Holiness

First discussion:

This last week we studied the significance of bringing God's presence, or His Temple, among all people. Were you able to bring God to someone this last week? Was there a relationship that you were able to repair? Were you able to make a new connection by being an ambassador between God and someone else?

Tim's audio intro


Isaiah 6:1-7

In the same year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a grand throne way up high with a flowing cape that filled the whole temple. 2 Bright flaming creatures waited on Him. Each had six wings: two covering its face, two covering its feet, and two for flying. 3 Like some fiery choir, they would call back and forth continually.


Flaming Creatures: Holy, holy, holy is the Eternal, the Commander of heavenly armies!
The earth is filled with His glorious presence!

4 They were so loud that the doorframes shook, and the holy house kept filling with smoke.

5 Isaiah: I am in so much trouble! I’m ruined!
I’m just a human being—fallible and stammering.
My lips are encrusted with filth;
and I live among people just like me.
But here I am, and I’ve seen with my very own eyes
none other than the King, the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies.

6 Then one of the flaming creatures flew to me holding a red-hot ember which it had taken from God’s table, the temple altar, with a pair of tongs. 7 The creature held it to my lips.

Flaming Creature: Look! With the touch of this burning ember on your lips,
your guilt is turned away;
All your faults and wrongdoings are forgiven.

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The prophet Isaiah has a wild and beautiful vision where he witnesses Yahweh on the throne and heavenly creatures calling out “holy, holy, holy.” Isaiah is unraveled by the sight and aware that he might be destroyed because of his impurity. But then a creature, the “seraphim,” touches Isaiah’s lips with a hot coal from God’s altar and tells him, “your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for.” Instead of being destroyed by this burning coal, it somehow makes Isaiah pure. Normally in the Bible, if something pure touches someone impure, the impurity transfers and defiles the purity. But Isaiah’s vision presents a new idea. Now we see a purified object transferring its purity onto someone impure. Isaiah is not ruined like he feared. He is transformed in the presence of God’s holiness.
Take note that the coal in Isaiah’s vision is taken from the altar, the place where sacrifice is made. Reflect on the sacrifice Jesus made for you in order to say, “your guilt is taken away.”
Isaiah says, “I am a man of unclean lips and come from a people of unclean lips.” Isaiah’s aware that unholy words defile a person. Jesus repeats this idea in Matthew 15:11.  - Tim Mackie

If all your words and the words of your people were tape recorded this past week, which words would you want Jesus to purify? Take time to pray to receive God’s forgiveness now.

Mark 5:21-43 Read here
After Jesus returned across the sea, a large crowd quickly found Him, so He stayed by the sea. 22 One of the leaders of the synagogue—a man named Jairus—came and fell at Jesus’ feet, 23 begging Him to heal his daughter.

Jairus: My daughter is dying, and she’s only 12 years old. Please come to my house. Just place Your hands on her. I know that if You do, she will live.

24 Jesus began traveling with Jairus toward his home.

In the crowd pressing around Jesus, 25 there was a woman who had suffered continuous bleeding for 12 years, bleeding that made her ritually unclean and an outcast according to the purity laws. 26 She had suffered greatly; and although she spent all her money on her medical care, she had only gotten worse. 27 She had heard of this Miracle-Man, Jesus, so she snuck up behind Him in the crowd and reached out her hand to touch His cloak.

Woman (to herself): 28 Even if all I touch are His clothes, I know I will be healed.

29 As soon as her fingers brushed His cloak, the bleeding stopped. She could feel that she was whole again.

30 Lots of people were pressed against Jesus at that moment, but He immediately felt her touch; He felt healing power flow out of Him.

He stopped. Everyone stopped. He looked around.

Jesus: Who just touched My robe?

31 His disciples broke the uneasy silence.

Disciples: Jesus, the crowd is so thick that everyone is touching You. Why do You ask, “Who touched Me?”

32 But Jesus waited. His gaze swept across the crowd to see who had done it. 33 At last, the woman—knowing He was talking about her—pushed forward and dropped to her knees. She was shaking with fear and amazement.

Woman: I touched You.

Then she told Him the reason why. 34 Jesus listened to her story.

Jesus: Daughter, you are well because you dared to believe. Go in peace, and stay well.

Jesus occasionally instigates His own miracles: He goes up to someone, such as a paralyzed man, and offers to heal him. More often, as in the case of Jairus’s daughter, people come to Jesus and ask for healings. But the woman in this story is unique because she receives her healing without asking for it—simply by touching Jesus in faith. He is surrounded by crowds pressing in on every side, but Jesus feels that one person’s touch is different, in a way that only He can perceive: one woman is touching Him deliberately, in hope and faith, knowing He has the power to heal her. - The Voice

35 While He was speaking, some members of Jairus’s household pushed through the crowd.

Jairus’s Servants (to Jairus): Your daughter is dead. There’s no need to drag the Teacher any farther.

36 Jesus overheard their words. Then He turned to look at Jairus.

Jesus: It’s all right. Don’t be afraid; just believe.

37-38 Jesus asked everyone but Peter, James, and John (James’s brother) to remain outside when they reached Jairus’s home. Inside the synagogue leader’s house, the mourning had already begun; the weeping and wailing carried out into the street.

39 Jesus and His three disciples went inside.

Jesus: Why are you making all this sorrowful noise? The child isn’t dead. She’s just sleeping.

40 The mourners laughed a horrible, bitter laugh and went back to their wailing. Jesus cleared the house so that only His three disciples, Jairus, and Jairus’s wife were left inside with Him. They all went to where the child lay. 41 Then He took the child’s hand.

Jesus: Little girl, it’s time to wake up.

42 Immediately the 12-year-old girl opened her eyes, arose, and began to walk. Her parents could not believe their eyes.

Jesus (to the parents): 43 Don’t tell anybody what you’ve just seen. Why don’t you give her something to eat? I know she is hungry.

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In Leviticus, we learn that sickness, blood, and death are impure, which makes sense. For example, we tend to step back when people cough, sterilize cuts, and wash our hands after preparing raw chicken. But it wasn’t just about hygiene for Israel. Being impure meant that you could not enter into God’s holy temple because impure things defiled holy things, and impure things were destroyed in the presence of God’s purity. But Isaiah’s vision revealed that this order could be reversed. When Jesus arrives on the scene, we see him fulfill and demonstrate the powerful implications of Isaiah’s vision. Jesus becomes the holy coal that atones for sin and destroys death and sickness without destroying the person. He doesn’t avoid people who have impurities; rather, he touches them in order to bring wholeness. Wherever he goes, the sick are made whole and the dead come alive. - Tim Mackie

Holiness Video by The Bible Project

Questions:

What are some of the spaces in our Roosevelt Community where you see the marginalized, neglected and disenfranchised?

Westward Ho    YMCA    Urban Living 2     Urban Living Fillmore    Hance Park    

McDowell Cancer Park    Roosevelt Park    Civic Space Park    Salvation Army

• As you consider these types of spaces, what are three concrete ways you could join or invite other Jesus followers to live as agents of God’s healing holiness in that place? 
• Pray over the space that stands out to you.  Write a concrete way you might bring God's healing to a space.  Post your idea somewhere you will see it and seek ways to carry it out this year. 
• You can reach out to us on our social media (@thebibleproject) and tell us what space you are praying for. We would love to hear from you.

Copyright © 2020 The Bible Project 1302 SE Ankeny St Portland, OR 97214 Church at Home series Jon Collins, Tim Mackie, Carissa Quinn

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Missed a lesson? Want to listen to our teaching time a second go-round?? Go to our calendar on our website for a previous Sunday to find the video link!

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Unity among the peoples

 

Missed a lesson? Want to listen to our teaching time a second go-round?? Go to our calendar on our website for a previous Sunday to find the video link!

Tim's audio Intro


Isaiah 2:1-5

 This is what Isaiah (son of Amoz) prophesied about Judah and its capital Jerusalem:

2 There will come a time in the last days
when the mountain where the Eternal’s house stands
Will become the highest, most magnificent—
grander than any of the mountains around it.
And all the nations of the world will run there,
wanting to see it, feel it, fully experience it.
3 Many people of all languages, colors, and creeds will come.

People: Come! Let’s go to the Eternal’s mountain,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
So that we might learn from Him how best to be,
to go along in life as He would have us go.

After all, the law will pour out from Zion,
the word of the Eternal, from Jerusalem.
4 God will decide what’s fair among nations
and settle disputes among all sorts of people.
Meanwhile, they will hammer their swords into sickles,
reshape their spears into pruning hooks.
One nation will not attack another.
They will not practice war anymore.

O house of Jacob—people of the promise—come, come walk with me
by the light of the Eternal.

Isaiah sees an amazing picture of the future, a future which only God can create. In that vision, Jerusalem and the temple of the only God will sit on the highest mountain at the center of the world. In that day, all the nations of the world will stream to the holy city and seek God’s guidance and instruction. God will sit as King and Judge, dispensing real justice—not some man-made counterfeit—not only in international but also local matters. Perhaps, most amazingly for a world weary of war, this will be a time when war is a thing of the past and its lethal instruments are turned into tools for life and peace.- The Voice

Video on The Temple of God

Ephesians 2:11-22

11 So never forget how you used to be. Those of you born as outsiders to Israel were outcasts, branded “the uncircumcised” by those who bore the sign of the covenant in their flesh, a sign made with human hands. 12 You had absolutely no connection to the Anointed; you were strangers, separated from God’s people. You were aliens to the covenant they had with God; you were hopelessly stranded without God in a fractured world. 13 But now, because of Jesus the Anointed and His sacrifice, all of that has changed. God gathered you who were so far away and brought you near to Him by the royal blood of the Anointed, our Liberating King.

14 He is the embodiment of our peace, sent once and for all to take down the great barrier of hatred and hostility that has divided us so that we can be one. 15 He offered His body on the sacrificial altar to bring an end to the law’s ordinances and dictations that separated Jews from the outside nations. His desire was to create in His body one new humanity from the two opposing groups, thus creating peace. 16 Effectively the cross becomes God’s means to kill off the hostility once and for all so that He is able to reconcile them both to God in this one new body.

17 The Great Preacher of peace and love came for you, and His voice found those of you who were near and those who were far away. 18 By Him both have access to the Father in one Spirit. 19 And so you are no longer called outcasts and wanderers but citizens with God’s people, members of God’s holy family, and residents of His household. 20 You are being built on a solid foundation: the message of the prophets and the voices of God’s chosen emissaries[a] with Jesus, the Anointed Himself, the precious cornerstone. 21 The building is joined together stone by stone—all of us chosen and sealed in Him, rising up to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In Him you are being built together, creating a sacred dwelling place among you where God can live in the Spirit.

Footnotes
2:20 Literally, apostles

The relationship between faith and works is often misunderstood. Some think that salvation is God’s reward for good deeds. If that’s true, then it can’t possibly be a gift. If it were a reward, then heaven would be a place where people might compare notes on what they did to make it through the gates. But Paul is confident in the truth of the gospel. The truth is that salvation is God’s gift through Jesus. Grace and faith make salvation real in us. When we are transformed by grace, then we become His new creation and begin to live out the good works He has planned for us. Works, then, aren’t the cause of salvation; they are its result. To put it another way, works aren’t the means of salvation; they are its presence.- The Voice

All the nations, also known as Gentiles, were once separated from Israel’s temple. Literal walls kept them from accessing God’s presence on earth. But it was always God’s plan for Israel to be a light to all the nations, so that everyone could have access to his life and love. Though Israel failed to faithfully shine this light, Jesus carried Israel’s story forward by tearing down the walls of division and rebuilding the temple. But instead of building with bricks, this time he built a whole new temple made of both Jews and Gentiles. Now God’s presence can live inside of a unified multiethnic group of people.- Tim Mackie

Question 1:
What stands out to you as you read these words from Paul's Letter to Ephesus?

Question 2:
What is hindering unity in the relationships within your family, church, and city? How has Jesus addressed those barriers with his death, resurrection, and ascension?

This Next Week:
Ask God to bring one person he wants to reach to your mind this week. Who is he/she? How will you reach out? Is there anything you need to repair in the relationship? Consider asking him/her to show you where God's power and presence is at work in their life. Listen and seek a connection.

Copyright © 2020 The Bible Project 1302 SE Ankeny St Portland, OR 97214 Church at Home series Jon Collins, Tim Mackie, Carissa Quinn

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.

Assurance of his constant presence

Consider a church starting where offerings first go to missions.  The staff salaries and benefits aren't a priority.  They aren't even included in the budget.  The building expenses and budget aren't something to worry about.  Monies that come in are first split to various SBC organizations, local campus ministries, benevolence to needing peoples, and other areas benefiting kingdom growth before covering business expenses. (Like a website, Computer, printer, postage, paper).  There is no office space to rent.  Just generously, we might give to a business that allow us to share temporary spaces for a meeting.  For DTPHXCHURCH

Carissa Quinn intro.

Engel scale video

Read:  Matthew 28:16-20  or from The Voice 

16 The eleven disciples, having spoken to the Marys, headed to Galilee, to the mountain where they were to meet Jesus. 17 When the disciples saw Jesus there, many of them fell down and worshiped, as Mary and the other Mary had done. But a few hung back. They were not sure (and who can blame them?). 18 Jesus came forward and addressed His beloved disciples.


*The disciples don’t know what to think or how to act. Nothing like this has ever happened before - the Voice.


Jesus: I am here speaking with all the authority of God, who has commanded Me to give you this commission: 19 Go out and make disciples in all the nations. Ceremonially wash them through baptism in the name of the triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 20 Then disciple them. Form them in the practices and postures that I have taught you, and show them how to follow the commands I have laid down for you. And I will be with you, day after day, to the end of the age.
The disciples are told to go to a mountain after witnessing Jesus’ life, death, and powerful resurrection. When they see Jesus alive on the mount, this amazing encounter leads many to worship Jesus, but some of the disciples still doubt what they’ve seen. Jesus comes closer and tells his disciples to go to all the nations with the authority of his name, the testimony of his message, and the assurance of his constant presence.

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Bible Project Video on Witness

Question 1:

Why do you think some disciples doubted when they witnessed Jesus alive from the dead? What do we need to believe in order to move away from doubt into worshipful amazement?

Question 2:

Review verse 19. What are disciples of Jesus commissioned to do exactly? What happens to our Christian witness when we neglect an aspect of this call (i.e., only make disciples of our own nationality or only teach some of Jesus’ commands)

Question 3:
What do you think can happen when we seek to obey Jesus’ commission (vs. 19) without remembering his promise to never leave us (vs. 20)? Reflect on this powerful promise and how it is fulfilled in the gift of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 1:3-9). In response, pray to remember his gift.

Question 4: 

How can you bear witness to what you have seen, heard, and learned about Jesus?

Copyright © 2020 The Bible Project 1302 SE Ankeny St Portland, OR 97214 Church at Home series Jon Collins, Tim Mackie, Carissa Quinn

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.