# data[].attributes.body
Look Back, Look In, Look Forward, Look Up

# data[].attributes.headline
Group Guide: Week of September 27-October 3

# data[].attributes.subject
Group Guide: Week of September 27-October 3

# data[].attributes.body
This is the document Brian used to walk us through good bible study techniques. Practice these as much as possible with your groups this year.

# data[].attributes.body
This is a great little video from Desiring God that has some awesome reminders and tips for Bible study.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Bible study is not the same thing as Bible reading. If Bible reading is like raking for leaves, Bible study is like digging for diamonds. The Christian life calls for both.

When we study the Bible, we are on a quest for meaning - and not just any meaning, but God's meaning through the Bible's human authors. Discovering God's meaning may require hard work (digging for diamonds always does), but the journey will leave us with deeper knowledge, more Christlikeness, and a stronger sense of God's beauty in his book.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Bible study is not the same thing as Bible reading. If Bible reading is like raking for leaves, Bible study is like digging for diamonds. The Christian life calls for both. When we study the Bible, we are on a quest for meaning - and not just any meaning, but God's meaning through the Bible's human authors.

# data[].attributes.body
Formulating small group discussion tips. Super helpful!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
There's a lot to be concerned about when leading a Bible study or small group. The group may be inconsistent in attendance. They may be slow to open up to one another. They might ask questions about the Bible that you don't know how to answer. But there's one thing most leaders dread more than anything else.

Silence.

After reading a passage of Scripture, you ask a question. Then there's nothing. Nada. No one says anything. You awkwardly take a sip of your coffee while everyone looks down at the Bible, shifting uncomfortably in their seats. You wonder to yourself, What went wrong?

I've been in many such settings (sometimes as the one leading) and usually, someone jumps in and mercifully answers the question, bringing palpable relief to the leader.

The good news is we can grow in our ability to ask better questions. (See this post from last week for some types of questions not to ask.) Here are four types of questions that can hopefully help stir up discussion in your small group Bible study:
Warm-Up Questions
In addition to an icebreaker-type question (which can be a simple way to get to know one another), I like to begin with a "warm-up question" to transition the group before we dive into the passage. It sets the stage for the topic you'll be studying and gives a moment for everyone to shift their focus.

Warm-up questions are broad, but with direct point. Everyone in the group doesn't need to answer, but they're the type of question that everyone should be able to answer, even if they haven't read the passage.

For instance, if the general theme of a passage was about our need for God's mercy a warm up question might be, "Can anyone remember a time in childhood when you got caught doing something wrong? How did you feel or respond when you were discovered?" There are multiple ways people respond to being caught-shame, confession, guilt, hiding, lying, blaming others-so the warm-up discussion sets the stage for discussing our need for mercy (and the ways we sometimes act as though we don't need it).

Since I like to keep things on theme, the icebreaker I'd ask (just for fun) before the warm-up question would be something like this: "If you were caught with your cookie in the cookie jar, what kind of cookie would you be hoping to pull out?" Relating the icebreaker and warm-up question to the overall theme helps the group focus as they begin to study the passage.
Google Map Guidance
One thing I appreciate about Google Maps is that when I ask for directions, they provide multiple ways to get to my desired location. When attempting to craft good questions, consider asking questions your group can answer in multiple ways.

For instance, the question, "What Bible stories in either the OT and NT illustrate God's mercy?" will most likely invite a variety of answers from multiple people. Take a moment and answer that question right now in your own mind. Hopefully, you could answer with multiple stories from Scripture that highlight God's mercy. If you can think of multiple answers to your own question, then most likely your group will be able to as well.

In contrast, the question "How do we know God is a merciful God?" might produce a more limited response. Most of the answers will focus on Jesus's death for our sin (which is clearly the prime example of God's mercy). It's not that the second question is particularly bad, it just probably won't produce the same level of group participation and connection throughout all of Scripture.

One important key to this type of question-not only do you need to have multiple routes, you need to know where you're taking your Bible study group. Facilitating a small-group discussion doesn't mean the direction of the study is up for grabs. Knowing where you're heading as you're studying will help you ask questions that keep your group moving forward in their understanding.
Houston, We Have a Problem
In some passages of Scripture, a lack of clarity may cause either confusion or misapplication. It's important to anticipate these potential problems. For instance, 1 John 2:3 states, "And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments." A misapplication of this text would be: "The only people who are believers are those who no longer sin."

One way to address misunderstandings is to allow the group to chew on and discuss the potential problem together: "If someone were to say to you that this verse means that believers never sin, how would you answer them in light of other passages in the Bible? What verses help bring clarity to our interpretation of this verse?" By inviting them into the potential problem, the group learns how to discuss and debate God's Word in a healthy manner that fosters engagement with the text and one another.
Achilles Heel
Sometimes when preparing to teach a passage of Scripture, you may say to yourself, Well, I hope no one asks me about _______.

That's probably the exact question it's most important to research and consider. Call your pastor or ministry leader and ask for help, or find a good commentary. And, then, once you've done your homework, ask your "Achilles Heel" question to the group.

And, when someone asks a question you didn't think about (and have no idea how to answer), I find it helpful to say something like, "Wow, that's a great question I hadn't considered. Let's discuss it as a group. How would you all answer Anne's question?" After talking it through together, it can serve as a good homework assignment: "Let's all research this question, and we'll look at it again next time we meet."

Sometimes in our wrestling with the toughest questions we learn how much we have to learn. That's a good thing-it helps promote our growth and understanding. It also keeps us curious as we read and study Scripture.

I've learned so much from others as teachers and leaders wisely ask good questions. It may take a little more prep time, but the earlier efforts pay off during the Bible study. Most people won't even notice the work you've done. But they'll know Scripture better as you ask questions that engage the heart and mind. And that's the ultimate goal.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Asking Better Questions in Small-Group Discussions

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There's a lot to be concerned about when leading a Bible study or small group. The group may be inconsistent in attendance. They may be slow to open up to one another. They might ask questions about the Bible that you don't know how to answer.

# data[].attributes.headline
Resources and Hand-Outs from the Leader Meeting

# data[].attributes.subject
Resources and Hand-Outs from the Leader Meeting

# data[].attributes.body
John Piper does a screencast Bible study showing how he walks through a variety of passages.  There is a ton here and they are super helpful in preparing to study a text!!!  Enjoy!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Most people in the world have no experience of lasting joy in their lives. We're on a mission to change that. All of our resources exist to guide you toward everlasting joy in Jesus Christ.

# data[].attributes.body
Arcing with John Piper

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Audio Transcript We love to get questions on basic Bible interpretation, so please keep sending them in to us. Today's question is from Deborah from Kalamazoo, Michigan: "Hello Pastor John, I've heard you talk about arcing. Can you explain to me the very basics of what arcing does, and what we can learn from the practice? This is my introduction to it, so the simpler the better. And if you have one simple example to explain it all, that would be great."
I would love to. Let me try to be simple because, at root, it is simple. Arcing is a way of taking a paragraph of Scripture, a unit of Scripture, let's just say a paragraph, breaking it down into individual statements, and seeing how each of those statements relate to each other logically.

Is one the cause of the other? Is one the result of the other? Does one explain the other? Seeing the relationships, and then putting all those statements together, according to those relationships, so that we can see the one main thing that the paragraph is saying, and how each of those individual parts of the paragraph, those statements, work to support it and explain it.

Seeing the Text

Then, arcing provides a way of preserving what we've seen with a kind of drawing of the text, each statement having an arc and each relationship having a symbol. When you're done, you can file it away and remember everything you've seen next time you want to study the passage.

"Arcing is simply seeing how each of the Bible's statements relate to each other logically to find the main point."

There's nothing really mysterious about it. We talk this way all the time, especially when we're trying to be clear and trying to explain something to somebody. We try to make a point, then we say other things about the point to explain it or support it. We do this instinctively. We manage to communicate pretty well from day to day.

What arcing does is force us to think about what we're doing, and what the biblical writers are doing, just as a way of making sure that we don't miss anything that they're trying to show us. The great value of arcing is, mainly, it forces us to just look and look and look at the text and think and think about it.

Paul said in 2 Timothy 2:7, "Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding." In order to get the fullest meaning out of a passage, we have to look at it carefully and in detail and think about it. Then, we need to reconstruct the argument in our heads, or on paper and write it down lest we forget it.

How it Works

Here's the example so you get the idea. Romans 1:15-17. Here's what it says: "I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith."

There are four statements here. Paul clues us in to how they're related by the connecting words that he uses. In this case, it happens to be "for." Each of those statements gets an arc. You get four arcs. We're trying to decide what's the main point, not necessarily the most important reality, but the main point that is the conclusion, what everything else is supporting here.

"Go deep with God in his word. You will know him as you've never known him before."

Let's walk through these four propositions and see if we can reconstruct the argument. "I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome." That's statement number one.

Here's statement number two: "For" - or because: here comes the support or the ground - "because I am not ashamed of the gospel." One of the reasons he wants to preach the gospel in Rome is that he's not ashamed of the gospel at all.

Then, comes the third statement, which is given as a support or an argument or a basis for why he's not ashamed of the gospel. "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." That's the third statement. Now we have three statements.

The last two are the arguments for the first one. If we say it in reverse order, we can hear it even more clearly. When you go in reverse order, a "because" becomes a "therefore." "The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Therefore, I am not ashamed of it at all. Therefore, I am eager to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome."

Then there's one last important statement, one more piece in the argument in Romans 1:17. He gives the reason or the basis, the argument for why the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. He says. "For [or because] in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith."

Paul is giving a three-step argument rooted in the very nature of the gospel for why he is so eager to preach the gospel in Rome. I'll read it in reverse order so that you can hear how the argument works.

"When you slowly meditate on Scripture, your confidence in seeing God's truth will dramatically increase."

In the gospel, God's righteousness is revealed as a saving righteousness that is counted to us through faith. That's the first statement. Therefore, this gospel is the power of God for the worst of sinners, Jew or Greek, through faith, whoever believes. Here's the third statement: Therefore, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Last statement: Therefore, I'm eager to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome.

Seeing Beauty

That's basically what we do in arcing. We take a unit of Scripture and we identify individual statements. Then we identify the relationships between those statements, and then we rebuild the arguments so that we can see what the main point is, what's the one thing he's trying to support with all the other statements.

I promise you - this a promise - I promise you that if you begin to think about passages of Scripture this way, you will not only see vastly more of what's really there that you might've missed, but your confidence level that you have seen God's truth will dramatically increase. If God is willing, and I think he is willing, you will go very deep with him, and you will know him as you've never known him before. God's word is a gold mine full of riches for us to uncover as we turn its pages and trace its logic.

Find other recent and popular Ask Pastor John episodes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Audio Transcript We love to get questions on basic Bible interpretation, so please keep sending them in to us. Today's question is from Deborah from Kalamazoo, Michigan: "Hello Pastor John, I've heard you talk about arcing. Can you explain to me the very basics of what arcing does, and what we can learn from the practice?

# data[].attributes.body
John Piper marking a text during Bible study.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In this lab, Pastor John shows us that being blameless for the day of Christ doesn't mean we lived perfectly. It means that we lived a life hating our sin, seeking holiness, and trusting in Christ.

Principle for Bible Reading
Wrestling with a Difficult Text
The apostle Peter said that Paul's letters were "hard to understand" at times (2 Peter 3:16). Many of us give our hearty Amen. But instead of running from hard passages, God blesses us with understanding as we, like Jacob, wrestle with God in his word.

So, when difficult texts have you in a headlock, what can you do? Here are a few options:

Identify what is clear from the passage. Start with what you can figure out from the passage as a whole, and then return to the unclear parts.

Find the main point. Often the confusing parts do not contain the main point of the passage. Identifying the main point can give us clues for discovering the meaning of the difficult passage.

Look for clues within the book and surrounding context. Search the book for key words and phrases found in the tough passage.

Cross-reference. Utilizing cross-references, especially when a New Testament verse cites the Old, helps us to have a fuller understanding of what the authors were trying to communicate.

Ask specific questions of the text. Addressing a challenging text as a whole can seem insurmountable. But breaking a passage down by asking specific questions about it can unravel the meaning, question by question and answer by answer.

Use a trusted commentary. Be careful with commentaries. This caution includes trusting bad commentaries and relying too much on good ones. But commentaries can be used well, and great biblical scholars give helpful insights.

Study Questions

1. Do you feel blameless before God? Should you?

2. What does it mean to be blameless on the day of Christ (Philippians 1:9-11)? Do we achieve this purity or do we receive it?

3. How would you live differently this week if you believed that you were blameless before God?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Philippians 1:9-11: I Don't Feel Blameless, Am I?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In this lab, Pastor John shows us that being blameless for the day of Christ doesn't mean we lived perfectly. It means that we lived a life hating our sin, seeking holiness, and trusting in Christ. Wrestling with a Difficult Text The apostle Peter said that Paul's letters were "hard to understand" at times (2 Peter 3:16).

# data[].attributes.body
Bible Reading tips from John Piper.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Watch John Piper mark the text on the screen, and learn to study the Bible for yourself.