Your God Rejoices Over You (Isaiah 62:5b)

Outline: Isaiah 62:5b

1. The analogy
2. The reality
3. How should the fact that the analogy has become our reality shape our lives?

Summary: God often uses analogies in order to tell us more about himself.  In Isaiah 62:5b, God tells us about the joy He has in his people by using a comparison: "I have joy in my people like a bridegroom rejoices over his bride on their wedding day."  But how can a pure and righteous God rejoice over a polluted and unrighteous people?  He can't and he won't.  His integrity won't allow it, which is why God sent Jesus to die on the cross to bridge the massive gap between His perfection and our imperfection.  The cross is our bridge to God, for it is there that we are forgiven and accepted by God though faith in Jesus Christ. The cross of Christ is the explanation for why God can rejoice over people like us and the assurance that God does in fact rejoice over us like a bridegroom rejoices over his bride.  Because of Jesus, the analogy has become our reality.  Because of Jesus, God rejoices over us.  The result is that God's joy over us is like a song (Zeph. 3:17) that never skips, a song that God wants us to hear and wants us to help others to hear.    

Discussion Questions:

• What is an analogy and why does God use them? 
• What is God teaching us about himself by using this analogy?
• Can a pure and righteous God rejoice over a polluted and unrighteous people? Explain.
• How does the analogy become a reality in our lives?
• How are we forgiven and accepted by God through faith in Jesus Christ? Explain these terms.
• God's joy over us is like a song that never skips.  How should this fact shape our lives? As individuals? As married couples? As brothers and sisters in Christ? As those called to reach out to unbelievers? 
• What would it look like to make gospel meditation a habit/discipline in our lives?
• In light of the gospel, what does God think about you? How does God feel toward you?

Application Questions:

• How attuned am I to hearing God's song?
• What types of things am I doing that are hindering me from hearing God's song?
• What types of things am I doing that are helping me to hear God's song?
• What changes must be made in order for me to hear God's song more clearly and consistently?
• What fellow believers can I refresh by reminding them of God's song over their lives?
• What unbeliever(s) can I tell about the forgiveness and acceptance offered through Jesus?

Prayer Points:

• Confess ways in which you are hindering yourself and/or others from hearing God's song.
• Praise God that you are forgiven and accepted because of Jesus.
• Praise God that He never ceases to sing over you because of Jesus.
• Ask God to help you make changes that will enable you to more clearly and consistently hear His song even in the face of sin struggles, trials, and less-than-ideal circumstances.
• Ask God to help you to help others hear His song. 

Blessed Are the Meek (Matt. 5:5)

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Outline: Matthew 5:5

1.    The meaning of meekness

2.    The promise attached to meekness

Summary: In every Beatitude, Jesus is inviting us to experience deep joy in the Father by describing the character qualities that attract the Father's blessing and favor.  Thus far Jesus has taught us that God lavishes blessing on those who recognize their need for Him ("Blessed are the poor in spirit") and on those who grieve over what grieves Him ("Blessed are those who mourn").  Now, with the third Beatitude ("Blessed are the meek"), we progress in level of difficulty, for now we are to not only grieve over what grieves God but also respond in a God-honoring way to those who grieve us.  To be meek is to respond in a godly way to those who mistreat us.  The meek person will respond to mistreatment in a self-controlled and gentle manner, returning good for evil, because he is trusting in God to make things right in His time and in His way and because he knows that he has a glorious inheritance awaiting him.  

Discussion Questions:

• Review: Define "blessed." Beatitudes are invitations, invitations to what?
• What is the meaning of meekness? 
• How does meekness relate to the first two Beatitudes?
• How is meekness described in other places in the NT (Matt. 11:29; 21:5; 1 Pet. 3:4 )?
• Why is Psalm 37 significant in understanding what Jesus meant by "meek"?
• What do we learn about meekness from Psalm 37?
• What does this promise mean: "they shall inherit the earth"? 
• How does the promise of inheriting the earth help us respond rightly to being mistreated?
• How should the meekness shown by Jesus in his life and death shape our responses to others? 

Application Questions:

• How do you tend to respond to those who mistreat you?
• How would God have you respond to those who mistreat you?
• If you are being mistreated, what would it look like if your response was controlled not by your emotions but by trust in God and a willingness to wait upon God?
• What would it look like to respond to God with meekness in troubling circumstances in your life?

Prayer points:

• Confess your ungodly responses to people who have mistreated you.  
• Praise Jesus for His meekness—that He did not return evil for your evil.
• Thank God for putting the very Spirit of the Meek One inside you to help you become meek.
• Ask God to help you depend on the Spirit and respond to mistreatment in a God-honoring way.

Discipleship 101: Get Back Up When You Fall! (John 21:15-19)

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Outline: Grace on the Pathway of Discipleship

1.     Peter’s Denial: The Back Story (John 13:36-38; 18:15-18, 25-27)

2.     Peter’s Restoration: The Tenderness of Jesus (John 21:15-19)

3.     A Disciple’s Gospel Framework

Summary: Every disciple experiences failure on the pathway of becoming more like Jesus.  What do we do when we fail? The story of Peter’s failure and restoration illustrates the importance of grace on the pathway of discipleship.  Peter, the leader among the twelve disciples, experienced massive failure when he denied his Master three times.  The lingering guilt and shame and regret made it difficult to get back up.  But restoration, not failure would be the final word for Peter.  Jesus, in an act of great tenderness, restored Peter thoroughly.  Jesus proved to be the lifter of his head (cf. Psalm 3:3).  There was one thing that stood between Peter’s failure and his subsequent restoration—the Cross of Christ. This is the gospel framework: in the wake of our failures, we must remember that the Cross of Christ makes it possible for us to get back up when we fall.

Key points:

•  Disciples, even the most zealous and loyal among them, experience sin and failure on the pathway of becoming more like Jesus.  Peter is a case-in-point.
• Disciples know what it’s like to experience the pain of lingering shame and guilt that make it difficult to get back up after a failure.
• Jesus is tender toward his followers and is very intentional about thoroughly restoring them. 
• Disciples can and should get back up after they fall.  This is the only way to honor the gospel, the wonderful provision that Jesus made for us when he died and rose again. 

Discussion Questions:

• Reflect on how Peter must have felt after failing his Master.  In what ways can you empathize with Peter’s experience?
• What does the parallel between Peter’s three-fold denial and Jesus three-fold question/commission (21:15-17) teach us about the thoroughness with which he restores his disciples?
• According to John 21:15-17, 18-19, what ways would Peter continue to demonstrate his love for Jesus?  What are the tangible ways that you can show your love for Jesus even though Jesus is not physically present?

A Gospel Framework: Reasons to Get Back Up When We Fall:

• Beloved, when you fall, get back up because there is no record of your guilt, for it has been nailed to the cross.
• Beloved, when you fall, get back up because there is no trace of scarlet stains because the fabric of your soul has been washed as while as snow.
• Beloved, when you fall, get back up because your sin have been scattered in the wind as far as the East is from the West.  Jesus told them where to go when he stretched out his arms on the cross!
• Beloved, when you fall, get back up because when your sin is confessed the only thing that holds you down is an invisible weight…the real weight was laid upon the back of the One at Calvary.
• Beloved, when you fall, get back up because the tomb is empty.
• Beloved, when you fall, get back up because you have an Advocate with the Father.
• Beloved, when you fall, get back up because you have a merciful High Priest.
• Beloved, when you fall, get back up because it has never been about your righteousness but about the righteousness of Jesus Christ and his white robe has been draped around you.
• Beloved, when you fall, get back up because your God never ceases to be for those who are glued to his Son by faith.
• Beloved, when you fall, get back up because getting up in faith is the only way to honor God when you fall down in failure.  
• Honor the blood.  Honor the empty tomb.  Get back up and bask in the brightness of God’s grace that perpetually shines on pilgrims finding their way along the narrow road of discipleship.