Discussion Questions

The speaker highlights God’s timing by noting the Jordan was “overflowed all its banks” at wheat harvest and about a mile wide—what does choosing *that* moment reveal about God’s intentions for Israel’s faith, and how does that confront our desire for safer, more manageable obedience? JumpstartAnother way to ask: Why do you think God chose the most dangerous time—when the Jordan was flooding—to have Israel cross? How does that challenge our wish to obey God only when it feels safe and easy?

Israel is told to follow the ark but keep a distance of “2000 cubits…that you may understand the way you are to go, for you have not gone this way before”—what does that combination of nearness and distance teach about approaching God’s holiness, and how might early Christians have applied that instinct to worship and the church’s sacraments? JumpstartAnother way to ask: Why did God tell Israel to follow the ark but stay far back so they could know the way? What does that teach about coming near to a holy God, and how might early Christians have brought that attitude into worship and the sacraments?

Joshua commands, “Sanctify yourselves…tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you,” and the speaker argues we have “a big part to play” in sanctification—how does linking consecration to God’s coming action challenge modern assumptions that holiness is optional, secondary, or unrelated to experiencing God’s power? JumpstartAnother way to ask: Why does Joshua say, “Sanctify yourselves” right before God does “wonders”? How does that push back against the idea that holiness is optional or has nothing to do with experiencing God’s power?

The speaker describes sanctification as “daily self-examination…self-denial…put off…and put on,” citing 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4 and Romans 12:1—what specific heart-motives or “sinful desires” do you most tend to excuse rather than treat as matters of consecration, and what would it look like to “put on” something concrete in their place? JumpstartAnother way to ask: What sinful wants or excuses do you usually let slide instead of treating them as part of consecration? What is one clear “put on” habit or action you could replace them with?

The ark “stayed in the center of the river until everyone had crossed over,” and the speaker says, “Christ and his body need to be at the center of our worship until we are completely delivered”—what does that claim imply about how the church should order its life (gathering, teaching, discipline, sacraments), and where do you see modern churches drifting from that center? JumpstartAnother way to ask: If Christ and his body must stay at the center of worship until we are fully delivered, what should that change about how a church gathers, teaches, disciplines, and practices the sacraments? Where do you see churches today moving away from that center?

Some early Christians, the speaker says, saw the ark as representing Christ’s body “pure within and without,” with contents (manna, Aaron’s rod, tablets) that “all speak of Christ”—how does reading Joshua this way shape what you believe God has been doing across both covenants, and what risks or safeguards should guide typological reading so it stays faithful rather than imaginative? JumpstartAnother way to ask: How does seeing the ark and its contents as pointing to Christ change how you view what God is doing in both covenants? What rules should we follow so “types” stay faithful to Scripture and don’t turn into guesswork?

The speaker argues baptism is not merely symbolic but a miracle where “we do our part, and then God performs a supernatural work…God won’t do it without our cooperation”—how does that understanding reshape what you think baptism *does*, what you think faith and obedience *are*, and what early Christians likely assumed was happening when someone was baptized? JumpstartAnother way to ask: If baptism is a real miracle where we cooperate and God does something supernatural, what does that mean baptism actually does? How does it change what faith and obedience are, and what do you think early Christians believed was happening in baptism?

The speaker insists much of Christianity has reduced realities to “just a symbol” (baptism, communion) and urges removing “symbol” from our language—what reactions does that trigger in you, and what would need to change in your theology and church practice if communion truly is “bread and wine, and yet the body and blood of Christ…way more than a symbol”? JumpstartAnother way to ask: How do you feel when someone says baptism and communion are not “just symbols”? If communion is truly bread and wine and also the body and blood of Christ, what would need to change in your beliefs and in how your church practices it?

In his “dual realities” list (marriage two-yet-one, prayer words-yet-communion, fasting self-denial-yet-gain, giving present need-yet-future treasure, head covering fabric-yet-authority, church people-yet-embassy), which example most exposes how you tend to live as if only the physical is real, and what disciplined practice could retrain you to live as if the unseen is actually operative? JumpstartAnother way to ask: Which “two-realities” example best shows where you live like only the physical world is real? What daily practice could train you to live like the unseen world is truly at work?

The speaker connects the 12 memorial stones from “the midst of the river” to Jesus choosing 12 apostles as enduring “stones” that preserve “the faith once delivered,” then argues if Israel feared Joshua the type, “how much more should we fear” Jesus—what would “fear” of the risen Christ look like in daily decisions and church life today, and where does modern evangelical emphasis on comfort and assurance potentially dull that fear? JumpstartAnother way to ask: What would it look like to “fear” the risen Jesus in your everyday choices and in church life today? How might a focus on comfort and assurance make that fear weaker in modern evangelical churches?