Upcoming events:  Men’s Curry Night – lads welcome;  Team Building with RPBC Youth Sun a.m – meet at the Vicarage 10am as usual; Anyone interested in Confirmation, see Verity;  Youth Matters “Saving Sierra Leone” service this Sunday starts with a Social in the Small Hall from 7pm to 7.30 pm.

2. Book of Acts Overview.

The Book of Acts – the fifth book in the New Testament (right after the Gospels) takes the story of Jesus’s followers on after his death and resurrection. At a moment when the whole thing might have a ground to a halt after Jesus’s departure, the disciples are empowered by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and begin to preach boldly. The Book of Acts tells of how their message spread, first in a church of many thousands of Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, then amongst Jews in the surrounding area, then wider still as Gentiles began to find faith in Jesus.

The missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul and his companions take the message north to Greece, and ultimately to the heart of the super-power of the day: Rome. It is a story of amazing faith and courage as the believers persevere to share their faith despite great obstacles, and a story of great love and devotion as the church builds itself up as the family of God as the Gospel brings down the barriers between Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor, unschooled and educated.

It’s well worth having a simple map of  the world around the Mediterranean in mind as you read Acts:

Map of the Book of Acts (http://www.foundbytes.com/bibleintro/NewTest/mapActs.htm)

Click on the map to read more.

3. 10 Women of the Bible

Last week we worked on fitting 10 men of the Bible against the Biblical Eras (Creation, Patriarchs, Exodus etc.)

Can you do the same with these 10 women?

Bathsheba, Priscilla, Esther, Eve, Deborah, Miriam, Mary, Hagar, Rahab, Sarah

Have a go, then check your ideas here. There are several ways to build up an overview of how the “big story” of the bible works, and one is to get familiar with sequence of some of the main characters. So, it’s worth knowing this stuff!

4. The Early Church – Devotion to prayer

Last week we read how the early church in Jerusalem lived, after 3000 were baptised in one day! Can you remember any specific things they did? Have another look at Acts 2:37-47.

Today we’re going to focus on how they were devoted to prayer.

Brainstorm questions:

• When and where do you pray? (e.g. early, late, any time, all the time, in bed, outside…)
• How do you pray? (e.g. out loud, in my head, thoughts not words, write it down…)
• What does it mean to be devoted to prayer? (e.g. regular, daily, throughout the day, prayer journal…)
• Why was the early church devoted to prayer? (e.g. grateful, worried about enemies, guidance, the lost…)

The early church was led by men who had spent years learning from Jesus. They taught the church what they had learned from Him. Read the following pasages and think about these questions for each one:

• What do we learn about how Jesus prayed, and
• How can we imitate Him.

Luke 5:15-16 “…news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”

Notes: “Often”. Why “lonely places?” Elsewhere Jesus says “pray in your room”. Is he contradicting himself?

Luke 6:12-13 “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles:

Notes; What was he praying about all night? Do you pray more when there are big decisions to make? All night?!

Luke 18: 1-8 “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’ “

And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Notes: Why do we feel like giving up praying? Are you constantly bugging God  ? When Jesus comes back, will we have given up praying?

Is there  something you need to pray about with perseverance? Take some time to pray about that thing now, and ask God to help you be devoted in prayer.

Upcoming events: Lock-in,  JB Renunion,  Paint Ball,  Origins and Lemons,  Chill @ Church,  Harvest Supper, Elders’ Tea Party, Please bring term subs and Consent Forms and give to Ruth Rawes as soon as possible. Take a look at youversion.com and the Essential 100 Reading Plan.

2. 10 Men of the Bible

Can you place the following Biblical characters in time order (as they turn up in the Bible)?

Joshuah, Paul, Noah, Adam, Nehemiah, Jesus, Moses, David, Abraham, Samuel

Where would they fit against these Biblical Eras?

Creation

Patriarchs – the “Fathers of the Faith” start laying the foundations for God to save mankind

Exodus – God’s people leave Egypt to head for the promised land

Conquest – The Jews cross the Jordan in to Caanan and begin to take territory

Judges – The Jews live in the new land first under the rule of “Judges”

Kings – then of Kings.

Exile – Because of repeated disobedience to God, the Jews are taken captive by the Assyrians and Bablyonians

Return – The Persian king Cirus allows the Jews to return to their land

Silence – Several hundred years not represented by books in Bible

Gospel – The New Testament Era.

3. The Early Church: “Devoted”

The first Church started when on the day of Pentecost in about A.D.30 Peter preached a message in Jerusalem to the Jews there, explaining that the man Jesus who had just been crucified was the awaited Messiah. “When the people heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the other Apostles ‘What shall we do’….” You can read in Acts 2:37-47 how 3000 were baptised that very day, and how they began to live together as an amazing community.

Acts 2:37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off–for all whom the Lord our God will call.” 40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”

41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

The Fellowship of the Believers

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.44 All the believers were together and had everything in common.45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,

47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

New International Version (NIV)

Some questions for you:

• What do you think of the kind of church life described in Acts 2:37-47 ? How do we compare? How could we close the gap?
• How can we be more devoted to one-another?
• How would you finish the sentence “I feel loved when…” Are you meeting other people’s needs by finding out what makes them feel loved, and offering them the kind of encouragement they need?

Some more scriptures about loving one another: John 13:34-35, 1 John 4:19-21, Mark 12:30-31

YCG Quiz                 ___/15

Names    ______________________       __________________________

1.The New Testament is made up of only 27 books but in the Old Testament there are

A: 39      B:29         C:59                                                                                                                                                              (1)

2. The Old Testament is made up of 5 collections of books. Name the missing ones:

1. I.            P ___________________ / Books of Moses
2. II.            History
3. III.            W__________________
4. IV.            Major prophets
5. V.            Minor prophets                                                                                       *Bonus for numbers of books in each category (2)

3. Solomon was renowned for his great A: strength  B: camel burgers C: wisdom                                                                         (1)

4. Name 2 major prophets in the Old Testament . ____________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________ * Bonus for extras (2)

5. The oldest bible would have been written on  A: dried banana leaves  B: pig skin  C: antelope skin                                       (1)

6. The earliest example of a sacrifice being given to God in the bible is

A: Abraham after he arrived in Canaan  B: Cain and Abel offering produce of their land
C: Noah after the flood                                                                                                                                                                 (1)

7. Abraham’s father was called A: Haran    B: Terah      C: Lot                                                                                                               (1)

8. Abraham came from Mesopotamia,  meaning  “between two rivers”. What were the two rivers called?

A: The Tigris and the Nile,  B: The Tigris and the Danube, C: The Tigris and the Euphrates.                                             (1)

9. Why did Abraham leave the Negev area to go to Egypt?

A: To check out the fish in the Red Sea, B: There was a plague of frogs, C: There was a famine                                    (1)

10. In Egypt why did Pharaoh take Sarai to be his wife even though she was already married to Abraham?

________________________________________________________________________________________________     (1)

11.  Psalms are like prayers to music, and most were written by _____________________________________                     (1)

12. In psalm 119 it says “I have hidden (stored) your word in my heart”. Give an example of how you
could store God’s word in your heart.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________     (1)

13. An example of a proverb is:  ______________________________________________________________________     (1)

14. “Bible – interesting story, but I reckon some monk made it all up in the middle ages.” What do you think, and why?

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________        (1)

15. What song should we do at YCG that we’ve not done? ________________________________________________       (1)

Discussion points

• How have you been finding what we’ve been doing on Tuesday nights so far?
• Do you feel you’re more confident about finding your way around in the Old Testament.  E.g. If  you were asked to find Psalms would you have a better idea of where to look?
• How  did you do in the quiz? Were you surprised / pleased at how much you could remember or did you find it too difficult?
• What sort of things have you found interesting/ boring?
• What activities have you enjoyed most? E.g. Large Group discussion/ small group discussion/ pairwork, whole group listening to new material presented by Alex/ having the opportunity to learn new ways to pray/meditate/ video clips/ stuff on the computer/projector / hearing testimony from others
• Do you like the way the material is presented on the sheets (spider diagram stuff)? Is that helpful? What would you like more of/less of? What ways do you learn best/ remember best? How is what we’re doing helping you grow as a Christian? Or isn’t it helping you?
• Do you feel these sessions have equipped you in any way to answer people who say there’s no evidence for Jesus’ existence/ that the bible is just a bunch of made up stories which are irrelevant today?

Useful links:

www.biblegateway.com

www.ibiblespace.org

www.bibleglo.com – see also special offer

Acrostic Psalms

Psalm 119 is a famous example of an “acrostic” – a passage of text having lines or partial lines starting with successive letters of the alphabet. Psalm 119 is written with 8 verses for each of the Hebrew consonants in order, so verses 1-8 each have a first word beginning with ‘aleph and verses 9-16 each have a first word beginning with beth, and so on.

Additional acrostics chapters can be found in
Lamentations and Proverbs

א אַשְׁרֵי תְמִימֵי-דָרֶךְ–    הַהֹלְכִים, בְּתוֹרַת יְהוָה.

ב אַשְׁרֵי, נֹצְרֵי עֵדֹתָיו;    בְּכָל-לֵב יִדְרְשׁוּהוּ.

ג אַף, לֹא-פָעֲלוּ עַוְלָה;    בִּדְרָכָיו הָלָכוּ.

ד אַתָּה, צִוִּיתָה פִקֻּדֶיךָ–    לִשְׁמֹר מְאֹד.

ה אַחֲלַי, יִכֹּנוּ דְרָכָי–    לִשְׁמֹר חֻקֶּיךָ.

ו אָז לֹא-אֵבוֹשׁ–    בְּהַבִּיטִי, אֶל-כָּל-מִצְו‍ֹתֶיךָ.

ז אוֹדְךָ, בְּיֹשֶׁר לֵבָב–    בְּלָמְדִי, מִשְׁפְּטֵי צִדְקֶךָ.

ח אֶת-חֻקֶּיךָ אֶשְׁמֹר;    אַל-תַּעַזְבֵנִי עַד-מְאֹד.

 

Above is the first 8 verses of Psalm 119 in Hebrew. It reads from right to left. The first character of each line above is the verse number (in bold). Note how the first letter of each line is אַ, or “Aleph”.