THE
SPIRIT 10 lessons on the significance of the Holy Spirit and how he is the giver of life
TEACHER’S MANUAL |
Written by Edward Surrey
A book by Christian Education Publications Published December 2015 Copyright © Edward Surrey 2015 This book is copyright. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism and review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without the express permission of the publisher. Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc. Christian Education Publications PO Box A287 Sydney South NSW 1235 AUSTRALIA P +61 2 8268 3344 E sales@cepstore.com.au W cepstore.com.au National Library of Australia ISBN: 978-1-92-504162-0 Managing editor: Cassandra Cassis Theological editor: Guangyao Un Images: shutterstock.com/unsplash.com
Read this
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Stop and reflect Group discussion
Contents Introduction 5 Chapter 1 Worship the Spirit as God Almighty 7 Chapter 2 The Spirit is about Jesus with intensity 13 Chapter 3 You can be saved for eternity 19 Chapter 4 Christians are loved with security 23 Chapter 5 The Bible is speaking with clarity 31 Chapter 6 Ask God for things without timidity 37 Chapter 7 Tell others about Jesus with sincerity 45 Chapter 8 Go to church with unity 51 Chapter 9 Use your gifts to serve with humility 57 Chapter 10 Fight sin to reach maturity 63
UNIT AIMS The hope of this unit is to combine both a lively understanding of the Holy Spirit with a rigorous discussion of how to live as a Christian. In this way it aims to avoid a dry theology of the Holy Spirit and a pharisaic approach to living as a Christian. The grand aims of the course are that people would understand who the Holy Spirit is, by seeing how he relates to living as a Christian. This is because the Spirit is the giver of life. We find the Spirit hard to understand because we often have a wrong view of God. Sometimes we think that God the Father is a like big Santa Claus in the sky, and because Jesus was a man, God must be like us in our humanity. But God is Spirit (John 4:24) and therefore it shouldn’t be surprising that there’s a Holy Spirit who is God. His holiness comes because God is light (1 John 1:5) and a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29), so different from us. And God is love (1 John 4:8), and so he must have had someone to love before creation, hence the Trinity. So when we have a correct view of God, the idea of a Holy Spirit is not such a great leap. There are also things that Christians should do, or at least think they should do, but often have no idea why they do them. For example, reading your Bible, praying, attending church and practising evangelism. So as well as obtaining a correct view of the Holy Spirit, these lessons aim to give insight into what the Spirit does in all these aspects of the Christian life. Understanding this should hopefully bring new life to old patterns and fresh energy to tired disciplines.
LESSON OUTLINE Each lesson is like a meal, with a starter, main course and a dessert. The starter is called Getting into the spirit of things and introduces the idea of the lesson ahead. This should be something that everyone can take part in, irrespective of their background. This is a non-essential part of the lesson, and so if short
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of time can be missed. Each lesson (except the first) will then have a Recap section that builds toward a complete paragraph about the Holy Spirit. Hopefully this will summarise the last lesson, and help students look ahead to where they’re heading. You know your class best, so feel free to use this as you see fit—some may see it as unnecessary, others may only want to do it every other lesson, so please use the starter as appropriate for your class. The main course is unapologetically based on several Bible passages. This is where students will be digging around in the treasure chest of the Bible to find the gold in there. Printing out passages beforehand can be a good way to speed this process up, while having their Bibles open will help students become more familiar with God’s word itself. You choose what is best for your context. Sometimes more than one reference is listed to find out about the Spirit. One way to vary the length of each lesson is to pick just some of these Bible references, rather than all of them. Most of these lessons are designed to be about an hour long, and I’ve tried to give plenty of material, so classes aren’t stuck for the last 10 minutes of a lesson with nothing to do! The dessert hopes to help apply and dig deeper into what students have seen. Often this returns to the ideas planted in the introduction. Extras at the end provide alternative content or more material for your class, depending on maturity and time. The book, The Spirit—Giver of Life that accompanies this course, will help your students get more out of the material, and sometimes questions are included that refer to the book. Frequently my thinking will be clearer if you and your students have read the corresponding chapter before the lesson, and this reading will also provide ideas for you about how to explain or illustrate a point. Enjoy. May the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all (2 Corinthians 13:14).
2 THE SPIRIT IS ABOUT JESUS WITH INTENSITY
AIM To see that the Spirit’s main role and agenda is to point people to, and show them, Jesus.
OUTCOMES Students will: • think about jobs and roles • see that the Spirit comes from the Father and Son • know that the job and role of the Spirit is to glorify Jesus.
BACKGROUND Who someone is can be seen by what they do. For example a father shows that he is one by caring for his children. The Spirit is not working independently from the other two members of the Godhead, instead he is sent by them to glorify Jesus. This means that the Spirit, like the Father and Son, is not interested in himself, but is interested in the other persons of the Trinity. He is always selflessly pointing to Jesus. After realising that the Spirit is God, this is the next most important aspect of the Spirit to know. It will stop a multitude of errors when we see that the Spirit is not focused on himself or his powers; instead, the Spirit is about the person of Jesus.
LESSON GETTING INTO THE SPIRIT OF THINGS 1. Try to work out what these jobs are, based on their titles.
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Jobs and quotes below come from this link: news.com.au/finance/work/the-10-weirdestjobs-youve-never-heard-of/story-e6frfm9r-1226750579336 (viewed December, 2015).
gg Snake Milker
Cup Keeper
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Gumologist
Face Feeler
Gumologist Jesse Kiefer, who works as a Gumologist for Cadbury Schweppes: ‘A piece of gum weighs just one to seven grams, but it’s packed with a lot of different technology … It has to deliver a burst of flavour, a lot of sweetness, and a lot of tartness if it’s a fruit gum … Our team figures out how to combine all those … Some days, I don’t blow any bubbles. Other days I have to blow a lot. It depends on what stage we are in the project.’ Face Feeler Ever wondered how shaving brands and beauty companies can claim their products give you the smoothest skin? Well, one lucky person has verified it for them. A face feeler tests how soft and smooth a person’s skin is after using a product, to prove how well it works. So all day, they just sidle up to beautiful test models and feel their faces. Cup Keeper This job takes babysitting to a whole new level. The Stanley Cup is awarded to the championship team in the US/Canada’s National Hockey League competition. But there’s only one cup, and each year’s winning teams are engraved on it. Due to the trophy’s huge price tag, it must be chaperoned at all times while it’s away from its permanent home at the Hockey Hall of Fame. A ‘Keeper of the Cup’ is paid to accompany the trophy during its travels and make sure it doesn’t go astray. Snake Milker Snake venom is powerful stuff. It can be turned into drugs to treat all kinds of conditions, including a poisonous snake bite. But some brave soul needs to collect that venom by hand. They gently expose the snake’s fang and squeeze out the deadly juices. ‘The only difference between me and any other company in the world that produces something is that the means of production here can kill you ... and wants to’, said Alabama snake milker Ken Darnell. You could also discuss any other odd jobs students have heard of, or what their ideal job would be.
RECAP The Holy Spirit is GOD
WHERE IS THE SPIRIT FROM? We have worked out who the Spirit is. Now we need to see where he’s from. READ JOHN 14:16–17. 2. What does each member of the Trinity do here?
The Son asks the Father. The Father gives the Spirit.
2. THE SPIRIT IS ABOUT JESUS WITH INTENSITY
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READ JOHN 14:26. 3. Complete this sentence: The Father will send the Spirit in the name of the Son. READ JOHN 15:26. 4. We see all the members of the Trinity at work in this verse. Fill out what each does:
The Son sends the Spirit. The Spirit goes out from the Father. The Spirit testifies about the Son.
dd 5. Both the Father and the Son send and give the Spirit, and the Spirit is willing to go. What does that tell you about the three members of the Trinity?
Each is selfless and working for the good of the others. It might be worth having a discussion about how this makes the Trinitarian God different from the gods in other religions. These gods are usually Unitarian and can only testify about themselves, selfishly.
WHAT DOES THE SPIRIT DO? 6. TIME Magazine (May 20, 2013) describes your generation as ‘the me me me generation’. Why do you think it’s called that? You may like to bring the image of the TIME Magazine cover at https://timedotcom. files.wordpress.com/2014/01/1101130520_600.jpg?quality=75&strip=color&w=600 (viewed December, 2015) onto the interactive white board. Encourage a discussion about the inwardness of the current generation, to draw the contrast between them and the Spirit. For example, communication devices are named ‘iPhones’ to highlight what they are all about. People accept party invitations depending on their mood at the time—their reply is subject to a future better offer because they don’t want to commit in case they change their minds later. 7. You’re a reporter writing for a newspaper and you have been asked to write a short article about the Holy Spirit’s job. READ JOHN 16:14–15 in pairs to help you. He is all about Jesus, rather than himself, constantly selfless.
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8. Draw arrows describing the sequence of God revealing his truth to the world.
Draw arrows describing the sequence of God revealing his truth to the world.
Father
Spirit
Us
Son
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Who ends up benefitting from the Holy Spirit’s work in the Trinity?
....
Who ends up benefitting from the Holy Spirit’s work in the Trinity? We do. In the end the Spirit is sent so that the Disciples, and us, will know the truth about God through Jesus. This shows that God loves to give and to make known what he is like. But he is not selfish. Each member of the Trinity glorifies and gives to the others. Therefore the Spirit does not want us to look at him. Instead, he wants us to look at Jesus. This is so refreshing in a ‘me, me, me’ generation.
ASK STUDENTS TO READ THE TEXT FROM THE SPIRIT—GIVER OF LIFE ON PAGE 10
The Holy Spirit is like the floodlights at a large sporting event or the theatre. The point of the lights is OF THEIR STUDENT HANDBOOKS. so we can see the action in front of us. We aren’t to look around and watch the lights and say ‘Oh my, what
9. How is the Spirit like a floodlight at a game or a spotlight at a theatre from 1 John 4:2? dd The lights mean we can see the action, so keep looking at the action. Every time we look at Jesus, the a bright light’. If we do that the lights have failed in their mission, and we failed in our understanding. Holy Spirit is doing his work. If we talk about Jesus, we’re doing a Holy Spirit thing.
The Spirit acts like a light because he highlights who we should be focused on: Jesus. This is just like floodlights at a large sporting event where the bright lights highlight the field and direct spectators’ attention to the activity on the field.
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10. Is this a new idea for you? Do you agree?
THE SPIRIT p.21
Ask your students to bring a newborn baby photo (a photocopy will probably be best) to the next lesson. If this is not possible you may like to gather some celebrities’ baby and adult photos from the internet and display these instead for the beginning of Lesson 3.
EXTRAS •
Print out, or ask the students to look up, Mark 3:22–30. Ask them to discuss in pairs/groups: what mistake were the Pharisees making about Jesus? How did Jesus describe that mistake? What does that show us about the work of the Holy Spirit and Jesus? This passage can be often misunderstood as saying that some sins are unforgiveable, causing tremendous grief and worry. But it’s best read as saying that the only sin that is unforgiveable is one where you think that Jesus is from Satan, cutting off your only route to forgiveness from Jesus. It’s like thinking that a life raft is a bomb—you’re not going to be rescued that way.
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The class can try and come up with any jobs that are like the Spirit’s—constantly pointing to someone else. Perhaps a press secretary, or sports agent, or a lawyer, and discuss how these roles are similar and different from the Holy Spirit.
2. THE SPIRIT IS ABOUT JESUS WITH INTENSITY
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