If you’re just joining us for the first time, we also have a video on how to read the Old Testament, which may make sense to dive into first. Either way, today we are going to talk about how to read the New Testament.

As you know, I’m a huge proponent of reading the Bible in it’s completion and each book in its completion as well because that’s the way I think it was meant to be read, instead of a few verses from here, a few from there, a psalm, you know.

The Bible itself is a collection of 66 books that talk about God’s history and where we are going in the future. In the Old Testament, which is the first big section of the Bible, we see this back and forth of humans messing up God’s plan and then He shows up to help, then they mess up and it’s this massive cycle that they can’t seem to break. But God promises to one day send a Messiah, the Chosen One, who will change everything.

And so when we get to the New Testament, the second section, we get introduced to a man named Jesus who is this Messiah, who is actually God becoming Man. And he’s born in BC, a few years before our calendar becomes AD, and he’s born in a town called Bethlehem. Once Herod the Great died, Jesus and his parents moved back to Galilee to a town called Nazareth and we don’t really know much about his upbringing or even up until his public ministry aside from one story when he’s like 12 and sharing his wisdom in the temple. Jesus began his actual ministry around AD 26 and it lasted about 3.5 years before he was crucified for our sins, which means we are completely forgiven and cleansed if we put our faith in Jesus and walk out his instruction for our lives.

Then the rest of the New Testament shows how the church was started, what they were dealing with at the time, and it ends with a snapshot of the future, where God fully redeems humanity and the story of the Bible as a whole, beginning in Genesis and ending in Revelation, comes to a close and we see the big picture.

You following? So this second section, the New Testament as we call it is split into 27 books and they were all written within about 40 years of each other by Jesus’ followers. Which is far different from the Old Testament which was written in like 1500 years.

The New Testament begins with four books called the Gospels and they all tell the story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, but from different angles. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are almost identical and then John wrote his Gospel much later and filled in different stories and facts that the others may have missed. Then we have a book called Acts of the Apostles, which is all about Jesus commissioning his followers to go out into the world and spread the Gospel, the Good News. Then we have a bunch of books called the Letters of the Apostles, which were letters written directly to the churches being built at that time, and they give the churches and us new insight, direction, correction, and hope. These letters were written by a guy named Paul, a few from Jesus’ brothers James and Jude, and 5 from his followers, Peter and John. And lastly John wrote a prophetic book called Revelation, which was the last book to be written in the 90’s, not like 1990s, but like actual 90’s.

Without understanding this breakdown, you might be a little confused if you just read a random book in the New Testament, but if you can remember why each book was written and the layout, it’s going to make a lot more sense. I’d still suggest reading from Matthew through Revelation at least once before you do a deep dive at all. That way you can get the basics of New Testament doctrine and understand the big picture perspective.

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HOW TO ACCEPT JESUS INTO YOUR HEART

So, how do you accept Jesus into your heart? What does that mean?

Welcome to Sunday Bible Study Basics where we provide weekly Bible study tips to help you dive deeper in your faith.

Accepting Jesus into your heart is simply accepting his way of living, loving, and leading our lives. When Jesus came to earth we believe that he was God in the flesh. 100% God and 100% man at the same time. He came and taught about the Kingdom of Heaven and showed everyone around him a new type of perspective that they weren’t used to. A new heart. This new way of thinking was the motivation behind everything that Jesus did. And as believers we are invited to live the same way.

And so when we talk about accepting Jesus, that means that we are being saved from being trapped in sin, which results in eternal punishment. And it’s that faith in Jesus that saves us by his grace. He died and rose again just to pay the price for our sins. Salvation doesn’t come from our good deeds or by doing anything special, it’s a free gift from God just because He loves us so much. We need to turn away from our sins, believe that Jesus is God’s Son and our Savior, and submit to Him as Lord of our lives. By doing so, we receive salvation and eternal life.

So if you haven’t taken that next step on your faith journey, to begin a personal relationship with God where you will be saved from the consequences of your sins, I’d love to invite you to repeat this prayer with me.

“Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God and Savior of the world. I believe that you died for my sins and rose from the dead. I believe that through your sacrifice, I am a new person. Forgive me for my sin and fill me with your Spirit. Today, I choose to follow you for the rest of my life as Lord of my life. Amen.”

How awesome is that! Now what are the next steps?

First, tell another Christian that you accepted Jesus in your life. It’s something to celebrate!

Second, find a local church community to get plugged into. Doing life together is what will help you grow.

Third, try to read the Bible and spend time in prayer for at least 10-15 minutes every day. If you don’t have a Bible, you can buy one at the store or online or use the YouVersion Bible app. If you don’t know what translation to use, if you want it closer to the original language I’d suggest ESV, if you want it a little more modern I’d suggest NLT. So, 10-15 minutes a day of prayer and reading.

And finally, get baptized. Check out the next time your church is offering baptisms. It’s a biblical thing to do. Basically an outward expression of an inward decision.

So that’s what it means to accept Jesus into your heart and the next steps to take once you do.

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WHAT IS DISCIPLESHIP?

A word that you might have heard in church often but aren’t sure what it means is discipleship. So what is discipleship?

Welcome to Sunday Bible Study Basics where we provide weekly Bible study tips to help you dive deeper in your faith.

Well to be a disciple is to be a follower of Jesus and the act of discipleship is to go through a process of becoming more and more like him through the Holy Spirit in your life. Through spending time in Scripture, through prayer, by being led by the spirit.

When Jesus was building his crew of twelve disciples, he would walk up to them and say, “Follow me, I’ll make you fisher’s of men.” You see, Jesus was Jewish and when a rabbi invited someone to follow them it was an incredible honor. It gave them unlimited access to the rabbi to ask him questions and also to experience firsthand how the Scriptures should be lived out.

Becoming a disciple required a commitment to submit to the rabbis authority, but it also meant that every day was full of opportunities to learn new things about God. And as a rabbi this is the kind of relationship Jesus invited his disciples to experience. For them, following Jesus included sharing his enthusiasm for declaring the good news and spreading the teachings around the world.

And it’s the same for us today. We should be going through a massive life change when we become disciples - when we accept Jesus into our hearts. We’re no longer dead to sin, but alive and the spirit is living inside of us.

We are called to living to higher standards now. But one thing I see so often in the church is that you can’t tell the difference between someone who is a Christian and someone who isn’t. Which is so far against what we see in Scripture. It’s not a repeat this prayer and you’re good type of thing, it’s a full on life transformation. And when we become disciples, we’re supposed to be bringing in more disciples. Every person that’s a believer is a “fisher of men” as Jesus put it. And if there isn’t a life change and people aren’t making more disciples then maybe they need to revisit what all of this means. Not from a place of judgement but from a place of concern. But yo, a lot of things are supposed to be different now. Like, I love God with all of my heart, soul, and strength, and now I need to go out and make disciples.

I need to learn about God,
I need to spend time with him,
I need to hear from him,
And through all of that I need to bring more people in and help them live a transformed life as well.
That’s what real discipleship is.

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IMPORTANCE OF REST

We live in a world where hustle culture is huge, we’re busier and more stressed than ever before. So busy that a lot of us may struggle finding time in our day to read the Bible and take a moment to rest. Which is interesting because the Bible talks about the importance of rest.

Well, welcome to Sunday Bible Study Basics where we provide weekly Bible study tips to help you dive deeper in your faith.

So what is biblical rest? What is the Sabbath?

Rest is defined as “peace, ease or refreshment.” the Bible speaks quite highly of rest. Its repeated all throughout Scripture, beginning with the creation story in Genesis 1 and 2. We see that God created for six days straight and then he rested on the seventh. It wasn’t because he was tired or anything, it was to set a standard for mankind to follow. And what’s even crazier is that in the book of Exodus we learn about Moses receiving the 10 Commandments from God and he makes one of the commandments about rest. Do you know what they are?

Put God first, worship only God, only use God’s name with respect, respect your parents, don’t hurt other people, be faithful in marriage, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t be jealous of what other people have, and remember God’s Sabbath. It’s actually the fourth commandment. Resting on the Sabbath was a requirement of God’s Law.

He said, “Remember the Sabbath.” It wasn’t something new, it had been around since creation. All God’s people and their servants and their animals were commanded to have one day out of the seven to rest. It wasn’t an excuse to be lazy. It was actually like no, you better work really hard for six days, not just Monday through Friday 40 hours a week, but six days and then you get to the Sabbath. God takes it very serious because especially now in our culture, it isn’t natural for us. To rest means that we need to trust God will take care of things for us. We have to trust that if we take a day off, the world will not stop turning and everything will be ok. It takes faith. He’ll provide.

One of the definitions of “relax” is actually “to become less firm”, so that means we need to relax our grip on our own lives, our careers, our families, and giving them over to God in faith that He’ll provide when we aren’t working. And that’s the best way to exercise rest.

For us as believers, the ultimate rest is found in Christ. He invites all who are “weary and burdened” as he said, to come to Him and cast our cares on Him. It’s only in him that we find our complete rest - rest from the cares of the world, from the things that cause us pain, and from the need to work to make ourselves acceptable to Him.

There’s an awesome book called “Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” by Pastor John Mark Comer that is honestly one of my favorite books recently. I highly recommend it. It’s helped me tremendously because my natural inclination is to be a workaholic and always be on the go. But this book taught me to slow down and actually enjoy true biblical rest. And I pray that it helps you as well. Try to work a little rest into your schedule this week and see how God transforms it. You’ll be blessed, I know it.

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WHAT IS TITHING? (AND BIBLICAL GENEROSITY)

Many people wonder what the Bible says about tithing. The question, “Where does it say to tithe in the Bible” is important for sure. Many misunderstandings on this topic have even led people to leave the church altogether. One thing that is often missed is that tithing is about more than money; it’s about our hearts.

Welcome to Sunday Bible Study Basics where we provide weekly Bible study tips to help you dive deeper in your faith.

So what is tithing?

Tithing is the term commonly used to mean setting aside a certain amount of our income for God. Typically a tithe refers to 10% of your income because the word literally means, “tenth”, but it is often generalized to mean any amount of money set aside for God. And traditionally this tithe, this 10% is given to the local church, but we believe that you’re giving that 10% to Jesus himself.

Ok but where is this in the Bible? Because 10% can be a lot of money and some of us may not have much leeway to give in that amount.

Well tithing is something we see in the beginning of the Bible, before the Law even. Abraham and Jacob both tithed their “first fruits” to God. Then we see it in the Law, it’s actually a command to tithe. Leviticus 27:30 says, "A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord, it is holy to the Lord.” It was a reminder that everything belonged to God and a thank you for everything that they had received.

So it’s before the Law, it’s in the Law, and then we see it alluded to in Hebrews 7, again in the New Testament. There isn’t a command after Jesus that we HAVE TO tithe 10% of our income to the local church, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t biblical or we shouldn’t be giving back to God now. Because if you look at church history, the early church was all about tithing, taking care of other believers, and knowing that everything they make is because they were blessed by God.

I mean, aside from the Kingdom of God, Jesus actually talked more about money than any other topic. He talked about what we should do with our money, and the importance of radical generosity, and being obedient with what we are given.

As the apostle Paul planted churches around the world, he also spoke on the subject of giving. And his views on giving were a lot more radical than just 10%. He focused on giving generously, consistently and joyfully.

In 2 Corinthians, Paul says, “For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability”. He continued on by saying that, “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously”. Instead of assigning a certain percentage, he encouraged them to give generously. So number one, give generously.

Number two, give consistently. Paul encourages the church to set aside an amount of money to give every single week. The goal is not for this to be a new rule every believer must follow, but a general principle to encourage consistent giving.

Jesus never looks at the amount you give, it’s always about the percentage and your heart towards giving. If you make more you should give more. $1000 to one person is a lot, while $1000 to another person is a little. We must give in relation to our income.

And God looks at our heart towards it. So the third thing is to give joyfully. Paul says in 2 Corinthians, “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver”. A cheerful giver knows that this is not their final destination, that they are meant to build the Kingdom of God and the work of the local church.

So tithing is always about your heart, and never about the amount of money. Giving to God today is about so much more than setting aside a certain percent of our monthly giving for God. It’s about declaring that life is more than the things we can gather on this earth. Giving is about generously using the resources God has given us to improve the world through the gospel. If you are considering giving for the first time, remember to give generously, consistently, and above all, joyfully.

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WHAT TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE SHOULD I USE?

When you’re just starting to read the Bible, what translation should you use?

Welcome to Sunday Bible Study Basics where we provide weekly Bible study tips to help you dive deeper in your faith.

So, what translation is best for me? There’s so many of them and it’s super confusing because there’s a lot of disagreement about which is the best and which is most accurate and yada yada yada.

Well there are over 100 translations available in English only today so I definitely understand the confusion.

And the original text of the Bible was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. So if you don’t know Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek you gotta rely on something else.

When it comes to translations, there’s basically three types of translations.
You have word for word,
Thought for thought,
And a paraphrase.

Now word for word would probably make the most sense when you think about it, but the tricky part of that is that the Hebrew language consists of way fewer words than the English language. And most words mean a ton of different things. So it would be pretty easy to get lost in translation.

Then you have thought for thought, which is looking at a string of words or a sentence in the Hebrew or Greek, and they created a thought out of it in English.

And the third is paraphrase, which rewords things a little bit and adds to the thought to help us really understand it. May be great for casual reading but not necessarily for a deep dive on the Scriptures.

So let’s look at a few translations:
NASB, it’s the New American Standard Bible, this is a word for word translation and it’s often considered to be the most accurate English translation available. Not necessarily the easiest to read, but it’s a great direct representation. I use it frequently.

Next up we have ESV, or English Standard Version, this is probably my favorite when I’m studying. It’s also word for word and just slightly easier to read than the NASB, but very close to the ancient text.

Then you have the KJV, the King James Version, It’s probably the most owned translation in the U.S. It’s full of thees, and thous, and thus. This is the cream of the crop, the gold standard for a lot of people, and they actually will discredit all other translations aside from this one. For me it’s almost impossible to understand but I respect the passion that people have towards it.

Next up we have the NIV, the New International Version, which I’m sure a lot of you have heard of. It’s kind of a mix between word for word and thought for thought. Getting closer on the spectrum to thought for thought. It’s definitely one of the most popular translations today. It’s easy to read, easy to understand. It’s great.

Now when you get into the thought for thought category you’re going to have translations like the NLT, the New Living Translation or TPT, which is the passion translation. These are going to be a lot more relaxed, a lot more modern in language. I love them because it really helps you understand the text.

Then you have the paraphrase category, with the most popular one probably being the Message. This is probably the most debated translation of Scripture available. I mean, we know it’s not word for word, it’s not thought for thought, it’s a paraphrase, but some people despise this translation. I personally don’t think it’s bad. Probably don’t use it when you’re trying to understand how the original text used a word, but if you’re looking for a new breath on a text, it’s worth using.

Well I hope all of that made sense, I hope you now have a little direction when picking out which translation is best for you.

Peace.

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ZACH WINDAHL’S BIBLE HIGHLIGHTING TIPS

So what are some Bible highlighting tips?

Welcome to Sunday Bible Study Basics where we provide weekly Bible study tips to help you dive deeper in your faith.

When it comes to Bible highlighting everyone kind of has their own version that works best for them. I’m going to share what works best for me in hopes that some of it helps you as well.

First off, you know how at the beginning of every book in the Bible there is the title? Like, at the beginning of Matthew there is the title on top with some extra space on the side. Now your Bible may be a journaling Bible where there’s a bunch of space on every page to write notes or it may be a normal thin line Bible without tons of space. Mine is a thin line, skinny Bible because I just like it smaller. Either way close to the title of every book there will be some space. So where it says Matthew for instance I find it super important to write down some of the historical information so that I always have it close by and I can reference back to it. I’ll include the author, date that it was written, who the audience was, and what the main theme throughout the book may be.

And if you don’t know where to find this information, we have it all laid out in the Bible Study, some Bibles have an intro to each book that may include it, or you can do some research online.

So, for our example of Matthew, up top I’m going to write “tax collector” because it was written by Matthew the tax collector. I’m going to write AD 50-55, which is when it was written. I’m going to say that it was written to the Jewish people of the time. And then I’m going to write “Jesus is Jewish Messiah, the fulfillment of the Old Testament” because that’s the theme that we will see throughout the Gospel.

Once you have those written on the top of the page by the Title, I’m going to read through the entire book to get the big picture of the text. This isn’t a time to really dig in, this is an overview perspective, no need to go slow.

Then now I’m going to go back through and highlight. When I lived in Australia we called this color coding because you would have different colors of highlighters for different things that you wanted to highlight in the text. And I think it’s a great idea for you to do as well.

So buy a few highlighters, they actually make Bible highlighters so they don’t ruin your pages if you have thin pages, and then I would assign each color to a specific quality that you want to remember in the text, whatever is important to you. This could be highlighting a characteristic of God,
every time that Jesus spoke,
every miracle, every command for us,
every location if you’re really into the history.
Pick 3-4 things that interest you and now go back through the text slowly, highlighting according to your colors and afterwards you’ll be able to see the text through a new lens.

I hope that helps! Have the best week!

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WHAT BOOK OF THE BIBLE WOULD ZACH BEGIN WITH AND WHY?

So I get asked the question a lot: If this is your first time reading the Bible, what book would you start with? And why?

Welcome to Sunday Bible Study Basics where we provide weekly Bible study tips to help you dive deeper in your faith.

Now typically when you ask other people this question they will most likely say John or Matthew. They’re the typical two that everyone thinks will make you believe in Jesus just by reading them. But I disagree.

Matthew is the perfect book to read for the first time, if you’re Jewish, and have a strong understanding of the Old Testament. If not ehhhhh.
John is perfect if you believe there is a God. It’s one of the most important books in my opinion, but you have to first believe that there is a supernatural God.

So, what if you’re still skeptical? Then where do you begin?

Well, the Bible is laid out into two main sections. The first is called the Old Testament and the second is called the New Testament. At the beginning of the New Testament there are four books, which look like chapters, and they’re called the Gospels. They’re Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And in those books is where we learn about Jesus.

So if I were looking into the Bible, not really sure if God is real yet, I would start by reading Luke and then the book of Acts.

You see, the Gospel of Luke was written by a doctor named Luke. And, since he was a doctor, he was fascinated in the miracles that Jesus performed because they went against all human reasoning and what his practice as a doctor would say.

And Luke actually wrote a second book called the book of Acts, which is kind of like a part two to the Gospel of Luke. Acts looks at the start of the church, diving into the missionary journeys of a guy named Paul and really how this Gospel of Jesus Christ spread all over the world.

If you don’t know what translation of the Bible to read, since there are so many of them, I’d pick something easy to understand for your first time around. My two suggestions would be the New Living Translation which is abbreviated as the NLT or I’d go with my personal favorite, the Passion Translation which you can look up as TPT.

So, Luke and Acts are my two choices if I were to read the Bible for the first time.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO RECEIVE ETERNAL LIFE?

So what does it mean to receive eternal life?

Welcome to Sunday Bible Study Basics where we provide weekly Bible study tips to help you dive deeper in your faith.

I don’t know if you’re like me, but when I hear the phrase eternal life I always thought of heaven and hell, and where you go after you die. Like it’s either to paradise in the clouds with gold streets and everything is perfect, or to hell where there’s a lot of fire and screaming and suffering for eternity. Like forever.

Which I do believe that we either go to heaven or hell, but when you get to the phrase "receiving eternal life” that’s a little bit different.

There are many verses throughout the Bible that talk about eternal life. 1 John 5:13 says, “I’ve written this letter to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you will be assured and know without a doubt that you have eternal life.”

John is saying that by having a relationship with God you will experience eternal life. Without a doubt. But he says that it’s here and now. It’s a heaven on earth statement, not focused on the future when you die. It’s now.

Yes, we have something to look forward to in the future.
Yes, restoration is coming to the world, which we read about in Revelation with the New Heaven and New Earth. But THIS eternal life begins now. Most of the New Testament is actually about HOW to live out eternal life. Not about how to receive it. How to live it.

So, how do you receive eternal life and begin living it out?

John 17:3 says, “Eternal life means to know and experience you as the only true God, and to know and experience Jesus Christ, as the Son whom you have sent.”

To know and experience God.
To know and experience Jesus.

And in order to do that you need to first and foremost above anything else, spend time with Jesus. In the Word. In prayer. In silence. Build a relationship. And work on bringing heaven to earth in the now instead of waiting until you die.

In heaven there is wholeness, restoration, love, joy, peace. We should be bringing those things into every relationship, every interaction, every moment of our day.

Yes, we will spend eternity somewhere else once we die, but eternal life begins the moment you accept Jesus into your heart. We have a role on earth. How are you going to live it out?

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HOW DO YOU SHARE THE GOSPEL?

A question that people have all of the time is, how do you share the Gospel? Because lets be honest, it can be super intimidating and awkward and what if you say the wrong thing or they ask questions that you don’t know the answer to and then you look dumb and you don’t want to look dumb and the list goes on.

In reality, it can be a lot easier. So we broke it down into 4 things to remember as you share the Gospel with others.

Number 1, understand that your own life speaks volumes. Your testimony is huge. Your relationship with God needs to be real and active, because people not only listen to the words you speak, but they also look at your life. So, what fruit are you producing? How has Jesus changed your life? Talk about that. People love stories.

Number 2, realize that we earn the right to be heard only by truly listening to others. And caring about what they have to say. Jesus was a FRIEND of sinners. That’s our example. To be a friend, to listen to people, see where they are, and be willing to walk with them where they need to go. It’s all about relationships.

Third, keep it simple. Don’t over complicate the Gospel, it’s a simple message. Jesus died for our sins. He was crucified. He rose again. We simply need to turn away from the things that are wrong in our lives, which we call sin, accept Jesus’ death on the cross that gives us a clean slate, and ask Him to be Lord aka guide aka teacher of our lives. Don’t complicate it. So many times we throw in religious terms that a lot of people don’t understand. We end up confusing them and creating barriers that cause people to shut down. Explain the Gospel in a way that people understand.

And finally, the fourth thing, talk about the love of God. John 3:16 says, “for God SO LOVED the world that he GAVE his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” It starts with love, and that’s where we need to start too. Level the playing field; we were all sinners. God provided a way out through the sacrifice of Jesus. The Gospel is the message that God is good, He forgives, He has a plan for everyone, and He offers the promise of eternal life for anyone who believes in Him and allows Him to guide them.

That’s it! So to recap:
Understand that your life and testimony speak volumes. Be a friend. Keep it simple. Talk about the love of God.

Have the best week.

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