Overview
The story that frames this week’s lesson illustrates the central purpose of our mission and describes how we can negotiate through our problems with politics, personal preferences, traditions, and practices. By this time in the life of the church the Gentiles were breaking down the doors to know who Christ was, but some Jews felt strongly that in order to be a follower of Christ you must also be a good Jew. The practices and traditions of the Jews became so convoluted over time that it was hard for them to separate truth from tradition. So the church had a meeting—a “General Conference session” or board meeting to deal with the growing problems.
Scripture
Acts 15:10, 11
Discussion Video
Lesson 1
Scripture Passage
Acts 15:1-18
OVERVIEW
This lesson is going to talk about the challenges of “new” discoveries about God, and what we do in light of those revelations.
OPENING ACTIVITY
You have two opening activities to choose between this week. The first game (First to Five) is the safe version, the second is a little more risky. Please choose the one that will fit your church and youth group the best. The story in the lesson today is about disagreements in the church, but it is also about finding healthy resolution and moving forward in grace. Please keep that in mind if you choose the second game—it is meant to spur discussion, not separate people.
Activity 1: First to Five (Spring Break Version)
For this game all you have to do is put a finger up if the statement is true for you. The first person with five fingers raised is the winner of that round.
(Next Level Leader Tip: If an answer is surprising feel free to pause the game and get the story behind student’s answer!)
- Have travelled outside the state on spring break
- Have travelled outside the country on spring break
- Have gotten a fake tan to prepare for spring break
- Prefer cold weather on spring break
- Think an ideal spring break is staying home
- Have gotten sunburned on spring break
- Have taken a trip in a motorhome
- Have stayed in your pajamas all day during a school break
- Have gone on a mission trip
- Have done homework while on break
- Don’t have spring break because you are in homeschool
- Have this year already grilled something to eat outside
- Have never stayed in a hotel before
- Have never been on an airplane before
- Your mom thinks spring break is for cleaning the house
(This should be enough statements; feel free to come up with some others if it’s not!)
QUESTIONS
- What new things did you learn about your friends?
- What follow-up questions do you want to ask?
- Were you ever envious or jealous of other people’s fingers going up? Why?
- What would the ideal spring break look like for you? Is it OK if your ideal spring break is different than someone else’s?
Activity 2: Agree or Disagree
Designate one side of your meeting space as the “agree” side, and the opposite side as the “disagree” side. Have your group move to the appropriate side based on their responses to the following statements. Make sure that you have each side present why they chose the side they are on, but also make sure they are always respectful of the other side
. Also discourage sitting in the middle even though sometimes that may be the “right” answer. Leaders, also feel free to add some statements, but please make sure that one or two students are not always on one side of the room and feel singled out. If you know this will be the case with your group, maybe Activity 1 is better for you.
- Sabbath potluck at church is the best meal of the week.
- It is OK to go swimming on the Sabbath.
- Church is boring.
- Being vegetarian/vegan is the best lifestyle.
- Dancing is not a good activity for Christians (Adventists) . . . even TikTok dances.
- Drums and electronic instruments are not conducive to worshiping God.
- It is OK to lie if you are fighting against something evil.
- Adventists should not carry weapons if they serve in the military.
- I would never eat food sacrificed to idols.
- Good Christian males should be circumcised.
QUESTIONS
Those last two questions were extra weird. But those were the questions that caused some of the first divisions in the 1st century church!
- Knowing that, do you think some of the things we are arguing about today might seem silly 50, 100, 500 years from now? Why or why not?
- If you happened to be the only person on one side of an issue how did that feel?
- Is it OK for church members to disagree about certain things? Where do we draw the line?
- Do you think your parents/grandparents might have answered differently than you on some of the questions? Why or why not?
TRANSITION
It is fun to learn more about each other. Honestly, that is one of the great things about good games. Good games and activities draw us together into a deeper understanding of each other! As Christians, and Adventist Christians as well, it is important for us to realize that each of us brings a different history to the table. More importantly, “His”tory (by His I mean God if you didn’t get that) is tailored to each of us even though God is unchanging! The Bible text for today is a great example of how the early Acts church struggled with that concept. Different groups with different ideas about how people could best live out being a disciple of Jesus fought for their idea to be right, and it almost split the movement of Jesus before it had even begun! Church politics goes back a long way!
BIBLE STUDY GUIDE
The last few weeks of Sabbath School lessons have been about some of the unlikely leaders who came to lead the early Jesus movement that we now call “the church.” Peter, Paul, and Barnabas have all played major roles in shaping the new movement. People like Stephen and James have died because of their commitment to Jesus and His message. Still others have tried to shape the movement after their Jewish traditions. Paul’s missionary journeys have added another complication to the movement that started in Jerusalem.
QUESTIONS
- Are there things that Jesus emphasized that mean that the old covenant with Israel is over and there is a new covenant that includes the Gentiles?
- What happens when new revelations seem in conflict with the heritage of the past?
- The passage we are studying today is dealing with that question.
Read Acts 15:1-5.
1Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. 3 The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.
5 Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”
QUESTIONS
- This text begins in Antioch, and it seems that Jerusalem (Judea) has heard that the new believers are not following the older time-tested ways. Why might they be fighting for holding that tradition? Is it interesting that Paul, someone who held firmly to the old ways in the past, is now the champion of something new? How might that apply to today’s Adventist movement?
- In verse 2 it seems that there is quite a conflict. Is conflict good or bad? When is it good? When is it bad? How can the church best deal with conflict? Does this passage seem to deal with conflict in a good or bad way?
- Why would verse 3 be so significant? (Remember that it is Luke, a gentile convert, who is writing this.)
- Verse 5 talks about converted Pharisees. Think about where these converts might be coming from. How much had already changed in their lives by their acceptance of Jesus? Why might more change be so difficult? How might that relate to your church or Adventism today?
This next section deals with some of the first really big doctrinal decisions of the church.
QUESTIONS
- How would the way of Jesus play out in the real world with new non-Jewish origin believers?
- Did people need to become part of the Abrahamic covenant to be part of Jesus?
Let’s read this very important passage. Perhaps we can learn about how to deal with difficult issues in our churches today.
Read Acts 15:6-18.
6 The apostles and elders met to consider this question. 7 After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
12 The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. 13 When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me. 14 Simon has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles. 15 The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written:
16 “ ‘After this I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, 17 that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things’ — 18things known from long ago.
QUESTIONS
- Verse 6 says that people all gathered together. Why is this important? (Hint: It is hard to maintain community if we can’t get everyone in the same room to discuss things.) How might a gathering together be a good strategy in conflicts you might have in your life?
- Verse 7 says there was much debate. How do you like debate? (If you did game 2, how uncomfortable did it make you to think that others thought differently from you?) Does there always need to be a winner in a debate? Was there a winner here?
- In the book of Acts we see the Holy Spirit being a proof of God’s approval, acceptance, or presence. How do we see that play out in our churches today? If we are not looking for that in our decisions, how might we do that more effectively?
- Note that in verse 12 the assembly fell silent after remembering grace. Then Paul and Barnabas do something powerful, they tell stories—stories of real people who had real experiences with Jesus even though they didn’t fit the mold of what other people expected. How have stories impacted your beliefs? Do you have family stories that have changed how you see God? Do you tell those stories? Is there one you could share with the group today?
- Finally, note that James closes with Scripture. Even though it seems as if everything is changing for the Jewish Christians, James shows them that it was God’s plan all along in Scripture ( )! How might this have been important in bringing the new and the old believers together? How can your youth group better understand older members who seem to have different beliefs about God than they do? How can you empathize with each other?
APPLICATION
Most churches have a board meeting once a month. What if your youth group went to the board meeting and observed what happened?
- Get the pastor’s permission for youth members to attend and observe.
- Ask if he/she could meet with you after the meeting for a few minutes to answer any questions you might have about how decisions are made in your church.
Ask how your youth group might be involved in being a part of those decisions!
Lesson 2
SCRIPTURE PASSAGE
LEADER’S NOTE
For a Relational Bible Study (RBS) you’ll want to get into the Scripture passage and encourage the youth to imagine participating in the story while it’s happening. Then you will be able to better apply it to your own situation today.
You will need to ask God for the Holy Spirit to be present as your small group discusses the questions (no more than 3-6 people in a group is recommended). Start with the opening question. It is a personal question and the answer is unique for each individual. There is no right answer and nobody is an expert here, so don’t be surprised when you hear different responses. You are depending on the Holy Spirit to be present and to speak through your group. Say what God prompts you to say, and listen to what others share.
Take turns reading the chapter out loud. Follow that with giving the students some time to individually mark their responses to the questions (a PDF version of the handout is available as a download). This gives each person a starting point for responding when you start to share as a group. Next, begin the discussion by asking the students to share what they marked and why on each question as you work your way through. Feel free to take more time on some questions than others as discussion warrants.
Encourage each person in the group to apply what is discussed to their personal lives and to share with the group what they believe God wants them to do. Then ask them to pray that God will help each of them to follow through in doing so. Remind them to expect that God will show them ways to live out the message of this passage in the coming week, and that they are free to ask others in the group to help hold them accountable.
OVERVIEW
In last week’s lesson, the wonderful and miraculous stories of spreading the Good News of Jesus yielded so many positive results. Gentiles, who had seemingly been outside of God’s plan or concern, were accepting Jesus as their Savior and Lord. The new group of “Jesus followers” seemed to be increasing exponentially!
If you were a Jew, would you rejoice about or reject this new wave that swept the fledgling Christian movement? Could a Gentile become a Christian, or did the Gentile first need to become a Jew (get circumcised) and then become a Christian?
New Christians who had been Jews considered circumcision normal and spiritual, since that had been their practice for centuries. Gentile Christians considered it Jewish, not Christian.
This week’s Bible study in Acts 15 describes how this disagreement came to a head, after Jewish Christians from Jerusalem went to the Christian Church in Gentile Antioch, and started to teach that Gentiles had to be circumcised before they could become followers of Jesus. It became such a divisive issue that the church leaders sent a group to Jerusalem—to “headquarters” where the church leaders of the new Christian Church resided.
While we may hope and pray there would never be conflict among Christians, it’s certain to happen, especially when something matters to people. Don’t be surprised that it happens; expect it to occur. Let’s look at Acts 15 to see how to respond to church conflicts rather than expect there will never be church conflicts.
Conflicts Among Christians
What’s an example of one of your church’s traditions?
Read Acts 15:1-17.
1 Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. 3 The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.
5 Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”
6 The apostles and elders met to consider this question. 7 After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
12 The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. 13 When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me. 14 Simon has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles. 15 The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written:
16 “ ‘After this I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, 17 that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things’ — 18things known from long ago.
1. Why was circumcision so important to the Jews?
- God gave this rite to set His people apart from others ( ).
- The miraculous birth of Isaac occurred after Abraham’s circumcision.
- Tradition—the Jews had been doing this for centuries.
- Jesus was circumcised ( ).
- It’s helpful to have a physical sign to know who’s good and who isn’t.
- Practiced by males, it maintained patriarchy—males rule.
- Sexual things are very important to most people.
- It wasn’t that important to most Jews.
- Other.
2. Why did Antioch Church leaders react so strongly against circumcision?
- This would reduce the number of people who would join Christianity.
- It would lead to a lifestyle focused on rules rather than on Christ.
- When something matters, you’re willing to fight for it (or against it).
- Circumcision was Old Testament; this was New Testament times.
- Jesus did away with circumcision for His people.
- A lot of Gentile Christians hadn’t been circumcised.
- It’s a very painful process.
- This would promote legalism rather than faith.
- Other.
3. Why did the Antioch Church send a group to Jerusalem?
- They needed a ruling about a practical and theological question.
- The church in Antioch was submitting to the Jerusalem leaders.
- The church in Antioch was instructing the Jerusalem leaders.
- The church in Antioch had a church split and needed outside help.
- God was doing more in Antioch than in Jerusalem at that time.
- The Antioch Church tried to change, but the Judaizers held firm.
- The Antioch Church wanted a break from Paul and Barnabas.
- The group won an all-expense vacation to tour the Bible lands.
- Other.
4. How did the church leaders in Jerusalem decide this matter?
- They prayed about it (like ; ; ).
- They cast lots (like ).
- The Holy Spirit descended like on the Day of Pentecost ( ).
- Both sides of the issue had equal time to make their case.
- Lots of talking.
- The Gentiles had more miracles than did the circumcised Jews.
- James, the brother of Jesus, unilaterally decided for the whole group.
- Other.
5. What was the “yoke” Gentiles and Jews couldn’t bear (vs. 10)?
- Circumcision.
- The many ceremonial rules God had given His people.
- The many rules God’s people had added on their own.
- Traditions.
- The 10 commandments.
- Obedience.
- Trusting God for everything.
- Other.
6. What happened after the Jerusalem Council (see vs. 22-41)?
- Circumcision remained a dividing issue.
- Both churches enhanced their communication efforts.
- The Antioch Church separated from the Jerusalem Church.
- Antioch experienced no more church conflicts.
- Many people dropped out, especially those who didn’t get their way.
- Idol meat and sexual immorality were problems ( , ).
- Lots of rejoicing.
- Other.
7. On the continuum below, place an “X” where you see yourself; put a “D” where you see your parents; and put a “Y” where you see your church.
Conservative Progressive
Keep things Change things
the same
8. How does your church deal with conflicts in beliefs or practices? How do you deal with them?
SUMMARY
- Instead of quitting because you don’t get your way, ask God to open your heart and mind to His leading, even if that means something different from your traditions or what you previously thought or practiced.
- In your walk with God, expect to go through changes, perhaps because of other followers of God you might not think are on your same path.
- Put into practice one or two of the applications from this Bible study in the coming week.
APPLICATION
Here are three application ideas for you to “live out” the Bible passage we studied for this week’s Youth Sabbath School.
- TRADITIONS—GOOD & BAD
- Download the handout “Traditions—Good & Bad” and write down examples in both columns.
- Consider the reason(s) behind the tradition, as well as the value they might have.
- If you take away a tradition, are you ready to replace it with a new and better one?
- Which traditions matter to God?
- Which ones don’t matter to God.
- Does that make a difference to you?
- CONVERSATIONS
- Talk to several Seventh-day Adventists older than you about traditions in the SDA Church that have changed or stayed the same over the years.
- Download the “Conversations” handout if you’d like some examples of topics that might be helpful to start your conversation.
- Team up with another person from Youth Sabbath School, or compare notes with someone else who does the same thing with another group of “seasoned” SDAs.
- GOOD WAYS TO WORK OUT DIFFERENCES
- Reflect on this during the week for yourself.
- Pray to God about it and listen for messages and impressions from God.
- Put it into practice.
- Ask other people, including your pastor, Youth Sabbath School teacher, and others.
- Ask your Sabbath School teacher to allocate some time next Sabbath for people to share what they discovered during the week.