Exodus: The Ten Commandments According to Calvin, Hobbes and Christ

2/4/2018

In this weeks sermon, Pastor Brennan unpacked the iconic 10 Commandments of Exodus from a few different perspectives.

As you open your Bible to Exodus 20, take a few minutes to chat about the word ‘law’. Have you ever had a brush with the law? Do you abide by the law? Do you find yourself reading or avoiding all the legal mumbo jumbo on your itunes account? What does law mean to you?

Read through the 10 commandments as a group, each taking turns to read one. Which of these commandments do you find yourself thinking about the most after reading through? Is there one in particular that catches your attention, or has occupied your thoughts in the past?
Pastor Brennan stated that the giving of the law was good news, both to the people of Israel as well as us. What are your thoughts on this? In what way have you experienced these laws as good news? If you haven’t experienced them that way, why do you think that is? Do you feel about them the way David did? Read Psalm 119:46-48 to get a picture of how he felt.
But there is also some bad news. If the conclusion of following God’s law is blessing, then the result of not following God’s law is the opposite of blessing, it is being cursed. Deuteronomy 28 lists the blessings for following the Lord, then follows this with the curse for not following. Interestingly, there are 14 verses of blessing and 58 verses of curse. Serious! Why do you think God puts so much into the description of the curse? Is this fair (Now that is a loaded question). Maybe skim some of these verses and give your thoughts.
It can be easy to feel like this promised curse for not following God’s law only applies to those who lived so long ago. Read through what Jesus says in his sermon on the Mount about this. Matthew 5:21-30
Do you feel like Christ is speaking in hyperbole (exaggerating to make a point) or is he speaking literally? What do you think his motivation is? What if he gave these two Commandments as examples for how he understands all of the commandments? How then do we understand things like covering, lying, building idols, and showing dishonour to our parents?
If you take an honest look at this last week, or even just yesterday, do Christ's words apply to you? How does this leave you feeling?
Hope! The really good news though is that we're not left in this state. Check out these verses together and take some time to meditate on them together. For each passage, how does it fuel hope for you? How does it fuel evangelism for you?
- Romans 5:1-11
- 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
- Ephesians 2:1-10
- Hebrews 8:12
- Revelation 21:5-7
- Are there any other verses you look to that speak to your salvation and security in Christ?
If you still have some time left, check out this song by Rend Collective. It’s pretty much awesome, theologically, lyrically, musically (in Pastor Brennan’s humble opinion). Nailed to the Cross