BIG QUESTIONS

BI G Q UESTI ONS
to Vineyard Youth Curriculum
Hello, friends. What you hold in your hands is the product of lots of people, lots of
prayer, and lots of purpose. As youth leaders in the Vineyard movement, we believe
that the work we do with students will have much influence on what the movement
will look like over the next ten to twenty years.

We set out to design a curriculum that communicates and reinforces the biblical
and kingdom values of the Vineyard while inviting students to embrace the reality
that they are part of something bigger than themselves.

Understanding the diversity within the Vineyard movement, we purposefully designed

curriculum that can be utilized by groups of differing sizes led by either paid or volunteer
leaders in any geographical setting or location. Easy, right? We believe we accomplish this
by offering a buffet of activities that allow you—the in-the-trenches leader to choose what
works for you and your group. We’re pretty sure no one will use all of the material proposed,
but we’re confident some of it will be a good fit for your group.

This curriculum is written by youth leaders for youth leaders. If you would like to join the
team and contribute your voice to the conversation, we would love to hear from you.

You may not hear this enough, but thank you for what you do. It’s important, it’s needed,
and it’s laying the foundation for a new generation of leaders to continue the good
things God has already done in the Vineyard movement. Keep up the good work!

--Vineyard Youth
Why This Topic?
Part of our discipleship as followers of Jesus is growing in our ability to think about our faith. As
teens get older and go to college, they will face many challenging questions from a secular society.
How will they answer? In these talks, Patrick attempts to give teens an understanding of some of
the Big Questions they will face as they grow in their faith. We think these talks will produce great
conversations for you and your teens to address the questions they are probably wondering about,
but maybe haven’t asked yet.

Helpful Reminders For You, the Youth Leader

In working with this curriculum there are a few ideas we’d like to keep in front of you:

Plug in your stories wherever you can. These are bare bones here. You add the meat!

Experiential learning lasts. We’ve tried to make this as experiential as possible, rather than
just providing head knowledge. We encourage you the leader to try it out—take some risks!

Humor is key. It’s hard for us to artificially add this from a distance, but we encourage you
to find all chances you can to connect through humor.

Context matters. We don’t know what’s going on in your group right now, but you do. We
encourage you to pray and think about how this message applies to the new ones in your
group, the veterans, and the seekers. How does this tie into the message of
salvation through Jesus?

These Lessons Are on Video!

Go to [Link]/resources to view the video teaching for this series.
Each lesson is taught by Patrick Campbell, and you can follow along with the written version.
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IS THERE A GOD?

Discussing the existence of God is a huge task. With so much to contend with
in today’s society it can seem daunting to even present this topic. Before you
YOUTH begin preparing, I want to encourage you that the Holy Spirit is the one who
reveals the awe of God, and we as leaders are conduits. Take time in preparation

LEADER meditating on the following verse. Read it slowly, as often as you like, and
allow the words to wash over you.

SOUL CARE “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the
work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals
knowledge.” Psalm 19:1–2 (NASB)

INTRODUCTION The existence of God cannot be proved or disproved.

The Bible says that we must accept by faith the fact that God exists: “And without
faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must
believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” Hebrews
11:6 (NIV)

If God so desired, he could simply appear and prove to the whole world that he
exists. But if he did that, there would be no need for faith. John 20:29 says, “Then
Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those
who have not seen and yet have believed.’” (NIV)

To look at the existence of God, we must scale down the questions.

Is There an Argument for the Existence of God?

LESSON We must begin with the most basic abstract question: Why do we have something
rather than nothing at all? These are a few of the basic questions of existence: Why
are we here? Why is the earth here? Why is the universe here rather than nothing?

A theologian once said, “In one sense man does not ask the question about God,
his very existence raises the question about God.”
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We must consider four possible answers to why we have something rather than
nothing at all.

1. Reality is an illusion.
2. Reality is/was self-created.
3. Reality is self-existent (eternal).
4. Reality was created by something that is self-existent (eternal).

Which is more plausible? Let’s look at each of these in turn.

Reality Is an Illusion
· A number of Eastern religions believe this (Buddhism).
· Rene Descartes said, “I think, therefore I am.” In other words, I think,
therefore I am not an illusion.
· Illusions require something experiencing the illusion.
· You cannot doubt the existence of yourself without proving your
existence. It is a self-defeating argument.
· When I was in high school and began exploring Buddhism, the monks
I met were lovely people. They said that life was an illusion so I shouldn’t
be concerned with life. But I couldn’t get past the hurt of getting
dumped. And success and failure have emotions attached to them that
I couldn’t just not feel. For me, this eliminated the possibility of reality
being an illusion.

Reality Is Self-Created
In philosophy there are statements labeled as “analytically false” statements, which
means false by definition (i.e., the cat prepared my taxes; George Clooney was the
best Batman; the Falcons will win a Super Bowl).

The possibility of being self-created is one of those statements: something cannot

be prior to itself.
· If you created yourself, then you must have existed prior to you creating
yourself. In evolution they call this “spontaneous generation”—
something coming from nothing.
· David Hume (a famous 18th-century philosopher) said, “I never asserted
so absurd a proposition as that anything might arise without cause.”
· Since something cannot come from nothing, self-created is ruled out.
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DISCUSS Before we go to the final two, what do you think so far? Do you agree or disagree
that reality is neither an illusion nor self-created? Have you heard people suggest
that it was self-created?

Reality Is Eternal or Created by Something That Is Eternal

These are the two remaining choices.

· Jonathan Edwards (18th-century preacher) said, “Something exists,

nothing cannot create something. Therefore, a necessary and eternal
‘something’ exists.” (Smyth)

· The atheist’s paradox: The atheist that ridicules the believer in God for
believing in an eternal creator must embrace an eternal universe.

· Interesting question: Where does the evidence lead? Does it point to

matter before mind or mind before matter?

· All key scientific and philosophical evidence points away from an eternal
universe and toward an eternal creator.

· From a scientific standpoint, the universe had a beginning, and whatever

has a beginning is not eternal.

· Whatever has a beginning has a cause, and if the universe had a

beginning, it had a cause. A few pieces of evidence for this are the second
law of thermodynamics, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, and the radiation
echo of the Big Bang.
· Example of the Big Bang: Illustration with plastic bag and a
glass bottle. What I do is take a grocery bag, you will probably
want plastic and double up the bag. I then take a glass bottle
and place it in the bag. The bottle represents all the planets,
space, people, all of creation. I then smash the bag on the ground
(make sure students have moved far back from you, from time
to time glass may come out the bag) I then open the bag and I
may use a long pan and I ask did I create anything from just
smashing the glass? The answer is obviously "no." This
demonstrates that there has to be some form of intelligent
design to create all these things. Life is not by accident.
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· An effect must resemble its cause. No atheist can explain how

an impersonal, purposeless, meaningless, and amoral universe
accidentally created beings (us) who are full of personality and
obsessed with purpose, meaning, and morals. Philosopher
J.S. Mill (not Christian) said, “it is self-evident that only mind can
create mind.” (Houdman)

· The concept of an eternal universe is eliminated, which leaves

us with only one rational and reasonable conclusion: that an
eternal creator is the one responsible for reality as we know it.

· A logical set:
· Something exists.
· You do not get something from nothing.
· Therefore, a necessary and eternal “something” exists.
· The only two options are an eternal universe and
an eternal creator.
· Science and philosophy have disproved the eternal universe.
· Therefore, an eternal Creator exists.

· Lee Strobel, famous author and speaker who has researched evidence-
based claims to faith, said, “Essentially, I realized that to stay an atheist, I
would have to believe that nothing produces everything; non-life
produces life; randomness produces fine-tuning; chaos produces
information; unconsciousness produces consciousness; and non-
reason produces reason. Those leaps of faith were simply too big for me
to take, especially in light of the affirmative case for God’s existence…In
other words, in my assessment the Christian worldview accounted for the
totality of evidence much better than the atheistic worldview.” (Strobel)

· “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is
declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night
to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; Their
voice is not heard.” Psalm 19:1–3 (NASB)
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SMALL GROUP For the Leader:

Before you answer the small group questions, watch the YouTube video, “Pulse of the
QUESTIONS World on God.”

1. Tonight’s video notes that there has been an 11 percent decrease in the belief in
God over a 20-year period. What do you think contributes to this?

2. In the video did you identify with anyone’s expressed views? What was the view
and why do you feel a connection with it?

[Link] makes it easy to believe in God? What makes it hard to believe in God?

4. What role—if any—did God play in your family? How does your upbringing
impact your beliefs now?

5. What has convinced you that God either does or does not exist?

SOURCES
Houdmann, Michael, and J.S. Mill. “Questions About God's Existence.” Questions about
God: the 100 Most Frequently Asked Questions about God, WinePressPublishing, 2013, pp. 5–6.

Smyth, Egbert C. “Jonathan Edwards' Idealism. With Special Reference to the Essay
Of Being’ and to Writings Not in His Collected Works.” The American Journal of Theology, vol. 1,
no. 4, 1897, pp. 950–964. JSTOR, [Link]/stable/3153285. Accessed 6 Aug. 2020.

Strobel, Lee, and Jane Vogel. The Case for Christ: a Journalist's Personal Investigation
of the Evidence for Jesus. Zondervan, 2017.
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CAN WE TRUST THE BIBLE?

All of the topics in this series are challenging. It’s not up to you to prove anything

YOUTH
but rather to talk though the ideas, questions, and thoughts that we all wrestle
with. Remember that we depend on the Holy Spirit to guide these discussions. In
preparation, meditate on the following passages.
LEADER “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword,
SOUL CARE and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow,
and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12 (NASB)

"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” John 14:15 (NASB)

INTRODUCTION Last week we tackled whether there is an argument for the existence of God,
and we discovered that scientifically and philosophically we can argue for the
existence of God. This is where we began, and tonight we will look at the Bible.
How reliable is the Bible? Is all of it true? How do we know?

To begin we have to ask ourselves by what criteria we are judging the Bible. We
must use the same criteria by which we judge historical works. Reliability is a
question of truthfulness and accurate copying. Writings that are historically and
factually correct and that have been faithfully preserved over time would be
considered reliable.

Here’s what the Bible says about the Bible: “All Scripture is inspired by God and is
useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives.
It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it
to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16–17 (NLT)

Here’s what Americans believe about the Bible:

Eighty percent of Americans believe that the Bible is sacred literature; 43 percent
believe that the Bible is accurate (a 37 percent drop).
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LESSON Reliable and Inspired by God

Let’s look at the argument that the Bible is reliable and inspired by God and is
more reliable than any book in antiquity.

1. Archaeological Evidence
There are several instances of archaeological evidence supporting the details
found in the Bible. Here are a few examples:
· Archaeological findings in the 1920s confirmed the presence of cities
much like Ur, described in Genesis 11.
· Engravings discovered in an Egyptian tomb depict the installation of a
viceroy in a manner that exactly matches the biblical description of the
ceremony involving Joseph (Genesis 41:39–42). Skeptics doubted the
existence of the Hittites (Genesis 15:20; 23:10; 49:29), until a Hittite city,
complete with records, was found in Turkey.

· Tel Dan (“David”) Stela—the ninth-century B.C. inscription that furnished

the first historical evidence of King David outside the Bible.

2. Evidence Based on the Scribes

· The original manuscripts have not survived. We don’t have the actual
writings of Paul from his hand or the poetry of David in the Psalms. Like
most books, it has been copied and collected to form one work.
· To be a scribe in the ancient world was painstaking and meticulous work.
Consider their devotion to accurately copying the Old Testament:
· They counted the letters and words of each book they copied.
· They counted the number of times a letter was used in each
book.
· They counted the middle letter and middle word of each book.
· They numbered anything that could be counted. The number
system was a way of error checking.
· They had a reverence for what they wrote; if it was not accurate
or it was worn out from use, it was buried.
· The scribes believed that whatever had the sacred name of God
associated with it needed to be of the utmost quality.

· Because of this meticulous quality control, they were not concerned

with copies. Any manuscript carefully copied and checked would be
authentic regardless of its age.
· Oldest copy dated to 900 AD until 1947 when the Dead Sea
Scrolls were found.
· They had all of the Old Testament except for one book (Esther).
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· The Dead Sea Scrolls were 1,000 years older than the previously
known manuscripts.
· When compared with the newer manuscripts, they were
almost identical. Of the 5,600 Greek manuscripts of the New
Testament, there is an accuracy rate of 99.5 percent. Of the 0.5
percent textual variations, most are spelling or grammatical
differences. They’re so insignificant that they don’t alter the
message in any way.

· There are 10,000 Hebrew manuscript copies of the Old Testament and
5,600 Greek copies of the New Testament, and the accuracy is unrivaled.
· If we compared the literature of the ancient world, the Bible outweighs
them in quality and quantity.
· The Bible has the most copied manuscripts of the ancient world;
second behind the Bible is Homer’s Iliad with 643 copies.
· Plato only has 7 and Aristotle only has 40.

So far we have covered archaeological evidence and manuscripts. Have you

DISCUSS learned anything new, or have you had any new questions come up because of
what you’ve heard?

Unity of the Scriptures

A supporting line of evidence for the Bible’s divine origin and reliability is its unity
in diversity. Though composed by many people of diverse backgrounds over
many years, Scripture speaks from one mind.

If we set aside the account of Job (the oldest book of the Bible), the earliest book
of the Bible would have been written no later than 1400 BC and the latest before
AD 100. That is a 1,500-year difference!

There are 66 Books in the Bible and 17apocryphal/deuterocanonical books

(secondary canon). These books have perhaps 40 different authors of different
backgrounds, educational levels, and occupations. Most of the books are written
in Hebrew or Greek, with small portions of Aramaic.

The Bible covers hundreds of topics/genres in literature, including history, poetry,

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parable, allegory, apocalyptic, epic, and didactic literature. Yet they are all united
with one central theme: Jesus. These 66 books unfold one continuous drama of
redemption, paradise lost to paradise regained, and creation to the summation
of all things.
The central theme through this whole drama is the person of Jesus Christ. In the
Old Testament, Christ is anticipated, and in the New Testament, Christ is realized.

Such incredible unity is best accounted for by the evidence of a divine mind, which
the writers of Scripture claimed inspired them. This mind wove each of their pieces
into one mosaic of truth.

Think about the game of Telephone. Why is the original message rarely the
same at the end? Because someone changes it. The Bible remains the same from
beginning to end: It’s all about Jesus!

Evidence of the Authors Giving Their Lives

People will often flip on their loyalties if their lives are on the line and they don’t
believe in the cause. Many of the prophets were threatened and even killed but
never recanted the truth (Matthew 23:34–36; Hebrews 11: 32–38).
· Jeremiah was put in prison and threatened to with death.
· Peter and the other 11 apostles including Paul were imprisoned and
martyred (except John). John died in exile in the prison colony of Patmos.
· People will sometimes die for false causes they believe to be true, but
few die for what they know to be false.
· The biblical witnesses died for proclaiming that their message came
from God.
· All the people throughout time who have willingly put their lives on the
line for the word of God serves as additional evidence that the Bible is the
Word of God.

Final Thoughts

What points to the Bible’s reliability?

1. We have archeological evidence.
2. We have the steps and the lengths the scribes would go to in producing
and authentic work so much so that it is the most authentic book
in all antiquity.
3. A book that spans over 1,500 years with over 40 different authors yet
keeps the same conclusion points to unity.
4. We have the deep belief of those who willingly gave their lives for what
was written in it.

Evidence points to the Bible’s reliability, but evidence only takes me so far.
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Faith continues where evidence stops. And faith is something that we all must
acknowledge and grow in on our own.

SMALL GROUP 1. How would you describe your current connection with the Bible?

2. What part of the Bible do you have the most difficulty believing or
QUESTIONS sharing with others?

[Link] 4:12–13 says, “For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper
than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between
joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Nothing in all
creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes,
and he is the one to whom we are accountable.” (NLT) What do you think it mean
when the text describes the Bible as living or alive? How can a book be alive?
How, exactly, does the Bible detect our attitudes and thoughts?

4. What continuing questions or roadblocks get in the way of you being able to
trust what God says in the Bible?

5. If the Bible is truly the Word of God and can be trusted, what are we going to
do with it?
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WHO IS JESUS?

YOUTH This week in preparation meditate on who Jesus is to you. How did you come to
know Jesus? Dig in and reflect on your personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

LEADER
Meditate on the following passage in preparation.

"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” John
SOUL CARE 15:13 (NASB)

STARTER Have students close their eyes while you relate Matthew 16:13–16 as a first-person
narrative. Ask students to reflect on who Jesus is. Who do people say that I am?
Who do you say that I am?

LESSON Let’s start with 1 Corinthians 15:14–18:

“And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith
is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God--for we have said that
God raised Christ from the grave. But that can't be true if there is no resurrection
of the dead. And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been
raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still
guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost!” (NLT)

Our entire faith hinges on what we know and what we believe about Jesus.
Often you’ll hear people say they wish followers were more like Jesus. This is an
indictment to us who call ourselves Christ followers. So we need to know who this
Jesus was. In this lesson we will look at the historical Jesus and ask the question
Paul asked: Was he the Messiah?

The Image of Christ

Before we begin to dig into the historical evidence for the existence of Jesus, we
first must undo the image of Christ that is presented in the Western world. Every
image of Christ was made to represent the ruling majority. That is why Jesus,
especially in Europe but also in America, was represented with blonde hair, blue
eyes, and fair skin, with very European features.

The idea behind creating this image was to connect the majority with a “relatable”
version of God. The long-haired, bearded image of Jesus that emerged beginning
in the fourth century AD was influenced heavily by representations of Greek and
Roman gods, particularly the all-powerful Greek god Zeus. Jesus then began to be
represented in long robes.
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As the church grew in popularity and number, especially among government

leaders, an image was needed to galvanize people. The images of Christ were
made to look like the majority in order to unite people, but also to put under
subjection those who did not follow or were yet to convert.

The Bible is not clear on what Jesus looked like. According to the Gospels, Jesus
was a Jewish man born in Bethlehem and raised in the town of Nazareth, in Galilee
(formerly Palestine, now northern Israel) during the first century AD. We know
Jesus was about 30 years old when he began his ministry (Luke 3:23), but the Bible
tells us virtually nothing about what he looked like - except that he didn’t stand
out in any particular way. When Jesus was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane
before the crucifixion (Matthew 26:47–56), Judas Iscariot had to point Jesus out to
his soldiers among the disciples - presumably because they all appeared similar
to one another.

The Bible warns us not to make any images to be worshipped: "You must not make
for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the
earth or in the sea” (Exodus 20:4, NLT). Why is that? We are to worship God not the
images of God.

Who Was the Historical Jesus?

As we discussed last week, the New Testament (and its 5,600 manuscripts) is a
reliable record of the events of Jesus. If the New Testament is unreliable, we have
no hope for any reliable knowledge of Christ. However, there are also non-Christian
sources that support the existence of Christ. Many of them were contemporaries
of Jesus, and some lived soon after him.

Read this from Tacitus, a first-century Roman historian who was known as one of
the most accurate historians of the ancient world:

Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted
the exquisite tortures of a class hated for their abominations, called
Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin,
suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of
one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous
superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only
in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things
hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their center and
become popular. (Tacitus, 15.44)

Note the references to Christians named after Christus (Latin for Christ), and the
discussion of Christus suffering extreme penalty under Pontius Pilate during the
reign of Tiberius (reigned from 14 AD–37 AD). Luke 3:1 (NLT) says, “It was now
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the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, the Roman emperor. Pontius Pilate was
governor over Judea; Herod Antipas was ruler over Galilee; his brother Philip was
ruler over Iturea and Traconitis; Lysanias was ruler over Abilene.” The “superstition”
that made its way to Rome was most likely the resurrection of Jesus.

We also have evidence from Josephus, a Jewish revolutionary who changed his
allegiance to the Romans in the Jewish revolts. He did not believe Jesus was the
Messiah. Josephus became a historian and wrote the Antiquities of the Jews (early
90s AD), and refers to James, “The brother of Jesus, who was called Christ.” This
confirms the New Testament facts that there was a man named Jesus who was
known as “Christ” and had a brother named James.

Josephus said, “Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful
to call him a man. For he was one who wrought surprising feats… He was [the]
Christ…He appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets
had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him.”
(Josephus)

Around 52 AD Thallus wrote about the “strange” events after the crucifixion: “On
the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by
an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down.
An eclipse of the sun.”

This correlates with Luke 23:44–45: “By this time it was about noon, and darkness
fell across the whole land until three o'clock. The light from the sun was gone. And
suddenly, the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn down the middle.”
(NLT)

There is also evidence of Jesus' existence from political figures such as Trajan and
Hadrian, other Jewish sources other than the Old Testament, Gnostic sources, and
Gentile sources that support the existence of Jesus. With the New Testament and
other sources we have enough to say yes, Jesus existed, but the question that
remains is this: Is Jesus the Messiah?

DISCUSS What do you think of what you’ve heard so far? Does anything you’ve heard
challenge what you’ve thought beforehand about Jesus? Does anything
encourage you in your faith?
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Jesus Messiah
The term Messiah is uniquely Jewish. Messiah means the promised deliverer of the
Jewish nation prophesied in the Hebrew Bible. It also means deliverer or chosen
one. Therefore, in order to provide evidence we must use the Old Testament. We
must look at the prophecies of the Old Testament and their fulfillment in the New
Testament. Here are a few key prophecies about Jesus:
· Born of woman:
· And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between
your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will
strike his heel." Genesis 3:15 (NLT)
· But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman,
subject to the law. Galatians 4:4 (NLT)
· The seed of Abraham
·"In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,
because you have obeyed My voice." Genesis 22:18 (NASB)
· “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of
David, the son of Abraham” Matthew 1:1 (NASB)
· “God gave the promises to Abraham and his child. And notice
that the Scripture doesn't say ‘to his children,’ as if it meant many
descendants. Rather, it says ‘to his child’— and that, of course,
means Christ.” Galatians 3:16 (NLT)
· A descendent of David
· About God’s covenant with David: "When your days are
complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up
your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I
will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name,
and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”
2 Samuel 7:12–13 (NASB)
·"Behold, [the] days are coming," declares the LORD, "When I will
raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king
and act wisely And do justice and righteousness in the land.”
Jeremiah 23:5 (NASB)

“The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of

David, the son of Abraham:” Matthew 1:1 (NASB)
· Worker of miracles
· “Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble. Say to
those with anxious heart, ‘Take courage, fear not. Behold, your
God will come [with] vengeance; The recompense of God will
come, But He will save you.’ Then the eyes of the blind will be
opened And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the
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lame will leap like a deer, And the tongue of the mute will shout
for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness And streams
in the Arabah.” Isaiah 35:3–6 (NASB)
· “Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in
their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom,
and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.
Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they
were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”
Matthew 9:35–36 (NASB)
· Let’s take a closer at miracles. Remember we are using the Bible
to provide evidence that Jesus is the Messiah. Miracles were
used to distinguish a true prophet from a false prophet. When
Moses was called by God, he was given miracles to prove he
spoke for God (Exodus 4). Elijah on Mt. Carmel called fire from
heaven (1 Kings 18). Nicodemus acknowledges this about the
miracle-working power of Jesus in John 3:2 (NLT): ”Rabbi,” he
said, "we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your
miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you."

Conclusion
I believe the evidence points to the divinity of Jesus and to Jesus as the Messiah.
We see that not only do we have historical evidence, both biblical and extra-
biblical, for the existence of Jesus but also the prophecies of the Old Testament
of his messiahship being fulfilled in the New Testament. We know that the New
Testament is the most reliable source of information in antiquity. And yet many
will still wonder. Many will doubt.

God wants to engage our hearts as well as our minds, but when we neglect one
area over the other, we will never have a full picture of who God is and all he wants
to reveal of himself to us today. We can never be the witnesses of the Gospel until
we know why we believe what we believe. Until we really begin to spend time with
God, study God’s word, and pray, we will continue to be afraid to profess our faith
and shrink back and wait for the promise of heaven in the form of death, which
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SMALL GROUP 1. In your opinion who are the most relevant historical figures that walked this
earth? Why?

QUESTIONS 2. Does it matter whether Jesus actually lived, as long as his teaching is carried
out? Why or why not?

3. Do you think Jesus was a God in the form of man or just a good man with good
teaching?

4. What words or actions of Jesus are currently impacting your life? Why do you
think those words or actions are impacting you?

5. Jesus seems to be a very polarizing figure in history. Why do you suppose

that is?

SOURCES
Josephus, Flavius. The Antiquities of the Jews. First Rate Publishers, 2015.
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THE HOLY SPIRIT

YOUTH This week in preparation, meditate on who the Holy Spirit is to you and the work
that the Holy Spirit is doing in your life. Spend some time with the following

LEADER
passage.

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God,
SOUL CARE so that we may know the things freely given to us by God.” 1 Corinthians 2:12
(NASB)

INTRODUCTION In this part of our study we will look at the Holy Spirit. Everything we have looked
at we can reason is true. There is an argument for the existence of God. We reason
that the Bible is true. We can look at Jesus and know that he existed and if the Bible
is a reliable document, then that would support Jesus. But the Holy Spirit ties all
our reason together and creates faith within us.

Without the Holy Spirit all of this is just head knowledge that does not transform
us, making it almost worthless. The Holy Spirit is critical to our faith. Some question
or suggest that the Holy Spirit may simply be an impersonal force of some kind, a
source of power controlled by God but not fully a person himself. Others suggest
that perhaps the Holy Spirit is just another name for Jesus, in spirit form, apart
from his body. This week we are going to look at who the Holy Spirit is, what his
purpose is, and what role the Holy Spirit plays in apologetics.

LESSON Who Is the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is God (that is the short answer). He is the third member of the
Godhead or Trinity. He has emotions and a will. He has his own “office” or role.
However, he does not operate apart from the Father and the Son but rather in
conjunction.

Genesis 1:2 (ESV) says, “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was
over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the
waters.” And verse 3 says, “And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.”
Notice the change in the two verses. Verse 2 says the Spirit of God is hovering over
the waters, and in verse 3 God is declaring light. One could argue if they were one
and the same, then the same language could be used. However, this signifies a
difference between the two. God is one entity and the Spirit of God is another.
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As Genesis 1 recounts the story of creation, it speaks of God creating and then in
verse 26 the language undergoes a small but important change: “Then God said,
‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion
over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock
and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
(ESV) This is the first use of a plural word showing that there was more than one
at the creation. We saw previously that the Spirit of God was present and so was
God. This I believe illustrates that the Spirit of God is a separate office/entity but is
also God and works in conjunction with God. Psalm 33:6 says, “By the word of the
LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.” (ESV)

The Holy Spirit has emotions. Paul warns in Ephesians 4:30, “And do not grieve the
Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (ESV) The
word grieve, which in the Greek is lypeo, means to make sorrowful or to affect with
sadness, or offend. This illustrates that the Holy Spirit is separate and has his own
emotions because Paul makes sure to say the Holy Spirit of God and not God or
Lord. This doesn’t mean that we can offend the Holy Spirit and not God the Father
and God the Son but rather that the Holy Spirit also has emotions and that he is
to be recognized individually as well as in union. It is the great mystery of the Holy
Trinity.

The Holy Spirit has a will. In Matthew 12:32 Jesus said, “And whoever speaks a
word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the
Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” (ESV) Here
Jesus shows the individuality between himself and the Spirit of God and their will.
We may not fully understand how this works, but this verse shows that they are
two distinct persons of the Trinity.

What Is the Purpose of the Holy Spirit?

I believe we can answer both this question and the question of the Holy Spirit in
apologetics here. First, we understand that the Holy Spirit is a helper in conversion
and regeneration. Here’s what John 16:7–11 says: “Nevertheless, I tell you the
truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will
not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will
convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning
sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to
the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler
of this world is judged.” (ESV)
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Jesus has to leave, and here is where the mystery of the Holy Trinity, can
make sense. God the father sits on the throne. Jesus the Messiah, Son of
God, sits at the right hand of the Father but intercedes for us on our behalf
with the Father. Jesus said in Matthew 28:20 “And behold, I am with you
always, to the end of the age." (ESV)

That leads to the question of how Jesus can be with us and with the
Father. The answer is through the Holy Spirit. This is what we mean when
we say and believe that God is with us. The Holy Spirit is God and although
they occupy three different offices/roles, they operate as one.

So What Does the Holy Spirit Do?

1. The Holy Spirit is the Helper that plays the pivotal role in conversion, which is
our individual turn to God. He reveals and convicts of sin. Do you ever feel badly
when you’ve done something you know you shouldn’t have done? That is the
Holy Spirit convicting your heart. He also reveals righteousness, meaning he will
lead us to what is right. You may sense this when you know something is wrong
but everyone is doing it—yet deep inside you just don’t feel right. He also reveals
judgment—in particular that the ruler of the world (Satan) stands judged but that
we are not judged as God’s followers. There is no judgment for those who are in
Christ, only conviction.

2. The Holy Spirit is the Helper that plays the pivotal role in regeneration, which
is the miraculous transformation and implantation of spiritual energy. John 3:5–6
says, “Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the
Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh,
and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.’” (ESV)
Jesus made it very clear to Nicodemus that regeneration, being born again, is
essential to being received by God. It cannot be done through human means
(that which born of the flesh is flesh). In other words, it cannot be re-created. It is
uniquely from God and is different for every believer. In John 3:8, Jesus described
the work of the Spirit this way: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its
sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with
everyone who is born of the Spirit." (ESV )
20

Each of us, through the work of the Holy Spirit, is being transformed for God’s
glory. The more I yield to the work of the Holy Spirit, the more I’m transformed. The
less I yield, the less I’m transformed. This is why Christian maturity is not always
based on age.

3. The Holy Spirit empowers. John 14:12 says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever
believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will
he do, because I am going to the Father.” (ESV)

Can you imagine what the disciples thought about this declaration that they
would do greater things than Jesus did in his earthly ministry? They had to be
aware of their own weaknesses and shortcomings and yet Jesus said they would
do greater. Jesus told the disciples to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts
1:4–5). He explained that the power to do greater will come from the Spirit (v.8).

Shortly after this Peter preached and three thousand believed. As far as we know,
Jesus didn’t gather that many converts in his ministry. And of course, it was through
the power of the Holy Spirit that the apostles went and boldly proclaimed the
Gospel even to the point of death. Many others throughout church history did the
same. The Holy Spirit is the one who emboldens you when you stand confidently
against evil, even if you have to stand alone.

4. The Holy Spirit dwells within us. 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, “Or do you not know
that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?
You are not your own.” (ESV) The Holy Spirit is able to affect us more profoundly
because he dwells within us and can get to the very center of our emotions and
our thinking.

5. The Spirit can lead to all truth. John 16:13–14 says, “When the Spirit of truth
comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority,
but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are
to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
(ESV) This is where the study of apologetics and the Holy Spirit meet. God does
want to deal with our heads and our hearts.

Knowledge of God should lead to transformation, not just information. Information

is useless if you can’t apply it. Reasoning helps to prove but the Holy Spirit leads us
21

to live with faith. There are some things that cannot be proven with reason alone.
Where reason fails, faith stands.

SMALL GROUP For this lesson, it is important to take time to invite the presence of the Holy Spirit
into the conversation and your time together. This is especially important if you
have students who have had little experience with the Holy Spirit.
QUESTIONS 1. Share experiences you’ve had with the Holy Spirit. (For the leader: If no one has
any to share, then share your own.)

2. Share something that confuses you about the Holy Spirit.

3. Do you believe the Holy Spirit is necessary to be a follower of Jesus, living a

Christian life? If not, why do you feel that way? If yes, can you share some specific
ways he helps you?

MINISTRY TIME Take some time to do a moment of imaginative contemplation. Choose one of
these passages to read aloud slowly, and with emphasis: Acts 2:1–4, Isaiah 6:1–
7, or Ezekiel 37:1–10. (I advise using three different translations for the readings
preferably (Amplified, NASB, and the Message) but it’s entirely up to you. Simply
keep the students in mind as you choose.

1. Have students close their eyes and picture the passage as you read it.

2. Encourage them to pay close attention to detail: the sights, smells, sounds, and
feelings.

3. Have them pay close attention to where they are in the scene.

4. When you finish, ask the following questions: Where were you in the scene?
What words or phrases stood out to you? What feelings or impressions did you
have?
WELCOME TO VINEYARD YOUTH CURRICULUM
Hello friends. What you hold in your hands is the product of lots of people, lots of prayer, and
lots of purpose. The Vineyard movement is at a crucial place, and we believe that the work we
do with students will have much influence on what the movement will look like over the next
10-20 years. We set out to design a curriculum that communicates and reinforces the biblical
and kingdom values of the Vineyard while inviting students to embrace the reality that they
are part of something bigger than themselves.

Understanding the diversity within the Vineyard movement, we purposefully designed

curriculum that can be utilized by groups of differing sizes led by either paid or volunteer
leaders in any geographical setting or location. Easy, right? We believe we accomplish this by
offering a buffet of activities that allow you – the in-the-trenches leader – to choose what works
for you and your group. We’re pretty sure no one will use all of the material proposed, but we’re
confident some of it will be a good fit for your group.

Each lesson includes:

· Experiential, hands-on activities that reflect a variety of learning styles.
· Large group questions to frame a conversation (I.E., not a lecture).
· Application suggestions to reveal and experience the kingdom of God.
· Small group questions each week.
· A devotional for the leader to help them grow in this area.
· Planned activities to help students hear God for themselves.

Why This Topic?

Part of our discipleship as followers of Jesus is growing in our ability to think about our faith. As
teens get older and go to college, they will face many challenging questions from a secular
society. How will they answer? In these talks, Patrick attempts to give teens an understanding of
some of the Big Questions they will face as they grow in their faith. We think these talks will
produce great conversations for you and your teens to address the questions they are
probably wondering about, but maybe haven’t asked yet.

About the Author

Patrick Campbell
Patrick Campbell is originally from Chicago, IL and currently lives in Kennesaw, GA where he
currently serves as Student Pastor at Cobb Vineyard. Patrick is also an itinerant speaker and
World Cultures teacher at Whitefield Academy. Patrick's enthusiasm for teaching the word of
God and desiring to see others transformed by it, is evident by his delivery of the message of
the gospel. He is happily married to Nisha, his wife of 17 years and has two children PJ (15) and
daughter Jordan (13).