This is The Living Word Bible Study which is a deep dive into the Bible readings set for Sunday, May 14, in the interdenominational reading scheme used widely by both churches and chapels.
Knowing God personally, and telling others
Psalm 66:8-20 — Praise God, who is known through His faithful love
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+66%3A8-20&version=NIV
John 14:15-21 — The promise of the Holy Spirit who makes God known
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14%3A15-21&version=NIV
Acts 17:22-31 — Athenians hear how God is personal and relatable
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+17%3A22-31&version=NIV
1 Peter 3:13-22 — Be ready to speak out why we revere Christ as Lord
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Peter+3%3A13-22&version=NIV
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Psalm 66:8-20 — Praise God, who is known through His faithful love
• The psalmist’s testimony to what God has done in his life
8-9 Praise our God, all peoples, let the sound of His praise be heard; He has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping.
“Preserved our lives” — praise, reflecting on God as the source of historic deliverances.
10 For You, God, tested us; You refined us like silver.
“Tested us” — God allows difficulties to refine faith, surfacing the dross of our lack of trust.
• For further study see Psalm 17:3, 26:2, Proverbs 17:3; Jeremiah 9:7.
11-12 You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs.You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but You brought us to a place of abundance.
“People ride over our heads” — submission to foreign rule.
13-14 I will come to Your temple with burnt offerings and fulfil my vows to You — vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble.
15 I will sacrifice fat animals to You and an offering of rams; I will offer bulls and goats.
16 Come and hear, all you who fear God; let me tell you what He has done for me.
“What He has done for me” — the psalmist’s focus is on God’s goodness, above the testing of vv.10-12.
17 I cried out to Him with my mouth; His praise was on my tongue.
Cried out to Him… His praise” — prayer and praise went together in the OT but see Phil. 4:6; 1 Tim. 2:1.
18-19 If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and has heard my prayer.
“Cherished sin” — or aimed for sin: selfish prayer does not get heaven’s attention. Sincerity of heart, not sinless perfection.
20 Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld His love from me!
Reflection
SUMMARY Looking back on the nation’s historic deliverances, the psalmist resolves to live in an attitude of praise and testimony to God.
APPLICATION Telling others what God has done gives Him glory and raises faith in us. With humility, it can be done without drawing attention to ourselves.
QUESTION How might we better integrate praise with prayer?
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John 14:15-21 — The promise of the Holy Spirit who makes God known
• Jesus promises He will be a continuing, living and enabling presence
15 “If you love Me, keep My commands.
“If you love Me” — the familiar language of the covenant, Deut. 5:10, 6:5-6, 10:12-13 but now with the enabling of the Holy Spirit, v.16.
16-17 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to help you and be with you forever — the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you.
“The Father… will give you” — first in a series of important passages about the Holy Spirit to be given. This makes v.15a joyful consequence, not a hard command.
“The Spirit of Truth” — the Holy Spirit “who leads into all truth”, or communicates the truth about God.
“You know Him” — Judaism viewed the Holy Spirit as an aspect of God; now Jesus presents Him as a distinct spiritual person.
• For further study, see John 14:26, 15:26, 16:7-15.
18-19 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see Me any more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live.
“I will not leave you” — like Moses’ parting words to Israel, Deut 31:6; see also Joshua 1:5.
“You will see Me” — both with resurrection in mind and in a different way, at Pentecost.
20 On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you.
“On that day you will realise” — this rounds off His reply to Philip who had asked, “Show us the Father”, John 14:8. Soon the indwelling He refers to would become a reality.
21 Whoever has My commands and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love them and show Myself to them.”
“Has My commands” — as in v.15, the “who loves Me” relationship is shown in living Jesus’ way.
Reflection
SUMMARY Jesus presents two teachings which are inter-related. Lives that reflect Jesus’ teaching are the evidence of knowing and loving Jesus, But how do we do it? The Advocate or Helper, names for the Holy Spirit, will be the enabling presence of Jesus in those who love the Lord.
APPLICATION We come to this teaching post-resurrection. Jesus is teaching the disciples what to expect; we live in the reality of a spiritual empowering to live for Jesus.
QUESTION What did Jesus teach as the priority commands and how does awareness of the Holy Spirit help us? (Matt. 22:36-40)
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Acts 17:22-31 — Athenians hear how God is personal and relatable
• Paul discovers an altar “to the unknown God” and explains how to know Him
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.
“People of Athens! I see…” — Paul, shows respect for his hearers in being familiar with current Stoic and Epicurean philosophies.
23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship — and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
“To an unknown God” — there were many such altars; centuries before, when sacrifices to all the known gods failed to avert a plague, a Cretan poet, Epimanedes, advised the Athenians to build altars to (any) unknown god.
“This is what I am going to proclaim” — Paul’s gospel starts where his hearers are.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.
“Does not live in temples” — a challenge to the Stoics’ diversity of deities.
25 And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything. Rather, He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.
“He Himself gives” — needing nothing from humans, God simply seeks relationship — and gives life.
26 From one man He made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.
“From one man” — Adam
27-28 God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us. ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’
“Your own poets” — Paul also quotes Greek poets in 1 Cor. 15:33 and Titus 1:12.
29-30 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone — an image made by human design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent.
“In the past God overlooked” — and stayed judgment, but now full revelation has come with Jesus it is time to turn to Him, Acts 2:38, 3:19-21; Luke 3:7-9.
31 For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”
“He has set a day” — Greeks had no concept of a coming day of judgment.
“The man He has appointed” — Jesus, the Son of Man, Daniel 7:13-14; Matthew 25:31-46.
“By raising Him from the dead” — Jesus’ resurrection and ascension to the place of authority sets Him apart from religious teachers.
Reflection
SUMMARY God is brought close to us by the Holy Spirit, changing Him from someone we know about, to One with whom we enjoy an intimate relationship.
APPLICATION In the opposite way to pagan deities, who needed to be served and appeased, the Living God delights in giving us, His children, spiritual life and everything that goes with it.
QUESTION Is worship commanded to satisfy God’s needs, or thanksgiving in our relationship in which He draws close to meet our needs?
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1 Peter 3:13-22 — Be ready to speak out why we revere Christ as Lord
• Baptism is a sign of coming to know God personally in spiritual rebirth
13-14 Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.”
“Eager to do good” — the pagan world generally respects those who are kind and caring — and if doing what is right does bring harm, God’s reward will be in it as well, Matt. 5:10-12, Romans 8:31.
15-16 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
“Revere Christ as Lord” — over and above Jesus Christ as Saviour. To be a disciple is to put yourself willingly under the master — and be able to “give an answer” humbly and biblically about why you have done so.
17-18 For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.
“Suffer for doing good” — not seeking situations which will bring suffering, but to be sure that if they do it is through having been faithful to God.
19-20a After being made alive, He went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits — to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.
“Proclamation to the imprisoned spirits — difficult verses, either Christ declaring His victory on the Cross to the fallen angels of Hades (supported by v.22); or Christ reaching through Noah to the disobedient unbelievers of that time.
20b-22 In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolises baptism that now saves you also — not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand — with angels, authorities and powers in submission to Him.
“Baptism… the pledge of a clear conscience” — the act cannot save; as Peter says, it is not about “the removal of dirt” but an outward sign of salvation and new life. While Christians disagree about the mode of water baptism, across denominations there has been agreement that water baptism is a sign of the inward reality of regeneration, received through grace by faith.
Reflection
SUMMARY Giving the reason for your assurance of belonging to God through Jesus is linked here to baptism, a public occasion when new believers do exactly this in sharing their story of becoming Christians.
APPLICATION Personal stories of faith are powerful and in recent years C of E churches have gained baptismal pools like their Pentecostal and Baptist family members down the road, to make more of baptism candidates telling others how they found Jesus.
QUESTION What other ways can we honour Christ by sharing the reason for our hope?
PRAYER Lord, I am so grateful I can know You through Jesus.
And I am so thankful for You giving us Your Holy Spirit so we are not left on our own trying to live this new life.
Praise You that I can share with others what You have done, and are doing in my life, through difficult times and good ones.
Thank You that knowing You makes all the difference in the twists of turns of life; give me opportunities to revere Christ and ‘give Him glory, through my story’. Amen.
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