Wicks and Sticks

(Back to Study Home Page)   Sermon December 28, 2003
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December 28, 2003 - Matthew 12:15-21

Open It

  1. What kind of person (character, skills, knowledge) would make for a great national leader?

  2. Reflect on your view of God, what kind of being is God for you?

  3. How would you define justice?

  4. In what ways is our society unjust?

  5. Why do we often get disappointed?

Explore It

  1. How did Jesus respond to the hostility of the Pharisees? (12:15)

  2. Who accompanied Jesus? (12:15)

  3. What did Jesus do for the people who followed him? (12:15)

  4. What did Jesus instruct the people he helped to do? (12:16)

  5. Who had foretold this event? (12:17)

  6. In the prophetic passage quoted here, how did God identify the Messiah? (12:18)

  7. What message did the prophecy say Christ would preach? (12:18)

  8. How was the personality of Christ described by Isaiah? (12:19)

  9. How did Isaiah predict people would respond to this coming servant of God? (12:19)

  10. According to Isaiah, what type of ministry would the Messiah have? (12:20)

  11. What do you believe it means when Isaiah writes that a bruised reed would not be broken? (12:20)

  12. What does it mean to quench a smoking wick? (12:20)

  13. According to the prophet Isaiah, how would the nations ultimately respond to Christ? (12:21)

Get It

  1. How would you identify the bruised reeds of this world? Who does it include?

  2. Who are the smoking wicks? Are any excluded from this catagory, if so who would they be?

  3. If you were in charge of scripting the first and second comings of Christ, how would you have arranged them differently?

  4. If God were to describe your life and influence right now, what might he say?

  5. What changes, events, and experiences in your life do you attribute to the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit?

  6. In what ways do you seek to bring justice or fairness to your relationships?

  7. How demanding are you?

  8. What is the danger in our being quiet, humble, and submissive?

Apply It

  1. What are three practical ways you can serve God this week?

  2. What specific areas of your life do you need to surrender to the control of the Holy Spirit today?

  3. Over the next few days, how can you bring God's justice and love to someone who is oppressed?

NOTES

Matthew 12:15 Up to this point, Jesus had been aggressively confronting the Pharisees' hypocrisy. Here he decided to withdraw from the synagogue before a major confrontation developed because it was not time for him to die. Jesus had many lessons still to teach his disciples and the people.

Matthew 12:16 Jesus did not want those he healed to tell others about his miracles because he didn't want the people coming to him for the wrong reasons. That would hinder his teaching ministry and arouse false hopes about an earthly kingdom. But the news of Jesus' miracles spread, and many came to see for themselves (see Mark 3:7-8).

Matthew 12:17-21 The people expected the Messiah to be a king. This quotation from Isaiah's prophecy (Isaiah 42:1-4) showed that the Messiah was indeed a king, but it illustrated what kind of king-a quiet, gentle ruler who brings justice to the nations. Like the crowd in Jesus' day, we may want Christ to rule as a king and bring great and visible victories in our lives. But often Christ's work is quiet, and it happens according to his perfect timing, not ours.

(Back to Study Home Page)   Sermon December 28, 2003
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