CrossGroups Connection Guide
Today’s Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 23:1-16
• Go around the table and share prayer requests. Have someone lead in prayer.
• Let everyone who would like share anything exciting from their week.
• Did anyone do last week’s assignment? What was the result?
• Ask these questions. Let as many answer each one as they would like.
1. Why is Jeremiah often called the “weeping prophet”?
2. As Christians, do we have hope that the world situation can get better?
3. Jeremiah finally gets to give some good news in today’s scripture focus. What is it? How does it apply to us today?
4. How does the theme in the prophets of anticipating a future king remind us of the Advent/Christmas season?
5. Is there anything in today’s scripture that especially speaks to you?
6. What questions would you like to ask about today’s scripture?
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CrossView - December 11th, 2011
(entire service, including sermon)
Sermon - December 11th, 2011
(scripture reading and sermon only)
Click Here for corresponding scripture, small group connection guide, and sermon notes
CrossGroups Connection Guide
Today’s Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 20:7-13
“Go down to the potter’s house.” In Jeremiah 18, the prophet is given this instruction by Yahweh. The potter would have been in the southern part of the city near a water source, and would fashion vessels by working with clay on a disk which he spun with his feet. If the clay had an imperfection in it, the potter would simply smush it up and start over. God shows Jeremiah that this is exactly what is happening with Israel. God “formed” her (the same word used in Genesis for creating the earth and Adam), but Israel has done something no other nation has done – rejected her very creator in order to worship other creations! So God will simply destroy her and start over. Jeremiah attempts to deliver this message, but is met with severe opposition.
The theme of pottery carries over into chapter 19. Yahweh now commands Jeremiah to buy a vessel from the potter, gather the leaders of the people and the priests, and take them to Valley of Ben Hinnom, just outside the Potsherd Gate. This would likely have been the gate people would have used to take out the city’s trash. The valley had become a cultic site. It was used to offer child sacrifices to the god Ba’al. Jeremiah tells the leaders that due to this detestable practice, it will become a burial ground. All the evil of the people will come upon them here, and they will even be reduced to cannibalism! Then, Jeremiah is commanded to smash the pottery, symbolizing that judgment had been finalized. There was to be no turning back now.
The scene quickly changes as Jeremiah is commanded to take this message of destruction into the Temple. The religious establishment would have been reassuring the crowds with false messages of hope, but Jeremiah tells them the truth – devastation is at hand. A new character enters the story here. Pashhur was a priest with an important position, likely keeping order in the Temple courts. Jeremiah’s message threatened the peace and contradicted official statements. Pashhur had Jeremiah beaten and placed in stocks. Upon his release, Jeremiah boldly tells Passhur he will become an object of God’s wrath and scared of his own shadow. For the first time, Babylon is named specifically as the tool God will use to crush the vessel of Judah
Our scripture focus today is the last of the great confessions of Jeremiah. These are really laments – a form of Hebrew poetry expressing great anguish. They are most often found in Psalms and Job. Jeremiah accuses God of overpowering him; a term associated with child abuse. God had “formed” Jeremiah to be a broken vessel – to proclaim only messages of destruction. He was a constant target of men like Passhur, who abused, mocked, and spread false rumors about him. However, when Jeremiah tries to not tell God’s truth, it becomes physically painful to him, to the point he prefers the abuse of the wicked! Jeremiah decides to just praise God anyway. Though he may be miserable, he will tell God’s truth to God’s rebellious people.
Today’s sermon will offer Advent hope to those who carry God’s truth in troubled days.
• Go around the table and share prayer requests. Have someone lead in prayer.
• Let everyone who would like to share anything exciting from their week.
• Did anyone do last week’s assignment? What was the result?
• Ask these three questions. Let as many answer each one as they would like.
1. What is your primary source of news? Television? Radio? Newspaper? None? Do you feel there’s more good news or bad news in the media today?
2. Is there anything in today’s scripture that especially speaks to you?
3. What questions would you like to ask about today’s scripture?
• Go over this week’s assignment (below). Commit to work on it together.
Today’s Sermon
Key Truths –
• Jeremiah couldn’t help himself.
• The Church can’t help itself.
• God would help Jeremiah.
• God will help the Church.
This Week’s Assignment –
Having a CrossViewed life means choosing to carry God’s painful truth to a world waiting for good news. During this third week of Advent, commit to being a vessel of truth when the world offers false messages. Speak up!
CrossGroups Connection Guide
Today’s Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 15:15-21
Sometime around 601 BC, Judah was stricken with drought – a period of several growing seasons with no rain. In Jeremiah 14, we read that the drought was so severe the people had gone into an official state of mourning, which involved wearing only black and sitting on the ground. Even the wealthiest were without water. The farmers couldn’t plant, and the herds were dying off. Remember in last week’s scripture focus, God had told Jeremiah not to pray for the people due to their repeated failure to repent. Jeremiah breaks this command, and cries out to God to remember the covenant. He asks God to be Savior. This is the name used for God that was associated with the deliverance from Egyptian slavery.
Normally after a prayer of lament like Jeremiah’s, God would respond with words of comfort. Instead, God once again forbids Jeremiah from praying for the people! While the nation has performed the rites of a national fast, they have not taken steps to forsake the worship of other gods. Therefore, God is determined to not only destroy them by drought, but by famine and sword. Jeremiah disobeys God and continues to pray for the people, reminding God that they are listening to false prophets who promise all will be well. God denies sending these prophets, and states in no uncertain terms they will perish for their lies. In the rest of chapter 14, God actually weeps for the people, and Jeremiah cries out for them again.
The back-and-forth between Jeremiah and Yahweh continues in chapter 15. One of the chief roles of the biblical prophet was intercession – praying on behalf of the people despite their wickedness or ignorance. The Jewish people considered Moses and Samuel to be their greatest prophets. Moses interceded for the people after they created and worshipped the golden calf, and Samuel prayed for them even when they demanded he be replaced with a king. God tells Jeremiah intercession will no longer work, even if Moses or Samuel were asking now! God had sent Moses to lead the people out of destruction and into the Promised Land – this is now reversed as Jeremiah is commanded to send the people away from God and Judah.
At this point, we know Jeremiah had become the subject of an assassination plot from his own family, a lawsuit, and constant ridicule from his “congregation”. Now, it seems even God is not allowing him to do the very job for which he was born – to intercede for the people. In bitterness and despair, Jeremiah laments that his mother even gave birth to him in the first place. God responds by promising to care for Jeremiah. The prophet reminisces about reading the covenant and how it affirmed his call, but wonders if God will be faithful to that covenant. God gently encourages Jeremiah to not worry about his enemies, but to focus on remaining faithful to God and his enemies will one day seek his help.
Today’s sermon will examine our call to pray for others.
• Go around the table and share prayer requests. Have someone lead in prayer.
• Let everyone who would like to share anything exciting from their week.
• Did anyone do last week’s assignment? What was the result?
• Ask these three questions. Let as many answer each one as they would like.
1. Is there someone for whom you’ve prayed for years, and it doesn’t seem to help? How do you keep from being discouraged?
2. Is there anything in today’s scripture that especially speaks to you?
3. What questions would you like to ask about today’s scripture?
• Go over this week’s assignment (below). Commit to work on it together.
Today’s Sermon
Key Truths –
• Jeremiah got upset while praying for Judah.
• We get upset while praying for others.
• God encouraged Jeremiah to keep praying.
• God wants us to keep praying, too.
This Week’s Assignment –
Having a CrossViewed life means being faithful to pray for the most frustrating people in our lives, even when it doesn’t seem to do any good. Who do you need to keep praying for this week? Cry out to God for them daily. It might not change them, but it will change you.