(a) This has been described as one of the most beautiful books ever written. Do you agree? What makes it so beautiful?
(b) What do you think God wants us to learn from this book about love and loyalty?
(c) Look at what Boaz says to Ruth about her reputation (Ruth 2:11). What would a honest person say about your reputation?
(d) What does this book teach us about ‘learning to trust God in the dark’?…
(a) What, according to this passage (see especially Acts 3:13-26; 4:10-12), were the main things that the early Christians stressed when they spoke about Jesus?
(b) Can you think of any recent occasion when a celebrity has confessed publicly to some wrongdoing? How similar, or different, is the ‘repentance’ that Peter talks about in Acts 3:19?
(c) Do you think that Christians in our own country can expect more, or less, opposition to their faith in the future? …
(a) What hints are there in this passage that we are looking at real event, rather than ‘pious fiction’?
(b) If you could sit down today with the man who had been healed, what questions would you ask him?
(c) If you glance at the whole passage, from Acts 3:1 to Acts 4:31, you will see that ‘one thing leads to another’: what starts as an innocent healing leads to an opportunity for evangelism, which in turn leads to bitter opposition.…
1. At first, Jesus’ disciples thought he was just a ghost. In this passage, what reasons does Jesus give to persuade them that he is real?
2. Some people today think that Jesus is just an ‘imaginary friend’, of the kind that some of us might have had when we were younger. Based on this passage, what reasons can we offer people today to help them see that he is not imaginary, but real?…
Matthew (Mt 8:5-12) and Luke (Lk 7:1-10) both have an account of a Roman centurion whose servant Jesus healed.
Matthew 8:5 When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him asking for help.
Luke 7:3 ‘When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave.’
So, did the centurion personally ask Jesus for help, or did he send others to do this on his behalf?…
(a) In what ways are we sometimes like Peter (Luke 22:54-62), denying Jesus rather than acknowledging him? What can we do when that happens?
(b) Why do you think that Luke describes the events surrounding Jesus’ death in such detail?
(c) Looking through this passage as a whole, what aspects of Jesus death are ‘ordinary’ (similar to other deaths), and what aspects are ‘extraordinary’ (unlike other deaths)? What (again trying to pick up clues from this passage) makes Jesus’ death significant for us today?…
1. What, would you say, are the main things that Adam and Eve learn here about God, Satan, and themselves?
2. This chapter gives some account of how the human race fell into sin. Looking at the world around us, what evidence do you see that humanity is, in fact, a fallen race?
3. Verse 15 is regarded as the very first promise of the Messiah. What does it tell us about Christ?
…
1. What kinds of doubts do you sometimes have about Jesus and who he is?
2. What can you say about how some of those doubts have been resolved?
3. If you could ask Jesus a question right now, what would it be?…
“I am…”
(a) Why do you think Jesus said “I am the bread of life”, rather than “the caviar,” or “the cake” or the “confectionary” (assuming those things were available in those days!)?
(b) Jesus talks about ‘eating his flesh’ and ‘drinking his blood’. To those hearing this for the first time, it must have sounded shocking. But in what sense do his followers do precisely that (for example, when they take Holy Communion)?
(c) A leading thought in John 8:12-20 is that of ‘testimony’. …
This is an unpopular thought in some academic circles; but it is the clear teaching of our Lord himself. As Goldsworthy says: ‘We do not start at Genesis 1 and work our way forward until we discover where it is all leading. Rather we first come to Christ, and he directs us to study the Old Testament in the light of the gospel.’ (According to Plan, p55)
On the road to Emmaus, Jesus preaches on the theme of ‘The Things Concerning Himself’, taking as his text Moses, all the prophets, and all the Scriptures (Luke 24:27). …
