25 Jun Discussion Guide Participation in God’s Visitation
Before We Get Started
For our discussion today, we will be using the sermon series discussion guides. If you would like to follow along you can access this discussion guide on the website at mosaicchurchaustin.com and then select “community group resources” in the menu options.
Prayer
Because the primary goal of our time together is to establish relationships and learn how to walk with one another in all that God has called us to be and do, we’d like to begin by praying for one another. So, does anyone have anything you’d like us to pray for or anything to share regarding how you’ve seen God moving in your life that we can celebrate together?
This Week’s Topic
Today, we pause in our current series, Coming Soon to a City Near You, to discuss Luke 19:35-44, the text from visiting Pastor Reggie Robison’s sermon.
Today’s Topic
Participation in God’s Visitation
Discussion Questions
Have you ever been in a very large crowd of people cheering and celebrating something or someone? What was that like?
Luke 19:35-44
And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
Devoted Exaltation
Luke 19:37b
…the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen…
Many Spirit-filled authors have exhausted the thesaurus in order to describe God with the glory He deserves. His perfect holiness, by definition, assures us that our words can’t contain Him. Isn’t it a comfort to worship a God we cannot exaggerate?
What mighty works have you seen God do?
How can our lives best glorify God and offer him our praise?
Is there a specific miracle you are asking God to perform in your life or in the world?
Adjust Expectation
Luke 19:39-40
And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
The way of Jesus cannot be imposed or mapped — it requires an active participation in following Jesus as he leads us through sometimes strange and unfamiliar territory, in circumstances that become clear only in the hesitations and questionings, in the pauses and reflections where we engage in prayerful conversation with one another and with him.
Can you think of a time in your life that challenged your expectation of who God was or what God would do?
How can we rightly learn to balance our hope in God with our expectations of God?
How do our expectations of God impact our expectations of ourselves and the other people in our life?
Contend for Revelation
Luke 19:41-42
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”
Ephesians 1:16-18
I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints…
What kind of peace did Jesus give the world through his death?
How can our faithfulness to spiritual disciplines, such as reading scripture, prayer, generosity, and gathering in Christian community open our hearts up to revelatory knowledge of God?
Imagine Jesus standing over our city. What hidden revelations would cause him to weep for us, and how can we best pray for/move toward our own enlightenment?
Closing Thought
JI Packer
Revival is the visitation of God which brings to life Christians who have been sleeping and restores a deep sense of God’s near presence and holiness. Thence springs a vivid sense of sin and a profound exercise of heart in repentance, praise, and love, with an evangelistic outflow.
Take some time to pray for God to visit our church and our city in new ways that will revive and restore us, so we can do his will in the world.