Tag: bsf answers

BSF Acts: Week 23, Day 3: Ephesians 2:11–22

Questions:

7. a. where they came from: gentiles, uncircumcised, separate from Christ, excluded, foreigners, without hope, without God

b. The blessing that He gave me from a loving family and great church education and how far I fell from that promise before coming back to Him, but then also the power that He has entrusted to me by calling me to be holy and a brother of His son.

c. Remembering helps me understand how deeply God dug the foundation pillars with me.  Despite all but ignoring Him for several years, the foundation was strong and did not waiver.  He had work for me to do and each day He reveals more of what that is.

8. a. Negotiation, mutual compromise, give and take, mutually beneficial scenarios, promises and agreements, “aid”, war (peace by submission)

b. He is peace.  He made the two one (human and heavenly).  Abolished the law.  one out of two, making peace, reconciled

c. It is not a bargain, it is of God, by God and only is possible when it is with God.  There is no other lasting peace.

9. peace, no barrier, no wall of hostility, law abolished, joined (1 out of 2), reconciled, no hostility, 1 body, peace to far away and peace to near: both have access to the Father by the one Spirit

10. They are non-existent – we are one body in Christ, there is no difference or separation in God’s eyes as He views the church.  Near or far (I’m not sure which I am, the near or far) both have the same access to the Father and the One Spirit.

Final Thoughts:

1.This whole concept of peace negotiations is really critical to understand.  There are so many ways that earthly thinking (our world view) is so upside-down compared to God thinking.  I mean, even the term: peace negotiation.  Christ didn’t negotiate peace.  He didn’t offer a deal or coerce us into accepting something by threat, intimidation or force.  Could He have – well: He created everything and everyone and is all powerful.  I’m pretty sure the answer to that is yes.  But that isn’t what he did.  Peace with God is not a deal or state of time or condition of practice.  Peace is a being.  Peace is Christ: Christ is peace.  Stop a minute and get your head around that:  peace isn’t a what or a how, it is a who.  The only way to be “in peace” is to be “in Christ.”

We (humans) were not with God – because of sin we had separated from God.  Jesus Christ destroyed the wall, in him he took what was two and made it one again.  In dying on the cross, when he defeated death and rose again.  He did it as God and man combined in one.  The what he did cannot be separate from the who He is – joining us into Him joins us into Peace by making us holy as He is holy.  Being outside of Him is an un-natural and unstable state.  We were made in God’s image to be in communion with God.  The unstable state is sin and separation; the stable state (the one He created and designed) is peace in communion with Him. No wonder we have so much turbulence in a world that continues to live a outside of Christ.

2. Differences:  I live in a prominent suburban neighborhood and attend a church in city/county with a significantly above average household income.  And, the “Us helping Them” movements drive me insane.  Yes, I and people I sit in the rows with have money, education and resources at our disposal, but as soon as we enter into a mindset that we need to help them, we create a wall – the same kind of wall that Paul is trying to teach the Ephesians to not have in place.  We are the church, not this church and that church.  We need to give for the needs of the church, not for us to help them, because there isn’t an us and them (other than supporting missionaries who are going out to people who are not yet in the church).  Whenever we draw lines of white churches, black churches, hispanic churches, wealthy churches, poor churches, people with house, homeless people, well-fed people, hungry people – we put up a wall that separates.  Christ didn’t do walls – he ate with tax collectors, he healed lepers, he talked with prostitutes and thieves.  He even died for sinners to pay the price for their sins (that is you and me that we’re talking about).

Give generously and joyfully as your heart allows, but give with thanks to God not with guilt to demonstrate you have more or are better than “them.”  If you hear someone talk about helping “them” in your church – please, stop them.  There is no them in the body of the church – just us – helping each other through Christ.  Amen?

BSF Acts: Week 22, Day 5: Ephesians 1:20–23

Questions:

15. a. seated at the right hand of the Father in the heavenly realms.  Ruling all with authority, power, and dominion.

b. The church is the body of Christ, the fullness of him who fills – the church is the “supply chain management” division of God Inc.

16. a. I have a great boss and clear job objectives

b. I have all the power and authority required to do the work given to me as a member of the church and to help, support and empower my team-mates (only by asking)

c. I am not needed, but chosen to be given the gift of being a member of the winning team

 

Closing Thoughts:

Imagine that you enjoy the game of baseball.  You’ve thrown a few balls, hit a few with a bat, just for fun and the love of the game.

Now, imagine you just received a call from a pro team letting you know they are considering picking you in the upcoming baseball draft.  Now, imagine you get a call that not only might they pick you, but you might go within the first 20 rounds of the draft.  First 10.  First 5.  First round.  Ok, how about 2nd pick of the overall first round of the draft?

You would be amazed.  Beside yourself.  You would be anxious and worried… what do they want you to do, you would ask.  Do?  You don’t have to do anything, we are going to win the world (universe) series anyway.  We just want you to put on the uniform and be part of the team – not on the bench, catch a few, bat a few.  Get out and be an active part of the team, it is more fun.

There are many people who would give their left arm for far less when it comes to baseball, which is only a game.  But this is exactly what God offers us as christians.  He doesn’t need any skill we have, he just wants us on the team.  We don’t earn our way on the team, he picks us, first round, right behind his son.  Want to feel the full joy of winning?  Put on your uniform and get out and catch a few!

BSF Acts: Week 22, Day 2: Ephesians 1:1–14

Questions:

3. God

4. Acts 9:4 Encounter on road to Damascus, 9:17 given back sight, 14:19 stoned but then raised back, 20:9 brought back Eutychus from window fall, 16:26 jailhouse rock

5. From the seat of the throne in heaven, God has blessed us with all the power of being adopted into his family, of being co-heirs with Christ

6. a. chosen, blameless, gave glorious grace, redemption through his blood, forgiveness of sins, made known the mystery of his will, to be in Christ for the praise of his glory, marked with a seal, deposit, guaranteed inheritance.

b. redemption, forgiveness, to be in him and as such to be holy in the eyes of God

c. Adoption as brothers to Christ to be glorified by, in and with Him.

7. deliverance, rescue, salvation, atonement for guilt, repurchase – rescue helps me understand just how “at risk” I was.

 

Closing Thoughts:

I think you could do an entire sermon series on any one verse in Ephesians 1.  This is truly one of my favorite and one of the deepest chapters in the bible, IMHO.

For example, lets take our self image.  How are you feeling about yourself?  Do you consider yourself to be a saint?  Do you consider yourself to have been blessed by God with EVERY spiritual gift, all the spiritual blessings of heaven?  Do you consider that God chose you and in His sight you are blameless and holy?  Are you feeling holy?

But that is what Paul says of the believers in Ephesus who are, frankly, no different than us.  Not of these positive self images are because of anything they did, other than hear and believe (not major feats of skill).  But they are no less true.  But how we take away from God’s glory by denying the glory that He has cast upon us (not for ourselves, but because of who He is).

What difference would it make in your approach to live as a saint?  What difference could you make as someone chosen by God fully blameless and holy in His eyes?  What great things could you do without the baggage of doubt and worry.

The song Amazing Grace does not say we remain a wretch, only that we were one.

There is a poster I saw that sums this up:  What if you lived a life so that each day Satan said, “Oh, no, he/she is awake.”?  What is holding you back?

Acts: Week 21, Day 3: 2 Corinthians 10:1–11:15

Questions:

6. a. Luke 4, Jesus uses scripture to combat temptation by satan in the desert. Luke 22:32, Simon sifted like wheat, “I have prayed for you” Luke 22:44 “being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling”

b. Prayer saved me during a time of very dark fear in the hospital.  I had come out of heart surgery and my first night awake, the patients who had the same surgery on both sides of my room coded and died.  I remember reciting every prayer I could think of, including the Hail Mary which for a born and raised Lutheran was quite the feat.  As I have grown in God’s Word it has enabled me to teach and train others, particularly the young both in BSF, home and through other teaching and coaching.

7. a. Masquerading as an angel of light, as apostles of Christ. false and deceitful workmen. Masquerade as servants of righteousness.

b. cunning. lies, masquerades. the devil prowls like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour

8. a. Luke 4:1–2, 13: Jesus was tempted by devil in the desert

b. Luke 13:16: Jesus recognized Satan bound woman for 18 years

c. Luke 22:3: Satan entered Judas

d. Luke 22:31–32: Satan asked to sift Simon

e. John 8:44: Satan is a murderer and the father of lies – his native tongue

f. John 12:31; 14:30: judgment: prince of this world driven out

g. Revelation 12:9–11: the great dragon, accuser

h. Revelation 20:2: seized the dragon, satan, bound him for 1000 years

9. worldly jealousy is to covet what others possess. Godly jealously is to rightly desire what belongs to God and protect and preserve it as such.

 

End-Thoughts:

If you were Satan think about how you would do it.  First, you would do everything you could to make the thought of satan either be childish or weird.  Some made up tale.  It is much better to work covertly, than to have people understand that you are a real threat.  You would then get inside the church.  Work your way into church leadership where possible.  Be a false teacher that quotes from the bible, but, again, make the tough parts sound so silly and outdated. 

You would work your way up from the bottom of the commandment list.  You wouldn’t start with golden calves (although there are plenty to go around).  But coveting, that is way down on the list, start there. 

Don’t be fooled.  Satan is absolutely real as are his servants.  Christ recognized Satan as a real entity one who he interacted with and one who interacts directly with God.  That does make him on par with God, but it does make him real and an inhabitant of the spiritual realm.

 

BSF Acts: Week 20, Day 4: 2 Corinthians 5

Summary:

Using a tent analogy, Paul longs for his heavenly home.  He also discusses the fully transformational state of salvation.

Questions

11. a. We groan in longing for transformation, spiritual and physical, to live forever in the presence of God

b. Most of the time – Yes

12. a. to restore, harmony, to make congruous, to account for

b. allowed us to be born again, not of Adam, but of Christ, a new creation

c. Yep

Conclusion:

Once you’ve tasted the “good stuff” you long for it.  We will sometimes purchase milk from a local dairy.  This is amazing milk, rich, high in fat content, chocolate flavored so it tastes just like melted ice-cream or root beer flavored to taste just like a float.  After it, drinking normal skim milk is so pail in comparison (pail… a little dairy cow humor, there) that it just causes you to yearn for the good stuff.  The revelation of our heavenly bodies in an eternal home in the presence of God should cause us to moan in comparison with every breath we take in this body.

Paul points out that we are not just hosed down and cleaned up.  We are reborn – a new creation.  Born into Christ not Adam.

BSF Acts: Week 18, Day 2: 1 Corinthians 1–2

Summary:

The believers in Corinth have accepted the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, but they struggle to let go of their intellectual control.  Paul explains the vast chasm between God’s wisdom and man’s wisdom and how foolish their “decisions” to follow certain missionaries are in the face of Christ’s decision to save us by suffering death on the cross.  He explains the foolishness and weakness of man and how upside down we are.

Questions:

3. a. Paul was confident they had been sanctified, they called on the name of Jesus, they had received Christ and God’s grace, they had been enriched in every way, they did not lack any spiritual gift, they eagerly awaited Christ’s return.

b. Division in the church – arguments and following different missionaries.

c. Simply put – the answer is to follow only Christ, not any man.  Only Jesus was God’s son, died and was resurrected.  Only faith in Jesus delivers the gift of the Holy Spirt so that we live by the spirit (note, the reference should be Galatians 5:22–26: gifts of the spirit.)

4. a. Human wisdom involves observing the current state of an object, creating a theory for how it got to that state and then, based on the theory, projecting a belief on how it will change or stay the same in the future.  God created the object, created the laws that govern it and put it into motion watching it continually and guiding its path.

b. God give His wisdom to His people through His Spirit.

c. Paul did not speak with his own wisdom or persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power – the Holy Spirit gave him the words to speak and the message was always the same, Christ died, He is risen, He will come again

5. a. Many of the divisions in the church come from minor disagreements over emphasis of tradition or scriptural interpretation where theory, not specific words, are the difference and which do not pertain to the core message and/or the spirit.  However, we also must be diligent that our churches remain true to the word of God and do not preach a watered down version.  God’s truth cannot be sacrificed at the altar of coexistance.

b. All of scripture is focused on a single point – Jesus and His act of saving mankind from sin.  If we focus on the same point and live a life filled with fruits of the spirit and empowered by the spirit, then we live avoid the traps and pitfalls of men and enjoy the grace of and eternal life with God.

Conclusion:

How little changes in a couple thousand years.  Living as a soul with a body rather than the other way around is in such stark contrast to all the world sees and professes that we keep trying to put things in line with the other way of thinking.  But this is wrong.  It is foolishness and short-sightedness.  It also causes us to miss out on fully living in the spirit and enjoying the power and love that brings.

BSF Acts: Week 17, Day 5: Acts 20:13–21:15

Summary:

Paul meets with the leaders from Ephesus in a closing message of faith and hope as he sets his sights and begins the path to Jerusalem.  He is warned and foretold of the tribulation that awaits him there, but his calling leads him on

Questions:

13. humility and tears, severely tested by plots of the Jews, taught publicly and house-to-house

14. a. 20:27 For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.  I think this speaks to the boldness in the message that Paul had and encouraged others to have that I do not always possess.  I hesitate a lot.  I discuss rather than proclaiming and I spoon out the will of God in discussions rather than proclaiming the whole will of God.

b. Paul was vulnerable, confident and bold all at the same time.  This can only happen in a setting and with a group where there is loving fellowship.  Paul spoke openly of his life and desires and concerns and maintained confidence despite urgings from others for a less bold path

15. a. 35 more blessed to give than to receive

b. Start with how can I serve rather than what’s in it for me.

Conclusion:

Conviction. 

I worked with a lady who used to talk about how she tried to be a confident person.  For example, when she would get the message on her computer “the following action will erase your files, are you sure?”  She would explain, they clearly don’t know me – I am always sure.  I am not always right, but I am always sure.

Paul was sure as well.  The Latin roots of the word conviction mean, with proof.  Paul was plugged into the spirit and lived in that power to the extent that the message of the gospel wasn’t a belief – it was lived with proof as a fact.  He was convicted of his sin, he was convicted to the message, he had conviction in his delivery and he had conviction in his mission.   

But the biggest difference in the confidence and conviction that Paul had and my friend had is that what he was confident in was always right.

BSF Acts: Week 17, Day 3: Acts 19

Summary:

Paul in Ephesus teaches about baptism by the holy spirit.  He moves his daily teaching out of the synagogue into a school.  Non-believers attempt to use the power of Jesus’ name, but they are not connected to the source of the power.  Healing and miracles occur and many confess, believe and shed themselves of old sins (burn scrolls).  Paul leaves to continue his mission work and a riot breaks out spurred by the idol makers guild.  A city clerk calms the crowd, reminding them there is a proper process for grievances that doesn’t involve angry mobs.

Questions:

5. They had been cleansed of sin (repentance), but had not been baptized into the Lord Jesus and received the Holy Spirit?

6. Paul taught in the Synagogue for three months, but after being publicly maligned he moved out to a lecture hall of Tyrannus and taught for 2 more years so everyone heard and he was performing great signs and miracles.

7. There is power in God’s name, but not as an incantation.  We are a conduit of the power but we must be connected to the source

8. a. They changed their lives.  They purged themselves of wickedness even at a cost (the cost was to keep others from the same sin)
b. (Personal) Time wasters.  Those worthless diversions that bring no value to myself or others and waste the gift of time that He has given me.

9. (Challenge) There is no authority on earth except what God allows.  God is not against governments, he sets the boundaries of nations, nor is he aligned with a political group.  His kingdom in the bounds of this world.

  • Acts 19:23–41 City clerk calms idol makers’ mob
  • John 19:10–11 Pilate authority over Jesus: Only what given to him by God;
  • Acts 16:37–39 Paul and Silas after prison earthquake: magistrates appease because they are Roman citizens
  • Romans 13:1–7, submit to governing, no authority except given by God

 

Conclusions:

There is a lot of neat stuff in today’s scripture.  Some people burn “valuable” scrolls others create a riot because peoples’ changed lives threaten their business model.

One of the neatest parts I saw was the model that Paul established for planting a new church.  He didn’t build a building and start having Sunday services.  He started by daily study groups.  He created a place and time that people could come and discuss and have their questions answered, every day.  The more he opened up the good news to the people the more power flowed through Paul – not his own power, but the power of the spirit – that even by touching his used sweat rags caused healing.

 

BSF Acts: Week 17, Day 2: Acts 18:23–28

Summary:

We are introduced to Apollos, a brilliant and articulate man with a fervor for God.  After additional instruction from Aquilla and Priscilla he goes on to provide great teaching and ministry in Corinth.  So great that there is division in Corinth over which preacher they follow which Paul attempts to correct in a letter to them

Questions:

3. a. The region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples

b. (Personal) My family, my BSF group of kids (and indirectly their parents), my co-workers and employees

4. a. a learned man, thorough knowledge of the Scriptures, instructed in the way of the Lord, spoke with great fervor, he taught accurately and spoke boldly

b. The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.  If he knew only the baptism of John then he new the messiah had come, the son of God himself, to save the world, but he may not have had complete understanding of the resurrection.

c. They encouraged and helped pave the way for him to go into Christian ministry and missionary work.  They were from Corinth and sent letters ahead to the disciples there.

d. People in Corinth began following and idolizing the preacher instead of the message being preached.  They began forming factions of Paul followers vs Apollos followers.  Paul makes 2 points: we are both only men/servants; we are a team (I planted seed, he watered it, God made it grow).  Apollos wanted to stay away to not cause disharmony.

Conclusions:

What was Apollos most admirable trait?  This wasn’t a BSF question, but one I thought was interesting.  He had great intellect, poise and presence.  He had great command of the scriptures.  He was articulate and passionate.  All of those are great characteristics.  But to me was the fact that he set all that aside to receive additional instruction from Aquilla and Priscilla.  Keep in mind these were not university professors or temple scholars – they were tent makers.  But Apollos recognized the truth in their message and saw the spirit move in their instruction. 

I think his most admirable trait was a characteristic that he apparently didn’t have: arrogance.  So often higher learning and strong persuasive skills lead men to believe the more or better than others.  Apollos apparantly, as Paul put it to the Corinthians, was first and foremost a servant.

Online Resources

I like doing my lesson online and thought that it might be good to share some tools I have found that make it easier and a more rich and in-depth study.

Obviously, bsfgroups.org (now preview.bsfinternational.org/lessons) is the official location for getting the lesson in a pdf format with space to type in answers on the form.

bsfonline.org goes lesson by lesson and provides all of the bible passages referenced in the lesson in one concise place.

blueletterbible.org is my favorite source for getting deeper into the word.  With one click I can see dozens of different versions of any passage.  It also links to the Greek and provides translation and interpretation through Strong’s Dictionary.  There are also links to sermons and study materials from pillars of faith.

dropbox.com is the tool I use to store my lesson.  Dropbox automatically puts a copy on my work computer, home computer and even provides access via web if I am somewhere else.  No more excuses that my lesson is at home so I can’t work on it over lunch at the office.

wordpress.com is, obviously, the blogging tool I use.

biblegateway.com is not only a great bible site but it reads the passages.  This is not a mechanical, computer voice but a voice actor.  On the long passages (like last week to read 2nd Thes) I can turn it on while doing other chores and get the joy of hearing the word.  This is also helpful to learn the pronunciation of many of the towns.

atozmom.wordpress.com is another bsf lesson blogger who has been doing this for a few years.

If you have others, please share them for everyone reading this to see.  Do you have favorite blogs, websites, tools or especially mobile apps that you use?