The King’s Herald

Congregation: Tri-City
Series: Unfit
Speaker: Brad Snyder
Scripture Text: Matthew 3:1-3

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Discussion Questions
  1. When you hear John the Baptist’s message about the kingdom and repentance, what conclusion do you draw about God’s heart for his people and his design in sending John before Jesus?
  2. It had been 400 years since God had sent a profit to his people; this silence was basically broken by one word: repent. What comes to mind when you hear the word “repent”
    Theologian D.A. Carson says that the word repentance has often been explained as “to change one’s mind” or to “be sorry for something” but that neither is really adequate. He says that “what is meant is not a merely intellectual change of mind or mere grief, still less doing penance, but a radical transformation of the entire person, a fundamental turnaround involving mind and action and including overtones of grief, which results in “fruit in keeping with repentance.”
  3. How do you see yourself responding to John’s message if you lived in those days?
  4. Some really took John’s to heart, admitting their sinfulness and need to repent, but others scornfully rejected him. What about his message made people react in the way they did?
  5. John quotes from Isaiah 40 – a passage we studied as a church not long ago. Why does it matter that he is drawing from this passage? Is there anything of significance that stuck with you from what we learned on Sunday morning?
  6. Isaiah’s message of a coming King (and kingdom) figures prominently in John the Baptist’s words and ministry. As a group it might be helpful to read through Isaiah 40 together, and think about/discuss how Jesus fulfills the kingly role Isaiah is anticipating.