Background Studies

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Good morning and welcome back to our seminar on how to study the Bible I'm obviously not with you this morning person so I'm coming to you from the studios of Shepherd's Way in other words I'm thinking this up in my study at home and want us to continue with our discussion about how they've fared to the Bible study finish set up and then move on to talk about background study this you should have your handout from last week which we will finish first and then we will move on to talk about how to do background study/time we talked about preparing for the trip and following our big word picture when you think nature is you have to pass you have to get ready to go on that trip and we talked about a number of item sets help us as we churned me to take a strip of Bible study and try to discern what God would say to us if reading and study of his Word we talk about tools last time we talked about the importance of having a good study Bible of having several good translation this perhaps translation's five are coming from a little bit difference philosophy of translations we talked about formal equivalence translations over against the functional relevance translated should we also talked about the need for a good Bible dictionary and this could be very important for our discussion of background material that we want to talk about in just few minutes and we talked about using an exhaustive concordance which we will learn more about when we discuss doing word studies and then also we talked about using Bible software there's a lot of good software after the space and will load her more about those also as we go along but if we turned and talk about personal commitments which often about the need to think through the fact that we all have a free understanding with which we approach the Bible will be mean by that is we found we had preconceived I've be this about certain passages and what they mean and we talked about the need to bracket are free understanding through really think through the fact that we all need to come with an open heart for the study of God's Word so that we are really hearing what the Spirit saith to us and not simply reading and material that we may have learned the past for something that we may have picked up along the way that isn't necessarily reflective of what God is going to say to us through that tax so I want us to begin with prayer and then move on to some other personal commitments we need faith and the process of doing Bible study source software together finally thank you for this time together I think these folks are here for a word that you would continue to open our hearts to fear them to study your word and read your word well I pray that you would speak to us today about our own attitudes as we approach the Scripture and were afraid as we talk about background study that you will continue to Ferris to do a good job of understanding your worse if I do a good job of living so I pray that you do with us as we go to our study now chassis pricing and okay we want to talk about three other personal commitments we need to make as we get ready to do Bible reading in Bible study side effects personal commitment after free understanding in this alliance on the Holy Spirit's reliance on the Holy Spirit and I think along with this we need to have careful attitude as we approach Bible reading or Bible study fact Regina Lynn talk to me after session in which her talk about motivation and she said the real turning point for her came as she started praying that God would give her fashion for his word God with really stimulate your interest and motivate earth far as the study of God's Word with Sir and I think that is a tremendous way to start the process is also a good way to approach Bible reading in five say every time we sit down to read or studied the Bible that we turn to the Lord and so forth I need you to open my heart I pray that you would teach me password that you would show me the fancy you want me to see and the passage or in the text I'm reading today so that I can live for you and I think that kind of defendants of the Holy Spirit is something that is very good and very important Jesus said that's we have to be like a child if we are going to come into the kingdom of God that child like this is very important principle and think about the inquisitiveness of children the way they are always asking questions when they're very young we ought a half arch that are genuinely open to what the spirit of God which each of us so it's a good process every time we sit down to read or study to begin with prayer site of the spirit I'm depending on you for it you would teach me there are couple wonderful passages in that regard John 15 $.46 I will send you the counselor of the sphere to fruits you will come to you from the father and will tell you all about me so holy spirit is still one to his future fetus lives with us if fossils less as we walk through life and in first reference to $.12 and God has actually given us a spirit not the world spirit so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given to us the Bible is spiritual book supernatural and for us to really understand it at a deep level and be ready to act on it should be moved to act off is something that the Holy Spirit is God took option so we need to really have a personal commitment to seeking the spirits fell as we do or Bible study well a third personal commitment we need faith is to be willing to submit to the text and obedience and will remain here is that -- we are hearing God speak to us through the checks that we are then ready to be obedience to what God saying to us in the tax that I want to point here if that's in our process of doing Bible study we may at times be tempted to jump right to application or write to try to tell somebody what the text means that we really need to get the order straight first of all we need to do our exegetical work our basic study of the tax before we try to do devotional thinking or application of this ask the reason here is accuracy we want to make sure that as we approach the text of OSHA lady and we are trying to live the text now that we are living it out based on what is actually there in the text if you think about the Fortress of basics these before we do some kind of application I have blueberry bushes here at my house and when we go out and we pick blueberries shows never find stronger solos were very gracious we never find blackberries on the blueberry bushes we don't find face-to-face from the fig tree nearby and the reason this goddess that plan produces fruits according to the kind of plant idiots according to its nature and when we do Bible study we need to start with exegesis of the tax so that our application is growing organically out of that tax rather than being read into the text are being done side of what the Czechs say the fruits of that sex is going to come half of the text itself and our application needs to be after we have really understood study the effects and discern what it is that God was saying through that tech so we need to do her exegetical work for devotional but then we need your devotional or personal application of the tax before we tried to teach somebody else it's very important that as we teach others that there is an authenticity there and that authenticity comes from having really work through the process of the tax itself and then really fine fax your own life before were trying to tell someone else how they should fight bears I remember years ago fearing even offered off about preaching he's a famous teacher free church and old bird was talking about how when he studies the Bible in preparation for his sermon the last thing he does in his whole process for 40 goats and teachers of Texas he would open up his Bible on his bed and get down on his niece and work through the Texas Northeast through in my life and he would go through that process for each ride to teach the text somebody else for the most amazing sermons I ever experience was a manic fall more or less in the wuss after church I attended forward Texas and one night he came and he got for each and then as CEO for the tax said you know folks I was intending to preach on this passage back in us safe since real in my life and the close service and had prayer and we laugh that he did every week or every other week or even every month that would be a problem but that's the only time I ever saw him do that but he spoke very powerfully of the need for authenticity as we try to share the checks were somebody else now as we talk about being willing to submit to the Lord in obedience as we are studying his word but see is that we would fight for space and life space funding by this is harks face is a reference to us opening up our heart's that were not so fangled as we talked about with your sore last week with fierce in this world that the Cyrus further thanks that our hearts are soft little or and so we need to make hearts face so that our hearts are scarcely ready to receive what God would say to us if we're dealing with our children we realized that it is much more important to have the parts that it is simply to have their obedience in terms of just their outward action and we've really tried to work with him having soft farce word mom and dad and we have to work on that in an ongoing way because she is not just that their outward actions are conformed but that their hearts are use yielded soft to the principle that were trying to teach them so you and I also need hard space we need hearts are open and soften the Lord as we get ready to study his word then secondly we also need life space we need to set aside five to study and read Scripture's and so again I want to encourage you to be considering what do you need to do in terms of making space in your life so that you can receive the word regularly and be obedient to it well there is for personal commitment we need to make and that is fair to share your study or reading thoroughfare to share your study or reading the Bible is a book that was written or community and the UNI have a community factor the CNN as we read and study the word it's not mentioned shows us have an impact on us is meant to be something that we deal with in community with other people in the morning when Pat and I have archived Florida were doing Bible reading her Bible study it's common for us to share with each other what we're learning or for one of us asked the other sessions may be about a particular passage and the Saudi something that happens in our small groups of church thought happened in conversation over with lunch after church we need to be people who are sharing what God is teaching us and not doing that at all from a prideful standpoint but doing it from the standpoint of really enjoying the word of God where we are allowing the word of God to be rich league dwelling in us assess people and so another commitment we need to make as we think about studying and reading the word is share with other people to share with others how we've been blessed as Goddess of us will these are some personal commitments we need to make as we get ready to study the Scriptures's together a lesson move on to our next main topic and that is a background study how do we throw each dealing with background issues staff we are in the process of doing our study now you should have a handout that was given use and that Gandalf is called looking around and selling EN and here were describing that part of it should F. where you get there and you need to learn about the refund checks for the next two main topics we talk about our context topics versus historical context and the second were going to talk about his literary contacts contacts is very very important and when you talk about background issues it means that we want to choose and choose a store on false rule context if which the Bible was written if you think about even our own lives for those of you who are old enough to do this thing back to the 1970s's and imagine someone coming up to you and talking about the power of the web power of the web where you might have thought that person first off of Spiderman comics they had read or something like that but if someone came up and said that to you today you know exactly what they're talking about because you experience the power of the Internet can find all kinds of things in your research on the Internet itself well that for true context difference really makes a profound difference in what is being said if you're in 1970 S. post two 2004 I just finished reading a novel called kindred and it is a novel in which a young lady from modern Los Angeles is set back in way that she and no one else understands to pre-Civil War South in the United States and she is a young black woman and it's a fascinating story because it sets up a dynamic so a modern person being foot into a historical context that has buried difficult applications for her as a young black woman well the reason this story works is because you're dealing with two very different historical info through context so you and I want to really focus in and allow ourselves to learn about how we can be sensitive to shortly call through contacts of the Bible well the first foray under learning the culture and talk about background issues is fishery is fair story and it comes with a context that I've said this to you before but not someone who made a choice of when and where the Scriptures would be written and so when we studied the background the historical backdrop of the tax what we're doing afar if we are respecting God's choice of place and time another reason why this is so important is because you and I are really separate a full chewable leaf from the people back in the first century by a number of significant factors we don't dress like they do with each life if rankings do for instance we don't use the same language they do not understand half of governmental system that they were under their Mimi thinks that false distance between us and those people in the first century and their situation so if we study history and study cultural backdrop of the tax what we're doing is we're trying to close that gap in our understanding so that we can understand their situation's and specifically the fights of issues they were facing as they were receiving the word of God now the word of God is God's word to us it was not written to them and then it's just been handed down to us it is God's word to us but to hear that word well we need to be sensitive to surface for calling fulfilled dynamics welfare three main areas for study as we talk about background issues and historical issues the first is what is the general historical background of the book in other words when asked for the watch window where and why if I am dealing with a book like the book of Romans seemed excessive file to understand who wrote the book and we find it fall is the author of the book of Romans want to talk about what Paul is trying to flinch in that booth win he wrote it in one and if possible we will try to understand where as well so when we approach the general historical background of the book were talking about this goofy author with written why was it written what are the concerns that formed the backdrop of this book will we know with Roman for instance that Paul was in fourth and US/veteran back to Palestine and was in a hurry so he was not able to go and visit the Roman check it not visited the Roman church at this point if someone wanted to see one to share with them this gospel he wanted Sheriff's message and human rights the book of Roman status an overview of his basic teaching us about price and so we can shoot and that general historical backdrop and it will help us understand a bit more what's going on in the book from its second area for study as we talk about background issues and historical issues is -- what can I find as about the immediate thesaurus context of the passage without landing gear is third of the race and different books of the Bible if it sure is going to be an immediate store or situation that we need to study for instance in the gospels you're going to have time this in which Jesus at key turning point for instance in his ministry and we want to understand the dynamics surrounding that process with Jesus experienced this transfiguration on the mound transfiguration inlets gospel that is the key turning points when the civilized to appear to Jesus and the disciple see this phenomenal thing that happens is Jesus converses with them and they talk about his accidents this is why half of the world in Luke's Gospel from that point on Jesus sets his face in Jerusalem and it's important to read the things that happen in loot from that point on in light of the fact that Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem for the soul we want to find out about the immediate thesaurus contacts of certain passages tomorrow I'm going to be preaching at the church to be preaching on Isaiah 6 and in that passage you have eyes I have getting of a point of reference in the year the theme use I died I saw the word and we can study specifically the store for contacts of Isaias fish and there he was riding in a time which was a time of crisis Israel had faced religious prosperity but there was of tremendous political power looming on the Verizon Sirius and Kenya Ziad died in 739 he invented 15 and so this was a crisis for the nation and for the prophet himself with a third thing that we can study and review our background study's yes to ask what cultural elements he decided it may be that some aspects of Joseph Fulcher comes up in our process of study that we need to find out more about it maybe a group like the fair cease or it may be some type of food that is involved in the situation when Peter CC cheats him that he has the vision of the sheet facts and and God is about to send him to preach the gospel through a group of Gentiles and for nuisance household we need to understand the point of that vision as God tells Peter to arrive this deal and each anteater said Snow Lord because he is such youth and throw sure he is The food lost all of his life and so we really have to understand that the backdrop of what's going on in that passage will solve this for a minute about tools that will help us get there for me just mention a few we've already talked about the need to use study Bible this is the Holman Bible dictionary thief in a study Bible the Bible dictionary this: Bible dictionary and violation of various will have a wide variety of articles on people places things fact in terms of background study this stuff first line of offense as we get ready to study background issue so again you need to get a good Bible dictionary if there are special Bible Encyclopedia this which will be at times like extended Bible dictionaries for this for instance is a specialized encyclopedia this is the Baker Encyclopedia of Bible place this and do what it does is it goes into explanations of a lot of different cities and countries that are referred to in Bible second type of tool is a background commentary five think one of the best ones right now is the son of an freighted Bible background commentary and in this commentary authors on these different books go through and met chests on background issues as they relate to the texts so as you're reading through the Gospels are not going to do a commentary on things that you would normally have when you're reading through the Gospels a background commentary is not going to comment on everything in the text is going to specifically zeroing in on background issues such as the groups fulfill practices cited the specific historical context it is being dealt with faith backgrounds commentaries are very very power tool for personal study as well as for people who are teaching Bible studies were Sunday school because they really fill out a lot of apps for us in terms of what's going on in the texts and other type of tool that we can use for background studies would be maps and Atlas since you have bats in the back of your study Bible but also their atlases like the Homeland Bible Atlas and if you're Dave thing with a theory of history different kinds of events for good Bible Atlas is going to really give you a much more detail in terms of your study than you would have in with the maps in the back of your study Bible at times now addresses will have topographical illustrations stand these can be very very helpful and impressive as your study and different types of IBS Scripture so that software type of tool and the fourth one that you need careful with is the Internet itself is amazing what you can find on the Internet now there are websites like the Perseus Project which comes out such university they have a tremendous database of different types of artifacts you can go online and that science seeks a church from different locations in the biblical world and see ghosts license from various angles fortune is that this suffers from the Internet obviously does not control and so it's time you can pick up some very bad information or some misinformation and use need to be careful and consider the sources that you're using on the Internet there is very helpful material there but also can leach down some paths that she don't want to go through the house any body in the world for the stuff on the Internet that may or may not be well-informed about the material they're actually being on their wealth brings us to another issue and doing background studies and that is what our background study fallacy's to avoid background study fallacies to avoid when he mentioned three of the use and then we'll move on stock about how background study staff help us are examples of how they can help us in specific ways well a very briefly first of all one fallacy would be focusing too much on background detail and sheer intention of passage in May to your person who you love history and you love background kind of information and in doing your study gets so caught up in the bigger picture of the background material or maybe the details of the cultural that year old that if allegiance to your C. intention of tax for instance in Hebrew chapter 9 verses one through 10 the author thoughts about the tabernacle from the Old Testament and talks about the setup of the tabernacle of the there have been people who have really gotten into that they've gone into the beach else of the tabernacle and all that 83 details in the theme source virtual lies in the use but if you do that then it began this taking attention away from what the author theme versus doing at that point and Fathi off the roof and South since I don't want to go into all the details at this point because police try to do with research showing that there was a structure that was setup and a process by which to preach the moved into the outer rim of the tabernacle in the fire priest once a year moved into the inner room before with police in the tabernacle so once anyone be careful of is not getting so caught up in the background material in the historical details that we actually start obscuring the intention of the passage itself such as the cost of such caution is using outdated or misinformed fools now this is one of the reasons why using a solid tool that's been done in recent years can be very helpful and it's important that we can mix and we may hear some tools that are older to some of the other commentaries for us so written back in the 1800s are still valuable medium dose equal came from classical types of vegetation and at times they may have inside set we need lots more recent shoeless that are done by some solid scholarship can just help us not to build down some wrong paths for instance you may have heard someone teach on Matthew 1924 were Jesus Fox about it being so difficult golf for a camel to go through the eye of a needle if using that as a spherical illustration there and I've personally teach a metaphor in which they talked about what he is really discussing there was there was a gate in the city of Jerusalem which was called the eye of the needle because if so small and the camels as they went through that Gates would have to be unloaded or perhaps even get down the sewer to go go through the gate well the problem with that teaching is this that there is absolutely no store all evidence whatsoever that there was a Gates called the eye of the needle in Jerusalem its base surely on speculation and someone came up with that creative idea somewhere along the way so that I would be an example of missing information that someone is introducing as an element of background while a third fallacy would be to not study the background of the text at all to not study the background checks at all I think we run a much greater danger reading powerful church in our historical situation into the tax if we are not sensitive to the specific cultural and historic situation in which the text was written now again I want to emphasize that the gods Word is written to us use DOS shall speak to us and he means for us to hear if much is written for those people back there but again God chose us five and we need to respect that and work with it and be sensitive to what any of us a few examples of how background study can help us and they will close if included with this discussion today well first of all background study can explain elements that are not clear our background study can explain elements that are not serious look at a couple of passages together in acts chapter 22 versus 25 through 29th we find fall back in the city of Jerusalem and Paul has been arrested and is now being interrogated by the Roman soldiers who arrested him without you'll remember this situation were all had been in the simple and there was a mob action started against him because they fought to broaden Gentile into the temple which again has its own historical backdrop but now Paul is about to be interrogated if you back up to verse 23 fax F-22 Greece and as they were crying out and throwing off their floats and sauce and this year the commander ordered him this fall to be brought into the various stating that he should be examined by scourging some of you might find out the reason why they were shouting against him that way so that the commander was doomed Lucy Macbeth by the Berlin they stretched them out with fonts Paul said to the century is standing by is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman and fifth century and heard this he went to the commander and told him saying what he thought today for this man is a wrong the commander came and said he can tell me earlier on when he said yes and the commander answered I acquired the citizenship with a large sum of money and Paul said that I was actually born since therefore those who are about to examine him immediately let go of him and the commander also was afraid when he found out that he was a Roman in the car seat which shifts well what's going on in the backdrop of that tax why did they react to fall the way that they do have to fall simply look over the shoulder of someone is about to beat him and decided by the way that I mentioned on Robinson this well they should faith of the Texas health Roman citizen could not be surged without trial and it was really of severe punishments brought against the Roman official who had the person unjustly punished so there is background that we can study about this spout political and historical context in which actually two was written well a second thing that background study can help us with seeking help communicate the force of what is being communicated it can communicate with Earth's of what is being communicated without the media you an example of what we're talking about here in the chapter 23 for just 27 following look at with 23 versus 27 and following him and follow if this is when Jesus is being led away to be crucified and incest in this chapter of Luke and following him was a large crowd of people and women who were mourning and lamenting him that she started to them said daughters of Jerusalem stopped weeping for me but we for yourselves and for your children for rough old days are coming when they will say Blessed are the barren in the words that never bore and breast-fed their verse then they will begin to save amounts fall on us into the hills cover us for if they do the same from the tree is green what will happen when it is from wealth with no about the historical situation Jesus prophesied about faith Jesus there is referring to the fall of Jerusalem which happened in A.D. 70 fact of Cephas tells us about the siege of Jerusalem and one of the most far last fax of the CDs when the Romans came in life each safe Jerusalem and you had the Jewish freedom fighters who are opposing them the romance did horrible things to Jewish fighters that they fought in fact as freedom fighters looking out for the city the wall said already been breached around city and on the fields outside of the city of Jerusalem there were hundreds and hundreds of hundredths of shoes she were being first five by the Romans in fact the Roman straw for them by crucifying their Use in all different types of 40 and positions on the wall around the city of Jerusalem and so SH freedom fighters looking out they solve hundreds and thousands of juice of their colleagues through were were crucified outside the city infected chief assessor for Soviet Jews being crucified that they ran across his ahead and start crucifying people on top of other people that when you understand that this is what Jesus prophesied about Ben U.S. Air Force and what are you saying no soft weeping for me in an acid Jesus was saying this is a tragedy and today three of us will die out side of the city but there's coming a time that you won't believe Jesus is saying that there aren't location scouting for costs you failed to recognize Messiah when he came so that's understanding that prosthetic moment that Jesus was looking for us in the fall and see each and fall of Jerusalem service animal but more of a force out the original readers of the Gospel would've understood very well those who were after that cease took place and after the city of Jerusalem fell off that would've felt the full force of Jesus in this state that there is quite possible that Luke was written in the early to mid 60s but especially for those who heard this red after the siege and fall of Jerusalem it would have been very powerful shortly for them when there's a third way that background study can help us and we'll close with this begin helps verify application that can help verify application for instance and Hebrews chapter 13 verse two the author is giving a list of practices that we as Christians are supposed to practice and these are very practical types of exultation says the author gives fear and induce second verse of chapter 13 he says did not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it well does that mean that you and I are supposed to just taking anybody indoor homes for half if anybody on the highway through his meeting health it may be that at times those actions will be appropriate but if we understand a little bit of the good backdrop of Jewish and Christian hospitality at this. Five we understand that this was an age which they did not have that happen in down in Jerusalem they had and civilians were often very unsavory places and there was five value place on Jews and the early Christians showing hospitality to fellow believer's as they travel through the world without the and so think about this exultation we might think about the ways that fast without the was taken up then endorse and then think about Ferrell will suit our situation when we read this in excess did not neglect to show hospitality to strangers it may sound like we just need to open our doors to anybody from South Knox on our door from streets that I think that we would need to think through situational bit more based on the historical and cultural contexts in which that was originally written well there are a few thoughts on background study and I want to encourage you again to be browsing your Bible dictionary it might be this week she wants to fish are doing your Bible reading be sensitive to specifics ashore on cultural situation's immediately issued Bible dictionary to learn more about the historical and cultural contexts in which your passage was written well afford being back with you next week may God bless you and then we read the word well this week and practice faithfully.