2. My take-away from the notes this week was about ways that the local church is built and strengthened. When I think of mission work, either local or away from home, I think mostly about doing works or building relationships to spread the word of the Lord. Clearly, that is a major emphasis and we have seen Paul and Barnabas doing that everywhere they went. But that is only the first step. For that seed to take root it must be nurtured. I found the discussion on page 4 about strengthening, preparing, uniting and committing the new believers into local churches very informative and good food-for-thought. I had not thought about it before, but to realize that these new gentile believers were not welcome in the synagogues (the normal place for discussions about God), and as a result a new structure of house churches was being created even as the good news was being spread. I also thought it was interesting to think about how Paul and Barnabas strengthened their home church in Antioch with the stories about their trip. I had thought about their time back at the church as a way for them to re-energize and rest, but hadn’t thought about how powerful and inspiring their tales would be to the believers in the local church.
Tag: bsf acts study 2011-2012
BSF Acts: Bible Lesson 8 – Acts 14: Lecture
Aim: A relationship with Christ requires commitment. Commitment means not quitting when things get hard.
Introduction: Have you ever ridden on a roller coaster? When you decide to do it, you step into the car, snap the safety belt and the train leaves the station. You are committed all the way through, there isn’t anywhere to get off or turn back. When Paul and Barnabas were called by the Holy Spirit in Antioch to go on this mission trip, they prayed about it, the church prayed and fasted, they knew this is what they were supposed to do. They got onboard and strapped in. No matter the ups and downs, no matter how scary, they were going all the way. That’s commitment.
Last week we saw Paul and Barnabas shaking the dust from their feet as they left Pisidian Antioch, wanting to leave the negative things behind them. This week we see that the negative people followed them anyway, but some truly amazing things happen in spite of the opposition.
1st Division: Acts 14: 1-7 Paul and Barnabas speak effectively and boldly and many believe, but division occurs.
Principle: The power of the spirit raises the notice of the opposition
Illustration: Picture this: In a football game, a player is fumbling the ball, missing catches, doing bad passes or hand-offs and you are the coach of the other team. How many of your players are you going to devote to covering this person? Probably none. It is like they are on your team already. But what about the player who is doing everything well and scoring lots of points for their team. You might double or even triple team that player. We see this with Paul and Barnabas, but we also see it with our christian leaders today. When you are actively spreading the word and being bold and effective, evil powers will be sent to put pressure on you, to get in your way and to try to prevent you from winning. Thankfully, God has the master game plan!
Application: Are you asking for the ball? Are you practicing to be a better player on God’s team? Would satan worry about getting in your way?
2nd Division: Acts 14: 8-18 Paul and Barnabas show the power and majesty of the Creator, but the people of Lystra give credit to the created.
Principle: Only those who truly listen receive the miracle of faith
Illustration: When my wife was a child her parents saved up for months to buy her and her sister a kitchen set for Christmas. After opening the gift, the 2 kids spent much of the rest of the day playing with the box, ignoring the actual gift. This is how people can be. The healing of the lame man was only the outer wrapping of the actual healing that was occurring in his soul. The ability to walk on this earth was very short compared to his ability to walk the streets of heaven.
Application: Where are you being blinded by the wrappings instead focusing on the real gift? Where do you need to listen first so that you may be blessed?
3rd Division: Acts 14: 19-28 The Jews arrive, Paul is stoned, Paul is revived and continues in strength
Illustration: Life is full of peeks, valleys and plains. When we are a committed christian we will face opposition and persecution, and while we may not be stronger and we may be afraid and beaten down to our very last breath, God is stronger. God doesn’t ask us to go on alone. He doesn’t promise a smooth path, just the opposite, but he does promise to yolk us together with Him and with others. Often we gain our greatest encouragement and strength from those we teach. This is what Paul and Barnabas experienced as they finished their roller coaster ride back to its starting point in Antioch.
Application: Are you committed? Do you desire a flat trail – if so that might only be achieved once you flatline? Who are you encouraging and teaching so that you might be strengthened?
Conclusion: Lynn Anderson may have summed it up best – “I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden. Along with the sunshine, there’s got to be a little rain sometimes.”
Acts: Week 7, Day 4
Acts 14:19–20a and 2 Timothy 3:10–17.
Summary: The wolves arrive in Wolf Land! Out of town Jews travel over 100 miles to “win the crowd”. They take stone Paul and take him out of the city, but after they leave him for dead he got up and went back into town.
10. How quickly things can turn and how dangerous crowds (mobs) can become. But, seriously, after being left for dead by stoning Paul gets up and “went back into town”!?!?! I cannot see myself ever stepping foot back in the gates!
11. From Acts 16:1–3; Philippians 2:19–21; and 2 Timothy 1:2–5:
a. Timothy
b. I’m assuming this question refers to Gal 5:22-23 the fruits of the spirit (especially since that was the children’s memory verse this week!) Paul, in Timothy, found love, joy, kindness, goodness and faithfulness
c. God provides, through trials and persecution come blessings, the spirit blesses us through those we help teach and lead
12. (Challenge) I think this question is asking if Paul died at Lystra and then came back from the dead. Did he have an experience such as described in modern books such as Heaven is for Real or The boy who came back from heaven (both great reads, BTW)? Reading verse 5 of 2 Corinthians 12, I don’t think so. I think, in these verses he is talking about John. Paul may have died and been revived and he may have had a vision of heaven and the writing of this second letter to the Corinthians may have been 14 years later, but I think this passage refers to the Revelation to John – Rev 1:9-10, Rev 4:1
Conclusion: This verse and a half are the patron verses (is there such a thing?) of anyone who has worked in senior management, particularly at a large corporation. One day you can do no wrong. The people think you are a god. The next, a new consultant/author/leader comes on the scene. Next thing you know, you are being dragged outside the city walls and people are hurling stones at you!
Matthew Henry once said, “popular breath turns like the wind.” In our culture being liked, being popular, fitting in, particularly in youth but, frankly in all of us, can become an obsession. We can count and compare how many “friends” we have on Facebook. We can turn the television on to any number of shows based on judges criticizing (lambasting for sport) contestants. Paul learned a very important lesson in Lystra that he never forgot. It is never about Paul’s ministry, it is always about Jesus Christ.
Finally – is anyone else having a Sergeant Peppers album flashback??? Paul is dead. I buried Paul. (sorry, another one of those generational moments I have!)
Acts: Week 7, Day 3
Read Acts 14:8–18; Psalm 19:1–6; and Romans 1:18–32.
Summary: P&B move out of Iconium to Lystra and Derbe, smaller towns in the Lycaonians region. They preach and do miracles, but face a new challenge, the people want to worship them as gods rather than worship the true God of their message. P&B mourn, tearing their clothes, and attempt to set the people straight.
Questions
6. a. Preach first.
b. He listened and had faith to be healed
7. They were the messengers. They could not be confused with the master. The people wanted to accredit worship to them, which was the same as denying the only true on worthy of worship, God.
8. a. They worshiped “worthless things”. They had been allowed to go their own way.
b. Turn / No Longer — Worthless / Futile
9. a. There is no “ignorance” defense for not believing. God’s power and divine nature are evident in all creation and His work and blessings have been ongoing: rain, crops, food, abundance.
b. From all creation. From the bible. From Believers. From a thorough examination: it is the explanation with the least “leap of faith”.
c. It stands in opposition to their gods and belief system. Zeus is a child of Uranus and Earth. Hermes is a messenger These are man made gods as opposed to the one true God who created all.
Conclusion: The area that Paul and Barnabas are now in is a very large elevated plain. See this photo of the area. The area was ideal for raising sheep and the King of Galatia is said to have had as many as 300 flock of sheep of his own (anywhere from 12,000 to over 100,000 head of sheep) in this area, not counting those privately owned. Sadly, the people of the area appear, at least at this time, to be much more comfortable being sheep than shepherds. Interesting to note that the greek word, Lycaonia, literally means Wolf Land!
They speak a very different dialect and appear to have a difficult time seeing the depth and power of Paul’s message. They see the miracle, but like so many today, they can not see the bigger picture and try to process the miracle within their jaded mindset.
I recently read the formal report of a cardiologist who went to Joplin. He saw first hand the miracles that happened. People huddles in a closet who survive only to find the only walls in their house still standing is this one closet, or those lying in a bathtub who open their eyes to find their entire driveway and house ripped away, but their bathtub untouched. Through it, he first had heard the stories of the winged ladies who sheltered and protected these people. He knew it to be true enough that he wrote of it in his official newsletter to all patients and partners. But felt compelled to add the line “people have to believe in something.”
Acts: Week 7, Day 2
Summary: Paul and Barnabas preached “as usual”, effectively and boldy, in Iconium. God confirms His message of grace through miracles. The city is divided into two camps, Apostles and Jews. P&B learn of a plot to stone them so they leave for the outlying towns.
Questions
3. a. Effectively and boldly
b. Because I have learned to rely on the words of the bible and not my own, my witnessing is effective. However, I find that I am mostly bold in situations which probably do not require much boldness.
4. The word was spoken, many are saved, miracles are performed, but opposition was organized against the truth.
5. They rejected the message as being the truth and, as a result, fought it with the same fervor that Saul did before he saw the light. This is not a surprising reaction, although it is wrong.
Conclusion: Iconium, modern Konya, is on a roadway southeast of Pisidian Antioch by approximately 100 miles. According to last week’s notes, we learned that Romans considered a good day travel in this region to be about 16 miles so it would have taken the better part of a full week of travel to get here As you can see from maps of the area, Iconium is on a direct pathway, and roadway of that day, from Pisidian Antioch to Tarsus (Paul’s home town). The city, which was the capital of the area of Lycaonia, sits on the western edge of a great plain at 3600 feet elevation (more on this on Week 7, Day 3 Questions).
As the apostles head in the direction of Tarsus, they begin experiencing more of the fervor that Saul brought to the scene in his previous life. The Jews who stand in opposition to the truth, particularly now that “their God” is being co-opted into a God who is available to gentiles without them becoming jewish, is hitting a little too close to the core of what they hold as “theirs alone.” As a result, the passion against the truth is rising. Even with the authorities in Jerusalem, in opposition to Peter, we saw them mostly imprison, scold, and beat the Apostles. But, here, now, we see the people move quickly from treating them as guests invited to speak in the temple to something less that human that you would kill without trial by a mob throwing stones at it.
We will see Paul return to each of these places where seeds have been planted in future chapters of Acts and in the epistles. However, we also know that he felt the hatred of those who stood in opposition not only of him but of the grace of God. In 2 Tim 3:14 he recounts the persecution that he faced in this area.
Acts: Week 7, Day 1
2. There were three things that I found very interesting in this week’s notes.
The first was that Paul’s three missionary trips, the heart of his ministry, in total lasted only 10-13 years. What an amazing impact he made in such a short period of time. I have worked at jobs for more than 10 years and accomplished far, far less!
The second was the distance and terrain that Paul and his various companions travelled. In this first mission trip of 3 years, they spend almost 10 percent of their total time travelling from place to place, over treaturous seas and snow covered mountains on rickety bridges.. In each new town they have to find lodging and work (they supported themselves along the way so as not to be a burden or lead anyone astray.)
Third was the realization that the only reason that we have the writings of Paul is because God allowed him to be imprisoned. Had it not been for his forced solitude, it is clear that he would be in the field saving souls, not locked in a cell with someone documenting the notes, information and faith.
We are so richly blessed by the way that the Holy Spirit worked through this one man’s life. But, to me, the biggest realization is that the power of the Holy Spirit is ready and willing to work to that level again, today, in any devoted christian. Who knows what an amazing story our generation of believers may leave to childrena dn grand-children.
Acts: Week 6, Day 2
Paul addresses the Corinthian church teaching them about the real credentials of a faithful servant of Christ.
We have observed how Jesus did not meet the preconceptions of the Jewish people that he came to save. They expected someone bolder, taller, better looking, a warrior who would exalt them and conquer their oppressors. They were not looking for someone to save them from their sins, they were looking for a champion to make them feel better by knocking down the other guys for a change.
In much the same way, Paul did not meet the expectation of the Corinthian church and, in fact, some other false preachers had entered the scene who better met the image they had in mind. The other “super apostles” were better looking, more eloquent, dressed nicer, were friendlier. In other words, from an earthly perspective, they had better credentials to preach. Paul helps enlighten the church (and us) what real credentials look like.
3. 11:24 39 lashes; 11:25 beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, lost at sea; 11:26 homeless, dangers of loss of life from nature (sea, rivers) and men (bandits, Gentiles, own countrymen); 11:27 labored, sleepless, hunger, thirst, cold, naked; 11:28 anguish for churches; 11:29 tempted; 11:33 humiliation of being lowered in basket; 12:10 insults, hardships, persecution, difficulties
4. a. In 11:28 his anguish in concern for the church is greater than the physical abuse
b. Do I shrug when I see false teachings in the church and people being led away from the true word of God for a watered down version or does it cause me pain on par with physical beating?
c. This suffering was not a trivial thing, nor was it something put on display, it was simply who Paul was as a servant of the Lord. He didn’t cover it up but nor would he allow others to diminish it. If you fight the battle, you get scars.
Conclusion: How foolish we are if we believe there were false preachers in the early church and not today.
In attempts to reach to the unchurched or those that had been disillusioned by the church, rather than delivering the message of the rock and firm foundation, too many deliver a watered down gospel that, while it won’t do you much good, is really easy to swallow. They look the part, they dress the part, they read from the bible (selectively), they raise lots of money and sound really good. We all know them and the “churches” they form. But here is the deal. When we don’t stand up and speak out in the truth of the gospel, we allow them to dishonor the battle scars of great soldiers like Paul, James, Stephen and most importantly, Jesus Christ. The next time you hear a preacher say the words, “now the bible doesn’t really mean…” keep this in mind.
Acts: Week 6, Day 1
2. One of the things that struck me in the notes was the information provided about the hub of the church now moving to Antioch. To me, this shows that the center of the church is not in some physical place, but that it is centered on where the spirit is moving, where the word is being preached and where brothers are responding, proactively, to the needs of other brothers. It reminded me of the dialogue between Jesus and the woman at the well. She challenged Jesus over the physical location of worship – the temple in Jerusalem. In John 4:23 He replied: “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” I think we are seeing the church in Acts modeling worship in spirit and truth.
Acts: Week 5, Day 6
Acts 9:31–12:25.
15. I am learning from these lessons that the more I give up to God the more I receive in power and peace. It has made me question why I tend to hold onto stuff until it is simply too much to bear and, then finally, I relent it to God. It sounds insane, but it is like I am trying to impress God with my ability to take care of stuff. I know… when I think about it, it doesn’t make sense to me either. The story this week of Peter, the night before his “trial” and probably execution is chained to two guards, on a prison floor, sleeping like a baby. It makes me think about all of the times I wake up in the middle of the night or can’t sleep. My prayer is to remind myself of these lessons. God wants a humble heart, a heart that He will fill up with the power of the spirit and give peace in the midst of whatever is happening.
Bible Lesson 5: Acts 8-9:30
Aim: The good news spreads through witnessing and obedience despite persecution
Last week we left Acts with the death of Stephen and the joy he experienced, even while being murdered, in seeing heaven opened up and Jesus at God’s right hand.
I want to start this week with a different picture. Imagine you are sitting on a beach with some of your friends. The waves are lapping by your toes. The sun is shining but not too hot with a nice umbrella to shade you. After sitting for a while you go to get up and find that you have sunk down into the sand. There are only two forces that might help you – either a pull or a push. In our lesson this week we get to see examples of both. Saul’s persecution pushes the believers to move on to Judea and Samaria. Philip pulls Samarians into a true faith. Peter pushes Simon the Sorcerer to confront his sin. Jesus pushes Saul, then sends Ananias to extend a hand to lift him up, with a gentle push to Ananias thrown in first.
Division 1: Acts 8:1-40: Saul’s persecution spreads witnesses to “all of Judea and Samaria”
Principle: God fills a humble heart
Illustration: Discuss the differences in Simon the Sorcerer and the Ethopian Eunuch. The power that each had, the authority and influence and then how they each approached the teaching of Philip. Focus on accepting the gift with a humble heart.
Principle: Is pride and self reliance keeping you from fully experiencing God’s gift? (SS tried to buy it)
What in your life is “smoke and mirrors” that you don’t want to reveal to others? (SS’s whole profession was a sham)
Do you “go the distance” for your faith and take time along the journey to stop and study and learn? (EE traveled 1500 miles – reading Isaiah)
Are you putting off devoting yourself to God because you might appear a bit dirty in the process? (EE didn’t have an issue jumping into water along the side of the road)
Division 2: Acts 9:1-9: Saul “sees the light” on Damascus Road
Principle: God calls us to do His work
Illustration: Read things clearly. Saul was not an evil person. He was someone who was zealous about trying to do right in God’s eyes. If he believed or was taught that it was pleasing to God to go a mile, he wanted to go two. But Saul had been blinded to the truth about God by the very teachers that he thought were teaching him about God. Jesus had called these teachers a bunch of snakes who speak only evil. That doesn’t make what Saul was doing, right, but it does help us understand what is going on. Jesus asks Saul a question. Did Jesus not know the answer? Of course He did. He is God. He knows everything. One thing you will find in scripture is that when God asks us a question it is for us to stop and think, rather than to give Him an answer. Saul had been blinded by his teachers and his understanding. Jesus showed him just how blind he was so that Saul could re-open his heart to the true teaching of the spirit.
Application: Do you test all teaching against the word of the Lord or, if someone is an authority, do you just accept what they say?
What truth about Jesus might you be blind to?
Division 3: Acts 9:10-30: Ananias and Barnabas help Saul’s ministry by listening to God over their own fears
Principle: Fear may say stop, but God says go. Wise men go.
Illustration: I’m sticking with the story of Ananias and the fear he had and set aside to follow God. God sent him to see Saul. Picture this. There is men and his associates who, with the authority of the police and courts, are dragging people out of their houses, beating them, even killing them. Your name is on their list. God comes to you and says I want you to go to this guy, he is expecting you. What would you say? (I’ll talk a little bit more and read what Ananias said). Then look at Barnabas. You rarely see someone with more faith in God’s power than the Apostles, but here is this guy, when everyone else can’t see how Saul could possibly have changed, who believes that God can do any miracle, even this one.
Application: What is fear stopping you from doing that God is calling you to?
How many times does God need to tell you to Go?
How big do you believe God is and what he is capable of?
Closing: I want to bring some focus on “the supporting cast” in these stories this week. We spend so much time on the key players, such as Saul, that sometimes we completely miss the others. Did you notice the people that were with Saul on the Damascas road? They were part of this same “persecution party.” God didn’t call them by name, but did you notice what they did. They supported a missionary. They helped lead a blind brother. They stayed with him even when he wouldn’t eat for 3 days. Do you think Saul lowered himself in a basket down the side of the city walls at night?
While the bible is full of the names we know. The only way that they survive is by the quiet support of other believers (some of those others only coming to belief at the very same time). I think we need to model more of our lives on these quiet supporters. They don’t require a direct message from God, but when they see a brother with a need, they are filled with the spirit to help. God bless the quiet supporters of the faith.
The Notes are Good 