Worship Helps for Lent 2
Worship Theme: For most of us who have been acquainted with
Christian teachings for many years, it’s an easy question. How are we saved?
Answer: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. But for
thousands of years, people didn’t have the knowledge of Jesus Christ. They knew
only of a Messiah to come. Nonetheless, their faith was placed in the promise of
God to send a Savior, and that faith—a forward-looking faith—was credited to
them as the righteousness that God demands to enter heaven.
The gift of God comes by faith
to all nations. Not a holy life, not acts of obedience, but simple trust in the
promise of God brings the gift of living water for thirsty souls. Abraham
believed God’s promise and so became not only the father of a nation, but the
forefather of the Promised Seed who would bless all peoples. He had faith in
God who justifies the wicked, and so God credited it to him as righteousness.
By this same faith, Christ gives righteousness to all who believe and enfolds
sinful Samaritans and modern Gentiles like us into the family of God.
Old Testament: Genesis 12:1-8 The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your
father's household and go to the land I will show you. 2 "I
will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name
great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless
you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be
blessed through you." 4 So Abram left, as the LORD had told
him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old
when he set out from Haran .
5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot , all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired
in Haran , and they set out for the land of Canaan , and they arrived there. 6 Abram traveled through the land as
far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites
were in the land. 7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To
your offspring I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the
LORD, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he went on toward the
hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an
altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.
1. Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as being sure of what we
hope for and certain of what we do not see. How is Abram (Abraham) a good
example of a faith-filled man? (Compare Hebrews 11:8-19)
2. How did God “appear to Abram”? (verse 7) Why does he
not appear visibly to us today?
Epistle: Romans 4:1-5,13-17 What then shall we say that Abraham, our
forefather, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was
justified by works, he had something to boast about-- but not before God.
3 What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was
credited to him as righteousness." 4 Now when a man works, his
wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. 5
However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked,
his faith is credited as righteousness. … 13 It was not through law
that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of
the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 For
if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is
worthless, 15 because law brings wrath. And where there is no law
there is no transgression. 16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith,
so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring--
not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of
Abraham. He is the father of us all. 17 As it is written: "I
have made you a father of many nations." He is our father in the sight of
God, in whom he believed-- the God who gives life to the dead and calls things
that are not as though they were.
3. According to Paul, how was Abraham justified? (Compare
Galatians 3:6-9)
4. The
promised Seed was intended for the children of Abraham. Are we included?
Gospel: John 4:5-26 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had
given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired
as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her,
"Will you give me a drink?" 8 (His disciples had gone into
the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You
are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?"
(For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her,
"If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you
would have asked him and he would have given you living water." 11
"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the
well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you
greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself,
as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?" 13 Jesus
answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14
but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I
give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't
get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." 16 He
told her, "Go, call your husband and come back." 17
"I have no husband," she replied. Jesus said to her, "You are
right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had
five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just
said is quite true." 19 "Sir," the woman said,
"I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on
this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem ." 21 Jesus declared,
"Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem . 22 You Samaritans worship what you do
not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father
seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit
and in truth." 25 The woman said, "I know that
Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain
everything to us." 26 Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to
you am he."
5. How was Samaritan woman a recipient of God’s grace?
6. Explain
how “salvation is from the Jews”? (Verse 22)
Answers:
1. If faith is “being certain of what we do not see,” then
Abraham is a prime example. He left home at God’s command to go to a
destination he didn’t know; he believed without question in the incredible
promise of child in his old age through whom the Savior would come; he
proceeded unwaveringly when God asked him to sacrifice that very child. Oh, for
the faith of Abraham!
2. We’re not sure of the exact appearance, but it seems to
be visibly. Today God reveals himself to us in his Word.
3. The Jews taught that Abraham was a model of good works
and was justified through them. But Paul is clear that Abraham was justified in
God’s sight by faith in God’s promises.
4.
While we may not be “blood” descendants of Abraham (ethnic Jews),
Scripture says we are all Abraham’s children through faith. The promises given
to him are ensured for us.
5.
As for all of us, she received God’s grace by faith in the Savior.
Her background was as part of a people opposed to Jewish customs, especially
those concerning worship, but Jesus tells her that ethnic background nor
worship practices make any real difference. It is faith alone in the promised
Savior, and Jesus declares, “I am he.”
6. The Jews were God’s chosen people in the Old Testament
to be the physical ancestors of the Messiah. It was from their line that
the Savior would come.
Putting
your faith into action
Have you ever shaken the hand
of the president of the United States
or a senator or even an important athlete? Most of us have probably had an
encounter with someone of some noteworthiness. Do you think that VIP
remembers that encounter? I doubt it. Yet look how Jesus reaches out
individually to a Samaritan woman who, by her race and culture, would have
considered herself Jesus’ enemy. Yet Jesus loved her. He called her to
repentance. He took time with her. He accepted her. He dealt with her as
an individual. He even knew her life story and knew exactly what she
needed. Jesus has exactly the same kind of relationship with us. Yes, he
knows our history but he also knows what we need and supplies it. We are
baptized into his family. We come to the Lord’s Supper, and he gives us
his body and blood to eat and drink and receive the blessing of forgiveness
individually. In turn we, like the woman at the well, also invite our
friends to come and see the man who knows who we are and what we really need—a
relationship with him.
100] For let me tell you
this, even though you know it perfectly and be already master in all things,
still you are daily in the dominion of the devil, who ceases neither day nor
night to steal unawares upon you, to kindle in your heart unbelief and wicked
thoughts against the foregoing and all the commandments. Therefore you must
always have God's Word in your heart, upon your lips, and in your ears. But
where the heart is idle, and the Word does not sound, he breaks in and has done
the damage before we are aware. 101] On the other
hand, such is the efficacy of the Word, whenever it is seriously contemplated,
heard, and used, that it is bound never to be without fruit, but always awakens
new understanding, pleasure, and devoutness, and produces a pure heart and pure
thoughts. For these words are not inoperative or dead, but creative, living
words. 102] And even though no other interest or
necessity impel us, yet this ought to urge every one thereunto, because thereby
the devil is put to Right and driven away, and, besides, this commandment is
fulfilled, and [this exercise in the Word] is more pleasing to God than any
work of hypocrisy, however brilliant. – Large Catechism, III Commandment
(paragraphs 100-102)
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