Help Me Teach The Bible

Latest Episodes:

Mark Futato on Psalms (Re-release) Oct 29, 2020

Show notes

In this episode of Help Me Teach the Bible, I talked with Mark Futato, the Robert L. Maclellan professor of Old Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida, where he teaches core classes on Hebrew and Old Testament books. Futato has written a number of books on Psalms that flow out not only from his study but also his love for and his living with the Psalms.

Topics in the discussion include:

whether or not we should make the Psalms “about me”;
allowing the organization of Psalms to inform our teaching;
common mistakes made in teaching Psalms;
the big three kinds of Psalms;
how Psalms speaks to our emotions; and
singing the Psalms about Jesus, to Jesus, with Jesus.

Recommended audio resources on the Psalms:

Mark Futato on Psalm 1, 23
Dick Lucas sermons on Psalms
Sinclair Ferguson sermons on Psalms
Edmund Clowney sermons and lectures on preaching Christ from the Psalms

Recommended print resources on the Psalms:

Knowing the Bible: Psalms: A 12-Week Study by Douglas Sean O’Donnell
Journey to Joy: The Psalms of Ascent by Josh Moody (Psalms 120–134)
The Psalms: Rejoice, the Lord Is King, Volume 1, Psalms 1 to 41 by James Johnston
Transformed by Praise: The Purpose and Message of the Psalms by Mark Futato
Joy Comes in the Morning: Psalms for All Seasons by Mark Futato
Interpreting the Psalms: An Exegetical Handbook by Mark Futato
Psalms: Cornerstone Biblical Commentary by Mark Futato, George Schwab, and Philip Comfort
How to Read the Psalms by Tremper Longman III
Psalms 1-72: An Introduction and Commentary by Derek Kidner
Psalms 73-150 by Derek Kidner

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John Piper on Philippians, Pt 2 (Re-release) Oct 15, 2020

Show notes

Recommended Audio Resources

Hans Bayer on context, outline, and thought flow in Philippians
Dick Lucas sermons on Philippians
John Piper sermons on Philippians

Recommended Print Resources:

Philippians: A 12-Week Study by Ryan Kelly
Philippians: The Fellowship of the Gospel by R. Kent Hughes
Let's Study Philippians by Sinclair B. Ferguson
Basics for Believers: An Exposition of Philippians by D. A. Carson
Message of Philippians: Jesus Our Joy by Alec Motyer

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John Piper on Philippians Pt 1 (Re-release) Oct 01, 2020

Show notes

In this inaugural episode of Help Me Teach the Bible, I talked with John Piper, founder and teacher of Desiring God and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary, where he taught through the book of Philippians. He called this teaching a “dream come true.” Topics in this interview include:

allowing those you teach to discover what the book is about;
Paul's love expressed in this personal letter;
connecting propositions in Paul's arguments; and
the better by far of being with Christ at death vs. the resurrection of the body.

Recommended Audio Resources

Hans Bayer on context, outline, and thought flow in Philippians
Dick Lucas sermons on Philippians
John Piper sermons on Philippians

Recommended Print Resources:

Philippians: A 12-Week Study by Ryan Kelly
Philippians: The Fellowship of the Gospel by R. Kent Hughes
Let's Study Philippians by Sinclair B. Ferguson
Basics for Believers: An Exposition of Philippians by D. A. Carson
Message of Philippians: Jesus Our Joy by Alec Motyer

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Nancy Guthrie Answers Listener Questions Sep 17, 2020

Show notes

When I began recording interviews for Help Me Teach the Bible in the fall of 2014, I didn’t have a grand plan. At that point I wouldn't have said that I had the goal of recording an episode on every book of the Bible because that would have seemed like an overwhelming task and too much of a commitment. But I just kept doing interviews, and people kept finding the podcast and listening. I kept being stretched and informed and inspired by getting to have these conversations with a lot of people I admired who have helped me in my own teaching. And I have loved it.

The podcast now has an episode or two on every book of the Bible as well as over 60 topical episodes on various aspects of getting better at teaching the Bible. For this final* episode I asked my husband to turn the tables and interview me about the podcast itself, and I asked listeners to send in questions they wanted me to answer. We talked about how the idea for the podcast came about, why and how I interviewed the people I did, how my own teaching ministry has developed, and what some of my favorite conversations have been.

We will continue to re-release old episodes every couple of weeks. Because most podcast apps only offer a limited number of past episodes, we’ll start again from the beginning, posting the earliest episodes from the podcast, which means that the next episode will be an interview with John Piper on teaching the book of Philippians.

Listeners who want to communicate with me about the podcast can send me a message using the contact page at nancyguthrie.com. Thank you for listening. I hope it has been a help and blessing to you.

* I reserve the right to record a new episode here and there going forward when I’m with someone brilliant and I just have to talk to about something that would help Help Me Teach the Bible listeners.

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Jonathan Gibson on Teaching Obadiah Sep 03, 2020

Show notes

It’s the shortest book in the Old Testament—only twenty-one verses—and I don’t think I’ve heard it preached or taught. According to my guest, Jonathan Gibson, associate professor of Old Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary, the message of this short book is “the realization of the Lord’s sovereignty and the role reversal of Edom and Judah on the day of the Lord.”

Essential to understanding and teaching the book is its connection to the narrative of Jacob and Esau as Obadiah applies events in the individual biographies of Esau and Jacob to Edom and Judah. Rather than teaching Obadiah as a warning against human pride, Gibson suggests that the book should be presented as as the outworking of God’s covenant promise to Abraham to bless those who blessed him and curse those who dishonored him.

Books by Jonathan Gibson

Recommended Resources on Obadiah

NIV Proclamation Bible
ESV Expository Commentary, Volume VII with commentary on Obadiah by Max Rogland
The Minor Prophets, Volume Two edited by Thomas Edward McComisky, with commentary on Obadiah by Jeffrey J. Niehaus
Obadiah message by David Cook
Obadiah message by Christopher Wright
Obadiah lecture (RTS) by Richard Belcher

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Jay Sklar on Teaching Leviticus Aug 20, 2020

Show notes

Leviticus is the place where the best of intentions to read through the Bible often stall out. But it is a book that Jay Sklar, professor of Old Testament and vice president of academics at Covenant Seminary in St. Louis, MO, has studied and written about prolifically. Sklar's doctoral studies focused on the theology of sin, impurity, sacrifice, and atonement in the Old Testament sacrificial system. He contributed to the study notes of Leviticus for the ESV Study Bible, the introduction and notes for Leviticus for The Gospel Transformation Bible, and he wrote a commentary on Leviticus for the Tyndale Old Testament Commentary Series (InterVarsity Press).

In this conversation, Dr. Sklar delineates five reasons Leviticus is a challenging book to read and understand, as well as to teach:

It is mostly law, which is unappealing to most of us.
It is culturally strange.
It emphasizes ritual which we tend to assume is meaningless.
Its laws and teachings appear to be unfair or unjust.
It is hard to fit into the larger story of the Bible.

But Sklar also offers keen insights into how to make sense of the book and break down some of the barriers of interest in the book. He also talks about how to present Christ through discussing issues that arise in the book such as slavery, homosexuality, ritual impurity, and disability.

Recommended Resources by and from Jay Sklar

The Book of Leviticus (New International Commentary on the Old Testament) by Gordon J. Wenham
Leviticus (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries) by Jay Sklar
How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart
Jay Sklar’s Page (Covenant Seminary website) which includes audio, video, and a printable resource for preaching and teaching Leviticus

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Irwyn Ince and Sean Michael Lucas on Applying Scripture to the Sin of Racism Aug 06, 2020

Show notes

In the years I’ve spent in the church listening to sermons and teaching, I can think of very few times that I have heard direct applications from the text made to the sin of racism or the sin of apathy toward injustice. Maybe I just didn’t have the ears to hear it. In my own teaching, I may have mentioned racism in a list of sins, or mentioned it as one of the things that will be “no more” in the new heaven and new earth, but I don’t think I’ve ever used an opportunity teaching in a passage to challenge these sins. I want to do better, and I imagine there are a lot of others who do too.

That is why I asked two excellent Bible teachers who bring a great deal of experience and credibility to this topic to have a conversation with me about how to rightly and helpfully apply the Bible to the sin of racism. Irwyn Ince is a pastor at Grace DC Presbyterian Church and director of the Grace DC Institute for Cross-Cultural Mission. He has contributed to the books Heal Us Emmanuel and All Are Welcome: Toward a Multi-Everything Church and is author of the new book The Beautiful Community: Unity, Diversity, and the Church at Its Best. Sean Michael Lucas, senior minister of Independent Presbyterian Church, Memphis, Tennessee, is the author of numerous books on people and institutions with a history tainted by racism including, Robert Lewis Dabney: A Southern Presbyterian Life,The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards: American Religion and the Evangelical Tradition,Blessed Zion: First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi, 1837-2012, andFor a Continuing Church: The Roots of the Presbyterian Church in America.

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Richard Pratt on Teaching 1 Chronicles Jul 23, 2020

Show notes

Few teachers are rushing to teach the book of 1 Chronicles. Perhaps that's because they have already taught through 1–2 Samuel and 1–2 Kings and so much from these earlier books is repeated in 1–2 Chronicles. But according to Richard Pratt, president and co-founder of Third Millennium Ministries and author of the volume on 1–2 Chronicles in the Mentor Commentary series, to not study these books because of repeated material would be similar to a person not studying Mark or Luke because they’ve already studied Matthew. The Chronicler intentionally diverged from the records of Samuel and Kings to reveal his theological perspectives, and, according to Pratt, this perspective does not take away from the credibility of the book. Rather it serves the purpose of the book, which is to direct his audience to reconsider what they believed about the people of God, about the king and the temple, and about God’s blessings and curses.

Rather than simply thinking of the book as historical chronology, we should also view it as representing an underlying logical argument, a step-by-step effort at persuasion. In this conversation, Pratt talks about how best to handle the first nine chapters of the book (a lengthy genealogy of the twelve tribes), the importance of the term “all Israel” that is used throughout the book, and the unique contribution the book makes to what we understand about the role of music in worship.

Recommended Resources:

Pratt’s section on 1–2 Chronicles in A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the Old Testament: The Gospel Promised
1 & 2 Chronicles: A Mentor Commentary by Richard Pratt
ESV Expository Commentary: Ezra–Job, Volume 4
Who Needs The Chronicles? We Do.
Knowing the Bible: 1-2 Chronicles, a 12-week Practical Study Series on the Books of 1-2 Chronicles (TGC Course)

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Lydia Brownback on Bible Study Essentials and Challenges Jun 25, 2020

Show notes

What are the essentials to good Bible study materials? And what makes a small group Bible study work well? Are we going to take prayer requests? Will there be homework or no homework? What makes the difference between good questions in curriculum and questions that frustrate the group?

These are the kinds of questions I talked through with Lydia Brownback who has just embarked on creating a new series of Bible study resources called the Flourish Bible Study series for which she plans to create three new studies a year for ten years. We talked about the importance of defining terms, studying a book of the Bible in the larger context of the Bible’s story and message, and the best way to go about making personal application. Because Brownback is a senior editor at Crossway books, I also asked her about the advice she gives when people ask her about how they can get a book published. Her bottom line? It’s really hard.

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Mark Meynell on Becoming a Better Bible Teacher Jun 11, 2020

Show notes

All of us who dare to stand up and teach the Bible are teachers in progress. We all have ways we can get better.

Recently I got to sit down with Mark Meynell who, in his role as director of Europe and the Caribbean for Langham Preaching, spends most of his time traveling to different parts of the world to help teachers and preachers get better at handing the Bible. According to Meynell, Bible teachers all over the world lament the same thing—a lack of time to do the kind of study they want to do on the text. His word to teachers is: "You make time for what you think is important.” Meynell says that the marks of really good Bible teaching include faithfulness to the set, relevance to the audience, and clarity in delivery. Our discussion included tips on how to discover the tics we all have as teachers that make it hard for our audience to listen to us, how to and how not to bring in passages outside of our main text into our talks, and the way in which John Stott modeled for him what it looks like to be a life-long learner.

Meynell is the author of numerous books including What Angels Long to Read (Langham Preaching Resources, 2017), When Darkness Seems My Closest Friend (IVP, 2018) and his most recent, Colossians and Philemon for You (Good Book, 2018). He blogs at markmeynell.net.

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