Grace Church Learning Guide / Week of July 7th, 2019

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... And the Truth Shall Make you Odd! /​ Amy B.

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key text / Acts 8: 1-40  (The Message)

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For a PDF of the Learning Guide, click here.

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THE BIG IDEA

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God’s kingdom is expanding and we are tasked with helping others to enter in. ​

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WHERE WE ARE IN THE STORY

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At the beginning of the Acts story, Jesus tells his disciples they will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on them, and when that happens, they will be his witnesses locally, regionally, and all over the world. And then he leaves them, ascending to heaven in a cloud. 

 

Some time later, while celebrating Pentecost in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit does come on them, with rushing wind and tongues of fire. And from that moment, they began to teach and be witnesses to the good news of salvation through Jesus. They perform miracles, are unified in community, and preach and teach to bystanders and in the temple. 

 

But they also have to deal with conflict, arising from among their own internally, and also from the Jewish leaders externally persecuting them for this movement and teaching that they can’t control and don’t agree with. The internal conflict they are able to work through, and this becomes a witness of the power of Jesus in itself. The external conflict in the form of persecution results in arrests and beatings, and then culminates in the murder of Stephen, one of their leaders. 

 

This leads us to where we are in our text this week, as the persecution has reached a point where these Christians no longer are safe in Jerusalem, so they leave the city, and continue to speak about what they’ve seen and experienced of the power of Jesus.

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MAP IT

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In our text this week, geography plays an especially important role, as there are a few different things happening in different areas of this middle-eastern region. 

 

Read about the region of Judea here. Read about Samaria and its significance, especially as a destination for being a witness to the gospel, here. Remember, these are two places that Jesus said the disciples would witness with the power of the Holy Spirit. 

See here for a map with great commentary of this chapter of scripture, especially Philip’s journey throughout this land.

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US ASKING ACTS / ACTS ASKING US

 

Us to Acts: Despite the matter of fact-ness of the text talking about the spreading of the gospel outside Jerusalem, what obstacles did you have to overcome in witnessing cross-culturally?

 

Acts asking Us: what are the similarities or differences to the obstacles you face in witnessing to people different than yourselves in present-day?

 

Us to Acts: What do we miss out on when we turn away from discomfort in our pursuit of discipleship?

 

Acts to Us: Where is the Holy Spirit urging us as individuals in our pursuit of discipleship?

 

 

RESOURCES

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• “The good news about Jesus should evoke rejoicing especially among those living on the margins needing to know what the text means for them. The Ethiopian's story vividly demonstrates how God in the Jesus-event will and can draw different persons, not of our choosing, to experience the power of the resurrection,” writes Mitzi Smith in this wonderful commentary on this text.  

• “Maybe we can learn something from Philip’s radical act. Maybe instead of talking and arguing among ourselves for years and years, we ought to just jump into the water and trust the Spirit to take care of the details.” Rev. Jeremy Wicks writes in this blogpost in his teaching series on Unlikely Heroes.  

• Brian Zahnd shares, “Book of Acts results requires Book of Acts methods.”  Read more here about his reflections on the ministry of Philip. 

• Listen to this week’s spotify playlist by Amy Buff, and her insightful commentary here.

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LOOKING AHEAD

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As we’ve seen this week what happens when the followers of Christ are persecuted and have to leave Jerusalem, next week we look at one of the most significant turning points not just in Acts or in scripture, but in all of history, when a major persecutor of the Church, Saul, has an experience with Jesus that changes his world, and the whole world. Read about it in Acts 9:1-31. 

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Grace Church Learning Guide / Week of July 14th, 2019

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Unlikely Disciples /​ John Ray

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key text / Acts 9: 1-31  (The Message)

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For a PDF of the Learning Guide, click here.

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THE BIG IDEA

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Conversions, even dramatic ones, are never done alone.

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WHERE WE ARE IN THE STORY

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Jesus has promised his followers they’ll receive the Holy Spirit and be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and everywhere. And then He leaves them. His words, come to fruition though, of course. 

 

In Jerusalem, the followers begin forging their communal identity, as they eat and pray together, giving of their personal resources for the benefit of the whole. They perform miracles in the name of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, and make it known that they are regular people testifying to what they’ve seen and experienced in Jesus. 

 

But they have to deal with problems, from among them in the form of deception and ethnic favoritism, and from outside, as the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem threaten, beat, imprison, some of the Jesus people, and eventually murder one of them. But these things don’t defeat them, in many ways it emboldens them. 

 

The persecution culminating in this murder will drive these Jesus people out of Jerusalem, the epicenter of Jewish culture, where it’s no longer safe to practice following the risen Jesus. But that will bring the news of Jesus to folks outside the city, including people the Jews despised for being ethnically impure (but the Jesus followers had already worked through that one).

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MAP IT

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Our text this week tells us that Saul got arrest warrants in Jerusalem, in order to arrest followers of Jesus in Damascus. And thus he went to Damascus to do just that. Damascus was (and still is) in Syria, which borders Israel on the Northeast. Damascus is about 135 miles from Jerusalem, with the sea of Galilee being a little over halfway.

 

While likely not exact, Paul’s path to Damascus has been mapped here. And the Lord tells Saul to go to a house in Damascus on Straight Street, which still exists to this day, with some basic information and modern images on wikipedia. 

 

Worth noting is that this was a Roman road. It has been notoriously stated that “All roads lead to Rome” during the reign of the Roman empire. And when we touched briefly on the time between the Old and New Testament, we established that the Roman empire built the roads all over the known (Mediterranean) world that the gospel would travel on. Here we are!

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US ASKING ACTS / ACTS ASKING US

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Us to Acts: What was it like to welcome in a former enemy, such a forceful one at that? How did y’all navigate what the message was and how it was to be shared? 

Acts asking Us: What prerequisites are we putting on people before we include them in our fellowship? How much of our ongoing conversion are we trying to do alone? 

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RESOURCES

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• Interesting look at the consequences of a “personal relationship/golden ticket” Gospel - why most millennial Christians don’t evangelize. 

• The culture of making power of stories - How stories draw us to faith.

• Article from Nadia on natural human response to radical conversion.

• A video of Brad Jersak on the inclusivity of the kingdom.

• An article mulling over God’s timing in revealing himself to Saul.

• Kelsey Haegar writes this week’s Grace Church Blog! Take a look here.

• Listen to this week’s spotify playlist by Amy Buff, and her insightful commentary here.

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LOOKING AHEAD

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At this point in our story of Acts, the followers of Jesus have taken the message of salvation all over the region. Unlikely people right and left are professing faith in Christ. And yet, the Jewish identity is still strong, and we have no record of someone coming to faith who did not have a Jewish identity, or in the case of the Ethiopian, was not attempting to worship the Jewish God Yahweh.

But in our text next week, that will change. There will be a conversion of a non-Jew, a Roman. And this presents yet another world-changing shift in the life of the early church. Read about it in Acts 9:32-11:18.

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Grace Church Learning Guide / Week of July 21th, 2019

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The Table Gets Bigger /​ John Ray

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key text / Acts 9:32 - 11:18  (The Message)

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For a PDF of the Learning Guide, click here.

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THE BIG IDEA

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The Kingdom of God is not limited by our prejudices, ignorances, or assumptions. God’s table to endlessly large.

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WHERE WE ARE IN THE STORY

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Jesus has risen from the dead, gone to heaven, and left his 12 disciples and his several other followers to spread the message of salvation through Him locally in Jerusalem, regionally, and all over the world. The disciples encounter the spirit while celebrating one of their annual holidays, and from that point, begin to preach the message of the good news of saving grace through Jesus.

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In Jerusalem, the followers of Jesus begin to grow in number, they meet regularly, pray, eat, share their resources for the greater good, and scripture tells us there was much harmony. But there was also conflict, as they deal with issues from among their own people, as well as the Jewish leaders threatening, beating, and jailing them for spreading a message that does not adhere totally to mainline Judaism. Both their growth and harmony, as well as their response to the issues they have to face, are a witness to the power of God the father, Jesus the son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

The external threats culminate in the murder of one of their leaders, Stephen, who gets stoned by the Jewish power brokers. This effectively ends the growth and witness of the early church in Jerusalem, as most Jesus-followers leave the town for the preservation of their own lives. This leads to the message spreading to the Jewish populations in Judea, outside Jerusalem, and even Samaria, where Jewish people looked down on the Samaritans for differences in genetic heritage and different Jewish practices. But the early followers of Jesus made no superiority claims and brought them into their Jesus-centric community.

 

And then a man named Saul, who had been behind much of the persecution of the believers, has a radical encounter with Jesus, and becomes a Jesus follower. The other followers are skeptical at first, but he proves his faithfulness and begins to teach and preach the message of Jesus. At each step of the way, new and different people have been welcomed in the community of Christians. But they all have a Jewish background or have attempted to worship the God of Judaism.

 

Which brings us to our text this week, another seismic shift in world history: non-Jewish background people are accepted into the church, with their faith being acknowledged by God and man.

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MAP IT

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The majority of our story this week happens in Joppa, also called Jaffa or in Hebrew Yafo. It’s a fascinating port city, the same one from which Jonah departed on his trip to Tarshish, and where the Cedars of Lebanon came into Israel en route to Jerusalem for the construction of the first and second temples in Jerusalem.

 

Read and see modern pictures of Jaffa here. Check it out on the map, especially in relation to Caesarea, where Peter travels in this week’s text, here (4th map down).

 

Caesarea was another coastal town, about 30 miles north of Jaffa, that was  initially a Roman province built by Herod the Great. But as we learned this week, it becomes the sight of the first baptism of a gentile.

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US ASKING ACTS / ACTS ASKING US

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Us Asking Acts:  What was blocking y’all from including people before Peter’s vision? How did y’all overcome these things in practice? 

Acts Asking Us: What blocks us today from including people at the table? How do we overcome those obstacles?

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RESOURCES

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• Good framing from Working Preacher 

• Alissa Herbaly Coons on Tasting the Animal Kingdom. How our acts of eating echo the community of God.

• Miroslav Volf podcast on theology, reconciliation, and the self.

• A look at the hospitality and our social barriers of “clean” and “unclean” in light of Peter and Cornelius.

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LOOKING AHEAD

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In our text next week, the message of Jesus continues to spread across geographical and ethnic lines. The message that there are no favorites, no pedestals, no haves and have nots in the kingdom of God continues to be woven into the fabric of culture of earliest Christians. Read about it in Acts 11:19-30.

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