introduction
The Great Commission makes it clear that we are to be God’s agents to extend His Kingdom. This week we will focus on how to do this; how to extend the Kingdom of God into every sphere of society.
welcome
Who did God use to bring you to the point where you knew you needed Jesus?
worship
Prepare a meditation.
Either:
Ask the group to close their eyes and imagine that they are a character in the Bible. Talk the members through a particular Bible story and how they might feel. Maybe use a chapter from the gospels with some interaction with Jesus.
Or:
Use a passage such as Revelation 4:1-11 and read it through slowly with music in the background, allowing the group to imagine the vision.
Allow this to lead into prayer.
witness
Lead the worship straight into a time of intercession, crying out for your friends and university. Use statistics of the proportion of Christians in your university, level of drug and drink abuse, suicide and pregnancy rates and pray that God would turn these stats around.
word
Unlike David’s Kingdom, the Kingdom of God will not come by a conquering sword. Though Jesus made this clear, through the ages people have gone to war in the name of Jesus, committing terrible atrocities – the Crusades, Inquisitions and various tribal and racial wars.
Jesus sought to dislodge this violent orientation to the coming of the Kingdom by telling parables.
read
Matthew 13 with its seven parables about the Kingdom of God.
discuss
Do you see how some of them echo the theme of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2? What do you think they mean? Discuss that for a while in smaller groups.
The rock that became a mountain, the yeast and the mustard seed, all illustrate something that seems to be small and yet has an immense impact. Real disciples of Jesus have probably never in history been the majority in any given society. But they have, as a minority, transformed nations and empires.
It is doubtful that, in the first three centuries after Christ, true believers ever numbered more than 5-10% of the Roman Empire. But their effect was so great that, eventually, the emperors decided it was in their best interests to claim loyalty to the Church.
Today in Europe once again the Church is, although growing, numerically insignificant. Do you think we are ‘yeasting’ all of society? If not, why not?
read
Matthew 5:13-16. How do we remain salty and let the light shine?
discuss
We are called, as a community, to strengthen and encourage one another, but we are also called to go out into the world and be ‘salty’. The world desperately needs our ‘salt’ and ‘light’. How should the church function so that we help one another to be salt and light in the world?
application
Finally, what are you called to do? Are you called to business, or politics, or medicine, or education, or the media, entertainment or the arts? Each of these spheres of society needs believers to be representatives of the Kingdom of God.
group work
Spend a few minutes talking in pairs or threes about your career plans. Are you seeking God’s will? How can you see yourself being salt or light in the world?
