Key Bible Passage(s):

Matt.11:25-30 & 12:34

Tier 1:

Our words reveal who we are. That’s because we are made in the image of a God whose Word reveals who He is. Without such revelation there can be no substantive relationship. God’s revelation of Himself through Jesus and by the Spirit is not simply a list of theological facts. It is a Person with whom we relate. This affects our relationship with the Scriptures, which becomes not simply an intellectual exercise, but a relational and personal one.

Tier 2:

The same Spirit who inspired the Scriptures must be working in us to enable us to understand, love, receive and appropraite what we find there. This means that our engagement with the Bible is a ‘whole life’ endeavour, as if we grieve the Spirit, we risk a Divine silence. Just as revelation is critical to the developing of relationship, so is response.

Tier 3:

Meditation forms part of our interaction with the Scriptures. We can’t do this without memorisation. We have already begun to memorise the Sermon on the Mount. As we repeatedly run over a text we are able to understand its meaning and implication more fully, leading to worship, prayer and obedience.

To be led into a truth is more than barely to know it; it is to be intimately and experimentally acquainted with it; not only to have the notion of it in our heads, but to relish and savour the power of it in our hearts

Matthew Henry

Discussion Questions:

Do you agree with the idea of what the Bible is that we have been exploring over the last few weeks? 

How has your understanding of what the Bible is, and your relationship with it, changed over the last half-term? 

What do you do if you read something in the Bible that you don’t agree with?

What do you do if you read something in the Bible that you don’t understand?

Homework:

Over this half-term we have been working to memorise Matthew 6:25-34. You will have to keep refreshing Matt.5:1-26, Matt.6:5-15 and Matt.7:7-28 whilst you do this.

(we’ll memorise the whole of the Sermon on the Mount over the 3 years of DTP)

Rule of Life: Time Audit. We can’t keep adding things we see Jesus doing, hear Jesus teaching etc. AND keep doing everything else as well! 

Something’s got to give.  Keep a time audit for one week.  Track what you do with your time… and at the end of the week (or longer if you need to) ask: What can be re-allocated to the spiritual discipline of memorising the Sermon on the Mount?

Please note that this is a shorter session than usual. This creates space for either a bring ‘n’ share meal part way through term; or it gives an opportunity to work together on how to memorise longer sections of Scripture. There is some session material available to help with this, which can be accessed below.