#NationsEvangelism 2
Here are the notes from session two of #NationsEvangelism - The Evangelism Class on Wed 17th Sep.
We had the pleasure of hearing from Bro. Francis Irungu. Hope you learn something from them!
This is the Word Aspect of Evangelism
Today we will dwell on the message of Evangelism
Sometimes you can carry a message, but just like in a pass-the-message-around game, it can easily be distorted!
Thus it's important to look at the word aspect of the message.
Most time we tend to look at the word with relation to ourselves at that particular moment!
But have we ever asked ourselves what the original intent of each scripture was?
The word of God is meant for us, yet often it was not directed to us; it had a cultural aspect to it!
Evangelism comes down to discipleship; it is important to know we are discipling people with the intent of making them transformers!
Every time we read the word, there is an immediate interpretation that we get; the question is whether how we interpret the word is right or wrong.
To understand each scripture, we always need to come back to its context
There are three dimensions of looking at the word:
1. The world behing the text (historical context, author, addressee, etc)
2. The world within the text (analyze which word was chosen for which setting, the word structure, figurative use of words, etc)
3. The world in front of the text (Us who are reading the word at that particular time)
To understand how this applies, let us look at an example of scripture:
1st Corinthians 14:34 women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says.
If this scripture is taken literally in today's context, that could be a problem!
Thus it is not just enough to look at scripture and just take its literal meaning! It is important to look at the word in depth!
The context of scripture does not change; it is the application that changes!
The wording used to confront an issue in scripture is not always similar, but there are reasons why each specific wording is used!
There is thus need to understand the nature of the context of the word of God; there's a reason for each figure of speech or object used!
The Bible is the word of God given in the words of people in History.
These people had different perspectives even as they wrote; sometimes the same story was told differently!
Let's do a comparison of the gospels for a better understanding:
Matthew saw Jesus as the awaited Messiah/King; his audience was mostly Jewish and hence his book has emphasis on tea/Redeemerchings
Mark saw Jesus as the Servant of the Lord; his audience was mostly Romans and thus the emphasis on miracles
Luke saw Jesus as the sinless Son of Man; his audience was mostly Greeks, hence the emphasis on parables
John saw Jesus as the,Son of God; his audience is Christians universally and hence his emphasis on correct doctrine!
Let us look at interpretation
Interpretation is different from translation: translation is conversion of text from one language to another; interpretation is getting a deeper.understanding/meaning of text
What do we need for interpretation?
A good Bible translation/version
A Bible dictionary (explains difficult words)
Bible commentaries (gives more insight into other perspectives)
Bible concordance (finding same word use in different scriptures)
The important things to note in interpretation are:
Historical/Cultural analysis - the setting of scripture
Lexical analysis - finding meanings of difficult words
Theological analysis - what scripture means to us
Genres of the Bible - (epistles/letters, poetry, wisdom literature, prophecy, etc)
It is important as we minister to always give the word of God as intended!
That way, we are not giving heresy or dogma!
Thus it's important to let God speak to us in every scripture!
That way, our evangelizing of the Gospel becomes more effective!
We had the pleasure of hearing from Bro. Francis Irungu. Hope you learn something from them!
This is the Word Aspect of Evangelism
Today we will dwell on the message of Evangelism
Sometimes you can carry a message, but just like in a pass-the-message-around game, it can easily be distorted!
Thus it's important to look at the word aspect of the message.
Most time we tend to look at the word with relation to ourselves at that particular moment!
But have we ever asked ourselves what the original intent of each scripture was?
The word of God is meant for us, yet often it was not directed to us; it had a cultural aspect to it!
Evangelism comes down to discipleship; it is important to know we are discipling people with the intent of making them transformers!
Every time we read the word, there is an immediate interpretation that we get; the question is whether how we interpret the word is right or wrong.
To understand each scripture, we always need to come back to its context
There are three dimensions of looking at the word:
1. The world behing the text (historical context, author, addressee, etc)
2. The world within the text (analyze which word was chosen for which setting, the word structure, figurative use of words, etc)
3. The world in front of the text (Us who are reading the word at that particular time)
To understand how this applies, let us look at an example of scripture:
1st Corinthians 14:34 women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says.
If this scripture is taken literally in today's context, that could be a problem!
Thus it is not just enough to look at scripture and just take its literal meaning! It is important to look at the word in depth!
The context of scripture does not change; it is the application that changes!
The wording used to confront an issue in scripture is not always similar, but there are reasons why each specific wording is used!
There is thus need to understand the nature of the context of the word of God; there's a reason for each figure of speech or object used!
The Bible is the word of God given in the words of people in History.
These people had different perspectives even as they wrote; sometimes the same story was told differently!
Let's do a comparison of the gospels for a better understanding:
Matthew saw Jesus as the awaited Messiah/King; his audience was mostly Jewish and hence his book has emphasis on tea/Redeemerchings
Mark saw Jesus as the Servant of the Lord; his audience was mostly Romans and thus the emphasis on miracles
Luke saw Jesus as the sinless Son of Man; his audience was mostly Greeks, hence the emphasis on parables
John saw Jesus as the,Son of God; his audience is Christians universally and hence his emphasis on correct doctrine!
Let us look at interpretation
Interpretation is different from translation: translation is conversion of text from one language to another; interpretation is getting a deeper.understanding/meaning of text
What do we need for interpretation?
A good Bible translation/version
A Bible dictionary (explains difficult words)
Bible commentaries (gives more insight into other perspectives)
Bible concordance (finding same word use in different scriptures)
The important things to note in interpretation are:
Historical/Cultural analysis - the setting of scripture
Lexical analysis - finding meanings of difficult words
Theological analysis - what scripture means to us
Genres of the Bible - (epistles/letters, poetry, wisdom literature, prophecy, etc)
It is important as we minister to always give the word of God as intended!
That way, we are not giving heresy or dogma!
Thus it's important to let God speak to us in every scripture!
That way, our evangelizing of the Gospel becomes more effective!
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