Last night we continued our series on Salvation, and we took some time to talk specifically about grace. We looked at Luke 7:36-50. In Luke 7 Jesus extends grace to a sinful woman, and grace is received 2 very different ways - to Simon the Pharisee grace is strange and perturbing. To the woman, grace is the most beautiful thing she has ever seen.
Our Big Idea was: Grace is a strange and beautiful thing!
We broke into 3 groups, and each group focused on 1 of the character from Luke 7:36-50 -
- Simon the Pharisee
- The sinful woman
- Jesus
As each group considered a character, they talked about what their character may have been thinking and feeling.
After this we looked at Romans 3:21-26, and we saw how this relates to the story in Luke 7.
- The sinful woman had received grace and was given "righteousness apart from the law". (Romans 3:21)
- God's righteousness came to the sinful woman because of her faith. Simon on the other hand did not have faith that Jesus was even a prophet.
(Romans 3:22,25,26) - There is no distinction between Simon and the sinful woman.
(Romans 3:22-23) - The effects of salvation are amazing! Jesus said to the woman "Go in peace. Your faith has saved you!"
- "justified"
- "redemption"
- "propitiation"
(Romans 3:24-25)
High School - Proverbs 1:1-7
We began our new series in the book of Proverbs last night.
We started by discussing how to be good at any occupation, we need to be trained in certain skills that are specific to that occupation. Why would it be any different when it comes to being an obedient Christ-follower. There are skills to living a wise, Christ-like life, and the book of Proverbs is designed to pass those skills off to us.
The word wisdom actually means - "masterful understanding; skill; expertise". This is the idea of putting God's Word into practice in our lives in a way that is skilled, something we should always be growing in no matter what our stage of faith.
This is something we desire strongly for our students at Ebenezer - that they will have a faith that is real and is fleshed out in their lives even as they leave the folds of our student ministry one day.
We looked at some background info for the book of Proverbs:
- The Major Sections of the book of Proverbs
- Authorship (mostly Solomon)
- Similarity to other wisdom literature
- Specifics of wisdom literature
- Proverbs points to Christ!
- even though it doesn't mention Christ
- Christ is the pinnacle and fulfillment of wisdom
- Proverbs was taught in the context of God's covenant with His people
- Solomon stands in the line of Christ, is a type of Christ and was a king like Christ.
- All of OT Scripture points to Christ!
Big Idea: God wants us to skillfully live like Christ!
- Skillful, Christ-like living requires fear of God (v. 7)
- Skillful, Christ-like living requires knowledge (v. 2)
- Skillful, Christ-like living requires submission (v. 3a)
- Skillful, Christ-like living requires application (v. 3b-6)
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