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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Chester Clark, III: How to Give Bible Studies

Chester Clark

How to Give Bible Studies, Part 1

Looking forward this weekend to talking about giving Bible studies.

There's probably, I shouldn't say probably, I think there's greater certainty than that.

I don't think there's anything more fulfilling than being a part of leading another person to know Jesus.

And being a part of giving Bible studies is 1 way that happens.

And certainly, I believe it's 1 of the ways that will be a significant part of how we win souls, even at the end of time.

Tomorrow we're going to be looking specifically, I'm going to share with you some of the counsel, some of both the history of Bible studies, giving Bible studies, and the future of Bible studies.

Because I believe it's very important for us living in this hour of verse history.

Well, tonight I want to share with you a bit from John chapter 4, and we're going to be looking at, particularly tonight, Jesus and His, the example that He gives us as a soul winner.

Jesus is the master soul winner, and so I'm hoping that as you are perhaps preparing for follow-up after the Messiah's Mansion program, that the things that we share this weekend will be very useful.

He's weary with travel, he's on his way back to Galilee.

He goes through the city of Samaria And the Bible says here in John chapter 4 and verse 4, he must needs goes through Samaria.

Now I'm sure there are other ways that Jesus could have gone.

Sometimes he took more circuitous routes, but this day he went right through Samaria on his way to Galilee.

And on the way to Galilee, he meets this woman by the well.

And I like to believe that Jesus already knew this woman was going to be by the well.

I don't know that for sure, but I know some of the other encounters Jesus had, he knew specifically that the woman was going to be there, right?

And so this perhaps was 1 of those times when Jesus knew there was going to be someone he could minister to.

The Lord led him to go and to be right there by the well at that time.

Now, before we get into this study, I want to talk to you just a little bit about divine appointments, because I think that when we talk about Bible studies, we have to consider the possibility of divine appointments.

I want you to take out, take your preconceived ideas away for just a minute.

When we say the words Bible studies, a certain picture comes up into our minds, our preconceived ideas, right?

Our preconceived ideas is probably something like you go to a person's house with maybe a lesson or prepared, you know, study to give to them.

You sit down and you go through a methodical study of the scriptures.

Now that is a Bible study and we're going to talk more about how to do it.

It's not hard and it's not intimidating to give effective Bible studies.

But you know that's not the only kind of Bible study.

There are what I call spontaneous Bible studies.

You know, sometimes we are so focused on this 1 definition of a Bible study that we fail to be prepared to give a Bible study perhaps right when God would be leading us to give it.

You know, sometimes I think of the counsel that we're told.

We're told that we should have a small Bible to keep with us so that we can, if we have extra time, we can make good use of it, you know, memorize some scripture, study some scripture, familiarize ourselves with the Word of God, fasten our, focus our minds upon the Word of God.

But you know, that's not the only reason we should keep a Bible nearby.

Because often, if we're looking for opportunities, we can find a chance to share the Word of God.

And, oh my friends, you can share your personal testimony and it's a powerful tool.

You can talk about what you believe and it's a powerful tool.

The Word of God has power to change lives, to affect hearts in a way that my words can never affect them.

And so Jesus here meets what's perhaps a divine appointment, gives us an example of always being ready at any time to not just recognize spiritual need, but to awaken spiritual need.

We must not think that the work will be finished simply by us scheduling Bible studies in our free time.

But rather we can give Bible studies wherever we are and whatever we're doing.

You know, we often are placed in close proximity with someone whom God may have placed right there by you for a specific reason.

God knows the hearts of those who are searching.

In fact, I believe, we're told, that in every town there are souls looking longingly towards heaven, wistfully towards heaven.

There's somebody, somebody who would be open to truth, someone who wants to know, someone who wants to grow.

And I can just imagine in the great situation room, If there is such a thing in heaven, you know?

As God looks at the needs, and then He looks at the resources.

I mean billions of angels would be ready in a minute to just go down to those people who are looking, wanting, searching, hoping, wishing.

But no, God has chosen to reach them through us.

And I wonder sometimes as I'm passing through a town, or maybe it's my hometown, I wonder sometimes if God sees the needs and He comes up somewhat empty-handed as far as resources are concerned.

Or are we so much at God's disposal that He can so arrange the events of our day that we actually come in contact with those who are searching in a divine appointment and we recognize it and we fulfill it.

I'm afraid that I've missed many divine appointments.

Can you imagine the frustration of heaven?

I mean, to work throughout your whole day, and delays, and early arrivals, or, you know, whatever it is, to bring you right, the right place, the right time, with the right people.

I remember 1 time, not too long ago, I was...

I just think of this story as a reminder to me of how preoccupied I can be with my own life.

I was getting on 1 of those little regional jets, you know, the ones you have to, I'm not very tall, but you know, even I have to, I feel tall when I get in this plane, you know.

I have to bend over and I was walking past the galley right there at the front of the plane, they were loading slowly, you know, there was a bunch of people in front of me, so I was standing right next to the flight attendant, there was a male flight attendant in the little kitchen there and the line was stopped.

So I'm standing there and I was tired and all I could think of is I want to get home.

And I was thinking I was in somewhere lost in thought and the flight attendant said, good evening, how are you tonight?

And I said fine and I continued on whatever I was thinking.

And probably 20 or 30 seconds went by, and I was still standing there.

And he said, I'm doing great, thanks for asking.

Here I am, a Christian, saying I have some good news to share with people, but completely oblivious to the people around me.

I learned, I hope I learned, I try to remember.

Those are real people, they're not just doing their job, you understand?

Of course it was his job to say hello, and it wasn't my job to say, good evening, ask how he was.

But people appreciate, People appreciate you taking interest in them.

Saying hello, asking how they're doing and meaning it.

And it was as if you could hear the cry of his soul, he wanted someone to care, someone to notice, to treat him like a person, not just an employee or a servant.

The world is full of people, my friends, who are waiting for somebody, waiting for somebody to come along and we can be that person.

So divine appointments, what a wonderful thing.

He stayed by the well, even though it was noontime, about the sixth hour, and the disciples went into town to go to try to buy some food.

The Bible says, there came a woman from Samaria to draw water.

Now you have the picture in your mind, you can sort of imagine, I don't know if you've seen any of the very Adventist paintings.

Adventists have the most wonderful illustrations in the Bible, don't we?

Jesus sitting here by the well and the woman comes to draw water.

Now, I suppose that The woman was surprised to see Jesus sitting there by himself by the well.

And I'm sure that Jesus also was very surprised to see a woman coming to draw water from the well.

That is, if he didn't have some divine revelation beforehand that she was going to be coming.

It wasn't usual for women to come to the well to draw water around noon time.

How to Give Bible Studies, Part 2

Evidence is not to be found in what's happening in Rome or in Washington, although that too might be evidence.

But the greatest evidence is in the lives of God's people.

And I believe that today God is preparing a people by the message of the 3 angels to be ready for his return.

It's a wonderful privilege to be a part of that work.

Let's just bow our heads for an additional word of prayer.

Father, today we are grateful to you for your goodness to us.

We're grateful that here on this Sabbath morning we can come and worship together and study your word together.

And Lord, we want to be effective missionaries for you.

We want to help meet the needs, the physical needs, the health needs, the emotional needs, and yes, the spiritual needs of many who are longing and lacking.

And so today we just pray that you'll take us in these next few minutes, that you'll help us to put aside our preconceived ideas, that you'll help us to hear your voice speaking to our hearts, that we might indeed become more effective witnesses for you.

I'd like you to turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 1 and verse 8.

As we see what is, as I see what is happening right here in Loma Linda, as I see what you all are doing and working with the Sanctuary Project, Messiah's Mansion, the opportunity to gain access to hearts and minds and find those who are searching for a better understanding of the Scriptures, I can't help but be excited.

And I'm glad that you all are interested in having training to help you be more effective witnesses, how to give more effective Bible studies.

This afternoon, particularly, we're going to be looking at the nuts and bolts of how to give Bible studies and I hope that you will be able to join us then.

Acts chapter 1 in verse 8 though we find the the command of Jesus he says he says in verse 8 you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be what?

Witnesses Unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and under the uttermost part of the earth." Jesus here tells His fledgling church, look, you're going to be witnesses.

After that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, you're going to be witnesses unto me.

First of all, here in Jerusalem, then in Judea, and in Samaria, and eventually, under the uttermost parts of the earth.

Now when you stop and take this prophecy, if you will, prediction, commission, at face value, it seems quite preposterous.

I mean, after all, if you look at what the condition of the disciples was at this time, If you look at the status of the early Christian Church, what was the likelihood?

Let's just remember who we're talking about here.

We're talking about 12 men, 12 disciples, who consistently throughout their 3 and a half years with Christ have bickered and bantered about who was to be the greatest We're talking about men who didn't know what they believed for sure We're talking about men who were completely devastated when Christ died upon the cross.

Their understanding of Bible prophecy was so darkened.

In fact, we can look at a couple passages to see what kind of a witness they had hitherto given.

Matthew chapter 16 will begin reading with verse 13.

Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi.

He asked his disciples, whom do men say that I, the son of man, am?

And when they heard this question, they didn't know what to answer.

And so there was sort of this mumbling and murmuring among them as they tried to come up with some sort of an answer to Jesus' question.

Some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or 1 of the prophets.

And Jesus asked them, but whom say you that I am?

I mean, after all, they'd spent time with Christ.

Peter alone, bless his heart, I'm glad he did.

Peter spoke up and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Oh, what a wonderful testimony Peter here gave, confessing aloud his belief in Jesus as the Messiah.

In fact, Jesus commended him when he said, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

But let me tell you something, it's easy to be a witness in church.

Peter here boldly tells Christ that he believes in him as the Messiah.

Is it quite so simple to tell someone who doesn't believe in Jesus?

Look on a few verses later, Matthew 26, and let's see what happened.

You remember, this is after Jesus made the prediction that all of you will be offended because of me tonight.

And Peter insisted, No, Lord, though all men should deny you, yet will I not deny you.

And Jesus said, before the cock crows 3 times, you'll deny me 3 times.

Matthew 26, verse 56, the Bible says, but all this was done that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.

Then All the disciples forsook him and fled.

All of them, all 12 of them or 11 of them, however you want to look at it, they all forsook him and fled, right?

Not even Peter who had boldly confessed to his face that he believed Jesus the Messiah.

And then a few verses later we find that the disgraceful account of his not only running and fleeing and trying to save himself, but his outright denying of His Lord.

In verse 69 of Matthew chapter 26, Now Peter sat without in the palace, and a damsel came unto him, saying, Thou wast also with Jesus of Galilee.

But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest.

And when he was come out into the porch another maid saw him and said unto him them that were there this fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth and he again denied with an oath I do not know the man and after a while came unto him they that stood by and said to Peter, Surely thou also art 1 of them, for thy speech betrayeth thee.

Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man, and immediately the cock crew.

And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice.

And he went out and wept bitterly." You see it's 1 thing to for Peter to be able to confess Jesus in the presence of Jesus But it only took a servant woman to intimidate him into denying his Lord This my friends Was the early Christian Church Now in fact if we look in John chapter 20, you'll find right after the crucifixion, you'll find another picture of the Christian church, and it's not much more encouraging.

In John chapter 20, I believe it is, And verse 19, this is after they have some evidence of Jesus being resurrected.

And it says in verse 19, "...then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in their midst and said unto them, peace be unto you." You see the picture you see of the early Christian Church?

They're locked into a room, the bolts are drawn, the shades are closed, and they're cowering in fear of the Jewish leaders.

What is the likelihood, my friends, of these people being witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and into the uttermost parts of the earth.

This was the situation the church was in.

Now let's look and see what the culture was in which the church found itself.

Let's look first of all at the culture there in Judea, the culture in their own town of Jerusalem.

Let's remember that the Jewish leaders had rejected Jesus, hadn't they?

They had even chosen Barabbas above Jesus.

And they have said, His blood be on us and on our children.

Rather unapologetically, they had crucified him for nothing other than envy and jealousy.

None of the Sanhedrin at this point supported Christianity.

Now there had been 2 who quietly had figured in among the followers of Christ, hadn't they?

Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, but they had come public in their belief and their support of the Christian faith at the crucifixion of Jesus when they went to Pilate and they asked for the body of Jesus.

And now they were excluded from the council.

The entire body of powerful leaders of the country were opposed to Christianity.

None of them were supporting this Christian movement.

By the way, the Jewish leaders were also in collusion with the Romans.

Now that Jesus had resurrected, you remember the Roman guards had stumbled into the city and found the high priest and the temple leaders and they had told them the story of the resurrection and they said, look, don't tell anybody, we'll pay you well.

And I don't know where those soldiers came from, but they weren't the brightest stars in the sky, were they?

Because how can you say that the disciples stole the body away and at the same time say that you were asleep?

But no, the Jewish leader said, don't worry about Pilate, we'll take care of him.

The Jewish leaders are working in collusion with the Roman government, aren't they?

By the way, in Jerusalem at this time, the Jewish leaders controlled all the houses of worship.

There was nowhere for the Christians to meet.

How to Give Bible Studies, Part 3

It's good to be able to be here with you and to share a few minutes on how to give more effective personal Bible studies.

How many of you have given Bible studies before?

For many people, I find, especially for young people, there's something intimidating about giving Bible studies.

But hopefully by the time we're finished, some of that intimidation factor will have been alleviated, and you'll be more comfortable and have some new ideas as to how to give them more effectively.

Let's go ahead and bow our heads for a prayer.

Father, today we are Grateful that you've given us the opportunity to study your word and to share it with others.

And now as we take some time out of our Sabbath afternoon to hopefully make our witnessing more effective, our sharing more effective, I just want to pray that you would give us clear minds, that you will give us good memories, help us to be able to learn something that we can take from this afternoon meeting and make us more effective witnesses for you.

And we thank you for this gift in Jesus name, amen.

I wanna talk to you first of all, just a little bit about the history of Bible studies.

Now in Adventist history There were these events we call camp meetings that were actually very different from the camp meetings that we have today today most of our Adventist camp meetings are a group of Adventists that get together and and we have we have Well, we won't the various depending on where you are what you have but basically a weekend or maybe a week and some Adventist preacher that comes in.

In those days, in early Adventist history, the camp meetings were actually evangelistic events.

Camp meetings were when they invited the community to come and hear Adventist teaching and Adventist theology.

And so we actually have some very large camp meetings in Adventist history.

Many as 15, 000 people would come to an Adventist camp meeting.

That's bigger than even the Michigan Conference Camp Meeting, it has about 10, 000 or so every summer.

It was so many people that they literally, the rail companies would build a new rail line out to the camp meeting site so that the people could come to the Adventist camp meetings.

So in those days you can imagine that you get a lot of people, maybe even thousands of people together in 1 tent or 1 field with no PA system.

And it was a challenge just to be able to hear in the very back.

I suppose the audiences were quiet, but I suppose also people learned to use their diaphragm and to speak quite forcefully like Peter Gregory.

So at any rate, 1 of these camp meetings, I believe it was Esen Haskell was speaking, and there came a terrific storm.

Now just put yourself in a tent in the middle of a field with a terrific thunderstorm, and you can imagine that it wasn't very far away from the pulpit that it was impossible to hear anything at all.

In fact, there were camp meetings where the camp meetings had to be suspended until the storms passed because you just couldn't hear anything being preached.

No PA system, rain hitting the tent, thunder and lightning, and you just couldn't have a service.

He decided that he would go ahead and continue his subject anyway, only he would have to be a little more creative.

And so he had the whole congregation divide into small groups, a dozen or so in each circle.

And then he would ask a question that would be sort of passed along, you know, throughout the tent.

And after the question, he would ask a Bible verse.

And the point was that the people could hear this question in Bible verse and pass it on to the next group and throughout it would sort of spread around the tent.

And then the people would keep the question in mind and they would look up the Bible verse and they would read it and they would spend a few minutes discussing it before he would go on to the next question and Bible verse.

And he found that it was actually quite an effective way to teach.

Have you ever read a book that was basically a question and answer format?

They're actually very interesting, they can be very effective ways to teach.

They ask a question maybe in bold print and then there's a paragraph or 2 answering the question.

And so, sometime shortly thereafter, Ellen White wrote about this experience.

I don't think she was at that meeting, but she heard about it.

And she wrote something along the effect that this was the type of work she saw would take place in the last days.

And they began calling this format of Bible study, with a question and an answer from the Bible, Bible readings.

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Chester Clark, III: How to Give Bible Studies

How to Give Bible Studies, Part 4

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