Witness Without Discrimination
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
Jesus in Every Language
1 . Write the following on the board. Leave the name of the languages off for now.
- Giesu (Neapolitan).
• Jezuz (Breton).
• Jezui (Albanian).
• Yexus (Hmong Daw).
• lesu (Welsh).
2 . Ask students what they think the translation is for each word and what languages the words come from.
3, Tell the students all the words are the name "Jesus." Reveal the languages represented by the words.
4. Display resource Have the students use it to practice writing "Jesus" in the Greek language.
5. Transition to the lesson.
We are so familiar with the English language that we tend to view the world from an English first point of view, as if English is the original language. We might even think of the Bible as written in English.
In reality, Jesus and His followers spoke and wrote mostly in Greek. That we have a Bible in English at all is thanks to the work of the early church to spread the gospel far and wide. In our session for today, we will see examples of the gospel going to all sorts of diverse people. The session should challenge us to think about spreading the gospel beyond our English-speaking world.
In our last few lessons we have Stephen, a man full of the Holy Spirit, who preached the gospel with boldness even to the point of loosing his life. This week we will learn about another man who was full of the Holy Spirit who preached the gospel as well. But he was so willing to follow God’s leading that it led him to share the good new of the gospel to a few different groups. He share the good news to the hated, helpless, and the headstrong and God used him mightily. This man was willing to follow God anywhere and everywhere He leads him. Are you willing?
Good News for the Hated Samaritans
Good News for the Hated Samaritans
An outcast people
An outcast people
Review how Acts 1 described the spread of the gospel out of Jerusalem.
Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.
Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.
And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.
For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed.
Philip, like Stephen, was a Hellenistic Jew. He and six others oversaw the distribution of food to the needy in the Jerusalem church (Acts 6:5) He traveled north from Jerusalem to the city of Samaria (Sebaste) to preach the gospel there
Most Jews considered the Samaritans unclean. The Samaritans were neither purely Jew nor Gentile. They descended from the northern tribes of Israel left in the land after the Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC. Jews who remained in the land eventually intermarried with Canaanites. Their offspring were called Samaritans. The Jews hated the Samaritans, considering them " half-breeds. In fact, they hated the Samaritans so much that they wouldn't even travel through Samaria.
A few years before Philip’s trip into Samaria, Jesus made a point
to travel to Samaria and talked with a woman at a well near Sychar. She trusted in Christ, returned to her city, and brought out a crowd of Samaritans to hear the Savior. Jesus told His disciples to look at the approaching crowd as a field ripe for harvesting (John 4:1—42). Obviously, Jesus loved and valued the Samaritans. Their past didn't make them unreachable.
Philip, like Christ, saw the Samaritans as sinners in need of the gospel He proclaimed the true Messiah to them. The Samaritans had great joy when they trusted in Christ as Savior.
What persons or groups of persons has today's society hated or cast aside as worthless?
And there was great joy in that city.
Why do those who are hated by society often respond so joyfully to the gospel? The gospel gives them value and communicates God's love and acceptance. The gospel gives them a reason to live and hope for the future.
Philip, being so willing to follow and obey God’s call and leading he reached many and did great things in a place where the people were hated. It would be like preached the gospel to the Russians, in Iran, or China. These are people who are hated by the world and people that hate Americans, Yet God loves them and sent Christ to die for them as well.
Although Philip saw many Samaritans trust Christ, this doesn’t mean he met everyone who truly wanted to trust Christ. And Like Philip we will meet people who just want to gain something for us. The Chapter goes on up to verse 25 to tell us of a man named Simon.
He practiced magic, or sorcery, and gained praise from the people. They thought he must be associated with God. His "magic, " though, was powered by Satan, not God. Simon used his counterfeit power to draw people away from truths about God.
Simon saw an opportunity to promote his own fame, and he grabbed at it. He wanted to pay for the power to give the Holy Spirit to people. He completely missed the point of what was happening around him. What the Samaritans received and experienced wasn't for sale.
We will meet people like this as well, But Like Philip we must remain faithful and speak the truth no matter what. And we know the truth to be the Word of God.
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
But God continued to lead Philip and he follow.
Good News for a Helpless Ethiopian
Good News for a Helpless Ethiopian
Curious and clueless
Curious and clueless
And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.
The gospel spread throughout Judea and Samaria, but God had plans for it to spread even farther, the Lord directed Philip away from Jerusalem to a road in a desert place.
Show Map
There Philip met an Ethiopian eunuch on his way home from worshiping in Jerusalem. The eunuch was an important official, a treasurer, in the court of Candace, the queen of Ethiopia. He had traveled quite a distance to visit the temple in Jerusalem. He was obviously curious about God and wanted to know more. As he traveled home, he took time to read from the book of Isaiah.
The Holy Spirit prompted Philip to run to the eunuch's chariot and ask if he understood what he was reading. The eunuch admitted that without someone to explain Isaiah's prophecies to him, he was clueless (8:27— 31).
Confident and content
Confident and content
The eunuch read Isaiah 53: 7 - 8 and asked to Whom the verses referred.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, Yet he opened not his mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, So he openeth not his mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment: And who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living: For the transgression of my people was he stricken.
The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth:
In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.
Philip used the Isaiah passage as a springboard for explaining the death and resurrection of Christ. The Isaiah verses talk about Jesus' willingness to die for the sins of the world. The eunuch genuinely trusted in Christ. After traveling some and coming upon some water, Philip baptized the eunuch (8134-39). Because of Philip's ministry, the eunuch went from confused to confident of his salvation. Tradition suggests that the eunuch returned to Africa and served as an early missionary.
After Philip completed his ministry to the eunuch, the Spirit of God snatched him away to another location. Philip preached in cities until he came to Caesarea in Samaria (8:40).
ASK: What can we learn from Philip's example in this passage? God directs our lives to intersect with those who need to hear the gospel; we must be ready to share the gospel; we must see each witnessing opportunity as important to God.
Next week we are going to look at the good news coming to the headstrong Saul and what God had to do to wake him up.
Good News for the Headstrong Pharisee
Good News for the Headstrong Pharisee
Confronted by Jesus
Confronted by Jesus
And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,
And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.
While Philip, Peter, and John were busy spreading the gospel outside of Jerusalem, Saul was busy planning attacks against Christians in Damascus. He requested permission to travel to Damascus and arrest all believers he found along the way to bring them back to Jerusalem.
Point out Damascus in relation to Jerusalem, The cities are about 135 miles apart.
As Saul traveled, he was stopped by a blinding fight and a voice from Heaven. The voice asked Saul why he was persecuting Him. Saul, a devout Jew, would have understood that the voice belonged to God, but he didn't understand why God would be asking this question. Saul thought he was serving God by stamping out the n heretic" Christians.
And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
Jesus identified Himself as the object of Saul's persecution. Believers are so closely related to Christ that to persecute a believer is to persecute Christ. With Jesus' words, Saul immediately understood he had been on the wrong side of the persecution. Saul, trembling and astonished, asked the Lord what he should do, showing that he had stopped opposing Jesus and was ready to follow Him. The Lord told him to go into the city for further instructions. Saul, the greatest threat thus far to Christianity, was then led by hand into Damascus. Christ confronted Saul and changed him from headstrong to humble. He didn't eat for three days as he contemplated all he had done to hurt believers and the cause of Christ (9:7—9).
ASK: What does Saul's conversion to Christianity tell us about the power of the gospel? No heart is too hardened to be broken by the truth of the gospel.
Chosen by Jesus
Chosen by Jesus
And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.
And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth,
And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.
Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem:
And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.
God had Ananias waiting for Saul in Damascus. But when God told Ananias that he was to go help Saul, Ananias had doubts. He knew Saul had come to Damascus to arrest believers. Was Saul just pretending to be a believer? The Lord assured Ananias that Saul had indeed trusted in Him for salvation.
But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:
For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.
God chose Saul to be His vessel for taking the gospel to the Gentiles, kings, and Jews. God's choosing brought favor to Saul in that Saul had tremendous opportunities to impact the world for Christ and lay up treasures in Heaven. With the blessing of serving God would come suffering. Paul eventually saw that as a privilege too.
Ananias obeyed God and went to Saul, immediately referring to him as "brother. " Saul received his sight back and was filled with the Holy Spirit when Ananias laid hands on him. That was all the proof the believers in Damascus needed. He was immediately baptized and accepted into the fellowship of believers.
Confessor of Jesus
Confessor of Jesus
Saul couldn't wait to get into the synagogues, where he was supposed to be arresting Christians, and proclaim what Christ had done for him. His testimony amazed and confused those who heard him.
The Jewish leaders in Damascus quickly tired of Saul and the gospel.
They didn't want to hear it. Unable to refute his logic, the exasperated Jews conspired to murder him. That sounds a lot like what happened Stephen.
And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.
But all that heard him were amazed, and said; Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests?
But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ.
And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him:
But their laying await was known of Saul. And they watched the gates day and night to kill him.
Then the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket.
The Antioch disciples heard of the plot and lowered Saul through the window since the Jews were watching the city gates. Saul experience d the first of many threats on his life for sharing Christ.
Saul eventually returned to Jerusalem. There the disciples questioned the nature of his conversion, but Barnabas, the one known for his encouragement (4:36), accompanied Saul into the company of the apostles. Saul recounted that he had seen and spoken with the Lord and that he had immediately begun witnessing about the resurrected Christ.
Saul joined himself with the apostles, boldly proclaiming Christ to the Hellenistic Jews. When they planned to kill him, the disciples escorted him to Caesarea. Saul then traveled to Tarsus, his birthplace, where he would stay for about six years to prepare for his ministry as God's missionary to the Gentiles.
Meanwhile, the churches in Judea, Galilee, and Samaria enjoyed a brief rest. They were edified and were waking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit.