Basic Leader Training: Basic Hermeneutics – Session 3

Another12 Ministries

3 weeks ago

Course Content

Session Notes (PDF)

Another12 Ministries Leadership Training

Session 3 Outline

Opening Questions

Why is it important for believers to be able to interpret the Bible accurately in a ministry context?

How confident do you feel interpreting passages of the Bible and applying them to the modern world?

What effect, if any, do you think interpretation of the Bible has on the core message of Christianity, namely the gift of God’s Son to mankind for the work of salvation?

If you have one, what is the process that you personally use when studying the Bible?

Key Verse

2 Peter 3:14-18 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

1 Timothy 6:2b-5 Teach and urge these things. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

Definitions

Secular: a method or principle of interpretation

Biblical: The study of the principles of interpretation—both the grammatico-historical interpretation AND the practical application of that interpretation in the pulpit—is called hermeneutics.

Hermeneutics (proper interpretation) is important because…

- It enables believers to understand what the Bible is teaching them. (Matthew 22:41-46)
- Scripture interprets Scripture (Romans 10:11-21) (Isaiah 53:1) (Isaiah 52:7) (Ephesians 6:14-15) (Psalm 19:1-4) (Matthew 24:14)
  - Finding the theme of a passage.
  - Identifying what gives each word importance.
  - The importance of cross-references – Following the Bible’s built in rabbit trail.

It assists believers in understanding the original context of the Scriptures.

- - Author and Audience – More than just “Who!”
  - Original Languages – What you need to know.
  - Why Word Study is important
  - Understanding Historical Context
- It empowers believers to apply an ancient teaching to their modern context. (Luke 24:25-27) (Romans 1:1-6)
  - Context is King (Matthew 22:41-46)
  - The Bridge
  - Identifying permanent relevance in a passage.
  - Meaning over Feeling (Joshua 1:8)
- It fills believers with the knowledge they need to teach others. (2 Timothy 3:14-17)
  - Milk and Meat (1 Corinthians 3:1-3)
  - Making Truth Accessible
  - To teach, one must first understand (John 13:3-8)

It protects believers from being led astray by false teaching and heresy. (2 Peter 3:14-18) (Hebrews 4:12-13)

- Dangerous Practices
  - Taking Scripture out of context
  - Twisting Scripture to fit human narrative
  - Skipping over inconvenient truths and teachings
  - Ignoring difficult passages
  - Searching for hidden codes or allegory in the text
  - Interpreting any passage in a way that contradicts the attributes of God.
- Comfortable Interpretation
  - Taking the easy way out.
- Blunting the Blade
  - Presenting the Bible in a less convicting way
- Self-righteousness and pride
- The danger of false teaching. (1 Timothy 6:2b-5) (2 Timothy 4:1-5) (2 Timothy 2:1-10) (Galatians 1:6-9)

Bible Passages

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. (Acts 8:26-31)

2 Timothy 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Isaiah 52:7-10 How beautiful upon the mountains

are the feet of him who brings good news,

who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,

who publishes salvation,

who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

Luke 24:25-27 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

2 Timothy 3:14-17 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 4:1-5 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

2 Timothy 2:1-10 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

Galatians 1:6-9 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.