“The Mission Begins”: Weekly Leader Training—Unit 29, Session 4: Living Out the Gospel of Jesus
Talk is cheap. There is a reason this maxim has stuck around. People can claim to be something a lot more easily than they can live out that claim. It’s one thing to claim to be a good parent, loving spouse, or reliable employee, but it’s another thing to act as any one of these …
Continue Reading“The Mission Begins”: Weekly Leader Training—Unit 29, Session 3: Trusting in the Gospel of Jesus
What parent would not want to move heaven and earth to rescue his or her children from slavery and death? If you and I would do this, imagine how much more God Himself would. Just as God heard the children of Israel crying because they were enslaved in Egypt, He heard our cries while we …
Continue Reading“The Mission Begins”: Weekly Leader Training—Unit 29, Session 2: Trusting in Christ in Life and Death
Stephen’s sermon is a tour de force of biblical interpretation. In response to charges raised by the Jewish leaders against him, he explained his claim that Jesus fulfilled the purposes of the law and the temple, thus casting Jewish laws and customs in a different light. First, Stephen reminded them of God’s promise to Abraham …
Continue Reading“The Mission Begins”: Weekly Leader Training—Unit 29, Session 1: Living Generously
It is easy to read the story about Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 and be afraid that God might strike you dead if you aren’t generous enough. That’s not what’s going on here; this was a desire for the appearance of sacrificial giving and deceit to accomplish the look. God was not a passive …
Continue Reading“The Mission Begins”: Weekly Leader Training—Unit 28, Session 4: Pursuing Godly Living
When a man and woman mutually agree to date for the purpose of getting to know one another, for a season it could appear that the two are inseparable. Their days are probably filled with text messages, phone calls, and many dates in between—some planned, others spontaneous. Whether they like it or not, the two …
Continue Reading“The Mission Begins”: Weekly Leader Training—Unit 28, Session 3: Showing Christ in Times of Trials
Peter addressed his letter to a very specific audience: believers described as chosen people and also exiled people. In a world where those who are chosen, elected, and selected often reap the benefits of preferential treatment and due honor, it may seem odd that Peter associated being chosen with living as exiles. The word exile denotes that …
Continue Reading“The Mission Begins”: Weekly Leader Training—Unit 28, Christmas Session: The Word Became Flesh
With the first portion of John’s prologue speaking about the Word’s eternal divinity (“the Word was with God, and the Word was God”) and cosmic activity (“all things were created through him”; “that life was the light of men”), why is the middle portion concerned with John the Baptist (vv. 6-9)? The Old Testament pointed …
Continue Reading“The Mission Begins”: Weekly Leader Training—Unit 28, Session 2: Empowered by the Holy Spirit
In Acts 3, the man who was lame was passed by over and over again for years. Perhaps every so often, someone would stop and hand him a few coins. Maybe someone would even pray for him as they passed by while going into the temple. However, his life was riddled with constant helplessness and …
Continue Reading“The Mission Begins”: Weekly Leader Training—Unit 28, Session 1: Transformed by the Holy Spirit
Sometimes Christians argue over the role of the Holy Spirit, particularly in elements of Christian worship such as speaking in tongues. Interestingly, this “debate” was going on immediately after the Holy Spirit was poured out on the first Christians. Some onlookers even accused them of being drunk! While we cannot examine the various views of …
Continue Reading“Jesus the Savior”: Weekly Leader Training—Unit 27, Session 4: Jesus Commissions His Disciples
To be an eyewitness of the resurrected Jesus would have been a surreal experience. What are you supposed to do, after all, when you’re hanging out with someone who was no longer dead but now alive and glorified? You might try to stick your finger through the holes where the nails went through. Or maybe …
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