USING THIS CURRICULUM

Transcription

1 BIBLE FELLOWSHIP TEACHING PLANS WEEK OF NOVEMBER 13, 2016

2 USING THIS CURRICULUM PREPARATION This section is designed to guide your study preparation. First, you will be encouraged to read the Bible passages through, consulting the commentary provided as you need it to bring clarity or better understanding. Note that the commentary for each passage is provided within the heart of the study so that you can consult it more easily within the context of the passage you re teaching, or even read from it in your group if needed. Second, you will be encouraged to read through the entire teaching plan. Reading through the entire teaching plan ahead of time helps to ensure you have the best possible experience with your group. Some of the questions may not work for you or your group, and you might also come up with new questions that will work great with your group. Third, you will be encouraged to pray for all involved in worship and study each week. HIGHLIGHTS This section is designed to give you the big picture of the passages you will study and the teaching plan itself. The Biblical Emphasis simply states the main idea of the Bible passage(s) you will study. The Teaching Aim simply states the one thing you are aiming to communicate to your group through the study. INTRODUCTION, UNDERSTANDING, AND APPLICATION These sections represent the actual teaching plan you will use with your group. The Introduction Section is designed to engage all members of your group, regardless of their spiritual maturity, around the teaching aim of your study. The Understanding Section is designed to equip you to facilitate a group discussion on the texts or topics assigned. The questions will range from basic comprehension to specific application. Commentary from LifeWay Christian Resources is provided on each passage as well. Commentary is also provided to help you prepare in a more in-depth fashion, and also provide guidance for questions that may come from your group.

3 CALVARY ACTS 13:1-3; 11:19-21 WEEK OF NOVEMBER 13, 2016 TEACHING PLAN PREPARATION > Spend the week reading through and studying Acts 13:1-3; 11: Consult the commentary provided and any additional study tools (such as a concordance or Bible dictionary) to enhance your preparation. > Determine which discussion points and questions will work best with your group. > Pray for Pastor Rob, the upcoming group meeting, your teaching, your group members, and their receptivity to the study. HIGHLIGHTS BIBLICAL EMPHASIS: During the worship of the church at Antioch, the Holy Spirit called the church to send out Paul and Barnabas on their first mission journey, which would change the history of the church in the world. TEACHING AIM: God will call some of His people out to serve the world. MEMORIZE: As they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work I have called them to. Acts 13:2 3 Missionary Calvary

4 SPIRITUAL FORMATION GRID The 16 sessions in this series unpack the biblical truths summarized in the Spiritual Formation Grid. Sessions 1-4 explore who God is. Sessions 5-8 explore what God does. Sessions 9-12 explore who we are as a result of who God is and what He does. Sessions explore what we do as a result of who God is, what He does, and who we are in Him. THIS WEEK: MISSIONARY

5 INTRODUCTION As your group time begins, use this section to help get the conversation going. 1 What do you think of when you hear the word missionary? 2 Have you ever supported a missionary directly? What do you know about missionary families we have sent out of Calvary? 3 Are all Christians supposed to be missionaries? Why or why not? 19th Century British pastor Charles Spurgeon famously said that all Christians are either missionaries or impostors. The Great Commission is a command for all men and women who are known by Christ to make disciples. Missionaries are not just those select few men and women who leave their homes and go to a far off place to share the gospel. Missionaries are also the regular Christians who go to work from 8-5, or stay at home with children, or teach school. We must never stop being a church that believes in the missionary cause of God. Today we will see in Acts 13 how God used the normal activities of a church, worshiping God and hearing His Word, to send people out into the world as missionaries for His name. UNDERSTANDING Unpack the biblical text to discover what Scripture says or means about a particular topic. > Have a volunteer read Acts 13: Missionary Calvary

6 Verse 1 of Luke s account tells of the incredible diversity and gifting that was present in the church at Antioch. That church was comprised of prophets and teachers from a variety of backgrounds, which prepared them to be a church we remember for sending its members out. Reading the names in verse 1, is there anything that sticks out to you? What different backgrounds exist at Calvary? How can we use our diversity at Calvary to spread the gospel to a variety of different groups? Each of these prophets and teachers was from a different geographic region; there was ethnic, cultural, and racial diversity. While our church may or may not be diverse in the same way, there is a diversity of age, career, gifting, etc. Together, all of these unique backgrounds and gifts help us minister and work in many different areas. As the Holy Spirit gathered, the men in the church at Antioch sent people out across the world. Similarly, God has gathered abilities at Calvary and will use these abilities to make His name and salvation known. What were the people in the church at Antioch doing when God told them whom to send out? Why is it important to hear from God, both corporately and individually? How do you make time for both in your weekly schedule? What is the role of the Holy Spirit in sending the sent? How can we tune our hearts to hear from the Holy Spirit? 6 Missionary Calvary

7 Saul and Barnabas were certainly key leaders in the church at Antioch. What does it say about the church at Antioch that they were willing to send their best? How do we ensure that we are a church willing to send our best out for the mission? God used the regular worship gathering of the church to help the church discern what they should do and whom they should send. Each week in our worship services, we take time to intentionally hear from the Lord. In moments like this, God does mighty and unexpected things. If we are to be sent by God, then we have to prioritize hearing from God. The Holy Spirit will guide and shape this process and help us identify those whom He has called to the work God has for them. In this case, Saul and Barnabas were chosen. The church at Antioch cared more about being obedient to the call of the Holy Spirit than hoarding their best people for themselves. The church at Antioch fasted before and after Saul and Barnabas were sent. How do ongoing spiritual practices help us see what God is doing in the world? Saul and Barnabas were sent with support from Antioch and regularly checked back in with them. How can you support others called to a different place of service than your own? 7 Missionary Calvary

8 Practices like prayer and fasting put us in a place of submission to God and shape our hearts to hear from Him. The closer we are to God, the more clearly we will see those places where He is calling and blessing us to go. We should not only pray before, but also after we seek God s will. How could God use an ordinary person like you to reach your community and the world? The church at Antioch was able to sense what the Holy Spirit was doing because they were close to Him. How do you take care of your own soul so you can hear and see where God is working? Looking at the church at Antioch, we may say to ourselves something like, Well of course they did great things they had Saul and Barnabas. Let s take some time to look at the origin of the church at Antioch and see what we can learn from their beginnings. COMMENTARY ON ACTS 13:1-3 13:1. Luke begins by telling us about the leadership resources of the Antioch congregation. Five men are named, and two spiritual gifts come into focus prophecy and teaching. We should not be surprised to see Barnabas named first, since he was apparently serving as senior pastor in the Antioch congregation. We know nothing of Simon Niger except that his first name was Jewish and his other name Latin rather than Greek. Since Niger means dark-complexioned (or black), some have speculated that he may have come from African descent. Some believe he may have been the Simon of Cyrene (Luke 23:26) who carried Jesus cross and whose sons Alexandria and Rufus were Christians in the church at Rome (Mark 15:21; cf. Rom. 16:13). 8 Missionary Calvary

9 Much speculation surrounds Lucius of Cyrene, but the point is that we have no further information than what appears here. Luke tells us that Manaen had been brought up with Herod and uses the word syntrophos (indicating a foster brother or intimate friend) referring to Herod Antipas. Saul we know as a regenerated persecutor, now the chief teacher of the Antioch church. Today we would call these men missionary candidates. Is there a distinction in this group between prophets and teachers? Some suggest that the Greek text allows for this, but the more simple reading of the verse seems to indicate in general that all five possessed and used these gifts. It is not impossible, and perhaps even probable, that they all had the opportunity to at least see and hear Jesus in his earthly ministry. Perhaps none of them were believers until after the resurrection, but the Son of God, whose message they would now proclaim, would have been known to them as eyewitnesses. 13:2. Pronouns are crucial throughout these early verses of our chapter. Does the word they refer to the five candidates or to the entire congregation? There is no way to fix that conclusion grammatically, but we certainly understand the Holy Spirit speaks to the entire congregation when He calls for two of the five candidates to be selected for the mission. The word called, transliterated proskaleo, clearly indicates a divine call. Notice the climate in the congregation worship and fasting. Not frantic activity with programs burning out everybody in the congregation. In an attitude of worship and fasting they understood the Spirit to select missionaries for God s work. An interesting little word, so common in the Greek language and in English as well, yet in this case designating the missionary effort as a whole. It appears in the same context again in 14:26 at the conclusion of this first journey. During this process of selection, no one in the Antioch church, including the candidates, knew what lay ahead. We read these verses in the light of the entire chapter, and we know exactly where God s will intends to take them. They offered themselves to the Lord for whatever He wished and wherever He wished to send them. This verse strongly emphasizes call 9 Missionary Calvary

10 at two points the Holy Spirit sets the candidates apart and announces that God has called them for a special work. 13:3. The congregation continued fasting. Here Luke introduces praying (though surely they had been doing this all along). They commissioned the chosen two with the laying on of hands and sent them off, an interesting word (apelysan) which means to release them from their duties at Antioch. What a joyous passage. Willing workers released by a worshiping congregation through a wise procedure. No apostles were present the sending of the first missionaries was a people project. In verse 3 we have less problem with the antecedent of they. Clearly by now Luke is talking about the entire congregation (a strong likelihood throughout both verses 2 and 3), for the candidates would hardly lay hands on themselves. This missionary commissioning service demonstrates a planned and orderly congregational project and shows that, to a large extent, early missions was a lay movement. Luke makes it plain throughout the rest of Acts that Barnabas and Saul always felt themselves under the authority of the congregation at Antioch which had commissioned (not ordained) them for this specific missionary project. One can hardly overemphasize the significance of lay leaders, congregational involvement, and ministry teams throughout Acts. The church is not, and never has been, buildings, programs, and property. God s church consists of people, and the emphasis always falls on them in Luke s record. > Have a volunteer read Acts 11: What caused the church at Antioch to come into existence (v. 19)? According to verse 20, who started the church at Antioch? What did we just see that God used the church at Antioch to accomplish? 10 Missionary Calvary

11 Stephen s courageous defense of the gospel s universal scope had led to his martyrdom and intense persecution of the church (see 7:57 8:3). Acts 11:19 and following focuses on the activities of believers who were scattered as a result of the persecution. The men who started the church at Antioch are people whose names have been lost to history. Luke records their identity as some of them, but the Lord turned these unknown men into the greatest missionary sending church of the first century. God uses ordinary, obedient people to do incredible things for His name. What could God send the ordinary people in this group to do around the world, or around the corner? How will this group contribute to our mission of sending the sent? COMMENTARY ON ACTS 11: :19. This verse links back to Acts 8:4: Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Luke picks up precisely on that wording and continues the story of the dispersion of Hellenistic Jewish Christians after the death of Stephen. We know what happened to Philip; now Luke wants to tell us how God is about to do a new work in a most unlikely place. Most of these escaping Hellenists were not as radical as some would have thought. They carefully preached the message only to Jews in three places Luke names Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. The Phoenician plain extended seventyfive miles along the coast of middle Syria from Mt. Carmel to the Eleutheros River. Presumably, the scattered witnesses visited cities like Ptolemais, Tyre, Sidon, and even Zarepahth (cf. Acts 21:3-7). Others took to the sea, escaping to the island 11 Missionary Calvary

12 of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean, approximately one hundred miles off the Syrian coast. All these cities (including Antioch) were steeped in Hellenistic culture, logical places for the refugees to land. They would have had no trouble explaining their faith in Christ to Hellenists like themselves. As in the early ministry of Paul, these scattered Christians first went to synagogues and preached to Jews. 11:20. Antioch was different. The word Greeks seems synonymous with Gentiles in this context, and Luke fully intends us to see the link with what has been building throughout the last three chapters. Presumably, the men from Cyprus and Cyrene were Hellenists who had been in Jerusalem at the time of Stephen s martyrdom. Instead of returning home, they headed north to Antioch. So Antioch developed contact with both these places (Barnabas came to Antioch from Cyprus, and one of the first missionary candidates was Lucius of Cyrene, 13:1). This aggressive evangelism by anonymous preachers throws our heavily-programmed modern church into stark and feeble contrast. Never mind that they had been driven from their homes and scattered. Never mind that God led them to one of the most wicked cities of the Roman world. They had a message to deliver the good news about the Lord Jesus. Notice they didn t preach a coming Messiah; that appropriately related to Jewish groups. 11:21. God blessed these sincere Christians who were willing to share the gospel so that in Antioch a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. The church erupted at Antioch, and a new thing happened. Both the Ethiopian eunuch and Cornelius reached out to Christians, inviting the gospel. Here Jewish Christians aggressively take the gospel to Gentiles. The church has begun to turn the world upside down. The second congregation of the New Testament comes together as the Gentile effort expands. Bock writes, Antioch is a model community, engaging in evangelism, teaching, and ministry to brothers in need. There is no racial prejudice in the community. Only the testimony of divine reconciliation (Bock, 76). 12 Missionary Calvary

13 P R A Y Praise God for allowing us to participate in His Work in the world. Pray that you would be more obedient to sharing the gospel. Pray that God would clarify the places He is calling you to go and strengthen the gifts His Spirit is enabling you to use. 13 Missionary Calvary