Week 16 Who Sees Your Light?
Passage
17 But if you bear the name "Jew" and rely upon the Law and boast in God,
18 and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law,
19 and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,
20 a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth,
21 you, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal?
Romans 2:17-21 (NASB)
"Seeing Light" by TonyHall is marked with CC BY 2.0.
Background
Quote- Thomas Stearns Eliot OM (26 September 1888 – 4 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor. Considered one of the 20th century's major poets, he is a central figure in English-language Modernist poetry.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, to a prominent Boston Brahmin family, he moved to England in 1914 at the age of 25 and went on to settle, work, and marry there. He became a British citizen in 1927 at the age of 39, subsequently renouncing his American citizenship.
Eliot first attracted widespread attention for his poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" in 1915, which, at the time of its publication, was considered outlandish. It was followed by "The Waste Land" (1922), "The Hollow Men" (1925), "Ash Wednesday" (1930), and Four Quartets (1943). He was also known for seven plays, particularly Murder in the Cathedral (1935) and The Cocktail Party (1949). He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry".
Passage-The book of Romans is a Pauline Epistle (letter from Paul). The Apostle Paul wrote it roughly about 56-57 A.D. He wrote it to give them a concrete theological foundation on which to construct their faith and to live for and serve God effectively.
The book of Romans reveals the answers to important questions and supplies information on many topics, such as salvation, the sovereignty of God, judgment, spiritual growth, and the righteousness of God. Many scholars also describe it as The Gospel and the Righteousness of God, which can be received only by faith in the atoning death of Jesus Christ. The focus of the “righteousness of God” is foundational throughout the book of Romans.
Lesson Notes
Opening Statement
The light switch is on, or you wouldn’t be sitting in class. The things you support, what you do, the causes you build up or choose to ignore, those determine how bright or dim the light shines.
Ask: Who sees your light shining?
Point: This question doesn’t necessarily need to be answered out loud unless someone wants to answer it but some reflective time is needed to consider who sees our light as individuals.
First Reading (1 Peter 2:10-12 (NASB)
Ask: Do you feel like “the people of God?”
Point: The point is the Why/Why Not of this question.
Second Reading (Hosea 1:7-10 (NASB)
Ask: What does verse seven mean when it says we had not received mercy but now we have received mercy?
Point: The answer is in verse ten of the second reading but it is hidden a little.
Third Reading (Ephesians 1:3-6 (NASB)
Ask: What makes us an adopted child of God?
Point: Fourth Reading (Ephesians 1:13-14 (NASB)
Ask: Can we boil down the phrase from verse thirteen, “…having also believed…” to a single word?
Point: Faith
Ask: Why is faith important as it relates to your light and who sees it?
Point: Faith is the driving force behind works. Our heart-position of saying thank you to God for His Son’s sacrifice and the free gift of salvation moves us to act.
Fifth Reading (James 2:14-18 (NASB)
Ask: Do works, the things we do because we claim Jesus Christ as our Savior earn our way into Heaven?
Point: No. They do not. They are a response generated from us when our faith has matured enough to realize the magnificent gift God gave us through His Son Jesus and what He did for us on the cross.
Sixth Reading (Romans 3:27-31 (NASB)
Ask: Connect the dots for today’s lesson from where we started at, “You have not received mercy but now you have received mercy” to the title of the lesson, “Who sees your light?”
Point: God lit the lamp in you and as His scripture says in the bottom right corner of every page, “nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.” Matthew 5:15 (NASB)
Closing Statement
God lit the light in you to shine for everyone who is in the house. Who is in your house? Is it your house or God’s house? I’ll bet the initial reaction to the first question was a personal one thinking about things with “I, Me, and My” words but the second question felt a little convicting. It should because it is God’s house, all the world. Everyone is in God’s house, and we were called to shine our light to all of it. He has put us on His lampstand, in His house, in the room He chose. We need to try and reach the farthest corners of that room with our light, penetrate the deepest shadows, and illuminate even the hidden nooks. We do this not because we want everyone to look at the lamp, but because we want everyone to see His light.
Questions for the Week
Question 1-Why is it God’s house and not our house?
Question 2-Write down who you see not inside God’s house but more immediately, in the room of God’s house you currently occupy?
Question 3-Contemplate the following scripture and write down any thoughts you might have as it relates to this week’s lesson:
1 "Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.
2 "In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.
3 "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
4 "And you know the way where I am going."
5 Thomas *said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?"
6 Jesus *said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
John 14:1-6 (NASB)
Scripture
First Reading
10 for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.
11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.
12 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.
1 Peter 2:10-12 (NASB)
Hosea 1:10
Romans 9:25
Second Reading
7 "But I will have compassion on the house of Judah and deliver them by the LORD their God, and will not deliver them by bow, sword, battle, horses or horsemen."
8 When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and gave birth to a son.
9 And the LORD said, "Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not My people and I am not your God."
10 Yet the number of the sons of Israel Will be like the sand of the sea, Which cannot be measured or numbered; And in the place Where it is said to them, "You are not My people," It will be said to them, "You are the sons of the living God."
Hosea 1:7-10 (NASB)
Third Reading
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love
5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
Ephesians 1:3-6 (NASB)
Fourth Reading
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory.
Ephesians 1:13-14 (NASB)
Fifth Reading
14 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food,
16 and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?
17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
18 But someone may well say, "You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works."
James 2:14-18 (NASB)
Sixth Reading
27 Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.
28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.
29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,
30 since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.
31 Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.
Romans 3:27-31 (NASB)