Revelation – Lesson 7

 

Acts 2:1-47 – The History and Purpose of God’s People

Revelation describes God’s future plan for His people.  Who are God’s people?  This lesson will remind us of who they are and trace their history as they await the glorious end of the story He has planned.

It began with Adam and Eve.  God gave them everything, but they wanted more.  They were deceived by Satan and sin entered the world.  Through their sins humanity was divided – believers and non-believers.  God still loves His people and wants all to repent and believe in Him.  He provided a way to be redeemed.  He sent His Son, Jesus to be the Savior of the world.

Jesus was rejected by men, died on the cross for our sins, and then He was raised to life.  Before He went to be with His Father, He promised to send the Holy Spirit to be with us as our counselor.  In Acts 2 this promise was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost as Peter spoke to the crowd.  Peter spoke to the people that day and explained the gospel in detail. 

Peter told them to repent and be baptized and their sins to be forgiven. Then they will receive the Holy Spirit.  The people heard the message and were “cut to the heart”, because they realized they had sinned and needed to repent.  The people responded and by the power of the Holy Spirit and about 3,000 became new believers that day; the church was born.

I think they realized because of their sin they were responsible for the death of Jesus.  The whole world is responsible.  If we had not sinned, He would not have had to die.  So you see, we are all responsible for His death.  We all need to repent and be baptized.  The Holy Spirit unites believers.  As believers God has set us apart giving us a unique identity.  We are His church.

Now we receive the Holy Spirit when we accept Jesus as our Savior.  He becomes the voice in our heads that tells us when we are about to do something we shouldn’t or when we should do something we should.  He’s there to guide, direct, and convict us of sin.

Principle:  Repent and be baptized and your sins will be forgiven; you will receive the Holy Spirit.

Romans 11 – Unified by the Holy Spirit

God has a special relationship with the Jews.  He sent Jesus to the Jews first and then to the Gentiles.  In Romans 11 we see that God didn’t reject the Jews.  God knew the Jews wouldn’t believe, but He had a plan.  He always has a plan.  Actually by coming to the Gentiles it made the Jews jealous so they would accept Jesus. 

Romans 11:16-17 talk about the root, the broken branches and the wild shoot.  The root is the believing Jewish ancestors like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  The broken branches are the unbelieving Jews who rejected Jesus.  The wild olive shoot is the Gentiles who are grafted in and are now included in God’s people.

Romans 11:22-23 - God displayed His grace by allowing the Gentiles to be grafted in (join in) believing Jews in salvation.  Even though some of the Jews did not believe, He didn’t cut them off, but extended mercy and grace giving them the chance to repent. 

Principle:  God has a plan to bring all people to salvation.

Ephesians 4 – The Unity of God’s People

Ephesians 4 gives us ways we are called to live in unity of the Spirit.  We are to live holy lives being humble, gentle, patient, and loving.  We are to help others, live in peace with others, and build up the body of Christ.  We are not to spread rumors or malice against others.  We are not to argue, but always offer kind words. 

We are to “put off your old self and put on the new self”.  Our old self is the old way of life we practiced before we were saved.  We put on a new self by modeling Christ.  We stop those addictive behaviors and urges like anger, bitterness, fear or whatever it is.  We refuse to give in to those desires.  We change our attitudes.  Real change happens when we change our thinking and our desires of self.

Let God change you.  We can continue renewing our minds by going to the Word daily.  We need to keep being reminded of what we are to do and how we are to act so we don’t become stagnant and complacent letting our old self sneak back in.

Principle:  We are called to live in unity of the Spirit.

Next week we will study some of Daniel before getting back to Revelation.  – I encourage you to trust in Jesus.

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