This is the guide that I give to everyone who preaches at Newport Beach Cafe on Friday Nights to use as they prepare their sermon.

While praying for revelation and wisdom do the following:

1. Read Luke/Acts as a 2 part book as a devotional throughout the time you are completing the next 9 steps.

2.  Overview Luke, his audience & his purpose.

Possible answers to these questions can be found in the introductions to Luke and Acts found in many study bibles, commentaries, and overviews of the New Testament. 

3. Confirm the limits of your passage.

I will assign your passage to you.  If you conclude after careful study of the passage that the parameters should be different we will discuss revising it.

4. Know your passage thoroughly & intimately.

Read and reread.  Ponder.  Meditate.  Repeat often.  Look for the Holy Spirit to enlighten your understanding as you do this.

5. Analyze & diagram your passage.

I recommend double spacing your passage in a large font on a sheet of paper and marking notations on it.  Note word repetition, verbs, figures of speech and emotional language.  Make a notation of anything that catches your eye as you look for details. 

6. Learn the history & culture of your passage.

 Make sure you are aware of what the phrases and figures of speech used meant to the original audience.  Keener’s IVP Bible background commentary is an excellent resource for the above information.

7. Compare your passage to other parts of the bible using a bible dictionary ot topical bible.

First compare your passage to the language and content used in Luke/Acts (same author), then to Jesus’ words in the other Gospels, thirdly to the New Testament references that are similar, and lastly to passages that are comparable in the Old Testament.  By doing it in this order you will glean a great understanding of the overall biblical view of the subjects in your passages. 

8. Look at other resources (secondary literature). 

Commentaries, bible dictionaries, and surveys of the New Testament are very helpful. 

9. Travel the interpretive journey.

What did the text mean to original audience?  What are the differences between that audience’s situation and your current situation?  What principles about God’s ways or truth’s about God are revealed in your passage?  How can you apply this text to your life immediately?

10.  Give it away.

Once The Holy Spirit has impacted your life as you have worked through the above process you are ready to pass along what He has done in you.  You are conveying not only knowledge and information, but you are also imparting to others the fruit of what God has done in you.  Be changed by God and let God change others through you.