Rescuing Jesus, week 4

Do you have any stories of groups members' discovery of the Real Jesus in recent weeks?

As we "rescue" the Jesus that lives in between the signposts of faith, and the static statements such as his virgin birth and bodily resurrection, many people are finding a Jesus that speaks into our real life. If you have conversations or realizations happening, do tell. We all love to hear how God is uniquely moving in each of the LifeGroups that meet each week.

This week centers on our willingness, as individual people and as churches, to invite Jesus into the details of our life. Many of us have no problem letting Jesus have say over our religion, or our over-arching welfare. It's the day-to-day trust and seeking to hear from him that's so difficult.

As you discuss this week's message, help your group take one step into trusting Christ with more than "world-peace" or the vague idea of being a better person. Help them to understand just how small God is willing to get, and that He wants access to our real living.

Thaw

• What's something you feel like you are learning about God in recent weeks?
• What's something you feel like you are learning about yourself in recent weeks?

• What most impacted you from the message Sunday?
• How do you feel like you are to specifically act on the message?

Read

• John 2:1-11
• Thoughts?

Discuss

• Is anyone reading this for the first time ( or perhaps, had they heard of it for the first time in the message Sunday)?
• Looking at it through fresh eyes, is it surprising that this is recorded as the first miracle of Jesus? Explain.
• Why do you think this is the first miracle related to us, and not bringing someone back from the dead, or multiplying the loaves and fishes?

Leader note: Ask some questions relating to how your group members see this seen. Ask something like "how would you describe this scene?". With Jesus in the picture, we assume he floats into the wedding, the ceremony stops, and it's all eyes on him as he dispenses, with no expression his sedate words of wisdom. At least, that's how the movies always portray him. But spend some time realizing that he's at a wedding because he was invited to be. Jesus is not a wedding crasher. It's evident that he's supposed to be there. He's there to support the marriage of friends, or perhaps family. People that knew him as well as his mother. He probably washed up for the event. He may have put on something extra nice, or even ceremonial, for the event. He may have brought gifts. He probably gave an encouraging smile to the bride and the groom when their faces met from across the courtyard. He sang along with wedding songs. He clapped his hands along with everyone else. He was glad to be there. And he let himself be concerned to the point of action with something as simple as not letting the wedding be potentially marked by shame due to the host poorly planning the amount of wine needed.

• Would you have asked Jesus to provide more wine? Why or why not?

Leader note: Don't let the discussion get bogged down on biblical views of alcohol consumption. If there seems to be interest, tell the group that you can have that discussion another time! Pull out of the group all the reasons they wouldn't ask Jesus for this, how that reveals how they see his character, what he cares about, what we can actually bring to him, etc. If people in the group say they would indeed ask for that, allow them space to describe their relationship with him and when in their life that began. The group will benefit from hearing about that.

• How does this level of including Jesus into details reveal Jesus' love for those at the wedding?

Read*

• Psalm 139:1-18

(*leader note- it may benefit you to read this for the group, or to choose someone with a good reading voice, and use this as a meditative time. There is an intimacy in David's words that reflect the closeness of God's Spirit to ours. Rather than reading to gather the information or draw theological conclusions, read this text as sort of a salve, and then discuss what God says to the group through David's song.)

• Thoughts from this time?

Apply

• When people love each other, the smaller details become important because it is important to the other party. When they don't love the person as the other person needs, they don't deal with them intimately and a certain amount of distrust and separation persists......
• How does strictly seeing Jesus as concerned with the bigger elements of life,and only taking action in most dramatic aspects of our existence, create for us a "smaller" faith?
• How does increased access by Jesus into the smaller details of our life equal a "bigger" faith?

• What are some specific areas that Jesus hasn't been granted access? Why?
• What would it look like to begin to trust that, in love for you, Jesus wants to work in the smaller parts of your week?

Prayer

• Spend some time praying to the God that fills your meeting time, and wants to do amazing things in seemingly un-amazing ways sometimes, because He loves you and is deeply interested in your life.

Rescuing Jesus, week 3

This week is about the church and her readiness at all times. Messiah has come, and his followers are subsequently ready to go. There are tons of philosophical questions about why bad things, on any size, happen. But rather than getting hung up and even paralyzed on "why?", we have to follow Jesus into the darkness and ask "what are we going to do about it?"

Below, find the General Discussion Makers and lead your group to discuss and move on the church's unique, long term, life-style response to evil in the world that pre and post dates media attention or anyone catastrophe. Affirm the good that organizations and people, in general are trying to do, but lead your group to recognize that we already know we live in a war zone and that our lives are dedicated to the One who transforms our hearts, and then the world through our hands.

Spend some time discussing how you can get involved (such as a Crosspointe/Red Cross blood drive January 30th) and time in prayer over our friends Danny and Leann Pye, Nick and Gwenn Mangine and the many staff and children connected to Joy in Hope.

What were the key points for you?

What was the "one thing" you took away?

What surprised you?

What bothered you? Why?

What is/was already part of your thinking on this subject?

What did you learn that was new to you?

*About God?

*About yourself?

*About others?

What changes of thought are necessary in light of what you learned?

What changes of action are needed?

How would life be different if you/we applied this teaching fully?

What are the hindrances, and what do we do about those?

What role can this group lay to help you take steps this week and beyond?

Rescuing Jesus, week 2

One of the things that gets lost in the tug of war between jesus being "nothing more than a good man" and "being the virgin born, incarnate God" is the fact that he was a brilliant teacher. One worth trusting with every facet of life.

This week can be confrontational, because if you concede that Jesus was in fact brilliant in his teaching, you must also ask difficult questions in every area of your life that you are not submitted to him. Why not surrender every area of our lives to what we know to be beautiful and true? The alternative is to say that you have a spiritual respect for him, but do not think he was smart enough to be followed. He should be kept in his appropriate column, for use when real life needs some spiritual guidance.

Again....difficulty and confrontation on both sides. So, as you lead your group, be mindful that this shouldn't mean mere discussion. It's a summons for surrender. It's a line in the sand without even having to draw it- it draws itself. Leaders need only to help the group see what it means to step across.

Thaw

• Who was your favorite school teacher as a kid/college student? Why?
• Who was your least favorite? Why?

• What stuck with you the most from Sunday's message?
• What was something you had not heard before, and what impact is it having on you?
• Why do you think God decided to step into history as a teacher (Rabbi) teaching students (Talmidim)?

Read

• Luke 2:41-47
• Thoughts?

Leader note: A few things to note about this passage as you discuss it. 1. They traveled back from Jerusalem with relatives and friends. This large caravan of pilgrims kept many similar-aged children in clusters, so it would be easy to make assumptions about who was with who for days at a time. 2. Jesus is "sitting". The teacher sits, and the students stand in the Rabbinical tradition. This was a common practice in the first century, and you see it other places in the scripture (Luke 4:20). 3. The boy Jesus is not only sitting, but asking questions and amazing people with his insights and answers. At first, this seems strange (asking questions, yet amazing people with answers)- but again, the context helps. Rabbi's teach with questions, to create discussion and draw out greater meaning, and the question is responded to with a question, so that a theological volley is created. This is Jesus, at age 12, very plainly being portrayed as a potent teacher, or a Rabbi with "Chutzpa" ("KHOOTS pah". Authority and command of teaching)

• What does Luke want us to know about Jesus, even from an early age?
• Why is this important to the rest of the Gospel?
• Is there any significance to Jesus being seen as a teacher at 12, rather than him being shown a miracle worker?

Read

• John 6:60-68
• John 7:16-17
• John 8:31-32
• Thoughts?
• How would you describe to someone living outside of our current culture what the purpose of a teacher, and his or her teachings, were for?
• Jesus is asking for trust in him, and obedience to the content of his instruction. What are the difficulties that come with this?
• When does it seem easier?
• How do people decide, whether consciously or unconsciously, what parts of Jesus' teachings to follow, and which ones to reject?

Discuss

• The two main points from Sunday are:

Recognize Jesus has wisdom to offer for every aspect of your life.

Learn to trust the teacher rather than debate the content of the teaching.

• Share a time when Jesus' wisdom proved, practically, to be best (even if it was difficult).
• What are the areas of life that you consistently struggle with obedience to Christ's teaching?

Apply

• How can the group help you with some specific areas of trusting Jesus and obedience to his teaching?
• How can this group be a stronger source of discovery in what it is Jesus is actually instructing?

Leader note: This may require some humility on the part of the leader, as it may serve a s a review. You may discover in the group's answer to this question a desire to study the scripture more, or more meaningfully. If this is the case, try and have a specific plan of study (versus a generic "let's study the Bible more"- try and be specific: "let's study the Book of Luke for the next 8 weeks") proposed before you leave. Also note that we will be providing help for exactly this in the months to come, so that we as leaders will be more confident navigating the Bible with those we lead.

• How can our personal, daily/weekly disciplines better reflect that we actually believe Jesus is a brilliant teacher?
• How can the group help you step into your answer to the last question?

Prayer

• Spend a few moments praying over the group and their adherence to the teachings of Rabbi Jesus. May we each, and collectively, be good students of Messiah.

Rescuing Jesus, week 1

For January, we'll be discussing the actual person of Jesus, versus belief or faith about him. The distinction is tremendous, because the discussion about him is, for many people, rooted in a bland familiarity. "I already know about him". "Oh, Jesus? Yeah...I get all that...".

But what happens when our assumptions are wrong? What happens when we challenge them by looking past all the clutter and packaging we've grown used to?

This series will hopefully create a fresh discussion about the actual Jesus we're invited to follow, regardless if we have been following Him for years, or if we've long ago decided we knew enough, or tried enough, to be ready to move on to something else.

Before you begin, be sure and look through this discussion guide and think/pray over how your group needs to tackle this specifically. You will also want to make special note of the last leader note below, as some of this discussion may discourage some members if they misinterpret the acknowledgement of obstacles as a demand for seminary-level scholarship in all followers.

Thaw

• What's one highlight from Christmas or New Years that you would like to share with the group?

• What's one thing from the message Sunday that stuck with you, and has you thinking?
• What questions did it create for you?

• Why do you have to submit to something greater than yourself to actually change?
• How is this truth a comfort?
• How is this truth dangerous?

Leader note: the preceding questions are rooted in the understanding that whatever people are seeking to change in themselves, can't last for the long haul if they are based on will power or self-determination. For all personal transformation, submission to others and or a paradigm great than the self is required. For health, we need plans and trainers. For finances, we need accountants and structures. We need accountabilities and guidance. In the ultimate sense, for our souls in the near and long terms, we must be careful not surrender ourselves to anything less than Christ, because nothing else can change or save. That doesn't make the other stuff without value....it's just a reminder that the discussion, the doctrine, the disciplines....aren't the point. Jesus is!

Read

• Matt 16:13-17
• Thoughts?
• Why was this important for Jesus?
• Why is it important for Peter, and us?

Leader note: Jesus said he was blessed for correctly interpreting who Jesus was!

Discuss

• Who do people say Jesus is/was today, in our culture?

Leader note: Help people to describe Jesus in every way others do. The depictions will overlap depictions and impressions of Christianity itself. Let it do that. This is how people see Jesus, largely through the lens of his followers. It may be good to write down the words and phrases that are used.

• How did they arrive at these impressions?
• What role do followers play in presenting Christ as He really is?
• What role does doctrine, creed and orthodoxy play?

Leader note: At this point, the discussion guide will delve into the specifics of Jesus as a Jew. You may find however that this turn is too sharp for the momentum you already have going, and that you need to spend more time discussing perceptions of Jesus and how our faith is shaped by him. Feel free to keep that going, ensuring that the discussion doesn't become your group only discussing other peoples' faith. make it land in your own groups lap, as jesus did with Peter; "who do YOU say I am?".

Read

• Romans 1:16
• Thoughts
• Why is it so important for Paul and the earliest followers to point our that the Gospel of Christ was first for Jews, and then for gentiles?

Leader note: make sure and defuse any misunderstandings about this early. Gentiles (non-Jews) weren't and after thought. Genesis 12 makes it clear that the Jews were uniquely selected to put God on display for the whole world, and that the seed of Abraham was to be a blessing for all peoples/nations. Luke 2 contains the Christmas story, but closes with an infant Jesus being referred to in ancient, prophetic terms as the glory of Israel and light to the Gentiles. The Jewish Messiah was to always be that, for both.

Discuss

• Has anyone in the group discovered that Jesus' Jewish-ness is important to understanding faith in him? How so?

• How does an understanding of the different mindsets, Eastern and Western (or Hebrew and Greek) shape our understanding of Jesus words and teachings? The Bible as a whole?

Apply

• How do some of these insights shape how we study and apply the words of Christ?
• Jesus doesn't seem to think the different thinking styles is an insurmountable obstacle. What are ways that we overcome this particular obstacle as a group?

Leader note: Acts 1:6-9 makes it clear that, though the message is to start in Jerusalem, Jesus is confident that all nations on earth need to see the Life of Christ lived in his followers. All people will have challenges related to this, but all are overcome by help of God's Spirit and the power of community, such as is being experienced in your LifeGroup. Look at this Eastern/Western issue as an awesome thing to discover, not a set back that requires an unattainable level of scholarship before we can get at Christ.

Additional study.

• "Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus" by Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg
• www.followtherabbi.com
• www.jcstudies.com

Additional texts

• Luke 2
• Galatians 2-5
• John 4
• Acts 1:6-9
• Isaiah 60-62