The Air We Breathe

Leaders Note:

Before we resume Acts next week we are taking a week to review the final week of ‘the air we breathe’. You may also want to take some time this week to talk about and plan the term ahead with your groups, or check in with how people are feeling for the term ahead.

For the topic this week, it might be wise to acknowledge that some of these topics may be challenging or difficult for some present.

Intro Questions:

We are looking today at a passage in which Jesus challenges his society’s views on marriage, divorce & singleness. If you were to ask an ordinary non-church going Australian, how do you think they would answer the following questions? (feel free to do just one or two)

a) What contribution, either positive or negative did Jesus’ teachings make to how our society views women’s rights?
b) What contributions, either positive or negative did Jesus’ teachings make to how our society views sex & relationships?
c) What contributions, either positive or negative, did Jesus’ teachings make to how our society views singleness?

READ MATTHEW 19:3-12

3 Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”

4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

7 “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”

8 Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

10 The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.”

11 Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. 12 For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”

Discuss:

1. What stands out to you from this passage?

2. In Jesus’ culture, Men were able to divorce their wives easily for any reason, leaving them vulnerable and stigmatised, women on the other hand were only allowed to request a divorce under a very limited set of circumstances. How does Jesus’ teaching in this passage challenge his society?

3. What does Jesus teaching here say about the value and significance of marriage?

4. What practical differences would there be in how a person sees or approaches marriage if they saw it as a union joined together by God, verses seeing it simply a human arrangement?

5. How does Jesus’ teaching on marriage heighten the significance of marital unfaithfulness?

5. What does Jesus’s sentence: “There are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven” reveal about how he values singleness?

6. How might living as an unmarried person be done for the sake of the Kingdom?

READ MARK 10:19-30

29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.

7. Jesus states here that one of the rewards for those who choose to follow him is that they will inherit a family both in this life and in eternity.

How are you going at living out what it means to be a family to others at City Light?

Application (could split into smaller groups according to gender for these questions)

1. What is something you are finding challenging about following Jesus in your marriage, dating, or singleness?

2. What is one way you could be growing in valuing and being intentional with your marriage, dating or singleness?

Pray