My Witnesses – Teaching Plan
Key Thought: Jesus commanded His followers to bear witness to His saving message. He also provides the Holy Spirit to accomplish our work.
1. Have a volunteer read Acts 1: 6-8.
a. Ask class members to share a thought on what the most important point in this text is.
b. Why did Jesus tell the disciples that it wasn’t for them to know the time and seasons of certain events to take place?
c. Personal Application : In what ways and how much are you involved in being a witness for Christ in preparing people for His kingdom? Share your thoughts.
d. Case Study : One of your relatives states: “I believed Jesus was coming in 1988, forty years after Israel became a nation again. One generation after the restoration of Jerusalem to the Jews. But it didn’t happen. Now I don’t know what to think.” How would you respond to your relative? Why is speculating about time so interesting and yet so dangerous?
2. Have a volunteer read Acts 1: 9-11.
a. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the most important point is in this passage.
b. What is the significance of the two men in white apparel that spoke to the disciples?
c. Personal Application: How do you keep the anticipation and excitement of Jesus’ return alive after so many years have passed since the promise of His return was made? Share your thoughts.
d. Case Study : One of your friends states, “Jesus is coming back as a thief. It will be secret. People will be raptured while others will be looking around wondering what happened. But God will give those people a second chance under the dispensation of law. They will have to keep the law, including the Sabbath and they need to be nice and helpful to the Jews to earn their salvation because the dispensation of grace is over.” How would you reply to your friend?
3. Have a volunteer read Acts 1: 12-14
a. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
b. What does it mean that these people continued with one accord in prayer and supplication?
c. Personal Application: How intense and unified with the church are your prayers and supplications? How can we revive our prayer lives? Share your thoughts
d. Case Study: One of your neighbors states, “Prayer is a waste of breath and time. God is going to do what He wants to anyway. People pray for selfish reasons and material things. They live foolishly and then pray for healing and health. Why would God answer such prayers? Even if we pray for someone else, we expect God to reach them, but we don’t do or say anything to help reach them.” How would you respond to your neighbor?
4. Have a volunteer read Acts 1: 23-26.
a. Ask class members to share a short thought on what the main idea of this text is.
b. When choosing leadership, why is it important to earnestly pray and ask God for guidance?
c. Personal Application: When the church votes on certain issues, or to put people into positions; does the Holy Spirit always impress believers to vote the correct way? Share your thoughts.
d. Case Study : Think of one person who needs to hear a message from this week’s lesson. Tell the class what you plan to do this week to share with them.
(Truth that is not lived, that is not imparted, loses its life-giving power, its healing virtue. Its blessings can be retained only as it is shared. Ministry of Healing, p. 148).
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