Month: September 2021

This week we’re going to see what happens when God works and we respond: God’s people get attacked!

We’ll see it in Acts 16, and we’ll recognize the reality in our own lives. Paul and Silas have just seen the church of Jesus planted in Philippi, on the new continent that today is Europe. And, you know what, God’s enemy doesn’t like it. God’s enemy tried to distort the gospel and discredit the messengers.

But, you know what else? God protects His Word and leads His messengers through: When in the place of spiritual attack, know that God will lead you out!

Here’s a few questions to consider with others as we get ready to meet tomorrow at Woodland. See you here:

1. Why is it helpful to think about the difference between natural evil and spiritual attack?
2. What are some ways that the gospel gets confused in our response to evil? (:16-24)
3. Where do your thoughts go in the “midnight hour” when you are under attack? (:25-26)
4. What is your typical pattern of response to people who have hurt you when you are under attack? (:27-34)
5. How can we promote the reputation of God’s people when we’ve sustained an attack? (:35-40)

This week we’re thinking about decisions. We make them more than ever, right? Decisions about scheduling and technology, rides and healthcare. Decisions about machines we can’t live without, but suddenly can’t use. More than ever, routine decisions are complicated and make us tired, don’t they?

In Acts 15, Paul and Barnabas (then Silas) take off on what we’ve come to call their Second Missionary Journey. They’ll revisit places like Derby, Lystra and Iconium where they’d introduced Gentiles to Jesus, the Savior of the world. Only this time, they’ll carry with them the verdict of the Jerusalem Council, reached earlier in Acts 15: JESUS is enough! You don’t need to keep the law of Moses in order to be saved.

But, as clear as that message might be, there’s more questions that arise from the doing of their trip. They involve those bedeviling details about whether to trust their young, but unreliable companion, John Mark. They involve how to present their new, half-Jewish companion Timothy, in their ministry to the Jews. They involve where to go when the Spirit tells them not to go where they’d planned on going.

Who to trust? … What to do? … Where to go?

Any of this sound familiar? Do you think there’s something we can learn for our own decision-making as we consider this passage?

Yes, there is. And, as we prepare to gather together at Woodland this Sunday, here’s some other questions we might consider together.

Questions for discussion:

1. What do we learn from the decision about John Mark? What was the process that Paul and Barnabas went through in arriving at their decision? How did God work this out? (15.36-41)
2. Do you have a story about a time when you had to make a decision only to find later that you “couldn’t have made a bad decision,” because you were trusting the results to the Lord?
3. What principles do we see worked out in Timothy’s decision to become circumcised? (16.1-5)
4. Have you ever had an experience where God refined your mission? Maybe, He told you to stop doing something He’d previously told you to do; or He told you to do something He’d previously not allowed you to do? What did that experience teach you about time and place and the timing of God’s work?
5. What does the account of Lydia show us about the end toward which the Spirit reveals God’s will and guides us?

We’ll see you this Sunday, at Woodland!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; the good news about Jesus had been accepted by those who didn’t even know the God of the Jewish Scriptures, the good news about Jesus had been rejected by most of those who did know the God of the Jewish Scriptures; Paul and Barnabas continued to teach new believers in Antioch that faith in Jesus is enough to know God, some claiming to know Christ continued to add requirements to faith in Christ; Paul and Barnabas wanted to make it simple to come to Jesus, some claiming to know Christ wanted to make it hard to come to Jesus. 

In short, it was an age like every other age God’s people have seen, in which we must ask the simple question: Is Jesus enough?

That’s the picture we find in Acts 15.1-35. There’s a threat! And it comes, not from outside the people of God, but from inside the church. And, as we see God’s people work toward resolution,  we’ll see them identify an issue that is just too big and important for compromise—call it a Truth Issue. We’ll also see them unify around less important matters—call them Unity Issues.

And, as we gather at Woodland this Sunday (and perhaps in small groups early next week) we’ll get to help each other with the truth and unity issues in our own cultural situation, all while we remember the one, big idea from Acts 15: JESUS IS ENOUGH.

Here’s some questions that, once we’ve read the passage, will help us do just that:

What is really being discussed in this passage? Why can’t they just “agree to disagree”? 

How are the “unity issues” of verse 19-20 different from the major “truth issue” (salvation by faith in Christ, not law-keeping)? 

What are some “truth issues” we encounter in our cultural situation? What are some “unity issues”? 

What are some takeaways from the way the apostles and elders handled this dispute? How might they become important for us? 

Have a great week. See you Sunday, at Woodland!

Have you ever found yourself in a new situation? Starting a new school, maybe? Or a new job? Or a new city? What’s everybody’s idea of “the good life” here? you might have asked.

This week, in Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas continue their mission to the Galatian cities of Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. And, like Dorothy in Oz said, they just as well might have said, “We’re not in Kansas anymore”.

Paul and Barnabas’s journey—there and back again—gives us insight in just how we’re to respond to cultural situations where we find ourselves among a people who don’t share the same assumptions about reality that we do. How do you serve God in that place? 

To serve in a new cultural situation … persist in the truth of Jesus (:1-7), help people question assumptions about reality (:8-20), and strengthen the gathered people of Jesus (:21-28). 

As we consider Acts 14 together, here’s some questions that can be considered—alone or with friends or family:

What is the truth about Jesus? Who is He, and what has He done? (:1-7)

When we find that we’re in the minority as a follower of Jesus, what obstacles do we encounter? (Consider, again, Acts 14.1-7 for some ideas.).

What assumptions about reality do people in our own culture hold without even thinking? (:8-20)

How might we help our friends in our own culture question these assumptions, and in a way that would have them consider the truth of who Jesus is? 

How does your view of the local church gathered change after reading about how Paul and Barnabas revisited those places where people had trusted Jesus, appointed leaders, and then celebrated with their sending church in Antioch? How central are local churches to God’s plan for this age? 

I’m so looking forward to seeing each of you this Sunday. See you at Woodland!