Reading Plan
Monday, April 20 Matthew 28:1-10, Psalm 118:19-24
Tuesday, April 21 Isaiah 1:1-20
Wednesday, April 22 Isaiah 2:1-22
Thursday, April 23 Matthew 28:11-15, 1 Timothy 6:3-10
Friday, April 24 Matthew 28:16-20, Revelation 21:1-8
Saturday, April 25 Revelation 22:12-13, Isaiah 44:1-8
Sunday, April 26 Matthew 28:1-20
Sermon Discussion Questions
Getting Our Attention
- In times of catastrophic events such as 9/11, why do those that do not know God cry out, “Oh my God!”? What are they saying? Is it a sin to use this phrase? Why or why not? Those that do not know God are often more aware of God moving in times of great crisis than Christians. Why do you think this is?
- When Jesus “yielded up His spirit” (Matthew 27:50), a great earthquake shook the earth and the veil of the temple that separated the holy of holies was torn in two. Why was this so significant, and what does it have to do with me today?
- Read the paragraph from Tozer’s book, The Pursuit of God, (which has plenty to discuss on its own!) and then answer the questions below the text.
“Self is the opaque veil that hides the Face of God from us. It can be removed only in spiritual experience, never by mere instruction. As well try to instruct leprosy out of our system. There must be a work of God in destruction before we are free. We must invite the cross to do its -deadly work within- us. We must bring our self-sins to the cross for judgment. We must prepare ourselves for an ordeal of suffering in some measure like that through which our Savior passed when He suffered under Pontius Pilate. Let us remember when we talk of the rending of the veil we are speaking in a figure, and the thought of it is poetical, almost pleasant; but in actuality, there is nothing pleasant about it. In human experience that veil is made of living spiritual tissue; it is composed of the sentient, quivering stuff of which our whole beings consist, and to touch it is to touch us where we feel pain. To tear it away is to injure us, to hurt us and make us bleed. To say otherwise is to make the cross, no cross and death, no death at all. It is never fun to die. To rip through the dear and tender stuff of which life is made can never be anything but deeply painful. Yet that is what the cross did to Jesus and it is what the cross would do to every man to set him free.”
What does Tozer mean when he speaks of inviting the cross to do its deadly work and what does that have to do with rending the veil? Why does it take great suffering to rid ourselves of sin? Where in the past can you thank God for great suffering and why?
God Speaks
- God speaks through a crisis.
- How does God use a crisis to recalibrate our perspective of him? Why is this necessary?
- In Isaiah 6, the seraphim cry holy, holy, holy. Why do they repeat this word three times? Why is God’s holiness unlike any of God’s other characteristics?
- What has God amplified for you in this current crisis that you were previously unaware of? Why did it take a crisis for it to be called out? What can I do differently, so it doesn’t take an earth-shaking catastrophe to get my attention next time?
- God speaks through conviction.
- What is the difference between shame and guilt, and how do I know I’m being called to conviction as opposed to being shamed by the great deceiver Satan?
- Read John 3:19-21. “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” Most people are terrible at self-evaluation. How does conviction expose our status as it relates to the light versus the dark, and what external evidence can we use in evaluation?
- How does conviction cause dread and attraction at the same time?
- God Speaks through conversion.
- Why is God exercising great mercy when he brings/allows great suffering?
- The Lord is drawing me to himself. What can I do to receive eternal life, and how do I know if Jesus is truly Lord of my life?
“And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.” 1 John 5:11-13