BUILD - WEEK 1

PRAY TO BEGIN

Read Matthew 16:21-28
21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

22 Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.

28 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Why do you think Jesus responds so harshly to Peter? What does peter not understand about what Jesus has come to achieve?

2. How does understanding Jesus’ own intention to go to the cross clarify what discipleship to him should look like?

3. If you were asked "What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus?” Would your default answer be self-denial & cross carrying? If not, why do you think that is?

4. What does Jesus promise those to those who experience aspects of self-denial in following him?

5. How does this teaching of Jesus challenge us to think differently when we face suffering or difficulty?

APPLY:
1. Reflecting on the last year or so of your life, have there been times when following Jesus has been costly or felt risky?
2. How have you experienced following Jesus as worth it despite the cost?
3. Thinking about City Light as a whole, what do you think it would look like if we as a whole church took this call of Jesus seriously? What specific things might that involve?

PRAY
Spend some time praying about the above, as well as asking God to be unifying us as a church as we look towards the future and seek to be a church who lives out an obedience to Jesus’ call.