Everyday Glory Part II: Revelation 4:6b-11

Read

Revelation 4:6b-11

Genesis 3:24, Exodus 25:17-22

Remember

This is the beginning of the second sequence (out of 7) of progressive parallelism in Revelation. The focus for John’s vision is the heavenly throne room which centers all of the action of the rest of the book of Revelation. The obvious central theme of this sequence is the absolute sovereignty of God and his perfect control over all of human history.

The vision of the throne room is familiar in that it is patterned in ways that would be familiar to readers of the Old Testament because Moses, Isaiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel all had similar throne room visions and experiences to the one that John is having now. On the other hand, the vision of the throne room is also very “other” in that John’s ability to describe it has to utilize simile to describe what he sees (like Jasper, the appearance of an emerald, as it were a sea of glass). John’s use of this language shows us that he is seeing something that is much more glorious than he can comprehend. The glory of the throne room is both terrifying and attractive to John as he describes all of the various figures, creatures, and people that he sees. At the center of all of this is God, who is seated on the throne.

Reflect

As wondrous and powerful as the creatures are, their sole purpose in the throne room is to worship God. Each creature is representative of the natural world and the heavenly world. The throne room is full of earthly things that are transformed into a new heavenly reality. The result is a powerful symphony of worship that overwhelms John and leaves him in awe. All of the created order is working together to worship God. As the beasts sing and fly around the throne in a antiphonal (back and forth) movement of song, the 24 elders, representing the redeemed people of God take their crowns off and cast them at the feet of the throne. This act demonstrates the unworthiness of the elders to wear the crowns and the worthiness of God, specifically for his perfect work of creation.

What John is seeing in chapter 4 of Revelation is a perfect representation of the beauty and magnificence of God who created everything and everything was good. In the throne room, there is no sin, nor is there any trace or consequence of sin. As a result, colors are brighter, creatures are more magnificent, and everything functions perfectly as it was intended to. This leads to beautiful worship that glorifies God day and night.

Questions

1. What do you think it would be like to get a glimpse of what creation would look like without the impact of sin and evil?

2. How do the creatures function in this throne room vision?

3. What can we learn from the 24 elders in terms of how we should live before the throne of God?

4. What are some practical ways that you can worship God for his goodness as demonstrated in creation?

Everyday Glory Part I: Revelation 4:1-6a

Read

Revelation 4:1-6a

Exodus 24:9-11

Isaiah 6:1-7

Remember

Revelation is an apocalyptic, prophetic, letter written by John to show the seven churches (therefore the universal church) what was revealed to him by Jesus, from God. The point of John’s letter to these churches, and to us, is to give us comfort and confidence in the midst of the conflict and the struggle that is the Christian life which is lived in a world that seems to be overrun with evil, suffering, and death. Jesus wants us to see that not everything is as it seems.

John uses the pattern of seven progressive and parallel sections to reveal to us the reality that God is controlling everything and is using all of the events of history to bring blessing to his people and establish his kingdom on earth.

Reflect

Revelation 4:1-6a is the beginning of the second of the seven sections (Rev. 1-3 are the first). The beginning of this section begins just like the beginning of the first one, with a picture of God on the throne. This time, John sees more explicitly imagery that echoes and builds upon throne room imagery from elsewhere in Scripture. We see that the throne room is a more real reality than every earthly copy (tabernacle and temple), and that it is the center of all of creation because it is where the localized presence of God is. Exodus 24:9-11 and Isaiah 6:1-7 are especially echoed in this passage and the significance is not lost on John. This is the same God who has been working with and through Israel, and is the same God who Jesus fully revealed in his earthly ministry.

We can imagine why Jesus would have wanted to invite John into the throne room: Life in the first century, especially for an Apostle who had been commissioned by Jesus and had a charge to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth was not an easy life. In fact, we know that John was exiled on an island, cut off from the rest of the church, except by the vain hope of sending them letters. It would be natural to feel discouraged and frustrated by those circumstances! Jesus brings John into the throne room to give him the powerful evidence of the sovereign reign of God over all circumstances and to comfort him with the perfect power of God which has become his inheritance. All of the symbols (rainbows, thunder/lightning, gem stones, sea of glass, and the 24 thrones for the elders) work together to accomplish this one goal: the glory of God is John’s inheritance and he can rest in the perfect sovereignty of the Lord.

Questions

1. What are some observations you can make about the similarities between what John sees and what Moses and Isaiah see in Exodus 24:9-11 and Isaiah 6:1-7? How might this have been especially comforting to John?

2. How do the different symbols work together to give John confidence?

3. What are some of the things that we go through in our context as Christians that make it hard to believe that God is in control of every detail of our life?

4. How does the glory of God help us live faithfully as Christians and give us focus for everything that we do?

About Jesus: Revelation 1:1-8

Read Revelation 1:1-8

Revelation is for everyone! Unfortunately, Revelation has received a reputation of being intimidating—even scary—for people and has been misunderstood and misapplied in many different ways. However, at its core, Revelation is a letter that is written to Christians in the midst of conflict and persecution as a source of comfort and confidence.

In order to understand Revelation as it is meant to be understood, we need to ask the questions that the original audience would have asked, not questions that we naturally want to know (like who the antichrist is or what the locusts actually represent in our time). The framing question for the book of Revelation is what should the church do now that Jesus is gone and there was increasing persecution and strife occurring in the lives of many Christians spread out throughout the Roman Empire. What does it mean for Jesus to have brought his kingdom in the midst of having a Roman Emperor murdering Jesus’ people for their faithfulness to Christ? How is Jesus ruling over this world?

In the first 8 verses of Revelation, the most important thing that John wants his readers to see is that at the very center of the book of Revelation, and at the very center of all of history, is God, and the focus on Jesus as the one whom has been given all authority in heaven and earth, the one who is sitting on the throne where he directs all of history to bring blessing to his people. When we understand that at the center of Revelation is God and how he is executing his authority through the enthroned Jesus, we are empowered to live faithfully in the midst of a world that is still beset by evil and curse.

Here are some helpful framing questions to guide your reading and discussion of Revelation:

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN REVELATION? Jesus is bringing his Kingdom to full consummation and his Church to full and final victory. Ironically, the doomsday weapon the Church wields is faith in the midst of weakness + suffering.

HOW DOES THE BOOK OF REVELATION WORK? Revelation covers the story from Christ’s ascension (Kingdom inauguration) to His return (Kingdom consummation) seven different times. This story is retold over and over throughout the book, focusing on the differing aspects of Christ’s victory over sin, Satan and death. Why? Probably because the Church needs to watch it over and over to boldly walk in the victory Jesus calls them into. Repeating it seven times also shows the fullness and finality of Christ’s victory (i.e. this is happening and nothing can stop it). Here’s a breakdown of the seven sections of Revelation.

1. The Seven Churches (1:1-3:22)

2. The Seven Seals (4:1-7:17)

3. The Seven Trumpets (8:1-11:19)

4. The Persecuting Dragon (12:1-14:20)

5. The Seven Bowls (15:1-16:21)

6. Fall of Babylon (17:1-19:21)

7. The Great Consummation (20:1-22:21)
   

WHAT GENRE IS THE BOOK OF REVELATION? “a prophecy cast in an apocalyptic mold and written down in a letter form.”

• What is apocalyptic literature?

• It is a specific kind of Prophetic literature

• Focus on the source of the Message

• Message mediated by heavenly beings

• Strong presence of symbolism, dreams, visions

PURPOSE: Give Christians peace, boldness, and confidence in the face of ongoing conflict. Essentially, the book teaches us how to live victoriously in Christ as we wait for final victory (His return).

Discussion Questions

1. What are you most hoping to get out of studying Revelation?

2. How does understanding that Revelation is for EVERYONE help you engage it?

3. Which description of Jesus in Revelation 1:5 stood out to you? How is that important for knowing how Jesus is sovereign and ruling over all history?

4. What do you think your biggest misconception of Revelation might be?

Resources

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/revelation-coronavirus-and-the-mark-of-the-beast-how-should-christians-read-the-bibles-most-fascinating-book-part-1/

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/revelation-coronavirus-and-the-mark-of-the-beast-part-2/

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/revelation-coronavirus-and-the-mark-of-the-beast-how-should-christians-read-the-bibles-most-fascinating-book-part-3/

https://rts.edu/resources/how-should-we-understand-revelation/#

Follow Me: John 21:1-19

READ JOHN 21:1-19

The last scene that is depicted in the Gospel of John is Jesus interacting in a specific way with Peter. In this section, we see Jesus ask Peter three consecutive times “do you love me?” and Peter respond with intensifying emotion with each response, culminating in an emphatic confession of Jesus’ omniscience. This final interaction gives both a resolution and also opens the door to the future by alluding to the work that Peter and John will continue doing after Jesus ascends.

Jesus asks Peter the same question three times “do you love me?” to resolve the betrayal of Jesus by Peter prior to his crucifixion. Peter, one of the closes disciples to Jesus and one of the boldest throughout Jesus’ life, was unable to follow Jesus to the cross and abandoned him and denied knowing him even at the slightest threat. There would be no other way to understand this other than a loss of faith, and a major rift in the relationship between Peter and Jesus. Jesus does not bring this up to rub it in Peter’s face, but rather to fully and completely heal the wounds and the guilt that Peter would have felt as a result. Jesus does not pretend that it didn’t happen, nor does he recap the entire situation. Instead he pushes Peter into his new reality and also fully and completely forgives him. Jesus helps establish Peter as full of faith by having him emphasize his love for Jesus and also to confess his dependence on Jesus knowing all things. Peter had tried being strong for Jesus in the past and he failed, now we see Peter who has learned to depend on Jesus who is strong.

Jesus also commissions Peter based on his confession of love. Jesus gives Peter the work of an under shepherd to feed his sheep and tend his lambs. This opens up the door to the future that lies ahead for Peter. Peter is now called to follow Christ and to live as Jesus lived. This will mean forsaking his own desires and serving the Lord by serving and leading the Lord’s people. Ultimately, as John foreshadows later, Peter would follow Jesus all the way to death. The call to follow Jesus comes after Jesus grounds Peter’s love for Christ in the knowledge that Jesus has of Peter (and of all things).

QUESTIONS

1. What can we learn from Jesus about how to resolve conflict and pursue peace with people who have wronged us?

2. How does Peter’s history of betrayal come out in his third response to Jesus’ question?

3. What is different for Peter? Why is he able to follow Jesus now but he wasn’t before?

4. What are some ways that Jesus is calling you to follow him?

Running on the Source: Jeremiah 2:1-13

Read Jeremiah 2:1-13

1. How does Jeremiah understand Israel’s relationship to God? What kind of relationship is it and how does that play into how Jeremiah calls Israel to account?

2. What might have been some of the fears that were causing the Israelites to turn away from God and to other sources of comfort, protection, and security?

3. What are some of the broken cisterns that Israel had made? What are some of the broken cisterns that we often turn to?

4. If we go straight to the source, the God of living waters, what do we find? How does the woman at the well illustrate God as the source of living waters? (John 4:1-30)

Running Away: Jeremiah 42:7-17

Read Jeremiah 42:7-17

1. What are some of the things that made the Israelites want to run away? How can we relate to what they were going through?

2. How have you seen God’s faithfulness at a time when you wanted to “run away” but didn’t?

3. Is there something (responsibility, suffering, relationship, God) that you are currently tempted to run from?

4. How does God provide us with growth when we remain where he wants us?

The Spirit in Dry Places: Ezekiel 37:1-14

Read Ezekiel 37:1-14

Questions

1. What role does the Spirit play and what role does God’s word play in this vision?

2. Why do you think that this was a difficult message for Israel to hear when Ezekiel delivered it to them?

3. The context of this vision is that of exile, where Israel was experiencing the judgment of God because of their idolatry and mixed worship. In what ways do you depend on other things for your comfort, joy, purpose, and power? How does this passage apply to that?

4. How does the resurrection of Christ and the gift of the Spirit reveal how this prophecy is fulfilled? Why is it important to view Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection as the fulfillment of this prophecy rather than our own lives?

5. What role does our future resurrection play in fulfilling this prophecy?

Reframe Your Life: 2 Timothy 1:7-12

Read 2 Timothy 1:7-12

Questions

1. What did Pastor Steve King mean when he encouraged us to reframe our lives?

2. What are some of the “default” or “autopilot” frames that you use to view your life through?

3. How does Paul encourage Timothy to frame his life?

4. What are the consequences of having an unbiblical frame for our life?

5. How does Jesus help us to frame our lives?

Pray

Spend time in prayer over the ways that the Spirit is leading you to frame your life with God’s word and his promises to you in Jesus Christ.

Feeling God's Love Part 1: Romans 8:31-34

Read Romans 8:31-34

In light of everything that Paul has been discussing in chapter 8, we begin to feel the full force of Paul’s argument of the implications of the gospel in the Christian life. This is life in the Spirit, or life in Christ. After discussing the implications of a fallen and futile creation, Paul grounds the Christian life in the love of God as something that comes from God and to his people. The massive therefore that brings the argument to conclusion is that despite all of the futility of life and creation, we can be CERTAIN that we are safe and secure in Christ with everything that we need to thrive.

The rhetorical questions that Paul uses to tease out the implications of his argument is: “If God is for us, who can be against us?”. The force of this question is that God is supreme, almighty, and eternal, therefore if we are certain that he is for us, then it doesn’t matter who or what is working against us because God will prevail. He then shows us how we can be certain that God is for us: he has given us his son. In Romans 8:3, we see that God has sent his son into the world for sin and to condemn sin, for us. God has given what was most precious to him for our benefit and to secure and accomplish our salvation. Therefore, because he has given us the most valuable thing, it follows that he would not spare any good thing in accomplishing his good purposes for our life.

In verse 33, we see the goodness of God’s love for us applied to our guilt in sin. Having previously established the sinfulness of all people in Romans 1-3, Paul builds on this theme by showing us how life in Christ is a life that is free from condemnation. Just as he opened this chapter, he reminds us that God is the only one who can justly condemn us and he has pronounced us righteous because of Christ’s intervention on our behalf on the cross and in his resurrection. Therefore, Paul shows us that the very center of our salvation is the death and resurrection of Christ (nothing we have done). When we believe and follow Christ, we are justified by faith, not by what we do but by what he has done. This is true not just for the newly converted, but for the most mature Christian, because Jesus continues to intercede for us and serve as a weapon against guilt and condemnation that comes from a wicked world and Satan.

Questions

1. How can we know that God is for us?

2. What are some barriers to believing and living like God is truly for us?

3. Why is it important to center your faith not on your experience but on the death and resurrection of Jesus?

4. How does Jesus present intercession give you confidence in approaching God in prayer?

Living Hope: 1 Peter 1:3-5

Read 1 Peter 1:3-5

Peter’s main purpose in writing this letter is to remind Christians living in a hostile world that they have an enduring hope that is rooted in the promises made to them by God and fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

The beginning of the body of the letter starts off with a strong description of the source and substance of this hope: it is a living hope because Jesus is alive. This grounds our hope on a living person, and therefore Peter calls it a living hope.

Jesus can be said to be our living hope because he is the firstborn from the dead. This alludes to the certain reality of the future of all believers, that they too will be resurrected to eternal life. Jesus goes before us to the exact same destination and destiny as all of those who “have been caused to be born again”.

This brings us hope in the midst of a life that is plagued by false promises, disappointments, discouragement, and curse. It is so easy for us to dwell on the things of this life, but Peter implores us to remember this living hope and that it gives us hope right now in the midst of our everyday lives. To do this, he describes what we are “born again” to: an inheritance that is 1) imperishable, 2) undefiled, and 3) unfading. Our inheritance is eternal, it will not run out or spoil. It is pure, in that there is nothing that is not perfect and good and beautiful contained within it. And it is unfading in that we will never grow tired or bored of our inheritance. All of this in contrast to the promises of this world and this life.

Finally, Peter shows us the certainty of our inheritance. It is God who is guarding it, and God is guarding it through faith. God uses our faith to guard our inheritance and give us assurance of it. This final salvation is still future in that we have not experienced the full expression of it. However, it is not future in a way that has no impact on our present lives. Instead, it is a future reality that transforms everything about our present reality.

Questions

1. Discuss how and why Jesus is the living hope that Christians have.

2. How should these three verses shape how we live our lives?

3. Do you experience a disconnect between the beauty of these verses and how it plays out in your life? Discuss.

4. What can you do to make the reality of the hope you have in Jesus more real to you?

From Beginning to End: Romans 8:29-30

Read Romans 8:29-30

Predestination is one of the oldest and most controversial debates within the Christian church. Contrary to what a lot of people would say, the debate did not begin in the 16th or 17th century, but in the early stages of the church. Augustine and Pelagius were the main representatives of discussing God’s role in salvation and human agency in salvation. While this debate is an important one, it is also important to remember that it is not an essential component of the Christian faith. Therefore, we should always strive to live at peace and in harmony with other Christians who disagree with us on that issue. In addition, Paul is not really trying to lay out a comprehensive understanding or doctrine of predestination in these verses (though if you take them out of the context of the letter it might seem like it!). Instead, Paul is seeking to remind the Roman church of God’s power and perfect love for his people in the midst of a fallen world that is in bondage to corruption. It is in the midst of human weakness (vs. 26) that Paul pushes into God’s strength. Understanding the basis of God’s promise in vs. 28, that all things work for the good of God’s people, is the purpose of bringing up his perfect love that he chose to place upon us from before the foundations of the earth (Ephesians 1:4).

The slew of terms that Paul throws out in these two verses has been described as a golden chain: foreknown—>predestined—>called—>justified—>glorified. This process of salvation all has the outcome of the ultimate good, that we would be “conformed to the image of his son” in order that Jesus would be glorified. In giving us this beautiful perspective of our salvation Paul is showing us why it is that the suffering of this present life (as real and painful as it is) is not worth comparing to the glory that is to come. Our destiny is sealed and we are guaranteed to see the image of God perfected in us just as it is perfect in Jesus. He, as our older brother, shows us what our future will be, and as he is glorified, we are wrapped up and included in his glory. We become a walking illustration of Jesus’ glory. Each of the terms that Paul uses to describe how the process of salvation takes us to this wonderful outcome is helpful and comforting to consider:

Foreknown: God has set his special redemptive love on all of his people before the foundations of the earth. He doesn’t foresee us, or foreknow something about us, but he loves us first, that we will then respond by loving him.

Predestined: God has committed himself to us from eternity. There is no cost that is too high for God to pay in saving us. Father, Son, and Spirit are completely committed to bringing about our salvation.

Called: God bends the events of history to bring his perfect plan into real time by calling every one of his people personally. This call is made up of the gospel message of salvation of sinners through Jesus Christ, and it resonates deeply in our soul. When God calls us, he speaks with power, just as he did when he spoke the world into existence. He calls, we answer.

Justified: There is therefore no condemnation for those in Jesus Christ. Justification is the opposite of condemnation. God pronounces us righteous and as he does that we are fully accepted by him.

Glorified: The outcome of our salvation is to be a new creation that perfectly displays the glory of God. Our salvation becomes more beautiful when it is not ultimately about us, but about reflecting and illustrating God’s glory. This is our destiny, and it is everlasting.

Questions:

1. How does God’s “foreknowledge” of us establish the nature of our relationship to him?

2. What is helpful about viewing predestination as something that is meant to comfort us?

3. How did you experience God’s call for you to believe in Jesus and trust him?

4. How do justification and glorification help us as we suffer in this life?

Becoming Beautiful: Romans 8:28

Read Romans 8:28

In this well known verse, we receive one of the most astounding promises that God makes to all of those who have faith in Christ. Paul premises this promise by stating that it is not for EVERYONE, but for those who love God. The end of the verse states that same group of people from a different perspective, those who love God are the ones who are called according to his purpose. In the context of Romans 8, we know that it is those who are “in Christ” who have placed their trust in him and him alone for salvation from their sins and new life.

The promise for those who love God is that ALL things will work together for their good. After having spent the last paragraph or so describing the state of the world under the subjection to futility and the groaning for redemption, the emphasis of this passage is that all things, even the things that are part of the bondage of this present world and the suffering that it produces are working together for good. There is nothing that is outside of God’s care or control in the lives of his people. He is intimately involved in every detail and is tilting all aspects of our lives towards good.

The good that is promised in this verse is pure, perfect, beautiful and unimaginably good because it is good that flows directly from God’s character. Because God is good and all goodness is defined and flows from Him, we are certain that the fulfillment of this promise will be better than we could possibly imagine. While we might be curious about the details, we can be certain about the outcome.

Finally, it is God who is the one working all things towards good. Romans 8:28 assumes that it is God that is working all things towards good because all things do not have the ability to work themselves towards good and we certainly do not have the ability to control all things in a way that we can make them work towards good. It is only the one true God who has the power, purity, and desire to move all things towards the good of his people, and it is because He is the one working that we can know that this promise is certain.

Questions

1. Why is this promise difficult to believe at times and what helps push us towards believing it more?

2. How does Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection give a perfect illustration for this verse?

3. Have you experienced any situations where you have seen this promise playing out in your life?

4. What are some ways that we can imitate God by using everything in our spheres of influence to bring about goodness?

Unspoken: Romans 8:26-27

Read Romans 8:26-27

As we go through life and live in a world that is “subjected to futility” and “waiting patiently for the revelation of the glory of the sons of God”, it is assumed that we will feel acute weakness. Human weakness is not necessarily a bad thing as we are created with certain weaknesses in terms of our dependence on God for sustenance and provision. However, we also have weakness that is the direct result of sin and the consequences of sin, and Paul is concerned with all types of weakness when he encourages us that the Spirit helps us in our weakness.

The Spirit helps us in our weakness specifically in our relation to God. As we cry out in prayer and seek God in the midst of fallen bodies and a fallen world, we have help. Our perspective is limited by our inability to see God working, to know how he will work, and our inability to know what is best for us at times. The Spirit has no such limits! The Spirit knows all of this and cries out to God on our behalf. This is what it means for him to intercede for us, he takes our place in prayer and communicates to God for us as we are praying. The “deep things of the Spirit” cry out to God in prayer in ways that words cannot describe because the Spirit is not limited by language, but communicates on a deeper level with God our Father.

The importance of the Spirit interceding for us is also helpful to align our prayers and our wills with God’s will. There are many times in our lives when the will of God seems unclear. We will fail to know how or what to pray for and can become stuck. However, because the Spirit is God just as the Father is God, the unity of God is ours because the Spirit is ours. This all comes to us from the will of God. It is God’s desire to give himself to us in this deeply personal and relational way. God wants to draw us further into his mind and his care for us and he does this through the Spirit in the weakness of our prayers.

Questions

1. How does the Spirit’s help in our weakness show off the strength of the Gospel?

2. Have you ever experienced a time when you were aware that the Spirit was interceding for you in prayer?

3. How does the Spirit help to align us with God’s will?

4. What do we learn about God when we consider his will for us in these two verses?

Expectation and Endurance: Romans 8:18-25

Read Romans 8:18-25

Paul switches the focus from the implications of salvation and redemption for humans to the implications of redemption for the entire universe. In this section there is a surprising focus on how the redemption of human beings in the person and work of Jesus, then passed on to his people by the Spirit impacts all of creation.

After discussing how suffering was part of the inheritance that we have in Christ, Paul shows his readers that those sufferings, while real, are not ultimate. The point of this passage is for Paul to comfort Christians with a beautiful description of how rich we are to be counted among those who have been redeemed by Christ. Even the most significant and painful of our sufferings are incomparable to the vastness of our blessing in Christ. To illustrate this point, Paul reveals something truly majestic: the cosmic scope of our redemption.

The world is in bondage. This is plain to see from all of the different ways that creation does not work as we intuitively know that it should. Paul repositions this brokenness of creation as a type of groaning and lamenting that creation is doing for God’s Sons to be revealed. In fact, it was God who issued the curse onto the natural world as a consequence of the sin of Adam and Eve. However, we learn here that even that curse was not given only as punishment, but served redemptive purposes. It was given in hope, the hope that one day Jesus would undo the curse and reverse all of the evil that sin and satan had unleashed on the world. This passage tells us that this reversal began with Jesus and continues in us and will be fulfilled only when all of God’s people have been drawn into God’s family.

Patience is the final exhortation of this passage. Picking up on the fact that we can only hope for something that is future, Paul urges us to be patient as we await our sure future. The bigger our expectation of that future is, the more endurance we will have. As we seek to live as Sons of God in the here and now, we also know that only the return of Jesus and the final act of redemption, glorification will ultimately perfect this world. “Grace is but glory begun, and glory is but grace perfected.” -Jonathan Edwards.

Questions

1. How does the expectation of a completely redeemed cosmos change how you think of your salvation?

2. What do we learn about God by knowing that it was God that subjected creation to futility, but that he did this with hope?

3. What makes it so hard to believe that all of creation is eagerly awaiting YOU to be fully revealed?

4. Where are you most impatient regarding the redemption of this world? How does viewing all of redemption as a promise of God help you with patience?

Liberated to Love: Romans 8:3-4

Read Romans 8:3-4

We are set free by love, through love, and to love. Paul describes how it came to be that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (vs. 1) and what that means for the lives of all those who are in Christ.

We are set free by love. Notice the first words of verse 3, “For God has done…”. It was fundamentally the action of God that has given us the ability to say that there is no condemnation. It is not attributed to human action but to the action of God. Another way to sum up this statement is to view it through the lens of love. It was God’s love that caused him to act that then gave us the standing of having no condemnation. Apart from the love of God the Father, we would have remained under condemnation because of our rebellion against him. It is easy to skip over these first few words and focus on the mechanics of the rest of this passage, but in these first few words we see the outflow of God’s heart in action. He has done something that only he could do and he has done it for us!

We are set free through love. What was it that God did? How was he able to accomplish something that the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do? The answer is in the last part of verse 3, “he sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.” The love of God was made manifest in the incarnation of Jesus. God became flesh in order to condemn sin in the flesh in place of all those who are “in Christ.”. This is the ultimate act of love, it is completely selfless and doesn’t hold anything back. God commits himself so fully to his people that he gives his very self to them. It is because of this sending of the Son in likeness of sinful flesh and the subsequent condemnation of sin in the flesh of Jesus that we can then claim to no longer be under condemnation for our sin.

We are set free to love. Verse 4 shows the purpose of love. All of the above was done “in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” God’s purpose in his work of salvation is to transform us from self-interested rebels into self-giving worshippers. The righteous requirement of the law was always to help us in imitating God. God wanted to restore what it meant to bear his image when he gave the law. However, as we saw in chapter 7, in the flesh, there is no ability to keep the law because we continue to have a desire that is contrary to the LORD. In Romans 8, we see what it is like to operate not based on the flesh but based on the Spirit. God works his Spirit in his people and it is by this power that we are able to love as we were originally created to love. We cannot do this in our strength, by our own self-will or discipline. It is only possible through the humility and love of being found in Christ and possessing and following the Spirit. This Spirit-led way of life is described throughout the rest of Romans 8.

Questions

1. What does Paul mean when he uses the word “flesh” in these verses?

2. Why is it important to notice that it is God who is the primary agent of action in these verses?

3. How does Jesus condemn sin in the flesh?

4. How does the reality of your sin being fully condemned in the flesh of Jesus impact how you live?

5. Who can you tell about how God has loved you? What would it look like to have this conversation?

Live Free: Romans 8:1-2

Read Romans 8:1-2

There is therefore NOW no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This is a summary statement of what it means for the Christian to trust in the finished work of Jesus. Before we can truly understand what this means for our lives both now and into eternity, we first have to come to understand that if we are not IN Christ, then we face condemnation.

The reality of our rebellion against God is a reality that the Bible delves into time and time again. The entire storyline of the Old Testament is the perpetual failures of God’s people, even the most hopeful and brightest individuals out of God’s people, ultimately fall far short of the perfection that God requires. This is known as the righteousness of God. God is perfect and pure, he is Holy. As a result, we stand before him condemned as rebels and traitorous children who have forsaken God and sought to overthrow Him as Lord of our lives.

In Romans 1-4, Paul makes it clear that this fallen reality of standing before God condemned is true for both Jew and Gentile. In other words, it is UNIVERSAL. There is no one who is righteous. However, this is not the end of the story, in Romans 5-6 Paul shows Jesus to be the new Adam, the new representative of God’s chosen people, who is God, who perfectly walked before God in obedience and who offered himself as the perfect sacrifice for the sin of his people. We are united to Christ by faith (Romans 6). And yet, even though we are united to Christ, we are still faced with the reality of sin and the residual effects of a sinful nature in this life. Romans 7 shows the futility of trying to fight this sin nature on our own, the futility of seeking to earn God’s approval in our own strength. The reality of our sin continues to plague us and spoil even our best efforts to please God.

Romans 8 is all about what it means to live in the Spirit instead of in the flesh. If Romans 7 shows us what life is like when we try to earn God’s love through our effort, Romans 8 is all about what life is like when we live out of the freedom that we have in Christ and live by the Spirit, not in order to earn God’s love, but flowing out of God’s love. These first two verses are the foundation of life in Christ. Life in Christ is fundamentally about living free from the condemnation that haunts human sin, and embracing the role of the Spirit as we walk in our new identity as God’s beloved children.

Questions

1. Look at Romans 7:21-24. How does the law of the Spirit in Romans 8:2, compare to the law that Paul describes as the law of sin?

2. Why do ALL those outside of Christ face condemnation? How does the looming threat or memory of that condemnation continue to haunt you today?

3. Does your flesh respond to the memory of condemnation that we all continue to have through rebellion or through seeking to please God in your own strength?

4. Why is it important to understand what sin is in order to grasp how great the message of Romans 8:1-2 is?

5. What is one way that you can live more in line with the “law of the Spirit of life” (aka freedom in Christ) rather than the “law of sin and death” (aka our desires and works apart from the Spirit)?

Walk Worthy: Ephesians 4:1-6

Read Ephesians 4:1-6

Christians are CALLED. Paul emphasizes this fundamental aspect of what it means to trust in Jesus by pointing us to the steps that faith takes. Knowing that God has called us out of the world and into fellowship with Him and with each other, we should strive to live our lives in a manner that is worthy of that high calling.

For those who trust in Christ, we have been called out of lives that were devoted to ourselves and living in rebellion to God and we have been called into lives that resemble the life of Christ and a deep unity within that new Christian community. The power of grace as it continues to transform us every day makes us humble and gentle, just as Christ is humble and gentle (Matthew 11:25-30).

Jesus’ heart for us is to welcome us into the most sacred parts of relationship and fellowship that he can offer, and as a result, our heart for him and for all of his people should reflect that. The love of God has called us out, and as a result we live a life that resembles that love and walks in it rather than away from it. This can become extremely difficult in the context and messiness of a church. After all, we are all sinners who have been called out, and part of life in this world is a reckoning with the residual sin that continues to plague us all. When this happens in the context of church it causes division and wounds that seek to divide us who have been united by Jesus’ blood.

It is in this messy context that the power of the call that is on our lives is displayed. We are only able to bear with one another in love because we are renewed by the source of love. We are able to persevere in periods of difficulty because we share the hope of the new heavens and new earth and we know that Jesus is redeeming all things. As we continue to realize the love that God has loved us with in Christ, we will grow in embodying that love and grace in our church, the family of God.

Questions

1. What does it feel like to remember that all Christians have each been called, personally and powerfully, by God into a new life?

2. Why is it important for us to root our understanding of community in the call of God?

3. How do you need to embody Jesus’ gentle and humble heart in community? What does this look like?

4. How can our community group live this out more fully? What is each of our parts in that?

I Speak: Psalm 19:12-14

Read Psalm 19

The synthesis of Psalm 19 occurs in the final 3 verses, 12-14. After considering creation (general revelation) and God’s Law (special revelation) the Psalmist concludes by working out his own relation to God based on all of revelation. God is displayed as mighty, powerful, beautiful, and wonderful in creation. By viewing all of the visible universe the Psalmists comes to know God as Creator, and everything else as creation. The natural relationship between creature and Creator is one of joy where the creature seeks to glorify God in everything.

In the second portion of Psalm 19 the Psalmist reflects on special revelation and sees the perfection of God. God is holy, blameless, righteous, and pure. This is all revealed through an intimate and searching knowledge of God’s words to us, his “Law”. The Psalmist understands the law as the Creator’s will and desire for the creature, and he finds that will to be perfect.

This leads to a natural posture of humility and dependence that the Psalmist articulates in the final three verses. It is because of God’s power and purity that the Psalmist is in need of pardon and power to preserve him as he seeks to follow God. Even the ability to discern his errors is seen as something that the Psalmist needs God’s help to do. It is not enough that the law is given, the Lord is needed to be able to rightly apply and trust that law.

Ultimately, the prayer of the Psalmist ends with trusting that God will faithfully deliver on his promises. The Lord has promised to pardon his covenant people and to preserve them and bless them. The Psalmist shows a radical dependence on the Lord for everything as it relates to his ability to keep the law and to be viewed as “upright” in front of the judgement of God.

Although it is not stated explicitly in the Psalm, we know that the substance of how God answers this prayer from the Psalmist is in the person and work of Jesus. Through Jesus’ perfect life, we see that he was the only person who has every been able to live without any blame or blemish. Through his death we trust that the full atonement for all of our hidden faults and presumptuous sins has been made. Both of these, Jesus’ righteous life and atoning death, are attributed to us by God through faith. Just as the Psalmist trusted the Lord to deliver his promise even though he didn’t know the specifics of how that promise was going to be kept, we now also trust the Lord all the more because we have received the testimony of the perfect Son of God in the scriptures who fulfills all the promises of God.

Questions

1. What does the Psalmist mean by asking the question “who can discern his errors?”

2. How does a perfect and just God declare sinners innocent from hidden faults?

3. How should this Psalm teach us to pray to God?

4. What makes this prayer “empowering”? How does God meet us in this prayer?

God Speaks: Psalm 19:7-11

READ PSALM 19:7-11

The second portion of Psalm 19 focus on the “Law of the LORD”. The Old Testament authors had several different ways that they would use “law”. Sometimes it stood for the moral law or the 10 commandments received by Moses, other times it stood for the first five books of the Bible known as the Pentateuch, and other times it stands for the entire Old Testament, or all of what God had revealed of himself at that time. In this Psalm, the “law” most likely refers to the last of these usages, all of what God had revealed of himself at that time.

David has a very positive view of the law of the LORD and he goes to great lengths in explaining all of the various ways that God’s revelation is good, true, and beautiful. This goodness, truth, and beauty is reflected in God’s revelation because it is fundamentally a reflection of who God is. Just as the creation has demonstrated the majesty and generosity of God, the Law continues to reveal him as good, true, and beautiful. There is no flaw that can be found in all of what God has revealed about himself and there is nothing on earth more valuable than the “law of the LORD”.

Yet, there seems to be a slight disconnect with what this Psalm says and what we naturally think about who God is and how he has revealed himself. Naturally, we are skeptical, critical, and place ourselves in the seat of judgement over God’s revelation. Romans 8 tells us that this is not due to any defect in the law itself, but because of the weakness of our flesh. While the law is good, true, and beautiful, it does not have the power to redeem. Instead, it points to the redeemer: Jesus. This is how Jesus fulfills the law. His life, death, resurrection, and ascension serve as the total and complete fulfillment of God’s revelation and is the fulfillment of God’s promise to redeem his people and to bless the nations through them. Apart from God revealing himself in the law and in creation, we would be totally ignorant about this beautiful reality.

Questions

1. How should Christians think about “the law of the LORD”?

2. What are some of the ways that Scripture has been precious to you?

3. What is the danger of looking to the law without seeing Jesus?

4. How does God’s word fill your life? What are some other things that you fill your life with instead?

Creation Speaks: Psalm 19:1-6

Read Psalm 19:1-6

Psalm 19 can be divided into three different sections or voices, the first of which is in verses 1-6. The voice that emerges as revealing God in this section is creation. The Psalm instructs us to look to creation as a way of getting to know God, the Creator. Verse 1 shows us the vastness of creation and how that reveals God’s glory. Just as we cannot fathom the limits or extent of the universe, we cannot fathom the glory of God. We are brought to the end of our ability to know and understand which shows us how far above us God is.

Next, the Psalm shows us the universality of the knowledge of God as revealed in creation in verses 2-4. There is no day that passes that doesn’t reveal who God is. He is revealing himself through creation all the time. Likewise, there is no place in which the knowledge of God is not revealed. It is universal both in that it is continuous and that it happens everywhere. Throughout all the earth the glory of God is revealed through creation.

The first section of the Psalm concludes by bringing the first two sections together and highlighting the joy that creation demonstrates. The sun, which “lives” in “the heavens, and the sky above” (vs. 1) goes from one end of the heavens to the other. The glory of God shines like the sun over all the earth and there is no speck of creation that does not receive the message of God’s goodness and glory. Not only that, but this is the very purpose that God created the sun, the moon, the stars, all of the galaxies for. As a result, the Psalmist describes the sun as having joy as it aligns with the wisdom that God has woven into the fabric of creation. We are most happy when we are satisfied with God’s glory.

As we will learn in the rest of the Psalm, we cannot stop here. Although God reveals himself perfectly through creation, because of the nature of sin that plagues humanity we suppress the knowledge that he gives us. Instead of worshipping God when we see creation we are prone to exchange the Creator for the creation and we worship creation. This is a distortion of the natural order that is only remedied in the person and work of Jesus Christ. He was the only person who lived fully for the glory of God and refused to exchange the love of God his father for the love of the world. By trusting Christ, we are given perfect atonement for this grievous sin, and we are also giving the transforming power of the Spirit that progressively restores our love and worship of God.

Questions

1. How do the heavens help us understand God’s glory?

2. Why is it important to look for wisdom and order in nature?

3. What do we learn about God when we know that he has revealed himself in every place and to every people?

4. How have you experienced a natural tendency to suppress what God reveals about himself in creation?

5. How does Jesus redeem our ability to know God in creation? How does/should this produce joy in your life?