October 27, 2002

Reformation Sunday:  "Bible Study"
Jeremiah 31:31-34

A sermon by Rev. Dr. John K. Luoma

Today is Reformation Sunday. What we celebrate today is the insight that Luther discovered through diligent study of the Bible: we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. In other words, we are reconciled to God through faith in what God has done for us in Jesus. Therefore, Bible study is tremendously important because it is the source of this saving knowledge. It is only through Scripture that one learns the truth about life. Therefore, knowing and studying the scripture becomes critically important. For that reason one of the central principles of the Reformation was Sola Scriptura or the Word Alone. Scripture is the central arbiter of the truth.

So, today we talk about Bible study. Bible study should be an important part of the life of every follower of Jesus. Today I want to share with you a simple process of Bible study that everybody should be able to do. If you listen carefully and use the outline in the bulletin, you will have the tools you need for successful study of the Bible.

Step 1: Select the proper tools. As with most tasks in life, if you don’t have the proper equipment you are going to have trouble doing the job. The most important piece of equipment is an up to date and accurate translation of the Bible. There are several good translations, but I prefer the NRSV (New Revised Standard Version) because it gives the most literal rendering of the Greek language. Second, make sure it is a study Bible. A study Bible will give you a preface to each book of the Bible. Before you begin to read any particular book, you can read a summary that will talk about the content and give you some insights into the author and his thinking. A study Bible will also have generous footnotes which will give you insight into the verses that you are reading. A study Bible will have a brief index of the different people and subjects that are in your Bible. In addition a good study Bible will have cross references to other passages in the Bible so that you can look at other places in the Bible that discuss the same subject and can provide further enlightenment. Finally, a study Bible will have sufficient maps so that you know the part of the world in which the events discussed are taking place.

Now there are other tools that are helpful if you have access to them and you really want or need to delve deeper. And I believe you can find all of these in our church library. Such tools are a Bible commentary and a good dictionary of the Bible such as The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. I would also commend an inexpensive three volume paperback series called A Beginner’s Guide. It is the best I have found for purposes of Bible study. I used it for the preparation of this sermon. It is published by Augsburg Fortress and I’ve listed it in the outline.

Step 2: Now that we have the proper tools, the first step is to pray. It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit who gives us a relationship to Jesus that we can truly understand what Scripture is all about and how it relates to our life.

Step 3: The third step is the actual study of the scriptural passage. This whole process might be summarized by describing it as the asking of questions. Bible study is simply the asking of questions. Let’s consider our text today in Jeremiah. Here is the first critical question that we want to answer: What is the context? In order to get that information we would go to the preface of the book of Jeremiah or to one of the books I’ve mentioned, The Beginner’s Guide to the Books of the Bible, and they will supply you with all kinds of information on the book of Jeremiah.

What kind of literature is this? They would tell you that it is prophetic literature. A prophet is one who is intimately related to God whose task is to speak on behalf of God to the people. He asks them to turn from sin and turn back to God. They would tell you that Jeremiah is the son of a priest, an extremely sensitive man who was called to his vocation as a young man and deprived of all the comforts of life you and I take for granted. He ministered between 627 and 580 B.C.

You would discover that the central theme of Jeremiah and most of the prophets is summarized in the word “covenant”. What is a covenant? It is an agreement in which two parties make pledges to each other. The covenant which was so important to the prophets was the Sinai Covenant, the moment when God gave the Ten Commandments to the people of Israel. The agreement was that they would have no other gods and obey the commands laid down. Their occupation of the land was contingent on the keeping of this agreement.

Then, you would want to look at the passage you are studying and ask the same kinds of questions a good reporter would ask: Who, what, when, where and why? The passage we are looking at today is Jeremiah 31:31-34. Who is saying this? It is God speaking through Jeremiah, the prophet. What is God saying? Verse 31: God is going to make a new agreement with the people of Israel. Verse 32: This new agreement is not going to be like the old agreement, the Sinai Covenant, which they broke even though God lovingly kept his side of the agreement. Verse 33: In the future the law is not going to be something outside of them written on tablets of stone, the law is going to be written on their hearts. Verse 34: Each person will be like the prophets. They will know God intimately and personally. He will always forgive and he will not remember their sin.

The next question you want to ask is when is this happening? From your preface or your footnotes you would learn that this announcement is being made during the exile. Because of their sin God has removed them from the land and they are imprisoned in another land. In other words, the announcement is being made in their darkest hour when there seems to be no hope.

Where is it taking place? In Babylon, the nation that God used to punish them.

Why is this happening? God is a loving and faithful God who seeks the best for his people. You have to look at the rest of the book, especially the verses before and after. So, Jeremiah 31:3 says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.”

After asking these questions many people find it helpful to summarize the passage in their own words. The passage says that God is going to form a new relationship with his people, not like the old conditional relationship. He would unconditionally love them and forgive them and make consciousness of him part of their inner being.

The last and most critical question is: What does this mean to me? What difference does it make in my life? If I were to state the meaning of this for me, I would say that my relationship to God is not a conditional one. It is not based on a set of rules so that if I break God’s law, if I sin, God forsakes me. My relationship to God is unconditional. God loves me with no strings attached. His Spirit dwells within me and guides me and I can count on his forgiveness and his help in starting over.

If you looked at the biblical cross references in your study Bible, you would find that it refers you to the book of Hebrews where these verses are quoted twice and the writer says that Jesus has made the atoning sacrifice for us so that are sins are forgiven and the Spirit dwells in us.

This is the point at which we could talk about a devotional use of the Bible. We could talk about the TRIP method that is part of our Daily Texts. (T) So, knowing what we know, what do these verses tell us that we have to be thankful for? (R ) What do we need to regret? (I) What do we need to pray (intercede) about? (P) What do we need to do so that this promise is grounded in our hearts and minds?

copyright 2001 by Rev. Dr. John K. Luoma

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