May 15, 2016 – Teachings from the Rock – Rebuking or Redeeming

 

Rebuking or Redeeming

Ruth 4:1-10 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ “Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down there just as the guardian-redeemer he had mentioned came along. Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down.

² Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, “Sit here,” and they did so. ³ Then he said to the guardian-redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelek. ⁴ I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.”

“I will redeem it,” he said.

⁵ Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”

⁶ At this, the guardian-redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.”

⁷ (Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.)

⁸ So the guardian-redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself.” And he removed his sandal.

⁹ Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon. ¹⁰ I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his hometown. Today you are witnesses!”

Who did Boaz invite to “sit down” at the town gate (verse 1)?

Who else did Boaz ask to sit at the town gate (verse 2)?

In your opinion, why did Boaz begin by saying that Naomi was selling the “piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelek” (verse 3)?

Does the guardian-redeemer say that he will redeem the property (verse 4)?

What would the guardian-redeemer also acquire when he buys the land (verse 5)?

Why did the guardian-redeemer then tell Boaz “You redeem it yourself.  I cannot do it.” (verse 6)?

How were transactions legalized in Israel in earlier times (verse 7)?

What did the guardian-redeemer do (verse 8)?

Who is Boaz buying “all the property of Elimelek, Kilion, and Mahlon” from (verse 9)?

Why did Boaz also acquire “Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow” (verse 10)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

Matthew 16:21-27 - New International Version (NIV)

²¹ “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

²² Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

²³ Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ²⁵ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. ²⁶ What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? ²⁷ For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.”

Who had to “go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law” (verse 21)?

What was going to happen on the third day after He was killed (verse 21)?

Who began to rebuke Jesus (verse 22)?

In your opinion, why did Jesus call Peter “Satan” (verse 23)?

Why was Peter a “stumbling block” to Jesus (verse 23)?

Who must “deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (verse 24)?

What will happen to those who want to “save their life” (verse 25)?

In your opinion, why will whoever loses their life for Jesus “find it” (verse 25)?

How would you answer the question “what good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul” (verse 26)?

How will the “Son of Man” come (verse 27)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how do Boaz and the guardian-redeemer in Ruth 4:1-10 illustrate the difference between the “concerns of God” and the “merely human concerns” that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 16:21-27?

Romans 5:1-11 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. ³ Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

⁶ You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

⁹ Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! ¹⁰ For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! ¹¹ Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

What do those who are “justified through faith” have with God through Jesus Christ (verse 1)?

How do we gain access to the “grace in which we now stand” (verse 2)?

What do we do glory in (verse 3)?

In your opinion, how does suffering produce perseverance, and perseverance produce character, and character produce hope (verses 3 and 4)?

What was “poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (verse 5)?

When did Christ die for the ungodly (verse 6)?

How often will someone “die for a righteous person” (verse 7)?

When did Christ die for us (verse 8)?

How have we been justified (verse 9)?

How are we saved (verse 10)?

Who do we boast in (verse 11)?

What have we received “through our Lord Jesus Christ” (verse 11)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does Romans 5:1-11 show us about the “concerns of God” that Jesus told Peter he did not have in mind in Matthew 16:21-27?

In your opinion, how does the guardian-redeemer in his refusal to redeem the property and the widow Ruth in Ruth 4:1-10 provide an example of Paul’s statement “very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die” in Romans 5:1-11?

1 Peter 1:17-25 – New International Version (NIV)

¹⁷ “Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. ¹⁸ For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. ²⁰ He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. ²¹ Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

²² Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. ²³ For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. ²⁴ For,

“All people are like grass,
    and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
²⁵     but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

And this is the word that was preached to you.”

How does the Father that we call on judge each person’s work (verse 17)?

In your opinion, why does Peter say that we should live out our time here as foreigners (verse 17)?

What were we redeemed from (verse 18)?

What redeemed us (verse 19)?

When was Christ chosen to redeem us (verse 20)?

How do we believe in God (verse 21)?

What are our “faith and hope” in (verse 21)?

In your opinion, why does Peter say that purifying ourselves by obeying the truth causes us to have a sincere love for each other (verse 22)?

What kind of seed are we born again through (verse 23)?

How are all people like grass (verse 24)?

What endures forever (verse 25)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how does Paul in Romans 5:1-11 help us to better understand how to live out our “time as foreigners here in reverent fear” as instructed by Peter in 1 Peter 1:17-25?

In your opinion, what does 1 Peter 1:17-25 show us that Peter, who rebuked Jesus in Matthew 16:21-27 for saying that He would be “killed and on the third day be raised to life” has learned about the mind of God and what God wanted to happen?

In your opinion, how is Boaz’s redemption of Ruth in Ruth 4:1-10 similar to Jesus redemption of people from the “empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors” that Peter describes in 1 Peter 1:17-25?

In your opinion, what do these passages, from Ruth, Matthew, Romans and 1 Peter show us about ourselves today?

Next, back to Peter 2:1 – (sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)