FOR THE LONGEST TIME
TOPIC: THE DEFINITE PLAN.
INTRO: FOR THE LONGEST TIME. Back in the 1980’s, though no one here is old enough to actually remember that fantastic (or something less than fantastic) decade, the famous artist Billy Joel produced a song titled For the Longest Time. In the Song, Billy Joel writes that he has fallen in love with a woman, and that has happened for the longest time.
TRANSITION: Mankind’s search for love is definitely a never-ending mission, almost like one of the Greek novels with Ulysees lost at sea it may appear at times. But you know what? God’s love for us, and his PLAN for us, has always been in place, which is the topic of this week’s small group lesson. Since the beginning of time, God had a plan to provide salvation to us mortals, despite the way we live our lives. One could say that He has loved us…for the longest time.
BIBLE VERSE: ACTS 2:22-36
22 “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. 25 David said about him:
“‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest in hope, 27 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, you will not let your holy one see decay. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.’
29 “Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. 33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said,
“‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand 35 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’
36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”
QUESTIONS:
1. Why does Paul have to clarify {AGAIN} the importance of the cross?
2. What is the messianic importance of David?
3. How is Jesus’ dying on the cross similar to the Grenade video?
4. What does it mean when Acts mentions “the realm of the dead?”
5. Most important question of all 5: Who put Jesus to death?
ANSWERS:
1. Why does Paul have to clarify {AGAIN} the importance of the cross? Why is Paul doing this? I mean, oh my gosh man, don’t the people who lived in the age of the cross understand it by now? The answer is NO. They don’t get it. People, then and now, confuse the cross! Here is an example…
Back in 1993, several denominations held a conference they called “Re-imaging 1993”In that conference an Episcopal theologian (Virginia Ramey Mollenkott) declared: “As an incest survivor, I can no longer worship in a theological context that depicts God as an abusive parent and Jesus as the obedient and trusting child” At this same conference - a doctoral candidate at Union Theological Seminary (Beryl Ingram-Ward) questioned the idea of a “Father God” who would willfully kill his own child: “How can we continue to believe a loving parent would do this when human parents who do this are sent to prison.”
In 1999, a liberal theologian named Borg stated: “For me to accept that God transformed the corpse of Jesus would not only violate my sense of the limits of the spectacular – but it would also privilege the Christian tradition and would be saying that God acted in Christianity in a way God has never acted in other religious traditions.”
Listen, today is 2011, but it may as well be 2111, and I kind honestly say this. People who don’t know the Lord don’t understand the cross. They don’t get it, they can’t get it, and until they see exactly what the ramifications of their sin are they never will get it. I don’t care if they carry the title of pastor, reverend, bible study teacher, or in this case theologian, in general, people don’t understand the cross.
Romans 8:7 says “the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.”
2. What is the messianic importance of David? In a nutshell, when one looks at the O.T., there are a ton of prophecies concerning the life and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And though the entire Jewish nation seemingly picks David as on of their “fathers” because he was one of their early kings and by far their most important, isn’t it interesting that even David in this passage here points to another? (To the Jews, God is the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob…for God made a covenant with those three men. Politically, David was their “Father” because he was their important king and because he knew the Lord well).
Using a term in rhetoric called “compare & contrast,” which is something we still use today, Luke the writer of Acts wants to make a powerful illustration to the Jewish community. When he states that “David was great, we all know that, but David’s body is still in the tomb and he still experienced death, Jesus who rose from the dead is infinitely more powerful and more important than David!” This compare and contrast is an important one when it comes to witnessing to others.
WHAT IF WE STILL USED THAT TODAY? I mean, President Obama is currently in charge of the most powerful position in the world. What if we said, “yeah he has a major responsibility, but I know of someone of is infinitely more powerful than him!” I mean, seriously, we have tons of political talk, can we work in the king of kings (this part is really more useful for us adult leaders).
3. How is Jesus’ dying on the cross similiar to the Grenade video? Bruno Mars is a fairly famous singer right now (not that I listen to him), and his love song called Grenade talks about a bunch of misery that takes place inside of a relationship. “To give me all your love is all I ever asked,” followed up by a pretty powerful scene if him dragging a heavy object on the highway.
The key phrase, “I’d catch a grenade for you” is pretty powerful if you ask me. Ironically, though someone could give up their life for someone else (which is the greatest demonstration of love), no one can really catch the “grenade” of standing before God’s judgment seat for anyone.
So here is the question, “if God would go through all the pain for you…won’t you do the same?”
Jesus carried a 125 pound crossbeam to his death, and we can’t show up at church? REALLY? Jesus had nails put into his hands, and we can’t read our Bible? REALLY? Jesus took our grenade, and our response is WHAT CAN I GET OUT OF IT? REALLY?
Friends and youth, we are sick if our understanding of the Lord is how he balances off our lives. In a different sort of way, we are like the false theologians we wrote of earlier.
Jesus took the grenade called the cross for us, this is something that somehow David knew was coming years before it ever happened. Our response MUST be our complete devotion because we understand the cross.
4. What does it mean when Acts mentions “the realm of the dead?” Believe it or not, there are a ton of terms and tons of questions about the grave, sheol, paradise, heaven, etc. And to be honest, it’s not exactly 100% even to me. But so we have a working definition, here is an answer describing the differences in basic terms (I receive no credit for this, just clipped the following answer off of gotquestions.org).
Question: "What is the difference between Sheol, Hades, Hell, the lake of fire, Paradise, and Abraham’s bosom?"
Answer: The different terms used in the Bible for heaven and hell—sheol, hades, gehenna, the lake of fire, paradise, and Abraham’s bosom—are the subject of much debate and can be confusing. The word “paradise” is used as a synonym for heaven (2 Corinthians 12:4; Revelation 2:7). When Jesus was dying on the cross and one of the thieves being crucified with Him asked Him for mercy, Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Jesus knew that His death was imminent and that He would soon be in heaven with His Father. Therefore, Jesus used paradise as a synonym for heaven, and the word has come to be associated with any place of ideal loveliness and delight. Abraham’s bosom is referred to only once in the Bible—in the story of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-31). It was used in the Talmud as a synonym for heaven. The image in the story is of Lazarus reclining at a table leaning on Abraham’s breast—as John leaned on Jesus' breast at the Last Supper—at the heavenly banquet. There are differences of opinion about what exactly Abraham’s bosom represents. Those who believe the setting of the story is a period after the Messiah’s death and resurrection see Abraham’s bosom as synonymous with heaven. Those who believe the setting to be prior to the crucifixion see Abraham’s bosom as another term for paradise. The setting is really irrelevant to the point of the story, which is that wicked men will see the righteous in happiness, and themselves in torment, and that a “great gulf” exists between them (Luke 16:26) which will never be spanned. In the Hebrew Scriptures, the word used to describe the realm of the dead is sheol. It simply means the “place of the dead” or the “place of departed souls/spirits.” The New Testament Greek word that is used for hell is “hades,” which also refers to “the place of the dead.” The Greek word gehenna is also used in the New Testament for hell and is derived from the Hebrew word hinnom. Other Scriptures in the New Testament indicate that sheol/hades is a temporary place where the souls of unbelievers are kept as they await the final resurrection and judgment at the Great White Throne judgment. The souls of the righteous go directly into the presence of God— heaven/paradise/Abraham’s bosom—at death (Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23). The lake of fire, mentioned only in Revelation 19:20 and 20:10, 14-15, is the final hell, the place of eternal punishment for all unrepentant rebels, both angelic and human (Matthew 25:41). It is described as a place of burning sulfur, and those in it experience eternal, unspeakable agony of an unrelenting nature (Luke 16:24; Mark 9:45-46). Those who have rejected Christ and are in the temporary abode of the dead in hades/sheol have the lake of fire as their final destination. But those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life should have no fear of this terrible fate. By faith in Christ and His blood shed on the cross for our sins, we are destined to live eternally in the presence of God.
5. Most important question of all 5: Who put Jesus to death? Of all the questions in today’s lesson, this is the toughest one to understand, and the most important of them all. For the answer to this question, look back and read verse 23 again. It states, This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men.
So what is the technical answer to who put Jesus to death? YOU and wicked men. That’s right, YOU put Jesus on the cross, YOU as in all of us.
See friends, Jesus of Nazareth may have died on the cross 2000 years ago, but he was dying to atone for our sins, your sin, my sin, everyone’s sins. So though you and I may not have physically grabbed a hammer and put nail marks through his wrists, our sin did. Thus, we are his accusers, we are his jury, we are the ones who shouted Save Barabbas, we are the ones saw his miracles and killed him anyway. Because of our inability to stop sinning, we put Christ to death. And when our mind/heart/soul can completely wrap that around our heads, then we can finally understand we are wicked men who put him to death.
Sources:
Dare2share.org. He Caught a Grenade For You. Soul Fuel, archives.
Gotquestions.org. "What is the difference between Sheol, Hades, Hell, the lake of fire, Paradise, and Abraham’s bosom?"
Strite, Jeff. CSI Jerusalem-The Motive. Church of Christ at Logansport, Logansport, Indiana, April 2006.
EXTRA:
Lyrics to For the Longest Time (just in case you want to draw more analogies, or wish to sing to your loved one and make her heart happy…or make you weirder than you already are—works for me).
Woa, oh, oh, oh
For the longest time
Woa, oh, oh
For the longest
If you said goodbye to me tonight
There would still be music left to write
What else could I do
I'm so inspired by you
That hasn't happened for the longest time
Once I thought my innocence was gone
Now I know that happiness goes on
That's where you found me
When you put your arms around me
I haven't been there for the longest time
Woa, oh, oh, oh
For the longest time
Woa, oh, oh
For the longest
I'm that voice you're hearing in the hall
And the greatest miracle of all
Is how I need you
And how you needed me too
That hasn't happened for the longest time
Maybe this won't last very long
But you feel so right
And I could be wrong
Maybe I've been hoping too hard
But I've gone this far
And it's more than I hoped for
Who knows how much further we'll go on
Maybe I'll be sorry when you're gone
I'll take my chances
I forgot how nice romance is
I haven't been there for the longest time
I had second thoughts at the start
I said to myself
Hold on to your heart
Now I know the woman that you are
You're wonderful so far
And it's more than I hoped for
I don't care what consequence it brings
I have been a fool for lesser things
I want you so bad
I think you ought to know that
I intend to hold you for the longest time
Woa, oh, oh, oh
For the longest time
Woa, oh,oh
For the longest time
Woa, oh, oh
For the longest time
Woa, oh, oh,
For the longest time
(Fade Out)