want to try and tell you what you should do, but the thing
that we all want is to hear from God, not people.
The best way to hear the Word of God is through a careful understanding of the
Scripture.
God told Isaiah,
(Isaiah 55:10–11
NKJV) —10 “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not
return there, But water
the earth, And make it
bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to
the eater, 11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not
return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall
prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
God’s Word is amazing and powerful.
It will do wonderful things in our lives because it is the very word of
God.
So why do we want to study the Bible?
Because it is the very word of God.
The Teacher
The teacher
I know that not every one of you have a desire or calling to teach, but for
those of you who do, you need to remember that as important as the content
of your teaching is, God is more concerned with who YOU are.
Here are some things that make up a good “teacher”:
1. Regular Devotions
You need to be in God’s Word yourself, for yourself.
Too often teachers only read God’s Word to look for things to teach.
You need to be daily reading God’s Word for yourself, to hear for yourself,
to be sensitive to what God has for you.
(1
Corinthians 11:23 NKJV) For I received from the Lord
that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same
night in which He was betrayed took bread;
Your regular time in the Bible should be about you learning to “receive”
from God for yourself.
2. Prayer
Pray for your flock. The two main
spiritual weapons are the Word and Prayer, don’t neglect one for the
other. Sometimes you’ll accomplish much
more in prayer than you’ll ever accomplish by speaking.
(1 Corinthians
2:4–5 NKJV) —4 And my speech and my preaching were
not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit
and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the
wisdom of men but in the power of God.
This “power of God” doesn’t come by speaking louder or with greater
emotion, but from a man or woman who has been in prayer before God.
It’s important to be prepared and clear in your teaching, but ultimately,
you want to be getting your people in touch with the Lord.
Before I ever begin preparing a study, I make sure I’ve prayed for the
people I will be speaking to.
3. Knowing your flock
Know their learning abilities – the four year old
isn’t going to understand what you might teach to their parents.
Know their spiritual needs.
(Proverbs
27:23 NKJV) Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, And attend to
your herds;
This comes from prayer, but it also comes from cultivating
relationships with the people you teach.
Do you know where their heads and hearts are at?
4. Teachability
Are you changed by your teaching? Do you see yourself in the mirror of God’s
Word? Is God able to get a hold of you?
Will you practice what you preach?
It doesn’t mean you have to be perfect to teach God’s perfect Word. But you need to be in the process of growing
yourself. You can’t take your people any
further than you’ve been.
(1 Timothy
4:12 NKJV) Let no one despise your youth, but be an example
to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
It’s not uncommon for me to be convicted by the very
things I’m teaching.
5. Gift of Teaching
There is a spiritual “gift” of teaching.
It’s a gift where the Holy Spirit has given you an ability to communicate
God’s Word to others.
In one of Paul’s lists of gifts, he talks about how we exercise these gifts,
and he says simply,
(Romans 12:7 NKJV) …he who teaches, in teaching;
How do I know if I have a gift of teaching?
People will be taught.
I think there is room to grow in this gift, to cultivate it.
I’ve known people who were horrible when they first started teaching, but
as they worked at it, they grew to become wonderful teachers.
But if you’re not gifted to teach, find out what you are gifted in and flow
in it rather than trying to be a teacher.
6. Love
(1 Corinthians
13:1–3 NKJV) —1 Though I speak with the tongues of
men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a
clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of
prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all
faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and
though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
It’s been said, “People won’t care about how much you know until they know
how much you care”.
If you don’t care about the people you are teaching, quit now.
Paul wrote to Timothy –
(1 Timothy
1:5 NASB95) But the goal of our instruction is love from a
pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
For years I used to have this verse on the top of my notes
as a reminder as I taught.
7. Mindset
Over the years I’ve developed a list of questions that I pray through
before I ever start preparation on a Bible Study. Here’s the things I ask myself before I start
– things that help get me into the right mindset as I prepare. I have a Word “template” set up as a blank
canvas when I begin a study, this “canvas” is where I write out my notes, and
these questions are at the top of the page to remind me what’s important.
1.
Do people see Jesus?
This idea comes from John 12 when a group of Greeks
approached one of the disciples at the Passover –
(John 12:21 NKJV) Then they came to Philip, who was
from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”
I used to have this on my pulpit. We can talk about a lot of things as we
teach, but are we leading people to look at Jesus?
2.
Is the gospel preached?
I was challenged by a statement that Greg Laurie made at a
pastors’ conference. He encouraged
pastors to make sure that every time they got in the pulpit and spoke, they
made sure that they shared the gospel and gave unbelievers a chance to turn to
Jesus.
I’m not sure this is always necessary if you are in a
small group study and you know each person there is a believer, but it’s still
a good habit to get into.
3.
Does it address the person
who is: Empty, lonely, guilty, or afraid to die?
These are the four areas that Billy Graham always tried to
address. These are the common things
that everyone struggles with. We ought
to be answering the heart cries of those who feel these things every time we
teach.
4.
Does it speak to the broken
hearted?
One pastor said, “If you preach to the broken hearted, you
will never lack for an audience.”
5.
Does it build up the
church?
In my early years as a teacher it
seemed I was always ending up with loading my audience
up with guilt and conviction. There’s a
place for that, but I think it’s better if we let God take care of that and we
focus on building up the church.
6.
Milk – Meat – Manna
This phraseology came from Jon Courson. He said he always tries to include these
three elements in a message. Though you might define these words differently,
here’s how Jon defined them for this purpose:
Milk – that’s the stuff for the young believer. Would a new believer get something out of
your message?
Meat – That’s the stuff for the older, more mature
believer. Years ago, I used to ask
myself, “Is there something in this message that will speak to someone like
Caleb or Greg Bird?” If you only speak
to young believers, your older believers will think they have arrived and will
think they no longer need to grow. Or
they’ll leave.
Manna – that’s the stuff that comes from heaven. The issue is this – is there something in
this message that you personally feel has come from the lips of Jesus to His
church?
7.
Preach for a decision
This came from Greg Laurie. I think it’s a good thing to be challenging folks to make a decision
about the material you are presenting.
Yes, this includes making a decision
to believe in Jesus.
It also includes the idea of making decisions about going
deeper in Jesus, turning from sin, reaching out to others, etc.
8.
Is the church loved?
We’ve already touched on this, but I have
to always check my heart to make sure I’m not teaching from a heart of
anger, hurt, or bitterness. Do I love
the church? The church is the Bride of
Christ. Am I taking good care of the
Bride of Jesus, whom He loves so very, very much?
What is teaching?
Webster: To cause to know a subject;
to guide the studies of; to impart the knowledge of; to instruct by precept,
example, or experience.
Effective teaching requires that the teacher understand the subject, and
then be able to take a student from the place of not knowing the subject, to
understanding it themselves.
You need to “get it” first before you can teach it.
A big mistake is when someone is trying to teach something they themselves
don’t understand.
In a “Communications” course in college, they gave us an exercise that has
helped me learn what teaching is all about.
The class was divided into pairs, and one person in each pair was given a
simple picture. Without showing the
other person the picture, they had to describe it in such a way that the other
person could draw the picture. Then we’d
compare the drawing with the original.
Sound easy? We’ll try it in our
discussion time after the video.
It’s hard to be able to put yourself in the other person’s
perspective. You might say, “Draw a
triangle”, but what kind of triangle?
How big is it?
But that’s what you need to do to effectively teach.
You need to be thinking about how the other person will receive what you
say and whether or not they’ll understand.
Outlining
This week I want to start you on your journey into Bible Study at the very
basics, learning to “outline” a passage.
Different Bible publishers do this differently, but most Bibles have a way
of breaking down a passage into paragraphs.
Some Bibles will use a bold text on the verse number to show you it’s the
beginning of the paragraph.
Some Bibles will actually use paragraphs,
and indent the beginning of each paragraph.
I’ve got a Bible that uses the actual “paragraph” mark to indicate a
paragraph
Try to see how your Bible breaks up a passage or chapter into paragraphs.
Note: The authors of the
original text didn’t create these paragraph divisions. The original text didn’t even have things
like periods, commas, space between the letters, or chapter breaks.
It’s our modern publishers who are trying to help us see how the text is
organized that have created these paragraph divisions. You may find that some publishers divide up
the text differently than others.
There’s nothing “inspired” about the divisions, but they are generally not
a bad place to start when you are studying a passage.
What I’m going to ask you to do for homework this week is to read an
assigned chapter, note where the paragraph divisions are, and then give a brief
three or four word summary of each paragraph.
There is a technical term for these “summaries” or “titles”. We call these “pericopes”.
Some of your Bibles have already done this work for you (but I want you to
do your own work).
Here’s what a breakdown of John 1 might look like:
1:1-5 Eternal Word
1:6-13 True Light
1:14-18 Word becomes flesh
1:19-28 John’s witness
1:29-34 Jesus baptized
1:35-42 Andrew and Peter
1:43-51 Philip and Nathanael
Once you’ve broken down the paragraphs, you can even write a “pericope” of
the entire chapter:
John 1: Word calls disciples
For your homework, I’m going to ask you to write “pericopes” for the
paragraphs and the chapter title of John 2.
Well that’s it for this week’s class…
I hope that helps
In Class
Introduce yourself. Why are you
taking this class?
Play video
Any comments from tonight’s teaching video?
Questions?
I mentioned qualities that teachers need to cultivate. Did any of them challenge you?
I shared several things that I do before I teach. Do you recall what they were?
Prayer. Mindset questions
Teaching Exercise:
Pick a volunteer to be the “teacher”.
Send them a picture to describe.
Have the rest of the class get a piece of paper and try to draw the picture
as the teacher is describing it. Do your
drawing so your camera can’t pick it up (we don’t want the “teacher” to see
what you’re drawing)
When time is up, have each person hold up their drawing.
Repeat the exercise with another “teacher”
Homework
You can expect homework each week (you’ll get more out of the class if you
do it, but I’m not giving grades so if you don’t … it’s okay)
Here’s what’s up ahead for us:
Class #1 – The Teacher
Class #2 – Inductive Bible Study
Class #3 – Hermeneutics (how to interpret)
Class #4 - Grammar
Class #5 - Illustrations
Class #6 - Resources
Outlining Homework:
Your homework this week will be to read John 2 several times, then write a three word pericope of these paragraphs:
John 2 – Wine and cleansing
2:1-12 Water
to Wine
2:13-22 Temple Turnover
2:23-25 Jesus knows people
Read “What makes a sermon deep” (I’ll send the file in tomorrow’s email)