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

The Gospel of the Kingdom

Jesus’s Kingdom, as He himself taught, is not of this world. While His Kingdom influences and transforms people and structures, fundamentally, it does not belong to an individual or ideology. His is the kingdom and the power and the glory, as he taught us to remember in prayer.

Today’s Topic

Greatness and the Nature of God

Discussion Questions

Greatness, defined

Matthew 18:1-5

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them.  And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

 

Morgan Stephens 

Greatness is going after humility; not lusting after hierarchy.

 

How do you imagine the original disciples defined greatness when they asked Jesus who was the greatest?

How does our culture define greatness?

What does it mean to be like a child?

Greatness, practiced

Matthew 18:6-10

If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell. See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.

Craig L Blomberg, Matthew: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture 

…the “little ones” still refers to the disciples, though perhaps focusing particularly on those who are most disenfranchised or deemed insignificant. One who might otherwise cause such a little one to sin ought to long for dramatic, decisive, physical death rather than risk eternal judgment.

Why would Jesus connect greatness with humbly serving and caring for those on the underside of power and society? 

What does Jesus’s warning about causing the vulnerable to stumble imply about our personal integrity as mature Christians?

Greatness, empowered

Matthew 18:12-14

What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

How does Matthew 18:12-14 show us that God has seen us like little ones and lost sheep?

How has the gospel rescued us from our stumbling lostness?

What spiritual practices can help us remain humbly aware of our great need for God’s mercy and power?

Closing Thought

Brennan Manning

Jesus comes not for the super-spiritual but for the wobbly and the weak-kneed who know they don’t have it all together, and who are not too proud to accept the handout of amazing grace.

In your final moments together, break into pairs and  pray for each other, asking God to speak a word of faith through you for your prayer partner. Then, commit to praying for that person every day until the group meets again.