Sermon Transcript September 20, 2015

RESURRECTION It changes everything. Sermon Transcript September 20, 2015 Resurrection: Something New Acts 2:1-41 This message from the Bible was addressed originally to the people of Wethersfield Evangelical Free Church on September 20, 2015, at 511 Maple Street, Wethersfield, CT, 06109 by Dr. Scott W. Solberg. This is a transcription that bears the strength and weaknesses of oral delivery. It is not meant to be a polished essay. An audio copy of the sermon on CD is available by request at (860) 563-8286. An audio version of this sermon 1

Sermon Text Acts 2:1-41 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. 12 And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, What does this mean? 13 But others mocking said, They are filled with new wine. 14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. 15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day 2. 16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: 17 And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; 18 even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. 19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; 20 the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. 21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 22 Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 25 For David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at 2

Introduction my right hand that I may not be shaken; 26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. 27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence. 29 Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God raised up, band of that we all are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, 35 until I make your enemies your footstool. 36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. 37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brothers, what shall we do? 38 And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation. 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. Well it is that time of year again. Throughout Connecticut this time of year, there is country fair after country fair. There is the Hebron Fair, the Berlin Fair, the Portland Fair, the Durham Fair; which is just four of the forty-six fairs you can go to throughout the state this time of year. But then there is the fair-est of them all - the seventeen day fair that brings all of New England together in Massachusetts, The Big E! If you go to one of these fairs, it doesn t take you long to discover that agriculture is a major theme of these fairs. In fact they used to be called Agriculture Fairs. The word fair comes from the Latin word which means free day or holy day. In ancient times, it was a mixture of the celebration of the harvest and it had religious overtones to it. Today it is purely a secular event. But if you are part of the agricultural community, it becomes a free day because the harvest is over and the hard work has been done. It is time to enjoy and to celebrate! 3

Acts 2 opens with a reference to a Jewish feast. It says in verse 1, When the day of Pentecost arrived. Pentecost was one of the seven annual feasts celebrated by the people of Israel and one of the four celebrated in the spring. The Hebrew word for this festival is Shavout, which means the Feast of Weeks. It was the end of a 50 day feast, a feast that lasted for seven weeks, and it began with the Feast of First Fruits. The Feast of First Fruits celebrated the beginning of the harvest season, namely the barley harvest. Pentecost, comes from the Greek word for fifty and it was celebrated 50 days after the Feast of First Fruits, celebrating the beginning of the wheat harvest. So like our country fairs, you can see how these annual feasts of Israel were tied to the annual agricultural cycle of Israel. But these feasts were more than just country fairs. They were religious observances. In fact religious instructions were given to Israel in Leviticus on how to celebrate these days. This is why in Acts 2 the city of Jerusalem was teeming with worshipers. Jerusalem was where they were to be. There were Jewish worshipers from north, south, east and west of the city of Jerusalem who came to fulfill their religious requirements. We read from where they came from starting in verse 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians. Jerusalem was crowded on this day as it was every year during this time. Do you know what the Hebrew word for feast literally means? It means appointed times. It speaks to God s sovereign control over all things. And so when Jesus comes into the picture, we can see how God is in control of time. It is no coincidence that Jesus is crucified on Passover, the feast celebrating the delivery of Israel from the bondage of Egypt through the blood of the Lamb. It is no coincidence that Jesus is raised from the dead on the Feast of First Fruits. Does not Paul say of Jesus in 1 Corinthians 15:20 that Jesus is the first fruits from the dead? And therefore, it is no coincidence that on the day of Pentecost, the beginning of the wheat harvest, that the Holy Spirit comes with power and as a result we read in verse 41 that there were added that day about three thousand souls. Jesus said on several occasions, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Pentecost was the beginning of the harvest that is still going on today through the proclamation of the gospel. Jesus said, Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.. Now when these worshipers gathered on this particular Pentecost, something out of the ordinary happened. Whatever happened, it caused them to ask the question in verse 12, What does this mean? What happened on this particular Pentecost that brought about this question? 4

If you recall from last week, the instructions Jesus gave the disciples was to go into Jerusalem and wait. Wait for what? They were to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. They were promised that when the Spirit comes upon them that they would have power to be witnesses for Jesus. So that is what we find them doing at the beginning of Acts 2. They are all together in one place and they are waiting. You get the sense from Acts 1:15 that there are about 120 followers of Jesus who are gathered together on this particular Pentecost. As promised, the Holy Spirit comes upon them with power and in a very public way. There was the sound of a rushing wind and tongues of fire rested on each of them and the next thing you know, they are speaking in the native languages of the people who were gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of Pentecost. These Jewish worshipers are perplexed over how these men from Galilee were able to speak in the native languages of all these people from all over the known world. And so they say in verse 11, we hear them telling in our own tongue the mighty works of God. Consequently we read in verse 12, And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, What does this mean? With the invitation of this question, Peter stands up and we have the first sermon in the book of Acts. It is a sermon that answers the question, What does this mean? The question indicates that they haven t seen this before. What they just witnessed needs to be explained to them. If I could just summarize Peter s response to their question, I would simply say this, Something new has just happened. Like every good sermon, Peter makes three points. In answering their question, Peter is telling them: There is something new about today. There is something new about Jesus. There is something new for you. As you will see, it all has to do with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. So, what does this mean? There is Something New About Today Peter begins his response to this question by telling them that a new day has dawned. A new day has come. In verse 16, he says that it is a day that the prophet Joel spoke about. But to be honest with you, it wasn't just the prophet Joel who spoke about this coming day. It was the collective testimony of all the prophets in the Old Testament. And furthermore, it wasn t just the collective testimony of the prophets, but the entire Old Testament was pointing to this day. In Luke 24, after Jesus rose from the dead, he sat his 5

disciples down and explained what was happening by saying everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. He went on to explain that his death and his resurrection and their bearing witness to these things in the power of the Holy Spirit and speaking of the forgiveness of sins was fully anticipated in the Old Testament. And so Peter is saying in Acts 2, that day has come. What day? The kingdom of God has broken into this world. What does this mean? That was the question. The answer is that it is a new day and the promised kingdom of God has broken into this world. The phrase kingdom of God or kingdom is only mentioned eight times in the book of Acts. The thing that is instructive for us is where you find this phrase in the book of Acts. You find it mentioned two times in the first six verses of Acts 1. In fact, in Acts 1:3, we find that the kingdom of God was the topic of conversation during the forty days between his resurrection and ascension. And then you find it mentioned two times at the end of the last chapter of Acts. In the very last verse of the book of Acts, Acts 28:31, it says of Paul that he was proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. And so the idea of the kingdom of God frames the entire book. Everything happening between Acts 1 and Acts 28 is about the breaking in of the kingdom of God into this world. That is what makes this a new day. The promised kingdom of God has broken into this world. When the prophets spoke of this coming day, they spoke with hopeful words of anticipation of the coming rule and reign of God over all things. The reason God s rule is attractive is because it would bring peace and justice and righteousness to this world. It will restore what is broken in this world. Isaiah said things like this of the coming kingdom of God, of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end. This kingdom of God poses the promise that God and man will be reconciled. In fact when Jesus introduces himself in the synagogue, he does so through the prophet Isaiah by saying, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has set me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord s favor. And so Peter is saying to this crowd, that day has come. Perhaps you are looking around and you are looking at this world and you may be wondering, where is this kingdom of God? You watch these presidential debates and these would-be leaders are grasping at straws in trying to address some of the inequities and evils of this world. And you know full well in four years from now they will still be grasping for answers to these same issues. So where is this kingdom? Do you know where it is now? It is in the hearts of those who have repented of their sin and are following Jesus. And when the kingdom of God breaks into your life you become a 6

carrier of the kingdom because you are a carrier of the Holy Spirit. And you are contagious! That is what is happening here in Acts 2. The Spirit of God came and rested on all 120 Jesus followers gathered in Jerusalem, waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit. And Joel talked about this day. I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. So you don t have to be a Moses to share Jesus with others. You don t have to be a pastor to share the good news of the kingdom of God. A new day has come. Through the power of the Holy Spirit who resides in us, this kingdom of God is passed from person to person and so Peter says of this new day, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. I have seen this kingdom of God be passed from generation to generation; from grandparent to parent to child. That is the work of the Holy Spirit in us. I have seen churches, the local expression of the family of God, where the Spirit of God has been resident and as individuals are enveloped into the love of that church family they too call upon the name of the Lord and their lives are changed. I have seen that happen here numerous times. That is what is happening in Acts 2. I have seen individuals speak of the mighty works of God to others and the Spirit of God has used that to draw others into the life changing kingdom of God. I have seen churches plant other churches in communities where another gospel witness is needed and the testimony of that church family as transformed the lives of people. That is what is new about this day. God is using ordinary people, like you and like me, to expand his kingdom of grace and mercy and love in the hearts of people all over the world. Pentecost was the beginning of the harvest and through us, the Spirit of God is still lighting this candle. What does this mean? A new day has come! God is using us to expand his kingdom. There is Something New About Jesus This leads us to the second thing that is new. As Peter continues to answer the question What does this mean? we discover that the events of Pentecost tell us something very important about Jesus. There is something new about Jesus that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost tells us. As I will show you in a moment, it is the resurrection of Jesus that Peter appeals to in order to prove that this Jesus was the promised son of David, the Messiah. In other words, the reason the kingdom of God has come is because there is a king! Jesus has been exalted as king. That is how Peter concludes this portion in verse 36, Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. N. T. Wright says it this way, The Easter stories come at the end of the four gospels, but they are not about an end. They are about a beginning. The beginning of the kingdom. 7

God is now in charge, on earth as in heaven. And God s being in charge is focused on Jesus himself being king and Lord. 1 Then he says, The title on the cross was true after all. Do you remember what title was nailed above the head of Jesus on the cross? It says in Matthew 27:37, And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. They did it to mock Jesus. But now Peter is saying, that is exactly who he was. And you missed it. And you didn t just miss it, but you crucified the promised Messiah. And so N. T. Wright concludes his thought by asserting the fact that we know he was the promised Messiah because the resurrection proves it. That is how Peter ends the second section of his sermon, but lets go back to the beginning to see how he gets there. Starting in verse 22, Peter starts walking through the resume of Jesus. Now remember, they were only some fifty days removed from the crucifixion and resurrection. No doubt, many of these worshipers were in Jerusalem when these events occurred. They would have been there to observe Passover. So the man Jesus would not have been unfamiliar to them. There were many in this crowd who witnessed some of his miracles. As a result, people were naturally wondering, could this the Messiah? He sure did get the heroes welcome when he rode into Jerusalem the week before he was put to death. When they were singing Hosanna, to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord they were putting their hope in the possibility that their king had truly come. The cry Hosanna is the cry, save us! So when Peter begins to walk through the credentials of Jesus, this is not the first time they ever heard of him. Beginning in verse 22, Peter says that Jesus was from the town of Nazareth, but he was a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. Through the many miracles Jesus performed, God was giving testimony that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. The Gospel of John only records seven of the miracles of Jesus. In the Gospel of John these miracles are called signs. In John 20:30-31, John says, Now Jesus did many other signs [miracles], which are not written in this book; but these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. Through the miracles of Jesus, God was giving demonstration that Jesus was the son of God and that the kingdom of God was breaking into this world. When John the Baptist was sitting in prison, he sent his disciples to Jesus with this question. Are you really the Messiah? Is the long awaited kingdom really about to come. The two go hand in hand. What did Jesus say when he was asked this question? Go and tell John what you hear and see; the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me. He is saying 8

here, what do you think? Do not the miracles point to the fact that the Messiah has come and the kingdom of God is breaking into this world? And then Peter says this of Jesus, this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. This was the stumbling block to seeing Jesus as the promised Messiah. They did not anticipate the cross. They were not anticipating a suffering Messiah. But this was the definite plan of God. It had to be this way. The prophet Isaiah spoke of it in Isaiah 53, But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. In order for the kingdom of God s peace to break into this world, God had to atone for our sin. And he did so, through the cross of Jesus. Jesus took upon himself the punishment for our sin. It is very interesting what Paul says about the message of the cross in 1 Corinthians 1:22-23. He writes, For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. The cross was the stumbling block to seeing Jesus as the Messiah, the promised king. And yet Jesus said time and time again that he had to go to the cross. But this message didn t even compute with his disciples. In fact, they couldn t even entertain such a thought. And so here is Peter on Pentecost answering the question, What does this mean? and he is about to say to them, here is your sign! Do you want a sign that this Jesus was the Messiah? Here is the sign! In verse 24 he says, God raised him up, loosing the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. The sign that Jesus is the Messiah is that God raised Jesus from the dead. Then Peter quotes what David wrote in Psalm 16. David foresaw the resurrection of Jesus. He writes with hope, For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. Peter goes on to say, clearly David is not talking about himself there. We can go to David s tomb right now and pull out his bones. But in verse 30 he says that David knew that God promised that he would have a descendant who would sit on his throne and that his kingdom would be forever. And so Peter says in verse 32, This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Notice what the sign of the resurrection points to? Notice what it says about Jesus. In his very next breath, in verse 33, he says of Jesus Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God. He goes on to affirm that this is the one David spoke about in Psalm 110, of one who will come and sit at the right hand of God. This indeed is the the name above every name and to which every knee shall bow. Therefore, Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ. 9

Remember, the question that prompted this sermon was, What does this mean? In verse 33, Peter brings it all together. He connects what they are seeing on that day of Pentecost to the resurrection of Jesus. He says, Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. In other words, the reason this new day has come, the reason why the kingdom of God has broken into this world through the power of the Holy Spirit is because Jesus has risen from the dead and is sitting at the right hand of God. The kingdom of God has come because the Messiah has come. N. T. Wright says of the resurrection of Jesus, It is the event that declare there is another king. 2 This is why you see the kingdom of God breaking into this world. There is Something New For You As we come to the end of this message, we discover that because there is a new day and because Jesus has conquered sin, death and Satan, and because Jesus rules over all things; there is something new for you. Notice the reaction of these worshipers who were gathered to celebrate Pentecost. In verse 37 it says, Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brothers, what shall we do? Is there any hope? They had rejected their Messiah. But there is hope. That is what this whole day is about. The kingdom of God has come and Jesus has won the victory. So Peter says to them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. Because of what Jesus has done and because the Holy Spirit has come, our sins can be forgiven. In doing so, we too receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That means that the kingdom rule of God comes into our hearts and God is changing us from the inside. But do you know what else it means? We are empowered by the Holy Spirit to share this hope with others. We read in verse 41 that there were added that day about three thousand souls. What a great way to celebrate Pentecost, the beginning of the wheat harvest. And the harvest continues in us and through us. I read a story this week of a man by the name of Michael Minot. He was a young lawyer with a growing law practice. He was an atheist and an intellect. One day a friend of his, Jim, who met him as they both studied for the Florida bar exam, called Michael. Rather nervously, he said to Michael, Sharon and I have been watching what has been going on in your life. And we decided we would give you a call and invite you to do 10

something. We believe the Scriptures are very important. They re very important to our lives, and they re helpful to us. We know what you think about spiritual matters, but we want to challenge you to take some time in your life and reexamine these things. Michael was taken back by such a challenge. But because Jim was such a good friend, he agreed to do so, but on his own terms. He began by looking deeply into science and in a matter of two weeks he was blown away by the complexity of the solar system and he became convinced that it could not exist by mere chance. He began the arduous task of plowing through the Scriptures and slowly he began to comprehend the larger story. Then he went to a church. To his great surprise, he found the experience startlingly beautiful. He saw joyful people who seemed genuinely to care for one another. He heard music that was soothing and inspiring. And when the pastor spoke directly to God, Mike was struck by the sense of awe and reverence that fell upon the crowd unprovoked. This set him on a quest for truth. He got to a point where he knew he needed to ask for forgiveness and he had no clue how to talk to God. So he said, I m ready to go; I want to have a relationship with you and show me what to do. He joined a church. He served as a jail chaplain for fifteen years. He met his wife in church and they adopted five children. He said this, Nothing he d ever envision back in his atheist days could math the prosperity of these blessings 3 This is what it looks like when the kingdom of God breaks into a life. This is what Jesus is doing in the world today. This is the stuff of Acts 2. Look what happened when one friend followed the prompting of the Holy Spirit and encouraged his friend to reexamine things. Do you know what happened? Pentecost happened! It is a new day! The kingdom of God has broken into this world. There is a new king! Jesus has risen from the dead and he is Lord and Christ. There is something new for you! Repent and be baptized! (Sunday Oct. 25 is a baptism service and Oct. 11 at 12:30 is a baptism class.) But the new for you is also the opportunity for God to use you as his kingdom expands. 1 N. T. Wright Simply Jesus (www.harpercollins.com, 2011) 2 N. T. Wright The Resurrection of the Son of God (London: SPCK, 2003) 266 3 Terrell Clemmons Captive No More in SALVO Issue 34, Fall 2015, p. 50-52 by Dr. Scott Solberg - All rights reserved 11

Sermon Title: Resurrection: Something New Sermon Text: Acts 2:1-41 Sermon Date: September 20, 2015 Getting To Know Me Questions 1. Give an opportunity for those who memorized 1 Peter 1:3 to recite it for the group. What part of the verse was particularly meaningful to you? Why? Next week add verse 4. 2. Get in groups of 3 or 4. Reflecting on this past week, share one thing you found to be encouraging and one thing you found to be challenging. Pray for each other. 3. What is one thing you are taking from Sunday s sermon? Diving Into The Word 4. In the sermon we saw that Pentecost was the Jewish festival at the beginning of the wheat harvest. Discuss what you learned about this in the sermon. How does that help you understand what is happening in Acts 2? (see Acts 2:21,41) Read John 4:35-38 - These words come from the story of the Samaritan woman. Have someone recount that story. How do these words of Jesus apply to the meaning of Pentecost? How do these words apply to us? 5. When Peter begins to answer the question, What does this mean? he quotes the prophet Joel in Acts 2:17-21. What encouragement do we get in knowing that the Spirit of God has been poured out on male and female, young and old? What do you think is the point of this prophecy? How have you seen God use you in the lives of others? How has God used other people in your faith journey? 6. Read Acts 2:22-36, Peter centers his message on Jesus. What are some of the important things he says about Jesus in this passage? At the end of this passage he ends with Jesus risen and reigning over God s kingdom. Discuss what this tells us about Jesus. What do you think about Peter s final statement in verse 36? How does this title for Jesus shape your life and faith? 7. What encouragement do you find in verse 38? How does the forgiveness of sins encourage you? How does the promise that you have the Holy Spirit give you confidence to share your faith? Taking It Home 8. Continue to ask God to show your group how together you can reach out to others. Don t talk about it. Don t strategize. Just begin by praying and asking God to lead you. 9. How would you like to personally grow in the area of being a witness for Jesus? 10. Continue to work on memorizing your verse for the week, 1 Peter 1:3-4. 12