This is the lesson prepared by Kenneth. Chapter 1 team, if you have improvements email it to me and I will post it. I am having exams this week but I will try to work on it later in the week if I don't get any emails.

Acts Chapter 1: Up the Jesus St!

Homework for leaders: I know some of us DON’t read this all so, make SURE YOU READ THIS. Before class make sure you make some kind of bookmark thingy for your students which says: Proud to be a Christian!

Hook: Get some paper and cut it up into smaller pieces so they are in little strips the size of playing cards. Have each student and leader write 5 things about themselves on that card, like I once ran 21km or something like that. The things should preferably be things that people will have a hard time linking back to you. Then, put the papers in a bag and randomly pick one paper each. Make sure no one gets the paper with their own name written on it. Oh yeah, make sure they wrote their name on the paper. Now, once they have the paper, they need to( without seeing the paper) put it up to their head like in Indian poker, and try to guess who it is that they are. To help them guess, they are allowed to ask a question about the person with a yes/no answer, or ask someone to read one of the 5 things that the person has written on the paper. ( If the things that are written are really obvious, spice it up a bit by changing the rules so that when the person reads one of the things, they can either a) throw in an extra word somewhere, b) take out a word or c) change one word in the sentence. Keep guessing til game over or times is up. Needless to say, first to guess wins.

Main Point: As Christians, we have a calling to do God’s work and we do not just blindly do it, but we do it because we Love God.

Theme Verse: Acts 1:8

Qns ( Actually ask them the questions, you can use the explanations given below to help or improvise)

Who are you?
If someone asks you to introduce yourself, what do you normally say? You might say, ‘ I am Larry....blah...blah, I like tennis, hate Japanese food etc...’, or even one of the 5 things that were just written in the game. Though we may not know it, these characteristics that we just spelt out define who we are; and more importantly how we view ourselves! I might even describe myself as a tall, brilliant handsome looking man with a penchant for blazers and suits and a shiny magnificent chin BUT I’m still talking about characteristics that I feel I have. So, the thing is, we all have some vague, maybe even specific idea about who we ARE as a person, BUT WHO ARE YOU as a Christian? Are you a Sunday Christian? A only saint-like-front-of-my-friends kinda Christian? A ‘when I’m happy’ Christian? Or are you a Real Christian? Here’s a Question, ask them this: What does it mean to be a Christian? What makes a Christian different? Oh and don’t give them the answer to this yet. Have them write it down on a paper, or tell you but don’t give them an answer. Let them sit on it.

Read Acts 1:1-11
Is there anything in particular in the passage that you find significant? What is it that God has commanded us to do?
Talk about the Great Commission and look at verse 8. Reference it to Matthew 28:18-20. We have been called by God to go and spread the good news to everyone!

What does it mean to receive power?
It means we are not alone and that God is with us! Immanuel! Acts 2:2-4. We are not alone in this great commission. Why is this important? What can man alone do? Nothing. We are nothing without the power of the Holy Spirit. You’ve heard of the phrase, ‘ Man proposes, Heaven Disposes.’ Well, it’s kinda like that. We can plan and try and do everything in our power but if God is not with us, we will still fail. But becoz we have God, we can fulfil His mission. Leaders, there’s a LOT more to milk out of this question and if you want to pls go ahead. Just watch your time. I’m just stopping here becoz it might get too lengthy otherwise. Oh yeah, say to them, and get them to say it to each other:’ God is with you!’.

Look at v11, what were the disciples doing? Are you like the disciples- still staring up into the sky? Or are you doing God’s work?
Read Acts 1:12-26
So , question: why should we care about the Great Commission?
Short answer is, if we don’t do it, we will be replaced, like Judas. Yeah, I know, bit of a mind-blower for them, hold it for now and flip to John 15:1-17. Pretty self explanatory, you can link it to the part about power earlier as well.

So, next question is: Isn’t that a little extreme? Why God like that one? I thought it was just enough to believe in Jesus? Stuff like that, though technically, THEY should be the ones asking the question.
OK, so let’s do a little logic mind-map here. What happens when we don’t care about God’s work? Ignore God’s work -> Bored-> Find some other stuff to do, preferably stuff that YOU like-> End up doing your ‘work’-> Forgot about God...hmm...can you still really call yourself a Christian? Still not convinced? Remember the last time your parents asked you to do something and you put off doing it til later....like much later....did you end up doing it? In the same way, if we keep putting off God’s work, we’ll forget about it totally. The Idle mind is the devil’s workshop. Any work you don’t do for God, is work you do for yourself.

Also, you gotta remember, why else are we doing God’s work? John 3:16. Jesus died for he our sins because He loved us, we do His work, partly to reciprocate that Love. John 15:13


Now, we go into what I like to call the waterfall metaphor: In life, we’re all like this poor sop who fell into the middle of a river that going full-speed toward a waterfall. A VERY BIG WATERFALL. Now, as life would have it, the sides of the river are too far away to swim to without being swept downstream, so the only thing you can do is swim straight...against the current. But lucky you! There’s a guy with a boat that’s anchored so it’s not being swept downstream and he’s just like say 100 m upstream. You just need to get to him to be saved. That guy with the boat? He’s Jesus. So anyway, the point I’m trying to say is, being a Christian, not always easy, it’s like swimming against the current, you don’t always get to do the things you think are fun, it’s sometimes a lot of hard work, BUT being a Christian is like being the guy in the river. You either keep swimming up towards God by constantly reaching out towards Him, or you get swept down the big, BIG waterfall.

So question...what are you going to do about it?
Make Prayer bookmark, kinda like a little simple bookmark that says stuff like: I prayed for you today, just like any other day, but Jesus loves you so, and I know; truth be told, so I made you a prayer anyway. And have them take this and pray for someone they know during the week and give that person this bookmark. If that person is a Christian ask them to challenge them to pass the bookmark on! P.S. make as many bookmarks as you want.
Leaders pray for them and erm well make them bookmarks b4 hand that say Proud to be a Christian!
What other things can we do?