Pathways to Understanding the Bible

Workshop 1

Jonah

Table of Contents
Introduction to the Pathways Course ...................................................................................................... 3 Overview of the Pathways Course .......................................................................................................... 5 Demonstration Sermon ............................................................................................................................. 8 The Bible Pathway ..................................................................................................................................... 9 Careful Bible Study ..................................................................................................................................12 How to Lead a Practice Session ............................................................................................................16 Written Setting ..........................................................................................................................................19 Practice: Jonah 3:1-10.............................................................................................................................22 Practice: Jonah 4:1-11.............................................................................................................................23 Demonstration Sermon ...........................................................................................................................24 Reflecting on the Workshop ...................................................................................................................25

Introduction to the Pathways Course

We are all familiar with what it means to travel down a path. For many of us it is the primary means of getting from one place to another. We travel by path from house to house, village to village and sometimes from one region of the country to another by means of paths. Even in the city we use paths in parks and through gardens. Walking on a path not only is a means of travel but can also be a means of learning. We learn about the people and places we meet along the way. We also learn about the plants and animals we encounter and the scenery we see as we travel. Walking down a familiar path is one way of connecting with our community and experiencing life. Walking a new path often allows us to expand our lives and experience new things. Studying the Bible can be viewed in much the same way as walking down a path. As we read through the Bible we learn new things. The more often we read the same passages the more familiar we become with what we find there. The things we discover as we read enrich our lives and help us connect with God and with others around us. Often our reading even helps us understand ourselves better. When we read new sections of the Bible we encounter new ideas that expand our thinking and lives. Learning to walk on a new path requires some patience, and instruction and direction from those who have been there before. Learning to study the Bible is like that as well. There are new skills to learn from others and disciplines to master if we are going to be able to walk through the teachings of the Bible well. This course is designed to take you down the path of learning how to study and teach the Bible. Once you have mastered the skills we will teach you, you will be able to walk down all the pathways of the Bible and gain great understanding about what God has said in His Word and to effectively share that understanding with others. Are you ready to begin? We hope this will be a fun, challenging and fruitful adventure for you and that you will be blessed and Gods kingdom will be advanced as a result. Welcome to the pathway to better biblical understanding! journey together. We look forward to our

The following is a sample of the normal schedule for the first workshop on the book of Jonah. The other workshops will have similar schedules.

Jonah Schedule Sample

How Monday Welcome Tuesday Devotions and Prayer Session 3: Study: Travelling instructions Wednesday Devotions and Prayer Session 5: How to Lead a Practice Session Jonah 2:1-10 Thursday Devotions and Prayer Session 7: Practice: Jonah 3:1-10 Friday Devotions and Prayer Session 9: Demonstrate: Preaching the Book of Jonah

8:15

9:00

Session 1: Discussion and Overview of Training

10:00

Break Session 2: Demonstrate Jonah 1:1-16

Break Session 4: Study: Careful Bible Study

Break Session 6: Study: Written Setting

Break Session 8: Practice: Jonah 4:1-11

Break Session 10: Reflecting on the Workshop

10:30

12:00 12:30

Questions Lunch

Questions Lunch

Questions Lunch

Questions Lunch

Questions Lunch Dedication of Trainers and Closing

14:00

Elective

Elective

Elective

Elective

15:00 16:00

Elective

Elective

Elective

Planning for Training Others

Group Assignments: Prepare for Jonah 2

Group Assignments: Prepare for Jonah 3

Group Assignments: Prepare for Jonah 4

Group Assignments: Prepare Message on Jonah

Session #1

Overview of the Pathways Course

The Pathways Training Course is designed to equip you to train other national pastors to study and teach the Word of God accurately. Because we believe that the Bible is the Word of God and is essential for a healthy individual and church life, we believe learning to properly study and teach the Bible is an essential skill for all pastors. We want to develop, empower and release you to train other pastors for generations into the future. We want everyone taking this course to have in mind the task of passing this training on to others as they are taking the training themselves. Passing the training on will help you grasp the concepts even better and will multiply our efforts to train all pastors in the Word of God. The course normally is taught in 5 day workshops, (3 days without translation), conducted 3 times a year for 3 years, totaling 9 workshops. As we train, we want our effort to be more than an academic exercise. Since we are studying the Word of God, we want the Word to impact and transform our thinking and lives as we study. We want to challenge you as teachers and preachers of the Word to have the same goal in your teaching, the transformation of your listeners. Throughout the course we will regularly call for reflection and application of what we are learning from the Word to our own lives. The course is not designed to be primarily a lecture-driven process. While there are times when we will teach principles and tools in this way, the majority of the course will be conducted through exercises and guided discussions. You will regularly be given opportunity to make presentations from the Word with feedback from the leaders and other students. These practice sessions are where we think the majority of the learning will take place. In addition, in each workshop of the training, demonstration sermons will be presented by the leaders to help you grasp the concept of expository preaching.

Workshops In each of the 9 workshops, there will be approximately 12 sessions for demonstration sermons, study sessions and practices sessions. In addition, we will have 5 or 6 hours of elective subjects that are designed to help you grow in the areas of knowledge, character and pastoral skills. In 8 of the workshops we will organize the training around single Bible books. The books studied are, in order: Jonah 2 Timothy Genesis 1-11 Romans 1-8 Mark Ephesians Habakkuk Psalms The last workshop looks at the Bible as a whole from Genesis to Revelation. We will introduce 16 different study principles over the duration of the course. They will be introduced gradually one at a time and reviewed and reinforced in later workshops. Each workshop is designed to help you learn new skills in reading, understanding, applying and preaching the Bible. By gradually introducing and reinforcing these skills over three years you will make progress in actually using and mastering the skills. Study Tools The Tools we will teach are: Bible Pathway, Careful Bible Study Methods, Written Setting Workshop #1 Asking Questions, Linking Words, Staying on the Line Workshop #2 Structure, Biblical Theology, Frameworks Workshop #3 Linking Words, Main Points, Big Idea Workshop # 4 Asking Questions, Historical/Biblical Setting, Big Idea Workshop # 5
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Structure of a Book, Connecting Big Ideas, Preaching Workshop # 6 Genre, Biblical/Historical Setting, Poetic Tools Workshop #7 Structure - Book, Big Ideas - Book, Overall Message - Book Workshop # 8 Structure-Bible, Big Ideas-Bible, Overall Message-Bible Workshop # 9

Session #2

Demonstration Sermon
Jonah 1:1-16
An Expository Sermon is one that preaches what the text says and where the structure of the sermon parallels the structure of the passage. The following is an example of an outline for an expository sermon from the first chapter of the book of Jonah. You should prepare and present your own expositional sermon on this text when you train others. God confronts our hard-hearted rebellion I. Jonah refuses to respond to Gods call with a receptive heart and flees II. God doesnt let him escape and confronts his sin through the storm and sailors III. God demonstrates the foolishness of fleeing from Him

After the message, ask your partner to lead a discussion on the message. Discuss not only what they learned from the passage but how the preacher presented his message.

Session #3

The Bible Pathway

Introduction When we hurry along a pathway, we want the shortest, straightest path to our destination. But we often find that impossible because something blocks the path, perhaps a river or a mountain. Sometimes a danger along the way makes the shortest path unwise. So we have to take a path that curves and takes longer to travel if we are going to safely arrive at our destination. This principle is also true of our path to understanding the Bible. We often are in a hurry to understand what God has to say to us in His Word. We want to take what the Bible says and immediately apply it to our lives. But there are major problems blocking our way. The first problem is that the Bible was not written directly to us but to people who lived a long time ago in cultures sometimes far different from ours. God certainly meant for the Bible to speak to us but if we do not take time to first understand what the author was saying to the original audience, we are in danger of misunderstanding Gods message to us. Second, we are sometimes tempted to approach the Bible from our own cultural and personal outlook, often reading into the passage what is not there. Once again we need to try to understand what was in the authors mind as he wrote to a specific people in a specific historical setting. Once we understand that we can then ask What is God saying to us in our time and culture as a result? The following diagram illustrates this process which we will call the Bible Pathway.

Bible Pathway
Gods Message

No

Me

Original Audience

Sometimes the need to travel this path to the original audience is quite obvious and at other times it is more subtle. For example, few people believe that the instructions of the Law about sacrifices should be directly applied to us. God is not commanding us to sacrifice animals, even though He did expect the original hearers to do so. This is because we live in a different time and under a different covenant than the people in the Old Covenant. We are no longer under the Law. We live under the New Covenant as a result of Christs work for us. Although we cannot directly apply all that is said in the Old Testament, we can apply the spiritual principles found there. So, while we should not start sacrificing animals, we can learn about the principles of sacrifice, and that will help us learn about Christs sacrifice for us. At other times it is harder to see the need to look first at the original audience. For example, if we are studying a New Testament book like 2 Timothy, we might be tempted to quickly apply the teaching to ourselves without first asking what problems and situations Paul was addressing in this letter to Timothy. The letter was not addressed to us but to Timothy who lived a long time ago in a city called Ephesus. If we do not take time to understand Pauls original intent when he wrote to Timothy, we might make a mistake in understanding what God wanted us to learn from this letter. If we are going to hear Gods message to us, we first need to hear His message given through the author to the original audience. We must observe and understand what the author said in the original time and setting and then we can think about how to apply his message to us in our time and setting. Exercise: Together lets look at the following passages, asking these four questions: What is the situation found in this passage? What is the main point? How might the original listeners have heard the message differently than we do? How should we apply the authors message to our lives?

Numbers 15:37-41. Matthew 12:9-14 Exodus 34:1-7 Matthew 10:5-6

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Bible Pathway As we learn to study the Bible carefully and teach and preach it effectively to our people, we will always travel on this Bible Pathway trying to learn the skill of understanding what God was saying first to the original audience and then how He intended that to be applied to us.

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Session #4

Careful Bible Study

Introduction
Careful Bible Study is the first step to getting on the pathway to understanding the Bible. Because we believe that the Bible is the Word of God and communicates Gods thoughts to us, (1 Corinthians 2: 11-13), we want to respect His Word by being careful to accurately understand what is says. We do not want to impose our ideas onto the Bible but to listen closely to what God is saying to us through His Word. That simply means that we carefully read what is written, paying close attention to what is actually said. As we examine the text we gradually come to a conclusion about what the author of the passage intended to say. Once we understand what he intended to say we then can consider how to apply that message to our lives. Throughout this process we depend upon Gods Spirit to help us see what is said, to understand it correctly and to apply it wisely to our lives. The First Three Steps of Careful Study Reading and Observation We must begin our study by reading, and not just casually reading, but carefully reading the passage. It is important to read the passage several times paying close attention to what is said. Sometimes it may be helpful to read the passage out loud or even to copy the passage on a piece of paper. This can help us slow down and notice everything that is written in the passage. One of the most important things we can look for as we read is the flow of the storyline or the logical sequence of the thoughts presented by the author. We want to notice how he develops his ideas. We can ask, What are the key Words that he uses?, Are there repetitions or parallel ideas?, Does he compare or contrast ideas?, How does this text fit with the other passages surrounding this passage?, and finally, Are there any commands in the passage? We also want to notice the tone or general mood of the passage and anything that surprises us. It is helpful to remember that observations cannot be disagreed with. We are simply stating what is there. If someone can disagree with us, we have moved from observing into interpreting the meaning of the passage. We should finish observing before we try to understand the meaning of the passage. Understanding Once we have carefully observed what has been written, we need to try to understand what the passage means. What we are trying to understand is what the original author was thinking when he wrote the passage. We want to understand what he
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intended to say and what his purpose was for writing. In order to do that, we must first understand the meaning of the Words that he uses. We may have to look up the definitions of words we do not understand. Then we can consider the significance of the words that are used. An important step will be to decide what the major points are in the passage. Taking into consideration the things we have observed, we need to prayerfully think or meditate on what we have read. This takes time and effort but bears fruit in understanding. As we meditate on the passage, we need to consider how the message of this passage fits in with what we have learned elsewhere in the book we are studying or in the Bible as a whole. As we seek for understanding, it is sometimes helpful to summarize what the passage says in our own words. As our understanding grows, we should be able to restate the main thing the author intended to say in a single sentence. Application After we have read and examined the passage and come to a conclusion about what the author intended to say we are ready to consider how to apply his message to our lives. We should notice if the passage offers an application in the text itself. Our applications should address what we do, how we think and what we love. There may be new truths to believe or changes that we need to make in our thinking. We may simply be encouraged by new insights into Gods goodness or promises. We may need to take specific actions of obedience or to repent of specific sins or attitudes. In all of this, we need always to respond directly to God Himself in prayer, praise, commitment, or fellowship. God is communicating with us in His Word and wants to draw us into a closer relationship to Himself. Using our Bible Pathway diagram we can show how observing, understanding and application help us get the message God has for us.

Bible Pathway
Gods Message
1. Observation

No
2. Understanding

Me
3. Application

Original Audience
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These three steps are the beginning of our journey to understanding the passage. As we begin to learn how to complete these three steps well, we will add other steps and tools to help us understand even better. Practicing Careful Bible Study Together lets look at the following passages. For each we will: Make as many observations as we can, attempt to understand the main point, and make some application to our lives. Romans 12:1-2 Ephesians 5:8-21 Genesis 22:1-14

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We will continue to practice observation, understanding and application as we study Jonah 1:1-17. Small Group Exercise Observation: Form groups of three. Write down 10 observations from this chapter.

Share your groups observations with the other groups. Notice how each group may have observed some different things in the passage. Would you have noticed more if you had observed longer? Understanding: In your groups, look again at the chapter. Using the list of things we observed in the chapter, discuss what you think the main points are. What was the authors purpose in writing this chapter? What was his central point? What did he want to say to his readers? Summarize your understanding in a single sentence to share with the other groups.

Application: Once again, in your groups think about how God might want you to apply the message of this passage to your life. Are there changes you need to make in what you are doing, in what you are thinking or in what you love? Share your thoughts with the other groups.

Response to God: Take some time as a group to respond to God in light of what you have learned from His Word.

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Session #5

How to Lead a Practice Session

Jonah 2:1-10
Practice Sessions are opportunities for students to make a short presentation of an exposition of a passage of Scripture. The purpose of this type of session is to encourage and help you to become a better and more confident preacher of Gods Word. You will prepare a short message, present it to the class and receive feedback from the leaders and other students. Several students will present messages in each practice session. Group interaction and discussion is crucial for this session to be effective. It is during these discussions that we all make progress in learning to analyze the text and to present it clearly by listening to the insights of the others in the class. The purpose of the leader is not so much to teach, but to guide the discussion. The focus of the session is not on the presentation of the message, but on its content and the presenters grasp of meaning of the passage. The goal of the discussion is that all will gain a better understanding of the passage being studied. Secondarily, we all want to learn how to present that clearly to our listeners. The discussion is not meant to be critical. We should all keep in mind that we are all learning together and need to show love and respect to one another as we do so. As we interact with the presentation, our goal is for the presenter, as well as all the rest of us, to learn to study and understand the Bible better. We are working together to accomplish that task. In doing this we also want to remember that we are studying Gods Word and that we need to pay attention to what it says and apply it to our hearts and lives even as we learn how to study better. The Process for Leading a Practice Session A practice session has three major parts. 1. Presentations 2. Feedback from designated responders 3. Discussion by the group Presentations Begin by reminding the group of the procedure used in a practice session and for the need for graciousness and good discussion. Assign a time keeper. Assign a responder for each preacher who is making a presentation. Then have the first preacher pray,
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read the text and make his presentation. (It is usually wise to have the all the presenters write their Big Idea and the points of their sermon on the board before the session to preserve time.) Give each presenter 5 minutes to make the presentation. No more than 4 presenters should speak in any one practice session. Having more than 4 speak makes the session longer and more confusing to those listening. It is better to have more practice sessions rather than having more than 4 presenters per session. Responders After each of the presenters has preached, ask their responders to comment on their assigned presentation. Have each responder comment, and without discussion by anyone else, go to the next presenter. The goal of the responder is to offer words of encouragement to the presenter about something the responder appreciated in the message. This is not a time for criticism. To help the responders be prepared to encourage the preacher, instruct them to take notes when listening to their presenter. When several people preach, it is easy to forget or become confused about what an earlier presenter said. Notes will help you to remember key points. Discussion Once all the presenters have spoken and each of the responders has commented, open up the group for discussion of the various presentations asking the question, How well did the presentations capture the central ideas of the text? How can we help them do better? Again the ultimate goal of the discussion is to help us all understand the text better and to have our presentations reflect clearly what the text is saying. At times it is fun to put a target on the board and to mark each presenter on the target. Have several rings with the center designated as the exact, perfect understanding of the passage, (which none of us will ever achieve), and with the outside rings progressively moving farther away from that understanding. If this is done in a light-hearted way it can be fun and not threatening to the presenters. The exercise is helpful in teaching that our purpose is not to grade one another but to offer suggestions about how each one could move their presentation closer to the center. Practice In groups of three read and discuss Jonah 2:1-10. Try to come up with a single statement explaining the central or big idea of the passage. Come up with the main points you would make in a sermon on this text. We will do this rather quickly giving you just 15 minutes to come up with your presentation. Choose one of the members of your group to be the presenter. We will have several present using the procedure explained in session #5.
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Session #6

Written Setting
Introduction As we travel on the Bible Pathway to understanding the Bible we need to understand the concept of the written setting, sometimes called the context. Any path that we walk on has unique surroundings. The path may pass through a village with certain houses lining the pathway, or it may travel through the forest or bush where there are few houses. Or the path may be through the city with winding streets and tall buildings. Noticing the things that surround the path helps us know where we are on the path and gives meaning to our journey. The same is true of our study of the Bible. As we travel the path to understanding any passage of scripture we must take notice of the things that surround the words we are studying. What came before this passage? What follows after it? The verses and chapters before and after the passage we are studying are called the literary, or written, setting of the passage. In later sessions we will also study the historical and biblical settings of a passage. If we are going to understand the meaning of the text we are studying we must consider its setting. The sentences and passages that surround our text will help shape our understanding of its meaning. In order to understand the written setting of a passage we must read the passages surrounding it. Once again we must observe what the author says in these passages and try to understand what he intended to say. If we study our way through a book, it is important to remember what we learned in the last passage. That will help us understand the passage we are now studying. What we learned in the last one will influence the meaning of the current passage. But it is also important to consider what lies ahead. Where the ideas in the book are going also influences our understanding of the meaning of the passage we are studying. If we studied the last passage well it will help us understand the present passage better. We may not know the meaning of future passages as well but having a general understanding of what is coming later will help us see the authors purpose. That is one of the reasons why it is important to read the whole book through several times before beginning to study passage by passage. As we consider the setting, we will be looking at the connections between the passages we study. If we consider the major ideas of each passage we study we can better see how they are connected with each other. As we make these connections we will begin to see the path of understanding the author is taking us on as we travel through the book. When we finish we will better understand the authors purpose in writing the book and what major ideas he wanted us to learn.

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Practicing Understanding the Setting

Luke 15:1-32 Look at verses 11-32 What is the central lesson? Who are the main characters?

How is the passage, 1-32, structured? What is the flow of the story? How do the first two stories, (written setting), affect our understanding of the third?

Matthew 24:42 25:12 What is the main point of each of the four stories in this passage? How are the stories connected? What is the overall message of the four stories?

Small Group Exercise We will be looking at Jonah chapter two for this exercise. Form groups of three and read chapter two. Remember to begin by making a list of observations of what you see in the chapter. Then discuss together the main ideas that are in chapter two. Compare this with what you learned earlier in chapter one. -How does what you learned in chapter one affect your understanding of chapter two? -From your reading of the whole book, how do chapters three and four affect your understanding of chapter two? -Is your understanding of chapter two changed by your understanding of what is in the rest of the book? Be prepared to share your thoughts with the other groups.

Application It is obvious that chapter two is about repentance. But is that repentance genuine? Is it a model for us? When we see Jonahs attitude in chapter four we are forced to consider
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the nature of his repentance in chapter two. What is your experience with repentance? Is it sometimes partial? Is it always genuine? Is being sorry the same as being repentant? As we look at the message of the book of Jonah what is God saying to you about your attitude toward the people or groups around you? Is there a need for repentance in your heart? What kind of repentance do you think God desires from us? As teachers and preachers of Gods Word it is important that we listen and respond to what He is saying in the passage we are studying before we try to apply it to our people. It is important that we change and that our hearts are right and humble before we ask God to use us in helping our people change. Bible Pathway By adding Written Setting to our Bible Pathway it now looks like this:

Bible Pathway
Gods Message
1. Observation

No

2. Written Setting 3. Understanding

Me
4. Application

Original Audience

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Session #7

Practice: Jonah 3:1-10

In this session each student who has prepared a message on Jonah 3:1-10 will make a short presentation of how they would preach this text. We will follow the regular procedure for Practice sessions with feedback from responders and discussion by the group. We will look for: 1. How well the Big Idea fit the text. 2. What the main points were. 3. How the message fit the written setting. 4. How the message can be applied to our lives today. 5. How we should respond in light of the gospel.

Points to ponder about chapter 3 1. How does the chapter relate to chapters one and two? 2. How does it prepare us for chapter 4? 3. Who are the main actors in chapter 3? 4. Why do you think the people of Nineveh repented?

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Session #8

Practice: Jonah 4:1-11

In this session each student who has prepared a message on Jonah 4:1-11 will make a short presentation of how they would preach this text. We will follow the regular procedure for Practice sessions with feedback from responders and discussion by the group. We will look for: 1. How well the Big Idea fit the text. 2. What the main points were. 3. How the message fit the written setting. 4. How the message can be applied to our lives today. 5. How we should respond in light of the gospel.

Points to ponder about chapter 4 1. How does the rest of the book prepare you for chapter 4? 2. Why was Jonah angry? 3. How does that fact change your view of chapter 2, chapter 3, or the purpose of the book? 4. Why does the book end the way it does?

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Session # 9

Demonstration Sermon The Book of Jonah

An Expository Sermon is one that preaches what the text says and where the structure of the sermon parallels the structure of the passage. The following is an example of an outline for an expository sermon from the entire book of Jonah. You should prepare and present your own expositional sermon on this book when you train others.

God wants more than obedience, He wants us to share His heart. I. Jonah refuses to obey the Word of the Lord II. Jonah responds to Gods correction III. Jonah obeys the Lord and goes to preach IV. Jonahs heart is exposed

After the message have the partner you are teaming with lead a discussion on the message. Discuss not only what they learned from the passage but how the preacher presented his message.

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Session # 10

Reflecting on the Workshop

Review the Study sessions: -Travelling Instructions -Careful Bible Study -Written Setting Review what we learned from each chapter of the book of Jonah. Discuss what we learned in the workshop as a whole and ask for questions. Review the Bible Pathway

Bible Pathway
Gods Message
1. Observation

No

2. Written Setting 3. Understanding

Me
4. Application

Original Audience

Discuss how we can improve the workshop

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