Wednesday, January 3, 2007

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector, Part 2 of 44

TEXT: "To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 'Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: "God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get." But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner." I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted' " (Luke 18:9-14 NIV).

IDEA: There are phases through which you go that help you to understand and apply the biblical text.

PURPOSE: To demonstrate basically how observation and interpretation may support one another.

When it comes to a project like baking bread or changing children’s diapers, what do you have to know?

I. What do you have to know when it comes to studying the Bible?

There’s a process, or three phases through which you have to go when you study the Bible:

[talk about the 3 stages]

II. Let’s take this passage in Luke 18 and just work on this first step, observing the text.

[As we work with this, we’ll move from observing to interpreting because we can’t always separate these; but we will not apply the text in this section. We’ll read the text through v. 12, then go through it. If time allows, we’ll continue the process.]

The purpose of this is not to interpret the parable, but as we look at these details, we look for what is significant. It is this process that we follow in preparing our conversations for Discover the Word.