The Way of Jesus. Week 3 - Easter week

Encourage people to fill in the Survey about how they have found the experience of doing Church at the School: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HRQT32Z

 
 
 

Start by spending some time in open prayer. Praying for all those who visited a church on Easter Sunday who don’t know the good news of Jesus.

Main Idea: Jesus death means redemption, his resurrection means hope

Read: (Before reading tell group that the first question will be “What sentence or idea stands out to you as we read these passages”. Ask them to keep this in mind as we read through the passages)

MATTHEW 16:21-23

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.”

&

1 PETER 1:3-5

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

DISCUSS:

  1. What sentence or idea stands out to you as we read these passages?

  2. Based on Peter’s response in Matthew 16, it seems Peter focuses solely on Jesus’ prediction of his own death and not on the prediction of the resurrection. How has this impacted Peter’s response to Jesus in verse 22?

  3. What do you learn from seeing the Good news of Jesus through Peter’s eyes? Someone who walked so closely with Jesus. 

  4. Peter talks about a living hope in 1 Peter 1:3. What is our living hope? Why is it called a living hope? 

  5. Peter’s writings are filled with praise and wonder in response to the realities that he writes about:  He does it in 1:3 “Praise be to God”. He does it in 4:11: “To him belong glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” He does it again in 5:11: “To him be the dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” He writes about the greatest realities in the universe with a worshipful spirit. He writes with exultation and wonder and awe and marvel and heartfelt gratitude.

    What has your emotional response been in the past or tonight to the Good News of Jesus’ death and resurrection?


Prayer

Finish your time by checking in with your group about their experience of attending church at the school. Spend some time in deep prayer; seeking God for guidance, wisdom and unity among the church. 

All for God’s glory. That many in Balmain and Sydney may hear this good news of Jesus and may come to know God as their living hope. 

“I have a great need for Christ: I have a great Christ for my need.”

- Charles Spurgeon