Week 42 Grow with Others
There are four quotes for this week taken inline with the lesson.
Passage
1“Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
2“For behold, darkness will cover the earth And deep darkness the peoples; But the Lord will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you.
3“Nations will come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.
4“Lift up your eyes round about and see; They all gather together, they come to you. Your sons will come from afar, And your daughters will be carried in the arms.
Isaiah 60:1–4 (NASB95)
"Sunrise at Camas Prairie Centennial Park and Red Sky" by Knowles Gallery is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Background
Quote-The quote information is under each quote in the appendix section.
Passage-The book of Isaiah is Narrative History, Prophetic Oracle, and even a Parable (chapter 5). The prophet Isaiah wrote it at approximately 700 B.C. (Chapters 40-66, written later in his life approx. 681 B.C.). Isaiah is the first book in the section called Major Prophets. They are called Major Prophets because of the large amount of material they wrote not because their message was more important than any other prophet’s was. Key personalities are Isaiah, his two sons, Shearjashub and Maher-shalal-jash-baz.
Isaiah contains some of the most incredible prophecies of any book. It contains foreknowledge, in incredible details about the Messiah, and the future reign of Jesus Christ. The purpose of the book of Isaiah was to call God’s nation, the nation of Judah, back to faithfulness and to declare the coming Messiah “Immanuel”. God calls and commissions His prophet to declare to Judah and Israel condemnation, conviction, and ultimately great hope.
Lesson Notes
Opening Statement
Personal growth typically means learning something or understanding something already learned in a new way. By definition that means admitting we don’t know something or don’t understand it in the way someone else does. Some people see this as a weakness, but in reality, it reflects courage and bravery to open up to other people.
Read Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s quote
Ask: How do we draw “Joy” and “Strength” from being around other Christians?
Point: It is the reason we have things like the Nicene Creed and other professions of faith.
Read the Nicene Creed as a class
Ask: Where do you see others and growth in the Nicene Creed?
Point: Other than talking about the Divine the creed is written in the plural. The last two statements contain both community and growth in understanding God’s ways.
Read Corrie ten Boom’s quote
Ask: Why do the things in the quote make the Devil happy?
Point: Because they are all things that move us further away from God.
Ask: How can we make sure we are able to stand up to the Devil and not move farther away from God?
Point: First Reading Ephesians 6:10–20 (NASB95)
Read Rick Warren’s quote
Ask: How does the Warren quote draw us in to grow with others?
Point: Everything in that quote requires other people to accomplish. None of it can be done alone.
Second Reading Matthew 16:15–18 (NASB95)
Ask: What is Jesus saying He will build upon Peter?
Point: He is going to build His church.
Third Reading 1 Corinthians 12:12–14 (NASB95)
Fourth Reading Ephesians 1:19–23 (NASB95)
Ask: What does Jesus being the head of the church have to do with us growing with other people?
Point: Jesus is in charge of the church, which is where we come to grow with other people. Jesus is in charge of how we do things as a church, how we conduct ourselves with each other, and how we relate to the world around our church.
Read Billy Graham’s quote
Ask: According to the Graham quote growth in Christ is a daily process, but I’m only in church once or twice a week o how do I still “Grow with Others” while apart from them?
Point: The answer to this question revolves around how we intentionally build community and communicate with those people outside of the four walls of the church.
Closing Statement
Do you see value in the church you attend now? Do you think that organization can have a greater value to you? That’s really a one way statement though. Flipping that statement around, how can you provide a greater value to the church? The idea is for growth both in ourselves but also in the organization around us. The Billy Graham quote says to grow daily in Jesus but that presupposes we haven’t reached the limits of how far we can grow based on what and who we know. Without a growing church around us at some point in our personal learning, we begin to stagnate. The only way we overcome that is with a broader experience of people around us from which to draw learning from.
Questions for the Week
Question 1 Read and consider the Nicene Creed and Apostle’s Creed detailing the parts you agree with and those parts you do not.
Question 2 For those things in the creeds you disagree with, document a scriptural reason why you disagree with it.
Question 3 For those things you cannot connect to scripture consider changing your opinion on that subject.
Scripture
First Reading
10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
11Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
13Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.
14Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
15and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
17And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,
19and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel,
20for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
Ephesians 6:10–20 (NASB95)
Second Reading
15He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
18“I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
Matthew 16:15–18 (NASB95)
Third Reading
12For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.
13For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
14For the body is not one member, but many.
1 Corinthians 12:12–14 (NASB95)
Fourth Reading
19and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might
20which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
21far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
22And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,
23which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Ephesians 1:19–23 (NASB95)
Definitions
creed
[ kreed ]
noun
Any system, doctrine, or formula of religious belief, as of a denomination.
Any system or codification of belief or of opinion.
An authoritative, formulated statement of the chief articles of Christian belief, as
the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, or the Athanasian Creed.
The creed. Apostles' Creed.
What is the Nicene Creed
The Nicene Creed was originally the result of the Council of Nicea in 325 a.d. While there are similarities between the text of the Nicene Creed and the text of the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, according to Schaff, is "more definite and explicit than the Apostles' Creed in the statement of the divinity of Christ and the Holy Ghost." The Nicene Creed provided the needed clarification to combat the heresies of the Nicene age, and is useful to combat those same heresies today which invariably reoccur in differing forms.
From Biblehub.com with permission https://biblehub.com/library/various/the_nicene_creed_/nicene_creed.htm
What is the Apostle’s Creed
Philip Schaff, in his Creeds of Christendom, writes of the Apostles' Creed, "As the Lord's Prayer is the Prayer of prayers, the Decalogue is the Law of laws, so the Apostles' Creed is the Creed of creeds. It contains all the fundamental articles of the Christian faith necessary to salvation, in the form of facts, in simple Scripture language, and in the most natural order -- the order of revelation -- from God and the creation down to the resurrection and life everlasting." The simple doctrinal statements within this creed are clear and concise, and their meaning cannot be misconstrued.
From Biblehub.com with permission https://biblehub.com/library/various/the_apostles_creed_/apostles_creed.htm
“The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and anti-Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have become widely influential; his 1937 book The Cost of Discipleship is described as a modern classic. Apart from his theological writings, Bonhoeffer was known for his staunch resistance to the Nazi dictatorship, including vocal opposition to Hitler's euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews. He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Tegel prison for one and a half years. Later, he was transferred to Flossenbürg concentration camp.
“When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians, the devil smiles. When he stops studying the Bible, the devil laughs. When he stops praying, the devil shouts for joy.”
Corrie ten Boom
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.
“Every church needs to grow warmer through fellowship, deeper through discipleship, stronger through worship, and larger through evangelism.”
Rick Warren
Richard Duane Warren (born January 28, 1954) is an American Southern Baptist evangelical Christian pastor and author. He is the founder of Saddleback Church, an evangelical megachurch affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention in Lake Forest, California.
“Being a Christian is more than just an instantaneous conversion—it is a daily process whereby you grow to be more and more like Christ.”
Billy Graham
William Franklin Graham Jr. (November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018) was an American evangelist and an ordained Southern Baptist minister who became well known internationally in the late 1940s. He was a prominent evangelical Christian figure, and according to a biographer, was "among the most influential Christian leaders" of the 20th century.
Nicene Creed
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, of things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the begotten of God the Father, the Only-begotten, that is of the essence of the Father.
God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten and not made; of the very same nature of the Father, by Whom all things came into being, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.
Who for us humanity and for our salvation came down from heaven, was incarnate, was made human, was born perfectly of the holy virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit.
By whom He took body, soul, and mind, and everything that is in man, truly and not in semblance.
He suffered, was crucified, was buried, rose again on the third day, ascended into heaven with the same body, [and] sat at the right hand of the Father.
He is to come with the same body and with the glory of the Father, to judge the living and the dead; of His kingdom there is no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, in the uncreated and the perfect; Who spoke through the Law, prophets, and Gospels; Who came down upon the Jordan, preached through the apostles, and lived in the saints.
We believe also in only One, Universal, Apostolic, and [Holy] Church; in one baptism in repentance, for the remission, and forgiveness of sins; and in the resurrection of the dead, in the everlasting judgement of souls and bodies, and the Kingdom of Heaven and in the everlasting life.
The Apostolic Creed
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth;
And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;*
the third day he rose from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic** church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.