How to study the BIble part 1

We continued our series this past Sunday "40 Days in the Word" with part 4" Why it is important to read & study the Bible on your own." You can listen to the podcast at http://www.wyandottefamily.com/listen.html or you can download it from iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wyandotte-family-church/id478735158  

We talked about reading and studying the Bible on our own, actually helps us grow and resist temptation. All week long in my blog we'll be looking at the practical side of it and how we can study the Bible on our own.
Yesterday we talked about the 4 steps to studying the Bible on your own. If you didn’t get a chance to read yesterday’s blog, pause for a moment and scroll down to catch up.

Today we are going to start practicing the 4 steps together so you can see the 4 steps in action. Today for part 1 we will practice observation "What does it say?" The part of Scripture we are going to look at wasn’t a particular text, not even a particularly well known passage.  However, it will be good for us to practice on a passage that isn't well known.

Philippians, chapter 2, verses 19-30.  Before we practice observation, here is a little background.  Paul is writing this letter from Rome.  Paul is the apostle who wrote much of the New Testament.  He’s imprisoned in Rome for his missionary work.  He’s due to appear before Caesar.  He’s hoping one day to be released to go back to all the churches that he started.  But he’s not able to do this so he’s writing letters to the churches he started. 

One of the letters that he wrote, he wrote to the church that he started in a city called Philippi, which is a city in Greece.  So Paul’s in Italy and he’s writing to a church in Greece.  Because he’s writing people in Philippi, it’s called the letter to the Philippians.  If he’d written it to us, it would have been Wyandottians or Downriverians.  So the book of Galatians means the people who lived in the city, the area of Galatia.  The book called Corinthian’s, is written to the people who lived in the Greek city of Corinth.  These are real cities like Rome.  The book of Romans is written to the people who lived in Rome. 

So he’s writing to the Philippians.  They had taken up a love offering for him and sent it to him and now he’s writing them back.  The book of Philippians is actually a thank you note.  It’s a thank you note which he’s writing to the people saying, Thank you guys for sending me this offering. (There are many Study Bibles out there that will help give you some historical background on books of the Bible. I recommend the Fire Bible (Global Edition) and the Archeological Study Bible.)

In the middle of this book, Philippians 2, here’s what he says, verse 19 “I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, [In other words, I’m in Rome.  I hope to send Timothy who’s with me in Rome to you in Philippi] that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you. [Because he’d heard news from them.] I have nobody else like him [like Timothy] who takes a genuine interest in your welfare.  For everybody else just looks after his own interest, not those of Jesus Christ.  But you know that Timothy has proven himself, he’s proved himself as a son with his father; he served with me in the work of the gospel.  I hope, therefore, to send him as soon as I can see how things go with me.  I’m confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon.  [He’s saying, I hope I get back to see you soon] but I think it is also necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus [We’ll find out who this guy is in a minute.  I’m going to send back to you Epaphroditus] my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, who’s also your messenger because you sent him to take care of my needs. [In other words they sent this guy, Epaphroditus with the offering to Rome and to tell Paul about how they’re doing.  So he said he’s your messenger you sent me but I’m going to send him back to you.] For he longs for all of you [he’s homesick] and he’s distressed because you heard that he was ill.  And indeed he was ill, in fact he almost died.  But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but also on me to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. [In other words I’m not just in prison, I would have lost a good friend] Therefore I’m all the more eager to send him [Epaphroditus] so that when you see him again you may be glad and I may have less anxiety.  So welcome him in the Lord with great joy and honor men like him [circle that phrase “honor men like him”] because he almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for the help you couldn’t give me.”  In other words, you couldn’t be here so you sent him and he risked his life to get from Greece to Rome.  You need to welcome with joy and honor, men like him.

If you read that passage, it is easy to think, "that doesn’t seem to be a very deep passage.  It’s just kind of a thank you note.  It’s like personal note here."  In fact you might read this and go, "why did God put that in the Bible?  Paul’s just talking about a couple of friends – Timothy and Epaphroditus."  He goes, you guys sent them to me, I’m going to send him back to you and you need to honor them when they get there.  It doesn’t sound like a very meaty passage of Scripture.  It doesn’t sound like there’s some deep doctrinal truth.  It doesn’t sound like there’s some big encouragement for me.  You might even think this is just a passage you read quickly, skip over to get to the really good stuff in the Bible. 

If you did that you would miss something powerful!  Because you didn’t do the observation and the interpretation to get the true meat out of it.  

Before we practice observation on that passage, lets look at a couple of verses.  We’ve talked about these the last few weeks.  2 Timothy 3:16 says this “All Scripture [not part of it, all of it.  That means even the stuff that just sounds like personal greetings] is inspired by God and it is useful [it’s all useful] to teach us what is true, to make us realize what’s wrong in our lives, it straightens us out, and it teaches us how to do what’s right.” 

So even this passage where Paul is just saying, these friends, these coworkers Timothy and Epaphroditus, and by the way, you know what Epaphroditus means?  It’s the Greek word that means “from Aphrodite.”  So Epaphroditus was obviously not from a Christian family.  He’s born in a Gentile or Greek family who named him after the god Aphrodite.  Epaphroditus means from Aphrodite.  He goes, “I’m going to send these guys to you,” but the Bible says it’s all inspired so even this part has something to teach us.  And you’re going to see it in just a minute.

Romans 15:4 says “For everything [not some things everything] in the Bible was written to teach us [even this part] so that through the endurance and encouragement of Scriptures we might have hope.”  This story, this passage I just read you, the Bible leaves it in, God puts it in the Bible for our encouragement and for our hope. 

You say, I didn’t get any encouragement or hope out of this.  It’s because you haven’t studied it yet.  You just read it. How many times have we been in a conversation but missed what was truly said? I know I have!! It often happens when I am in a hurry, thinking about something I need to do or want to say next."  

So what we’re going to do is actually look at this very powerful passage, particularly for men.  Let’s look at how to study the Bible. Lets pause for a moment and not be in such a hurry but look back through this passage and watch it speak to us and challenge us.

Go ahead and open your Bible to Philippians 2.  Take notes from yesterday’s blog and have the four steps of studying the Bible with you as well.  What does it say?  What does it mean?  What else in the Bible says something about it?  And what am I going to do about it?

First we start with Observation.  What does it say?

Simply look at this.  Simply read it through several times and just write down what you see.  Not anything fancy just whatever you see.  

We see three things in this passage.   

·        First, we observe that Paul intends to send two men to Philippi. 

That’s just an observation.  There’s nothing fancy about it.  Nothing spiritual.  It’s just that’s something we see.  In verse 19 he says “I hope to send you Timothy.”  There’s one of the guys and in verse 25 he says “I think it’s necessary to send Epaphroditus back to you.”  He actually came from that church.  I’m going to send him back home.  So he says I’m going to send two guys to you – Timothy and Epaphroditus. 

·        The second thing we observe is that Paul endorsed these guys as role models. 

In fact they’re role models who deserve honor.  Paul endorsed Timothy and Epaphroditus as role models who deserve honor.

In verse 20 Paul says about Timothy “I have no one else like him.”  You might just read that and just jump all over it.  But friends, that is the greatest endorsement you could ever receive as a Christian.  Paul is the greatest Christian who’s ever lived next to Jesus Christ our Lord himself.  And Paul says I’ve got nobody in the world like Timothy.  If Paul said that about you, that means you’re at the top of the heap.  You’re on the A list.  You’re the very best Christian he knows.  If Paul said about you, I’ve got nobody else like … Bob or Janet or Mary… I’ve got nobody else like Kristin...  that would be the greatest possible compliment you could ever receive for your faith.  So this is not a small issue here.  Now I’ve got to pay attention.  He says, I’ve got nobody like Timothy.

Then about Epaphroditus he says in verse 29 “Welcome him and honor men like him.” Honor men like him!  So he’s saying whatever these guys are doing – they’re unusual, they’re unique and they are worthy of honor.  You need to follow them and you need to honor them. 

Notice in both of instances we see the phrase “like him.”  Underline or highlight that phrase.  Anytime you see a phrase used twice in Scripture it means God’s telling you something.  I have nobody else like him – Timothy.  Honor men like him – Epaphroditus. 

That naturally makes me ask the third observation question:

·        So what are these guys like? 

 Why are they so special?  Why are they worthy of honor?  Why do they deserve to be praised?  What are these guys actually doing in their lives that make them so special?

Then read through the passage again and find out what Paul says about these guys.
 

       Verse 20 and 21, he says about Timothy “He takes a genuine interest in you.”
 

       In verse 22 he says about Timothy “He has proved himself.” 

In verse 25 he says about Epaphroditus “He’s my brother, my fellow worker and my fellow soldier.”  I’ve got to figure out what that means

       In verse 26 he says “He longs for all of you and he is distressed.”  (this guy      
       Epaphroditus.) 

 

       In verse 27-30 he says “He almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life.”

 See what we've done?  All we've done is read it and wrote down what we saw.  Paul’s talking about two guys.  He’s going to send them back to Philippi.  He endorses them as role models.  And he says we ought to honor them.  These guys have five characteristics in their lives.  That’s observation.

With all of the steps of Bible study you'll find 1 thing in common...It takes time. We have to intentionally pull out a notebook and pen or grab our tablet or laptop. We have to grab our Bible and set time aside to read and study. Like anything in life, we get out of it what we put into it. I pray that as you learn to study the Bible, you develop a hunger to know God and know His Word. I pray that you set time aside daily to be with Him. You'd be surprised how much God can speak to you an what you can get out of the Bible if you took at least 15 minutes a day to study and pray.

Tomorrow's blog we will look at step 2 "Interpretation: What does it mean?" We'll go back over the same passage and continue on to the 2nd step.

adapted from thoughts from Rick Warren and 40 Days in the Word Campaign