week of March 22

These are the scriptures from the lectionary for this week, to be discussed at Bible Study at 12 noon on Thursday and Friday.

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Psalm 51:1-12

John 12:20-33;

Hebrews 5:5-10

 

1.         Jeremiah was writing about his experiences some 620 years before the birth of Christ. What message does Jeremiah present in verse 31? What time frame do you think Jeremiah meant? What was the covenant God made with the ancestors of the people in exile inBabylon(v. 32)? What does it mean or symbolize to you that people were “taken by the hand”?

2.         How will God change God’s covenant in the future (v. 33)? What will God place in people’s hearts (v. 33)? What does the phrase “write it on their hearts” mean to you—is it to be read literally (v. 33)? Why won’t they need to teach one another (v. 34)? Who will know God (v. 34)? What does sin mean (v. 34)? How does God forgive their iniquity and ours (v. 34)? What will God remember no more (v. 34)?

3.         What is a psalm and does it have to mean the same thing to ever person who hears or reads it? What is the psalmist requesting from God (vv. 1-2)? Why does the psalmist believe this is necessary (vv. 3-4)?

4.         What does God desire from a human (v. 6)? What are an inward being and a secret heart? Do you think you can hide anything from God? Who do we lie to the most? What resides in your secret heart for which you want God to cleanse (vv. 10-12)? What is necessary for the cleansing?

5.         Who was asking to see Jesus and what might this symbolize (v. 20)? How is Jesus to be glorified (v. 23-24)? If Jesus had not died, what might have happened? What must a person do gain eternal life (v. 25) and how is this to be understood? How does a person serve Christ (v. 26)?

6.         Why would Jesus say his soul is troubled (v. 27)? What reassurance for the people does Jesus seek from God (vv. 28-30)? What judgment does Jesus describe and what does it mean (v. 31)? What is the purpose of Jesus’ death and resurrection (v. 32)?

7.         Did Christ ever glorify himself in any capacity (v. 5)? The writer sets forth two quotations which are passages from Psalms. The first is from Psalm 2:7, which was talking about the enthronement of a king—so what does this mean for us? How does the writer of the letter to the Hebrews identify Jesus (v. 2)? Did Jesus ever refer to himself as such? 

8.         The writer’s second quotation is from Psalm 110.4? Research shows that Melchizedek was a king ofJerusalemprior to the Israelite era, when kings were also considered priests (see Genesis14:17-20)? So, what is the writer of this letter trying to tell us about Jesus? Does the writer show that Jesus was fully human (v. 7)? So, how did Jesus move from being fully human to fully devine (vv. 8-9)? So, what does that mean for us today (v. 9)? Are you willing to die to yourself and live to Christ as Jesus told us in the Gospels?

Palm Sunday, March 29, 2015

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

Mark 11:1-11

Philippians 2:5-11