Pastor James will post his Sermon Study Questions every Tuesday with the previous Sunday’s sermon. Our hope is for these study questions to promote deeper personal study and further edify our church body.
Sermon Study Questions – March 29, 2026
1. Read Isaiah 36:1-37:7
2. What is the connection between the events described here and the events back in ch.7:1-9?
3. The Rabshakeh employs some serious psychological warfare throughout ch.36. Think through each of the Rabshakeh’s taunts and tactics. How do his ploys mirror the sort of spiritual warfare we face as Christians?
4. The main objective of this section is clearly to try to get Judah to trust the Lord. This objective is framed for us by, of all people, the Rabshakeh in v.4-10, as the word trust occurs seven times in his speech in these seven verses. The word trust is the Hebrew word batah, which speaks of, “a sense of well-being and security which results from having something or someone in whom to place confidence.” Challenge yourself by searching and thinking through in whom or in what you truly find a sense of well-being and security.
5. What do you personally need to know in order to feel safe and secure in a world full of danger and threats?
6. In hearing the report back from delegation, Hezekiah tears his clothes, covers himself with sackcloth, and goes into the house of the Lord (37:1). What do each of these actions signify? What does this say about his response to Sennacherib’s ultimatum delivered by the Rabshakeh?
7. The Lord’s anger burns against the Rabshakeh for blaspheming Him in his speech. Where is the blasphemy in his speech? What do you learn from the Lord’s response here?
8. This passage is wanting to show you that the Lord is the one you should trust to deliver you as He’s the only one who can keep you safe and secure. Knowing that we face all kinds of trouble, struggles, and challenges in this life, what does this mean? In what ways does He keep you safe and secure?
9. What practical application can you make from this text/sermon?
10. Pray!
Reading of Law: Psalm 115:11
You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.
Prayer of Confession:
Our Father in Heaven, we come before you in Jesus’ name. You are the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love you and keep your commandments to a thousand generations. Father, your Law is perfect in every way, and yet for as perfect as your Law is we are incapable of obeying it in the way you require. You command us to trust in you, and yet our trust in you is flawed and so often mingled with fear and worry. We confess that we are often anxious and uneasy about the challenges we face, fearing the worst even though you in your perfect wisdom, love, and sovereignty have assured us of your perfect care for us. For you tell us that the very hairs of our heads are numbered, and that a sparrow does not fall to the ground apart from you, and yet we still fail to trust you. Father, please forgive us. Please also work in us in such a way that we would trust in you and rest in you in greater ways. We thank you for our Savior, who has bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that through faith in Him we are forgiven. We thank you for Him. We thank you for the grace, love, and mercy that is in Him. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Assurance of Forgiveness: Romans 3:23-25a
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.
Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 30
Q. 80. What difference is there between the Lord’s Supper and the Pope’s Mass?
A. The Lord’s Supper testifies to us that we have full forgiveness of all our sins by the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which He Himself once accomplished on the cross; and that by the Holy Spirit we are engrafted into Christ, who, with His true body is now in heaven at the right hand of the Father, and is there to be worshiped. But the Mass teaches that the living and the dead do not have forgiveness of sins through the sufferings of Christ, unless Christ is still daily offered for them by the priests, and that Christ is bodily under the form of bread and wine, and is therefore to be worshiped in them. And thus the Mass at bottom is nothing else than a denial of the one sacrifice and suffering of Jesus Christ, and an accursed idolatry.
[1] Heb. 7:27; 9:12, 25–28; 10:10, 12, 14; Jn. 19:30. [2] 1 Cor. 6:17. [3] Heb. 1:3; 8:1. [4] Jn. 4:21–24; 20:17; Lk. 24:52; Acts 7:55; Col. 3:1; Phil. 3:20–21; 1 Thess. 1:9–10. [5] See Hebrews chapters 9 and 10; *Matt. 4:10.
Q. 81. Who are to come to the table of the Lord?
Those who are displeased with themselves for their sins, yet trust that these are forgiven them, and that their remaining infirmity is covered by the suffering and death of Christ; who also desire more and more to strengthen their faith and to amend their life. But the unrepentant and hypocrites eat and drink judgment to themselves.
[1] 1 Cor. 10:19–22; 11:28–29; *Ps. 51:3; *Jn. 7:37–38; Ps. 103:1–4; *Matt. 5:6.
Q. 82. Are they, then, also to be admitted to this Supper who show themselves by their confession and life to be unbelieving and ungodly?
A. No, for thereby the covenant of God is profaned and His wrath provoked against the whole congregation; therefore, the Christian Church is bound, according to the order of Christ and His Apostles, to exclude such persons by the Office of the Keys until they amend their lives.
[1] 1 Cor. 11:20, 34a; Isa. 1:11–15; 66:3; Jer. 7:21–23; Ps. 50:16–17; *Matt. 7:6; *1 Cor. 11:30–32; *Tit. 3:10–11; *2 Thess. 3:6.
NT Reading: Hebrews 11:1-10
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. 4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. 5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. 7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. 8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.