What if everyone in your group embraced the gift of access to God through nothing other than Jesus Christ?
What if your group began to function, as a whole and as the individuals that comprise it, as the church?
What goes on in your own heart as leaders when you entertain that? Thoughts of worth? Ability? A lack of time to be "that" in?
This week, really go after how you see what it means to take responsibility for this faith, and to destroy every unbiblical stronghold that has you and your group somehow on the outside of the center of what God is up to in His Kingdom.
You may want to use this discussion as a springboard for communion if you haven't celebrated the death burial and resurrection as a group before.
Thaw
- When is a time that you felt like you were part of something that really mattered?
- What has really stuck with you from the message on Sunday?
- What specific areas has God been brining to mind?
- How did the message, overall, resonate or contradict how you think about faith?
Read
- Ephesians 2
- Thoughts?
Leader note: Some key themes include the fact that God does all the work, bringing us near, making us alive, raising us up, destroying the barrier (which refers to the very well studied dividing wall within the temple that kept out Gentiles, with a sign that essentially read, "go beyond this sign and you will be put to death"), joining us together, etc. There are no qualifiers or limits put on some. The whole thing is for all of us equally, with the net result being access to God, and peace.
- What are some ideas in this passage that you would consider contradictory to how you have learned faith?
- What ideas have been neglected, somehow?
Read
- 1 Timothy 2:3-5 (Memory tool: One Timothy, Two, Three, Four, Five.)
- Thoughts?
- Would you say that you live your life as though this verse were true, or do you live as though you haven't gotten the unmediated access Paul is describing?
- Explain how this plays out, either way?
Discuss
- What is the difference between someone living their faith in direct connection to Christ, and one who lives it through the authority of some other person or entity?
Leader note: At this point, you may or may not have members of your group who are articulating a certain perceived arrogance in thinking everyone can access God the same. Especially with more formal expressions of Christianity, the thought is that there needs to be a qualified man, or woman, to officiate the worship and the approach to God. Where ritual and tradition have their place, ritual and tradition are not the same as relating to Jesus. Those things are pictures that point us to God, and tap us into the ancient stream we are part of. But bear in mind that Jesus said he would be with us ("us" wasn't qualified in Matthew 28 beyond those that are willing to follow the risen Lord) to the end of the age and that without a mediator but him, our faith has no gatekeeper in human beings or ritual. This isn't meant to communicate access to God as trivial. It should communicate a level of responsibility many of us have neglected to embrace!
Apply
- If there have been any "aha's", whether in the message or in this discussion, what do they affect in day-to-day life?
- How does this affect prayer?
- How does this affect how we see a life of serving?
- How does this affect how we see our role in our family?
- How does this affect how we go about choosing and working our education, careers, etc?
Prayer
Leader note: Create some space where everyone can pray aloud. Set it up as a chance to equally access God through Christ. Acknowledge the awkwardness that some may feel, that some may choose not to, but to take a few moments and allow each that is willing to thank God and say want they are wanting to say in whatever words they choose. Offer to close the time once everyone (that is going to) has prayed.
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