Deep Bible Study #5, YD Camp

Review

Prepare your heart

Observe the Facts

Walk in their Shoes

Engage with the Meaning

Would you rather follow someone who is poor and always going through problems, or would you rather follow someone who is seemingly successful, wealthy, and has their act together?

Paul was essentially saying this: To suffer for Christ is not shameful. To suffer for Christ is an honor, it is a privilege.

Any suffering I go through for Jesus is not shameful.

Does not mean He has forsaken me

It means that it is a privilege and honor

Introduction

Asking the Right Questions

There are many other great ways to apply the passage to your life. Another method is to use the acronym “JOY” which stands for Jesus, Others, Yourself:

What does this passage teach you about Jesus?

Jesus died for our sins. He is the example in suffering. Was he willing to suffer so that the light of the gospel could shine in our hearts? He suffered or our sake that we might be saved. When we go through trials

What does this passage teach you about Others?

There are others who are in darkness, without a saving relationship with Jesus. There are others who need to know about the gospel.

What does this passage teach you about Yourself?

I can choose to have a perspective change about trials. When challenges come my way, instead of feeling forsaken, I can know that God is doing something special in my life

You might also consider asking yourself:

Which character(s) in the passage or story do I identify or relate with most?

What do I have in common with them, and how can I learn from their journey?

What is the light?

2 Corinthians 4:4 KJV 1900

4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

2 Corinthians 4:4 NKJV

4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

​ NKJV4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

The light is the gospel.

What is the gospel?

Gospel - “euangellion”

Compound word - 2 in 1

Eu = good + angellion = message

3 angel’s message

What is the good news message about?

Have you ever had someone come to you and say, “I have some good news!”

Or maybe someone has said, “I have some good news and I have some bad news”

What’s the natural reaction? What’s the news??

By the way, have you ever noticed that bad news travels a lot faster than good news? It’s been said that if the gospel were bad news, the whole world would know about it already.

The good news is about the glory of Christ, who is in the image of God.

What is the glory of Christ?

Word study - glory

Exodus 33:17–19 NKJV

17 So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.” 18 And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.” 19 Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”

Exodus 33 NKJV

1 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Depart and go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give it.’ 2 And I will send My Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. 3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” 4 And when the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. 5 For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore, take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do to you.’ ” 6 So the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb. 7 Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp. 8 So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. 9 And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. 10 All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door. 11 So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle. 12 Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’ 13 Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.” 14 And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.” 17 So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.” 18 And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.” 19 Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” 20 But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” 21 And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. 22 So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. 23 Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”

Exodus 34:6–7 NKJV

6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

Exodus 34.

Exodus 34:6–8 NKJV

6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” 8 So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.

Exodus 34 NKJV

1 And the Lord said to Moses, “Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. 2 So be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself to Me there on the top of the mountain. 3 And no man shall come up with you, and let no man be seen throughout all the mountain; let neither flocks nor herds feed before that mountain.” 4 So he cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Then Moses rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him; and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone. 5 Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, 7 keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” 8 So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. 9 Then he said, “If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.” 10 And He said: “Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord. For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. 11 Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I am driving out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. 12 Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst. 13 But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images 14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), 15 lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice, 16 and you take of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods and make your sons play the harlot with their gods. 17 “You shall make no molded gods for yourselves. 18 “The Feast of Unleavened Bread you shall keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the appointed time of the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt. 19 “All that open the womb are Mine, and every male firstborn among your livestock, whether ox or sheep. 20 But the firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. And if you will not redeem him, then you shall break his neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. “And none shall appear before Me empty-handed. 21 “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. 22 “And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end. 23 “Three times in the year all your men shall appear before the Lord, the Lord God of Israel. 24 For I will cast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither will any man covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year. 25 “You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leaven, nor shall the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover be left until morning. 26 “The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.” 27 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. 29 Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. 30 So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses talked with them. 32 Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them as commandments all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. 33 And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. 34 But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take the veil off until he came out; and he would come out and speak to the children of Israel whatever he had been commanded. 35 And whenever the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone, then Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with Him.

The good news is about the character of Jesus. The gospel is about who God is.

Exodus 34The good news is about the character of Jesus. The gospel is about who God is. says the light is the knowledge of glory of God. The knowledge of who God is.How do you get to know who someone is?By spending time with them.When you get to know God for who He really is, when you experience Him for yourself, when you have a personal relationship with Him, abiding in Him and Him in you every day, then you have the knowledge of the glory of God.

The good news is about the character of Jesus. The gospel is about who God is. says the light is the knowledge of glory of God. The knowledge of who God is.How do you get to know who someone is?By spending time with them.When you get to know God for who He really is, when you experience Him for yourself, when you have a personal relationship with Him, abiding in Him and Him in you every day, then you have the knowledge of the glory of God.

says the light is the knowledge of glory of God. The knowledge of who God is.

How do you get to know who someone is?

By spending time with them.

When you get to know God for who He really is, when you experience Him for yourself, when you have a personal relationship with Him, abiding in Him and Him in you every day, then you have the knowledge of the glory of God.

Where can you find the glory of God?

says in the face of Jesus.

So now we know:

What is the light? The gospel. What is the gospel? Good news. What is the good news? It is about the glory or character of God, it is about who God is. Where can you learn about the character of God? In the face of Jesus.

What does it mean for the light to shine in your heart?

For you to allow God’s character of love and goodness to personally touch your heart and change your life.

So you could summarize it this way:

The light that shines in our hearts is the good news of who God really is, as seen in the face of Jesus.

What does it mean for the light to shine in your heart?

For you to allow God’s character of love and goodness to personally touch your heart and change your life.

After verse 6, there is a minor shift in emphasis, a transition in thought. Up until this point in the chapter, has Paul mentioned anything about trials? Not yet. But now, starting in verse 7, he begins to shift the focus in that direction.

James 1:2–4 NKJV

2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

​ KJV 19007 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

1 Peter 4:12–13 NKJV

12 Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; 13 but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.

Ministry of Healing, p. 471

What is the treasure? The treasure is the light that has shined in our hearts!There is a contrast here in this verse.On one side you have the treasure: filled with glory, light, excellence, the gospel!On the other side you have earthen vessels, our hearts, Trials are a powerful tool to help others know about who God really is.Our attitude of faith through suffering is a testimony that will teach others about who Jesus is in a way nothing else can do.AA p. 330

Ministry of Healing The Discipline of Trial

It is because God is leading them that these things come upon them. Trials and obstacles are the Lord’s chosen methods of discipline and His appointed conditions of success. He who reads the hearts of men knows their characters better than they themselves know them. He sees that some have powers and susceptibilities which, rightly directed, might be used in the advancement of His work. In His providence He brings these persons into different positions and varied circumstances that they may discover in their character the defects which have been concealed from their own knowledge. He gives them opportunity to correct these defects and to fit themselves for His service. Often He permits the fires of affliction to assail them that they may be purified.

The fact that we are called upon to endure trial shows that the Lord Jesus sees in us something precious which He desires to develop. If He saw in us nothing whereby He might glorify His name, He would not spend time in refining us. He does not cast worthless stones into His furnace. It is valuable ore that He refines. The blacksmith puts the iron and steel into the fire that he may know what manner of metal they are. The Lord allows His chosen ones to be placed in the furnace of affliction to prove what temper they are of and whether they can be fashioned for His work.

Purpose

​Acts of the Apostles Chapter 31—The Message Heeded“We have this treasure,” the apostle continued, “in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” God could have proclaimed His truth through sinless angels, but this is not His plan. He chooses human beings, men compassed with infirmity, as instruments in the working out of His designs. The priceless treasure is placed in earthen vessels. Through men His blessings are to be conveyed to the world. Through them His glory is to shine forth into the darkness of sin. In loving ministry they are to meet the sinful and the needy, and lead them to the cross. And in all their work they are to ascribe glory, honor, and praise to Him who is above all and over all.

Purpose

​ NKJV2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Purpose

If you have Jesus and if you have mission, Satan’s attacks fuel the fire instead of quench the flame.

What would hold you back pushes you forward.

Trials help you not be lukewarm.

You either go hot or cold.

Trials will either make you bitter, or they will make you better.

You either run away from God or you run to Him.

Why would you choose that kind of lifestyle?

Why would Paul choose to be whipped, beaten, shipwrecked

How could Paul and Silas be singing in prison?

When people see courage, strength, faith, and even joy in the midst of hardship, it is a powerful testimony. They take notice.

And it gives us the opportunity to show them and tell them of what Jesus has done.

2 Corinthians 4:10–11 KJV 1900

10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. 11 For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

phanerao -> phaino -> phows

Putting Your Faith into Action

It’s great to understand the Bible and apply it to our lives, but it’s even better to take action based on what we have learned and discovered. says that we ought to be “doers of the word, and not hearers only.” The book of James also says (in ) that faith without works is dead. Consider the following questions to decide how you can put your faith into action.

What is the next step in my journey with the Lord?

What is God calling me to do about what I have learned?

Is there a sin that God is calling me to confess and overcome?

How can I grow to be more like Christ in my character as a result of what this passage teaches me about Jesus?

Creating an Action Plan

Don’t just settle for theoretical application. As you feel called and convicted to take action based on what God has shown you through His word, consider making an action plan so that you can follow through on your commitments. To create an action plan, simply answer these questions:

What must be done?

Who must do it?

How must it be done?

When must it be done?

Where must it be done?

Homework Assignment

Create an action plan based on the passage we have been studying this week and/or perhaps another passage of scripture that is special to you. Be sure to make prayer central as you seek God’s will in each step of the action plan. What? How? Who? When? Where?