December 1, 2019 - Advent 01 Grace + Truth = ?

The smaller groups in our church community are inside our homes where we go deeper, build friendships, and walk out the Christian life with each other. HOME CHURCH GUIDE + “Breaking the Ice” question (group facilitator) + CHECK-INS: Introduce, check-in + CARE: Needs in the group + COMPASSION: What is the group planning? Are you inviting your neighbours to join in? + GROUP ANNOUNCEMENTS Church-wide, group-only + DIG IN: Discuss questions as a group + END AND HOMEWORK: Final questions, prayer huddles for personal requests. Consider breaking into small groups (huddles) of 2-4, by gender, if large enough. DISCUSSION questions: 1. Have you ever suffered? What kind of suffering? What lessons did you take away (practical, spiritual, other kinds)? 2. There is a tension between living in the moment and living with the future in view. How do you make your decisions with this in mind? Which is easier for you? 3. Peter challenges them to live differently from their pre-Christian days. What behaviours do you think he would list for the average person today turning to Christ? 4. Have you been persecuted/harassed for making different life choices than your friends/ family based on Jesus’ teaching? 5. How are clear thinking, self-discipline, and prayer connected in living the Christian life? Christianity calls into question the view that humanity is always progressing, e.g. “the myth of progress.” What do you think about human progress? 6. All humans face death and final judgment. How can this be seen as a hopeful thing instead of (just) dark? 7. Verse 8 states, “love covers a multitude of sins.” What is being implied with this tight phrase? How has love helped you deal with other people’s sins? 8. Spiritual gifts use our voice and service to advance the Kingdom of God. What are some ways you think we can help each other find and deploy these gifts? What has been your experience with various spiritual gifts? 9. Explore the idea of being a “faithful steward of God’s grace.” 10. Serving others is a huge part of living out the example of Jesus. There is joy in serving. What does serving others look like for you? How is it counter-cultural? Prayer Requests: 1 Peter 4:1-11 (NET Bible) So, since Christ suffered in the flesh, you also arm yourselves with the same attitude, because the one who has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin, 2 in that he spends the rest of his time on earth concerned about the will of God and not human desires. 3 For the time that has passed was sufficient for you to do what the non-Christians desire. You lived then in debauchery, evil desires, drunkenness, carousing, drinking bouts, and wanton idolatries. 4 So they are astonished when you do not rush with them into the same flood of wickedness, and they vilify you. 5 They will face a reckoning before Jesus Christ who stands ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 Now it was for this very purpose that the gospel was preached to those who are now dead, so that though they were judged in the flesh by human standards they may live spiritually by God’s standards. Service, Suffering, and Judgment 7 For the culmination of all things is near. So be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of prayer. 8 Above all keep your love for one another fervent, because love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Show hospitality to one another without complaining. 10 Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of the varied grace of God. 11 Whoever speaks, let it be with God’s words. Whoever serves, do so with the strength that God supplies, so that in everything God will be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. BIG IDEAS IN THE TEXT THROUGH THE SCRIPTURE (Karen Jobes’ outline) 4:1-6 LIVING OUT CHRIST’S VICTORY IN AN UNBELIEVING WORLD a. 4:1-2 Be Willing to Suffer Rather Than Sin b. 4:3-4 Suffering Abuse from Unbelievers c. 4:5-6 The Universal Scope of God’s Judgment c. 4:9 Gracious Hospitality “There were no church buildings for the first 200 years or so. The church would have to meet in the homes of members. In the Ancient Near East, only Jesus and Christians seem to have viewed work as a service to others. There is something different about the Christian approach to work. The meeting would naturally be in the house of one who is better off, with a bigger house. To well-to-do Christians are expected to take on the responsibility of using wealth to support and house the church, as well as the various traveling missionaries, prophets, evangelists, etc. (B. Witherington III, 205). d. 4:10-11a Gifts of Grace as Acts of Service 4:7-11 LIVING OUT CHRIST’S VICTORY IN THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY a. 4:7 Thinking Rightly in View of the End e. 4:11b Peter’s Doxology “The myth of progress may form a solid core to the way most middle-class people perceive the world around them, but that theory is but a myth; our world is hardly getting “better” in every way” b. 4:8 A Love That ‘Covers’ Sin “I contend that we are probably better off understanding the saying to be a social one by Peter: The community that loves one another is able to forgive one another more rapidly when minor issues arise” S. McKnight TO BE AND DO Sources: Others, The NIV Application Commentary, By Scot McKnight; Anchor Biblical Commentary, John Elliott; IVP NT Commentary, I. Howard Marshall; Life Lessons, Max Lucado; Baker Exegetical Commentary on the NT, Karen H. Jobes; Daily Bible Study Bible Series, William Barclay; NIV Biblical Commentary, Norman Hillyer; Believers Church Commentary, Erland Waltner; Story of God Bible Commentary, Dennis R. Edwards; Letters and Homilies for Hellenized Christians, Ben Witherington III; NICNT, Peter Davids; Life Applications Commentary.