08 | Those Who are Persecuted

Matthew 4:23-5:12

Blessed are the persecuted for righteousness and for Jesus’ name. Persecution is the selecting out of individuals and groups on the basis of ideology for intended harm. The ideology given in this beatitude is for “Righteousness’ sake” and “on my account.” In America, it seems we have rarely felt persecution on these terms. But here is yet another invitation by Jesus to be His people, to be a part of restoration’s long story, and engage in the work of God the Father, to absorb, rescue, and proclaim the truth of history and our Savior. And as we experience the same resistance to this work we see we are right alongside our Savior, doing the same work. We are going to finish off the Beatitudes embracing what life throws at us knowing we are joining with our savior in His work and being His people.

Discussion:

The definition that Scott gave on Sunday for righteousness was: “God’s saving sacrificial acts in history, relational rightness with God and others, and a life that displays those truths and relationship”.

1. What are actions and activities in your days that represent this? Are there things you have done with neighbors or coworkers where you absorb pain, brokenness and sin, and help the world to heal? Are there times when you have resisted harming relationships with words or actions?

2. Have there ever been times when you have mentioned the name of Jesus and noticed a difference in relationship or conversation?

3. What are the active ways in which you can be proud of your savior and remind yourself of the true story in your day, in your week and in your year?

August 29, 2021 - Scott Cooley

07 | The Peacemakers

Matthew 4:23-5:12

We live in a world that increasingly lacks peace. There is ever-growing conflict and division. How will peace ever have its day? The good news of the Gospel is Jesus accomplished peace by reconciling us to the Father. Through the cross, Jesus became our peace and is now inviting us to walk in the “pathway of peace.” This week we explore what that looks like in our daily lives.

Discussion:

1. What does peace mean to you? How would you describe peace in your life?

2. Why do you think it’s so hard to achieve and maintain peace in our relationships, culture, and world?

3. The world’s framework for peace is: how can each party get something they want in an effort to reach compromise. The Gospel’s framework of peace is: what can I sacrificially give to bless the other side. How can we “walk in the pathway of peace” in our daily lives?

August 22, 2021 - Boris Borisov

06 | Blessed are the Pure in Heart

Matthew 4:23-5:12

Since the moment the Garden of Eden was closed off, mankind has longed to see God face to face. But because of our sin, even Moses was told "no one can look upon the face of God and live." Now Jesus is proclaiming that we can see the face of God - but only if we're "pure in heart"... and immediately everyone within hearing distance is dismayed, because we all know our hearts aren't pure. He is introducing an idea that he will build on later in the Sermon on the Mount - that no matter how righteous our actions, our impure hearts mean separation from God, and the only way to be reunited with God face to face is through a purity which comes from outside of ourselves and transforms us from the inside out. It is exactly when we realize we can't create a pure heart on our own that we become the "blessed" that Jesus speaks of.

Discussion:

1. What is the difference between "pure" and "pure in heart"?

2. For each of the rest of these beatitudes we’ve talked about how they’re future promises but they’re also the in-breaking of the kingdom NOW.

So how have you ‘seen God’ in the past?

How do you ‘see God’ in the present tense?

How will we 'see God' in the future?

August 15, 2021 - Jon Schuler

05 | Blessed are the Merciful

Matthew 4:23-5:12

It has been said that grace is associated with men in their sin, while mercy deals with men in their misery. Mercy is more than not getting the punishment deserved. Mercy is someone seeing another’s pain, suffering, and misery and moving toward the person with compassion and action. This week we look at the fifth beatitude to hear more of the scandalous, joyful, and bewildering announcements of God’s Kingdom. In Jesus, misery collides with hope. Jesus proclaims blessing on those who are merciful; blessing on those who are painfully aware of suffering and have moved toward misery with care.

Discussion:

1. What misery do you see in the world, in your life, in your community, in Spokane? 

2. What is the cost associated with extending mercy? 

3. What difference would it make to receive mercy from Jesus while sacrificing to extend mercy to others?

August 8, 2021 - Gabe Shippam

04 | Hunger and Thirst

Matthew 4:23-5:12

The world is not as it was meant to be, and you don’t have to be a Christian to know it! All around us, among our best relationships, and even within ourselves, we sense the reality that things are off, and we’re always trying to make them right. We want what the bible calls “righteousness,” the desire for all things to be as they ought, with God, one another, ourselves, and in the world. Jesus names this desire in Matthew 5.6, announcing his blessing to those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness.” That unmet longing, according to Jesus, is deep in us because we were made for Eden, made for a world of goodness and flourishing, and we’re over-built for the world as it is. Jesus blesses that longing, and promises a satisfaction of it that will be like a feast of rich food. That feast begins now in Jesus, in the righteousness of God given as a gift to those who confess they have none. The feast is a shared table of fellow sinners-declared-righteous, where joy and love abounds. It is an invitation to the feast for those who have been mistreated, who lack justice, who live in a world broken and full of deep injustice. And as we feast, we're fueled for a life of justice doing until Jesus returns to make all things right.

Discussion:

1. Where do you sense the lack of righteousness the most? Where do you long for things to be made right?

2. What does it mean that Jesus blesses that longing? How is good news that Jesus brings satisfaction?

3. In what ways might you or your community put righteousness into action in our city?

August 1, 2021 - Steve Hart

03 | Blessed are the Meek

Matthew 4:23-5:12

The meek will inherit the earth, and if you are like me, I don’t find myself all that meek.  The problem then would be that if I am not meek, I am missing out on blessing and inheriting the land.  Most certainly, who Jesus was talking to at that moment were meek.  They were the poor in spirit, the broken of life, and clambering up the hill to put their trust, not in themselves, but in Jesus for Life.  They had brought their hardships of life to the one who could handle them and in this, Jesus looks at them and says, blessed are you meek people, how unshakeable is your peace and shalom, I am going to fulfill my promises for you, the land is coming and I am going to be your king.  Again, if you are like me, I don’t find myself all that meek.  But there is good news for those coming to Jesus.  The fake confidence and reasons why I am okay that is covering my meekness is really not all that strong or thick and so this week we will ask Jesus to pull off the thin veneer of confidence to reveal the  truth and reality that might bring us to a life of meekness.

Discussion: 

1. Do you lean towards confidence and control or towards niceness and approval to help yourself feel deserving of God (or other?)? 

2. Why is the “veneer” good news? 

3. Who are the people you have in your life that help you “rip off the veneer” regularly, weekly?

July 25, 2021 - Scott Cooley

02 | Those Who Mourn

Matthew 4:23-5:12

As Jesus starts his famous Sermon on the Mount, he looks out on the crowds, and begins to announce blessing on all the broken and beat-down people of the world. In particular, he sees so many people carrying heavy stories of sadness — grievers, mourners, and the brokenhearted. Jesus doesn’t recoil from them, as if the weight of their grief is some sort of liability to be avoided. He doesn’t look past them to in hopes of finding more put-together and well-to-do people. He hasn’t come searching for people who have managed to avoid sadness, loss, and grief (as if that were possible!). Jesus looks right at brokenhearted people, with the full weight of their sadness, pain, loss, and makes a remarkable declaration: The Kingdom of God is for you! God’s deepest peace and his comforting presence — his free gift of salvation — is for you! And Jesus looks at us, with all our grief and pain, and says, I’m glad you are here, and your sorrows are welcome to come right in with you. Jesus invites us to feel and grieve our losses, to bring them to him for comfort, and to watch how he transforms them.

COMMUNITY DISCUSSION

1. What are some of the less than healthy ways you tend to handle your losses, sorrows, and grief? 

2. In this Beatitude, Jesus invite us to an alternative way to engage our broken hearts. What does he offer?

3. What sadness or loss do you need to hand over to Jesus? What makes that challenging for you?

July 18, 2021 - Steve Hart

01 | The Poor in Spirit

Matthew 4:23-5:12

These words are the heart of Jesus’ message: the sermon on the mount is the heart and summary of all Jesus’ teachings, the Beatitudes are the heart and summary of the sermon on the mount, and Blessed are the poor in Spirit is the heart and summary of the Beatitudes. Blessed means to have an unshakeable peace and shalom in all situations of life, a resting place and serenity no matter the circumstances. The Poor in Spirit are the beggarly of life. The empty and broken. And the Kingdom of Heaven is offered to such as these. We all are offered moments to see the true beggarly-ness of life, our empty-ness, our brokenness. It is exactly when our life is shaken, life reveals the brokenness inside and out that we have the opportunity to scramble up the hill to listen to Jesus and hope for the Kingdom of Heaven. Our task is to embrace our brokenness, our poor in Spirit, as a path to seeing that Jesus had to come in order to save me. My brokenness can be the best news ever because it will lead me to a place of blessed -- a place of unshakeable peace.

COMMUNITY DISCUSSION

1. What are the false places you rely on to put your hope of being good or blessed?

2. What were the opportunities for you to see your “poor in Spirit-ness” lately? What were the times you experienced fear, anxiety, depression, sadness, or hopelessness?

3. We are a people who walk through life with two realities present at all times....

First: blessed, loved beyond measure, secure in His standing, citizen of the kingdom of heaven, with a God who is ever present and listening.

Second: Poor in spirit, brokenness, sin, hurt, fear, anxiety; an inability to give life to myself lies under the surface of my skin.

Who do you have to regularly speak of those two realities to?

July 11, 2021 - Scott Cooley