LESSON 1, AUGUST 26, 2011

The Lesson today focuses on Bible Hermeneutics. That's the art, or maybe the science, of Bible interpretation.

What does the Bible mean when it makes a statement?

Is that Message to be filtered through tons of cultural undertones? Or is it to be redefined by use of some post-modern philosophy? Like the crazy idea that the real intent of any piece of literature is decided by the reader, certainly not the author! This kind of illogic is being taught in many a university setting today.

Or is the Bible a slave to man's intellect? To his sense of rationality? Which is King? The Bible or the Philosophy Textbook? Who is Sovereign, Almighty God or Immanuel Kant?

Most of you already know the answer, but let's discuss it anyway. Eternal issues hang on this conclusion.

First of all, and this is today's Lesson, the Bible must be understood for what it is, THE VERY WORD OF GOD.

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable." This is Second Timothy 3:16, claiming Divine Authorship for the Scriptures!

"For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Second Peter 1:21, illustrating just how God told the men to write the Bible, directly and mechanically and verbally.

"The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times." Psalm 12:6, now the overall product, sheer Perfection!

That's the "hermeneutic" we bring to the Book we love so dearly, the Bible. It is God's very Essence condensed miraculously into 189 chapters of amazing Literature, a whole Library!

The words of Scripture are not a husk in which God conveys His Message to men and women!

No!

No indeed!

The words of Scripture are the very Kernel, the very Meat, the very Heart of that Message!

Thanks be unto God today for all He wrote us, every single word!

Let's go read and then think about some of God's Words now.

Each of us can pick his or her text, over thirty-one thousand verses from which to select! All the words of God!

How blessed we are!

                           --- Dr. Mike Bagwell

LESSON 2, AUGUST 27, 2011

I know virtually nothing about theological liberalism!

That’s the branch of study that, among other things, generally tends to belittle the absolute authority of the Word of God.

But I am learning that progressive, another name they’ve claimed for themselves, Bible professors tend more and more to call the Bible and its texts mere “husks.” A word picture for the dead and dry hull left after the real kernel of nourishment has been extracted!

In other words, the verses of Scripture your Pastor will preach this weekend are just ornamental, just place holders, just skeletons on which we can hang any quasi-pertinent thoughts we choose!

Throw the husk away, the refuse of literature! Keep your own interpretation or ethical application or philosophical parallel or encouragement to goodness you choose!

Then, there you have it!

Proper exegesis!

But wait a minute!

The words of the Bible are not that easily dismissed!

Jesus Himself said, “The WORDS that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” That’s John 6:63, folks, word for word.

No, the words and verses and paragraphs and chapters of the Bible are not husks! They are the very milk and meat and bread and honey of Truth!

Don’t neglect them!

Emphasize them daily. Read them. Study them. Memorize them. Meditate upon them. Then, obey them!

Yes!

                            --- Dr. Mike Bagwell

LESSON 3, AUGUST 28, 2011

The Verse that has captured my heart today is found in First Peter 1:23, especially the clause "The Word of God, Which liveth for ever."

We recently have been talking about Texts Bible Texts, passages of Scripture, Verses written in tandum, one following another.

Today I'm emphasizing the truth that the Bible is alive!

A little bit of Scripture, just a scintilla of Divine Data, is empowered and constituted by the very Essence of God Almighty, God's very Breath!

This being so, the following observation is also true. A Bible Text, any verse or paragraph, is an Event!

It was an Event when God gave it to the Prophet or Poet or Historian or Chronicler. It was an Event when it was translated into the language of some language group. It was still an Event when I first read it, or when you did so. It was an Event the last time your Pastor preached it. And it will still be Eventful the next time I come across it, in study or devotion or worship!

God's Word is a Happening!

It's alive!

Furthermore, each time we interact with said Text, it is still Life Changing! It's still an eternal Event!

A Bible Verse grows in meaning as time passes!

As we mature in Christ!

As we hear it expounded by some Man of God, some Bible Preacher or Teacher.

As we obey it.

Psalm 22 was monumental to David when he wrote it three thousand years ago. It's about someone suffering. Looks like a man dying on a cross, being executed.

Psalm 22 became even more gigantic two thousand years ago when Jesus place its first and last verses on His Own Lips as He gave His Life on Calvary! "My God, Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" And "It is finished!"

And Psalm 22 has become indescribably great to me the last few months as I have preached it, tried to preach it really, to congregations in Revival Meetings! Oh, what a chapter!

It has become an Event to me!

Just teaching it verse-by-verse has!

That's what I mean when I say that the Texts of Scripture have Life, eternal Life, that they are Events!

Let's go now, open our Bibles, and have an Eventful Day!

                       --- Dr Mike Bagwell

LESSON 4, AUGUST 30, 2011

The words of the Bible are not mere husks! They contain the kernel of eternal Truth. They are the Truth! Jesus said so.

The words of Scripture are also Events! They happened. Many of them are still happening too. Souls, multitudes of them, will be saved this very day. The Rapture of the Church is also an event that will occur one of these days! The Bible is alive!

Now today I'd like to say that the words of Scripture are also versatile and skilled artists! Like actors on a Greek drama stage, they can assume different roles and perform in various ways! Of course I'm using a word picture here.

Really though, words do have, Bible words included, different meanings. And those meanings must be searched out and analyzed and studied. What an author meant when he said something is the very heart of a Text!

Meaning is not determined by what I think Paul was indicating! Meaning is determined by the words, their connotations, the Holy Spirit intended when He inspired Paul to write in the first place!

Now let me prove this point today, if I can. We go for an exapmple to the writings of John in the New Testament.

Watch please.

"Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou?" This is John 1:38 where a word was so important that it is defined for us right here in the Bible!

"Then Andrew first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ." John 1:41 where the same thing happens again." A word is so fundamental that it is explained.

"And Jesus said unto the man born blind, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing." John 9:7, where a third occurrence appears.

Surely this demonstrated from John's point of view the vital importance of words and the role they can play in a Bible Story.

Here's the thrust of today's lesson.

Study the words of the Bible!\

Make a lifetime of it.

You will profit by doing so.

                     --- Dr. Mike Bagwell

LESSON 5, AUGUST 31, 2011

Often the simple question is asked, "Did you get it?"

It's used in conjunction with some statement that can be a little ambiguous or requires deeper thought.

A quote, a sentence from a philosophy book, a geometrical theorem, a line from a sermon!

"Did you get it?"

That's the nature of the written word.

It requires understanding.

Now let me gently lift our discussion today into the spiritual realm.

To the inspired, inerrant Word of God, our perfect Bible.

"Did you get it?"

Often I ask myself that question when reading a Text.

Occasionally I even ask the congregation when I'm preaching.

And sometimes they "get it" and sometimes they "do not get it."

I'm talking about understanding the Bible, a particular nugget of Truth invested in the Book of God.

"Did you get it?"

I am today suggesting that comprehending the Scriptures is not just an intellectual thing. Of course we are to study and research and compare and "dig" into our Text from every available resource.

Work at it!

But ultimately, and thank God it's so, understanding the Bible is a Function of the Holy Spirit as He teaches us the Word!

Here's when we "get it." Jesus words are being quoted now, about the Holy Spirit. "Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." John 16:13, that's when we "get it!"

When the Spirit teaches it to us!

Here's an even better "get it" Verse, still from Jesus' lips. "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." John 14:26

The Bible, unlike any other book in existence, comes with its own Teacher!

We "get it" when He reveals to us the Light needed for any particular Truth!

Are you all "getting" this?

God's Word, what a unique and wonderful Text it is, unlike any other!

Praise His Name.

                            --- Dr. Mike Bagwell

LESSON 6, SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

This is a travel day for us and the Lesson will be shorter because of that fact.

But I still want to talk about the Bible, the precious Word of God. Last night as I preached in a Revival Meeting in western North Carolina I used an approach to the Scripture called “exposition.”

This is a Latin term meaning “setting forth the meaning or intent” of a portion of literature, of significant information.

It is derived from “expositio” which is a blend of two words, “ex” and “ponere.”

“Ex” is a preposition meaning “out of.”

“Ponere” is a verb meaning “to put or place.”

Thus “exposition” is a “placing of the meaning” of a Text “out in front” of the people who have come to hear the preaching!

And the form of preaching I do, expository preaching, is done in a verse-by-verse manner.

The Bible has 31,102 such verses, all of them God written, God breathed!

Why preach this way, giving little emphasis to homiletical mechanics but great emphasis to the content of Scripture?

Because I think the Bible teaches us to preach in this fashion. Or at least gives us a sterling example of such preaching.

Where?

In Nehemiah 8 where Ezra the Priest proclaimed the Word of God and a great Revival fell on Israel.

“So they read in the Book in the Law of God and (preaching) gave the sense, and caused them (the people present) to understand!” Nehemiah 8:8

Read a verse of the Bible, then explain it!

Give its sense!

That’s expository Preaching!

I think the greatest need of our time.

                 --- Dr. Mike Bagwell