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Youth Teaching ResourcesMay 26, 2019

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Easter Season (April 21-June 2)

Resurrection Realities

Acts 9:1-20 (RCL 1-6, 7-20) – “Blind Devotion”

Acts 9:36-43 – “Shocking Faith”

Acts 11:1-18 – “Stunned Silence”

Acts 16:9-15 – “Eager Acceptance”

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Eager AcceptanceActs 16:6-15

YOUTH Teaching Guideby Jeremy Colliver

This youth teaching outline is designed to support The Bible Lesson by Tony Cartlege, printed in Baptists Today. You can subscribe to either the digital or print edition of Baptists Today to access the lessons. Please also ensure that each person in your class has a copy of Baptists Today so they can prepare before the lesson.

Parent PreP

How many different pathways have you witnessed your student go down? How many of them have they chosen? How many of them have been a surprise to you? It’s not unusual for students to choose many different paths as they are discovering who they are. Sometimes your student will travel further along some of these paths more than others. The most important thing for you to do is to travel the path they have chosen with them. Don’t try and force them to another path (unless they are going to physically going to hurt themselves.) or choose a path that you want them to be on. Walk life with them.

teaching the Lesson

FellowshipBegin your session by showing the clip “Pray for the Opportunity” from Evan Almighty. If you are unable to show the clip, summarize it to the best of your ability, and then facilitate a discussion using questions like the following:

1) Why is Joan upset at the restaurant?

2) What does the god character explain how God answers prayers?

3) What opportunities are there for Joan and Evan? How does she decide to support Evan?

4) What opportunities do you have in front of you?

5) How will your faith help you make your decisions?

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InformationTransition to the next section of the session by reading Acts 16:1-15. Allow the students to ask any initial questions they have about the text. As you answer their questions, you may want to provide some of the information found in Tony’s commentary to answer their questions. When the students have had an opportunity to share their initial thoughts, continue the discussion by facilitating a discussion using questions like the following:

1) Who joins Paul on this journey?

2) Where had Paul intended on going? Where did his journey take him?

3) How did Paul know where to go along his journey?

4) What do we know about Lydia from the text?

5) What themes come across in this passage? Which theme most resonated with you?

If your group would like to dig deeper in their discussion, share some of the insights that Tony provides in the “Digging Deeper” portion of his commentary. You may want to use some questions like the following to facilitate your discussion:

1) Where is this “Galatia” that Paul talks about? How does this influence the passage?

2) Why is the “Holy Spirit” referenced with two names?

You may also want your group to discuss “The Hardest Question” if they would like to continue their discussion on this passage. Tony poses the following question to consider as “The Hardest Question”: What’s the real issue?

TransformationConclude your time together by leading the group through the ancient spiritual discipline of Lectio Divina. If you have not led a group through this practice, familiarize yourself with it and then led the group through practice. After you have led the group through the practice, allow for some of the group to share what they heard from God and what God is calling them to do.

Close with a prayer of guidance to know what roads to go down and what doors to open and close along our journey.

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Digging Deeperby Tony Cartlege

Digging Deeper is designed to support The Bible Lesson by Tony Cartlege, printed in Nurturing Faith Journal. Watch for the “shovel” icon in the The Bible Lesson, and then reference that item in this Digging Deeper resource. You can subscribe to either the digital or print edition of Nurturing Faith Journal to access the lessons. Please also ensure that each person in your class has a copy of Nurturing Faith Journal so they can prepare before the lesson.

The text—The Revised Common Lectionary reading for the day is Acts 16:9-15, but it is helpful for us to consider a bit more of the context, so we will begin our study with v. 6.

Galatia—The area known as Galatia was originally confined to the north central section of Asia Minor (now Turkey), where a tribe of Celts, also known as Gauls, had settled after emigrating from central Europe and invading the area during the third century BCE. By the time of Paul’s ministry in the first century CE, however, Galatia had evolved into a Roman province that extended from the Black Sea in the north to the Mediterranean in the south.

Paul’s activity in Galatia appears to have been mainly in the southern part, where he visited the cities of Derbe, Lystra, and Iconium on his first evangelistic expedition (Acts 13-14), and traveled through the same area on his second journey (Acts 16:1-5).

One Spirit, two names—We note an interesting use of vocabulary: Luke refers to the Holy Spirit in v. 6, and the Spirit of Jesus in v. 7. This serves as a reminder us that Jesus lives on, and lives in us, through the Spirit. There is no distinction between the “Holy Spirit,” and the “Spirit of Jesus.” Both refer to God’s way of living and working in us.

Philippi—Philippi was located about ten miles inland from the coast of southern Macedonia, once an independent country and the home of Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great. Philip renamed the city after himself in 358 BCE when he settled a colony of Macedonian soldiers there to protect valuable gold mines in Mount Pangeo, not far away.

Philippi and the surrounding area were brought under Roman rule in 168 CE. The famous Via Egnatia, a paved military road nearly 700 miles long built by the Romans in the second century CE, went right through it (Drawn in part from Richard A. Spencer, Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, 1048).

The photo above shows the ancient agora, or marketplace, in Philippi. In the lower left, a series of connected rectangular stones still remain from the Via Egnatia, which was built of flat square-cut stones covered with a layer of packed sand.

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Digging Deeper continued

Dyed in the wool—Ancient inscriptions and literary references speak of a variety of trade guilds in Thyatira, including the manufacture of wool and linen cloth, leather and bronze used for making armor, and other crafts.

The reddish-purple dye manufactured in Thyatira was made from the roots of the perennial madder plant (rubia tinctorum), somewhat less expensive to produce than the purple dye extracted from Murex seashells that were found near coastal cities such as Tyre. Madder was also commonly used in Colonial America. It could be manipulated to produce shades from yellow to orange to deep red.

Prayer, and baptism—Just outside of Philippi is a beautiful park-like area by a river where a small Greek Orthodox church along with an outdoor amphitheater and baptistery that commemorates the baptism of Lydia and her household.

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The Hardest Questionby Tony Cartlege

The Hardest Question is designed to support The Bible Lesson by Tony Cartlege, printed in Nurturing Faith Journal. You can subscribe to either the digital or print edition of Nurturing Faith Journal to access the lessons. Please also ensure that each person in your class has a copy of Nurturing Faith Journal so they can prepare before the lesson.

Why are ten men required to hold synagogue services?The rabbinic rule that 10 men, known as a “minyan,” are required for a synagogue assembly is an old tradition that continues today. It is drawn from the unlikely story of Moses sending spies to scout the land they hoped to conquer (Numbers 14). Moses sent 12 spies, but only two (Joshua and Caleb) brought an encouraging report. The other 10 did not think the Israelites were capable of defeating the land’s inhabitants, and they discouraged the people from going forward.

In the aftermath, God reportedly said to Moses “How long shall this wicked congregation complain against me?” (Numbers 14:27). Although most readers would assume that the question referred to the entire congregation of Israel, the rabbis took it as a reference to the 10 spies who were afraid. In this way they determined that a “congregation” or “assembly” in the presence of God should be composed of at least 10 men.

A synagogue service does not require a building, only ten men. International travel often requires significant wait times, especially when flying to Israel, which requires early arrival and a second security screen. Travelers to Israel today may observe groups of Orthodox Jewish men gathering while waiting at the airline gate, donning their prayer shawls and nodding together as they pray or read scripture in singsong voices as a temporary synagogue.