-
The
Transformed by Forgiveness
2 Chronicles 7:11-22 - New International Version (NIV)
11 When Solomon had finished the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had
succeeded in carrying out all he had in mind to do in the temple of the Lord and in his own palace, 12 the
Lord appeared to him at night and
said:
“I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as
a temple for sacrifices.
13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command
locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if
my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek
my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I
will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now
my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this
place. 16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so
that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.
17 “As for you, if you walk before me faithfully as David your father
did, and do all I command, and observe my decrees and laws, 18 I
will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father when I
said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor to rule over Israel.’
19 “But if you turn away and forsake the decrees and
commands I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship
them, 20 then I will uproot Israel from my land, which I
have given them, and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. I
will make it a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. 21 This
temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be
appalled and say, ‘Why has the Lord
done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ 22 People
will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord,
the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and have embraced
other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why he brought all this
disaster on them.’”
What had
Solomon finished (verse 11)?
Who chose the
temple (verse 12)?
In your
opinion, what can we learn from the fact that the Lord began His statement to
Solomon with “when” (verse 13)?
How would the
Lord’s people need to act in order to be forgiven and have their land healed (verse 14)?
What will the
Lord’s ears be attentive to (verse 15)?
Where will the
Lord’s eyes and heart always be (verse 16)?
How does
Solomon need to walk before the Lord (verse
17)?
What will the
Lord establish (verse 18)?
When will the
Lord “uproot Israel from my land, which I have given them, and will reject
this temple I have consecrated for my Name” (verses 19 and 20)?
Who will be
appalled (verse 21)?
What will
people understand about why the temple is “a heap of rubble” (verses 21
and 22)?
In your
opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
Mark 2:1-12 - New
International Version (NIV)
1 A few days
later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come
home. 2 They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room
left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some
men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since
they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in
the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was
lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the
paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to
themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s
blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were
thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these
things? 9 Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your
sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? 10 But
I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.”
So he said to the man, 11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat
and go home.” 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full
view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have
never seen anything like this!”
Who heard that
Jesus had come home (verse 1)?
How were
people gathered around Jesus (verse 2)?
What did the
four men carry (verse 3)?
Why did they
make an opening in the roof (verse 4)?
When did Jesus
say “son, your sins are forgiven” (verse 5)?
In your
opinion, why were the teachers of the law thinking “Why does this fellow
talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (verses
6 and 7)?
What did Jesus
say to them (verse 8)?
In your
opinion, why does Jesus ask them “Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed
man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’?”
(verse 9)?
What did Jesus
want them to know (verse 10)?
What did Jesus
tell the man (verse 11)?
How did the
people who saw this respond (verse 12)?
In 2 Chronicles 7:11-22 the Lord promises “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves
and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear
from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land”? In
your opinion, do you think the paralyzed man in Mark 2:1-12 was going to Jesus expecting
Him to fulfill that promise Why or why not?
11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace,
and the next day we went on to Neapolis. 12 From there we
traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of
Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.
13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where
we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the
women who had gathered there. 14 One of those listening was a
woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was
a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When
she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home.
“If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my
house.” And she persuaded us.
How did Paul, Silas and
Timothy travel (verse 11)?
Where was the “Roman
colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia” (verse 12)?
Why did they go to the river (verse 13)?
What did they do when they got to the river (verse 13)?
In your opinion, what does it mean to us today that Lydia was
“a worshiper of God” and that “the Lord opened her heart to respond
to Paul’s message” (verse 14)?
Who was baptized (verse 15)?
How did Lydia persuade them to stay at her house (verse 15)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion, what does it mean that the Lord did for Lydia
along a river in a foreign land in Acts 16:11-15 what He had promised Solomon
to do for the Israelites in the temple in 2 Chronicles 7:11-22?
In your
opinion, how are the paralyzed man in Mark 2:1-12 and Lydia in Acts 16:11-15 similar? What do
we have in common with them?
Philippians
3:12-21 –
New International Version (NIV)
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived
at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took
hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself
yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and
straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal
to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15 All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things.
And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to
you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
17 Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and
just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. 18 For,
as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many
live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is
destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame.
Their mind is set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is
in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who,
by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will
transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Who “took
hold” of Paul (verse 12)?
What one thing
does Paul do (verse 13)?
How is Paul
called heavenward (verse 14)?
Who will clear
up our thinking if it is different from Paul’s (verse 15)?
In your
opinion, what does it mean to “live up to what we have already attained”
(verse 16)?
Who does Paul
say we should keep our eyes on (verse 17)?
How do “many
live” (verse 18)?
What is “their
god” (verse 19)?
Where is a
Christian’s citizenship (verse
20)?
What will Jesus Christ do (verses 20 and 21)?
In your
opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your
opinion, how is the transformation of the nation of Israel that was promised
when its people called on the Lord, humbled themselves, prayed, sought the face
of the Lord and turned from their wicked ways in 2 Chronicles similar to the
transformation Paul speaks of in Philippians 3:12-21?
In your
opinion, how does the Lord opening Lydia’s heart in Acts 16:11-15 help us
understand how we can imitate Paul in Philippians 3:12-21 and forget what is
behind and strain for what is ahead?
In your opinion,
what can we, whose sins are forgiven, learn from the paralyzed man and from
Lydia?
In your
opinion, what do these passages from 2 Chronicles, Mark, Acts and Philippians teach
us about Jesus ability to forgive our sins and to transform us?
No comments:
Post a Comment