The Call: New World
Acts 26 and selected Scriptures
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 internationally as we walk into the calling God has on our lives. We looked at the calling of Saul (roman name, Paul), when Jesus called him on the road to Damascus.
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:
98% of the mission force is focused on engaging areas of the world that already has a rich Christian heritage (not that everyone is a believer by any stretch, but ACCESS to the Gospel is readily available). Why do you think we invest only ~2% of our people, efforts and investments in reaching the other 30% of the planet without access to the Gospel (where there is a very high probability that someone will live and die without ever hearing about the hope offered in Jesus)? If you are able, you can watch this VIDEO together to make the point.
The point of this message was that many are called; few ever go anywhere. Therefore, the focus was on not missing our calling. Romans 11:29 says that God’s gifts and call are irrevocable while making the point that some will reject Him! What are some reasons you can think of why someone called as a missionary might just say, “Nah.”?
Group Discussion:
Read Acts 1:4-8, Matthew 28:18-20
Discuss the phrase “The calling of a disciple is to make disciples”. Isn’t that supposed to be the pastor’s job? What do you think, and what are some Scriptures that would support your position?
In Acts 1:4-8, Jesus tells them they will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. What was He talking about here? Isn’t that the same as being born again? (See Acts 8:14-17, Acts 19:1-7).
Mark defined a “missionary” as “someone who crosses geographic, linguistic and/or cultural barriers to bring the message of the Gospel where it has not yet reached, to people who would not otherwise hear.” Wait; Isn’t everyone a missionary? Why worry about other’s lack of ACCESS to the Gospel when people right here in Somerset NJ need Jesus too? Discuss that.
Read Acts 26:9-15
Why was Paul so admittedly ‘obsessed’ with hunting down Christians? What was it about the claims of Jesus Christ that made this teaching such a threat?
What do you think it meant when Jesus said to Paul, “It is hard for you to kick against the goads”?
When Saul asked, “Who are you Lord” he really did not know what was happening or Who was speaking. When the Voice said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting”, what do you think went through Saul’s mind and heart in that moment (beyond “Oops”)?
Mark made the point that a passion for God’s glory must be our desire as we pursue our calling. What do you think of that? Shouldn’t mission be driven by charity; the desire to help people less fortunate than us? Discuss that.
Read Acts 26:16-19
This was Paul’ call, his ‘Great Commission”. Compare this with Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:8-10.
In verse 18, Jesus finishes by saying, “…receive a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.” This idea of salvation by grace through faith was the cornerstone of Paul’s articulation of the Gospel. Think of other places in the New Testament where the idea of ‘saved by grace through faith” comes out (Hint, look at Acts 16; Romans 4,5,10; Galatians 3; Ephesians 2; Philippians 1…)
Mark made the comment, “Minister out of our healing, not just our brokenness.” We all have challenges we deal with, so what difference would it make if we are ministering to others out of hurt vs out of healing? What difference would that make?
Response:
The point of the message this week was that many are called, but many of us miss our calling for a host of reasons. Spend some time in prayer together that the Lord would send out laborers to the harvest fields of the world that remain unreached with the message of the Gospel. You can find resources to support this at JoshuaProject.net. Make sure you encourage anyone interested in ZCC’s mission initiatives (local and global) to get signed up to our “Engage Mission” group HERE (QR below)
Sign up for ZCC’s “Engage Mission” group
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