Study Questions: Undertsanding the Indescribable: 2 Corinthians 9:15; John 1:1-14

Date: December 4, 2005
Passage: 2 Corinthians 9:15; John 1:1-18
Message: Understanding the Indescribable
Theme: Christmas 2005

What makes a good gift?

Read 2 Corinthians 9:6-15
In the context of these verses why do you think Paul says….thanks be to God for his indescribable gift?
What makes God’s gift so indescribable?

It is a gift –
1. Wrapped up in PROPHECY
Prophecy was never meant to hide Jesus coming, it was meant to HERALD it!
Read Isaiah 7:14; 9:6-7; 11:1-5;
Micah 5:2

But there is something more.
There is a twist in all this.
The reason this one would be indescribable was because in another sense he was non-descript!

The Messiah would not dazzle us like the coming of some great warrior or King.
His appeal is not in appearance.
His attraction would not be his attractiveness!

Read Isaiah 53:1-6

He looked like any other Jew of his day. As a boy he looked like any other carpenter's son. His appearance had nothing majestic about it. There was no shining glow about him. It was God who came in the form of a man, don't forget, not man in the form of God.

Discuss

2. Wrapped up in HISTORY
Christmas is not just a celebration of what happened in Bethlehem, it is the culmination of what God had been doing in history!

Galatians 4:4 ….but when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law…

Reflect on the way God was at work in history.
Eg.
Alexander the Great – Koine Greek language
Rome – building paved roads
Politics – calling of a census that saw Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem.

Can you think of other ways in which God has been at work in history?
Share how God has worked in your ‘history’.

3. Wrapped up in MYSTERY
Read John 1:1-5, 14

What are some of the key words and themes of this chapter?
What or Who is the Word?
See also, Hebrews 4:12, John 17:17, 2Timothy 3:15,16, 1Peter 1:23.
Why do you think that the world and His own did not recognise Christ? Verses 6-11.
Why is Christ called the "Word" in this chapter? What does the name symbolise?
What is the purpose of verses 1-18?

Discuss how we can recover / keep the sense of the ‘indescribable’ in our lives.