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

Unmanageable Messiah

Discussion Questions

Matthew 1:18-25

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

Unmanageable Mystery

Frederick Buechner

Father, son, and Holy Spirit mean that the mystery beyond us, the mystery among us, and the mystery within us are all the same mystery.

Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace–only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us. I can be received gladly or grudgingly, in big gulps or in tiny tastes, like a deer at the salt.

 

St. Cyril of Alexandria

Indeed the mystery of Christ runs the risk of being disbelieved precisely because it is so incredibly wonderful.

Do mysteries generally cause you to lean in and try to understand them or move away to gain some distance?

What do you find most mysterious about Jesus?

What do you find challenging about believing in a God who is mysterious?

Unmanageable Man

Tim Alberta, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory

God has His own kingdom; no nation in this world can compare.

God has His own power; no amount of political, cultural, or social influence can compare.

God has His own glory; no exaltation of earthly beings can compare.

These are nonnegotiable to the Christian faith. 

 

Anne Lamott

You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.

Abraham Kuyper

There’s not a square inch in the whole domain of human existence over which Christ, who is Lord over all, does not exclaim, ‘Mine!’

How does belonging to God’s kingdom make living in this world difficult to manage?

How does Christ’s right place of Lord over all affect your daily life at school, work, or in your relationships?

How can submitting to God’s authority help us to love others better?

Unmanageable Messiah

Matthew 1:20-21

Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

Tim Keller

If you want to understand your own behavior, you must understand that all sin against God is grounded in a refusal to believe that God is more dedicated to our good, and more aware of what that is, than we are. We distrust God because we assume he is not truly for us, that if we give him complete control we will be miserable. Adam and Eve did not say, ‘Let’s be evil. Let’s ruin our own lives and everyone else’s too!’ Rather they thought, ‘We just want to be happy. But his commands don’t look like they’ll give us the things we need to thrive. We’ll have to take things into our own hands—we can’t trust him.

Do you think our current culture dislike the idea of sin or being in need of salvation?

What role have God’s goodness and mercy played in helping you grow to trust God more?

If you’ve entrusted your salvation to Jesus, can you share what that journey has been like for you?

Closing Thought

Henri Nouwen

Theological formation is the gradual and often painful discovery of God’s incomprehensibility. You can be competent in many things, but you cannot be competent in God.

 

Share any prayer requests you might have, and then spend the final moments of your time together praying for one another. Specifically ask God to help you embrace him as a mystery, man, and messiah.