Scripture & Questions for Sunday (7/28/13)

Scripture
Acts 3:1-10 (ESV)  

Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. [2] And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. [3] Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. [4] And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, "Look at us." [5] And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. [6] But Peter said, "I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!" [7] And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. [8] And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.  [9] And all the people saw him walking and praising God, [10] and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Questions

1. If a stranger were to ask you for a handout, what would you most likely do? Why?
2. Why did the crippled man spend every day at the gate called Beautiful? (3:2)
3. What did the beggar do when he saw Peter and John approaching? (3:3)
4. What did Peter say to the beggar? (3:4-6)
5. In what ways did the crippled man respond to Peter’s words? (3:5,7-8)
6. How did the people feel about what had happened to the crippled beggar? (3:9-10)
7. What specific attitudes toward the weak and needy need to change before God can effectively use a person to help them?
8. When have you witnessed God’s miraculous healing power at work?
9. How do you need to change so that God can work through you in a powerful way?

Scripture & Questions for Sunday (7/21/13)

Announcements:

1. We will have a cleanup/workday at the Cunningham house Saturday 8am to Noon. Please bring gloves and cleaning supplies.
2. Vacation Bible School starts Tuesday and we really need our youth to come and help. If you are available please let Laurie know. VBS runs Tuesday through Thursday 6-8.

Luke 10:25-37    

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"  [26] He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?"  [27] He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."  [28] And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live." [29] But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"  [30] Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.  [31] Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.  [32] So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.  [33] But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.  [34] He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.  [35] The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.'  [36] Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?"  [37] He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."  

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

1. What are the greatest inconveniences in your life?
2. When has someone gone out of his or her way to help you?
3. What do you think motivates most people to do good?
4. Why did the legal expert ask a question about eternal life? (10:25)
5. How did the legal expert summarize the demands of the Law? (10:27)
6. What did the legal expert want to do? (10:29)
7. What did the priest and the Levite do to help the man who was robbed and beaten? (10:31-32)
8. What was the Samaritan’s response to what he saw? (10:33-35)
9. What relationship did Jesus use to characterize the Samaritan’s behavior? (10:36)
10. What did Jesus command the expert to do in response to the parable? (10:37)
11. How effective is this parable in communicating love for one’s neighbor?
12. What natural inclinations make it easier for you to act like the priest and the Levite than like the Samaritan?
13. How does it feel when someone has mercy on you?
14. In what ways can we as individuals and as groups of Christians be more like the Samaritan?

Scripture & Questions for Sunday (7/14/13)

Blind Bartimaeus Receives His Sight - Mark 10:46-52

Topics:  Blindness, Faith, Healing, Miracles, Persistence, Prayer

Open It

*​1.​When has persistence paid off for you?

​2.​In what circumstances might it not be good to be persistent?

Explore It

​3.​Where did the events of this story take place? (10:46)

​4.​Where was the blind man sitting when Jesus passed by? (10:46)

​5.​What was significant about the way the blind man addressed Jesus? (10:47-48)

*​6.​Why did the people rebuke the blind man? (10:48)

*​7.​How did the blind man respond to the criticism from the crowd? (10:48)

​8.​What do the blind man’s actions tell you about his character and his attitude toward Jesus? (10:48)

*​9.​How did the crowds of people treat Bartimaeusafter they found out Jesus had called for him? (10:49)

​10.​How did Bartimaeus react when Jesus called him? (10:50)

​11.​How did Jesus help Bartimaeus? (10:51)

​12.​How did Bartimaeus respond to Jesus’ question? (10:51)

​13.​How did the blind man’s actions reveal to Jesus that he had faith? (10:52)

​14.​What did Bartimaeus do after Jesus had healed him? (10:52)

Get It

​15.​What do you think motivated the blind man to call out for Jesus?

​16.​Why do you think Jesus singled out Bartimaeus for healing among the many needy people He must have encountered along the way?

*​17.​When have you persistently prayed for one particular request? What happened?

​18.​What role does persistence play in prayer?

*​19.​What does it mean to be persistent in prayer?

​20.​What specifically can you learn from Bartimaeus’sexample?

​21.​What connection is there between a person’s faith and whether God answers their prayer?

​22.​What does this passage tell you about Jesus’ attitude toward hurting people?

​23.​How does Jesus’ actions in this account encourage you to get more involved in helping others?

Apply It

*​24.​What is one request that you will commit yourself to pray for regularly this week?

​25.​How is it possible for a Christian to increase his or her faith?

Scripture & Questions for Sunday (7/7/13)

Well, last week I sent out the lesson for Chapter 17 when I should have sent 16. So this week I am giving you lesson 16 but Sunday's sermon will be about Jeremiah.

Please Read: Chapter 16 The Beginning of the End, The Fall of Israel, 2 Kings 17-19, Isaiah 3, 6, 13-14, 49, 53

Timeless Truth: God deals with disobedience, but His compassion never ends.

For 209 years, the northern kingdom of Israel had endured one evil king after another.  Their failure to keep God’s covenant meant they would be expelled from the covenant.  They had been chosen to be a blessing to all other nations, but now they would be delivered over to those very nations.  

 

Shalmaneser, King of Assyria, set up a puppet government for the northern tribes of Israel and appointed Hoshea as king. Hoshea was as defiant of Shalmaneser as he was of God, the true King of Israel.  He stopped paying tribute and as a result, the Assyrian army destroyed the capital city of Samaria and captured Hoshea.  The king, along with many of his fellow Israelites, was deported by Shalmeneser’s successor, Sargon II.   By resettling them throughout Assyria, God was settling His own accounts.  Idolatry, disobedience and stubbornness provoked God’s anger, and led him to expel the northern kingdom from His land.  

 

Meanwhile, just to the south in the kingdom of Judah, godly King Hezekiah was nervously watching these world-shaking events on his northern border.  Hezekiah stands out from all of the other kings of Judah for his efforts to remove every vestige of idolatry in the land.  He rebelled against the new Assyrian king Sennacherib.  The Assyrians sent envoys, claiming that they wanted to negotiate a peaceful surrender with Hezekiah in Jerusalem.  Their reasoning was faultless: What other nation had been able to stand against the Assyrian might?  Had not God Himself commissioned them for this task?  Sennacherib’s commander appealed directly to the populace of Jerusalem, speaking to them in Hebrew. 

 

King Hezekiah trusted in the LORD and prayed for deliverance.  The prophet Isaiah promised that God would deliver them.  What faith it must have taken to trust the prophet’s prediction!  The angel of the LORD swept through the Assyrians army as they slept.  The next morning Sennacherib’s camp was littered with 185,000 dead Assyrian soldiers.  The army retreated, and Judah was saved. 

 

Isaiah had been called to be a prophet during the last year of King Uzziah’s life.  In a majestic vision of the LORD, he was commissioned to speak for God to turn the people of Judah away from sin and toward their God.  He warned that Judah was walking in her sister Israel’s footsteps, and therefore would reap similar judgment.  Unfortunately, he seldom found a listening audience.  

 

The threat of foreign exile failed to curb the widespread social injustice, moral decay and religious apostasy.  Judah’s pride would be her downfall; God loved His people too much to allow their sin to go unchecked.  And although He warned of judgment, He also promised a future restoration.  When Israel perceived herself as forsaken and forgotten, her compassionate God would fully restore her.  The whole world would know that the LORD is their Savior and Redeemer.  

 

What a comfort Isaiah’s prophecies must have been to the faithful remnant of Judah:  God’s Upper Story of redemption would triumph over the sin of His people.  Even the godliest of kings could not overcome the sin nature of mankind.  In his most memorable passage, Isaiah described a Suffering Servant, who took on was “pierced for our transgressions.”  Looking down from the Upper Story, we can see that this was a description of the true King, who would suffer for all mankind.

 

Questions:  Can you think of a time when you suffered an unjust punishment or consequence?  What about a time when you deserved a consequence for your actions but were “let off the hook”?

1. Why did God send the northern kingdom into captivity? (See 2 Kings. 17:7-17 for more details.)  Compare God’s actions against Israel to Moses’ warning in Deut. 28:45-50 and 30:1-5.  What do you discover? 
2. God frequently reminded Israel of examples of his faithfulness, such as their deliverance from Egypt (p.181).  What past experiences have you had that remind you of God’s faithfulness? (See Rom. 8:31)
3. How have you seen people respond when they receive just consequences for sinful actions? How should a Christian respond to the consequences of sin and the discipline of God?
4. King Sennacherib of Assyria sent his envoy to Jerusalem to persuade King Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem to surrender peacefully, claiming he came on the LORD’s orders (p. 183).  Isaiah’s message to Hezekiah said otherwise.  How do you evaluate people who claim to have a word from the LORD?  
5. What is King Hezekiah’s view of YHWH the God of Israel (p. 184)? What is the result of a correct understanding of God?
6. What about the vision of God in the temple made Isaiah realize that he was a sinner?  Compare Isaiah’s response with Peter in Luke 5:8 and John in Rev. 1:17.  What are the implications?
7. According to Isaiah’s prophecy (p. 186-187), what was the southern kingdom of Judah like?  What did he say that God would do as a result?
8. Isaiah’s prophecy predicted punishment and captivity for Judah as well as return and restoration. (p. 188,189) How did Zion (Jerusalem and Judah) react to this message? 
9. List the qualities of the Suffering Servant (pp. 189,190). (See Matt. 8:16-17, 26:63-67; 1 Pet. 2:22-25; Rom. 5:19; Lk. 22:37 for further insights.) What does this teach us about God’s Upper Story?

Scripture & Questions for Sunday (6/30/13)

Please read Chapter 17 The Kingdom's Fall   2 Kings 21, 23-25, 2 Chronicles 33, 36, Jeremiah 1-2, 4-5, 13, 21, Lamentations 1-3, 5, Ezekiel 1-2, 6-7, 36-37

Timeless Truth:    Listen and live.

Legacies are fragile things.  Hezekiah had been King of Judah for nearly three decades. His reforms were sweeping, his achievements notable, his accolades many.  He is listed among the few who “did was…right before the LORD His God.”  After his death, his son Manasseh ascended to the throne and unraveled his father’s spiritual heritage.  Manasseh’s reign marked a spiritual relapse from which the kingdom of Judah would not recover.  He made a mockery of Hezekiah’s faithful reign and did more evil than any of his predecessors. 

 

King Manasseh set up altars in the LORD’s temple where worshipping the stars accompanied worship of Jehovah.  He filled Jerusalem with the blood of innocents and turned his own heart and his people’s hearts away from God.  Manasseh was eventually captured by the Assyrian king and led off to Babylon in utter humiliation.  At last, he turned to the LORD who had compassion on him and eventually allowed him to return to Jerusalem.  God re-enters the story to give ultimate forgiveness even to the worst of kings. 

 

But God’s people would not return to Him.  They ignored the prophet’s warnings.  So God did what He said He would do—He sent foreign armies to raid Judah.  Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar laid three sieges against Judah and Jerusalem.  The first came against King Jehoiakim and the second against King Jehoiachin.  Nearly 10,000 Judeans were captured and taken away to Babylon.  The king, and the prophet, Ezekiel, were among their prisoners. 

 

Ezekiel’s visions are some of the most colorful in all ancient literature and foretold of Jerusalem’s certain doom.  God commissioned Ezekiel to speak truth to the exiles who disregarded their guilt, even when faced with such stern judgment.  He refused to give up.  He called Jeremiah to alert the adulterous people that they must own up to their reckless sin.  And God also sent word that the worst was yet to come.

 

Zedekiah was Judah’s last and most pitiful king.  His government was controlled by Babylon, and he and the people rejected God, broke His Law and defiled His temple.  The time for judgment had come, so God arranged the final battle: King Nebuchadnezzar vs. King Zedekiah.  The outcome was certain.  An 18-month blockade left Jerusalem’s inhabitants weakened by famine.  Zedekiah made a last ditch plea for help from the prophet Jeremiah, but no one much cared for Jeremiah’s response.  He reported that Jerusalem would not be saved, and he urged surrender as their only hope of survival.  Most regarded his claims as treasonous.  

 

In 586 BC, the Babylonian army broke through the walls of Jerusalem. They demolished the city, looted the temple and led the people away to Babylon.  Jeremiah was among the few who were left behind.  He grieved the loss of his beloved city and mourned the sin of God’s people.  He knew that Judah could have been saved, but even in his sorrow, this weeping prophet stood firm on the sure promises of God.  He trusted that He would have compassion on the remnant who remained in Jerusalem.  

 

It had been eight centuries since God delivered His people from slavery in Egypt.  Now they were exiles in Babylon. Hope vanished.  But God told Ezekiel that all was not lost.  He reminded His people that He would one day cleanse and restore them.  He assured their return to the homeland.  And He promised that He would be their God.   

 

To illustrate His point, God showed Ezekiel a valley of dry bones and asked, “Can these bones live?” When Ezekiel spoke God’s message to the bones, they came to life and stood like a vast army. This astonishing demonstration confirmed that even exile in Babylon would not hinder God’s great Upper Story, and portended a future resurrection for the faithful. Life would return to Israel’s dried up bones. God would make them a nation again. He would bring them back to their land. Only He could. 

 

Question: What is the most memorable destruction or disaster that you have seen firsthand?

1. List the evil things that King Manasseh did to arouse the anger of the LORD (p. 191-192). How did Judah compare to the pagan nations that the LORD had driven out of the Promised Land?  (See the final paragraph on p. 69 for insight.)
2. What are the “starry hosts” (p.191)?  What are the implications for astrology, horoscopes and other “harmless and fun” fortune tellers?  
3. Who is most culpable for the sins of Judah—the people or their king?  How can believers today avoid being led astray? 
4. What happened to King Manasseh? What do you think led him to change his ways?  
5. Review Isaiah’s prophecy made over one hundred years before Nebuchadnezzar’s attacks (p. 186-187).  Compare the Isaiah’s predictions with the events during the reigns of Kings Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. 
6. During the exile, God gave Ezekiel the mission of sharing his word with the Jews living in a foreign land.  How does the Christian mission today resemble this situation?
7. Jeremiah was still in Jerusalem after the first two sieges.  According to his prophecy (p. 197-199), what single condition must be met for God to forgive the city?  Are you as forgiving as God?  Why or why not?
8. Nebuchadnezzar’s final siege lasted eighteen months ending in 586 BC.  How did King Zedekiah regard the LORD?  What was God’s final word to him?
9. After the fall of Jerusalem, Jeremiah grieved for his beloved city (p. 201-203).  What did Jeremiah believe about the Upper Story of God?  What specifically can we apply to our own lives from Jeremiah’s lament and praise?
10. What did God promise He would do for Israel in spite of their great sin, their Babylonian exile and their stone hearts (p. 203)?  What does this teach you about God’s heart for His chosen nation?