Making Textual Observations: Step 2 in Creative Digital Sermon Prep

After you pick a text, you’ll want to start making textual observations about what’s in the text. The preacher looks at the passage to discover what God says to his people. It’s an important step because it focuses on what God says instead of what we think it says.

Making Textual Observations means following a few important steps before you ever even open a reference work like a commentary, Bible dictionary, lexicon, or concordance. You’ll start with the Bible text itself and see what you already know or what’s obvious in the English translation unless you’re skilled enough to do this step in Greek or Hebrew. You will then move on to discover what you don’t know. You will look at the text in context and see what’s there, hopefully with no preconceived notions.

Here’s our process for Making Textual Observations, step 2 in the 10 Steps of Creative Digital Sermon Prep.

1. Pray for God’s guidance as you observe the text, asking Him to remind you of what you already know and to reveal what is obvious.
2. Read and re-read the text both by itself and in the context of the chapter, the larger section of scripture, and the book of the Bible (if it’s a shorter book).
3. Set up a system for recording your observations.
4. Create an outline of the passage.
5. Record observations about each word, phrase, sentence, verse, and paragraph.
6. Reread the text to add final observations about the passage as a whole. Include how it relates to the overall context.

We assume that you will pray at every stage, so we won’t spend much time explaining what to pray. Ask God to bless your preparation with understanding and wisdom as the Holy Spirit helps interpret the text for you. Ask him to give you a sense of the passage’s intended meaning, and ask him to avoid clouding that understanding with your own prejudices. My seminary professors called eisegesis.

System of Notes for Making Observations of the Text

Your system of notes will depend on your situation, personality, and preferred way of working. Since this series focuses on Creative Digital Sermon Prep and we’re using Logos Bible Software, we’ll focus on digital forms of note-taking in the program or app. Here’s a list of other options for recording your notes that I’ve heard over the years before using Logos.

• Use your Bible software note-taking features as I do with Logos Bible Software.
• Record the notes in a document using your word processor. Before settling on Logos for note-taking, I created a Bible Notes folder and a Word document for each book. In the document, I added chapter headers and then recorded notes.
• Use a note-taking app or program like…
  • Microsoft OneNote – all platforms
  • Evernote – all platforms
  • Google Keep – online, Android, and iOS
  • Notability – iOS and macOS
  • Goodnotes – iOS, macOS, Windows, and Android
  • Notes – built into iOS and macOS
  • Notepad – built into Windows

Later in this post we will look at using Microsoft Word and the best practices for setting up and taking notes in Word.

The new Draw On Screen feature on iOS or the desktop version of Logos could help with digital note-taking. You can draw on your screen and then export the image to a file or copy and paste it into a Logos note attached to your passage.

Using Logos Bible Software for Making Textual Observations

I use Logos Bible Software to take notes of the text. It’s in the same program where I do my research and reading. I can later find it by looking for icons connected to a verse (see the yellow icons in the image below), so my study of a passage today can assist me when I study it later. Also, you can search the notes. A lot of Bible study programs will show your notes when you search.

You can easily set up a note in Logos to help as you’re making textual observations. Select the passage, verse, or words you want to attach a note to. On the desktop, right-click the selection and choose Reference on the left side of the pop-up menu. If you add a note to Psalm 134:1, it will say Reference Psalm 134:1 (see image below).

Once you choose Reference, the second item in the list on the left, click the Add note to make a note not filed in a Note file. You can also click on the title of a Note file. You’ll see above I have a Bible Notes note file. I could click that to add to that file. A new note that’s anchored to the reference will be displayed in Logos.

On the iPad and iPhone, you’ll see a window that shows ways to annotate the text. In that box, you’ll see the Note button. Tap on it to create a new note for the verse, passage, word, or phrase.

If you want to see your note in any Bible translation, you need to anchor the note to a reference. Sometimes, you create notes attached to the verse in a translation, like Psalm 134:1 in the KJV or ESV. You can change that by adding a new anchor in the note entry.

Setting Up a Word Processor for Making Observations of the Text

Most of us already own and know how to use a word processor. I use Microsoft Word, but you can use any word processor, like Google Docs, Apple Pages, or any online or free word processor. If you don’t like how your Bible software note-taking features work and would not prefer to use handwriting to take notes, consider using the tool you already understand. The suggestions below will work with any Word Processor.

Create a file for your sermon, and then start recording the observations. When it’s time to write the sermon, you have all the observations in the same document. You could save the document in a folder on your computer, print it off for later reference, or write your sermon in that same file.

Others who use a word processor prefer to keep the notes separate from their sermon. I’d recommend creating a folder on your computer for each book of the Bible numbered by book number from 1 to 66. That way, you can find notes in canonical instead of alphabetical order. You can create note files for each chapter or passage inside each folder.

Inductive Bible Study

We want to approach our study in an Inductive way. Inductive Bible Study avoids bringing outside influences to bear as much as possible for a believer. We do this by observing specific details and avoiding conclusions until after seeing all the specifics. You go from the details to the whole or the specifics to the general ideas.

Detective novels like Sherlock Holmes use inductive reasoning to solve crimes. The detective examines the details or facts of the case to conclude “whodunit.” We do the same, observing the facts in a passage to discover God’s intended message.

In an inductive study of the Bible, we let the text itself speak. The main idea comes from the text, not from our thinking or opinion. Second, we look at how the writer covers the main idea and how the writer applies that idea to life to discover the original writer’s intended message, as inspired by the Holy Spirit of God.

This inductive approach involves first looking at the text without outside influences and trying to figure out what it means as intended by God through the original writer. Then, we consult external sources to find the meaning or confirm what we already perceive the meaning to be.

The preacher can follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit using the inductive approach. We then use Bible dictionaries, lexicons, commentaries, Bible handbooks, and other preachers’ sermons to help us confirm our findings or check us against wild theological error.

Process of Making Observations of the Text

For Bible, study observation means identifying significant details in a careful examination of the particulars of the Scripture passage. The aim of recording these observations is to understand the intended meaning of the writer.

Wayne McDill, 12 Essential Skills for Great Preaching: Second Edition, Revised and Expanded, (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2006), 38.

Making observations of the text is the first step in Inductive Bible study. Think of yourself as a journalist asking about an event from a participant in a new story or a historian who’s trying to write about something important in history that took place. You could also approach this like a detective trying to get at the truth without letting preconceived notions get in the way of the facts and the rightful conclusions.

The list of Investigative Questions helps. They begin with…

• Who
• What
• When
• Where
• Why
• How

Let’s take Ephesians 1:7-8 as an example text. Open a simple layout like the one above. I’ve opened four translations and a notes window. There’s also a Copy Bible Verse window open on the right. I always keep that handy in case I want to copy a passage to another program or a note in Logos. I used it to copy the passage below.

Ephesians 1:7–8, LSB
7- In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our transgressions, according to the riches of His grace

8- which He caused to abound to us in all wisdom and insight,

We can begin by making observations like the following and recording them in a Note file in Logos.

• In context, “Him” refers to Jesus.
• Our redemption is “in Him,” meaning he is the source and creator of that redemption.
• We have this redemption, which we presently possess thanks to Jesus.
• The redemption comes through the blood of Jesus – his blood made it possible.
• Blood refers to the cross and sacrifice of Jesus.
• Blood would invoke reminders of OT sacrifice.
• Forgiveness comes as part of the redemption.
• God forgives us, which brings about our redemption.
• Trespasses are sins related to breaking a boundary or crossing a line.

That list only covers the first half of verse seven. We still have not examined the context and how it relates to the verses before and after. We still have not discussed the author, Paul, and the recipients, the church at Philippi. This set of observations does not come close to covering all that we could say about this passage without ever looking up the words and ideas in the passage in our Bible reference collection inside Logos.

This first part of the Inductive Bible Study needs to be that comprehensive. We should look for details we can see in every word, phrase, sentence, verse, and passage. We should focus on what we know from the text or context. Avoid bringing in your outside understanding at this point. For example, the preacher may know the Greek words behind the text. Resist including such information at this point. We’ll discuss word studies in a post later in the 10 steps.

Use the instructions above to set up a note for your verse, passage, or word. I prefer one note for each verse. In later steps, I include all observations and research information I find.

Conclusion

In this second step of the process, the student simply wants to look at the text and decide what the bare text says without looking at outside resources. Let the Holy Spirit begin to implant the ideas in your heart. Don’t worry about understanding everything. Just look at what you already know and record it. You’ll be amazed at how much you can come up with by thinking really hard about this.