A Great Prophet Has Appeared Among Us

In one paragraph

This message followed Jesus as he moved from the Sermon on the Mount into action, showing through two Old Testament stories and three Gospel accounts that the same God who raised the dead through Elijah and Elisha was now present in Jesus. Pastor A walked the congregation through the pattern of miraculous provision and resurrection across centuries, building toward the claim that Jesus is the...

Read together

1. 2 Corinthians 3:17 opened the service: where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom
2. Romans 8 nothing can separate us from God's love, neither death nor life, angels or demons, fears or worries
3. Revelation 1 all glory and power to him forever, He comes with the clouds and everyone will see him
4. Psalm 8 when I look at the night sky, what are mere mortals that you should think about them
5. 1 Kings 17 Elijah sent to the widow of Zarephath, her flour and oil miraculously sustained, her son raised from the dead
6. 2 Kings 4 Elisha and the Shunammite woman, her son given to her and later raised from the dead
7. Matthew 8:1-5 Jesus heals a leper coming down from the mountain after the Sermon on the Mount
8. Matthew 8:5-13 centurion comes to Jesus in Capernaum asking healing for his paralyzed servant
9. Luke 7 Luke's account of the centurion's servant, Jewish elders sent to Jesus on his behalf
10. Luke 7 Jesus raises the widow of Nain's only son and gives him back to his mother
11. Deuteronomy 18 Moses foretells the Lord will raise up a prophet like me from among you, listen to him
12. Romans 15:13 benediction: may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him

Talk about it

1. Pastor A walked through how literary genre shapes the way we read the Bible, pointing out that rivers clapping their hands is figurative language and that the Sermon on the Mount is didactic teaching while the stories around it are narrative. How has paying attention to what kind of writing you are reading changed the way you understand a passage?
2. In both the story of Elijah at Zarephath and Elisha and the Shunammite woman, the miracle required trust from more than one person. The widow fed Elijah first, and the Shunammite woman rode to Mount Carmel without telling her husband their son was dead. Where in your own life has acting in faith looked strange or even unreasonable to the people around you?
3. The centurion told Jesus, I am not worthy for you to come under my roof, yet the Jewish elders told Jesus, he is worthy. Pastor A noted that Jesus commended the centurion's faith above anyone he had found in Israel. What do you think it was about the centurion's understanding of authority that Jesus found remarkable, and what does that say to you about the nature of faith?
4. When Jesus touched the coffin at Nain, Pastor A pointed out that touching a corpse made a person ceremonially unclean for seven days, yet instead of the corpse making Jesus unclean, Jesus' purity caused the young man to revive. He made the same observation about touching the leper. What does that pattern tell you about how Jesus engages with things or people considered beyond help?
5. Pastor A said that from this point in the Gospels there is a growing emphasis on repentance, and that as Jesus lifts up John the Baptist's ministry he begins to make religious enemies. What is it about a message of repentance that tends to create opposition, and where do you see that tension in your own life or in the culture around you?