The Call: Our World
Acts 8:26ff
Connect:
Share how you have seen God in the Highs and Lows of your week.
Prayer:
Pray that God would lead your discussion time and bring fresh insight, conviction, and hope through your time together.
Review:
This was the first message in a 2-week series where the focus is God’s calling on our lives to be involved in what He is doing in calling people to Himself through local and global mission. This week was focused on what we can be involved in locally as we walk into the calling God has on our lives.
The Grand Tour of the message: Thinking back on what you heard this Sunday…
o What did you learn about God?
o What did you learn about people?
o What did you learn about yourself?
o What do you want to commit to putting into practice?
Reflection:
Personal Experience:
Think back to a time where you had to choose a person to do something that was very VERY important— not necessarily difficult to do, just very important that it got DONE! What qualities you were looking for in a person you would entrust with that task?
Group Discussion:
Read Acts 1:4-8, Matthew 28:18-20
Jesus told them to wait in Jerusalem for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Talk about a time where God had you waiting for something. How did that affect your walk of faith?
Mark made the point that waiting has a refining effect, focusing our minds and hearts attentively to what the Spirit is saying to us. Read Psalm 131:1-3 and discuss how the two central themes (Humility of heart, hope in the Lord) can reinforce each other during our times of waiting.
In Acts 1:8, Jesus told them they would be His witnesses. What does that entail?
In Matthew 28, Jesus said that “all authority” is His. He made that the launching point of the disciples’ commission to reach the world! Why is Jesus’ authority so critical to this commission to reach the world with the Gospel?
Read Acts 2:1-8 and 2:36-41
To the Jewish people, Pentecost was a time for celebrating the firstfruits of the harvest! Why do you think God might have made that the day for what happened in Acts 2?
This coming of the Holy Spirit was dramatic and public— it was seen/heard by many people who were there in Jerusalem from all over the Roman world. Why do you think God chose to make this so dramatic?
The crowd was “cut to the heart” in hearing about Jesus being the awaited Messiah, and they asked Peter what to do. Talk about Peter’s response; 1. Repent, 2. Be baptized in Jesus’ Name, 3. You will be filled with the Holy Spirit. Why was “repent” step 1 here?
About 3000 were added to the Church that day, but there was clearly a difference between those who “received” his message and were baptized and those who did not. Why would someone reject a message like this, even when accompanied by a miracle?
Read Acts 3:4-8
Peter was led by the Holy Spirit in that moment to stop and heal that beggar. Talk about that; how did Peter know to do that?
Read Acts 3:14-20. Why is it that repentance (v19) comes before talk about grace and forgiveness, both here and in the previous chapter? Why is repentance so critical in receiving grace and forgiveness?
Mark made the point on Sunday about the way calling unfolds; small consistent steps of obedience lead to opportunities of greater consequence in the kingdom. What are some things that keep us from a consistent, daily walk like that? What can we do to develop the discipline of obeying more readily?
Read Acts 10:9-16
Peter was trying his best to be obedient to what he truly thought would please God because of what the Torah taught (Leviticus 11:3-6, Deuteronomy 14:4-8), and yet here God is clearly telling him to eat. Discuss the exhortation, “Do not call anything unclean that God has made clean.” How might you have processed that command if you were Peter in that moment?
Response:
There were 2 challenges in the message this week: The first was to make a friend of a person who has little to no background in the hope we know in Jesus (and then invite them to CultureFest!). The second was to find out what gifts GOd has equipped us with and find ways to steward these in His service! Spend some time praying together for the Lord’s leading on your group in both these areas.
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