Looking back at verses 1-9: We have seen that the gospel is stated clearly in verse 4, where it describes Jesus as the one that ACCOMPLISHED GOD'S AGE OLD PLAN OF BEING THE ONE WHO GAVE HIS LIFE IN SACRIFICE FOR OURS, SO THAT WE COULD BE TAKEN OUT OF THIS EVIL AGE. We have also seen that this news is something that God speaks to us as A PERSONAL INVITATION INTO THE MANY BENEFITS WHICH CHRIST HAS EARNED AND WE HAVE NOT. These two thoughts together give us a beautiful piece of news, showing that God has satisfied both justice and mercy. Justice, because Jesus has earned all things according to the Law. Mercy and grace, because He has done so out of love, taking away our punishment and instead giving us the profit of what He has earned. It is all around good news! We also saw that anything more or less than this news is not the gospel. It is bad news because it places us under the curse of having to pay (even partially pay) some part of the Law for our sin. Finally, we saw that we can find ourselves believing this bad news because we struggle with wanting to prove ourselves to other people, looking to want to make ourselves appear valuable, worthwhile, and acceptable according to what people think. We are freed of this thinking by realizing God has placed value on us by His gospel, freeing us from having to prove our worth, making us free to serve without hesitation or reservation. Looking at verse 11: Here we see that the gospel was not received by Paul until it was given to Him by the revelation of Jesus Christ. We know he heard the news that was being shared at least one time before Jesus spoke to Him. Stephen shared the gospel with Paul present in Acts 7. It was not that Paul had not heard the news. It was that Paul had not accepted the news until it was given by Jesus Himself. We find two important truths here about how the gospel is shared and received. 1. IT IS SHARED BY GOD HIMSELF: The word of salvation is something that is shared by God Himself. John 1 declares something magnificent. The Word became flesh. God's plan and purpose for all of time was the person of Jesus Christ. God's plan was direct communication of His love to us through Jesus Christ. He did not send someone else to communicate His love to us. He sent prophets and judges previously to point to what was coming. He provided the Law to make us ready to receive what was coming. But when it came to the actual demonstration of His love, He did it Himself. He loves you so much, being so willing to meet you precisely where you are (in sin and failure), that He comes directly to you to speak to you about His love. 2. IT IS UNDERSTOOD ONLY IN THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST: The gospel cannot be understood or received unless we have a clear understanding of the person of Jesus Christ. C.S. Lewis said that based on Jesus' life, He was either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord. Which person do we see Him as? Others take the view that He was just a good moral teacher, like Ghandi or Mohammad. Anything less than seeing Jesus as God Himself dwelling with us and dying for us will inevtiably lead you to misunderstanding the gospel. It is our goal to always know the Person of Jesus more and in doing so, we find that we are taking in more and more of God's grace! Looking at verse 14: It is evident that Paul's limitation in understanding and accepting the gospel/grace of God was in part due to what his life was focused on before encountering Christ. We see that Paul was a zealous Jew, being well educated and having great skill in the Judaic traditions. It would also be noted that being a well respected teacher of the Law, Paul had a strict mindset concerning keeping everything in the Law. This helps us see two things that prevent us from understanding and accepting the gospel: 1. WORLDLY SKILL AND WISDOM: The gospel is not something that is understood by the wisdom of men. Even with all of the resources we have at our disposal, and with all the education we have access to, we remain blind to the grace of the Lord. 1 Corinthians 2:6-9 tells us that all of the wisdom of the world could never have thought of what God had prepared for mankind. Why is it that our wisdom is incapable of leading us to the gospel? In James 3:13-17, we see that the world's wisdom is characterized by self-promotion and envy. The focus is yourself, emphasizing either making yourself look good or making yourself feel bad that you don't have what someone else does. The Lord's wisdom is concerned with meekness and humility. The focus is on others and viewing their needs as more important than your own. Worldly wisdom will never lead us to understand the love that God has demonstrated in Jesus. It is a love that is so selfless and free that it stands in complete contrast to everything we know in this world. 2. THE LAW: The gospel is the end of the law. It is a statement that Jesus has fulfilled all that is necessary in the Law, earning all the benefits of the Lord, being raised to the right hand of the Father. It is a statement that He freely gives those benefits to us. If your mindset is one of trying to earn the Lord's favor by keeping a list of rules, then you will not understand and accept the gospel. If your mindset is one where you keep some rules so the Lord does not bother you anymore, then you will not understand and accept the gospel. God is not interested in you appeasing His wrath so you can be without Him. He is interested in you being pleasing to Him and being in an intimate relationship with Him. As long as we try to appease to God through the Law so that we can live our own lives without thinking of Him, we will not understand the grace that is given to us. It is not until we come to an end of the Law in Christ, and realize that He wants us to be in close connection with Him continually that we will truly understand and accept the gospel. Looking at verse 15: The gospel did not become clear to Paul until God's appointed time. Why this was the most appropriate time according to the Lord is a mystery. But this gives us a clue about what living in grace means. It means accepting the timing of the Lord. It means forgetting about doing what you want to do when you want to do it, and instead embracing that God is doing something, wants you to do it with Him, and will do it in His time. Living in grace is letting go of control of everything, even letting go of when we think things should happen. Looking at verse 16: We must remember that God's grace is given to us with a purpose in mind. That purpose is that we would be able to participate in glorifying God to everyone around us. He has revealed Himself in His love to us, and now invites us through the many gifts He gives us access to, to participate in revealing Him to everyone. To live in grace is to participate in God's work by His Spirit. It is to let His life be your life, to let His nature be your nature. God did not just give you grace to make you feel good about yourself. He gave you grace to save you and to enable you to faithfully serve Him in these times. As a note, we see that Paul was a servant to the Gentiles. This was probably the last group Paul would have originally thought of serving, since he was such a prominent Jew. In fact, through Acts we see several attempts by Paul to reach a Jewish audience in spite of his calling to the Gentiles. Eventually, he recognizes that Peter had received grace to preach the Gentiles, but still we see that Paul's heart was for his own countrymen. This teaches us that where God calls you to serve is not necessarily in line with what you are most passionate about in a worldly sense. In a spiritual sense, we are most passionate about the Lord Jesus and the grace given through Him in love. This influences everything about who we are. In a physical sense, we have things that please and satisfy us personally. Serving the Lord will always satisfy our passion for Jesus, but it may not satisfy our physical passions. There are only two things we must know about serving the Lord: 1. THE LORD OPENS THE OPPORTUNITIES: The only thing we are responsible for is to be passionate about serving the Lord exactly where we are in whatever capacities are available to us. He will create opportunities around us that we are free to step into. If we perceive an opportunity, we can try it out, but we must be open to the Lord closing those opportunities. We must trust that He will take us exactly where He wants us to go. Our wisdom, our desires, our passions... these are not what guide us. The Lord is the One who guides us. 2. THE LORD GETS THE GLORY: One primary way to know whether you are walking in a path that the Lord has laid out for you is whether or not God is receiving the glory in the middle of the service. True service to the Lord is done in the power of the Spirit, and the Spirit accomplishes one thing: He glorifies Jesus. We must be those who are primarily concerned with only doing the things that make the name of the Lord great. Questions to think on: 1. Do you find that you trust your own "skill" or "goodness" more than God and His grace? If so, how can you change that? 2. Where has God placed you right now that you can glorify Him to others?
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Ruth is a story of redemption and romance, depicting our relationship to Christ. It begins with famine and death and ends with harvest and birth. In this book we find universal themes and characters from which we can glean useful application.
To begin, this true story is set during the time of the judges. Judges were rulers who presided over the affairs of Israel during the period between Joshua and the ascension of Saul to the throne. They only had authority over those tribes that acknowledged them as such, and there was no income or wealth attached to their leadership. The book of Judges describes this period in Israel’s history as a time of moral depravity and decay. The book ends with horrific accounts of rape, murder, and genocide. The issue is summed up in the final verse, Judges 21:25: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” How is this setting similar to the condition of our country today? Much like today, everyone determined their own truth and standards. Because people determine their own truth, they are enslaved by their own “freedom.” Only Christ provides a context in which we can truly thrive and experience freedom. God determines what is good. There is an absolute truth, and His name is Jesus. (See Prov 3:7.) What is wrong (morally, logically) with the idea of determining your own truth? (See Isaiah 5:20) What are some examples from our culture or your personal life of people calling things “right” and “wrong” apart from the Lord? Continuing in this verse, we see there was a famine in Bethlehem (meaning “the house of bread”), and the man called Elimelech (meaning “God is my King”) lived as though there was no king in Israel. He did not trust God’s sovereignty, faithfulness, or providence to sustain his family in the midst of the famine. Instead, he took his family from the land of Judah (meaning “praise”) to the land referred to, by God, as His toilet: Moab (see Ps. 108:9). The Moabites were a people who came from an incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughters (Gen. 19:30-38), cursed by God to not enter the congregation of the Lord to the 10th generation (Duet. 23:3). They were enemies of Israel. Elimelech thought that it was better to escape the famine in Judah by coming to these lands. Rather than wait for God’s solution, he created his own solution to the problem. What are some other Biblical examples of people who tried to create their own solutions rather than wait on God? (See 1 Sam. 10) Are there examples from your own life? Can you think of any examples of people waiting for God’s solution in the Bible or your life? (See Ps. 62) At the beginning of Peter's sermon, what does he emphasize?
Peter immediately points out that the healing that was performed was done by the Lord, not himself. He gives all the glory to the Lord. In all things that we do, even as we are the main people involved in what the Lord is doing, it is right to give glory to God. It is never you working something, but God through you. The one who gets credit for all things that are done is the Lord. What does Peter mean when he says "faith in the name of Jesus"? Peter associates this phrase with the lame man being able to walk. If you look at how the interaction between Peter and the lame man went, you will see that the lame man was told to stand and then raised up. The lame man had to accept what Peter was about to do, and let him do it. Faith is about taking the promises of God and letting God turn them into actions in your life. It is about trusting the Lord enough to obey Him when He says to do something. If there is no obedience, there is no underlying faith. To have faith in the name of Jesus is to have this type of trust in the revealed character of Jesus the Person. Faith must be placed in something/someone. Faith in the person that Jesus has revealed Himself to be is what is meant by faith in the name of Jesus. We are called to be those who trust and obey the Jesus that is revealed in the Bible. Peter says an interesting phrase concerning repentance and the blotting out of sins in verse 19. What does this teach you about the relationship between repentance and forgiveness? Repentance and forgiveness go hand in hand. You cannot obtain forgiveness if there is no repentance. This is not an arbitrary withholding of forgiveness. It is simply impossible to forgive if repentance is not present. Repentance means to change your mind. Specifically, it means to change your mind about sin. It means that the things that you thought were right, you realize are wrong. It means that where you once thought you didn't need anything, now you see you need something. It means that where you ignored God, you now pay attention to Him. How can someone be forgiven if they do not ask to be forgiven? How can someone be forgiven if they think there is nothing that they need to be forgiven of? How can someone be forgiven if they still love their sin? If your mind doesn't change, then what are you asking to be saved from? What are you even saying? Forgiveness can only come if there is repentance. Peter and John did not go looking for someone to heal. They were simply going to the temple to pray. What does this tell you about how go about serving the Lord?
We are to continue gathering together, praying together, and learning about Jesus together. As we do so, we must simply be open to the opportunities God presents right in front of us. We do not need to make up clever plans or force things to come to be. We must simply stay close to the Lord, and stay open to the opportunities He presents us. Serve where you are in the regular things you do. What did the lame man want? What does this tell you about the needs of the world? The lame man was not asking for healing, he was asking for money. He had given up on living a different life than the one he had, and had instead settled on just trying to make the best of his bad situation. The world is just like this. People do not know that healing is being offered to them. They are so run down by their own failures, their own disappointments, their own inabilities. All they want is to find some small piece of comfort in the middle of it all, some small delight. They turn to money, to comfortable housing, to a better education, to a better government, to a better party or thrill. They turn to anything that offers a small escape from the desperate situation that they find themselves in. While it is important to sometimes help in these needs, there is a greater need that must be met for which the world is not even aware. Peter did not give the lame man what he asked for, but instead healed him in the name of Christ. What does this tell you about how you serve the world? As those who serve the Lord by serving the world, we must be able to determine the correct thing to give those in need. Not everyone Peter encountered was healed. Peter looked intently at this man, and determined (by the Spirit) that the thing the man needed most was to see God heal him. This led to the man glorifying God and praising Him. The actions we take must be those which lead others to glorifying God and trusting Him. We cannot do this without the Spirit. We cannot do this without knowing those around us and what their particular difficulties are. Perhaps someone is particularly hung up by evolution, or by hypocrisy in the church, or by some other misunderstanding of the Lord. We must see the true need, by the Spirit, and address these for the glory of the Lord. Discussion Questions: What is baptism? Why is it important? It is the public declaration that we have accepted the gospel of Christ. Symbolically, it demonstrates that we have willingly died to our old way of thinking about life, and been risen up into a new way of thinking about life. We have moved from living with faith in ourselves to living with faith in the Lord. What is the apostles doctrine? How do you continue in it? Why is continuing in it helpful? The apostles' doctrine is the teachings of the life of Jesus, the teachings about how He fulfilled the law and how He has justified us through His death and saved us by His resurrection. It is the teaching that He will return and redeem all of creation to glory. To continue in this is to study it, to remember it, and to keep it in your mind constantly. This is so important in helping us make decisions about what to do in our lives today. What is important about fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer? Fellowship is a means by which God encourages us, motivates us, corrects us, and challenges us. By being with other believers, we open ourselves up to like-minded people who love the Lord. This environment is designed to encourage us when we are low, to remind us about the truths found in His word, to motivate us to step out in faith with the Lord, to correct us when we are not following Him closely, and to challenge us to live our lives in the Spirit. Fellowship is a blessing and a privilege. It is a two-way street, where we come both to provide encouragement and to receive encouragement. The breaking of bread is the taking of communion, and is all about the remembrance of Jesus Christ. This is so important, because even as we try to serve the Lord, often we forget the Lord. It is necessary for believers to take time to stop, thank God for Jesus, and remember His life, death, and resurrection. It is a time devoted to remembering Him, remembering His sacrifice and remembering His love. Prayer is about inviting God to participate in your life, by asking Him what His will is for your life. It is not about getting God to do what you want. It is about finding out what God wants, and submitting to that. It is important to pray always so that we can always be depending on God for the guidance to know His will and the power to do His will. What does a growing church community really look like? A growing church is not necessarily a church that is growing numerically. A growing church is one where the people have an increasing fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is to consider the Lord as the most important person/thing in your life. It is to hold Him in the highest regard. It is the desire to listen to Him first before you anyone else, even yourself. This inward determination to listen to the Lord leads to an outward show of many signs and wonders. It leads to lives being lived that are so unlike the lives that people in the world live. Looking back at Galatians 1:4:
The gospel, or "good news" that God has to share with us is defined in this verse. It states that Jesus Christ gave His life for ours, so that we might be able to be taken away from this current evil age. It also states that this action was planned out and decided upon by God even before the world began. Looking at Galatians 1:6: This gospel is presented to us by God as a "calling in the grace of Christ." This means that the Lord tells us about the good news of what He's done in Christ as a way to personally invite us into all the benefits of what Christ has earned (gifts which we have not and could never earn). I can see this as wonderful news for three reasons: 1. IT IS PERSONAL: God shares this gospel with you personally, by name. He knows who you are when He decides to do this. He knows your weakness, your struggles, your troubles, your hurts and your sins. It is with complete knowledge of who you are that He makes this offer to you. 2. IT IS AN INVITATION: God shares this with you, but does not thrust it upon you to accept. He invites you to have all the benefits of Christ. He is so patient and gentle in the way that He deals with you. He is well within His rights to force you to accept anything He provides. But He simply invites you instead because He loves you and is kind to you. 3. IT IS A FREE PACKAGE DEAL: God offers all of what He has at no cost to you. What He earned through Christ is yours to receive. Ephesians 1 details some of the benefits of this package deal, including such wonderful things as forgiveness, adoption, redemption, holiness, blamelessness, an inheritance, and a seal of the Spirit of God. The offer is to receive everything for nothing! Looking at Galatians 1:7-8: All other gospels are not really the gospel. They are not good news to us, because they inevitably imply that Christ did not earn everything that we need in life to be pleasing to God. They instead bring a curse upon us. The word for curse means "the keeping of a promised vow of sacrifice." Any other news other than the news that God is freely offering you what Christ earned is terrible news because it means that we have to fulfill some part of the law still. It means that we have to pay for our sins! Even in part, that would be terrible! Romans 2:5-11 details what that payment would look like. It is not something we can pay. Looking at Galatians 1:10: Falling for this bad news instead of receiving God's good news is common because deep down we struggle with wanting to please and persuade others. We want to have the approval and acceptance of others, or we want to show that we are capable and worthwhile. If not for others, we at least want to prove something to ourselves. If there is some part of something good that we can earn, then we will have persuaded ourselves that we are lovable, worthy, important, and special. But to please God, we must set aside those notions. Pleasing God is not about proving how worthy you are of His love. It is about accepting His gift, knowing He has already always loved you. This idea of pleasing God does not mean there is nothing for you to do. He did not do it to place you in His debt or to make you feel bad about it. He did it so you could serve Him without having to worry about keeping the law. He did it so that your service would not be counted as work that earns you a paycheck from Him. He did it so that your service would be you freely offering Him help in the work that He is doing. God did it so you would become a bondservant. Exodus 21:1-6 details how one becomes a bond servant and it is all about loving your master. God has awakened love in us by demonstrating His own love for us. In doing so, He has freed us to willingly serve Him in a response of love. He is not pleased when we follow His commands because we are trying to earn something from Him. He is pleased when we follow His commands because we love Him and want to participate with Him in the work that He is doing on this earth. Questions to think on: 1. What are some benefits from Christ that you are personally thankful for? You can look at Ephesians 1 for a reference. 2. Are there areas in your life where you still try to please people instead of God? What are they? Pray for the Lord to open your eyes to the grace He has for you in that area. |
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