Story about understanding the Bible
Turn to 2 Timothy 2:15 This morning we continue our series on
the Bible. We used the term text (ICON/VIDEO) because it speaks of
the ancient text while at the same time speaking of our contemporary
times. In week 1, we discussed the Why? (ICON/3 IMAGES). Why do
we have the Bible? What is it’s purpose? God gave us the Bible
because He had a story to tell, a story of who He is, of His great love for
us, and His wonderful plan for us. Last week we answered the question
How? (ICON/5 IMAGES). 4 principles impact how we got the Bible:
INSPIRATION (ICON/STATEMENT): GOD USED HUMANS TO WRITE
HIS WORD, BUT HE SUPERINTENDED THE PROCESS TO ENSURE
THAT THEY WROTE, WORD FOR WORD, HIS MESSAGE TO US
WITHOUT ANY MIXTURE OF ERROR. We’ll expand on this next week
when we discuss the reliability of the ancient text.
Now this morning we turn our attention to the question: How can
I understand the Bible? (? ICON). I hear that a lot: “Pastor, when I read
the Bible I don’t really understand it.” (2 TIMOTHY ICON/VERSE) 2
TIMOTHY 2:15 “DO YOUR BEST TO PRESENT YOURSELF TO GOD
AS ONE APPROVED, A WORKMAN WHO DOES NOT NEED TO BE
ASHAMED AND WHO CORRECTLY HANDLES THE WORD OF
TRUTH.”
This verse points out some important information for us. Each of
us is building something with our lives. What are you building? Is your
life one that God approves of? The key of course, is in how you handle
the word of God. Jesus said that when we build our lives on His word,
we withstand the storms of life. When we build our lives with and on the
word of God, we bring pleasure to Him.
Now, let me ask you a critical question this morning: Are you
doing your BEST to present yourself to God? Can you correctly and
effectively handle the Word of God? Listen: if you can’t, if you won’t-
don’t call yourself a Christ-follower. If the only intake of God’s word is
what you take in here on Sunday morning, I don’t know what you are, but
you’re not a Christ-follower. Jesus said in John 15, “If you abide in Me
and in my word, you’ll bear fruit, you’ll have your prayers answered,
you’ll be my disciples, my followers.”
Being a studier of the word is not some kind of extra option you
have. Christ-followers are folks who know, understand, and correctly
handle the word of God.
So, having said all of that, many of you struggle with how to get
started; how to study and understand the Bible. So this morning we’re
going to give you some basic tools to help you. 3 tools to help you this
morning:
TOOL #1 OUR INTERPRETER IS THE HOLY SPIRIT JOHN 14:23-
26 JESUS REPLIED, “IF ANYONE LOVES ME, HE WILL OBEY MY
TEACHING. MY FATHER WILL LOVE HIM, AND WE WILL COME TO
HIM AND MAKE OUR HOME WITH HIM. HE WHO DOES NOT LOVE
ME WILL NOT OBEY MY TEACHING. THESE WORDS YOU HEAR
ARE NOT MY OWN; THEY BELONG TO THE FATHER WHO SENT
ME. ALL THIS I HAVE SPOKEN WHILE STILL WITH YOU. BUT THE
COUNSELOR, THE HOLY SPIRIT, WHOM THE FATHER WILL SEND
IN MY NAME, WILL TEACH YOU ALL THINGS.”
Right off the top, you have to understand the process of
understanding spiritual truth. It’s not a matter of intelligence or worldly
wisdom. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals spiritual truth. If you have the
Spirit of God, you have the One in you who can interpret and reveal what
the Word of God says.
So when you come to a passage or verse that you don’t
understand, the first thing, the very first thing you do is pause and pray,
“Holy Spirit, help me to understand this. Reveal your truth to me.” The
Holy Spirit is an interpreter.
I can’t tell you how many times this has happened to me.
Reading or studying and being confused about what I’m reading, and I
pray and sooner or later, the Spirit of God reveals the Word of God to
me.
TOOL #2 OUR ATTITUDE OPENS THE DOOR TO
UNDERSTANDING PSALM 1:2-3 “BUT HIS DELIGHT IS IN THE
LAW OF THE LORD, AND ON HIS LAW HE MEDITATES DAY AND
NIGHT. HE IS LIKE A TREE PLANTED BY STREAMS OF WATER,
WHICH YIELDS ITS FRUIT IN SEASON
AND WHOSE LEAF DOES
NOT WITHER. WHATEVER HE DOES PROSPERS.”
Jesus would finish His preaching many times with the idiom: “He
who has ears to hear, let him hear.” What did He mean by that? He
meant that if you come with an attitude that you WANT to hear, that you
want to understand, that is a huge determinant in deciding if you will in
deed, understand what He is saying.
God is not going to reveal Himself to the casual onlooker.
Remember he said in JEREMIAH 29:13, “YOU’LL SEEK ME AND
YOU’LL FIND ME WHEN YOU LOOK FOR ME WITH ALL YOUR
HEART.”So when you come to the Bible to read it, you come with the
attitude, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.” As in so many things in
life, attitude is everything.
TOOL #3 OUR DILIGENCE IS THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING 2
TIMOTHY 2:15 “DO YOUR BEST TO PRESENT YOURSELF TO GOD
AS ONE APPROVED, A WORKMAN WHO DOES NOT NEED TO BE
ASHAMED AND WHO CORRECTLY HANDLES THE WORD OF
TRUTH.”
So how do you correctly handle the word of truth? There are 2
processes you must get down if you want to understand the Bible.
These are the blocking and tackling of Bible understanding. One is
exegesis and the other is hermeneutics. Now, you don’t have to
remember the words, you just have to know the processes and put them
into action.
The first process is EXEGESIS: THE CAREFUL STUDY OF
THE SCRIPTURE TO DISCOVER THE ORIGINAL MEANING. It
answers the question: WHAT DID IT MEAN? You can’t understand
what it means until first you understand what it meant. This may seem
difficult at first but it will pay rich dividends when you master it.
Let’s jump into a text. 1 TIMOTHY 2:9-10 “I ALSO WANT
WOMEN TO DRESS MODESTLY, WITH DECENCY AND PROPRIETY,
NOT WITH BRAIDED HAIR OR GOLD OR PEARLS OR EXPENSIVE
CLOTHES, BUT WITH GOOD DEEDS, APPROPRIATE FOR WOMEN
WHO PROFESS TO WORSHIP GOD.” Now, before you can figure out
what that means today, you gotta figure out what it meant when it was
written.
To do exegesis, you have to ask the right questions:
QUESTION #1: WHAT WAS THE HISTORICAL
CONTEXT? To answer this question, most of the time you’ll need
outside help. You’ll need to get online to BIBLE.ORG or get you a good
commentary. Walvoord and Zuck have a good 1 volume OT and 1
volume NT THE BIBLE KNOWLEDGE COMMENTARY
Briefly, the historical context here is that Paul was writing to his
young disciple, Timothy, who was trying to give leadership in the
Ephesian church. The customs of the day indicate that moral and chaste
women dressed very plainly in public, while only temple prostitutes dolled
themselves up with braided hair and jewelry.
QUESTION #2: WHAT IS THE LITERARY CONTEXT?
What that means is, these verses are in the context of other verses.
What is going on in the context before and after the verses we read?
You don’t need any help for this. You just read the verses before and
after. When you read this in context, you see that Paul is giving
instruction to Timothy on how to help his church members live and act
and dress in a way that draws attention only to the Lord Jesus.
This is what exegesis does: it helps you understand what these
verses meant.
Now the other process is known as HERMENEUTICS: GUIDELINES
OF INTERPRETATION. It answers the question: WHAT DOES IT
MEAN?
To answer this question, you have to back up and get a macro
look of the Bible. So you take 3 steps:
1ST: DISCOVER OTHER PASSAGES IN THE BIBLE
that touch on the same issue. All you need is a simple Concordance or
Bible dictionary to do that. “A woman must not wear men's clothing, nor
a man wear women's clothing, for the LORD your God detests anyone
who does this.” Deuteronomy 22:5 “Do not wear clothes of wool and
linen woven together.” Deuteronomy 22:11 “Your beauty should not
come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of
gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self,
the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in
God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their
hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. 1 Peter 3:2-5
2ND: REMEMBER TO INTERPRET THE OLD
TESTAMENT BY THE NEW TESTAMENT This is one of the most
common mistakes made. People reason that because the Old
Testament came first, it should be given superior status. But remember,
Jesus talked about the new covenant, and he interpreted the Old
Testament by this new covenant. In the sermon on the Mount, He
continually repeated, “You have heard it said, Thou shalt not commit
adultery” but I say, if you even look on a woman with lust, you have
committed adultery.”
CALL BAND X 224
3RD: ARRIVE AT AN INTERPRETATION THAT SEEMS
MOST CONSISTENT WITH THE REST OF SCRIPTURE. The one
constant in Old and New Testaments is that clothing should be proper.
Right?
So after you’ve done exegesis and hermeneutics, you can make
a reasonable attempt at interpreting what the verse means, and that is:
Women are not prohibited from wearing jewelry or braid their hair, but
they need to dress in a way that does not cause undue attention to
themselves. Instead of drawing attention to worldly possessions or
physical endowments, they need to dress in a way that engenders the
inner and enduring beauty of the woman. By the way, don’t have too
many preconceived notions and make judgments about others. I think
my wife is beautiful in blue jeans, a sloppy sweatshirt and a ball cap.
And so here is the hermeneutical bridge: What does it say?
What did it mean? What does it mean? What does it mean for me?
(BRIDGE ILLUSTRATION W/4)
I’ve asked my beautiful assistant Sue to be a part of this, so
would you please make welcome Sue Barksdale. I figured on Mother’s
Day, what a great opportunity for a mom who loves God’s Word
encourage us in the Word. …
Invitation
