BIBL 364
BIBLE STUDY: PASSAGE AND RATIONALE ASSIGNMENT
Passage: Acts 1:1–11
Explanation:
I selected this passage because I love the way that it connects the gospels to the rest of the New
Testament. In order to understand the New Testament writings and the epistles, one would have
to understand who the apostles were. They were followers of Jesus who spoke with courage
because their lives were filled with the Holy Spirit. As believers, this brief passage sums up our
duty as believers. We are to share God’s word, share the gospel with others because, as the
passage explains in verses ten through 11, Jesus is coming back again. Therefore, we as
believers, who have had the Holy Spirit come on us as did the apostles, need to bring the good
news of Jesus to our towns (Jerusalem), our countries (Judea), and the rest of the world (earth).
With all of that being said, I believe studying this passage will create growth in my own walk
with the Lord. It will create growth in my walk because I will get to study the call of Christians. I
will get to see the challenge that Jesus gave us, and that will better help me to understand my
purpose as a Christian. I am excited to teach this passage to others because it is something that
everyone needs to hear. This passage includes in it the gospel, it can be so easily tied back to the
reason Jesus came so it is a passage that needs to be heard by the world! I will also enjoy
teaching this because It will allow me to focus on others and ministry!
Prayer:
God, please help me to better understand your scriptures. Help me to understand the call of the
apostles so that I can better understand what it is that you have called me to. Father, I pray that
my study of this section of scripture would help me to understand more of you and I pray that I
would be able to share that with those that do not yet know you or have faith in Jesus.
I pray this in your Sons name, Amen.
BIBL 364
BIBLE STUDY: MAIN POINT(S) AND SUMMARY ASSIGNMENT
INSTRUCTIONS
OVERVIEW
The student will prepare a Bible Study on a passage in Acts that is personally meaningful. The
student will identify the selected passage, offer a brief explanation of why it was selected, and
then prepare a study intended to teach others about the passage.
Passage: Acts 1:1–11
Main Point(s):
- There is Power in waiting
- Trust in God’s Promises
Summary:
In this passage, Luke is telling the reader of the events that came after Jesus rose from the dead,
and before He was taken up into heaven. Luke tells us that for 40 days, Jesus spent time talking
to, preaching to, and convincing the Apostles that He indeed rose from the dead. During those 40
days one of the things that Jesus told His apostles was that when He would be taken up into
Heaven, they were to wait until the Holy Spirit came upon them. After that, they would go into
the world and preach the good news of the gospel. The disciples are left waiting on Jesus’
promise of the Holy spirit. This passage has so much in it including the call to believers to go out
and be witnesses to our towns, nations, and to the whole world. In order to demonstrate the point,
he shows the reader that doing what Jesus told the disciples to do would not happen without the
help of the Holy spirit!
BIBL 364
BIBLE STUDY: PARTICIPANT QUESTIONS ASSIGNMENT
Passage: Acts 1:1–11
Questions:
1. Where in the Passage are examples of waiting?
2. How can we learn from this passage that there is power in waiting?
3. What promise, or promises are given in this passage?
4. What examples can we see from this passage that encourage us to Trust in God’s
promises?
5. What does it mean in Verse 5, when Jesus says that they will be baptized with the Holy
Spirit?
6. How can you know that you are baptized with the Holy Spirit?
7. Why do you think that Luke included the verse at the end of the passage, where the
Angels say where Jesus has gone?
8. If you were one of Jesus’ disciples, would you find it hard to wait for Jesus to come back?
9. What excites you from this passage?
10. Luke makes it clear that he is writing again, why is it important to understand who is
writing this book?
BIBL 364
BIBLE STUDY: TEACHING PLAN
Passage: Acts 1:1–11
When: Sunday, March 12 at 9:30AM
Who: I will teach this to my Sunday School class which is middle schooler’s. They are a mix of
boys and girls from all different cultures. They are a group of students who are new to church
and new to the bible. Many of the students that I preach to speak solely Spanish which makes
things hard because I have to have a translate.
Where: I will teach this at my church where I am interning.
What and How:
To teach this passage I am going to use a mix of questions and time for me to give background
on the passage. So, I am going to show you my outline of the lesson time and as I go through the
outline I will explain what I am talking about! I will have a half hour to do this lesson because
we fill our Sunday school time with some games and prayer.
BIBL 364
Introduction:
I will use this time to show the students where the book of Acts takes place and why it matters to
us.
Open up with me to the Book of Acts. We are going to read Acts Chapter 1, verses 1-11.
Background: The Book of Acts comes right at the end of the story of Jesus. Can Anybody
tell me quickly what the story of Jesus is?
That’s right, Jesus came to Earth, lived a perfect life, and died as our Sacrifice. Then he rose
again and that is where the book of Acts starts out. Before we read our passage, I also want to tell
you all about the disciples. Throughout Jesus’ time on earth He handpicked people to follow
Him. These people are now the ones that Jesus is talking to in our passage. God has a plan for
these people. A plan that will make these followers of Jesus the starters of the Christian Church!
As we will see, this awesome plan that God has for the disciples is only made possible if the
Disciples Trust in God, and wait for His plan.
We will now read Acts 1:1-11. Could I have a volunteer to read that in Spanish, and one
volunteer in English?
Thank you for reading!
Today we are going to learn two things from these verses. Those two things are that there is
power in the waiting, and that we are to Trust in God’s Promises.
Let’s talk about the first point.
Point #1. There is power in the Waiting
In these verses we see that Jesus, who has just come back to life, is talking to the Disciples. He is
telling them a bunch of things and He’s telling them what they are going to do after He is gone.
Think of it almost like a gameplan. You guys know how a coach right before the big game tells
his team what they must do? That’s kind of what Jesus is doing with His team of disciples.
Except, usually after the Coach finishes talking the team goes out does the stuff that their coach
told them. In this case, Jesus is telling them to wait to do the things he wants them to do. In verse
4 Jesus says, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father Promised.” Jesus asks the
disciples to wait to do the gameplan. This is because He needs them to wait for something super
special.
Do any of you want to guess what they are supposed to wait for? (the Holy Spirit)
Yes, The Holy Spirit is what the Disciples are waiting for. The Holy spirit will then give them
power to do all of the things that Jesus has asked them to do. So, we can see that sometimes in
life, there is power in the waiting!
BIBL 364
Now let’s discuss this for a little bit with some questions!
1. Have you ever had to wait for something even though you wanted to just get going with
it?
2. What does it mean in Verse 5, when Jesus says that they will be baptized with the Holy
Spirit?
3. How can you know that you are baptized with the Holy Spirit?
Now we will move on to point 2.
Point #2: Trust in God’s Promises
There are a couple of promises in these verses. I want to talk about two of the Promises. The first
one we already talked about a little and that is the Promise of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promises that
the Holy Spirit is going to come to these disciples. Do you guys think that happened?
It did happen, that’s right and that is just one promise that God made and God kept. Another
promise that we see in these verses is the Promise that Jesus will return. Do you guys want to
know something amazing? This promise is still a promise for believers today. For me and you
today! We see from the Disciples reaction that they understand that God’s promises are true and
trustworthy. So, we are encouraged from this passage to Trust in God’s promises.
Let’s discuss some more about why we should trust in God’s promises!
1. Have you ever had to Trust that God was working in your life?
2. What makes Trusting God challenging sometimes?
3. How can we take steps to trust God’s promises more today?
Thank you for answering and discussing those questions with me.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, we can learn what two things from this passage today?
That’s right we can learn that there is Power in the waiting, and we can learn that we should
Trust in God’s promises just like the Disciples in this passage did.
I am always so encouraged when I get to read Jesus’ actual words in the bible. It is so cool that
my savior really spoke those words and he is speaking those same words to me! That is such a
comfort and an encouragement!
Could I have a volunteer pray as we wrap this lesson time up?
BIBL 364
BIBLE STUDY: TEACH AND ANALYZE ASSIGNMENT
I used my Acts lesson to teach to a group of middle schoolers and high schoolers at the
church that I work at. This lesson time was different because I had been going through the Old
Testament and showing the students how we can see God’s redemptive plan. I explained before I
began the lesson content that we would be doing it a little bit different for the week that I taught
my Acts lesson. Many of the students in the youth group are young Christians or they are not
even saved. With all of that being said, I believe that the Holy Spirit talk, kind of confused them.
I will get to more on how it confused them in a second but first, let’s talk about how the lesson
time itself went. We were able to get good discussion when speaking about needing to wait for
things. A lot of the students could relate to the disciples and how they were to wait for the gift of
the Holy Spirit. We talked about how sometimes in life we need to wait for things. For some, it
was waiting for gifts. For others they could relate to waiting for blessings. This was a good
talking point and a few of the students told me that they enjoyed talking about waiting because
they felt that it is not talked about enough. That is, waiting and being patient for what the Lord
has in store. Then we got to talk about how we ought to trust in God’s promises. This was a good
discussion as well. However, many of the students were discouraged because they see how God
keeps His promises to the people in the bible, but the students were discouraged because they
don’t always get to see God’s promises at work firsthand. I told them that there is one promise in
particular that is always trustworthy and that is the promise of eternal life and an eternal
relationship with God for those who believed. This was a good tie into the gospel message which
I try to share every time that I am blessed with an opportunity to speak into their lives. The two
main points of waiting and relying on God’s promises were very good and they sparked really
good discussion. The part that was hard, as I mentioned before was the talk about the Holy Spirit.
They were confused when I talked about how God’s promise of the Holy Spirit came true and it
gave power to the Apostles. I showed them that the Holy Spirit is God’s way of communication
to the believers and that we have the same Holy Spirit but it was hard for them to get over the
fact that we don’t see the Holy Spirit working in the same way that we did in the Apostle age. I
would admit that it is a hard subject as well, but I reminded them that the Apostles didn’t have a
bible and God’s written word so in that way we are different than the Apostles in that time. This
was the only downside that I could really take away from my teaching. I think that a way to fix
that problem is to be more prepared for questions about the Holy Spirit. One step that I forgot to
do in preparation was go over what questions may be asked of me. I thought about good
discussion questions that I would ask but I didn’t study extra to know answers to their questions.
I think that would be one way that I could do better next time when teaching on a subject like
this. That is how it went while teaching, on the other hand, during preparation the Lord was able
to teach me quite a bit. One of the main things that I learned while I was preparing was that God
moves in extraordinary ways. While I was preparing this lesson, it was the same time that talk
about revival was surfacing. Whatever one may think about the Asbury revival, God used this
time to show me that He is still at work in many people’s lives. Just like the spirit was moving
during the book of Acts, the spirit is still working today. God is at work, and it was encouraging
to be reminded of that while reading His word and applying it to my life as I go day to day.
Overall, this assignment was very beneficial, and I was able to learn a lot from doing it!
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
