18 Sep Discussion Guide: Reversal Week 6
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 main 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 continue our new series titled, Reversal. We will be taking some time to walk through the Gospel account of Luke. Luke was an historian who set out to document the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and the impact it had on the world of his day. What we see in Luke’s account is that when Jesus gets involved in the life of a person, things get turned upside-down and inside-out. Jesus brings about a reversal of everything we thought we knew.
Today’s Topic
Back to School: Overcoming
Discussion Questions
Can you name a moment in human history that you would define as evil? Why that moment?
Luke 4:1-2
“And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.”
Why do you think our culture has a hard time defining, or dealing with, evil in our world?
Usual Suspects – 1995
“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”
According to Scripture, where does evil come from?
The answer to this question might not be as simple as you think. Scripture points to two different sources when it comes to evil.
Source #1: The devil, satan, demonic powers and principalities.
We see from Genesis all the way through Revelation that there exists a spiritual being called the devil, additional “unclean spirits” called demons, and an impersonal evil force, or power, that is at work in the world as well. Genesis tells us that this evil was present in the Garden of Eden, tempting Adam and Eve. It was present outside the garden in the very next generation as Cain killed his brother Abel. And just about every scene from Genesis 3 to Revelation 20, this force is lurking in the shadows of human history. When Adam ate the fruit he handed over the authority and dominion, God had entrusted to him, to those powers and principalities, giving them the authority they now operate in within our world.
Source #2: Humanity’s idolatry and sinful choices.
We also see in Scripture, that it was Adam, humanity itself, that made the choice to seek for security, pleasure, and identity apart from a relationship with God, and turned to worshipping creation rather than Creator. It is this idolatry that produces the sinful choices we make, that also bring about evil, abuse, neglect, and death in our world.
Luke 4:3-12
‘The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’” And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
The temptations the devil throws at Jesus can be summed up as fulfillment apart from God’s Word (Jesus), success apart from God’s mission (sacrificial love), identity apart from God’s voice (who He says you are).
Which of those temptations are most often tempted to reach for?
How does God’s Word (Jesus) bring fulfillment in a way that nothing else can?
How does God’s mission (sacrificial love) bring success in a way that nothing else can?
How does God’s voice (who He says you are) bring identity and security in a way that nothing else can?
Luke 4:13-14
“And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country.”
How does this event in the life of Jesus show us what spiritual warfare really looks like in our lives?
How does that differ from how most people tend to think about “spiritual warfare?”
C.S. Lewis
“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”
What might a proper view, or understanding, of spiritual warfare look like?
In what ways does the enemy tend to attack you with accusations and doubts?
Closing Thought
How does the Gospel combat those accusations and defend us from those attacks? Do you trust that to be true for you?