White Rock Baptist Church

THE GIST OF THE CHURCH SCHOOL LESSON

God Is Trustworthy
Read: Hebrews 6.9-20

We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
Hebrews 6:19-20 (NRSV)

In this lesson, our focus on hope brings us to a powerful passage in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews is considered a General Epistle because it is not addressed to a church in a particular city (like Corinth) or a region (like Galatia). The author of Hebrews is unnamed. Through the centuries various persons have been suggested (Paul, Barnabas, Silas, Apollos, Aquila, Prisca) but the lack of a name has not diminished the acceptance of this text by early church leaders.

The writer of Hebrews is addressing believers who are facing persecution (Hebrews 10.33). There is a word of warning. The writer fears that those who give up hope in difficult times are like the ground that drinks up rain but, instead of yielding a useful crop, brings forth thorns and thistles (6.7-8). There is also a word of encouragement. God will not overlook their work or the love they have shown (v. 10). However, during their persecution, they must persevere. We want each one of you to show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope to the very end, so that you may not become sluggish (vv. 11-12). The list of faithful persons noted in Hebrews Chapter 11 was offered to strengthen their faith. God made several promises to Abraham (Genesis 12.1-3) and in those promises are the words of a vow, “I will . . .” A promise and a vow are two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God would prove false (v. 18a). God’s promise and vow are backed up by God’s own integrity, God’s very being. What God has promised is certain, and what God has promised is the hope of being with God.

Hebrews encourages the believers to seize the hope set before them (Hebrews 6.18b). We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul (Hebrews 6.19) Ships anchors are mentioned six times in the book of Acts, where Luke is describing Paul’s perilous trip to Rome (Acts chapter 27-28). The phrase “anchor of the soul” is unique in the book of Hebrews. Any layperson is familiar with an anchor; it is a device that connects a ship to the shore. The writer of Hebrews offers this image to describe the stabilizing connection that hope provides between God and the believer. If hope is the anchor of the soul and God is the one who promises this hope, there can be no doubt or failure—this hope is secure. In addition, any mariner would know that a ship has more than one anchor. One type secures a ship when it is in port but there is also a sea anchor which helps a ship steady itself when traveling in a storm (Acts 27.17). a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, (Hebrews 6:19b). It prevents a ship from listing, from straying off course.

The image of a ship’s anchor is often found in the hymns of the church. My Anchor Holds, William Martin (1902). In Times Like These, Ruth C. Jones (1944) and, of course, The Solid Rock, Edward Mote (1834). Observe how Mote uses Hebrews 6.19 “In every high and stormy gale, My anchor holds within the veil.” Mote describes a hope that enters the temple, goes behind the curtain, and stands boldly before the presence of God. This is the hope that God provides and God is trustworthy.

Reverend Steven B. Lawrence

THE GIST OF THE CHURCH SCHOOL LESSON

Reflecting God’s Spirit
Read: 2 Corinthians 3.1-18

In fact, that first glory was not glorious at all compared with the overwhelming glory of the new covenant. So if the old covenant, which has been set aside, was full of glory, then the new covenant, which remains forever, has far greater glory. Since this new covenant gives us such confidence, we can be very bold.
2 Corinthians 3.10-12 (NLT)

With this lesson, we continue to look at the theme of hope. We previously discussed the difference between human wishes and Divine hope. The future our God has in store for us is completely and eternally secure. The Apostle Paul says this hope gives us confidence; therefore, we can live boldly.

The city of Corinth was located on an isthmus that provided safe and easy travel for ships and carriages. (Think of Greece as an hourglass with Corinth at the narrowest point.) Ease of travel led to wealth for merchants, wealth led to prominence. The Corinthian games rivaled the Athenian Olympics. The followers of Aphrodite and Diana had important temples there. It was as cosmopolitan as New York or Los Angeles and as b***y as New Orleans or Las Vegas. This was a challenging place to plant a church. Paul spent eighteen months in Corinth (Acts 18.11). Only his stay in Ephesus was longer (three years, Acts 20.31). The New Testament has two lengthy letters from the Apostle to Corinth and scholars can account for several more. Second Corinthians may actually be two letters combined.

In 2 Corinthians, we find Paul reluctantly defending his calling as the apostle to the Gentiles. Some elements in Corinth accused him of being boastful, of breaking his promise to visit them, and of being harsh to them (2 Corinthians 2.1). However, Paul did not allow their attacks to distract him from the message of the Gospel. He responded by saying that the believers in Corinth were the only recommendations his work needed. They were his “living letters’ for the world to read (3.1-3). This thought of “living letters” led him to make an analogy. The old covenant was like letters carved on stone tablets. The new covenant was written, by the Spirit of the Living God, on human hearts. Paul was not denigrating the Law, for it had served its purpose. But he was saying that if the imperfect law had accomplished its measure of glory, then how much more glorious would the new covenant’s work be? He then referred to Deuteronomy Chapter 34, where, after his face-to-face encounter with God, Moses brought the Ten Commandments, with his face shining so much that he had to cover it with a veil (vv. 29-35). Paul commented that some of his fellow Israelites were not able to understand what Christ had done because they still saw the Law through a veil.

But Christ came to remove anything that separated God from his people. Indeed, Christ’s resurrection is the sign that everyone who believes will be transformed into his likeness. This transformation is God’s plan for all people. It is the hope of every believer. And since it is God’s hope, it cannot fail. If God’s hope cannot fail, we can live with a new boldness. God’s will shall be done. Let us live into God’s hope for us.

Reverend Steven B. Lawrence

THE GIST OF THE CHURCH SCHOOL LESSON

Hope Amidst Suffering
Read: Colossians 1:24-29; 2.1-3

I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am completing what remains of Christ's sufferings for his body, the church. 25 God has given me the responsibility of serving his church by proclaiming his message in all its fullness to you Gentiles. 26 This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to his own holy people. 27 For it has pleased God to tell his people that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. For this is the secret: Christ lives in you, and this is your assurance that you will share in his glory.
Colossians 1.24-27 (NLT)

This lesson begins the Summer Quarter. Our focus shifts from the examination of “faith,” to the consideration of “hope.” The first five lessons will investigate how the early church was shaped by hope.

What is hope? Merriam-Webster first defines hope as a verb, an action word. To hope is “to want something to happen or be true.” Further, hope is “to desire with expectation of obtainment or fulfillment.” This definition distinguishes “hope” from the word “wish,” which is “a desire for something unattainable.” These words are so interchangeable in English that we may often speak one when we mean to express the other. For the Apostle Paul, hope is not a verb, it is a noun, the name of something. And, it is something not affected by human wants and wishes. For Paul, hope is the certainty of what God has prepared for all who believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

What is the Gospel of Jesus Christ? The Gospel is “good news.” What was “good news” to the church of Colossae to whom this letter was written? Colossae was an unimportant city in the Roman district of Phrygia in Asia (modern western Turkey). The church in Colossae was not founded or visited by Paul but was, at the time, led by his associate Epaphras (Colossians 1.7). Though the region had a high Jewish population (perhaps as many as 50,000), Paul’s words suggest that the church was made up mostly of Gentiles. When Paul said This includes you who were once so far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions, (Colossians 1.21 NLT) he was most likely speaking to Gentiles. What was “good news” for the Gentiles of Colossae? Yet now he has brought you back as his friends. He has done this through his death on the cross in his own human body (Colossians 1.22 NLT). Paul knew that it was his calling, his mission, to tell every person that Christ’s death atoned for all persons, not just those who thought their relationship with God was exclusive. For generations, God’s intent for all creation was a mystery, a precious secret. But now, by Christ Jesus’ death on the cross, the mystery was revealed: God desired that everyone—Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female—should be, can be, and must be saved. And, the glorious hope of eternal life with God was not just a wish or a want, it was (and is) a certainty because God made (and makes) it so.

Revealing the riches of this mystery, that Christ died for all people, was costly for Paul. He suffered much persecution as he shared the gospel. But he saw his suffering as participating in the suffering that Christ endured. Christ began a great work and now he, his coworkers, and other apostles were completing it (Colossians 1.24).

Reverend Steven B. Lawrence

THE GIST OF THE CHURCH SCHOOL LESSON

Hearing and Believing
Read: Romans 10:1-21

For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who believes in him will not be disappointed.”
Romans 10.9-11 (NRSV)

This is the final lesson under the theme of “Standing in the Faith.” Paul provides a culminating argument for righteousness that comes through faith, not by works

In Romans Chapter 9, Paul continues to persuade his Jewish Christian listeners that the true Children of Abraham, the inheritors of God’s promises, are not the children according to flesh and blood but by faith (9.6-8). The unexpected result was Gentiles, who did not strive for righteousness, have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith; but Israel, who did strive for the righteousness that is based on the law, did not succeed in fulfilling that law (vv. 30-31). Chapter 10 opens with an emotional plea. It is his heart’s desire and prayer that his fellow Israelites might be saved. Paul admits that his people are passionate about their faith but have sought to achieve righteousness through their works. For Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes (10.4). By “end” Paul does not mean that the law is finished. He means that Christ is the destination that the law is pointing to, the completion of the law. Faith in Christ affords everyone an opportunity to be saved, not just one nation.

Romans 10.6-8 is a retelling of Deuteronomy 30.11-14. Paul continues to interpret the messages of the Pentateuch for the Christian church. In its original setting, Deuteronomy 30 follows all the blessings that will result when the nation observes the covenant and the curses that will ensue when they disobey. Deuteronomy contends that it is not hard to keep God’s covenant. God set a clear way before the people and asked that they choose life and prosperity, not death and adversity (v. 15). Likewise, in Christ, God has set a clear way. One does not have to go up to heaven or down to the abyss to figure it out. The righteousness that comes through faith is near. Paul says it is on our lips and in our hearts. With our lips, we confess that Jesus is Lord. That Jesus is God incarnate and commands our total loyalty. With our hearts, we are confident that Jesus is alive; God raised him from the dead. His death and resurrection have rescued us from Sin’s power. Romans 10.9-10 has become the short, confessional statement that people recite that marks their salvation. There is not one statement for Jews and another for Gentiles. There is the same Lord for all. No one who believes in him will be put to shame because, Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved (vv. 11, 13).

Finally, Paul gives what amounts to an explanation for his ministry. Why have he and his team of apostles (Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, Prisca, Aquila, et. al) ventured beyond comfortable and familiar regions to share the gospel with the world? Because they cannot call on Christ unless they believe and believe unless they hear and hear unless there is a preacher? Preachers must be sent (Romans 10.14-15). Paul embraced his call.

Reverend Steven B. Lawrence

THE GIST OF THE CHURCH SCHOOL LESSON

For Our Sake
Read: Romans 4.1-25

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith . . . For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us,
Romans 4.13, 16 (NRSV)

The lessons in May are themed “Standing in the Faith. Instead of looking exclusively at the lives of people who demonstrated their faith, we will look at how faith works to make us right with God. In this lesson, Paul presents his argument for salvation by faith. He uses the story of Abraham and Sarah to show that faith is more than a statement of belief, it is a behavior that shows an ongoing, growing trust in God.

The phrase, “the righteousness of faith” (Romans 4.13), means being made right with God by a faithful attitude and actions. For Abraham, this was demonstrated in his confidence in God's promises. The first of those promises (I will make of you a great nation, Genesis 12.1) tells Abraham he will have a son. Abraham trusted God, and it was that trust that made him righteous; that faith made his right with God. Despite his age (100 years old) and his wife’s (Sarah) diagnosis (barren, unable to have children), Abraham “hoped against hope.” He did not waver in his confidence that God would fulfill the divine promise. And [Abraham] believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15.6).

Faith came first. Circumcision came later (Chapter 17), and the Law came centuries later (after a 400-year stay in Egypt). Both of these, circumcision and the Law, were practices that made the Children of Israel distinct from other nations. But Paul argues, in Romans chapter 4, that it is not those distinctions that made the Israelites right with God. It is, and always was, their faith. The law is always necessary because it exposes sin; the law points out when we are in the wrong. But to rely on the law to produce righteousness is to nullify faith and make the promise of God void (Romans 4.14). If God's promises were based on our perfect obedience to the law, those promises would never be fulfilled. Instead, God's promises to Abraham were fulfilled as he remained faithful, that is, as he continued to trust God. Paul further argues that Abraham's true descendants are not his flesh and blood heirs but his heirs according to his faith (v. 16). Anyone who expresses that same trusting faith in God, is made righteous. God's words to Abraham are extended to all who have faith in God. When they have confidence that Jesus’ loving sacrifice on the cross has forgiven their sin (their rebellion) and made them one with God, they are justified, declared not guilty, and made right with God (vv. 24-25).

Isaac’s birth was miraculous but it was not an immaculate conception. Abraham and Sarah were faithful to each other, despite their age and infirmity. They trusted God and each other. Faith is word and action.

Reverend Steven B. Lawrence

THE GIST OF THE CHURCH SCHOOL LESSON

No Need to Boast
Lesson & Read: Romans 3:21-30

For there is no distinction since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith.
Romans 3.22b-25 (NRSV)

This lesson begins a four-week focus titled “Standing in the Faith.” Each of these lessons comes from the Book of Romans an epistle written by Paul in the late 50’s C.E. Paul was not the founder of this church and had not visited it before writing this letter (he knew many of its members according to Romans 16). He could not write with the authority of the founder. Instead, he wrote as a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God (Romans 1.1).

Paul’s missionary activity began around 47 C.E. Very soon, the followers of Christ were turning the world upside down (Acts 17.6). The controversy between Jews and Jewish Christians was public and vocal. In 51 C.E., the Emperor Claudius ordered all Jews to leave Rome (Acts 18.1). No doubt, during that time the presence of Gentile Christians grew. The order was rescinded in 53 C.E. and Jews returned to Rome. The church that received Paul’s letter was no doubt a mixed community of Jewish and Gentile Christians striving to create, “one great fellowship of love.”

Paul’s message to the Jewish and Gentile believers in the church at Rome was that, though they did not share a common history or heritage, they were made into a new community by the death of Jesus on the cross. Paul used many different words to help both communities understand what Jesus’ death accomplished. First, Paul declared that everyone in the church did have something in common: all were sinners, falling short of God’s glory (Romans 3.23). Both Jew and Gentile were justified (dikaioó), a legal term that meant to be “declared not guilty (v.24). They were all redeemed (apolutrósis), a word familiar to the Gentile believers. It is the Greek word describing “a release effected by payment of ransom.” It presents a picture of people, held captive by sin’s power, who are set free by Jesus. His death paid the price for their liberty. All the members of the church at Rome were also made one with God by Christ’s atonement (hilastérion). This term was familiar to the Jewish believers. The hilastérion was the word for the covering of the mercy seat, the top of the Ark of the Covenant. This is where Israel’s High Priest sprinkled blood on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) to forgive the sins of the people. Paul’s descriptions showed how God, through Christ, had provided salvation for everyone, both Jewish and gentile believers.

God is the God of both Jews and Gentiles (Romans 3.29). Why would God provide a means of salvation that was only available to one people, one ethnicity, one race, one nationality? Instead, God provided salvation to everyone, through faith in Jesus Christ. Now no one can boast that their heritage or their tradition is what makes them acceptable to God. It is not what we do but what God has done for us. Our response is to live in confident, trusting faith in the God who loved us so much that he gave us his son and his son who loved us so much that he gave his life.

Reverend Steven B. Lawrence

THE GIST OF THE CHURCH SCHOOL LESSON

Build Yourselves Up
Read: Jude 1.1-25

But you, beloved, must remember the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; for they said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, indulging their own ungodly lusts.” It is these worldly people, devoid of the Spirit, who are causing divisions. But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.
Jude 1.17-21 (NRSV)

The Book of Jude is the third shortest book of the New Testament. 3 John has only 219 words and 2 John has just 15 verses. Jude was the brother of James. Not James, the Son of Zebedee, but James, the head of the church in Jerusalem (Acts 15), the brother of Jesus. (It is a remarkable sign of humility that Jude does not call himself Jesus’ brother.) His brief epistle (one chapter long) is known for the doxology in verses 24-25 but the rest of the letter is less known and less read than many New Testament books. Jude wrote to alert his readers to the presence of false teachers who had made their way into the church and were mixing Christian beliefs with other philosophies. From the content of Jude's letter, we can deduce the danger these false teachers presented to the true faith. There were Antinomians, teachers who believed that no law applied to them. They took the proclamation of Christian freedom to an extreme and practiced immoral behaviors without remorse. There were Gnostics, teachers who believed that some believers had secret knowledge given to them from above. By this knowledge, they claimed that the Christ was a spirit that entered the human Jesus at his baptism but departed from him at his crucifixion.

Jude’s letter is not long. He does not go point-by-point to refute the words of the false teachers. No doubt, the people receiving his letter are well aware of the teachings. Perhaps Jude does not want to give any prominence to their words so he does not repeat them. Instead, Jude does three things. First, he reminds his hearers that the presence of false teachers was predicted by Jesus' followers (v. 17). It is a mark of the Last Days. When the threads of society seem to be unraveling, when there are natural and political disasters, and when there is uncertainty in the culture about the future, then people are vulnerable to the quick and easy answers that come from those who lean to their own understanding. Second, Jude points out the first danger these false teachers present. They cause division. The world is too much with them. They are devoid of the Spirit and [their] purpose in life is to enjoy themselves in every evil way imaginable (v. 18, NLT). Third, Jude counsels that the way to oppose these false teachers is for believers to fortify themselves in the faith. Continue to pray as you are directed by the Holy Spirit. Live in such a way that God's love can bless you as you wait for the eternal life that our Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy is going to give you. Show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. There are still others to whom you need to show mercy, but be careful that you aren't contaminated by their sins (vv. 20-23 NLT)

The first way of resisting false teaching is to recognize it. We cannot identify the false if we do not know the true word of God. Let us read and study the Scriptures and build ourselves up.
Reverend Steven B. Lawrence