March 10, 2024 – Isaiah in the New Testament – The Wounded Model

The Wounded Model

Isaiah 53:2-5 - New International Version (NIV)

² He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

⁴ Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.

What did He have in His appearance “to attract us to him” (verse 2)?

How did “mankind” treat Him (verse 3)?

What did He “bear” (verse 4)?

Why was He “crushed” (verse 5)?

Where was the punishment “that brought us peace” (verse 5)?

How are we “healed” (verse 5)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage show Jesus doing that is important for us to see?

Luke 23:44-49 – New International Version (NIV)

⁴⁴ It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, ⁴⁵ for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. ⁴⁶ Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.

⁴⁷ The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” ⁴⁸ When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. ⁴⁹ But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

What time was it (verse 44)?

How long was darkness “over the whole land” (verse 44)?

What “stopped shining” (verse 45)?

Where was the curtain that “was torn in two” (verse 45)?

Into whose hands did Jesus “commit” his spirit (verse 46)?

Who “praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man”” (verse 47)?

What did the “people who had gathered to witness this sight” do (verse 48)?

Where were “all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee” (verse 49)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage show Jesus doing that is important for us to see?

In your opinion, how could the servant “be despised and rejected” in Isaiah 53:2-5 but in Luke 23:44-49 the centurion could say about Him, “surely this was a righteous man”?

Romans 6:1-8 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ² By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷ because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

⁸ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

How does Paul answer the question “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase” (verse 1)?

What were “all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus” baptized into (verses 2 and 3)?

Why were we “buried with him into death” (verse 4)?

What will we be united with Him in if “we have been united with him in a death like his” (verse 5)?

Why was “our old self” crucified with Him (verse 6)?

What has happened to “anyone who has died” (verse 7)?

What do we believe we will do “if we died with Christ” (verse 8)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage show Jesus doing that is important for us to see?

In your opinion, how does Romans 6:1-8 help us understand how Jesus fulfills the prophecy that says “by his wounds we are healed” in Isaiah 53:2-5?

In your opinion, how are the last words of Jesus in Luke 23:44-49 a model for all who Romans 6:1-8 says are “buried with him through baptism into death”?

1 Peter 2:21-25 – New International Version (NIV)

 ²¹ To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

²² “He committed no sin,
    and no deceit was found in his mouth.”

²³ When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. ²⁴ “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” ²⁵ For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Who did Christ suffer for (verse 21)?

How should we respond to His suffering (verse 21)?

What did Jesus not commit (verse 22)?

How did Jesus respond to insults (verse 23)?

Who did Jesus entrust Himself to when He suffered (verse 23)?

Why did Jesus bear our sins “in his body on the cross” (verse 24)?

How have we been healed (verse 24)?

What were we like (verse 25)?

Who have we returned to (verse 25)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage show Jesus doing that is important for us to see?

In your opinion, how does 1 Peter 2:21-25 make it clear that Jesus is the one who Isaiah 53:2-5 said would suffer so that “by his wounds” we would be healed?

In your opinion, how does Luke 23:44-49 affirm that the one who 1 Peter 2:21-24 says healed us “by his wounds”, entrusted “himself to him who judges justly”?

In your opinion, what do Romans 6:1-8 and 1 Peter 2:21-25 teach us about following “in the steps” of Jesus? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Isaiah, Luke, Romans and 1 Peter teach us about why Jesus, the righteous man, was punished and wounded?

In your opinion, in what ways should we model Jesus for the world to see?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

March 3, 2024 – Isaiah in the New Testament – Becoming the People of God

Becoming the People of God

Isaiah 53:4-6 - New International Version (NIV)

⁴ Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

 

Whose “pain” did He take up (verse 4)?

Who did we consider “him” punished by (verse 4)?

Why was He “pierced” (verse 5)?

What did the “punishment” that was on Him bring us (verse 5)?

How are we healed (verse 5)?

What have “we all” done (verse 6)?

Who laid our iniquity on Him (verse 6)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about how we move from being separated from God to being people of God?

Matthew 8:5-17 – New International Version (NIV)

⁵ When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. ⁶ “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”

⁷ Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”

⁸ The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. ⁹ For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

¹⁰ When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. ¹¹ I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. ¹² But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

¹³ Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.

¹⁴ When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. ¹⁵ He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.

¹⁶ When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. ¹⁷ This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

“He took up our infirmities
    and bore our diseases.”

Where was Jesus when the centurion came “asking for help” (verse 5)?

In your opinion, what is surprising about his request (verse 6)?

What did the centurion “not deserve” (verse 8)?

How did the centurion think Jesus could heal the servant (verse 8)?

How did the centurion describe authority (verse 9)?

What did Jesus tell “those following him” about the centurion (verse 10)?

Where will many “from the east and the west” take their places (verse 11)?

Who will be “thrown outside, into the darkness” (verse 12)?

When was the centurion’s servant healed (verse 13)?

Who was “lying in bed with a fever” (verse 14)?

What happened when Jesus “touched her hand” (verse 15)?

How many of the sick did Jesus heal (verse 16)?

What did this fulfill (verse 17)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about how we move from being separated from God to being people of God?In your opinion, in what way does Matthew 8:5-17 reveal how Jesus was able to fulfill the prophecy from Isaiah 53:4-6 that the Savior would take “up our pain”?

Hebrews 9:22-28 – New International Version (NIV)

²² In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

²³ It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. ²⁴ For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. ²⁵ Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. ²⁶ Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷ Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, ²⁸ so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

What does the law require to “be cleansed with blood” (verse 22)?

What cannot happen “without the shedding of blood” (verse 22)?

What was “purified with these sacrifices” (verse 23)?

What needed “better sacrifices than these” (verse 23)?

Why did Christ enter “heaven itself” (verse 24)?

What did Christ not do “again and again” (verse 25)?

Why did Christ appear “once for all at the culmination of the ages” (verse 26)?

What are people destined to do once (verse 27)?

Why was Christ “sacrificed once” (verse 28)?

Why will Christ “appear a second time” (verse 28)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about how we move from being separated from God to being people of God?

In your opinion, how does the shedding of the blood of Jesus as revealed in Hebrews 9:22-28 a fulfillment that allows Jesus to bear “our suffering” as prophesied by Isaiah 53:4-6?

In your opinion, how does Jesus’s ability to cast out demons and heal the sick in Matthew 8:5-17 foreshadow the purifying cleansing from the shedding of His blood as reported in Hebrews 9:22-28?

1 Peter 2:4-10 – New International Version (NIV)

⁴ As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— ⁵ you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ For in Scripture it says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
    a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
    will never be put to shame.”

⁷ Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,

“The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone,”

⁸ and,

“A stone that causes people to stumble
    and a rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Who is “rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him” (verse 4)?

What are the “living stones” being built into (verse 5)?

Who “will never be put to shame” (verse 6)?

How do those who believe perceive the stone (verse 7)?

What is the stone to those “who do not believe” (verse 7)?

Why do “they” stumble (verse 8)?

What are Christians “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession” to declare (verse 9)?

What have “the people of God” received (verse 10)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about how we move from being separated from God to being people of God?

In your opinion, what does Isaiah 53:4-6 help us understand about what Jesus had to bear for the lost sheep to become the “chosen people” of 1 Peter 2:4-10?

In your opinion, how does having the faith of the centurion in Matthew 8:5-17 help the “people of God” who “have received mercy” in 1 Peter 2:4-10 to “declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light”?

In your opinion, why is it important that those that 1 Peter 2:4-10 identifies as “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession” never forget that it is Jesus taking away our sins, as Hebrews 9:22-28 explains, that makes it possible? 

In your opinion, how do these passages from Isaiah, Matthew, Hebrews and 1 Peter help us understand why Jesus was afflicted with pain?

In your opinion, how does faith in God enable God to transform us to the people of God?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

February 25, 2024 – Isaiah in the New Testament – What Our Eyes Can’t See

What Our Eyes Can’t See

Isaiah 64:4-9 - New International Version (NIV)

⁴ Since ancient times no one has heard,
    no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
    who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
⁵ You come to the help of those who gladly do right,
    who remember your ways.
But when we continued to sin against them,
    you were angry.
    How then can we be saved?
⁶ All of us have become like one who is unclean,
    and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
    and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
⁷ No one calls on your name
    or strives to lay hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us
    and have given us over to our sins.

⁸ Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
    We are the clay, you are the potter;
    we are all the work of your hand.
⁹ Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord;
    do not remember our sins forever.
Oh, look on us, we pray,
    for we are all your people.

How many Gods have been seen who act “on behalf of those who wait” (verse 4)?

Who does God come to help (verse 5)?

How does God react to those who “continued to sin” (verse 5)?

What are “our righteous acts” like (verse 6)?

What has God “given us over to” (verse 7)?

How is God related to us (verse 8)?

What does Isaiah ask not to be remembered “forever” (verse 9)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage reveal to us about what God can conceive that we can’t?

Matthew 20:17-28 – New International Version (NIV)

¹⁷ Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem. On the way, he took the Twelve aside and said to them, ¹⁸ “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death ¹⁹ and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!”

²⁰ Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him.

²¹ “What is it you want?” he asked.

She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.”

²² “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?”

“We can,” they answered.

²³ Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.”

²⁴ When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. ²⁵ Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. ²⁶ Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ²⁷ and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— ²⁸ just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Where was Jesus going (verse 17)?

Who will “the Son of Man” be delivered over to (verse 18)?

What will “the Son of Man” be condemned to (verse 18)?

What will happen to “the Son of Man” when He is handed over to the Gentiles (verse 19)?

When will “the Son of Man” be raised to life (verse 19)?

Who came to Jesus to ask a favor of Him (verse 20)?

What was the favor (verse 21)?

In your opinion, why did they not “know what you are asking” (verse 22)?

Who do the places on Jesus’s right or left belong to (verse 23)?

How did the other ten disciples react when they heard about the request (verse 24)?

What do the “rulers of the Gentiles” do (verse 25)?

Who must become “your servant” (verse 26)?

What did “the Son of Man” come to do (verse 28)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage reveal to us about what God can conceive that we can’t?

In your opinion, how does “the mother of Zebedee’s sons” in Matthew 20:17-28 illustrate the way we all become unclean as prophesied by Isaiah 64:4-9?

1 Corinthians 2:1-10 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. ² For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³ I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. ⁴ My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵ so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

⁶ We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. ⁷ No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. ⁸ None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹ However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen,
    what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
    the things God has prepared for those who love him—

¹⁰ these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

How did Paul not come to the Corinthians (verse 1)?

What did Paul proclaim to the Corinthians (verse 1)?

What did Paul resolve to know when he was with the Corinthians (verse 2)?

How did Paul come to the Corinthians (verse 3)?

What was Paul’s message and preaching given with (verse 4)?

What did Paul want the Corinthian’s faith to rest on (verse 5)?

Whose wisdom did Paul not speak (verse 6)?

Whose wisdom did they declare (verse 7)?

What would the “rulers of this age” have not done if they understood “the mystery that has been hidden” (verses 7 and 8)?

What has “no human mind” conceived of (verse 9)?

What has God “revealed to us by his Spirit” (verse 10)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage reveal to us about what God can conceive that we can’t?

In your opinion, how does 1 Corinthians 2:1-10 reveal about how God answered Isaiah’s plea to “not remember our sins forever” in Isaiah 64:4-9?

In your opinion, what does 1 Corinthians 2:1-10 reveal about the “ransom” that Jesus said He would give in Matthew 20:17-26?

Philippians 3:7-11 – New International Version (NIV)

⁷ But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

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.

What does Paul “consider loss for the sake of Christ” (verse 7)?

Why does Paul “consider everything a loss” (verse 8)?

What does Paul want to gain (verse 8)?

How does “the righteousness that comes from God” come (verse 9)?

In your opinion, what does it mean to become like Christ “in his death” (verse 10)?

What does Paul want to attain (verse 11)?

What does Paul “press on to take hold of” (verse 12)?

What “one thing” does Paul do (verse 13)?

How has God called Paul “heavenward” (verse 14)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage reveal to us about what God can conceive that we can’t?

In your opinion, what does Philippians 3:7-11 reveal about the solution God presents to overcome the filthiness of the righteous acts of those who wait for God in Isaiah 64:4-9?

In your opinion, how does Philippians 3:7-11 reveal that the blessings “Zebedee’s sons” actually received were more wonderful than what their mother requested of Jesus in Matthew 20:17-26?

In your opinion, how is Paul knowing nothing “except Jesus Christ and him crucified” in 1 Corinthians 2:1-10 an important step toward considering “everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus” in Philippians 3:7-11? 

In your opinion, how do these passages from Isaiah, Matthew, 1 Corinthians, and Philippians reveal what God has done that our eyes can’t see?

In your opinion, what should our response be to what Jesus “took hold of” for us?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

February 18, 2024 – Isaiah in the New Testament – Today and Now

Today and Now

Isaiah 49:8-13 - New International Version (NIV)

⁸ This is what the Lord says:

“In the time of my favor I will answer you,
    and in the day of salvation I will help you;
I will keep you and will make you
    to be a covenant for the people,
to restore the land
    and to reassign its desolate inheritances,
⁹ to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’
    and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’

“They will feed beside the roads
    and find pasture on every barren hill.
¹⁰ They will neither hunger nor thirst,
    nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them.
He who has compassion on them will guide them
    and lead them beside springs of water.
¹¹ I will turn all my mountains into roads,
    and my highways will be raised up.
¹² See, they will come from afar—
    some from the north, some from the west,
    some from the region of Aswan.”

¹³ Shout for joy, you heavens;
    rejoice, you earth;
    burst into song, you mountains!
For the Lord comforts his people
    and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

 

When does the Lord say He “will help you” (verse 8)?

What does the Lord say to “those in darkness” (verse 9)?

Who “will guide them” (verse 10)?

What will happen to the mountains (verse 11)?

Where will “they come from” (verse 12)?

Why should the heavens “shout for joy”, and the earth “rejoice” and the mountains “burst into song” (verse 13)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage reveal to us about having a worldly or Christian view of the world?

Luke 19:1-10 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. ² A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. ³ He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

⁵ When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” ⁶ So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

⁷ All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

⁸ But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

⁹ Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

What was Jesus doing in Jericho (verse 1)?

Who was Zacchaeus (verse 2)?

Why could Zacchaeus not see Jesus (verse 3)?

What did Zacchaeus do (verse 4)?

Who told Zacchaeus, “come down immediately.  I must stay at your house today” (verse 5)?

How did Zacchaeus respond to the command (verse 6)?

What did the people begin “to mutter” (verse 7)?

In your opinion, why would Zacchaeus say “Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount” (verse 8)?

What did Jesus say “has come to this house” (verse 9)?

Who did the Son of Man come “to seek and to save” (verse 10)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage reveal to us about having a worldly or Christian view of the world?

In your opinion, how does the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10 help us understand what God intended when He said in Isaiah 49:8-13 that a time would come when He would “say to the captives, ‘Come out,’”?

2 Corinthians 5:16-6:2 - New International Version (NIV)

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.

6 ¹ As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. ² For he says,

“In the time of my favor I heard you,
    and in the day of salvation I helped you.”

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.

How does Paul say he will no longer regard people (verse 16)?

What had changed in the way Paul regarded Christ (verse 16)?

Who is “the new creation” (verse 17)?

How did God reconcile “us to himself” (verse 18)?

What is God not counting against reconciled people (verse 19)?

What does Paul implore “on Christ’s behalf” (verse 20)?

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

What do God’s co-workers urge (verse 1)?

When did God help (verse 2)?

When is “the day of salvation” (verse 2)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage reveal to us about having a worldly or Christian view of the world?

In your opinion, what does 2 Corinthians 5:16-6:2 help us understand about the timing of the “the day of salvation” promised in Isaiah 49:8-13?

In your opinion, how does not viewing Christ “from a worldly point of view” like Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:16-6:2 help us understand what Jesus saw in Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10 and we can see in our neighbors today?

Hebrews 3:7-15 – New International Version (NIV)

⁷ So, as the Holy Spirit says:

“Today, if you hear his voice,
⁸     do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
    during the time of testing in the wilderness,
⁹ where your ancestors tested and tried me,
    though for forty years they saw what I did.
¹⁰ That is why I was angry with that generation;
    I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray,
    and they have not known my ways.’
¹¹ So I declared on oath in my anger,
    ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”

¹² See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. ¹³ But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. ¹⁴ We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. ¹⁵ As has just been said:

“Today, if you hear his voice,
    do not harden your hearts
    as you did in the rebellion.”

Who says “today, if you hear his voice” (verse 7)?

What should we not do “if we hear his voice” (verses 7 and 8)?

What did the ancestors do “during the time of testing in the wilderness” (verses 8 and 9)?

What were their hearts always doing (verse 10)?

Where were they never going to enter (verse 11)?

Who is to “see to it” that they don’t have “a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God” (verse 12)?

Why should we “encourage one another daily” (verse 13)?

What do we need to hold onto “firmly to the very end” (verse 14)?

What does Paul warn us not to do “today, if you hear his voice” (verse 15)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage reveal to us about having a worldly or Christian view of the world?

In your opinion, why does Isaiah 49:8-13 talk about all the things that God “will” do; but in Hebrews 3:7-15 Paul stresses the importance of not hardening our hearts “today”?

In your opinion, how is the short, sinful tax collector in Luke 19:1-10 an example of how Paul in Hebrews 3:7-15 would have us respond to God’s word?

In your opinion, why does Paul stress “now is the time” in 2 Corinthians 5:16-6:2 and “today” in Hebrews 3:7-15? 

In your opinion, what do these passages from Isaiah, Luke, 2 Corinthians, and Hebrews help us understand about the “day of salvation”?

In your opinion, why are “now” and “today” important to us in salvation?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)