This may be a good time for a very frank question: Have you called on the name of the LORD? verse 13. 1 Cor 1:2 – seems to imply we should call on the LORD continually, not just once. Not that we need to be saved every day or anything like that, but rather than our prayers indicate an absolute reliance on God.
Leader: for your review
Joel 2 is an amazing chapter that discusses God’s plan for Israel as a people and His plan for all mankind. This topic of Israel in comparison with the Church is going to come up again in chapter 11, it’s good to start thinking about it now. For instance, in Joel 2, God talks about His plan of redemption for Israel in v21-27 and then in v28 He says He will pour out His Spirit on all mankind…does the all in v28 really mean all or does it mean all of one people group or does it mean all humans but only some of them (the elect)?
Leader: for your review
v14,15 Should really be read together with no breaks, “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!”"
c.f. Is 52:7
Discussion question: Is this section a tangent of Paul’s to tell us that we need to send people so they can preach to those who have not heard so that they can believe?
Leader: for your review:
It helps his argument that even though some Jews have not believed, it doesn’t not nullify the Word of God (9:6) He quotes Isaiah when he says the good news has been brought to captive Israel and then quotes him again (Is 53:1) that some have not believe their report. So by spelling out the steps of belief, Paul shows that we must hear the entire gospel being preached to us by sent preachers and that we must believe in what we hear and we must call on Him according to what we have heard.
Now that Paul has listed the steps, he can go back to his argument that some have heard and have not believed and this does not mean the Word of God has failed in the case of the Jews.
The great thing about this section is that Paul uses an argument and at the same time shows us how we are to see and perform evangelism.
Discussion question: What does this lead us to do in terms of evangelism?
Discussion question: What is your role in evangelism today?
Discussion question: What is the “word of Christ”?
Col 3:16 – Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Eph 5:26 – so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.
John 15:3 – you are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
John 17:17 – Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.
Eph 6:17 – …and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
John 1:1 – In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God; and the Word was God.
1 John 1:1-2 – What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life–and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us–
Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of go for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteousness man shall live by faith”
Leader: these are the OT quotes given in the following verses:
v18 – Ps 19:4
v19 – Deut 32:21
v20 – Is 65:1
v21 – Is 65:2
Leader: for your review
v18-20 Show the other side of the great mystery: God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. We see in ch9 that God hardens some and softens others and in ch10 that He holds out His hand all day long to a disobedient people (1 Tim 2:4 “God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth). We cannot know or understand how this is, we simply rest in the fact that it is God’s way as the following verses tell us: Matt 11:25, John 6:35-37, Acts 13:38-48
