welcome
What do you enjoy doing on a day off or in your spare time?
worship
Play a prayer version of ‘consequences’ – all have a bit of paper and write the first line of a prayer of thanks and praise to God. Fold over that line and pass it on so the person next to you can write the next line, continue this 6 or 7 times. Then get everyone to read out slowly what is on their piece of paper.
word
brainstorm
The church is called by God to reach out and disciple the nations. What kind of activities does this include? Write up your answers on a large piece of paper.
question
Which of these are the priorities for you?
read
Here, Jesus reads a prophecy from Isaiah 61 about the coming Messiah, and says, in effect, “that’s me.”
John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, had previously told people that he was preparing the way for the Messiah. He got into trouble (something prophets tend to do as powerful people don’t like being told the truth), and put into prison. While there, doubts set in about Jesus and he sent his own disciples to Jesus to check him out.
read
In particular, note Jesus’ answer. He’s saying to John, “Isaiah said the Messiah would do these things; I said that was me, and I’ve been doing them. Draw your own conclusions.”
Time to look again at what kind of things Jesus did.
read
This is a long section, but take your time. Write up the various things Jesus did on a second large piece of paper.
Once you have done this, compare your answers to the list below.
4:31-37 drives out an evil spirit
4:37-44 heals many
5:1-11 calls people to follow him
5:12-26 heals a man with leprosy and a paralysed man
5:27-32 calls a tax-collector to follow him (note – these people were despised as traitors)
5:33-6:11 challenges religious teachings that oppress people
6:12-16 forms a small group (!)
6:17-49 teaches about the kind of lifestyle God expects
7:1-17 heals and raises the dead
application
Compare this list with the list for the role of the church which you made earlier.
question
What does this tell us about the way that we should be living?
witness
Pray through this material.
action
What priorities do you think your small group should focus on? How will you do this?
