WHAT IF WE ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH? Matthew 12:15-21
Sermon Study Guide for January 9, 2011 If your knowledge of the Scriptures and of the doctrines of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ has not brought you to this knowledge of the love of Christ, you should be profoundly dissatisfied and disturbed. All biblical doctrine is about this blessed Person; and there is no greater snare in the Christian life than to forget the Person Himself and to live simply on truths concerning Him. ...We should never study the Bible or anything concerning biblical truth without realizing that we are in His presence, and that it is truth about Him. And it should always be done in an atmosphere of worship. Biblical truth is not one subject among others; it is not something that belongs to a syllabus. It is living truth about a living Person. That is why a theological college should be different from every other kind of college; and that is why a religious service is essentially different from every kind of meeting the world can organize. It is always a matter of worship; we are in the presence of a Person. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones The Unsearchable Riches of Christ: An Exposition of Ephesians 3 (Baker, 1998), 208
Isaiah is the most quoted prophet in the New Testament. It is because the prophet, living 700 years before the time of Christ, “saw” the vision of the Messiah with stunning clarity. In Matthew 12:18-21, we read of a direct quote from Isaiah 42:1-9. Consider these questions in your study of the message, “What If We Are Not Good Enough?” 1. How could a man “see” a coming Messiah seven centuries away? Read I Peter 1:10-12; II Peter 1:19-21. How does Peter answer this question? 2. Why does Jesus withdraw from a confrontation with the Pharisees? Consider what He told his mother in John 2:4 concerning his “hour”? 3. How closely do Isaiah 42 and Matt 12:18-21 follow along with the baptism and the ministry of Jesus? 4. Did you agree with my assertion that Jesus will not argue His way into a human heart? (Cf. Matthew 12:19) What has been your experience of your faith and those you know? 5. Consider the metaphors of a “bruised reed” and a “smoldering wick”. How are they apt descriptions of the times and trials of our life? Read Matt 9:36 and 11:28. Comment on the style or approach of Jesus to those in need and to those who suffer. 6. Read the statement to the left. How do you react to it? How would it be easier to study and know about Jesus than to know Him personally? What barriers are there to knowing Jesus?
7. Grace is to know that we are not good enough to warrant this love from God, but He is good enough! How might this knowledge be more deeply rooted in your life?