BIG IDEA: The Holy Spirit guides my study of The Bible.
This free Bible lesson, How to Study The Bible, will teach preschool and elementary students about what The Bible is, and how to study It through prayer.
FOCUS BIBLE PASSAGE: 1 Corinthians 2:6-16
All of the printable activities and digital slides needed for the lesson, as well as a full printable lesson plan for both elementary and preschool are available.
Below is the outline of the free elementary Bible lesson.
PREP & SUPPLIES
- several printed copies of “Bible Study” guides
- pencils/pens
- student Bibles and/or audio Bibles
- optional: dictionaries
- printed “How to Look Up a Bible Verse” for each student
LESSON HOOK ACTIVITY
We have learned about:
(SLIDE) how Jesus taught us in Matthew 4:4 that we cannot live by bread (food) alone, but we NEED The Word of God (The Bible) to “feed” us spiritually.
(SLIDE) how sin separates us from God, but God made a plan to bring humanity back to Him and offers us life forever.
(SLIDE) how The Bible is one big story that teaches us about God’s plan of saving us.
(SLIDE) how The Bible is made up of 66 books written by over 40 human authors over 1,500-2,000 years and it has no errors.
(SLIDE) how The Bible is divided into The Old Testament and The New Testament.
The Old Testament has 39 Books and teaches about the time before Jesus came to earth to live as a human being.
The New Testament has 27 Books and teaches about Jesus’s birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and after He went back to heaven.
The Old Testament points to The New Testament, and The New Testament explains The Old Testament.
(SLIDE) how 2 Timothy 3:16 teaches us:
that God “breathed life” into The Bible, which means the words in The Bible are God’s very words.
that The Bible teaches us what is true and right.
that we make mistakes and sin every day, but The Bible teaches us how to live in the right way.
that without God we are not whole and The Bible teaches us how to find God through Jesus so that we can be whole.
that The Bible teaches us how to live in this world when living in this world isn’t easy.
(SLIDE) that The Bible teaches us what is right, what is not right, how to get right, and how to stay right.
BIBLE LESSON
We have learned (1) what The Bible is, and (2) why we should study The Bible. Today we are going to learn HOW to study The Bible.
Raise your hand if you can say that you already spend time studying The Bible.
There are different ways that people study The Bible, but today we are going to go over some of the ways and do a little bit of practice. You may find out that these ways work well for you, or you may have a different way that you study that works well.
(SLIDE) The first thing we should always do when we are getting ready to read and study our Bibles is pray. What exactly are we doing when we pray? (allow responses)
When we pray, we are talking to God! God hears our prayers and when you ask Him to help you understand what you read in The Bible, The Holy Spirit will guide you as you are reading.
When a person accepts Jesus and becomes a believer in Jesus (a Christian), Jesus sends The Holy Spirit to live inside of the person. The Holy Spirit guides believers to be able to understand Scripture (Bible passages).
(SLIDE) We learn about this in the Book of 1 Corinthians.
[God has shown these things to us through his Spirit. The Spirit understands all things. He understands even the deep things of God. 1 Corinthians 2:10 NIrV]
(SLIDE)
[What we have received is not the spirit of the world. We have received the Spirit who is from God. The Spirit helps us understand what God has freely given us. 1 Corinthians 2:12 NIrV]
“What we have received” means the people who have believed in and accepted the free gift of salvation that Jesus offers us all.
The Holy Spirit helps us understand “what God has freely given us”, which is His Word, The Bible.
(SLIDE) Big Idea: The Holy Spirit guides my study of The Bible.
SLIDE)
[The person without the Spirit doesn’t accept the things that come from the Spirit of God…They can’t understand them. In fact, such things can’t be understood without the Spirit’s help. 1 Corinthians 2:14 NIrV]
In order to understand many of the Truths found in The Bible, we HAVE to have the help and guidance from The Holy Spirit.
This is why it is important to start your Bible study time with prayer.
(SLIDE) As you begin your Bible study and you start reading the passage, read it slowly, think as you are reading, and read it again if you need to.
Any time you read any text or book, do you always understand every word and everything that you read?
Of course not!
It is completely normal to read something and come across words that you haven’t seen, or that you have seen but don’t know the meaning of. It is also normal to read something and not understand what you have read.
(SLIDE) As you are reading, when you notice unfamiliar words, or words that you don’t know the meaning of, write those words down so you can look up the meanings before you read the passage a second time.
Also as you are reading, write down any questions that come to your mind so that you can try to find out the answers by researching or asking someone else.
(SLIDE) After you finish reading the passage and you feel like you understand what it is teaching you, write what you learned in your own words and make notes of what stood out to you as you were reading.
(SLIDE) Then, reflect on what you have read and what you have learned and think about how you can apply the lessons to your own life. How can you use what you learned in your own life?
(SLIDE) It is always a great idea to end your Bible study time with another prayer. You can ask The Holy Spirit to show you ways you can use what you have learned.
Sin entered the world through Adam and Eve when they chose to disobey God and eat the forbidden fruit. Since then, mankind has been living under a curse of death and separation from God. The Bible is 100% true and flows together in every word. The Bible is a beautiful story about God’s plan to redeem humanity through Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross.
What did Jesus do for us on the cross? (allow responses)
We all have sin in our hearts. Sin separates us from God. Jesus died on the cross to take away our sins.
The whole Bible teaches us about God’s plan to give us Jesus’s free gift of salvation so we don’t have to be separated from Him anymore.
The Bible is the only Book that will last forever and God gave it to us to guide us in every part of our lives. The Bible teaches us about God’s plan to give us Jesus’s free gift of salvation. It is important that we spend time reading and studying God’s Word, The Bible.
The Bible Lesson and Large Group Activity are combined for the remainder of this lesson.
Lead students in prayer before explaining the study activity.
Dear God,
Thank You for Your Word, The Bible, and all of the lessons and Truths that we can learn about by reading It. Please guide us as we learn about The Bible. Please help us to understand everything that You want us to learn and please help us to be bold enough to ask questions if there is something that we don’t understand. Thank You for sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins to save us and bring us into a friendship with You.
We love you and we pray all of these things in Jesus’ sweet name, Amen.
(SLIDE) Today we are going to spend some time learning how to study The Bible.
Everyone is going to start out with one Bible Study paper. You can use this page to guide you as you study one of the passages listed on the screen. If you finish studying one of the passages and you would like to study a second passage, you may ask a leader for another paper.
This study time should be independent, meaning you should be reading and studying by yourself and not with a friend, unless you need help reading from a leader.
LEADER NOTE: Allow time (10-15 minutes if possible) for students to read and study independently keeping in mind that younger students may need help finding, reading, and comprehending passages.
You may choose to provide audio Bibles and dictionaries for students to look up unfamiliar words.
SMALL GROUP ACTIVITY
Each student should get a blank copy of the “Bible Study” guide page they used during the large group lesson and a copy of “How to Look Up a Bible Verse”. Encourage students to keep these two papers in their Bibles or a safe place at home. You can even encourage parents to make copies of the “Bible Study” guide pages.
You may choose to go over the students’ “Bible Study” guides and help them to further comprehend the passages they chose to study and help them to build confidence in the time they spent studying.
Spend some time discussing with students the Truths they learned and how they can apply the lessons to their lives.
BREAK INTO SMALL GROUPS TO COMPLETE THE ACTIVITY.
Discussion Prompts for Leaders:
- All mankind is born into sin because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve, causing separation from God.
- Sin separates us from God. The punishment for sin is death. The good news is that God made a plan to bring humanity back to Him and offers us life forever.
- His plan is through Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross.
- We learn about God’s plan by reading His Word, The Bible. Our Bible is one story about God’s plan to bring humanity back to Him after sin was brought into the world by Adam and Eve’s disobedience.
- We should study The Bible because The Bible teaches us what is right, what is not right, how to get right, and how to stay right.
- It is so important that we spend time studying the Bible every day so that we can learn what The Holy Spirit wants to teach us and so that we can grow closer to Jesus through His Word.
- The first thing we should always do when we are getting ready to read and study our Bibles is pray.
- When we pray, we are talking to God! God hears our prayers and when you ask Him to help you understand what you read in The Bible, The Holy Spirit will guide you as you are reading.
- When a person accepts Jesus and becomes a believer in Jesus (a Christian), Jesus sends The Holy Spirit to live inside of the person. The Holy Spirit guides believers to be able to understand Scripture (Bible passages).
- In order to understand many of the Truths found in The Bible, we HAVE to have the help and guidance from The Holy Spirit.
- This is why it is important to start your Bible study time with prayer.
- It is normal to not understand what you are reading the first time you read it. It is also normal to not know the meaning of every word you come across in the text.
- Does anyone have any questions about today’s lesson?
CLOSING REFLECTION
We learned that as we read the Bible, we should focus on what the passages mean, and what God is teaching us through His Word. All mankind is born into sin because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve, causing separation from God. The good news is that God made a plan to bring humanity back to Him and offers us life forever. His plan is through Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross. When a believer accepts Jesus, He sends the Holy Spirit to indwell the person. The Holy Spirit guides believers to be able to comprehend Scripture (1 Corinthians 2:6-16). We should always begin a Bible study with prayer asking God to help us understand what we read. Then, we should think as we are reading, write down questions and unfamiliar words, and read the text more than once if we need to. After we have confidence that we understand the text, we should write the Truths we learned in our own words and reflect on how to apply the lessons to our lives and then pray to ask The Holy Spirit to show us ways to use what we learned through our study.
Reflection Questions:
- Why is it important to spend time reading and studying The Bible? (so we can learn what The Holy Spirit wants to teach us and so we can grow closer to Jesus)
- What does the Bible teach us? (about God’s plan to bring humanity back to Him after sin was brought into the world by Adam and Eve’s disobedience)
- Does anyone have any questions about today’s lesson?
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