A Lesson in Humbleness

The lesson this evening is centered on "A Lesson in Humbleness."  We'll see a parable of Jesus and discuss a few points about our attitude toward ourselves and others, keeping in mind what God wants us to do in our lives. 

Here are the notes of our discussion.

November 28, 2011

A Lesson in Humbleness

Opening question: What does it mean to be humble and what is a situation when you or someone else has shown some humbleness?

The definition for the word “humble” is “to be marked by meekness or modesty in behavior, attitude, or spirit; not arrogant or prideful.”  Another definition is “to show submissive respect.”  For example, if we have made a mistake, we can apologize for it and show our humbleness by accepting our mistake and learning from it.

What does the Bible teach in the topic of humbleness?

Our main passage from the Bible today comes from Luke 18:9-14: 9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ 14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Now, let’s discuss about the meaning of this parable.

Jesus is telling this parable as a lesson for some people who were confident in their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else.  So, right away we see two issues: the people’s confidence in their own righteousness and the way in which they were looking down on everyone else.

What is the problem with having confidence in your own righteousness?  What does the Bible say about it?

In Romans 3:10, we read: There is no one righteous, not even one.

What does this mean?

It means that no one is righteous.  We have all sinned and in the eyes of God we are all sinners.  We cannot trust our own righteousness, because as hard as we try, we all stumble and fall and do bad things in our lives.

So, no one can trust in his own confidence and look down on other people.  The idea of “looking down” on other people means that you think of yourself as better, as being in a higher place, closer to God and that other people are wrong or worse than you are. 

In Romans 2:1-4, we read: 1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2 Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3 So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? 4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

Therefore, we should not judge other people, because we are doing and in the past have done the same thing.  If God has forgiven us, that he can and will forgive those other people too, if they seek God.  Also, if we judge, we are taking the place of God and we are by any means to do that.  (James 4:11-12)

Back to the parable.  The Pharisees were the people that pretended to be the teachers of the law, the ones who understood it better and who could help other people with learning it and applying it.  But here we have a Pharisee that is considering himself to be better than these people.  It may have been true that he was not a robber, an evildoer or an adulterer, but still he had his own sins.  And one of these sins was looking down at his brothers and pretending that he was better than the other people.  However, he was not.

On the other hand, the tax collector prayed with humbleness.  Even though he may have been considered an evil person by many Hebrews and other people at the time, because of his job – collecting taxes for the Romans – he understood the true condition of himself and asked God to give him mercy.  And Jesus tells us that God heard the prayer of the tax collected and he was the one who went home justified.

In the last verse, Jesus tells us that those who humble themselves will be exalted.  Which means that when it comes to our salvation, it comes from God and when do not gain it with our own merits.  While there are certain steps that we need to take toward being right with God, it comes from Him and we do not receive it because we are better than others.

Conclusions

God wants us to have a spirit of humbleness, to trust in Him and not to look down on other people.  We are all sinners and not righteous and we all need God to save us from our sins and to help us act in accordance with His will.

After Baptism

Last Monday, we talked about what happens "After Baptism."  We focused on the fact that studying is an important part of our life after baptism, so that we can learn more about how we can continue to please God with our lives.  Taking the Lord's Supper was another act of worship, that we saw the early church did every Sunday.  The early believers spent time in fellowship and prayer and we should do the same, in order to encourage and built one another and to communicated with God, our Father.


The notes of our study are below.

November 21, 2011

After Baptism

Opening question: Think about a situation when you have completed a project (a paper, an exam).  What are the feelings you remember?  What about what comes next?

Often in life, the end of one stage is simply the beginning of another.  We complete an exam, we rest for a bit and then we need to move on to preparing for another exam.  We graduate and then we need to look for a job.  We find a job, but then we start thinking of a better or a different job, and so on.

What does the Bible teaches about what someone is to do after baptism?

The Baptism is the beginning of your life as a Christian.

Baptism may be the end of the process of someone learning about God, what to do to be saved from sin and to get into the right relationship with God.  But baptism is also the beginning of your life as a Christian.  It is not enough just to be baptized and then never have anything to do with God.  Christians are told in more than one passage in the Bible to fellowship with other Christians, to encourage one-another and to help one another.

In Acts 2:42-47, we read: 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who 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.

1.         Studying after becoming a Christian

After people were baptized into Christ, they continued to learn.  They studied with the apostles and we should continue to study the Bible and learn more about God and about what we need to continue to do in our lives.  At the moment when someone becomes a Christian, they do not know everything that there is in the Bible (unless they have studied it for a very long time, but even then, there is always new things to learn from the Bible).  Therefore, it is important to continue to study diligently the Word of God.

In 2 Timothy 3:16, we read: 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.  So, we can use the Word of God to learn from it, to learn from mistakes of the characters of the Bible, to learn from the events, to learn how we can correct our own mistakes and how to make our life as pure and as holy as we can.

If we compare our life to cleaning a room or a field from rocks or dirt, we would start with the largest pieces, because those are the most visible ones.  Then, we would move to the smaller and smaller pieces, making sure that we cleaned it as much as we can.  The same is true about our life.

2.         Taking the Lord’s Supper

The Christians also broke bread.  The breaking of the bread means to partake of the Lord’s Supper.  Jesus himself instituted this act in memory of His sacrifice for us.  Let us read from Matthew 26:26-29 about the purpose of the Lord’s Supper:

26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”

 27 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

The bread is the symbol of Jesus’ body and the cup is the symbol of Jesus’ blood.

How often should a Christian partake of the Lord’s Supper?

In the Bible, we see an example of the time when the believers gathered together to take the Lord’s Supper.  In Acts 20:7, we read:  7 On the first day of the week we came together to break bread.  The first day of the week meant Sunday and the reason why the believers gathered on this day was so that they could partake of the Lord’s Supper.

While the Bible does not say explicitly that we should take the Lord’s Supper each and every first day of the week, meaning each and every Sunday, we can infer from the language that this should be done every Sunday.  If you are told that on the first day of the week, you will get paid, are you to expect this pay every week?  What if you were told it would happen on the first day of the month?  Are you going to expect it every first day of the month?

3.         Fellowship with other Christians

The early believers prayed and were together.  We should not stop praying, because prayer is our communication with God.  The power of prayer is great.  In James 5:16, we read that: The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

And in Hebrews 10:24-25, we read that: 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

We should not give us meeting on Sundays to worship God, as well as meet with other brothers and sisters as often as we can, so that we can encourage one another and strengthen one another.

Conclusions

Baptism is the beginning of your life as a Christian.  As we grown in our faith and maturity in God, we should study the Bible, so that we can learn more and more about how we can be closer to God and how we can do His will in our lives.  We should partake continuously the Lord’s Supper, so that we can remember Jesus’ sacrifice and what it means to us.  We should continue to pray and meet with fellow believers, so that we can encourage and strengthen one another.

 

On Baptism

The topic of our discussion last Monday was "Baptism."  We talked about what is baptism from the Biblical point of view and that this word meant at that time.  The reasons why an adult is baptized were also discussed, as well as the right moment when someone must be baptized.

Below are the notes of our discussion.

On Baptism

Opening question: Can you think on an English word or expression or situation that at first confused you?

The English language, like all other languages, has certain expressions, idioms that can easily confuse people, especially the one for whom English is not the first language.  However, with a little bit of explanation or study, most of these expressions or situations can be learned and understood properly.

Today, we are going to focus on baptism and what the Bible teaches about it.

1.         What is baptism?

Today baptism means different things to different people, depending on their experiences and their upbringing.  However, things were not always like this.  There was a time when baptism meant only one thing: immersion, plunging.  The examples of people being baptism that we find in the Bible, a few of which we will see today, also testify to the fact that baptism meant that someone – always an adult and never a baby – was put under water, so that his body was completely covered by water.

In Acts 8, we read the story of the Ethiopian eunuch.  In verses 26-28, we read: 26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet.

And in verses 26-39, we read: 36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” [37] 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.

Did the eunuch have water in his chariot?  Why did they have to go to the water?

In the Bible, baptism is always seen as something done by a grownup, a human being old enough to make decisions for them.  Babies or little children do not have the complete understand that adult human beings have and most of the time they know little of anything.  If baptism is something as important as we believe it to be, then baptism should be done by grownups, who can truly understand and know what is going on and why are they being baptized.

And this lead us to our second point.

2.         Why be baptized?

To a baby, baptism does not mean much, if anything.  However, to an adult, baptism must carry a meaning, if it is to be done.  Our God does not want us to do acts or gestures that have no meaning and serve no purpose.

So, what is the purpose, the meaning of baptism?

In Acts 2:38-39, Paul tells the people who had been listening to his words: 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.”

Baptism is for the forgiveness of your sins.  When a person is baptized, God sees this act of humbleness and submission, conviction and confession and forgives the person’s sin.  And not only that, but in baptism, the person receives the gift of the Holy Spirit.  A part of God is given to us as a gift in order to help us pray and to help us with our daily struggles in our lives.

In Romans 6:4, Paul explains that: 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  Baptism is the outward sign of death, an end to the old person, the sinful man or woman that did not believe in God and did not have His salvation.  The new life means that we are now walking with God, being in the right relationship with Him and enjoying His forgiveness.

In 1 Peter 3:21, we see another example of what baptism does for us.  This verse says that: 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Baptism saves us in the sense that the baptism is the moment when we accept the forgiveness and the salvation from God and when we show this acceptance through this act.

3.         When should someone be baptized?

While there is no set time for someone to be baptized, meaning no specific age or moment in their life, the urgency of doing this act as soon as possible is seen is all examples from the Bible. 

In Acts 22:14-16, Paul describes the story when he was baptized.  He says: 14 “Then he said: ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. 15 You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’

In verse 16, we see the urgency in the rhetorical question.  Once the person has realized the need to be saved and has understood the message of God, they can be baptized right away and there is no need to wait for anything else.

In Acts 10, the story of Cornelius and his baptism, we read in verses 47-48: 47 “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” 48 So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.

Once again, baptism follows the reaching of the point when the person knows what he needs to understand his situation as a sinner and his need to be saved from those sins, as well as the offer of salvation that God has given him.  In baptism, the person accepts this offer and receives salvation.

Conclusions

Baptism is the outward acts of showing our faith in God, our need for salvation and our confession that without God we cannot make it.  We are baptized for the forgiveness of sins and to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  It is always the right time to be baptized, once the person has understood its importance and its purpose for his salvation.

The Time is Now

"The Time is Now" was the topic of our discussion last Monday.  We saw that our time on earth is short, limited and we do not know when our time will end.  That is why it is important to seek God and to come to a right relationship with him now, without delay, for we do not know when our time will come.  We should seize the day, today, to find our Lord.
 
Please find below the notes of our talk.

The Time is Now

Opening question: Can you think of a situation when you missed a deadline about something, a project, or the catch the bus or the pay a bill?  What were the consequences and how did that make you feel?

We know that many things need to be done on time and that time is one of the most valuable items we have, since we cannot really buy time or add to our time.  Once the time has passed for a certain event, one cannot go back and change things.

What does the Bible teach about how we should make use of our time?

In 1 Corinthians 7:29-31, Paul, one of the apostles, is teaching us that: 29 What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; 30 those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; 31 those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

What does it mean that time is short?  How is time short?

We never know what will happen tomorrow; therefore, we should do the best with our time that we have now.  No one can add one single day to his life, not even a minute.  We can do many things to keep ourselves health, but a huge number of things are beyond our control in our lives and we do not know how much time we have to live.

In Matthew 6:34, Jesus gives us an interesting thought: 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

What does this mean?  What does it mean that “tomorrow will worry about itself?”

We should live each live taking care of the things of that life.  Many people make plans or postpone things for the future, for another time, perhaps next month or next year.  However, life happens and those things we postponed we never get around to doing.  Or even worse, something may happen with our health or our own life and we will never get a chance to do those things we promised ourselves we would.

In Romans 13:22, Paul again reminds the members of the church in Rome that time is precious.  He says:  11 And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

Sometimes we use the language of a “wake-up” call as something that rings the alarm, so that we can do something promptly, right away.  Paul is saying that there is a time for salvation and the time is near.

And in 2 Corinthians 6:2, Paul goes even further, saying: 2 For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.”  I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.

What does it mean now?  What does it mean that the day of salvation is now?

Anytime is a good time to be saved.  If you had a disease and the doctor told you that there was a cure, when would it be the time or the day when you would start taking the medicine or begin your cure?  Of course, it would be right away, immediately.  The same is true about the salvation of God, about being saved from your sins.  God wants us to take advantage of his salvation now, as soon as we realize the need to wash our sins away and to come to the right relationship with God.

If you have studied and you are convinced of God and of your need to be saved, do not hesitate, because time is short and we do not know when we may run out of time.

Conclusions

God has offered salvation to all mankind, which can chose to accept it or refuse it.  Not knowing the time or the day of our departure from this world, we should seize the day to know God and to be saved.  Today, now, the present is the time to take such an important step in our lives.

The Unmerciful Servant

Last evening we looked at the parable of The Unmerciful Servant, in Matthew 18.  We talked about the fact that God has forgiven our wrongs and we must forgive the wrongs other people do to us.  Because God has shown mercy to us, we must show mercy to other people.  In this way, we can enjoy the forgiveness and the grace of God.


The notes of our discussion are below.

October 31, 2011

The Unmerciful Servant

Opening question: What had been a situation where someone has shown mercy toward you or someone you know and how has that make you feel?

Mercy or grace is the compassionate treatment, especially of those who do not deserve it, kindness, forgiveness.  We all make mistakes in our lives and sometimes do what is wrong, so we all can bring examples of mercy and forgiveness.

Today, we are going to look at one story from the Bible, the one that is usually known by the name The Unmerciful Servant.  The story is found in Matthew 18:22-19:1:  Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”  22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’

30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Matthew 19

1 When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan.

This story begins with Peter asking how many times should he forgive his brother or sister.  Then, he puts a limit on the amount of times to forgive, according to him.

What do you think of this number?  How many times should we forgive someone?  How many times should we be forgiven?

Apparently, Jesus’ reply (which means a large number) caused a bit of confusion among the disciples, because Jesus fell the need to use a story to illustrate his point.

The first servant owed a lot, ten thousand talents (or bags of gold), an extremely high amount of money that he would never be able to pay.  Nonetheless, the master shows mercy and grace and when the servant begged, he forgave his debt.

The servant is us, the sinners, because our wrongs are a debt we owe to God, which we cannot pay.  No matter how hard we try, we will still do something wrong, lose our patience, lie, cause someone pain and so on.  But God can forgive us everything, if we ask Him for that.

Why is forgiveness important?  What happens if we do not forgive someone or someone does not forgive us?

In return, after the servant is released from this extremely hard burden, he turned to another servant that owed him a small amount of money.  Notice the difference not only in the amounts, but also in the behavior.  Even though the first servant was forgiven, he does not show mercy toward his fellow brother.

What is the lesson for us?  What do other brothers or sisters owe us?

In the same way that God has shown mercy toward us, we should show mercy toward other people.  Remember that we ourselves have been forgiven.  It was within God’s rights to throw us in jail, in other words “punish” us for our sins.  But He was kind, merciful, even though we did not deserve it.  And He expects that we show mercy to our brothers and sisters in the same way.

What is the reaction of the master when He hears this?

The master is outraged, calling the unmerciful servant “wicked”.  The master does on to reverse his forgiveness and instead decides to punish the wicked servant.  We do not want to be in that same situation.  We can and we should forgive one another, because at one time we were sinners and we make mistakes, just as other people make mistakes that may hurt us in our lives.

Conclusions

God has forgiven all our sins, great and grave as they were.  He expects us in return to forgive the people that sin against us and to restore our relationship with them.  In this way, we show mercy and kindness toward them, just as God has shown mercy and kindness toward us.