Young People s Bible Class December 2016, January, February 2017 WINTER QUARTER
Vol. XCVIII No. 1 Young People s Bible Class WINTER QUARTER December 2016, January, February 2017 The Quarter Ahead... 2 Editorial... 3 Creation and Salvation UNIT I: The Saviour Is Born Dec. 4 The Promise of a Saviour Luke 1:26-38... 5 Dec. 11 The Promise Affirmed Luke 1:39-56... 10 Dec. 18 The Forerunner of the Saviour Luke 1:8-20... 15 Dec. 25 The Saviour s Birth (Christmas) Luke 2:8-20... 20 UNIT II: All Creation Praises God Jan. 1 Praising God the Creator Ps. 33:1-9... 25 Jan. 8 All Creation Joins in Praise Ps. 96:1-6, 10-13... 30 Jan. 15 Praise God the Provider Ps. 65:1-2, 9-13... 35 Jan. 22 Praise for the Creator s Wisdom Ps. 104:1-4, 24-30... 40 Jan. 29 All Creation Praises the Lord Ps. 148:1-14... 45 UNIT III: The Church Is Born Feb. 5 Heirs of the Promise Gal. 3:26 4:7... 49 Feb. 12 Delivered from Bondage Gal. 4:8-20... 53 Feb. 19 Freedom in Christ Gal. 5:1-17... 57 Feb. 26 Holy Living in the Spirit Gal. 5:18 6:10... 61 Edited and published quarterly by THE INCORPORATED TRUSTEES OF THE GOSPEL WORKER SOCIETY UNION GOSPEL PRESS DIVISION Rev. W. B. Musselman, Founder Price: $2.05 per quarter* $8.20 per year* *shipping and handling extra ISBN 978-1-59843-429-3 Lessons based on International Sunday School Lessons; the International Bible Lessons for Christian Teaching, copyright 2013 by the Committee on the Uniform Series and used with permission. Edited and published quarterly by The Incorporated Trustees of the Gospel Worker Society, Union Gospel Press Division, 2000 Brookpark Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44109-5812. Mailing address: P.O. Box 6059, Cleveland, Ohio 44101-1059. www.uniongospelpress.com
The Quarter Ahead The lessons for this quarter are joined thematically by the promises to and the faith of Israel. In Luke the promises to Israel are realized in the birth of Messiah. In Psalms the faith of Israel is expressed poetically with reference to nature. In Galatians the promises of the Old Testament have been fulfilled, and Gentiles have turned to God through the Seed of Abraham. In lesson 1 we see how Mary learned that she would play a leading role in the Messiah s coming. She would have to accept being misunderstood, being the virgin mother, and facing her role knowing God had chosen her as His handmaiden. We learn in lesson 2 that when Mary traveled to the home of her relative Elisabeth, she spoke a profound psalm relating her circumstances to Israel s. God had chosen the weak to confound the mighty. Israel had confounded nations, and Mary, the unexpected mother, would become mighty in faith. Going back to an earlier point in time, lesson 3 is about the announcement of John the Baptist s birth and a description of his calling as the forerunner of the Messiah. Elisabeth, his mother, and Mary have a story in common. Then lesson 4 brings us back to the unfolding account, to the day of Jesus birth. It was no accident that some shepherds received word of His birth. The promises of the Old Testament shine through these events. Starting with lesson 5, we focus for five weeks on Israel s faith. In Psalm 33 we see how music has been used to express faith. Through the mighty act of Creation, we see the importance of music in praise. Lesson 6 is about the splendor and majesty of the Lord, which all the earth can see. The psalmist calls on the nations, the Gentiles, to have faith. This relates to what happens in the last four lessons of the quarter when the Galatians became followers of Israel s Messiah. In lesson 7 God s inexhaustible supply and His mercy in softening the hard ground cause us wonder. In lesson 8 God s transcendent glory is cause for reverent awe. Human kings try to amaze with imposing palaces, but God s palace is the whole world. The beams of His chambers are larger than the sea. Lesson 9 rounds out this unit, as all the elements of creation are found to be God s servants. The final four lessons concern people living in an unprecedented time. Promises made thousands of years earlier were being fulfilled. Many did not know how to relate to what was going on. In Galatia, some Gentiles, taught by Paul that they were a last-days miracle, became confused. In lesson 10, they were returning to pleasing men. In lesson 11, they had forsaken their trust in what Paul had told them. In lesson 12, they misunderstood the message and purpose of the law. Finally in lesson 13, Paul showed them the telltale signs of the flesh and how to live in the Spirit instead. God has done good things for Jews and Gentiles, and His ancient promises are new to this day. We see God s kindness in Messiah s birth, in lessons of nature, and in the church being formed from various people groups. Derek Leman. 2 PLEASE NOTE: The Incorporated Trustees of the Gospel Worker Society, Union Gospel Press Division, most earnestly endeavors to proclaim fundamentally sound doctrine. The writers are prayerfully selected for their Bible knowledge and yieldedness to the Spirit of Truth, each writing in his own style as enlightened by the Holy Spirit. At best we know in part only. They received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so (Acts 17:11).
God s Goodness in Scripture DEREK LEMAN A fundamental message about God in Scripture is that He is good. We see this because He loves us, calls us to live with Him, and forgives us. A focus on God s anger and His condemnation of people in judgment can lead us astray in relating to Him. If we think of God s love as conditional, as a contract, it will distort our perception. It is not that God is angry with us, desiring our doom we do not need to find His escape clause to avoid a sentence of condemnation. If we see God this way, we will try to meet the perceived conditions and be terrified of Him. Even if we see the condition as having faith, we can doubt if our faith is enough. God s love is unconditional and restorative. It is not a contract. God loves us first, and His love draws us to love Him. He lifts up the lowly and softens the hearts of sinners. We think we are searching for God, but in reality He placed signs of Himself in our lives before we ever began looking. In the end we determine that God was searching for us before we even knew to look for Him. This is not to deny that we need to respond to God. Nor is this about denying that evil is harmful or that God casts out evil from His presence. Those who would receive God s love must reach up to His open arms, where He has already invited them. If He accepted evil into His presence, there would be no perfect life to come. Evil will have no place in heaven. By emphasizing God s goodness, we are saying it is wrong to make His anger and wrath primary and His kindness and mercy secondary. God s anger is for our benefit. Just as parents are angry because their child is missing something that will bring him delight, God is calling us to test His promises and find the peace that eludes us in everything else. The three units of this quarter s study all contain examples of the centrality of God s goodness. The first unit concerns the events leading up to Messiah s birth. The messianic promises from Abraham through the prophets were good news. God brings good news because He desires good for all people. The second unit presents lessons of worship and faith that Israel learned and expressed in some of the psalms. God s kindness and mercy are seen in nature. To doubt that God is good is to miss what we see every day in the beauty of the world and God s care for it. The third unit is about people who were confused about God s judgment. They were thinking of God s offer of salvation as a contract and worried about meeting the conditions. By twisting the freedom of God s offer into a new kind of bondage, they found themselves fighting about beliefs. Had they been living in Young People s Bible Class 3
step with the Spirit, they would have seen God s love and joy. The good news, the good creation, and the good gospel are the three themes of this quarter s units. The first unit includes the birth of Messiah. The angelic messengers in these accounts announced God s goodness repeatedly. The Lord is with thee (Luke 1:28), Gabriel said to Mary. In other words, God is on your side. Thou shalt have joy and gladness (vs. 14), Gabriel said to Zacharias. The angels on high said to the whole world, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men (2:14). Everything God was doing was for the good of people. That is why the angel called his message good tidings of great joy (vs. 10). In her response to Elisabeth, Mary spoke a psalm about God s goodness (Luke 1:46-55). Her spirit was rejoicing to see God s goodness in such a powerful experience. God s mercy is directed toward human beings generation after generation. What God was doing in the birth of Messiah was for Israel s good. It was all in keeping with God s longstanding promises to the Jews, the people of Abraham. Mary s psalm teaches us that promise is what God s Word is about. His intent is our joy. In the psalms covered in the second unit this quarter, Israel sings at the temple about God s beautiful creation. Psalm 33:5 sums it up concisely: The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. In Psalm 33 the people of God declare that seeing nature should inspire reverent awe. In Psalm 96, the idols of the nations are seen as doing nothing, while God causes the earth to rejoice and trees to sing because His goodness is so amazing. Psalm 65 declares that the earth is watered by God s inexhaustible supply of everything needed for life. His providence and care for the earth are so complete that not even a remote furrow in the desert is missed by the river of His 4 goodness. Psalm 104 says the clouds and storms show something of the magnificence of our heavenly King. All the goodness we see exists because God brought wonders into being. Yet not everyone accepts that goodness is central to God s way toward us. Some believe He looks for ways to trap us and to judge us as failures at the ultimate court hearing to come. In the third unit Paul had to call some of his students back to what he had taught them. Some other teachers had come in and made the Galatians fearful. They were suspicious of God s motives. Perhaps they thought, Maybe God s love poured out for us in Christ is not an offer intended for our good. Maybe it is a contract with a tricky condition hidden in its clauses. Paul told his Galatian readers they were behaving as slaves instead of sons (Gal. 4:1, 5-6). They needed to learn that God s offer was real and that through Christ they had a new status with God forever. The imposed condition of circumcision the teachers put on them was not from God. The Galatians were used to trying to fit into Roman society. Formerly, they had been Gentile idolaters who kept Roman customs in order to be acceptable to others. Perhaps they also thought of being right with God as a matter of fitting in. Jewish teachers were confusing them into thinking that they were unacceptable to God unless they followed Jewish customs. Paul had taught them that Messiah came as promised in the Jewish Scriptures to save many Gentiles, who would remain Gentiles. They had already been given life in the Spirit. They needed to live as people who already had it. Paul s answer to the confusion and fears in Galatia was a message of unconditional kindness from God through Messiah. The Galatians worry that God was a stern judge nearly ruined them. They needed to learn that they already belonged to Christ Jesus (Gal. 5:24).
LESSON 1 DECEMBER 4, 2016 Scripture Lesson Text LUKE 1:26 And in the sixth month the angel Ga bri-el was sent from God unto a city of Gal i-lee, named Naz a-reth, 27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Jo seph, of the house of Da vid; and the virgin s name was Ma ry. 28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. 29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. 30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Ma ry: for thou hast found favour with God. 31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JE SUS. 32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father Da vid: 33 And he shall reign over the house of Ja cob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. 34 Then said Ma ry unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? 35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Ho ly Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. 36 And, behold, thy cousin E-lis a-beth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing shall be impossible. 38 And Ma ry said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her. NOTES Young People s Bible Class 5
The Promise of a Saviour Lesson: Luke 1:26-38 Read: Luke 1:26-38 TIME: 7 or 6 B.C. PLACE: Nazareth GOLDEN TEXT Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS (Luke 1:31). Lesson Exposition A VISITATION FROM HEAVEN Luke 1:26-30 Gabriel, the Lord s messenger (Luke 1:26). Contrary to what many people think, the word angel simply means messenger. It does not necessarily refer to a kind of nonhuman being from heaven. Nonetheless, most references to angels are about such beings, the heavenly messengers of God. Gabriel is one of two named heavenly beings, the other being Michael (Dan. 10:13, 21; 12:1; Jude 9; Rev. 12:7). Bible readers know of Gabriel already from Daniel 8:16 and 9:21. Mary, the Lord s servant (Luke 1:27). This verse says that Joseph, the man to whom Mary was espoused, was from the line of King David. There were still many from the line of David in the first century, as the royal family had been expanding for generations. Mary herself was probably a teenager, for Jewish accounts of marriage customs suggest a very young age for marriage. Being betrothed, she could be separated only by a bill of divorce from her husband. The first message (Luke 1:28). The reader should try to imagine how frightening it would be for a young 6 woman to be approached by a stranger and told she was chosen by God for something extraordinary. Gabriel may or may not have revealed his glory. Possibly he appeared as a man. Still, his words were quite unexpected. Mary, like Noah or Abraham, was approached by God with a message of being blessed and chosen. Mary s perplexity (Luke 1:29). Nazareth was a small and unimportant village. Being unmarried and likely very young, Mary was the last person to expect such a greeting of esteem from a stranger. She wondered why and how she was favored by God, chosen for a high honor. The word of favor (Luke 1:30). Gabriel s second message to Mary was one of reassurance. Israel had been waiting for centuries for a visible manifestation of God s power, and when God acted openly, it came as a great shock. For a teenage girl in an unimportant village, the need for reassurance was great. God had once again chosen a seemingly insignificant person for a great task. The promises in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, and elsewhere would be fulfilled at last.