- Preacher: Steve Constable
- Sermon Series: The God Who Became Human
- Sermon Title: The God Who Has Heirs
- Scripture: Galatians 3:26 – 4:7
SERMON DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
READ Galatians 3:26-4:7
1. What is an heir? Find a dictionary and look the word up. Who comes to mind when you think of heirs?
2. When an heir considers their inheritance, they are looking at one moment into the past to see whom they have inherited from and into the future to see what they will inherit from them. READ these verses again to yourself. Identify the people that Paul says the Galatians should be looking back to and the things that they should be looking ahead to.
3. God and the promise of Jesus are placed deep within their past (with Abraham), yet God and the presence of Jesus are also placed definitively within their present. What have they inherited specifically in verses 28-29?
4. In 4:1-3, Paul uses a complex argument to remind us how it is possible to be an heir and yet not be in possession of what we are inheriting yet. How does he apply that fact to Christians here? What security is implied for you under God’s guardianship? What responsibilities are implied for you now that you are receiving the promised inheritance? (Hint: vv. 28c, 29b, 4:1b, 5)
5. What does Paul mean by the expression “the fullness of time”? What is he referring to? And how has Jesus, His Son, redeemed“those born under the Law” (he means the curse and the alienation of our breaking the Law) to make us now His sons and daughters?
6. Knowing that you are, in fact, one of God’s own family, His own cherished, kept and dearly-bought son or daughter, what difference should that make to the way you live today?
7. The Bible describes the heirs of God throughout the Bible. Here is one reference for you to meditate on, and thank God for, asking yourself am I living in the way this describes?
Malachi 4:2 – “But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.”