Adult Bible Studies Fall 2020 Teacher: Encounter

By David N. Mosser

Fall Theme:
Encounter
This fall, our lessons support the theme of "Encounter." The writer of the student book lessons is Chuck Aaron; the teacher book writer is David Mosser.

So That You Can See
The lessons in this unit help us focus on salvation and what it means through example and explanation. We move from the conversion of Paul to a number of Paul's writings, where he speaks out of his thoughtful understanding of salvation through Christ and out of his personal experience of receiving Christ. We are challenged to consider our own salvation and how we can live faithfully into it.
Spiritual Practice - Mindfulness, Listening, Silence

Remember Who You Are
The lessons in this unit call us to consider who we are as children of God and followers of Christ. At the heart of who we are lies the important concept of covenant. The covenant that God made with Israel is a defining theological affirmation of the Old Testament. The covenant that God made with the church through Christ's blood is a defining theological affirmation of the New Testament. These lessons help us look more closely at those critical covenants and how they inform our thoughts, actions, and relationships.
Spiritual Practice - Confession

In This Place
The daily readings in this unit call us to think more deeply and specifically about worship by looking at places where, in the Scriptures, worship takes place. We will look at ad hoc altars, synagogues, the church, and worship at the throne of God. In each case, we will be challenged to evaluate our worship and broaden our understanding of where and how worship can happen.
Spiritual Practice -Worship

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Cokesbury
• Release date: Jul 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781501892769

David N. Mosser

David N. Mosser, senior pastor of First United Methodist Church in Arlington Texas, is an adjunct homiletics professor at Perkins School of Theology (SMU) in Dallas. He frequently teaches and preaches in numerous United Methodist churches.

Book preview

Editorial and Design Team

Jan Turrentine, Editor

Tonya Williams, Production Editor

Ken Strickland, Designer

Administrative Team

Rev. Brian K. Milford,

President and Publisher

Marjorie M. Pon, Associate Publisher and Editor, Church School Publications

ADULT BIBLE STUDIES TEACHER (ISSN 1059-9118). An official resource for The United Methodist Church approved by the General Board of Discipleship and published quarterly by Cokesbury, The United Methodist Publishing House, 2222 Rosa L. Parks Blvd., Nashville, Tennessee 37228. Copyright © 2020 by Cokesbury. Send address changes to ADULT BIBLE STUDIES TEACHER, 2222 Rosa L. Parks Blvd., Nashville, Tennessee 37228.

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Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from the Common English Bible, copyright 2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ are used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. Scriptures quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission (www.Lockman.org). Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 (Second edition, 1971) by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers. Scripture taken from the Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Meet the Writer

David Mosser

David Mosser is a minister at Salado United Methodist Church in Salado, Texas (Central Texas Conference). He was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, but grew up in Independence, Missouri. He moved to Texas for college and seminary in 1971 and earned his PhD in the academic discipline of rhetoric from the University of Texas. He also served a year-long theological teaching internship in Liberia, West Africa.

David’s active ministry includes writing Bible curriculum for adults and writing articles and book reviews for theological journals. He has taught homiletics at Perkins at Southern Methodist University for over a decade and is the chaplain for Texas Kairos prison ministry.

David has three children: Cassie, Robert, and David Jr.

To the Teacher

The Spiritual Practice of Simplicity

Saul/Paul

Paul’s Ministry and Writing Timeline

The Septuagint

Creeds and Affirmations of Faith

The Spiritual Practice of Communion

More Than a Contract

Jealous God

About Chapters and Verses

Jewish Feasts and Fasts

The Seder

The Spiritual Practice of Thankful Worship

The Promises to the Ancestors

Ebenezer

The Order of the Books of the New Testament

Demon

The Book of Revelation

Symbolic Numbers

Symbolic Colors

ENCOUNTER

To the Teacher

As this book was in its final production stages, life for many people in my area suddenly and drastically changed. Around 12:30 AM, on March 3, 2020, a tornado ripped through our city and others nearby, shredding everything in its wake. At least 25 people were killed, others later died from their injuries, and still others sustained multiple injuries but survived.

Many buildings were severely damaged or destroyed; but the Sunday following the tornado, people of faith gathered where their church buildings once stood. Church members and volunteers cleared a park next to East End United Methodist Church in Nashville so that congregants would have a safe area to worship in their sacred space. Before they left, raising smoothed pieces of glass from their sanctuary’s shattered Good Shepherd window toward the brilliant sun, they proclaimed, This Is a Day of New Beginnings, affirming their faith that God makes all things new.

Cleanup had barely begun, with recovery years away for many, before the world was virtually paralyzed by the novel coronavirus pandemic. People around the world began not only social distancing but, in many cases, confining themselves to their homes—some by government order and others wisely and voluntarily for the common good. Businesses, schools, and even churches had to close their buildings, but the church did not close.

The church did not stop being the church, and God’s people did not cease from worshiping. What many realized or reaffirmed in the aftermath of the tornado and during the global pandemic is that sacred space is not limited to the physical realm. Sacred space takes root in our hearts. Where we find God’s people, we find God, and we find sacred space. But like worshipers whose sanctuaries were damaged or destroyed by the tornado, we must clear away the debris and clutter in our inner sacred spaces to make room for the holy and the divine. Sacred spaces require regular tending.

The Bible lessons this quarter, written by Chuck Aaron and David Mosser, challenge us to create those sacred spaces for worship by first broadening and deepening our understanding of salvation and the God who freely gives it. They then guide us through biblical texts that help us recognize and remember who we are as those who have been redeemed and restored and live in the Spirit. They recall for us ancestors in the faith who encountered God in profound and powerful ways and constructed altars to worship. They remind us of the importance of worshiping together, and they paint a stunning picture for us of worship at God’s throne. Through it all, they remind us that the worship God desires issues from a pure heart.

So, come, let’s sing out loud to the LORD! Let’s raise a joyful shout to the rock of our salvation! . . .  The LORD is a great God, the great king over all other gods. . . . Come, let’s worship and bow down! Let’s kneel before the LORD, our maker! He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep in his hands (Psalm 95:1, 3, 6-7).

Jan Turrentine

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Unit 1: Introduction

So That You Can See

Our lessons during September explore the concept of salvation through example and explanation. Doctrinally, salvation chiefly means the saving of humankind from the power and effects of sin.

In Christian doctrine, theologians often use the word soteriology to express ideas about salvation. This word comes from two Greek words: sozein, meaning to save, and logos, meaning discourse, word, or reason. So soteriology means fundamentally the salvific work of Christ. Christology means the person of Christ. Consequently, taken together, Christology and soteriology signify who Jesus is for humankind and what Jesus does for us in the process of salvation.

Some believers suppose that salvation means getting one’s ticket punched to heaven. But the New Testament also addresses salvation as a condition that now exists within us. Another way to say this is that salvation is a state of being in which believers or Christians persevere.

Paul wrote, I want to call your attention to the good news that I preached to you, which you also received and in which you stand. You are being saved through it if you hold on to the message I preached to you, unless somehow you believed it for nothing (1 Corinthians 15:1-2). So we do not define salvation as simply offered to us in Jesus’ crucifixion and as a prior occurrence. We do not even simply consider it to be God offering salvation as a reward for some future going to heaven.

Rather, Paul wrote of salvation as happening today when he proposed, You are being saved (verse 2). Salvation occurs for people even now—today! Thus, we could say it is perfectly true that we can consider salvation as our living in faith, which includes past, present, and future.

Something else merits mention. Salvation is a theologically wide-ranging word, and we do the word a disservice when we diminish its fullness. Christians have also straightforwardly discounted salvation as some kind of sheer human/divine transaction. Still, New Testament terms for salvation are full-bodied.

The word soteria, a noun and another Greek word, relates to sozein and sozo, which come from the same Greek root. Depending on their context, these words can mean deliverance, safety, salvation, healing, preservation, or wholeness. Sozo is a verb often used for a meaning close to to cure, to make well; to rescue from danger; to cause something to change to an earlier, correct, or appropriate state; or to renew. In effect, some scholars recognize that salvation means health.

Each of the lessons in September speaks to the idea of salvation in one way or another. Lesson 1 presents Saul’s conversion, which we read about in Acts 9:1-20. Saul’s story challenges us to think of salvation as something more than having God simply free us from sin. It reminds us that God frees us for something. Thus, we could pose the question: Saved from or saved for?

In Saul’s case, God freed him for becoming a herald for Christ. The apostle Paul’s assignment reads: I have chosen [you] to carry my name before Gentiles, kings, and Israelites (Acts 9:15; apostle means one sent). Our first lesson then describes how God seized Paul and drew him into salvation from sin and for discipleship.

Lessons 2, 3, and 4 each address how Paul understood salvation. Paul wrote boldly about the gospel’s power, which comes from God. The gospel’s decisive blessing delivers the gift of salvation. The power of God can save all who have faith in God (Romans 1:16). Paul taught that God’s gospel holds the capacity to save Jews and Gentiles. Since the world divided itself into Jews or Gentiles, then God’s power can save all people. Paul’s theological argument was simply that God’s power governs all creation. God’s creation includes all human differences.

For Paul, God’s foundation of power is the reign of salvation. Moreover, those whom God saves live life in the Spirit, a theme we develop in Lesson 3.

Paul wrote in Romans 8 about the two paths that people travel in life: The attitude that comes from selfishness leads to death, but the attitude that comes from the Spirit leads to life and peace (verse 6). We might describe Romans 7 as a Christian account on life under the law, while we might similarly describe Romans 8 as life in the Spirit. In this schema, we see two paths. One path is the path of selfishness, such as we read in Romans 8:7: The attitude that comes from selfishness is hostile to God. We could also describe this as the path of the flesh or the path of destruction.

Likewise, the path of the Spirit is a path that leads to life, as Paul explained: People whose lives are based on the Spirit think about things that are related to the Spirit (Romans 8:5). Paul wrote about a transition between two epochs/eras of human history. The first period of time, or age, Paul represented by the task of the Law. Although Paul wrote that the Law is holy (Romans 7:12), he exposed the Law’s weakness: But sin seized the opportunity and used this commandment to produce all kinds of desires in me. Sin is dead without the Law (Romans 7:8).

Paul characterized the second period (epoch, era, or age) in human time by those who live life through the Spirit. God gives this Spirit for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). The second and ideal path is walking with God led by Jesus’ Spirit, faith, or the gospel. Second Corinthians 5:7 says that we live by faith and not by sight.

Finally, Lesson 4 speaks to the issue of faith, salvation, and righteousness. One more view with respect to righteousness holds that God sustains the divine-human connection by pure gift. In other places, Paul called this gift the law of the Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, or the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:2, 9; 9:1). Plainly, we see in other places that Paul used terms such as salvation or grace describing God crediting human beings with righteousness. We call this justification by faith since "the righteousness that comes from faith talks like this . . . the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (Romans 10:6-8).

Despite all this good news of the gospel, between the time people are children and when they reach the age of accountability, a change happens in us. We find it difficult to receive or to accept a gift we did not earn. A delightful thing about children is their pleasure in receiving gifts. They frequently ask, What did you bring me? Too often, adults have a difficult time receiving gifts they did not earn or feel they deserve. When trying to help others, I’ve often heard someone say, I don’t want anybody’s charity, as if a hand up is a form of insult.

We might say the same thing of salvation. Some people simply cannot accept the fact that God saves them with the gift of grace. Some see God making us righteous through the gift of Jesus’ crucifixion as a form of charity. Of course, it is a form of charity, because people cannot save themselves—only God can save us!

Fundamentally, God gives us our life as a gift in Christ. Our part of God’s giving is to accept our life and salvation as a gift in faith. What we do and how we contribute to God’s realm is our expression of gratitude. We do not earn salvation, nor are we justified by what we do. This is simply and clearly God’s doing for us. God offers salvation, and we are free to accept it as a gift. Our faith response demonstrates our seizure of so great a gift.

September 6 | Lesson 1

Seeing Jesus

Focal Passage

Acts 9:1-20

Background Text

Acts 9:1-20; 22:3-18; 26:9-18

Purpose

To let go of anger that blocks our spiritual growth and wrecks our relationships in the church

Acts 9:1-20

¹Meanwhile, Saul was still spewing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest, ²seeking letters to the synagogues in Damascus. If he found persons who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, these letters would authorize him to take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. ³During the journey, as he approached Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven encircled him. ⁴He fell to the ground and heard a voice asking him, Saul, Saul, why are you harassing me?

⁵Saul asked, Who are you, Lord?

I am Jesus, whom you are harassing, came the reply. ⁶Now get up and enter the city. You will be told what you must do.

⁷Those traveling with him stood there speechless; they heard the voice but saw no one. ⁸After they picked Saul up from the ground, he opened his eyes but he couldn’t see. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. ⁹For three days he was blind and neither ate nor drank anything.

¹⁰In Damascus there was a certain disciple named Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision, Ananias!

He answered, Yes, Lord.

¹¹The Lord instructed him, Go to Judas’ house on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying. ¹²In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias enter and put his hands on him to restore his sight.

¹³Ananias countered, Lord, I have heard many reports about this man. People say he has done horrible things to your holy people in Jerusalem. ¹⁴He’s here with authority from the chief priests to arrest everyone who calls on your name.

¹⁵The Lord replied, Go! This man is the agent I have chosen to carry my name before Gentiles, kings, and Israelites. ¹⁶I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.

¹⁷Ananias went to the house. He placed his hands on Saul and said, Brother Saul, the Lord sent me—Jesus, who appeared to you on the way as you were coming here. He sent me so that you could see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit. ¹⁸Instantly, flakes fell from Saul’s eyes and he could see again. He got up and was baptized. ¹⁹After eating, he regained his strength.

He stayed with the disciples in Damascus for several days. ²⁰Right away, he began to preach about Jesus in the synagogues. He is God’s Son, he declared.

Key Verse: Ananias . . . placed his hands on Saul and said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord sent me—Jesus, who appeared to you on the way as you were coming here. He sent me so that you could see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 9:17).

Connect

As a pastor, I deal with all kinds of people. In one of my churches, the man who took care of our church facility did a fine job and cared deeply about his work. However, he had what we might call anger issues.

For some reason, he lost his temper one evening—as he often did. Out of control, he smashed his hand through a wall and had to have a cast put on his hand. He could not work effectively with the cast for almost six weeks. Eventually and sadly, he lost his job.