Monday, February 19, 2024

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)

Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,

yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
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.
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)

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

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

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. 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)

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 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. 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.”

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,”

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.

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 light10 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)

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