Week 2 Preparing With God
“Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives, is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see.”
Corrie ten Boom
Passage
This week’s passage is quite long. In the printed form in class this scripture will appear on the last page.
22So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.
23“For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.
24“The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands;
25nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;
26and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,
27that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
28for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’
29“Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.
30“Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent,
31because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
32Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, “We shall hear you again concerning this.”
33So Paul went out of their midst.
34But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
Acts 17:22–34 (NASB95)
"Bible Study 2" by DrGBB is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Background
Quote-Cornelia Arnolda Johanna "Corrie" ten Boom (15 April 1892 – 15 April 1983) was a Dutch watchmaker and later a Christian writer and public speaker, who worked with her father, Casper ten Boom, her sister Betsie ten Boom and other family members to help many Jewish people escape from the Nazis during the Holocaust in World War II by hiding them in her home. They were caught, and she was arrested and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Her most famous book, The Hiding Place, is a biography that recounts the story of her family's efforts and how she found and shared hope in God while she was imprisoned at the concentration camp.
Passage-The genre of the book of Acts is Narrative History with several Sermons. Luke, the author of the Gospel of Luke, was a doctor and Gentile. He wrote this book circa 60-62 A.D. It is Luke’s sequel to the Gospel of Luke. It is titled "Acts" to emphasize that this book records the "Acts of the Apostles through the work of the Holy Spirit". The key personalities of Acts are Peter, Paul, John, James, Stephen, Barnabas, Timothy, Lydia, Silas, and Apollos.
Luke wrote the book of Acts (Acts of the Apostles) to record how believers were empowered by the Holy Spirit, worked to spread the Gospel of Christ, and are a model for the future church.
The book of Acts is also the history of the birth, the founding, and the spread of the Church from Jerusalem to Rome. It also records the transition of the Church from being almost exclusively a Jewish institution into becoming a Gentile and an international institution. Consequently, it records the transition of Christianity from a Jewish religion into an international faith. The Gospel of salvation is for all because Jesus Christ is Lord of all. By Jay Smith courtesy of Biblehub.com
Lesson Notes
Opening Statement
We know what a storm is and what it can do. We don’t want any part of the one we see coming or are in. Like the twelve-steppers say, recognizing the storm means we can do something about it, but knowing the storm for what it could bedoes not mean we know it for what it will be. Our hope is that today is the day the problem is solved. That today can be the day things turn around. They can be so long as we look to Jesus for the answers.
Ask: Why is Jesus the answer to our storms?
Point: Please read the following…
5Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?”
6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
7“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”
John 14:5–7 (NASB95)
Ask: That’s Jesus saying we should believe Him and He is gone now. How do we, in modern times, follow Him, know Him, and hear Him?
Point: Please read…
16“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;
17that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.
18“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
19“After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also.
John 14:16–19 (NASB95)
Ask: In the midst of hardship and trouble, in the middle of the storm with the wind raging all around, how do we hear “The Comforter?”
Point: Please read…
11So He said, “Go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
12After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing.
1 Kings 19:11–12 (NASB95)
Ask: Last week we said, “God in the storm” and now scripture says God isn’t in the storm. Isn’t that a contradiction?
Point: No. God isn’t in the things that make up the storm in that He isn’t making bad things happen to us.
Ask: Today’s passage says God made all things, so He made the storm too which means He made our problems for us too, right?
Point: No. God created the rules and set things in motion outlining the consequences of action and decision. We make our own choices that cause consequences to happen to us.
Ask: But I didn’t cause this problem (whatever THIS is) so it must be God doing it to me, right?
Point: Again, no. “why do bad things happen to good people” is the unspoken question because we all believe we are good people. Sometimes the bad decisions of other people cause things to happen to us through no fault of our own.
Ask: Where is hope in any of that? All there appears to be is an explanation of the storm.
Point: Hope comes in the form of the small, still voice of the Comforter, of God saying I am here with you.
Ask: None of that explains why we must look to Jesus for a solution to the storms that beset us?
Point: Please read…
18“Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.
19“Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.
20“For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”
Matthew 18:18–20 (NASB95)
Ask: Oh, cool! So, I find two or three other Christians, we all agree we all get new cars, and BANG! We all have new cars, right?
Point: God could do that, it is true, but it is unlikely.
Ask: But Jesus just said that if two or three of us agree on anything on earth it will be done for us. Why don’t we get new cars?
Point: The answer to this question lies in another question.
Ask: Do you know the plans God has for you?
Point: The honest answer is we do not know what life has in store for us.
11‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
12‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
13‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
14‘I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’
Jeremiah 29:11–14 (NASB95)
Closing Statement
God’s blessings do not fall on plans that wander off His path for our lives. Certainly, some people who are ungodly, doing ungodly things profit from their actions but that is not the doing of God. We should not expect a new car to drop into our lap just because we pray for one. We should expect that if it is in God’s plan for our lives to obtain a new car that the Holy Spirit will instruct us in the path, we should walk to obtain one following God’s ways, if that is what He has waiting for us. In all cases, wherever our path leads us, to either storm or sun God is with us when we seek Him with our heart aimed at growing closer to Him.
Questions for the Week
Question 1 Read all of Jeremiah 29 in your favorite translation.
Question 2 Take note of the storm or storms the people of God were experiencing at that time.
Question 3 Try to discern the reasons for the storms the people of God were experiencing. This may take some extra study and research.
Question 4 In your journal, compare the reasons you discovered with your own life and walk with God and write them down.
Question 5 Pray and ask God to help you move away from those similarities you found and where you found none, to keep you from falling into the difficulties that moved the Israelites into their storms.
What is the Areopagus?
Areopagus from the Acropolis" by KiltBear is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
The Areopagus (/æriˈɒpəɡəs/) is a prominent rock outcropping located northwest of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. Its English name is the Late Latin composite form of the Greek name Areios Pagos, translated "Hill of Ares" or “Mar’s Hill” to the Romans. The name Areopagus also referred, in classical times, to the Athenian governing council, later restricted to the Athenian judicial council or court that tried cases of deliberate homicide, wounding and religious matters, as well as cases involving arson of olive trees, because they convened in this location. The war god Ares was supposed to have been tried by the other gods on the Areopagus for the murder of Poseidon's son Halirrhothius (a typical example of an aetiological myth).
The Wikipedia link is HERE.