Rejecting Self-Righteousness

Rejecting Self-Righteousness

When Jesus said in Luke 18 that "no one is good except God alone", he meant it! But for all of human history, people like the Pharisees and the Rich Ruler (and you and me!) have tried to find peace with God through their own good deeds and self-righteous acts. While the world applauds those who "try harder and do better", the truth is that self-righteousness is just another way of rejecting Jesus and denying his finished work on our behalf. How can we be freed from this insidious self-sabotage? Like Jesus said, "What is impossible with man is possible with God."

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

Read Luke 18:9-14. 

1. Why do you think that the Tax Collector “went home justified”, while the Pharisee did not?

2. Jon talked about two forms that self-righteousness can take: the “Doer” and the “Can’t-Doer”. The Doer feels deserving of blessings on the basis of their religious resume. The Can’t-Doer lives under a sense of persistent guilt due to not living up to God’s standard. In your own life, do you often resonate with the description of the “Doer” or the “Can’t-doer”? What does that look like for you?

3. Beyond just recognizing our own self-righteousness, how does a Christian put that sin to death? How do we do that together in community?

4. What would it look like for you (and your family) to embrace the practice of REST? (Not just the absence of doing, but an intentional time of trusting and rejoicing in what God has already done). Is there a way you can put that on your schedule for this week?

February 19, 2023 - Jon Schuler

Receiving Community

Receiving Community

Jesus calls us and saves us personally as individuals, but his aim is to form a new kind of community built on faith in His mercy. In Luke 17.1-10, he describes a handful of key aspects of his community, offering a vision for life together as disciples. The community of Jesus is not immune from sin, so it requires a sober self-awareness and an eagerness to confess sin and find forgiveness. It also requires an abundance of mercy, as we live together under Jesus' mercy. We also need a ton of humility, learning to do what Jesus has asked - love one another! - with a healthy level of self-forgetfulness. Living this way requires a great deal of faith, which means returning to Jesus again and again, laying ourselves at his feet, and receiving again his mercy to us.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Read Luke 17.1-10. What stands out to you about the kind of community Jesus wants us to be? What seems most challenging or difficult? What seems most life-giving and hopeful?

2. A community like this must have resources beyond itself -- it must be firmly rooted in the good news of God's mercy to sinners! How does a community keep that news at the functional center?

3. What are the main competitors for "center" in a community, particularly in the church? What happens when something other than Jesus and his grace becomes the main motive for gathering?

4. Read Luke 17.11-19. What do the lepers want? What do they receive? Only one returns to Jesus, modeling real faith. What do we learn from his return?

5. As a community, reflect on how you might grow in this season in confession, faith, and/or service. As we approach Lent, are there some practices you might engage together?

February 12, 2023 - Steve Hart

Rejecting Affluence

Rejecting Affluence

In our parable of the gracious and giving land owner and the manager who finds grace, there are two primary characters.  One is the gracious and generous landowner who holds the kingdom.  The other is the manager who is found out to be wasting and stealing the resources of the master.  The manager is about to be kicked out but instead makes a move that trusts all in the character and honor of the generous gracious master.  It puts the good master’s character on display and the scoundrel manager is welcomed back because of the lavish graciousness and generosity of the good master. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. This week your practice is to do an audit on your time and see where you are spending the resource of time.  After completing a week of writing down how you spent your time (this should take several notebook pages), share your time audit with a trusted group and talk about what God revealed to you? 

2. What are moments of time that are wasted on a false kingdom? 

3. In what ways is God leading you to make much of Him with those moments or other resources?

4. Extending the passage:  There is a one-line statement in the middle of the chapter that refers to marriage and divorce.  In what way is Luke using it as the same message as in this chapter as well as the same message for the last few chapters about the kingdom of God (hint, it is not really about marriage and divorce primarily)?

February 5, 2023 - Scott Cooley

Receiving Delight

Receiving Delight

Do you ever feel like you’re on the outside? Like you just don’t fit the religious mold? Or perhaps you’re quite comfortable in the church. What you’re concerned about is the culture, the economy, politics. Wherever you are Jesus wants to show you how to approach him. Whether you feel like you’re on the outside or the inside, like the younger or older brother, God has something profound he wants to give you today - Himself!

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Read Luke 15. What does 15.1-2 tell you about the audience listening to these parables of Jesus? How are they responding to him?

2. Compare and contrast the 2 sons. How are they different? How are they similar? Which do you most relate to, and why?

3. What strikes you about the father in the story? What do we see of his character in how he responds to the brothers?

4. What habits, rhythms, or practices help you stay grounded in the compassionate heart of God and your true identity as a son or daughter?

5. Consider taking communion together when you gather this week as a community.

January 29, 2023 -Jonathan Dodson

Receiving the Banquet

Receiving the Banquet

As Jesus continues his journey toward Jerusalem, he is shaping in his disciples a true vision of the Kingdom of God and how to live in it now. One of the biblical images for the Kingdom of God was the Feast, and Jesus tells a parable about who will be wanted and welcomed at the feast. Shockingly, those who are invited to the feast reject it, and the master of the Feast sends his Servant to collect the busted and broken, compelling even those outside the city to come to the Feast. This is the ministry of Jesus, a wide-open invitation to the least and the lowest to draw near. At the same time, Jesus tells those who are coming after him to be sure they know what they’re getting into, because while becoming a disciple of Jesus is totally free, it will cost you everything! Only those who are able to count the cost are ready to become his disciples. Christianity is both a wide-open invitation of grace and a line-in-the-sand call to death — and both are good news!

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Read Luke 14, and take note of where Jesus is in v.1-24. His contexts shifts in v.25-35.

2. In vs.15-24, Jesus tells the parable of the feast. What hinders people from coming to the feast? Who comes instead?

3. What does Jesus tell us is required if we want to be his disciples? What does he mean by the strong language in v.25-33?

4. Is Christianity easy (all are welcome!) or hard (count the cost)? How do we hold both?

January 22, 2023 - Steve Hart

Receiving Repentance

Receiving Repentance

As Jesus travels to Jerusalem, with a clear vision for what the next part of his mission is, his confrontation with the religious elites increases. He frequently comes toe-to-toe with them, maneuvering through their traps with wisdom, calling out their hypocrisy with boldness, and avoiding their distractions with clarity. The Gospel of Luke uses the word “repent” nine times, and all of those times are in this travel narrative, while Jesus’ focus is on Jerusalem. The pride, arrogance, exclusivity, and entitlement of the religious warrants God’s judgment. Although Jesus would rather accept and welcome Jerusalem and her leaders - as a hen cares for her chicks - he can not. He can not turn a blind eye toward their relentless sin while they cling to their assumption that they are good with God. They are not! And in this section, Jesus calls them to repentance and weeps because he knows they will ultimately reject his offer. Repentance shows up as a warning (to those that may reject it), but to those that receive it, it is a gift!

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Read Luke 13. Jesus’ message is “repent or perish!” We can often view repentance as some necessary chore. What about repentance is gracious? What prevents us from viewing repentance as a gift or as something that reduces us from disaster?

2. It is easy to drift toward classism. In what ways do you assumer others are better or worse than you?

3. V. 18-21 describe the kingdom of God as something that starts small and grows abnormally large. What is the benefit and what is the danger of this kind of growth? How does repentance function as a safety measure during seasons of growth and favor?

January 15, 2023 - Gabe Shippam

Receiving the Kingdom

Receiving the Kingdom

In Part 3 of our study in the Gospel according to Luke, we're going to explore a handful of key practices that help us live into the Way of Jesus. Jesus is intent on forming his way of thinking, believing, and living into those who follow him, expecting that everyone who wants to be his disciple must "take up their cross daily" and learn from him how to live the upside-down nature of life in his kingdom. In chapters 12-18, Jesus is training his disciples in his Way, confronting, challenging, and comforting them as he does. This week we look at Jesus' teaching on greed and how to live free of anxious striving or boastful amassing. Our relationship to money and possessions has everything to do with who we are and whose we are: Fear not, little flock, for it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom!
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Read Luke 12.13-34. Jesus is speaking to greed. What does Jesus highlight as some signs of greed in our lives?

2. It is rare that we notice greed in ourselves, which is why Jesus says to "be on guard" for it. What evidences of greed do you see in our culture? In our community? In yourself?

3. Unpack Jesus' promise in v.32. What does he mean, and how is it good news for you?

4. In v.33 Jesus commends to us the practice of Simplicity, a way to train ourselves away from greed and toward generosity. Consider how you and/or your community can practice Simplicity in 2023.

January 8, 2023 - Steve Hart