October 8, 2017 – Moses and Jesus and Us – Suffering People, Burning Bushes and Snatching from the Fire

-            The

Suffering People, Burning Bushes and Snatching from the Fire

Exodus 3:1-10 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. ³ So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

⁴ When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

⁵ “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

⁷ The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. ⁸ So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. ⁹ And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. ¹⁰ So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

Whose flock was Moses tending (verse 1)?

Where did Moses take the flock (verse 1)?

How did the angel of the Lord appear to Moses (verse 2)?

What did Moses think he would go and see (verse 3)?

Who called Moses from “within the bush” (verse 4)?

How did Moses answer (verse 4)?

Why was Moses to take off his sandals (verse 5)?

In your opinion, why was Moses afraid to look at God (verse 6)?

What has God seen (verse 7)?

What has God heard (verse 7)?

What is God concerned about (verse 7)?

Who will God rescue them from (verse 8)?

Where will God bring them to (verse 8)?

What has reached God (verse 9)?

What is God sending Moses to do (verse 10)?

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

Luke 3:21-23a - New International Version (NIV)

²¹ When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened ²² and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

²³ Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry.

When was Jesus baptized (verse 21)?

What was Jesus doing when “heaven was opened” (verse 21)?

How did the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus (verse 22)?

What did the Voice from Heaven say (verse 22)?

What did Jesus do when He was “about thirty years old” (verse 23)?

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

In your opinion, how are the burning bush in Exodus 3:1-10 and the dove descending in Luke 3:21-23a similar?

Romans 1:1-7 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— ² the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures ³ regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, ⁴ and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. ⁵ Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. ⁶ And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

⁷ To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Who is “called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God” (verse 1)?

What was “promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures” (verse 2)?

What was Jesus in “his earthly life” (verse 3)?

Who was “appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead” (verse 4)?

In your opinion, what does Paul mean when he says he has received “grace and apostleship” through Jesus (verse 5)?

What are the people that Paul is writing called to (verse 6)?

How does Paul bless those in Rome who are “loved by God and called to be his holy people” (verse 7)?

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

In your opinion, since we are like the ones in Rome that Paul said were “loved by God and called to be his holy people” in Romans 1:1-7, what can we learn from what the Voice from Heaven said to Jesus “you are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased” in Luke 3:21-23a?

In your opinion, what can the calling of Moses in Exodus 3:1-10 to “bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt” and the calling of Paul in Romans 1:1-7 to “call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake” teach we who are called to holiness today?

Jude 1:1-4; 17-25 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,

To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:

² Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.

³ Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. ⁴ For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

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.

²⁴ To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— ²⁵ to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

Who is Jude (verse 1)?

Who is Jude writing to (verse 1)?

What does Jude pray for his readers to have “in abundance” (verse 2)?

In your opinion, what does Jude mean when he urges his readers to “contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people” (verse 3)?

What do the “certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago” do after they slip in among Christians (verse 4)?

Whose words are the friends to remember (verse 17)?

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

What do people who “follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit” do to Christians (verse 19)?

How do Christians “keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ” (verses 20 and 21)?

How should Christians treat those who doubt (verse 22)?

What should Christians hate while showing “mercy, mixed with fear” (verse 23)?

How will Christians be presented “to the only God our Savior” (verses 24 and 25)?

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

In your opinion, how does Jude, who urges in Jude 1:1-4; 17-25 that we “contend for the faith”, help us to understand what it must have been like for Paul who says in Romans 1:1-7 that he was “called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God”?

In your opinion, how does it humble and empower you to be linked to what the Father told Jesus in Luke 3:21-23a “you are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased” by Jude who says in 1:1-4; 17-25 “to those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ”?

In your opinion, how does Moses who went to the burning bush only to see why it did not burn up and received instructions from God in Exodus 3:1-10 illustrate for us what Jude meant in Jude 1:1-4; 17-25 when he told us to “be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh”?

In your opinion, what do these passages from Exodus, Luke, Romans and Jude teach us about God’s call and our reaction to it?

In your opinion, who are the suffering people, what are our burning bushes, and how does God expect us to “save others by snatching them from the fire” today?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)

May 3, 2015 – The Great Commission – A Study of Matthew – The Dead and the Living

  

Matthew 28:18-20 – New International Version (NIV) – The Great Commission

¹⁸ “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

The Dead and the Living

Matthew 22:23-33 – New International Version (NIV)

²³ “That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. ²⁴ “Teacher,” they said, “Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for him. ²⁵ Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. ²⁶ The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. ²⁷ Finally, the woman died. ²⁸ Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”

²⁹ Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. ³⁰ At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. ³¹ But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ³² ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

³³ When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.”

What do the Sadducees say (verse 23)?

Who do the Sadducees reference in asking Jesus their question (verse 24)?

Why is the brother of a man who dies without children supposed to marry his brother’s widow (verse 24)?

How many brothers was the widow in the question supposed to have married (verses 25 and 26)?

In your opinion, why did the Sadducees ask Jesus this question (verse 28)?

Why does Jesus say the Sadducees are in error (verse 29)?

Who will people be like at the resurrection (verse 30)?

Who said something about the “resurrection of the dead” (verse 31)?

In your opinion, why is Jesus able to say that God is “not the God of the dead but of the living” (verse 32)?

How did the crowds respond to the teaching of Jesus (verse 33)?

In your opinion, what does this passage from Matthew 22:23-33 show us about the Great Commission?

Exodus 3:1-10 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ “Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. ³ So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

⁴ When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

⁵ “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

⁷ The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. ⁸ So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. ⁹ And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. ¹⁰ So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

Where was Moses tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law (verse 1)?

How did the angel of the Lord appear to Moses (verse 2)?

Why did Moses go over to the bush (verse 3)?

How did Moses reply when God called “Moses! Moses!” (verse 4)?

In your opinion, why was the place where Moses was standing “holy ground” (verse 5)?

Why did Moses hide his face when God said “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (verse 6)?

What had God seen (verse 7)?

Where was God moving “his people” to (verse 8)?

How were the Egyptians treating the Israelites (verse 9)?

Why was God sending Moses to the Pharaoh (verse 10)?

In your opinion, why did the Sadducees who were trying to trap Jesus in Matthew 22:23-33 not remember the words of God in Exodus 3:1-10, which must have been one of their favorite stories?

In your opinion, what does this passage from Exodus show us about the Great Commission?

Philippians 3:15-21 – New International Version (NIV)

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 does Paul say should “take such a view of things” (verse 15)?

What will God do “if at some point you think differently” (verse 15)?

How should we live (verse 16)?

In your opinion, why should we follow Paul’s example and keep our “eyes on those who live as we do” (verse 17)?

Why does Paul have tears (verse 18)?

What is the destiny of the “enemies of the cross of Christ” (verse 19)?

In your opinion, why is the glory of the “enemies of the cross of Christ” “in their shame” (verse 19)?

Where is our citizenship (verse 20)?

How do we wait for “a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (verse 20)?

What will Jesus do “by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control” (verse 21)?

In your opinion, how is knowledge that Jesus will “transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” from Philippians 3:15-21 help us to understand how God is able to be “the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” as it states in Exodus 3:1-10?

In your opinion, how does Paul’s discussion about the “power that enables him to bring everything under his control” in Philippians 3:15-21 help us to not make the error of the Sadducees in Matthew 22:23-33 of not knowing “the Scriptures or the power of God”?

In your opinion, what does this passage from Philippians show us about the Great Commission?

1 John 3:1-10 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ³ All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

⁴ Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. ⁵ But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. ⁶ No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

⁷ Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. ⁸ The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. ⁹ No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. ¹⁰ This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.”

What are we (verse 1)?

What will be “when Christ appears” (verse 2)?

In your opinion, why do those “who have this hope in him purify themselves” (verse 3)?

Who breaks the law (verse 4)?

Why did Christ appear (verse 5)?

What does the “one who lives in him” not do (verse 6)?

What are we not to let anyone do (verse 7)?

Why did “the Son of God” appear (verse 8)?

Why does the “one who is born of God” not go on sinning (verse 9)?

How do we know who the “children of God are and who the children of the devil are” (verse 10)?

In your opinion, what can we learn about our “citizenship” “in heaven” that Paul talks about in Philippians 3:15-21 from the discussion of John in 1 John 3:1-10 about the change to those “born of God” because “God’s seed remains in them”?

In your opinion, how is it reassuring to us today that the God who said “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” in Exodus 3:1-10 is also the one who 1 John 3:1-10 says children we are because Christ appeared to take away our sins?

In your opinion, how does it make you feel that the one who said in Matthew 22:23-33 “He is not the God of the dead but of the living” is also the one who when He appears “we shall be like him” according to 1 John 3:1-10?

In your opinion, what does this passage from 1 John show us about the Great Commission?

Next, back to Matthew 22:34 – (sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)