This week is about ceasing from sin.
In an non-confrontational, non-judgmental atmosphere, our goal as leaders is to make Christ's words tangible and immediate. As we come closer to the end of this series, we come closer to a time of corporate decision. We will be doing baptisms as part of our worship in two weeks. People will be accepting an invitation to immerse themselves into the name of Christ, into his community and to receive his Spirit as a member of his body.
But you can't do all this if you also continue to live a life of sin anymore than you can legitimately paint over rotted wood and call it new. There are things to quit in order to truly (re)begin.
As the group discusses the idea of sin, and then moves into the specifics of personal sin, it may be appropriate to divide the group by gender, or even divide it on multiple levels to give people smaller audience for reality. Again, this is a leader's discernment. As you do so, point to baptisms in two weeks and their participation in them as being baptized, praying for others or in providing strong support afterward.
Thaw
- What are some recurring thoughts, hopes or worries in your life this week?
- What most stuck with you from Sunday morning?
- Do you have a sense that God is speaking to you through Sunday morning? What about?
Read
- John 8:1-11
- Thoughts?
Leader note: Try not to get too bogged down in discussions about authorship or scholarly debates about the Pericope Adulterae. It will serve as a distraction to try and figure out the earliest place for this segment of text. The vast academics on this piece strongly supports that it's original and genuine, if even a bit bounced around because of its measure of scandal.
Read
- Romans 6:1-11
- Thoughts?
Leader note: Let the group kick some of these ideas around. See what they come up with without being prompted by specific questions. This way people have a better chance at dealing with their own lives than in getting the answer to a question correctly. Remember, silence is uncomfortable, but not painful. Leave gaps and let the members fill them. Additionally, some may wonder (especially if they think a bit formulaically) about this text in Romans (which is to Christians) and the woman told not to sin, though not invited to profess her faith in Christ (and is, but some accounts, not yet a Christian and so not yet reborn and baptized into Christ). Without dismissing this, recognize the tension and the fact that those addressed in Romans are no less sinful and no more loved than Jesus' audience. Standing, convicted of sin in the presence of the son of God, must be on par with praying a sinner's prayer and reading Romans 6! People being saved from their errors is always the point, no matter where God finds them. So, those the two audiences differ, the one seeking their repentance and renewal is not.
- How would you define sin?
- Why are we so good at justifying some of our own?
- Why is it hard to understand some actions as sins?
- How has sin been misconstrued by spiritual leaders?
Leader note: If discussions come up about all sin being equal, you may disagree on the grounds that the Bible never says this. That's why it doesn't feel just. Stealing a banana is not the same sin as killing a banana farmer. Most cite James 2:10 to support this idea, but this text speaks of one person being guilty of sin, no matter how that guilt occurs (adultery, murder, theft, greed....all roads to becoming a "sinner", but not all equivalent sins). This is important for some (and very much not for others) because their specific sins being equal to other sins can produce a blase attitude about all of it. "What's the difference if I stop sinning or not? I'll still mess up once I get a grip on that particular one, and the new sin will be the same as the one I quit. No one's perfect. What's the difference if I sin this way or that?" Any sin can make you a sinner, but sin has a scale of harm that it causes self and others, clearly. To equate them makes God seem disconnected from reality and sin something, ultimately, to not quit for lack of pay-off.
Apply
- What kinds of sin does our culture most struggle with?
- Why are these sins, sins? Explain their destructiveness beyond what we might be told to believe.
- What are some cultural sins that may not be sins at all?
- What are some hang ups you as an individual have had throughout life?
- What caused this?
- What good thing is this sin a counterfeit of?
- Is anyone willing to discuss what sin they feel like Jesus is asking them to walk away from now?
- What are the risks to answering or not answering the above question?
- As Baptism Sunday is only two weeks away, who sense that God is inviting them into rebirth?
- What kinds of things do you sense God will be inviting you to begin and become?
- What will have to be removed in order for those things to begin?
- How can this group be more and more helpful?
Leader note: Affirm every bit of transparency that's been experienced today. Invite them to continue their conversations after the meeting time and to continue to entrust themselves to each other. Studying the Bible does very little if there isn't a pervasive sense that we can trust each other with what we discover in the process.
Prayer
- Pray over the group and those members that feel pulled in two directions by their persistent hang ups and the invitation of Christ. Pray a prayer of encouragement about baptism Sunday.
Further Reading
- Matthew 7:1-5
- Romans 8:1
- Romans 12
- Acts 22:1-16
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