Tag: small group

Isaiah 35: Questions for Reflection

~ Bob Hayton

stream in the desertOne of my favorite texts is Isaiah 35. It is pregnant with intertextual allusions – echoes of other Bible stories and passages. It is a classic “new exodus” passage, where Isaiah casts the future restoration of Israel in the terminology of the original Exodus from Egypt. There is a way through a wilderness, and a return to the land. What is especially important is how Christ’s ministry and many New Testament books indicate that this new Isaianic exodus finds a beginning fulfillment in Jesus Christ and the experience of the Church.

Recently, I had the opportunity to lead a men’s Bible study where we inductively worked our way through this passage. I prepared several questions aimed at encouraging the pursuit of textual links to this passage as a way to understand what Isaiah 35 is communicating poetically. May these questions spark your own fascination with this chapter and may your own wilderness experience find new life through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

If you want to interact further or suggest additional parallels, by all means join the converstaion in the comments section here.

Text:

Isaiah 35 (ESV)

1    The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;
2    it shall blossom abundantly
and rejoice with joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
the majesty of our God.

3    Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
4    Say to those who have an anxious heart,
“Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your God
will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.”

5    Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6    then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
For waters break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;
7    the burning sand shall become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water;
in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down,
the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

8    And a highway shall be there,
and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it.
It shall belong to those who walk on the way;
even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.
9    No lion shall be there,
nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there.
10  And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Questions/Observations:

  1. Why does it refer to “wilderness” and “dry land” (vs. 1-2)?
    • Look at 32:11-16, 40:3.
  2. What might the “glory of the LORD” be (vs. 2)?
    • Look at 40:4-5; Luke 3:3-6; Matt. 3:3; see also Is. 35:4.
  3. Isaiah 35:3 is quoted in Hebrews 12:12, why?
    • Context of vs. 4 indicates this is an encouragement (see 40:1).
  4. What can be drawn from Isaiah 35:5-6?
    • This may address the time or manner of fulfillment.
  5. Water and streams in the desert – what might this imagery suggest (v. 6)?
    • See also: 41:17-20, 43:16-21, 44:3-4, John 7:38-39 (also 32:11-16 above).
    • A personal angle on this too: Ps. 42:1-2, Ps. 63:1.
  6. Look at the parallels to 35:7 and see if an image or recollection from earlier in Israel’s history is coming to mind.
    • Look at 48:20-21, 49:9-13.
  7. The King’s Highway (v. 8)– not just a road for God (40:3) but one he travels with us (Mark 8-10 – his journey to Jerusalem – 10:32, 52).
    • Jesus opened a “new and living way” for us Heb. 10:20, John 14:6.
  8. Jesus leads us on the way like a shepherd leads the sheep (vs. 8-9).
    • Our shepherd leads us on the way 40:10-11, John 10:9, 27.
    • Our shepherd fights for us, too 35:8, John 10:10-12 (also Mark 1:13).
  9. The way to Zion is only for the “ransomed.”
    • See also Is. 51:10-11, Rev. 21:23-27 (with Is. 60:3-12).
  10. Ultimately there is “everlasting joy” – through Christ.
    • See Is. 65:17-19 with Isaiah chapter 12.

The Gospel Grid: Living the Gospel-Centered Life

~ Bob Hayton

Last night we just started going through The Gospel-Centered Life by Bob Thune and Will Walker (New Growth Press & World Harvest Mission, 2011) in the college-aged small group at our church. I was struck once again at the beautiful way this curriculum describes living the Gospel-Centered Life.

I’m going to provide an excerpt here from the first lesson (the entire first lesson is available as a sample .pdf), along with the graphic you see to the right. How are we doing on making the Gospel grow in significance to us? I find these thoughts both liberating and challenging.

Many Christians live with a truncated view of the gospel. We see the gospel as the “door,” the way in, the entrance point into God’s kingdom. But the gospel is so much more! It is not just the door, but the path we are to walk every day of the Christian life. It is not just the means of our salvation, but the means of our transformation. It is not simply deliverance from sin’s penalty, but release from sin’s power. The gospel is what makes us right with God (justification) and it is also what frees us to delight in God (sanctification). The gospel changes everything!

The following model [see image above] has been helpful to many people in thinking about the gospel and its implications. This diagram does not say everything that could be said about the gospel, but it does serve as a helpful visual illustration of how the gospel works.

The starting point of the Christian life (conversion) comes when I first become aware of the gap between God’s holiness and my sinfulness. When I am converted, I trust and hope in Jesus, who has done what I could never do: He has bridged the gap between my sinfulness and God’s holiness. He has taken God’s holy wrath toward my sin upon himself.

At the point of conversion, however, I have a very limited view of God’s holiness and of my sin. The more I grow in my Christian life, the more I grow in my awareness of God’s holiness and of my flesh and sinfulness. As I read the Bible, experience the Holy Spirit’s conviction, and live in community with other people, the extent of God’s greatness and the extent of my sin become increasingly clear and vivid. It is not that God is becoming more holy or that I am becoming more sinful. But my awareness of both is growing. I am increasingly seeing God as He actually is (Isa. 55:8–9) and myself as I actually am (Jer. 17:9–10).

As my understanding of my sin and of God’s holiness grows, something else also grows: my appreciation and love for Jesus. His mediation, His sacrifice, His righteousness, and His gracious work on my behalf become increasingly sweet and powerful to me. The cross looms larger and more central in my life as I rejoice in the Savior who died upon it.

–Excerpted from the sample copy of Lesson One from The Gospel Centered Life.

Learn more about The Gospel Centered Life at World Harvest Mission’s product detail page. You can purchase a the curriculum at the links below.

Leader’s Guide: Westminster Bookstore, ChristianBook.com, Amazon.com, or direct from World Harvest Mission or New Growth Press.

Participant’s Guide: Westminster Bookstore, ChristianBook.com, Amazon.com, or direct from World Harvest Mission or New Growth Press.

“Faith in the Face of Apostasy: The Gospel According to Elijah & Elisha” by Raymond B. Dillard

~ Bob Hayton ~ 4 Comments

In today’s church, the Old Testament is often overlooked. When attention is drawn to it, the focus tends to be on creation science, Proverbs for daily living, Psalms for devotional nourishment, and character studies for us to emulate. The Christian church largely focuses on the New Testament for its teaching and preaching. In a sense this is natural, because the New Testament is so definitive for church life. Yet the NT spends a lot of time focusing on the Old Testament, and the early church’s Bible was primarily the OT. In fact, the more one understands and appreciates the message of the Old Testament, the better he or she will be prepared to really be impacted by the teaching of the New Testament.

Thankfully, the last twenty or thirty years have seen a revival of interest in the Old Testament and the recovery of preaching it as a Christian testament. Moralistic surveys of the characters of the Old Testament might have some use, but they are being set aside today in favor of a biblical theological approach that sees a unity in the Bible as a whole. The narrative of Scripture is being seen again as thoroughly Christocentric, and countless believers are being revitalized in their faith through finding the glory of God in the Old Testament afresh.

A big factor in the renaissance of the study of the OT has been the impact of good Christian books. P & R Publishing has produced a series of helpful books on OT themes called The Gospel According to the Old Testament series. The first book in that series is Faith in the Face of Apostasy: The Gospel According to Elijah and Elisha by Raymond B. Dillard.

Dillard’s book and the series as a whole, parts ways from a simple anthropocentric approach to the OT. Such an approach centers on people and their needs, and looks to the OT for examples to follow, and life-lessons to learn. Dillard’s approach, in contrast, focuses on what we can learn about God from the story, remembering that all OT stories have the unique quality of being divine revelation. The “first question” in this approach, “will not be ‘What’s here for me?’ but rather ‘What do I learn about God from this passage?'” Once we learn “about what God is like” from the passage, we are then prepared to ask “How we should I respond to this God?” Dillard then goes a bit further. “For Christian readers of the Old Testament”, he says, “there is yet another step to take…. We need to ask, How can we see God in Christ reconciling the world to himself in the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures? That is, in addition to anthropocentric and theocentric ways of reading the Bible, there is also a Christocentric approach.” (pg. 124-125)

With these goals in mind, the book begins with a historical overview of the time period of Elisha and Elijah and the likely time when Kings was written (the Babylonian exile period). It is interesting to note that Elijah and Elisha are singled out and given almost 1/3 of the space of the entire book of 1-2 Kings. Dillard also traces how later Scripture uses the account of Elijah and Elisha, focusing particularly on the parallels Matthew draws between Elijah and John the Baptist, and Jesus and Elisha.

The book moves on to a treatment of all the texts in 1 and 2 Kings where Elijah and Elisha have an important role. Each chapter contains, two or three passages (quoted entirely) which are discussed individually followed by questions for further reflection. Having the Biblical text included allows for the book’s easy use as a devotional guide. The study questions make it handy for a small group study, and the material covered is simple and direct enough to allow for several uses. The themes developed and traced often throughout Scripture, make this an accessible theological resource, and the brief nature of the thoughts shared make it a perfect tool for pastors, who could easily prepare a longer sermon using the material Dillard offers as their starting point.

Dillard’s exegesis is sound and the application he draws is challenging, relevant and helpful. I particularly enjoyed how he brought to bear a detailed understanding of the historic worship of Baal (from the Ugaritic texts) and how this highlights many of the points made in the stories of Elijah and Elisha. From crossing the Jordan, to the chariot of fire, from the rain being stopped and with fire coming from heaven, all of this relates to the alleged domain and limits of the god Baal. Dillard also excels at translating the concerns of the agrarian age of Elijah and Elisha to our own contemporary problems. Along the way he also develops a thoroughly God-centered approach.

The anticipatory function of Elijah and Elisha (e.g., the confrontation with Baal on the spot of the future battle of Armageddon, the feeding of a hundred men from 20 loaves with food “left over”, and etc.) is highlighted well in this book, even as parallels with Christ are carefully and judiciously drawn. Sometimes more explicit NT connections are left for the discussion questions, and I credit the author with stopping short of stretching too far in finding types and analogies of NT truths in the stories. I was intrigued too by the fascinating parallels drawn between Elijah and Moses when they went to Mount Horeb, and the discussion of the redemptive role of miracles — restoring creation to how it was intended to be.

The stories of Elijah and Elisha are breathtaking, and life-giving in themselves. Just as Elisha’s bones brought a man to life, so too will this book bring life to your spiritual soul as you see those stories in a fresh and faith-filled way. The book may open your eyes to a Christian understanding of the Old Testament that you were unaware of. At the very least it will thrill you to the wonderful, covenant keeping God we serve, and His Son Jesus Christ. I highly recommend this book and others like it in The Gospel According to the Old Testament series.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing for review. The reviewer was under no obligation to offer a favorable review.

Pick up a copy of this book at Westminster Bookstore, Amazon.com, or through P & R direct.

What’s Wrong with a Small Church Again?

~ Bob Hayton ~ 16 Comments

Recently I led my family to leave the booming conservative mega-church in our area to help out in the launching of a new church plant in St. Paul. We loved Pastor John Piper’s preaching, and we loved the people we had come to know at Bethlehem Baptist Church but we had come up against some problems.

We found it very hard to make meaningful relationships in such a large body. We had to work at connecting with other believers. With our crew of kids (we have five girls, and the oldest is 7 now), picking up and dropping off our kids from nursery kept us busy enough as it was. We found a way through our small group and an adult Sunday School class to get to know folks and feel that we were truly a part of all that was swirling around us.

As for serving, there weren’t as many places to be involved in adult SS teaching or ministry. And even being involved didn’t allow you to get to know all the pastors and elders like I would have liked. There were ways my wife served in kids classes, and in time we could have found more ways to serve. But it sure felt that we weren’t that needed. With so many bodies around, and with so many who seemed more connected and rooted there than we, it would be easy to just coast rather than serve.

In a small church context now, that’s a whole different story. We came hoping to serve and have been blessed to be a part of numerous ministries at Beacon of Hope church. But even apart from the ministries, just being a member in a small congregation (we have 140 on our best days right now) automatically means we know others and are known by them – intimately. We still have to work at connecting, but we have grown to know many people more closely than we had the chance at the larger church. What’s more, is that we really are needed and missed when we are out of town. We have a great every-member ethic where we depend on everyone. I would say upwards of 75% of our regular attenders are involved in some sort of ministry. And we are intentionally getting in one another’s lives and sharing the Christian life together.

Now our church does have aspirations to grow. And we are growing. But I hope we don’t lose the sense of being a small church. There is a great opportunity in being a small, intimate group of fellow Christ-followers. Erik DiVietro, a friend of mine, has recently launched a blog toting the benefits of an “intimate church”. He pastors a small church of no more than 150 folk in New Hampshire. And he makes some good points when he argues that being big doesn’t necessarily mean that a church is better:

We assume that bigger is a better value. This is true of our thinking when it comes to meals and it is true of our thinking about churches as well. But is it true?

It is true that large churches generally do have more resources, but do those resources really translate into any type of “˜improved’ Christians? This is not a criticism of large churches, but we do need to make a serious evaluation of the thinking that says bigger is better.

Are large churches really any better at bringing people into encounters with Jesus Christ? Are large churches really any better at teaching people the teachings of Christ and the Apostles?

Since both these things are ministries of the Holy Spirit, we must answer those questions with an emphatic NO. Regardless of the size of a congregation, the Spirit of God does the saving and teaching of believers — through other believers. And since Jesus promised he would be present wherever two or three are gathered, we must conclude that being big does not make a church better.

He goes on to argue that small churches are more suitable to developing deep relationships which provide a perfect context for enduring minsitry. I encourage you to give his article a read, and follow his new blog: Intimate Church.