Use these for group work, or to assist your personal reflection.
- Discuss what redemption means to you in your group. In general, what does ‘payment’ have to do with ‘redemption’, and why is it important?
- How can God’s people live as ‘priests’ within the world and fulfil Isaiah’s prophecy. What New Testament texts help us understand this?
- How can God’s people live as ‘kings’ within the world and fulfil Isaiah’s prophecy. What New Testament texts help us understand this?
Use the programme which can be found on the link ‘discipleship challenges’. The ‘worksheet’ will help you follow through anything you feel is right to take up. The following notes are for your interest and consideration.
Personal comment:
It is amazing that God speaks to us as His ‘Jerusalem’ or His ‘Zion’. These are powerful words in the Old Testament, and sometimes Christians who have particular concerns for the people of Israel talk about the importance of Jerusalem or Zion as if the New Covenant has never happened in Christ, and the Lord’s prime concern is still the old Jerusalem! Of course, God still loves His people, as we have seen in scripture, but we must not mistake God’s love of the Old with His love of the New, in Christ.
Ideas for discipleship programme
- Take an opportunity to have a walk, or some other time alone, to think about what it means for you to be called as part of God’s people, to rule as kings and witness and intercede as priests within this world. Let God speak to you abut this.
- Pray for the old earthly Jerusalem, and pray for the New Jerusalem of God’s people. Conclude by praying for the time when the Lord will resolve all things, when He comes again.
Help us, Lord God, in a world where there are so many beautiful things for us to appreciate, to understand that You lie behind all the beauty we see. Help us to look beyond the obvious and the immediate things of life to connect with the love, power and awesome majesty of Your presence, and look forward to the time when all things will be one with You in Your Kingdom: AMEN
