Apr. 19, 2020

What Happened?

Primary Text:  Amos 4:10-12                                                                       April 19, 2020

Last Week’s Teaching: Jesus is Still the King

1)  Rejecting the True King

1 Samuel 8:4-5:  So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.   They said to him, "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have."  

1) Why do people want a human king?

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2)  The Future King

Zechariah 9:9:  Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!  Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!  See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.  

2) What type of king did the Israelites expect in the Messiah?  

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3)  Rejected of Men

Isaiah 53:3:  He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.   Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  

John 1:10-11:  He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.

3) Why did the Chief Priests want Jesus killed?

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4)  King of All

Revelation 19:11, 16:  I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True.…  On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

4) What does the name KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS mean?

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This Week’s Teaching:   

1)  Did God Send the Virus?

Numbers 14:36-38:  So the men Moses had sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble against him by spreading a bad report about it--these men responsible for spreading the bad report about the land were struck down and died of a plague before the LORD.  Of the men who went to explore the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived.

Ezekiel 14:21:  "For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem my four dreadful judgments--sword and famine and wild beasts and plague--to kill its men and their animals!"

Amos 4:10-12:  "I sent plagues among you as I did to Egypt.  I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses.  I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD.  "I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.  You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD.  "Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel, and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel."

Revelation 15:1:  I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues--last, because with them God's wrath is completed.

DQ 1) Has God used plagues in biblical history to judge people and nations?

DQ 2) Is God unjust or unloving for bringing judgment upon evil?

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2)  The Worst Case Scenario

Revelation 20:6:  Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection.  The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

Revelation 20:14-15:  Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.  The lake of fire is the second death.  If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

DQ 3) Why is spiritual death far worse than physical death?

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3)  God at Work

Romans 8:28-29:  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

DQ 4) How is God working globally, nationally, and in your personal life to bring forth good in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic?

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