He Comes Home

In one paragraph

Ray walked through the same episode in the life of Jesus as told in Mark, Luke, and Matthew, the day religious leaders accused Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Satan. He used the harmony of the three accounts to show what Jesus was actually doing: not picking a fight, but patiently reasoning with people who were calling the Holy Spirit's work the work of the devil. Jesus comes home to...

Read together

1. 1 Corinthians 2:9 quoted to open worship: no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him
2. James 1:17 quoted during the offering: every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of heavenly lights who does not change like shifting shadows
3. James 1:1-10 mentioned as the passage to be studied at Monday night Bible study, focusing on perseverance through trials
4. Mark 3 read and expounded as the first gospel account of Jesus responding to accusations that he cast out demons by Beelzebub
5. Luke 11 read and expounded as the second gospel account of the same confrontation, including the mute demon and the return of the unclean spirit
6. Matthew 12 read and expounded as the third gospel account, adding that the demon-possessed man was also blind
7. Romans 1:25 cited in defining blasphemy as exchanging the truth of God for a lie
8. John 16:1-15 read to explain the Holy Spirit's role in convicting the world of sin, righteousness and judgment
9. John 3 referenced briefly when saying the wind of the Holy Spirit blows where it listeth
10. Matthew 6 paraphrased at the close: seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all else will be added to you

Talk about it

1. Pastor Ray described reading the Gospels from a 'hermeneutic of goodwill,' meaning you approach Scripture believing God is good and that He cares. How does the posture you bring to reading the Bible affect what you take away from it, and where do you notice skepticism creeping into your own reading?
2. Jesus told the Pharisees that a kingdom or house divided against itself cannot stand, and that anyone who is not with Him scatters rather than gathers. In practical terms, what does it look like in your own life to be gathering people toward the kingdom rather than scattering them?
3. Pastor Ray said that trying to shake your own demons by willpower and behavior modification, without trusting Christ or the Holy Spirit, can leave a person worse off than before. Where have you seen that pattern play out, either in your own life or in someone you know?
4. John 16 says the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and Pastor Ray connected that to the warning about blaspheming the Holy Spirit, which he described as persistently rejecting what the Spirit calls good and what He calls evil. Can you think of a time when you felt the Holy Spirit pressing you toward something you initially pushed back against? What happened?
5. Melissa described planting a Facebook post about how God had grown a tree years in advance so Zacchaeus could climb it and see Jesus, and she applied that to the way God had placed Chris in her life thirty-three years earlier for a purpose she could not have seen at the time. Where in your own story do you now see God preparing something, or someone, long before you knew you would need it?