Video Transcript: How to Lead Traditional Bible Studies

Henry - So we're back. We're really going to get to work here today.  

Steve - So we're going to this session. We're going to talk about how to do a  traditional Bible study, not writing your own you're using something that you find, and we're going to show you, we're going to show you some of the ones that we have at Christian leaders. But also you can go to the Christian bookstore or  order online. There's all kinds of Bible studies, okay, like that. So off the shelf,  we have a bunch of steps yet.  

Henry - We have some options here. The marriage connection. We got 21 days  to true beauty, you know, 21 days great women's Bible study, the marriage  connection of amazing couples Bible study. Here's, if you're into the book of  Daniel. Here's a Daniel Bible study. I like this is a topical Bible study on but it's  actually from Philemon. Yeah, the book of Philemon Bible study. I'm amazed at a Philemon about Bible but this Bible study will if you're with like, a businessman's group. Seriously great Bible study. Here is a Bible study on the book of  Ephesians. Very This is extremely popular, I might add. Also popular is the book  of Acts. And in Acts is a big book in this one. How do you get a book of Acts? I  mean, we have that. Here we have the Jesus Bible, which is just a great tool to  study the Bible and tell us a little more about the Jesus. Bible, every book of the  Bible, there's something in each book relating to Jesus, also the Old Testament,  and it's all in there. I love this one, the 12 Steps. The 12 Steps like connected to  the prayer serenity class you've done, and now here we have one for the 12  Steps. This would be an amazing Bible study you'll offer in churches at the  topical of a Bible study, and hear about most too. I'm glad to share all this  because in some ways, Professor Steve, who I've known for 30 plus years. This  is one of his just amazing gifts to be able to take Bible study topics or Bible  study books and make them into reproducible and transferable Bible studies. So if you are a minister trained at Christian leaders Institute, Alliance or college,  these are off the shelf tools for you to access. So, and I don't have ever really  publicly thanked you for this. I'd probably thank you for anything. Thank you for  doing the work and the effort to put these together this. I mean, this is no small  thing to do so,  

Steve - but there's also, you know, there's also hundreds of other Bible studies  all over that you don't have to buy all your Bible studies from Christian leaders  Institute. We want you to succeed, right?  

Henry - What's nice about these is they're connected to the seven connections,  which is sort of an operating system that we use here for the walk with God, the  habit of relationship, and these Bible studies fit that reproducible and 

Steve - a lot of lot of these Bible studies that would be different than other ones,  that there's something for each participant to do every single day, right? So then  being maybe you, maybe you meet once a week, but there's something for you  to do each day, yeah, rather than just doing it. You know, when you get together  

with your Bible study, very powerful. All right? So there's also the writing your  own option, okay? So, and a lot of times this is, you know, sort of threatening to  a lot of people, but we'll show you it's not really that difficult. We'll show you how  to do it. All right, so the first thing you do is find what you're studying, maybe  studying John 1. Yeah, the book of John. Let's see. Start with John 1. So  number one, what do you think was the original message to the original hearers  of this passage? So let's just choose, like Luke 15, that's the story of the lost  sheep, the lost coin, and the two sons, the lost son. And what do you think the  original message was? There's a little preface to Luke 15, where it says Jesus  was sitting there, eating with the sinners and then the righteous folks, the the  teachers of the law were complaining that Jesus was doing that. That was sort  of the setup. And now Jesus tells these stories in this context, right?  

Henry - It's important to know that who is in the audience, right, because it helps you later on with the meaning.  

Steve - So you start with, well, what? You think the original message was to the  original hearers of this passage. Now, you may have to look some things up I  don't know. Or in Luke, sometimes you will know exactly so who wrote the book  of Luke? Well, to whom was it originally written? It was written to a more of a  Greek speaking audience. What was the occasion? What was the occasion for  this particular chapter? Was Jesus eating with the sinners. Right? What was the  message for the original hearers? Now it's interesting the story of the prodigal  son, especially the one son, runs off, and then he comes back, and he's  accepted, and they kill the fatted calf. But then the older son, who had never left  home there was a good son, is in the field, whining and crying and and the  father comes out to him and tries to explain, and then the story just ends. We  don't know what the older son did, right, because Jesus was speaking to those  Pharisees or those teachers of the law and saying, I don't know what you're  going to do, you're invited too. So it's like the meaning of the thing is enhanced  by knowing the original stuff. So number two, what do you think is the message  for the people of today? Okay,  

Henry - so really that to get the original understanding and then to then say,  Now, how does this apply to me? Right?  

Steve - So with that particular story, those in the church would be probably  tempted to look at that passage and go, Well, I'm the prodigal son, and Jesus 

and God the Father welcomes me with open arms, but really, we're the Teachers of the Law, right? We're the religious people around the long and, you know,  maybe sometimes we think we have things coming because we've gone to  church every week, we've done our Bible studies, we've done all the right things  that we somehow think we've earned it, right? So maybe that's the message for  us today, and then what might be the message for you? So where in my life do I  think I'm entitled to God's goodness, rather than to see it all as a gift that I too,  even though that I'm the older brother, I think I've done everything, right? No, I'm a prodigal son too, right? Right? All right. So write your own option 2. So that's  one. Now, you know, what we just went through is kind of complicated. You may  have to look at a commentary.  

Henry - While you're doing ministry training here, you're digging into many  ablatives, right? Really do this? Well, yes, yes.  

Steve - Off the shelf is easy because the book done all the work for you, then  you try to do it. And if you've done the training, you want to give it a go. I think  this is a great option.  

Henry - And the nice thing about doing the training, where you are here getting  ministry training, is that it all builds like, for instance, you could be overwhelmed  by like Luke, the author, Luke right now, first time you really is so you start  finding out things about Luke, but as you go on, the more you learn. I just  learned something new at the Bible study with the Florida Bible study group we  talked about in the last session. We're doing Acts right now, and it's right around  the second missionary journey where Luke shift voice from talking about  everything previous to we failed. We often after the disagreement with  Barnabas. And then there was a new Silas team. Right when that new Silas  team started, somehow Luke signed on at that point. Well, no, I have never  noticed that in this way, all the way through Calvin seminary, all the way through  ministry, and now all of a sudden I see, oh, this is when Luke signed on. So your ministry training here, like right now, as you do your first Bible study, or you do  your own it does feel overwhelming, but after a while, layers, right? And then  you do a Bible study again, and do a Bible study again, you learn a little more,  and you you do with what you know. It doesn't have to be perfect, right? Point is  to the Holy Spirit when it's a windy place, and the Holy Spirit utilizes you  wherever you are, and that's why you're at ministry training, to get more  knowledge and insights.  

Steve - So writing your own option two, okay, so what? Okay, I'm sorry what we  did, this is still the option that we were looking at previously. We just looked at  how the original saying the original message and so on. But now we're turning it 

onto a deeper what might be the problem that the text is dealing with for the  original hearers. So now instead of, you know, concentrating on the background  all of. Those things is like, well, what problem do you see that these people  have? So Jesus had a problem because he was spending time with the sinners,  and he's preaching about God's righteousness, and they're like, Okay, I don't get it. So that would be the problem. How might the above problem be a similar or  opposite problem for us today? So when you're reading, for example, the book  of Acts, we have all the things that Rome was doing, and some of those things  are in our culture today. That's right, but sometimes it's, it's an opposite product,  right? Okay, so, but still to think about, okay, well, how did that work? Three,  where is the hope and salvation in the text? In the text. So what hopeful thing?  So Jesus talks about the prodigal son, the hopeful thing is both the one who ran  away and the one who thinks he deserves God's love, that God loves each one  equally. both are invited to the party, and it's up to you, what might be the  message of hope and salvation for us today, right? Or, or, you know, what is the  hope of salvation that perhaps you need? Right?  

Henry - You know, I want to reflect on this. So in option one, the pre shelf option, with the strength of this is that it's off the shelf. You can get going right away.  You can even when you're doing ministry training. You can build on your ministry training now and even bring it into the off the shelf Option, yes. And, you know,  the more of these that you would do, the better you're equipped to be able to do  your own right, right? You kind of get, you get to, kind of the lay of the land on  how things go. And then you kind of model, after you do this a while, I see how,  right. Okay, right.  

Steve - So, so the the couple of the writing, your own options that we looked at.  The first one was, you know, the background of the Bible passage, and who  wrote it, and all those things, and then how it related in the second option, it was more  

Henry - literary, more like the conflict in the text related to more of you know,  what was the pain that somebody was dealing with?  

Steve - In some ways, this is what a good sermon also does. Is right? What is  the problem that this text is really dealing with, and how does that relate to our  problem today and now, if you present it that way, people are interested in  solving the problem.  

Henry - You know what I find, too, and maybe this we should talk about now.  And in some ways the best is when you can see a little bit of both, yeah, so that  you know the story of that. The key is an interesting story, I mean, to actually get

into the original meaning of a text is you're the tax collector. Well, tax collectors  bid for the right to take money from everybody. Okay? So you can get caught up in a whole thing about tax collector did this and everything like that, and  everything and and that could be the whole sermon. But people would go like,  Oh, very intellectual. I went to a seminary now today, but but the threat, but if  you get to the trouble in the text, then you see how Jesus met with the lowest of  low and brought them salvation. And we that Jesus came to seek and save the  lost you and I, yeah, our lives.  

Steve - So Zacchaeus is feeling small in stature, right? Yeah, and he knows that  he's, you know, done some things that he's probably not proud of, so he's hiding up in the tree to get a glimpse of Jesus. So then the question is, okay, there's  the problem. Zacchaeus has this issue. He hears about Jesus, but he can't face  Jesus in His brokenness, or he hides in the tree. How do you hide him? Yeah,  right, right. I mean, how is it that you are feeling insignificant or small, not maybe in stature, but maybe you know you're in the church, and you feel like other  people are so smart, and then you're new to the faith. You don't know your Bible  as good as they do. Or you're you. You have all these thoughts, but when you  start talking, they don't come out very eloquently, all right, whatever it might be.  So now of a sudden, a really good Bible study is, is opening. Okay? There was  the problem. We understand it. We get it. We have to talk about it enough to get  it, but then now, how does that apply to you and I? And this is where a lot of  times you'll have half the people in the Bible study who want to just stay on the  intellectual  

Henry - let's talk about the way tax was collected in a Roman Empire. And let's  talk about how Jesus and the Pharisees would have related to that. And. In fact,  a lot of times, a lot of sermons that teaching type sermons never get into the  application. But the application tends to be where the trouble in the text is right.  

Steve - If you can find the trouble in the text, you're like three quarters of the  way there, because now you just have to ask, how do we have that trouble?  How did now sometimes that's, it's, it's hard, it, you know, because that was  2000 years ago, right? Things are slightly different, but a lot of things are often  

the same.  

Henry - Well in on the other side, we've seen it, where people go right to the  trouble of the text, and because they have not done their work to get into what it  was originally meant by the hearers and the original history, they also do  damage, because now they're going all application, and it almost becomes  subjective. Everything is subjective. Like I believe God can speak and put your  finger on words of the Bible. I do believe that, on the other hand, if you actually 

did not get grounded in good learning, you could become a very dangerous,  almost a cult leader at times.  

Steve - Well, you'll read into your trouble, into the text when the text never  meant that at all. Right, right? You'll take one word or something and go, Yeah,  that's the problem that we're facing, and that's the teaching I want to do. And  then you you make this whole thing, but really, if you spent the time to figure out  what the real context was, that wasn't the problem, right, this was the problem,  right?  

Henry - And then once you clarify that problem in the text based upon the  historical what you can know about what it meant to the original hearers. Now,  all of a sudden, it can become very powerful, sharing of the Word of God. It  could become a great Bible study, an excellent sermon. We call it you like you  bake it, and then it becomes not half baked. That's how experienced ministers.  You completely put the ingredients together and you bake it.  

Steve - Let me you know, we haven't just enough time. Let me give you an  example when Jesus says, I thirst on the cross. Okay, now the the tendency  would be to, oh, we all thirst. We thirst for all kinds of different things and lies.  We thirst for money, we thirst for significance. And so now, all of a sudden, we're going down the application trail. But we didn't really take any time to figure out  what the context of I thirst meant. So Jesus says, I thirst. And you can look up  words I thirst and thirsty, you'll find David, as you know, the deer pants for the  streams of water soul, My soul thirsts for God. So thirsting for even given to all  these things. And I'm not saying that some of these things aren't there, but if you look at the whole thing that they dipped a sponge in, yeah, it was a stalk. They  put a hyssop, a stalk of hyssop, they put the sponge on this. They dipped it into  the wine vinegar, which was symbolic, and maybe communion. You know, you  could go down trail, but if you look up the word hyssop, you go all the way back  to Exodus and the Passover, because if you remember that story, the lamb that  they were to eat together as a family so that the angel of death would pass over  all of Israel, the blood in the bowl and and they had to put, they had to paint that  blood over their door frames. But they had to paint it with hyssop. Wow. So why  so the whole context of, I thirst is pointing back to the Passover, and now Jesus  is the Passover lamb here on the cross, and what they had been doing for  hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years is taking place right now. They  just did the Passover so. So if you look at, you know, the context of something,  all of a sudden it becomes the message there really is, don't be so full of your  religious observations that you miss Jesus, right? Because the Jews were doing Passover year after year after year. But then they finally, when the Passover, the

point of the Passover comes in, Jesus on the cross. They totally miss it, right? In fact, we got to kill Jesus quickly because of the Passover, right?  

Henry - It's ironic. It's totally then the trouble in the text is ultimately our  salvation. Yes, you know, ultimately we, the angel of death, must pass over us,  right?  

Steve - So all of a sudden it becomes a different sermon than maybe you would  have made it right, and because I think it becomes, oh, wow, like, richer, like,  more than the just obvious. You know, when you say, I thirst, the obvious thing  is, we thirst for things, and right we, you know, we're thirsting for the wrong  things, etc, etc, right? But. This is like, Oh, this is a whole different level, right?  

Henry - And I've also, and we have seen where this really incredible insights  from the Old Testament are exposed, and then people just drop it there, and  they don't put the application either. So they don't really like bring it home to say, you know, from the Angel of Death. Has your name if you do not know Jesus  Christ here in this, this is a problem that went 1000s of years back, and the  cross is the pinnacle where this is paid. So again, there's the both, and they're  right, right, powerful. Well, this, you know, that's a fun discussion today. We we  get excited about this is our life. This is how we we wake up in the day, and we  think this way. We want you to think this way too, as ministers and get  enthusiastic about learning the word and sharing the Word.