Proclaiming Good News
Isaiah 52:7-10 - New International
Version (NIV)
7 How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good
news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”
8 Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices;
together they shout for joy.
When the Lord returns to Zion,
they will see it with their own eyes.
9 Burst into songs of joy together,
you ruins of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people,
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord will lay bare his holy arm
in the sight of all the nations,
and all the ends of the
earth will see
the salvation of our God.
Whose feet are “beautiful on the mountains” (verse 7)?
What do the people with those feet “say to
Zion” (verse 7)?
Who will see the Lord’s return to Zion “with
their own eyes” (verse 8)?
What will the “ruins of Jerusalem” do
(verse 9)?
Who has the Lord comforted (verse 9)?
What will the Lord lay bare “in the sight of
all the nations” (verse 10)?
Where will the “salvation of our God” be
seen (verse 10)?
In
your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about
reacting to God’s “good news”?
John 12:23-36 – New International Version (NIV)
23 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to
be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of
wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if
it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 Anyone who loves their
life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep
it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow
me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one
who serves me.
27 “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say?
‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I
came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!”
Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will
glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that was there and heard
it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.
30 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not
mine. 31 Now is the time for judgment on this
world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 And
I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to
myself.” 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was
going to die.
34 The crowd spoke up, “We have heard from the Law that the
Messiah will remain forever, so how can you say, ‘The Son of
Man must be lifted up’? Who is this ‘Son of Man’?”
35 Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the
light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the
light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does
not know where they are going. 36 Believe in the light
while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.” When
he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.
What
hour has come (verse 23)?
When
can a single seed produce many seeds (verse 24)?
Who
will lose their life (verse 25)?
What
will the one “who hates their life in this world” keep for eternal life
(verse 25)?
Where must the servant of Jesus be (verse
26)?
How was Jesus’s soul (verse 27)?
What
did Jesus say that caused the voice from heaven to say “I have glorified it,
and will glorify it again” (verse 28)?
Who
did Jesus say the voice was for (verse 30)?
What
does Jesus say is it time for (verse 31)?
When
will Jesus “draw all people” to Himself (verse 32)?
What
had the crowd “heard from the Law” (verse 34)?
Who
does not know where they are going (verse 35)?
Why
did Jesus instruct the crowd to “believe in the light while you have the
light” (verse 36)?
In
your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In
your opinion, what does this passage teach us about reacting to God’s “good
news”?
In
your opinion, how does Isaiah 52:7-10 help us understand more about how Jesus,
the seed that dies in John 12:23-36, will “draw all people to myself”?
Romans
10:14-21 - New
International Version (NIV)
14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And
how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they
hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can
anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring
good news!”
16 But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah
says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” 17 Consequently,
faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the
word about Christ. 18 But I ask: Did they not hear? Of
course they did:
“Their voice has gone out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.”
19 Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says,
“I will make you envious by those who are not a nation;
I will make you angry by a nation that has no
understanding.”
20 And Isaiah boldly says,
“I was found by those who did not seek me;
I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.”
21 But concerning Israel he says,
“All day long I have held out my hands
to a disobedient and obstinate people.”
What are
the five “how can they” steps leading to the statement “how beautiful
are the feet of those who bring good news” (verses 14 and 15)?:
______________________ (verse 15)?
______________________ (verse 14)?
______________________ (verse 14)?
______________________ (verse 14)?
______________________ (verse 14)?
Why did
Isaiah ask “Lord, who has believed our message” (verse 16)?
How is the
message heard (verse 17)?
Where has “their
voice” gone (verse 18)?
Who did Moses say God will use to make the Israelites
“envious” (verse 19)?
Who did Isaiah say God will be “found by”
(verse 20)?
What did God hold out “all day long” to Israel
(verse 21)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message of this
passage?
In your opinion, what
does this passage teach us about reacting to God’s “good news”?
In your opinion, how does Paul in Romans 10:14-21
expand the prophecy of Isaian 52:7-10 from the good news that Israelites can go
home after their exile to a call for Christians?
In your opinion, what does John 12:23-36
reveal to us about the “good news” that Romans 10:14-21 says beautiful
feet are bringing?
Ephesians 4:17-24 – New International Version (NIV)
17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no
longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They
are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of
God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their
hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have
given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of
impurity, and they are full of greed.
20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned 21 when
you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that
is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your
former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being
corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in
the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new
self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
What
does Paul insist on (verse 17)?
How
does Paul describe the Gentile’s understanding (verse 18)?
Why are the Gentiles “separated from
the life of God” (verse 18)?
What have the Gentiles lost (verse 19)?
What are the Gentiles full of (verse 19)?
When did the Ephesian Christians learn of
a different way of life (verses 20 and 21)?
What were the Ephesian Christians “taught,
with regard to your former way of life” (verse 22)?
Where are the Ephesian Christians “to
be made new” (verse 23)?
What is the “new self” created to
be like (verse 24)?
In your opinion, what is the basic
message of this passage?
In your opinion, what does this passage
teach us about reacting to God’s “good news”?
In your opinion, how
does the response with “songs of joy” of the redeemed in Isaiah 52:7-10
become so much more in Ephesians 4:17-24?
In your opinion, how does Paul in
Ephesians 4:17-24 build on Jesus’s discussion of darkness and light in John
12:23-36?
In your opinion, what does Ephesians
4:17-24 teach us about how Christians should respond to the “good news”
of Romans 10:14-21?
In your opinion, what do these passages
from Isaiah, John, Romans, and Ephesians help us understand about true beauty?
In your opinion, how can our feet be made beautiful
today?
(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)
