I praise the Lord for this opportunity to learn His Word, be sensitive to the subtleties within the texts, and have fun doing them.
Sometime around March this year, our church (Community Bible Church of Marikina) in partnership with ELI Asia started the New Testament Survey 1 Class. It covers an overview of the gospels (Book of Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John) and also covers the book of Acts.
This is the first time I was able to participate in a course offered and taught by Ptr. Nicky Joya. While I only got to know him and his ministry a few months back, I already got a good sense of what to expect in this class.
Going through each gospel was a delight and I had a great time learning, discussing, and sharing thoughts with my classmates. During the classes, we were made to go through the books as if we were there seeing and understanding the context of what the authors had in mind.
From this class, I learned how to draw more out of the text and see things from the perspective of the gospel writers. Ptr. Joya is a delight to listen to, I never felt bored and felt we need to extend more. But it was past 9 pm already. There’s so much to unpack. He was able to communicate clear and concise key ideas to his students without sacrificing the necessary details that we need to catch. He is very animated too — and that brings delight to us which makes learning even more fun.
It was also a blessing to me that I get to experience this with my fellow churchmates so that we can get to discuss and sometimes debate on certain ideas that the text confronts us with. In addition, we have this “Motif analysis” where we would employ all the things we have learned (or shall I say should have learned) in analyzing a particular idea or theme within the book of our choosing (Matthew, Luke, Mark, and John). It was rather intimidating given the breadth of topics we have covered but after you’ve chosen your specific motif, you now have to do an “in-depth” study and do your analysis. We were taught ways to divide and interpret the Scriptures better — minus the labels (which I think sometimes blinds people).
For me, I chose the “Kingdom of God” motif from the gospel of Mark. It resonated with me the most. I was drawn to tackle this idea with how Mark used it concerning the overall theme of the book — which is addressing the suffering and persecuted Christians of his day, to continue in the work and life modeled by Christ. This struck me profoundly in ways I still couldn’t put a finger on to this day.
We can relate today.
Christians are increasingly being alienated, ostracized, and persecuted. We are called derogatory names, given false accusations, and the society (government, schools, and work) has become hostile. But I found comfort going through the book. Checking concordance (Strong’s), and studying other people’s work helped me go deeper in this. The comfort is that we are part of His Kingdom now and forevermore.
While this class certainly helped me be more equipped in faithfully handling His Word (especially the 4 gospels and the book of Acts), it dawned on me how little and narrow I can grasp. Yes, it provided me with tools to exegete the text better, but all the more I felt inadequate and begging before His throne.
To me this is not just a paper for the paper’s sake. This is more than just an academic exercise. It’s worship. It’s devotion, and a self-examination of sorts that our King is here and reigning now, and He will come back again.
Soli Deo Gloria.
