Monday 27 April → Monday 24 August 2020
Episode notes
I wonder how you’re choosing to engage with God during this strange time of lockdown. So, here’s an idea. Wherever you are on your Christian journey, there’s always room for getting to grips more with the Bible as a whole. And this series of talks over 18 weeks is designed to enable you to do just that.
Paul writes that ‘… the Holy Scriptures … are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that all God’s people may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.’ (2 Timothy 3:15-17).
That, in essence, is the manifesto for our 18-week engagement with the Bible, starting on Monday 27 April 2020 and ending in the week commencing Monday 24 August 2020. It will be not so much a Course as an Adventure, as we journey together through God’s word.
For some background and an idea of how it will work, here's a 3-minute video.
The Plan
In covering (somewhat ambitiously!) the whole Bible over 18 weeks we will explore how God’s Grand Story hangs together and how He speaks to us through the unfamiliar as well as the more well-known bits. A particular aim is to see how Jesus inhabits the Old Testament. We shall ask the Holy Spirit to draw each one of us closer to our wonderful God of love.
So the plan is to present the material over 18 weeks, with each session split into three 20 or so minute episodes – and with the suggestion that those following the Course might like to do so on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday, if not all three episodes at a time.
One essential part of Open Word as I originally conceived it, that of learning in community, is sadly removed in this scheme of things. Nonetheless, it is hoped that those following the Course will have a sense of doing so in companionship with others - and that the Q&A in most of the sessions will give some sense of travelling together. Each Session will be accompanied by the text of slides, which will help you follow me as I speak and will serve as something of a memory aid afterwards.
By the end of the Course we aim:
To have a clear idea of what the Bible contains and what it means (to some extent, at least!);
To be able to relate different parts of Scripture to each other: ‘The New is in the Old contained/concealed: the Old is in the New explained/revealed’; and
To have reinforced (or to discover anew) the delight of spending time each day in God’s inspired word and of allowing His Holy Spirit to speak to us through it, explaining and enjoying various ways of approaching Bible reading both personally and in groups.
Whatever our stage in the Christian life, we will recognise that we need to know and to love the Word of God more deeply and to be trained in how to read and to use it, so that Jesus Christ may dwell by His Spirit more fully in us and we in Him. Together we humbly trust that the Holy Spirit will enable us to do just that.
The Programme
27 April - Overview of the Bible
4 May - The Incarnate Christ: The Synoptic Gospels
11 May - The Incarnate Christ: John’s Gospel
18 May - The Early Church: The Acts of the Apostles (from a Lukan perspective and with reference to the NT Letters)
25 May - The NT Letters: Paul’s Letter to the Romans
1 June - The NT Letters: The other Pauline Letters
8 June - The NT Letters: The “Catholic” Letters
15 June - Jesus and the Jewish Scriptures
22 June - Genesis 1-11: The Primeval History
29 June - The Pentateuch
6 July - The Historical Books I
13 July - The Historical Books II
20 July - The Psalms
27 July - Wisdom Literature: Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes & The Song of Songs
3 August - What is OT prophecy? The ‘Major’ Prophets
10 August - The ‘Minor’ Prophets. Prophecy today
17 August - Tackling the Text: Authorship, Authority & Apologetics. Various ways of reading the Bible
24 August - Revelation and New Creation
Some Testimonials from the current Course
‘Joyful and inspiring, challenging and affirming. A fount of knowledge and an absolute delight’ (Viv Edwards)
‘Matthew speaks with great clarity and, through his engaging and well- researched delivery, brings to life the whole Bible, both its history and the full revelation of Christ from Genesis through to Revelation’ (Liz Plater)
‘I was at that point in my faith journey where I had read the Bible, listened to numerous sermons, but wanted to go deeper and understand it much better. This course was a Godsend – literally. I have learnt so much and would highly recommend it to anyone who wanting to go deeper in His word.’ (Claire Hamilton-Deane)
Any Questions?
Please refer to me by email on matthew.hutton@stn.org.uk, if you would like to know more about the Course and ‘what it’s about’.
So, do come and join in!
Matthew Hutton