An overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Acts 14:11-23, titled “The Truth, for Sunday September 15, 2024. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:
INTRO: You might start your lesson this week by sharing a mission update: perhaps your church sponsors a missionary overseas, or you have someone on a mission trip, or are planting a mission church. If so, take this opportunity to share the most recent report of what they are up to. If you need help with that, I’m sure your pastor or missions director would be glad to get you some info to share in your class Sunday.
You might even ask your group members to share if they have any relatives or others they know who are serving on mission, and if they can give a brief report of their work.
However you open, then you could say: this week we get a “mission report” on the work of Paul & Barnabas in Acts 14.
An overview for teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Acts 13:42-52, for Sunday, September 8, 2024, with the title, “The Task.” A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:
INTRO: ??? Does anyone have a fun/interesting/exciting story from a trip you took overseas???
(I went on a mission trip to Bulgaria a couple of years ago, and the flight home was delayed due to a snowstorm. I hate to miss two Sundays in a row, so I decided to take an overnight bus ride from Bulgaria, through Turkey to the airport to get me home. At one point, in the middle of the night, the authorities at the border took me from the bus to a little “side booth,” where they told me in broken English that I didn’t have the right papers, but they could get me through for 20 Euros. I figured it was a scam, but I didn’t speak the language, and I was pretty happy they weren’t kidnapping me or shaking me down for more, so I was pretty happy to “pay the price” and get through. But traveling through those countries alone, unable to speak the language, is an adventure I will never forget!)
You/your group can share stories you have about overseas trips, then say something like: in today’s lesson we see a report from one of the Apostle Paul’s first mission trips, in the last part of Acts 13.
CONTEXT
Last time we looked at the first part of Acts 13, where the Lord called Barnabas and Saul out to serve Him on mission to the Gentiles. They left Antioch and began what has come to be called “Paul’s First Missionary Journey” to what is now Turkey.
Again, I would show a MAP of where this took place, and use it here and later in the lesson.
We saw that on the first leg of that journey, in Cyprus, Paul spoke to a false prophet, Elymas, who became blind for a time, and people there came to faith in Christ.
THEN :13 says they left Paphos/Cyprus (map) and landed at Perga (on the coast of what is now Turkey) but John Mark left them and went back to Jerusalem. (This will become a big issue between Paul & Barnabas later, as we will see!)
They left Perga, and went to PISIDIAN ANTIOCH. You’ll need to really clarify this: This is PISIDIAN Antioch — I.e., this is another city by the name of Antioch, Antioch in Pisidia, NOT the Antioch Paul & Barnabas left from to go on mission. (SHOW this on the map so this will be clear in their minds.)
So the next verses tell how they went to the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch, and Paul brought a message there (you see he now seems to be the major spokesman, not Barnabas) and :16-41 record the message he brought.
This brings us to our “focus passage” for today, beginning in Acts 13:42.
James 3:1-12 “What Real Faith Looks Like: Real Faith Affects the Way You Talk”
Francis Carpenter was an eminent American portrait painter back in the 1800s. Among the people he painted was President Abraham Lincoln. For six months he would come to the White House and paint Lincoln, when he could get him to pose. He sat and listened to him talk, day after day. But after spending six months in the White House with Lincoln he later said that he could not recollect a Lincoln story “which would have been out of place uttered in a ladies’ drawing room.” (Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln, The Prairie Years and the War Years, p. 563)
That’s quite a testimony to the wholesomeness of President Lincoln’s words — and sadly quite different than what we’ve heard from many of our presidents in more recent years!
But it SHOULD be true for us as God’s people as well. If Jesus Christ has come into our lives and saved us, it should make a difference in the way we talk. That’s the bottom line for James 3:1-2, our passage for today. As we saw last week, James again first here gives us the PRINCIPLE he’s driving at, then he gives us some illustrations/examples of that principle. So let’s look at what this passage teaches us about how “Real Faith Affects the Way Your Talk.”
An overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Acts 13:1-12, for Sunday, September 1, 2024, with the title, “Sent.” A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:
INTRO: “The Scottish Reformer John Knox (1514-1572) was called to the work of preaching and pastoring in the course of a worship service by a preacher who declared it was God’s and the congregation’s will. Knox ran out of the gathering in tears and locked himself in his room.” (Lewis Allen, The Preacher’s Catechism, pp. 57-58)
Then ask: ??? Can you share a time that you/someone you know, felt a particular call to a certain ministry??? When and how did that happen?
(My own call to ministry came during the winter of my sophomore year in college, when I had been majoring in political science, hoping to go into law or politics — but I loved music, and had gone on a mission trip, so I wondered if I might be called to music ministry. We got snowed in one week at school, and I was alone in the house a group of us were renting, all week by myself. I had just begun to read my Bible daily, so I spent most of my time reading God’s word that week. I kept writing down insights and outlines, and from Jeremiah 1 especially I got the message from the Lord that I was not called to law or to music, but to share His word.)
You/your group can share your experiences/those you’ve heard, of being called to a ministry, or a mission trip, or whatever — then say something like: in today’s lesson in Acts 13 we see how the Apostle Paul & Barnabas were called to do their missionary work among the Gentiles.
(ALTERNATIVE: ask members how they decided to go on their first international trip or mission trip: then = today tells us how Paul & Barnabas went on the “First Missionary Journey” to the Gentiles.)
John Wooden was one of the greatest coaches of all time. His UCLA Bruins dominated college basketball back in the 1960s-70s like no other team ever has. He won 10 national championships in 12 years, including seven in a row! The Sporting News gave him the label of the greatest coach of all time! But as successful as he was, basketball was not the most important thing for John Wooden. In his book, They Call Me Coach, he wrote: “I have always tried to make it clear that basketball is not the ultimate. It is of small importance in comparison to the total life we live. There is only one kind of life that truly wins, and that is the one that places faith in the hands of the Savior.” And then he said: “If I were ever prosecuted for my religion, I truly hope there would be enough evidence to convict me.”
That last statement he made is something that every one of us should consider: “If you were arrested for being a Christian, how much evidence would there be to convict you?”
This is the basically the message we find in the second part of James 2 this morning, and it’s one of the most needed messages for the church in the United States today. Because the gospel of salvation by grace through faith has been preached in our land so extensively, and for so long, many people take it for granted. And way too many trust that a very casual, unfruitful faith, will save them and take them to heaven.
James writes to correct that here — and he does it in such a way that some people take him wrong. Martin Luther, for example, who so powerfully proclaimed salvation by faith alone, called the Book of James “an epistle of straw,” because he though it over-emphasized the role of works in salvation. But James does believes in salvation by grace through faith — but he also makes it very clear here that a “dead, non-working” faith will not save anyone. Rather, he emphasizes that “Real Faith Works.” You will see evidences of it in the life of the person who genuinely has it.
Because we all live in this same American culture today, every one of us should evaluate ourselves in light of this passage. Is YOUR faith real? Does YOUR faith work? Like John Wooden said: “Is there enough evidence to convict YOU of being a Christian?” Let’s look at what James says about that:
An overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders of Lifeway’s ‘Explore the Bible” lesson of Acts 12:6-18, with the title of “Praying,” for Sunday August 25, 2024. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:
INTRO: During the English Civil Wars in 1643, the town of Gloucester, England was a Parliamentarian stronghold in the generally Royalist southwestern region of England. In August, the king’s army laid siege to the town. Gloucester’s small garrison entrenched itself behind the town’s ancient Roman-era walls, and the Royalist army—some thirteen thousand strong—began a fierce bombardment. The shelling continued through the warm nights of August, when cannonballs, according to one diarist, seemed to fly “through the air like stars shooting.’
Gloucester’s defenders had come perilously close to running out of supplies and ammunition, with only three barrels of gunpowder left, when town leaders called for a day of prayer and fasting (for noncombatants) on September 5. As watchmen peered over the Roman wall that day, they beheld a surprising sight : the Royalist army began burning its siege huts and retreating from the city. The king’s men had received word that a Parliamentarian army of fourteen thousand was approaching from the east, having been raised in London to relieve beleaguered Gloucester.
The Parliamentarians ultimately defeated King Charles I, (and) following the siege, Gloucester rebuilt the damaged south gate of the city and placed an inscription upon it: ‘A city assailed by man, but saved by God.’” (Thomas S. Kidd, George Whitefield, America’s Spiritual Founding Father, pp. 6-7)
The people of Gloucester England prayed and sought God, and He answered!
??? Anyone want to share a favorite answered prayer the Lord gave you/someone you know???
In this morning’s passage in Acts 12, we see how the Lord granted an amazing answer to prayer to the early church, which miraculously set the Apostle Peter free from prison. God still hears and answers prayers today! (?Though as we will also see, His answer is not always “yes” — or at least “our” yes; the way we expect it!)
An overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Acts 10:34-48, for Sunday, August 18, 2024, with the title, “Including.” A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:
INTRO: In 1963, during the integration crisis, when police were arresting blacks in Birmingham for attempting to break the color line in transportation, restaurants, etc., Martin Luther King “sent groups (of blacks) to worship in white churches, defying the police to seize them there. (Police Commissioner “Bull”) Connor refused to be drawn. He counted on Birmingham’s white Christians to draw the color line, and most of them did; four white churches admitted the Negroes, seventeen turned them away.” (William Manchester, The Glory and the Dream, Vol. II, p. 1196)
??? Have you ever seen someone discriminated against because of their race or nationality???
Then talk about how today’s lesson in Acts 10 shows us that the Gospel is for ALL of God’s people, all around the world.
Due to the sudden passing of my stepfather in Oklahoma, the teacher’s overview for Lifeway’s Explore the Bible lesson of Acts 10, for Sunday August 18, will be delayed. I DO PLAN TO POST A LESSON OVERVIEW EITHER SUNDAY OR MONDAY (Aug. 11-12) — it will just be a bit later than usual. I hope this delay will not greatly inconvenience your preparation for next Sunday. Please say a prayer for my mother and our family! And thank you for your participation and feedback in the lesson overviews!
An overview for Sunday school teachers and Bible study leader of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson for August 8, 2024, Acts 9:32-43, with the title, “Healing.” A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:
INTRO: J. Edwin Orr was an Irish Baptist minister who traveled the world sharing the gospel, and authored books on revival. He wrote: “Occasionally the believer’s faith is strengthened by some such providence as healing, but the skeptic nullifies the evidence by saying that the healing was psychosomatic! But it is rather odd to claim that X rays offered by an expert showing that a bone had lengthened seven millimeters after prayer confirms the notion that the healing was accomplished only in the mind.” Orr explains in a footnote: “My wife’s doctor, Viola Fryman, a surgeon, showed X rays on TV of the growth—after prayer—of a femur by more than two inches.”
(J. Edwin Orr, The Faith That Persuades, pp. 89, footnote p. 142)
??? Have you or someone you know ever experienced a miraculous healing???
In today’s lesson from Acts 9, we see how the Lord used two particular miraculous healings to bring people to Himself.
In Leo Tolstoy’s War & Peace, he writes about how during Napoleon’s War with Russia he commanded a group of his soldiers to go downstream and find a good place to ford the river, and go to the other side. When the officer in charge received the command, he asked if he and his men could have the privilege of NOT looking for an easy place to cross, but to swim across right where they were, in the presence of the Emperor. And so they did. Thirty of his men drowned in the attempt, but the officer and a few others made it to the other side — and stood there, proudly exhibiting their to serve their Emperor!
Sometimes I think that we as Christians could learn a thing or two from the world — among them that our King deserves our radical obedience. If a MAN, like a Napoleon, can receives such fanatical obedience from his followers, then what does the true King, the Lord Jesus, deserve from us?
In our passage for today we see a couple of “The King’s Laws” that He would have us obey, to His honor and glory.
I'm a retired Southern Baptist pastor of almost 40 years. My wife Cheryl & I moved to Norman, OK in March of 2025. I share a weekly overview for Sunday School teachers of the weekly Lifeway "Explore the Bible" lesson, as well as texts of my sermons and other articles.
shawnethomas 