November 26, 2017 – Moses and Jesus and Us – Philosophy and Worship

-            The

Philosophy and Worship

Exodus 12:31-39 - New International Version (NIV)

³¹ During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested. ³² Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.”

³³ The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. “For otherwise,” they said, “we will all die!” ³⁴ So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing. ³⁵ The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. ³⁶ The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.

³⁷ The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. ³⁸ Many other people went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds. ³⁹ With the dough the Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.

Who tells Moses to leave and “worship the Lord as you have requested” (verse 31)?

What are the Israelites to take with them (verse 32)?

In your opinion, why does the Pharaoh ask Moses to bless him (verse 32)?

Why did the Egyptians urge the people to “hurry and leave the country” (verse 33)?

How did the Israelites carry their dough (verse 34)?

What did the Israelites ask the Egyptians for (verse 35)?

Who made the Egyptians “favorably disposed” to the Israelites (verse 36)?

How many Israelite men were there (verse 37)?

In your opinion, who were the “many other people” who left with the Israelites (verse 38)?

What did they use to bake their “loaves of unleavened bread” (verse 39)?

Why was the dough without yeast (verse 39)?

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

Luke 6:17-23 - New International Version (NIV)

¹⁷ He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, ¹⁸ who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, ¹⁹ and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.

²⁰ Looking at his disciples, he said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,
    for yours is the kingdom of God.
²¹ Blessed are you who hunger now,
    for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
    for you will laugh.
²² Blessed are you when people hate you,
    when they exclude you and insult you
    and reject your name as evil,
        because of the Son of Man.

²³ “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

Who was with Jesus (verse 17)?

Why had they come (verse 18)?

Why did people try to touch Jesus (verse 19)?

In your opinion, why did Jesus look at the disciples when He said “blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (verse 20)?

What will disciples “who weep now” do (verse 21)?

What will disciples be “when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man” (verse 22)?

How should disciples behave when they are hated, excluded and rejected (verse 23)?

How were the prophets treated (verse 23)?

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

In your opinion, what can we learn from the fact that when the Israelite people left their slavery in Egypt to begin the process of becoming a nation in Exodus 12:31-39 there were “many other people” with them; and that after all the disciples were gathered, in Luke 6:17-23, and Jesus began teaching there were people from Jerusalem and Judea and “the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon” with Him?

Colossians 2:6-15 – New International Version (NIV)

⁶ So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.

⁹ For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, ¹⁰ and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. ¹¹ In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

¹³ When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴ having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

How are the Colossians to “continue to live” (verse 6)?

In your opinion, what does it mean to be “rooted and built up in” Jesus (verse 7)?

What does the “hollow and deceptive philosophy” that can take Christians captive depend on (verse 8)?

Where does the “fullness of the Deity” live (verse 9)?

What are Colossian Christians (and Christians today) brought to “in Christ” (verse 10)?

In your opinion, what is the circumcision that is “not performed by human hands” (verse 11)?

What happens to the “whole self ruled by the flesh” in baptism (verses 11 and 12)?

How is the Christian who has been baptized “raised with him” (verse 12)?

What does God do for those who were dead in sins when He makes them “alive with Christ” (verse 13)?

What has God done with our “legal indebtedness” (verse 14)?

Who has God made a “public spectacle” of (verse 15)?

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

In your opinion, how are Paul’s instructions in Colossians 2:6-15 to “continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” connected to the blessings that Jesus proclaimed in Luke 6:17-23 to the poor, hungry, weeping and hated?

In your opinion, what can we learn from the Israelite people in Exodus 12:31-39 who left in a hurry with the unbaked bread dough about how Christian’s should follow Paul’s command in Colossians 2:6-15 to “just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him”?

1 Timothy 6:11-16 – New International Version (NIV)

¹¹ But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. ¹² Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. ¹³ In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you ¹⁴ to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, ¹⁶ who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.

What does Paul tell Timothy, who he calls “man of God”, to pursue (verse 11)?

When was Timothy called to eternal life (verse 12)?

Who gives life to everything (verse 13)?

How long is Timothy to “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness” (verse 14)?

What will God “bring about in his own time” (verses 14 and 15)?

Who “lives in unapproachable light” (verses 15 and 16)?

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

In your opinion, how do Paul’s instructions to Timothy to “flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness” in 1 Timothy 6:11-16 help us understand how to follow his instruction in Colossians 2:6-11 to “see to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world”?

In your opinion, how does Paul’s instruction to Timothy to “take hold of the eternal life to which you were called” in 1 Timothy 6:11-16 help us to understand how Jesus’s promise to the poor, hungry, weeping and hated in Luke 6:17-23 is fulfilled?

In your opinion, how are the Israelites leaving Egypt in Exodus 12:31-39 an example for those us when we try to obey Paul’s instructions in 1 Timothy 6:11-16 to flee and pursue?

In your opinion, what do these passages from Exodus, Luke, Colossians, and 1 Timothy teach us about leaving slavery and taking hold of eternal life today?

In your opinion, how can we truly leave behind “hollow and deceptive philosophy” and “worship the Lord”?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)