Plymothian

The disciples did great things, but Jesus did not rejoice because they managed to cast out evil spirits.  He rejoiced because of the disciples’ and His connection with heaven.  Muslims, Buddhists, Atheists, and Postmodernists often live productive lives.  I have met people in each of those categories who I suspect were nicer than me.  Being Christian isn’t about what you do, it is about who you know.  The kind of intimate relationship that God desires with us leads to joy.  You may know a lot.  You may do a lot.  Do you have a joy that is maintained in spite of circumstances?

Luke 10: 21-24; Matthew 13: 44-46

1. In whom did Jesus rejoice?
2. To whom are ‘these things’ revealed?
3. What kind of eyes are blessed?
4. What have you seen that would lead to joy?
5. How do the cares of the world blind joyful vision?

Going Deeper

Observation

• At what time did Jesus rejoice?
• Why did the Father choose to reveal ‘these things’ to infants?
• Who knows the Son?
• Who knows the Father (two answers)?
• Who desired to see what the disciples saw?

Interpretation

• Jesus rejoiced at the same hour as what?
• What are the ‘things’ that are revealed to which Jesus refers?
• If the Son reveals the Father to whomever he chooses, can he choose not to reveal the Father?
• Does the similarity of the language here to the gospel of John mean that this passage is a fraudulent addition?
• How does joy lead to the sacrifice of everything in Mtt 13:44-46?

Application

• How does your service of others lead to joy?
• Does your joy transcend the labours of obedience?
• If the kingdom of heaven is a joyful discovery that comes before anything else, to whom or what do you need to give less time?
• Do you trust the Bible to be inerrant in the original autographs?  Does it matter?
• How is your prayer life?  How could it express more joy?

We have a beautiful boy living with us. I delight in him daily.  Today, for the first time, we walked around the house with him just holding one hand.  I don’t know what he will become.  I don’t know who he will be.  I need to wait and see if he will even be with us for more than a few months.  Contrast that with one who is born in fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy.  Sense the joy that people felt on seeing a five hundred year old prophesy fulfilled in a little boy.

Luke 1: 67-70; Luke 2: 33-35

1. Who was filled with the Holy Spirit?
2. Why should the Lord God of Israel be blessed?
3. What were Jesus’ father and mother amazed about?
4. What is amazing about what is being revealed to the parents in these passages?
5. Do you maintain a sense of awe and wonder at God’s work?

Going Deeper

Observation

• What part of an animal has been raised up?
• In whose house has one been raised up?
• How did God speak of old?
• Who blessed Mary and Joseph?
• What will happen to Mary’s soul?

Interpretation

• What is the significance of a horn?
• Who has just been born to Zacharias?
• Does God still prophecy?
• How is it a blessing if a sword pierces your soul?
• How are the pronouncements of Zechariah and Simeon related?

Application

• Have you ever been filled with the Holy Spirit?  What does that look like?
• Has God’s redemption come to Israel in a different way than to the church?
• How have people you know fallen because of Jesus?
• How have peole you know risen because of Jesus?
• How does the fact of Jesus bring opposition even today?

Walking in darkness still scares me.  I remember walking at night under a full moon across Dartmoor.  It was with a group of scouts and I wanted to seem brave.  Somewhere near Giant’s Basin I fell in a leat (manmade waterway).  Perhaps the darkest place that I have been is sat in an addit off of a tunnel in near Shaugh Prior.  I am still scared of darkness.  I imagine foul things lurking out of sight.  I love coming into the light.  I love it when bright sunlight shines through the trees.  Jesus’ arrival is the coming of light to a world that could only expect the darkness of death.

Isaiah 9: 1-7

1. How is the nation of Israel’s joy described?
2. What has been shattered?
3. What are the limits to the child’s government and peace?
4. How can all of the things in these verses be described as the coming of light into darkness?
5. Where does darkness in your life need to be expelled by the light?

Going Deeper

Observation

• What will those in distress have no more?
• What region will God honour?
• What will the son be called?
• Where will he reign?
• What will accomplish this?

Interpretation

• What other words do you associate with ‘gloom’?
• Where was Jesus raised?  In waht region did he start his ministry?
• How can the son be the Everlasting Father?
• What does it mean to reign on David’s throne?
• Does God feel things with a greater or lesser zeal? 

Application

• Will these words be read by you at Christmas?
• Do you have days where you are an Eeyor?
• How would focusing on Jesus’ position and titles take away your blues?
• How can you picture Jesus in an exalted state?
• How does it reassure you to think of God planning Jesus’ place of ministry 500 years in advance?

Joy and suffering – how do these two go together?  The suffering servant sacrificed himself and received the joy of seeing others saved.  It is one thing to endure a marathon for the joy of finishing like many in Chicago did today.  It is another thing to endure the bone chilling death of crucifixion.  How do you sacrifice yourself for others and retain your joy?

Isaiah 53; Hebrews 1: 8-9, 12:2

1. With what is the servant of God familiar?
2. What did the suffering servant take up and carry?
3. What did the author and perfector of our faith endure and why?
4. How could Isaiah have written in such detail about future events?
5. How is Christ’s suffering with a focus on joy a model for us?

Going Deeper

Observation

• How did the suffering servant grow before God?
• With what animal are we compared?
• With what animal is the suffering servant compared?
• With what oil has the Son been anointed?
• Where are we to fix our eyes?

Interpretation

• If Jesus is God how did he develop as a human?
• What do we know about sheep?  How are Jesus and other people comparable to sheep?
• How does Jesus’ life show that he loved righteousness and hated wickedness?
• What did God do with Jesus because of his love of righteousness?
• How does Jesus attitude at the cross show the difference between joy and happiness?

Application

• How has suffering caused you to grow?
• How are you like a sheep?
• How do you sacrifice yourself for the sake of Christian brothers and sisters?
• When this week can you sit down and think about Jesus’ death?
• When was the last time you had eucharist/communion/ breaking of bread?

I want my soul to rise up.  I read about a book written by a graduate of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School who went into apologetics and then became an atheist.  My stomach knots when I read of these things.  Sometimes it is tempting to believe we live in a material universe ruled by cause and effect.  Sometimes it is tempting to look at the universe and think that we can know nothing of its purposes, or that it has no purpose.  Sometimes Sartre’s nausea or Nietzsche’s will to power seem like an appropriate response.  However great the mystery, though, I believe that the LORD made known his ways to Moses.  Although my days are like grass, an eternal love is with me because I fear him.

Psalm 103

1. What aspects of himself does David call to praise the LORD’s holy name?
2. What does God do with sin and disease?
3. How does God deal with sin and iniquity?
4. If sin is a travesty worthy of tortuous death, how has God lavished mercy on us all?
5. How do we praise God for saving us from sin that has lost its seriousness in the 21st century?

Going Deeper

Observation

• To which people did God make known his ways?
• In what different ways is God’s love described?
• Upon whom does the LORD have compassion?
• What are man’s days like?
• What is to praise God?

Interpretation

• Did God reveal himself to Israel in ways that he doesn’t reveal himself now?
• How does Israel’s history reveal God’s love when they kill so many people?
• How can a person healthily love someone that they fear?
• How can God have everlasting love for people who live a short time?
• How do all of God’s works praise him if they are not all sentient?

Application

• Does your experience of God match what you have been told?  What can you do to seek a deeper experience of God (i.e. How should your soul rise up?)?
• Do you think that God’s love is revealed as much in the Old Testament as in the New?
• Do you love God and fear him?
• I have a skull in my office to remind me I am going to die.  What could you do to remember that your life is like grass?
• How could you further understand how all creation praises God and join in?

I meet with students on a Tuesday.  We talked about the release that forgiveness can bring.  I remember that my skeptical undergraduate professor Dr. Liz Stuart actually credited Christianity with having something to offer when it came to the subject of forgiveness.  We all long to be forgiven.  Fear of judgement has left me shy of confessing sin to my fellow believers.  In strict fundamentalist circles the holiness police can be very cruel.  However, God forgives me.  He causes me to have an upright heart because he covers my sin.

Psalm 32

1. Why is the psalmist blessed or happy?
2. What happened to the psalmist’s body when he was silent about his sin?
3. What happened when the psalmist confessed his sin?
4. How can a person who has sin be godly?
5. How can you be courageously vulnerable with the people you meet?

Going Deeper

Observation

• What does the blessed or happy man have in his spirit?
• Why should everyone who is godly pray to God?
• How does God preserve the psalmist?
• What animals have no understanding?
• How does the one who trusts in the LORD contrast with the wicked?

Interpretation

• Is it possible to have no deceit?  How can the psalmist write that such a person is blessed?
• How exactly does confessing sin to a holy God bring release and not shame?
• From what is the psalmist preserved or delivered?
• How does God’s dealings with people resemble people’s dealings with animals?
• Why would a wicked person be sad and a godly person happy?

Application

• Are you happy?
• Are you resistant to God?
• How could unacknowledged sin be self-defeating?
• Why does confessing sin to God bring release and confessing sin to people often bring shame?
• In what ways have you lacked authenticity?  How could you be more authentic?

I have experienced a church that never bored me.  It consisted of a group of friends that held together for one year when I was about 18.  We would meet in the ‘Upper Room’ of Underwood Chapel in Plymouth.  We would pile into ‘Penfold’s’ car and go out swimming in the middle of the night.  We would pray.  We would worship.  We changed the culture of the churches we touched and they changed us.  Does this dynamic concept of church have to change with life-stage?  Do we all grow up and become cagey and reserved?  I want a group who are raw and open with each other and their faith.  Then I could say with David, “I would rather be at the door of the house of my God …”  I think my small group has the potential.

Psalm 84

1. What does the psalmist say is lovely?
2. For what does the psalmist yearn?
3. Upon what are happy people’s hearts set?
4. Do you believe that there is such a thing as ‘holy space’?
5. Is there a place that you long to go because you regularly meet God?

Going Deeper

Observation

• What body parts does the psalmist say cry out for the living God?
• Where does the sparrow find a home?
• Where do the pilgrims appear (v.7)?
• Who does the psalm ask God to consider and look upon?
• What does God give to those who live with integrity?

Interpretation

• How do physiological reactions reflect true longing?
• How do you imagine the sparrow’s nest?  Describe what you picture.
• What places af pilgrimage are indicated in scripture?
• What is the connection of the temple with the kings of Judah?  Is there too much connection of ‘church and state’?
• Describe the ‘good’ and the ‘happiness’ that those who live with integrity receive.

Application

• How do you long for personal friendship, acceptance, and forgiveness?
• How can your basic longings lead to a stronger longing for God?
• Why don’t modern Christians go on pilgrimage?  Should they?
• Why was the temple so magnificent and our modern churches look like boxes?
• What constitutes the ideal church and how could you be a part of bringing it about?

I met a student from Moody last week whose love had left him.  He hadn’t known what it was to care so much, but his girlfriend wasn’t excited about him.  I have friends who have given birth to stillborns.  I have other friends who struggle with depression.  The soul despairs.  The soul is disturbed.  We need to think of those times when God was near.  We need to hope in God.  There needs to be a longing, thirst, and hunger for God.  He is the only one who can ultimately satisfy.  Things will look up eventually.

Psalm 42

1. What animal’s longing for water is compared to david’s longing for God?
2. What do mockers say to David?
3. What is the condition of David’s soul?
4. How can peace found in God satisfy more than peace found in drugs, video games, or the arms of a lover?
5. How is your soul troubled?  How could God heal the hurt?

Going Deeper

Observation

• What queston does David ask himself in verse two?
• Where did David lead the people?
• What has rolled over David?
• What does God command in the daytime?
• What does david say to his rock?

Interpretation

• What fond memories might David recall of worshipping with others?
• If God is everywhere, how can he seem absent at times?
• What does, “Deep calls to deep at the sound of thy waterfalls” mean?
• Why would people be asking david where his God is?
• What were the circumstances in david’s life when he wrote this?

Application

• What do you long for?
• How do you suffer when you can not worship with others?
• Today, what would God like you to remember about how he has worked in your life?
• What could you do to allow God to talk with you deeply?
• How could you determine to praise God in spite of your circumstances?

I remember listening to Prince and the Revolution a lot.  Some of Prince’s music is absolutely brilliant.  I heard his song, Kiss on the radio yesterday.  It took me back to times walking in France when I used to teach my Dad Prince songs whilst walking in Brittany.  I would not say it is wrong to ever listen to Prince, but Prince had values that I started to adopt in my mind because I was continually listening to his music.  I didn’t study those values, I just assimulated them.  I need to ask myself what I continually set before me now.

Psalm 16

1. Why does David, the psalmist, cry out to God?
2. Where have the lines fallen for David?
3. What instructs David in the night?
4. How is the life of the mind essential to spiritual growth?
5. If you looked at your actions, what would they say you believed?

Going Deeper

Observation

• What good does David have besides the Lord?
• Who are the majestic ones?
• What will happen to those who have given up their God?
• What is David’s heritage to him?
• To what will David’s soul not be abandoned?

Interpretation

• How does ‘inheritance’ play as a theme in this psalm?
• What is ‘holiness’?  What does it mean that God is holy?
• How does Acts 13: 36-37 show Paul’s understanding of this psalm?
• What is Sheol?  Is it the same as hell?
• How does the Jewish understanding of the afterlife develop in the Old Testament?

Application

• Do you see inheritance as a gift from God?
• Jesus said that we are to be holy as God is holy (Mtt 5: 48).  How would that work itself out in your life?
• What is your view of the afterlife?  How does it compare with the view in the Bible?
• What do you dream about?
• How are dreams related to spiritual development?

Does all the world shout for joy?  I read in Sixteen:nine that happiness depends on the earthly reality and that joy focuses on the transcendant.  It is when my life is monotonous and purposeless that I drag my feet.  When I don’t think I am appreciated at home, at work, at church I become heavy.  Then I look beyond those around me to something no-one can take away.  In Plato’s analogy, how do we escape the cave?

Psalm 100

1. Who or what is to shout for joy?
2. What is the attitude of worship the psalmist desires?
3. What three things should we know?
4. How are God’s love and faithfulness described?
5. How would you describe your own thoughts about God?

Going Deeper

A Psalm of praise is different from a Psalm of lament.  Try and write one. 

• Start with a call to others to worship.
• Include good things that you think are true about God.
• Include words of celebration.

Example:

Let the nations praise God!
Let the peoples worship the Lord!

When I am exhausted and confused
In the midst of darkness and perplexity
Wisdom watches over me
His insight cheers me

Praise God whose wisdom knows no end
Worship him whose understanding can not be measured