Category Archives: CG Discussion Guide

“The Fast that God Chooses”  Mission and Mercy March

Scripture: Isaiah 58:1-7

Sermon Summary

We often evaluate our spiritual health and the vitality of our spiritual lives through individualized acts of devotion to God like Bible reading and prayer.  But is this really the best way to assess your walk in faith with the living Lord?  Isaiah 58 offers a critique against such a way of evaluating your spirituality.  It shows us that God doesn’t desire religious performance or piety but righteous practices of mercy and justice. 

#1: What we think God wants

God calls Israel out for fasting and humbling themselves, pretending these are deeds of righteousness when they are nothing more than external, outward religious performances.  Ultimately the people did these things for themselves, not the Lord.  But God saw right through it.  He knew that their deeds were self-serving because the people hoped to receive a reward from God because of what they did.  That was exactly their problem.  They thought they knew what God wanted but they really had no idea.  The same may be true of us.  When we focus so much on our performances and our piety, our motions and our emotions, we lose sight of what God has made clear. 

#2: What God really wants

God says that the fast chooses is for Israel to pursue lives of mercy and justice.  Justice is not only about giving punishment to the guilty but also giving protection to the vulnerable.  The reason God is so concerned that everybody is shown mercy and justice is because he has made us all in his image.  Every single creature, whether covenanted to him in faith or not, are image bearers of God.  And this image is what assures each person value, worthy and dignity.  This is why we should work for and care for the justice of all people.  This is why it is our cause and our concern to speak against practices and attitudes that promote injustice, inequality and inhumanity. 

But who specifically are those in need?  From Isaiah 58:6-7, Isaiah 1:16-17 and Zechariah 7:9-10 we see that at the very least God identifies seven groups of people: the hungry, the homeless, the naked, the orphans, the widows, the immigrants and the poor.  The point is that God has a heart for those who are disadvantaged and disenfranchised, deprived and destitute.  To look after the interests of such people is at the heart of God.  This is the way we obey the fast that God has chosen.  Christians need to ask who the needy are and what their needs are.  Until we start asking these kinds of questions, we won’t begin looking to answer them. 

#3: How we do what he wants

We do what God wants when we begin identifying with those in need.  But how can we do that?  We must first understand the lengths God went to identify with us.  In Isaiah 58:7 God tells his people to do three things: to feed the hungry, to provide hospitality to the homeless, and to clothe the naked.  Later in Matthew 25 Jesus picks this up and says that those who feed the hungry, welcome the stranger and clothe the naked have done it to him.  He says, “As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”  Jesus identifies himself so closely with those in need that to serve them is to serve him.  The God of the Bible is a God who identifies with us! 

Now remember that in ancient religions such a thing was unspeakable.  The gods always identified with the rich and powerful, not the poor and lowly.  And yet the Son of God does the very opposite.  In fact he goes even further and does something even more outrageous and offensive.  The gospel is that the Son of God identified himself with mankind so intimately and so personally that our sins and our guilt actually became his.  Our trespasses and failures were cast on him as if they were his all along.  And in exchange for what we gave him, he gave us his righteousness so that we could be forgiven.  When we believe and understand that Jesus identified himself this closely with us, it begins to change us.  We start to identify with others and minister to them in mercy and justice.  In fact, we desire to identify with them because Jesus identified with us.  This is when it becomes clear to us that what pleases God is not religious performance and piety but righteous practices of mercy and justice.  Then it becomes the fast that we choose. 

Group Discussion Questions

1. Share something you found either interesting, memorable, convicting, confusing or challenging about the passage/sermon. 
2. Why do we tend to evaluate our spirituality based on things like religious performances and piety rather than practices of mercy and justice? 
3. Spend time reflecting aloud on these questions: What does mercy and justice look like in the relational spheres you’re connected to? What does mercy and justice look in your community?  In your country?  In the world? What does mercy and justice look in light of the coronavirus and those suffering in so many ways around the world? 
4. How can you begin to identify with those in need and be changed to live a life of mercy and justice?  What’s the difference between doing acts of mercy and justice and becoming an agent of mercy and justice? 

 

“Go and Do Likewise”  Mission and Mercy March

Scripture: Luke 10:25-37

Sermon Summary

Mercy and justice are not optional components of the Christian life.  They are not varsity level Christian concerns that you mature your way up to.  They are foundational, core elements of being a Christian.  To follow Jesus and call him Lord and Savior means you must walk in the path of mercy and justice that he did.  From the parable of the Samaritan we learn that glorious mercy received in Christ spurs generous mercy toward others

#1: Mercy is a tangible way of loving your neighbor by meeting felt need through deeds

The religious lawyer asks Jesus a question about loving your neighbor and Jesus responds with a parable about a man who showed mercy.  Jesus then makes a connection between neighborly love and mercy.  This encounter makes it clear that mercy is a tangible expression of neighborly love.  The parable itself helps us understand more concretely what it means to show mercy.  Whereas the two religious servants (the priest and the Levite) see and pass by the Jewish man in need of help, it’s the Samaritan who sees and draws near.  This is because he didn’t see an enemy as others might have expected him to.  He didn’t see skin color, a language difference or any of the other barriers we often focus on.  He simply saw a person in need and a person made in the image of God.  The other two men saw a body but not a person.  They saw an inconvenience and a threat to their own safety so they were able to ignore the man and his needs. 

When the Samaritan sees the physical, felt needs of the man, he responds immediately with many merciful deeds.  According to the parable he responds in at least seven ways.  First is physical presence as he drew near.  Mercy begins just by showing up and being present with a person.  Second, he got involved.  The man’s problem became his problem and he began serving the man by washing him.  Third and fourth, he provided transportation and shelter.  He brought the man to an inn and made sure he had a roof over his head and food in his mouth.  Fifth, he gave financially.  He had no idea how much his mercy would cost him but he was willing to make the sacrifice, regardless of how the man would respond or repay him.  Sixth, he promised a visitation.  Rather than being one and done, the man decided to return to follow up and check in on the man.  Seventh and last, he gave of his time.  Time is often the most difficult currency to be generous with because time cannot be replenished.  Once spent, time is gone forever. 

#2: Mercy is the mark of a true Christian who has been shown mercy in Christ

Jesus responds that people should go and do likewise as the Samaritan did.  The Bible is clear that true saving faith leads to mercy and justice.  Consider passages like James 2:15-17 and 1 John 3:17-18.  A Christian who loves God and neighbor cannot have mercy very far from their heart.  Those born again by the Spirit and given a new heart have a powerful dynamic at work in them.  The gospel is power that makes you somebody who lives in generous mercy.  This is the dynamic that Jesus intends for the lawyer to see and experience.  But the lawyer is too proud to sense his own need of God’s mercy.  He doesn’t realize he cannot obey God’s law to love the Lord your God and love your neighbor.  Therefore Jesus tells him the parable to expose his need.  This is why Jesus identifies the man in need as the Jew, not the man who extends help.  Jesus was helping the lawyer see how much of God’s mercy he needed.  If the lawyer really understood that he was a recipient of mercy then and only then could he “go and do likewise” as Jesus commanded.

The gospel is the only dynamic at work in our hearts that’ll change us to do more than a few acts of mercy and justice.  It’ll shape all of our life to be lived in such a way.  We have access to this power only when we realize the parable is not meant to be a manual teaching us how to be a good Samaritan.  The parable points us to a true and better Samaritan.  In the same way, Jesus came for the very people who rejected and despised him and yet still showed us mercy through his death on a cross.  But Jesus is better.  The Samaritan put himself in harm’s way but Jesus subjected himself to certain death for us.  The Samaritan bound up the wounds of this man but Jesus healed us by being wounded in our place.  The Samaritan was generously willing to pay the cost no matter how much denarii it cost but Jesus generously paid all of our debt with the very cost of his life.  Jesus showed us ultimate mercy and when that grips our hearts, then and only then will we be transformed to show generous mercy to others.

Group Discussion Questions

1. Share something you found either interesting, memorable, convicting, confusing or challenging about the passage/sermon. 
2. Do you think mercy and justice are a natural, organic part of your life?  Do you normally consider these things to be “spiritual” or “unspiritual”?  Why?
3. What are the biggest obstacles or things that prevent you from showing neighborly love in tangible ways to others?  How does the gospel transform you to not just do some acts but live a life of mercy and justice?
4. Seven things we see the Samaritan offer are: physical presence, involvement, transportation, shelter, finances, visitation, and time.  Have you ever received any of these from somebody else?  What else would you add to this list?