212 Student Ministries

If you have watched a Law and Order marathon or any other courtroom TV show, you know that the end of a trial isn’t always the end of a trial. Often, people convicted of a crime will pursue appeals to higher courts and even take cases all the way to the Supreme Court.

The final six chapters of Acts (Acts 28 specifically) discuss the trial of the apostle Paul that kept being appealed through the Roman justice system. While in America we appeal to the Supreme Court, the ultimate ruling in Rome came from the Emperor. Paul was in the midst of a grueling trial that wouldn’t end. After stops before various governors and kings, he was now on his way to Rome for a trial before Caesar. This had not been an easy journey – it included a shipwreck, a snake bite, a murderous plot, and more. But Paul remained committed to his mission throughout this long appeals process.

So when Paul arrived in Rome, his first public action was to call Jewish leaders together.  He wanted to tell them about the gospel himself, before they heard stories about his background as an apostle and simply wrote him off. The Jewish leaders agreed to listen, and so Paul “witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God, and from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets he tried to persuade them about Jesus.” (v. 23)

Some of the Jewish leaders were convinced and began to follow Jesus, while others rejected Paul’s teaching. Paul knew this would be the case, quoting the prophet Isaiah as he talked about how many Jews had closed eyes and calloused hearts. This moment of witness was one of many Paul had in his two years in Rome. He welcomed everyone who came to see him, and in all of these conversations “he proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ – with all boldness and without hindrance!” (v. 31) The way the book of Acts closes leaves no doubt about Paul’s commitment to his mission to share the gospel. History tells us that the moments of commitment we see here were among Paul’s last. While the book of Acts has an open-ended conclusion, we know that Paul was eventually beheaded under the reign of Emperor Nero. This life-long commitment to the mission that Paul got in Acts 9 is a great picture of how, when it comes to changing the world, it’s not what you start but what your finish.

So how do we finish well? How do we last over the long haul? Let’s look at a couple of factors that help us stay committed. One is fellowship. When we connect to other people on mission – whether our missions are exactly the same or significantly different – we are reminded of the importance of mission. We’re also reminded that staying committed really is possible. So connecting with other believers, and especially believers on mission, is a vital tool for us to use.

We also need a long-term perspective. As we undertake our mission, we will undoubtedly encounter problems. Paul faced difficulties and we will face difficulties as well.  In the moments when these difficulties press in on us, it will be easy to be discouraged or even to quit. But when we look with a long-term view, we will see that God is still working to help us accomplish our calling. Of course, there are many more things we can do to point us toward commitment. We’ll talk about some of these in the Turning Point section. But no matter what tool you use, it is vital to stay committed.

Discussion Questions

1. What kind of situation was Paul in during this passage?

2. How did Paul show commitment in this passage? What was difficult about showing this kind of commitment?

3. To what mission was Paul committed?

4. What are some things that can help us stay committed?

5. How can our friends/family help you stay committed?

God calls us to change the world. He wants to create a reaction in our lives that turns us into people on mission. And God knows that passion is not enough. So he adds Ca, the essential element of calling, to start the reaction. Then He helps us grow in the elements of Ch and Cr — character and creed — to direct and fuel the reaction. And God leads us toward Co, the element of commitment, so that the reaction lasts over the long haul!

As we continue in our Elemental series, we’re going to talk about the importance of putting belief into action when we’re trying to change the world. This means that we must act on our beliefs, and it also means we need to believe the right things instead of the wrong things. Believing the wrong things when it comes to our Christian doctrine is like trusting a do-it- yourself gastric bypass kit, because it will only serve to get us into trouble. So let’s dive into the essential mission element of doctrine, which we can also call creed, and see how we can center our mission on the right things to believe.

This week we look at 1 Corinthians 15.  The Corinthian church was full of issues, and these issues were damaging the fabric and connectedness of the church.

But Paul diagnosed that the root problem with the Corinthians’ mission was actually a theological one. “But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection from the dead?” (v. 12) This question went to the root of the problem in Corinth. The Christians there had a hard time connecting what they did with their bodies to the state of their souls. This wrong belief had caused them to believe they could do whatever they wanted with their bodies, no matter what it was or who it hurt. And the ultimate demonstration of this belief came as they discounted the resurrection.

So Paul shared a creed that is one of the clearest statements of Christian doctrine in all of Scripture. In this statement, found in verses 3-8, Paul defended the resurrection and gave many witnesses to it. After this statement, there was no question that resurrection from the dead was real and that Jesus had actually risen Himself.

We see in this passage and in the situation it addressed that what we believe is critically important. If we get our Christian doctrine wrong, as the Corinthians had, we will find ourselves straying from our mission as Christians. As a result, if we change the world, it will be in wrong ways. So our belief — our creed — is vital to our mission.

What you believe fuels what you will do. This is both a warning and a great hope. It is a warning against wrong belief and faulty doctrine. But it is a great hope that what we do is not solely dependent on us. Our mission is dependent on God and rooted in the common creed we share with Christians from centuries past and in the present. Our creed reminds us that we are not alone, and it invites us into a mission that has changed the world and continues to do so in our day. So let creed fuel your mission.

Discussion Questions

1. What did Paul want to remind the Corinthians of in this passage?

2. Why is the gospel important?

3. How did Paul describe the gospel in this passage?

4. What was happening to the Corinthians as they strayed away from the true gospel?

5. How does what we believe fuel what we do?

6. What happens to our mission when we believe the wrong things about God?

7. How do we recognize when our doctrine is wrong? How do we correct doctrine gone wrong?

Last night we continued the Elemental series with the key element: Character.

We moved deeper into Acts to the end of Paul’s third missionary journey to the Gentiles (Acts 20:17-38). Paul was nearing the end of the journey and was trying to return to Jerusalem in time for the celebration of Pentecost. Despite the urgency of this deadline, Paul wanted to speak to the leaders of the Ephesian church. So he asked these elders to come to the port city of Miletus, about 30 miles from Ephesus, so he could talk to them. Paul knew that this would be the last time he would see these friends and colleagues in person.  He talked about the essential element of character over and over again.

As Paul addressed the Ephesian church leaders, he began and ended not with his mission or his calling but with his character. He talked about how he served the Lord with humility. He told how he had persevered through severe testing in the past and how he expected to have to do so again. He recalled that he did not hesitate to teach anyone in any setting. Then, later in the passage, he talked about how he had not been greedy and how he had worked to provide for himself and his traveling companions.

These were big claims of character on Paul’s part. But he didn’t say these things just to help his own reputation or feed his own ego. Instead, Paul talked about his character as a means of communicating the importance of character for the Ephesian church leaders as they lived out their calling. Based on what Paul had said, his encouragement to “keep watch over yourselves” (v. 28) had much more importance. The Ephesian church leaders knew what it meant to be on their guard because they had seen it from Paul.

Paul knew, and he wanted the Ephesian church leaders to know that character matters when it comes to changing the world. Character affects calling, or to put it another way, who you are affects what you can do.

Here is a quote that really sums up how we need to look at Character and the importance of it:  “Every single one of us will face the temptation to compromise our character along our path to change the  world. There will be an opportunity for you to cut corners, make a shady deal, or dance around in some gray areas. You’ll have an opportunity to cross a line, and nobody will know. Or will they? You’ll face a crossroads with two choices. The first will take you where you think you want to go more quickly and easily. The second will eventually get you where you want to go, but it will probably be a harder and longer journey. If you want to change the world, you need to build a solid foundation. Your character takes a long time to build and a short time to lose.” (Greg Darley, Passion is Not Enough)

As our character grows, it affects what we can do in terms of calling, and it also impacts the people around us in a positive way. So let us grow in the element of character to bless the people around us and change the world around us.

Discussion Questions

1.  Why did Paul need good character? Why did the Ephesian church leaders need good character?
2. Why is character important as we try to change the world?
3. How do we grow in character? What do we need to start doing? What do we need to stop doing?
4. What does character look like in the mission God has given you? Where are some places within your calling that your character will be revealed?

In this Elemental series, we’re going to look at the one person who changed the world more than any other person in the early church. That person is the apostle Paul.  We see Paul lay out Elemental principles for us all to follow in our Christian faith.  In this series we will be looking at 4 key elements: Calling, Character, Creed, and Commitment.  In this first week we looked at our Calling.

We looked at the scripture Acts 9:1-22 where we see the conversion of Paul.  Paul (then known as Saul) was on the warpath against Christians. Wherever he could find them, he had them arrested, tried, and even executed for their beliefs. There was no greater enemy of Christians in his day. But in a moment, Paul’s life was turned upside down. As Paul met Jesus and realized that his view of things was completely backward, his life changed. No longer would Paul persecute Christians. Instead, now he shared the truth about Jesus with the whole world. This is a great picture about how calling is the first element when you want to change the world, because it shows us that life change should lead to world change.

As God breaks in and changes our lives, He will give us a calling to change the world. And this calling will take a couple of forms. First, there is the calling that every Christian has. Jesus summed up this calling when He talked about the greatest commandment – to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We are all called to go into the whole world and preach the gospel. No matter who we are or what our individual calling might be, all of us who have chosen to follow Christ need to embrace these callings.

But as we live out this general calling, we will discover that God chooses different ones of us to do this in different ways. For Paul, this meant preaching primarily to the Gentiles, while others like Peter preached primarily to the Jews. For Mother Teresa, it meant ministering to the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, India. For Dietrich Bonhoeffer, it meant facing down the Nazis and ultimately giving his life. These examples and many more show us that, while our specific calling should match up with our general calling, it can take many different forms.

To discover our calling, we need to examine ourselves. What spiritual gifts has God given us? What natural talents and abilities do we have? What unique opportunities are before us now, or might be before us in the future? As we begin to look at all of these things, we will begin to uncover what specific calling God has given us.

God wants to change our lives, but he doesn’t want the change to stop there. Instead, He wants the change inside of us to have a ripple effect outside of us. Calling is the first element that leads us toward this reaction. And for this calling to change the world, life change should lead to world change. So let us ask God to take the change inside of us and cause it to impact outside of us.

Discussion QuestionsHow did Paul begin to live out his calling?

1. How did Paul begin to live out his calling?
2. What calling do all Christians share? Why is it important for us to embrace this general calling?
3. What do you think your specific calling is? How have you discovered it?
4. What forms of specific calling should we deal with immediately? What forms of specific calling do we need to plan for over the long term?