January 28, 2018 – Moses and Jesus and Us – Forgiven and Reconciled

Forgiven and Reconciled

Exodus 34:1-9 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ The Lord said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. ² Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. ³ No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain.”

⁴ So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the Lord had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. ⁵ Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. ⁶ And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, ⁷ maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

⁸ Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. ⁹ “Lord,” he said, “if I have found favor in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.”

What did Moses do to the first tablets (verse 1)?

When is Moses to be ready (verse 2)?

Who can come with Moses (verse 3)?

What did Moses chisel out (verse 4)?

Where did the Lord stand (verse 5)?

Who is “abounding in love and faithfulness” (verse 6)?

In your opinion, what is the difference between “forgiving wickedness” and not leaving “the guilty unpunished” (verse 7)?

What did Moses do “at once” (verse 8)?

Who is “stiff-necked” (verse 9)?

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

Luke 23:32-43 - New International Version (NIV)

³² Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. ³³ When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. ³⁴ Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

³⁵ The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

³⁶ The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar ³⁷ and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

³⁸ There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews.

³⁹ One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

⁴⁰ But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? ⁴¹ We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

⁴² Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

⁴³ Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Who was led out to be executed with Jesus (verse 32)?

Where were they crucified (verse 33)?

Why did Jesus ask His Father to “forgive them” (verse 34)?

In your opinion, why can’t Jesus save others and Himself (verse 35)?

What did the soldiers do (verse 36)?

How did the soldiers want Jesus to prove that he was “king of the Jews” (verse 37)?

What written notice was above Jesus (verse 38)?

What did one of the criminals want Jesus to do (verse 39)?

How did the other criminal rebuke him (verse 40)?

What did the criminal think that Jesus had done wrong (verse 41)?

In your opinion, why does the criminal, who is suffering torment and dying on the cross, ask for Jesus to “remember me” instead of asking to be taken from the cross (verse 42)?

Where will the criminal join Jesus (verse 43)?

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

In your opinion, how is Moses petitioning the Lord in Exodus 34:1-9 similar to the plea of the second criminal to Jesus in Luke 23:32-43?

2 Corinthians 5:11-21 – New International Version (NIV)

¹¹ Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. ¹² We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. ¹³ If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. ¹⁴ For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. ¹⁵ And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

¹⁶ So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Why does Paul try to persuade others (verse 11)?

Who does Paul want the Corinthians to be able to answer (verse 12)?

Who would Paul be for if in his right mind (verse 13)?

What compels Paul (verse 14)?

Who should those who live now live for (verse 15)?

In your opinion, what does it mean to regard someone “from a worldly point of view” (verse 16)?

What has come for anyone in Christ (verse 17)?

Who did God give a ministry of reconciliation to (verse 18)?

What is God not counting (verse 19)?

What does Paul implore (verse 20)?

Why did God make “him who had no sin to be sin for us” (verse 21)?

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

In your opinion, how does the interaction of the second criminal and Jesus on the cross in Luke 23:32-43 help us understand the reconciliation to Christ that Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 5:11-21?

In your opinion, how is God’s statement in Exodus 34:1-9 that He is “the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,  maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin” proven in Paul’s message of reconciliation given in 2 Corinthians 5:11-21?

Jude 1:17-23 – New International Version (NIV)

¹⁷ But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. ¹⁸ They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” ¹⁹ These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

²⁰ But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹ keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

²² Be merciful to those who doubt; ²³ save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

What does Jude want his friends to remember (verse 17)?

When will there be “scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires” (verse 18)?

In your opinion, what does it mean to “follow mere natural instincts” (verse 19)?

How do Jude’s dear friends keep themselves “in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you eternal life” (verses 20 and 21)?

How are we to treat those who doubt (verse 22)?

How should “others” be saved (verse 23)?

What is to be hated (verse 23)?

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

In your opinion, how does Jude 1:17-23 help us understand what Paul means in 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 by “from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view”?

In your opinion, how are Jesus’s actions on the cross in Luke 23:32-43 an example of what Jude means in Jude 1:17-23 when he writes “be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear”?

In your opinion, what can we learn from Moses plea for the “stiff-necked people” people of Israel in Exodus 34:1-9 and the “scoffers” that Jude talks about and then encourages his “dear friends” to snatch from the fire in Jude 1:17-23?

In your opinion, what do these passages from Exodus, Luke, 2 Corinthians, and Jude show us about God’s forgiveness and our reconciliation?

In your opinion, how should each of us who have been snatched from death respond to God and to those who have not been reconciled?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)