Messiah: Mighty God
Isaiah 9:6-7 and Selected Scriptures
Connect:
Share how you have seen God in the Highs and Lows of your week.
Discuss how resolutions made last week in “growing more like Jesus” worked themselves out – what God did in and through you (Phil. 2:13) Celebrate and thank God for those together and pray with those who experienced some “Lows” this week, for God’s encouragement for them.
Prayer:
Pray that God would lead your discussion time and bring fresh insight, conviction, and hope through your time together.
Review:
This Christmas season we're focusing on the names of the Messiah as recorded by the prophet Isaiah. In the midst of a very dark time in Israel's history God spoke through the prophet about the coming of the One who would bring light into the world. Each of the four names express the character and activity of Jesus our Messiah and the impact that he makes in our lives today.
This week we look at Jesus as “Mighty God”
The Grand Tour of the message: Thinking back on what you heard this Sunday…
o What did you learn about God?
o What did you learn about people?
o What did you learn about yourself?
o What do you want to commit to putting into practice?
Read Isaiah 9:6-7 together.
Reflect:
The Hebrew title, “El Gibbor” essentially means “Warrior God”!
Brainstorm:
Spend some time thinking back through the narrative of Scripture to the times where God clearly showed Himself to be a “Warrior God”! (E.g., Joshua’s conquest of Canaan, the battle at Ai, David and Goliath, Gideon & the Midianites…)
Read Colossians 1:15-16
This verse states that all things were created “through Him” and “for Him”. Talk about each of those. Where else in Scripture is this theme of God’s purposes in creation found?
Paul is seeking to establish the deity and almighty power of Jesus as God. What does it mean that He “holds all things together” in this context?
Read John 18:36-37, and 19:7-11 :
Pilate was a representative of one of the cruelest empires the world has ever seen, and ruled Jerusalem as a self-interested politician, balancing Rome’s and the Jewish rulers’ interests for his own benefit. Why do you think God gave Pilate that kind of power, literally the power to torture people to death at whim (for no other end than personal benefit)?
Jesus is not a victim here; standing before Pilate, bleeding and faint from a soldier’s lash, He makes it clear that Pilate’s power is a granted power from God, and the traitor Judas is guilty of even greater sin (for which he will be held to account). How does Jesus’ response here help us understand His nature as Almighty God?
Read Isaiah 9:2, and Colossians 1:13
Translate the metaphors used here: what does it mean that the world is “dark” and what does it mean that Jesus brought a “great light”?
Paul says in Colossians that God has “brought us into the Kingdom of His Son”— that is an idea developed in Ephesians 4:1-6 where we are called to “walk worthy of the calling we have received”! Discuss how we are supposed to do that when we are confronted with the darkness of the world around us and the pain/weaknesses of our own flesh. (Hint: Romans 7:21-8:5, 2 Corinthians 12:9)
Respond:
“What does it feel like to be on the other side of me?” That is a question that leaves one vulnerable to the truth in the mirror! Jesus said, “Everyone on the side of truth listens to me”. To this statement, Pilate said, “What is truth” (in other words, “Truth is whatever I say it is”). Spend some time in prayer together asking the Lord to show you a person (or 2) whom you may need to ask that question! Commit to do that this week… simply as an act of obedience that glorifies the Mighty God we serve!
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