Family Worship
Andy Beard
Luke 5:1-11 Family Worship Ideas

Luke 6:43-45 Bible Study

Jesus is continuing His teaching about how to respond to His teaching.  We saw last week the basic idea that Jesus’ teaching is not to be applied to everyone else.  He expects us to apply His teaching to ourselves, and only as we take the plank out of our own eyes, only as we become those who can see clearly ourselves, only as we are trained to become like Jesus, ought we to take up the sacred responsibility of speaking to the sin we see in others.  As wounded healers we come alongside our fellow disciples, weeping with them, and in compassion we reflect the grace of Christ as we lead them the path we have first walked out of sin and into the freedom of obedience to Jesus the Spirit longs to cultivate in us.

It seems Jesus is concerned we might not appreciate the radical nature of the change He is discussing.  He is not interested in mere behaviour modification.  His goal is nothing less than the total transformation of what we are.  To be his disciple is to yield to His desire to change our nature, to change the kind of human being we are.  This cosmic renovation of our humanity has historically been called conversion.  It isn’t simply the change of belief, or behaviour – although of course, both follow.

Jesus’ view of humanity is that the ‘fruit’ we bear in life – what we say and do, think and feel, the way we treat other people, and think about the world – that fruit is the natural outworking of what we are.  To change behaviour or belief without changing our underlying nature is like sticking one kind of fruit onto another kind of fruit tree.  It is superficial at best... but possibly indicative of a more concerning malady!  Jesus’ strategy for producing good fruit in His disciples, isn’t to resort to a form of behavioural manipulation, or even more noble ventures such as education, or psychological therapy.  It is to change the tree.  A good tree bears good fruit.  Or stripping the imagery away: A good man beings good things out of the good stored up in his heart’ (6:45). 

This is the grounds of Jesus’ confidence in what can be achieved when His disciples are ‘trained’ (v.40).  He fully expects His teaching to be achieved and worked out in practise by His disciples.  He isn’t presenting an ‘ideal’ that can be meditated on, but never achieved.  This is actually how Jesus expects His disciples to live... as we’ll see next week!

Questions:

Do you think this fairly and accurately represents Jesus’ teaching?

Do you agree with Jesus’ teaching here, or do you think that bad trees can in fact produce good fruit?  What do you think that would mean – can you give an example?

Does this idea fill you with excitement, dread or neither?  Does it leave you feeling inspired or condemned?  can you identify why you react the way you do?

Does this match your experience of being a Christian?  Why do you think this is?  Do you think this is all a bit simplistic?

How close to being like Jesus do you think we can actually get ... even if we are ‘fully trained’?

Why does Jesus choose to talk about ‘thorn bushes’ and ‘briers’ in this parable?  Do you think passages such as Is.10:17 might be in the back of His mind (see similar teaching in Matt.7:19)?  Or is something else going on?

How can we store up good (or, I suppose, evil) things in our heart? 

In Matt.12:36, Jesus tells us: ... that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.  Based on what He teaches here in Luke 6:45, why do you think this is?  What do our words reveal about us?  Can you ever say that you didn’t really mean something you said?

Luke 6:37-42 Bible Study

For some people the whole of Christianity seems to be summed up in the phrase ‘Do not judge’.  And many of those people aren’t even Christians!  As such, this week’s passage gives us a great case study in how careful we have to be not to read into Jesus’ words our own cultural assumptions.  When it comes to not judging, our culture has a clear sense of what it means:  we can’t express disapproval.  To not judge is to not criticise... or indeed to not do anything other than affirm me and my opinion.  It is code for ‘You have to accept me as I am’. 

This way of thinking is often justified by a spurious logic: You don’t know me.  You don’t know my experience.  You haven’t walked in my shoes.  As such you have no right to pass any negative assessment on who I am, who I want to be, or what I do.  It is used a shield, designed to deflect any reproach, or censure.

So pervasive is this ‘interpretation’ of the idea of not judging, that we may find it difficult to disentangle it from our thinking.  We may reflex into it as we read those very words on the lips of Jesus.  It might even deafen us, rendering us incapable of actually engaging with what Jesus means when He says what He does! 

This is a common issue we face as Christians seeking to faithfully make sense of the Bible...  that of allowing the Bible to define its own terms (or in this case, allowing Jesus to define His own terms).  Words are slippery things, and their meaning can change over time.  Added to this is our culture’s propensity to remove words from their Christ-centred meaning and focus.  So even words that we assume we understand, and have in common with people who aren’t Christians, words like ‘love’ or ‘’forgive’ get confused, or take on drastically different meaning. 

All of which means we need to be careful as we engage with the text of Scripture.  Subtle, but crippling misunderstandings creep in when we simply assume we know what words mean, transposing them from our own cultural key.  Often just a moment’s pause is enough to help us realise our mistake.  Can we really imagine Jesus calling His disciples to abandon their critical faculties when it comes to patterns of sinful behaviour – whether our own or other peoples?  

Questions:

Take each of the key words in vv.37: judge, condemn, forgive.  How does the meaning of these words differ between culture and Christ?

When does being generous in our dealing with others (v.38) tip over into legitimising, or even just ignoring sinful behaviour? 

When do you think you should confront sin and disobedience in the lives of other Christians?  Can you think of passages which call us to make precisely these kinds of judgments?

What do you think constitutes blindness in a leader?  How would you recognise a ‘blind’ leader in the Church?

How should a Church ‘fully’ train disciples?  How optimistic are you about our ability to grow to be like our Teacher?  What has that process of being training looked like in your own experience of being a Christian?

How helpful do you find Jesus’ idea that being a Christian is being a student?  How would that affect your attitude to your faith?

What happens to a Church when it’s ‘students’ aren’t fully trained?

How would you explain Jesus’ parable in vv.41-42 to someone?  What does this process look like in MIE?  How qualified do you feel to help others navigate repentance and spiritual growth?  Why is being unqualified such a problem?

Family Worship ideas for Luke 6:27-36

Note to parents:

Children have a very strong sense of justice!  How many times do you hear them cry: ‘It’s not fair!’  The question of how to take Jesus’ teaching here in Luke 6:27-36, and put it into practise will feel just as problematic for them as it does for us.

I’ve found that putting it in a context, or framework, in the way Paul does in Rom.12:18-21, or as Peter does in I Pet.2:19-24 frames it well.  It helps us to understand for example, that Jesus is not asking us to do anything that He hasn’t first done Himself, and that He has given us the resources to put His teaching into practise as we follow His example.  It also helps us to grasp that we aren’t denying justice, but rather deferring it.  Justice will still be done – just not now and not by us.  And that is fair!

It’s highly likely that your child(ren) will have at least one experience of suffering injustice...  a time when someone has been mean to them, and maybe even hit them.  It might be tricky depending on the circumstances, but getting them to talk about that might be a good place to start.

some helpful discussion starters:

‘They started it’!  If we get into a fight with someone (verbal or physical), whose fault is it?

How can we stop ourselves from mean to someone else when they are mean to us?

What does Jesus teach us we should do to them and for them instead?

When we read Jesus’ teaching, does it mean that we shouldn’t tell our parents, or a teacher if someone bullies us, or ill-treats us?  Are there times when Jesus teaches us that we shouldn’t turn the other cheek? 

a great activity:

Read through the account of Jesus’ suffering and death (e.g. Luke 22:39-23:49).  How many different ways can you find of Jesus putting into practise what He preaches?

a fun video resource:

There is a Superbook episode looking at the issue of loving your enemies.  You can view it here.

a family prayer:

Father, thank you that you loved your enemies when you sent Jesus into this world. 

Forgive us when we don’t follow your example.  Help us by your Spirit to be more like you, even when people do something wrong to us.  Help us to control our temper and to behave in a way that show other people what you are like;  Amen.

You might enjoy discovering the story of Martin Luther King.  As a Christian pastor, he took Jesus’ teaching and used it in a political context to seek to reconcile a divided society... or at least to take some steps toward reconciling a divided society.  There’s an animated video exploring the life of King here

and you can see his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech here

Jesus’ teaching is so powerful that even when it is put into practise in context Jesus didn’t mean for it, it can still achieve a great deal!!

Luke 6:27-36 Bible Study

People often compare and contrast Luke 6, with the Sermon on the Mount.  It seems so familiar on the one hand, and yet the two passages seem to differ in some significant ways.  It’s the sort of thing that can cause some measure of anxiety, and that can undermine people’s confidence in the Scriptures.  So at the risk of sounding like I’m comparing myself to Jesus (which I’m honestly not!), let me try and chart a way through the conundrum.

Over the years, I’ve written a lot of sermons.  There’s a couple that I really enjoy preaching.  So on the odd occasion that I am invited to preach elsewhere, if I’m given the choice, I’ll get one of those out and have a look at it.  It’ll need to be re-worked a bit, and if I have time I’ll try and adapt it to the context I’ll be preaching in.  And I might change some of the illustrations if there’s a local interest.  And of course, because I don’t stick rigidly to the notes, I’ll end up putting things a bit differently every time I preach it.  If you listened to the recordings / watched the videos of those occasions you’d recognise the same material, but also a number of differences – some intentional, others simply by virtue of the way I preach.  There’d be a lot that familiar, but also some differences.

Looking at the structure of the Gospels, it seems that Jesus’ public ministry focussed on five periods of itinerant preaching, interspersed with time invested with the disciples and in rest.  It also appears that Jesus developed His material ahead of each preaching tour and then delivered it repeatedly as He went through Galilee and down into Judah.  The Gospel writers give us a record of Jesus’ teaching from each section of His ministry, but they don’t always do it from the same event in each tour.  Hence Matthew is clear that the teaching-event he is recording from Jesus’ first ‘tour’ is taken from a time when Jesus ‘went up on a mountainside and sat down’ (Matt.5:1).  Luke also records the teaching Jesus delivered during His first ‘tour’, but has in mind a different occasion, possibly earlier in the ‘tour’ and I suspect further north, when Jesus ‘stood on a level place’ (Lk.6:17). 

When you look at the details, it’s actually quite strange that people sometimes think they are the same event, and that they go to some length to try and reconcile the two passages.  I think it much more natural to recognise that these are two events from early in Jesus’ ministry, during His first preaching tour, but distinct and at different times and places in that tour. 

Both Luke and Matthew are reliable and trustworthy as they hold out their Spirit-inspired accounts of Jesus and His ministry.  You can relax!

Questions:

Can you follow Jesus’ ‘train of thought’ from the previous section of teaching (vv.20-26)?  What sort of situation does Jesus have in mind as he gives the teaching in vv.27-36?  Or do you think this teaching is appropriate in all and any situation? Are there times when Jesus teaches we shouldn’t turn the other cheek?

or you might find it more helpful to think through more specific issues, such as:

Does this passage preclude you seeking justice if someone commits a crime against you? 

Does this passage mean someone should stay in an abusive marriage?

Does this passage mean that if someone sins against you, you should just accept that?

Can Christians join the military?

 

Can you think of times when you have heard or seen this teaching applied in ways that Jesus would not approve of?

How would you reconcile this passage with passages such as Matt.18:15-20, where Jesus advocates a much less passive approach to sin?

In a situation where you had enemies, people cursing you, ill-treating you, taking from you etc. would you want to put Jesus’ teaching in to practise?  How can we get to the place where we want to do what Jesus says, even when it cuts so deeply across our ‘natural’ desires and tendencies?

How would you counsel someone who was consumed with bitterness about how they had been treated?

How does Jesus’ teaching us how to live reflect the life and example of the Lord Himself (see I Peter 2:19-24)?  How does the way He has treated us shape the way we now treat others?

Read Rom.12:18-21.  What does Paul teach that helps shape our response to mis-treatment by others?  How compelling do you find this passage? 

What is the end result Jesus is hoping to achieve as we behave like this?

Luke 6:12-26 Bible Study

As we work our way through the Gospels we find ourselves confronted with tiny oases of spiritual light and life.  They occur when Jesus passes through a region, and in His wake the diseases are healed, the dead are raised and those oppressed by impure spirits are liberated.  Jesus, the Priest is driving back all that is unclean.  It’s as close to experiencing the New Creation as I suspect this old fallen world has ever been.  It isn’t difficult to imagine the joy and delight of those who have tasted the goodness of the Lord.

It must have awakened a deep – almost forgotten – longing for ‘home’.  There are so many stories, books and films that hang around this most elemental plot line.  The protagonist ventures forth on a quest, or is driven from home, and after a period of exile returns, equipped from their travels and adventures and able to face the rigours of new responsibilities and usually the weight of glory.  Whether it is Simba from the Lion King, or Aragorn from Lord of the Rings (or in their own way, Merry and Pippin), or Odysseus, such stories have a near universal and enduring appeal because they resonate so profoundly with the ‘story’ that we are all part of.  Exiled from Eden, being transformed in that exile and made ready for a future glory. 

But the prospect of that future Kingdom proves intensely divisive.  Incredible though it may seem, there are many who choose not to live for it, or even to entertain its possibility.  They throw their lot in with this old, passing, fallen creation, seeking all they can gain from it.  The live without reference to the New Creation.  Jesus says to such: Woe...

Others know the kingdom of God awaits.  And they are willing to sacrifice and suffer now, to mourn and be marginalised now, if only they can know that on that Day they will be welcomed by their Lord into a renewed world.  Such people are called disciples by Jesus.  They are a complicated bunch – from different rungs on the socio-economic ladder; different points on the political spectrum.  But they are bound together by the fact that they are called by Jesus to this amazing future.

Questions:

Why does Jesus need to spend a night in prayer before choosing twelve of His disciples to become apostles?   How does Jesus’ example shape your own commitment to prayer? 

How do you account for Judas’ inclusion in this band? 

What is the difference between being a disciple and being an apostle?  What changes in their relationship with Jesus from this point on?

It seems that Jesus indiscriminately heals all who even touch Him (6:18-19).  What is Jesus seeking to achieve here? 

Do you think that such a display of curative and cleansing power in the Church today would advance the Church’s mission?  Why / Why not?

What does Jesus mean when he designates people ‘Blessed’?  What about when He pronounces ‘Woe’?  What do these words mean? 

If you aren’t poor, hungry, weeping or hated because of the Son of Man, are you blessed?

Is it possible to be rich, well-fed, and well-spoken of, but not be under ‘woe’?

Why are the states of these two groups presented in such a binary way? ... and why is it that their experience is so fundamentally reversed between old and new creations?  Do you think it is such a stark alternative, or are thing on more of a spectrum?

Do you feel encouraged, or unsettled by Jesus’ teaching in Luke 6:20-26? 

Luke 6:1-11 Bible Study

You might remember from our series earlier this year in Luke 1-5, that Luke has a deep theological agenda at work in how he writes his Gospel.  He is presenting Jesus as the ultimate (High-)Priest.  We see that agenda at work again in 6:1-11.  Part of the job of the Levitical priest was to interpret, teach and apply the Law (II Chron.15:3; 19:8; 31:4 etc.).  The Pharisees have set themselves up as guardians and gate-keepers of the Law.  As soon as Jesus – the Priest – begins His ministry, there is a sense of inevitability about the conflict that ensues.

The Pharisees are basically stalking Jesus.  His whole life and ministry is under intense scrutiny (v.7).  And yet Jesus is bereft of fear, and their hostile gaze does nothing to hinder His life or teaching.  Over the course of Jesus’ public ministry this antagonism will find expression in a host of different contexts, and over a number of different questions.  As we come into Chapter 6, Luke gives us a couple of instances when the flashpoint is ‘Sabbath’.   In one sense the question of whether Jesus and His disciples are keeping Sabbath is just a symptom of the key issue at stake: who has the right to interpret the Law.

The Pharisees are a complicated bunch.  It’s easy to turn them into two-dimensional comic-book villains...  But in reality they were just sincerely wrong.  This is an important observation in Church life.  We can easily be hoodwinked into thinking that someone’s point of view is legitimised by the sincerity with which they (claim to) hold it.  It isn’t.  As the old trope goes: you can be sincerely wrong.  And the Pharisees were certainly that.

But working out why they were wrong is trickier than it might first seem.  In fact, at first glance they seem to be holding an entirely defensible position.  The Sabbath is built into the theological structure of creation, and keeping it is so critical that it was embedded in the Ten Commandments.  Violating the Sabbath was a capital offense; and there are repeated prohibitions throughout Scripture against activities such as lighting fires (Ex.35:3), gathering wood (Num.15:32f), carrying a burden (Jer.17:21), and trading (Neh.13:15-17).  And when the ancient Church is sent into exile, the presenting issue was their failure to keep the Sabbath for themselves or for the land (Lev.26:43). 

The problem is that whilst they are keeping the Sabbath in a negative sense (i.e. in terms of what they are NOT to do), they have lost sight of what it means to keep Sabbath positively.  They have reduced the Sabbath to an institution in its own right, forgetting its purpose in pointing towards the wholeness and rest of the New Creation, and its context in a Law that is supposed to be the articulation of what it means to love God and neighbour.  Once the Law is removed from Christ, it becomes enslaving.  Only in Christ is it the freedom it was designed to be.

Questions:

In what other ways can a Christian vision for life become enslaving once it is taken out of the context of our relationship with Christ?  Why does that happen?

Do you think that the idea of a Sabbath should still feature in a Christian’s life today?  What might that look like?

What is the difference between Jesus’ view of rest, and our own society’s vision for rest?

Why do the Pharisees think Jesus’ disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath (6:2)?  

How does Jesus’ response (appealing to I Sam.21:1-7 & 22:9-10) answer the Pharisees question?  After all, on the face of it, David’s taking the consecrated bread doesn’t have anything to do with the Sabbath.

What does Jesus mean when He says that He ‘is Lord of the Sabbath’?   Does this mean that Jesus can do things on the Sabbath that no-one else can? ...that in some way the Law doesn’t apply to Him?

Where does Jesus’ courage in facing the religious authorities of His day come from?

Why would the Pharisees think that healing on a Sabbath was unlawful?

What does Jesus’ response in v.9 teach us about the purpose of the Law, and of the Sabbath more specifically?  How does that make sense of the Old Testament teaching about the Sabbath?

Why does Jesus’ healing evoke such fury from the Pharisees?

Family Worship Ideas for Luke 6:1-11

Note to parents:

I’m working off an assumption in this Family Worship that the early Church was right to shift Sabbath to the Lord’s Day (i.e. from Saturday to Sunday) in the light of Jesus’ resurrection.  Passages to consider would include: Rev.1:10; Lk.24:1-7; Acts 20:7; I Cor.16:2.  It’s also worth bearing in mind the witness of the Church in the immediately post-Apostolic era, which universally suggests the Church ‘no longer [kept] the Sabbath, but lives in accordance with the Lord’s Day, on which our life also arose through Him ... in order that we might be found to be disciples of Jesus Christ’ (Letter of Ignatius to the Magnesians, end of first century).   We’ll come back to this later.

 

As a family, design a great ‘Sabbath’... and then keep it.  As you do so remember the following key points:

Keeping one day set apart is an ancient Biblical command.  In fact, it is woven into the very fabric of creation itself (Gen.2:1-3). 

It is set apart for God’s purposes.  You could probably have a great conversation about the differences between our culture’s idea of a ‘day-off’ and a Sabbath (or the difference between a holiday and a Festival).  Listing out God’s purposes and making sure they are covered would be an important part of this family worship.

You have to work hard for 6 days if you’re going to keep the Sabbath (as a day of rest) properly.

and just for interest:  Sundays are always Feast Days in the Church – even during Lent!

While you’re planning your great Sabbath, have these questions as part of the exercise:

What does keeping the Sabbath teach us about work and rest?

What does it teach us about the New Creation?

How does keeping the Sabbath help you to grow as a Christian?

What happens if you don’t keep the Sabbath? 

What about people who have to work on Sundays?

Why is the Sabbath ‘good news’ for us?

 

If you want to read Like 6:1-11, a great conversation would be about why the Pharisees have got the Sabbath so wrong...  They’ve forgotten what it is about.  It is supposed to be pointing us to the rest and wholeness and joy of the New Creation.  When you forget why God’s Law is what it is, it gets miserable very quickly.

here is short video from ‘the Bible Project’ that help put keeping Sabbath in a bigger perspective (it also touches on why we celebrate it on a Sunday now). You can watch it here.

Neh.12-13 Bible Study

Perhaps there is nowhere in the book where Nehemiah’s pointing us to Jesus is more profound than in his orchestrating the worship that provides the context for the dedication of the walls (see e.g. Heb.2.12).  Worship is the epicentre of Christian spirituality.  In fact, one way to answer the question of why Jesus came into the world would be to say: ‘To find worshippers’ (Jn.4:23).  We are made in the image of a God who sings (Zeph.3:17).  And there is something incredibly appropriate when our ability to sing is brought to the service of worship. 

One of my favourite verses in this section is Neh.12:43: The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away.  They rejoiced because God had given them great joy (also v.43).  There is a time to recognise what God has done in and through His people... and to worship joyfully in the light of it.  There is of course a deeply prophetic dynamic in all of this (Heb.12:22-24), but for now maybe we can focus on the sheer emotional and spiritual energy that is on display as these immense choirs lead the ancient Church in their worship?   

We can easily turn up to worship not having prepared.  I’m not talking here only about the spiritual preparation that will have gone into this!  But think for a moment about the logistical planning and organisation that went into this incredibly choreographed event.  There is a rather bizarre idea around that the more ‘spontaneous’ something is the more spiritual it is.  Laying aside the cynicism of then making things look spontaneous when they aren’t, we only have to look at a passage like Neh.12 to see how vacuous such a notion is.

This must have taken weeks to plan out.  Creating the space in everyone’s diaries, seeking out the Levites from wherever they lived (12:27), bringing together the musicians (12:28-29), the rites of purification (12:30 & 45), the rehearsing...  and so it goes on.   Space was given to the complex preparing of and participating in this momentous event.  This wasn’t something squeezed in between all the other demands on people’s time.  Although this is a unique spiritual moment, it reflects the sense that the ancient Church is recapturing the rhythm of worship as having a routine claim on people.  Weekly, monthly and annually, time is now being given to worship, and this liturgical ebb and flow underpins everything else in the Church’s life. 

Of course, this isn’t just about what happens in a ‘service’.  We’ve seen in Ch.10, and again now in Ch.12 the commitment there is to live a life that reflects that worship at both corporate and individual levels.  We might struggle with the stridency of Nehemiah’s reforms, but we can understand the urgency in the light of the ongoing systemic compromise.  Twelve years have elapsed since the walls were rebuilt (compare Neh.2:1 & 13:6).  And in a classic pattern of two steps forward, one step back, compromise and sin had resurfaced in the life of the Church.  Nehemiah’s return seems a far cry from the joy and celebration of Ch.12, but seasons of rejoicing and seasons of reform are both part of the Church’s cycle.  It is unlikely we can have one without the other!

Questions:

How important is it to you that worship services and events are well planned and executed? 

How can we stop well planned worship becoming a performance?  ...or does it matter whether it is a performance or not? 

Is there any contemporary equivalent to the idea of purifying yourself before being involved in worship (12:30)?  How do you prepare for being involved in the corporate worship of the Church?

Is 13:3 an over-reaction to what the people heard in the Book of the Moses?  How do we make sense of the exclusion from Israel ‘all who were of foreign descent’?  Was this right?

How do you think Eliashib justified providing Tobiah (see 4:3) with a large room in the Temple complex?  Why does Nehemiah see it as a problem, and is it an over-reaction to call it ‘evil’ (13:7)?  Does this mean we should rent out Church facilities to those who aren’t Christians?

Is Nehemiah’s response in 13:8 appropriate behaviour for a leader in the Church?  And we could ask the same question about his behaviour in 13:25?  Is Nehemiah’s anger and propensity to violence actually a disqualification for Church leadership (see Titus 1:7)?

Why is there such an emphasis on protecting the integrity of the Sabbath in 13:15-22?  Does this have anything to say about our own attitude to the Lord’s Day?

What do you make of Nehemiah’s response to those who had married people who weren’t Christians, or who had given their children in marriage to those who weren’t Christians (13:23-25)?  Does Nehemiah’s action here align with Paul’s teaching in I Cor.7:10-16?

 

Do you think God did remember Nehemiah with favour (13:14, 22, 30), or did Nehemiah’s intolerance, stridency and violence tarnish that memory?

Family Worship ideas for Neh.9-10

This is quite a long passage to work with for Family Worship, so I’m going to suggest we focus on one key aspect – the interplay between joy and sorrow.  We see this in a confused way in Neh.8:9-11, where the people are weeping and mourning as they hear the Word of God read and explained, when in fact the Levites seem to think they should be rejoicing and feasting.  The same tension is in Ch.9 – the Israelites are fasting and wearing sackcloth (9:2), and also praising the Lord!

This is an important spiritual dynamic for us to get used to, and it means we can’t be simplistic about our emotional life in worship.

The cause is rooted in the way that our sense of our sinfulness is accentuated as we confront the reality of God’s righteousness.

One way of illustrating this is with an optical illusion such as this one:

The ‘horizontal’ lines look like they bend, until we put a ruler alongside them and see they are in fact straight.

(You can make the illusion / see it being made on youtube.) 

something similar happens as we think about ourselves. We can enjoy a spiritual illusion that we are good people... until we measure ourselves against the straight rule of God’s Law.

Then two things happen – the first is we see the glorious righteousness of God! that causes us to worship. The second is that by contrast we see that we aren’t really all that like Him! That causes our sorrow and confession.

It’s a bit like a light that causes darker shadows the brighter it shines.

A helpful exercise would be to take one of the 10 commandments...  maybe the one about not stealing (8) or not telling lies about other people (9).  or if you want one that Jesus explains, how about ‘you shall not murder’ (6, see Matt.5:21-26).  Help your child(ren) to think through what the commandment means.  So for example, if we are commanded not to steal, then what should we do?  honour other people’s property...  generosity... share etc. could all be the opposite of taking what doesn’t belong to us.  This could lead to a ‘heart’ discussion about greed, and jealousy etc. that feed our temptation to take what isn’t ours!  So we can see how confronting the ‘straight edge’ of God’s Law begins to expose our crooked heart and the actions that flow from it (Matt.12:33-35, or 15:19, out of a person’s heart comes ... theft).

Then reflect on what this commandment teaches us about God...  He is a generous God who freely gives us good things to enjoy (Matt.7:11, Jas.1:17).  This inspires our worship of Him! 

you can do the same exercise with any of the commandments...  you might have a vested interest in doing the 5th! 

It is important to emphasise the faithfulness and grace of God as we confront the reality of our falling short of His glory. This is the point of the epic retelling of the Church’s history in Neh.9 – to underline that God is compassionate, loving, and faithful. So why not use this as a memory verse:

Neh.9:17, You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them...

or try this family worship song, based on I John 1:8-9…

Neh.9-10 Bible Study

The (re-)building of the life and mission of a Church begins when God takes the initiative, when God speaks.  When we come into Neh.9, it’s been 3 ½ weeks since Ezra started his preaching marathon, and God is clearly still at work by His Spirit, convicting the people of their sin as they engage with the ‘Book of the Law of the Lord their God’ (Neh.9:3, i.e. Leviticus or Deuteronomy).  The juxtaposition of conviction of sin (9:2) and praise (9:5) might seem strange to us, but it is no less authentic because of that.  When God reveals Himself by His Spirit, through His word, we are both drawn out in joy and worship because of who He is, and sorrow for who we are.  Being confronted with His blazing righteousness, we are confronted with our sin.  And so we live in this deep tension where we are captivated by the beauty of the holiness of Jesus, and we are devastated by our sin, and our failure to bear the image of the God we love; with the Spirit is constantly bridging that gap to reassure us of the atoning work of Christ and the transforming work of the Spirit.

And as the Spirit instructs the Church (9:20), we are faced by the perennial decision of whether to return to slavery in Egypt, or to press on to learn how to live in the freedom of God’ good, right and just commands (9:13).  When God speaks, it is possible to harden our hearts, but in Neh.9-10, the people choose a different path.  And they don’t allow it to remain a vague spiritual intention.  They spell out specific commitments and detailed obligations.  They bind themselves to a public oath (9:38).  This is no flash-in-the-pan spiritual elation...  as if they were caught up in the moment.  There is a profound and considered determination to separate themselves appropriately from the world, to maintain the worship of the Church and the proclamation of the Gospel, and to walk towards the vision of life they are called to inhabit as the Church.

It is all rooted in the epic retelling of the history of God that spans most of Ch.9.  It might seem strange that so much space is given to rehearsing the failure of the Church.  Except, of course, it isn’t just the failure of the Church they are reminding themselves of, but the faithfulness of God in the face of that failure (9:17, 19, 27, 31, 33).  This is a crucial part of the process.  In reminding themselves so forcefully of God’s grace in the past, they are confident of His grace in the present.  This is the atmosphere that allows them to be honest about their failure, and ambitious in their reform.

 

Questions:

How can we stop sorrow over our sin from spiralling into an unhealthy self-obsession or spiritual depression?  How can you tell the difference between Satan’s condemning, and the Spirit’s convicting?

Why do people who aren’t Christians so often think you have to be a good person to be a Christian?  How is the Church’s self-assessment throughout Neh.9 different from that caricature?

Do you think people can fall away from being a Christian?  Neh.9 celebrates God’s preserving of his people – but what about passages such as Heb.6:4-6 or Heb.10:26-31?  Is God stricter in the New Testament, or less compassionate?

When we read through to the end of Nehemiah (Ch.13) we find that the people singularly fail to keep the commitment they make here in Ch.10.  What do you make of that?  Does it discourage you?  Can you think why they failed?  What are we supposed to learn here?

Does it strike you as strange that throughout Neh.9 (an OT passage) God is described in terms of goodness, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, faithfulness, grace and abounding in love?  Why / Why not?  Do you see the Lord’s commands as just and right and good (e.g.9:13)? 

As you read through Neh.10:30-39, why do you think these are the issues that are being focussed on?  What could be contemporary equivalents to the promises and commitments being made?  Are these commitments that today’s Church should be making?

Is the separation of Israel from all foreigners (9:2; 10:30) an expression of racism?  How might the building of the walls be a parable for such separation?  Is there any sense in which a similar attitude should be appropriated amongst Christians today? 

Family Worship ideas for Neh.8

Introduction (for parents):

We are told that Ezra’s preaching marathon was launched on ‘the first day of the seventh month’ (8:2).  That is important because we know now that the ancient Church is gathering to celebrate 3 festivals that run back to back: The Feasts of Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles (Tents).  These are all festivals that are focussed on the Return of Christ (see e.g. Matt.24:31, I Cor.15:51); the Church’s experience of deliverance from the wrath and judgment of God (atonement!) and the renewal of Creation.

This last festival (Tents) becomes the focus of the Neh.8:13-18.  The point is to remind the people that they are pilgrims, passing through a world that will one day be theirs, but which they have not yet inherited.  It connects us to the spiritual mindset and heartset of the father of faith, Abraham:

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Heb.11:8-10. 

At this key moment, when the temptation to think of the earthly Jerusalem – with its walls now complete – as ‘home’, Ezra and Nehemiah lift the people’s eyes to a New Creation, and a heavenly city; and in doing so remind the people that this world is not their home.

 

Neh.8 breaks into two, interconnected, sections.  I’ll be speaking to both in our service.  The first half of the chapter is the account of Ezra’s preaching.

Discussion:

Why is reading the Bible and preaching so important when the Church gathers to worship?

key idea: The preacher is a ‘herald’.  If they are doing their job properly they are not just sharing their opinion.  They are ‘giving the meaning so that the people understand what is being read’ (Neh.8:8).  The Bible means something and it is a preacher’s job to help you understand it.

Why do we call the Bible the Word of God? 

If it is the Word of God, how should we treat it?

Can you see in the passage how it makes the people feel?  Why is everyone getting so emotional?

In Psalm 19:9-10, we are told the Bible is more precious than gold, and sweeter than honey?  What does this mean?

What are some things we could pray about after we have discussed these questions?

We could pray for those who preach and teach us the Bible at Church...

We could pray for those who are being taught (including us)...  maybe that we would have good listening ears!  and that our hearts would respond well!  and that would do what we hear God telling the Church to do (see Matt.7:24-27 for a great story about not just listening to Jesus, but doing what He says!)

We could pray for Wycliffe Bible translators, who are working to make sure that everyone can read the Bible

 

A famous verse in the Bible about the Bible is in II Tim.3:16-17, which says: All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Can you memorise that? 

A brilliant video telling the story of William Tyndale (who translated the Bible into English) can be found here. 

 

If you wanted to spend some time helping your child(ren) think through the Bible and their relationship with it, then My First Books and more... (catechism for family worship) p.152 starts a section called: Let’s think about the Bible (Q&A 238-267) – so there is plenty to get our heads around.

And the second section:  the festival of tents (‘temporary shelters’)!

Discussion:

What are we looking forward to most about the New Creation?

How does getting the Church to live in tents for a week help us to remember that we are ‘pilgrims’, passing through this age?

How can we live now in a way that helps get us ready for our life in the New Creation?

Why does remembering that our future is in the New Creation mean that our ‘joy is very great’ (Neh.8:17)?

What festivals in our Church remind us about the New Creation?

 

Why not have this conversation while camping...  it might be in the garden, the Church Hall, or overnight at a local campsite.  There are a few within 5 miles of Ipswich.  Check them out here.

Neh.8 Bible Study

We’ve approached the Book of Nehemiah, and the building of the walls as a visual aid, a parable for the building up of the life and mission of the Church.  It’s been amazing to learn about Jesus, and to see how He builds His Church, in spite of our sinfulness, and in spite of the opposition to His great project from without and within.  In Neh.8 the parable becomes most transparent, the visual aid, and the reality to which it points synchronise. 

At this key moment in the project of rebuilding the life of Jerusalem, Nehemiah brings Ezra out of retirement for one last monstrous preaching effort.  We often assume that preaching is a cultural hang-over from a time when the world was used to sustained monologues.  That leaves us with the uneasy feeling that perhaps there are more ‘culturally appropriate’ methods of engaging with Scripture today?  ...that maybe the days of preaching are gone, or should be gone?  This is of course patent nonsense.  Preaching – in the context of the Church’s worship (Neh.8:6) - is a God-ordained means for the building of the life and mission of the Church.  It has always been God’s preferred delivery system for His Word into the life of His people.  To put it another way, the Bible is designed to be preached!

Which is not to say God doesn’t speak through His Word in other ways. We’ve all experienced God speaking through His Word in our own personal reading and in smaller groups…  BUT, His key way, and the way that legitimises and shapes and informs all other ways, the way God wants His word delivered into the life of the Church is through preaching.  The Church’s interaction with the Scriptures can be more than, but never less than, the Word of God being preached!

It is not a coincidence that every revival in Church history has focussed on a revival of preaching (the one notable exception in Wales 1904-6, was arguably a disaster from which the Church in Wales has not yet fully recovered).  In 1934, Duncan Campbell noted the ‘eager attention with which young and old listened to the preaching of the Word’.  This was also an emphasis of one of the greatest revivals of all, the Reformation.  The Church of England – seen by many on the continent as the ‘jewel of the Reformation’ – grasped this when it named preaching as a defining feature of the Church: ‘The visible church of Christ is a congregation of believers in which the pure Word of God is preached...’.

And so, as we work our way through Nehemiah, that is so explicitly focussed on the question of building the Church, of course the epicentre of the book will be about the preaching of the Word of God, ‘making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read’ (Neh.8:8).

 

Questions:

If this is true (and that might be something you’d want to discuss in your groups), what do we make of Churches where preaching isn’t a priority for either the minister or the congregation? 

How important is it to you that you hear the Scriptures preached? 

Why do you think that the evening service (where preaching has a greater emphasis in the service) is so poorly attended at MIE?

Why is it so dangerous to start a discussion about a Bible passage with the question: What does this mean to me?  How can we make sure that our Homegroup discussions are connected to the preaching at MIE?

One Reformer, in a sermon on II Tim.1:1, said: “It is certain that if we come into a church we shall not hear only a mortal man speaking, but we shall feel (even by His secret power) that God is speaking to our souls, that He is the Preacher”.  Is that your experience of listening to preaching?  Why do you think that is?

Do you think we should publically read the Scriptures in the same sustained way that Ezra does (8:3)? 

What characterises the congregation (8:3, 6, 9, 16)?  How can we cultivate this attitude at MIE?  What is the responsibility of the preacher?  And what is the responsibility of the congregation?

Why do you think the people’s response is so confused, and as it turns out, inappropriate (8:9-11)?  Do you think there are always appropriate and inappropriate ways to respond to the Word preached?

We can read about the Festivals being marked in Lev.23:23-44 (note the dating in Neh.8:2).  What are these festivals (trumpets, atonement and tabernacles / tents) designed to teach the people?  Why does this result in such great joy (Neh.8:17)?

How should all this translate into our own experience of worship and discipleship?

 

Why not spend some time praying for those who share in the preaching and teaching ministry throughout MIE? 

Neh.5 Bible Study

Nehemiah 5 is one of the most troubling parts of the whole book.  Having considered external opposition and hostility last week, we are confronted with the internal corruption and sinfulness of the Church this week.  For some reason we don’t expect that!  Maybe it’s because we don’t really grasp the reality of God’s grace?  When we see the Lord use someone to do something ‘holy’ we tend to assume that person must be super-spiritual and righteous.  In fact, they are only ever a redeemed sinner, and still plagued by their sin – like all of us.  So when we ponder the amazing work achieved by this generation of the ancient Church, and the extent to which the Lord has worked through them, we may assume they were amazing Christians, zealous for righteousness and the pursuit of Christ!

But in Nehemiah 5, the reality of exploitation and greed, and Christians taking ruthless advantage of their brothers and sisters can leave us feeling shocked and uncertain.  How could God use such people as these?  These are not the kind of low-grade ‘respectable’ sins that we can see God overlooking.  Financially exploiting those who have given up everything to (re-) build the Church is pretty heinous – even if it might make good business sense to buy when the market is low!  And making profit out of selling other Christians’ children into slavery, knowing that the Church has committed itself to buying them back (Neh.5:5-8) is likely to turn the stomach of even the most cynical! 

And these are the people God is working through to build the walls?  How can we justify that?  How can God justify that?  This is the destabilising reality of grace, and it is something that every one of us has experienced in our own lives.  Apart from Christ, there are only sinful creatures.  That includes you and me.  And our sin runs far deeper and has far greater potential for violating God’s Law than we likely realise.  The fact that – for whatever reason – it hasn’t fully realised that potential doesn’t negate the fact that it is there (Gen.6:5; Rom.3:10-20 etc.).

If there is a distinguishing characteristic, it is what they were prepared to do when they were confronted with the reality of their sin.  Neh.5:12 is their confession of sin, and their repentance.  If anything, this is what renders them (and us?) useful to God and usable by Him.  It isn’t so much whether we are sinful (we are), but whether we repent of our sin when it is exposed.  Even by the end of the book, the people of Jerusalem are hopelessly compromised (see Neh.13).  But God is not the kind of workman who blames His tools.  It is His wisdom and genius that takes people like us and weaves them into His purposes.  As Paul would tell us, generations later: ‘we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do’ (Eph.2:10).

 

Questions:

Do you think there is any correlation between someone’s ‘holiness’ and their being used by the Lord?  What is it?

Why do you think the people were so blind to the reality of their sin, given how blatant it was?  How would they have justified their behaviour to themselves?

What would you say to someone who argued that it didn’t matter then if you grew in Christlikeness or not?

Is repentance real if we keep committing the same sin?  Are we able to be free from any given pattern of sin?  How would you counsel a Christian who was distressed because they kept doing the same thing over and over again?

Do you get angry when you see sin in other people (Neh.5:6)?  Should we?

How does the Bible command those who are rich to relate to the rest of the Church (e.g. I Tim.6:6-10 & 17-18)?  How can we make sure that this isn’t, in turn, exploited?   How do we reconcile this with e.g. II Thess.3:10?  How should the internal finances of the Church family work?

It is often alleged that the Bible condones slavery.  Do you think it does?  What passages would you reference to make the case that in fact, it doesn’t? 

Should there be this sort of direct confrontation of sin when we see it in the life of the Church (see 5:7-11)? 

Why does Nehemiah put them under oath (5:12), and threaten them with excommunication (5:13) if they fail to follow through on their commitment?  Should we treat people like this today in the Church? 

Why does Nehemiah go to such lengths to show his own handling of finance (5:14-18)?

Neh. 4 & 6 Bible Study

At a distance of two and half thousand years, it’s easy to read this without feeling the sting of opposition.   But anyone who has endured mockery and jeering, let alone the force of someone’s anger, knows it can be a profoundly disturbing and destabilising experience.  It can take quite some time to recover.  Even in the absence of physical violence, let’s not underestimate the psychological, emotional and spiritual impact of what’s happening in Nehemiah 4 & 6.

It is all too easy to be dismissive of the fact of opposition to the building of the Church.   We can fall foul of a kind of spiritual triumphalism that assumes the Church won’t face antipathy, and if it does, then surely it can simply sweep aside any antagonism or disapproval from others after a good prayer meeting!??   On the other end of the spectrum lies a sensitivity to opposition that leads us to conclude that if we face any criticism from any quarter we must be doing something wrong.  If Nehemiah had taken that approach the walls would never have been built. 

Somewhere in the midst of those extremes is a settled confidence in what the Lord has called us to do as He uses us to build His Church, and a simple but steadfast refusal to be deflected from that task.  Nehemiah doesn’t change tack to build hanging garden, because that way the Church can be doing something, but without provoking hostility.  But Nehemiah’s tenacity means the tensions escalate in Ch.6.  The enemies of the ancient Church aren’t so simply dissuaded.

One of the lessons we can learn from this section of the story is need to cultivate a kind of spiritual resilience that will allow us to continue to be faithful to Christ’s vision for the mission and ministry of the Church even when we are opposed.  Christ Himself faced criticism and hostility, persecution and anger.   And like Nehemiah who foreshadowed Him, He simply carried on doing what He knew He had been sent into the world to do.  When the opposition doesn’t evaporate, and the people are discouraged (4:10) they continue to do what the Lord has called them to do.

We have an enemy who will do all he can to oppose those who faithfully seek to build up the Church.  This means there are spiritual dynamics at work in any form of opposition to the Gospel.  And so part of the Church’s response is to pray together (e.g. 4:9).  But there aren’t only spiritual dynamics, and so Nehemiah takes practical steps as well as prayerful ones (4:9).  It’s a good holistic approach to facing opposition. 

Whatever may or may not happen, the walls must be built – because that is what God has called them to do. 

 

Questions:

What can we learn from Neh.4 & 6 about Nehemiah’s spiritual resilience?  Where does it come from?  How could we cultivate (or continue to cultivate) that same resilience in our own experience of discipleship?

Have you ever heard anyone pray in a similar vein to Neh.4:4-5?  Do you think it would be appropriate for Christians to pray like this?  How does this fit with Jesus’ teaching in Matt.5:43-45?

As you read through Neh.4 & 6, how does the opposition develop?  How does Nehemiah’s response vary as things become more serious?  What can we learn from this to help us navigate opposition to building the life of a Church?

What concerns are being raised from within the Church community?  How does Nehemiah respond to these internal tensions?  What can we learn from this about our own situations?

Should the Church expect opposition from the surrounding culture and society?  What spiritual and human elements feed into such opposition when it is experienced?

How do we know how to interpret opposition?  When should it be faced and overcome, and when should we understand it as a sign that we are doing something wrong and need to change?

In 6:10-13, why would it have been a sin for Nehemiah to act in a way that protected his own life?  Is this a good policy to adopt when facing danger and intimidation?

Family Worship ideas for Neh.2-3

This week’s reading might not look promising in terms of Family Worship, but there are two are three themes that are, in fact, rich for children to engage with.  First, this week’s bricks...  could include ideas such as ‘vision’ and ‘team-work’ or perhaps – depending on age - ‘survey’ (as Nehemiah takes the time to understand the actual state of affairs, rather than relying on second hand accounts).

But once we get another brick in the wall (sorry!) there is a great opportunity to explore how everyone gets involved with bringing the vision of Nehemiah (and remember who Nehemiah represents – the Great Church Builder, Matt.16:18) into reality.  No-one is off doing their own thing, or doing it in their own way!!  That would be chaos, and at the end of the day no wall worthy of the name would have been built.  Everyone throughout Neh.3 (with the exception of the Tekoan nobles, 3:5) is getting stuck in.  But everyone is working to a pre-agreed vision that has been cast by Nehemiah.  The long list of names might seem tedious, but is actually a way of recognising and honouring the work being done.

so: two questions for you to reflect on as a family in Family Worship time this week...

(i)               where are we involved and taking responsibility for building Jesus’ vision in to the life of the Church? 

(ii)              who else is involved, and how could we recognise and honour them for what they do for MIE?  Could we send them a card thanking them for what they do?  Can we pray for those involved in different areas of MIE’s life and ministry each day this week?

For older children / youth, there are deeper conversations about taking responsibility in the life of the Church.  It is tempting to start with the question of what I feel I am ‘gifted’ to do, or where my experience might put me – but then, it is unlikely that perfume makers (3:8), or goldsmiths (3:32) would have ever got involved!  In Neh.3, they started with the question of what needed to be done to make Nehemiah’s vision a reality.  We end up with very different answers, depending on which questions we start with!

Another question that older children / youth might enjoy exploring is whether Nehemiah is right to refuse the help of those who aren’t Christians (3:20)?  Why does He do this?  Is it still right for the Church to decline help from those who aren’t Christians?

Rend Collective: Build your kingdom here