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 – January 18, 2026
1. Read Isaiah 27:2-13
2. This is the final song in Isaiah’s oratorio which began in ch.24. Only this song isn’t one that God’s people sing, but it’s one that God sings about His people, whom He refers to as His vineyard. We know from the parable of the vineyard in ch.5 that this refers to Israel. How would you define Israel? Why is it appropriate for you to conclude that this song about Israel is a song about you as a Christian?
3. In v.3 the Lord says of His vineyard, “I, the Lord, am its keeper; every moment I water it. Lest anyone punish it, I keep it night and day.” The point He is making is that He watches over, protects, and keeps guard over His people. What does this mean? Be sure to reconcile your answer with the experience of suffering and opposition which God’s people so often endure.
4. In v.4-5 we see two clear messages to the would-be opponents of God’s people. What are those messages?
5. In v.4 God says this of His vineyard, “I have no wrath.” Why is this? Why does He have no wrath towards you?
6. In v.7 Isaiah asks rhetorically, “Has He struck them as He struck those who struck them? Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain?” In essence he’s responding to their claims that God treats them, His people, no differently than He treats the opponents of His people. But in n v.8 Isaiah responds to them by saying, “Measure by measure, by exile you contend with them.” What is he saying here? What does this word contend refer to? How, or on what basis, is it that God is contending with them?
7. This statement in v.8 points to the disciplining or pruning of the Lord in the lives of His people. In doing so he makes the point that it is a temporary thing. Where do we see this in our text? How is it expressed? When does it come to an end? See v.8-9
8. In v.10-11 Isaiah makes the point that God doesn’t deal with His people the same He deals with those who oppose them. What does he say about the way God opposes His enemies?
9. What is Isaiah referring to in v.12-13? What is represented by the boundary between the river Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt? Look up Gen.15:18-20 and Rom.4:13. How is this connected with the great trumpet being blown? And what is represented by Assyria and Egypt? Why are they mentioned?
10. Pray!
Reading of Law: 1 Thessalonians 5:17
Pray without ceasing
Prayer of Confession:
Our Father in heaven, you are worthy of all praise, honor, and glory. As the Psalmist says, “I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.” Father, this tells us you are a God who hears and answers prayer, and yet Father how often we neglect to pray. We confess that we are often lazy in prayer and do not prioritize prayer the way you call us to. We fail to pray for those whom you tell us to pray for. We give up in prayer when we do not see the answer coming. We get discouraged in prayer when it doesn’t come as easily as we want it to. In all of this we fail to pray without ceasing, leaving so much unprayed for. Father, please forgive us. Please also help us to be more prayerful. Help us to maintain an attitude of prayer throughout each day. We thank you that though we fail to pray as we should, we have One in heaven who even now is interceding for us at your right hand. We thank you for Jesus, the One who always stands in the gap for us and has enabled us to stand blameless in your presence forever. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
Assurance of Forgiveness: Psalm 65:2-3
O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come. When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions.
Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 20
Q. 53. What do you believe concerning the “Holy Spirit”?
A. First, that He is co-eternal God with the Father and the Son. Second, that He is also given unto me: by true faith makes me a partaker of Christ and all His benefits, comforts me, and shall abide with me forever.
[1] Gen. 1:2; Isa. 48:16; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19; Acts 5:3–4. [2] Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 1:21–22. [3] 1 Pet. 1:2; 1 Cor. 6:17. [4] Acts 9:31. [5] Jn. 14:16; 1 Pet. 4:14; *1 Jn. 4:13; *Rom. 15:13. LORD’S DAY 21
NT Reading: Matthew 21:33-44
“Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. 34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and blet out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” 42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? 43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”